Science Communication Interest Group

Psychological responses to environmental messages: The roles of environmental values, message issue distance, message efficacy and idealistic construal • Lee Ahern, Penn State • This study examines the roles of message distance and efficacy in psychological responses to environmental communications, and introduces construal level, specifically idealistic values versus pragmatic concerns, as a mediating variable through which values manifest themselves in pro-environmental attitudes and behavioral intentions. Idealistic construals were found to significantly mediate the values-attitude and values-intentions relationships, and issue distance was found to enhance efficaciousness. Implications and possibilities for future research are discussed.

Low-fat, no-fat and sugar free: Adolescents’ media use, knowledge of nutrition, food preferences, and attitudes toward healthy eating and exercise • Kim Bissell, University of Alabama • Several studies have examined the convergence of increasing obesity rates and the psychosocial effects it may have on adolescents’ perceptions of weight in themselves and others, but surprising little attention is given to children’s knowledge of nutrition and their food preferences based on their time spent with the media.

Audience framing of a slow-motion technological disaster • Camille Broadway, University of Texas at Arlington; Rebecca Cline, Karmanos Cancer Center/Wayne State University • This study used focus groups and in-depth interviews to explore audience-based frames of an environmental disaster in Libby, Montana. Because of widespread and long-term asbestos exposure in Libby, residents of the town are suffering from what can be classified as a slow-motion technological disaster. In looking at how residents framed the issues surrounding the disaster, two primary frames emerged: citizen justice and town survival.

Science on television: Recent trends in portrayals and their contributions to public attitudes toward science • Anthony Dudo, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dominique Brossard, University of Wisconsin Madison; James Shanahan, Fairfield University; Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Michael Morgan, UMass; Nancy Signorielli, University of Delaware • Twenty five years after Gerbner et al. seminal report on television and science attitudes, there is a need to update the data on portrayals of science and to approach the cultivation question with more sophisticated analyses. The present study addresses this need by analyzing images of science in television between 2000-2006. We then examine the potential relationships between exposure to television and attitudes toward science with an in-depth analysis of 2006 General Social Survey (GSS) data.

It Depends on What You’ve Heard: Exploring the Risk Perception-Attitude Link Across Different Applications of Nanotechnology • Michael Cacciatore, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Elizabeth Corley, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Recent research in nanotechnology has primarily focused on broad risk vs. benefit perceptions, ignoring attitudes toward specific applications. This study builds on previous research and explores the extent to which a variety of factors, including value predispositions, media use, knowledge, and risk and benefit perceptions influence attitudes toward nanotechnology.

“Who’s Minding the Storm: Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Factors Predicting Hurricane Preparedness” • Steve Collins, University of Central Florida; Harry Weger, University of Central Florida; Mark Johnson, University of Central Florida • This study sought to develop a better understanding of what Florida residents know about hurricane preparedness and how the mass media can be used to more effectively transmit potentially life-saving information. It is sobering how little some people knew about hurricane preparedness.

Getting Citizens Involved: How controversial science policy debates stimulate issue participation during a political campaign • Kajsa Dalrymple, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Amy Becker, University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Journalism and Mass Communication; Dominique Brossard, University of Wisconsin Madison; Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Al Gunther, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study tests the relative mobilizing effects of predispositional factors and attention to media content during a gubernatorial race that focused heavily on stem cell research as a salient campaign issue. Our analyses are based on a statewide telephone survey (N=508 in June-July 2006) conducted prior to the midterm and gubernatorial elections in Wisconsin. Results show that ideological predispositions and attention to both newspaper and online media best explain issue participation.

The emergence of nano news: Tracking thematic trends and changes in media coverage of nanotechnology • Anthony Dudo, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Sharon Dunwoody, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin – Madison • Mediated messages can influence awareness and knowledge gain for issues that are novel or for which citizens have few pre-existing attitudes and knowledge structures. The emerging science of nanotechnology is one such issue. In this study we explore characteristics of nanotechnology media coverage. We track the thematic contours of these stories, introduce methodological strategies to elevate the rigor of subsequent analyses, and consider the implications of our findings for news coverage of future emergent technologies.

Women’s Magazine Coverage of Heart Disease Risk Factors: Good Housekeeping Magazine, 1997 to 2007 • Carolyn Edy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Women continue to underestimate their risk for heart disease. A textual analysis of the portrayal of women’s risk factors for heart disease in articles published by Good Housekeeping magazine from 1997 to 2007 and in corresponding information endorsed by the American Heart Association found that the magazine coverage, while largely consistent with AHA information, targeted women at low risk for heart disease and never mentioned race as a risk factor.

Efficacy Information in Media Coverage of Infectious Disease Risks: An Ill Predicament? • Darrick Evensen, Cornell University; Christopher Clarke, Cornell University • Scholars have identified efficacy as an important component of risk communication. Previous research, however, reveals that a meager percentage of newspaper articles transmit efficacy information. In this paper, we present content analyses of newspaper coverage concerning West Nile Virus and Avian Influenza and analyze provision of efficacy information. Our results indicate greater provision of efficacy information than previously reported. We discuss possible reasons for departure from previous findings and conclude with implications for risk communication.

Health risk as a threat to freedom: Exploring the role of psychological reactance in reactions to West Nile Virus news coverage • Timothy Fung, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Elliott Hillback, University of Wisconsin – Madison • This experiment applies Psychological Reactance to understand people’s reactions to news about the risk of West Nile Virus. While manipulating gain/loss framing and risk likelihood presented as fractions or percentages, we also investigate the utility of trait uncertainty as a predictor and feelings of distress as an indicator of reactance. Results suggest Psychological Reactance may be useful in interpreting reactions to health risk news, and that trait uncertainty and state distress may enrich its conceptualization.

Promises and Challenges of Teaching Statistical Reasoning to Journalism Undergraduates: Twin Surveys of Department Heads • Robert Griffin, Marquette University; Sharon Dunwoody, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Surveys of journalism department heads in 1997 and 2008 showed general support for journalism students being able to reason with statistical information. Stronger support was associated, in particular, with the perception that this cognitive skill would give students an advantage in the journalism job market.

One or Many? The Influence of Episodic and Thematic Climate Change Frames • Philip Hart, Cornell University • This study examines the impact that different methods of framing climate change risk have on predispositions for behavior change and support for policies that address climate change.

Two-Sided Messages and Pandemic Flu: Persuading the Public to Follow Contradictory Government Directives • Karen Hilyard, University of Tennessee • Using exploratory one-on-one interviews (N=19) followed by a 2 x 3, post-test-only experiment with a representative national probability sample (N=443), this study investigates effective ways of persuading the public to follow two inherently-contradictory but critical government health directives during a flu pandemic: “social distancing” and centralized public distribution of medicines and supplies, (referred to here as “public queuing”). The study examines the effect of two-sided messages on perceived source credibility and behavioral intention.

Value Predispositions, Mass Media, and Attitudes toward Nanotechnology: The Interplay of Public and Experts • Shirley Ho, Nanyang Technological University; Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Elizabeth Corley, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study examines the factors influencing public and experts’ perceptions of nanotechnology and addresses the pertinent question of whether experts are indeed more objective in their judgment of nanotechnology than do the public. First, compared with the experts, the results demonstrate that the public judged nanotechnology as having more risks and lesser benefits and indicated lesser support for federal funding of nanotechnology.

Public meetings about local cancer cluster investigations: Exploring the relative influence of conventional vs. symbolic risk communication on attendees’ post-meeting concern • Katherine McComas, Cornell University; Helen Brown, Cornell Univeristy; Craig Trumbo, Colorado State University • This study examines the relative influence of official versus unofficial risk messages on concern about cancer clusters in six U.S. communities. As part of a larger study of cancer clusters, we obtained written responses from 125 individuals who attended an official public meeting in their community about a suspected cancer cluster. We asked respondents why attending the meeting made them feel more or less concerned.

Examination of newspaper coverage of a controversial scientific technology • Jane W. Peterson, Greenlee School Iowa State University; Jennifer Scharpe, Iowa State University • This case study examines newspaper coverage of a controversial scientific issue, cloning of food animals. This analysis of selected newspaper articles about meat cloning uses a multidimensional approach designed with concepts from social amplification and attenuation of risk. The study uses tenets of this framework to examine the attention afforded the issue, the information provided by sources, the framing of that information, and the directionality of those frames.

Crisis communication during beef recalls due to E. coli O157:H7 contamination • Jennifer Scharpe, Iowa State University • This study aims to evaluate the quantity and quality of crisis communication efforts during one specific type of public health emergency, beef recalls due to E. coli O157:H7 contamination. A content analysis of 452 US newspaper reports immediately following 36 individual beef recalls issued from 2003 to 2008 was conducted. The findings indicate that the type of media coverage, the sources used, and the messages communicated led to the attenuation of risks associated with beef recalls.

Buying Green or Being Green: Environmental Consciousness Frames in Teen Girl Magazines • Alexandra Smith, Penn State University; Denise Bortree, Penn State University • Studies of environmental communication have rarely focused on teen girls. Though youth show greater interest in addressing environmental issues than adults, teen girls lag behind in their knowledge of environmental issues. This paper reports a framing study of environmental issues in 19 teen girl magazines.

Adolescents’ Wishful Identification with Scientist Characters on Television • Jocelyn Steinke, Western Michigan University; Brooks Applegate, Western Michigan University; Maria Lapinski, Michigan State University; Marilee Long, Colorado State University; Lisa Ryan, Lakeview High School • Adolescents’ wishful identification (WID) with scientist characters on television is important to examine because these characters may serve as occupational role models. This study examined adolescents’ WID with televised scientist characters and found differences for interactions related to sex of the television viewer, sex of the television character, television program, and specific attributes exhibited by the television character.

Online Sources of Health Information: An analysis of local TV Web sites • Andrea Tanner, University of South Carolina; Daniela Friedman, University of South Carolina • This study provides a nationwide examination of health news on local television Web sites to evaluate resources and sources used to develop online health stories. Specifically, this content analysis assessed the specific sources of information (e.g. medical journal, government spokesperson, etc.), individuals directly quoted and authorship of television news online content.

Comprehension of science and technology hypertext: Cognitive flexibility or construction integration? • Ronald Yaros, University of Maryland • Competing cognitive theories (a linear construction integration model versus the nonlinear cognitive flexibility theory) are tested for two stories, one about health and the other nanotechnology. Non-expert participants (N = 301) were tested for situational interest in and understanding of the stories. In support of the linear model, results indicated more reader interest and understanding of linearly structured text but only when combined with linear links.

Attention to Science/Environment News Promotes and Attention to Political News Undermines Global Warming Concern and Policy Support • Xiaoquan Zhao, George Mason University; Anthony Leiserowitz, Yale University; Edward Maibach, George Mason University; Connie Roser-Renouf, George Mason University • News coverage of the science of global warming has shifted away from the often criticized balanced reporting in recent years. However, controversy remains the dominant theme in the political coverage of this issue.

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Religion and Media Interest Group

The Protesting Priests of Anti-Globalization: South Korean Catholic Priests’ Resistance to the U.S. Beef Trade • Kisung Yoon, Bowling Green State University • Two statements written by the Catholic Priest’s Association for Justice in Korea were rhetorically analyzed based on the Augustinian rhetoric and Burke’s “five dogs” allegory. Refusing neo-liberal globalists’ claims, the priests employed their rhetoric “Ravenous Wolves” and “Disappointment of People” against the U.S. beef trade and the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. In addition, they utilized “The Mind of Sky [Chun-Shim]” from Confucianism. The most significant theological frame was “The Kingdom of God.”

Framing Faith: Religion Coverage in Time and Newsweek, 2004-2008 • Kimberly Davis, University of Maryland • The role of the media in shaping how we view religion and faith issues has been somewhat understudied. This qualitative study used framing theory and textual analysis to examine faith and religion coverage in Time and Newsweek from 2004-2008, and how journalists make meaning of this coverage for an audience. The analysis yielded four major frames: culture, politics, religion vs. science and personality.

Demon Hunters and Hegemony: Portrayal of Religion on the CW’s “Supernatural” • Erika Engstrom, University of Nevada Las Vegas; Joseph Valenzano, UNLV • The authors analyze the fictional television series “Supernatural,” aired on the CW network since 2005. Regarding the series’ overall depiction of religions, the findings of a qualitative content analysis demonstrate that “Supernatural,” while fantasy-based fictional entertainment, makes a serious attempt to incorporate a variety of religions and folklore. However, in the context of its main good-versus-evil storyline, the authors found a Catholic-positive tendency, with characters associated with non-Christian religions mainly portrayed as evil distractions.

Evangelistic Film as a Genre and Its Reception: The Case in Hong Kong • Vicky Wing-Ki Ho, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • The significance of the interdisciplinary study of religion and film has been recognized by more scholars in the last 15 years. However, evangelistic film, the specific genre that has a clearly defined purpose to communicate the gospel message, has rarely been explored in the existing literature. This paper attempts to track the genre’s presence in Hong Kong in the last decade and examine how evangelistic film as a genre has been received by local audience.

Newspapers and Discourse on Veiling in Turkey • Mark Hungerford, University of Washington • In the spring of 1999, Merve Kavakçı, an elected member of the Turkish Parliament from a moderate Islamist party, sparked a crisis when she showed up to take her oath donning a headscarf. She was booed out of the building and eventually stripped of her citizenship when it was discovered that she had become an American citizen.

Mainstream Coverage of the Mainline: A Content Analysis of News Reporting about Intra-denominational Conflict • Rick Moore, Boise State University • Do news organizations show bias in the way they cover conservative and liberal religious groups? In this study, the question is addressed by examining conservative and religious factions within the American mainline churches rather than attempting to draw data from very disparate conservative and liberal denominations. Data gathered suggest that on two important measures journalists treated religious conservatives and religious liberals very differently.

The Politics of Representing Iranian women and religion Islam in international magazines, Time and Newsweek (1979-2002) • Bushra Rahman, University of the Punjab • The study focuses on the images of Iranian Muslim women and its association with Islam as a religion of backwardness, threat and oppression. The research examines how and in what context Time and Newsweek magazines constructed the images of Iranian Muslim women from the year 1979 till 2002 and its linkages with Islam.

Media’s Historical Development and Increasing Impact on Jewish Responsa from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century • Tsuriel Rashi, Lifshitz College of Education • This article examines, perhaps for the first time, responsa and rulings of rabbis and adjudicators (poskim) all over the world during the last 250 years from a unique media-oriented point of view.

Coverage of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal in Election 2008 • Amanda Sturgill, Baylor University; Mia Moody, Baylor University • This article looks at how the black press framed a religion-related story. Articles relating to the sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and candidate Barack Obama’s subsequent speech on race and religion in America as published in the black and mainstream presses were compared. The two presses’ coverage did not differ significantly in most areas, except in prominence, although nearly significant differences were found in some political frames.

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Internships and Careers Interest Group

I’m a People Person!: A look at public relations majors’ perceptions of the major and their first jobs • Brigitta R. Brunner and Margaret Fitch-Hauser, Auburn University • No abstract available.

Correlating Use of Digital Media for News with career planning and expectations • Tony DeMars, Texas A&M University, Commerce and Leo Chan, University of Houston-Clear Lake • No abstract available.

Privileged to be on camera: Sports broadcasters assess factors important to success in the profession • Marie Hardin, Penn State University and Jason Genovese, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania • No abstract available.

A comparison of student interns and supervisors regarding internship performance ratings • Lulu Rodriguez, Kimberly McDonough, and Marcia Prior-Miller, Iowa State University • Student media internships require three-way communication among educational institutions, student interns, and workplace supervisors. This study assesses the extent to which interns and supervisors agree in ratings of intern performance. Self-administered questionnaires measured four skill sets that incorporated ACEJMC competencies and related items. Respondents differed in their respective mid- and final evaluations, becoming more congruent as internships progressed. Statistically significant differences were observed as students’ tendency to self-rate performances more highly than did their supervisors.

Learning to learn from the industry: Employer internship satisfaction survey • Dana Saewitz and Michael Maynard, Temple University • A survey to over 100 internship employers, with a best partner response rate of around 90% yielded critical information for improving the university internship program. Three curricular adjustments flowing directly from the feedback are (1) a new course in marketing, (2) a special course in preparing students to interview successfully for jobs, and (3) increased rigor in writing courses throughout the curriculum. The survey has proven to be an excellent learning tool.

Internships and Standard Nine: Shall We Dance? • Lillian Williams, Columbia College • As assessment assumes greater significance for accredited journalism and mass communication programs, an examination of ways that internships are utilized to meet the new assessment requirement is timely. This paper presents a case study of a program that utilizes internships to measure values and competencies cited in accrediting standards. Interviews offer perspectives of key participants, including administrators, faculty, staff, students, and work-site supervisors.

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Graduate Education Interest Group

Character Identification or Cultivation? Exploring Media Effects on Emerging Adults’ Appearance Importance • Emily Acosta, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Based on a sample of emerging adults (N=179), hierarchical regression was used to examine whether cultivation effects through media consumption or social comparison through identification with favorite TV character has a greater impact on appearance importance. Those who had an underweight favorite character (ß =.17, p< .01) placed more importance on appearance with 26.5% of the variance accounted for. This suggests that social comparison is more important than cultivation in predicting appearance importance among emerging adults.

Is There a Global Public Sphere? Framing Analysis of Media Coverage of the Russia-Georgia Conflict • Olga Baysha, University of Colorado at Boulder • It has been argued that the advent of transnational media technologies leads to the formation of a global public sphere. By means of framing analysis, this article examines whether signs of global public deliberation were present in American and Ukrainian media coverage of the Russia-Georgia military conflict of 2008.

Framing theory: A systematic examination of a decade’s literature and an agenda for future directions • Porismita Borah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The framing literature has been consistently growing with contributions from disparate disciplines. However, there has been few systematic examination of the published literature. In order to examine the common trends in this growing body of research, the present study content analyzes framing literature from 93 peer-reviewed journals for a period of ten years.

The Daily Show versus Network News: A content analysis of 2008 general election coverage • Moammar Brown, University of Florida; Adrianna C. Rodriguez, University of Florida • As the nightly network news programs continue to lose audiences and adhere to decades-old hard news formats, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart offers viewers a comedic, slightly cynical alternative. While a parody of traditional half-hour news programs, Stewart won several awards including Emmy awards and two Peabody awards for The Daily Show’s coverage of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

Constructing Gender Online: A Content Analysis of Myspace.com Profile Pictures • Laura Beth Daws, University of Kentucky; Christine Tigas, University of Kentucky • This paper investigates the ways in which sex and gender identity are created in visual representations of the self online. Using a sample of Myspace.com profiles, the authors conducted a content analysis to determine sex and gender differences in profile pictures. The results demonstrated that in most cases, individual users’ photographs reflected traditional notions of femininity and masculinity.

Framing Partners: A Computer-Assisted Evaluation of how Top U.S. Newspapers Frame Business, Trade and Investment in, and with, two Key Latin American Partners • Maria De Moya, University of Florida; Rajul Jain, University of Florida • This exploratory study formulates a novel approach to examine application of framing analysis as an evaluation tool for nation image by using computer assisted and traditional content analysis of newspaper coverage of Colombia and Mexico. This study aims to contribute both to the understanding of image evaluation from a practical perspective, and the applicability of automated coding methods, using content analysis software such as Diction 5.0, for the identification of frames in newspaper coverage.

The Gap between “Mami” and Google: Latina Adolescents’ Online Search for Reproductive Health Information • Ilana Echevarria-Stewart, University of Florida •The purpose of this study was to understand why and how Latina adolescents are using the Internet to search for reproductive health information. This qualitative study used focus groups with Latina adolescents and in-depth interviews with sexual health educators. Discussion with participants revealed that both younger and older Latina adolescents had searched for reproductive health information for themselves, a friend, or a class assignment.

News Exposure and Political Participation: A Citizen versus Consumer Response to News Media Messages • Melissa R. Gotlieb, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, SJMC • This study investigates notions of the self as dynamic and offers new ways to consider how exposure to media messages can impact attitudes and behavior. A manipulation of news coverage to focus on civic engagement or consumer culture is found to affect online political expression but not political activism. We use response latency tasks to explore whether activation of a citizen self-concept is a mediator of this effect.

Men, Women, and Sports: Revisited • Skye Chance Cooley, The University of Alabama; Amy Head Jones, The University of Alabama • This study looked at gender differences in the sport media experience, specifically the involvement differences between men and women as sport media spectators. In efforts of updating the 18 year old findings from Gantz and Wenner (1991) this study surveyed a younger generation of research subjects (n=216) and added measures of online sport media use. Findings support gender differences among sport media audiences in sport involvement, sport participation, and sport media consumption.

An Experimental Test of Individual-Societal Framing and Gain-Loss Framing Effects in the Web-based Health Advocacy Campaign • Kenneth Kim, University of Florida • A 2 (gain versus loss framing) X 2 (societal versus individual framing) experimental study was conducted to investigate the interplay of gain-loss framing and societal-individual framing on judgment and persuasion in the Web-based health advocacy campaign. One forty-seven college students participated in the study. The results show partial support for the advantage of the individual-loss framing combination and societal-gain framing combination.

A Theoretical Understanding of Synergy Effects in Integrated Marketing Communications • Dae-Hee Kim, University of Florida • This study examines the theories that can explain the synergy effects in IMC contexts, proposes a conceptual framework for IMC synergy, and concludes that IMC synergy can be generated in varied contexts to produce varied levels of consumer responses. Based on these findings, the paper presents four categories of IMC synergy: memory synergy, attention synergy, attitude synergy, and complementary synergy. The implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Signaling Effects of Offline Advertising on Consumer Trust in Online Advertiser • Chunsik Lee, University of Florida; Junga Kim, University of Minnesota • Although many online businesses advertise their websites in offline media, empirical research on the effects of offline ads on online business has been limited. By applying the signaling effect framework, this study examined the relationship between offline ad exposure and consumer trust in the advertised website. Results from an experiment reveal that mere exposure to an offline ad did not influence website trust.

Intersections: Postcolonial Theory and Communication Studies • Randall Livingstone, University of Oregon • Though postcolonial theory has been a topic of debate in academia since the early-to-mid 20th century, only recently have postcolonial studies and communication studies been considered together. This paper examines the recent interactions of these fields, looking both back at the emergence of postcolonial theory and forward at the way communication scholars are using the theory to inform new lines of research. Recent studies concerning hybridity and diaspora are considered in this review.

Examining How Industries Engage the Media: Comparing American and German Agricultural Associations’ Web sites • Meredith Lord, University of Florida • Despite suggestions that agricultural communicators harness the media to improve the public’s poor understanding of agriculture, coverage of agriculture is dwindling. Given journalists’ preference for interacting with organizations online, this study content analyzed the Web sites of American and German agricultural associations to assess the organizations’ incorporation of Kent and Taylor’s (2003) dialogic principles, which explain how Web sites can be created to engage visitors effectively.

Virtual Possibilities: A Constructivist Examination of the Educational Applications of Second Life • Jeffrey Neely, University of Florida; Kevin Bowers, University of Florida; Matthew Ragas, U of Florida • This study surveyed post-secondary instructors in 15 countries regarding their experiences using the virtual world Second Life as a teaching tool. Qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended questions suggests that Second Life offers a great deal of potential in realizing constructivist principles as well as a number of practical benefits. However, technological barriers, institutional opposition, limited familiarity, and other concerns may be preventing instructors from fully making use of Second Life in their curricula.

Social Viewing Among College Students • Temple Northup, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • While television is acknowledged to be a social medium, little research has examined the motivations of individuals who frequently engage in social viewing. In this study, uses and gratifications and the expectancy-value theories are used to predict social viewing. Results suggest there is a positive relationship between: (a) motivations based on uses and gratifications and participation in social viewing, and (b) students who felt their motivations were being met and anticipation of future social viewing.

A Model Assessing the Effectiveness of Corporate Social Advertising • Sun-Young Park, University of Florida • The increase in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been inspired by companies that increasingly recognize it as a key to success for resources. In particular, corporate social advertising is a prevalent communication strategy in the field of corporate societal marketing. However, a barrier to comprehensive understanding of the corporate social ads has been a lack of attention to how differently consumers respond depending on the type of ads.

A Local Community and How They Make Meaning of a Grassroots Public Relations Campaign • Katie Place, University of Maryland • “A Local Community and How They Make Meaning of a Grassroots Public Relations Campaign” examines perceptions of a local grassroots campaign entitled “Under Not Over,” created in opposition to an elevated Metro rail line in a suburban Washington, D.C. community. The situational theory of publics serves as the theoretical base for this paper.

Friend Me, Vote for Me: The Effect of Social Networking Sites on the 2008 Election • Lauren Reichart, University of Alabama; Kenny Smith, University of Alabama • Three hundred and six undergraduate students were surveyed to determine the relationship between media participation in a mediated world (social networking sites) and voting behavior for the 2008 general election. The hypothesis of media participation was analyzed with regards to its applicability in a Web 2.0 time period.

The Evolution of the Blogger: Blogger Considerations of Public Relations Content in the Blogosphere • Brian Smith, University of Maryland • Blogging has become a legitimate platform for individuals to shape conversations about the issues that affect them. This personal medium for self-expression has also become a channel for organizations to gain publicity. The question of a professional influence in a personal space raises questions about blogger decision-making and ethics in representing corporate interests. This study reveals that bloggers consider their sites as extensions of themselves, and that their consideration of reader and corporate interests evolves.

Redefining Cancer: A qualitative study of young adult cancer survivors’ creation of alternative disease narratives • Kathleen Stansberry, University of Oregon • The perception of cancer in American society is far more limited than the actual cancer experience entails. This project uses qualitative methods to examine the cancer experience of young adults to study how a small segment of the cancer population challenges common understandings of cancer using Web-based participatory media to develop alternative disease narratives. Using the theoretical lens of constitutive rhetoric, this paper addresses the process of dominate and alternative cancer narrative creation.

Making a Case for Religious Freedom • Jessalynn Strauss, University of Oregon • This paper examines a 14-page statement released by the Church of Scientology in response to author Andrew Morton’s unauthorized biography of Tom Cruise, one of Scientology’s most notable celebrity adherents.

Gender Differences in Risk Perception: An Exploratory Meta-Analysis • Jiun-Yi Tsai, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This meta-analysis integrates results from 10 studies in which risk perceptions of male and female participants were compared. The goal of this study is to explore the extent to which gender differences in risk perceptions vary across risk type, country area and sample frame. On the whole, results provide support for the notion that females tend to express higher level of concern and worry for a range of risks.

<< 2009 Abstracts

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Interest Group

Straight-for-pay: Performativity and sexuality on Seancody.com • Todd Harper, Ohio University • Popular gay porn website Seancody.com centers around a particular draw: the attraction of watching straight men perform gay sex acts. Drawing on performativity literature — particularly Escoffier’s (2003) discussion of gay-for-pay in porn work — this research examines the content on Seancody.com in the context of sexuality performance. The analysis suggests that Seancody’s content produces a potentially damaging rhetoric where the heterosexual male body is the focus of sexual power, rather than the gay male body.

The Politics of Visibility: Negotiations of Femininity and Sexuality on “The L-Word” Rebecca • Kern, Manhattan College • The visibility of sexual identities is far more than political; it defines subcultural groups and promotes cultural validation. This paper examines issues of sexual visibility and representation of queer-identified women on The L-Word, and the negotiation of these representations in reference to L-Word viewers’ sexual own identifications. In the end, construction of these identities continue to uphold the heterosexual/homosexual dichotomy, and privilege norms appropriate to each side of the dichotomy.

An analysis of factors affecting attitudes toward same-sex marriage: Do the media matter? • Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; Gary Hicks, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • Using a recent survey of more than 5,000 American consumers, this study examines connections between attitudes toward same-sex marriage and media consumption. A positive attitude is predicted by being liberal and less religious, supporting gender and racial equality, willing to try anything once, considering TV the primary form of entertainment, watching political talk shows, and reading blogs. The theoretical/methodological contributions and real world implications of these findings are discussed.

But Are We Free (to Be You and Me)? Meanings of citizenship in gay tourism advertising • Byron Lee, Temple University • In 2003, the Philadelphia Gay Tourism Caucus and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation released a new advertising campaign targeting the LGBT community. This paper will consider the advertisements of the Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay campaign, questioning how non-heterosexuality is represented; first in terms of the symbols and images that convey non-heterosexuality, and second, in consideration of how gay tourism campaigns position queer individuals as citizens in the US.

<< 2009 Abstracts