* Extended Abstract * Audience Expectations for Film Genre and Television Formats • Leo Jeffres; David Atkin; Kimberly Neuendorf • This paper reports findings from an online survey capturing viewers’ perceptions of film genre and television formats and their mass communication behaviors as audiences cope with the “media of abundance.” Relationships among those variables are examined in an attempt to develop content theory for audience selection and processing of contemporary “moving image” content. Centrally, audience definitions of 31 film genre and 11 television formats are compared qualitatively and quantitatively with those of scholars and critics.

13 Reasons Why Children and Adolescents Believe They are Not Influenced by Depictions of Bullying and Violence on Television • John Chapin, Penn State; Alexey Stern • Using third-person perception (TPP) as a framework, the purpose of the study was to explore children and adolescent perceptions of violent television shows. A survey of middle school and high school students (N = 1,138) was paired with a content analysis of the two shows most frequently identified by participants as being their most watched: 13 Reasons Why and SpongeBob. Results of the content analysis reveal that middle school students who watched SpongeBob were exposed to more incidents of violence than high school students who watched 13 Reasons Why. Although the middle school students reported experiencing less violence than their counterparts in high school, results of the survey found about half said they were physically abused over the past year, and 17% experienced cyber-bullying. Despite experiencing a range of abusive behaviors, few quit using social media apps and only one-third told a parent or teacher. Those who exhibited TPP took fewer precautions. Perceived media reality and experience with victimization emerged as the strongest predictors of TPP, with experience being the only predictor to decrease the perceptual bias.

G-Men Heroes and Deep-State Thugs: Analysis of Hollywood’s Historical Representation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. • Dean Cummings, Georgia Southern University; Jeffrey Riley, Georgia Southern University • This study uses cultivation theory to textually analyze the Hollywood depiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its agents throughout history. The study examines how the early relationship between the FBI’s Director J. Edgar Hoover and Hollywood led to the creation of the depiction in popular media of the FBI agent as a celebrated hero and patriot, the defender of law and justice. Agents were frequently used as main or supportive characters that solved crimes and dedicated their careers to seeking justice. However, Hoover’s death in 1972 is a dividing line, beyond which Hollywood depictions of the FBI begin to shift. The depiction of the post-Hoover FBI in popular film and TV loses its do-gooder polish. The FBI agent partially becomes symbol of oppressive, invasive government rather than protector of the people against ne’er-do-wells. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of knowledge in regards to the interactions between popular media and the society in which said media is produced.

* Extended Abstract * Small Town, Big Representation? A Representational Analysis of the Scientists in Eureka • Deborah J. Danuser, University of Pittsburgh • Eureka (2006-2012) entertained audiences with stories about Eureka, a small Northwestern town with a big secret. It is where the U.S. government keeps the best scientific minds and secretly funds their cutting-edge research to create futurist technologies. Eureka provides scholars with a unique opportunity to examine Western culture’s preconceptions about who qualifies as a scientist in a small town full of scientists. I analyze the demographics of the scientific characters appearing in Eureka via a customized coding scheme inspired by Mead and Métraux’s (1957) research and the “Draw A Scientist Test” studies (Chambers, 1983; Finson, 2002; Finson, Beaver, & Cramond, 1995). The resulting data looks the trends and patterns observed in the show, as well as supports an investigation into the issues of representation typically present in primetime television dramas. Preliminary results indicate that the demographics of Eureka’s scientific characters are more diverse than many of its television peers, i.e., The Big Bang Theory. Eureka may in fact reflect the demographics of America’s real science and engineer (S&E) labor force from the mid-2000s. However, the S&E labor forces of both Eureka and the U.S.A. underrepresent women and people of color when compared to the overall demographics of America’s population. As cultivation theory (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994) argues television fosters shared conceptions of reality among otherwise diverse publics, diversifying the representations of scientists on television could complement real-life efforts to diversify the STEM fields and combat stereotypes.

New framing of sexual health issues in Netflix’s Sex Education • Diane Ezeh Aruah • Television drama series can use sexual scripts to create awareness about sexual health problems and solutions. Relying on social cognitive theory and framing analysis, this study explored a Netflix teen TV show, Sex Education, to understand its framing of common sexual health concerns like the use of contraceptives, homosexuality, STDs, sexual violence, puberty, virginity loss, and masturbation. Findings indicate that contraceptive use was depicted in the context of teaching sexual responsibility and de-stigmatization of people seeking to prevent pregnancy. Homosexuality was framed as natural and as acceptable to God. The show portrayed STDs as non-shameful diseases and as a health issue that begs for deeper understanding by the younger generation. Sex Education portrayed the negative consequences of sexual violence and encouraged openness and help-seeking for people affected. Generally, the TV show appeared to offer a new framing of sexual health issues compared to those explored by previous researchers. However, this study recommends representation of realistic views about masturbation and not as an act that could be carried out anywhere. Future researchers could explore the show quantitatively to provide more detailed information about which issues were prominently covered and to identify issues the show has not addressed adequately.

“It’s one billionth our size and it’s beating us”: Crisis Narratives in the Epidemic Movies Contagion and Outbreak • Katie Foss, Middle TN State University • The fictional epidemic films Outbreak (1995) and Contagion (2011) surged in popularity during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. This research used a narrative analysis to examine the movies’ messages about epidemics. Findings indicate similarities in the stages of crisis and the common themes of public panic, conspiracy, and heroes/antiheroes. Media presence was surprisingly minimal. Such themes were used to shed light on why audiences are drawn to the epidemic genre in a real-life epidemiological crisis.

Help or Hindrance: Examining Disability Media Exposure, Stigmatization, and Support • Jasmine Gray, UNC Chapel Hill; Meredith Collins • Previous research argues that entertainment narratives can substantially influence the extent to which those with disabilities are stigmatized. However, findings are mixed. This study examines the extent to which exposure to entertainment narratives featuring main characters with disabilities impacts the support of those with disabilities. This study has implications for empowerment and resilience for people with disabilities in terms of media exposure, stigmatization, (mis) representation, and media participation.

Keeping up with Politics?: The Kardashians and the Armenian Genocide • Tamar Gregorian • The Kardashians are known for “being famous for being famous,” but aside from documenting their luxurious lives, they have also lent their name and fame to the fight for Armenian Genocide recognition. Using Hall’s (1973) theory of encoding/decoding, the researcher conducted a textual analysis of their two-part episode in Armenia. The researcher determined that their visit created unprecedented awareness of the Armenian Genocide, making it part of the popular culture conversation.

* Extended Abstract * Bring Back Dads: A qualitative content analysis of the role of Black fathers on television • Keisa Gunby, University of South Carolina • This study uses a convenience sampling of nine television episodes, employing qualitative content analysis to examine the portrayal of Black fathers in former and current broadcast television comedies and a drama in order to investigate how these depictions maintain negative stereotypes of Black males. Using social learning theory, this study uncovers Black fathers are more likely to be depicted are protectors, providers and partners while stereotypes of buffoon, Black brute, lech are reinforced.

Psychological Factors of Fandoms Engagement in the East Asian Pop Idol Group Culture • Yanru Jiang, University of Southern California • The “pop idol group” is a cultural phenomenon and popular business model in the 21st century. Teenagers who wish to become idols drop out of high school and are intensively trained in a set of skills that are essential for them to become idols. Entertainment companies fully cover the training and accommodation expenses of trainees with the expectation of branding them in groups for their performance to generate revenues. The existence of fandoms comes from the need of self-identity construction and social capital acquisition. The fandom psychology of pop idol groups can be explained by the engagement, belongingness, companionship, familiarity, and controllability fans perceived in the idolization. This research attempted to identify psychological factors that determine pop idol groups’ likability and popularity. The study conducted content analysis to analyze the audience’s engagement, the familiarity and controllability perceived by fans on social media platforms.

Sexual Objectification and Gender Display in Arabic Music Videos • Claudia Kozman, Lebanese American University; Amr Selim; Sally Farhat, LAU • A content analysis of the most popular Arabic music videos on YouTube found females are sexually objectified compared to males. Female artists acted in stereotypical manners, displaying both subordinate and sexual behavior. They posed and danced sexually, used facial expressions to seduce, and exposed their skin. The sexual tones that characterize women in Arabic music videos reinforce the existing notions of women as sexual objects to be gazed at for male pleasures.

* Extended Abstract * With Friends Like These…: The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Parsocial Relationships • Carmen Landy, University of South Carolina – Columbia • This study is a qualitative look how the parasocial relationships between viewers and the characters of the show, the Real Housewives of Atlanta, impacts their perspective on in-person friendships

Click it, Binge it, Get Hooked: Netflix and the Growing U.S. Audience for Foreign Content • Brad Limov, University of Texas at Austin • Analysis of survey results from U.S. residents (n = 288) watching foreign content on Netflix found that respondents watch foreign content more frequently than they did before and hold favorable attitudes toward foreign countries and subtitles. The data suggests a cyclical relationship between viewing frequency and use of the recommendations system for foreign content discovery. Results are discussed in terms of global media flows, the affordances of the platform, and indirect soft power accumulation.

From Parasocial Interaction to Multisocial Interaction: Examining Fan Labor Behavior and Its Antecedents • Fangcao Lu; Yanqing Sun; Stella Chia • Fan labor in support of celebrities is an increasing popular phenomenon in entertainment industries. This study initially investigate what sort of labor fans are willing to provide and what factors drive them to provide such free labor. We surveyed 307 young female fans. The findings revealed that parasocial interaction with celebrities and identification with fan communities are directly or indirectly associated with fan labor behaviors. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The nature of FoMO: Trait and state fear-of-missing-out and their relationships to entertainment television consumption • Lindsey Maxwell, Southern Mississippi; Alec Tefertiller, Baylor University; David Morris • This study set out to establish if FoMO can be a state that varies within an individual based on situational factors, and to adapt a scale which can be used to measure state FoMO. Within the context of the Game of Thrones finale, results demonstrated that trait and state FoMO are two different factors and identified some related concepts that both factors predict. A state FoMO scale for use in future research is proposed.

The Movement in the Message: Bob Dylan, Ideology and the Lived Experiences of African Americans During the Civil Rights Movement • Christina Myers • This study investigates how a white artist, Bob Dylan, can accurately convey the realities of African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement through his music. To explore these dynamics through the Ideology theory, a qualitative content analysis of Dylan’s song lyrics released during the 1960s were analyzed to determine the themes that arise from his music that reveal the lived experiences of African Americans. Results reveal themes of spirituality, unity and disdain for society.

Gaming disorder: News framing of video game addiction as a mental illness • Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama; Ryan Rogers; Nathan Towery, The University of Alabama; Samuel Hakim • In May 2019, the World Health Organization decided to identify “gaming disorder” as a mental illness in its diagnostic manual. The decision followed debate in which the video game industry, gamers, parents, and mental health professionals disagreed over whether sufficient research evidence existed to identify gaming disorder as a mental illness. Informed by framing theory, the present study employed a quantitative content analysis to examine news coverage of the decision in the year leading to and immediately following the controversial classification. The study sought to determine how journalists framed gaming disorder in terms of (a) defining the problem, (b) identifying causes, (c) advancing treatment recommendations, and (d) extending moral evaluations. More often than not, journalists focused on the health consequences of gaming disorder, arguably legitimizing the illness. Less apparent was conflict, or stories that highlighted debate among the gaming industry, mental health professionals, and others. Practical implications are discussed in light of framing theory and health communication.

The Social Identity of ‘Loot box’ Gamers: A Case Study of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius • Gregory Perreault; Emory Daniel; Samuel Tham • The present study seeks to understand the ‘loot box’ gamer–gamers who play games in which real money is spent in order to gamble for the chance at digital game content. This is conducted through a case study of players of the loot box game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius through a survey of participants on the game’s subreddit (n=592), and in-depth interviews with attendees at the game’s international convention (n=21).

(In)congruities between Political Messages and Popular Music: An Analysis of U.S. Presidential Campaign Songs • Lottie Peterson; Scott Church, Brigham Young University; Quint Randle, BYU • Music is not as prominent a feature in political campaigns as it was in the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, songs in modern campaigns still hold value by creating an additional layer of representation for political candidates. Using an adaptation of Sellnow and Sellnow’s “Illusion of Life” rhetorical perspective, this study analyzed the lyrics of the predominant campaign songs for both Republican and Democratic candidates for the 1972-2016 elections. This analysis sought to convey how the very process of selecting a campaign song is a profound rhetorical act, and that songs chosen even in modern elections have a specific meaning and purpose tied to the political contexts in which they are embedded. The primary findings of this research indicated that both Republican and Democratic candidates have largely made use of congruity in their campaign songs, with that congruity only increasing over time — a surprising result considering congruity can often diminish listener appeal. The analysis also indicated that in general, Republican candidates tend to utilize songs that are positive and patriotic in nature, while their Democratic opponents incorporate songs that offer a critique of the nation.

“They Can’t Stop All of Us”: A discussion about the internet’s reaction to the raid on Area 51 • Mariah Reneau • Through narrative analysis, this paper seeks to study themes seen in a series of Raid Area 51 memes and analyze how visual rhetoric was used to prompt the memes’ audiences to participate in a raid on Area 51. The research showed that the collection of memes illustrated a variety of plotlines that prompted action by tying in both an appeal to emotion and logic while also bringing in pop culture icons to craft a clear narrative that the raid on Area 51 was inherent.

A Whole ‘Nother Domain: Understanding Future’s Performance of the Authentic Black Male Identity In Hip-Hop • Jordan Sallis; Josephine Lukito, University of Wisconsin, Madison • Themes within hip-hop facilitate the adoption of worldviews. The hood, as tied to hip-hop culture, provides a space for subscribers to explore and adopt value systems that accentuate their authenticity. Our qualitative analysis of ten songs featuring Future, highlights his identity performance as “the boss” and lays out how Future’s lyrics operate as a playbook for other Black men to successfully operationalize criminal networks, violence and misogyny to be “a boss” in the hood.

* Extended Abstract * How ‘healthy’ are the children’s entertainment programs? An analysis of the health-related content in popular TV shows targeted at preschool-aged children • Neelam Sharma; Gayathri Sivakumar; Marilee Long, Colorado State University • SUMMARY: This paper analyzes the content of 11 popular TV shows (123 episodes) targeted at the preschool-aged children (3-5 years old) to examine the frequency and nature of health-related messages contained in children’s programs. Data analysis reveals that while only 37% of these episodes contained any health-related content, a majority of these health messages were positive messages on healthy eating and over 90% used modeling behavior strategy of compliance to promote health eating among children.

* Extended Abstract * Reconsidering Quality: Cosmopolitan Audiences as Markers of Quality for Transnational Internet-Distributed Television • Ryan Stoldt • American television industries have historically defined “quality” programs through the lens of advertisers. Quality programs reached advertisers’ most desired customers. Yet, Internet-distributed television services like Netflix are not funded by advertisers. Thus, the industry’s understanding of quality television has changed alongside these economics shifts. I argue that quality shows are still understood through audiences by these services, but their desired audiences are now those whose cultural tastes match the cosmopolitan programming of internet-distributed television services.

The dynamics of problematic gaming in FIFA 20 • Samuel Tham; Kimberly Kelling; Ellison Kelling • The association between loot box gaming and gambling has led to increased interest in problematic gaming research. One such loot box game that has garnered worldwide recognition is EA Sport’s FIFA franchise. The present study surveyed FIFA gamers to parse out the roles of gamers and explain the dynamic relationship between gamer roles and gaming addiction. In addition, attitudes, sunk cost, and flow were explored as mediators in this study. Findings of the online survey (n=200) of FIFA gamers were in line with past research that demonstrates the importance of attitudes and flow in predicting gaming addiction. Sunk cost was also found to be highly associated with gaming addiction. Importantly, two emergent gaming tendencies were explained and discussed in this study. These tendencies that gamers adopt in the game are defined by gamer motivations and also represent important implications for gaming addiction.

* Extended Abstract * Quibi’s quick bites: Technology acceptance and adoption • Casey Yetter, University of Oklahoma; Alex Eschbach • This research looks at the technology acceptance model and adoption of Quibi, a new mobile-only streaming service launched on April 6, 2020. For this purpose, a survey of 152 undergraduate students was conducted. This research found moderate correlations between content quality, convenience, and ease of use with perceived usefulness. Some conclusions are included with the intent that more analysis will be done on the data in the future.

<2020 Abstracts

Learning Without Seeking: Incidental Exposure to Science News on Social Media May Fill Knowledge Gaps • Joshua Anderson, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Emily Howell; Michael Xenos; Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Dominique Brossard • Using a U.S. nationally representative survey, we find that incidental exposure to science-related news interacts with interpersonal discussion and network heterogeneity. Results indicate that the relationship between incidental exposure to news and knowledge is strongest among those who discuss the least. This suggests that incidental exposure could alleviate knowledge gaps between Facebook users who are the most and least involved in interpersonal discussions about science. Incidental exposure, then is potentially valuable feature of social media platforms for science news, discussion, and knowledge.

The Impact of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender on Perceived Objectivity of Broadcasters on Twitter • Kelli Boling, University of South Carolina; Denetra Walker • Using an online survey (N = 528), this study examines the impact of race/ethnicity and gender on perceived objectivity of broadcasters. Findings show that when the broadcaster is a woman of color, engagement on Twitter does not necessarily equal perceived objectivity. Most respondents following broadcasters on Twitter agreed (52.6%) that broadcast women of color were more biased than other broadcasters they follow on Twitter, with men and conservatives being more likely to agree than others.

A Matter of Tone and Sources: Toward A Black Men on TV News Analysis • George Daniels, The University of Alabama; Keonte Coleman; Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama; Gheni Platenburg • Much of the research on Blacks in television news has focused on criminal portrayals to demonstrate the over-representation of this minority group. Using data from a content analysis of newscasts in two Southern markets, the Black Men on TV News Analysis, accounts for topic, tone and sourcing in stories. Among the 1163 items analyzed, White males appeared more frequently in crime stories, but black males were most often associated with negative toned stories.

What to watch? Text-image relationship strategies and their use on framing the 2019 Hong Kong protests on YouTube • Brenna Davidson; Jeffry OKTAVIANUS • This study investigates YouTube thumbnails to understand how different content creators have utilized framing and text-image relationship strategies to shape and disseminate meaning online during the 2019 Hong Kong protest. Around 498 video titles and their corresponding thumbnails were examined. The results indicate that media organizations mostly employed frames focusing on protest violence and reinforced this frame through the illustration strategy for the title and thumbnail. Factors impacting the videos’ popularity metrics are also discussed.

Mastering Metrics: Analyzing the Effectiveness of Broadcast Journalists’ Self-Presentation Strategies on Social Media • Stefanie Davis Kempton, Penn State Altoona; Colleen Connolly-Ahern, Penn State University • Access to social media has given journalists more opportunities than ever to connect with audiences and disseminate important information. Broadcast journalists are using social media as a self-branding tool to gather an audience following and audience trust. However, the popularity of social media has also prompted unique challenges for traditional journalism norms.  Through a mixed-method approach of qualitative interviews and social media discourse analysis, this paper investigates how broadcast journalists are negotiating through these new evolving media structures. The goal of this paper is to provide practical insight into the social media strategies top broadcast journalists are using and to analyze their effectiveness with audiences.

Readable Expressions – Nonverbal Neutrality in Crisis Coverage: A Content Analysis of the Parkland School Shooting • Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama • “Journalists go to great lengths to keep their reports neutral and unbiased. Entire classes in journalism school are taught on this very subject, and yet very few, if any, journalists are trained in a critical aspect of communication – nonverbal expression. Despite making up nearly 90% of all communication, broadcasters very rarely consider their nonverbal communication patterns in reporting practices, even when it comes to adhering to professional norms like neutrality. This study examines this issue in the context of crises coverage. Because crisis reports show broadcasters unedited and reacting in real time, they serve as an observational field that can help scholars better understand newsmaking practices. This focus on nonverbal communication adds to previous research in neutrality, expanding the various ways broadcasters can communicate partiality or bias in their reports. This study looks specifically at school shootings, utilizing a content analysis method to study nonverbal expressions of network broadcasters during the Parkland school shooting coverage.”

Visual Framing Effects of Nonverbal Communication in Crisis • Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama • During a national crisis, journalists have tremendous influence over audiences. Viewers who turn to the news for the latest breaking news during a disaster are particularly vulnerable to the influence of the media (Graber, 1990). While journalists strive to remain neutral in their verbal presentations of news and are extensively trained to do so (Coleman & Wu, 2006), most journalists do not consider the potential impact of their nonverbal communication (e.g., hand gestures, facial expressions) on crisis coverage. In addition, journalists do not receive the same training to control and conceal nonverbal communication patterns as they receive in their written or verbal communication (Coleman & Wu, 2006). Recent studies on broadcaster nonverbal neutrality during a crisis show that broadcasters communicate significantly more nonneutral nonverbal expressions than neutral nonverbal expressions in their coverage (Coleman & Wu, 2006; [author], 2018; [author], 2019a; [author], 2019b). Yet, little to no research has been done to understand the implications of these nonneutral nonverbal expressions on audiences’ impression of the communicator and message being communication. This study seeks to understand the potential effects of nonneutral nonverbal expressions of broadcasters on audiences during crisis coverage events. Specifically, it explores how exposure to a broadcaster’s nonverbal communication during a news segment on a mass shooting affects audience beliefs about the broadcaster’s credibility, their support for gun control and mental health regulation, their belief that the government can prevent mass shootings, and their perception of risk to be involved in a mass shooting.

Like, Comment, or Share? Exploring the Effects of Local Television News Facebook Posts on User Engagement • Miao Guo, Ball State University; Fu-Shing Sun • This study examines the effects of local television news Facebook posts on user engagement. By scraping 4,151 Facebook posts from a local television station’s Facebook page, this investigation performs a content analysis on different features of Facebook news posts, including news topics, message vividness and interactivity, post time, and length of post. This study further examines how different news post features to affect three levels of user engagement behaviors indicated by reactions, comments, and shares.

Second Level Agenda Setting in CNN News Coverage of the Columbine and Parkland Mass Shootings • Hannah Hume • Through discourse analysis, this article seeks to compare the cable news coverage of the Columbine High School school shooting and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School school shooting using second-level agenda setting theory, with CNN broadcast transcripts as the unit of analysis. The research showed that the shooter was the dominant shaping force in the creation of the agenda for cable news coverage in both school shooting events.

TV News and the Military: Exploring Media Frames of an American Institution • Alex Luchsinger, Elon University; Jane O’Boyle, Elon University • This exploratory study analyzes television news transcripts (N = 300) to examine how broadcast news networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) and cable news networks (CNN, Fox, MSNBC) cover military veterans and service members in news programming. Findings show that broadcast news networks’ stories and sources focused on veterans and service members themselves or their families, while cable news networks relied on legislative issues, politicians and other elite sources. Other findings and recommendations are discussed.

Widening News-Seeking Gap? Moderating Roles of Perceived News Importance and News Efficacy in the Effects of News Aggregator Use on News Seeking • Chang Sup Park, University at Albany, SUNY; Qian Liu, Jinan University • This study examines how using news aggregators influences news consumption, based on an online survey of 1,340 adults of South Korea. The analysis shows that news aggregator use is positively associated with news seeking from both offline and online news media. Further, individual-level characteristics such as perceived news importance and news efficacy moderate the relationship between news aggregator use and news seeking. This result suggests that news aggregator use may widen news seeking gap between those who are highly interested in news and those who are not.

What is Digital Journalism? Defining the Practice and Role of the Digital Journalist • Gregory Perreault; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder; Anna Dollar, Appalachian State University • Through the lens of theories of field and normalization process, this research seeks to understand technology’s current role in how self-identifying digital journalists define the field. Built on long-form interviews with 68 self-identifying digital journalists, this manuscript will argue that the digital turn in the industry has emboldened new entrants to the field and required traditional, dominantly-placed journalists to reconsider their definition of journalism as well as their practices

Media Credibility in the Fake News Era: Assessing the Influence of Sourcing and Political Affiliation • Sean R Sadri, University of Alabama; John P Kelsey, University of Alabama • Misinformation and “fake news” remain ubiquitous throughout online platforms, and perceptions of news credibility have declined as a result. Using a sample population of U.S. adults (N = 324), the present study sought to analyze news consumption habits nationwide and examine variables that influence media credibility and online share likelihood. An experiment determined that political affiliation, among other factors, can significantly influence perceived credibility and the likelihood of an article being shared on social media.

All The News That’s Fit to Watch: How The New York Times Uses Video on Facebook • Jeremy Saks, Old Dominion University; Pamela Walck • The New York Times has a long history as the purveyor of all the news that’s fit to print. In a multi-layered journalistic world, this study examined how the Times utilized Facebook video and found the Gray Lady highlighted its strong news values, while expanding into videos. The legacy newspaper used Facebook to drive traffic to its website through hyperlinks while abiding by algorithms that controlled what information rises into users’ consciousness.

Beyond Social Media News Use Algorithms: How Political Discussion and Heterogeneity Networks Clarify INE • Rebecca Scheffauer; Manuel Goyanes, Carlos III University; Homero Gil de Zúñiga • In recent years, the popularization of social media platforms has enabled new opportunities for citizens to be incidentally informed. Relying on UK and USA survey data, the paper shows how socio-political conversation attributes (i.e., political discussion and discussion network heterogeneity) may explain incidental exposure to information. Heterogeneous networks and sheer level of political discussion are positively related to incidental news exposure. The paper also highlights the positive role of social media news use as moderator.

The Voice of America and Ethiopia: Examining the Contours of Public Diplomacy and Journalistic Autonomy • Tewodros Workneh, Kent State University • Established in 1982, the Voice of America (VOA) Amharic Service became one of the most popular news outlets for Ethiopians in Ethiopia and Ethiopian diaspora communities across the world. Angered by the Service’s coverage of human rights abuses, bad governance, and other issues of public interest, Ethiopia’s ruling party made the discontinuation of the Service one of the top priorities of its diplomatic ties with the United States. This study examines the major pressure points of the Service’s newsroom autonomy permeating from Ethio-American shared public diplomacy interests through the optics of newsroom staff. Findings from document analysis and interviews reveal VOA Amharic journalists experience primary pressure sources (host political factors and homeland political factors) and secondary pressure sources (personal/relational factors, diasporic political factors, and audience factors) challenging their journalistic autonomy. Despite these pressures, journalists highlight the significance of the organization’s legislative “firewall” and evidence-based external review process in upholding the newsroom’s autonomy.

Fake News or Alternative Facts? Veracity Assessment of the Content and Comments of Unfamiliar News • Huai-Kuan Zeng, National Chiao Tung University; Tai-Yee Wu, National Chiao Tung University; David Atkin • Given growing concerns regarding the spread of medical misinformation, the current research set out to assess the message effects of social media news on reader veracity assessments. Results from an experiment indicate that news balance is more predictive of perceived credibility, news sharing, and fact-checking tendencies than is comment incivility. These findings indicate that when readers encounter an unfamiliar news issue, central-route processing plays a more important role in veracity assessment than peripheral-route processing.

Examining the influence of Facebook comments on news stories: Can anonymous comments induce spiral of silence? • Sherice Gearhart; Bingbing Zhang, Pennsylvania State University • Previous research has demonstrated that the spiral of silence theory is applicable to behaviors among social media users, especially Facebook users who interact among their peers. However, existent work has limitedly tested whether the theory remains applicable to social media contexts during a non-peer interaction. Using a 2 x 2 between subjects factorial design (N = 744) of adult Facebook users across the United States, participants were asked about their opinions on two controversial issues (i.e., either abortion or the potential ban of assault-style rifles). After exposure to comments on a news story advertisement posted by a reputable news outlet that either agreed or disagreed with their opinion, users were asked how they would respond to the circumstance. Results generally support the spiral of silence theory in a non-peer environment. Further, evidence shows that selective exposure on social media may influence the perception of opinion environments.

<2020 Abstracts

Mental Health as a Burden: Journalistic Representations of Mental Illness on Family, Society, and the Individual • Elise Assaf, California State University, Fullerton • This research study explores representations of mental illness in three mainstream, national, online publications. Individuals with disabilities make up the largest minority group in the U.S., and the language used to construct representations of these individuals have the ability to perpetuate or diminish stereotypes about these individuals. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to analyze 197 articles. Of the six themes that emerged, mental illness as a burden will be the focus of this paper.

* Extended Abstract * Journalistic Power: Constructing the ‘Truth’ and the Economics of Objectivity • Gino Canella, Emerson College • Through 30 in-depth interviews with journalists, this article explores how journalists construct ‘the truth.’ Relying on theories of journalistic cultures, media power, and objectivity, I examine how some journalists seek to uphold long-standing professional norms, while others eschew these norms and position their work as adversarial. This article has implications for defining the journalistic field, understanding how grassroots media-makers challenge journalistic practices, and why a power-structure analysis is essential at all stages of news production.

Capital and legitimacy: Trans* communicators as cultural intermediaries • Erica Ciszek; Richard Mocarski, University of Nebraska at Kearney; Elaine Almeida • Through in-depth interviews with trans* communication communicators, this paper represents a turning point in communication toward a more intentional and reflexive orientation to gender identity and transgender lives. Findings demonstrate trans* communicators construct and disseminate discourses designed to counter the historical narratives surrounding gender minorities to reshape these stories for themselves (as part of their own identity work), for trans* communities, and for mainstream audiences. This article employs the Bourdieuian concept of cultural intermediation to explicate the lived experiences of trans* individuals working in fields of communication. Drawing on Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, capital, and fields, this manuscript sheds light on strategic communication to understand how trans* individuals leverage cultural and social capital to construct legitimacy. This study contributes to a broader sociological understanding of strategic communication and opens new avenues for research in considering how publicity might translate into broader socio-political impacts. It specifically asks how trans* communicators create and maintain cultural intelligibility and negotiate social meaning of transgender representations, considering transgender communicators as cultural intermediaries at the center of the struggle for symbolic and material power.

A “Gentlemen’s Agreement:” How news discourse helps to perpetuate segregation • Lourdes Mirian Cueva Chacón, University of Texas at Austin • The media are a place where influential ideas about race and its hierarchies are presented. This study focused on the analysis of news coverage of an alleged agreement that limited minority representation in Austin’s city council seeking to answer the question of how journalistic discourse reproduces inequality. CDA suggests that the agreement was a racial project perpetuated in the journalistic discourse through the use of linguistic constructions of narratives and relationships with race and power structures.

* Extended Abstract * Promotional prosumers: Advertorial labor process on mommy social media • Wan-Wen Day, National Chung-Cheng University • An Apple consumer shares his authentic experience of using the new iPhone with his friends on Facebook. Some of them do purchase the same product he promotes later on. Does it mean that the digital labor of this consumer is exploited due to creating exchange value for Apple? Now, millions of micro-influencers partner with advertisers to sell branded products to their followers by demonstrating products’ use-values. This marketing phenomenon indicates the new mode of labor exploitation in prosumer capitalism. This study unveils how mom-influencers promote parenting commodities to their followers and analyzes the political economy of the advertising industry under the new realities of social media. In his 2015 article, George Ritzer predicts the rise of a new class, prosumers. He further argues that unpaid prosumers have a higher chance of replacing paid workers partially. This study presents the stories of the mommy prosumers and their followers to address the issue of prosumer capitalism. This study investigated the triangle relation among the MCNs, the brands, and micro-influencers through the advertorial campaigns. Fifteen semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted from September 2019 to March 2020. Each interview lasted more than an hour. The interviewees included six micro-influencers of the online mommy communities, four brand managers, and five executives from the MCNs.

Mexicanidad on the screen: perceptions about the national identity portrayed in contemporary Mexican cinema • Gabriel Dominguez Partida, Texas Tech University • Defining the individual’s identity in times of globalization requires acknowledging the contextual factors that surround them. One of the many positionalities that converge to build that identity is the national one. Although borders are fading away in the current global context, in the case of the Mexican one, people continue relying on specific traits that help them to define Mexicanidad. Cinema plays a vital role as the audience tends to select and support particular representations over others. This study focuses on the analysis of how the audience perceives the traits that define Mexicanidad and their relationship with contemporary Mexican cinema. Participants of various focus groups relate particular reminiscences of the Golden Age period, as traditions and history, but also recognize that Mexican characters from that period serve as stereotypes that currently are not true. Finally, participants do not identify with current Mexican narratives because these films do not appeal to their real-life problems. Hence, even with the increase in Mexican cinema consumption, there is a lack of representation of what Mexicans identify as ordinary people.

EULAs as Unbalanced Contractual Power Between an Organization and its (Unannounced and Underage) Users: A Mobile Game Textual Analysis • Jeffrey Duncan; Taylor Voges, University of Georgia • This study explores how End-User License Agreements found in mobile game applications (e.g., Apple) put the player or user at a contractual power disadvantage. A thematic textual analysis was conducted of the top five film studio organizations’ mobile game applications: Disney; Warner Brothers; Universal; Sony; and Paramount. Three themes were found: producer domination, producer ownership, and the parental consent loophole. The implications of each theme as related to legal and ethical principles are discussed.

* Extended Abstract * Extended abstract: Diverging data in a Canadian media bailout • Marc Edge, University of Malta • Sharply contrasting portrayals of news media fortunes in Canada preceded a Cdn$595 million (US$450 million) government bailout announced in late 2018. Critical scholars claimed reform was required to reduce levels of ownership concentration and foreign ownership. Data offered by others, however, portrayed media as unprofitable and near collapse, with hundreds of newspapers closed and thousands of journalism jobs lost. This paper examines secondary sources of data to test the latter contentions and finds them unsupported.

Women on Fire: YouTuber Burnout and Renegotiation with the Platform • Alyssa Fisher, Miami University • This project uses a critical cultural methodology and qualitative visual analysis to examine two creators who took a hiatus from the YouTube platform in the fall of 2018. Included in the analysis are videos announcing their hiatus, chronicling previously queued videos that uploaded during the hiatus, and videos announcing their return and eventual changes to their channels’ content. Findings include themes of reflexivity, creative fulfillment, and the pressure to appeal to the mysterious YouTube algorithm.

* Extended Abstract * Assessing the Critical Political Economic Implications of Environmental NGO Funding on Meat Reduction Messaging • Christopher Garcia, Florida State University • This study expands on prior research conducted on food-based suggestions and meat reduction messages on environmental NGO websites. Utilizing a critical political economic lens, two in- depth case studies of the meat-related dietary messaging and policy suggestions of The Nature Conservancy and Greenpeace International are featured as illustrative examples of organizational contrasts – one which finds itself heavily indebted to corporate stakeholders and the other rooted in civil society as opposed to business.

“Female Empowerment Sells” or Does It? Always’ #LIKEAGIRL Campaigns’ Contribution to Feminism and “Culture-change” • Tamar Gregorian • When did doing something “like a girl” become an insult? That’s the question that Always, a Proctor & Gamble company, one of the largest makers of feminine care products, in partnership with its advertising agency Leo Burnett proposed and answered in their 360-degree take on feminine hygiene advertising spots “Like A Girl,” “Unstoppable” and “Emojis.” This textual analysis of the three campaigns “Like A Girl,” “Unstoppable” and “Emojis” was conducted to determine the value the campaigns provide in adding to the conversation about the misrepresentation of females in society, not just advertising. The three campaigns were analyzed using Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model and the commercials were evaluated based on their preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings (Hall, 1980). To aid in the analysis of the campaigns, an interview was conducted with Shaina Holtz, an account executive at Leo Burnett who worked on the Always team during two of the three campaigns. On the preferred level or the denotative level, Always’ goal was to break down the barriers young girls faced in society. The spots featured questions and copy that suggested that these stereotypes existed among young girls and boys, as well as adult men and, most surprisingly, women. Ultimately, the textual analysis concluded that Always was able to position itself as a company that cares about more than “hawking” its products, and more about contributing to the conversation about the misrepresentation of females in society and even taking it a step further – offering a solution.

The Sacking of Kaeplanta: Who’s Voice is Valued in the Built Environment • Adrianne Grubic, The University of Texas at Austin • As former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick dominated the headlines before Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, a mural bearing his image was demolished near Morehouse College. The artist who painted it soon became a story but how the local media covered it also told a story about who is given a voice in a community. Using a multimodal discourse analysis, this qualitative study analyzed how the news media online reported on the demolition of the mural.

Ethical Consumption as Fetishism • Nah Ray Han, University of Georgia • Although consumers live in an era of consumer sovereignty, people often consume without being aware of how products are produced and sold. This paper criticized that emphasizing consumer sovereignty and morality, ethical consumption fetishizes the act of consuming by falsely suggesting that individual consumers can solve the environmental problems of the earth. The current papers concluded that the ethical consumption movement needs to become more self-aware so that it can truly help society develop.

Documentary Maker as Worker: Precarity in the Chinese Television Documentary Industry • Jiachun Hong • Documentary filmmakers have been considered artists, authors, or intellectuals, but rarely laborers. This study investigates the changing nature of documentary work in the expanding area of TV documentary in China, in the midst of China’s shift towards a market-based economy. Based on data gathered through the interviews with 40 practitioners from January 2014 to August 2017, this paper outlines the particularity and complexity of the creative work in China. It finds that short-time contracts, moonlighting, low payments and long working hours, freelancing, internship, and obligatory networking have become normal working conditions for Chinese TV documentary workers. Without copyright over their intellectual creations, the cultural workers are constrained to make a living as waged labor and compelled to sell their physical and mental labor in hours or in pieces. The Chinese television documentary workers struggled to resist the pressures of neoliberalism to survive in increasingly competitive local and global markets.

* Extended Abstract * Virtual Reality and Celebrity Humanitarianism • Bimbisar Irom, WSU, Pullman • The paper analyzes the interactions between the emergent technology of virtual reality (VR) and celebrity humanitarianism. Marketed as “the ultimate empathy machine”, VR has been enthusiastically appropriated by humanitarian communicators. Through the textual analysis of a VR experience featuring Rashida Jones, the project seeks to understand VR’s role in the production of celebrity performances of authenticity. How does VR balance the demands of stardom, highlighting distant suffering, and endorsing the work of humanitarian agencies?

Globalization, social media and cultural change: Instagram and family traditions in Russia • Regina Marchi, Rutgers University; Maria Zhigalina, Rutgers University • This paper examines how Russian traditions around marriage and pregnancy are being transformed by Instagram. Through a visual semiotic analysis of representations of US-style wedding ceremonies and gender reveal parties on Russian Instagram accounts, it notes that these rituals, formerly not part of Russian marriage or pregnancy traditions, are fast becoming the norm. Economic and social implications of the adoption of these practices, related to spending and debt, social class and gender ideologies are discussed.

Dangerous Professors: How Public Scholars Pioneer Practices that Reconcile Intellect with Journalism • Michael McDevitt, University of Colorado • The academic-media nexus can seem like a kaleidoscopic space for public intellectuals. Rules of engagement are, at best, implicit and contingent. Interviews with faculty targeted by vigilante watchlists probe how they pioneer practices that allow them to navigate uncertainty and populist blowback. A multiplicity of epistemic communities interacting with journalism implies a faint centrifugal coherence, but the disorientation of a hybrid field induces a productive reflexivity in efforts to reconcile intellect with journalism.

“Barbie is Not Muslim”: Consumer Racism in Hijab Wearing Barbie Doll on Twitter • Suman Mishra; Amal Bakry • This paper explores consumer reaction on Twitter surrounding the launch of the first hijab wearing Barbie doll of Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammed in the United States. Using the theoretical framework of consumer racism and qualitative content analysis, the study reveals four major aspects of consumer racism: 1) Antipathy towards the ethnic group’s culture and religion, which in this case is Muslims and Islam 2) (Negative) product evaluation, 3) Skepticism towards the dominant corporation producing multiethnic goods, and 4) Consumer (un)willingness to buy the product. The study highlights that multicultural products produced by a dominant corporation associated with ethnic majority can be subject to similar consumer racism as products produced and sold by ethnic minorities. Theoretical and other implications with regards to consumer racism are discussed.

Public (Re)construction of War Memory in Japan: Examining Audience Reception of the Documentary Film Shusenjo • Junki Nakahara, American University • This paper explores how general publics participate in war memory construction through their consumption of a documentary film. Documentary film Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of The Comfort Women Issue (2019), created by Japanese-American producer Miki Dezaki, deals with one of the most contentious historical controversies in Japan—wartime sexual exploitation of women in Asian countries under the control of the Empire of Japan. In recent decades, Japan’s effort to whitewash the memory about war crimes has often caused frequent diplomatic conflicts with its neighboring countries such as South Korea. The film juxtaposes conflicting historical views to show the process of domestic and international campaigns led by right-wing/conservative leaders and various counter-arguments against their campaigns. Diverse audience comments on the documentary film can be found on online film review websites. Those comments indicate that the audience actively interpreted the film text and discussed their thoughts online. By applying the approach of critical discourse analysis, this research examines if audience evaluation of the film reflects their political opinions regarding its subject and what prospective views of Japanese national identity shape the retrospective war memory about the “comfort women.” The film offers a space for the Japanese audience to reconstruct their prospective and retrospective idea concerning the war memory of their country by questioning the widely accepted consensus.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of The Washington Post’s DACA Coverage: An American Dream Mythology • Daleana Phillips • The Trump Administration’s rhetoric on immigration reflects a shift toward nationalistic and xenophobic political discourses, which has negative consequences for legal and illegal immigrants. News coverage on illegal immigration and undocumented immigrants has overwhelmingly been portrayed using threat narratives and metaphors. This study employs a Critical Discourse Analysis using Barthes Mythology to analyze fifty-two articles from the newspaper, The Washington Post, on the Trump Administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) Program. The findings reveal that the American Dream ideology prevails in the U.S. national imaginary. Journalists covered DACA participants much differently than traditional threat frames used for covering undocumented immigrants in the media. Journalists portrayed Dreamers as industrious adherents to the American Dream and productive members of society brought into the country illegally as children, through no fault of their own. While this narrative supports DACA participants, it reinforces white middle-class assimilation and contrasts them against undocumented immigrants who are “to blame” for being in the U.S. illegally. The consequences of this rhetoric are important because it leaves white privilege unchallenged and justifies racialized “law and order” discourses that criminalize people who appear “foreign” or carry a “figurative border” with them.

Decoding Versus Discovering: The Social Roots of Two Visions of Journalistic Excellence • Matthew Powers, University of Washington • Drawing on Bourdieu, this paper explores how one’s social position—i.e., their social origins and trajectories—shapes definitions of journalistic excellence. Through interviews, it shows that journalists from lower positions (e.g., working class families, less education) generally articulate a “decoding” view of excellence, while those from higher positions (e.g., professional families, prestigious education) describe a “discovery” view. These two socially-rooted visions differ in their assumptions of a power struggle between journalists and other power holders.

We’ll never let the past die: Five years of Disney Star Wars and the struggle to sustain a creative franchise in the digital era • Abigail Reed • This article examines and critiques the five Disney-produced Star Wars films from a critical political economic perspective. There are three primary themes that help untangle the story of the production of the first five Disney Star Wars films: diversity, production disturbances, and audience feedback. Disney’s intrinsic profit motive and the diversity it claims to value have conflicted with each other, resulting in troubled productions, upset audiences, and confusing film narratives.

This Was America: The Limitations of an Enduring Vision of American Photography • Alex Scott, University of Texas at Austin • This study explores the political implications of a reliance on the approved canon of American photographers by examining the 2018 photo exhibition, “A New Vision: American Photography After the War.” Employing a historiographic examination, the study illuminates how institutions and market obfuscate the historical reality of images. A process of de-politicization is then explicated using a multi-modal analysis of the exhibition images. The images contribute to an American myth drawn upon by contemporary political practices.

Critical Embellishment: Rolling Stone and Pitchfork Pans as Journalistic Signaling • John Vilanova • This research explores the idea of criticism—and specifically the negative review—as a useful and important means of signaling journalistic impartiality for fledgling journalistic enterprises. It historicizes negativity in criticism in relation to the foundations of journalistic practice and analyzes reviews written in the early years of two music publications, Rolling Stone magazine and the website Pitchfork. It theorizes their negativity as performances of what it calls critical expertise and critical authority.

Modern Mourning: The Violence and Potentialities of Public Grief Online • Alyvia Walters, Rutgers University • After nineteen-year-old Mollie Tibbetts was allegedly murdered by an undocumented immigrant in her Iowan hometown in July 2018, her family faced two violent mourning processes: not only were they processing their undue loss, but they were also compelled to enter the public spotlight in order to counter hostile ideologies concerning her undocumented alleged murderer. As this study shows, from the moment his citizenship status was released, the story of importance was no longer that of the loss of Mollie, it was rather the “illegality” of her alleged killer. This article thus investigates the unique mechanisms of modern media which both provide and force space for public expressions of grief: outlets which can both damage and heal. In a mixed methods approach, I performed a Twitter-based events-sequence analysis paired with content and ideological analyses to identify how the local, tragic story of Mollie became a national story of immigration policy—one with such force that the President of the United States commented on it—which led to the Tibbetts’ difficult positionality in the media spotlight. Though social media and its rapid information sharing had caused their daughter’s erasure, the Tibbetts family was also able to use social media to re-center Mollie’s life and values: a violent necessity with empowering ends.

Food, exoticism, and spectacle: Commodifying African otherness in Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern • Tewodros Workneh, Kent State University • The marked reluctance to incorporate African agency in African image-making in the West quite predictably brought about flat and simplistic caricatures of the continent and its peoples. With the aim of interrogating continuity and change in the representation of Africa, this paper explores African exoticism in Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. Framed within a critical cultural/postcolonial perspective that anchors discourses of exoticism in Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, the study identifies the spectacular representational modes of the “crude” native, poverty, and primitivism as evidences of African otherness. Key findings of the study indicate that food in many African destinations is portrayed as mere materiality, and that African foodways are unsophisticated and lack any perceptible aesthetics or influence. Furthermore, the show stubbornly insists on Africa’s “primitiveness” as a binary condition to be contrasted with Western modernity, which, like the spectacle of poverty, marks the salience of African alterity.

“So F***ing Glad We Got Osuna!”: Feminist world building in sports journalism • Kate Yanchulis, University of Maryland • Sports Illustrated reporter Stephanie Apstein turned a Houston Astros executive’s “offensive and frightening” outburst toward women reporters from a closed-door act of aggression into a public discussion of Major League Baseball’s dismissive attitude toward women. This paper takes coverage of that same incident as an opportunity to consider sports journalism as a potential space for feminist world building, drawing particularly on the work of black feminists.

Post-feminism in China: a discourse analytic examination of the sell of successful intimated relationships advice in Ayawawa’s book • hanlei YANG, Chongqing University • The intimate relationship advice industry in modern China reveals insights about neoliberalism, self-surveillance, emphasis on choice and empowerment, individualism, market-oriented principles, the science of successful sex and relationship, and the revitalization of Confucian conservatism and patriarchy. But it has long been neglected by previous scholars conducting studies on reconceptualization and reconstruction of emotional experiences and subjectivities in China context. Ayawawa is regarded as one of the renowned writers of bestsellers in mainland China for the intimate relationship advice industry. This paper will use her anthology “The cultivation of Love” as the research object by adopting Fairclough’s Critical discourse analysis method and regard postfeminism as a sensibility or a critical subject instead of as an analytic viewpoint. Specifically, this research aims to answer: (1) how she mobilized rhetorical devices and cultural resources to present a seemingly scientific method of managing intimate relationships; (2) what kind of intimate relationship and sexual subjectivity are established. By way of conclusion, females could take advantage of their sexy bodies, seeking financial and emotional support from others in an intimate relationship. successful intimacy is embodied in dramatically increasing the intensity of self-surveillance as a form of regulation for women. The extensiveness of surveillance over an entirely new life and intimacies includes the focus on psychology, and the requirements to transform oneself and reshape one’s deeper inner life. Women are constantly monitoring their looks and reproduction capability when they encounter unequal treatment in the intimate relationship, they first think of monitoring themselves and self-adjustment, instead of paying attention to the fact that men and women are unequal in the intimate relationship.

<2020 Abstracts

Virtual or tangible?: An experimental investigation into motivation and memory in place-based, community-oriented virtual reality news • Aaron Atkins • Parts of this research appear in a dissertation. 360-degree virtual reality video content is beginning to spread beyond niche international and national news organizations and into community-oriented news publications. One of the unique aspects inherent to the medium is the relinquishing of journalist control over the perspective, framing, and attention allocation of its audience, which this experiment addresses. This research investigates via controlled lab experiment the motivational effects of experiencing and processing via LC4MP a community-oriented 360VR news story shot in a prominent community location known to the research population sample. The experiment uses the presence or absence of an on-screen reporter to serve as a guide through the news story and measures motivation via sense of community, attention allocation and memory processing via post-treatment assessment. Findings shed light on one of the prominent ongoing discussions among journalists about how best to utilize the medium for nonfiction narrative news purposes, and makes recommendations for best practice based on its findings.

Community public safety information seeking and the news • Chris Etheridge, University of Arkansas at Little Rock • One by-product of the digital age has been the expansion how individuals get information, yet the news has remained both a primary source for information and one that individuals increasingly view as untrustworthy. This study examines the information needs related to crime and public safety as well as how and why they seek this information through the news. These findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical framework of community information-seeking. This study then provides three recommendations for possible ways for news organizations to serve a greater community information role.

Calm During the Storm: Hype-Averse and Thematic Framing of Hurricane Harvey on a Local Independent Weather Blog • Marcus Funk, Sam Houston State University • Abstract: During Hurricane Harvey, a local weather blog heavily emphasized risk and meteorological data without defaulting to disaster or human interest frames common in mainstream news coverage of severe weather. Journalists routinely articulated uncertainty, delineating what was likely and what was possible, while cultivating internal and external community through personal expression and recognition of common experience. Audience members demonstrated clear parasocial interaction and parasocial relationships with authors despite the lack of human interest and disaster frames.

Community through dialogue and its impact on support for NPR member stations • Joseph Kasko • This research examines the role of community in generating support for public radio stations. Building on previous research, which concluded NPR stations were engaged in continuous, two-way dialogue with their listeners, this present study surveyed listeners to gauge how those community building efforts may be influencing support. The results indicate there is a positive, but small, relationship between dialogic communication and levels of support. As a result, this work provides evidence that station efforts to build community, through the use of dialogic communication, are effective in increasing levels of support.

The Role of Community Caretaker: How Weekly Newspapers Defended Their Communities While Reporting on the Mississippi ICE Raids • Nick Mathews • This research presents how weekly newspapers came to the defense of their communities in a time of need. This role, which goes beyond the normative newspaper functions, is identified as “community caretaker.” A qualitative textual analysis examines the coverage of the historic 2019 Mississippi ICE raids. The findings demonstrate that, most notably, the weekly newspapers attempted to heal any reputational damage to the communities by criticizing the national media that painted a grim post-raid future.

* Extended Abstract * Journalism Beyond the Command Post • Mildred Perreault, East Tennessee State University • On Memorial Day weekend 2015, journalists flocked to Wimberley to report the destruction, but only a few local journalists remained to tell the story of the town’s struggle for recovery. Using case study methods and narrative theory this study evaluated how local journalists contribute to long-term recovery and resilience. Through the development of the journalist as citizen model, this study addressed how local journalists are strategic in the narratives they adopted.

Reinforcing Islamophobic Rhetoric through the use of Facebook comments: A study of imagined community • Burton Speakman, Kennesaw State University; Caitlyn Blanchard; Anisah Bagasra, Kennesaw State University • Social media sites such as Facebook allow for the easy creation of imagined community within the online space. This study seeks to examine the role of imagined community and framing in portrayals of Islam and Muslims within the comments of public media pages on Facebook. A comparative analysis of comments on news articles from conservative, mainstream, and liberal media sources was conducted to understand the quantity and content of Islamophobic comments on these pages. Additionally, comments on eight of the most popular conservative Facebook pages were analyzed. Both the qualitative and quantitative data suggest imagined community exists within commenters on conservative media Facebook pages, reinforcing the use of Islamophobic rhetoric.

<2020 Abstracts

Uses and Gratifications of Mobile Gaming: When Is Playing No Longer Just Fun and Games? • Karin Haberlin; David Atkin • The present study explores problematic ritualized uses of mobile videogames—available through smartphones and tablets — using Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory as a guide. Online survey results uncover a positive relationship between materialism and Internet addiction and a negative relationship between social support and Internet addiction. Social support mediated the relationship between materialism and Internet addiction. Fantasy, coping, and escape motivations were moderately correlated with Internet Addiction Test scores.

The evolution of research in Journalism and Communication: An analysis of scholarly CIOS-indexed journals from 1915-present • David Atkin; Carolyn Lagoe; Tim Stephen; Archana Krishnan • Assessments of programmatic research remain important in the current higher education landscape, as the field of Journalism/Mass Communication (JMC) enters its 2nd century. This study profiles scholarly productivity across the larger discipline’s first century, focusing on scholarly output for institutions in referred journals indexed by the CIOS database since 1915. All but four of the 30 most prolific units grant doctoral degrees. The 30 most prolific scholars all have at least a decade of experience and typically publish with a coauthor. Implications of converging research areas wrought by emerging digital media—and their erasure of the field’s sub-domains–are discussed.

Leveraging intermedia agenda setting for forecasting coverage: A case study of the Mueller investigation • Matthew Brockman, University of Arizona • While a lot of progress has been made in modeling factors influencing news production, there is a dearth of research for providing ways to compare the accuracy and persistence of models used in current journalism research. This quantitative study provides evidence that news coverage can be forecast with better-than-chance accuracy when evaluating models mean absolute scaled error by modeling news coverage of the case of a government investigation and presidential tweeting concerning collusion or interference in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Furthermore, the study examines how the estimated relative influence of different factors changes depending on the time frame to which the computational models were fit. The author theorizes that further including additional theory in models and re-evaluating the resulting change in error can provide insight to how much predictive value those theoretical contributions account for media production.

Mediation analysis and warranted inferences in media and communication research. Examining research design in the field’s prominent journals • Michael Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Macau K. F. Mak, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Panfeng Hu • The number of communication studies employing mediation analysis has increased exponentially in in the past two decades. Focusing on the aspect of research design, this study examines 333 articles published in the Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Communication Research, and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly between 1996-2007. Findings show that while the majority of studies report statistically significant indirect effects, they are inadequate to make causal inferences about the mediating mechanisms. Authors also often infer that the significant mediators they uncovered are the ‘true’ mediators while plausible alternative models and mediators are rarely acknowledged or discussed. Future studies should pay more attention to the role of research design and its implications for making causal inferences. More rigorous research designs for strengthening causal claims in communication research are suggested.

The COVID-19 pandemic and heightened hostility toward China: Expanding the theoretical underpinning and scope of the third-person perception • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Shih Hsin University; Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Macau • This timely study examined the widely documented third-person perception in the context of the raging COVID-19 pandemic. It included a new variable, information transparency, normatively treated as a given in past research. Constructs of social distance, news exposure, news attentiveness, and self-efficacy were included for testing. Additionally, this study is among the first in media effects literature to treat TPP as a moderation variable. The implications, contributions, and limitations of this study are discussed in detail.

The Broadcast Journalism Credibility Scale: A Robust Measure for Examining Ethos, Logos, and Pathos • Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama; Chris Roberts, University of Alabama • Credibility is an ancient, well-studied, and complicated construct. Most credibility measurements consider either messenger (ethos), message (logos), or both. Aristotle’s definition also included pathos—the speaker’s emotion, which now comes into play with broadcast journalists. This study analyzed 45 variables representing ethos, logos, and pathos, characteristics; results showed high correlations among Aristotle’s three concepts. Factor analysis yielded a new three-pronged credibility measure for broadcasters, with 21 variables that distinguish among the three concepts.

Still a man’s world? Framing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election • Eliana DuBosar, Univeristy of Florida • This study compared coverage of Clinton and Trump in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal during the 2016 presidential election. Specifically, it looked at quantity of coverage as well as personal, issue, and strategic game framed coverage. For the difference between quantity of coverage for the two candidates and attribution of feminine issues to Clinton were significant. However, personal and strategic game framed coverage differences between Clinton and Trump were not statistically significant.

* Extended Abstract * The geolocation gap: The effect of being a political minority in communities on news media trust • Megan Duncan, Virginia Tech; David Coppini, University of Denver • Whether exposure to political disagreement will increase participation in democracy and media trust is up for debate. This study uses U.S. survey data to compare the effects that holding political opinions in the minority or majority within discussion networks and place-based communities have on political engagement and trust in news media. This study finds supportive discussion networks increase participation in democracy, but dissimilarity with community opinions decrease trust in news media.

Dismantling the hierarchy: An organization-centric model of influence for media sociology research • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder; Timothy Kuhn, U of Colorado-Boulder • This theoretical paper proposes a new model for understanding influence on journalistic practice. Studying influence in the 21st century requires a model that does not include a hierarchy and therefore does not implicitly validate a universal journalism culture. The paper first explains the hierarchy of influences model, argues for its extinction and then resituates that model’s levels of analysis into a new model that more appropriately accounts for the growing agency of individual organizations. Finally, the paper envisions avenues for future research utilizing the new model.

Response Quality Comparison Between Computers and Smartphones in Different Web Survey Modes and Question Formats • Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University; Chenjie Zhang, Jiangsu Normal University; Weiwei Jiang • Low response rates in Web surveys and the use of different devices in entering Web survey responses are the two main challenges to response quality of Web surveys. This study compared the effects of using interviewers to recruit participants in computer-assisted self-administered interviews (CASI) vs. computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI) and smartphones vs. computers on participation rate and Web survey response quality. Two field experiments using two similar media use studies on U.S. college students were conducted to compare response quality in different survey modes and response devices. Response quality of computer entry was better than smartphone entry in both studies in open-ended and closed-ended question format only. But device effect was only significant on overall completion rate when interviewers were present.

Thinking, feeling, and reporting: An exploration into emotionality in U.S. political journalism • Kimberly Kelling • Many Western cultures privilege rationality in the workplace and perceive emotionality as reason’s lesser counterpart. Within the U.S. journalism landscape, the perpetuation of this dichotomy is prevalent, yet it is a relatively under-explored area in social scientific research. Although journalism in the U.S. has a strong tradition of objectivity, the realities of journalistic work expose journalists to emotional situations almost daily. Therefore, this study uses a mixed methods approach to understand how often political journalists employ emotional labor at work and to describe the emotion regulation strategies of those journalists. Findings suggest journalists practice both proactive and reactive emotion regulation strategies, yet still prioritize rationality in their work.

Defining media environment: An introduction to a communication infrastructure-structure-action (CISA) model • Yong-Chan Kim, Yonsei University • The purpose of this work is twofold: (1) to review how empirical media research has addressed the issue of context; and (2) to propose theoretical definitions of media environment as part of communication environment. In defining media (and communication) environment, this study introduces a communication infrastructure-structure-action (CISA) framework as a way to understand and explain how media (and communication) environments work for communicative action. The CISA framework is proposed as a theoretical framework upon which to develop empirical research on media and communication environments. With such goals in mind, I discuss some potential variables of media (and communication) environment and communicative action as well.

Seeing Oneself in Online Sources: Self-Esteem and Self-Construal Impact Information Exposure in the Filter Bubble • Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick; Axel Westerwick • An experiment mimicked the filter bubble: Participants browsed all attitude-aligned political content. It varied source cues, with two out of eight bylines displaying individual participants’ name initials as author initials. Selective exposure spent on messages from same-initials authors was logged in seconds to capture egotism (based on name-letter effect). Pre-exposure state self-esteem influenced this egotism indicator, contingent on personal-self and social-self importance. Perceived source similarity affected state self-esteem change, contingent on same moderators.

Does watching animals in real life and on the screen have the same effects on stress reduction? • Anastasia Kononova, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Patricia Huddleston, Michigan State University; Tao Deng, DePaul University; Duygu Kanver, Michigan State University; Narae Park, Michigan State University; Luis Graciano Velazquez, Michigan State University; Alan Smith, Michigan State University; Noah Hirsch, Michigan State University; Anish Nimmagadda, Michigan State University; Yao Dong, Michigan State University; Kristen Lynch, Michigan State University • A set of two studies provided empirical evidence that visiting a zoo and watching online videos of zoo animals reduces stress. In order to showcase the stress-reduction effects, we designed a procedure that was implemented at a local zoo and at a U.S. Midwestern university’s psychophysiological laboratory, where we experimentally induced stress using a widely-accepted psychological task and then provided participants with the experience of proximally physical or mediated exposure to zoo animals. In addition to measuring stress levels using self-report measures, we recorded participants’ psychophysiological responses, such as heart rate, pulse, and skin conductance. We detected changes in stress levels and attitude toward zoo animals as a function of exposure to zoo animals and observed field study participants’ (N = 8) psychophysiological responses that indicate parasympathetic activation of the central nervous system. Our lab study results (N = 87) showed that the stress-reducing effects of watching zoo animals in a video were more evident among Generation Z participants (those between the ages of 18 and 24 years old). We also found that watching the video of zoo animals elicited moderately arousing and the least unpleasant emotional responses from participants when compared with other types of videos.

Perceived message desirability is not good enough to explain first-person effect: Testing multiple moderating variables of first-person effect • Sangki Lee, Arkansas Tech University; Virginia Jones, Arkansas Tech University • This study attempted to explain inconsistent research findings of previous first-person effect studies by testing its moderating variables. A 2 X 2 X 2 mixed design was employed with a between-subject variable of message relevance and within-subject variables of reference group and message dimension (knowledge and attitude). Significant main and interaction effects of message attributions were found. Locus of control was not a significant moderator. A measurement issue of first-person effect was discussed.

* Extended Abstract * Database discrepancies: News stories and child separation at the border • Carol Liebler, Syracuse University; Noah Buntain, Syracuse University; Kyle Webster • The purpose of the current study is to compare and contrast four news databases to explore how exhaustive each appears to be, and to further examine the degree of convergence among them. Using a month’s worth of news on child separation at the border, we examine search results from Google News, Newsbank, NexisUni and Proquest. Our data reveal considerable differences across all of the dimensions studied: number of stories, geographic reach and media outlets.

From Theory to Profession: Mapping Global Knowledge Networks in Communication Studies • Yi-Hui Huang, City University of Hong Kong; Hai Liang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Yuanhang LU, Hong Kong Baptist University • “This study collects and analyzes the titles and descriptions of 200 top communication programs worldwide. Results indicate that the field is moving towards divergence rather than convergence. Communication programs tend to highlight their own unique features (i.e., social sciences, humanities/culture, practical application, media studies) and programs examined within different continents (i.e., Europe, North American, Asia, Australia, Africa) of the world also demonstrate similar patterns.

‘Instagram versus Reality’: Psychological Effects of Viewing Realistic and Thin-Idealized Body Presentations on Instagram • Alice Binder; Joerg Matthes, U of Vienna • Two experimental studies examined the effects of presenting ‘ideal vs. reality’ body pictures on Instagram on women and men. Whereas in Study 1, young women in the ‘ideal vs. reality’ condition showed a more realistic perception of an ideal body, Study 2 revealed that adult women in the ‘ideal vs. reality’ condition showed a thinner ideal self compared to the thin-idealized condition. This effect was most prominent in adult women with a higher BMI. No effects on men were observed.

Modeling attitude reinforcement within the elaboration likelihood model • Nikki McClaran, Michigan State University; Nancy Rhodes • The present study examines the importance of reinforcing favorable attitudes to strengthen the attitude-behavior relationship. In accordance with the elaboration likelihood model, this study attempted to determine how the way in which pro-attitudinal messages are processed influences behavioral intention via attitude reinforcement. More so, message features of argument strength and emotional tone were examined for their role in impacting this relationship. Participants (N = 315) were randomly exposed to a PSA video regarding donating to animal shelters. Results found that while the impact on attitude reinforcement was conditional on the message’s emotional tone, the influence of processing type on behavioral intention was contingent on message strength. However, no relationship was found between attitude reinforcement and behavioral intention. These findings reiterate the need for more research on pro-attitudinal processing and point to the potential role of peripheral cues in encouraging attitude-behavior consistency.

* Extended Abstract * Deliberating Alone: Immigration and “Rational” Arguments against Political Talk • Bryan McLaughlin, Texas Tech University; Kenton Wilkinson, Texas Tech Univ.; Hector Rendon, Texas Tech University; TJ Martinez, Texas Tech University • While interviewing people about the topic of immigration, one constant theme kept coming up—participants wanted to talk politics, but they believed it was not possible because other people were too irrational. Using a symbolic interactionism framework, we explore the reflexive process through which deliberation is considered, then ultimately decided against. We argue that these are normative performances used to demonstrate a commitment to the value of rationality, allowing individuals to reaffirm an ideal self.

Uses-and-gratification for parasocial grief and grief policing in the 21st century • Ajia Meux, University of Oklahoma • The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between parasocial grief and parasocial grief policing from a uses-and-gratifications framework. Uses-and-gratification theory suggests that people use media to meet a number of different needs. Celebrities use social media to create authentic and credible online personalities to cultivate niche audiences looking for connectedness and identification. Rapid advancements in social media technologies facilitate communications that allow for feelings of “being there.” This enables new ways to engage and develop parasocial relations, friend-like relationships with mediated personae and audiences. When these mediated personae die, fans experience parasocial grief and use social media to both grieve and participate in others’ grieving acts. This grief is met with policing efforts from individuals who perceive parasocial relationships as an illegitimate loss of the person grieving. Broader cultural implications (i.e., family, ethnicity, gender, culture, social media) are present when considering the importation of norms to online spaces which create a conflict between those who believe it be a space for grieving behavior and those who do not.

How theoretical are media social science theories? It’s difficult to tell. • Serena Miller; Stephen Lacy; Jen Lovejoy • Theories discipline our thinking by holding it to intellectual standards, yet standards are not standards if minimal agreement exists regarding what constitutes social science theory. During a pilot test of a content analysis aimed at assessing media scholars’ use of formal social science theory, we could not meaningfully record how theory guided scholars. This essay discusses previous such efforts, what the pilot test taught us about the use of formal social science theory in media journals, and what can be done to improve theory building in media scholarship.

A World of Two Agendas: Agenda Setting Sampling • Milad Minooie, Kennesaw State University • This article studies the efficiency of different samples for content analysis of news in media effects studies by comparing the agenda-setting effect of a sample drawn by the researcher with the effect of a sample drawn based on audiences’ self-reported media habits. Contrary to the belief that exposure to sampled media content is necessary for observation of media effects, samples drawn based on overall readership/viewership of the media are more efficient than samples based on audience’s actual consumption habits. A traditional media sample yields a stronger agenda-setting effect compared to a sample drawn based on self-reported media habits. But correlations between the two media samples are also strong. The findings suggest that a broad intermedia agenda-setting process makes it possible for researchers to draw a traditional sample that is representative of the issues salient to audiences regardless of their level of exposure to the sampled media. In other words, even in a demassified media environment, traditional samples are still the best option for media effects researchers.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: How global is the World Wide Web? Identifying user-defined geographies from websites, YouTube and Twitter Trends in over 100 countries • Yee Man Margaret Ng, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Harsh Taneja, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign • Do web users really transcend national boundaries? This study examines the extent of similarities between countries’ web use patterns simultaneously accounting for different modes of online consumption: country’s most popular websites and trends from YouTube and Twitter. Utilizing platforms’ API and scraping, we collected two months of usage data and analyzed usage pattern similarities between a hundred countries. Unlike prior studies, we find social media usage to be even more heterogeneous than global website usage.

* Extended Abstract * Explaining the Process: How Journalistic Transparency and Perceptions of Importance Can Promote Credibility and Engagement • Jason Peifer, Indiana University – Bloomington • Faced with declining public trust in news media, numerous proposals have been presented to combat the problems of journalistic credibility. Increased transparency is one commonly identified approach as a key for addressing these challenges—aspects of which could include disclosing how and why a story was selected, how it was reported, and how it was funded. This research employs an experimental design to investigate the efficacy of such transparency for fostering newspaper credibility and engagement.

Media Agenda-Setting versus Political Agenda-Setting: Towards a Needed Convergence of Research across Two Related Literatures • Alexander Rochefort, Boston University • Despite longstanding agenda-setting research within the communication and political science literatures, few scholars have attempted to synthesize these fields in a comprehensive and systematic way. This research fills this gap by explicating the interaction between the media agenda and the political agenda for a salient public issue—the oversight of social media platforms. Examining editorials in the New York Times, this project finds that editorial pages play a key role in linking these agendas together.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: Methodological Implications of Between-Coder Variance in Content Analysis • Iago S. Muraro, Michigan State University • This short paper investigates a topic that has been ignored in the content analysis literature: the effect of non-zero correlations within coders on critical statistical assumptions. By employing a data simulation approach, we generated three distinct content analysis scenarios to examine the relationship between non-perfect intercoder reliability and between-coder variance. Our findings demonstrate that non-perfect reliability indices may indicate that content analysis data can be clustered around coders. Statistical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

Media Effects on Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories • Christian Schemer; Marc Ziegele; Tanjev Schultz; Oliver Quiring; Nikolaus Jackob; Ilka Jakobs • The present research examines how exposure to various news sources affects beliefs in conspiracy theories in Germany. Three surveys demonstrate that frequency of exposure to news on alternative news sites, video-sharing platforms, commercial television, and in tabloids increase beliefs in conspiracies. Conversely, frequent exposure to quality newspapers, public broadcasting television news, news aggregators, and legacy news sites reduce beliefs in conspiracy theories. Reading news on social media or user comments is unrelated to conspiratorial beliefs.

Delineating the Transnational Network Agenda Setting of Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Movement: A Machine Learning Approach • Yan Su; Danielle Ka Lai Lee, Washington State University • Grounded in the network agenda setting (NAS) model, this study applied both supervised and unsupervised machine-learning approaches to analyze the newspaper coverage in Hong Kong, Mainland China, the U.S. and the U.K. (N = 2,118), and discussions in Twitter (N = 152,509), about the Hong Kong protest. Network analyses indicated that all media used distinct approaches in setting and bundling issue and attribute agendas. Time-series analyses revealed a reciprocal while asymmetrical relationship in which Twitter exhibited a stronger power in transferring bundled issues and attributes to the media. Contributions and implications are discussed.

* Extended Abstract * Developing a Perceived Social Media Literacy Scale • Edson Tandoc; Andrew Yee, Singapore University of Technology and Design • This paper seeks to contribute to the growing discussion about the need for social media literacy by developing and testing a perceived social media literacy (PSML) scale. It draws from data and analyses involving three national surveys. A pilot study developed 32 items that described different forms of literacies associated with social media. Four domains of literacies emerged from the qualitative analysis: technological, social, informational, and privacy related. Items were developed within each of these domains. Following the qualitative study, three separate nationally representative surveys were conducted to (1) explore the factor structure of those items, (2) confirm the factor structure found in (1), and (3) examine the validity of the PSML scale. At least 3,146 participants took part in the entire process from item pool development to examining scale validity.

Critical Reflection in Narrative Persuasion: Thinking beyond Transportation • RAN TAO, UW-Madison • Because of its effectiveness in communication, narrative-based persuasion is deemed as a potent tool to reduce health disparities and promote better health outcomes, especially for people from disadvantaged groups and people with high resistance. However, the mechanism of this communication strategy is still under debate. The dominant explanation suggests transportation results in receptivity to persuasion. Another line of research incorporates the transportation experience with the message-receivers’ cognitive needs to interpret and extrapolating from narrative. Following the logic of cognition-based narrative processing, this theoretical paper adds critical reflection to the model of narrative persuasion. This paper argues, after returning from narrative world to the real world, narrative receivers use logic and reasoning to reflect upon their experience and make assessments on the narrative’s soundness and value. And this meta-level assessments is important to understand the narrative persuasion outcomes. Acknowledging the strengths of narrative persuasion, this paper also makes a case that narrative strategy should be promoted with caution, in that the effectiveness of narratives could be utilized for wrong causes. Some individual-level factors are proposed to identify people who are more receptive to narrative persuasion, and more vulnerable to the pitfalls of narrative-based strategies.

The Journalism-Public Relations Role Continuum • Leigh Anne Tiffany, Michigan State University • In the current new media era, journalists and public relations practitioners are taking on new responsibilities in their respective professions. In meeting these new demands, the demarcated barrier between these distinct vocations has faded. This blurring of lines has led to definitional uncertainty for these roles. This paper proposes three models to provide clarity for the boundaries—or lack thereof—for these role holders. Two of the models—the Archetypal Model and the Continuum Model—provide the historical and foundational context for the third model. The Role Snapshot Model is presented as the best representation for roles in the constantly changing media realm. Additionally, this model provides a scholarly channel for increased interdisciplinarity between journalism and public relations.

A two-study qualitative exploration of ecological momentary assessment as a tool for media, behavior measurement • Jessica Willoughby, Washington State University; Stephanie Gibbons; Shuang Liu • Ecological momentary assessment, a method of collecting data in real-time on mobile devices, may offer certain benefits for communication research. We were interested in participants’ experiences with EMA for addressing communication-based research questions. We conducted two EMA studies on different topics in 2017 and 2018 and followed them up with in-depth interviews (N=19 and N=16). Participants described potential changes in behavior associated with the EMA, which could contribute to changes in data collected.

<2020 Abstracts