A Textual Analysis of Fake News Articles on Facebook Before the 2016 Election • Mitchell T. Bard, Iona College • This meso-level textual analysis of the 20 most engaged fake news articles on Facebook before the 2016 election (Silverman, 2016) examines whether the pieces conform to journalistic style and the themes found across the stories. An analysis of “The O’Reilly Factor” during the period looks at how those themes were addressed on Fox News. Results show a wide variety of styles, but concentration on a few themes, which were also seen on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Follow of the leader?: Perceptions of solo journalism of local television journalists and news directors • Justin Blankenship, Auburn University; Daniel Riffe • This research study examined the perceptions of solo journalism in the context of local television news production in the United States. Solo journalism is a work practice in which a single reporter is expected to gathering information for, write, shoot video, and edit their news stories on their own. It is sometimes known as video journalism, multimedia journalism, or backpack journalism. This is contrasted with a traditional news crew work design in which those tasks are distributed among at least two professionals, possibly more. The study utilized data gathered from two separate surveys, one of news managers (N= 159) and one of front-line journalists (N= 222). The data indicated that journalists are generally more pessimistic about the causes and benefits of solo journalism than news directors. Additionally, by matching the two samples by station, analysis suggested that the “optimism” of news managers toward solo journalism may impact the efficacy of the reporters that work for them.

Following the Familiar: Effect of exposure and gender on credibility of journalists on Twitter • Trent Boulter • This study examines the effect of mere exposure and journalists’ gender on credibility. Through controlled experiments it was found that exposure significantly impacts credibility of journalists on Twitter, but with certain limitations. Additionally, female journalists were evaluated as significantly more credible than males. These findings indicate a need practicing journalists have to strategically consider their SNS activity level, and how it can strengthen their position as an information source in the current media environment.

Framing Violence and Protest at Standing Rock • Gino Canella, University of Colorado Boulder; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado • This paper analyzes coverage from CNN and Democracy Now! of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock, ND. Through an ethnographic content analysis of strongly and weakly market-oriented news organizations, we examine frames, sources used, and time devoted in order to understand how market orientation may have influenced these journalistic decisions. We find that while both outlets framed the story through the lens of protest and violence, the way this was done differed significantly.

Melodramatic Animation, Presence, and Sympathy for Crime Victims in News: An Experiment with Adolescents in Hong Kong • Ka Lun Benjamin Cheng, Hong Kong Baptist University; Wai Han Lo, Hang Seng Management College • This study uses the transportation-imagery model to examine the mediating role of presence between the use of melodramatic animation in news and sympathy for victim among adolescents. A path model was proposed and was tested by an experiment with 74 adolescents with the mean age of 15.3. The results partially supported the proposed model. The ethical issues of using this news format, and the practical issues in media education for adolescents were discussed.

Overrun by Emotion: How Emotional Reactions Predict News Sharing to Social Media • Kelley Cotter; Chris Fennell, Michigan State University; Zhao Peng, Michigan State University • This study examined how emotional arousal and valence impact intent to share news articles to social media through an experimental design. Results showed that emotional arousal positively predicted the intention to share articles to Facebook and Twitter. The results also showed an interaction effect, such that when news articles elicited high arousal, positive emotions and when articles elicited low arousal, negative emotions, they were more likely to be shared.

U.S. Law Enforcement Social Media and TV News: What are Agencies Posting and How is it Being Reported? • Jennifer Grygiel, Syracuse University/Newhouse; Suzanne Lysak, Syracuse University/Newhouse • This qualitative study examines the growing use of social media by U.S. law enforcement and seeks to understand how this may be altering the relationship with broadcast newsrooms. Semi-structured topical interviews were conducted with eleven television newsroom staff from around the United States. Our findings show an increased reliance on receiving law enforcement related content via social media. In some cases, law enforcement use of social media has provided transparency and made news gathering easier, but not always.

Effects of virtual reality news video on transportation, attitudes, fact-recall and intentions to act • Jennifer Hijazi; David Cuillier • Virtual reality (VR) devices allow the news media to engage with audiences in new ways by putting viewers “into” the story. An experiment compared the effects of VR with print and traditional broadcast modes on attitudes, behavioral intent, fact recall and transportation. Results indicated that those in the VR condition demonstrated lower transportation than those in the print or broadcast conditions, and showed no more empathy, intent to act, or knowledge recall. Implications are discussed.

The Local TV News Digital Footprint: Is Local Content Vanishing Amid Climate of Consolidation? • Harrison Hove, University of Missouri; Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri; James Endersby, University of Missouri • A content analysis of 11 East Coast television stations’ Facebook postings shows that the larger the stations’ corporate owners, the lower the percentage of local news posted. Stations in larger markets posted more local stories, but the corporate ownership structure is a stronger predictor of local coverage. The findings suggest Lacy’s model of news demand should be revisited to account for consolidations in the television industry that could affect the quality of the digital product.

The Weibo Olympic: Factors Influencing Chinese Users Engagement with Sports News on Social Media • Alyssa Lobo; Ruochen Jiang; Jie Yu • “This study examines if news agencies’ framing of events on social media affects Weibo users’ engagement with sports during the 2016 Rio Olympics. There was partial support to show that content, frame, language style and visual elements led to higher engagement, but within agency analyses were inconclusive. Instead, time of posting, the frequency of posting and a combined effect of language style and image use had a significant influence on engagement. Findings support the media richness theory.

Immersive Journalism and Telepresence: How Does Virtual Reality News Use Affect News Credibility? • Seok Kang, UTSA; Erin O’Brien; Arturo Villarreal • Although news in virtual reality (VR) is recently on the rise, relatively little empirical evidence is available in its effects on news credibility. This study tests how telepresence in VR news consumption can affect news credibility. In a posttest only experiment, 40 subjects watched VR news: 20 with a viewer (Google Cardboard) and 20 in 360 degrees without a viewer. The other 20 subjects only answered a questionnaire without VR exposure. The comparison of the three groups revealed that VR news groups showed significantly higher telepresence than did the control group. The experimental groups also marked higher news credibility than did the control group. In an interaction effect test, the 360-degree VR news group with high telepresence highly evaluated news credibility compared to the VR news with a viewer and control groups. This study found that VR news, particularly, 360-degree VR news without a viewer was effective in telepresence and news credibility.

From #Ferguson to #Ayotzinapa: Analyzing the Differences in Domestic and Foreign Protest News Shared on Social Media • Danielle Kilgo, University of Texas at Austin; Summer Harlow, University of Houston; Victor García-Perdomo, U Texas Austin and U La Sabana; Ramón Salaverría • This study compares online U.S. news coverage of foreign and domestic protests, in addition to analyzing how coverage was shared on social media. Building on protest paradigm and shareworthiness literature, results show journalists and social media audiences alike emphasize legitimizing frames for foreign protests more than domestic protests and protesters. In addition, results point to the unique role the audience plays in interacting with foreign and domestic content.

In the Name of the Fact-Check: Sponsoring Organizations, Analysis Tools, Transparency/Objectivity of Fact-check • Bumsoo Kim, University of Alabama • This research empirically analyzed (a) categories of fact-checking institutions, (b) fact-checkers’ sponsorships, (c) analysis methods of fact-checkers, and (d) degree of pursuit of objectivity and transparency of fact-checking contents. The results showed that first of all the highest proportion of the types of sponsoring entities is commercials or advertising, followed by branches of a mainstream news media outlet. Secondly, about 70% of the sites provided official records/documents such as statistical data, prior news stories, and published papers, and the fact-checking sites mainly employed more detailed judging types that explained how they determined veracity. Thirdly, the degree of transparency (source clarity) for independent news outlets’ fact-checking was higher than for stand-alone fact-checking sites as fact-checking sources of the independent news outlets were more clearly revealed. Finally, narratives of the fact-checking sites were more likely to lean toward objective than interpretative.

“Lauering the Bar” for Journalism Standards during the 2016 Presidential Election Campaign: Paradigm Repair and the Ritual Sacrifice of Matt Lauer • Raymond McCaffrey • This study examined the widespread criticism faced by Matt Lauer after NBC’s Today show host interviewed presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as part of a forum in September 2016. A review of news stories after the forum revealed that journalists responded in a manner consistent with paradigm repair, banding together to scapegoat Lauer for a performance that some admitted was reflective of systemic poor broadcast campaign coverage driven by ratings not news values.

Moments to Discover: A longitudinal panel analysis of media displacement/complementarity of social networking sites and traditional media • Yee Man Margaret Ng, The University of Texas at Austin; Kyser Lough, The University of Texas at Austin; Jeremy Shermak, University of Texas at Austin; Thomas Johnson • The perceived threat of social network sites (SNSs) to traditional news consumption brings to mind the theories of media displacement/complementary effects. Through a two-wave panel survey, this study reveals that complementary effects exist between SNSs and traditional media, among SNSs, and between news-centric features — Twitter Moments and Snapchat Discover. The concept of media alignment is introduced to illustrate the correlation between media usage across time. Predictors of the change of media usage are examined.

Citizen news podcasts, carnivalism, and the formation a counter-public sphere in South Korea • Chang Sup Park • This study examines what roles citizen news podcasts of South Korea play, based on two concepts – carnivalism and counter-public sphere. To this end, the current study analyzed the news content of 11 citizen news podcasts that are most popular in this country and conducted interviews with 10 mainstream media journalists. The findings reveal that through the use of carnivalisque techniques such as humor, parody, and satire, the discourse of citizen podcasts transgresses existing social and cultural hierarchies and subverts a range of authoritative discourses by mainstream media. The analysis also finds that the discourse in citizen news podcasts intends to motivate ordinary individuals who are left largely disillusioned from mainstream journalism to engage in elite-challenging political action. Mainstream journalists admitted that citizen news podcasts provide an opportunity to re-evaluate the journalism norms and practices of South Korea.

Does news consumption online and on social media affect political behavior? Evidence from a swing state in the 2016 elections • Newly Paul, Appalachian State University; Hongwei “Chris” Yang; Jean DeHart • With the rise of digital media and social media news, it is important to examine the impact of media consumption, especially social media, on political behavior. We tested the impact of online and social media news consumption, ad exposure, social media use, and online social capital, on political participation, civic engagement, and voting behavior by conducting a web-based survey on 3,810 U.S. college students immediately after the 2016 presidential election. Results indicate that online news consumption positively predicted online political participation, turnout and civic engagement, but did not influence vote choice and offline participation. News exposure on social media, however, only positively predicted bridging social capital. We also find that online news consumption, social media news exposure, and political ad exposure on social media positively predicted college students’ political expression on Facebook, social media news exposure enhanced their political use of Twitter, whereas online news consumption led to their political use of Instagram.

An Examination of WeChat: Predictors of News Use on Closed Messaging Platforms • Zhao Peng, Michigan State University • This study chose a closed-messaging platform-WeChat as an example to examine the relationship between technology features and news use behavior. The present study contributed to theory by conceptualizing news use and integrating Task-Tech Fitness Theory with Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model to explore whether technology features would affect news usage behavior. Results showed that task-tech fitness, effort expectancy and social influence significantly predicted news use behavior.

Mobile Journalism as Lifestyle Journalism? Field Theory in the Integration of Mobile In the Newsroom and Mobile Journalist Role Conception • Gregory Perreault, Appalachian State University; Kellie Stanfield, Missouri School of Journalism • Mobile journalism is one of the fastest areas of growth in the modern journalism industry. Yet mobile journalists find themselves in place of tension, between print, broadcast and digital journalism and between traditional journalism and lifestyle journalism. Using the lens of field theory, the present study conducted a qualitative survey of mobile journalists (N=40) on how they conceive of their journalistic role, and how their work is perceived within the newsroom. While prior research has established a growing prevalence of lifestyle journalism, the present study finds that the growth of mobile represents the development of lifestyle journalism norms within even traditional journalism.

Work-Life Balance in Media Newsrooms • Irene Snyder • This research examined work-life balance in media newsrooms. To date, 30 in-depth face-to-face interviews have been conducted with individuals currently employed at U.S. newsrooms of varying market sizes including local television stations, regional newspapers, and national news organizations such as The New York Times and CNN. Results indicate that individuals employed in print newsrooms have more difficulty balancing work and family life than those working in television newsrooms.

Agendamelding and the Alt-Right: The media controls the message but not its telling • Burton Speakman, Ohio University; Aaron Atkins, Ohio University • When people seek news and information online they pursue content that supports their worldview (Beam, 2011; Casteltrione, 2014). Extremist communities – in this case white supremacist communities – use similar sources on social media to share news content to bolster their agenda (Bowman-Grieve, 2013). This paper uses agendamelding theory to show that even at the far end of the political spectrum media set the agenda, but how those on the far right discuss issues is quite different.

Who’s in charge here: How news producers use social media to make news decisions • Lydia Timmins, University of Delaware; Tim Brown, University of Central Florida • As online media consumption grows and traditional television viewing wanes, local television newsrooms continue to look for ways to connect with their audiences. Social media allows the audience unprecedented access to journalists, turning them into just another option for receiving information (Bright, 2016; Lee 2015; Turcotte et al, 2015). This study uses participant observation and interviews to investigate how journalists perceive audience impact on news decisions and the ways newsrooms determine what the audience wants.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Judging the Masses: The Hutchins Commission on the Press, the New York Intellectuals on Mass Culture • Stephen Bates, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • To qualify as an intellectual, according to Edmund Wilson, one must be “dissatisfied with the goods that the mass media are putting out.” This paper dissects and compares two prominent midcentury critiques of the mass media that have rarely been considered together: the critique of the news media by Robert Maynard Hutchins and the Commission on Freedom of the Press, and the critique of mass culture by Dwight Macdonald and other New York intellectuals.

Detecting Black: Urban African American Noir • Ralph Beliveau, University of Oklahoma • A critical and cultural perspective leads to the notion that Film Noir’s sense of location is tied to urban spaces. The context of post-WW II cities, depicted as an expressionist play of revealing light and disguising shadow, defines the cultural universe for these stories of crime and conflict. However less attention has been paid to the notion of race in relation to noir, though the varieties of stories that are discussed under noir (and neo-noir) include significant treatments of African American characters in these urban contexts. The relationship between cities and black culture(s), therefore, offers an opportunity to explore American cities at the intersection of race and the concerns of noir. A deeper noir context is presented in the Los Angeles of Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), the Hughes Brothers’ neo-noir Brooklyn in the film Dead Presidents (1995), and the adaptation of a Chester Himes story in the “Tang” episode of the anthology pilot Cosmic Slop (1994), by Warrington and Reginald Hudlin. In these examples the noir setting is increasingly constrained, the urban landscapes, through racially inflected noir terms, are a shrinking labyrinth. The uncomfortable politics of race that are just beneath the surface of noir are brought to the forefront. Where mainstream (i.e., racially transparent) noir finds threats in how the system is perverted by evil men and femme fatales, by shifting attention to attitudes about race, these evil actions are matched by injustices and evil in the epistemology of ignorance in the systems themselves.

Athleticism or racism?: Identity formation of the (racialized) dual-threat quarterback through football recruiting websites. • Travis R. Bell, University of South Florida • This study uses racial formation theory to explain how football recruiting websites oppress high school quarterbacks of color through the “dual-threat” code word. Analysis of 125 top-rated quarterbacks from 2012-2016 is explicated as a sporting racial project. Inequality is embedded in the coded difference between predominately white “pro-style” quarterbacks and “dual-threats.” Racialization of the quarterback position reduces upward mobility and serves as a site of new struggle for quarterbacks of color to overcome as teenagers.

Faith and Reason: A Cultural Discourse Analysis of the Black & Blue Facebook Pages • Mary Angela Bock, University of Texas at Austin; Ever Figueroa, University of Texas at Austin • Highly publicized deaths of Black men during police encounters have inspired a renewed civil rights movement originating with a Twitter hashtag, “Black Lives Matter.” Supporters of the law enforcement community quickly countered with an intervention of their own, using the slogan, “Blue Lives Matter.” This project compared the discourses of their respective Facebook groups using Symbolic Convergence Theory. It found that the two groups’ symbol systems are homologous with America’s historic secular tension.

Deconstructing the communication researcher through the culture-centered approach • Abigail Borron, University of Georgia • The culture-centered approach (CCA) model, as a research methodology, critically examines the contested intersections among culture, structure, and agency, specifically as it relates to marginalized communities. This paper examines how CCA challenged the researcher to personally evaluate ethical and academic responsibility, recognize marginalizing practices on behalf of the dominant paradigm, and integrate elements of CCA into course design and student mentorship regarding future journalism and communication careers and scholarly work.

Differential Climate: Blacks and Whites in Super Bowl Commercials, 1989-2014 • Kenneth Campbell, University of South Carolina; Ernest Wiggins, University of South Carolina; Phillip Jeter • A content analysis of Super Bowl commercials from 1989 to 2014 finds that Blacks as primary characters exceed their proportion in U. S. population. However, they appear much more frequently in background roles and are associated with less prestigious products more than with higher-status products, which is consistent with the presence of Blacks in other TV commercials and findings of a climate of difference in commentary about Black athletes and White athletes during sporting events

“Trust me. I am not a racist”: Whiteness, Media and Millennials • chris campbell, u. of southern miss. • This paper examines “whiteness,” a contemporary form of racism identified by Critical Race Theorists, in media created by and/or designed for the Millennial generation. Partially through a textual analysis of white comedian-actress Amy Shumer’s peculiar take-off on superstar Beyonce’s “Transformation” video, the paper argues that even politically progressive Millennial media reflect similarities to racially problematic media produced by previous generations — especially the notion of post-racialism. The paper raises the possibility that post-racial whiteness will continue to haunt media texts and delay yet another generation of Americans from arriving at a more sophisticated understanding of racism and its impact on our culture.

“We’re nothing but the walking dead in Flint”: Framing and Social Pathology in News Coverage of the Flint Water Crisis • Michael Clay Carey, Samford; Jim Lichtenwalter, Georgia • This framing study uses news coverage of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis to examine representation of social pathology. Ettema and Peer wrote that the use of a “language of social pathology to describe lower-income urban neighborhoods” has led Americans to “understand those communities entirely in terms of their problems” (1996, p. 835). Urban pathology frames discussed in this study suggest a lack of agency among residents and may distract from broader questions of environmental justice.

Navigating Alma’s gang culture: Exploring testimono, identity and violence through an interactive documentary • Heather McIntosh; Kalen Churcher, Wilkes University • Testimonios bring oppressed voices to the masses, motivating them toward political engagement. Alma: A Tale of Violence is an interactive documentary that draws on this tradition. It tells the story of a Guatemalan woman who joined a gang and struggled with marianismo expectations within gang culture machismo. This paper argues that while Alma provides expansive information unavailable in other mediated testimonio forms, it offers a limited experience in terms of audience participation and interactivity.

Of “Tomatoes” and Men: A Continuing Analysis of Gender in Music Radio Formats • David Crider, SUNY Oswego • The 2015 radio controversy “SaladGate” revealed a lack of female music artists gaining airplay. This study expands a previous gender analysis of music radio into a longitudinal study. A content analysis of 192 stations revealed that airplay is increasing for females; however, it is mostly limited to the Top-40 format. The results suggest the existence of a gender order (Connell, 1987) in music radio, one that works hand-in-hand with the music industry to exclude women.

Considering the Corrective Action of Universities in Diversity Crises: A Critical Comparative Approach • George Daniels, The University of Alabama • Using both the theory of image restoration discourse and critical race theory, this study takes a critical comparative examination of the university responses to diversity crises in 2015 at The University of Missouri, The University of Oklahoma, and The University of Alabama. All three institutions took “corrective action” by appointing a “diversity czar” and a committee or council to investigate concerns of students protests.

Preserving the Cultural Memory with Tweets? A Critical Perspective On Digital Archiving, Agency and Symbolic Partnerships at the Library of Congress • Elisabeth Fondren, Louisiana State University – Manship School of Mass Communication; Meghan Menard-McCune, LSU • In recent years, the Library of Congress has announced plans to archive vast collections of digital communication, including the social media tool Twitter. A textual analysis of white papers and press briefings show the Library is trying to make born-digital media accessible by increasingly partnering with private vendors. This study attempts to narrow the gap in understanding why cultural organizations have an interest in preserving social media as part of our collective memory.

A Seven-Letter Word for Leaving People Out: E L I T I S M in The New York Times Crossword • Shane Graber • This study examines the discourse that The New York Times crossword puzzle uses to define, protect, and exclusively communicate with the culture elite, a privileged group of people who tend to be wealthy, male, and white. Using a critical discourse analysis to study clues and answers, findings show that puzzles in the world’s most important newspaper skew favorably toward the culture elite and often portray marginalized groups such as women, people of color, and the poor negatively—or ignore them altogether.

When Local is National: Analysis of Interacting Journalistic Communities in Coverage of Sea Level Rise • Robert Gutsche Jr, Florida International University; Moses Shumow, Florida International University • This study examines the interaction of journalistic communities from local and national levels by examining moments when local issue for local audiences was thrust onto a national stage by national press for wider audiences. Through this analysis, we argue that local press positioned themselves as authorities on local issue, ultimately positioning national press as “outsiders” so as to reaffirm local news boundaries, a process we refer to as boundary intersection.

Silly Meets Serious: Discursive Integration and the Stewart/Colbert Era • Amanda Martin, University of Tennessee; Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee; Barbara Kaye, University of Tennessee • This paper traces political satire on U. S. television. Using the theory of discursive integration, the paper examines the satire of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and the scholarship about their respective programs, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Discursive integration explained well the look and sound, as well as societal function, of such programs. Each blurs lines between news and entertainment, and helps audiences decode meanings from the hubris often in the news.

Remote Control: Producing the Active Object • Matthew Corn; Kristen Heflin, Kennesaw State University • This study argues that remote control is not merely a human capability or feature of a device, but a type of human/device relation and agency with deep roots in broader attempts at control from a distance. This study discusses the concept of active objects and provides an historical account of the emergence of remote control as the means of producing active objects, thus revealing the insufficiency of Enlightenment/empiricist divisions between acting humans and acted-upon objects.

Social Identity Theory as the Backbone of Sports Media Research • Nicholas Hirshon, William Paterson University • The impacts of group memberships on self-image can be examined through social identity theory and the concepts of BIRGing (basking in reflected glory) and CORFing (cutting off reflected failure). Given the interaction between sports media narratives and identity variables, this paper charts the simultaneous developments of social identity theory and BIRGing and CORFing and examines how social identity can serve as the theoretical backbone for sports media scholarship.

Challenging the Narrative: The Colin Kaepernick National Anthem Protest in Mainstream and Alternative Media • David Wolfgang, Colorado State University; Joy Jenkins, University of Missouri • In 2016, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem, stirring debates in the media over appropriate methods of protest. This study used textual analysis to compare mainstream and black press coverage of Kaepernick’s protest and also analyzed forums on black press websites. The findings show how mainstream media focused on a protest narrative, while the black press struggled to promote racial uplift and to use forums for productive discourse.

National Security Culture: Gender, Race and Class in the Production of Imperial Citizenship • Deepa Kumar, Journalism and Media Studies, Rutgers University • This paper is about how national security culture sets out, in raced, gendered, and classed terms, to prepare the American public to take up their role as citizens of empire. The cultural imagination of national security, I argue, is shaped both by the national security state and the media industry. Drawing on archival material, I offer a contextual/historical analysis of key national security visual texts in two periods—the early Cold War era and the Obama phase of the War on Terror. A comparative analysis of the two periods shows that while Cold War practices inform the War on Terror, there are also discontinuities. A key difference is the inclusion of women and people of color within War on Terror imperial citizenship, inflected by the logic of a neoliberal form of feminism and multiculturalism. I argue that inclusion is not positive and urge scholars to combine an intersectional analysis of identity with a structural critique of neoliberal imperialism.

Searching for Citizen Engagement and City Hall: 200 Municipal Homepages and Their Rhetorical Outreach to Audiences • Jacqueline Lambiase, TCU • U.S. cities rely on their websites to enhance citizen engagement, and digital government portals have been promoted for decades as gateways to participatory democracy. This study, through rhetorical and qualitative content analyses, focuses on 200 municipal homepages and the ways they address audiences and invite participation. The findings reveal very few cities have: platforms for interactive discussions; representations of citizen activities; or ways to call citizens into being for the important work of shared governance.

California Newspapers’ Framing of the End-of-Life Option Act • Kimberly Lauffer; Sean Baker; Audrey Quinn • In 2014, Brittany Maynard, 29, diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, moved from California to Oregon, one of only three U.S. states with legal physician-assisted death, so she could determine when she would die. Three months after her Nov. 1, 2014, death, California lawmakers introduced SB 128, the End-of-Life Option Act, to permit aid in dying in California. This paper uses qualitative methods to examine how California newspapers framed the End-of-Life Option Act.

When Cognition Engages Culture and Vice Versa: Conflict-Driven Media Events from Strategy to Ritual • Limin Liang • Amidst the recent turn towards power and conflict in media ritual studies, this article proposes a new media events typology building on Dayan and Katz’s (1992) classic functionalist model. Events are categorized according to how a society manages internal and external conflicts in ritualized/ritual-like ways, and at both formal and substantive levels. This leads to four scenarios: rationalized conflict, ritualized trauma, perpetuated conflict and transformed conflict, all of which can be subsumed under Victor Turner’s useful concept of “social drama”. Further, to bridge ritual and cognitive framing studies, the article compares the two fields’ central frames for studying social conflict – “social drama” vs. “social problem” – and their mechanisms of achieving effect, namely, salience-making and resonance-crafting. The article tries to move beyond the “media events vs. daily news” binary to study communication along a continuum from strategy to ritual.

Re-imagining Communities in Flux, in Cyberspace and beyond Nationalism: Community and Identity in Macau • Zhongxuan LIN • Based on four years of participant observation on 37 Macau Facebook communities and 12 in-depth interviews, this paper inquires the research question that how Macau Internet users resist legitimizing identity, reclaim resistance identity and restructure project identity thereby constructing re-imagined communities in cyberspace. This inquiry proposes a possible identity-focused approach for future community studies, especially studying re-imagined communities in flux, in cyberspace and beyond nationalism.

Clustering and Video Content Creators: Democratization at Work • Nadav Lipkin • Much has been written on the democratizing potential of YouTube and other video-sharing sites, but scholarship generally disregards professional independent video content creators. This article explores these content creators through the concept of clustering that suggests firms and workers benefit from co-location. Using a case study of video content creators, this study suggests these workers are less positively affected by clustering due to political-economic conditions and the digital nature of production.

“Kinda Like Making Coffee”: Exploring Twitter as a Legitimate Journalistic Form • Zhaoxi Liu, Trinity University; Dan Berkowitz, U of Iowa • Through an eight-week field research, the study provides an in-depth inquiry into journalists’ use of Twitter and what it means to their craft, foregrounding the issue of artifact boundary while exploring its deeper meaning from a cultural point of view. The study found journalists had contradicting views on the issue of artifact boundary, and faced contradictions and uncertainties regarding what Twitter meant for their craft. The paper also discusses the finding’s implications for democracy.

Editorial Influence Beyond Trending Topics: Facebook’s Algorithmic Censorship and Bearing Witness Problems • Jessica Maddox, University of Georgia • In 2016, Facebook found itself at the intersection of a controversy surrounding media ethics and censorship when it removed Nick Ut’s famous “Terror of War” photo for violating its community standards policy regarding child nudity. The social media giant defended its decision by decreeing its image scanning algorithms had functioned correctly in policing the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph. This contentious situation highlights many nebulous issues presently facing social media platforms, and in order to assess some of the dominant forms made available from press coverage of this issue, I conducted a textual analysis of the top ten international newspapers with the highest web rankings. This research shows that one, blurred boundaries of media, communication, and content are even more tenuous when considering social media, technology companies, and algorithms; two, that with great media power comes great media responsibility that Facebook does not seem to be living up to; and finally, that a fundamental flaw with algorithms, writ large, lies in their inability to bear witness to human suffering, as exemplified by international news coverage of the censorship of “Terror of War.” By regulating all human duties to computers, individuals absolve themselves over moral duties and compasses, thus presenting a perplexing ethical issue in the digital age.

Intellect and Journalism in Shared Space: Social Control in the Academic-Media Nexus • Michael McDevitt • This paper highlights interactions of journalists and academics as deserving more scrutiny with respect to both media sociology and normative theory on the circulation of ideas. Three sources of social control that impinge on the academic-media nexus are examined. A final section contemplates the implications of risk-aversive communication in higher education for public perceptions of intellect and its contributions to policy and politics.

Blending with Beckham: New Masculinity in Men’s Magazine Advertising in India • Suman Mishra • This study examines the representation of the “new man” in men’s lifestyle magazine advertising in India. Using textual analysis, the study explains how certain kinds of western masculine ideals and body aesthetics are being adopted and reworked into advertising to appeal and facilitate consumption among middle and upper class Indian men. The hybrid construction of masculinity shows a complex interplay between the global and the local which overall acts to homogenize the male body and masculine ideal while simultaneously creating a class and racial hierarchy in the glocal arena.

Digital Diaspora and Ethnic Identity Negotiation: An Examination of Ethnic Discourse about 2014 Sewol Ferry Disaster at a Korean-American Digital Diaspora • Chang Sup Park • This study examines how the members of a Korean-American online diaspora perceived a homeland disaster which took 304 lives and to what extent their perceptions relate to ethnic identity. To this end, it analyzes 1,000 comments posted in MissyUSA, the biggest online community for Korean Americans. This study also interviews 70 users of the ethnic online community. The findings demonstrate that the diasporic discourse about the disaster was fraught with discrete emotions, particularly guilt, anger, and shame among others. While guilt and anger contributed to reminding Korean Americans of their ethnic identity, shame has resulted in the disturbance of the ethnic identity of some Korean Americans. This study advances the ethnic identity negotiation theory by illuminating the nuanced interconnection between online ethnic communication, emotions, and ethnic identity.

Non-Representational News: An Intervention Against Pseudo-Events • Perry Parks • This paper introduces a journalistic intervention into routinized political “pseudo-events” that can lull reporters and citizens into stultified complacency about public affairs while facilitating highly disciplined politicians’ cynical messaging. The intervention draws on non-representational theory, a style of research that aims to disrupt automatic routines and encourage people to recognize possibilities for change from moment to moment. The paper details the author’s coverage of a routine political rally from a perspective untethered to normalized journalistic or political cues of importance, to generate affective and possibly unpredictable responses to the content.

Is Marriage a Must? Hegemonic Femininity and the Portrayal of “Leftover Women” in Chinese Television Drama • Anqi Peng • “Leftover women” is a Chinese expression referring to unmarried women over 30s who have high education and income levels. Through a textual analysis of the “leftover women” representation in the television drama We Get Married, this study explores how the wrestling of tradition and modernity exerting a great impact on the construction of the femininity of “leftover women.”

Every American Life: Understanding Serial as True Crime • Ian Punnett, Ohio Northern University • Serial (2014), a podcast in 12 episodes on the digital platform of the popular NPR radio show, This American Life, reached the 5 million downloads mark faster than any podcast in history. Although a few scholars identified the podcast as part of the true crime literary convention Neither the producers nor the host ever referred to Serial as true crime. Using textual criticism, this analysis proves that it was.

Journalist-Student Collaborations: Striking Newspaper Workers and University Students Publish the Peterborough Free Press, 1968-1969 • Errol Salamon • Building on the concept of alternative journalism, this paper presents the Peterborough Free Press as a case study of a strike-born newspaper that was published by striking Peterborough Examiner newsworkers and Ontario university students from 1968 to 1969. Drawing on labor union documents and newspapers reports, this paper critically examines how this alliance collaboratively launched the Free Press to fill a gap in local news coverage, competing with and providing an alternative to the Examiner.

“You better work, bitch!”: Disciplining the feminine consumer prototype in Britney Spears’s “Work Bitch” • Miles Sari, Washington State University • Using Baudrillard’s theory of consumption as a theoretical framework, in addition to support from Horkheimer & Adorno, Foucault, and Bartky, this paper examines how Britney Spears’s 2013 music video “Work Bitch” articulates a violent capitalist narrative of consumption. Specifically, the author argues that the clip advocates for a collective submission to the sadistic, social discipline of the female consumer body as a means of accessing the social and material luxuries of the bourgeoisie.

Color, Caste, and the Public Sphere: A study of black journalists who joined television networks from 1994-2014 • Indira Somani, Howard University; Natalie Hopkinson, Howard University • “Grounded in critical and cultural studies this study examined the attitudes and experiences of a group of Post-Civil Rights black journalists who face some of the same newsroom issues their predecessors faced, despite what was recommended in the Kerner Report in 1968.

Through in-depth interviews, the researchers uncovered the organizational and cultural practices of 23 black journalists aged 23-42 working in television network newsrooms, such as NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and Fox. The participants included executives, anchors, reporters, producers, associate producers and assignment editors, who reveal how anti-black cultural norms are re-enforced by mentors, colleagues as well as superiors. Participants talked about culture, hair, skin color, grooming, and African American Identity and how conforming to white hegemonic norms were necessary for career advancement. This study also examined the degree to which color and caste continue to influence both the private workplace and the public sphere.”

Sights, Sounds and Stories of the Indian Diaspora: A New Browning of American Journalism • Radhika Parameswaran; Roshni Verghese • Using the concept of cultural citizenship, this paper explores the recent growth and visibility of the Indian diaspora in American journalism. We first begin with an analysis of the South Asian Journalists Association to understand the collective mobilization of this ethno-racial professional community. Gathering publicly available data on Indian Americans in journalism, we then present a numerical portrait of this minority community’s affiliations with journalism. Finally, we scrutinize the profiles of a select group of prominent diasporic Indian journalists to chart the professional terrain they occupy. In the end, we argue that Indian Americans may be a small minority, but they are poised to become a workforce whose creative and managerial labor will make a difference to journalism.

The securitization presidency: Evaluation, exception and the irreplaceable nation in campaign discourse • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This discourse analysis uses securitization theory to examine the maintenance of the Other in the discourse of the 2016 US presidential campaign and the early stages of the Trump presidency. The taken-for-grantedness of American exceptionalism, combined with the general orientation of the press toward narratives of power, explains the maintenance of identity through the construction of Iran, Islam and the spectre of “political correctness” as existential threats. This paper advances the understanding of the specific mechanisms by which “security” is invoked; securitization is a fundamentally political move, though its goal is to move an issue like Iran beyond the realm of political debate and into the realm of security.

SNL and the Gendered Election: The Funny Thing About Liking Him and Hating Her • Wendy Weinhold, Coastal Carolina University; Alison Fisher Bodkin • Feminist theories of comedy guide this analysis of journalism in the New York Times and Washington Post dedicated to Saturday Night Live’s 2016 election coverage. The analysis reveals how SNL’s election sketches and news about them focused on the candidates’ celebrity, appeal, and style in lieu of substantive critique of their positions, policies, or platforms. The personality-based comedy and resulting news emphasized gender stereotypes and missed an opportunity to put real-life political drama in perspective.

Emotional News, Emotional Counterpublic: Unraveling the Mediated Construction of Fear in the Chinese Diasporic Community Online • Sheng Zou • Examining a popular news blog targeting Chinese diaspora living in the United States, this paper explores how emotionally-oriented digital news production sustains the Chinese diasporic community online as an emotional counterpublic sphere. This paper argues that the mediated construction of fear as a predominant emotion holds civic potentials, for it bridges the political life and everyday life, and connects a potentially more engaged diasporic counterpublic with the dominant public sphere of the receiving society.

2017 ABSTRACTS

The Impact of Web Metrics on Community News Decisions: A Resource Dependence Perspective • Tom Arenberg, University of Alabama; Wilson Lowrey • This comparative case study of two community news organizations takes a Resource Dependence approach to assess impact of audience metrics on news decisions, and on mechanisms underlying these decisions. Findings show that the organization that more strongly emphasizes metrics publishes fewer in-depth civic-issue stories, and metrics are more likely to influence newsworthiness. However, reporters’ expertise with strategies for increasing numbers may actually free reporters for enterprise work. Findings also suggest effects from community size.

(Re)Crafting Neighborhood News: The Rise of Journalism Hackathons • Jan Lauren Boyles • This study examines how journalism hackathons construct interactional spaces for community-based conversation around the news. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with global journalism hackathon organizers in nine countries, the findings establish that hack events can heighten face-to-face engagement between news producers and can concurrently strengthen how local communities discuss (and perhaps, even solve) shared societal challenges.

An Optimistic Vision for the Future of Community Newspapers: Where Do Digital Technologies Fit In? • Francis Dalisay, University of Guam; Anup Kumar, Cleveland State University; Leo Jeffres • The declining prospect of daily newspapers has been accompanied by a rush to emphasize online and mobile access while slighting print, but this rush towards a “premature death” of print needs scrutiny, particularly for non-daily community newspapers. We conduct a national survey of non-daily community newspaper editors and publishers (N = 527). We analyze factors predicting their attitudes and use of online technologies, and how they affect the editors and publishers’ vision for the future of their papers. Results suggest the newspapers are not laggards in the use of technologies. They see it important that they serve journalistic functions for their communities. The editors and publishers have an optimistic view of the future, attributing that vision to their local news emphasis, maintaining strong coverage, and being active in the community. Community characteristics positively predicted positive attitudes toward technologies and use. Use and attitudes toward technologies did not predict optimistic vision.

Closing the gap between civic learning, research and community journalism: A critical pragmatic pedagogy • Bernardo Motta, University of South Florida St. Petersburg • This research essay draws on history, case study and pedagogical research methods to describe how theory-informed practices were applied to the re-development of a community journalism program serving a historical African-American neighborhood. The application of practices and activities informed by previous research in Critical Pragmatic Pedagogy, intercultural and race-specific education and communication, community journalism, journalism education and community and civic engagement communication research produced a series of lessons and effects that have been organized in this essay to inform the development and improvement of current theories and practices related to journalism and communication education and, more specifically, community journalism. Findings revealed that the combination of hands-on practices inspired by American Pragmatism with purpose-driven, self-reflexive learning processes from Critical Pedagogy and basic ethnographic and intercultural techniques resulted in a much richer and well-rounded educational experience for journalism students and, furthermore, produced positive impacts in the community.

Technology and the public: The influence of website features on the submission of UGC • Burton Speakman, Ohio University • Web 2.0 creates a situation were the Internet increasingly focuses on submissions of content from non-professionals and interaction between the masses as a method of creating dedicated audiences. Community newspapers work within this rapidly changing media market and one must follow their audience online, despite any reservations about if the web provides a hospitable economic environment. This study examines how community newspaper websites choose to engage in gatekeeping as it relates to UGC. Despite changes in technology gatekeeping continues to occur on community newspaper websites. Furthermore, it provides clarity about what type of audience submitted content is more likely published at community media.

2017 ABSTRACTS

OPEN CALL COMPETITION
Mediated Food Cues: A Theoretical Framework for Sensory Information • Lauren Bayliss, University of Florida • Through a series of propositions, this paper outlines how message strategies related to the feelings food causes, such as full-stomach feelings and taste enjoyment, could be used to communicate food and nutrition information to laypeople. To incorporate somatosensory information into communication theory, this paper develops a framework for food and nutrition message processing based on perceived information importance and comprehension as conceptualized in Subjective Message Construct Theory (SMCT). Within this framework, concepts from food studies research are reviewed and applied to strategic health communication. By integrating concepts from food studies, nutrition labeling, and individual differences specific to food, such as eating restraint, the framework provides an approach to understanding how food messages may be different from other forms of communication. Finally, an example is given of how the theoretical framework can be applied when communicating about a specific type of nutrition information, energy density.

Competitive frames and the moderating effects of partisanship on real-time environmental behavior: Using ecological momentary assessment in competitive framing effects research • Porismita Borah • One of the major findings from cognitive sciences demonstrates that humans think in terms of structures called frames. The present study conducted two focus groups and two experiments to understand the influence of competitive frames on real-time environmental behavior. To capture real-time behavior, the second experiment used Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methodology via mobile technology. Findings show that a message with elements from both problem-solving and catastrophe frames increased individuals’ environmental behavior. This relationship is moderated by political ideology, such that only those participants who identified as Democrats and Independents showed more pro-environmental behavior. Overall, Republications were low on pro-environmental behavior compared to the Democrats. But within the Republicans, participants showed more likelihood for pro-environmental behavior in the catastrophe framed condition. Implications are discussed.

More Than a Reminder: A Method for Using Text Messages to Communicate with Young People and Maintain an In-Person Bystander Intervention Training • Jared Brickman; Jessica Willoughby, Washington State University; Paula Adams • One problem facing in-person communication campaigns is that the positive outcomes can fade over time. Text may be a perfect supplement. This study tested and evaluated a method for using text messages to maintain in-person intervention efforts. Over the course of four months, participants in the messaging group received a weekly text. At the end of the study, the program was rated highly by participants and the messaging group scored significantly higher on attitudinal outcomes.

Emotions, political context and partisan selective sharing on Facebook • Yingying Chen, Michigan State University; Kjerstin Thorson, Michigan State University • The research examines the social sharing of partisan media messages under political contexts. Using with behavioural data, we analysed Facebook posts of Breitbart, Occupy Democrats and the New York Times before and after the 2016 presidential election. The result further confirms that emotional arousal is more correlated to social sharing, but partisan media and political contexts interacts with emotion responses to influence social sharing. Further results show that emotional responses to partisan media messages are different and changes as the circumstance of identity bolster or identity threat.

Measuring Information Insufficiency and Affect in the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model • Haoran Chu, University at Buffalo, SUNY; Janet Yang • “Utilizing structural equation modeling and latent difference score technique, the current study analyzed six different ways to model information insufficiency and four ways to model affective response in testing the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model in two contexts – the 2016 presidential election and climate change. Latent difference score was found to be an effective approach in measuring information insufficiency as a latent structure. However, classic regression method provides a better fit to the data. Consistent with previous research, valence and uncertainty appraisal dimensions seem to be viable ways to measure affective response.

When Information Matters Most: Adapting T.D. Wilson’s Information-seeking Model to Family Caregivers • Susan Clotfelter, Colorado State University • Family caregivers – the unpaid backbone of the American system of medical care – contribute an estimated $470 billion to the U.S. economy each year. Information-seeking constitutes one of their primary duties, including information related to the care recipient’s condition and disease progress, insurance, medications, therapies, and nutrition, as well as complex medical, insurance and financial systems. This paper synthesizes a key information-seeking model, that of T.D. Wilson (1999) with a list of cognitive barriers drawn from a research review and a theory from social stratification research. It proposes a new, expanded model that attempts to capture the influences, challenges and barriers now known to form part of the information journeys of family caregivers. The paper also examines the findings of recent caregiver studies in light of the proposed new model, an effort that offer indications for future research and interventions to assist this important, but overlooked and overworked demographic.

Bypassing vs. Complying? Predicting circumvention of online censorship in networked authoritarian regimes • Aysenur Dal, The Ohio State University • Circumvention technologies offer alternative means for bypassing online censorship created by networked authoritarian governments to combat online dissent and suppress information. This paper explores the correlates of circumvention technology use by examining the influence of account capital-enhancing Internet use, attitudes toward Internet censorship, regime support as well as risk perceptions about Internet activities. Using an online survey of approximately 2000 Internet users in Turkey, we employ quantitative methods to examine what determines the frequency of use as well as motivations behind being a user or a non-user of circumvention tools.

Social Identity Theory’s Identity Crisis: The Past, Present, and Future of a Human Phenomenon Metatheory • Julia R. DeCook, Michigan State University • Social Identity Theory is a phenomenon that is acknowledged and researched across many social science disciplines. Despite its prevalence and popularity, the way that the theory is applied and further, how social identity is measured, is incredibly inconsistent and convoluted. The purpose of this manuscript is to bring together different perspectives of this phenomenon through an exploration of the theory’s history, development, and growth, as well as to propose three dimensions of social identity and social identification to advance understanding as a discipline of this phenomenon. In the literature, social identification and social categorization are often confused and used interchangeably, when these are two distinct processes, as proposed by the original proponent of Social Identity Theory, Henri Tajfel. This manuscript aims to bring together Tajfel’s original conceptualization as well as other approaches to the theory and attempts to propose dimensions of “social identification.” Specifically, a dimension is proposed consistent with previous research on social identity theory and mass communication research, as well as two others based on a reading of the literature focusing on social identity theory. Future directions for developing a valid measure of social identity in the context of mass communication and media research are also discussed, and how this application can help to advance the theory as well as the discipline.

In the eye of the beholder: How news media exposure and audience schema affect the image of the U.S. among the Chinese public • Timothy Fung; Wenjie Yan; Heather Akin • This study presents a theoretical framework that examines foreign publics’ use of foreign news from domestic media and pre-existing schema to form an image of another nation. To test the proposed theoretical framework, we examined Chinese citizens’ image of the U.S. using the data from a survey collected from a representative sample of Chinese adults. The findings suggest that the role of foreign news from domestic media is conditional on pre-existing schema, including individuals’ patriotism and whether they have traveled to the U.S. We conclude by discussing the implications of the results for research investigating national image and stakeholders interested in predictors of national image.

Walking a Tight-Rope: Intimacy, Friendship, and Ethics in Qualitative Communication Research • James Gachau, University of Maryland • Qualitative research asks scholars to adopt and maintain a critical reflexivity that presents the biases, influences, and interests of the researcher vis-a-vis the research being conducted. A meta-method analysis of a research project involving participants who were close friends of the researcher is presented to explore the ways the author navigated the messy world of ethnographic research. The style and personality of the researcher is foregrounded, and put at the same critical plane as that of the research subject, to illustrate its centrality in giving a less false account than one in which the investigator is assumed to be “objective” in the traditional sense of the word. As Lindlof and Taylor write, “we should appreciate that researchers have been socialized by various cultural institutions to inhabit and perform their bodies in preferred ways” (2011, p. 139). Thus, the cultural and historical background of the investigator is examined to illuminate how it affected and influenced the research. The findings suggest that “intimate curiosity” (Lindlof and Taylor, 2011), coupled with the mutual recognition and respect of friendship (Honneth, 2014), can serve as effective tools to produce more robust data and yield more nuanced interpretations. The hope is that the essay offers a significant contribution to reflexivity and helps bolster the ethnographic imagination in communication research.

Do Computers Yield Better Response Quality than Smartphones as Web Survey Response Devices? • Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University; chenjie zhang, Bowling Green State University • This study consists of two field experiments on college students’ media use surveys to examine the effect of smartphones and computers as response entry device on Web survey response quality across different question types and delivery mode. We found that device effect on survey quality was only significant when interviewers were present. Difference in device was not significant in overall response quality in the e-mail delivered Web survey. When given a device choice in the e-mailed delivered Web survey, computers were twice as more likely to be chosen as the response device. Yet immediate response rate was much higher for smartphones than computers. Implications of the findings to survey researchers were discussed.

Identification and negative emotions lead to political engagement: Evidence from the 2016 U.S. presidential election • Jennifer Hoewe, University of Alabama; Scott Parrott, University of Alabama • This study puts forth a model of political identification, where identification with political figures influences emotions and eventually changes levels of political engagement. Using a survey of young adults immediately following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, negative emotions are shown to mediate the relationship between identification with a political candidate and post-election political engagement, including election-related information seeking and sharing as well as intentions to participate in political activities. That is, when individuals identify with a political candidate and that candidate experiences something negative – producing negative emotions in supporters – that emotional experience leads to increases in political engagement.

The Effect of Presumed Media Influence on Communicative Actions about Same-sex Marriage Legalization • Yangsun Hong, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Catasha Davis, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Shawnika Hull, George Washington University • This study examines presumed media influence of a social issue, legalization of same-sex marriage (SSM), on non-LGB individuals’ communicative action. Data (N = 1,062) was collected in four Midwestern cities two months before the SSM law passed nationwide, when majority of media coverage was favorable toward SSM legalization. We found that presumed media influence on others shaped perception of positive climate of public opinion toward SSM legalization, which influenced their opinion. Our results indicate that presumed media influence indirectly shaped willingness to express opinion about the issue and willingness to speak out against those stigmatizing LGB populations, through perceived climate of public opinion and own opinion about the issue. We discuss the role of communicative action in contributing to public deliberation and democratic policy making processes. We also claim that mass media may indirectly decrease social stigma to sexual minorities, and ultimately contribute to social change.

Multitasking and Task Performance: Roles of Task Hierarchy, Sensory Interference, and Behavioral Response • Se-Hoon Jeong; Yoori Hwang • This study examined how different types of multitasking affect task performance due to (a) task hierarchy (primary vs. secondary multitasking), (b) sensory interference (low vs. high interference), and (c) behavioral response (absent vs. present). The results showed that task performance was reduced when the given task was a secondary task, when sensory interference was high, and when behavioral response was present. In addition, there was an interaction between task hierarchy and sensory interference, such that the effect of task hierarchy was more pronounced when there was sensory interference. There were some differences between Task 1 and Task 2 performance as an outcome. Theoretical, practical, and methodological implications for future multitasking research are further discussed.

Effects of Weight Loss Reality TV Show Exposure on Adolescents’ Explicit and Implicit Weight Bias • Kathrin Karsay, University of Vienna; Desirée Schmuck • This study investigated the effects of exposure to a weight loss reality TV show on the implicit and explicit attitudes toward obese individuals. An experimental study with N = 353 adolescents was conducted. The results indicate that for those individuals who expressed fear of being obese, TV show exposure reinforced negative explicit attitudes via the activation of perceived weight controllability. Furthermore, for all adolescents TV show exposure enhanced negative implicit attitudes toward obese individuals

Scale Development Research in Communication: Current Status and Recommendation for the Best Practices • Eyun-Jung Ki, University of Alabama; Hyoungkoo Khang; Ziyuan Zhou, The University of Alabama • This study was designed to analyze articles published in 11 communication journals that address new scale development from its inception until 2016. A total of 85 articles dedicated to developing a new scale for the communication disciplines. This study particularly examines characteristics of the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis procedures, including sample characteristics, factorability, extraction methods, rotation methods, item deletion or retention, factor retention, and model fit indexes. The current study identified a number of specific practices that were at variance with the current literature in terms of EFA or CFA. Implications of these findings and recommendations for further research are also discussed.

Who is Responsible? The Impact of Emotional Personalization on Explaining the Origins of Social Problems • Minchul Kim, Indiana University; Brent Hale, Indiana University; Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Indiana University; Ozen Bas, Indiana University • An experiment was designed to examine the influence of two news formats on how news consumers attribute causes for social issues. One story format followed the traditional objectivity standard of factual reporting while the other represented a human interest approach to storytelling, adding an emotional case study of the social issue to factual information. Participant (N=80) trait empathy was included as an additional factor in assessing how news formats might influence responsibility assignment for social problems. A week time delay between exposure to stimuli and open-ended responses enabled the observation of how (if at all) different story formats influence news consumer explanations of the causes behind social problems. Our findings show that participants with higher levels of trait empathy express a greater shift to collectivistic attribution after watching personalized news stories than do participants with lower levels of trait empathy. Our findings also suggest that the personalization of news stories and trait empathy does not affect individualistic attribution of social problem causes.

The Study of Semantic Networks and Health News Coverage: Focusing on Obesity Issues • Sunghak Kim • This work investigates news coverage related to obesity to understand various discourses and relationships surrounding the health issues and explain their dynamics. Health news stories were analyzed to observe which issues, frames, and sources of obesity-related topics are shared through mass communication. By applying semantic network analysis, a map of relations and flows among different objects and attributes became apparent. Furthermore, the research illustrates the change of semantic network structures over different time periods.

An Analysis of Process-Outcome Framing in Intertemporal Choice • Ken Kim • The current study was designed to explore how framing as process versus outcome works in intertemporal choice. Given the importance of earlier savings, one-hundred nineteen college students were recruited for the experimental study to investigate their intentions to begin saving earlier for retirement (i.e., begin saving at age 25 or as soon as you leave school). The obtained data indicated that a message emphasizing the process of earlier savings for retirement (that is, process framing) was more effective than a message stressing the outcome of earlier savings (that is, outcome framing) in intertemporal choice. Further, a process frame was more effective when it was presented in terms of losses than gains. However, the data revealed no difference between gain and loss framing in the outcome framing condition. Some implications for creating persuasive messages to encourage earlier savings were discussed.

Mediated Vicarious Contact with Transgender People: How Do Narrative Perspective and Interaction Depiction Influence Intergroup Attitudes, Stereotyping, and Elevation? • Minjie Li, Louisiana State University • Taking the experimental design approach, the present study investigates how narrative perspective (Ingroup Perspective vs. Outgroup Perspective) interacts with valence of intergroup interaction depiction (Positive vs. Negative) in transgender-related media content to redirect people’s attitude towards and stereotyping of transgender people, transportation, and elevation responses. The findings reveal that the outgroup perspective narrative is more likely to elicit 1) positive attitudes towards the featured transgender character and the transgender outgroup as a whole; 2) higher levels transportation; 3) stereotyping transgender people with genuine qualities; and 4) meaningful, mixed and motivational responses. However, the positive depiction of transgender-cisgender intergroup interaction can only prompt more positive attitudes towards the featured transgender character, and elicit meaningful affect and physical responses.

Relational Maintenance and the Rise of Computer-Mediated Communication: Considering the Role of Emerging Maintenance Behaviors • Taj Makki, Michigan State University • Existing typologies of relational maintenance behaviors do not account for communication behaviors that take place between romantic partners in online environments. This paper presents findings from a systematic literature review where the author aimed to assess the extent to which typologies for offline behaviors correspond with research findings pertaining to the use of CMC between romantic partners. Based on this review, and in efforts of moving toward a typology of relational maintenance behaviors that accounts for the precise range of efforts exchanged between partners to sustain relationship quality, the present paper proposes that additional dimensions be considered for their relevance to relationship outcomes. Specifically, conflict management and surveillance management are proposed as two maintenance-related behaviors that have emerged with the increasing use of computer-mediated communication between romantic partners. The present paper explicates each of these constructs in the context of relational maintenance and its intended outcomes, and proposes avenues for future research toward an all-inclusive typology of relational maintenance behaviors.

React to the Future: Political Projection, Emotional Reactions, and Political Behavior • Bryan McLaughlin; John Velez; Amber Krause, Texas Tech Universtiy; Bailey Thompson • This study demonstrates the important mediating role political projection—the process of cognitively simulating future political scenarios and imagining the potential effects of these scenarios—plays in determining how campaign messages affect voting behavior. Using an experimental design, we find that campaign messages that are narrative in nature (compared to non-narrative) encourage higher levels of political projection, which elicits higher levels of anger, which, in turn, is negatively related to support for the opposing candidate.

Media Violence and Aggression: A Meta-Analytic Approach to the Previous 20 Years of Research • Alexander Moe, Texas Tech University; Joseph Provencher, Texas Tech University; Hansel Burley • “This Meta-analysis examines research on the effects that violent media content has on individuals’ aggression. A total of a total of 28 studies reporting data for 2840 participants remained for analysis. The findings indicated the presence of homogeneity (Q = 37.10, df = 27, p < 0.05). The implications both for the current state of media violence research, as well as future research interests and practices are discussed.

Corporate Sustainability Communication as Legitimizing and Aspirational Talk: Tullow Oil’s Discursive Constructions of Risks, Responsibility, and Stakeholders • S. Senyo Ofori-Parku, The University of Alabama • Critics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) worry that corporations use CSR communication to ‘greenwash’ their practices. But a recent version of the communication as constituting organization (CCO) perspective argues that such communication, even if misleading, can create positive organizational improvements. Underpinned by the corporate sustainability framework (which combines commonplace notions of CSR with risk management), the discourse-historical approach (DHA), and CCO, this study examines how an oil multinational—Tullow Oil— discursively constructs its sustainability issues and stakeholders. From a predominantly technical perspective of sustainability, Tullow constructs its identity as an aspirational, engaged and a responsible business. As seen in a shift in its Global Reporting Initiative certification from C+ in 2007 to A+ in 2013, Tullow’s CS talk has a potential to constitute desirable practices. However, the extent to which such discourse results in sustainable corporate outcomes hinges on whether it is used to merely reproduce or transform institutionalized notions of sustainability associated corporate practice. By combining the DHA and CSF, this research provides a novel technique for issues and stakeholder analysis—who and what is important to the organization. The implications are discussed.

Unsupervised analyses of dynamic frames: Combining semantic network analysis, hierarchical clustering and multidimensional scaling • Joon-mo Park • This study analyzes the online discourse frames of the fine particulate air pollution issue in South Korea from May 12, 2016 to June 11, 2016. To detect frames, semantic networks combined with unsupervised learning techniques such as hierarchical clustering and multidimensional scaling were applied. 9,241 web documents posted on portal websites were collected. After extracting keywords from those documents, word frequency and co-occurrence matrix were measured. Through calculating the Euclidean coefficient, proximities between words were deducted. The analyses focused on the most frequently occurring 25 keywords which further functioned as elements in the hierarchical clustering analysis. Then multidimensional scaling showed the results over three phases of time period through changes of frequently occurring frames and proximities between concepts. In the first phase, many health-related and government-related concepts appeared. Next, the second phase, after government released official announcement on news, the government-related words were associated with individual responsibilities such as ‘mackerel’, ‘pork belly’, and ‘diesel price’. Institutional cause-related keywords appeared along with several energy-related keywords in the last phase. Moreover, in Phase 1 and 3, ‘China’ and ‘ultrafine dust’ were mentioned in terms of health risk, but in Phase 2, ‘China’ was associated with governmental coping ability. Finally, keywords such as ‘diesel price’, ‘related stock’ revealed what the public also concerned was the side effects of air pollution in daily lives.

Who are the Voters? A Contemporary Voter Typology Based on Cluster Analysis • Ayellet Pelled, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Hyesun Choung, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Josephine Lukito, 1990; Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Song Wang, Department of Statistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison; “Winnie” Yin Wu; Hyungjin Gill, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Jiyoun Suk, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Trevor Kniaz • Most research on political party identification has focused on partisan voters and the consequences of political polarization. Independent voters are also an important feature of the political landscape, but far fewer studies have examined them. Too often researchers treat independent voters as a monolithic entity, using a single response category to identify them. But as made clear by the 2016 Presidential election, there are vast differences among independent voters. This study explores distinct clusters of voters that emerged in the context of the 2016 Presidential election. Using national survey data (N = 2,582) collected shortly before the November election, we conducted a cluster analysis to classify individuals into subgroups that share similar profiles of opinions concerning different personal values and worldviews. Nine clusters are distinguished: mainstream liberals, mainstream conservatives, anti-establishment liberals, anti-establishment conservatives, engaged floaters, patriotic liberals, disengaged isolates, disengaged floaters, and pragmatic liberals. Two of the nice clusters represent the traditional two party ideology while the other seven clusters are mixed in their party affiliation. Clusters differ in their political attitude and voting behaviors. Our study also reveals patterns in how engaged and disengaged partisans and independents choose media for their news source. The results suggest that voters’ party affiliation and political attitudes are not organized in a single dimension of ideological liberal/conservative. The political ideology is rather a multidimensional trait that should be measured in a more elaborated way so that can properly predict people’s political behavior including their voting choices.

Credibility and Persuasiveness of News Reports Featuring Vox Pops and the Role of Populist Attitudes • Christina Peter • Exemplification research has consistently shown strong effects of vox pops exemplars, i.e. ordinary citizens voicing their opinion in news reports, on audience judgments. In this context, ordinary citizens as opinion-givers were found to be more persuasive compared to other sources, such as politicians. The main reason for this is seen in the fact that ordinary citizens are more trustworthy, yet this has not been empirically tested. In our study, we look at spillover effects of source trustworthiness on the news report itself. We investigate whether the integration of vox pops in a news article enhances the credibility of the article, and whether this mediates effects on personal opinion. In addition, we look at whether populist attitudes (i.e., the belief in the homogeneity and virtuosity of the people and a mistrust in elites) moderate these effects. In a web-based experiment, we confronted participants with news articles where arguments were put forward either by the journalist or by ordinary citizens as vox pops. Results indicate that the integration of vox pops enhances the credibility of the news article, which in turn leads to stronger persuasive effects. These effects were only found for people holding strong populist attitudes.

Differential Uses and Gratifications of Media in the Context of Depression • Sebastian Scherr, U of Munich • Depression is the most common metal disorder linked with both higher and lower media use behaviors. Nevertheless, findings on the use of particular media in depression are scattered, dependent on individual motivations, and media demand characteristics. The associations between depression, media use, and motives are explored using robust regressions and representative data. Depression links with higher TV use, computer gaming, and music, and with lower use of newspapers with motives being both compensatory and non-compensatory.

Measurement Invariance and Validation of a New Scale of Reflective Thoughts about Media Violence across Countries and Media Genres • Sebastian Scherr, U of Munich; Anne Bartsch; Marie-Louise Mares, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Mary-Beth Oliver, Pennsylvania State University • This study investigates reflective thought processes and meaning-making about media violence as a fact of social reality within two survey samples from the US and Germany. Building on a large item pool derived from qualitative interviews, we suggest a five factorial self-report scale to assess reflective thoughts about media violence. Given the established measurement invariance of the furthermore cross-conceptually validated scale across countries and genres, we strongly recommend its use and replicative future work.

Authenticity: Toward a unified definition in communication • Diana Sisson, Auburn University; Michael Koliska, Auburn University • This study draws upon previous definitions and characteristics of authenticity from philosophy, psychology, and sociology to highlight the insufficient conceptualization and explication of authenticity in an interactive media environment. Findings revealed research foci across the various communication fields regarding authenticity lie primarily on the message sender neglecting what an authentic message is or how a message receiver may understand authenticity. This study is a first step to critically define authenticity in communication.

Opinion Climates à la Carte – Selective and Incidental Exposure Impacts on Polarization, Public Opinion, and Participation • Daniel Sude, The Ohio State University; Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick; Melissa Robinson, The Ohio State University; Axel Westerwick • Hypotheses regarding political polarization were derived from cognitive dissonance, motivated reasoning, and spiral of silence theories. A selective exposure study (N = 118) featured six political online articles and examined impacts on attitudes, public opinion perceptions, and participation likelihood. Multi-level modeling demonstrated that encountering article leads influenced attitudes per article stance. Attitude-consistent messages were selected more often. Article selection, even if attitude-discrepant, influenced public opinion perception in line with article stance and fostered participation likelihood.

Pathways to Fragmentation: User Flows and Web Distribution Infrastructures • Harsh Taneja; Angela Xiao Wu, Chinese University of Hong Kong • This study analyzes how web audiences flow across online digital features. We construct a directed network of user flows based on sequential user clickstreams for all popular websites, using traffic data obtained from a panel of a million web users in the United States. We analyze these data to identify constellations of websites that are frequently browsed together in temporal sequences, both by similar user groups in different browsing sessions as well as by disparate users. Our analyses thus render visible previously hidden online collectives and generate insight into the varied roles that curatorial infrastructures may play in shaping audience fragmentation on the web.

“You Must Be This Anthropomorphic” to Write the News: Machine Attribution Decreases News Credibility and Issue Importance • Frank Waddell, University of Florida • Do readers prefer news attributed to human journalists due to the operation of a similarity attraction effect, or is news attributed to “robot journalists” preferred because automation is perceived as objective? An experiment was conducted to answer this question using a 2 (source attribution: human vs. machine) x 2 (robot recall: no recall vs. recall) design. Results reveal that machine attribution decreases news credibility and issue importance via lower source anthropomorphism and higher expectancy violations.

The 2016 U.S. Presidential Public Opinion Polls: Third-Person Effects and Voter Intentions • Jane Weatherred, University of South Carolina; Anan Wan, University of South Carolina; Yicheng Zhu, University of South Carolina • Focusing on the 2016 U.S. presidential election, this study investigates how the American voting public perceives public opinion polls in terms of desirability of the message, partisanship, political affiliation and knowledge. The public’s intentions to impose restrictions on the polls were also examined relative to the third-person effect (TPE) gap. Results from a survey of 807 respondents indicate that the public does not understand how polls are conducted, yet still perceives that the polls are biased, and the greater the TPE gap, the more likely a person will support restrictions on the polls.

Political Economy, Business Journalism and Agency: An Examination • Rob Wells, University of Arkansas • The political economy theory tradition of media studies is a powerful framework to examine business journalism, particularly news decisions in wake of the genre’s origins as a market participant. This theory is often used to criticize business reporting, but the literature rarely examines some fundamental theoretical assumptions and conflicts that arise from using the political economy theory. This theory, for example, has been criticized for its deterministic view of individual agency. Critics contend the theory’s focus on control by an elite superstructure minimizes the potential for individual initiative and innovation. This places the political economy theory in a basic conflict with individual agency, a core normative value in the journalism field, one with enduring power and embedded in institutional frameworks. The historical and sociological underpinnings of journalistic professionalism, for example, emphasize the role of reporter and editor autonomy, and these forces continue to have staying power. This essay seeks to answer the question, how does the political economy’s view of agency coexist, if at all, with the journalistic professional ideal of autonomy? The essay explores this question through a content analysis of business journalism coverage during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, for example, provides some significant examples of individual reporting initiative, particularly at a small trade industry newspaper called the National Thrift News. The essay concludes by noting the political economy theory fails to predict the extraordinary work of this small trade newspaper, which succeeded in large part due to a strong journalistic professional culture.

Picture Yourself Healthy–How Social Media Users Select Images to Shape Health Intentions and Behaviors • Brianna Wilson; Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick • To test predictions derived from the SESAM model, participants (N = 265) selectively viewed Instagram-like postings featuring healthy or unhealthy food imagery. Beforehand, participants reported habits and perceived expert-recommendations regarding food intake. After viewing postings, participants chose gift cards representing healthy or unhealthy food purchases and indicated food intake intentions. Results show existing eating behavior predicts selective exposure to healthy or unhealthy food imagery, which in turn, shapes gift card choices and food intake intentions.

No Comments, but a Thumbs-down: Estimating the Effects of Spiral of Silence on Online Opinion Expression • Tai-Yee Wu, University of Connecticut; Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, University of Connecticut; David Atkin • This study tests Spiral of Silence theory in online news discussions by examining willingness to express one’s opinion via commenting, sharing, and voting. Results (N = 530) indicate that while fear of isolation is generally a negative predictor of opinion expression, perceived online anonymity positively predicts commenting. Moreover, one’s minority status and reference group support encourage the use of a thumbs-down, and opinion congruity with the news and issue involvement motivate news sharing.

Is It Top-Down, Trickle-Up, or Reciprocal?: Testing Longitudinal Relationships Between Youth News Use and Parent and Peer Political Discussion • Chance York, Kent State University • Using data from a three-wave, parent-child panel survey and Slater’s Reinforcing Spirals Model (RSM) as an analytical framework, I document a “trickle-up” political socialization process whereby baseline levels of youth news use and political discussion with peers motivate future political talk with parents. Results suggest youth possess agentic political power and play an active role in their own political socialization, rather than being passive receivers of “top-down” influence. Methodological suggestions for modeling variables are discussed.

Bridging the Divide Between Reason and Sentiment: Exploring the Potentials of Emotionality in Journalism • Sheng Zou • Following the line of scholarship to take emotionality seriously in communication, this paper theorizes the nexus between emotions/affects and journalism in the digital era, and develops a five-facet conceptual framework to delineate the civic potentials of emotionality in news reporting by transcending the conventional dualism between reason and emotion. It proposes a view of emotionality as an ally to rationality, and as an intermediary bridging public and private spheres, connecting the individual and the collective.

2017 ABSTRACTS

FACULTY PAPER COMPETITION
The Role of Self-Efficacy and Motivation in mHealth App Adoption: The “Food Friend” Case Study • Alexandra Merceron; David Atkin • Smartphone apps present an interactive, tailored, low-cost and culturally adaptive vehicle for health interventions. The present study employs Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) to explore the adoption of health apps. Study results demonstrate that the cognitive and motivational processes set forth by SCT—the self-system of observational learning, self-belief and efficacy to determine behavioral courses of action—and their interactions with the cognitive structures of motivation (external, vicarious and self-incentives) contribute to the mHealth adoption process.

Self-tracking with cell phones: Exploring the effects of self-monitoring and perceived control in mHealth applications • Saraswathi Bellur; Christina Devoss • The smartphone industry has contributed to the widespread growth of the “Quantified Self” movement where individuals are monitoring their everyday lives like never before. We examine the role of self-monitoring, specifically, frequency of tracking and updating health information. Findings from an online survey (N = 524) show that these variables do positively impact attitudes, intentions, use and outcome expectations. Perceived control emerges as a significant mediator. We discuss theoretical implications and avenues for future research.

Dual Screening the Candidate Agenda: The Moderating Role of Communication Technologies and Need to Evaluate for Attribute Agenda-Setting Effects of Presidential Debates • Lindita Camaj; Temple Northup; Regina Dennis; Felicia Russell; Jared Monmouth • This study explores the consequences of dual screening for political learning and opinion formation in the contexts of political campaigns and debates. Grounded in the agenda-setting theoretical framework, it investigates the impact of dual screened political debates on audiences’ perceptions about presidential candidates during the 2016 electoral campaign. The results suggest that the dual-screening practice can exert a significant moderation role for the agenda-setting effects of political debates. The effects of the televised debates were weaker for those individuals engaged in dual screening. Additionally, the results imply that the moderating role of dual screening is dependent on personality traits of the audience. Participants with low need to evaluate who watched the debates on television alone exerted the highest positive change in their perceptions of Trump’s attributes, but people with the same trait (low need to evaluate) who dual-screened the debate showed a slight negative change in their perceptions of Donald Trump. This study extends previous agenda-setting research by examining how media technologies moderate attribute agenda-setting effects at the individual level and linking these effects to broader social issues of digital disruption and political campaigning.

Mobile-mediated multimodal communications, relationship quality and subjective well-being: An analysis of smartphone use from a life course perspective • Michael Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong • This study examined the relationships among different uses of the smartphone with close friends (i.e. voice, email, SMS, Facebook, WhatsApp), perceived relationship quality and subjective well-being. Results showed that while frequency of face-to-face communications and friendship satisfaction were related to well-being, more positive emotions and less negative emotions across all age cohorts; the linkages for mobile communications were more varied. Mobile voice was related to friendship satisfaction and social support for the 35-54 and 55-70+ cohorts; but also, to more negative emotions for the 18-34 and 35-54 cohorts. Frequency of Facebook use and number of Facebook friends was related to social support and psychological well-being for the 18-34 cohort, but also related to negative emotions. While WhatsApp use was related to social support for all cohorts, it also predicted friendship satisfaction and psychological well-being for the 55-70+ cohort. Some mobile uses however were also related to increased feelings of entrapment and negative emotions, though only for the younger cohorts. The findings are framed in line with the life course literature, and the existence of both positive and negative outcomes suggest that future studies of communication technologies and well-being may better be served with more explicit dialectical perspectives and approaches.

Perceived Online Friendships and Social Networking Sites • Yi-Ning (Katherine) Chen, National Chengchi University • This study examines the differences in the categories of online friends and perceived quality of friendships between Taiwan’s two most popular social networking sites, Facebook and LINE. We gather data from 805 adult respondents online. Results show females and younger people tend to have a bigger variety of friends. LINE is mostly used for maintaining relationships and task-oriented purposes, while Facebook is utilized for developing contacts and for being a source of information.

More than just some pictures. An exploratory study into the motives of posting pictures on Instagram • Serena Daalmans, Radboud University; Nikkie Wintjes, Radboud University; Merel van Ommen, Radboud University; Doeschka Anschutz, Radboud University • The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the motives that underlie the posting of pictures on the popular app Instagram. Based on in-depth interviews with sixteen Instagram users, we found that there are at least six different motives to post pictures on the app and these motivations differ between men and women as well as younger and older users. Furthermore, in contrast with the often-negative connotation the posting of pictures online has in academic and popular discussions, the results paint a more positive picture. Users reveal that they receive more than just a status validation from the posting of pictures, they indicate that they feel part of a community that supports them both online and in real life.

Political Discourse on Twitter Networks during the U.S. 2016 Presidential Election • Shugofa Dastgeer • This study explored Twitter network structure and uniqueness of their content across four days during and around the U.S. 2016 presidential election. While the findings indicate differences in the structure of the networks, the dominance of political candidates and mainstream media remained the same across the four days. Less than 25 percent of the data in the four networks was original tweets and the rest of them were retweets (51 percent) and mentions (25 percent).

Augment Intrusiveness: The Role of Privacy Concern in the Use of Virtual Try-On Mobile Applications • Yang Feng, San Diego State University; Quan Xie, Bradley University • This paper investigates how smartphone users perceive self-viewing (trying a virtual product on one’s own image) versus other-viewing (trying a virtual product on a model’s image) virtual try-on mobile applications, and how smartphone users’ perception of control over their personal image information affects their app attitudes, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions. Results from Study 1 demonstrate that when smartphone users have high levels of privacy concern, self-viewing virtual try-on apps are more likely to generate perceived intrusiveness than other-viewing virtual try-on apps, which in turn leads to negative app attitude. Results from Study 2 indicate that regardless of smartphone users’ levels of privacy concern, giving users control over the privacy settings reduces their perceived intrusiveness of self-viewing virtual try-on apps, which in turn leads to more positive app attitudes and brand attitudes, and increased purchase intent.

Commenting on news stories via social media • Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; Derrick Holland, Texas Tech University; Alexander Moe, Texas Tech University • Previous research has validated the spiral of silence in Facebook among peers. However, no identifiable work has tested behavior in a non-peer circumstances, where theory may lack applicability. Using a 2×2 between-subjects design, participants indicated intent to refrain or comment on news posted by reputable news outlets after viewing either agreeable or disagreeable posts from others. Results support theory and reveal that individuals who selectively expose to likeminded content speak out regardless of the opinion environment.

Personality Traits and Social Media Use in 20 Countries • Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna; Trevor Diehl, University of Vienna; Brigitte Huber; James Liu • This study examines the relationship between peoples’ personality traits and social media uses with data from 20 societies (N = 21,314). A measure of the “Big Five” personality traits is tested on dimensions of social media: frequency of use, social interaction, and news consumption. Across diverse societies, findings suggest that while extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are all positive predictors of different types of social media use; emotional stability and openness, are negatively related to them.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Media: Can Corporate Citizenship Motivate Companies to Create Safe Social Media Platforms? • Jennifer Grygiel, Syracuse University/Newhouse; Nina Brown, Syracuse University/Newhouse • This paper investigates the legal framework governing social media platforms in order to assess whether companies are motivated to create safe social media platforms. Using case studies, we explore the idea that increased corporate social responsibility and corporate citizenship can encourage companies to enhance their platforms beyond their legal responsibilities, in order to increase user safety.

Distributed Intimacies: Robotic Warfare and Drone Whistleblowers • Kevin Howley, DePauw University • This paper adapts the concept of “distributed intimacy” in an effort to identify and analyze unequal relations of power/knowledge in the mediated relationships articulated by drone warfare. Throughout, I contend this notion enhances our understanding of the authoritarian logic of disembodied control at a distance underpinning America’s drone campaign. The paper proceeds in three parts. The first develops an analytical framework for examining the distributed intimacies engendered and exploited by drone warfare. Doing so, I identify revealing points of comparison between commercial and authoritarian logics of digital mediation. The second considers the affective and political consequences of this new kind of war for drone operators turned whistleblowers. Here I consider the relationship between digital witnessing and trauma in the era of robotic warfare. Based on an examination of press accounts, broadcast interviews, and documentary films, this paper identifies drone whistleblowers – whose intimate testimony exposes the physical, emotional, and psychological brutality of drone warfare – as central actors in the formation of an alternative order of discourse surrounding weaponized drones. The paper concludes with an assessment of the personal and institutional challenges confronting the ranks of remote-control warriors as Donald Trump, one of the most authoritarian figures in recent American history, assumes the office of the presidency, and with it, command and control of the US drone program.

Revisiting the privacy paradox: Exploring the mediating effect of privacy management and self-disclosure on social capital • Shih-Hsien Sandra Hsu, National Taiwan University; Yi-Hsing Han, Fu Jen Catholic University; Thomas Johnson • This study employed various measurements of key variables to update the current status of the privacy paradox phenomenon—the disconnection between privacy concerns and self-disclosure on Facebook—and found the break of the traditional privacy paradox and the existence of the social privacy paradox. It further examined the mediating role of privacy management to solve the dilemma. Findings confirmed that privacy management is important in redirecting the relationships among privacy concerns, self-disclosure, and social capital.

Effects of Self-Presentation Strategies and Tie Strength on Facebook Users’ Subjective Well-Being • Wonseok (Eric) Jang, Texas Tech University; Jung Won Chun; Jihoon (Jay) Kim, University of Georgia • Existing evidence suggests that the use of Facebook (FB) has a positive impact on subjective well-being (SWB) when people use FB to interact with close friends. Based on the self-presentation literature, the current study identified an effective strategy for how FB users can enhance SWB while interacting with weak tie FB friends. The results indicated that FB users became happier after adopting strategic self-presentation while interacting with weak tied friends compared to true self-presentation.

Mobile Moves: Engagement, Emotion and Attention to Social Media Images on Mobile and Desktop Screens • Kate Keib, Oglethorpe University; Bartosz Wojdynski; Camila Espina, University of Georgia, Grady College; Jennifer Malson, University of Georgia, Grady College; Brittany Jefferson; Yen-I Lee, University of Georgia • Screen size, input modalities, and use pattern differences between smartphones and desktop computers have been thought to influence information processing. This eye-tracking study compared consumers’ visual attention to, and engagement intent with, social media news images on mobile and desktop devices. Results show users pay significantly less attention to social media posts on smartphones than desktops, posts with images were perceived as more arousing than posts without images, and negative images were the most arousing.

Unpacking unboxing videos: the mediating role of parasocial interaction between unboxing viewing motivations and purchase decision-making • Hyosun Kim, University of Wisconsin_Stevens Point • Via a web survey, the present study explored the effects of YouTube unboxing motivations on purchase decision making from use and gratification perspective. Also, the mediating role of parasocial interaction(PSI) was examined. Results suggested that PSI fully mediated when users view unboxing videos to feel realness of products or experience products vicariously, fostering purchase decision making. Though entertainment motivation did not directly predict purchase decision, it significantly affects people to consider purchase through PSI.

Virtual Tours Promote Behavioral Intention and Willingness to Pay via Spatial Presence, Enjoyment, and Destination Image • Jihoon (Jay) Kim, University of Georgia; Thitapa Shinaprayoon, University of Georgia; Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, University of Georgia • Despite the increasing popularity of virtual tours in tourism marketing, empirical supports for the benefits of virtual tours are lacking. This study (N = 118) investigates how a virtual tour affects behavioral intention and monetary valuation toward a travel destination. Results revealed that experiencing the virtual tour increased behavioral intention and willingness to pay, compared to reading the e-brochure, via spatial presence, enjoyment, and destination image. The theoretical and managerial implications of virtual tour experience are discussed.

Influencers with #NoFilter: How Micro-Celebrities Use Self-Branding Practices on Instagram • Eunice Kim, University of Florida; Casey McDonald, University of Florida • The growth and popularity of user-generated content has created as a new form of celebrity known as ‘micro-celebrities.’ Micro-celebrities engage in strategic self-branding practices on social media through use of self-presentation strategies to attract and maintain a fan base. The study uses a content analysis to explore how micro-celebrities use self-presentation strategies (i.e., self-promotion, affiliation, and authenticity) on Instagram. Findings reveal that self-presentation strategies vary by gender and account types of micro-celebrities.

When do Online Audiences Amplify Wellbeing Benefits of Expressive Writing? Identifying Effects of Audience Similarity and Commenting • Rachel Kornfield, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Catalina Toma, University of Wisconsin-Madison • It may be possible to enhance benefits of self-disclosure writing through adjusting online environments and thereby the perceptions of one’s audience. In a two-by-two experimental design, we examine effects of 1) establishing a shared identity between writers and audiences, and 2) enabling or disabling commenting. Results suggest that writers perceiving similar audiences showed more cognitive processing, while those led to expect comments wrote less about emotions. Audience similarity was associated with increased post-traumatic growth.

Narcissism or Willingness: The way college students use Facebook and Instagram • Sangki Lee, Arkansas Tech University • This study examined how participants’ narcissistic traits and willingness to share personal information were related to social networking site (SNS) activities. 271 undergraduate students provided a self-report. 211 Facebook and 231 Instagram pages were coded based on self-promotional pictures. Results indicated both perspectives were related to SNS activities. However, participants’ willingness to share information about themselves better correlated with SNS activities, posting pictures in particular, than narcissistic traits did. Contribution and limitation were discussed.

Promoting CSR Programs/activities via Social Media On social media, does reading online comments encourage people to speak up or be silent? Social Judgement and Spiral of Empowerment • Moon Lee, University of Florida; Jung Won Chun; Jungyun Won, University of Florida • We investigated effects of online comments on individuals’ willingness to speak out when a CSR program/activity becomes a topic of exchange via social media. An online experiment with 277 participants was conducted. People with positive prior attitude are more likely to speak out when reading both positive public opinion polls and two-sided online comments. People with negative prior attitude were less willing to speak out when reading others’ two-sided comments than negative comments.

Lifestyles, Mobile Viewing Habits, Contextual Factors, and TV Content Interest as Predictors of the Intention to Adopt Mobile TV • Louis Leung, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Cheng Chen, Chinese University of Hong Kong • This study applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain the intentions of Hong Kong consumers to adopt mobile TV and their interests in its content. Using a probability sample of 644 respondents, this study not only demonstrated the robustness of TPB in explaining consumer behavior but also showed that channel deficiency, mobile viewing habits (which were moderated by perceived behavioral control), and content interest could significantly influence consumers’ intentions to adopt mobile TV services.

The Effect of Efficiency, Matching, Trusts and Risks on the Adoption of Content Curation Service • Lu Li, Sungkyunkwan University; Shin-Hye Kwon, Sungkyunkwan University; Byeng Hee Chang, Sungkyunkwan University • Content curation is now widely used in online film and music services. As a new way to organize and present information of goods, it attracts many users and promotes sales. There are many factors that influence the adoption of content curation services, and the present study focuses on the effects of perceived efficiency, perceived matching, perceived trust and perceived risk on attitude and intention to use of film and music content curation service. The differences between film content curation services and music content curation services were compared. Perceived trust was divided to trust in competence and trust in integrity. Perceived risk included product risk and time risk. An online survey with 448 samples was conducted to examine the effects of the above factors. The results showed that (1) perceived efficiency and perceived matching had a positive effect on attitude and intention; (2) perceived trust did not have significant effects; (3) perceived time risk had negative effects in music content curation services while perceived product risks influenced intention to use in film content curation services; (4) film and music content curation services had many differences in the effects of the above variables.

Understanding Political Brand Communities from a Social Network Perspective: A study of the GOP 2017 Primary Elections • Jhih-Syuan Elaine Lin, University of Georgia; Itai Himelboim • This study analyzes Twitter activity by and about Republican Primary candidates in January 2016. The findings suggest that brand social mediators play an important role in connecting political brand communities across the network. Several social mediators are identified for winning and trailing candidates. Different patterns of information flow and network structures are found in winning and trailing brand communities. The interactions between candidates and direct vs. indirect communities also exhibit different patterns of information flow.

Are People Willing to Share Their True Opinions on Social Networking Sites? Exploring Roles of Self-Presentational Concern in Spiral of Silence • Yu Liu; Jian Rui; Xi Cui, College of Charleston • The purpose of this study is to extend the spiral of silence framework with the integration of online self-presentation perspective to investigate the psychological processes of SNS users’ political self-disclosure through commenting, sharing or posting behaviors. Survey data from 296 SNS users confirmed the opinion-congruence based mechanism argued by the classic spiral of silence theory, and found that SNS users’ willingness of online engagement in controversial issues is also related to self-presentational concern and CSW.

Credibility perception within social media frames: How Wechat mediates sources’ effect on responses to food-safety information • Ji Pan • Conceiving Wechat as a frame for mediated social interactions, this study conducts a controlled experiment to explore how Wechat shapes the effects of embedded source cues (China’s CCTV logo and avatars) on information assessment and on subjects’ responses to food-safety information. Findings show that when individual avatars re-paste CCTV-produced information about food safety on Wechat, the credibility of Wechat mediates the impact of CCTV credibility on information assessment, and the mediating effect is contingent on the frequency of Wechat use. The attitudinal and behavioral effects of CCTV credibility also depend on the perceived credibility of Wechat. The credibility of avatars exerts an independent effect on information assessment, but no impact on behavior or on attitude. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical implications for integrating framing theory with media credibility literature in the Web 2.0 era.

Academics versus Athletics and Rhetorical Mechanisms Used by Business Schools in Brand Promotion on Social Media • Shaila Miranda, University of Oklahoma; Rahnuma Ahmed, University of Oklahoma; Nazmul Rony, University of Oklahoma • “Branding is critical to business schools at a crossroad in public opinion. Research on brand promotion via social media offers little insight into how organizations should craft brand messages or how their institutional context might mitigate message efficacy. Based on dual process theories, we identified two sets of rhetorical mechanisms – systematic and heuristic. Investigation of tweets by eight schools indicated use of the mechanisms and traction they garnered with audiences is shaped by institutional contexts.

News Gatekeeping and Socially Interactive Functions of Twitter: An Algorithmic Content Analysis • Frank Russell, California State University, Fullerton; Katie Yaeger, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Jennifer Para, University of Missouri School of Journalism • This study concerns Twitter use at the organizational level by the 26 most popular online news entities in the United States. An algorithmic content analysis compared characteristics of posts published on the news organizations’ main Twitter accounts during a one-month period in fall 2015. Statistically significant differences existed between news organizations in the use of three socially and technically interactive functions of Twitter: retweets, @mentions, and hashtags

Reporting the Future of News: Constructing Risks and Benefits for Journalism, Silicon Valley, and Citizens • Frank Russell, California State University, Fullerton • This qualitative discourse analysis explored risks and potential benefits for journalism, Silicon Valley, and citizens in the digital transformation of news gatekeeping. Coverage by the Nieman Lab industry website described Silicon Valley platforms’ gatekeeping role between news media and citizens principally in terms of risks and potential benefits for journalism. The findings suggested that uncertainty over the conditions of contributing content to Silicon Valley platforms raised legitimacy concerns for news media.

It’s Alt-Right: Tracing the Technosocial Evolution of White Nationalism on Twitter • Saif Shahin, Bowling Green State University; Yee Man Margaret Ng, The University of Texas at Austin • This study examines the evolution of White Nationalism on Twitter (2009-2016) by tracking the growing frequency of retweets of “alt-right” messages and the changing structure of the social network they constituted. It identifies the prospect of Barack Obama’s second election in 2012 as a key factor that bolstered the movement. It also shows that the movement was clustered, but a few weak ties across clusters allowed it become a megaphone for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Just Venmo Me the Money: An Exploratory Analysis of Alternative Banking Adoption • Evren Durmaz; Julie Ciardi, St. John Fisher College; Ronen Shay, St. John Fisher College; Gianna Sarkis; Nicholas Cieslica • To explore diffusion of alternative banking this mixed-methods study first surveyed 219 MTurk respondents to examine the factors that contribute towards alternative banking usage; whether age or perceived convenience have relationship with a consumer’s willingness to read the terms and conditions of online banking apps/websites; and how well alternative banking brands are trusted relative to traditional offline banks. Content analysis is also utilized to compare banking fees across platforms.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Croatian and American Social Network Sites: Exploring Cultural Differences in Motives for Instagram Use • Pavica Sheldon, University of Alabama, Huntsville; Philipp A. Rauschnabel, University of Michigan – Dearborn; Mary Grace Antony, Schreiner University • The current study compares motives for Instagram use between participants of two countries: Croatia, a highly collectivistic culture, and the United States, a typically individualist culture. Findings reveal that Croatian students’ Instagram use reflects collectivist tendencies as they predominantly use it for social interaction. American students’ use of Instagram reflects individualistic trends, namely self-promotion and documentation.

Personal ties, group ties and latent ties: Connecting network size to diversity and trust in the mobile social network WeChat • Cuihua Shen; He Gong • This study examines whether and how personal and group network sizes affect diversity and trust in the mobile social media WeChat. We argue that the social network affordances of WeChat, coupled with its distinct network privacy, give rise to a wide spectrum of relations ranging from strong, weak to latent ties. Online survey data (N = 313) reveal that both personal network size and group network size are positively related to people’s social network diversity (measured by the position generator). However, group network size is negatively related to people’s trust in their WeChat contacts. We argue that the increasing size of the group network and the existence of latent ties reduce familiarity, certainty and accountability that are prerequisites of trust.

Can Immersive Journalism Affect Presence, Memory, Credibility, Empathy and Sharing? An Experimental Comparison of VR Stories, 3600 Videos and Text • S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University; Jin Kang; Danielle Oprean • Immersive journalism in the form of VR headsets and 3600 videos is much touted for its ability to induce greater ‘presence’ in the mediated environment. In a controlled experiment (N = 129), VR and 3600 videos outperformed text with pictures, not only on such presence-related outcomes as being there, interaction and realism, but also on perceived source credibility, story sharing intentions and feelings of empathy. We explore theoretical mechanisms and practical implications of these effects.

Barriers and Facilitating Conditions for parents’ mobile communication with adolescent children in resource-constrained contexts • Alcides Velasquez, University of Kansas • Access to and use of mobile and smartphones in resource constrained contexts does not come without adoption and use barriers. Mixing qualitative and quantitative methodologies, this study investigates what are the barriers parents of teenage children in resource constrained contexts face for mobile parenting. The qualitative phase of the study explored the individual and enviornmental barriers that parents in Bogotá, Colombia, faced when trying to use mobile communication technologies to contact their teenage children. The quantitative phase examined the relationship among the variables suggested by findings in the first phase. Findings show that parents use alternative resources available to them and that they take advantage of these resources to gain material access, but that the acquisition of skills to use mobile technologies can be affected by learning efficacy perception barriers.

How the Serialization of News Affects Recipients’ Attitudes Toward Politicians Involved in Scandals • Christian von Sikorski; Johannes Knoll • Journalists tend to serialize political scandals and publish scandalous information bit by bit instead of all at once in a single news article. Participants took part in an experiment and were exposed to identical scandalous information about a political candidate. However, the form of presentation—exposure to 1/2/3/4, or 5 article(s)—was systematically manipulated. Serialization indeed indirectly decreased candidate attitudes via the perceived scandal importance, participants’ reading duration, cognitive elaboration, and intensity of negative emotions.

Like My Posts? Exploring the Brand–Post Congruence Effect of Facebook Pages • Shaojung Sharon Wang, National Sun Yat-sen University; Yu-Ching Lin • This study explored the effects of Facebook Pages’ brand–post congruence and a brand’s product attribute on consumers’ intentions to interact on brands’ posts. The moderating effect of product involvement was also assessed. The experimental results showed that congruence level alone did not exert significantly different effects on interaction intention, but the interaction effect of congruence and product type was significant. Low brand involvement significantly increased interaction intention when the brand-post congruence was low.

An integrated model of TAM and eWOM exploring WeChat payment use in China • Shaojung Sharon Wang, National Sun Yat-sen University; Chiao-Yung Chang • This study incorporated the TAM model into eWOM perspectives to explore WeChat payment adoption and use behaviors. PU had a positive impact on intention to use while EOU was not a significant predictor of behavioral intention. The effects of brand trust and profit gained was assessed. The quantity of strong tie recommendations partially mediated the effect of the recommenders’ tie strength on use intention. Implications on the application of TAM and tie strength are discussed.

Peer-Citation and Academic Social Networking: Do Altmetrics Affect Peer-Citation and Article Readership in Communication Research? • ben wasike, university of texas rio grande valley • This study examined how altmetrics, the attention that research gets from social media and the Internet, affect readership and peer-citation in communication research. Citation data was examined alongside altmetrics from academic SNSs ResearchGate and Mendeley, and mentions on social media. All altmetrics positively correlated with citation. Posting articles on ResearchGate and Mendeley improves readership and the likelihood of citation. Impactful variables also include social media mentions, downloadable articles, co-authorship, and an active online presence.

An Analysis of Google Scholar Profiles of Mass Communication Faculty at U.S. Research Universities • John Wirtz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Sann Ryu; David Ross; Rachel Yang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • This paper presents an analysis of Google Scholar (GS) profiles of tenure-track faculty in journalism and mass communication departments at U.S. research universities (N=321). We found that males and females were equally likely to have a GS profile and that on average more than 35% of entries in a profile had 0 citations. Academic rank was the strongest predictor of total entries, citations and h index; academic department and total doctoral students were also significant.

How Interactivity Influences Evaluations of Product Choice Among Consumers with Different Levels of Desire for Control • Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina; Denetra Walker • This study investigates the interplay between interactivity, desire for control, and product choice. The results indicated that with a small choice set, participants high in desire for control expressed more favorable product attitudes when interactivity was high versus low, but those low in desire for control expressed similar product attitudes across different interactivity conditions. When provided a large choice set, consumers’ product attitudes were not influenced by levels of interactivity or desire for control.

Responding to Racism: Bystander Responses to Racist Posts on Social Media • Rachel Young, University of Iowa; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Michael Nelson, Michigan State University; Maddie Barnes, Michigan State University; Alex Torres • This experimental study investigated bystander response to racism on an app where users were visually anonymous (n = 373). Participants were much more likely to use more indirect options, such as down-voting or reporting the posts, than to directly confront racist posts with their own comments. The number of bystanders had no effect on action. Our study suggests avenues for fostering more active confrontation and engagement on the part of bystanders.

“Big Brother is Watching You!” • Weiwu Zhang, Texas Tech University; Derrick Holland, Texas Tech University • Using data from a 2013 national survey of American adults (N = 1,801) from the Pew Research Center, this study examines the spiral of silence effect in the social media and offline settings during the Edward Snowden-NSA saga. Results indicate that Facebook and Twitter users were more willing to voice their opinions about the Snowden-NSA issue in social media and offline settings if they perceive their social media networks agree with them.

Tablet Uses and Gratifications: Support, Attitude, Self-efficacy, and Anxiety • chenjie zhang, Bowling Green State University; Kate Magsamen-Conrad • We conducted a cross-sectional study to test how self-efficacy, attitude toward tablet use, perceived support availability, and anxiety affecting table uses and gratifications. Age, education level, and biological sex are control variables. Attitude and perceived support positively predict tablet uses and gratifications, whereas anxiety positively predicts information seeking and does not predict organization. Self-efficacy does not predict any subfactors of tablet uses and gratifications. Further discussion is provided in this paper.

STUDENT PAPER COMPETITION
Facebook: Antidote or poison? A study of the relationship between Facebook, depression, and older adults • Katie Anthony • This study examines the relationship between Facebook uses and gratifications among those 65+ years old and the signs and symptoms of depression. An online survey found that the social affection and informational gratifications are most sought and lead to an increase in depressive symptoms. However, the most popular gratification among the respondents was social interaction, suggesting that more people are drawn to Facebook for an emotional connection.

Immersive narratives, 360 video, and VR: A pilot experiment examining 360 video and narrative transportation • Aaron Atkins, Ohio University; Dave McLean, University of Florida; William Canter, Georgia State • This study examines the impact of medium on narrative transportation. Virtual reality and 360-video are growing in journalism. This experiment serves as a pilot, examining a news narrative’s level of transportation, immersion, and potential for attitude change, between 360-video viewed on a two-dimensional screen and in VR. Findings suggest VR condition participants experienced increases in transportation and immersion; however, a correlation between transportation and attitude change was not found. Practical implications for journalists are discussed.

Technologies and Social Fitness: Examining Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Health Monitoring, Goal-Setting, and Results Sharing • Kim Baker, University of Alabama; Sarah Pember, University of Alabama; Xueying Zhang; Kimberly Bissell, University of Alabama • This survey study employed theoretical frameworks of self-efficacy and sociometer theory to advance understanding of the effects of mobile technologies on fitness within the context of social interactions. Self-efficacy was a significant predictor for tracking, goal-setting, goal dedication, and perceived effectiveness of tracking for physical and mental benefits. Self-esteem was a significant predictor of the perceived effectiveness of tracking for physical benefits and intentions to try new technologies.

“I’ve Lost the Weight, Now Feed Me Upvotes!”: Weight Loss Narratives in an Online Support Space and Strategic Impression Management for Garnering Social Support • Jared Brickman; Shuang Liu; David Silva, Washington State University • Online support communities are popular and growing. However, newer social interaction features like content aggregation and scoring through “likes” and “upvotes” have changed how people give and evaluate social support. This study used content analysis to identify the posting strategies and narratives used by members of the weight loss subreddit /r/loseit, which uses content aggregation. A negative binomial regression revealed which strategies and narratives resulted in the most engagement with the content.

Self-mockery as an Alternative Social Strategy: Gratifications-sought, Need for Humor, Narcissism, and Self-Mocking Meme Usage • Miao LU, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Hua FAN, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Based on a survey research of Chinese college students (N=506), this exploratory study examines the uses and gratifications of self-mocking memes on social media, and identifies six motivations: self-protection, social criticism, sociability, entertainment, venting personal negative feelings and recognition. All the six motivations are proved to be strong predictors of self-mocking meme usage. This study also addresses the roles of individual traits (i.e. need for humor and narcissism) in predicting gratifications-sought and intensity of self-mocking meme usage and need for humor is proved to be a strong predictor. Lastly, this study explores how intensity of self-mocking meme usage will impact Chinese college students’ psychological well-being and finds a mixed effect: it is positively related to harmonious interpersonal relationship but negatively related to self-acceptance.

Instagram as a tool for communicating sexual health: Future recommendations and unanswered questions • NIcole O’Donnell; Davi Kallman, Washington State University; Whitney Stefani, Washington State University • Public health organizations often use the photo-sharing social networking site Instagram for communicating health risks. In the present study, we analyzed young adults’ likelihood to use Instagram for sexual health information seeking. Female gender, low condom-use self-efficacy, and high intentions to practice safe sex predicted likelihood to use a sexual health Instagram service. Message sensation value and message attention were also evaluated. Results provide insight into the effectiveness of using Instagram for sexual health promotion.

Parasocial Interaction and YouTube: Extending the Effect to Online Users • Kirstin Pellizzaro, Arizona State University; Ashley Gimbal • Parasocial interaction has been widely studied in traditional mass media, such as television and radio, but few studies utilize this theory to understand the phenomenon within the ever-growing online video market. This study sought to fill a gap in the literature while adding to parasocial interaction research. Using an online survey, this study found that viewers of YouTube personas do not exhibit the same levels of parasocial interaction than those of traditional mass media.

How great can Greater China be? A comparative study of the consumption of mobile apps in the Greater China area • Chris CHAO SU, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Hang Kuang, Chinese University of Hong Kong • This paper focuses on the use of mobile applications (apps) and the model of cross-regional communication in the app markets of the Greater China area (mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau), and explores the influence of policy, capital, and regional cultural tastes on the consumption of mobile apps. The cross-regional degree of mobile apps is used to measure the circulation of apps in different markets, and to single out mobile apps and their producers that can achieve cross-regional commercial success and gain market recognition in the Greater China area. Built on quantitative methods, the final samples consist of 1,124 mobile apps that are ranked among the top 500 in at least two markets. Further coding of these apps and their producers has been done according to market platform, founding year, price, whether the app is listed or not, the location of producers, app genres, and cross-regional degree. The results show that, in the mobile app market, no such thing as a Greater-China community exists. The consumption of apps in these markets is significantly influenced by policies, company capital, and local cultural tastes. In addition, mainland China is obviously isolated from other Greater China regions. Compared with the cross-regional degrees of apps in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, the degree in mainland China is rather low.

Tell Me More: The Effects of Mobile Screen Size on Self-disclosure • Jinping Wang, The Pennsylvania State University; Eugene Cho; Bikalpa Neupane • As information disclosure occur more on mobile devices, how difference in screen sizes affect the level of self-disclosure when using mobile devices is worth exploring. A between-subject quasi-experiment was conducted to investigate this question. Findings suggested that being exposed to a larger screen elicited more disclosure related to health information. However, no corresponding effects appeared with transactional information disclosure. In addition, the level of mobile power usage moderated the relationship between screen size and self-disclosure.

A Slap or a Jab: An Experiment on Viewing Uncivil Political Discussions on Facebook • Meredith Wang, Washington State University; David Silva, Washington State University • Across two experiments conducted in the end of last Presidential election, we replicate previous findings that exposure to incivility while viewing political debates on Facebook can be both upsetting and engaging. This study adds to research by testing differential effects of two kinds of incivility: insults and mockery. The effects of these two types changes between gun control and abortion topics, suggesting future research on online incivility may need to better address topic-specific outcomes.

Are you a social media chameleon? Probing self-presentations across and within social network sites • Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University; Jin Kang • The presentation of self has been reasoned to be malleable and context-specific during social interactions. The purpose of this study was to extend and test this notion in social network sites (SNSs). Two studies were conducted. The first one takes the form of the interview with the second one as an online survey to explore users’ motivations, behavioral patterns and boundary regulation strategies when projecting multiple selves on social media.

To meet or not to meet? Measuring motivations and risks as predictors of outcomes in the use of mobile dating applications • ka yee Janice WONG, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Randy Jay Solis, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Mobile dating applications (MDA) like Momo gratify the sexual needs of their users, among others, contributing to the radicalization of sexual ideologies in China. However, risk must also be considered within this context of needs gratification. Thus, this study asked: Do motivations and risks predict the outcomes of MDA use? Findings reveal that sexuality, self-esteem, and love are predictors of MDA use to meet for dates and sex, regardless of the risk of exposure.

The Effect of Hedonic Presentation of Horticultural Product on Consumers’ Willingness to Pay and Purchase Intention • Jing Yang, Loyola University Chicago; Juan Mundel, DePaul University; Bridget Behe; Patricia Huddleston, Michigan State University • The current study investigated how the hedonic/utilitarian presentation of horticultural products influences consumers’ willingness to pay and purchase intention. A 2 (brand association: hedonic vs. utilitarian) x 3 (product presentation: hedonic vs. utilitarian vs. both) between-subject experiment was conducted to examine the impact. Results showed that the hedonic presentation of horticultural products has potential to positively influence consumers’ purchase intention and willingness to pay. Managerial implications for the horticultural industry and future research are also discussed.

2017 ABSTRACTS