Debut Faculty Paper Competition
Not the Publisher, Still the Proprietor: Bypassing a Website’s Immunity Under Section 230 in Sex Trafficking Cases • Andrew Pritchard; Elaina Conrad • Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields websites from liability for user-submitted content, including content that perpetrates sex trafficking. However, this immunity is avoided when a website’s liability does not stem from its role as publisher. Courts’ treatment of websites as real property, combined with well-established principles of landowner liability, should allow websites to be held liable for their role in sex trafficking: not for third-party content, but for crimes resulting from it.

Unmasking The Anonymous Cyberbully: A New Approach • Ben Holden, University’ of Illinois • Americans have the right under the U.S. Constitution to speak anonymously. However, this right is not absolute and is subject to laws of general applicability, including the civil law of defamation. Courts frequently find that the First Amendment’s implied anonymity right yields to the procedural rights of civil defamation plaintiffs when the plaintiff is not a public figure and the speech is not a matter of public concern. But it is generally very difficult, if not impossible, to prove each element of civil defamation and related torts – plus the absence of privilege – without the identity of the speaker. The growing and potentially deadly problem of teen bullying by electronic communication lies at the intersection of these lofty constitutional principles and the practical imperative of parents to keep their kids safe. This Conference Paper suggests a standard for unmasking the Anonymous Teen Cyberbully.

EU v. U.S. Data Protection: An Unsafe Harbor? • Holly Hall, Arkansas State University • A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union declared the mechanism for data transfer known as Safe Harbor invalid. Many were critical of Safe Harbor for poor enforcement and confusing terminology. The revelations of former CIA employee, Edward Snowden, of United States government agencies’ mass surveillance programs added to the doubts of the functionality of Safe Harbor. The case leading to Safe Harbor’s downfall, Schrems v. Data Protection Commission, led to a new data transfer agreement called Privacy Shield. This paper will examine the evolution of data privacy protection law in the United States and European Union, the Safe Harbor provisions, the decision of the Schrems case, and the implications of Schrems on the newly announced Privacy Shield, shaping the data protection frameworks of the future.

Fight Terror, Not Twitter: Why Section 230 Should Insulate Social Media from Material Support Claims • Nina Brown • Twitter promotes itself as a global communications platform of free expression. ISIS and other terrorist organizations promote themselves via Twitter. A recent lawsuit by a widow of a government contractor killed in a terrorist attack argues that the proliferation of terrorists on Twitter, and Twitter’s reluctance to stop it, violates the Antiterrorism Act. This article explores the dangers associated with holding social media companies responsible for such attacks, and offers a solution to avoid liability.

Open Competition
Cyber Breach: Where privacy ends and data security begins • Angela Rulffes, Syracuse University • This article proposes that data security and privacy are distinguishable concepts that have different harms. Privacy violations, with some exceptions, involve the publication of personal information without permission. A data breach, however, is the loss of data. Data breaches should be treated as a breach of a duty of care, and states should implement laws that create a fiduciary relationship between companies and consumers and provide for civil liability if personal data is not protected.

Crash and Learn: The Inability of Transparency Laws to Penetrate American Monetary Policy • Benjamin W. Cramer, Pennsylvania State University; Martin E. Halstuk, Pennsylvania State University • The article will argue that the Federal Reserve System, thanks to its legislative structure, place within the American government, and court precedents regarding transparency statutes, is insulated from public oversight of almost all of its operations. The second section introduces the Fed’s history and structure. The following section will discuss the role of transparency and secrecy in the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The fourth section will consider whether two potentially powerful transparency statutes, the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, can be used to reveal documents from the banking sector and its regulators, along with the relevant statutory and case histories of those acts. The article will conclude with a discussion of the factors that have made the Federal Reserve System, and its internal decision-making processes, particularly impenetrable to citizens, journalists, and politicians who seek information on crucial matters of monetary policy.

Student Data in Danger: What Happens When School Districts Rely on the Cloud • Chanda Marlowe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • According to Fordham Law School’s Center on Law and Information Policy’s report “Privacy and Cloud Computing in Public Schools,” 95% of public school districts rely on cloud services for a diverse range of functions. The use of cloud services raises serious privacy concerns. For example, in March of 2014, Google admitted to scanning students’ emails and gathering data that were used to target ads to those students. Under the threat of lawsuits, Google promised to stop; however, in December 2015, Google was accused of collecting and using student data for non-education purposes again, this time in violation of the Student Privacy Pledge that it signed January 2015. Yet, schools continue to contract with private sector corporations to obtain cloud services, leaving parents to wonder what information is collected on their children, how that information is being used, and how, if at all, that information is being protected. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the major privacy problems that school districts face when they rely on cloud services offered by private corporations, to analyze how FERPA and state privacy laws are addressing these problems, and to offer possible solutions that go beyond FERPA and state privacy laws. This topic is important because legislation must strike the right balance between protecting students’ personal information and meeting the technological needs of schools.

Underinclusivity and the First Amendment: The Legislative Right to Nibble at Problems After Williams-Yulee • Clay Calvert, University of Florida • Using the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 opinions in Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar and Reed v. Town of Gilbert as analytical springboards, this paper examines the slipperiness – and sometimes fatalness – of the underinclusiveness doctrine in First Amendment free-speech jurisprudence. The doctrine allows lawmakers, at least in some instances, to take incremental, step-by-step measures to address harms caused by speech, rather than requiring an all-out, blanket-coverage approach. Yet, if the legislative tack taken is too small to ameliorate the harm that animates a state’s alleged regulatory interest, it could doom the statute for failing to directly advance it. In brief, the doctrine of underinclusivity requires lawmakers to thread a very fine needle’s eye between too little and too much regulation when drafting statutes. To wit, underinclusivity was tolerated and permitted by the majority in Williams-Yulee, but it proved fatal in Reed. This paper suggests that while Williams-Yulee attempts to better define underinclusivity, its subjectivity remains problematic.

Counterspeech, Cosby and Libel Law: Some Lessons About “Pure Opinion” & Resuscitating the Self-Defense Privilege • Clay Calvert, University of Florida • Using the recent federal district court opinions in Hill v. Cosby and Green v. Cosby as analytical springboards, this paper explores problems with the concept of pure opinion in libel law. Specifically, Hill and Green pivoted on the same allegedly defamatory statement made by attorney Martin Singer on behalf of comedian Bill Cosby, yet the judges involved reached opposite conclusions regarding whether it was protected as pure opinion. Furthermore, the paper analyzes notions of counterspeech and the conditional self-defense privilege in libel law in arguing for shielding Singer’s statement from liability. Although the self-defense privilege was flatly rejected in Green because it was not recognized under the relevant state law, it merits renewed consideration in similar cases where attorneys verbally punch back against their clients’ accusers in the court of public opinion.

The Right to Record Images of Police in Public Places: Should Intent, Viewpoint or Journalistic Status Determine First Amendment Protection? • Clay Calvert, University of Florida • Using the February 2016 federal district court ruling in Fields v. City of Philadelphia as an analytical springboard, this paper examines growing judicial recognition of a qualified First Amendment right to record images of police working in public places. The paper argues that Judge Mark Kearney erred in Fields by requiring that citizens must intend to challenge or criticize police, via either spoken words or expressive conduct, in order for the act of recording to constitute “speech” under the First Amendment. The paper asserts that a mere intent to observe police – not to challenge or criticize them – suffices. The paper also explores how recording falls within the scope of what some scholars call “speech-facilitating conduct.” Additionally, the paper criticizes Kearney’s view, as well as that of a federal judge in the Southern District of New York in 2015, suggesting that the right to record is possessed only by journalists, not by all citizens.

Holding Higher Education Accountable: Three Decades of Public Records Litigation Involving the University of Wisconsin • David Pritchard, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Jonathan Anderson, USA TODAY NETWORK – Wisconsin • Analysis of a comprehensive set of trial-court public records cases involving the University of Wisconsin over a 30-year period showed that news organizations constitute a strong majority of plaintiffs, that issues involving administrative searches and academic freedom are relatively rare, that news organizations and activist groups seeking records always prevail, and that the university has begun to ask the legislature to provide via statute the confidentiality that the university has not been able to get from the courts. The research is distinctive in that it focuses on trial court cases over an extended period of time. The generalizability of research from a single state is discussed.

Libel by the Numbers: The Use of Public Opinion Polls in Defamation Lawsuits • Eric Robinson, Louisiana State University • Libel plaintiffs must show that the defendant made a defamatory statement which lowered esteem of the plaintiff in the community. Polls can show this, but courts were initially reluctant to allow polling evidence. While courts have become increasingly receptive, use of polls in defamation cases remains rare. This article reviews libel cases in which polls have been used, and recommends that more defamation plaintiffs consider using polls and that courts be receptive to such evidence.

Mobile Broadband: A Cross Country Comparison • Hsin-yi Sandy Tsai • There are significant differences among countries with regard to their mobile broadband penetration rates. This study aims to understand whether public policies influence these differences and what kind of policies/regulations, if any, are necessary and/or sufficient conditions for higher mobile broadband (high speed mobile Internet) penetration rates. Although many studies have probed the factors influencing fixed broadband penetration, few studies have focused on mobile broadband. In order to capture the complicated interactions among factors related to mobile broadband penetration, in this study, in addition to using econometric approaches, a different approach—Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)—was utilized to analyze the policy and economic factors that affect mobile broadband penetration in 34 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ) countries. By using both econometric approaches and QCA, this study found six necessary conditions for higher mobile broadband penetration: 1) technology neutrality, 2) higher quality of regulation, 3) higher fixed broadband penetration rates, 4) higher mobile competitive intensity, 5) higher urban population, and 6) higher education. The results of econometric analyses were largely consistent with these findings and also found income, education, and competition to be important determinants of mobile broadband penetration.

The Holmes Truth: Toward a Pragmatic, Holmes-influenced Conceptualization of the Nature of Truth • Jared Schroeder, Southern Methodist University • This paper examines how the Supreme Court has conceptualized truth in freedom-of-expression cases and draws from pragmatic approaches to philosophy, the so called “pragmatic method” put forth by American philosopher William James and the judicial philosophy of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, to propose a unifying conceptualization of truth that could be employed to help the Court provide consistency within its precedents regarding the meaning of a concept that has been central to the Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment but has never been explicitly defined by the Court.

Congress Shall Make No Law…Unless? The Expansion of Government Speech and the Narrowing of Viewpoint Neutrality • Jason Zenor, SUNY-Oswego • In Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the State of Texas’ denial of a private organization’s request to place a confederate flag on specialty license plates. The Court upheld that denial as a form of government speech, a doctrine that has only recently developed but gives the government absolute immunity to make decision based upon viewpoints. This paper argues that the government speech doctrine has granted the government the right to coerce the free marketplace of ideas. Thus, the paper proposes a new legal test that would limit when speech is considered governmental and place further checks on the government’s ability to endorse political ideas when communicating administrative policy.

Proxies and Proximate Cause: The Future of Immersive Entertainment and Tort Liability • Jason Zenor, SUNY-Oswego • In June of 2014, two teenage girls lured their friend into the woods and stabbed her 19 times. The heinousness of the crime itself was enough to make it a national news story. But what really caught the attention of the nation was the motive for the crime. The girls wanted to appease the Slender Man, a murderous apparition who had visited them in their sleep and compelled them to be his proxies. Many people had never heard of the Slender Man, a fictional internet meme with a sizeable following of adolescents fascinated with the macabre. Soon the debate raged as to the power and responsibility of such memes. As for legal remedies, media defendant are rarely held liable for third parties crimes. Thus, the producers of violent memes are free from liability. But this law developed in an era of passive media where there was disconnect between media and audience. The paper examines how media liability may change as entertainment becomes more immersive. First, this paper examines the Slender Man phenomenon and other online memes. Then it outlines negligence and incitement law as it has been applied to traditional entertainment products. Finally, the paper posits how negligence and incitement law may be applied differently in future cases against immersive media products which inspire real-life crimes.

Escaping the “Bondage of Irrational Fears”: Brandeis, Free Speech and the Politics of Fear • Joseph Russomanno, Arizona State University • The war of words typically inherent in presidential campaigns seemed to reach unprecedented levels in late 2015. Calls to silence some of the rhetoric brings to mind the free speech doctrine of Louis Brandeis, including his belief that the proper remedy to “bad” speech is not enforced silence, but instead more speech. This paper examines political developments of this period through the lens of Justice Brandeis’ doctrine and its major elements: fear, courage, education and democracy.

Dismissed: Removal of College Media Advisers & Student Journalists’ First Amendment Rights • Lindsie Trego, UNC-Chapel Hill • Cases of indirect censorship of collegiate media have recently made news headlines. In many of these cases, advisers have been administratively removed in response to disputes between student editors and administrators. These cases call into question whether student journalists can successfully seek legal redress for indirect acts against their First Amendment rights. This paper examines whether removal of college media advisers constitutes an injury to student journalists in the context of First Amendment litigation.

A Doctrine at Risk: Content-Neutrality in a Post-Reed Landscape • Minch Minchin • This paper analyzes the lack of cohesion within the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the distinction between content-neutral and content-based regulations of expression. Highlighting two recent cases that illustrate a high degree of fracturing among the justices—McCullen v. Coakley and Reed v. Town of Gilbert—this paper suggests that without further clarification about the doctrine’s nature, purpose and application, the venerable First Amendment canon may soon disintegrate into constitutional oblivion.

Indecency Four Years After Fox Television Stations: From Big Papi to a Porn Star, an Egregious Mess at the FCC Continues • Minch Minchin; Keran Billaud; Kevin Bruckenstein; Tershone Phillips • In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court in Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, Inc. failed to address critical First Amendment questions concerning the FCC’s broadcast indecency policy. More than three years later, this paper examines how the Commission has filled the void left by the Supreme Court with a series of erratic and disjointed moves. These include its March 2015 proposal to fine a television station the maximum $325,000 for airing a tiny, fleeting sexual image during a newscast. That action, somewhat stunningly, came just two-and-half years after the FCC claimed it would target only the most “egregious” instances of indecency. This paper analyzes, among other issues, the troubling implications of the record-setting fine, including arguments against it made by the National Association of Broadcasters. The paper also reviews the FCC’s call for public comment on its fleeting expletive policy, as well as it decision to jettison hundreds of thousands of indecency complaints following Fox Television Stations.

Influencing copyright policymaking: An examination of information subsidy in Congressional copyright hearings from 1997 through 2014 • Minjeong Kim, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies • Assuming that the scope and extent of protection embedded in copyright law is a policy choice resulting from a contestable policymaking process, this study traces the copyright policy debate from 1997 through 2014 by focusing on information subsidy to lawmakers at the Capitol. This study reports the findings from a content analysis of 341 testimonies at 60 Congressional hearings that dealt with the issue of copyright.

An Examination of Ag-Gag and Data Trespass Statutes • Ray Whitehouse, UNC Chapel Hill • Since 1990, nine states have passed legislation that aims to limit undercover investigations of agricultural operations. These “ag-gag” laws attempt to limit investigations in three ways: by criminalizing recording and reporting on operations, criminalizing deceptive entry into operations, and by mandating that anyone recording abuse report it within a short time period. In 2015, two major events related to ag-gag laws took place. First, a federal judge ruled that Idaho’s ag-gag law was unconstitutional. This case decision, the first examining ag-gag laws, cast doubt on the constitutionality of other state ag-gag laws. Second, Wyoming passed a “data trespass” law that criminalized collecting information on “open land” with the intent to give that information to government agencies. Agricultural activists filed suit, claiming that it was an unconstitutional ag-gag law aimed at stopping citizen activists from reporting Clean Water Act violations by ranchers who lease public land from the state. Lawmakers disagreed, arguing that the bill simply strengthened existing trespass laws. This paper compares Wyoming’s data trespass law with all existing ag-gag laws and Idaho’s recently overturned law to examine its constitutionality. This examination is important because it incorporates recent legal outcomes that before now have not been incorporated into analysis of ag-gag laws. It suggests that because both the Idaho and Wyoming laws are similar in their construction and the legal questions in their respective cases are similar, the Idaho decision is very applicable to Wyoming’s data trespass law and casts serious doubts upon the constitutionality of Wyoming’s data trespass statute.

Speech v. Conduct, Surcharges v. Discounts: Testing the Limits of the First Amendment and Statutory Construction in the Growing Credit Card Quagmire • Rich Shumate, University of Florida; Stephanie McNeff, University of Florida; Stephenson Waters, University of Florida • This paper examines First Amendment speech concerns and related issues of statutory construction raised by so-called dual-pricing or anti-surcharge statutes that prohibit merchants from imposing “surcharges” on credit card purchases, but allow them to offer “discounts” to cash-paying customers. The paper uses the recent split of authority created by the November 2015 opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Dana’s Railroad Supply v. Florida and the September 2015 decision by the Second Circuit in Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman as a timely analytical springboard for analyzing these issues. These cases not only test the fundamental dichotomy in First Amendment jurisprudence between speech and conduct, but also the length to which courts should go to provide narrowing constructions to rescue otherwise unconstitutional statutes. Furthermore, the paper argues that dual-pricing laws detrimentally affect not only the right of merchants to speak, but also the unenumerated First Amendment right of consumers to receive speech directly affecting their pocketbooks. Finally, the paper concludes that dual-pricing laws smack of the worst kind of governmental paternalism – a form protecting corporate interests of credit card companies at the expense of consumers.

A ‘Net’ Gain for Society?: Examining the Legal Challenge to the FCC’s Net Neutrality Order • Sarah Papadelias, University of Florida • This paper analyzes the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality order and the pending legal challenges against the order. Net neutrality has risen as a prominent social and political issue with many different interests at stake. Initially, this paper discusses the history of net neutrality as a complex regulatory topic. The paper then examines the structure and substance of the 2015 order and explains the three major rules proffered by the order. Next, the paper outlines the legal arguments on each side of the lawsuit, tracking the many briefs submitted in the case. Ultimately, the paper concludes with a proposed judicial opinion predicting the D.C. Circuit’s ruling on the pending proceeding. It appears the FCC has bolstered its new net neutrality rules with the appropriate legal authority and the court likely will uphold the rules.

Free Speech v. Fair Disclosure: Does Citizens United Create a Constitutional Challenge for the SEC? • Sonia Bovio, Arizona State University • The U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission ruling may have unexpected bearing on aspects of corporate speech currently regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This paper outlines the First Amendment issues related to one SEC disclosure regulation in particular: Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), as they relate to Citizens United. It demonstrates how Reg FD could withstand constitutional challenges by reviewing elements of Citizens United that may favor the regulation, and by examining the intentions of the Framers of the First Amendment with regard to corporate speech, in particular James Madison’s perspective.

2016 Abstracts

Markham Student Paper Competition
Framing the 2014 Indonesian Presidential Candidates in Newspapers and on Twitter • Ary Hermawan, University of Arizona School of Journalism • The 2014 Indonesian presidential election was the first election in the world’s largest Muslim democracy where social media played a significant role. Social media became a public forum where Indonesians framed the presidential candidates in the most polarizing election in the nation’s history. A content analysis of four national newspapers and tweets showed that both legacy media and social media framed the candidates in terms of personality but differed in how they did it.

Surveying television drama in China Central Television’s foreign language channels • Dani Madrid-Morales • This paper surveys over one hundred and seventy drama series (dianshiju) broadcast in four of China Central Television’s (CCTV) foreign language channels between 2004 and 2015. By analyzing the genre, theme, time of action and location it seeks to understand how, through the narrative of fiction, China’s public broadcaster contributes to constructing a global narrative on contemporary Chinese society. It also highlights the seemingly uncoordinated logic behind China’s efforts to internationalize its television drama.

Dolphins and Deviants: News Framing and the Birth of a Global Prohibition Regime • Jay Alabaster • This exploratory study bridges this gap by examining the birth and widespread adoption of a global prohibition regime. The Cove, a U.S. documentary highly critical of annual dolphin hunts in the small Japanese town of Taiji, was released to high acclaim in 2009. It won an Academy Award the following year and was screened around the world. This triggered a surge of global activism aimed at pressuring local Taiji fishermen and the Japanese government to stop the town’s hunts. The resulting moral standoff between Western activists campaigning to save Taiji’s dolphins and various actors within Japan steadily backing the long-running hunts in Taiji was closely covered by international media. This study uses a content analysis to examine framing and sources in articles from the three main Western news agencies, the Associated Press (AP), Agence France Press (AFP), and Reuters, as well as the main Japanese news agency, Kyodo News (Kyodo). The study reveals significant evidence for the emergence of a global prohibition regime.

The journalistic construction of English as a global lingua franca of news • John Carpenter • This study examined the journalistic coverage surrounding the launch of Al Jazeera’s English language news service in 2006 to uncover the dominant, socially-constructed meanings for the English language as it relates to news in a global context. Using theories of language ideology, media counter-flow, and journalistic interpretive communities, analysis showed that that the journalistic interpretive community created ideologies of English as a global lingua franca that would allow news providers to reach a global audience. Furthermore, journalists created ideological meanings for English as the language of news counter-flow, capable of balancing the influence of CNN and BBC by introducing a developing world perspective into global news flows. The study concluded that journalists should reflexively consider the universality of English as a language of the developing world.

Professionalizing the Indigenous: Kabaddi as an Indian Object of Global Media Diaspora • Jordan Stalker, University of Wisconsin • This paper contributes to the field of global media by introducing the concept of “diasporic media objects.” Using Arjun Appadurai’s hard and soft cultural form framework, I show how the once-indigenous Indian sport of kabaddi has been received by the Western press throughout the past and how it has used digital media platforms to professionalize itself and bolster India’s global media presence. The modern Indian diaspora involves objects rather than individuals.

Understanding Entman’s Frame Functions in American International News • Josephine Lukito • The purpose of this article is to examine which countries are covered most in American international news and to apply Entman’s (1993) frame functions to an international news frame analysis. Important here is the understanding of generic framing analyses, such as coding for generic frames or for parts of a frame. Results of a content analysis suggest that Entman’s interpretation of frame functions is too narrow to capture all possible frames in American international news.

War Advertising: Themes in Argentine Print Advertising During the Malvinas / Falklands War • Juan Mundel, Michigan State University; Yadira Nieves-Pizarro, Michigan State University • This study explores the extension of discursive war strategies to print advertisements in 1981 and 1982. A content analysis on newspaper advertising before and after the war supports the notion that advertisements reflect changes in market conditions. With the advancement of the war efforts, there was a change in (1) the tactical intent of the ads, (2) the nature of advertiser, and (3) products advertised. Additionally, our study show that the discursive strategies employed by advertisers were consistent with those emphasized by other media, such as television and print journalism.

Securitization: An approach to the framing of the “Western hostile force” in Chinese media • Kai Xu • This study content analyzes a well-known frame “Western hostile force” in Chinese media from the perspective of securitization. Results suggest that “Western hostile force” is a securitizing move that encompasses an array of different threats. The results also suggest evidence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintaining that China is constantly under these threats, even if in some cases, it never identifies the identities of those threats.

Cross National Newspaper Coverage of Transit Migration: A Community Structure Approach • Kevin O’Brien; Madison Ouellette; Maria Gottfried; Petra Kovacs; John Pollock, The College of New Jersey • A cross-national community structure analysis compared national characteristics/demographic differences with variations in coverage of transit migration in sixteen leading papers worldwide, yielding combined article “prominence” and “direction” “Media Vector” newspaper scores emphasizing “government” or “society” responsibility for transit migration. The findings illuminate two distinct types of “vulnerability”: “economic” vulnerability (crop production index, 27.4% variance) linked to coverage emphasizing government responsibility; and “political” vulnerability (global instability index, 11.9% variance) connected to coverage emphasizing society responsibility.

Do large countries hunger for information less? Country’s size and strengths as determinants of foreign news volume • Miki Tanikawa, University of Texas • This study hypothesized that the size of the GDP, population, geography and the military strengths of the country are inversely related to the volume of international news reporting in the news media of the countries in question, reflecting different perceptions of the needs to monitor the international environment. Data analyses in this study found that these variables broadly predicted the size (smallness) of foreign news volume of the countries under study.

Effectiveness of Global and Local Brands’ Facebook Strategies in Engaging the Saudi Consumer • Mohammad Abuljadail • This paper seeks to investigate the “posting” behavior of global and local brands ’Facebook pages and the effectiveness of these strategies in engaging the Saudi consumer. Specifically, the author examines whether the “posting” behaviors differ between local and global brands in Saudi Arabia and whether the different posting strategies used by local and global brands are more effective than others in generating engagement (likes, comments and shares). Findings and implications are discussed.

Does Paris matter more than Beirut and Ankara? A Content Analysis of Frames Employed in Terrorism Coverage. • Mustafa oz, The University of Texas at Austin • The main purpose of this study is to examine the coverage of Beirut, Ankara and Paris terrorist attacks to see whether there was a western bias in terms of the coverage of these three terrorist attacks. While these three terrorist attacks were similar, they did not have the same amount of attention from the western media outlets. The results suggested that while the attacks were equally shocking, the US media failed to cover the Beirut and Ankara attacks as much as they covered the Paris attacks.Keywords: Framing, Terrorism, Media, Coverage, Content Analysis

A Network Agenda-Setting Study: Opinion Leaders in Crisis and Non-Crisis News on Weibo • Qian Wang • Within the theoretical frame of agenda setting, this study utilized network analysis to compare the interrelationships of the networked agendas in crisis and non-crisis news. It also explores patterns of the relationships between the media outlets and opinion leaders during these crisis and non-crisis news. The results show that business elites rather than Chinese media outlets set the agendas of both crisis and non-crisis news on Weibo. Furthermore, the agenda-setting process among these opinion leaders changed in these two cases.The agendas of these opinion leaders were highly correlated with each other in the Tianjin explosion, while they were much less correlated in Tu Youyou’case. The findings prove that the agenda-setting effect on social media platforms is not a linear process directly from one direction to another. It is a diversified and dynamic process where different parties interact and influence each other, and each party has the potential to set other agendas in certain issue topics.

Framing and Agenda Interaction of Epidemics under the Globalization Era: A cross-national study of news coverage on Ebola virus disease in China, U.S, Japan, and UK • QIAN YU, Washington State University • This study analyzes news coverage of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in China, U.S, Japan, and UK to examine variations in framing and agenda interactions. A content analysis was conducted on 730 news articles from highly circulated and prestigious newspapers in these four countries during the period of March, 24 to December 31, 2014. The findings revealed that common characteristics shown in news frames, sources, and predominant tones used by the four countries’ coverage on portraying the EVD; agenda interactions with different extents were identified among the four newspapers. This study enriches understanding of how journalists with variations in media systems, cultural values, political systems, and social ideologies construct a global health risk. Limitations and future directions are also discussed in the ending part.

One newspaper, double faces? A cross-platform content analysis of People’s Daily on Twitter and Weibo • Shuning Lu, The University of Texas at Austin • News organizations have increasingly adopted social network sites in news production, however, not many studies have probed into the content produced by media organizations across different social media platforms. By situating itself in the intersection of media globalization and technological innovation in journalism, the study systematically examined the characteristics of content posted by People’s Daily, the official press in China, on two social media platforms, Weibo and Twitter. It revealed that there was a Weibo-versus-Twitter difference in the volume, topic and style of online news in People’s Daily. The study also discussed the implications of the findings how different ecologies of Weibo and Twitter help to shape the variation in both content and news style of People’s Daily on the two social media platforms.

Mediated public diplomacy: Foreign media coverage of Sochi Olympics • Yanqin Lu, Indiana University • This study employs content analysis to examine the differences between American and Chinese media coverage on the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics. The findings indicated that media coverage in both countries did not present substantial differences in the salience of each event theme. However, American media covered these themes in a more negative tone than Chinese media did. Implications are discussed in terms of the effectiveness of mediated public diplomacy.

National Outlook on Transnational News Event: Comparative Audience Framing on Malaysian’s MH370 Plane Incident • Yearry Setianto, Ohio University; Qianni Luo • This study compares how Malaysian and Chinese audiences framed the news report of their respective national media on the Malaysian’s MH370 plane incident. Using audience framing, we explored similarities and differences of the frames. While Chinese audiences framed that the Malaysian government should take the responsibility, Malaysian audiences defended their government’s effort in dealing with the incident. Researchers found audiences’ nationalism, preexisting knowledge and cultural values to be important factors in understanding the audience frames.

Cultural Influences on Product Placement in American and Chinese TV Situation Comedies • Yiran Zhang, University of Minnesota Twin Cities • Through a textual analysis, this study explored how individualism, power distance and long-term orientation were presented in American and Chinese product placements in situation comedies. The results demonstrated that individualism was mostly presented as positive self-images in Chinese product placements, but as self-independence in American ones. The presentation of short-term orientation in Chinese product placements focused on completing a task under time pressure, while that of American ones concentrated on temporary entertainment.

Journalism and the Fight for Democracy: Framing the 2015 Myanmar Election • Zin Mar Myint, Kedzie Hall – Kansas State University; Bondy Kaye, Kansas State University • The 2015 elections in Myanmar represented a turning point in the country and a major leap toward establishing a democracy. Informed by framing theory, this study analyzed coverage of the Myanmar election by state-owned and privately-owned media firms in Myanmar and major media firms in the U.S. through a content analysis of 732 news articles. Results indicate that U.S. media and privately-owned media in Myanmar converged in coverage of democracy and the opposition NLD party. Their frames lean towards the push for change.

Robert L. Stevenson Open Paper Competition
U.S. Foreign Policy Interests and Press Coverage of the Kashmir Dispute between India and Pakistan • Abhijit Mazumdar, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Catherine Luther, University of Tennessee • This paper researches U.S. press portrayals of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and explores if the portrayals were in line with shifting U.S. foreign policy interests. Findings indicated no significant differences between the two timeframes in the portrayal of the cause of the dispute and its solutions. The stories gave a balanced account of the dispute. Significant differences, however, were found in source usage.

Impact of Economic Hardships on Kyrgyzstan Journalism: Results from In-Depth Interview with Journalists • Bahtiyar Kurambayev • In-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews with 27 journalists based in capital Bishkek city reveal that revenue starving Kyrgyz news outlets employ a variety of unusual tactics to generate some income including financially punishing journalists for failing to meet the set normative, imposes obligations to locate cash-paying news story clients. This study also reveals that news outlets have introduced barter as a system of payment. The author employed a snowball sampling to locate initial several research participants and seek their suggestions of other journalists. The interviews were held during the period of January 4-January 23, 2016. They were held primarily in Russian language. The practical implications are also discussed.

Characteristics of Exemplary Conflict Coverage: War and peace frames in Pulitzer Prize-winning international reporting • Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Kimberly Foster • Amid the current state of global conflicts, scholars urge journalists to provide rich detail and depth in conflict coverage that enhance foreign reporting, and other scholars focus on the theoretical and practical challenges of such detailed reporting. One such way for journalists to report on detail is Galtung’s (2000) method of peace journalism. This qualitative study explores the prevalence of peace journalism frames in Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting and finds evidence crucial to peace journalism advocates.

Beyond Hybridity: Intralocal Frictions in Music Video Production, Distribution, and Reception in Kenya • Brian Ekdale, University of Iowa • While the hybridity framework has inspired many valuable studies, global media research has hit a period of theoretical stasis. Drawing on the concepts of critical transculturalism (Kraidy, 2005) and global friction (Tsing, 2005), this paper introduces intralocalism as a way to study the entanglement of global cultural flows in grounded social practices. This paper demonstrates the analytic utility of intralocalism through an examination of music video production, distribution, and reception in Kenya.

News Media Uses During War and Conflict: The Case of the Syrian Civil War • Claudia Kozman, Lebanese American University; Jad Melki, Lebanese American University • Using the Syrian conflict as a case study, this survey of displaced Syrian nationals in four countries revealed that the major uses and gratifications of traditional and new media is receiving and understanding information, ahead of entertainment and overcoming loneliness. Among all media, TV consumption showed the highest correlation with people’s perception of TV as useful for providing information about Syria. Among digital media, social media were the most important in receiving information about Syria.

A New Sensation? Exploring Sensationalism, Online Journalism and Social Media Audiences across the Americas • Danielle Kilgo, University of Texas at Austin; Summer Harlow, Florida State University; Victor Garcia-Perdomo, University of Texas at Austin/Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia; Ramón Salaverría, University of Navarra • Sensationalism is a term without complete consensus among scholars, and its meaning and implications have not been reconsidered for a digital environment. This study analyzes 500 articles from digitally native news organizations across the Americas, evaluating the sensational treatment of news categories and values, and their associated social media interactions on Facebook and Twitter. Findings suggest that characteristics of sensationalism have shifted, and audiences are not necessarily more likely to respond to sensational treatments.

Collectivism Appeal and Message Frames in Environmental Advertising – A Comparison between China and the U.S. • Fei Xue • The current study examined the effects of appeal types (self vs. group) and message framing (positive vs. negative) on American and Chinese consumers’ responses to environmental advertising. It was found that group appeal generated higher level of green trust and purchase intention in both countries. However, positive message frames seemed to work better for American consumers while negative message frames were more effective among Chinese consumers.

Sourcing International News: A comparative Study of Five Western Newspapers’ Reporting on the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Dispute • Guofeng Wang, School of Foreign Language Studies, Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University • This study examines the sources of information used by five Western newspapers from 2011 through 2013 to report on the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands territorial dispute between China and Japan. A quantitative analysis of sources and a qualitative approach to news frame analysis in the selected U.S., U.K., Australian, French and German newspapers reveals many similarities in their reporting on this ongoing conflict. This study also shows that while the selection of one source or another does not ultimately determine how a news article is framed, identifiable sourcing patterns do exert a significant influence on the overall balance or bias of the reporting.

Discursive Construction of Territorial Disputes: Foreign Newspaper Reporting • Guofeng Wang, School of Foreign Language Studies, Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University • This study examines how five foreign newspapers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France and Australia discursively construct the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute through a quantitative analysis. The findings reveal that they share a similar intergroup conflict schema based on competition and the pursuit of respective national interests, and that noticeable differences between the editorial position of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and that of the others may be due to current public opinion of Germany’s socio-historical context.

What Moves Young People to Journalism in a Transitional Country?: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations for Working in Journalism in Serbia • Ivanka Pjesivac, University of Georgia • This study examined the motivations among journalism students in Serbia, through a national survey at four major journalism programs in the country. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations had a significant impact on willingness to work in journalism, with the moderating effect of experience. The study is the first one conducted in a transitional country of Eastern Europe. The results are discussed in the context of the Self-Determination Theory of motivations applied to international journalism.

Perspectives of journalists, educators, trainers and experts on news media reporting of Islam and Muslims • Jacqui Ewart, Griffith University; Mark Pearson, Griffith University; Guy Healy, Griffith University • This paper uses data from an Australian study to ascertain issues associated with news media coverage of Islam and Muslims from the perspectives of journalists, journalism educators and media trainers. We draw on data from interviews with 37 journalists, editors, educators, media trainers, Muslim community leaders and other experts located in Australia and New Zealand to explore their understandings of the ways stories about Islam and Muslims are reported and why.

Attitude change among U.S. adults after the Castro-Obama announcement: The role of agenda-setting • Jami Fullerton; alice kendrick, smu; Sheri Broyles, 1155University of North Texas • The United States and Cuba made history in late 2014 by announcing the resumption of diplomatic relations. Using the media coverage and social media content related to the announcements as a quasi-experimental stimulus, this pre-post-study noted increases in U.S. adults’ levels of perceived knowledge, salience of attributes as well as attitudes toward Cuba after the joint proclamations. Results suggest that media coverage and social media content played major roles in influencing both public knowledge and attitudes toward Cuba as a country. These first- and second-level agenda-setting effects are positioned within the Model of Country Concept as an example of how a powerful byproduct of international media can factor in both cognitive and affective evaluations among the citizens of one country about the government and citizenry of another.

New Digital Dialogue? A Content Analysis of Chinese Political Elites’ Use of Sina Weibo • Jiawei Liu, Washington State University; Wenjie Yan • This study aims to add current understanding of what Chinese politicians use Sina Weibo for, as well as whether and to what extent they use Sina Weibo to communicate with the public. We content analyzed 69 Chinese politicians’ Sina Weibo posts between January 1 and March 31, 2015. Our results showed that Chinese political elites actively read and repost Weibo. However, they still communicate with the public in a predominantly top-down manner on Sina Weibo.

The Networks of Global Journalism: Global news construction through the collaboration of global news startups with freelancers • lea hellmueller; Sadia Cheema; Xu Zhang • This study explored the way global news startups connect freelancers with traditional news organizations. Through ten interviews with founders and editors the results reveal a networked marketplace of global journalism: The startups build on new technologies as well as on-the-ground evidence as their business model and de-localize the distribution of news within a digital marketplace. Through a content analysis of their edited stories (N=226), global journalism as an outcome of this marketplace is discussed.

Disentangling and priming the perceived media credibility in Singapore: Declared/theoretical versus tacit/applied definitions • Lelia Samson, Nanyang Technological University • The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, it explores what audiences associate with the notion of media credibility in Singapore. It thus investigates to what extent do Singaporean audiences associate the notion of media credibility with standard journalistic practices, with issues of press independence, and with dimensions of social consensus and popularity. These associations are examined within the context of the Singaporean audiences’ responses to declared/theoretical versus the tacit/applied definitions of credibility. Second, the current study examines whether dominant and alternative news sources can prime different meanings in audiences. 112 volunteers participated in a mixed factorial experiment and their open ended responses were content analyzed. Results indicate that media credibility was least associated with notions of press independence. Interesting findings were found between the declared/theoretical versus the tacit/applied definitions. Singaporean audiences associated the journalistic practices for the declared/theoretical definition of media credibility up to 78% of the cases – but their tacit/applied definition of credibility are associated with journalistic practices for only 36% of the cases; and they only associated the dimensions of readership and popularity for the declared/theoretical definition for 5% of the cases. But their associations with the dimensions of readership and popularity for the tacit/applied definition of credibility reach over 52% of the cases. Priming of dominant versus alternative news sources indeed influenced the perceived credibility and the meaning activation as expected.

At A Crossroads or Caught in the Crossfire? Crime Coverage Concerns for Democracy in Portugal, Spain, and Italy • Maggie Patterson, Duquesne University; Romayne Smith Fullerton, Western University of Ontario; Jorge Tunon, Carlos III University of Madrid • This study of crime reporting shows that keeping crime records secret hurts democratic consolidation. While many reporters and journalism experts interviewed claimed to value the presumption of innocence, many skirted restrictions by getting leaks from police and prosecutors. This porous secrecy leads to publication of rumors and unreliable eye-witness accounts. Four exacerbating factors affect this reporting method: widespread “clientelism;” a partisan news media; an alternative definition of “public interest”; and weak professionalism.

Localness and Orientalism in The New York Times • Marcus Funk, Sam Houston State University • Computerized content analysis of New York Times coverage demonstrates that orientalist language is used significantly more frequently when covering Middle Eastern nations and the American South than the Tri-State Area. This analysis of 15 years of Times coverage also finds that unifying language is more common concerning the Middle East and American South than Tri-State Area, but argues such positive language is othering and orientalizing. It further postulates that orientalism is rooted in cultural distance.

Covering Argentine Media Reform: Framing the Conversation to Keep Control • Mariana De Maio, San Diego State University • Using second-level agenda-setting and framing theories and content analysis, this paper examines the coverage of the Argentina’s 2009 media reform. To investigate the attributes media used in framing the law, data were collected from three national newspapers’ online publications (Clarín, La Nación, and Página/12). Results from the analysis suggest that the three newspapers framed the media reform debate using different attributes and tone.

Explaining the formation of online news startup in France and the US: A field analysis • Matthew Powers, University of Washington, Seattle • This paper explores the differential formation of online news startups in France and the US. Drawing on interviews with journalists and Bourdieu’s field theory, we argue that while journalists in both countries created startups as a way to enter into the journalistic field, the volume of capital they held varied as a result of journalism’s structural position vis-à-vis the field of power. These differences shaped the extent and style of online startups in both places.

The International News Hole: Still Shrinking and Linking? 25 Years of New York Times Foreign News Coverage • Meghan Sobel, Regis University; Seoyeon Kim; Daniel Riffe • This study uses quantitative content analysis of 25 years of New York Times international news coverage to extend the exploration of how nations’ economic status impacts the amount and topic of coverage received and how coverage is linked to American interests. Data suggest an increase in the percentage of foreign news items, with growing attention given to low- and middle-income countries. However, U.S. links are prevalent and developing country coverage remains largely negative.

Everything’s Negative About Nigeria: A Study of U.S. Media Reporting on Nigeria • Oluseyi Adegbola; Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; Jacqueline Mitchell, University of Nebraska at Omaha • U.S. television coverage of other countries can be misrepresented or go under-reported. Utilizing media framing theory, the current study content analyzes 10 years of U.S. television media coverage of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Reports broadcast by the big three networks were coded for issues, sources, valence, and frames (N = 643). Results corroborate existing research regarding the predominance of episodic frames and negative coverage and present new findings pertinent to coverage of foreign nations.

Social Media As A Marketing Tool: Why Kuwaiti Women Entrepreneurs Prefer Instagram To Sell Their Fashions, Food, And Other Products • Shaikhah Alghaith, Colorado State University — Department of Journalism & Media Communication; Kris Kodrich, Colorado State University — Department of Journalism & Media Communication • The purpose of this study is to identify the preferred types of social media adopted by Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs. Instagram was found to be the most adopted among women entrepreneurs to utilize as a marketing tool. Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion of Innovations theory was applied to explore the attributes of Instagram. The attributes of Instagram that influenced Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs’ decision to adopt it include photo-sharing nature (relative advantage), ease of use (complexity), and popularity (observability).

Visual Dissent: Examining Framing, Multimedia, and Social Media Recommendations in Protest Coverage of Ayotzinapa, Mexico • Summer Harlow, Florida State University; Ramón Salaverría, University of Navarra; Danielle Kilgo, University of Texas at Austin; Victor Garcia-Perdomo, University of Texas at Austin/Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia • The 2014 forced disappearance of 43 college students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico prompted protests throughout Mexico and the world. This bilingual, cross-national study of multimedia features in stories related to the Ayotzinapa protests examines how social media users responded to news coverage of the protests. This study sheds light on differences in mainstream, alternative, and online media outlets’ coverage of protesters, indicating whether the protest paradigm remains a problem in this digital era of information choice.

Factoring media use into media system theory — An examination of 14 European nations (2002-2010) • Xabier Meilan, University of Girona; Denis Wu • This study incorporates media use pattern into examining three distinct media systems proposed by Hallin and Mancini (2004). The uses of newspapers, radio, television, and Internet in European Social Surveys were included. North-Central European nations, particularly the Nordic countries, demonstrate more widespread media use than other European nations. Media-use Gini indexes support Hallin and Mancini’s original demarcation. Cluster analysis, however, indicates that the European nations of the three groups slightly differ from the original typology.

The Third-Person Effect of Offensive Advertisements: An Examination in the Chinese Cultural Context • Xiuqin Zeng, Xia’men University; Shanshan Lou; Hong Cheng • This study examined the third-person effect hypothesis (Davison, 1983) in offensive advertising in the Chinese cultural context. Based on a survey of 1,539 Chinese Internet users about the third- and first-person effects among offensive ads, neutral ads, and public service ads, the study inquires into the relationship between the TPE and respondents’ levels of acceptance toward advertising. Besides confirming the TPE existence in an Eastern cultural context, the results suggest that the TPE predict WOM spreading for both offensive and neutral product ads, but not for PSAs. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of these findings were discussed.

Social Media, Public Discourse and Civic Engagement in Modern China • Yinjiao Ye; Ping Xu; Mingxin Zhang • The current study investigates the relationship between social media use and public discourse and civic engagement in mainland China. A survey of 1, 202 Chinese show that social media use significantly relates to both public discourse and civic engagement. Moreover, political interest modifies the role of social media use in public discourse and civic engagement. Both general trust in people and life satisfaction moderate some of the relationships examined but not all of them.

A cross-cultural comparison of an extended Planned Risk Information Seeking Model • Zhaomeng Niu; Jessica Willoughby • This study tests the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) in China and the United States with a personal risk, and two additional factors: media use and cultural identity. Both additional variables predicted health information seeking intentions and were valuable additions to PRISM. Based on our findings, cultural identity and media use should be considered when designing interventions to address mental health information seeking or evaluating the process of mental health information seeking.

2016 Abstracts

Labor’s Rejection: How the National Basketball Players Association blocked management before Congress • Bill Anderson • “Labor’s Slam Dunk” Highlights • Examines how basketball players’ union stopped two leagues from merging. • Explores public relations history from a non-corporate perspective. • Success depended on union efforts and outside factors. • Situates public relations as one of many constructors of meaning.

Two Seminal Events in Motion Picture Public Relations History: How U.S. Court Decisions Twice Changed the Way Movies Are Publicized • Carol Ames, California State University, Fullerton • This qualitative historical study finds that two seminal U.S. court decisions changed entertainment public relations by changing the motion picture industry’s business model. U.S. v. Motion Picture Patents Company (225 F. 800 D.C. Pa. 1915) ended monopoly control of the film business and transformed film public relations from a retail model to the big-business, centralized model of the studio era. U.S. v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (334 U.S. 131 1948) forced the Hollywood studios to divest their theater chains and ushered in the modern era of specialized PR agencies and independent consultants.

Write on: An analysis of the role of the underground press in three cities • Chad Painter, Eastern New Mexico University • This analysis traced the radical, monitorial, facilitative, and collaborative roles of the underground press in three U.S. cities. Articles were analyzed in 81 underground newspapers published between 1956 and 1983. Publications were analyzed for content and story selection, objectivity, tone, efforts at community building, and relationships to mainstream media. The findings suggest both politics and culture are components of community and democracy. Further, the findings suggest that normative theory previously has been too narrowly conceived.

The Struggle to Describe South Carolina’s Leading Civil Rights Lawyer • Christopher Frear, University of South Carolina • Three events help show how newspaper coverage of the career of South Carolina’s leading civil rights lawyer, Matthew J. Perry, helped create and shape narratives about South Carolina’s African American freedom struggle. The three events significant legally and socially for South Carolina and personally for Perry: the 1963 desegregation of Clemson, Perry’s 1974 campaign for Congress, and his 1979 appointment to the federal bench in Columbia.

Tel Ra Productions & TeleSports Digest: The Unknown Story of American Television’s Early Chronicler and Archivist of US Sports • Daniel Haygood, Elon University • During commercial televisions’ early era, the four television networks featured an extensive offering of sports programming on their prime time schedules. Once the networks began to replace sports programs with entertainment shows, other entities attempted to fill this sports gap. Tel Ra Productions emerged as the leading syndicated producer of television sports programming, beginning in the late 1940s. Its primary program was TeleSports Digest, a thirty-minute show, featuring a wide range of sporting events. Tel Ra also had the rights to some of the most valuable US sports properties, including NFL football, college basketball, Notre Dame football, and others. This research tells the story of Tel Ra Productions, TeleSports Digest, and the portfolio of sports shows created by this Pennsylvania production company. Further, Tel Ra’s role and its significance to sports broadcasting history is explored.

George G. Foster’s Urban Journalism as an Antecedent to Muckraking • Denitsa Yotova, University of Maryland, College Park • This paper examines the writings of George G. Foster in antebellum New York. It analyzes his particular style of social commentary and press criticism as early forms of alternative journalism and muckraking. A review of primary and secondary sources determines that although presented in a more literary, non-fiction style, Foster’s writings demonstrate an analytical and expository approach to journalism that existed long before the most famous muckrakers changed American print culture. By focusing on the work of the largely understudied journalist and litterateur George G. Foster in the context of society, culture, and the press during the mid-nineteenth century, this study demonstrates that such early alternative forms of reporting should be viewed as a compelling journalistic endeavor that engaged both society and the press. Ultimately, Foster’s exposés, as printed in the New York Tribune and later in his books, were aimed at raising the public’s consciousness about the need for moral and social change, and served as a precursor to muckraking.

Full-Court Press: How Segregationist Newspapers Covered an Integrated Virginia High School Basketball Team • Elizabeth Atwood, Hood College; Sara Pietrzak, Hood College • This study explores how newspapers that had opposed school desegregation and supported Virginia’s massive resistance policies covered a local high school basketball team that won the state championship three years after the school was desegregated. Uniquely situated at a nexus of research into community newspapers and studies of sports coverage of racial minorities, this study finds that hometown boosterism trumps racial politics with the newspapers praising the integrated team as a model of cooperation.

Missing the story • James Mueller, University of North Texas • This paper examines coverage of a cavalry fight that blunted a Confederate attack aimed at the Union rear during the decisive third day of the battle of Gettysburg. It studies a sample of major newspapers from both the North and South and suggests that reporters ignored that part of the battle, contributing to a possible misunderstanding of the battle today.

Witness to War: Newsreel Photographer Arthur Menken • Joe Hayden, University of Memphis • In the heyday of American newsreels, Arthur Menken stood at the top of his field. He made a name for himself covering some of the most important events of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet that reputation seems to have slipped into the past. Using contemporary news accounts and many previously unpublished photographs, this study reconstructs the career of an intrepid war correspondent who for a time was the most distinguished documentarian capturing history on film.

The Espionage Conviction of Kansas City Editor Jacob Frohwerk: “A Clear and Present Danger” to the United States • Ken Ward, Ohio University; Aimee Edmondson • In 1918, German-language newspaper editor Jacob Frohwerk was convicted under the Espionage Act for editorials critical of World War I. He appealed to the Supreme Court, where his case was considered alongside landmark First Amendment cases like Schenk. Despite the impact of the case, Frohwerk has been overlooked by historians. This historical analysis utilizes archival documents, newspaper articles, and court and prison records, providing the first thorough consideration of Frohwerk’s career, trial, and lasting impact.

Cowboy Songs from the Cold War Adversary: Listening to RIAS as portrayed in the East German Press • Kevin Grieves, Whitworth University • For much of the Cold War, East Germany attempted to block Western media. This study analyzed East German press’ treatment of East Germans listening to the U.S. Government-run station RIAS Berlin during the period 1946-1953. The analysis points to ambiguity and the conflicted nature of East German attitudes towards outside propaganda messages. These attitudes – competing with enemy media, engaging in counterpropaganda, educating citizens about propaganda, or blocking messages seen as threatening – remain relevant today.

A Genuine Sense of Helplessness: Newsroom Ethnography and Resistance to Management Change at The New York Times in 1974 • Kevin Lerner, Marist College • “In 1974, the management scholar Chris Argyris published an ethnography of the New York Times, though the paper was ineffectively disguised as “”The Daily Planet”” and its editors and business executives each identified only by a single letter. Argyris had unprecedented access to the 40 top editors and executives at the paper, and his book, once decoded by a journalism review called (MORE), provides insight into the un-self critical nature of newsrooms and a reluctance to respond to outside press criticism.

This paper draws on Argyris’s book, cross-referenced with the article from (MORE) that identified major publishing and editorial staff at The Times, as well as the institutional archives of The New York Times, particularly those of its top editor at the time, Abe Rosenthal. Argyris secured access to the Times via its publisher, Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger, but Rosenthal’s papers provide the most thorough portrait of the editorial staff’s oppositional stance toward Argyris. It places Argyris’s failure to effect change at the Times in the context of Wendy Wyatt’s discursive theory of press criticism as well as theories of anti-intellectualism developed by sociologist Daniel Rigney out of the work of historian Richard Hofstadter.”

War of Words: A Comparative Contextual Analysis of newspaper coverage of the Battle of Kontum • Kris Boyle, Brigham Young University • This study compares newspaper coverage of the Battle of Kontum in the Stars and Stripes and The New York Times. The textual analysis revealed the Times appeared more skeptical of the U.S and South Vietnamese success in the battle. The Stars and Stripes was more optimistic and favorable in its coverage. Additionally, the approach used by the Stars and Stripes in reporting the conflict – usually based on first-person accounts – differed from the Times’ big-picture approach.

The Aesthetics of Historiophoty: Ken Burns and the Origins of Visual Effects in the Historical Documentary • Kyle McDaniel, University of Oregon • This study examines the origins of visual effects in the historical documentary film, and investigates how such aesthetic practices and tools engage with historiophoty. Here, historiophoty was explored through visual analyses for archival photographs in the early films of historical documentarian Ken Burns. As such, the significance of this research is to understand how visual effects have the ability to subvert or reinforce aspects of historiophoty and therefore, affect photography’s indexical ties to the past.

Saving Face: How The University of Georgia Survived the Integration Crisis and Maintained Its Image through Stakeholder Management • LaShonda Eaddy, The University of Georgia • Few studies have explored higher education desegregation in the nation’s first state to charter a state-supported university, Georgia. The present study documents the University of Georgia’s integration communication with various groups based on Freeman’s stakeholder theory as well as the University’s public relations response and strategy. The study examines the University’s public relations function and the analysis shows how the public relations strategy was to save face when addressing issues raised by its stakeholder groups.

News Ecosystem During the Birth of the Confederacy: South Carolina Secession in Southern Newspapers • Michael Fuhlhage, Wayne State University; Sarah Walker; Nicholas Prephan; Jade Metzger • This study uses content assessment to examine 822 newspaper articles covering secession in the weeks before, during, and after South Carolina’s secession convention in four Southern newspapers: the Charleston Mercury, New Orleans Picayune, Alexandria Gazette, and Macon Telegraph. The study examines the role of four media of dissemination — telegraphic reports, exchange newspapers, letters, and staff correspondence — in the creation of emergent Confederate nationalism, coverage of disunion, and the spread of secessionist ideas and symbols.

“Russian Journalists and the Great Patriotic War” • Owen V Johnson; Rashad Mammadov • The paper focuses on the role of Russian journalists and their reporting during World War II. We argue that, generally, the historical trajectory of journalism and the press in Russia significantly diverges from the often cited “norm” of the West. We look at the press in Great Patriotic War, and judge them on the basis of institutional culture and on how journalists themselves understand the role of journalists in a particular time and place.

Silent Spring, Loud Legacy: How Elite Media Helped Establish an Environmentalist Icon • Perry Parks, Michigan State University • Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring is widely credited with altering Americans’ environmental consciousness and changing people’s relationship with nature, science, and government. One means by which the book, which chronicled the dangers of pesticides, attained and reinforced its symbolic status in collective memory is through newspaper coverage, which remained persistent through five decades. This study of fifty years of Silent Spring in two elite newspapers traces how news media can help elevate a situated artifact into an enduring icon with contemporary power.

Framing Barry Goldwater: The Extreme Reaction to His 1964 “Extremism” Speech • Rich Shumate, University of Florida • This study examines the extreme reaction by political and media elites to one of the most noteworthy political speeches of the 20th century—Barry Goldwater’s acceptance speech at the 1964 Republican National Convention, in which he said, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” Using a textual analysis of coverage of the convention, this paper posits that frames employed by elite media triggered a negative response to Goldwater’s speech, irrespective of its actual content.

The Social Awakening and The Soul of News • Ronald Rodgers, University of Florida • The long conversation about the role and responsibility of the newspaper a century ago was often hinged to a commonplace conceit of the age – the “social awakening.” A derivative of that conceit was the notion of the “soul of news,” which was at the center of an argument about the newspaper as a public utility whose role as society’s servant trumped the demands of the market and its constraints on journalistic conduct and content.

Ada Patterson: “The Nellie Bly of the West” • Samantha Peko, Ohio University • In 1896, Ada Patterson was making headlines as the St. Louis Republic’s “Nellie Bly.” From climbing the St. Louis City Tower to riding with the St. Louis Fire Chief for a story, Patterson took on any challenge. She was one of many “stunt girls” who used the Bly formula as an opportunity to transition from the society pages to the front pages. This paper explores Patterson’s life, and how her “stunts” helped progress her career.

Is This the Best Philosophy Can Do? Henry R. Luce and the Commission on Freedom of the Press • Stephen Bates, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • After spending $200,000 on it, Time Inc. editor in chief Henry R. Luce renounced the Commission on Freedom of the Press. Many accounts ascribe his stance to financial self-interest: the Commission’s report, A Free and Responsible Press (1947), castigated American journalism. Based on previously unavailable documents, including Luce’s handwritten notes, this paper argues that much of his disenchantment stemmed from Christian metaphysics blended with personal pique.

The Sponsor’s Fight for Audience: A 1930s Radio Case Study • Stephen Perry, Regent University • This study examines the practices of General Foods in areas of stunting, gimmickry, and the use of celebrities to attract, keep, and rebuild an audience for the Byrd Expedition broadcasts, aired on CBS, between 1933 and 1935. The exploration finds evidence that the sponsor was very aware of the need to attract the largest audience possible in order to maximize the positive image of the sponsor’s product through its association with a program. Understanding the purposes and manner in which a sponsor undertook promotion of its program suggests a re-consideration of where rivalry existed in the sponsorship era of broadcasting. Understanding how the mediated representation of exploration was promoted for the benefit of Byrd’s expedition and the program sponsor also sheds light on how future areas of exploration might benefit from well-planned media promotion and programming. The study finds that, when nothing exciting was happening in the process of exploration, hype was used through stunts and gimmicks to attract and maintain the audience. Celebrities were also used, but seem to have been included in the program when other events made it convenient rather than specifically during times of low levels of adventure.

Decade of Deceit: English-Language Press Coverage of the Katyn Massacre in the 1940s • Timothy Roy Gleason, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh • The Katyn Massacre of Polish officers and intelligentsia by the Soviet Union was one of the worst military atrocities of modern European warfare. Often overlooked because of the vicious Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II, Katyn deserves more attention from scholars. This paper uses original sources—English-language press reports and intelligence documents—to better understand what the public was told and what the Allied governments knew about Katyn.

‘They Couldn’t Bring Me Down’: Gender and Agency in the Careers of Midwestern Women Broadcasters • Tracy Lucht, Iowa State University; Kelsey Batschelet, Iowa State University • This study uses in-depth interviews and historical analysis to uncover common threads of experience in the careers of Midwestern women who worked in broadcasting before and after feminist activism of the 1970s. The findings illustrate how gender influenced women’s careers at a regional level and show how these women exercised agency to make their way in an industry that did not always welcome their full participation.

Who Has Authority? The Construction of Collective Memory in Hong Kong Protest • Yin Wu, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Over 1,000 people gathered recently in memory of Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong a year ago. The one-year anniversary of Occupy Central movement is of particular interest for this study.Using theoretical framework of collective memory, this study compared three types of local press in Hong Kong: the pro-government press, the pro-democracy press, and the local-based press. The results reflect a competing sets of cultural values on pro-government and pro-democracy press, and a local-interest-focused coverage on the local newspapers in the construction of collective memory.

2016 Abstracts

Anchor Appearance: Matters of Gender • April Newton, University of Maryland, College Park; Linda Steiner, U of Maryland • This research investigated the experiences of on-air news anchors regarding their physical appearance. Specifically, the goal was to study what kinds of comments broadcast anchors have received from audience members, colleagues, or bosses, and whether or how the experiences of men and women differ. Through in-depth interviews with anchors and meteorologists, this research shows that women receive significantly more critical comments than do men and that most of those comments are about appearance.

Parasocial Interaction and Newscast Viewing: Extending the Effect from English Language to Spanish Language TV News • Ashley Gimbal, Arizona State University; Kirstin Pellizzaro • Parasocial interaction has been widely studied in the English language news market, but has never been used to understand the phenomenon within the ever growing Spanish language broadcast news market.. This study sought to fill a gap in the literature while adding to parasocial interaction research. Through the use of an online survey, this study found a significant difference in parasocial interaction levels between English language and Spanish language broadcast news audiences.

T.V. Talking Heads and the Nielsen Sweeps: An analysis of Rhetorical Complexity, Charisma and Ideology in Opinionated Cable News. • Ben Wasike, University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley • This study examined the rhetorical complexity and charisma of opinionated cable news show hosts in respect to sweeps months using integrative complexity as the theoretical guide and computerized content analysis. Liberal hosts were more complex rhetorically and were also more charismatic. Both complexity and charisma correlated with ideology and the hosts displayed more complexity during non-sweep months. Overall, opinionated hosts react to the sweeps by damping down their rhetorical complexity and charisma during sweeps months.

Even a Celebrity Journalist Can’t Have an Opinion: Post-Millenials’ Recognition and Evaluation of Journalists and News Brands on Twitter • D. Jasun Carr, Idaho State University; Mitchell Bard, Iona College • Post-Millenials have exhibited decreasing levels of news usage but increased consumption of news via social media, more pronounced than the changes in older cohorts. These changes raise questions about the role of media skepticism and the recognition and evaluation of journalists and non-journalist information sources. This study employs an experimental design to examine how media branding influences Post-Milleinals’ assessments of credibility, objectivity, and evaluations of the individual and information presented on a Twitter feed.

Tweetkeeping NBC’s Olympics: A Qualitative Content Analysis of the @NBCOlympics Twitter Account Gatekeeping Practices • Daniel Sipocz, Berry College • This qualitative content analysis examined the gatekeeping practices of the @NBC Twitter account as well as the network’s relationship with its Twitter audience during the 2012 and 2014 Olympics. Findings illustrate NBC’s social media gatekeeping is similar to its television gatekeeping practices. Further, its Twitter presence acted as a promotional vehicle to drive online audiences back to the traditional television broadcast where the network generates most if its revenue from Olympic coverage.

Sunday Morning Talk Shows and Portrayals of Public Opinion during the 2012 Presidential Campaign • Dylan McLemore, Auburn University at Montgomery • Public opinion polls can influence public opinion. This study considers how Sunday morning political talk shows used public opinion polls during the 2012 presidential campaign. Poll-based differentiation strategies are hypothesized and tested. Some programs relied heavily on their own networks’ polls, establishing legitimacy. All programs presented a tighter horserace than polls suggested. However, partisan bias did not appear to be a motivation. Results are discussed and methodological considerations for future research are presented.

Out of Bounds? How Gawker’s Outing a Married Man Fits into the Boundaries of Journalism • Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University; Joy Jenkins, University of Missouri • Gawker ignited a controversy when it published an article in July 2015 about a married Conde Nast executive who allegedly sought the services of a gay escort. The popular blog eventually removed the article following an almost universal condemnation from readers and other journalists. This study considers this case as a critical incident in journalism that provoked reflections among journalists and audiences about the boundaries of acceptable journalistic practice. Four themes emerged from the analysis of 65 news articles and 2,203 online comments: First, discussions focused on whether Gawker is a news organization. Second, journalists and audiences questioned whether the article meets the definition of news. Third, discussions touched on questions of journalism ethics. Finally, online commenters engaged in a meta-discourse, examining their own community, while journalists also paid attention to such discourse, recognizing audiences as part of the interpretive community engaged in reflecting about the boundaries of journalism.

Video Goes Vertical: Local News Videographers Discuss the Problems and the Potential of Vertical Video • Gino Canella, University of Colorado Boulder • By utilizing 15 in-depth interviews with current and former local television news videographers and editors, this paper examines vertical video and what impact it is having on the production of local TV news. I analyze (1) the discourse video professionals use to distinguish their work as professional while labeling 9×16 video “amateur,” (2) what role vertical video has on influencing video professionals’ daily newsroom responsibilities, and (3) where it fits within the business of local TV news.

WDBJ: When TV News Becomes the News, A Social Network Analysis • Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, UNO Social Media Lab, School of Communication • The purpose of this paper is to explore Twitter conversation related to the August 25, 2015 shooting deaths of Parker and Ward, as well as the injury of Gardner,during their WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia live report. The initial breaking news top Twitter accounts and hashtags were replaced with emerging topics and influencers, as the conversation shifted over time. The gun control debate activated a political conversation with polarized clusters, conspiracy theory videos, and overall shift from shooting event to gun control issues.

Are traditional journalism principles still alive and well in today’s local TV newsrooms? • Keren Henderson, Syracuse University; Michael Cremedas • This study surveyed 348 local TV journalists to learn whether—given the demands of the contemporary, conglomerated television news industry—they still adhere to traditional journalistic principles. The findings suggest that, by and large, reporters make a determined effort to uphold good journalism practices despite management pressures to produce increasingly higher volumes of news content more quickly and with fewer resources.

Audience Research and Web Features of Radio Stations in A Time of Uncertainty • Lu Wu, UNC-Chapel Hill; Daniel Riffe • This study examined news radio managers’ self-reported beliefs about their organizations’ marketing orientation and their Website features. Combining a national survey of news radio managers with data from a content analysis of radio station Websites and secondary data from industry resources, this study found that external factors had limited influence on marketing orientations in news radio stations and what determined radio stations’ Website features largely resided in the organizational goals and resources allocation.

When “News Experts” Became “Showmen”: The 1948 National Conventions and the Roots of Live Coverage • Marilyn Greenwald, Ohio University • “This paper reviews the 1948 political conventions – the nation’s first televised conventions– and discusses how the introduction of television into the political process parallels in some ways the role the Internet played in coverage of the 2004 conventions. Using both primary and secondary sources, the author will show that the introduction of television into the convention process was chaotic, turbulent, and often comical, but also tremendously eye opening for those in front of and behind the camera. The injection of the camera into the political process introduced the concept of “infotainment” by forcing correspondents to realize that the visual aspect of television made entertainers of all of them. This paper will have three specific purposes: first, it will review some of the details of coverage and discuss how those involved handled what today seem like mundane challenges: for instance, applying flattering makeup for the camera, coping with temperamental equipment, and filling hours of open airtime; second, the paper will point out similarities to today’s media environment — like today, journalism was undergoing a sea change brought on by a variety of factors triggered primarily by advances in technology; and third, it will offer examples that point to a departure by news managers in the definition of news – one that tilted in the direction of entertainment.”

Age nothing but a number? Experience’s impact on perceptions of journalistic norms • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado • This study examines how experience within the field of journalism affects perceptions of journalistic norms and success. Utilizing in-depth interviews with 53 digital journalists working in both legacy and digitally native newsrooms, the results show that veteran journalists (10+ years) and less-experienced (5 years or less) have differing views on both traditional norms and definitions of success. The results are interpreted through the lens of Robert Merton’s theory of cumulative advantage.

A History of Fallen Broadcast Journalists: Dying in the Line of Duty, at Home and Abroad and on Live TV • Raymond McCaffrey • This historical study examined how broadcast journalists have died on assignment, including the assassination of George Polk nearly 70 years ago and the recent fatal shootings of two Virginia journalists on live TV. The best known of the 110 U.S. fallen broadcast journalists on the Newseum’s Journalists Memorial died on foreign assignment. The New York Times covered about 73 percent of them compared to about 49 percent who perished while facing unimagined dangers at home.

Melodramatic animation in crime news and news information learning • Wai Han Lo; Benjamin Ka Lun Cheng • This study is conducted within the framework of dual-coding hypothesis, and it examines the effects that using melodramatic animation in crime news reports has on the learning of news information among older children in Hong Kong. For this study, 74 older children (mean age = 15.3) participated in an experiment that involved being exposed to news videos that either did or did not include melodramatic animation. The results showed that the participants learned news information better if it was presented with melodramatic animation. The social implications of the results are discussed.

2016 Abstracts

Destabilizing the Nation-State: News Coverage of Citizenship in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 • Alejandro Morales; Cristina Mislan, University of Missouri, Columbia • This study explores the discourse of citizenship in newspaper coverage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. A historical analysis of a twenty-year period reveals how news media have constructed citizenship as a problematic concept threatening to destabilize the nation-state. Such discourse reinforces exclusionary politics, where employers, immigrants, and bureaucratic institutions are positioned against one another. Furthermore, the study provides insight into the ways media help reinforce the boundaries of national sovereignty.

Cognitive Film Theory and the Representation of Corporate Bureaucracy as the Apotheosis of the Banality of Evil • Angela Rulffes, Syracuse University • This study advanced a unique perspective on the banality of evil by examining how it is depicted in film and television through portrayals of corporate wickedness. Specifically, this study used a cognitive film theory lens to analyze three works by Joss Whedon. The results suggest that Whedon portrays banality of evil in the corporate world and indicates, through his works, that breaking away from corporate dominance, particularly through individual liberation, is of critical importance.

A Cowgirl and a Descendant of Slaves: Comparing Newspaper and News Magazine Coverage of Sandra Day O’Connor in 1981 and Thurgood Marshall in 1967 • Boya Xu, University of Maryland • As the first female justice and the first African American justice, Sandra Day O’Connor and Thurgood Marshall have both set irreplaceable marks in the U.S. Supreme Court’s history as inspirational embodiments. This study employs a qualitative textual analysis and examines the two justices’ nomination and confirmation process under mainstream media’s spotlight. It also investigates whether gender and ethnic stereotypes were present in news coverage of the two history-making figures. Five major influential news publications were selected to serve as the source of the study. Research results show that gender and race played some roles in determining each nominee’s qualifications and overall impression in front of the Judiciary Committee, yet the roles were not major compared to the political game analysis that all five publications engaged in larger amount of texts. The liberal or conservative viewpoints each publication shares also contributed to the diverse finding results. It is concluded from this research that news analysis was largely influenced by reporting and organizational bias. And contemporary social movements often served as a direct, larger background for the news making process.

The Corporation as Fellow Advocate: Norfolk and Western Magazine’s Reification of the Corporate Persona in the Cause of Free Enterprise – 1949-1952 • Burton St. John III, Old Dominion University • An underexplored area of organizational rhetoric concerns how the corporation attempts to position itself as a humanlike persona that speaks out on issues that concern the average man. This study of the Norfolk and Western Magazine’s rhetoric in defense of free enterprise in the early 1950’s establishes one example of the rise of the corporate persona in the U.S. and the lingering implication that such a construct presents for the understanding and discussion of pressing issues in the United States.

Doing Journalism and Sex Research: A Sociology of Knowledge Approach • Chelsea Reynolds, University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication • This essay introduces a theory of sex reportage as normalizing discourse. It synthesizes the relationship between the normalizing gaze of sexuality studies and the normalizing gaze of news ideology. It extends the utility of representational perspectives when analyzing ideology in news content, including the importance of examining dominant-hegemonic media alongside potentially counter-hegemonic vernacular media. The essay provides methodological recommendations for analyzing sex reportage using a hybrid critical discourse analysis-grounded theory approach.

“You Have No Idea the Feeling of Insult”: Comparative Newspaper Discourses about Civil Rights • Christopher Frear, University of South Carolina • This study looks at four different types of newspapers — an African American weekly in South Carolina, a national African American weekly, a South Carolina white-run daily newspaper, and a national daily — and examines the discourses that each constructed over time and during four specific events in South Carolina civil rights lawyer and federal judge Matthew J. Perry’s career in the American South of the Jim Crow and civil rights era.

NPR, Marketplace, and the Sound of Finance • Diane Cormany, University of Minnesota • Abstract: Marketplace has self-consciously created a program that is different in tone, music, pacing, and even story selection from its financial news competitors. Yet it also claims the largest audience of any broadcast radio or television finance and business program. My paper uniquely combines political economy and generic analysis with theories of affect and financialization (the pervasiveness of finance capital) to demonstrate how Marketplace’s form interprets financial markets for its millions of listeners.

Alan M. Thomas’ Concept of the Active Audience in People Talking Back • Errol Salamon • In 1959, adult educator Alan M. Thomas outlined one of the first concepts of the active broadcast audience in Canada as a force for two-way communication and direct democracy. In 1979, Thomas created People Talking Back, a six-episode participatory television series, in order to facilitate democratic decision making outside of formal educational institutions. This paper brings together Thomas’ concept of the audience, his adult educational broadcasting scholarship, and archival research on People Talking Back.

Fan Representations and Corporate Media Hegemony in The Big Bang Theory • Heather McIntosh • The CBS series The Big Bang Theory (2007-) follows four nerdy friends who regularly engage a range of fandoms, offering an opportunity to engage fan representations through the ideological hegemony of a situation comedy. An examination of the show through themes of the fans’ participatory activities, media and merchandise consumption, and their social connections reveals that while the representations appear more positive, they offer limited range of fan behaviors that aligns with corporate media interests.

Aluta 2.0: A Qualitative Exploration of the emergence of social media as space for social movement contention in Ghana • Henry Boachi, Rutgers University • This interview-based study explores reasons why the #OccupyFlagStaffHouse movement in Ghana used social media – the least accessible form of media – as a mobilization tool, amidst a ubiquitous traditional mass media landscape. The study found that the usage of social media – Facebook and Twitter – was motivated by the skills of the movement members, the comparative anonymity it provides, desire to reach their primary social media-savvy audience, and to escalate the movement’s concerns beyond Ghana.

Necessary Complexity of Transnational Media Culture: K-pop in the West • Hyeri Jung, The University of Texas at Austin • By conducting close readings of Western fans’ reaction videos to K-pop and online users’ interactive enunciative productivity, this study aims to explore the theoretical validity of imperialism traditions, the nature of transnational media culture of K-pop, Western fans’ encoding/decoding of K-pop, and how and why their reception of the so-called hybridized K-pop creates ideological twists in global/international contexts. The ‘necessary complexity’ of interconnected audiences in ‘deterritorialized mediascapes’ is exemplified in K-pop.

Everything’s a Product: Reconciling the Commodification of Critique • Jared LaGroue, The Pennsylvania State University • Critical scholars face a frustrating ethical dilemma when critique is commodified: how do we reconcile the pleasure/truth of a text when its material production serves contrary capitalist ends? Is it possible to simultaneously celebrate a narrative while condemning its medium? The Lego Movie serves as a relevant pedagogical device for exploring the tension between culture industry and cultural studies arguments that elucidate this dilemma. I first conduct comparative textual and material analyses of The Lego Movie and Screen Junkies’ Honest Trailers parody of the film. I then develop a theoretical-categorical schema in attempt to map the potential normative-axiological positions available for reconciling the ethical dilemma of commodified critique. I conclude by applying this schema to the pedagogical example of The Lego Movie, and by offering potential applications of the reflexive practices associated with utilization of this model, and how this exploration aids efforts to achieve axiological congruence.

News media development in the Afghan case: The enigma of news media “capture” • Jeannine Relly, The University of Arizona; Margaret Zanger, The University of Arizona • This qualitative study of news media development utilizing the Afghan case examines the challenges facing Afghan journalists (N = 30) nearly 15 years after the fall of the Taliban, more than a decade of news media training, and the year that the U.S. military mission ended in the country. We found that although the majority of journalists were optimistic about the level of professionalism reached in the country, there were constraints at the organization level and from pressures outside of news outlets that made conducting journalistic work remarkable in the current environment. We suggest that future research could look more closely at both media development and the paradox of news media “capture.” We suggest a typology could further refine this work with six distinct forms of capture (economic, political, cultural, legal, bureaucratic, societal) that could be further developed by country.

“Guns don’t kill people…selfies do”: The narcissism fallacy in media coverage of selfie-related deaths • Jessica Hennenfent, University of Georgia • Through a textual analysis of six major news outlets, this research argues that a misinterpretation of the original Narcissus myth leads to a fallacious critique of selfies. Instead, the language used to describe selfie-related deaths indicates exhibitionism is a more accurate description of the selfie-taking phenomenon. This discursive shift parallels the analog to digital shift, in which it is not enough to capture one’s self image, but the image also needs to be shared.

“Multicultural-phobia” in Rumors: Why Rumors about Jasmine Lee Matter • Jinsook Kim, The University of Texas at Austin • This study explores rumors about Jasmine Lee, the first non-ethnic naturalized Korean lawmaker. Although rumors are often dismissed as the distribution of false information, this paper foregrounds rumors as political discourse that reflects certain social conditions and political anxieties. Since Lee is a symbolic figure of Korean multiculturalism, I argue that the consistent production and circulation of rumors about her is crystallized from the tension between state-led multiculturalism, and Koreans’ anxieties around changing nationhood

From overt to covert: An analysis of HIV/AIDS PSAs from 1989-1994 and 2009-2014 • Kellie Stanfield, University of Missouri • Since 1981, the CDC has released PSAs about HIV/AIDS. Despite this effort, more than 1.1 million people in the United States have the infection. Using media tropes as a theoretical concept and analytical method, this study engages in textual analysis of the CDC’s first televised PSA campaign and its most recent campaign. The analysis reveals the PSAs are socially and historically bound, and shows health campaigns can provide insights into complex cultural and social values.

Knowledge ghettos: The end of the public sphere? • Kevin Curran, Univ of Oklahoma • Habermas wrote of the need for informed debate in the public sphere. Donohue, Tichenor and Olien’s knowledge gap theory said those with more knowledge have more power. Applying knowledge gap theory to media, Bard suggests people who receive information from partisan sources are living in a knowledge ghetto. This paper will examine Bard’s propositions through audience measurements, electoral results or public actions. The result is a detriment to the public sphere.

Who Uses Dewey and Why? Remembering and Forgetting John Dewey in Communication Studies • Lana Rakow, University of North Dakota • Despite the prominence of communication in John Dewey’s philosophy, the field has a history both of trying to remember and of remembering in order to dismiss his ideas. By mapping his place in speech, rhetoric, journalism, and mass communication, this critical review demonstrates there has been too little attention to Dewey’s work; a conflation with pragmatism, progressivism, and the Chicago School; and received histories that obscure his approach to power and knowledge.

Simulacra-A Concept Explication • Leah Stone, Colorado State University • American media use simulacra across various media platforms to foster a synergistic consumer “hyperreality” of an image or object. The creation of media simulacra, a generation of models of a real object without origin or reality, defines American consumption culture. This explication will examine the concept simulacra and its key dimensions and epistemology, uses in both media and other research fields, and how simulacra may be refined and used as a lens for future research.

Habermas’s Account of Public Judgment: Future Directions for the Age of Networked Communication • Lewis Friedland; Thomas Hove • This paper analyzes the degree to which Habermas’s theories remain useful for evaluating the quality of public opinion in an age of networked communication. First, we review his account of how the media system enables societies to generate considered public opinion. Second, we explain why his description of the media system is outdated. Third, we identify a series of problems that need to be addressed by any theory of rational democracy.

How to understand a woman director? : A perspective of Chinese women audience members on Ann Hui’s The Golden Era (2014) v Li Chen, Syracuse University v The issue that this study addresses is the unprivileged status of women directors and women audiences in the male-dominated film industry in China. The purpose of this study is to use the concept of gender practice to explore how Chinese women audience members make sense of Ann Hui and her films. 18 in-depth interviews were conducted. The results indicated that ordinary Chinese women audience members are still unfamiliar with the concept of gender.

When Sexual Assault Becomes the Story: The Gendered War Reporter in the Media Text • Lindsay Palmer • This paper conducts an analysis of the CBS 60 Minutes interview that followed correspondent Lara Logan’s sexual assault during the 2011 Egyptian uprising. Drawing upon a mixed set of methods deployed in the humanist field of film and media studies, I first provide some important background information on the cultural context in which Logan’s assault unfolded, analyzing the journalistic discourse on the broader coverage of the 2011 uprisings in Egypt. In order to examine this discourse, I conduct a critical reading of the English-language journalism trade articles published during the winter of 2011. I also draw upon the professional insights and cultural performances of 20 journalists I have interviewed, each of whom covered the 2011 protests. After providing this context, I finally turn to a textual analysis of Logan’s interview, illuminating the contradictory ways in which she is represented in that media text. In doing this, I argue that while the CBS video claims to facilitate Logan’s belated transcendence of Tahrir Square—casting her as an agent who can “speak out” on behalf of female war reporters—the interview ultimately represents Logan as the white, feminine victim of a racialized other: the abstract “Egyptian male,” who cannot be trusted to pilot Egypt toward a new political future.

Always Already Hailed: Negotiating Memory and Identity at the Newseum • Lori Amber Roessner, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Carrie Teresa, Niagara University • This autoethnography considers the experiences of two media scholars at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on August 10, 2013, and their digital return in February 2016. It considers the Newseum’s role in how we remember and why we forget certain aspects of American journalism and the relationship between this institutional site of memory and our individual and collective identities (D’Amore & Meriwether, 2013; Kitch, 2002; Schudson, 1995). The self-reflexive, autobiographical methodological form allows the historians of media and culture to consider the calls of Zelizer (1995), Kitch (2006), and Hume (2010) for more conceptual clarity in our understandings of public, social, cultural, and collective memory; for new understandings of the reception and negotiation of media memory-texts and sites of memory; and for the operation of memory in physical and digital landscapes, respectively.

A Normative History of Identifying Native-Americans as Mascots: The Redskins Case Study • Meghan Delsite; Bob Trumpbour, Penn State Altoona • The use of Native-Americans for team names in American sports teams has elicited a broad range of reactions in media, ranging from anger to aggressive defense of such practices. This research focuses on the use of the Redskins name in professional sports and the use of Native-American mascots in general as a practice that has within it an implicit and explicit power-dynamic. Normative approaches are presented to suggest a resolution that transcends power-based ideologies.

Identity, Representation and Travel: Negotiated and Transactional Communication in Tourism • Meta G. Carstarphen, University of Oklahoma • Discourse about tourism is not just about a living, breathing space. It is a narrative about ourselves, if we are tourists, and how we see ourselves in relationship to others. Considering Stuart Hall’s key ideas about identity and representation, this paper argues for a new critique about how the experience of travel is constructed in journalism, marketing and public relations.

Please exit through the gift shop: On the ethics of the 9/11 Memorial Museum Store • Miles Sari, Washington State University • Is it ethical for the 9/11 Museum to have a gift shop? Adopting Bandura’s notion of moral disengagement, this paper addresses this question by arguing that the shop is unethical because it forges an inhumane commercial space where visitors’ anxiety and need for closure is negotiated through consuming souvenirs. By capitalizing on the deaths of dehumanized 9/11 victims, under the guise of sustaining the memorial, visitors are alienated from the devastation associated with Ground Zero.

Mobile Masculinities: An Investigation of Networked Masculinities in Gay Dating Apps • Nathian Rodriguez, Texas Tech University; Jennifer Huemmer, Texas Tech University; Lindsey Blumell, Copenhagen Business School/Texas Tech University • This study argues that hegemonic masculinity and inclusive masculinity are conciliatory when applied to networked masculinities in homosexual spaces. It contends hegemonic masculinity is a macro-level process that informs micro-level processes of inclusive masculinity. Employing a textual analysis of 500 individual profiles in gay dating apps (Scruff, GROWLr, GuySpy and Hornet), findings indicate networked masculinities informed by hegemonic masculinity. A process of “mascing” also resulted from the data.

What were newspapers for? Artistic and literary responses to the 2009 newspaper crisis • Nicholas Gilewicz, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania • 2009 newspaper closures caused extensive reflection in journalism about newspapers’ future and generated responses from interrelated fields. Two case studies—the 2010 New Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition The Last Newspaper and the 2009 literary journal McSweeney’s publication of the San Francisco Panorama newspaper prototype, and news coverage of each—illustrate how representatives of the art and literary worlds mediatize the newspaper materially and conceptually as a mnemonic deposit of sociocultural ideas about newspaper journalism.

Constructing a “First” First Lady Through Memory: The Case of China’s Peng Liyuan • Qi Ling, The University of Iowa; Dan Berkowitz, University of Iowa • Our study analyzed how cultural memory of previous and contemporary first ladies was used as journalistic devices to make sense of the unusual case of Peng Liyuan, the current first lady of China. When faced with reporting international news in little-understood cultural dimensions, the media turn to memory of the familiar to make the news resonant, thus reaffirming the cultural and gender values that are associated with the a typical Western first lady.

Living with Images of Suffering: A Critical Examination of News Photographs Depicting the Dead • Richard Lewis, The University of Southern Mississippi • This paper examines the historic development and contemporary reactions to images of corpses published in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Framed by a discussion of Susan Sontag’s concern over the anesthetic effect of photographs of suffering and Stuart Hall concept of preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings, it argues that Hurricane Katrina represented a rare circumstance when shocking images of dead bodies were published by the commercial press without presenting obvious and overt challenge to hegemony.

Discourse and Localization of Children’s Rights in Youth-Produced Digital Media in the Global South • Sanjay Asthana, Middle Tennessee State University • Through the study of four UNICEF supported youth media initiatives from Palestine, Israel, Ghana, and South Africa, the paper will theorize and generate new empirical knowledge about the encounter between constructions of youth in rights based discourses of UNICEF and young people’s digital media narratives. The research on children and youth media practices, encountered instances where the universal discourse of children’s rights does not connect with the local realities of youth (constraints), but found that young people translate children’s rights to construct new meanings to suit their local contexts and experiences (possibilities). It is this double dialectic, of constraints and possibilities, revealed in youth digital media narratives that the article examines in greater detail, and offers reflections on the interconnectedness among the triptych children’s rights, digital media, and youth life-worlds.

Precarious copycats: The subaltern problem in Shanzhai culture • Sara Liao, Department of Radio-TV-Film, The University of Texas at Austin • This study evaluates the discourse of Shanzhai culture, that is, the copycat phenomenon, in its historical, social-political, and cultural context. A close reading of Shanzhai cellphones and fashion copycats complicates the subaltern problem which posits stable social relations between elites and subalterns or bourgeoisie and workers. In contemporary China, I see precarity embodies both a material condition of one’s socio-economic position, and an anthropological or existential condition of ontologically uncertainty, both of which intensify and approach closer to each other. Precarity in Shanzhai reflects and constitutes today’s sensibility of class, labor, and gender. Today’s sensation of Shanzhai culture in general and Shanzhai fashion in particular, where women make fashion copycats, challenges the way we perceive and experience the precariousness under neoliberalism.

Journalists’ Normative Discursive Constructions of Political Viewpoint Diversity • Tim Vos, University of Missouri; David Wolfgang, University of Missouri • This interview-based study with 18 U.S. political journalists explores how they conceptualize political viewpoint diversity as a journalistic norm in a time in which news and the news media ecology are changing. The political journalists still embrace the normative role of providing audiences with a range of political viewpoints, but have assumptions about democracy that seem to thwart their intentions. The implications for field theory are considered.

“LinkedIn is my office; Facebook my living room, Twitter the neighborhood bar”: Media scholars’ liminal use of social media for peer and public communication • Victoria LaPoe, WKU; Candi Carter Olson, Utah State University; Stine Eckert • This study grounds 45 interviews with media scholars in liminality theory and analyzes how they use social media as they transition to an offline and online communication paradigm. Scholars employ personal strategies to decide if and how to integrate social media into their professional lives for peer and public communication. Scholars struggle with a double bind of needing to be social media savvy while worrying about career consequences of posting publicly. Few best practices exist.

Reproducing the “Imprint of Power:” Framing the “Creative Class” in Putin’s Russia • Volha Kananovich; Frank Durham • This textual analysis traces the framing of the 2011-2011 anti-Kremlin protests in Russia by the nation’s most popular newspaper Komsomol’skaya Pravda. Findings show that the newspaper shifted its position from discounting the seriousness of the protests to adopting an increasingly negative frame of the protesters once the Putin government made its opposition clear. The pattern shown here describes the abandonment of the newspaper’s nominally middle-ground position in favor of adhering to the state’s political power.

The Spectacular Mo’Ne Davis: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in U.S. Belonging • Zachary Vaughn, Indiana University • Building on Sarah Projansky’s spectacular girlhood proposition, I investigate how Mo’ne Davis complicates our understanding of national belonging in the United States. Davis first became popular in the U.S. mediascape for her phenomenal success in boys Little League baseball, in which she pitched her team into the Little League World Series tournament. Primarily, I am fascinated with a short documentary produced by Spike Lee: “Throw Like a Girl.” I argue that Mo’ne Davis can be seen as a case study in how issues related to gender, race, and perceived sexuality can inform us of the deeply demarcated divisions always already infused in the United States as an imagined community. Davis, and girls like her, expose these ideological and cultural instantiations and can allow us to deconstruct and then reconstruct a new national consciousness that is held together by both our similarities and our differences to begin the process of imagining the U.S. as a melting pot in the truest sense.

2016 Abstracts