The Legend that fell from his Bicycle: The Effects of Fanship on Athlete Support and Non-Profit Giving • Greg Armfield, New Mexico State University; Kristina Drumheller; R. Nicholas Gerlich; Enyonam Osei-Hwere, West Texas A & M University; Emily Kinsky • Once the most famous cyclist in America Lance Armstrong and the Livestrong Foundation, which he founded have suffered a fall from grace in recent months. Lance Armstrong after years of denial has admitted to using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED) and was asked by his Livestrong Foundation to resign from Chairman of the Board, and later resign from the Board. Now with out their iconic leader this study explored the current perceptions of Lance Armstrong and the Armstrong foundation as well as contemplating the foundations future.

From Pride to Smugness and the Nationalism Between: Olympic Media Consumption Effects on Nationalism Across the Globe • Andrew Billings, University of Alabama; Natalie Brown, University of Alabama; Kenon Brown, University of Alabama; Qing Guo, Chengdu Sport University; Mark Leeman, Northern Kentucky University; Simon Licen, Washington State University; David Novak, Erasmus University; David Rowe, University of Western Sydney • To measure the effects of Olympic media viewing, six nations (Australia, Bulgaria, China, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the United States) were surveyed in the five days immediately after the 2012 London Olympics. A total of 1,025 respondents answered questions pertaining to four measures of nationalism: patriotism, nationalism, internationalism, and smugness. Amount of Olympic viewing resulted in significantly higher scores for patriotism, nationalism, and smugness, but not internationalism. Additionally, differences by nation are reported, revealing considerable differences in nationalism measures among the six nations studied; for instance, the United States was the lowest of the six nations regarding internationalism, yet highest of the six nations regarding smugness. Conclusions related to cultivation theory and the role of Olympic media content are offered.

When Crises Change the Game: Establishing a Theory of Sports Crisis Communication • Natalie Brown, University of Alabama; Kenon Brown, University of Alabama • In order to conduct a proper evaluation of sports-related crises, scholars have called for a sports-specific crisis communication theory that moves beyond the corporate focus of Coombs’ (2012) Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the individual focus of Benoit’s (1995) Image Repair Theory. Coombs’ (2012) SCCT includes three vital parts that are used to systematically evaluate crisis response: (1) a list of crisis types that are grouped by the level of responsibility attributed to each; (2) a list of possible crisis response strategies, (3) a theoretical link between the two lists. Thus, this study used two questionnaires to formulate three different clusters of sports crises that encompassed twelve different crisis types: Environmental/Individual Crises (low crisis responsibility), Rules and Norms Violations (moderate crisis responsibility), and Organizational Mismanagement (strong crisis responsibility). These clusters provide the necessary foundation for a sports-specific crisis communication theory by evaluating the level of organizational blame that exists when a crisis occurs.

Does Culture Matter in Sport? The Moderating Role of Cultural Identity in Self-Expressive Identification and Sport Engagement • Kuan-Ju Chen, University of Georgia; Joe Phua, University of Georgia • This research examines and extends the literature of sport fandom and self-expressive identification with cultural identity among Asian sports fans. Study 1 tested the moderating role of cultural identity between player identification and team identification. Study 2 examined sports fans’ perception of sponsor-player fit and positive brand outcomes. The synthesis of both studies contributes to establishing the “fan psychology” of Asian sports consumers who identify with Asian athletes and its impact on their buying behavior.

Intermedia Attribute Agenda-Setting in the Newspaper of Record: Horse-Racing Coverage in 2012 • Bryan Denham • In 2012 the New York Times published a series of investigative reports addressing doping and fatal breakdowns in U.S. horse racing. This study examined the extent to which the Times transferred the salience of certain story attributes to regional and national news outlets. In addition to the Times itself, national news organizations included the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, as well as CNN, NBC and NPR, with regional coverage coming from the Albuquerque Journal. Among national news outlets, reports appearing after the Times began its investigation were significantly more likely to mention (a) an injured or deceased horse, (b) equine drug use, and (c) a suspension or disciplinary action taken against one or more individuals associated with horse racing. The study concludes that, in addition to its capacity to transfer object salience, the New York Times also stands to affect how other news organizations characterize issues and events.

Practicing promotion: A case study of a professional athlete’s Twitter use • Jason Genovese, Bloomsburg University of PA • This case study focuses on NFL star Darrelle Revis’ use of Twitter. Revis mainly devoted tweets to interacting with fans, friends and other athletes and to promoting his brand and that of his main sponsor, Nike. While this study extends the definition of what constitutes a promotional tweet, it also suggests that professional athletes may be overlooking Twitter’s value as a way to bypass traditional sports media for the purposes of sharing information.

The Essence of Social Media Strategy in Big 10 Athletic Departments: A Phenomenological Approach • Makayla Hipke; Frauke Hachtmann, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • This phenomenological study used a qualitative approach to develop an understanding of the essence of social media strategy developed and deployed in Big 10 athletic departments. In particular, this study attempted to understand what the participants experienced with the phenomenon and how they experienced it. The sample included four Big 10 athletic department officials that held social media leadership positions in their respective programs. The data consisted of in-depth interviews, which were analyzed using a phenomenological approach, consisting of horizontalization, clusters of meaning, textural and structural descriptions, and a narrative of the essence of the phenomenon. Six themes emerged, including (1) connecting with target audiences, (2) varied approaches in coordination of postings, (3) athletic communication as content gatekeepers, (4) desire to incorporate sponsors and generate revenue, (5) focusing on building loyalty through engagement, and (6) challenges of negativity and metrics.

More of a Numbers Game than Ever? A Longitudinal Examination of the Change in Frequency, Type, and Presentation Form of Statistics Used in NFL Broadcasts • Dustin Hahn; Matthew VanDyke, Texas Tech University • Though there remains great interest in the structure of sports media, no study has examined the use of statistics within these broadcasts. This study examines NFL broadcasts across its 50 year history in order to identify changes in frequency, type, and presentation form. The study revealed an emphasis on individual player statistics and recognized an increase in on-screen graphics while noticing a decrease in aural references among other results. Implications are discussed.

Diversifying the sports department and covering women’s sports: A survey of sports editors • Marie Hardin, Penn State University; Pamela Laucella, Indiana University; Steve Bien-Aime, Penn State University; Dunja Antunovic, Pennsylvania State University • This study involves a survey of sports editors about gender-related issues in hiring and coverage. The results suggest that the values and beliefs of sports editors have shifted over the past decade in ways that could lead to more opportunity for women as journalists and to eventual improvements in coverage of female athletes and women’s sports. They also suggest when sports editors commit to hiring women, they find women who can move up and become leaders.

Sports and Gangs: The Color-Blind Construction of Deviant Blackness in Sports Illustrated and CBS News • Justin Hudson, University of Maryland, College Park • This project critically analyzes a joint report by CBS News and Sports Illustrated on the issue of gangs and sports. Far from informing the public on the dangers of street gangs and their perverse influence on high school and college sports, the report serves as an example of how African American male athletes are stereotyped as deviant without the use of overt racial language.

How the Cleveland Call & Post Framed LeBron James Before and After The Decision • Paul Husselbee, Southern Utah University; Ray Jones, Southern Utah University • Using framing as a theoretical framework, this study focuses on how the Cleveland Call & Post portrayed LeBron James both before and after he announced his decision to leave Cleveland for the Miami Heat in 2010. The study aims is to determine whether the black press framed James with a valence that was favorable, neutral, or unfavorable, and to determine to what extent, if any, the black press maintained its traditional role as black advocate.

From bad buck to White hope: Mediating Sonny Liston, 1958-1965 • Phillip Hutchison, University of Kentucky • This study illustrates how mainstream journalists employed racial stereotypes to depict controversial African American boxer Sonny Liston in the early 1960s. The historical-critical analysis employs Raymond Williams’ theory of hegemony to account for the vacillating media portrayals of the boxer over time, particularly before and after Muhammad Ali emerged as a social problem for White America. This perspective highlights both the practices and the social fissures that defined sports and media promotions during that era.

Sports Spectatorship and Mood – Analyzing the Impact of Televised Sports on Viewers’ Mood and Judgments • Johannes Knoll, Würzburg University; Christiana Schallhorn, Würzburg University; Holger Schramm • Feelings evoked by watching sport television influence viewers’ judgments, following feeling-as-information theory. The present study investigates mood effects of viewing televised football FIFA World Cup games on personal as well as economic estimations of viewers. A quasi-experimental design was employed, assessing moods and estimations of viewers before and after a win and a defeat of the German national team. The results support feeling-as-information theory, as viewers reported enhanced mood and estimations after watching the victory.

Was Jackie Robinson Signed to Right a 40-Year Wrong? • Chris Lamb, Indiana University-Indianapolis • On October 23, 1945, the Montreal Royals, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ AAA team, announced it had signed Jackie Robinson, ending professional baseball’s color line. Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn president, said that he had given a lot of thought to racial discrimination since his days coaching baseball at Ohio Wesleyan University in 1903. Rickey recalled that during one road trip to South Bend, Indiana, a hotel clerk denied the team’s black ballplayer, Charles “Tommie” Thomas, a room. Rickey asked if the ballplayer would be allowed to sleep on a cot in his room. Later that evening, Rickey saw Thomas rubbing his skin, tearfully saying, “Black skin. Black skin. If only I could make them white. Rickey said the scene haunted him and he vowed he would sign blacks if given the opportunity. Did the South Bend incident really happen? How was Thomas treated as a black player at Ohio Wesleyan? More importantly, why did Rickey wait 40 years to right a wrong? This paper looks at Rickey’s claim by determining that his interest in confronting racism was indeed long standing. In addition, Rickey may have rarely, if ever, mentioned Thomas to reporters in the decades preceding the signing of Robinson, the ballplayer was more than a passing acquaintance in Rickey’s long and significant life. The research for this paper comes from newspaper and magazine articles, biographies, and, from Ohio Wesleyan University archives, including newspaper coverage of Thomas between 1903-1906 in the college’s newspaper, the Transcript.

“Talent Wins Games, But Teamwork Wins Championships”: The Effects of Cross-Border Strategic Brand Alliance on Sports Brand Evaluation • Jin Kyun Lee, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; Taesoo Ahn, Merrimack College; Wei-Na Lee, The University of Texas at Austin • This experimental study examines the effects of country-of-origin (COO) fit on consumers’ attitudes toward sports brands in cross-border strategic brand alliance (SBA). Cross-border SBA positively influenced attitudes toward the partner in low COO fit condition. In high COO fit condition, support for the effect of cross-border SBA was found for the partner brand, not the host brand. This study finds that cross-border SBA is helpful for the partner brand in enhancing brand attitudes.

God’s (White) Quarterback: Tim Tebow, Religion and Enduring News Values • Michael Mirer, University of Wisconsin • Quarterback Tim Tebow “led the league in controversy” during 2011, a distinction often credited to controversy about his very public faith. This paper argues that Tebow’s faith was less a factor in the coverage than his status as a symbolic representation of conservative white racial identity. Using Gans’ enduring values in news coverage, it argues that Tebow tapped into a version of “small-town pastoralism” that accompanied political shifts in the U.S. since the 1970s.

What Sports Journalism Scholars Need to Know: Four Areas of Student-Athlete Privacy Invasion • Sada Reed, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper explains the laws that have been applied to four common types of student-athlete privacy invasions: Education records, names or likenesses, surveillance, and forced disclosures of information. By understanding how the law has been applied to these cases, sports journalism scholars can better understand how student-athlete privacy invasion cases will be interpreted in future cases. This is of particular interest, as technological advances may result in new legal and ethical challenges. Covering these events may be problematic for journalists if they do not understand how the law has been applied in the past.

Running With Social Media: Social Media Use, Athletic Identity, and Perceived Competence • Joanne Romero; Thomas Kelleher • Applying theory from communication and sport psychology, this study identified relationships between social media use and other factors related to marathon running. Dual samples of marathoners were surveyed. Results indicated social media use and athletic identity were correlated, and both factors were associated with observability of peers’ marathon activity via social media. Observability correlated with perceived competence, but perceived competence did not correlate significantly with actual competence. A model for future research is proposed.

From Yellow to Blue: Exploring Lance Armstrong’s Self-Presentation on Twitter • Marion Hambrick, University of Louisville; Evan Frederick, University of Southern Indiana; Jimmy Sanderson, Clemson Universityh • This research explored how cyclist Lance Armstrong used Twitter to self-present during 2012, a turbulent year in his career, as he was subjected to investigations from cycling governing bodies. Armstrong’s tweets during 2012 were subjected to a thematic analysis. Results indicated that Armstrong’s self-presentation allowed his followers to see his athletic commitment, personality, and advocacy efforts. The results suggest that athletes and celebrities who display a multi-faceted self-presentation embolden identification and attachment with followers and introduce competing media narratives surrounding their identity.

Welcome to the Big Leagues: An Examination of the Sports Homepage Content Architecture of Large-Market News Organizations • Tim Wulfemeyer, Amy Schmitz Weiss • This study examines the content architecture of the sports homepages of large-market news media organizations to determine what online features (multimedia, interactivity, social media) are being used to attract and inform audiences. Results show that newspapers and television stations are using multimedia, interactivity, and social media more than radio stations; however, the majority of the news media organizations are not maximizing the use and potential of such features.

Brand New Game: An Exploratory Study of How Sports Reporters are Using Social Media to Create a Personal Brand • Brad Schultz, University of Mississippi; Mary Lou Sheffer, University of Southern Mississippi • A theory of branding was applied to see if conditions exist for sports reporters to brand themselves separate from their media outlets. A questionnaire was sent to sports reporters (and non-sports reporters) to measure their attitudes related to branding. Results indicated that sports reporters place a high value on branding. Relevant findings include an emphasis on uniqueness to create a personal brand, and the need for media outlets to become more proactive with social media.

Post, Post, Post for the Home Team: Incentives for Beginning and Continuing Discussion in Baseball Blogs • Aaron Veenstra • Sports fan blogs provide key new outlets for fan engagement with live games and with each other. This study examines how and how much fans became engaged with discussion of live baseball games in 2012, across 16 SBNation.com blogs. Three areas of influence are examined – team-related and schedule-related pre-game factors, and in-game factors. Results show team success and weekday game attract new discussion participants, while high scoring and weekend games prompt the most extensive participation.

The tweet life of Erin and Kirk: A gendered analysis of professional sports broadcasters’ self-presentation on Twitter • Melinda Weathers, Clemson University; Jimmy Sanderson, Clemson Universityh; Pauline Matthey; Alexia Grevious; Maggie Tehan; Samantha Warren • Social media has been embraced by the sports world at an extraordinary pace, and as such, has become a way for sports broadcasters to redefine their roles as celebrities. However, given the gender bias inherent in sports, it is plausible that differences exist between female and male sports broadcasters’ self-presentation on Twitter. This study employed content analyses, guided by Goffman’s (1959) seminal theory of self-presentation to compare Erin Andrews and Kirk Herbstreit’s tweets during the 2012-2013 college football season. Findings indicate that both broadcasters self-presentation fell along traditional gender lines as Andrews primarily discussed personal aspects, whereas Herbstreit largely provided sports-related commentary and analysis. The results suggest that although Twitter provides an avenue for female sports broadcasters to break down gender barriers, it currently serves to reify their roles in sports broadcasts.

Shut out by coaches • Scott Winter, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • Sports editors, columnists and beat reporters from newspapers who cover football teams from major Bowl Championship Series conferences find their access to players and coaches diminishing or diminishing dramatically since they began their careers. Though they attribute limited access to many factors – from the exclusive access of television contracts and in-house university media to the influx of nontraditional media and general media-relations interference – the journalists primarily blame their inability to do their jobs effectively on coaches. Some of them believe in fighting back, particularly at public institutions, but others argue that newspaper journalists must simply get more creative. In an exploratory study, this paper seeks to find the causes of access problems for newspaper sports journalists and start a conversation about possible solutions.

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Coping with smart phones ‘distractions’ in a college classroom • Kehbuma Langmia, Bowie State University; Amy Glass, John Hopkins • The influx of smart phones in most college classroom is impacting instruction in a way that was never anticipated. Thus, a survey of full-time faculty members at a local university in the United States was conducted to test three hypotheses, followed by a one-on-one interview with a random sample of the same respondents to ascertain the overall effect of smart phones in the classroom. Results showed conflicting approaches by faculty on how to handle the situation. While some faculty members use smart phones for pedagogic reasons and experience positive results, most of them apply strict classroom phone policy with little success. Thus, a university social media tolerant policy for everyone to abide by in the 21st century seems to be the solution.

Teach thyself: The surest path to digital literacy • Yunjuan Luo; Randy Reddick, Texas Tech University; Sha Li • This pilot study examines digital literacy models suggested by recent scholarship and offers a refined theoretical model for understanding three dimensions of digital literacy. Involving 207 college students, the study found that students were digitally savvy but did not apply their expertise toward social or political participation. Students whose digital learning was self-taught scored significantly higher on digital literacy measures than those who relied more on school, friends, or family to gain digital literacy.

Multimedia Journalism Professors on an Island: Resources, Support Lacking at Small Programs • Elia Powers, University of Maryland-College Park; Jacqueline Incollingo, University of Maryland • This study examines how multimedia journalism professors at small and large programs assess the resources and support they receive, as well as their pedagogical challenges. In-depth interviews revealed that multimedia professors often operate in isolation from their colleagues. Professors from small programs were far likelier to report being hampered by lack of institutional resources and teaching a subject matter that is separate from the interests and knowledge of colleagues rooted in traditional journalism production.

Preparing Students for New Challenges: A Learner-Centered Approach for the 21st Century Journalism Education • Mohammad Yousuf, University of Oklahoma • This theoretical paper summarizes the scholarly and professional discussions on how journalism should be taught in the 21st century. It compares and contrasts theories and models of journalism education with Weimer’ (2002) perspective on teaching. Learner-centered teaching is proposed as a helpful approach to make journalism education more dynamic and meet the demands of the new environment. Finally, it discussed applications of five learner-centered teaching techniques to journalism education.

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Reviving High School Journalism in South Dakota: A Research-Based Approach • Jessica Jensen, South Dakota State University; Mary Arnold, South Dakota State University • This paper describes the Summit working to revive high school journalism in South Dakota and the research that inspired it. Over 90 percent of high schools in the state and nationwide offer some kind of journalism. This paper examines the reality masked by those numbers and makes recommendations for improving participation. It also discusses the Summit, a project to revive and update high school journalism statewide. These recommendations can be easily applied or adapted for use in other states.

Big Tweets on Campus: College Newspapers’ Use of Twitter • Kris Boyle, Creighton University; Carol Zuegner, Creighton University • The authors examined Twitter use among campus newspapers, analyzing a sample of Twitter pages from 25 award-winning campus publications and coding for the frequency, content, and interactivity of the tweets. This study revealed these newspapers were tweeting most often during daytime hours and most tweets were about campus-based news. Unlike mainstream newspapers, the publication frequency of these college newspapers and the number of users following their Twitter pages were tied to the newspapers’ tweet frequency.

Student News 2.0: An Ethnographic Examination • Meredith Clark, UNC-Chapel Hill • This ethnographic study goes inside the digital student newsroom to explore exactly how “the inmates run the asylum.” Using semi-structured interviews from 12 participants working on a mobile-optimized summer news project, the study provides insights on the work practices of the digital student newsroom. Validated through the use of textual analysis and member checks, the findings present five key concepts that are immediately applicable as part of a reflexive pedagogy in student digital media production.

Tipping Point: The impact of high school racial demographics on the presence of student newspapers in Georgia • Joseph Dennis, The University of Georgia; Carolyn Crist, The University of Georgia; Chloe Hargrave • This study examines Georgia high schools, applying sociological “tipping point” principles to determine if racial demographics of the school relate to the presence of student newspapers. The study yields significant results, showing that once school populations dip below 70% white, they are less likely to have a student newspaper. It also shows that highly segregated majority-white schools are more likely to have a student newspaper than highly segregated majority-nonwhite schools.

Survey of Campus Readership Habits: Are College Students Reading Newspapers for Community and Political News? • Jeffrey Hedrick, Jacksonville State University • Students at a midsize southern university (N=241) were surveyed for newspaper readership habits with emphasis on acquisition of political news. Student were asked their preference(s) for campus newspaper content, currently a weekly newspaper including little to no local or national news, while infrequently covering stories not related to the campus environment. Findings suggest students are not reading campus newspapers, and do not prefer local newspapers either, but have some interest in local community news.

The Effects of Public Opinion on Student Speech Policies • Karla Kennedy, University of Oregon • This research is concerned with how media coverage of the student speech Supreme Court case, Morse v. Frederick could potentially affect school districts’ student speech and student publication policies by producing frames. In particular, this study focuses on the framing of student speech, public opinion, and public policy. School districts student speech and student publications policies were content analyzed as a surrogate of public opinion. The study found that the media framed the case as more about illegal drug usage than student free expression, leading to very little change in the states’ policies.

A Preliminary Overview of the Early History of High School Journalism in the U.S.: ~1775-1925 • Bruce Konkle, University of South Carolina • Mainstream journalism has its synoptic history books, but to find a succinct history of high school journalism one must secure information from multiple sources: journal articles, theses and dissertations, scholastic journalism textbooks, state department of education curriculum archives and scholastic press association publications, among other resources. This project consolidates and updates fragmented information concerning the early years of scholastic journalism (~1775-1925) to begin creating a preliminary overview of student publications and journalism courses in America’s high schools, an initial step towards writing an in-depth history.

Texting, Tweeting and Blogging by the Book: A Qualitative Look at How Introductory Media Writing Textbooks Frame New Media Instruction • Jeffrey Riley, University of Florida • This was a qualitative content analysis, with some quantitative elements, that examined 11 different introductory journalism textbooks to see how the books addressed three different new media components – blogging, social media, and mobile media. The textbooks are the ones used by the top-10 journalism schools by enrollment. The study found that there are vast levels of inconsistency with introductory journalism texts. Some books integrated the three components throughout their entirety while some covered the components isolated in chapters about digital journalism. Some books framed the components as things to be feared, as frivolous toys of the digital age, while some framed the components as amazing ways to interact with a modern audience; some books contained instructional materials teaching budding journalists how to write well-made blogs, while some books simply discuss the components in passing. As the use of new media continues to grow year-to-year, it becomes increasingly important to understand the texts and tools being used to first introduce new journalists to the things they will need to know.

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Silencing Religious Dialogue: Religious Communication Apprehension among Muslims in the United States • Mariam Alkazemi, University of Florida • Using the spiral of silence as a theoretical framework, the current study explores the degree to which the mass media influences dialogue about religion among Muslim Americans. Survey data were collected from members of religious and cultural organizations across the United States in the summer of 2012. Participants (N=166) responded to an electronic questionnaire that addressed several variables, including media use, religiosity, willingness to communicate about religion, tolerance for disagreement about religion, and receiver’s apprehension about religion. The results show that Muslims who watch more television are less likely to be willing to communicate about religion within the context of an interpersonal relationship. The current study contributes to the scholarship of media and religion by providing evidence of the spiral of silence phenomenon when the minority group is a religious one.

Use of Online Social Networking Channels for Religious and Political Communication:Examining the Distinct Role of Intrinsic, Extrinsic and Quest Religiosity Under Varied Circumstances • Mian Asim, University of Florida • In order to make more accurate determination of the role of personal religiosity on online social networks for religious communications, extrinsic, intrinsic and quest religiosity were identified, measured treated separately in hierarchical multiple regression models. Subsequently, religious communication was replaced by political communication under the same conditions to draw parallel comparisons. Results indicate that people have special circumstantial reasons to adopt online social networks as a routine communicative medium to incorporate in their respective religions.

Religion, Popular Culture and Social Media: The Construction of a Religious Leader Image on Facebook • Ioana Coman; Mihai Coman • In both media and religious studies, the investigation of the image the religious leaders have in popular culture, benefited unequally from researchers’ interest. Starting from recent Applebee’s social media crisis, which was triggered by a pastor, the present study investigated the frames and themes Facebook users employed in order to give meaning to the crisis, attribute responsibility, and more important, define the role of a religious leader in daily life.

Religious Leaders in Crisis: An Analysis of Image Restoration Strategies and Strategies • Melody Fisher • The following study employs content analysis to examine the crisis communication responses and audience reception of religious leaders involved in scandal. Benoit’s Image Repair Strategies and the Contingency Theory are used to determine the strategies and stances of mega-church leaders: Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard, Eddie Long, Henry Lyons and Jimmy Swaggart. News framing theory determined media and audience reception of the religious leaders’ crisis communication responses. The study concludes that the Religious leaders’ dominant strategies were bolstering and denial, and their media portrayals were balanced.

Relying on Divine Intervention? An Analysis of Church Crisis Management Plans • Hilary Fussell Sisco, Quinnipiac University; Randi Plake, Quinnipiac University; Erik Collins, School of Journalism & Mass Com., University of South Carolina • Research suggests (Kirkpatrick, 2011) that most individual churches have not taken the steps necessary to create coherent crisis management plans that take into account the concerns of their major stakeholders. Employing Coombs’ (2007) three-phase approach to crisis management as a guideline, the researchers conducted a qualitative analysis of church crisis management plans to investigate how prepared these organizations are for a potential reputational crisis

Muslim American Youth: Media Consumption and Identity • Patricia Hernandez, California Baptist University • Several studies have examined minority media portrayals and the impact on youth; however, there is a lack of research including religion as a minority group. Religion is understood to be a key aspect of racial and ethnic identity. This article explores the relationship between Muslim American Youth identity and media consumption. In addition the article demonstrates that media is one element of culture that can shape and constrain religious identity, ethnic identity, self esteem, and perceived discrimination.

Broadcasting Sharia: American TV News’ Illustration of Social Identity and the Emergence of a Threat • Jennifer Hoewe, The Pennsylvania State University; Brian J. Bowe, Michigan State University; Naheda Makhadmeh, Michigan State University • Using social identity theory, this study examined the portrayal of sharia on ABC, CBS, and NBC. A ten-year content analysis showed that sharia was continually paired with mentions of the United States, reinforcing its representation as the in-group, and non-Western countries, forming an out-group comparison. A significant and positive relationship between mentions of non-Western countries and connotatively negative topics positioned individuals associated with sharia – most often Muslims – within the out-group.

Overstating the “Mormon Problem”: Media coverage of Mitt Romney’s faith identity in the 2012 presidential campaign • Jesse Holcomb, Pew Research Center • A content analysis of media coverage during the 2012 presidential campaign finds that attention to candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith was infrequent, yet when it appeared, was often negative in tone, and tied to a narrative of evangelical distrust. The study concludes that media figures may have overstated the notion that Mormonism was a liability for conservative evangelical voters, who were concerned about economic and social issues more than religious identity.

The discourse of ‘umma’ as defined by daily Islam • Faizullah Jan, School of Communication, American University, D.C. • News publications of militant organizations in Pakistan discursively create identities through a set of antagonistic relationships, articulating the identities of us versus them. The identity of umma, or global Muslim community, is created in opposition to the ‘Other’, which has real-life consequences for religious minorities within Pakistan and for the peace in the region and the world at large. These publications construct an ‘enemy’ whose identity is purely negative and cannot be represented positively in a given discursive formation. I have used Laclau & Mouffe’s (1985) discourse theory to analyze the discourse of daily Islam, which is published by a pro-al Qaeda militant organization. The main argument of this paper is to stress the importance of social antagonism when an identity of “us” is created in opposition to a constitutive outside. This constitutive outside becomes “them” or the “other”, which is demonized and dehumanized as the result of a successful articulation or ‘chaining’ of the subject in the flow of discourse.

Misconception of Barack Obama’s religion: A content analysis of cable news coverage of the president • Joseph Kasko, University of South Carolina; Webster Larry, University of South Carolina; Heflin Frank, University of South Carolina • A 2010 Pew Research poll found 18 percent of people wrongly identified Barack Obama as Muslim and only 34 percent correctly identified him as Christian. This was a shift from previous polls that showed roughly half of respondents could identify his religion. This work examines cable news coverage of Obama’s religion from November 2007 to July 2010. The authors suggest that media coverage of Obama’s ties to Islam may have helped to fuel the misconception.

Hijab Hip Hoppers: Constructing Narratives of Struggles and Identity Through Hip Hop Music • Nancy Katu-Ogundimu • This paper is a textual analysis of the lyrics of selected female Muslim rappers from the United States and Europe. The paper examined how music as a strategic communication tool is providing a platform for female Muslim rappers to construct narratives about their struggles and identities as post-September 11 Muslims. Findings reveal that Muslimahs are challenging traditional Islamic narratives about their gender, religion and career choice.

Religion on Social Networking Media • Hyojin Kim, University of Florida; Mian Asim, University of Florida • This paper reports findings of an exploratory study that religious involvement such as frequency of worship and membership in a religious organization are significant predictors of individuals’ engagement in religious activities on social networking sites as well as on the Internet. In addition, variations in individuals’ cultural orientation are found to be significantly related to the degree of individuals’ online religious activities. Suggestions for future research and implications for utilizing social networking media as an active channel of religious communication are discussed.

Tebowing: The Role of Religious Primes on Disposition Formation and the Appreciation of Sports News • William Kinnally, University of Central Florida; Megan Fitzgerald, Nova Southeastern University • The purpose of this study was to use priming and affective disposition theories to examine how religious primes in sports news can influence judgments of media characters (disposition formation) and appreciation of the media content. Participants (396) were randomly assigned to read one of three sports news features in which an athlete expresses a religious association (either Christian or Muslim) or no religious association. Disposition toward the athlete was more positive for the articles including the expression of religious affiliation compared to the control article. However, the article in the Christian condition was evaluated more positively than the other two articles. Linear regression was used to examine the impact of sports interest, religious affiliation, and religiosity schemas on disposition and appreciation for each condition. Religiosity and sports interest explained disposition toward the athlete and appreciation of the article in the Christian condition while only religiosity explained appreciation of the article in the Muslim condition. This study extends the literature by examining how attribute cues such as religious affiliation in media coverage of athletes can prime cognitive and affective constructs that relate to disposition formation and media appreciation.

What Are They Really Selling? A Content Analysis of Advertisements During Religious Television Programming • Stephen Gray, The University of Kansas; Alexandra Inglish; Tejinder Singh Sodhi; Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas • This study quantitatively analyzed the content of television commercials aired during religious programs to determine the categories of products being promoted and the primary method used by advertisers to appeal to highly religious consumers. Medical and life related products are the largest category. Fear-related appeals occurred in the advertisements at the high rate of 81%. The results suggested that marketers attempt to appeal to Christian fundamentalist viewers with fears, anxieties and doubts.

Death, Rebirth, Love, and Faith: Theological Narrative in Secular Cinema • Kangming Ma, Hampton University Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications • As a narrative medium and art form, film has been one of the best ways in which any aspect of culture can be reflected and become rich theological resource. This paper examines how themes in five secular films—freedom of will, death, loneliness, love and faith—echo those in the Bible. The results show that today it is still possible for Christians to influence the society by interpreting the divine message transcended through secular films.

Having the last word, but losing the culture wars: Mainstream press coverage of a canceled evangelical benediction • Rick Moore, Boise State University • This study examines how mainstream news media reported the withdrawal of a popular pastor from the 2013 Obama inaugural ceremony. Louie Giglio was originally chosen for a role in the event, but withdrew when focus was placed on a sermon he once delivered about homosexuality. Analysis of framing and sourcing of the stories raises serious questions about the role media played in reporting about this skirmish, which is clearly part of the larger culture wars.

“The Grandest, Most Compelling Story of All Time!”: Dominant Themes of Christian Media Marketing • Jim Trammell, High Point University • This manuscript analyzes the marketing campaigns of five best-selling Christian books and albums to identify their dominant themes. The literary/critical analysis notes how Christian media marketing lauds the artists as Christian role models, projects themes of inspiration and empowerment onto the media, and addresses the media’s aesthetic qualities. Ultimately, the marketing campaigns perpetuate a definition of “Christianity” that privileges how the consumer feels about him or herself over other Christian beliefs or themes.

Downloadable and Streaming: Using the PodCred Framework to Assess Religious Podcasts • Richard D. Waters, University of San Francisco; Anneliese Carolina Niebauer, University of San Francisco • Through a content analysis of one-half of the top religious podcasts in iTunes (n = 90), this study examines whether the PodCred framework can be used to determine which podcasts are more popular and rated more favorably than others. Findings indicate that religious podcasts moderately incorporate the four dimensions and reveal that PodCred dimensions significantly correlate to increased downloads but not necessarily to user ratings. Findings are connected to literature on religious communication online.

<<2013 Abstracts

Open Competition

Examining Signs of Recovery: How Senior Crisis Communicators Define Organizational Crisis Recovery • Lucinda Austin, Elon University; Brooke Fisher Liu; Yan Jin • Through 20 in-depth interviews with senior crisis communicators, this study explores how crisis recovery is defined and what role organizational communication, organizational characteristics, and publics play. Findings reveal recovery is measured operationally and short-term. Effective communication principles include proactively addressing failures, being transparent/honest while mostly positive, focusing on future directions, and rebuilding/repairing symbolic damage. Organizational best practices include tested values and crisis leadership. Lastly, publics can facilitate healing, highlight victims’ voices, and provide recovery evidence.

Crisis Communication and Organizational-Centered Situational Considerations for Management • Elizabeth Avery, University of Tennessee; Melissa Graham, University of Tennessee • Survey data collected from local government officials (n=307) from municipalities across the United States identify how unique situational factors, particularly challenges and opportunities within organizations and their operating environments, affect crisis management. This study is a first step in establishing crisis models for various crisis types sensitive to unique organizationally-centered crisis management challenges. Results indicate that partnerships with outside agencies were extremely important in successfully managing a crisis. Implications and importance of findings are discussed.

The Role of Relationships in Public Broadcasting Fundraising • Joshua Bentley, University of Oklahoma; Namkee Park • This study tested the link between how audience members’ perceive their relationship with public broadcasting stations and their intention to donate to public broadcasting. A survey of 348 audience members was conducted. Structural equation modeling revealed a positive relationship between organization-public relationships (OPR; Hon & Grunig, 1999; Ledingham, 2006) and donation intention. The model also showed that parasocial interaction (Horton & Wohl, 1956; Rubin, 2009) directly affected OPR and indirectly affected donation intentions.

When and how do publics engage with nonprofit organizations through social media? A content analysis of organizational message strategies and public engagement with organizational Facebook pages • Moonhee Cho, University of South Florida; Tiffany Schweickart, University of South Florida; Abigail Haase, University of South Florida • The purpose of the study is 1) to investigate message strategies of nonprofits’ Facebook postings and 2) to examine the levels of public engagement based upon the message strategies. The study found that nonprofit organizations use Facebook to disseminate information rather than employ two-way interactions with their publics. The study also found that publics demonstrate high levels of engagement with organizational messages based on two-way symmetry, compared to public information or two-way asymmetrical messages.

Support for a Social Capital Theory of PR via Putnam’s Civic Engagement and PR Roles • Melissa Dodd, University of Central Florida; John Brummette, Radford University; Vincent Hazleton, Radford University • A social capital approach to public relations suggests public relations professionals serve as brokers of social resources on behalf of organizations. Putnam’s conceptualization suggests that civic engagement behaviors serve as surrogate measures of social capital. Results support a social capital approach such that data indicated public relations professionals are more likely to participate in civic engagement behaviors than the general U.S. population. Further, differences were found for manager/technician roles for subcategories of civic engagement behaviors.

Taking on the Bear: Public Relations Leaders Discuss Russian Challenges • Elina Erzikova, Central Michigan University • This study focuses on challenges that hamper the development of public relations in Russia, and possible approaches to mitigate the problems. Through a series of in-depth interviews, 13 leading public relations practitioners indicated that misinterpretation of the public relations function by a variety of publics and a low level of professionalism among practitioners are the most pressing issues the industry faces today. Societal factors such a public distrust in the government and a newly emerged culture of glamour intensify the problems. Participants viewed education in a broad sense (e.g., improving university public relations curricula and enlightening masses and the elites about normative public relations) as an opportunity to resist encroachment into public relations from top management, increase social legitimacy of the occupation and help various organizations meet challenges of globalization.

Replication in Public Relations Research: A 20-Year Review • Osenkor Gogo, University of Georgia; Zifei Chen, University of Georgia; Bryan Reber, University of Georgia • This study investigates replication trends in public relations research over the span of 20 years (1993 – 2012). Through content analysis, 2,038 research articles from three leading public relations and communication journals were examined: Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, and Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. With 14 replications found, our results indicate that replication studies were seldom published in the public relations literature over the examined timeframe. A majority of replications found were extensions, most replications supported the original findings, and research related to the practice of public relations was the most commonly found. Also, interest in replicating public relations research extended beyond the field. The implications of our findings, including possible explanations for the state of replication in public relations research, as well as potential solutions, are discussed.

Comparing the Two Sides of Perception of Crisis Management Strategies: Applying the Co-orientation Model to Crisis Management-Related Beliefs of Public Relations Agencies and Clients • Jin Hong Ha; Jun Heo, University of Southern Mississippi • This exploratory study found that public relations agencies and clients are in agreement on the perceptions of all crisis management strategies (understanding, manual, prevention, responding, communicating, and rebuilding). Second, agency practitioners are more likely to perceive agreement on two crisis management strategies (manual and responding) than do clients. Third, agency practitioners’ perceptions are inaccurate on 5 of the 6 factors (understanding, manual, prevention, responding, and rebuilding); clients are accurate on all factors.

Ideographs and the Strategic Communicator: The Case of U.S. Air Force Leadership Training Material • Phillip Hutchison, University of Kentucky • This case study employs rhetorical theory to highlight some of the easily overlooked ways in which organizational politics complicate the relationship between Public Relations and Strategic Communication. The study focuses on how ambiguous, value-laden language usage in organizational training programs can shape strategic meaning in ways that are not consciously intended and occasionally are dysfunctional. The author explains how such problems easily can spill over into Public Relations products and undermine internal and external communication.

Strategic Social Media Management and Public Relations Leadership: Insights from Industry Leaders • Yi Luo, Montclair State University; Hua Jiang, S. I. Newhouse of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Owen Kulemeka • Public relations leadership is an emerging field in the phase of defining its distinctive dimensions and analyzing the role it plays in organizations’ overall strategic planning and decision making. Based on 43 in-depth interviews with public relations leaders working in diverse for-profit companies and nonprofits, this study explored how the use of social media by those leaders helped them demonstrate expert power, gain decision-making power, and establish leadership among peer leaders/managers within the same organizations.

Conflict? What Work-Life Conflict? A National Study of Future Public Relations Practitioners • Hua Jiang, S. I. Newhouse of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University • Using a national random sample of PRSSA members (N = 464), this study explored public relations students’ perceptions of work-life conflict and tested a structural model with expected family-supportive organizational work environment and anticipated supervisory support as predictors, expected work-life conflict as a mediating variable, and projected salary as an outcome. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis, one-way ANOVAs, and descriptive analysis were conducted. Theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed.

An assessment of progress in research on international public relations: from 2000 to 2011 • Eyun-Jung Ki, University of Alabama; Lan Ye, SUNY College at Cortland • This study investigates the trends, patterns and rigors of research studies on international public relations by conducting a content analysis of peer reviewed journals between 2000 and 2011. A total of 144 articles examined and information for each article was recorded, including journal name, publication year, country examined, authorship, theoretical application, method approach, and future research direction. While the number of articles addressing the topic has steadily increased, the field is still under-researched.

Decomposing Impression from Attitude in Relationship Management • Eyun-Jung Ki, University of Alabama; Elmie Nekmat • This study sets forth to expand relationship management research by testing the linkages among relationship quality perception, perceived organization impression, attitude, and behavioral intention across customers of five major banks. Perceived relational quality, individual attitude, and organizational impression significantly affected supportive behaviors. This study also found that perceived relational quality and organizational impression are also important predictors of attitude.

How Spokesperson Rank and Selected Media Channels Impact Perceptions in Crisis Communication • Jieun Lee, KPR & Associates, Inc.; Sora Kim, University of Florida; Emma Wertz, Kennesaw State University • This study examined the impact of spokesperson’s rank and selected media channels in crisis communication by employing different ranks (i.e., CEO and communication director spokespersons) and media channels (blogs, websites, and newspapers). Findings indicated that CEO spokespersons were more effective in terms of lowering publics’ crisis responsibility attributions than communication director spokespersons and that blogs were more effective in lowering crisis responsibility attributions than websites and newspapers.

How employees identify with their organizations in Korea: Effects of internal communication, organizational social capital, and employee-organization relationships • Daewook Kim, Texas Tech University; Soo-Yeon Kim, Sogang University • This study explores how employees identify with their organizations in the Korean context by examining the effects of internal communication, organizational social capital, and quality of employee-organization relationships. The results of this study showed that two-way and symmetrical internal communication were not significantly associated with organizational social capital and employee-organization identification. However, symmetrical internal communication and organizational social capital were positively associated with employee-organization relationships. Thus, employee-organization relationships mediated the relationships among symmetrical internal communication, organizational social capital, and employee-organization identification. The findings of this study suggest that symmetrical internal communication and organizational social capital play a critical role in building and maintaining healthy employee-organization relationships, and emphasize the role of managing employee-organization relationships in enhancing employee-organization identification in the Korean context.

Strategic Choice of CSR Initiatives: Impact of Reputation and CSR Fit on Stakeholder • Yeonsoo Kim, Weber State University • In order to provide insight on under which conditions CSR practices generate mutually beneficial outcomes for businesses and stakeholders, this study examined how corporate reputation interacts with CSR fit and influences attribution tendency, formation of attitudes and intent among stakeholders. The findings confirmed that corporate reputation is a top-level factor for organizations to achieve a sustained competitive advantage. For reputable companies, respondents perceived the motives more positively, showed better attitudes, and reported favorable supportive intent and purchase intent across different CSR fit situations. This study found that the effects of fit considerably differ by corporate reputation. Reputable companies’ high-fit programs lower stakeholders’ skeptical attribution toward the CSR. Attitudes toward the company were not influenced by different CSR fits. When bad reputation companies used high-fitting initiatives, respondents tended to show the weakest supportive intentions, meaning possible backlash effects. Reputable companies’ high-fitting programs engendered the most favorable purchase intentions. Such high-fitting programs produced backlash effects for companies with a poor reputation and with the weakest purchase intentions. A significant role of stakeholder skepticism on attitudes and behavioral intentions was found.

Compassion International & Pinterest: A Case Study • Carolyn Kim, Biola University; John Keeler, Regent University • This study examines Compassion International’s Pinterest account as a vanguard example of how organizations can utilize Pinterest to engage Brand Communities and as a result, steward relationships with existing and potential donors.

Public Fear Contagion: Testing Lay and Educated Publics’ Information Behaviors and Problem Chain Recognition Effect • Arunima Krishna; Jeong-Nam Kim, Purdue University • This study investigates publics’ communicative behaviors about emerging food technologies using the situational theory of problem solving, tests the Problem Chain Recognition Effect from a salient food risk to new food technologies, and show similarities/differences between expert/educated and lay publics’ behaviors and cognitions about food risks. The results help understand communication behaviors of publics regarding new food technologies, and delineate similarities/differences in predicted behaviors of expert/educated and lay publics. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Socially Mediated Democracy? Investigating Twitter as a digital pubic relations campaign tool • Heather LaMarre, University of Minnesota; Yoshi Suzuki • This study examines the effectiveness of Twitter as a public relations communications tool for congressional campaigns. As a means of examining Twitter’s effectiveness in mobilizing voters, congressional candidate and political party Twitter use for all 435 U.S. House of Representatives races (N = 1284) are compared with 2010 election outcomes. Results indicate that Twitter use is an effective means of developing relationships with publics and mobilizing voters in support of political candidates. Among the campaigns that used Twitter to develop effective relationships with their publics, increased levels of Twitter use significantly predicted increased odds of winning.

How public relations practitioners initiate relationships with journalists • Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University • This study examines the media relations’ strategies of public relations practitioners: how PR practitioners initiate relationships with journalists, particularly surrounding the practice of “pitching,” and the sources from which they learned their strategies. We used a thematic analysis of 167 in-depth interviews students did with experienced PR practitioners. This study offers rich findings on the media relations strategies of practitioners and the sources thereof, topics overlooked in previous research, theory, and practice.

The Buffering Effect of Industry-Wide Crisis History During Crisis • Seul Lee, University of Florida; Sora Kim, University of Florida • Through an experiment, this study suggests that an industry-wide crisis history can mitigate negative damages created by crises, while an organization-specific crisis history intensifies the negative damages. This indicates the type of crisis history is an important factor to be considered when diagnosing proper crisis response strategies during crisis. In addition, this study identifies a stronger negative impact of an organization-specific crisis history among highly issue-involved publics than less involved ones.

An Ethnographic Examination of Public Sector Influences on the U.S. Coast Guard Social Media Program • Abbey Levenshus, University of Tennessee, Knoxville • An ethnographic case study of the U.S. Coast Guard social media program using interview, document, and participant observation data adds depth to the limited government public relations research and government social media management. USCG communicators reported influences categorized within five contexts: organization (USCG), military (DOD), parent agency (DHS), federal government, and the U.S. public sector. The study offers a behind-the-scenes view of public sector attributes and their influences on a government social media program.

Tweet or “Re-Tweet”? An Experiment of Message Type and Interactivity on Twitter • Zongchao Li, School of Communication, University of Miami; Cong Li, School of Communication, University of Miami • More corporations are recognizing the importance of social media for public relations. However, what communication strategy they should implement on social media remains somewhat unclear in the literature. This study examined the effects of message type and interactivity on a corporate Twitter account. Two types of messages, communal-relationship oriented tweets focusing on consumer relations, and exchange-relationship oriented tweets focusing on sales and product promotion, were tested with either a high or low level of interactivity in a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment (N = 84). Results indicate that communal messages generated more favorable relationship outcomes such as trust and control mutuality than exchange messages. It was also found that message interactivity positively influenced attitude toward the company, perceived company credibility, and commitment. Implications from both theoretical and practical standpoints are discussed.

Effects of transnational crises on corporate and country reputation and strategic responses • Hyun-Ji Lim, Jacksonville University • Through the employment of a 2x2x3 factorial experiment, this study attempts to examine how three factors – level of country reputation, salience of country of origin, types of image restoration strategy – can affect host customers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions. Findings of this study provide empirical evidence as to whether adopting an image repair strategy helps a country to recover its reputation during a crisis, and an opportunity to gain a better understanding of managing country reputation.

Public Engagement with Companies on Social Network Sites: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of China and the United States • Linjuan Rita Men, Southern Methodist University; Wanhsiu Sunny Tsai, University of Miami • This study evaluates how culture influences publics’ engagement activities on the corporate pages of social networking sites (SNSs). It further evaluates the underlying motivations and engagement mechanisms in two culturally distinct countries, China and the United States. Specifically, social media dependency, parasocial interaction, and community identification are examined as the key antecedents of public-organization engagement on SNSs. The results reveal both cultural differences and similarities between Chinese and American publics’ engagement with corporate SNS pages.

Developing and Validating Publics’ Information Transmitting Model as an Outcome of Relationship Management in Bitt Moon; Yunna Rhee • The purpose of this study was to develop a multi-dimensional model of publics’ information transmitting. Relevant literature in public relations, public communication, marketing communication, and interpersonal communication were reviewed. This paper then composed a six dimensional public’s information transmitting behavior (ITB) model according to the three criteria—activeness, valence, and expressivity. Six dimensions were as follows: ‘Praise-Leading’, ‘Praise-Following’, ‘Scolding-Leading’, ‘Scolding-Following’, ‘Avoiding’, and ‘No-commenting’ The result supported that the 18-item ITB model of six dimensions was significantly reliable and valid as we expected. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed.

Shifting, broadening, and diversifying: How gay pride organizations are shaping a uniquely 21st century mission • Dean Mundy, Appalachian State University • This study explores how gay pride organizations in ten major U.S. cities execute events that host collectively four million attendees annually. Gay pride’s mission has shifted in the last four-plus decades. Today’s pride organizations require yearlong strategic program planning and outreach. Moreover, they must establish relationships with—and facilitate an intricate community dialog among—a variety of new, diverse stakeholders. The findings reinforce how relationship management and stakeholder theory can inform best public relations practice.

The Misunderstood Nineteenth Century American Press Agent • Karen Russell, University of Georgia; Cayce Myers, University of Georgia • Analysis of press coverage of nineteenth century American press agents indicates that, although press agents worked in a variety of sectors, their primary motivation was profit, their main strategy was media relations, and their tactics often relied on hype or outright lying. A number of early practitioners of press agentry outside the entertainment sector are identified for further study to understand the relationship between press agentry and early corporate publicity.

Beyond the C-Suite: Public Relations’ Scope, Power & Influence at the Senior Executive Level • Marlene Neill, Ph.D., Baylor University • Traditionally public relations scholars have focused on gaining access to the C-suite, but this study demonstrates that there are actually multiple executive-level committees that need their counsel. The findings are based on in-depth interviews with 30 executives representing multiple departments in four U.S. companies, who discussed their involvement or exclusion in eight strategic issues. The factors that impacted public relations’ power and influence included the type of industry, preferences of the CEO, and organizational culture.

Attribution of Government Responsibility for Flu Pandemics: The Role of TV Health News Sources, Self-Efficacy Messages, and Crisis Severity • Sun-A Park, Robert Morris University; Hyunmin Lee, Saint Louis University; Maria Len-Rios, University of Missouri • This experimental study (N=146) investigated how sources in television news (government official vs. doctor), perceptions of crisis severity (high vs. low), and perceptions of self-efficacy messages (presence vs. absence) in TV news stories about the H1N1 flu affected the public’s perception of the government responsibility for the public health crisis and their personal control for preventing contraction of the H1N1 flu. Results revealed significant three-way interactions on perceptions of government crisis responsibility and personal control.

The Under-Representation of Hispanics in the Public Relations Profession: Perspectives of Hispanic Practitioners • David Radanovich, Quinnipiac University • This study explored the under-representation of Hispanics in the public relations profession by conducting in-depth interviews with Hispanic practitioners. The study found that public relations was not the Latinos’ initial career choice, identified three barriers to Hispanics entering the profession, and elicited three practical suggestions to attract more Hispanics to the public relations field. The study also revealed opportunities for future scholarly research to address the under-representation of Hispanics in the public relations profession.

Framing the Massachusetts Cape Wind Debate Among Active E Online Publics • Ben Benson; Bryan Reber, University of Georgia • Activist groups have lobbied for and against the Cape Wind Energy Project since 2001. This is a content analysis of activist groups’ master frames and online comments on Cape Wind news articles retrieved from The Boston Globe website. The most salient advocacy master frames concerned environmental and political benefits. The most salient opposition master frames regarded economic risks. Advocacy comments were recommended more often than opposition comments. Opposition comments containing aesthetic risks were most recommended.

Dialogic communication on Web 2.0: An analysis of organizations using social media to build relationships • Amy Reitz, University of Northern Colorado • In order to determine how social media cultivate relationships with organizational publics, a pilot study was conducted to test how well Kent and Taylor’s (1998) dialogic principles of relationship building work when applied to social media. The findings indicate that the dialogic principles seem to be an appropriate method to use when determining the dialogic principles present in organization social media, albeit with some modifications. Several recommendations are provided to reflect specific social media features.

Smart Friendly Liars: Public Perception of Public Relations Practitioners Over Time • Coy Callison, Texas Tech University; Patrick Merle, Florida State University; Trent Seltzer • Two national surveys of the general public in 2003 (n = 486) and 2012 (n = 372) asked participants to list words describing public relations practitioners. Analyses reveal that the overwhelming majority of the words are positive and that the most commonly used terms outline practitioner intellectual, ethical, and personality traits. While the majority of the personality and intellectual traits are positive, the ethical terms used to describe practitioners are predominately negative.

Identifying Network “Communities” of Theory: The Structure of Public Relations Paradigms • Erich Sommerfeldt, University of Maryland; Michael Paquette, University of Maryland; Melissa Janoske, University of Maryland, College Park; Liang Ma, University of Maryland, College Park • The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how network “communities” of theory can be used to identify distinct research paradigms within public relations literature. Through an analysis of 10 years of articles published in the Journal of Public Relations Research and Public Relations Review (N = 674) the study aimed to identify the theoretical structure of public relations scholarship through network analyses of the connections among theories used by public relations scholars. Results of network analyses suggest that Relationship Management is currently the most influential of the theories identified, in that it holds two general clusters or paradigms of public relations research together. Situational Crisis Communication Theory was identified as the most important theory in a dense group of highly interrelated theories used in crisis research. The paper offers implications on the lack of multiple explanations used in public relations research and the future of theory building in the discipline.

Tracking Influence Through the Social Web: A Network Analysis of Information Flow in Interest-Based Publics • Kathleen Stansberry, University of Akron • This study examines information flow in online, interest-based networks to determine if existing models of information dissemination are adequate. This study finds that a small number of primary influencers from within online communities are central to information collection, collation, and distribution. This finding is inconsistent with one-step, two-step, and multi-step flow models. To more accurately depict online information flow in interest-based networks, I propose a radial model of information flow.

Bridging the journalist-public relations practitioner gap: Toward an “expectations management” theory of media relations • Dustin Supa, Boston University; Lynn Zoch, Radford University • This study addresses one of the challenges facing the study of public relations, the lack of field-specific theory, by introducing the constructs for a new theory of media relations, the expecations management theory (EMT). Based on empirical data, the theory is both descriptive and normative, and defines the nature of the media relations transaction as being one of product, process, role and relationship.

An exploratory study of the effect of Twitter on the public relations – journalist relationship • Drew Wilson; Dustin Supa, Boston University • Media relations is one of the most common functions of the modern public relations. This study examines the impact of emerging media technologies on that function, and seeks to understand how public relations practitioners and journalists are using Twitter in both their personal work and in the relationship with the other profession.

BP’s Reputation Repair Strategies during the Gulf Oil Spill • Lindsay Jordan, Profiles Inc.; Kristen Swain, University of Mississippi • On April 20, 2010, British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, creating the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Analysis of 1,161 BP tweets during the crisis response reflected unexpected reputation repair strategies and responsibility attribution. Situational Crisis Communication Theory suggests that after an accident, PR messages typically reflect low responsibility attribution. Although the official investigation initially did not suggest a preventable crisis, 90% of BP’s tweets reflected high responsibility.

Who’s Coming to the Party? Exploring the Political Organization-Public Relationship in Terms of Relationship, Personality, Loyalty, and Outcomes Among First-Time Voters • Kaye Sweetser, University of Georgia • Building on political organization-public relationship research, this survey (N = 610) of first-time voters investigates the role of relationship as an independent variable. Relationship contributes to predicting strength of political party affiliation, alongside personality. Weak relationships appear to be a significant indicator among those who are no longer loyal to their party and cross party lines. Future research should track the path of relationship from these first-time voters to more experienced voters and longer-standing constituents.

The overarching effects of ethical reputation regardless of CSR cause fit and information source • Weiting Tao, University of Florida; Mary Ann Ferguson • Our experiment examines how corporate prior ethical reputation, CSR cause fit, and information source interact with each other; and how this interaction influences consumers’ evaluations of the company. Meanwhile, our study tests the mediating effect of inferred CSR motives on consumer responses to CSR initiatives. Results show that corporate prior ethical reputation affects consumers’ company evaluations regardless of CSR cause fit and information source, and that this effect is partially mediated by inferred CSR motives.

Stewardship and Involvement: Comparing the Impact on Nonprofit Organizations’ Relationships with Donors and Volunteers • Richard D. Waters, University of San Francisco; Denise Sevick Bortree, Penn State University • Given their focus on program and service delivery, nonprofit organizations often face scarce resources to carry out their administrative functions, such as donor relations and volunteer management. Through intercept surveys of adults (n = 362), this study examines how donor and volunteer relationships evolve differently in the nonprofit sector. Findings indicate that stewardship can boost relationship outcomes for donors and volunteers, but its impact on involvement differs for the two groups.

How Do Different Image Restoration Strategies Influence Organization-Public Relationships in a Crisis? • Richard VanDeHey, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point; Chang Wan Woo, James Madison University • This research paper illustrates how certain combinations of image restoration strategies encourage a more positive response from publics than others. Rebuild strategies such as mortification, corrective action, compensation, and bolstering were thought to elicit a better reaction from publics than diminishing strategies such as denial, blame shifting, minimization and defeasibility. An experimental study was conducted with 148 college undergraduates. The subjects read one of three fictional news articles (no response, diminishing strategy, and rebuild strategy) about a product recall for an energy drink that was causing illness and answered questions measuring six OPR outcomes suggested by Hon and Grunig (1999): a) trust, b) control mutuality, c) commitment, d) satisfaction, e) communal relationships, and f) exchange relationships. The participants expressed better perceptions about their potential relationship with the company when the company responded with a rebuild strategy. Limitations include lack of generalizability and imbalanced sample sizes of the three groups.

The Impact of Expressing Sympathy through Twitter in Crisis Management: An Experimental Study • Jie Xu, Villanova University; Yiye Wu • This study uses 2 (medium: twitter vs. news release) × 2 (emotional support: yes vs. no) factorial experiment to extrapolate the effects of social media and emotional support on consumers’ crisis appraisal. Two hundred and forty-five twitter users recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk system participate in this study. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA) with univariate follow-up tests, using medium and emotional support as fixed factors and product involvement as a control variable are conducted. The result demonstrates significant interaction between emotional support and media channel; emotional support messages delivered through Twitter lowers the perceived crisis responsibility and retain positive organizational reputation, compared to such messages conveyed on news releases. Using twitter significantly lessens people’s sadness and anger. Respondents reading twitter pages attribute less crisis responsibility to the company, and withhold higher perceptions on organizational reputation and purchase intention. Moreover, expressing sympathy and emotional support significantly alleviates people’s sadness and anger, respondents reading messages with emotional support report lower scores on crisis responsibility. Implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.

 

Student

A Preliminary Study on the Impact of Social Identity on Crisis Attribution • Jonathan Borden, University of Florida • This study seeks to address the current gap in international crisis communications literature by introducing principles of Social Identity Theory into the existing body of crisis communications theory. Hypotheses were tested via an experimental examination of attribution, feelings of empathy, and organization evaluation in several treatment conditions. Analysis revealed that organizational nationality can offer some level of reputational protection whereas crisis location cannot.

Crisis communication and the NBA lockout: Exploring reactions to response strategies in sports crisis • Melanie Formentin • A pre-test, post-test experiment used the 2011 National Basketball Association (NBA) lockout as an example for exploring Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). Participants (n = 339) evaluated NBA reputation before seeing SCCT strategies embedded in experimental material. Results suggest contexts involving active stakeholders may call for more nuanced approaches to crisis communication. Only “active stakeholder” participants were impacted by SCCT strategies and had more established opinions and knowledge of the league and its crisis history.

“Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse”: CDC’s Use of Social Media and Humor in a Risk Campaign • Julia Daisy Fraustino, University of Maryland; Liang Ma, University of Maryland, College Park • This is a case study of CDC’s “zombie apocalypse” all-disaster preparedness campaign. A 2 (information form: social vs. traditional media) x 2 (message strategy: humorous vs. non-humorous) between-subjects factorial experiment, an interview with a CDC campaign manager, and campaign document analysis uncover benefits and pitfalls of social media and humorous messaging in a risk campaign. Findings show social media can quickly, widely spread disaster information; however, humor may diminish publics’ intentions to take recommended actions.

Social Media’s Effect on Local Government Melissa Graham, University of Tennessee • Using data collected from interviews with public information officers (PIOs) in local governments, this study explores the perceptions of social media as a communication tool. It specifically addresses how social media are used as a public relations function to promote democratic, participatory and transparency models in government. Four primary themes emerged from the data analysis: dialogue promotion, engagement, unconstrained, and barriers.

What Makes You Take an Action in a Crisis? : Exploring Cognitive Processing of Crisis Management • Kyung Jung Han, University of Missouri • This study aims to help practitioners and scholars systematically understand publics in a crisis situation. Based on protection motivation, public segmentation, and crisis management theories, this study conducted a 2 (controllability: high versus low) x 2 (severity: high versus low) experiment. The results show 1) an influence of severity to conative coping behaviors; 2) an interaction effect between severity and controllability; and 3) a relationship between involvement and conative behaviors.

Alerting a Campus Community: Emergency Notification Systems From A Public’s Perspective • Stephanie Madden, University of Maryland • This study evaluated a campus emergency notification system from a public’s perspective to understand how alerts are utilized and perceived. Four focus groups were conducted with students at a large, mid-Atlantic university, and one interview was conducted a public safety official. Findings revealed that alerts served as an information source to students and instigated a social response among them. Implications include a better understanding of how to improve alert messaging strategies.

Defining Early Public Relations: An Examination of the term “Public Relations” in the Popular Press 1774-1899 • Cayce Myers, University of Georgia • This paper examines the use of the term “public relations” in the popular press from 1774-1900. Oftentimes public relations history places the beginnings of PR in the late nineteenth century with a genesis in entertainment and later business. This examination of the use of the term public relations shows that public relations in the eighteenth and nineteenth century was related to politics, specifically international affairs, domestic relations, and political popularity.

The Effects of Media Effects on the Corporate Image of Media Companies • Brett Sherrick, Pennsylvania State University • Prior research in the third-person effects domain has shown that people who believe in harmful media effects are more willing to engage in defiance strategies, such as censorship. Analysis of survey data show that a belief in harmful media effects is also connected to negative evaluations of the media companies potentially responsible for those effects. This research suggests that public relations practitioners for media companies should have become involved in the debate over media effects.

The Billion-Dollar Question: Examining the Extent of Fundraising Encroachment on Public Relations in Higher Education • Christopher Wilson, University of Florida; Sarabdeep Kochhar • U.S. colleges and universities raise billions of dollars a year through sophisticated fundraising efforts. This emphasis on fundraising can lead to encroachment on public relations. To understand the extent of fundraising encroachment in this important nonprofit sector, content analysis was used to examine the structural relationship of public relations and fundraising. The analysis found that 19% of colleges and universities on the 2012 Philanthropy 400 list had structural fundraising encroachment regardless of governance or mission.

 

Teaching

A Complexity Approach to Teaching Crisis Management: Crisis Event Simulation in the Public Relations Classroom • Julia Daisy Fraustino, University of Maryland; Stephanie Madden, University of Maryland; Brooke Fisher Liu • This research presents an exploratory pilot study that takes a complexity theory approach to teaching crisis management/communication through an in-class computerized crisis simulation. Qualitative methods of direct observation of a two-session classroom simulation, and textual analyses of simulation response output as well as student-written reflections provide insights into the suitability of simulation as a public relations crisis teaching tool while also examining complexity theory in practice.

The Infographics Assignment: A Qualitative Study of Students’ and Professionals’ Perspectives • Tiffany Gallicano; Gee Ekachai; Karen Freberg, University of Louisville • In the evolving digital landscape, educators can consider adopting emerging tactics to prepare students for the workplace. One of these tactics, the infographic, incorporates storytelling characteristics by presenting synthesized knowledge and data in a visual way (Fernando, 2012). Through five focus groups with 37 students at three universities and interviews with 10 public relations professionals from various workplace settings, we explore strategies for teaching the infographics assignment and identify potential learning outcomes of the assignment.

Public Relations Students’ Ethics: An Examination of Attitude and Intended Behaviors • Lori McKinnon, Oklahoma State University; Jami Fullerton • A major challenge facing modern public relations practitioners is the knowledge and ability to engage in ethical reasoning. Public relations practitioners are at a critical juncture as they balance client advocacy with the public’s right to know, profit motive with personal values, and corporate responsibility with societal good. Thus, it is important for both practitioners and future practitioners to have a strong moral foundation. This study examines public relations students’ understanding of ethics and their attitudes and intended behaviors toward ethical dilemmas. The authors conclude that moral responsibility and the importance of ethical reasoning are vital for public relations students. These students, who will be tomorrow’s practitioners, have the potential to shape the field and improve its image. With a strong moral compass, students will be equipped to apply values and codes to the analysis of ethical dilemmas in public relations practice.

Online undergraduate public relations courses: Effects of interaction and presence on satisfaction and success • Jensen Moore, Louisiana State University • This study examined student success, failure, withdrawal and satisfaction in online public relations courses based on student/instructor interaction, student-to-student involvement, and instructor presence. Student passing rates, D/F rates, withdrawal rates, and evaluations of instruction were compiled from 51 online public relations courses run over the course of two years. The results from the study suggest that student involvement and self-discipline are the strongest predictors of success and satisfaction with online courses.

Does A Professor’s Gender and Professional Background Influence Students’ Perceptions? • Richard D. Waters, University of San Francisco; Natalie Tindall • This study examines how students’ evaluate educators by gauging their perceptions of the instructors’ professional competency, warmth, course difficulty, and industry connectivity. Using a 2×2 experimental design, students (n = 303) reviewed a syllabus for the introductory public relations course to test whether an instructor’s gender or professional background (academic—industry) influenced students’ perceptions. Findings suggest that students evaluate professors on professional criteria and their ability to connect classroom experiences to actual practice.

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