Blackish: Deconstruction and the changing nature of black identity • Venise Berry, University of Iowa • The hit ABC television show Blackish explores the changing nature of black identity in America. Specifically, Blackish critically tests a number of core ideas that influence the authenticity of blackness. This analysis examines how black identity and authenticity are communicated within this specific television program as a resistant, satirical narrative effectively deconstructing the commodification of stereotypes, stigmas, racial biases, and historic myths.

Undisclosed information – Serial is My Favorite Murder: Examining Motivations in the True Crime Podcast Audience • Kelli Boling, University of South Carolina • This study explores the true crime podcast audience within the uses and gratifications theoretical frame. Using an online survey (n = 308), this study found that the true crime podcast audience is predominantly female (73%), and five motivations were prominent for users: entertainment, convenience, boredom, voyeurism, and relaxation. All significant motivating factors were found to be more salient for females than for males. Practical and theoretical implications for genre-specific media are discussed.

My Sexual Entertainment, My Vote: How Attitudes Toward Condom Use in Pornography Related to Support for California’s Condom Law • Kyla Garrett Wagner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Joseph Cabosky, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In 2016, Californians voted down Proposition #60, which aimed to mandate condom use in pornography. This study’s survey of residents assessed how one’s entertainment preferences relate to their support for regulation. Findings generally suggest some aversion to condom use in pornography, especially among heterosexual males. Data suggest the more pornography one watches, the more averse one is to condoms in pornography, as well more opposed to regulation. Results varied more by gender than sexual orientation.

“FYI: This Video is Sponsored:” Exploring Credibility in User-Generated and Professionally-Generated YouTube Videos • Madeline Migis, The University of North Texas; Sara Champlin, The University of North Texas • YouTube now holds the attention of more 18 to 34 year olds than any major cable network. As a result, advertisers capitalize on the popularity of YouTube content creators to broadcast branded information through the creator’s large audiences. A sample of 144 videos, representing 44 creators, were examined. From this dataset, themes were generated that pointing to ways in which credibility and truthfulness are depicted in sponsored and non-sponsored content across user- and professionally-generated content.

Selfie-posting on social media: The influence of narcissism, identification, and gender on celebrity followers • Li Chen; Carol Liebler • The celebrities and the selfie are both prevalent in contemporary popular culture. The present research aims to examine social media users’ narcissism, involvement with celebrity culture, and gender as predictors on their selfie-posting behavior. We recruited 594 respondents through MTurk, who lived in the US and followed at least one celebrity on social media. Respondents completed a 15-minutes online survey through Qualtric. The current study provided empirical evidence of narcissism’s critical role in selfie-posting and involvement with celebrity culture. Results also showed that the identification with celebrity culture and the attitudes towards celebrity selfies served as mediators in the relationship between narcissism and selfie-posting frequency. Meanwhile, gender played a role in these relationships. Based on our study, women post selfies more frequently than men. Interestingly, we also found the interaction effect between respondent gender and celebrity gender on the attitudes towards celebrity selfies.

The Efficacy of Radio Entertainment Education in Disseminating Health Messages: A Meta- Analysis • Pratiti Diddi, Pennsylvania state university; Sushma Kumble, Pennsylvania state university; Fuyuan Shen • The present meta-analytic review of 23 studies (N = 35,138) examined the persuasive effect of radio based entertainment education efforts in the area of health communication. The results suggested that overall persuasion effects of radio messages was small but significant (r=.13, p<.001). There were significant moderating effects for health issues (r = .17, p<0.001), and exposure time (r = .14, p<0.001) and research design setting (r = .14, p<0.001). Gender did not moderate the effect.

Connecting to the Narrative: The influence of relevance, motivation, and realism on narrative identification. • Matt Eastin, The University of Texas at Austin; Vincent Cicchirillo, DePaul; Mary Dunn, The University of Texas at Austin; Fangxin Xu, The University of Texas at Austin • Over the past two decades, researchers have examined video game play through content, player, and engagement differences to better understand both positive and negative outcomes from play. To extend the research agenda and move gaming research beyond the play perspective, this research turns the focus to game narrative elements. Specifically, this study will use a backstory narrative to examine the effects of setting relevance (i.e., location), motivation (i.e., attack and retaliatory violence), and perceived realism, on identification and subsequent state arousal and state hostility. In doing so, this research furthers the understanding of how interactive storytelling can have an impact on a player’s psychological perspective prior to content engagement.

Social Comparison on Facebook and the Impact on Life Satisfaction • Lee Farquhar, Samford University; Theresa Davidson, Samford University • Facebook use, lower self-esteem, and loneliness have been regularly examined in recent years. However, scholars, it seems, have left a gap with regard to social comparisons on Facebook, which now claims over 1.23 billion in active daily users (Facebook Newsroom, 2017). The effects of these comparisons on general well-being outcomes need further examination. This paper examined Facebook Intensity, general Social Comparisons, and Facebook-specific comparisons as predictors of Life Satisfaction and Happiness. Survey data was collected from college students and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk workers. Broadly speaking, social media matters in terms of one’s happiness and life satisfaction. Results indicate the salience of general social comparisons, and, Facebook-specific comparisons to impact Life Satisfaction and Happiness. Facebook Intensity did not serve as a predictor in either of our models; however, time spent on the site predicted Life Satisfaction.

The influence of female lead characters in political TV shows: Links to political engagement • Jennifer Hoewe, University of Alabama; Lindsey Sherrill, University of Alabama • This study examines political television dramas with lead female characters, proposing a model that links viewing of these shows with political engagement. A survey revealed that individuals who regularly viewed Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, or Scandal reported feelings of transportation and connections with the main characters – women in positions of political power and leadership. These parasocial relationships then led to increases in political interest and self-efficacy, with interest then predicting real-world political participation. The findings illustrate that these political dramas – featuring strong lead female characters – have prosocial implications, including the non-stereotypical representation of women and eventual increases in political engagement among viewers.

Co-op Mode: Players’ Parasocial Interactions with Video Game Characters • Kyle Holody, Coastal Carolina University; Sommersill Tarabek, Savannah College of Art and Design • The present study examined parasocial interaction (PI) and parasocial relationships (PR) within the scope of 2011 high-narrative video game The Last of Us. While previous research on PI and PR focused heavily on celebrities and television content, this study expounded on the limited literature concerning players’ cognitive and attitudinal responses to video games. A survey was utilized to examine effects of the game and related variables, such as players’ aggression, transportation, empathy, and morality. Results were compared to an experimental pilot test and suggest that players experience different interactions with in-game characters and that these interactions are related to different cognitive and emotional responses the players have to the game. The results also justify the need for further research into what influences players’ PIs, aggression, and other game effects, and indicate the effects video game players feel while playing are much more complicated and may last longer than currently understood.

Television for Good? An Examination of Depictions of African American Families in Situation Comedies • Brittany Jefferson • The depictions of African Americans in entertainment has often been a topic of debate. This paper reviews the extant literature regarding depictions of African American families on television shows intended to display positive representations free of stereotypes. Despite the stated goals of such programming, characters featured tended to reflect established racial stereotypes or failed to represent realistic experiences shared by African Americans. The consequences and ethical implications of such programming is also explored.

In Contempt of Court?: Unintended Consequences of Watching Courtroom Shows • Khadija Ejaz; Joon Kim, University of South Carolina, Columbia; Nandini Bhalla, University of South Carolina; Jane Weatherred, University of South Carolina • Courtroom shows like Judge Judy frequently top the ratings charts in the United States. This study examines such shows through media system dependency (MSD). Responses from a sample of 401 respondents were gathered using a self-administered online survey. Analysis revealed that watching courtroom shows made viewers dependent on television to understand the world. At the same time, such dependence was related to poor knowledge of the small claims court system. The implications of this finding are discussed in light of other findings that indicated that watching such shows made viewers more likely to participate in both real and television courts.

Integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior and Uses and Gratifications to Understand Music Streaming Behavior • Heidi Bolduc, University of Central Florida; William Kinnally, University of Central Florida • Nielsen Music 360 Research Report indicates that 67% of all music consumers in the U.S. used digital music streaming services to listen, discover, and share music (The Nielsen Company, 2014). Scholars and music professionals are recognizing the importance of understanding the influences behind music streaming behavior. This study proposes an expanded Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model by integrating the TPB with music streaming motives from the Uses and Gratifications theory. The expansion reflects an effort to gain a better understanding of the intentions to use music streaming services and actual behavior. Results suggest that both the original TPB and expanded TPB models can be successfully applied within the context of digital music streaming service use. Specifically, attitudes and perceived behavioral control drive behavioral intention in the traditional TPB model whereas only attitudes predict behavior. In the expanded TPB model the motives of convenience and information seeking emerged as contributors to intention to use digital music streaming services, while the motives of entertainment and social identification emerged as predictors of streaming behavior. Ultimately, these results reveal fundamental differences between what leads listeners to use the services and what keeps them listening. The implications are discussed.

Exploring the Effects of Viewer Enjoyment of The Apprentice on Perceptions and Voting Behavior for President Trump • Shu-Yueh Lee, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; Sara Hansen, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh • This research explores how viewer enjoyment of The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice as entertainment media impacted attitudes toward Donald Trump and voting intentions in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Data from an online survey with 624 responses were analyzed using path analysis. Meaningfulness in watching the shows contributed to enjoyment, which positively influenced attitudes toward Trump’s charismatic leadership that then predicted intention to vote for him. Implications for media entertainment and culture are discussed.

Dad, Where Are We Going? Analyzing the Popular Chinese Reality TV Show from a Communication Perspective • Sixiao Liu, University at Buffalo, SUNY; Hua Wang • “In this study, we examined a popular Chinese reality TV show Dad, Where Are We Going, using the framework of entertainment-education communication strategy. We analyzed the program content of five celebrity fathers and their children engaging in a variety of challenging activities as well as the audience response on social media. Our quantitative content analysis included two parts: (1) using 10 communication dimensions (five nonverbal and five verbal) for decoding different parenting styles, and (2) evaluating the scale, valence, and insights from audience comments online. We discuss the research findings and implications for parenting and fatherhood in the contemporary Chinese society.

Spoiler Alert: Can Co-Viewing with Smartphones Save TV from YouTube? • Rebecca Nee, San Diego State University; Valerie Barker, sdsu • Viewership of entertainment programming on traditional television channels has been steadily declining. Mobile phones, social media, streaming videos, and YouTube compete for the attention of younger audiences. This study of 18 and 19-year-old college students (N = 345) found television viewing is far from dead, however. The practice of co-viewing virtually with others through a mobile phone enhances the experience for young adults, providing a sense of social capital affinity and gratifying social identity needs.

Television and the role model effect: Exposure to political drama and attitude towards female politicians • Azmat Rasul, Florida State University; Arthur Raney • Entertainment television historically relied on the engaging potential of political broadcasting, and political fiction played a significant role as a narrator of stories about politics and politicians using different plot lines such as comedy, drama, thriller, and action. To understand the processes through which exposure to primetime drama culminates in an attitudinal change, the current study proposes an SEM model to explicate the role of essential mediating variables such as identification, transportation into the narrative, enjoyment, and political self-efficacy, and focuses on direct and indirect effects between media use motivations and attitude toward female politicians. The results indicated that there is a significant relationship between exposure to political drama and audience attitude towards female politicians.

Effects of Customized Ratings on User Evaluations of Television Shows • Jeremy Saks, Ohio University; Carson Wagner, Ohio University • This study analyzes the effects of customized ratings on individuals’ enjoyment of television shows. The study utilizes an experimental methodology that attempts to mimic that of popular media distribution websites, such as Netflix. The results show that individuals report differing levels of enjoyment depending on the ratings they receive prior to viewing shows in three genres despite the fact that the ratings are randomly assigned. The results and implications are discussed.

The role of readers’ performance of a narrative on their beliefs about transgender persons: A mental models approach • Neelam Sharma • Narratives are powerful communication tools that can influence people’s beliefs and attitudes. Narrative processing literature explains cognitive operations involved in information processing in terms of transportation and identification with characters. Narrative performance, however, is an unexplored construct in narrative engagement literature. Narrative performance is a process by which readers bring cognitions and emotions to construct distinct story worlds into which they can be transported. This study advances the narrative processing literature by examining how people’s performance of a narrative affects their story-related beliefs. A three-condition experiment, with 174 voluntary participants, was conducted to gauge the effects of performance on viewers’ beliefs about transgender persons. Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that narrative performance can weaken the effects of narrative transportation, and performance can be a stronger predictor of viewers’ story-related beliefs. The study discriminates narrative performance from narrative transportation, demonstrating construct validity. This study uses mental models approach as a theoretical basis, and along with operationalization of narrative performance, develops valid and reliable scales for measuring viewers’ beliefs about transgender persons and their propensity to take action in socializing with transgender persons.

Appealing to Niche Markets: A Typology of Transmedia Storytelling for Digital Television • Ryan Stoldt • “Traditional television networks have a limited amount of time available to broadcast content, so programming decisions are based on maximizing potential market reach instead of in appealing to small markets. Digital television’s broadcast time is solely limited by server space and regulation of broadband data transference, so their technological infrastructure affords more opportunities to appeal to smaller markets. These affordances can be seen through the types of programming digital television services produce. This paper proposes a typology of transmedia stories used by digital television services like Netflix and Hulu to appeal to niche markets to grow their business. Five types of transmedia stories were theorized to appeal to varying levels of niche markets: serialized continuations, augmented continuations, world building universes, cross-platform personalities, and adaptations. This typology provides a better understanding of the production practices of digital television networks, an area of research that has received little attention to date.

Binge-Watching: A Concept Explication • Stephen Warren, University of Massachusetts • Binge-watching has yet to be adequately analyzed and researched to determine its effects, despite myriad Americans engaging in the activity. While some studies have attempted to discover its causes or effects, most research fails to operationalize the viewing aspects of binge-watching that make the experience unique. This concept explication reviewed the existing literature on other binge activities and behaviors and attempted to develop guidelines for more specifically defining and measuring binge-watching in future studies.

Behind the Music: How Music Journalists Understand Their Roles and Their Readers • Kelsey Whipple, University of Texas at Austin • Through in-depth interviews, this study explores the professional roles of music journalists and the ways they think about and create content for their audiences. It applies the hierarchy of influences and journalistic role conceptions to a new role for these lifestyle journalists: curator. The findings also suggest that music journalists see consideration of their audiences as limiting, and they are driven to focus on increasingly niche genres of music to differentiate themselves as experts.

Exploring the Business Potential of Location-Based Mobile Games: Taking Pokémon Go as an Example • Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina; Matthew Stilwell, University of South Carolina • Pokémon Go, a location-based mobile game, has been tremendously prevalent ever since its launch in 2016. Advertising professionals have begun to consider this game as a promising advertising platform. This study investigates the business potential of this game by conducting a survey to examine the psychological process of the gameplay and how it leads to advertising effectiveness. Results indicated that players experienced spatial presence, which positively influenced their attitudes toward and behavior intentions to the sponsors. Moreover, spatial presence was positively influenced by players’ game engagement, perceived mobility, and contextual perceived value (CPV). We also identified players’ motives of playing Pokémon Go, including the exercise, entertainment, and social motive. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Don’t Respond to Strangers: How a Groundbreaking Television Drama Serial Helped Raise Domestic Violence Awareness in China • Zhiying Yue; Hua Wang • Don’t Respond to Strangers is the first and only television drama serial about domestic violence in China. Given its purposeful attempt to address domestic violence as a prevalent yet taboo topic, we used entertainment-education (E-E) as an overarching framework and the protection motivation theory (PMT) as our conceptual foundation to examine this program. We first analyzed the messaging in drama serial and the viewer comments posted on online forums about the show. Major themes identified from both the drama serial and viewer comments were consistent for raising awareness and stimulating discussions about domestic violence. Based on the results, we conducted an online survey with 326 adults in China. Within PMT framework, path model results showed that exposure to this drama was significantly associated with perceived severity of domestic violence and perceived reward from tolerating domestic violence. Furthermore, perceived severity and self-efficacy were significant predictors of Domestic Violence Law support and the intention to fight against domestic violence; self-efficacy was also a significant predictor of intention to intervene domestic violence; and perceived reward was the only significant predictor of tolerating domestic violence. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for E-E interventions in domestic violence context

Facebook vs. YouTube Manners: Effects of Pseudonymity on Posting Politeness • Gi Woong Yun, University of Nevada, Reno; Sasha Allgayer, Bowling Green State University • Facebook and YouTube function differently, but particularly in regards to anonymity or pseudonymity of users. This study evaluates public reaction to one of the most contentious topics of current European music and art; Conchita Wurst. Comments from Facebook and YouTube were collected and quantitatively analyzed to discern similarities/differences between the types of comments posted by users on the two platforms. Of particular intrigue was the role pseudonymity and self-identifying information have on social media manners. Overall, many users seemed to be unimpacted by levels of self-identifying information. However, profane language was less frequent and replies to comments were more civil on the network with self-identifying information; Facebook. The results of this study shed some light to online politeness: Systematic mechanisms that identify self and personal networks (Facebook’s use of full name and friendship networks) correlate with increased politeness and reduction of nasty comments towards other users.

2017 ABSTRACTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2017 ABSTRACTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2017 ABSTRACTS

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

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

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

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

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

2017 ABSTRACTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2017 ABSTRACTS