Communication Theory and Methodology 2009 Abstracts
Communication Theory & Methodology Division
The Blame Game: Media Rituals and Blame in Recurrent Technological Disasters • Mary Grace Antony, Washington State University • This study analyzed how blame patterns emerge and develop in recurring technological disasters, specifically the 2008 Manhattan crane collapses. A quantitative content analysis examined newspaper coverage in the New York Daily News and The New York Times following each disaster. Results corroborated the principal tenets of Attribution Theory (Heider, 1958; Hindman, 2003) and the media as societal guard dog theory (Donohue et al., 1995). The implications of these results and future research opportunities are discussed.
An Integrative Model of Ambivalence • Young Min Baek, University of Pennsylvania • Ambivalence is a widely experienced psychological state, but inter-disciplinary studies define and conceptualize ambivalence separately. In spite of its ambiguity, ambivalence has become an increasingly popular concept, utilized in hypotheses concerning a variety of social phenomena. This paper overviews extant studies on ambivalence, and summarizes the similarities and differences between social psychology, political science, and sociology in adopting the concept.
Synthesizing Presence: A Cross-Disciplinary Review of the Literature • Dennis Beck, Boise State University; Paul Fishwick, University of Florida; Rasha Kamhawi, University of Florida; Amy Jo Coffey, University of Florida; Julie Henderson, University of Florida; Benjamin Hamilton, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) • This multidisciplinary literature review satisfies a need for a comprehensive, integrated understanding of “presence,” a concept applicable to virtual reality studies. Eighty peer-reviewed articles from five academic disciplines were analyzed, and their presence definitions compared and contrasted. While presence was sometimes based on specific qualities, it was elsewhere based on application or function. Scholars are encouraged to use the synthesized definitions presented here to formulate research questions that advance our understanding of presence theory.
Differentiating measures of news media use along dimensions of attention and exposure, medium, and content domains • Andrew Binder, University of Wisconsin-Madison • In spite of much progress in the development of media-effects theories in the past few decades, research has neglected to address important questions related to the measurement of news media use in survey instruments. This points to a variety of problems addressed in this paper. First is the changing landscape of the media environment with the advent of the Internet as a major source of news for audiences.
Attention to exemplars: Moderating effects of information processing and personal involvement in exemplification • Porismita Borah, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ashley Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jiun-Yi Tsai, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Al Gunther, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The goal of this study is two fold—(1) to examine the influence of news-article exemplars on individuals’ judgments and (2) to explore the moderating roles of information processing and personal relevance in exemplification.
Framing as a distinct social influence process: The role of the individual • Porismita Borah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Although the consistently growing literature on framing adds to the allure of the theory, the range of multiple approaches is “both a blessing and a curse”. The present article examines the extant literature on framing to answer one central question—in what ways is framing a distinct process of social influence? In order to examine this question the article attempts to explore where frames come from in the first place and how they influence audience members.
Implications of perceived fairness and issue importance for media and interpersonal information seeking • Michael Boyle, West Chester University; Mike Schmierbach, Penn State University • Information seeking is driven by a number of factors including perceived utility and issue importance. Much of this work has considered general measures of information seeking across broad contexts. This paper extends that by considering information seeking about a specific issue deemed important by the study participant. In addition, we consider three contexts for information seeking: media-driven, interpersonal, and online discussion.
Consensual Invasion – A path model of how Facebook users conceptualize and contextualize privacy • Christopher Brott, University of Kansas • Repeatedly, privacy issues associated with the social network site Facebook have attracted attention from both researchers and the popular press. However, little is known about how users of these sites conceptualize privacy and protect their personal information. Based on focus group and survey data, this study proposes a new path model to explain Facebook users’ concept of online privacy.
A Comparison of Two Perspectives on the Concept of Need for Orientation • Gennadiy Chernov, University of Regina; Sebastian Valenzuela, University of Texas at Austin; Maxwell McCombs, School of Journalism, The University of Texas at Austin • Need for orientation (NFO) is a contingent condition for agenda-setting effects. This concept has been explicated recently to include three dimensions. The current experimental study tested how comparable the traditional and new NFO scales are, and how strongly they predict agenda-setting effects. Findings indicate that both NFO scales are reliable tools for predicting first-level agenda-setting effects and they both are significantly correlated with each other.
Framing Groups as Distinctive: Implications of Optimal Distinctiveness Theory for Persuasive Communication • Maria Leonora Comello, The Ohio State University • Optimal Distinctiveness Theory posits that valued groups are those that can satisfy needs to belong and to be different. Persuasive messages with a social-identity theme should therefore frame the group accordingly. This strategy was examined in a drug-prevention context using ads that framed non-users as a distinctive or majority group. Distinctive framing lowered willingness to use drugs among non-users, and served as a source of identity threat (contingent on gender) among users.
Testing the Limits of “Post Broadcast Democracy”: Adolescents, Media Choice, and Participatory Engagement • Stephanie Edgerly, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, SJMC; Ming Wang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Emily Thorson, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania; Dhavan Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study seeks to replicate Prior’s (2007) conditional learning model using panel data from12-17 year olds. We find no support for the interaction between Relative Entertainment Preference (REP) and media access on levels of political knowledge. We do, however, find REP to be an unstable preference that is negatively related to levels of political talk and participation. Implications are discussed in terms of the political socialization of adolescences and future studies on media preferences.
Beyond Deliberation: New Directions for the Study of Informal Political Conversation from a Communication Perspective • William Eveland, The Ohio State University; Alyssa Morey, Ohio State University; Myiah Hively, The Ohio State University • The past two decades have witnessed important contributions to our understanding of political discussion and its effects. However, in many ways we have yet to scratch the surface of what we need to learn. Here we will briefly review the state of the political discussion literature.
Geo-identity and Media Use: Modeling the Process of Political and Civic Participation in the • Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin • In recent years scholars have assessed the influence of people’s media use to crucial aspects of the political realm. Research has generally shown that news consumption is positively related to certain attitudes (e.g. interpersonal discussion) mediating the effects toward political participation. Similarly, scholars have also provided evidence of the importance of social identity in issues pertaining to in-group/out-group and its potential in the participatory arena.
Old Theory, New Use: An Uses & Gratifications Revival in a New Media World? • Geoffrey Graybeal, University of Georgia • This paper is a critical review and analysis of the Uses and Gratifications Theory. The paper examines the history, current academic debate, recent applications and future directions for one of the most used mass communication theories of the past 50 years. This paper argues that the traditional theory of U&G remains an appropriate theoretical perspective to study mass communication issues in a new media world.
Influences of Audience Feedback on News Content in Traditional and New Media: A Theoretical Evaluation • Gang (Kevin) Han, Greenlee School of Journalism & Communication, Iowa State University; Donald Holeman, S.I.Newhouse School of Public Communication, Syracuse U. • By explicating the concept of feedback both outside and inside of the mass communication field and assessing several theoretical perspectives that are related to feedback, audience and news production, this study outlines a new theoretical framework examining the role of audience’s feedback plays in news production for both traditional and new media. This study characterizes the computer-mediated mass media and suggests a variety of attributes of audience’s feedback.
Measuring Change: What’s Possible with Multiple Waves of Data and its Application to Political Communication • Myiah Hively, The Ohio State University • Given that role of change is central to many communication theories, it perhaps goes without saying that being able to effectively model change is critical for scholars’ ability to effectively test and refine theories. The most current methodological research suggests that the most effective way to model change utilizes multi-wave data and the use of latent growth models, which allows researchers to examine differences in change within and between individuals.
The influence of health consciousness on individual processing of television health news and message acceptance • Hyehyun Hong, University of Missouri • The purpose of this study is to examine the role of health consciousness in processing TV news that contains potential health threats and preventive recommendations. Based on the Extended Parallel Process Model (Witte, 1992), the relationships among health consciousness, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived response efficacy, perceived self-efficacy, and message acceptance were hypothesized. Using the bootstrapping analysis (Hayes & Preacher, 2006), this study revealed three mediators in the relationship between health consciousness and message acceptance.
The Development of Media Framing Theory Research • Jiran Hou, University of Georgia • Based on the recent studies of media framing (1998-2008), this study further develops the framing process model proposed by Scheufele in 1999 and extends its use in this continually evolving media landscape.
Testing Regulatory Focus Theory in Interactive 3D Virtual Environments • Seung-A Jin, Boston College • Online virtual worlds have great potential as sites for research in social, behavioral sciences as well as in human-computer interaction. Drawing from the regulatory focus theory, the present study tested the role of regulatory fit in 3D virtual environments by manipulating the fit between experimentally primed regulatory focus and means for goal pursuit.
The mediating role of knowledge and efficacy in an O-S-R-O-R model of political participation • Nakwon Jung, The University of Texas at Austin; Yonghwan Kim, University of Texas at Austin; Jae Kook Lee, The University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin • This study investigates mediating roles of political knowledge and efficacy between communication variables and online and offline political participation within the framework of an O-S-R-O-R model. Results from structural equation modeling analysis indicate that including political knowledge and efficacy significantly improved the model fit. We also found that while data supported all variables of news media use and discussion significantly predicted efficacy, political knowledge was significantly associated only with offline political discussion.
The Influence of Source Credibility and Controversial Content on the Third-person Effect • Guan-Soon Khoo, Pennsylvania State University; Utkarsh Subnis, Pennsylvania State University • Does increasing social distance produce a greater third person effect (TPE) only when the message content is controversial? A 2x2x5 mixed-design experiment revealed a significant influence of source credibility, controversial content and social distance on TPE. Controversial content was demonstrated as an important moderating variable, producing higher TPE for the high credibility condition compared to low credibility condition. The study raises important implications for the design of pro-social messages.
Reactance and the Hostile Media Effect: Placing the Effect within the Theory • William Kinnally, University of Central Florida; Laura Arpan, Florida State University • This project examined whether the theory of reactance can be used to explain the hostile media effect (HME). Two studies representing traditional and relative HME contexts examined whether variables associated with reactance such as personality characteristics, involvement, and social power were related to bias judgments that are commonly associated with the HME. Partisanship and third-person effect in the HME were used as parallels to involvement and social power in reactance. Partisanship was strongly correlated to involvement.
Agenda Setting, Issue Ownership, and Priming: Exploring Linkages and Impact on Vote Choice • Spiro Kiousis, U of Florida; Jesper Stromback, Mid Sweden University; Michael McDevitt, University of Colorado • The current study examines agenda-setting, issue ownership, and priming processes in impacting vote choice using panel data during the 2006 Swedish national elections. Specifically, a model is developed probing the multiple influences of news attention and discussion on issue salience, party evaluation, candidate evaluation, and vote decision. The results suggest that the synthesis of these perspectives offers a valuable framework for understanding critical mechanisms predicting ballot choice.
Processes of Communicative Socialization: A Communication Mediation Approach to Youth Civic Engagement • Nam-Jin Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dhavan Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • By analyzing data from a national panel survey of adolescents and their parents conducted around the 2008 election season, this study explores the processes in which a range of communicative activities, from talking politics at home or in school to consuming conventional and digital news content, cultivate civic activism among adolescents. Results indicate that communication among adolescent citizens, both face-to-face and online, mediates the effects of the factors pertaining to key socializing agents on civic engagement.
First-person Perceptions and Self-enhancement Explanation • Sangki Lee, Arkansas Tech University • The present study explored the self-enhancement explanation for first-person perceptions in an experimental setting. The self-enchantment motivation was manipulated using two different methods. The study found that needs for self-enhancement play a role in people’s perceptions of media influences. Particularly people who are high in self-esteem tended to enhance their positive self-view more evidently than do people who are low in self-esteem in a way that is consistent with the ego-defensive mechanism.
Voters’ attribution of responsibility for a political sex scandal and opinions about the impeachment • Joon Soo Lim, Middle Tennessee State University; Moon Lee, Washington State University; Hyun Jung Chae, Middle Tennessee State University • We investigated how individuals, observing a political sex scandal, would make biased attributions of responsibility based on their group identity, prior vote choice, and partisan media use. Two logit models were tested using 2000 ANES Pilot Study data. Results supported all the hypotheses, demonstrating the effects of individuals’ motivational and cognitive biases along with regular listening to political talk radio on predicting attributions of responsibility and subsequent judgment on the punishment of the politician.
Analysis of Strength of Attribute Salience among Elite News Web sites in terms of Attention and Prominence Levels • Jeongsub Lim, Austin Peay State University • The question of to what extent elite news Web sites cover similar attributes on their main posting sections has received scant attention despite the presumed influence of the Web sites on public opinion. This study examines this question by measuring attribute salience in terms of two conditions: attention level only and both attention and prominence levels.
The Click and the Vicissitudes of Object a • Ke-Ming Lin, National United University, Department of Taiwan Language and Communication • Why are people so addicted to “Net surfing” or “mouse clicking”? The article seeks to argue that it is the empty touch, manifested in the action of the mouse click, which leads people to repeat the action of web surfing. Lacan’s concept of object a is also introduced in order to understand why the emptiness becomes a source to lure people.
Three peas in a pod?: Toward a theory that guides effective public relations practices via the three sectors • Brooke Liu, DePaul University; Teresa Mastin, DePaul University • Public relations scholars herald the critical link between theory and practice, yet practitioners continue to downplay and, sometimes, negate the relevance of public relations theory to practice. One major roadblock to integration of theory into practice is that current dominant theories predominately treat the public relations practice as universal, ignoring the effect of the environment (e.g., public, nonprofit, or private sector) on how public relations is practiced in different sectors.
Bringing Media Effects into Terror Management Theory: Video Threats, Mortality Salience and Support for Torture • Michael McCluskey, Ohio State University; Jay Hmielowski, Ohio State University; Rachel Lichtenfeld, Ohio State University • More than 300 articles have been published on Terror Management Theory, yet just one used video content as a prime to trigger mortality salience. Experiment shows that separate videos from the TV show “24” depicting societal and individual threats raised mortality salience to a similar level as traditional paper-based prime. Analysis shows subjects in mortality salience condition gave greater support to some torture policies and tactics than control group.
Attention, Attitude and Behavior: Second-level Agenda-Setting Effects as a Mediator of Media Use and Political Participation • Soo Jung Moon, University of West Georgia • This study explicates the process ranging from media use to political participation by relying upon second-level agenda-setting. The model suggests the following sequence of C(cognitive)-A(affective)-B (behavior): News attention of presidential candidates affects second-level agenda-setting effects (cognitive dimension) on readers/viewers; in turn, agenda-setting effects trigger strong attitudes (affective dimension) toward the candidates among the public and, finally, strong attitudes lead to various types of political behaviors.
Does Tobacco Use Influence Cognitive Processing of Traditional vs. Counter Anti-tobacco Ads? • Jensen Moore, West Virginia University • Previous research comparing traditional “Blame” anti-tobacco advertisements that conceptualize smoking problems and consequences as caused by the individual to the new “Attack” ads that challenge the institutions behind tobacco products produced conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of both types of messages. The current study seeks to inform as to what overall message type (i.e., Blame vs. Attack) is likely to influence individuals who currently smoke or are likely to smoke in the future.
What Drives Political Discussion: The Influence of Social, Informational, and Epistemic Motivations • Alyssa Morey, Ohio State University; William Eveland, The Ohio State University; Myiah Hively, The Ohio State University • This paper examines the influence of motivational needs on different dimensions of political discussion. Study 1 examines the influence of two social motivations, willingness to self-censor and fear of social isolation. Study 2 expands Study 1 by re-examining social motivations as well as investigating motivations of need for cognition and need to evaluate, and the epistemic needs of dogmatism and post-materialism.
Online Social Networks Increase Political Participation • Lindsay Newport, Louisiana State University; Rosanne Scholl, Manship School of Mass Communication, LSU • Users of social network sites may be less likely to participate in politics due to time displacement or cynicism-producing opposition, or more likely due to exposure to motivating information and talk. Survey data show that dependence on a social network increases both online and offline participation, but time spent on the site does not, even when controlling for news use, Internet use, and political talk. Democratic benefits of involvement in social network sites are discussed.
Challenging the State: Transnational TV, Transnational Identity, and Public Opinion in the Middle East • Erik Nisbet, Ohio State University; Teresa Myers, Ohio State University • This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding how the rise of transnational media influences processes of mediated identity formation and the consequences for national identity and public opinion. We apply our framework to test the effects of transnational Arab TV in the Middle East.
Exploring Priming Effectiveness According to Media Modality and Valence • Temple Northup, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Francesca Dillman Carpentier, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • There is a substantial body of literature that has demonstrated media act as primes that affect our thoughts or behaviors. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to questions such as ‘which media content are more effective primes than others’ among the sea of media messages with which we are bombarded.
Re-examining the Role of Interpersonal Communications in “Time-of-Voting Decision” Studies • Poong Oh, University of Southern California • This study re-examined the findings of previous “time-of-voting decision” studies with two important changes. First, it treated the “time-of-voting decision” as a dependent variable rather than an independent variable. Second, it added a new variable – level of heterogeneity within one’s interpersonal political communication networks. This new variable was made possible by a series of special questions added to the 2000 American National Election Study dataset.
Exploring Factors in the Hostile Media Phenomenon: Partisanship, Political Engagement and Media Use Patterns • Hyun Jee Oh, University of Missouri; Jongmin Park, Kyung Hee University; Wayne Wanta, University of Missouri • Using survey data from 2000 and 2007, this study examines individual-level variables influencing the magnitude of the hostile media phenomenon. HMP was found for Republicans in 2000 and 2007 and Democrats in 2000, but not in 2007, perhaps because of the extensive coverage of the Democratic presidential candidates prior to the primaries. High political engagement was also related to HMP.
Adolescents’ Use of Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Sexual Uncertainty: The Role of Transportation and Gender • Jochen Peter, University of Amsterdam; Patti Valkenburg, University of Amsterdam • Recent research has shown that adolescents’ use of sexually explicit material (SEIM) is associated with an important characteristic of the developing sexual self, sexual uncertainty. However, the causal relation between SEIM and sexual uncertainty is unclear. Moreover, we do not know which processes underlie this relationship and whether gender moderates these processes. Based on a three-wave panel survey among 956 Dutch adolescents, structural equation modeling revealed that greater exposure to SEIM increased adolescents’ sexual uncertainty.
Modeling the Effects of Online Information Use and Expression on Young Adults’ Political Efficacy • Yushu Zhou, Washington State University; Bruce Pinkleton, Washington State University • This study advanced an O-S-R-O (orientations-stimuli-reasoning-orientations) model to examine the roles of political information consumption and online political expression in young adults’ political decision making and also explored the information mediation process. One online survey was conducted in one large northwestern university (n=434).
Can a Constructed Week Sample Produce Qualitatively Inaccurate Results when Content Analyzing Race and Ethnicity? • Paula Poindexter, University of Texas at Austin; Ingrid Bachmann, University of Texas at Austin • This study compared a census and a constructed week as content selection methods when analyzing racial and ethnic diversity in news coverage. There was no statistical difference in the two content selection methods but there was a qualitative difference. The constructed week undercounted African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.
When There’s Little to Fear: How Perceived Tolerance of Others Moderates Fear of Social Isolation in the Spiral of Silence • Jason Reineke, Middle Tennessee State University; Alyssa Morey, Ohio State University; Kenneth Blake, Middle Tennessee State University; Robert Wyatt, Middle Tennessee State University • Spiral of silence theory posits that when individuals perceive their opinion to be in the minority or losing favor they will tend to withhold those opinions due to fear of social isolation. However, we propose that if the group is perceived to be tolerant, and thus unlikely to exclude or otherwise punish the individual for an incongruent opinion, there is little reason why the individual should fear social isolation or withhold her or his opinion.
Perspective Taking, Personal Distress and Positive Affect: Clarifying Factors in Transportation • Melanie Sarge, The Ohio State University; Daniel McDonald, The Ohio State University • This study provides insight into the relationship between empathy and transportation and the role positive affect plays in this relationship. A mediation analysis is conducted revealing an indirect effect of the perspective taking dimension of empathy on transportation through positive affect. Further, moderated mediation effects are demonstrated when empathy’s personal distress dimension is added to this relationship. Personal distress is shown to moderate this indirect effect of perspective taking on transportation through positive affect.
Understanding issue-specific information seeking in an election context • Mike Schmierbach, Penn State University; Michael Boyle, West Chester University • Even as media content becomes increasingly diversified, few models in political communication treat news at a granular level, instead clumping entire media together. In this study, we propose several factors that might explain why people seek content on specific issues, focusing on prior attitudes regarding news coverage.
Innovation and Normalization Reconsidered: Examining the Evolution of Party-Centered E-Campaigning in German Elections • Eva Johanna Schweitzer, University of Mainz, Germany • This paper challenges the traditional innovation and normalization paradigm of e-campaigning by a longitudinal analysis of German party Web sites. The results suggest two theoretical revisions: First, innovation and normalization do not represent mutually exclusive opposites, but rather form a dynamic conceptual continuum which signifies parallel stages in the development of online campaigning. Second, this continuum is affected by the Web site dimension as well as by the status of the political actors being observed.
Beyond Coethnic Boundaries:Coethnic Social Context, Ethnic Media and Asian Americans’ Political Participation • Mihye Seo, University at Albany • This paper examines when and where Asian Americans’ strong ties with their own ethnic groups help and hurt their political participation. Using Pilot National Asian American Political Survey (PNAAPS) data, this paper found that coethnic contexts measured by ethnically homogeneous residential area, friendship, and ethnic media helped Asian-related political awareness, which in turn facilitated engagement in Asian-relevant political activities.
Television Viewers’ Motivational Disposition and Media Message Processing • Mija Shin, Washington State University • Taking the perspective of LC4MP, this study investigated whether individuals’ motivational dispositions lead to different physiological and cognitive responses to media messages. Television viewers possess differential activation functions of the appetitive and the aversive system. In LC4MP, individuals’ different motivational dispositions are defined using the two concepts of positivity offset and negativity bias. Positivity offset indicates differential activation functions in the appetitive system among individuals whereas negativity bias relates to aversive activation.
Networks that Matter: How Online and Offline Discussions among Citizens Relate to Political Engagement • Sebastian Valenzuela, University of Texas at Austin; Yonghwan Kim, University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin • We examine how face-to-face and computer-mediated discussion networks relate to traditional and online political participation. Using original survey data from a large national sample of U.S. adults, we find evidence that offline and online discussion networks contribute to both forms of participation. Network size, discussion with people outside family and friends, and demographic diversity among discussants are particularly consequential.
No Laughing Matter: The Rhetoric of Comedy in the Movie Hitch • Tammy Vigil, Boston University • The popular equation of comedy and humor leads to misunderstandings and misinterpretations of what it means for rhetoric to be comic rather than tragic. This essay explores various perspectives on comedy to develop a coherent and applicable definition of comedy from a rhetorical perspective. Relying primarily on the works of Kenneth Burke and Hugh Duncan, the definition posited here focuses on the didactic function of comedy as a frame of acceptance.
Emotions vs. cognitions? Testing competing models of response to a media message in predicting participation • Emily Vraga, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, SJMC; Timothy Fung, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Hans Meyer, University of Missouri • This study tests an enduring debate about the role of emotions and cognitions as a response to a media message, as well as their subsequent effects on encouraging political participation. Specifically, we test the process of mediation between cognition and emotion in response to an uncivil partisan attack. Our study suggests that cognitive evaluations partially mediate emotional reactions, but that both play a role – funneled through negative feelings – in predicting participation.
Party preference dissonance, news exposure, and media perceptions: Message response during the 2008 presidential campaign • Emily Vraga, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study uses an experiment to test whether an attack to an individual’s party identification can interact with exposure to a news story covering political advertisements by a preferred or opposing candidate to affect ratings of story credibility, media trust, and media bias. Path analyses suggest that the combination of a partisan attack and dissonant news exposure impacts ratings of story credibility and indirectly influences media perceptions, but these effects were centered among Republicans.
Sample sizes for content analysis of two online newspaper sites • Xiaopeng Wang, University of South Florida St. Petersburg • This study compared multiple sample sizes on the home pages of The New York Times and Los Angels Times and found that a sample of 14 consecutive days was effective and efficient for an analysis of a daily updated newspaper site’s content, during a one-year period of time. Generalizing the results to other Web content analyses may need special caution because of the enormous variability in Web sites and the particular variables used of this study.
Issue Advocacy in the Internet Age: The Case of California Proposition 8 • Kevin Wang, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities • This study explores how the Internet might serve as a mechanism for communication and exchange of information among advocacy groups using the California Proposition 8 as a case study. Drawing on previous research of cyberactivism and social networks, a hyperlink analysis was conducted to examine the linking pattern among the supporter and the opposition groups, as well as the overall characteristics of the proposition issue network.
Examining the Role of Credibility, Attention and Elaboration in Moderating the Third-person Effects of News about Tainted Food Product Recalls • Ran Wei, University of South Carolina; Ven-Hwei Lo, National Chengchi University of Taiwan; Hung-yi Lu, National Chung Cheng University • This study examines the third-person effect in estimating the influence of news coverage of tainted food product recalls due to a milk scandal in China on oneself relative to others. Using data from a survey of 1,213 respondents in Taiwan, the study found that respondents tend to think the influence of the news on others was greater than on themselves.
A Multi-dimensional Model of Involvement with News • Bartosz Wojdynski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In searching for elusive variables that moderate media effects, a frequently utilized concept has been that of involvement. Zaichkowsky’s (1985) widely adapted involvement scale is based on a three-dimensional view of involvement, in which products, advertisers, and purchase decisions serve as distinct targets of involvement. This paper relies on evidence from other research paradigms in mass communication to examine four potential components that may comprise distinct aspects of involvement with a news message.
Examining Differential Gains from Mass Media in Japan: Voting and Participation • Masahiro Yamamoto, Washington State University • A differential gains model put forward by Scheufele (2002) suggests that political discussion serves to facilitate political participation, as it helps citizens more meaningfully acquire political information from mass media. As empirical support for the model is limited to the United States, this study assesses whether the differential gains model generalizes to Japan’s political contexts. Given a long debate about dimensionality of political participation and Japan’s political contexts, voting and general participation are distinguished.
Message Desirability and Social Distance: Testing the Third-Person Perception in a Gubernatorial Election • Qingjiang Yao and Zhaoxi (Josie) Liu, University of Iowa • In the context of a gubernatorial election, this study (N = 311) test the variable of message desirability and social distances based on some new conceptualizations. The study finds a substantial negative linear correlation of the difference in perceived media influences on the self and on others with the message desirability (measured by individual perception of the message). The social distance corollary is tested in different dimensions.
The Effects of MMORPG-play on Gamers’ Social Capital • Zhi-Jin Zhong, Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong • This paper conceptualizes MMORPG-play as a combination of general-play represented by gaming time and duration and collective-play represented by the frequency and quality of gaming with other people. This study conducts a two-wave survey on gamers’ gaming experience and social capital which is combined by bonding social networks, bridging social networks and civic engagement. Structural equation modeling is used to investigate the effects of MMORPG-play on gamers’ social capital.
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