Participatory Journalism 2019 Abstracts

Crowdfunded Journalism from a Social Entrepreneurship Perspective • Jiyoung Cha, San Francisco State University • Crowdfunding is widely used for journalism. Given that the primary purpose of journalism is to provide information that citizens need, this study frames journalism crowdfunding as social entrepreneurship and investigates how narratives and entrepreneur characteristics influence citizens’ financial support for journalism projects. An analysis of 127 journalism campaigns provides both theoretical and practical implications for the role of narratives in gaining financial resources and the potential of crowdfunded journalism as a tool for social change.

Deep participation in underserved communities: A quantitative analysis of Hearken’s model for engagement journalism • Jennifer Cox, Salisbury University; Mark Poepsel, Dr. and Mrs. • Hearken is a news engagement platform allowing audiences to participate in the new process with the goal of helping news organizations provide hyperlocal journalism and news about and for underrepresented populations. This study employs a quantitative content analysis comparing listener-driven content with traditional reporter-driven content at four public radio stations. Findings reveal listener-driven content favors hyperlocal news on community history and lifestyle issues, while reporter-driven stories emphasize state-level governance and politics, and local crime.

¨We have to stand out to blend in¨: Ordinary transgender people in the news • Katherine Fink, Pace University; Ruth Palmer, IE University • This interview-based study focuses on the experiences of ordinary transgender people in U.S. news. Fifteen transgender people were asked about the circumstances that led to their appearances in the news and their experiences after articles were published. Despite the risks of going public, transgender news subjects often cited a responsibility to help other transgender people and to educate the public. Many envisioned a hopeful future in which being transgender alone would not make them newsworthy.

Reimagining Pathways to Democracy: User-Generated Content (UGC), Credibility, and Political Participation • Masahiro Yamamoto, University at Albany; Seungahn Nah; Hyesun Choung • This study assesses how journalistic credibility and consumption and production of user-generated content (UGC) are related to political participation.  Data from a national online survey shows two sets of pathways.  One concerns traditional communication-based pathways involving professional journalism credibility, traditional news use, political discussion, and self-efficacy. The other concerns citizen journalism credibility and consumption and production of UGC on citizen news websites. Consumption of UGC on professional news websites is related to political participation indirectly through political discussion and production of UGC on citizen news websites, respectively. Interestingly, consumption of UGC on professional news websites is negatively predicted by professional journalism credibility but positively by citizen journalism credibility.  Results are discussed from a communication mediation perspective.  Implications are presented for the role of citizen journalism in the political process.

< 2019 Abstracts

Political Communication 2019 Abstracts

Advancing a Communication Mediation Model of Participation in Sub-Saharan Africa • Oluseyi Adegbola; Melissa Gotlieb, Texas Tech University • This study uses data from the 2015 Afrobarometer survey to advance a communication mediation model in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to examining an O-S-R-O-R model across 30 countries, this study also considered potential cross-country differences resulting from variation in level of democracy and economic development. Results suggest the overall suitability of the model, but also suggest some key departures from previous studies conducted in western, democratized nations as well as some key differences across countries.

Pathways to Polarization: Mediated Social Comparison, Affective Polarization and the 2016 U.S. Election • German Alvarez, University of Texas Austin • Op-eds, politicians, and the public alike are quick to blame social media for increasing political polarization. Social media alone, however, is not inherently political. Instead, the degree to which political information is found on these networks is bound by users, algorithms, and microtargeted advertisements. Add the spectacle of a presidential election campaign to the mix and partisan identity is made salient. As a result, people use other’s social media behavior as reference points for social comparison. The social identity theory explains that people make social comparisons between in-group and out-group in order make sense of who they are and how they are evaluated. The current study examines social networks as an online extension of offline social networks that allows for mediated social group comparison. The results indicate that mediated social group comparison is related to affective and issue polarization. The study concludes with a discussion on the permanence of past social connections online theorizing that these connections are no longer best conceptualized as strong or weak ties, but rather as gray ties.

‘Political Hooliganism.’ Political Discussion Attributes Effects on the Development of Unconditional Party Loyalty • Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu, Departamento de Psicología Cognitiva, Social y Organizacional. Universidad de La Laguna; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna • This study extends existing research on the influence of political discussion on attitude change. To do so, we introduce the concept of political hooliganism and explore its antecedents. Results from a multi-country, two-wave survey show that discussion network size, discussion disagreement, and offline discussion negatively predict of hooligan attitudes. On the contrary, online discussion fosters political hooliganism. The study also examines the moderating role of exposure to disagreement and discussion network size on these relationships.

Perceptions of Media Influence Among Radicalized Individuals: The Characteristics, Causes, and Effects of Islamists’ Perceptions of the Media • Philip Baugut; Katharina Neumann, Department of Communication Studies and Media Research at LMU Munich • This study examines for the first time the characteristics, causes, and consequences of radicalized persons’ perceptions of media effects, using the example of Islamists. Based on interviews with 34 Islamist prisoners and 9 former Islamists, we found that radicalized individuals perceived themselves as being immune to influence by the news media, which they generally perceived as being hostile and untrustworthy. In contrast, they believed that the media had a relatively strong effect on the general public, on political and media elites, and on judges and prison officials. This third-person effect can be explained primarily by radicalized individuals’ consumption of propaganda blaming the media for the societal rejection of their ingroup. Consequently, these perceptions contributed to the Islamists’ cognitive and behavioral radicalization by serving as a breeding ground for propaganda effects. Future research should therefore consider the use of propaganda attacking the media as a cause of individuals’ media effects perceptions.

Who paid for what? The role of visual attention to content and disclosures in Facebook political advertising • Matt Binford, University of Georgia; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georgia; Yen-I Lee, University of Georgia; Shuoya Sun, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA; Andrea Briscoe • Recently, Facebook has changed the way they display the disclosure language regarding political advertisements in an attempt to increase transparency. The goal of this study was to use eye- tracking to determine the effectiveness of the new disclosure language and to assess other important factors dealing with how users look at political ads. Findings suggest that Facebook’s new political ad disclosure language is not effective at enhancing users comprehension of who paid for the advertisement.

Media Civic-Efficacy: Predicting Civic Engagement Among Secondary-School Journalism Students • Peter Bobkowski, University of Kansas; Harrison Rosenthal, University of Kansas • This study proposes a communication model wherein school context factors—climate, principal, and advisor—relate to students’ confidence in their abilities to use media for civic change: a concept we label media civic-efficacy. We find media civic-efficacy (1) relates positively to, and partially mediates the relationship between, political interest and prospective civic engagement, and (2) increases when journalism students feel a supportive school climate and when journalism instructors exert little control over their students’ journalistic output.

Social Computing for Generalized Trust: The Value of Presence for Establishing Contact Theory Online • Brandon Bouchillon • A web survey matched to U.S. Census parameters tests whether efforts of sociability on Facebook and perceiving of interactions as realistic contribute to generalized trust. Interacting with new people on Facebook is related to social presence. Presence contributes to generalized trust in turn. The size of the indirect association between sociability and trust through social presence decreases with age as well. Younger users are more adept at converting realistic interactions into feelings of trust.

Effects of Candidate Lateral Location and Eye Gaze Direction in Political Ads: Evidence from Self-Report and Eye Movement Patterns • Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Esther Thorson, Michigan State University; Weiyue Chen; Tao Deng, Michigan State University; Duygu Kanver; Mengyan Ma; Na Rae Park; Jessica Hirsch; Alan Smith • Two visual elements in a political were manipulated: lateral location of the candidate image (left vs. right) and his eye gaze direction (inward vs. direct vs. outward). Political affiliation of the candidate and of participants were also examined in an online survey sample and a lab-based study of eye movement (time to first fixation and total fixation duration on the candidate). Theoretical propositions from grounded theory and visual processing fluency were tested.

Malaise Effect or Virtuous Effect? The Dynamics of Internet Use and Political Trust in China • Xiaoxiao Cheng, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University • The rise of the Internet has led to debates about the direction of its effect in terms of eroding or enhancing political trust. Current research puts aside the dispute and focuses on the dynamic relationship between the Internet use and political trust in China. Using multilevel analysis with pooled data, the results show that the impacts of Internet use on political trust vary across generations, and that the changing social-historical context and Internet context are responsible for the dynamic Internet-trust relation. This article also bridges the gap in existing theory by showing that both the short-term malaise effect of Internet use and the long-term virtuous effect of the Internet context act together to impact political trust.

Third-Person Effect and Hate Speech Censorship On Facebook • Lei Guo; Brett Johnson, University of Missouri • By recruiting 368 U.S. university students, this study adopted an online posttest-only between-subjects experiment to analyze the impact of several types of hate speech on their attitudes toward hate speech censorship. Results showed that students tended to think the influence of hate speech on others was greater than on themselves. Their perception of such messages’ effect on themselves was a significant indicator of supportive attitudes toward hate speech censorship, and of their willingness to flag hateful messages.

Who Becomes Politically Active? Linking Personality Traits, News Use and Economic Macro-Variables to Political Participation around the World • Brigitte Huber; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna; James Liu • Scholars are increasingly investigating the role of citizens’ personality traits to explain political behavior. Using survey data from 19 countries, we test whether the Big Five traits-dimensions are related to offline political participation, online political participation and voting. Results indicate that extraversion, agreeableness and openness help understand people’s participation and voting behavior, and that news use partially mediates some of the relationships. In addition, the between-country variation is related to specific country economic indicators.

From political satire to political discussion: Satire talk as mediator and affinity for political humor as moderator • Min Seon Jeong; Jacob Long; Simon Lavis • This study tests the indirect effect of exposure to political satire on political discussion, mediated by talking about political satire (program). We also test this indirect effect when individuals incidentally exposed to political satire via shared posts on social media. Given the interest of this study, we also test the moderating role of social cohesion dimension of affinity for political humor in the relationship. The results support our predictions. Implications of the findings are discussed.

The Impact of Social Media Use on Mass Polarization in Hong Kong • Tetsuro Kobayashi, City University of Hong Kong • By using survey data collected in Hong Kong, where Chinese and Hong Kongese identities are dynamically constructed in a non-mutually exclusive way, this study demonstrates that the political use of social media polarizes the attitudes and affect of those who have single Hong Kongese identity, whereas it has depolarizing effects among those who have dual identities of Hong Kongese and Chinese. These contrasting effects on polarization between single and dual identifiers have downstream consequences on political participation.

Who do we Trust More? Analyzing Public Trust to Determine which Government entities are more Trustworthy, and how Communication Techniques Might Build Confidence • Jennifer Kowalewski, Georgia Southern University; Marcel Maghiar, Georgia Southern University; Cheryl Aasheim, Georgia Southern University; Gustavo Maldonado, Georgia Southern University; Meg Elwood, Savannah Technical College • Scholars have investigated the constructs of Political Cynicism, Efficacy, and Knowledge to determine the relationship on Public Trust. In a survey, researchers investigated how people trusted the Georgia Department of Transportation, as compared to its national counterpart, the United States Department of Transportation. Findings indicate that although residents had more Public Trust in the state agency, GDOT suffered from issues of trust. Findings indicated residents wanted better communication from GDOT about potential projects.

Fuel to the Fire?: The Influence of Social Media Rumors on Political Participation and Knowledge • Nojin Kwak; Daniel Lane, University of Michigan; Qinfeng Zhu; Slgi Lee; Brian Weeks • Existing research suggests that political rumors on social media can fuel political misperceptions. Yet rumors may also more fundamentally influence how citizens engage in political life. Using original panel survey data from the 2017 South Korean election, we find that rumor communication on the instant messaging app KaKaoTalk predicts increased political participation but not political knowledge and may ultimately exacerbate participatory inequality between those with weak and strong political attitudes.

Social Media, News-Finds-Me Perception, and Political Knowledge: Panel Analysis of Lagged Relationship • Sangwon Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The primary aim of this study was to examine the causal effects of social media use on political knowledge as well as the underlying mechanisms through which such an effect occurs. To this end, we adopted different modeling strategies based on panel data, which allowed us to more rigorously test the causal structure of the data when compared to cross-sectional data. Our findings suggest that despite all the learning opportunities provided by social media platforms, social media use actually hinders rather than enhances an individual’s knowledge and understanding of politics. However, this simple main effect does not reflect the full picture. Further cross-lagged path analysis suggests that using social media for news fosters the “news-finds-me” (NFM) perception, which may in turn have a detrimental impact on individuals’ learning about politics. However, those who use traditional media to a substantial degree to complement their news consumption via social media are less negatively affected. We conclude with some caveats and directions for future research.

Political Talk Shows in Taiwan: Attitudinal Antecedents and Consequences of First- and Third-Person Effects • Scott Liu, University of South Florida; Shou-Chen Hsieh, University of South Florida; Lei Chang, Kunming University of Science and Technology • This study examined the perceived influence of political talk shows on the Taiwanese audience themselves (first-person effect) and others (third-person effect), the attitudinal antecedents of the perceived influences, and attitude toward restrictions on political talk shows. A sample of 645 Taiwanese citizens responded to an online survey. Results supported the hypothesized relationships between attitude toward political talk shows and perceived influence of the shows on self and others. Also supported was the looking glass hypothesis whereby the perceived influence of political talk shows on oneself was projected onto that of others. The perceived influences on self and others were unrelated to attitude toward restrictions, however.

#Donatenow!: A computer-assisted analysis of musician’s political engagement on Twitter • Josephine Lukito, UW Madison; Luis Loya, UW Madison; Carlos Davalos, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jianing Li, UW Madison; Chau Tong, UW Madison • This study employs a computational content analysis of 2,286,434 tweets, posted by 881 musical artists from the past decade, to understand how musicians discuss politics on Twitter. A human-coded corpus is constructed, from which supervised machine learning is used to code the remainder of the dataset. Results of our study show that musicians can be grouped into three categories of political engagement on Twitter: not engaged (the majority of artists), circumstantial engagement, and active political engagement. We examine the latter categories in detail with two qualitative case studies. Moreover, we find that musicians from different genres have distinct patterns of political engagement.

Political Activist, Citizen’s Helper, and Entertainer: A Study of Professional Role Perception of Journalists in Azerbaijan • Rashad Mammadov • This study seeks to partially fill a gap in knowledge about the practice of journalism in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic. The study proposed here represents the first time Azerbaijan has been studied in a systematic fashion consistent with the literature of comparative journalism as represented by The Global Journalist (Weaver & Willnat, 2012) and Worlds of Journalism (Hanitzsch, 2011), studies well recognized as the standards against which all such efforts should be measured. One of the primary goals of the project is to explore the roles these journalists believe they play in the controlled, post-Soviet environment. Data, collected through an online survey of journalists indicate that several identifiable, perceived professional roles existed along the dimensions of Hanitzsch’s (2007) journalistic milieus. In addition, three other dimensions were identified that did not fit the model, but proved to be specific to the Azerbaijani media environment: Political Activist, Citizens’ Helper, and Entertainer.

The Rationalization of Anti-intellectualism: News as a Recursive Regime in Political Communication • Michael McDevitt, University of Colorado Boulder • In a zeitgeist of punitive populism, social science still lacks a framework to account for journalism’s unique contribution to anti-intellectualism. This paper models news as a recursive regime in political communication to account for journalism’s role in the activation of antipathy; alignment of anti-rationalism with anti-elitism in symbolic action; and return to equilibrium. Long after the news responds to an intellectual breach, residual resentment is left behind, awaiting reactivation when the climate is ripe.

Faked Out: Facebook, Fox News, and Exposure to and Perceived Accuracy of Fake News • Patrick Meirick, University of Oklahoma; Amanda Franklyn, University of Oklahoma • In the wake of the wide-reaching disinformation in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it is important to identify what contributed to people seeing and/or believing fake news. This study examined data from an Ipsos survey (N = 3,015) conducted shortly after the 2016 election. Facebook was a vector for exposure to fake news in 2016. However, contrary to our expectations, reliance on Facebook as a news source was not associated with the perceived accuracy of fake news. Fox News reliance was associated both with exposure to fake news and perceiving it as accurate. This is likely because of its centrality in the dense conservative media ecosystem. Stronger affiliation with the Republican party also was related to both seeing and believing these pro-Trump, anti-Clinton fake news stories. Partisanship moderated Fox News reliance to contribute to greater perceived accuracy for both Democrats and Republicans, but more so for the former, a far cry from the polarization that motivated reasoning would predict. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Can online news consumption predict election participation? A path analysis of predictors of local and national voting • Bumgi Min, Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications; Yang Bai; Ryan Yang Wang; Jenna Grzeslo; Krishna Jayakar • This paper explores the causal relationship between demographic characteristics, the platforms on which people access news disaggregated by national and local news, and local and national voting. Using a survey database from the Pew Research Center and a path analysis methodology, it investigates whether a preference to consume news on online platforms affects local and national news consumption, and in turn, local and national voting. Results suggest that news consumption has significant impacts on political participation, defined in this paper as local and national voting. There are significant direct effects between local news consumption and local voting, local news consumption and national voting, and national news consumption and national voting. In addition, there is no direct impact of a preference for online news on local voting or national voting. However, there is an indirect effect with news consumption patterns being a significant mediator.

Laugh till I seek: A re-assessment of the gateway hypothesis • Michaele Myers, University of Minnesota; Jay Hmielowski, Washington State University • As the media becomes more fragmented, it is important to understand how one form of communication leads to use of other types of communication. In particular, scholars should expand on this line of inquiry by examining how communication behaviors predict one another within genres of communication (e.g., news), but also how these different forms of communication might work together across genres (e.g., entertainment and news). In this paper, we re-visit the gateway hypothesis, which argued that political satire programs opened the door to people using more hard news content. In this paper, we utilize over-time survey data to provide a more rigorous test of this hypothesis. Although our cross-sectional analyses show results consistent with the gateway hypotheses, our over-time data suggest that satire does not lead to increased used of news programing. However, we did find support for the gateway hypothesis when looking at a mediation model where political attitudes serve as the intervening variable between satire use and news use.

Linking Judgments of Network Characteristics With Political Social Media Use via Perceived News Trustworthiness • Rachel Neo • Little research has examined how political characteristics of online social networks influence perceived social media news trustworthiness, and how perceived news trustworthiness affects political social media use. To address these research gaps, I use two nationally representative panel survey datasets to show that network homogeneity has positive indirect effects on expressive but not informational political social media use via perceived news trust. Interestingly, these positive indirect effects tend to be stronger among Democrats than Republicans.

Conservatives trust algorithms: How mainstream media trust, discourse, correspondence, and partisanship shape attitudes towards news aggregators and search engines • Craig Robertson, Michigan State University; Rachel Mourao, Michigan State University • This study analyzes trust in algorithmic curators and how this relates to mainstream media trust. Through two surveys, we find that news aggregators and search engines benefit from a carry-over effect, with trust in mainstream media among liberals transferring to curators. For conservatives, there is a greater disjuncture in trust ratings for journalistic and algorithmic actors. Findings suggest algorithms add a perceived layer of rationality to the sorting/ranking of news produced by other actors.

The political consequences of unfriending: Social network curation, network agreeability, and political participation • Craig Robertson, Michigan State University; Laleah Fernandez, Michigan State University; Ruth Shillair, Michigan State University • This study is a theoretical and empirical probe into the political consequences of unfriending people on social media. It explores the relationship between unfriending, perceived social network agreeability, and forms of political participation. Findings from a representative survey of US adults (N=2,018) indicate a path from social network curation, through expressive participation, to demonstrative forms of participation. The study contributes to our understanding of the links between social media use and political outcomes.

Interacting with the Ordinary People: How Populist Messages and Styles Trigger Engagement on Social Media • Michael Hameleers; Desiree Schmuck, University of Vienna; Lieke Bos; Sarah Ecklebe • We conducted a comparative content analysis of Twitter and Facebook posts (N = 1010) of political candidates in two countries to investigate the driving forces of user engagement on social media in response to populist political communication. Findings show that it is rather styles conductive to populism than the actual content of populist communication that trigger user interaction. Overall, right-wing populist politicians are most successful in spreading their message via social media.

Avoiding the Other Side? An Eye-Tracking Study Investigating Selective Exposure and Avoidance of Political Advertising • Desiree Schmuck, University of Vienna; Miriam Tribastone; Joerg Matthes, U of Vienna; Franziska Marquart, University of Amsterdam; Eva Maria Bergel • This study investigates selective exposure and avoidance of political advertising using eye-tracking methodology. We exposed participants to political ads by liberal and conservative parties placed next to neutral political ads and tracked eye-movements unobtrusively. Findings showed that individuals paid more visual attention to political ads that were consistent with their partisan ideology, while they tended to avoid political ads that were inconsistent with their partisan ideology, which provides evidence for selective avoidance processes.

Drifting Further Apart? How Exposure to Media Portrayals of Muslims Affects Attitude Polarization • Desiree Schmuck, University of Vienna; Raffael Heiss, Management Center Innsbruck; Joerg Matthes, U of Vienna • We employed a two-wave panel survey (Nw2 = 559) to investigate how positive and negative portrayals of Muslims in traditional media and on social networking sites influence attitudes toward Muslim immigration. Exposure to negative but not positive portrayals of Muslims contributes to attitude polarization. While attitude-congruent negative portrayals of Muslims reinforce anti-Muslim immigration attitudes, a backfire effect emerges for those who disagree with the negative information, even resulting in more positive attitudes toward Muslim immigration.

Impact of Facebook Networks on Election Outcomes: Case of 2016 Taiwan Legislative Election • Yue Tan • This study examines the use of Facebook groups by candidates to campaign for the 2016 Taiwan legislative elections on the basis of different election features. It focuses on identifying political factors influencing the effectiveness of candidates’ Facebook activities to gain votes (e.g., posting and building social networks). To do this, the present study performs hierarchical multiple regressions and moderation analysis to determine the impact of network structure of candidates’ Facebook groups while controlling for candidates’ personal characteristics, key election features and the amount of news coverage in traditional media. Particularly, the moderation impact of Facebook campaigning efforts that the network structure of candidates’ ego network (in-degree and out-degree centrality) and their position in the peer network (closure and brokerage) on election outcomes through citizens’ reactivity (i.e., likes, shares, and comments) is examined. We found more frequent posting were positively associated with increases in final votes, but only when network resources were low. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Motivations of personal and portable interactive devices and citizen participation: A uses and gratifications and O-S-R-O-R approach • Winston Teo, University of Auckland; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Nuri Kim; Andrew Duffy, Nanyang Technological University; Richard Ling • This study builds upon the prior research investigating the indirect influence of news consumption by including motivations to adopt personal and portable interactive devices. Based on a survey of 2,000 Singaporeans, results showed that information-seeking motivation had a positive effect on offline citizen participation but not on online expressive engagement. Conversely, socialising/convenience motivation had a negative effect on both offline citizen participation and online expressive engagement. Implications and directions for future work are discussed.

Sharing Knowledge and “Micro Bubbles”: Epistemic Communities and Insularity in US Political Journalism • Nikki Usher, University of Illinois; Yee Man Margaret Ng, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign • This paper explores the epistemic communities of Washington political journalists to understand the sense-making and knowledge producing contexts for their work. Using an inductive computational analysis that combines social network analysis of journalists’ tweets with qualitative data such as work history and organizational affiliation, we find that previous studies have failed to account for the diversity of specific knowledge-producing communities in political journalism, however, one significant concern is that journalists may be operating in even smaller, more insular microbubbles that previously thought, which could lead to potential blindspots and groupthink.

Could this be YUGE? The impact of heuristic and systematic cues on the 2018 elections • Tom Vizcarrondo; David Painter, David L Painter • This investigation compares the influence of heuristic and systematic cues on Florida and Georgia residents’ voter enthusiasm and affect toward the candidates in the 2018 elections. This experiment used a pretest-posttest factorial design with three conditions featuring both types of cues. Results among high information voters were marginal. However, low information voters exposed to party endorsements reported the greatest changes in voter enthusiasm while those exposed to elite endorsements reported the greatest changes in candidate affect.

Is There a Spiral of Silence in The Age of Trump? Examining the Effect of Political Partisanship on Family Communication • ben wasike, university of texas rio grande valley • Using the spiral of silence (SoS) and family communication patterns as theoretical frameworks, this study examined the likelihood of expressing opinions about Trump and his policies to family and friends. Overall, the likelihood of expressing such opinions was low. However, the SoS is not the reason, but likely the fatigue due to overexposure to related news and events and disassociation. Factors moderating the likelihood of expression were conversation-orientation, face-to-face communication, online anonymity, and opinion congruence.

Cynicism, Insults, and Emotions in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election: An Affective Intelligence Framework • Yufeng Tian; Xuewei Zhang; Masahiro Yamamoto, University at Albany; Alyssa Morey, University at Albany • This study examines the role of political cynicism in online campaign information seeking and political expression. Data from a web survey conducted before the 2016 U.S. presidential election show that cynicism is related positively to anger and anxiety and negatively to enthusiasm. The relationships of cynicism with anger and anxiety are moderated by exposure to insult campaigning. Data also indicate that cynicism is negatively associated with online political expression through reduced enthusiasm.

Partisan media or political organizations? Rethinking right-wing media in the disinformation order • Yunkang Yang • In light of a heightened level of disinformation propagated through online channels in the U.S., scholars pointed out that many right-wing media outlets are its principal incubator and distributor. This article is driven by two interrelated questions. First, how should we make sense of the nature of right-wing media that promoted disinformation to advance political agenda? Second, if many right-wing media outlets resemble political organizations that conduct political operations (e.g. disinformation), what kind of political organizations are they? This article offers a modest step towards understanding the behavior of many right-wing media outlets by re- conceptualizing them as a type of hybrid and fluid political organization. Compared with the previous approach that treats right-wing media as partisan news organizations, this conceptual approach captures three important yet undertheorized aspects of right-wing media. First, many right-wing media set out to achieve specific political goals. Second, many right-wing media engaged in a wide range of political operations such as making deals with politicians to “catch and kill” stories. Third, many right-wing media strategically timed their actions for maximum effect and adjusted themselves to address emerging problems in the political environment. These right-wing media outlets take on a hybrid organizational form by blending partisan news with disinformation and employing repertoires traditionally seen in social movements, political parties, and online activism. This type of organization is also characterized by fluidity in the sense that many right-wing media adjust their goals and strategies, and form new political alliances to address emerging problems and opportunities in the political environment.

Emotional Contagion on Facebook: An Experiment Examining Facebook News Comments, Affective Response, and Posting Behavior • Chance York, Kent State University; Newly Paul, University of North Texas; Jason Turcotte; Nicky Bi • We used a survey experiment (n = 350) to test emotional contagion as a potential mechanism driving hostility in Facebook news comments. Results show exposure to positively and negatively valenced comments attached to news posts about three issues—DACA, arming teachers, and net neutrality—produce contagion effects, and these effects are robust to participant issue and political orientations. Moreover, experiencing contagion increases the likelihood of commenting on the news post, implying self-reinforcing spirals of emotion.

From a Dual-Information-Processing Model Perspective: Linking Emerging Facebook User Types to News Verification in the Mobile Media Age • Rebecca Yu, National Chiao Tung University • Because social media have become a primary means by which news is received and disseminated, verification to determine the accuracy and veracity of news has become an increasingly critical practice for individual users. Drawing on the theoretical framework of the dual-information-processing model, we use two-wave panel survey data collected in Taiwan to investigate the antecedents of information-processing modes and their consequences for news verification. Results reveal three user-types based on their motivations for Facebook use—advanced, mixed, and leisure-convenience seekers—and show that advanced users who are high in all motivations are more likely engage in elaborative processing and subsequent verification of news than leisure-convenience seekers who use Facebook mainly for leisure and convenience purposes. Further, the indirect effects are weaker for mixed users with higher levels of mobile Facebook use, compared to leisure-convenience seekers.

< 2019 Abstracts

Commission on the Status of Women 2019 Abstracts

“Ceiling-breaker” and “sexist backlash”: Articulations of feminism in narratives of women in sports broadcasting • Dunja Antunovic, Charley Steiner School of Sports Communication; Cheryl Cooky, Purdue University • Recently several women became “firsts” to call nationally televised men’s professional sports games in the United States. Journalists simultaneously celebrated women’s progress and lamented widespread discrimination practices in the industry. This paper examines articulations of feminism in media narratives of “first women.” We locate narratives of progress and narratives of failure to explore the ways certain forms of feminism beome visible. Further, the paper connects media narratives to feminist storytelling practices in academic feminism.

Maidens, Bosomy Belly Dancers and Black Magic Vamps: A Qualitative Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Middle Eastern Women in American Children’s Films • Amal Bakry, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Dedria Givens-Carroll, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Nadia Alhashimi • Media are a main source for children to learn about gender (Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund, & Tanner, 2003). On average, children watch 20 hours of television per week (The Kaiser Foundation, 1999). Drawing theoretical support from Said’s (1978) Orientalism, this study aims to examine the portrayal of Middle Eastern women in American children’s films. A qualitative content analysis was conducted of nine animated children’s films from 1956 to 2004. These films included the portrayal of Middle Eastern women and were analyzed. Findings indicate that the films reinforced stereotypes about Middle Eastern women who were either hyper-sexualized or were portrayed as villains and/or conniving seductresses in the majority of depictions.

Black Twitter Representations of #Kavanaugh Hearings • Dorothy Bland, University of North Texas; Mia Moody-Ramirez, Title • Public reaction on Twitter exploded after Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor, testified she was sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh, a judge, when they were teens. He denied her allegations, and he became the 114th justice on the Supreme Court of the United States on Oct. 6, 2018. This study employs feminist theory and analyzes tweets containing “Kavanaugh Hearings” and “Black Twitter.” Findings indicate most tweets studied fell into five key categories: call to action, historical repetition, steep racial/political divide, white privilege and informational.

Online Harassment of U.S. Women Journalists and its Impact on Press Freedom • Caitlin Carlson, Seattle University; Haley Witt, Seattle University • The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether and how online harassment impacts U.S. Women Journalists. Of particular interest was whether online harassment creates a chilling effect, which in turn may influence press freedom. Results of the survey (n=141) indicated that negative online interactions caused the majority of participants to feel dissatisfied with their jobs. This may cause women journalists to leave the field before retirement age or discourage young women from entering it all together. Given the important role members of the media play in shaping the public agenda, framing issues, and priming viewers about how to evaluate current events, limiting women’s ability to participate in this process could reshape the universe of discourse in a way that is both skewed and problematic. A chilling effect was also evident in participant’s responses. Some respondents reported avoiding covering certain stories for fear of the online vitriol they would receive. An overwhelming majority of U.S. women journalists surveyed (79%) agreed that online harassment was impacting press freedom. In the United States, a free and fair press is an essential component of our Democracy. Online harassment is preventing women journalists from serving in their capacity as a watchdog on government and other institutions. The paper concludes with suggestions for remedying this issue. Recommendations include changing expectations for how women journalists are expected to interact with their audience social media, having news organizations disable the comments feature on their websites, and prohibiting readers and viewers from posting anonymously on news organization’s websites.

Translating transgender lives: A study of trans* communication practitioners as cultural intermediaries • Erica Ciszek, University of Texas at Austin; Elaine Almeida • Through in-depth interviews with trans* communication practitioners, this paper represents a turning point in communication toward a more intentional and reflexive orientation to gender identity and transgender lives. Findings demonstrate trans* practitioners construct and disseminate discourses designed to counter the historical narratives surrounding gender minorities to reshape these stories for themselves (as part of their own identity work), for trans* communities, and for mainstream audiences. This article employs the Bourdieuian concept of cultural intermediation to explicate the lived experiences of trans* individuals working in fields of communication. It specifically asks how trans* communicators create and maintain cultural intelligibility and negotiate social meaning of transgender representations, considering transgender communicators as cultural intermediaries at the center of the struggle for symbolic and material power.

The Pied Piper of R&B: An Intersectional Analysis of News Coverage of R. Kelly’s Sexual Abuse Allegations in the Era of Me Too and #MeToo • Teri Del Rosso, University of Memphis; Melissa Janoske, University of Memphis; Stephanie Madden; Jeniece Jamison • This paper explores coverage of R. Kelly’s sexual abuse allegations. We collected news stories from three Kelly-invested communities: his hometown of Chicago, the entertainment/music industry, and African-American/Black-centered media, within the first year of Me Too and the subsequent first year of the #MeToo movement. Using intersectionality and misogynoir as a lens, we interrogate how the narrative of Kelly is crafted, and to what degree coverage reinforces an institutional bias against young, black women.

Who broke it first? How news of sexual misconduct in US academia reaches the public • Stine Eckert, Wayne State University; Julie Libarkin, Michigan State University; Madison Witkowski, Michigan State University; Julia Michienzi, Michigan State University; Maddy Coy, University of Florida; Bonnie Moradi, University of Florida; Linda Steiner, University of Maryland • We analyzed how news of sexual misconduct in US academia—specifically, when a university employee was the alleged perpetrator—was broken to the wider public. We used a database of 763 cases between 1975 and 2019 to conduct a systematic textual analysis. Thus far, we have coded 434 cases randomly selected by the research team to discern patterns of gender, disciplines, and results of investigations. We conducted a more detailed analysis of 114 of these randomly selected cases to discern which media type broke the news first to a wider public. We used a feminist theory approach to contextualize our findings. Results of the study revealed that 56 cases were first made public to a wider audience in local media, 16 cases were first reported via student media, and 14 cases were first reported via court documents. Not surprisingly, a gendered pattern of misconduct emerged, with the vast majority of cases involving men as perpetrators and women as targets. The majority of perpetrators were faculty, followed by administrators; the overwhelming majority of targets were students.

Framing Campus Sexual Assault in College News: Peer Education and Counter-Power in a Rape-Supportive Environment • Barbara Friedman • Before campus sexual assault made national headlines, it made campus-news headlines. College newspapers, “flash points for campus tensions over many issues” (Hoover, 2004), have been a point of origin for coverage as institutions increasingly come under external scrutiny for their handling of sexual assault complaints. This study considers the ways that coverage of sexual assault in campus newspapers—which outnumber US dailies evidence some of the practices in national media coverage of the issue, and how campus media might constitute a counter-power project, defined by Castells (2007) as “the capacity of a social actor to resist and challenge power relations that are institutionalized.” The study examines 631 articles from 13 colleges or universities that were or are under federal investigation for possible Title IX violations related to mishandling of sexual assault complaints.

Absence of Female Empowerment and Agency: A Content Analysis of the 2017 Billboard Hot 100 Songs • Stephanie Gibbons; Stacey Hust; Kathleen Boyce Rodgers, Washington State University; Jiayu Li; Soojung Kang; Nicole Cameron • The Billboard Top 100 list of music is a composite of the most popular mainstream songs each week of a calendar year. However, when looking at the list of the top songs over the span of 2017, it is apparent that female only artists are grossly underrepresented, comprising of only 14 percent of the total top spots. While female artists deserve an equal place on the list, so do their messages. The following paper explores the extent that top mainstream artists discuss issues such as female empowerment and female sexual agency. Social Cognitive Theory is applied in this paper to exemplify the need for female empowerment within mainstream music in order for female listeners to perceive themselves as efficacious agents over their own life goals. Results indicate that female only artists are most likely to sing about empowerment and sexual agency; however, of those artists, less than ten percent of top songs include these messages.

Not as Innocent as They Seem: A Content Analysis on Gender Stereotyping in Memes • Crystal Hong; Fiona Mei Robinson; Sherlyn Goh, Nanyang Technological University; Abigail Toh • This exploratory study examines gender representations in memes using a content analysis of 638 memes from the Know Your Meme Facebook page. Guided by Erving Goffman’s framework for analysis of gender advertisements, this study found gender stereotyping in memes, especially in representations of dominance and interaction. Males are further observed to dominate the memetic landscape, with a severe underrepresentation of females. Although perceived as harmless entertainment, memes as a communication channel propagates gender stereotypes.

Nasty Writers: Uses and gratifications of private, online space in the age of Trump • Kelsey Husnick, Wayne State University; Rosie Jahng, Wayne State University • Online spaces of feminist solidarity have sprouted up in the last few years, such as a secret Facebook group specifically for women journalists with more than 8,150 members. Using uses and gratifications and the feminist ethic of care as the key theoretical framework, this study examines the female journalists’ current uses of and motivations for participating in the secret female-journalists-only Facebook group. In-depth interviews with group members produced findings including the motivation to seek out information and camaraderie, which, at face value, seem to align with previous motivations for social media use. The feminist ethic of care also emerged as a new motivation. This study illuminates the unique needs of female journalists that are not yet being met within their workplaces, which could have transformative power in newsrooms across the U.S. if used to try to fulfill those needs moving forward.

Between subject and object: How mass media industries have enabled sexual misconduct and harassment—and how they also exposed them • Jacqueline Lambiase, TCU Bob Schieffer College of Communication; Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas; Carolyn Bronstein, DePaul University • These case studies of Fox News and Google examine the #MeToo movement on journalism, advertising, and public relations. These industries have provided a front-row seat for sexual harassment investigations, coverage of the #MeToo Movement, and advocacy for awareness and change. These case studies show that mass media industries need only to look within their own workplaces to find the unforgettable details of abuse. This research provides recommendations to help prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

Covering a nation’s shame: A feminist news analysis of maternal mortality • Dustin Harp; Jaime Loke, Texas Christian University • The United States has the worst rate of maternal deaths of any other developed nation in the world. Through a qualitative analysis, the research seeks to elucidate how the topic of maternal mortality is structured in mainstream news media. By choosing to examine both national and state news coverage this research offers breadth and depth in its investigation of journalism covering this serious (and often preventable) medical problem. The research presented here represents a fragment of a larger project focused on understanding just how well contemporary journalists are doing in covering the story. This portion of the research offers a qualitative investigation of media coverage of maternal mortality in the United States and Texas, where women’s death related to pregnancy and childbirth are particularly egregious. Feminist, cultural, and health communication theorists and researchers guided the research process, offering a framework from which to approach a discourse analysis.

Exploring Gender Differences in How Teens and Young Adults Experience Cyber Surveillance, Cyberbullying, and Online Sexual Harassment • Stacey Hust; Kathleen Boyce Rodgers, Washington State University; Nicole O’Donnell, Virginia Commonwealth University; Jason Wheeler • This research examines how young men and women experience and respond to cyber surveillance, cyberbullying, and online sexual harassment. Qualitative in-depth interviews and simultaneous social media tours were conducted with eight high school and eight college students from rural, suburban, and urban communities in the Pacific Northwest. Themes include differences in how men and women use social media to seek sexual partners. Additionally, women discussed experiences with sexual cyberbullying, harassment, same-sex slut-shaming, and victim blaming.

Time’s Up: How Celebrity Endorsements on Twitter Impacted eWOM of the 2018 Women’s Movement • Ayla Oden • The Time’s Up movement was founded on January 1, 2018 with an overwhelming support from Hollywood. Celebrity endorsements were crucial to the movement’s viral success. This study utilizes the two-step flow of communication theory and social presence theory to determine what impact celebrity endorsements on Twitter had on the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) of Time’s Up and other social movement organizations (SMOs). A content analysis of tweets (n=801) mentioning the hashtag #TimesUp shows that while not all opinion leaders have an equal impact, some celebrity tweets did out-engage @TIMESUPNOW. This study also analyzed the correlation between online social presence and eWOM. Little correlation was found, indicating that celebrities can be beneficial opinion leaders to SMOs regardless of previous online activity.

Where’s the Beef? How One Woman Rocketed to Leadership in Advertising’s Creative World • Katie Olsen • The advertising industry presents women with one of the toughest paths to achieve leadership. This study used social role theory to examine how a woman was named Executive Creative Director at one of the leading independent full-service agencies in the lower US Midwest at the age of 33. A passion for leadership and creative development connected with promoting and protecting a strong work-life balance were two overarching themes impacting her journey.

From F-Bombs to Kissing Students: Media Framing of Male and Female Professors Accused of Sexual Harassment • Bethany Pitchford, Texas Tech University; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication; Jesse Starkey; Amy Koerber • This framing analysis identified the differences in the ways in which news stories depicted two male and two female tenured professors accused of sexual harassment—Coleman Hutchison, Jorge Dominguez, Avital Ronell, and Teresa Buchanan—at research-intensive universities in non-STEM disciplines. The identified media frames, some of which were distinctly gendered, included Subjects (Objects) of Hazy Creepiness; Little Boys Being Bad; Academic Power Players; Treacherous “Stay-Away-Froms”; and Eccentric Free Thinkers.

Examining Intersectionality of Ethnicity and Gender in Voting Decisions: An Experimental Study • Martina Santia; Stephanie L. Whitenack, LSU • Despite the recent surge of women in American politics, women of color still confront disproportionate impediments associated with their perceived gender and ethnicity simultaneously. Through a survey-based experiment, this project builds upon the intersectionality literature to bridge conceptual gaps concerning voters’ attitudes towards Latina political candidates. The results show that Latinas are evaluated more negatively compared to their white female counterparts, thus confirming the double disadvantage Latinas are exposed to when running for office.

Reporting on transgender victims of homicide: Practices of misgendering, sourcing and transparency • Natalee Seely, Ball State University • Media representations of violence against transgender individuals have implications for public opinion, awareness, and policy. Journalists must make editorial decisions about identifying transgender victims of homicide who cannot speak for themselves. Choices regarding sourcing, context, and language may also mitigate or exacerbate stereotypes and misinformation. This study uses content analysis to examine a sample (N=112) of mainstream U.S. news articles that covered the 26 transgender victims of homicide reported in 2018. Around 20% of articles referred to victims by their dead names, but around 9% of articles explicitly drew attention to the harms of police misidentification of transgender victims. Around 30% of the sample discussed violence against transgender individuals in social context. Police sources were present in nearly three-fourths of the sample; however, advocate sources were cited in nearly 50% of articles, offering an additional narrative. Associated Press Stylebook guidelines and best practices are discussed.

“Ideal Press Work”: The struggles of Kentucky suffrage press superintendents in gaining right to vote and living their lives • Melony Shemberger, Murray State University • State press superintendents in Kentucky performed vital work in women’s suffrage associations. Keeping Kentucky newspapers supplied with ready-to-print material on the women’s suffrage movement, writing original articles, maintaining relationships with newspaper editors, and clipping published material were among the responsibilities and activities of the press superintendents. In April 1898, Jessie Jane Cassidy, press superintendent for the National-American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), wrote a nearly three-page newsletter article describing the importance of “ideal press work” in reaching most U.S. newspapers and citing reasons why “ideal press work” was not being met by the state suffrage associations. This research examines the press work of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association against NAWSA’s “ideal press work” paradigm. Kentucky is the central focus of this study because of the rich digital resources available in obtaining convention reports for most years since the organization’s founding and during the suffrage movement. Overall, Kentucky’s press superintendents had difficulties in meeting the “ideal press work” standard set forth by Cassidy, but progress and achievements were noted, especially during the tenure of Lida Calvert Obenchain. Other variables prevented an “ideal press work” from occurring, such as illness, death and other personal affairs. This examination not only showcases the worthiness of the publicity efforts among suffrage press superintendents in Kentucky, but it also sheds light on the balance these women sought to achieve between gaining their full right to vote and living their lives. This study has implications for today’s women, who face similar struggles in their battles for workplace equalities.

Guarding against complacency: A multi-industry analysis of attitudes toward Title IX and gender equity in sport • Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee; Charli Kerns • This research explores the attitudes and experiences among sports media professionals toward Title IX and gender equity in sports. Findings update prior research and provide a holistic picture of attitudes toward the law across digital/print, broadcasting and sports information. Findings also show how attitudes may be shaped by gender and age and industry. In highlighting different organizational value systems by industry, this research provides some precision for conversations assessing Title IX and women’s sports coverage.

The Underrepresentation of Women on Commercial FM-radio stations in the Top 20 Markets • Patricia Williamson, Central Michigan University; Ethan Kolek, Central Michigan University • To determine whether women are underrepresented on-air in the radio industry, a content analysis of weekday shifts at commercial FM radio stations in the top 20 U.S. markets was conducted. Findings show women are underrepresented in every daypart except middays, and least represented in Afternoon Drive. By format, women are best represented on-air at Adult Contemporary stations, and least represented at Rock, News/Talk, and Sports stations. Market size nor station ownership impacted air-talent gender.

Challenging the Gender Dichotomy?: Examining Olympic Channel Content Through a Gendered Lens • Qingru Xu, The University of Alabama; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama • “This study content-analyzed 1,013 thumbnails of news episodes at the Olympic Channel through the lens of biological sex. By examining the percentage of pictures rendered to male and female athletes, theme, sports type, sexualization, subordination, and action level, this study uncovered that, although some sex differences existed, the Olympic Channel—overall—showcased a high level of gender equality in visualizing male and female athletes in news thumbnails, especially considering that the cover pictures analyzed in this study were collected from the daily-based media coverage, rather than during the Olympic periods. This study is one of the first to explore sex differences in a media platform established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with theoretical and practical implications outlined.

< 2019 Abstracts

Sports Communication 2019 Abstracts

Mobile media and fantasy sport: A quantitative analysis of media dependency on fantasy draft information • Travis Bell, University of South Florida; Brody J. Ruihley, Miami University • Fantasy sport is an interactive team management activity that places emphasis on access and technology. This research focuses on media dependency of fantasy sport information in high demand—in advance of a fantasy football draft. Through surveying 718 adult fantasy users, this quantitative study ranks web media, social media, and podcasts as most depended on. The findings highlight significant differences in consumption and spending based on type of media dependency and multiple screen usage.

Enveloped in the American Flag: Contrasting National Identity within Olympic and National Football League Media Consumption • Melvin Lewis, University of Alabama; Kenon Brown, University of Alabama; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama; Zachary Arth, University of Alabama • This study explored relationships in the context of the National Football League (NFL; American football), employing 732 respondents from a pair of nationally-representative samples to determine the degree of similarity or difference between feelings about the United States as it relates to American consumption of the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2018 NFL season. Media consumption’s influence on one’s feelings of nationalism was stronger for Winter Olympic fans compared to NFL fans, yet no differences were detected on patriotism and internationalism factors. Academicians and sport marketers should regard these findings as a warrant for considering exploring cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) techniques. Differences in nationalism findings suggest that the comparisons between nations are exclusively an Olympics-based phenomena while the National Football League seems to be much more insular in that regard.

Media Coverage of the Pakistan Super League (Cricket) • Danielle Coombs; David Cassilo, Kent State University • The Pakistan Super League launched in 2016 with massive enthusiasm in its “cricket-mad” nation. Safety concerns stemming from a 2009 terrorist attack in Lahore meant all matches were played in United Arab Emirates. We examine PSL coverage from media in Pakistan, UAE, UK, and US. Findings are considered in the context of social identity theory. This study explores how Middle Eastern sport and national identity are framed in the media across multiple countries.

Legitimizing the journey: National Signing Day and the public relations pseudo-event as cultural moment • Betsy Emmons; Brendan O’Hallarn, Old Dominion University • This research studies the symbolic creation of societal meaning in the rite of passage of National Signing Day. Via case study, using technography from digital media as cultural creator and public relations as mediator, results demonstrated the ritualistic nature of National Signing Day regardless of high school. Results suggest that National Signing Day performs ritual and spectacle to become cultural moment for athletes, embedded into society as an essential mediated aspect of the athlete’s journey.

The Walk-Up: Applying Agenda-Setting Theory to MLB Batters and Television Air Time • Samuel Hakim, The University of Alabama; Zachary Arth, University of Alabama; Darrin Griffin, The University of Alabama; Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama • Informed by agenda-setting theory and scarcity, this manuscript examines factors that predict the amount of focused attention Major League Baseball players receive when at bat. Quantitative content analyses were conducted to examine player quality and eight additional co-variates which significantly predicted the on air time players received. Data suggested that home and away broadcasts differed in the attention they assigned batters, with opposing teams highlighting stronger players more than the players’ own home broadcasts.

#JoinTheAlliance: A Network Exploration into Hashtag Brand-Building by an Emerging Sports League • Jennifer Harker, West Virginia University • This research explores the hashtag use of an emerging spring football league, the Alliance of American Football (AAF). Daily data was collected via Twitter API to explore the emergence and persistence of hashtag use surrounding the AAF, the social construction of secondary hashtags, and the semantic network that emerged across the three time periods of this interactivity. These anchoring symbols of social communication, and the brand-building implications of a sports league’s use of hashtags in acquiring a fanbase, is discussed.

The Impact of a Throwback Jersey Promotion on Brand Equity • Nicholas Hirshon, William Paterson University; Klive (Soo Kwang) Oh • Sports teams wear throwback jerseys to drive attendance and increase merchandise sales, but reviving unpopular uniforms can damage a team’s brand equity. This study examines a risky, one-night promotion in which the NHL’s New York Islanders revived the much-maligned fisherman logo worn on their jerseys during two last-place seasons from 1995 to 1997. In an attempt to offer practical value to sports marketers weighing the revival of a controversial jersey, the paper measures the impact of the promotion by comparing a qualitative textual analysis of the Islanders’ radio and television broadcasts from the night the fisherman jerseys were worn against a quantitative content analysis of tweets about the promotion, posted by fans, reporters, bloggers, bots, and the team itself. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the attitudes of fans and reporters toward a sports promotion and creating content tailored to such opinions.

Shared space: How North American Olympic broadcasters framed gender on Instagram • Rich Johnson, Creighton University; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Ann Pegoraro • The Olympic Games offer scholars the opportunity to better understand how broadcasters visually frame male and female athletes to their large audiences. Traditionally, scholars have focused their efforts on the televised Olympic broadcasts and photojournalism coverage in newspaper and magazines. Scholarship has found that female athletes are often underrepresented in event coverage and framed along gender stereotypes; but in more recent Olympic Games broadcasters and traditional news media have provided more equitable coverage between the genders. However, digital and social media platforms (SMPs) now play a significantly larger role in how Olympic broadcasters share content and engage with audiences. Utilizing media framing theory, this study examines how gender is framed on the Olympic Instagram accounts of the two official North American rights holders: National Broadcast Corporation (NBC) and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC). Researchers collected a cross sectional sample from the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Results indicate that NBC and the CBC were generally equitable in SMP coverage of men and women’s athletic achievements.

Do Women Get Wings? Representation of Female Action Sports Athletes in Red Bull Media Coverage • Charli Kerns; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee • This study examines the gender representation of action sports athletes in Red Bull Media House’s YouTube videos. Coding and analysis of a total of 108 videos from 2008 to 2018 revealed that female athletes in Red Bull Media receive more coverage than what is often documented in mainstream, sports broadcasting coverage. However, their representation was primarily limited to feature stories and only specific action sports such as surfing. The results from this study showed that Red Bull does represent a potential break in hegemonic ideology by which male athletes are normalized as authentic athletes through the process of inclusion. However, that visibility was tightly constrained within a normative matrix for imagining female athletes, a process that limits Red Bull Media’s counter-hegemonic potential.

Serena Williams: From Catsuit to Controversy • Jessica Love, University of Southern Mississippi; Lindsey Maxwell, University of Southern Mississippi • Serena Williams was involved in two major news stories in the summer of 2018; she wore a black catsuit at the French Open and was involved in an on-court controversy at the U.S. Open. Newspaper articles from this time frame were analyzed for the sex and race of the author, athletic descriptors (composure, emotionality, strength-based athletic skill) of Williams, and framing of her maternity. Results indicated that Williams was framed differently by various groups of journalists, and framed based on her public behavior.

Dueling Tones of the NBA GOAT Debate • Doug Mendenhall, Abilene Christian University • A debate over who is the GOAT, or “Greatest Of All Time” professional basketball player, saturated social media in 2018. This intense discussion about Michael Jordan versus Lebron James provides data for a quantitative measurement of differences in the tone of language used to evaluate these idols of two different generations of sports fans. Jordan played in the National Basketball Association from 1984 to 2003, the year James, 22 years younger, entered the league. Thus, a generational divide can be expected between fans of the two athletes based on principles of social identity theory, which suggests that the divide may extend to differences in the tone of their discourse in this heated debate. To understand the intersection of these fault lines, the present study gathered more than 8,000 comments appended to 34 YouTube videos related to the Jordan-James debate and sorted them by valence as pro-Jordan, pro-James, or neutral. Analysis was then made using Diction 7.0 software, which provides quantitative measurement of written messages along dozens of tonal variables. Scaled variables created by the author also allowed measurement of levels of incivility and of profanity. Consistent with main hypotheses, comments supporting James, the younger player, were significantly higher in profanity, while comments supporting Jordan were significantly higher in incivility. More than a dozen other differences were found in the tone of comments supporting James or Jordan.

Nike, Colin Kaepernick, and the Politicization of Sports: Examining Perceived Organizational Motives and Consumer Responses • Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; Nandini Bhalla; Jo-Yun Li, University of Miami • This study applies arguments from attribution theory to examine the role of perceived motives (values-driven, egoistic-driven, strategic-driven, and stakeholder-driven motives) in developing individuals’ attitudes, positive word-of-mouth (PWOM), and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) intentions in response to Nike’s 30th Anniversary ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick. This study also examines how perceptions of the appropriateness of the politicization of sports moderate these relationships, as well as individual factors that predict people’s assessments of sports as a politicized event. A survey (N = 373) was conducted to examine how much people’s perceptions of Nike’s motives for engaging in Corporate Social Advocacy (CSA) guided their responses and the degree to which they were likely to engage in actions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

From protest to movement: A longitudinal content analysis of the Colin Kaepernick protest • Vincent Peña, Member • This paper conducts a content analysis of ESPN coverage related to Colin Kaepernick’s protest during the national anthem and related events since. The analysis looks at ESPN.com articles (N=305) during three time periods in the timeline of the Kaepernick protest saga, ranging from his initial protest in August 2016 until Nike released an ad campaign featuring Kaepernick in September 2018. His protest, and the ones that he inspired, have received an immense amount of national news coverage, especially by outlets like ESPN. The analysis looked at frames of his protest over time and tried to answer questions about the different types of frames used as well as the extent to which the overall coverage adhered to the protest paradigm. A two-way ANOVA test was run on the variables for framing and the protest paradigm. The content analysis showed how an outlet like ESPN covers social protests and the extent to which its coverage adheres to the paradigm. Results showed framing of protests did not change over time, but that the adherence to the protest paradigm varied depending on story topic.

A Shaky Bet: Legalized Sports Gambling in the U.S. • Brian Petrotta, University of Oklahoma • When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting in May 2018, it had the potential to dramatically change how Americans consume and consider sporting events. Prior to the ruling, fantasy sports filled a gap for those desiring a legal alternative to illicit sports gambling. This study utilizes social cognitive theory to analyze how fantasy sports participants’ attitudes, behaviors and environments inform their intention to adopt legal sports betting practices.

Rick Pitino and Image Restoration as Brand Management • Michael Strawser; Stacie Shain, Bellarmine University; Lauren Coffey; Grace Lee • This study focuses on recent scandals surrounding the University of Louisville men’s basketball team. Specifically, the analysis centers on former head basketball coach, Rick Pitino, and his public perception and reputation. Through an image restoration theoretical lens, the authors diagnose Pitino’s public relations challenges and provide advice for future action to rebuild his brand.

Remember My Name: Basketball Writers’ Attitudes Towards Branding and Promotion Via Social Media • Jason Stamm, The University of Tennessee – Knoxville; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee • Using a survey disseminated to members of the United States Basketball Association (USBWA), this study shows basketball writers favor branding via social media, and the added workload of branding does not affect level of job satisfaction. Parasocial interaction (PSI) is incorporated as a theoretical framework to observe how branding techniques used via social media and attitudes toward those practices among sports media professionals may enact para-social relationships that could be beneficial for their careers.

Is eSports a Sport? Predictors of eSports Playing and Viewing • Tang Tang, Kent State University; Jake Kucek, Kent State University; Steven Toepfer, Kent State University • This study represents one of the first empirical efforts to systematically examine how and why people play and watch eSports. Findings suggest that eSports consumers are both participants and audiences. Individual factors (i.e., demographics, personality, motivations, fandom, preference) and structures (i.e., availability, access to technologies, cost, media use routine, and uses of in-game structures) significantly predicted eSports playing and viewing. Implications of the study are discussed and future directions are proposed.

Voices of the Gatekeepers: Examining the Olympic Channel Production Through a Gendered Lens • Qingru Xu, The University of Alabama; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama • “This study has conducted 11 interviews with Olympic Channel professionals to explore content production through a lens of gender. The findings suggest that (a) sports media professionals claimed considerate agency and autonomy, with individual personality and perspectives heavily influencing their journalism practice; (b) regarding content selection criteria, the Olympic Channel has been trying to strike a balance between the Olympic values and commercial pursuits, which explained the mixed media coverage revealed in the content analysis; and (c) the considerable proportion of female employees played an important role in facilitating a female-friendly workplace at the Olympic Channel, which—at least to some extent—contributed to a more sex-balanced media coverage at the Channel. The current study appears as one of the first studies exploring content production at the Olympic Channel, contributing to the literature by illustrating how employees at an IOC’s official sports media platform viewed gender equality in their journalism practices.

< 2019 Abstracts

Small Programs 2019 Abstracts

Effects of Developmental Communicative Feedback • Malena Price, Ball State University; YoungAh Lee • This study sought to bridge the gap between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intentions to endorse an organization for home-based employees in order to provide insights that can lead to optimal effectiveness of this population. This study discovered that developmental communicative feedback impacts each of these outcomes, but the results did not differ between groups. Additionally, this study discovered that home-based employees were particularly influenced when their supervisors were willing to receive feedback themselves.

Students’ Perception of the Classroom Environment: Comparison between Innovative and Traditional Classrooms • Chang Wan Woo, James Madison University; Lori Britt; Toni Whitfield, James Madison University; Tim Ball • As more advanced classroom technologies are developed, more institutions in higher education are building innovative classrooms. Previous studies have focused on students’ academic performances in innovative classrooms, but few have looked at the perceptions of students. After conducting a survey and focus group studies, we found that students in an innovative classroom were more satisfied with the classroom environment and perceived that the classroom was more appropriate for their courses.

< 2019 Abstracts