Commission on the Status of Women 2018 Abstracts

The Women’s Convention: Reclaiming a Movement • Katie Blevins • “On January 21, 2017 an estimated 500,000 people joined the Women’s March on Washington D.C. Over 5 million people participated in over 550 other marches worldwide. It was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history and was organized almost entirely on social media. In the aftermath of this display of activism, people, pundits, and journalists speculated: “where will the movement go from here?” After all, the movement lacked clear leadership, money, and other noteworthy resources. Nine months later, in October, 2017, the Women’s March founders held a Women’s Convention in Detroit. The conference shared many themes with the Women’s March- addressing policies and politicians who impact women, both negatively and positively. Although this convention was also planned and promoted using social media, it signifies a shift in what kinds of activities the current Women’s Movement is capable of. Underpinning this study of the Women’s Convention is the attempt to understand social media’s role in fostering and maintaining feminist activism through sustained social movements. This paper examines two months of posts on the main Facebook page for the Women’s Movement leading up to the Women’s Convention (August 27-October 27, 2017). This study uses resource mobilization theory to explore: 1) the types of resources utilized by the Women’s Movement in organizing the Women’s Convention, 2) if theories like resource mobilization are a relevant theory for explaining how social movements use social media, 3) the special role social media takes in mobilizing and reducing the economic burdens of resource gathering.”

Women Journalists Face Danger and Death While Doing their Jobs • Carolyn Byerly, Howard University; Jasmin Goodman, Howard University • The goal in this paper is to begin to bring a more systematic examination of the violence that women journalists encounter in their reporting, as well as to the consequences of that violence. These journalists may experience threats, brutality and death while doing the work of news reporting. This paper presents a summary of what has been learned to date from an ongoing global study into both well-known and lesser-known cases of violence against women journalists. The goals of the research are to catalog and describe the kind of violence women are experiencing, as well as to explore what is (or not) happening in bringing the perpetrators to justice. The work is presented within a feminist analytical framework that seeks to tease out the gender relations that exist within the journalism profession and within governmental processes of individual nations, with respect to the problem. To the extent possible, we also try to show the structural causes of violence against women working in news reporting globally.

Women’s Responses to Online Harrassment • Kalyani Chadha, University of Maryland, College Park; Linda Steiner, University of Maryland; Jessica Vitak, University of Maryland; Zahra Ashktorab, University of Maryland • Given the ubiquity of social media platforms increasing attention is now being paid to the harassment of women when socializing through online platforms. Using data from in-depth interviews with 23 women university students who had been harassed/cyberbullied, this study explores how women respond to negative experiences online. We find that women deploy various defensive strategies while navigating online spaces, from normalizing harassment, and taking it for granted, to withdrawal and self-censorship.

What happens when they can find you?: Doxxing, privacy, and feminist theory • Stine Eckert; Jade Metzger, Wayne State University • In this study we expand definitions of doxxing, a phenomenon of abuse enmeshing online and offline spaces by exposing personal information. We applied feminist theory and conceptions of doxxing to 15 in-depth interviews with women and men who were doxxed. We asked about their experiences with doxxing; their tactics to handle the situation; and the consequences of the harassment to their online behavior. We found gendered aspects in content and suspected intent of doxxing; harassment following the doxxing; and long-lasting impacts of changed online behavior, sense of privacy and safety. Police, law, and social media operators only helped in few cases to pursue doxxers and/or remove unwanted personal information while targets experienced uncertainty, loss of control, and fear. We argue that a definition of doxxing must account for the ubiquitous nature of information already online and the desired and undesired specific contexts online leading to doxxing.

Hear Their Voices: A Qualitative Study of Women in Public Media • Laura Harbert, Ohio University • It isn’t news: women outnumber men in journalism school. But they do not climb the career ladder to top leadership positions, even in public media. A review of the literature showed that there has been little research on women in media leadership. No scholarly literature regarding women leaders in public media could be found. Schein’s theory of organizational culture was used as a frame through which to explore the underlying assumptions of public media’s culture. In-depth interviews were conducted with seven women holding leadership roles in public media. Nearly all of them spent the bulk of their careers in public media. While respondents felt there was an overall historical institutional inclusion of women in public media, they said gender discrimination remained a challenge. Respondents also expressed shock and dismay at the recent number of allegations of sexual harassment in public media. The conclusion pointed toward the need for gender parity and as well as skill diversity in public media.

Needle, not sword: How Nackey Scripps Loeb used editorials to build audiences and influence conservative presidential politics • Meg Heckman, Northeastern University • This project uses digital humanities techniques to reframe Nackey Scripps Loeb’s overlooked career as publisher of the Manchester (NH) Union Leader. An examination of her editorials related to the 1984 and 1992 presidential primaries shows she cultivated audiences to influence the conservative movement. This challenges conventional wisdom that she never emerged from the shadow of her late husband William Loeb’s infamous persona and begins to remedy Nackey Loeb’s symbolic annihilation from accounts of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

Reaching a balance between crimes of passion & femicides: Influences on the Construction of News in Mexican journalists • Miriam Hernandez • Violence against women in Mexico has increased steadily in the last twenty five years (INEGI, 2017). For instance, in 2016 there were more than 8 female homicides per day in the country. Nuevo Leon – a northern state bordering the United States, with an educational mean above the nation and one of the main economic drivers of the country – has been one of the states with a significant escalation in violence against women (Espino, 2018; PGJ, 2018). Since many of these incidents are known through the news, the news media play a crucial part in shaping a society’s perception about what constitutes domestic violence, dating abuse, sexual violence, etc. Hence, investigating the mechanisms behind the construction of female fatalities news by Mexican journalists in this state is critical to understand how violence is presented and how to develop tools for reducing the pervasive problem of violence against women (VAW). Based on 20 interviews, findings demonstrate that journalists produce stories that adhere to the roles they see for themselves in society, as a detached observer or a social advocate. These roles have an impact on their notion of objectivity and the type of diverse sources they include in their stories. Implications for the Mexican context are considered.

Growing Old Gracefully? Gendered Depictions on Retirement Communities’ Websites • Anne Cooper; Hong Ji • The authors analyzed 407 senior citizen residents’ photos from 69 randomly selected, accredited U.S. Continuing Care Retiring Communities’ websites. Women were shown indoors more than men; and happier/ smiling more than men. While not invisible, the study found that CCRC websites somewhat underrepresented women. Marx et al (2011) found a CCRC female actual population of 68%, while the website “world” was only 62.7% female. Similarly, interactions underrepresented female friendships in the form of female-female dyads.

‘Boyfriending In’: Violence and Romance in News Narratives about Sex Trafficking • Anne Johnston, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Barbara Friedman, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In this narrative analysis of 203 news stories about sex trafficking, we analyze how women trafficked by a boyfriend are described in the stories and the similarities between these and other narratives of gender-based violence. The women are frequently described as hapless, passive victims of the relationship with the boyfriend/trafficker and have little to no power or agency. Additionally, these stories are similar to other gendered violence coverage, namely a tendency to blame the victim.

Gendered Visa: Korean dependent visa women’s media use and home-making in U.S. • Claire Shinhea Lee • Temporary migrants with dependent visa status–mostly women who accompany their professional husbands to keep their family together–are made invisible in the skilled labor migration. Although these dependent visa holders often may be highly educated, middle-class women compared to working class immigrant women, the lives of these so-called trailing spouses are often extremely restricted and oppressed due to both visa policies and domestic gender relations. This study questions the legacy and usefulness on these gendered assumptions of U.S. immigration policies by looking at the case of 11 Korean dependent visa status women (F-2, H-4, and L-2) through qualitative in-depth interviews: how these women’s everyday lives were textually mediated by those regulations. Then, the research examines how these women use homeland and host country media in their everyday lives and what these experiences mean to them in the broader socio-cultural context. Lastly, the paper explores, in the midst of dependency and inequality, how these women perform agency and reflexivity and dream independency through home making and deciding their future trajectories.

Social Media Activism in Bangladesh: Understanding the #JusticeForTonu Movement from a Feminist Standpoint Theoretical Framework • Umana Anjalin; Catherine Luther • This study examines the social media activism that took place in Bangladesh following the rape and murder of a 19-year-old female college student named Shohagi Jahan Tonu. With feminist standpoint theory serving as its framework, a thematic analysis of the tweets that appeared following Tonu’s death using the hashtag #JusticeForTonu was conducted to identify the main themes related to social justice that were embedded in the tweets.

Developing a Trauma-Informed Approach to Public Relations Education • Stephanie Madden, Pennsylvania State University; Teri Del Rosso, Bridgewater State University • Through interviews with female-identified public relations educators, this study sought to understand their lived experiences with emotion and student trauma as part of their teaching and service obligations. Additionally, it explored how aspects of their own identity influence their feelings of willingness or ability to handle this often less visible aspect of our work. The goal of this study is to begin developing a trauma-informed approach to public relations education rooted in feminist pedagogy practices that better prepares educators for the emotional aspects of their various roles in academia and how to help students navigate emotional experiences.

Beyond Swiping Left: Exploring How Dating App Use Affects College Students’ Abilities to Refuse Unwanted Dating and Sexual Activities • Stacey Hust; Stephanie Gibbons; Jiayu Li, Washington State University; Nicole O’Donnell, Virginia Commonwealth University • Dating applications provide users with easy ways to virtually reject a romantic suitor. However, these applications also perpetuate a hook-up culture in which individuals may feel pressure to adhere to a date’s sexual requests out of obligation if a date is accepted. As men and women increasingly find romantic partners online, there is a need to explore how this context may affect individuals’ abilities to refuse unwanted dating and sexual advances. A survey was conducted with 117 college men and 230 college women. For men, norm perceptions predict intentions to refuse unwanted dating activities and self-efficacy predicts intentions to refuse unwanted sex. For women, trait instrumentality, norm perceptions, and self-efficacy predict refusing unwanted dating activities and unwanted sex. Dating application use was negatively associated with refusal intentions for men, whereas it was not a significant predictor for women.

Women Public Relations History Forgot to Discover: Community Building on and after the Oregon Trail • Donnalyn Pompper, University of Oregon; Tugce Ertem Eray, University of Oregon • Narrative analysis of diaries and reminiscences by pioneer women who traveled the Oregon Trail in the mid-to-late 1800s revealed their expanded roles performed along the 2,000+ -mile trek from the Missouri River to Willamette Valley. A new caretaking role was required of women in addition to and in conjunction with traditional female-gendered private sphere work of the 19th century (childbearing and raising, cooking, washing, cleaning). Once women settled in Oregon Territory/Country, their role evolved into one of charitable society project manager. Linking the two related roles of pioneer women are two themes: a) apothecary, medical, and emotional supporter, and b) civilizer. Both of these themes characterized community building functions that we frame as early public relations activities. This finding makes a substantive contribution to recorded public relations history in the U.S. which otherwise begins with the institutionalized achievements of White men in formal business organizations. Exclusion of women’s contributions heretofore has presented an exceptionally limited view of public relations history.

“A group that’s just women for women:” Feminist affordances of private Facebook groups for professionals • Urszula Pruchniewska, Temple University • Private Facebook groups for women professionals are becoming increasingly popular. In this study, interviews and focus groups with 26 women show how such groups provide affordances for creating 1) a women’s online version of the “old boys’ club,” empowering individual women in their careers, and 2) mediated consciousness-raising platforms, advancing collective change for women. These interactions between users and technology make private Facebook groups for professional women fundamentally, if not explicitly, digital feminist spaces.

A Woman at 300: Gendering news coverage in a historic mayoral election. • Shearon Roberts, Xavier University of Louisiana; Sheryl Kennedy Haydel, Dillard University • On November 18, 2017, New Orleans elected its first female mayor. A study of nine months of news coverage in four local news organizations showed that gender references were implicit as well as explicit in the treatment of female candidates in the race compared to male candidates in the race. The study examined traditional news articles, political analysis and election updates, editorials and columns in the city’s two mainstream newspapers and two of the city’s two African American newspapers. In 537 cases where the four leading candidates were named in news organization reports, the two leading female candidates were more often covered with regards to negative and personal campaign woes, while the leading male candidates were covered based on their prior experience in elections or policy-platforms. The news organizations differed in their coverage of the two leading female candidates as well. Mainstream news organizations more readily mentioned problems with the campaigns of the two leading female candidates, while African American news organizations focused on the two female candidates’ track records with residents and the community.

Framing Transgender Violence: Narratives within Mainstream News Coverage • Natalee Seely • Gender non-conforming individuals have been more visible in mainstream media, with the popularity of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, starring Laverne Cox, who also hosts Glam Masters, a reality make-up competition show. Amazon’s Transparent, E! Network’s I am Cait (cancelled in 2016), and the much-talked about Vanity Fair cover of Caitlyn Jenner also made headlines in 2015. However, sobering statistics indicated that 2015 was a record-breaking year for reported homicides of transgender individuals. Portrayals of gender-nonconforming individuals in the news play an important part in how social issues, such as gendered violence and LBGTQ policies, are viewed and discussed by the public. This small-scale study examines news coverage of transgender homicides in 2015 using a mixed-method approach. Frames and other narrative devices are identified using content analysis, indicating that police narratives of the crimes dominated mainstream news coverage, and social context was discussed in less than half of the articles. A textual analysis revealed that news narratives often focus on suspects and their reasons for committing the violence.

Hashtag Feminism Around the World: A Comparative Analysis of #MeToo Tweets • Hyunjin Seo, University of Kansas; Hong Vu; Shola Aromona, University of Kansas; Yuchen Liu, University of Kansas; Fatemeh Shayesteh, University of Kansas • This study examined how women’s issues are discussed via social media in different countries by analyzing #MeToo tweets focusing on Brazil, Egypt, India, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Word co-occurrence analysis and content analysis of feminist themes and prominent topic areas demonstrated interesting similarities and differences between the countries. Scholarly and practical implications of this research is discussed in the context of growing hashtag activism in the area of advocating for women’s rights and increasing availability of online social networking around the world.

Women Newspaper Editors in Collegial Wilderness: But Digital Environment Turning This Around • Catherine Strong, Massey Univerity • The shortage of women editor-in-chief of daily newspapers has been called a crisis, but more vexing is that women editors remain only a short time in the position, thereby continuing the male domination of newspaper editorships. This study found that a more gender balance makes it easier for women leaders to operate, and that the news industry’s new digital and online challenges may turn out to be the solution to retain more women into daily newspaper leadership roles.

#SELFIES at the 2016 Rio Olympics: Comparing Self-Representations of Male and Female Athletes from the U.S. and China • Qingru Xu; Cory Armstrong; Panfeng Yu • “Social media provides athletes an efficient platform on which to build and maintain their online image. Applying the self-representation theory of Goffman (1959), this study explored the gendered differences between the self-portrayals of U.S. and Chinese athletes. Findings suggest that hegemonic gender norms still had a strong hold on Chinese athletes’ self-disclosure, whereas minimal gender differences emerged between male and female U.S. athletes. Results suggested that cultural background had a substantial impact on self-representation for all participants. Although athletes might claim agency and autonomy when presenting themselves on social media, the practice of self-portrayal should be examined within specific cultural contexts.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Sports Communication 2018 Abstracts

Comparing age and nationality: NBC’s online portrayal of female Olympic figure skaters • Elise Anguizola Assaf • This paper explores 20 published profiles of 2014 and 2018 female Olympic figure skaters. Research was conducted on the biographies published on the NBC Olympic website, analyzing the framing of common themes, nationality, and age. Common themes of sacrifice and overcoming obstacles were found, as well as the importance of age and a focus on youth. Nationality was also deemed a factor with more or less detail, as well as skating-relevance of detail, provided based on the country the athlete was competing for. Coverage of female Olympic figure skaters should continue to be analyzed for specific frames used to understand how the athletes are discussed, and if the found frames are used by profile authors across additional Games.

Social Media for the Win: How Brands Integrated Social into their Advertising Strategy During Super Bowl LI • Clay Craig, Texas State University; Shannon Bichard, Texas Tech University; Mary Liz Brooks • There were 190.8 million social media interactions across Facebook and Twitter during Super Bowl 2017 (Nielsen, 2017). Advertisers during the game benefit from increased engagement on social media platforms as a way to maximize their investment. Social media use by brands provides rich content that encourages interactivity. This study examined integrated branding efforts during Super Bowl 2017 and results indicate a strong presence, with many brands attempting to leverage social media to strengthen promotional efforts.

Five Rings, Five Screens?: A Global Examination of Social TV Influence on Social Presence and National Identity During the 2018 Winter Olympic Games • Natalie Brown-Devlin, University of Texas at Austin; Michael B. Devlin, Texas State University; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama; Kenon Brown, The University of Alabama • In the week following the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, 2,296 people from six different nations (Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and the United States) were surveyed to better understand social TV engagement during mega-sporting events. Using social presence theory as a theoretical framework, core insights are found regarding social TV engagement, device usage, and the potential for social TV engagement to predict different social outcomes and feelings of national pride/identification.

Why do you follow? A closer look at sport fan engagement with athletes on Twitter • David Cassilo; Zachary Humphries, Kent State University • Social media sites like Twitter have provided athletes the ability to communicate directly with their fans. Previous studies have analyzed the content of athlete tweets and how athletes use Twitter to connect with their followers. This research attempted to examine whether athlete’s tweets were aligning with the uses and motivations fans have for following athletes on Twitter. The data of an online survey that was distributed to 112 respondents revealed that fans follow athletes on Twitter mostly for information sharing purposes and least for interactive purposes. Furthermore, while male and female followers were generally similar on why they followed athletes on Twitter, women were significantly more likely to do so for diversion motives. The results of the study indicate that athletes would most effectively align their Twitter use to their followers by using it to distribute new information about themselves, their team, and their sport rather than using it to foster interactivity by fans.

“Elevator Eyes” in Sports Broadcasting: Differences in Attention Allocation to Male and Female Sports Reporters • Glenn Cummins, Texas Tech University; Monica Ortiz; Andrea Rankine • Despite documented differences in how male versus female sports journalists are perceived, scholars have not explored differences in how they are actually watched. This experiment employs eye tracking to measure how much attention viewers allocated to male and female reporters’ bodies versus their faces.  Results revealed a greater ratio of time on female reporters’ bodies to their faces relative to male reporters. However, this effect was less robust among viewers with strong interest in sports.

Identification and Crisis: An Exploration into the Influence of Sports Identification on Perceptions of Sports Crises • Jennifer Harker, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • Sports identification was examined in this research as a relational history with sports entities to test its predictive influence of stakeholders’ perceptions regarding sports-related crises. Sports identification was explored as a social identification with sports (fandom) and as an individual identification with a specific National Football League team (fanship). Findings indicate that sports identification is indeed a predictive element of stakeholders’ perceptions regarding sports crises; however, findings track in an interesting opposite direction than theory suggests.

Colin Kaepernick, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Diversion in Sports Crisis • Virginia Harrison; Sara Erlichman, Penn State • The 2018 Super Bowl presented an opportunity for the National Football League (NFL) to address its season-long controversy surrounding its players’ national anthem protests–yet the league ignored it. This study seeks to understand the effects of the NFL’s crisis management strategy of diversion on organizational reputation. Fans’ support for the NFL’s response and corporate social responsibility (CSR) messaging positively impacted reputation, while fans’ support for players and their cause negatively impacted reputation. Implications are discussed.

The evolution of eSports in the eyes of mainstream media and public relations, 2000-2017. • Jue Hou, University of Alabama; Xiaoxu Yang, University of Alabama • This study examines the media and public relations coverage of eSports over a 17-year period, focusing on how the representations of eSports as a rising industry have changed in China during that time. From the perspective of media framing, the current study investigated both the tone of coverage and the topic emphasis of eSports related stories through quantitative content analysis. In general, findings indicated that both mainstream media and public relations gradually covered eSports issues in a more positive way. Similar to traditional sports reporting, the topic emphasis also shifted from real-life status to player and team performance in the contemporary climate. Implications for both the current trend of eSports industry and suggestions for future related study directions were discussed.

Examining the Growth of Sport Communication Programs in Higher Education through a Survey of Program Coordinators • Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Ted Kian, Oklahoma State University • As higher education institutions seek ways to attract, recruit, and retain students, some schools and colleges are creating sports communication programs. This study surveyed coordinators of those programs regarding their opinions of this quickly growing field. Results demonstrate that student interest, administrative and financial support, and having components already in place before designing curricula are keys to success. Results of this study can be used by schools looking to launch sport communication program.

Sports Media versus News Media: Perceptions of Media Bias in Coverage of the NFL National Anthem Protests in 2017 • Ken Kim, Xavier; Randall Patnode • This experimental study examines how the hostile media phenomenon arises in the context of general sports media relative to professional mainstream news media. Audience perceptions of bias can also be triggered by how particular messages are framed, so a second goal of this study is to clarify how news framing relates to the hostile media phenomenon. Participants (N = 124) read a news story, varying in news source (The Sporting News vs. Fox News vs. MSNBC) and news framing (outcome vs. value), on the NFL national anthem controversy. Results revealed that partisan individuals viewed a news story from the general sports media as neutral or more favorable toward their own position than the mainstream news media. Also, an outcome-framed news story evoked less hostile media perception than a value-framed news story.

Interplay of Second Screening for Sports, Attachment to School,  and Smartphone Use in Campus Life • Bumsoo Kim, The University of Alabama • Focusing on college students’ digital media use behaviors, this study verified (1) the logic of social identity by showing that college students’ using a second screen to share or search for content about the home team is positively related to attachment to one’s school and (2) the communication mediation model by presenting the positive mechanism between second screening, attachment, and different types of use of smartphone.

Female Hockey Players’ Strategic Use of Social Media: From the Perspective of Self-Presentation Theory • Halli Krzyzaniak, University of North Dakota; Soojung Kim, University of North Dakota • This study attempted to understand elite female hockey players’ current social media use and identify effective social media content and practices. Utilizing a mixed-method approach, the content analysis of Instagram and Twitter posts of this study showed that hockey-related social media content was more effective in generating likes and comments. Interestingly, however, online in-depth interviews demonstrated that athletes use social media more to consume daily news and for personal enjoyment than they do for self-promotion.

Public Perceptions of Transgressive Female Athletes: Roles of Racial Identity and Visual Framing • Lance Kinney, University of Alabama; Amanda Flamerich, University of Alabama • A 2 (white female/Black female) x 2 (threatening appearance/non-threatening appearance) experiment investigated perceptions of same-race and cross-race female athletes involved in transgressions while simultaneously accounting for the subject’s level of racial identity. Media-generated stereotypes involving African-Americans, crime and athletes are reviewed.  As suggested by social identity theory, strong in-group biases were observed.  Subjects reporting high levels of racial identity recommended longer punishments and reported lower image ratings for athletes of the opposite race. Visual framing theory is used to investigate the impact of threatening and non-threatening photos.  However, visual appearance did not affect punishment or image ratings. A significant interaction is observed for athlete image ratings based upon racial identity levels and the athlete’s appearance.

Uniting for a collaborative protest: How NFL in-house media covered athlete activism, a case study • Michael Mirer, Fairmont State • As sports become a site for social protest, league- and team-controlled media will shape how that activism is perceived. Using content and textual analysis this paper finds that writers for NFL team sites stressed the idea of unity and collaboration in coverage of player activism following comments by Donald Trump. This coverage suggests that in-house media may defend activist athletes but also recast their demands. The professional implications for in-house reporters are discussed.

Examining Public Perceptions of CSR in Sport: The Role of Attributions, Fit, and Information Source • Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina • Despite the proliferation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in professional sports leagues, research has not widely examined public expectations and perceptions of CSR in sport. This study employed a between-subjects online experiment to investigate how sports spectators infer motives of a professional sports team’s CSR efforts and how attributions and perceptions of fit between CSR activities and the team impact patronage intentions. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Compliments vs. Criticisms: What Network Television Announcers Say About Major League Baseball Players During Nationally Televised Games • James Rada, Ithaca College; K. Tim Wulfemeyer, San Diego State University • This research sought to determine whether TV network announcers for Major League Baseball games offered more positive or negative comments during their coverage of nationally televised games and whether they were acting more as “cheerleaders” for or as “haters” of the players participating in the games.  Results showed that the announcers were overwhelmingly positive in their comments about players with few significant differences related to the position played, type of comment, or whether a player was on the home team or the visiting team. Significant differences were found related to comments about players of different races with Latino players receiving more than their fair share of negative comments.

Pardon My Critique: Using comedy to critique — and reinforce — masculine norms in sports in popular sports media • Colin Storm • Using Connell’s concept of masculinity (1995) and gender scripts (i.e., Mahalik, Good, & Englar-Carlson, 2003) as a framework, this paper examines how one of the most popular sports podcasts, Pardon My Take, articulates and satires masculinity in sports. Specifically, the author argues that through weekly segments, the co-hosts both make fun of—and uphold—traditional masculine values and standards in sports.

Animating women’s sports: Social media, gender, and evolving techniques for constructing the legitimate and authentic athlete • Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee; Jason Stamm, The University of Tennessee – Knoxville • Women have historically been on the losing end when sports media professionals engage with new technology. Drawing from a content analysis of Southeastern Conference athletic department Twitter feeds, this study suggests that women, despite being constructed as credible and legitimate athletes using traditional measures of analysis, may be at risk once again of being left behind when it comes to the deployment of engaging and innovative social media techniques.

Controversy, Collisions, and Cries: Contrasting Chinese and U.S. Short Track Speed Skating Television Coverage in the 2018 Winter Olympics • Qingru Xu; Ryan Broussard, University of Alabama; Sitong Guo, University of Alabama; J.C. Abdallah, University of Alabama • This study content analyzes more than 17 hours of the Olympic short track speed skating coverage at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics from both China and the United States, exploring the potential differences in broadcasting frames regarding nationalism and biological sex. In contrast to the intense nationalistic notions uncovered in CCTV, NBC only devoted 5% of the media attention to domestic athletes, indicating that the network does not always favor home athletes in covering the Olympics. Instead of adopting a nation-oriented narrative as CCTV announcers did, NBC broadcasters framed the short track contests in a spectator perspective. Implications for the findings are offered.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Small Programs 2018 Abstracts

Cross-Country Collaboration: Student Evaluations of a Collaborative Journalism Project Between Two U.S. Universities • Stephanie Bluestein, California State University, Northridge; Karima Haynes, Bowie State University; yue zheng, California State University, Northridge • The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to compare the expectations and fulfillment of undergraduate students at two U.S. universities who participated in a semester-long collaborative reporting project. Pre- and post-surveys were administered to students at the beginning and end of the semester. A series of paired t-tests (n=57) showed that students received adequate instruction about the project, wanted more deadlines and additional class time to work on their stories, and valued the professor’s feedback over their peers’ feedback. Findings that were marginal showed they were not as overwhelmed at the end of the semester and had fewer unanswered questions as they had expected. The qualitative portion of the study resulted in three categories: learning/engagement, professional practices, and soft skills. This study suggests that a bi-coastal collaborative reporting project with beginning journalism students has the potential for improving hard and soft skills, in addition to providing students a glimpse of how professional journalists create their work.

Integrating Writing Processes: An Assignment Model • Sharlene Kenyon, Oklahoma State University • The assignment model presented in this article illustrates how and where JMC educators may integrate newswriting processes into their assignments and instruction.  A diagram of the model shows an overall view of assignment design and addresses stages of instruction.  Qualitative examples of process-oriented strategies are presented for each stage.  Recommendations for implementing process-oriented instruction are included. The assignment model offers a testable shape to guide JMC educators in designing their writing instruction.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Political Communication 2018 Abstracts

Contesting the “bad hombres” narrative: How U.S. and Mexican presidents shape migrants’ media image • Vanessa Bravo, Elon University; Maria De Moya, DePaul University • During the candidacy and following the election of U.S. president Donald Trump, there was an emphasis on framing the Mexican immigrant as a criminal and on building a wall between the United States and Mexico. This narrative revived the debate on the treatment of immigrants and immigration in cross-national media. Within this context, this study analyzes the construction of the image of the Mexican migrant to the United States by both President Enrique Peña Nieto and President Donald Trump during the first 100 days of the latter’s presidency, through news stories published in two U.S newspapers and two Mexican newspapers. Findings show that news stories describe Mexican migrants in contrasting ways, ranging from criminals (in the U.S. framing) to good migrants (in the Mexican efforts), and both frames are picked up by the transnational media, hindering long-standing public diplomacy efforts in both countries.

Partisanship and the Reaction to Sexual Harassment Allegations: An Experimental Examination of Political Image Repair • Jonathan Graffeo, The University of Alabama; Ethan Stokes, University of Alabama; Kenon Brown, The University of Alabama; Stephen Rush, The University of Alabama • This study addresses how an individual’s partisanship impacts his or her opinions in cases of sexual harassment allegations specifically in the U.S. political context. Specifically, a between-subjects, double blind experiment was conducted among 292 participants to explore how partisanship, particularly in terms of ideology and preferred political media consumption, impacts the effectiveness of certain image repair strategies used by politicians facing sexual harassment allegations. Using Benoit’s (1995) typology, findings show that overall, participants accepted a politician’s response more when he uses the denial or mortification strategies rather than the attacking the accuser strategy. Also, findings show that while participants on both ends of the political spectrum viewed politicians with their same ideology more favorably than politicians with opposing ideologies, right-leaning participants overall viewed politicians facing sexual harassment allegations more favorably than left-leaning participants, regardless of political affiliation.

Manifestations of Authoritarianism in 2016 U.S. Primaries: Factors Triggering Innate and Latent Authoritarian Tendenceis • Nicholas Browning, Indiana University • While authoritarianism played a significant role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it was more nuanced. Findings based on original survey research fielded during the Super Tuesday primaries indicate latent authoritarianism manifested as increased deference to institutional authority. Support for Republican candidates was closely aligned with deference to financial, corporate, and religious authorities. Support for Democratic candidates was strongest among those who deferred to the authority of government, science, and the press.

Where Independents are getting news? Beyond partisan media and polarization • Hyesun Choung; Ayellet Pelled, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Yin Wu; Song Wang; Josephine Lukito, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Although the number of Independents has steadily risen, there hasn’t been much effort to construct a systematic characterization of Independent voters and their media consumption patterns. This study attempts to create a typology of political Independents in the context of 2016 Presidential election and examines how different groups of Independents engage with different news sources in the fragmented media environment. Our result reports four types of Independent groups, two anti-establishment clusters and two moderate clusters. We also find considerable evidence that certain Independent cluster engage in partisan-like news viewership while others prefer centrist media outlets.

Identifying the Motivations of Political Donors using Social Media Data • Ross Dahlke, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The 2016 election showed that online, small-dollar donors can impact political campaigns. My research asks: What motivates political donors in Wisconsin state-legislative elections? My analysis finds a link between candidates discussing certain issues online and donations from specific donor communities. However, donor communities are found to be connected by geography more than to specific policy issues. More broadly, this research shows that geography should play a greater role in the study of political communications.

They’re Not ‘Just’ Words: The Verbal Style of U.S. Presidential Debates • David Painter; Juliana Fernandes • This longitudinal content analysis investigated the effects of election level, candidate partisanship, and decade on the 563 U.S. presidential candidates’ verbal style in 138 televised debates. Results indicate general election rhetoric contains more optimism, certainty, and realism than primary election rhetoric; Democratic’s rhetoric contains more commonality than Republican’s rhetoric; and there is less certainty in debate rhetoric from the 2000s and 2010s than from the 1960s and 1970s.  Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Social capital, civic engagement and identity: Exploring a model for political talk on Facebook • Toby Hopp, University of Colorado Boulder; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado Boulder; Chris Vargo, U of Colorado Boulder • Using a method incorporating both survey and trace data measures and the framework of social identity theory, this study presents a model for understanding political talk on Facebook. It found substantial and statistically significant relationships between offline civic engagement, bonded social capital, and political attitude extremity. It also identifies a substantive relationship between civic engagement, social capital and political talk on Facebook. Specifically, online civic engagement was robustly associated with political content generation on Facebook.

The (non)Americans: Analyzing Russian Disinformation on Twitter • Deen Freelon, UNC-Chapel Hill; Michael Bossetta; Chris Wells, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kirsten Adams; Yiping Xia, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Josephine Lukito, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Disinformation has been wielded by state- and non-state actors for millennia, yet it has rarely been the object of political communication research. We analyze nearly 200,000 tweets by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a disinformation operation funded by the Russian government. We find that 1) the IRA favored a small set of divergent political identities; 2) their tweets were not all political; and 3) Black activist and Trump-supporting messages spread farthest.

Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves: Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Hybrid Media Campaign • Katherine Haenschen, Virginia Tech University • Hillary Clinton ran a hybrid media campaign in her 2016 pursuit of the presidency, grounded in outreach to digital outlets influential with youth, women, communities of color, and LGBT Americans. Yet to date, this extensive effort by the campaign has been largely overlooked. Chadwick’s (2017) theoretical framework of the hybrid media system emphasizes the ways in which “old” and “new” media interact, how information flows in strategic ways, and how actors in this system are adaptive and interdependent. Interviews with campaign staff and an analysis of 16 outreach efforts by the campaign illustrate the way in which her efforts fit this theorization. This paper argues for the categorization of Clinton’s 2016 effort as a hybrid media campaign, based on its blurring of distinctions within the campaign structure, emphasis on reaching niche audiences online regardless of platform, and manner in which digital sharing enabled strategic information flows.

A Citizen-Based Profile of Fake News Dissemination on Facebook • Toby Hopp, University of Colorado Boulder; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado Boulder; Chris Vargo, U of Colorado Boulder • This study explored the relationship between dissemination of fake news on Facebook and citizen behaviors, beliefs, and resources. A novel method that melded survey-based self-report data and trace data was employed. The results suggested that fake news sharing on Facebook was highest among those with low levels of bonded social capital, those with low levels of media trust, those with extreme political attitudes, and those who use the Internet for civic purposes.

Speaking in a woman’s name:  Gender difference of political expressive participation on Twitter • Lingshu Hu, Missouri School of Journalism; Mike Kearney • This study examined gender difference of expressive participation in 9 political topics on Twitter. Through analyzing over 3 million tweets data, this study found that, although the number of women in political discussion is not dramatically smaller than men, their behaviors in sending original tweets, retweeting, quoting and replying are different from men, indicating that women might lack political confidence or sense a higher level of hostility when participating in political discussions on Twitter.

Debatable sphere: major party hegemony, minor party marginalization in the UK Leaders’ debate • Ceri Hughes, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The United Kingdom political landscape has historically been dominated by the two main political parties; Labour and the Conservatives. For much of the twentieth century these parties would share 80+% of the vote in general elections. However, by the 2010 General Election their share had dropped to 65%. The 2010 election also saw a new development enter the UK political landscape – televised leaders’ debates, which featured the leaders of the three largest political parties. Discussions before the 2015 General Election resulted in a decision to repeat the debate experiment, but this time, partly due to changes in projected vote shares, seven leaders were invited to the main debate. Using content analysis of the debate and subsequent media coverage, this research questions the presentation of the debate as an equal platform for all participants. Analysis illustrates the dominance of major party leaders and questions the efficacy of multi-party debates in a limited-party political structure.

Campaign Strategies on Twitter in 2016 U.S. Presidential Election: Real-time Event, Negativity, and Online Engagement • Daud Isa; Qin Li, Washington State university; Meredith Wang, Washington State University; Porismita Borah; Itai Himelboim • This study examines Twitter posts of Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to understand their campaign strategies in 2016 election. All data – posts and engagement metrics – between September 5 and November 8, 2016 were collected. Results show Hillary Clinton focused mainly on mobilization while Donald Trump focused more on fundraising and real-time events. Furthermore, while Clinton posted more tweets, including more negative tweets than Trump, the latter was more successful eliciting engagement using negative content.

Discursively Empowered and Distrustful: The Impact of the Taxpayer Framing on Political Trust • Volha Kananovich • This study experimentally tests (N=207) if various ways to construct tax-related discourse, by portraying the taxpayer as either a subordinate to the state or an equal partner to whom the government is accountable, can influence the level of citizens’ political trust. The findings show that the “taxpayer-as-an-equal-partner” rhetoric can boost citizens’ trust, but this effect is limited to individuals with no direct taxpaying experience and those with lower perceptions of tax contribution to government revenues.

Press and U.S. Policy toward Iran: Studying The New York Times, Washington Post and Nuclear Negotiations • Mehdi Semati, Northern Illinois University; Bill Cassidy, Northern Illinois University; Mehrnaz Khanjani, University of Iowa • This research examines the press coverage of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West, applying “indexing” theory. Results present evidence of indexing, showing Iran deal coverage in coverage of The New York Times and Washington Post reflected official views within a framework of institutional debates among congressional leaders and the executive branch sources. The coverage indexed both consensus among the officials within the executive branch and the congressional opposition during different time periods studied.

From Information Reception to Political Learning on Social Media:  Advancing the Interaction Mediation Model • Dam Hee Kim, University of Michigan; Brian Weeks, University of Michigan; Daniel Lane, University of Michigan; Lauren B Potts, University of Michigan; Nojin Kwak, University of Michigan • Despite social media’s potential as a resource for political learning, exposure to political content on social media does not promote significant gains in political knowledge. By applying the communication mediation model on social media, we advance the interaction mediation model of political learning. Analyses of a two-wave national online survey prior to the 2016 Presidential election suggest that political interactions on Facebook, particularly sharing and commenting on content, following information reception, promote political knowledge gain.

Please Mind the Platform Gap: How Online News Source Impacts Civic and Political Engagement • Nuri Kim, NTU Singapore; Andrew Duffy, NTU; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Rich Ling; Alice Huang, NTU Singapore • Online news platforms have often been grouped together in scholarly thought. Yet each one delivers news in a distinctive way, which merits closer consideration as each will have a distinctive impact on civic and political engagement. This paper considers the use of different online news platforms, from legacy news organizations apps to instant messaging services, to Facebook and YouTube. Based on a survey of over 2,500 Singaporeans, it finds differential effects of news platforms on civic and political participation. We also report that the significant effects were largely mediated by expressive participation online and, to a lesser degree, further information search behaviors.

Peers versus Pros: Confirmation Bias in Selective Exposure  to User-Generated versus Mass Media Messages • Axel Westerwick; Daniel Sude, The Ohio State University; Melissa Robinson; Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick • News is now commonly consumed embedded in user-generated content and social media. This experiment tested competing hypotheses on whether selective exposure to attitude-consistent versus -discrepant political messages (confirmation bias) differs in such computer-mediated interpersonal (CMI) contexts from mass communication contexts, through observational data and multi-level modeling. An overarching confirmation bias was differentiated in that attitude importance fostered it only in the CMI condition. The more social media users care the more they prefer attitude-consistent content.

Correcting misinformation at the local level? Potential for local media’s fact-checking on local issues • Jianing Li • This paper examines the potential for local fact checkers, the “invisible half” of the U.S. fact-checking ecosystem. The findings suggest that local media attracts significantly more attention than national media when fact checking a local issue, while having a disadvantage when fact checking a national issue. The findings offer important implications for local journalists to play a distinct role in the fact-checking industry, and call for an expanded model of group-based processing of corrective information.

Zero Day Twitter: How Russian Propaganda Infiltrated the U.S. Hybrid Media System • Josephine Lukito, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jiyoun Suk, UW Madison; Yini Zhang, University of Wisconsin Madison; Larisa Doroshenko, University of Wisconsin Madison; Min-Hsin Su, University of Wisconsin Madison; Sang Jung Kim; Yiping Xia, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Chris Wells, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Russia’s Internet Research Agency’s (IRA) use of social media to influence American political discussion has received considerable attention. Most observers’ focus on the social media space, however, overlooks the role that American news media played in distributing IRA content. In this article, we build on studies documenting the appearance of IRA messages in American news media, with three aims. First, we provide an expanded view of the journalistic context in which the infiltration occurred, taking into account the economic, temporal, political, and media ecological realities in which news organizations now operate. Second, we expand on existing analyses and provide a more rigorous assessment of the evidence, which offers an opportunity to explore the use of social media by news organizations, and the ways in which contemporary uses expose news media to potential manipulation. Our results reveal that certain types of practices by news organizations made them susceptible to disinformation, and that news organizations that engaged in those practices more were most affected by the IRA campaign.

Likeminded and Cross-Cutting Talk, Network Characteristics, and Political Participation Online- and Offline: A Panel Study • Jörg Matthes, U of Vienna; Franziska Marquart, University of Amsterdam; Christian von Sikorski • This study tests the role of likeminded and cross-cutting political discussion as a facilitator of online and offline political participation and examines the role of strong versus weak network ties. Most prior research on the topic has employed cross-sectional designs that may lead to spurious relationships due to the lack of controlled variables, and therefore overestimate potential effects of cross-cutting and likeminded discussions. In order to address this concern, we conducted a two-wave panel survey controlling the autoregressive effects of participation. Our findings suggest that cross-cutting talk with weak ties significantly dampens online, but not offline political participation. However, no such effects were detectable for cross-cutting talk with strong network ties. In addition, we found no effect of discussions with likeminded individuals in either weak or strong network connections on online and offline forms of political engagement. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Examining How Moral Emotions Mediate the Effects of Partisan Media Consumption on Pro-Immigration Policy Support • Rachel Neo • The immigration debate has received considerable partisan media attention. However, little research has examined how partisan media influence support for pro-immigration policies. Using a representative online survey (N= 525), I examine whether partisan media elicit moral emotions prompting people to advance immigrant welfare. Findings show that regardless of partisan affiliation, liberal media indirectly increase support for pro-immigration policies via moral outrage toward the Trump administration and empathy toward immigrants, with conservative media having opposite effects.

“Fake News Effect?” False Beliefs and Vote Choice in the 2016 Presidential Election • erik nisbet; Kelly Garrett; Paul Beck; Richard Gunther • Electoral disinformation, or “fake news,” was widespread during the 2016 election, yet to date, no study has directly examined the impact that endorsement of disinformation had on voter behavior. Analyzing two surveys independently conducted during and after the election, we hypothesize that endorsement of electoral disinformation will significantly increase the likelihood of voting for Donald Trump independent of other predictors of the vote. Our analysis supports this hypothesis with endorsement of electoral disinformation almost doubling the odds in both surveys of voting for Trump above and beyond the impact of partisanship, issue preferences and candidate favorability. The findings of the second study are especially compelling as they can address the issue of causal direction based on a fixed-effects model analyzing three waves of survey panel data collected before and after the election campaign.  Our study highlights the vulnerability of our core democratic decision-making processes to disinformation spread by either domestic or foreign actors.

Young Adults, Passive and Active Forms of News Use on Social Media, and Political Engagement • Chang Sup Park, University at Albany, SUNY; Masahiro Yamamoto • Social media users not only access news but also evaluate, combine, and restructure news. This study conceptualizes such news use via social media as news curation. Drawing on a survey of 900 South Korean young adults, the present study finds that social media news curation is positively associated with political efficacy and offline and online political participation. Social media news curation moderates the relationship between social media news use and political efficacy and political participation.

Spoofing presidential hopefuls: The roles of affective disposition, emotions, and intertextuality in prompting the social transmission of debate parody • Jason Peifer; Kristen Landreville, University of Wyoming • This study explores factors that contribute to the diffusion of political humor, employing the conceptual lenses of affective disposition, discrete emotions, and intertextuality. Participants (N = 236) were exposed to an SNL debate parody featuring Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Moderated mediation analyses indicate that both feelings of favorability toward Clinton and unfavorability toward Trump indirectly influenced a willingness to share the humor, as variously mediated by mirth and hope and moderated by political engagement.

“Lyin’ Ted,” “Crooked Hillary,” and the “Dishonest” Media: Trump’s Use of Twitter to Attack and Amplify his Press Coverage • Ayellet Pelled, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Josephine Lukito, University of Wisconsin-Madison; JUNGHWAN YANG; Fred Boehm; Dhavan Shah • “The use of Twitter by Donald Trump, and the amplification of his voice in the form of retweets, has been demonstrated to be one of the most consistent and powerful predictors of Trump’s news coverage, suggesting that he was able to leverage his interactions on social media into earned media attention worth billions of dollars (Patterson, 2016b; Wells et al., 2016).

In the present study, we analyze a unique dataset of 313,047 retweets of Trump’s original tweets during his presidential campaign (a 1% sample). We implement multiple linguistic analysis methods in two stages. First, we conduct natural language processing using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). This topic modeling is followed by computerized text analysis of selected topics using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2015) system, to gauge the psychological meaning of word choice along multiple dimensions, and Diction 7.0, to assess the tonal qualities of word choice in terms of certainty, activity, optimism, realism, and commonality. We find that a main focus of Trump’s messages is to target “enemies,” employing terms of conflict and intergroup differentiation. Three main targets emerged in his followers’ retweets: Ted Cruz (“Lyin’ Ted”), Hillary Clinton (“Crooked Hillary”), and “”the media,”” which Trump refers to as biased and dishonest.

We examine the trends and linguistic characteristics of each topic, noting fluctuations in relation to campaign events and the psychological and tonal characteristics. We conclude by considering how this pattern of amplified attacks propelled Trump’s campaign and drove his attention in the press.”

The Will of the People? Effects of Subjective References to Public Opinion by Politicians • Christina Peter, University of Vienna • Subjective references to public opinion are the most common public opinion cue in the news media and are used especially by populist politicians as a communication strategy to appeal to voters. These subjective references are not based on polling data and may even be in contrast to those. Yet, there is little research on how effective this communication strategy actually is. In the present study, we looked at effects of subjective references to public opinion by politicians on their evaluation and on people’s perception of public opinion. In addition, we tested whether this communication strategy resonates especially well with people already holding populist attitudes. In a 2×4-experiment, we could show that the use of subjective references by a politician strongly shaped public opinion perceptions, but did not necessarily increase his evaluation. Effects occurred regardless of populist attitudes.

Banned: How Discriminatory Policy Heightens U.S. Muslims’ Identity Centrality and In-Group Preferences • Annisa Meirita Rochadiat, Wayne State University; Elizabeth Stoycheff, Wayne State University • Using identity process theory and a unique natural experiment, we investigate how anti-Muslim social media messages and nativist policy (Executive Order 13769 aka the ‘Travel Ban’) activates U.S. Muslims’ religious identities and in-group priorities. We find that nativist policy, but not anti-Muslim messaging, heightens religious identities, which produces a significant shift toward in-group preferences and away from national security priorities. Political implications are discussed.

Unpacking Fake News: Understanding Partisan Consumption of Fake News During the 2016 US Presidential Election • Ken Rogerson; Christopher Hill • News bias and distortion is not new. Its most recent iteration, which we call “fake news,” coupled with social media distribution networks, became a prominent element during the 2016 presidential election. While it is valuable to understand what fake news is, it is more important to explore its impact. What differences exist between the ways that conservatives and liberals disseminated and consumed fake news during the 2016 presidential election? Analyzing a dataset of fake news articles, we categorize their level of deception and evaluate the extent to which partisans find salience in them. While we find that liberal and conservative fake news were equally false, the critical difference lies in the complexity, professionalism, and quantity with which conservative fake news was produced. These disparities suggest a more concerted and successful effort among conservatives or producers of pro-Trump fake news to effectively spread misinformation.

Social Media for Political Campaigns: An Examination of Donald Trump’s Frame Building and its Effect on Audience Engagement • Abdulsamad Sahly, Arizona State University; K. Hazel Kwon, Arizona State University; CHUN SHAO, Arizona State University • “Abstract

This study examined frame building and frame effects on Twitter and Facebook for the GOP 2016 presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump. From his official nomination leading up to Election Day, we analyzed the content of 1,281 tweets and 313 Facebook posts from Trump’s official social media accounts. We examined how messages were framed and how that framing affected audience engagement on Twitter and Facebook. The results showed that conflict, human interest, and morality were the dominant frames on both platforms. The study also found that the conflict, morality, and loss frames affected people’s retweeting and favoriting behaviors on Twitter and sharing behaviors on Facebook. The attribution of responsibility affected retweeting and favoriting behaviors on Twitter and commenting behaviors on Facebook. The human interest frame affected retweeting and favoriting behaviors on Twitter, but not on Facebook. This study expands the scholarship of political social media campaigns by applying framing theory to understand the presidential candidate’s social media strategies.”

“Nothing that I did was wrong:” Image repair and the Hillary Clinton email controversy • Miles Sari, Washington State University • Using image repair theory, this rhetorical criticism analyzes Hillary Clinton’s response to her email scandal during the 2016 election. This study finds that Clinton relied heavily on denial strategies, attempted to reduce the perceived offensiveness of her actions, and focused on hindsight corrective measures. This paper concludes that Clinton’s response to the email scandal was ineffective, because she refused to admit any wrongdoing and her attempts at mortification were largely qualified attempts to evade responsibility.

Should the Media Be More or Less Powerful in Politics? Individual and Contextual Explanations for Politicians and Journalists • Sebastian Scherr, University of Leuven; Philip Baugut, University of Munich (LMU) • The normative question regarding whether the media should have more or less impact on politics, as viewed by politicians and journalists, has gained only little attention, despite the large body of research on mediatization. The present study is the first that combines individual and structural factors that explain political actors’ and journalists’ normative views on the media’s influence on politics. Based on a conceptualization of political communication cultures, representative micro-level survey data from more than 600 political actors and journalists within 52 German cities were combined with macro-level indicators for the political and media competition in each city. Multilevel analyses show that interactions between the actors’ characteristics and their competitive working conditions help explain their normative evaluations of the media’s influence on politics. However, individual characteristics such as actors’ role conceptions influence normative views more so than media and political competition do.

Muslims’ Responses to Terrorism News: Perceived Journalistic Quality, Discrimination, and Attitudes toward the Majority Population • Desiree Schmuck; Jörg Matthes, U of Vienna; Christian von Sikorski; Mona Rahmanian; Beril Bulat • Across two experimental studies, we explored Muslim news consumers’ responses to news coverage of terrorist attacks committed by members of the Islamic State (IS) depending on news differentiation (i.e., explicitly distinguishing between Muslims and IS terrorists) and the terrorist attack’s proximity. Results indicated that Muslims evaluated the journalistic quality of differentiated compared to undifferentiated news reports higher irrespective of the terrorist attack’s proximity, which decreased perceived discrimination and negative attitudes toward the non-Muslim majority population.

“In Spite Of” and “Alongside”: Disillusion and Success in Advocacy Communication for the Roma • Adina Schneeweis • This article examines advocacy communication as experienced by activists themselves.  Grounded in the case of Romanian activism for Roma rights, the study reveals discursive practices of disillusion (in connection typically to large-scale fissures in socio-cultural, politico-economic systems) and success (evident primarily at a micro-level, in the lives of individual people, and in hyper-localized action).  The findings suggest the vision of activism and the funding system need to be mindful of such reality, and adjust accordingly.

Media Quality and Democracy: Claims and Reality—a Cross-Media Study • Maren Beaufort, Austrian Academy of Sciences; Josef Seethaler, Austrian Academy of Sciences • The study explores new paths in media quality research by using the first representative, cross-media investigation of daily news in 36 Austrian media outlets as an example. Based on the assumption that the quality of media reporting is inseparably tied to the quality of a democracy, but has to be understood in relation to changing notions of what democracy means, the content analytical design operationalizes a liberal-representative, a deliberative, and a participatory understanding of democracy. Results reveal four clusters of media outlets, whose reporting can be linked to these different conceptions of democracy, sometimes in a mixed manner.

Evolution and Issue Ownership of the issue of digital privacy • Ashik Shafi, Wiley College • Ownership of political issues are used as a framing technique in political public relations. Political parties attach neutral issues with the issues the public perceives the parties to own. This project investigated ownership of the issue of digital privacy in US senator’s tweets since June 2013, when the news of NSA surveillance broke out. Findings reveal absence of issue ownership in the Tweets, and evidence of issue trespassing. Republican senators referred to nearly equal amount of self-owned and opposition owned issues, whereas Democrats referred more to opposition-owned issues than self-owned. The findings suggest senators are less likely to frame issues without moral dimensions as owned issue on Twitter. Rather, the senators tend to show attachment and involvement with those issues as a way to self-promote.

Donald Trump in Visual Dimension: Content Analysis of Cross-National Intermedia Agenda Setting • Tarasevich Sofiya, 1988; Liudmila Khalitova, University of Florida; OSAMA ALBISHRI, University of Florida; Spiro Kiousis, University of Florida; Barbara Myslik • This study analyzes the visual framing of Donald Trump’s image in the international media during the 2016 presidential campaign in the context of intermedia agenda setting. As emotion recognition software was used in the coding process, it expands the body of literature on computer evaluation of tonality in visual framing. The quantitative content analysis of 801 images from 16 media revealed differences among eight counties in tonality, Trump’s image reflection and display of social distance.

A Knight in sheep’s clothing:  Media framing of the Alt-Right • Burton Speakman, Kennesaw State University • The Alt-Right increased its national profile during the 2016 presidential election based on its support of Donald Trump. This study uses qualitative framing analysis to review the coverage of the Alt-Right as a manner examining if the group was successful in advancing its desired frames into mainstream media coverage. The results of this study suggest overall the Alt-Right was successful in reducing direct discussion about the racist beliefs of the group within press coverage.

Partisan Media, News Events, and Asymmetric Political Evaluations in the 2016 Election • Jiyoun Suk, UW Madison; Dhavan Shah; Leticia Bode; Stephanie Edgerly, Northwestern; Kjerstin Thorson, Michigan State University; Emily Vraga; Chris Wells, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jon Pevehouse • Using national rolling cross-sectional survey data collected daily over the last seven weeks of the election, we examine support for Trump and Clinton using daily-fixed effects regressions followed by temporal analyses of the unexplained variance from these models. Results reveal the influence of different media sources among partisan audiences, the asymmetric influence of conservative and liberal media on different partisan subgroups, and the impact of major events on candidate appraisals on any given day.

News and Entertainment Preferences, Political Knowledge and Attentiveness in Campaign 2016 • Matthew Thornton, Drake University • Scholars have argued the transition from a broadcast environment to a cable and internet landscape has significantly altered our political sphere. While some scholars have argued expanded media choice has brought about fragmentation and increasing partisan news consumption, other scholars have focused on the potential for more media options to encourage individuals to opt out of consuming public affairs programming in favor of entertainment-based content, thus leading to political knowledge declines for those transitioning away from news. The following study applies both theoretical approaches to the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign. A media environment whereby individuals may be leaving news in favor of entertainment content encourages non-traditional candidates with the ability to exploit celebrity status (i.e. Donald Trump) in courting more politically disinterested, entertainment-centric voters. At the same time, the divisive campaign style of Trump coupled with his disdain for news media may encourage more fervent partisan news consumption. Analyses of ANES data reveal, consistent with expectations, significantly different news and entertainment preferences among supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  While supporters of both candidates engage in partisan news viewing, the entertainment preferences of Trump are shown to be associated with decreased public affairs knowledge and political attentiveness.

To Label or Not To Label?  Hostile Perceptions of Fact-Checks and Their Sources in the United States • Jianing Li; Jordan Foley, UW-Madison; Omar Dumdum, U of Wisconsin-Madison; MIchael Wagner, University of Wisconsin-Madison • A survey experiment of 510 American adults reveals that labeling a fact-check as a fact-check increases the likelihood of the hostile media perception. Post-hoc analyses also found that, when engaging in fact-checks, ideological sources were rated as more biased than the Associated Press. Finally, we found no major differences between Republican, Independent and Democratic responses to the fact-check – a story examining a claim from President Trump about gun laws in Chicago. Discovering how Americans react to this new form of accountability journalism will  help us understand how the public reacts to specific fact-checking content while also assisting news organizations in deciding whether they should label their fact-checks as a unique type of journalism or simply report them without the “fact-check” moniker.

Gender, Nonverbal Communication, and Televised Debates: Examining Clinton and Trump’s Nonverbal Language During the 2016 Town Hall Debate • Ben Wasike, university of texas rio grande valley • This study analyzed nonverbal cues during the 2016 town hall debate. Variables were facial expressions, posture, eye contact, and spatial distance. Clinton was friendlier, took more expansive postures, and maintained more eye contact. The candidates largely kept within social distance, except for an instance that created post-debate controversy. While some of Clinton’s nonverbal behavior conformed to established gendered cues, her nonverbal behavior largely transcends gender norms. Also addressed are the media’s shortcomings in contextualizing debates

Chinese Players’ Participation in Online Games and its Influence on Online Social Capital & Political Participation • Yue Wu, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences • Based on the theory of social capital, this paper discusses the relationship between online game participation and online social capital and political participation in China. In this study, 1050 valid questionnaires were collected through an online survey. We found that frequency of playing online games is positively correlated with online social capital, information acquisition, and online action. At the same time, online social capital has a significantly positive correlation with online opinion expression. As for online political participation, online information acquisition promotes both online opinion expression and online action, and online opinion expression also promotes online action. Finally, because users of the offline single-player game can only communicate with the non-player characters set by the program, the impact of the pure human-machine interaction on the users is not significant. These findings confirm the application of social capital theory in online game research.

The Agenda-Opinion Dynamics: Public Opinion and Government Attention in Post-Handover Hong Kong • Chuanli Xia; Fei Shen • The capacity of governments to respond to public opinion is essential to democratic theory and its practice. However, previous research examining the relationship between public opinion and government attention dominantly focuses on Western societies. Consequently, we know little about such relationship in non-western societies. Drawing upon time series data of public opinion polls and governmental press releases, this study examines the causal relationship between public opinion and government attention in post-handover Hong Kong. The findings demonstrate that public opinion drives government attention and such “democratic influence” varies across issue domains and is subject to the exercise of political sanctions such as mass demonstrations.

Winning through Words? A Computational Linguistic Study of Presidential Candidates’ Language Styles on Social Media in the Age of Populism • Weiai (Wayne) Xu, University of Massachusetts; Jayeon (Janey) Lee, Lehigh University • The present study examines language styles in presidential candidates’ social media posts in the waves of populism and perception politics. Using Facebook data from the 2016 Election, we show how language styles have different appeals and effectiveness for populist and establishment candidates. Donald Trump, the quintessential populist candidate, sounded less analytic and confident/certain, and more emotional, than the establishment candidate Hillary Clinton. The populist-leaning Bernie Sanders sounded more self-revealing than both Trump and Clinton. Clinton used the most analytic and confident/certain language, whereas she was the least self-revealing. Trump attracted more word-of-mouth when using self-revealing and confident/certain language styles. Clinton attracted more word-of-mouth when using more emotional style. For the three candidates, the analytic language style is universally unappealing whereas styles traditionally associated with presidency still hold appeal.

How Informed Are Messaging App Users About Politics?  A Linkage of Messaging App Use and Political Knowledge and Participation • Masahiro Yamamoto; Matthew Kushin, Shepherd University; Dalisay Francis • Mobile messaging apps, such as Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, were new and unique campaign and information platforms in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. This study investigates how use of such apps for campaign information is related to political knowledge and participation.  Data from an online survey conducted prior to the election indicate that using messaging apps for news is positively related to miscalibration of knowledge, a discrepancy between subjective and factual political knowledge.  Knowledge miscalibration is positively related to offline and online political participation.  Findings are discussed in terms of the role of messaging apps in the political process.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Graduate Student 2018 Abstracts

Insecure and Girls: Innovative or the Same? • Tessa Adams, The University of Iowa • This study analyzes the sexualized images and dialogue of black female characters in the show Insecure and white female characters in the show Girls, to find out how the representations differ. Feminist theory and critical race theory are theoretical framework. The literature review consists of information related to patriarchy, race, sexuality, and stereotypes. The methodology is a rhetorical analysis with an ideological criticism focus. Results suggest that hegemonic racist and gendered stereotypes prevail in media.

Enjoying Crime: Examining Disposition Theory in the True Crime Podcast Audience • Kelli Boling, University of South Carolina • This study explores disposition theory within the true crime podcast audience and potential impact on the criminal justice system. Using an online survey (n = 308), this study found that the true crime podcast audience listens for entertainment (92.47%) and enjoyment (84.58%), but they also see the potential for societal impact and they want to be part of the movement. Over 80% of respondents believe the podcasts are already having an impact on the cases covered.

Reddit’s Cops and Cop-Watchers: Context Reclamation in Online Interpretive Communities • Michael Buozis, Temple University • Among the many online message boards hosted by the platform Reddit—known as subReddits—two have emerged as spaces where two very different, often oppositional, communities produce discourses about law enforcement in the United States: r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut, a community critical of police conduct, and r/ProtectAndServe, a community representing police. These subReddits can be understood as online interpretive communities, who use the digital spaces provided by Reddit in order to develop and sustain an interpretive regime consisting of “the sharing, transfer, accumulation, transformation, and cocreation of knowledge” (Faraj, Jarvenpaa, & Majchrzak, 2011, p. 1224). In creating and fostering these communities, members express the importance of context reclamation, or a practice of unraveling the context collapse inherent in broader social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. With this reclaimed context, users of these subReddits engage in three discursive community practices: the creation of community-specific genres out of the raw material of media; making meaning through community rituals and practices; and the translation of that knowledge into community practices.

Stop Watching Me: Examining a Moderated Mediation Model of Privacy Concern and Information Control. • BIN CHEN, Tsinghua University; AN HU • Social media has experienced exponential growth in recent years. They offer attractive means for communication, but also raise privacy concerns. This study investigated the relationship between young adults’ privacy concern and their information control in social media. The result shows the relationship between privacy concern and information control is mediated by information control affordance and this indirect effect is moderated by individual’s extraversion personality. The implication of these findings was also discussed.

Score! How Female Hockey Players Around the World Score More Likes on Instagram • Tanja Eisenschmid • This study examined effective social media strategies for female hockey players from four nations, the U.S., Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, particularly focusing on their Instagram posts. The result from the content analysis of 1,011 Instagram posts showed that posts highlighting hockey careers (e.g., achievement in the athlete’s sport) and athlete endorser’s role (e.g., promotional posts) were more likely to generate higher likes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Ad-Brand Schema Incongruity Effects on Engagement with Facebook Posts • Drake Glatter • This study takes schema theory and schema incongruity and applies it to modern advertising on Facebook. Ad-brand schema incongruity’s effects are measured with a psychological social media engagement scale. This study finds success in applying this theory for the first time to social media and identifying three distinct levels of incongruity, proving schema theory can be applied to modern social media advertising efforts.

No Country for Selfies: Privacy Concerns on Facebook and Instagram • Daniel Haun, University of South Carolina • Members of social networking services reveal a great deal of personal information, and are not very aware of their privacy options (Acquisti and Gross, 2006). To further explore the privacy, authorship, and safety and security concerns presented by social networking sites (SNS), a textual analysis was conducted of six user agreements of social networking site Instagram and its parent company Facebook. Three themes emerged from Instagram and Facebook’s Terms of Use and Service: privacy concerns, questions of user generated content authorship, as well as safety and security concerns.

TMZ and Mass Media: A Love/Hate Relationship • Angelica Kalika, CU Boulder • Tabloid media can have a contentious relationship with mass media. TMZ in particular is now making headlines for its breaking news stories. When the popular celebrity news site breaks journalism norms, newspapers and other sites can jump on the chance to repair journalism’s image. The paper will analyze this form of paradigm repair to see how TMZ violated normative practices and use attribution theory to see why a paradigm was broken in the first place. A textual analysis demonstrates the media’s response to TMZ stories that break professional boundaries (Reinforcing the Broken Paradigm, Breaking News Paradigm, and Disrupter status).

Media Representation of Female Candidates in Ugandan Parliamentary Elections: A Content Analysis of three Newspapers • Juma Kasadha, City University of Hong Kong; Rehema Kantono, Islamic University in Uganda • A total of N=1704 newspaper articles were content analyzed from studied newspapers; the New Vision (State owned) and privately owned Daily Monitor and Red Pepper. Results show that newspapers represented more of male candidates in all analyzed topical issues compared to female candidates. All studied newspapers scored less than a minimum of 3 issues covered as representative of female candidates. Female candidates’ coverage in all newspapers’ on dominant topical issues on average was (2.70 ±3.74). Placement of a news article and page number; were statistically significant in giving male candidates prominence in news compared to female candidates. For Placement of News Article F(1, 1703)=7.909, p <0.005 and Page number F(1,1701)=5.593, p <0.018 statistical significance. Findings also show that State Media set the agenda on how private newspaper considered covering female candidates. This was evidenced in all private newspapers not covering female candidates on issues of foreign affairs and law since state owned newspaper did not cover them. Daily Monitor and New Vision did not cover male candidates on the issue of agriculture and yet gave prominence to agriculture when covering female candidates. This positions female candidates as those suitable for agriculture roles on average (3.00±.) compared to politics on average; Daily Monitor (2.80±.60); New Vision (2.94±.31) and Red Pepper (2.90±.32). Based on findings in this study, there is need for more and equitable representation of female candidates in media by state owned media as one that should set the agenda for private owned media to follow.

Tailoring genetic testing communication for mental health patients’ stability and controllability attributions • Amanda Kastrinos • The integration of genetic testing into the mental healthcare has the potential both alleviate and reinforce mental health stigma. Using the lens of attribution theory, this paper explores how patients’ stability and controllability attributions can predict their emotional response to genetic testing results. Communication strategies are recommended for each emotional response type based on extant literature. The typology presented here is intended to serve as a framework for both future research and mental health providers.

How Motives for Political Information Seeking Online Influence Political Discussion Offline • Sangwon Lee • The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between online political information seeking and offline political discussion. I examined how different motives for seeking political information online influence offline political discussion with heterogeneous others. The results showed that strong partisans with entertainment motivation are more likely to avoid cross-cutting political discussion, while weak partisans with the same motivation are more likely to engage in cross-cutting political discussion.

Love Triangles: Effects of Relationship Status, Reception Partners, and Interpersonal Communication on Romantic Parasocial Interactions • Nicole Liebers, University of Würzburg • Besides many insights into romantic parasocial attachments, the effect of relationship status and reception partner on romantic parasocial interactions (romantic PSIs) remains unclear. This study attempts to close that research gap with new findings on romantic PSIs in cinemas based on a 2×2 quasi-experiment (N = 103). The presence of a romantic partner decreased romantic PSIs, whereas singles had the most intensive romantic PSIs. Interpersonal communication concerning a media character enhanced romantic PSIs.

Using an expanded Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict WeRun Users’ Intention to Engage in Sports in China • Yingying MA • A study was conducted to test an expanded Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in predicting sports intention among WeRun Sport users in mainland China. Two variables (perceived barriers and self-efficacy) were added in the TPB. A purposive sampling design was adopted to WeRun Sport. Altogether 635users were asked to complete a structured questionnaire about sports engagement. Results of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling supported the structural validity of the proposed expanded model. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that selected items of the perceived behavioral control and perceived barriers should be combined to form a new measure of perceived behavioral control. The new measure of perceived behavioral control and self efficacy were found to be more influential than attitude as well as subjective norm in predicting sports behavior . Past behavior and gender were found to be significant moderating variables.

Time Enough at Last: Pornography Viewership Motivations and Obstacles • Farnosh Mazandarani, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill • This study explores obstacles, avoidance, and attitudes of pornographic access patterns. A survey through Amazon’s MTurk asked about usage, motivations, attitudes, discrete emotions, and stressors that may influence pornography use and change. The research found a decrease in usage in relation to increased age. Respondents with increased usage reported porn fulfills a need, is entertaining, and healthy. Decrease users reported no longer being interested, found pornography offensive, are bored by the content, and having new life stressors.

Habrá que callar la tragedia del Yasuní : A muted group theory perspective of media coverage of indigenous communities inhabiting the Ecuadorian Amazon • Maria D. Molina, Penn State University • Using a muted group theory framework, this study analyzes media coverage of the indigenous communities of the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. A content and thematic analysis of newspaper articles from 2013-2014 reveal the communities were rarely given voice in coverage. Nevertheless, the coverage of these communities was counter-hegemonic and expressed the importance of understanding the cultural worldviews of indigenous people and developing the Ecuadorian system to encompass the multiculturality of the nation.

Understanding the influence of employee communication behavior: How job board reviews impact millennial perceptions of organizational reputation, relational trust & intent to apply • Katy Robinson; Patrick Thelen; Cen April Yue, University of Florida • Employees are seen as important contributors to an organization’s strategic communication efforts. Using experimental design, this study evaluates the impact of responsive leadership communication and rewards-based culture on corporate reputation, relational trust and overall intent to apply. Results indicate employees’ communication behaviors, specifically employee-generated job board reviews using responsive leadership communication and a rewards-based culture information, have separate effects on organizational reputation and relational trust, but collective effects on overall intent to apply.

Understanding User Behaviors Regarding Smart Speakers: A Multidisciplinary Perspective • CHUN SHAO, Arizona State University • As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies became increasingly common in people’s daily lives, understanding the social and psychological factors behind individual’s usage of AIs remain a central concern of both media and information system’s research and practice. Through a multidisciplinary perspective, this study explored the underlying mechanism behind individuals’ usage of virtual personal assistant (e.g., Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant). The results showed that the usefulness of virtual assistant can be perceived due to not only its functional utility, playfulness and social presence also played important roles in shaping user’s satisfaction and usage intention. Individuals with strong feelings of social presence have more positive perceptions of virtual assistants, and they may treat virtual assistants as social actors rather than as mere machines.

The NCAA and Crisis Communication: Examining Controversial Issues in Collegiate Sports • Matthew Stilwell; Branden Birmingham • The goal of this study is to examine the perception of controversial issues involving the NCAA. Guided by the lens of a crisis communications perspective, this study surveyed sports fans to assess views on how the NCAA is ruling on controversial issues related to college sport, media consumption patterns, and demographic information. Results of the study found fans tend to view the NCAA in a negative light, but also put blame on its member insitutions for these issues.

Risky Business: A Case Study of a Leader’s Framing of News Coverage of Organizational Risk-Taking • Josh Watson, University of Oklahoma • Recently, one of the top energy companies in the world was the target of sustained, national media criticism. After each story, the company and its CEO sought to frame the critical story. Drawing on previous studies of organizational rhetoric, framing, and risk communication, this study proposes a unique model of apologia called social media intertextual responsiveness. The conditions of this model are explicated, as are the boundaries. Implications are offered for scholars and practitioners.

How Employees Perceive Organizational Change? An Investigation into Change Management from an Internal Communication Perspective • Cen April Yue, University of Florida • Organizations are experiencing constant changes in an unstable business environment. Organizational changes pose challenges to management and the success of change initiatives depend on employees’ support. A conceptual model is proposed to illustrate how perceived transparent communication can foster employee openness to change by decreasing change-related uncertainty. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the change management scholarship from the internal communication’s perspective. Implications on public relations scholarship and practice are discussed.

The Effects of Presence on Responses to Argument Quality in a Virtual Environment • Qiankun Zhong, Boston University; James Cummings • This study examines how presence may influence the cognitive resources available for persuasive message processing. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, this research aims to connect the key concept of presence with the cognitive mechanisms underlying persuasion though a 2 x 2 mixed factorial experiment. The result indicates that weak messages have a better persuasive effect than strong messages in a low presence level. Weak messages also work better in a low presence level than that in a high presence level.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Entertainment Studies 2018 Abstracts

Textual and contextual analysis of Moana • Nafida Banu; Jocelyn Pedersen, Price College of Business • This study applied a theoretical explanation of “hegemony” to analyze the gender portrayal and outside culture representation in Disney’s animated movie Moana. The findings of the textual analysis suggest that similar to other Disney female characters from outside cultures, Moana also has warrior-like characteristics. Contextual analysis findings suggest that the movie transforms the original Polynesian mythical story into a new version. The transformation of the original story was criticized for “cultural misappropriation.”

When 18 Days of Television Coverage Is Not Enough: A Six-Nation Composite of Motivations for Mobile Media Use in 2018 Winter Olympic Games • Andrew Billings, University of Alabama; Natalie Brown-Devlin, University of Texas at Austin; Kenon Brown, The University of Alabama; Michael B. Devlin, Texas State University • A survey of 2,296 people from six nations (Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and the United States) deciphered uses and gratifications for consuming content on a variety of media platforms during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games. Results indicate that media diets significantly differed by platform and device, all 16 uses and gratifications were significantly different by nation, and that that the two inverse predictors of Olympic media consumption relate to the desire to interact (companionship and relationship building), while none of the four direct predictors (entertainment, arousal, competition, and Schwabism) pertained to interpersonal aims. Findings bifurcated by media platform as well; both inverse predictors of smartphone use (passing time and escape) were direct predictors of television use. Implications for uses and gratifications and cross-nation media research are advanced.

Soundtracking Shondaland: Televisual Identity Mapped Through Music • Jennifer Billinson, Christopher Newport University; Michaela Meyer • This paper examines how Shonda Rhimes’ rise to fame is informed by her innovative approach to using popular music for bolstering her show’s identities, framing television narrative, and developing storylines through positioning background music alongside character, plot, and genre development. Throughout Shondaland, musical soundtracks are tantamount to narrative development and audience engagement. More broadly, they establish a key facet of Rhimes’ signature as a showrunner and Shondaland’s style as a production company. To examine the important relationship music plays in constructing the stylistic vision of Rhimes’ work, we examine the soundtracking of three Shondaland shows to reveal the distinct ways music is employed for affect and style. Collectively, Grey’s Anatomy (2005-), Scandal (2012-), and How to Get Away With Murder (HTGAWM) (2014-) span Rhimes’ primetime career and demonstrate her evolution as an auteur. Linking new media developments to Rhimes’ ascendance and popularity in the television industry, this paper unravels her use of music and narrative to create unique identities for her shows, evoke emotion, and make critical statements about contemporary cultural politics.

Recreational video games as a value-supporting activity for cancer survivors • Maria Leonora Comello, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Diane Francis, Louisiana State University; Laurie Hursting; Elizabeth Breaux; Laura Marshall • We examined two underexplored areas: the potential for recreational video gameplay to have positive effects, and the values and experiences of cancer survivors.  In a survey of survivors who reported regular gameplaying, we included an open-ended question asking what they value and the extent to which gameplaying supports the value.  We content-analyzed the responses (N=496) using Schwartz’s value typology.  Eighty-five percent mentioned a value, and among those, 84% said game-playing supported their values.

Exploring Character Development as a Central Mechanism in Viewer Responses to Morally Ambiguous Characters • Serena Daalmans; Mariska Kleemans; Allison Eden; Addy Weijers • The current study explored if character development (as a narrative characteristic) plays a role in the liking, moral evaluation, and enjoyment of narratives featuring morally ambiguous characters [MACs]. Additionally, this study explored the potential role of identification as a moderator. The results of a quasi-experiment provided support for the claim that character development is a central mechanism to explain viewer responses to MACs. As such, the study provides new directions for affective disposition research.

When TV Spin-offs Fail Fans: Narrative Dissonance in AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead • Jennifer Fogel • AMC’s The Walking Dead series has earned critical praise and fan approval, but its spin-off, Fear the Walking Dead, has met a more indifferent response. With the lack of transportation into this burgeoning zombie-riddled world and absence of parasocial relationships with its cadre of characters, Fear the Walking Dead doesn’t breed the same thrilling appreciation as its predecessor and is hindered by the narrative dissonance of its shrewd built-in fan base.

“Mighty” Kacy: Gender Framing within American Ninja Warrior • Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Lauren Schwartz, University of South Carolina • While previous studies have demonstrated that sports and primetime television programming have traditionally treated women in a less flattering light compared to men, the show American Ninja Warrior has emerged to challenge that tradition. Using framing as a guide, an examination of episodes from season nine revealed that female and male competitors receive the same personality, performance, and physicality taxonomies when their athletic successes and failures are described by the announcers.

Examining a Prototype versus Exemplar Approach to Understanding Viewer Categorizations of Morally Ambiguous Characters • Serena Daalmans; Benjamin Johnson, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Allison Eden • This study extends understandings of morally ambiguous characters (MACs) by comparing prototypical and exemplar approaches to descriptions of MACs. Participants described characteristics of a prototypical MAC in an essay, then nominated an exemplar of MAC and described this character in an essay. Impressions of and responses to exemplars were rated quantitatively; scores were juxtaposed with open-ended responses coded both deductively and inductively. The mixed-methods results provide a more comprehensive picture of essential characteristics of MACs.

Teens’ Interpretation of the Controversial Show “13 Reasons Why” • Colleen Kappeler, 1975 • “A high school class observation, of students discussing the show, as well as one-on-one interviews with teens between the ages of 12 and 17 showed that those who were watching were not coming away with suicidal thoughts or concerns, as the adults were worried they would. They were interpreting the show as a statement on how we need to have a kinder, more accepting world as they saw bullying as the main theme.

This article qualitatively looks at teens’ reactions to the show and how their interpretation of this particular media matched up with the intentions of the producers and writers. A content analysis of Beyond the Reasons, a show that followed 13 Reasons Why, was done to learn of intent by writers and producers and their work with highly trained professional psychologists.”

Factors Affecting Millennials’ Intentions to Consume Local and Foreign Media in Singapore • Daphne Lee; Ee Jin Liaw; Xing Mun Jolene Lee • This study examines effects of local-global identity and consumer-cultural nationalism on Singaporean millennials’ local and foreign entertainment media use intentions. The theory of planned behavior served as a theoretical foundation explaining media use intentions. Regression analysis of Singaporean millennials (N = 1,020) indicated that local identity and consumer-cultural nationalism positively correlated with local media use intentions. Global identity positively correlated with foreign media use intentions. Findings suggested importance of individual-level variables in determining media preferences.

Videos Games as Mindfulness Training Partners • Travis Loof, University of South Dakota • A 2 (trainer type: artificial intelligence/human) by 2 (trainer helpfulness: helpful/not helpful) study tested if trainer type and prior cooperation increased perceived training effectiveness and intentions to use a mindfulness. Participants played a video game that encouraged the use of mindfulness practices. The participants were trained either by a human or presumed advanced artificial intelligence. This study evaluated if cooperation in a video game task would influence perceptions of training effectiveness and intentions to use mindfulness. The results indicated that trainer type and prior cooperative behavior did not independently increase intentions or increase perceived training effectiveness. However, there were marginally significant differences in the interaction of the two factors.

Chinese Films Abroad:  Balancing Soft Power and Orientalist Stereotypes in the “Big Three” Film Festivals • Bruno Lovric, City University of Hong Kong • “Through the past decade People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been making a progress in the international distribution of Chinese movies and the government has been adapting regulations in an attempt to strengthen the country’s film industry. At the same time, Chinese films have been winning prizes at some of the most prestigious international festivals and gaining broad international recognition. However, critics have argued that politicization is an important factor in film festivals and that film selections may favor controversial productions which are critical of the party. This article examines the contents of some of the internationally most successful Chinese movies and evaluates their soft power potential by identifying common thematic patterns and repeatedly enforced ideas. Results of the thematic analysis suggest that despite the government’s efforts to minimize negative messages abroad, the Orientalist film selections at big international film festivals are likely to enforce negative stereotypes of China. The article further gives practical suggestions in designing future soft power strategies in the PRC and highlights its most salient challenges.

Keywords: soft power, pop culture, Chinese film, orientalism, thematic analysis, self-orientalism, qualitative research, stereotypes, film tropes”

“But, he’s so serious”:  Framing of masculinity among western hemisphere Indigenous Disney animated characters • Tim Luisi, University of Missouri • To date there has been only limited research examining indigenous characters in children’s media. Stereotyping or omission of underrepresented groups contributes to symbolic annihilation of underrepresented groups. Through a qualitative textual design, the researcher explored how western hemisphere Indigenous masculinity was framed in five Disney animated films. Although the characters had several positive traits, the researcher found that previous Indigenous stereotypes were upheld and that the characters had limited character growth across the films.

The Role of Narratives on the Enjoyment and Appreciation of Popular Music • Nikki McClaran, Michigan State University; Joseph Steinhardt, Michigan State University • Narratives have been found to influence enjoyment and appreciation of entertainment media, yet little research has explored narrative’s influence on popular music. Two experiments were conducted to test whether narratives about recording artists influence subsequent enjoyment and appreciation of a song, and what the role affective disposition may play. This exploratory study provides evidence that narratives positively influence enjoyment and appreciation of a song, and that the effect is mediated by affective disposition.

Out in Play: Openly Gay Athletes Navigate Media, Celebrity and Fandom • Leigh Moscowitz, University of South Carolina; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama • Featuring in-depth interviews with collegiate out-athletes in American team sports along with high-profile former professional athletes from the NFL, MLB and NBA, this project builds on the narratives of young out athletes to interrogate how their coming out experiences are shaped, transmitted and received through pervasive, powerful, albeit imperfect commercial media forms. This project critically examines where the young openly gay athlete is situated once they step into the media spotlight, advancing scholarly understandings of youth, sport and celebrity.

The “Ellen” Agenda: How One Entertainer’s Twitter Account  Provides Content and Sources for Mainstream News • Jane O’Boyle, Elon University; Alex Luchsinger, Elon University • This qualitative content analysis examines news produced from Ellen DeGeneres’Twitter feed. Results show that, in 2016, network TV news shows at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox aired 251 excerpts from DeGeneres’ Twitter stories, and Ellen’s posts were featured 1,291 times on local TV news and their websites, regardless of whether they carried her syndicated talk show, and in 298 print newspapers, including The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.  Implications are discussed.

College Women’s Alcohol Refusal Beliefs and Perceptions of Refusal Scripts in Popular Television • Nicole O’Donnell, Virginia Commonwealth University; Stacey Hust; Stephanie Gibbons; Soojung Kang, Washington State University • This paper explores college women’s outcome evaluations, normative beliefs, and efficacy beliefs associated with alcohol refusal and portrayals of alcohol refusal on popular television shows. Data from four focus groups (N=37) revealed that college women hold competing positive and negative alcohol refusal beliefs. Themes identified suggest that individuals use proactive strategies to facilitate alcohol refusal, such as pre-planning refusal and recognizing and adhering to previously established limits. However, individuals cited direct and indirect social pressure, gender dynamics, and friend-group dynamics as inhibitors of alcohol refusal. Participants expressed that mass media rarely depict alcohol refusal, and current representations portray refusal as negative social behavior. These findings imply that there is an opportunity for mass media to frame alcohol refusal as a healthy behavior, and health practitioners may consider using an entertainment-education approach to reinforce positive alcohol refusal beliefs.

Playing Doctor on TV: Physician Portrayals and Interactions on Medical Drama, Comedy, and Reality Shows • David Painter, Rollins College; Alison Kubala, Rollins College; Sarah Parsloe, Rollins College • This investigation compares physician portrayals, behaviors, and patient-centered communication on a medical drama, comedy, and reality show. Specifically, we analyzed 1,353 scenes from Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs, and New York Med, and the results indicate television physician doctors’ demographic characteristics and interactions differed significantly across shows. Since this study is the first to consider a medical comedy and to analyze programs by scene, the results provide important implications for parsing television physician portrayals by genre

What does it mean to be a woman in “indie” game storytelling?  Narrative Framing in Independently-Developed Video Games • Mimi Perreault; Andrea Suarez, Appalachian State University; Gregory Perreault, Appalachian State University • Video games have long held a spotty history in their narratives regarding women. Most research has examined large budget games and identified issues of simplification, oversexualization and a general lack of agency among female characters. The present study looks at the gaming niche of “indie”–or independent game developer–video games in their representations of women, and in particular at Never Alone, Gone Home, and Her Story. This paper argues that these game narratives emphasized multilayered female characterizations, female-to-female interactions, and internal dramas as a way to potentially reach female gamers and present an alternative narrative on women.

Who loves the Biblical Epic? A mixed-method analysis of online community perception of epic Biblical movies • Gregory Perreault, Appalachian State University; Thomas Mueller, Appalachian State University • “In recent years, high profile Biblically-oriented movies have sought to find an audience in America. This approach is reasonable in that 70.6 percent of Americans identify with some denomination of Christianity (America’s Changing, 2015). Yet, how Christianity motivates those Americans, and more specifically, whether it motivates them to watch a Biblical epic movie remains a question.

This research reports on a survey of active participants on religiously-oriented Reddit threads. Prior research has shown that participants in online communities tend to be more enthusiastic and more invested on a given topic than non-participants (Duggan & Smith, 2013). We would like to assess the degree to which different religious groups feel motivated to attend Biblical epics and how religiosity predicts attendance at Biblical epic movies. Survey questions will be largely quantitative but some qualitative questions will be asked in order to provide context for the findings as per Creswell’s (2013) explanatory model.

Such research theoretically contributes to the understanding of the audience for Biblical epics and more broadly contributes to our understanding of the religious motivations for media consumption. More practically, understanding the audience for Biblical epics could help media producers understand the boundaries of their audience and the preferences of their audience.”

Reading between the lines:  A content analysis of vinyl records’ run-out groove etchings • Waleed Rashidi, California State University, Fullerton • The “Easter egg” phenomenon exists in various formats of digital entertainment media, including DVDs, computer applications and video games. However, such “Easter egg” content can also be attributed to analog formats, including vinyl records. This study examines messages etched into run-out grooves of rock music vinyl records. The author argues that music media often provides multi-layered messaging, including album artwork, photography, artist statements and lyrics, and that the run-out groove message is an additional layer of messaging not commonly examined, largely due to difficulty in being noticed. Of the 616 7-inch vinyl records by 1990s independent and alternative rock artists examined, 136 featured custom message etchings. Seven categories emerged, including artist reference, release reference, song reference, label reference, listener reference, and media reference. Messages referenced the artists’ themselves, the record itself, the record’s songs, the label releasing the record, the record’s audience, and other media (e.g., books, television, film). A majority of messages reviewed (52.9%) were unable to be placed into the aforementioned categories, and were instead categorized as unknown references. Ways in which messages were presented, coupled with types of messages etched, echoed characteristics of “Easter eggs.” With recent upticks of analog music media sales, musicians may have opportunities for additional messaging via such etchings, providing a novel, idiosyncratic view of mediated communications that many audiences may not know even exists, and offering additional consideration to how media producers—artists and record companies—deliver messages to their publics.

Learning politics from political films: Exploring the effects of fictional political entertainment • Azmat Rasul, Valdosta State University • This study examined the effects of entertainment narratives on political knowledge gain and attitude change in audiences of fictionalized accounts of female politicians. Data from 310 participants indicated that political knowledge significantly increased and general attitudes about female politicians became more positive after exposure to biographical political movies. A proposed model of the political entertainment effects process indicated that initial political knowledge transported the audience into the biographical narrative. Increased transportation was associated with greater enjoyment, as well as political knowledge gain and more positive attitudes towards female politicians. The study also highlights implications of results and directions for future research.

Binge-watching: Social and Psychological Factors Behind Audience’s Binging Behavior • CHUN SHAO, Arizona State University; Paisley M. Benaza, Arizona State University • Various streaming media platforms and Internet entertainment services have dramatically changed the way audiences consume media content. Interactive media technologies also provide individuals with more control over their media consumption. Although binge-watching is now considered “the new normal”, the underlying motives behind it deserve more scholarly attention. By integrating constructs from various theoretical bases into a single framework, the study introduces a structural model that explained the underlying factors behind audience binge-watching behaviors. The results from an online survey (N = 208) demonstrated that enjoyment, easy accessibility to content, and social recommendation were the most salient factors for audiences to binge-watch. Moreover, the results revealed that perceived control has indirect effects on behavioral intention, mediated by enjoyment and perceived easy accessibility to content. This study provides an empirical overview of why individuals are motivated to binge-watch streaming media content, and explores how demographic variables are related to audiences binge-watching behavior.

In the Dark but Not Alone: The Fear of Missing Out, Social Capital, and Social Gratifications of Moviegoing • Alec Tefertiller, Kansas State University; Lindsey Maxwell, University of Southern Mississippi; David Morris II, University of Oregon • The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of participation in social media networks on cinematic movie attendance decision-making, with particular attention paid to the fear-of-missing-out (FoMO) and social capital. Using a national survey (N = 472), it was determined that the social utility of a movie was a better predictor of movie attendance than FoMO or social capital. However, both bridging social capital and FoMo are predictors of social sharing.

Certified Fresh: Rotten Tomatoes, Gratifications, and Motivations for Cinema Attendance • Alec Tefertiller, Kansas State University; Lindsey Maxwell, University of Southern Mississippi • Critic aggregate scores from the popular website Rotten Tomatoes have been blamed for the success and failure of recent Hollywood blockbusters. Using an online experiment (N = 469) examining four different films released within a two-week period, this study found that the presence of Rotten Tomatoes scores did not influence consumer decisions to see a film during its theatrical release. However, expectations of meaningful experiences and their communication utility best predicted theatrical attendance.

Pervasive Pokémon: Location-Based Augmented Reality Game Enjoyment and  Place Attachment • Shaojung Sharon Wang, National Sun Yat-sen University; Chih-Ting Hsieh • This study explores the complexity of the connection between Pokémon Go play experience and players’ affection towards their physical surroundings from the environmental psychology and the media entertainment perspectives. A stratified sampling method was conducted and a total of 1172 respondents participated to take the online survey. The results showed that simulational realism, freedom of choice, integrated presence, and perceptual pervasiveness all positively influenced game enjoyment. It also found that co-presence positively predicted game enjoyment while perceived crowding was negatively related to game enjoyment. Game involvement partially mediated the relationship between co-presence and game enjoyment and game involvement also mediated the relationship between game enjoyment and place attachment. Theoretical implications on linking physical places to virtual world are also discussed.

Binge-Watching as a Predictor of Narrative Transportation • Stephen Warren, UMass Amherst • This study explores the changing state of television by measuring binge-watching and its association with narrative transportation using longitudinal data.  Hierarchical Linear Modeling found that binge-watching had a positive logarithmic association with transportation – the power lessens as binge-watching rate increases.  Further, one’s typical binge frequency weakened the relationship between viewing session length and transportation.  Overall, more frequent binge-watching reduces its effect power on transportation.  Implications for theory and industry are also discussed.

Forever foolish? A content analysis of depictions of fathers in U.S. sitcoms • Stephen Warren, UMass Amherst; Eean Grimshaw; Gichuhi Kamau, UMass Amherst; Menno H. Reijven, University of Massachusetts Amherst; congcong zhang • This study examines the depictions of fathers in U.S. family-oriented television sitcoms, in relation to the father character being the teller or target of disparagement humor. In “real world” families over the last few decades, the roles and values assigned to fathers as well as the composition of how families are constituted have shifted in response to changing gender and family dynamics. This content analysis explores if and how these changes are reflected in media by looking at a sample of 578 scenes within 35 of the top-rated sitcoms featuring families from 1980 through 2017. Our findings suggest that sitcom fathers have largely remained foolish over time, with a slight decrease in foolish portrayals since the 1990’s. Yet, fathers have increased in being the butt of the joke as told by other characters. It seems that the most recent U.S. sitcom fathers continue to tell their fair share of disparaging jokes at the expense of other characters while simultaneously slightly appearing less foolish than they had in the past, overall. Dynamics of class, gender, and race among sitcom families as well as variables pertaining to how often sitcom fathers are shown engaging in parenting interactions are also discussed.

Down With the Clown: Taste, Class and Protest in American Journalistic Coverage of Juggalos • Kelsey Whipple, University of Texas at Austin • This research examines depictions of poor taste and low class in journalistic portrayals of juggalos through the lens of two 2017 events: the Juggalo March on Washington and the Gathering of the Juggalos. Through a multimodal analysis of text, images and their synergistic connections, this research analyzes the main themes and the differences between American music and news coverage to understand how the fan community is situated on a social hierarchy within American media coverage.

Gossip at one’s fingertips: Influential factors of celebrity news on Twitter • Yan Yan; Wanjiang Zhang • The present study collected 2223 tweets of news by the Twitter account of People Magazine about the Top 100 celebrities during the year 2016. The content analysis method was used to collect data on celebrity attributes and news features, and the social network analysis method was used to collect and analyze data on the relationships between celebrities and news topics. Results indicated that news agendas and audiences’ responses were highly different. News coverage was primarily determined by news features, yet audiences care about only about big stars. Regular topics centered the themes of celebrity news. The celebrity-by-topic network was theme-driven rather than human-driven, demonstrating the nature of the celebrity industry as embodiment of the capitalist society.

Measuring Virtual Reality Engagement: Survey and Electroencephalography (EEG) • Gi Woong Yun, University of Nevada, Reno; Claire Youngnyo Joa, Louisiana State University Shreveport; Daiwon Hyun; Sooyoung Lee; Hongsuk Kim; Sanghee Park; Sasha Allgayer, Bowling Green State University • This research tapped into the area of research connecting Virtual Reality (VR) and mobile EEG measurement tool.  A two by two experimental design using both repeated measures (exciting VR content vs. experiential VR content) and between subject stimulus (social vs. no social) was implemented and the effects were measured with a mobile EEG tool, Emotiv EPOC, and post-test surveys.  The mobile EEG tool was able to detect stimulus content showing increased brain activities in T7 temporal cortex and two frontal lobe, F7 and FC5, areas. However, social interaction stimulus did not make a difference in EEG measurements and showed no interaction effect. The research framework developed in this research can be adopted in the areas of research on contemporary VR production, audience research, content regulation, game development, and many other areas.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Visual Communication 2018 Abstracts

From Reel Life to Real Change: The Role of Social-Issue Documentary in U.S. Public Policy • Caty Borum Chattoo, American University School of Communication and Center for Media & Social Impact; Will Jenkins • This study examines three digital-era U.S. documentary films – Sin by Silence (2009), Playground (2009), and Semper Fi (2011) – to reveal cultural and narrative elements of influence that underscored their successful U.S. policy engagement on federal and state levels. Expanding the coalition model of documentary’s political impact (Whiteman, 2004) through case studies constructed by interviews with the collaborating policymakers, policy advocates and film directors, this study finds that social-issue documentaries may be influential for policy engagement because their narratives are perceived as emotional, factual, and nonpartisan. Documentary narrative is positioned as “situated knowledge” (Epstein, Farina & Heidt, 2014), narrative that presents human implications and lived experiences within the policymaking context. Ultimately, the policy impact of these three social-issue documentary films can be attributed to the dual defining characteristics of documentary as a visual mediated storytelling genre: both creative artistic expression and reflection of truth.

Giving Guidance to Graphs: Evaluating Direct and Indirect Annotations of Data Visualizations for the News • Russell Chun, Hofstra University • This study quantifies the effectiveness of information recall with direct and indirect labeling of the annotation layer in a news data visualization. Three variations of a New York Times graphic were presented to participants in a crowd-sourced experiment to measure their story comprehension. Our results demonstrate that direct labeling offers no advantage over indirect labeling. More significantly, annotations on visualizations do no better to enhance comprehension than visualizations without them, contradicting data visualization orthodoxy.

“This is still their lives:” Photojournalists’ ethical approach to capturing and publishing graphic/shocking images • Kaitlin Bane, University of Oregon; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon • Graphic and gut-wrenching images of death, violence, and the aftermath of pain fill our news media. This paper uses in-depth interviews with photojournalists to explore fundamental ethical questions about the decision-making process and ethical considerations involved in photographing and publishing such images. Research found participants utilize an ethic of care and focus on subjects when taking pictures, and consider audience effects only tangentially. Additionally, they maintain that images can create positive change, but not always.

To tone or not to tone: A hierarchy of influences examination of photojournalistic image manipulation • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado Boulder; Ross Taylor, U of Colorado-Boulder • This study investigates how professional photojournalists apply toning ethics in their news routines and whether those ethics vary by organization. Utilizing data collected from in-depth interviews with professional photojournalists and a hierarchy of influences framework, we found that while some ethical decisions are embedded in photojournalists’ news routines, these do vary greatly by organization. These findings illustrate how journalistic norms could be potentially changing and that individual news organizations are applying ethics differently.

Recoding Language with Fatty Memes: How Chinese Netizens Avoid Censorship When Referring to North Korea • Bingbing Zhang, Texas Tech University; Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; David Perlmutter, Texas Tech University • Memes are humorous images, often featuring captions with superimposed text, that are shared online. In an effort to avoid censorship, Chinese netizens strategically use memes to discuss political issues. This study content analyzes memes that feature an image or likeness of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un posted by Chinese social media users on the Weibo platform. Results highlight how politically astute, tech-savvy publics can express political dissent, even in a high-censorship online environment.

Capturing the Crisis: A Content Analysis of News Photographs of the Syrian Refugee Crisis • Tamar Gregorian, The University of Southern Mississippi; Elizabeth Radley • The Syrian refugee crisis, the largest migration of displaced persons in recent history, has been widely documented through photographs. In an attempt to understand the media frames and tones that the media used in covering the crisis through photographs of the refugees, the researchers conducted a content analysis of 629 photographs and captions from The New York Times and The Washington Post from May 2014 – May 2016. Results indicate that the majority of the photographs containing Syrian refugees had a negative tone, a main message of migration, and stereotyped the refugees as victims.

Mobile Augmented Reality through the Lens of Eye Tracking • Sheree Josephson, Weber State University; Melina Myers, Weber State University • This eye-tracking study compared the usability of Yelp’s Augmented Reality app with its familiar map-based app. Results showed AR users could successfully find a destination using the location-based technology that augments a display of the physical landscape with digital information. However, AR users took longer to find the location. They also spent more time looking at the mobile screen and looked back and forth between the screen and the environment more often than map users.

Effects of Playfulness on SNS Emoji Uses • Yeon Joo Kim; Jaehee Park; Jong Woo Jun, Dankook University • This research tries to verify, from a marketing strategy perspective, various purchasing motivations and factors affecting the purchase of special emoji graphics and explore the relationship between these purchase motivations and psychological factors, including playfulness that contribute to emoji purchases. For this study, Kakao which is the number one SNS service in Korea was selected as a research target and examined relationships among four latent constructs: Self-presentation, symbolic values, playfulness, and purchase intentions. The results illustrated that self-presentation influenced symbolic values, and self-presentation is positively related with playfulness. Symbolic values influenced playfulness, which in turn lead to purchase intentions of the characters. Direct relationships between symbolic values and purchase intentions were also found.

All About the Visuals: Image Framing, Emoticons and Sharing Intention for Health News Posts on Facebook • Yen-I Lee, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georiga; Katherine Keib, Oglethorpe University; Brittany Jefferson, University of Georgia; Jennifer Malson, University of Georgia; Hyoyeun Jun, University of Georgia • Responding to calls for research on effects of visual communication in the cognitive processing of health information, a 2 (visual framing: gain/loss) x 2 (personal relevance of topic: high/low) x 2 (emoticon valence: positive/negative) mixed-factorial eye-tracking experiment tested effects of photographic images (gain-or-loss framed) and visual sentiment displays (emoticons) on sharing of health news posts. Negative emoticons led to greater sharing intent, while image framing shaped perceptions of disease severity and susceptibility.

Who Can Be Put at Risk by “Virtual Makeovers”?: Self-Photo Editing, Disordered Eating, and the Role of Mindset among Adult Female Instagram Users • Roselyn Lee-Won, The Ohio State University; Dingyu Hu, The Ohio State University; Yeon Kyoung Joo, Myongji University; Sung Gwan Park, Seoul National University • We investigated the relationship between self-photo editing on Instagram and disordered eating among adult females. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with U.S. female Instagram users (N = 382). Results showed that more frequent self-photo editing was associated with greater rumination about eating, weight, and shape, which in turn was associated with disordered eating. Furthermore, a moderated mediation analysis revealed that the mediation was significant among those with moderate and high levels of fixed mindset.

Social beautifying: How personality traits and social comparison affect selfie-editing behavior • Yu Liu, Florida International University; Weirui Wang • Individual users worldwide purposefully and selectively edit their selfies and post their photos on social networking sites. Based on social comparison framework, this study examines how personality traits affect individuals’ selfie-editing behavior through social comparison process: downward identification, downward contrast, upward identification, and upward contrast. The findings suggest individuals with high public self-consciousness, low self-esteem, and high neuroticism tend to engage in different types of social comparison, which are associated with their selfie-editing behavior.

Two days, twenty outfits: Coachella attendees’ visual presentation of self and experience on Instagram • Kyser Lough, The University of Texas at Austin • This study uses visual discourse analysis to study how people utilize social media and photography at events such as a music festival, theoretically guided by how technological affordances allow for a new way of presentation of self. Analysis of 200 Instagram posts from attendees at the 2017 Coachella music festival reveals they care less about sharing photos of the concerts and more about curating a sense of taste, sense of embrace and sense of place.

Celebrating Life or Adversity? The Redefinition of Features in the Pictures of the Year International Contest • Jennifer Midberry; Ryan N. Comfort, Indiana University Bloomington; Joseph Roskos, Indiana University-Bloomington • “Photojournalism contests have been criticized for continually awarding top prizes in hard news categories to images that depict conflict, disaster, poverty, and other problems. Pictures like these, which have a social issues visual frame, usually focus on people from countries other than the United States and on minorities. Some photojournalism contests, like Pictures of the Year International (POYi), include a features category. Traditionally, feature photos capture

humorous, tender, or picturesque moments of everyday life, and their purpose is to celebrate the human condition. The feature photo category should theoretically be an area in photojournalism contests that breaks from the pattern of emphasizing social issues. However, in recent years of POYi the features category appears to also be dominated by images that stress hardship. To investigate whether this represents an increasing trend in POYi of awarding prizes to pictures that focus on social issues, a content analysis of the winning photographs from the past twenty years was conducted. Understanding whether the feature category in POYi has evolved is important because when it comes to shaping discourses about social issues, national identities, ethnicity and race, feature photos have the potential for emphasizing commonality. If the newsworthiness of feature photos starts to become tied to similar criteria as hard news photos, that potential will be diminished.”

Internet memes and copyright law: The transformativeness of memes as tools of visual communication in remix culture • Natalia Mielczarek; W. Wat Hopkins • Internet memes have become popular artifacts of visual communication in digital culture. They are, by definition, reiterative as they remix already existing content to produce new rhetorical statements. This interdisciplinary study explores the legal implications of such “produsage” vis-à-vis the U.S. copyright law. With the help of legal research and theoretical framework of remix culture and memetics, the study shows how and why memes deserve legal protection as transformative work.

Reinvestigating the Beauty Match Up in Food Ads • Juan Mundel, DePaul University; Patricia Huddleston, Michigan State University • In two studies, we explore how males evaluate models of different body sizes in snack and fast food ads, and the effects of the pairing of different models with products perceived to be healthy (vs. unhealthy) on participants’ evaluations of the the product, the ad, and purchase intentions. Overall, participants had better evaluations of the ads when presented with unhealthy foods and models with idealized bodies.

The Visual Framing of Immigrants and Refugees in U.S. News: Content and Effects • Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama; Jennifer Hoewe, Purdue University; Minghui Fan, The University of Alabama; Keith Huffman, The University of Alabama • This research examines the visual framing of immigrants and refugees by U.S. news outlets and its effects on news consumers. In Study 1, coders examined the photographs used in stories about immigrants and refugees that were shared on Twitter by regional news outlets in each of the 50 states. Stories most often contained one of two visual foci: a human interest frame, featuring immigrants and refugees as everyday people; or a political frame, showcasing politicians. In an experiment, Study 2 determined the equivalency framing effects of these visuals on participants’ emotions and, in turn, their attitudes toward immigrants and refugees. Exposure to a human interest visual frame predicted more positive emotional responses, leading to greater support for immigrants and refugees. Conversely, exposure to a political visual frame predicted more negative emotional responses and then less support for immigrants and refugees.

Profile Pictures Across Platforms: How identity visually manifests itself among social media communities • T.J. Thomson, Missouri School of Journalism; Keith Greenwood, University of Missouri • A profile picture is a ubiquitous and salient part of almost any online account and provides a window not only into the individual user but also to the larger online community’s culture. Profile pictures have been called “one of the most telling pieces of self-disclosure or image construction” in online communities and users face dizzying freedom when deciding on their selection. Such choices have been studied in discrete contexts, such as how personality type affects profile picture selection on Twitter, but they have not yet been studied across platforms to see whether the same photo is used across multiple sites or whether users select different photos for different communities and what such differences or similarities reveal both about the users and about the communities from which they originate. Informed by literature in social psychology and self-representation, this study offers a seminal look into how profile pictures differ across platforms and how user personality and perceived audience affect such decisions. It does so through a three-pronged approach of personality assessment, textual analysis, and in-depth interview. The findings reveal that the younger users sampled in this study overwhelmingly prefer polychromatic images and a majority preferred to have a unique picture on each platform. These same users are comfortable having their identifiable features in their profile pictures and those who are more extroverted preferred to share the frame with someone else. In many ways, the users in the sample rejected artifice for authenticity in terms of their profile pictures’ form, content, and the the way they were processed, if at all, in post-production.

Analysis of Photographic Representation of Refugees in France • Anna Warner, Biola University; Tamara Welter, Biola university; Jason Brunt, Biola University • This research investigates the photographic representation by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) of Middle Eastern refugees seeking asylum in France. The objective is to determine how refugees were represented to audiences and whether that depiction changed in the wake of the November 2015 Paris Suicide Attacks. Analysis shows that refugees were represented differently after the attacks, in a way that aligned more closely with French collectivism than before.

Feminine, Competent, Submissive: A Multimodal Analysis of Depictions of Women in U.S. Wartime Persuasive Messages • Easton Wollney, University of Florida; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication • This analysis used Peirce’s triadic approach to interpret 58 public depictions of wartime women from 1914 to 1918 and from 1941 to 1946. The images appeared in government posters or as ads and illustrations in U.S. magazines and newspapers. Aligned in five thematic clusters, many invited polysemy through discrepant visual and verbal cues aimed at different audiences. Women as viewers and as objects of representation were addressed in the context of both citizenship and consumption.

It Costs a Lot to Look This Cheap: Preference for Low Quality Graphic Design • Shannon Zenner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Some 1000 surveys were conducted on Amazon’s MTurk, asking respondents to rate a high and low-quality visual design, in this case, a billboard ad. While most respondents preferred the high-quality ad, over a third opted for the low-quality design. The qualities they described liking in the ad differed from those respondents who preferred the high-quality design. Age also played a role in preference. Implications for many different types of visual communication are discussed.

Effects of Visual Theme and View Perspective on Visual Attention and Brand Constructions: An Eye-Tracking Study on Instagram Posts • Lijie Zhou, Southern Utah University; Fei Xue, The University of Southern Miss • This eye-tracking study examined the effects of visual theme and view perspective on Instagram users’ visual attention. It also explored whether visual attention influenced brand attitude and recognition. Results showed that participants spent the longest time viewing and paid the most attention to customer-centric images with a first-person view perspective. When in a third-person view, product-centric images received the longest fixation duration and most fixation frequency. It was also found that brand recognition was positively influenced by fixation frequency but not by fixation duration.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Public Relations 2018 Abstracts

Doug Newsom Award for Global Ethics Global Diversity
Julia Daisy Fraustino, West Virginia University; Sang (Sammy) Lee, West Virginia University; Ji Young Lee, WVU Public Interest Communication Research Lab • Being Bad Abroad: Effects of Stealing Thunder by Self-Disclosing Corporate FCPA Violations • Tensions between legal counsel and pubic relations counsel, especially during crises, are well established. For example, legal and PR professionals might find themselves at odds when an organization learns of its officials’ possible global ethics violations. Publics relations crisis best practices urge for quick, accurate, and full disclosure with publics; and the US government may require reporting; but legal and business teams may hesitate and request organizational silence, fearing image and financial concerns. Thus, this study seeks to investigate the public relations outcomes of voluntary disclosure to publics and the US government regarding corporate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. Primarily using the situational crisis communication theory and stealing thunder frameworks, this work offers a moderated serial mediation model of the effects of stealing thunder (i.e., self-disclosing crisis information first before a third party breaks the news). A 2 (stealing/thunder: organization vs. media) x 2 (corporate social responsibility history: CSR vs. no CSR) experiment probes participants’ responses. Results indicate a significant mediation effect of stealing thunder x CSR history on (a) attitudes toward the company, (b) perceived company ethics, and (c) investment intentions serially through perceived crisis severity and level of anger. Ultimately, results practically provide evidence to support legal teams joining PR teams for a transparent and perhaps more ethical approach to communicating about FCPA violations—while theoretically adding to SCCT and crisis communication literature by advancing knowledge about the mechanisms driving the scarcely researched but meaningful effects of stealing thunder in a global ethics context.

Open Competition
Alan Abitbol, University of Dayton; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication • Championing Women’s Empowerment as a Catalyst for Purchase Intentions: Testing the Mediating Roles of OPRs and Brand Loyalty in the Context of Femvertising • This survey of U.S. adults (N = 419) examines company–cause fit, CSR association, purchase intention, organization-public relationships, and loyalty for four Fortune 500 companies in the context of messages that portray girls and women positively through empowering words and imagery. Results show consumers believe the women-empowerment messages fit with the tested companies. Company loyalty, by itself, or combined with OPRs, mediates the CSR association–purchase intention relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; Peter Bobkowski, University of Kansas; George Diepenbrock, University of Kansas; Patrick Miller • Research exposure: Associations between university news release features, news coverage, and page views • This study identified the features of a university’s news releases about faculty research and expertise that were related to news coverage of the university, and to unique page views on the university’s website. More than 800 news releases generated by one university’s news affairs office over nearly two years were examined. News release subjects (i.e., social sciences, arts and humanities), and the use of adverbs and distribution tools, were related consistently to news release effectiveness. Labeling the news release as an advisory, headline length, and the use of a video were not related to news release effectiveness.

Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University; Xiaochen Zhang, Kansas State University • Ultimate Crisis? An Examination of Linguistics and Ultimate Attribution Error in International Organizational Crisis • Through an experiment, this paper examines linguistics and ultimate attribution error in international organizational crisis. Findings suggest that attribution error exists when additional attribution information is minimal (e.g., low attribution victim crisis). Crisis attribution (crisis clusters) directly affects publics’ use of abstract language in describing and commenting on the social media crisis news. Results empirically test and apply two attribution-based theories, Linguistic Categorization Model and Ultimate Attribution Error, in international organizational crisis contexts.

Nicholas Browning, Indiana University; Sung-Un Yang, Indiana University; Young Eun Park, Indiana University; Ejae Lee, Indiana University; Taeyoung Kim, Indiana University • Do Ethics Matter? Investigating Donor Responses to Primary and Tertiary Ethical Violations • Using 2 x 2 experimental survey, the researchers examined how frequently committed (single vs. repeated occurrence) ethical misconduct regarding values closely aligned to an organizational mission (primary vs. tertiary values) affect stakeholders’ attitudes toward, support of, and relationship with an offending nonprofit. Findings showed negative main effects on attitudes toward the organization and donation intention. Additionally, perceived organizational responsibility for ethical misconduct and deteriorating organizational-public relationships (OPRs) significantly mediated the effects of primary ethical violations.

Zifei Chen, University of San Francisco • Examining the Impact of Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Consumer Responses toward Company: An Alignment-Social Influence Model • An Alignment-Social Influence Model is proposed to examine the impact of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) by addressing its alignment with prior corporate associations and anticipated interaction on social media. Through a 2 (associations) x 2 (valence) x 2 (interaction: lurker vs. poster) experiment, three-way interactions showed lurkers who saw aligned negative eWOM had greater attitude shift than lurkers who saw nonaligned negative eWOM; no such difference was found for posters. Positive eWOM helped maintain positive attitude.

Ying Xiong, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee; Brandon Boatwright • Hashtag Activism and Message Frames Among Social Movement Organizations:  Semantic Network Analysis and Thematic Analysis of Twitter During the #MeToo Movement • In the recent #MeToo movement, social movement organizations (SMOs) establish an emotional bridge between the target public and the appeal for feminism. Applying both semantic network analysis method and thematic analysis, this study explored how SMOs address feminist activism and they use hashtags to participate in the #MeToo movement. Findings of the study enhance literature of social movement organizations and activism as well as provide practical implications for effective social movement.

Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Soo-Yeon Kim, Sogang University • Strategic Value of Conflict, Activism, and Two-way Communication: Examination of Activists’ Public Relations • This study investigated the relationships between activists’ perceptions of conflict, activism, and two-way symmetrical communication, and their use of public relations tactics, by surveying activists in Korea. Two conflict subdimensions, conflict and mediation approach, had significantly positive relationships with activism perception. Conflict approach had a positive relationship with a few legal and informational public relations tactics. This study found that activists are more likely to focus on informational activities through two-way symmetrical communication.

Angie Chung; Kang Bok Lee • Dealing with Negative Publicity: A Dual Process Model of CSR Fit and CSR History on Purchase Intention and Negative Word-of-Mouth • This paper proposes and tests a dual process model of CSR communication. Building upon the framing theory and associative network theory, the authors examine how including statements about a company’s CSR fit and CSR history in apology statements can impact purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth. Perceived integrity, attitude towards the apology statement and attitude towards the company are the sequential mediators that will subsequently affect purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth. The results show that CSR fit will positively affect purchase intention and negatively affect negative word-of-mouth through increased perceived integrity and attitude towards the apology statement, which will positively affect their attitude towards the company. The findings also show that CSR history will positively affect purchase intention and negatively affect negative word-of-mouth through increased perceived integrity and attitude towards the apology statement, which will positively affect their attitude towards the company. For managers, the results of this study suggest that communicating a company’s CSR activities after bad publicity can help increase purchase intention and reduce negative word-of-mouth but two factors—CSR fit and CSR history—should be taken into account.

Hue Duong, University of Georgia; Hong Vu; Nhung Nguyen • Grassroots Social Movements in Authoritarian Settings: Examining Activists’ Strategic Communication and Issues Management • Triangulating 16 in-depth interviews with activists and campaign participants, news coverage, and social media content related to the campaign “6,700 people for 6,700 trees”, this study identifies activists’ strategic communication and its influence on a public protest in Vietnam. Results indicate that activists strategically used social media and interpersonal communication to advance an issue to the public arena. Activists’ unique strategies were key to the protest’s success. This study offers meaningful theoretical implications on issues management and practical lessons for activists on how to apply these strategies to foster social change.

Savannah Coco, Wayne State University; Stine Eckert • #sponsored: Consumer Insights on Social Media Influencer Marketing • Through in-depth interviews with 15 women, this study begins to fill the gap in scholarship on consumer perceptions of sponsored content posted by social influencers online. Findings show women follow social influencers because of prior topic interests, when they can relate to them, and find them authentic. But social exchange and relationship management theories cannot account for purchasing decisions despite negative views of consumers. We argue for a new theory called Influencer Relationship Management Theory.

Virginia Harrison; Michail Vafeiadis, Auburn University; Pratiti Diddi; Jeff Conlin • What about Our Cause? The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Nonprofit Reputation • While research has shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can boost a corporation’s reputation, little is known about how CSR impacts the nonprofit partner’s reputation. An online experiment tested how corporate reputation (high vs. low) and CSR message credibility influenced a high-reputation environmental nonprofit. While credibility and corporate reputation increased the nonprofit’s reputation, only the partnership with a low-reputation corporation increased supportive intention toward the CSR initiative. Implications for nonprofit CSR messaging are discussed.

Seoyeon Hong, Rowan University; Kyujin Shim, University of Melbourne • ETHICAL PUBLIC TYPOLOGY: How Does Moral Foundation Theory and Anti-Corporatism Predict Public Differences in Crisis? • This study proposes a new public typology utilizing Moral Foundation Theory and anti-corporatism. Based on a survey using population representative data (N = 1124), four ethical public types are classified as moralists, antagonists, optimists, and pragmatists. In testing the applicability of the new typology, our results suggest that ethical public types react differently in attributing crisis responsibility, expressing their emotional responses, and showing boycott intentions in evaluating a corporate crisis.

Hyun Ju Jeong, University of Kentucky • The roles of self-identity cues and public self-consciousness in supporting stigmatized causes on social media • The current study examines whether and when socially stigmatized cause (e.g., prochoice) campaigns can fuel the volunteering intention of young people through effective communication on social media. A 2 (self-identify cues: group vs individual) x 2 (public self-consciousness: high vs low) online experiment study found that the group-cues were more effective in generating the intention to volunteer than the individual-cues, in particular for those low in public self-consciousness. For those high in public self-consciousness, however, the intention to volunteer was not differently shaped by the type of self-identity cues soliciting the causes. Public self-consciousness negatively influenced the intention to volunteer. Theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.

Jeesun Kim, Incheon National University; Hyun Jee Oh, Hong Kong Baptist University; Chang-Dae Ham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • Leadership Matters: The Role of Values Congruence between Leadership Styles and CSR Practice in Corporate Crises • Studies have examined the role of CSR in the crisis context; but no studies examined the role of values congruence between leadership styles and CSR practice. We aim to fill this gap by conducting a 2 (crisis type) x 2 (leadership style) x 2 (CSR motive) between-subjects experiment. We found that insulating effects of CSR practice were maximized when leadership styles and CSR motives were congruent, but only when a victim crisis occurred. Implications are discussed.

Arunima Krishna, Boston University • Climate Change Lacuna Publics: Advancing a Typology of Climate Change Disinformation Susceptibility • The purpose of this study is to (a) identify lacuna publics about climate change, and (b) reconceptualize Maibach et al.’s (2009) Global Warming’s Six Americas segmentation into a typology of disinformation susceptibility by integrating it with Krishna’s (2017a) operationalization of lacuna publics. Surveys were conducted among American adults to understand lacuna publics’ information behaviors compared to non-lacuna publics, and to identify individuals falling within four zones of disinformation susceptibility conceptualized in this study.

Seow Ting Lee, University of Colorado Boulder • H1N1 News Releases: How Two Media Systems  Responded to a Global Health Pandemic • Pandemics, as non-linear, atypical health communication contexts characterized by high uncertainty and information scarcity, present a valuable opportunity for explicating the relationships between health authorities’ information subsidies and news coverage. This study is based on a two-country comparative analysis to examine the intersections of public relations and journalism in the U.S. and Singapore with respect to the use and influence of information subsidies in shaping news coverage of the H1N1 Influenza A pandemic. It examines framing characteristics related to episodic-thematic frames, gain- and loss-frames, and tonality and traces the development of framing devices in two public health agencies’ news releases to subsequent news stories about the 2009 H1N1 A influenza. Findings reveal parallels and differences, and salient patterns that are contextualized to assess the relationships of variants between the two distinct media systems.

Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University; Young Kim, Marquette University; Yeuseung Kim • The Co-Creation of Shared Value: What Motivates the Public to Engage with Participatory Corporate Social Responsibility Activities • The purpose of the study is to explore contextual factors—an organizational factor and four issue-related factors—that might influence the public’s intention to engage with a participatory CSR activity, based on the scholarship on organization–public relationships (OPRs) and the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS). We conducted a survey with 698 respondents living in the U.S., and we tested the model across two issues (girls’ empowerment and deforestation). The results showed that constraint recognition, involvement recognition, and a referent criterion, and OPRs were significant factors, and that OPRs and involvement recognition were the strongest predictors. Problem recognition, however, did not have significant relationships with CSR participation intention. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.

Zongchao Cathy Li, San Jose State University; Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina • The Love-Hate Dilemma: Interaction of Relationship Norms and Service Failure Severity on Consumer Responses • This study aims to investigate consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes after service failure encounters with companies they previously established good relationships with. The study argues that consumers’ decision making is guided by the conformity or violation of relationship norms, and that their subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes are further dependent on the severity of the service failure. Through a 2 (relationship norm types: exchange vs. communal) ✕2 (service failure severity: minor vs. major) between-subjects experiment, the study shows well-maintained relationships can help companies mitigate the negative impact of service failure under the minor failure condition. Such a buffering effect holds true for both communal and exchange relationships. However, the study also evidences a counterintuitive situation where communal relationships backfire and induce more negative consumer responses than exchange relationships when the severity of the service failure becomes extreme. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Wenlin Liu, U of Houston; Weiai (Wayne) Xu, University of Massachusetts • Tweeting to (Selectively) Engage: A Network Analysis of Government Organizations’ Stakeholder Management on Twitter during Hurricane Harvey • The ability to manage a multitude of stakeholder relationships has long been viewed important for effective crisis management. With stakeholder communication increasingly taking place on social media like Twitter, however, it remains less explored how organizations may selectively engage with multiple stakeholders (e.g., citizens, NGOs, media, businesses) on this networked platform, and how engagement priorities may shift dynamically across different stages of a crisis. Using stakeholder theory for crisis management, the current study examines the stakeholder engagement network on Twitter by 42 government and emergency management (EM) organizations across three stages of Hurricane Harvey. Organizational actors’ reply and mention networks were analyzed, suggesting that government and EM organizations prioritize engaging with primary stakeholders including citizen groups and peer governmental agencies during crisis, whereas secondary stakeholders like media and nonprofit organizations are more prioritized only at post-crisis stage.

Hua Jiang; Yi Luo, Montclair State University • Driving Employee Organization Engagement through CSR Communication and Employee Perceived Motives: CSR-Related Social Media Engagement and Job Engagement • Employee engagement and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been two important issues attracting an increasing amount of attention from both public relations and CSR researchers. A theory-driven model that conceptualizes employee social media engagement, job engagement, and organization engagement and explicates how they are related to CSR communication strategies and motives is still lacking. To place our study in the context of employee/internal communication and CSR communication, we proposed a strategies-motives-employee engagement model. Results from an online Qualtrics survey (n = 836) supported all our hypotheses except for the direct link between interacting CSR communication strategies and employee organization engagement. Interacting CSR communication strategies significantly predicted employees’ CSR social media engagement and job engagement. Employee perceived intrinsic CSR motives were significantly associated with all three engagement variables in our model. We conducted a two-step Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis to test all our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

Liang (Lindsay) Ma, Texas Christian University; Joshua Bentley, Texas Christian University • Understanding the Effects of CSR Message Frames and NWOM Sources on Customers’ Responses on Social Networking Sites • Negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) communication on social networking sites (SNSs) is influential to customers’ responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. This study examined how strategic framing of CSR communication can better counter the effects of online NWOM, depending on the NWOM information source. Four hundred Starbucks’ customers recruited from a Qualtrics panel participated in this 2 (strategic framing: company-centered vs. engagement-centered)  2 (NWOM source: stranger vs. friend) online experiment. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Angela Mak; Song Ao, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University • Revisiting social-mediated crisis communication model: The Lancôme regenerative crisis after Hong Kong Umbrella Movement • This paper intends to 1) identify how this case follows the regenerative crisis model, 2) explore the trends of emotions and engagement of different publics and Lancôme in the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication model, and 3) identify the roles and strategies used by social media influencers. An online content analysis revealed the interlocking connection among the involved publics. Followers’ emotional responses were not only attached to Lancôme, but also the re-framing strategies adopted by the influencers.

Menqi Liao; Angela Mak • “Comments are disabled for this video”: A heuristic approach to understanding perceived credibility of CSR messages on YouTube • Scarce research has focused on the technological aspects of social media in CSR communication. This study explored how bandwagon heuristics (more likes/dislikes) and identity heuristics (enable/disable commenting) influence the perceived source credibility assessment (trustworthiness, goodwill, and competence) on YouTube through a 2 x 2 experiment (N=108). No main effects were found separately, but an interaction effect existed towards perceived competence of the company. Implications of CSR communication research and effectiveness of using YouTube are discussed.

Brooke McKeever; Robert McKeever, University of South Carolina; Geah Pressgrove; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina • Predicting Public Support: Applying the Situational Theory of Problem Solving to Prosocial Behaviors • This study explores the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) through a survey of people (N=1,275) who supported issues they care(d) about in 2017, a year filled with social movements, natural disasters, and other important issues. Beyond finding support for the STOPS model in terms of predicting communicative action, this study found support for situational motivation influencing other behaviors, including volunteering, donating, and other forms of advocacy. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Rita Men, University of Florida; Cen April Yue, University of Florida • Creating a Positive Emotional Culture: Effect of Strategic Internal Communication and its Impact on Employee Supportive Behaviors • The study surveyed 506 employees in the United States to test the effect of strategic internal communication (i.e., corporate-level symmetrical and leadership-level responsive communications) on fostering a positive emotional culture characterized by companionate love, joy, pride, and gratitude. In addition, we tested the interplay between corporate internal communication and a positive emotional culture and its influence on positive employee behaviors, specifically, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and employee advocacy. Results indicated that symmetrical communication and responsive leadership communication cultivated a positive emotional culture in organizations. Such culture also fostered employee OCB and advocacy. Moreover, corporate symmetrical communication directly and positively influenced employee OCB. Finally, this study found that employee OCB positively affected employee advocacy. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings for public relations scholars and practitioners were discussed.

Tham Nguyen, University of Oklahoma; Robert Pritchard, U of Oklahoma • Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes from the Business Side of Student-run Public Relations and Communication Firms • Existing studies found pedagogical benefits of public relations and communication student-run firms. Yet, very little research has been done in this area. In a recent study, Bush, Haygood, and Vincent (2017) found that although interviewees placed the highest value on real-world experiences, developing soft skills, securing first jobs as well as career successes, student-run firms fell short in providing a better understanding of the business process and protocols of public relations and communication firms. This study examines the student learning outcomes from the business and financial side of student-run firms. Specifically, four research questions are proposed, including (1) To what extent are the students involved in determining services being offered?, (2) How do student-run firms approach potential clients?, (3) How do student-run firms formulate fee structure?, and (4) What business process and protocols do student-run firms teach their members? The study included an online survey, followed by interviews with firm advisors at different universities in the U.S. A preliminary report from the online survey data revealed that students mostly suggested offering multimedia/digital media services, or expanding their scope of services beyond their traditional services. Word-of-mouth and referrals were the most popular ways to recruit new clients, while sales pitches were undertaken only occasionally. Fee structures were formed depending on the firm’s business objectives and learning opportunities for students. Teaching business processes and protocols was also discussed. Theoretical implications for experiential learning theory as well as practical implications to enhance learning outcomes from the business side of student-run firms are offered.

Chuka Onwumechili • The Sun (UK) Newspaper: Strategic Audience Choice in Crisis and Reputation Repair • Organizations and individuals depend on the mass media to transmit a transgressor’s apologia to the public. However, agenda setting scholars point out that such a transgressing party (Organization or individual) is forced to depend not only in its ability to choose effective apologia strategies but also on the media to frame the apologia in ways that the party may be successful. Unfortunately, with most studies focused on transgressors who rely on media as third party, little is known of what happens when that third party (media) is the transgressor. This study on the Sun newspaper explores media as transgressor. It investigates the following: (1) how do other media react when a competing medium transgresses? and (2) how is audience reaction shaped, considering that the transgressing mass medium has direct communication line to that audience?

Jo-Yun Queenie Li, University of South Carolina; Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; nandini bhalla, University of South Carolina; Won-ki Moon, University of South Carolina; Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Nanlan Zhang, University of South Carolina • What Shapes Environmental Responsibility Perceptions? Measuring Collectivistic Orientations as a Predictor of Situational Motivations and Communicative Action • “This study investigates individuals’ cognitive, motivational, and communication responses regarding an environmental CSR issue using arguments from the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) with a cross-situational factor as an antecedent. Survey results provide empirical support for the application of the STOPS in a CSR communication context and suggest that a collectivistic orientation predicts individuals’ situational perceptions and cognitive reactions toward organizations’ environmental CSR efforts. Theoretical and practical implications for strategic communicators are discussed.”

Yufan Qin, University of Florida; Rita Men, University of Florida • Exploring Negative Peer Communication of Companies on Social Media and Its Impact on Organization-Public Relationships • This study examined whether and how the publics’ negative peer communication (NPC) about companies on social media could influence the quality of organization-public relationships through the theoretical lens of social learning theory. It also explored the sundry individual (i.e., social media dependency, tie strength) and corporate-level factors (i.e., perceived corporate reputation, public interactions with companies on social media) that could affect the publics’ engagement in NPC behavior about companies on social media. Through an online survey of 356 social media users in the U.S. who have discussed negatively about companies and brands on social media and a structural equation modeling analysis, results showed that NPC about companies on social media negatively influenced the quality of organization-public relationships. Publics who were more dependent on social media and who had stronger ties with their peers on social media tended to engage more in NPC about companies. Publics who perceived a favorable reputation of the company were less likely to engage in NPC about companies on social media. Further, perceived corporate reputation and public interactions with companies on social media positively predicted the quality of organization-public relationships.

Hyejoon Rim; Jisu Kim, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Chuqing Dong • A Cross-National Comparison of Transparency Signaling in CSR Reporting • This study examines the level of transparency signaling in CSR reports in three countries: the U.S., South Korea, and China. By analyzing 181 CSR reports from 2014 to 2017 with a computer-aided content analysis program, Diction 7.0, this study found that the three dimensions of transparency signaling – participation, substantial information, and accountability in CSR reports were varied across different countries. In CSR reports, companies in the U.S. and South Korea showed higher scores in the participation and accountability dimensions than China, while companies in China showed high scores in the substantial information dimension. In CEO letters, we discovered that the U.S. companies emphasized the participation aspects, while South Korea and China companies underscored the accountability aspect of transparency signaling. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Erin Schauster; Marlene Neill, Baylor University; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado Boulder; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University Singapore • Public relations primed: An update on practitioners’ moral reasoning, from moral development to moral maintenance • To understand how professional identity influences moral reasoning and guided by theories of moral psychology and social identity, 153 public relations practitioners working in the United States participated in an online experiment. According to the results, moral reasoning scores have remained steady since the last time they were measured in 2009. Professional associations appear to be a valuable resource for socialization as members of PRSA who, in addition to engaging in higher levels of moral reasoning than the average adult, report they have access to regular ethics training, ethics resources and mentors, and are familiar with their industry’s code of ethics. In addition, socialization in later career stages appears to incorporate aspects of maintenance rather than development, helping to sustain levels of moral reasoning. Other communication disciplines should take note of public relations’ strong commitment to ethics education and implement similar professional development opportunities.

Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University; Yang Cheng, North Carolina State University • The Relationship Exchange Theory: Organization-Public Relationship (OPR) in the Big Data Age • With the expressive behavior on social media in the big data era, public relations researchers can easily track the information flows among organizations and their publics on common issues over time. Instead of examining organization-public relationships at a static point by using experiments or surveys, this study posited the relationship exchange theory, including an issue-stance-relationship phase framework and the operational six relationship modes aiming to provide a longitudinal approach to examining the relationship dynamics among two or multiple parties. Empirically, this study presents a case study on the conflicts between McDonald’s and its activist publics. By tracking the changing stances of the organization and its publics longitudinally, results show how the relationship exchange theory can help examine the intensity and direction of OPR over time.

Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University; Hua Jiang • Dedicated to Our Work? An Employee Engagement Model in Public Relations • Engagement has emerged as an important concept in public relations scholarship. Yet a theoretically-informed model with a clear and coherent explication of the construct is still lacking. By situating our study in the internal context, we provided an updated conceptualization and operationalization of employee engagement and proposed a strategy-engagement-behavior three-step employee engagement model. Results from an employee survey (n = 568) supported our conceptual model, showing that organizational engagement strategies positively predicted employee engagement, which in turn accounted for employees’ positive and negative messaging behavior as well as their contextual performance behavior. After controlling for significant demographics variables of gender, age, organizational size, number of subordinates, and level of management position, we identified a complete mediation effect of employee engagement in our two-step structural equation modeling analysis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Melissa Dodd; Hilary Sisco, Quinnipiac University; John Brummette, Radford University; William Kennan • Developing a Measure of Social Capital for Public Relations • This research synthesizes literature in order to propose a comprehensive conceptualization of social capital as a resource- and exchange- based function of public relations that provides an ontological argument for the discipline as a whole. More than conceptualization, this research proposes and empirically tests a disciplinary-specific measure of social capital among a random sample of public relations professionals. Findings suggest some relational factors of social capital shared a significant predictive relationship with public relations outcomes.

Diana Sisson, Auburn University • Control Mutuality and Social Media Revisited: A Study of National Animal Welfare Donors • Guided by OPR, relationship management, and social media literature, this study employs an online survey panel to examine national animal welfare donors’ (n = 1,033) perceptions of control mutuality and its role in social media engagement. Findings suggest that heightened perceptions of control mutuality may have positive implications for social media engagement on a national level. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for strategy development.

Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Cheng Hong; Wanhsiu Sunny Tsai, University of Miami; Bora Yook, University of Miami • Publics’ Communication on Controversial Sociopolitical Issues: Extending the Situational Theory of Problem Solving • Capturing a unique moment within a particularly volatile political climate where various issues such as climate change, immigration, and healthcare are increasingly polarized, this survey examines the factors driving publics’s engagement and disengagement in communications on controversial sociopolitical issues. It applies and expands Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) by integrating the theoretical insights from the literature of information omission and avoidance. Results not only support the applicability of the STOPS model in explaining publics’ communication on controversial sociopolitical problems but also the viability of integrating two new behavioral outcomes of information omission and avoidance into the STOPS framework. Theoretical and strategic implications on social issue advocacy are provided.

Jiun-Yi Tsai, Northern Arizona University; Janice Sweeter, Northern Arizona University; Elizabeth Candello, Washington State University; Kirsten Bagshaw, Northern Arizona University • Examining Efficiency and Effectiveness in Online Interactions Between United States Government Agencies and Their Publics • Text-based computer-mediated communication (e.g., email) has become indispensable for U.S. state agencies to respond to requests and engage with citizens, thereby contributing to build public trust in local governments. Despite the essential role of digital communication in enhancing public engagement, there is limited understanding of how government agencies manage generic queries to maintain relationships with publics. By synthesizing chronemics research and organization-public relationship (OPR) scholarship, we introduce an original Response Engagement Index (REI) consisting of response speed, communicated commitment, and conversational voice to measure various levels of communication engagement. We conduct a field experiment encompassing emailing a request for information to 438 state agencies based in New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Rhode Island. A total of 293 organizational responses were manually analyzed to reveal the usages of engagement strategies. Results show the interactive potential of e-government communication is largely underutilized as the average scores of response engagement remain low. Human responses are less engaging than auto-reply messages, and require one-day waiting period, if not longer. Response types and gender significantly differ in response time and engagement strategies. Findings advance the OPR literature and identify best practices for government communicators to promote citizen engagement.

Michail Vafeiadis, Auburn University; Denise Bortree, Penn State University; Christen Buckley, Penn State University; Pratiti Diddi, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY; Anli Xiao • Combatting fake news: Examining the role of crisis response strategies and issue involvement in refuting misinformation on social media • The dissemination of fake news has accelerated with social media and this has important implications for both nonprofit organizations and their stakeholders alike. Hence, the current study attempts to shed light on the effectiveness of the crisis response strategies of denial and attack in addressing rumors on social media. Through an online experiment, users were first exposed to a fake news Facebook post accusing the American Red Cross of failing to protect its donors’ privacy because of an alleged data breach, and then participants were exposed to a version of the nonprofits’ rebuttal. Results show that highly involved individuals are more likely to centrally process information and develop positive supportive intentions toward the affected organization. In addition, low involvement individuals who were exposed to a denial response rather than an attack response rated fake news as less credible. Finally, the attack response was more effective for high involvement individuals (for whom privacy was important) than those with low involvement. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Rachel Deems, Moroch Partners; Jan Wicks, University of Arkansas School of Journalism & Strategic Media • Exploring Tweeting at the Top: Do Goods-Producing and Service-Producing Firms Appear to Set Different CSR Agendas on Twitter? • This exploratory content analysis examined how 33 Global 2000 companies portray corporate social responsibility (CSR) on Twitter, and whether the agenda firms appear to present varies by industry category. Goods-producing firms appear to set an environmentally-friendly agenda, tweeting about sustainable development and using interactivity to promote their agenda widely. Service-producing firms appear to set a customer-friendly agenda, tweeting about philanthropy topics affecting many people, perhaps to transfer salience to the largest number of stakeholders.

Chelsea Woods, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) • Responding to Product (Mis)Placement: Analyzing Crock-Pot’s Paracrisis Management • Social media can breed publicly visible threats, known as paracrises. In 2018, an emotional television episode sparked online chatter surrounding Crock-Pot, which effectively managed the threat, turning the event into a public relations opportunity for the brand. This case extends our knowledge of effective paracrisis management by describing how humor can be used alone or with denial, altering our perception of ‘credible’ sources during these unique threats, and introducing two new paracrisis management strategies.

Xiaohan Xu; Maria Leonora Comello, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Suman Lee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Richard Clancy • Exploring Country-of-Origin Perceptions and Ethnocentrism: Implications for PR Efforts to Introduce U.S. Dairy Products to China • American dairy producers face an unprecedented opportunity to export products to China. This study examines the influence of country-of-origin effect and ethnocentrism (COO) in purchase intentions of U.S. dairy products by conducting an online survey of 505 Chinese urban consumers.  Results suggest that purchase intentions of U.S. dairy products are positively associated with higher levels of affective and cognitive COO, as well as lower ethnocentrism.  Implications for PR efforts are discussed.

Aimei yang, University of Southern California; Yi (Grace) Ji, Virginian Commonwealth University • The Quest for Legitimacy and the Communication of Strategic Cross-Sectoral Partnership on Facebook: A Big Data, Social Network Study • Nowadays, many wicked problems such as environmental issues require organizations from multiple sectors to form cross-sectoral alliances. Cross-sectoral alliance networks can transfer resources and they can also signal affiliations and value alignment between strategic partners. The communication of cross-sectoral alliances is a form of CSR communication that serves organizations’ strategic goals and objectives. Drawing on the literature on digital CSR communication and legitimacy theory, this article examines what legitimacy needs shape the formation of cross-sectoral ties on Facebook in addressing environmental issue and sustainable development issues in the United States. Combining data-mining, text-mining, social network analysis, and exponential graph modeling, this research investigates the structure of a network among 3071 organizations across multiple sectors. Findings show that organizations’ cross-sectoral tie formation is mainly driven by social legitimacy and alliance legitimacy needs. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Su Lin Yeo, Singapore Management University; Augustine Pang, Singapore Management University; Michelle Cheong, Singapore Management University; Jerome Yeo, Singapore Management University • Emotions in Social Media: An Analysis of Tweet Responses to MH370 Search Suspension Announcement • Considered one of the deadliest incidents in the history of aviation crises and labeled a “continuing mystery”, the ongoing search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 offers no closure. With endless media attention given to the crisis and negative reactions of stakeholders to every decision made by the Airlines, this study investigates the types of emotions found in social media posted by publics to the MH370 search suspension announcement. It content analyzed 5.062 real-time tweet messages guided by the revised Integrated Crisis Mapping Model. Our findings indicated that, in addition to the four original emotions posited, there was a fifth emotion because of the long-drawn crisis and only two dominant emotions were similar to the Model. A redrawn version to better encapsulate all the emotions is offered for one quadrant in the Model. Implications for both crisis communication scholarship and the importance of social listening for organizations are discussed.

Xiaochen Zhang, Kansas State University; Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University • Linguistic Crisis Prediction: An Integration of Linguistic Categorization Model in Crisis Communication • Through two experiments, this study examines the relationship between linguistic choice and attribution perception in organizational crises. Results showed that abstract (vs. concrete) language in crisis news elicited higher attribution and lower purchase intentions. High (vs. low) attribution crisis led to higher usage of abstract language and that language mediates crisis types’ effect on purchase intentions. The findings empirically connect two Attribution Theory-rooted theories: Linguistic Categorization Model and the Situational Crisis Communication Theory.

Ziyuan Zhou; Xueying Zhang; Eyun-Jung Ki, The University of Alabama • Were These Studies Properly Designed?: An Examination of 22 Years of SCCT Experimental Research • This study examines the current state of the application of experiment method to studies investigating SCCT published between 1995 and 2017. Through a content analysis of 55 experiments in 50 articles published in 16 journals, the results revealed that the use of manipulation checks is questionable in the field. One-fourth of the published experiments failed to provide any information about manipulation checks, which poses a serious challenge to the validity of the experiments. The generalizability can be significantly improved if researchers set up crisis scenarios in diverse situations, such as a different way of presenting the stimuli, a different medium of the stimuli, a different industry the organization belongs to, etc.

Student
Sarah Aghazadeh, University of Maryland • “Recovery warriors”: The National Eating Disorder Association’s online public and rhetorical vision • This paper explores how organizations facilitate shared meaning with publics in an online context. I used Bormann’s symbolic convergence theory to identify rhetorical vision on the National Eating Disorder Association’s (NEDA) Facebook page. The results suggest that NEDA facilitated rhetorical vision of eating disorder “recovery warriors” by extending its rhetorical community and encouraging the “chaining” process. Lastly, I argue for theoretical and practical implications of NEDA’s efforts.

Brooke Fowler, University of Maryland, College Park • The internal angle of police-worn body cameras:  A hommo narrans approach to understanding patrol officer perceptions of body cameras • Relatively little research is available on how patrol officers perceive body cameras.  This paper conceptualizes patrol officers as an internal public and utilizes the homo narrans approach known as the theory-behavior complex, which combines symbolic convergence theory and situational theory of publics (Vasquez, 1993, 1994).  Twenty six semi-structured interviews were conducted.  This study adds to the limited number of homo narrans pieces in PR and proposes a new type of covert internal activism, under-the-table activism.

Virginia Harrison • “I Don’t Consider Myself a Corporate Fundraiser”: Understanding the Nonprofit Perspective in CSR Relationships • Taking an often-neglected viewpoint, this study examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships from the perspective of nonprofit beneficiaries. In-depth interviews with corporate relations officers at public research universities across the U.S. revealed three main factors have contributed to a rapidly evolving climate for corporate partnerships: CSR partnerships help universities build their reputations rather than endowments; feature new preferences in communication-based stewardship practices; and raise questions about university autonomy and authority. These findings contribute new understandings to how CSR-related communication creates mutually beneficial relationships.

Yingru Ji, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Exploring Publics’ Expectations for Crisis Outcomes: A Communication Mediated Psychological Mechanism in Social Media Era • The study conceptualizes consumer publics’ expectations for outcomes, in times of a preventable crisis, as a construct with three dimensions—organizational accommodation responses, punishment of the organization, and societal level regulations. The study also develops a reliable and valid scale to measure the construct. Using an online survey in Beijing China, this work empirically investigates the degree to which publics’ crisis blame and varied communication behaviors (i.e., information seeking and online expression) serially mediates the relationships between publics’ causal attribution and various publics’ expectations. The simple mediation results of crisis blame indicate that the largest mediation effects were on the psychological mechanism leading to publics’ expecting the organization to be punished. Moreover, the findings regarding serial mediation—crisis blame and communication behaviors as two mediators—suggest that active information seekers expect organizational accommodations and societal level interventions. Active online expressers, in contrast, expect to see the organization punished.

Yingru Ji, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Moderating Effects of Perceived Government Controllability over Crisis Outcomes and Consumer Collective Efficacy on Responsibility Attribution and Demands for Regulatory Interventions • Through an online survey of Beijing consumer publics, the study empirically examined a moderated mediation model of public demands for regulatory interventions. The findings revealed that as issue involvement improved, publics—who perceived both high levels of government controllability over crisis outcomes and consumer collective efficacy—attributed less responsibility to the in-crisis company and were less likely to demand regulatory intervention. The study also found that perceived government controllability had larger impacts on public demands for regulatory interventions than responsibility attribution did in China. By delineating the relationships among issue involvement, responsibility attribution, perceived government controllability over crisis outcomes, and consumer collective efficacy, the study outlines a comprehensive psychological mechanism of public demands for regulatory interventions in times of crisis.

Keqing Kuang; Sitong Guo, University of Alabama • Being honest to the public: Lessons from Haidilao’s crisis responses in China • On August 25th, 2017, the news was reported by Legal Evening News in terms of a restaurant in China named Haidilao Hot Pot’s irresponsibility to its kitchen hygiene and it went viral on social media and online news websites. Facing the scandal, Haidilao uses several crisis-response strategies to win back public support as well as to save its reputation and image. The purposes of this study are twofold: (1) understanding publics’ responses regarding Haidilao’s crisis communication, and (2) examine whether publics think the organization being honest or not. A content analysis is conducted through collecting publics’ comments and reposts on Weibo, a popular social media platform in China. The results indicate that publics respond to Haidilao and its crisis communication strategies positively and favorably in general, and results of perceived organizational performance of Haidilao are mixed.

Ejae Lee, Indiana University • Authenticity in Public Relations: The Effects on Organization-Public Relationships • This study aimed to explicate an organization’s authenticity, develop the authenticity measurement, and investigate the effects of perceived authenticity on OPR outcomes to address the implication of perceived authenticity of an organization in public relations. The study examined the validity and reliability of the proposed authenticity measurement with two constructs, awareness and consistency. The results of SEM found the direct and indirect effects of authenticity on transparency, trust, distrust, commitment, and switching intention.

Jungkyu Rhys Lim, University of Maryland • How Public Relations Builds Mutually Beneficial Relationships: Public Relations’ Role in Creating Shared Value (CSV) • Public relations strives to build mutually beneficial relationships. However, public relations scholarship has not clearly developed strategies for mutually beneficial relationships. Creating Shared Value (CSV) is one answer, as CSV strengthens the company’s competitiveness and improves the communities simultaneously. While public relations scholars have studied Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), CSV is understudied. This paper examines how public relations contributes to CSV and mutually beneficial relationships, through a case study on a multinational company’s CSV program.

Keonyoung Park, Syracuse University • Sharing the Problem-Solving Experience with Corporations: How Brand Activism Creates Brand Loyalty • Brand activism is a corporations’ advocacy on social issues. Although corporations’ social engagements have been already popularized phenomena, there are only limited academic attention on brand activism. Building on social identity theory, this study investigated brand activism as a shared problem-solving experience between publics and a corporation. The current study tried to suggest a comprehensive social media brand activism model showing the relationships between individuals’ activism engagement triggered by a corporation, brand trust, and brand loyalty. In doing so, this study conducted an online survey adopting the case of #AerieREAL campaign. Results showed that brand activism has impacts on mobilizing public engagements, which increase brand trust and loyalty. Practical implications of the study were discussed, considering both activism- and business-perspectives.

Patrick Thelen • Supervisor Humor Styles and Employee Advocacy: A Serial Mediation Model • This study examines how supervisor humor styles influence employee advocacy by building the linkage between affiliative humor, aggressive humor, supervisor authenticity, employee-organization relationships, and employee advocacy. Through a quantitative survey with 350 employees who work for a variety of organizations, this study’s results indicated that the relationship between supervisor humor style and employee advocacy is fully mediated by supervisor authenticity and employee-organization relationships. Significant theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Teaching
Gee Ekachai, Marquette University; Young Kim, Marquette University; Lauren Olson, Marquette University • Does your PR course syllabus excite, intrigue, and motivate students to learn? • The purpose of this study is to examine how a format of a syllabus influences student motivation and engagement in a public relations course and impression on the course and course instructor.  The course syllabus functions as a pivotal role in evaluating initial course perceptions by students that could lead to student motivation to engage in classroom activities.  However, there has been a lack of research that examines how a format—design or length—of a course syllabus can affect or promote student engagement in PR courses. To fill the research gap, two studies, focus group interviews (Study I, N = 10) and a lab experiment (Study II, N = 84), were conducted with undergraduate students. Results from the two focus group interviews revealed that students preferred the long version of the visually appealing syllabus. However, findings in the experimental study indicate the importance of a visually-appealing and short syllabus as an initial point of positive impressions on the course and instructor in a public relations classroom.

Hong Ji; Parul Jain; Catherine Axinn • Perceptions of Guest Speakers in Strategic Communications Courses:  An Exploratory Investigation • Using linkage beliefs theory and focus group methodology, we conducted a systematic investigation to understand students’ perceptions of having guest speakers in strategic communications courses. Our findings suggest that students prefer speakers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences with whom they could relate and prefer to hear about tips related to networking, job search, and career advancements. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Carolyn Kim, Biola University; Karen Freberg, University of Louisville • Online Pedagogy: Navigating Perceptions and Practices to Develop Learning Communities • With the maturation of online education, there has been increased attention given to standards, motivations and best-practices within online education. This study is designed to explore the intersections between perceptions and practices that educators who teach online hold in relation perceptions and practices of students who are taking online courses. Implications from the findings on online education and ties to the recommendations from the Commission of Public Relations Education Report are noted.

Christopher J. McCollough, Columbus State University • Visionary Public Relations Coursework: Assessing Economic Impact of Service Learning in Public Relations Courses • Literature in public relations education on service learning offers strong examples of a wide variety of benefits, yet little is said about the potential long-term benefits for economic development. Given the obvious connection between public relations functions and successful businesses, this paper dis-cuss the course development, execution, and subsequent early indicators of economic impact of a collaborative project to promote a visionary arts venue and the community that neighbors it.

Amanda Weed, Ashland University • Is advertising and public relations pedagogy on the “write” track?: Comparing industry needs and educational objectives • Writing skills are paramount to the success of entry-level employees in the fields of strategic communication, yet sparse pedagogical research has been published in the past decade that specifically address methods to teach unique writing skills in the strategic communication curriculums. This study examines three unique categories of written communication—business writing, creative writing, and writing pedagogy—to provide a set of pedagogical recommendations that address the needs of the advertising and public relations industries.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Newspaper and Online News 2018 Abstracts

Open Competition
Examining who political journalists @mention on Twitter • Brooke Auxier, University of Maryland, College Park; Kalyani Chadha, University of Maryland, College Park • Many journalists have adopted social media platforms as a means for gathering breaking news and promoting their work. Though tools like Twitter allow journalists to interact directly with their audiences and average users, some critics suggest that journalists often write for each other and interact largely with others in the industry. An analysis of 5,000 tweets found that political journalists mostly @mention other journalists, news organizations and politicians.

The Journalism and Mass Communication Capstone Course: Bringing It All Together? • Brian J. Bowe, Western Washington University; Robin Blom, Ball State University; Lucinda Davenport • Although most higher education programs include a capstone course to culminate the student experience, program directors disagree on what the experience should look like. Updating previous research, this study examined the main goals, teaching methods, and subject areas covered in journalism and mass communication capstone courses. It also compared capstone course content and format to what professionals say is important to know. Based on a survey of department chairs and directors, the results show that capstone courses have become increasingly focused on individual coaching, the production of individual student projects, and the examination of issues related to careers and media in society.

Data journalism and black-boxed data sets • Wilson Lowrey, University of Alabama; Ryan Broussard, University of Alabama; Lindsey Sherrill, University of Alabama • Interviews with data journalists reveal there are differences in practices for data-driven journalism across different types of news outlets and levels of expertise in data journalists. Findings include an unlikeliness to question data categories from government agencies and a difference in how journalists at national and digital-only organizations generally systems in place to check data compared to journalists at smaller publications. Authors argue for a need to increase critical thinking in how data is used.

Knowledge begets knowledge:  Impacts of civic and political knowledge on knowledge gain from online news • D. Jasun Carr, Idaho State University; Mitchell Bard • “This paper uses a Twitter-based experiment to examine relationships between the content choices Post-Millennials make in a social media context, and how their civic and political knowledge influence factual recall. Results indicate that, while Post-Millennials were more likely than expected to select news over entertainment – leading to increased knowledge gain – their existing civic and political knowledge influences retention of information with increased base knowledge leading to higher factual recall.

Routine Adjustments: How Journalists Framed the Charleston Shootings • Bill Cassidy, Northern Illinois University; Betty La France; Sam Babin • National newspaper coverage of the 2015 mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. was analyzed via a two-dimensional measurement scheme for examining media frames. Results suggest that journalists incorporated attributes unique to this tragedy into their coverage when compared to studies of similar events. A wider variety of frames on time and space dimensions were consistently utilized, and there was increased attention to the societal/past frame combination.

To share or not to share? Credibility, emotion and false news on Twitter • Haoran Chu; Janet Yang; Jun Zhuang • An experimental survey based on a nationally-representative sample showed that source credibility features such as verification badge increased people’s perceived credibility of false news on Twitter, while high social approval reduced such belief. Credibility perception further mediated the effects of tweet features onto sharing intention. Additionally, anger as a high-arousal emotion led to stronger intention to share false tweets, while the low-arousal emotions like fear and sadness did not.

What to Think About: The Applicability of Agenda-Settings in a Social Media Context • Holly Cowart • “This study examined how agenda-setting works in a social media setting. Three areas were tested for their effect on issue salience. More than 360 participants viewed variations of a mock Facebook feed and answered questions about issue importance. Results showed that increased repetition of a news story did influence participants’ perception that the news story topic was important. Total time spent on Facebook, gender, and ethnicity had a significant influence on perceived story importance.

Don’t Quote Me: Effects of Named, Quoted and Partisan News Sources • Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kathleen Culver, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Douglas McLeod; Christopher Kremmer, University of News South Wales, Australia • “Many news organizations have developed policies on use of named and unnamed sources in stories, including when the latter should be directly quoted or paraphrased. In an experiment, we test how audience members respond to these policy dictates by measuring news credibility in a political story that manipulates whether the source is named, whether that source is directly quoted, and the political relationship between the person accused and the accuser. We find that while each of these manipulations has little or no effect, the combine to trigger a discernible change in credibility in the eyes of the audience.

Does a more diverse newspaper staff reflect its community? Analyzing The Dallas Morning News’ content • Tracy Everbach, UNT; Jake Batsell, Southern Methodist University; Sara Champlin, The University of North Texas; Gwendelyn Nisbett, University of North Texas • This analysis of print and digital content in The Dallas Morning News examines whether a regional newspaper’s coverage reflects the diversity of its community on multiple platforms. Using a constructed week from Fall 2017, this study employs mixed methods to research bylines, visual credits, text sources, and visual subjects in the Morning News’ print editions and website. Results show that the content does not match the diversity of the surrounding community, which is 40% Latinx.

Understanding the Conflict Between Journalism Professionalism and Emotional Trauma • Kenna Griffin, Oklahoma City University • This study measures how journalists’ professionalism may play a role in their willingness to admit suffering emotional trauma or seeking help for it, and how professionalism may affect journalists’ views of work-related trauma, in general. The 829 respondents reported a strong sense of professionalism, but agreed that it is difficult to remain objective when covering traumatic events. The respondents also disagreed that journalists have a special resiliency that allows them to do their jobs without suffering emotional trauma. Despite this, the journalists still identified emotional trauma as a problem for others in the industry, but thought it was unlikely to happen to them.

Fake news is not controlled in a controlled environment: An analysis of China’s online news • Lei Guo, Boston University • The widespread dissemination of fake news has become a serious concern in many western democracies. This study adds to the literature by demonstrating that fake news is not controlled even in a controlled media environment like China. Based on a comprehensive intermedia agenda-setting analysis, the research suggests that official news websites in China also contributed to the perpetuation of fake news by advancing fake news themselves and by inducing other media outlets to do so.

The Local-Mobile Paradox:  Missed Innovation Opportunities and The Future of Local News • Meg Heckman, Northeastern University; John Wihbey, Northeastern University • “We employ a mixed methods approach to examine the state of mobile web publishing among U.S. local newspapers. Analysis of the mobile version of news websites (N=100) across the 50 states yields an uneven picture, with innovation lagging in key areas. A survey with local owner-operators (N=77) in a large U.S. state suggests that devoting attention to mobile audiences may be associated with revenue opportunities, and the ability to innovate is not necessarily associated with firm size. We explore implications for the viability of local news.

All the News That Tweets: Newspapers’ Use of Twitter Posts as News Sources from 2009 to 2016 • Kyle Heim, Shippensburg University • This study analyzed a sample of New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today stories from 2009 to 2016 in which Twitter posts were cited as news sources (N = 440). Although the use of tweets as sources has increased, the tweets generally were not featured prominently within the stories. Tweets were used most often in international stories, and journalists relied mostly on the tweets of official sources such as politicians rather than ordinary citizens.

Strangers to the Game? Interlopers, intralopers, and shifting news production • Avery Holton, University of Utah; Valerie Belair-Gagnon, University of Minnesota • The contours of journalistic practice have evolved substantially since the emergence of the world wide web to include those who were once strangers to the profession. Bloggers, hobbyists, amateur journalists, programmers, mobile app designers, web analytic professionals, non-governmental organizations, start-ups, and many others have become part of the organizational field of journalism, collectively influencing news production. These strangers, whether welcomed by journalists or shunned as interlopers, represent what the sociologist Georg Simmel (1950) described as potential wanderers, or those individuals who might influence journalism briefly before moving on, as well as those who might have a more lasting footing. This conceptual essay argues that by beginning to delineate differences among these strangers—those who have not belonged to traditional journalism practice but have imported their qualities and work into it—a more holistic understanding of the impact of outsiders on news production, and journalism broadly, can be advanced. Following Eldridge’s (2018) call to consider the organizational field of journalism as a fluid one, we offer typologies of these strangers as explicit and implicit interlopers as well as intralopers, offering possible definitions and examples for each. In working to understand these strangers as innovators, disruptors, and challengers of news production, we begin to unpack how they are contributing to increasingly un-institutionalized meaning of news while also suggesting a research agenda that begins to give definition to the various strangers who may be influencing news production more specifically, and the organizational field of journalism more broadly.

Fake News Cues: Examining content, source, and typology cues in identifying mis- and disinformation • Avery Holton, University of Utah; Amber Hinsley, Saint Louis University • Using a survey of U.S. adults, this research examines the content, source, and other credibility cues people rely on when assessing fake news. This study also considers people’s perceptions about various emerging fake news typologies. Participants who had lower confidence in their ability to identify fake news were less reliant on multiple credibility sources as well as cues like headlines and visuals to help them determine mis- and disinformation. These signal a need for increased, continuous digital literacy education.

Sentiment Contagion in the 2016 U.S Presidential Election Media Tweet Networks • Claire Youngnyo Joa, Louisiana State University Shreveport; Gi Woong Yun, University of Nevada, Reno • Sentiment contagion across the media tweet, including traditional and non-traditional news media, network of 2016 U.S. presidential election was identified and analyzed using a series of time-series analysis. Online non-partisan media reported the highest use of positive sentiment words, while political commentators reported the highest level of negative sentiment word use. Online partisan media Twitter accounts, including @drudgereport, were identified as intermedia agenda setters that led negative sentiment contagion in multiple media categories. No evident individual agenda setter was found in positive sentiment contagion.

“Not one of us”: Social Identity and American Metajournalistic Discourse Surrounding Glenn Greenwald • Courtney Johnson, Pew Research Center • Journalists increasingly face challenges to their professional autonomy. The internet allows anyone with a computer or mobile device to post content online, making it easy for individuals with little or no journalistic training and no formal news outlet affiliation to engage in reporting. Whether this content creation constitutes “journalism,” however, is often contested by those traditional journalists affiliated with mainstream media outlets (Carlson, 2012; Singer, 2007). Mainstream journalists now feel challenged by online actors who consider themselves journalists, or at least consider the work they do to be journalistic in nature. Given the recent challenges posed to journalism by the internet, and guided by past research on social identity theory and boundary work, this paper examines the relationship between evolving journalistic professional identity and mainstream journalists’ treatment of Glenn Greenwald. Using a textual analysis of metajournalistic discourse, this study illustrates how definitions of journalism are changing in the digital age, and how journalists working for traditional news organizations draw boundaries around their profession and attempt to differentiate themselves from new forms of journalism enabled by the internet. Results indicate that journalists moved to protect their professional boundaries in ways predicted by social identity theory: Journalists enhanced their profession identity by subsuming the innovative aspects of Greenwald’s work under the rubric of traditional journalism, and used the other (less professionally desirable) aspects of Greenwald’s behavior to place him outside the boundaries of real journalism.

Mediating Empathy: The role of news consumption in mitigating attitudes about race and immigration • Kelly Kaufhold, Texas State University • Controversies over racism and xenophobia during and after the campaign of President Donald Trump contributed to big increases in media consumption – and racist incidents. This study examines whether and how much news media consumption mitigates perceptions of 12 measures of attitudes about race and immigration, using a national instrument of 64,600 cases. News media use – especially newspaper use – does soften attitudes about race and immigration, although it isn’t as predictive as party identification.

Protests, Media Coverage, and a Hierarchy of Social Struggle • Danielle Kilgo, Indiana University; Summer Harlow, University of Houston • News coverage is fundamental to a protest’s viability, but research suggests media negatively portray protests and protesters that challenge the status quo (a pattern known as the protest paradigm). This study questions that assumption, interrogating how topic, time, and region shape coverage. Results suggest Black Lives Matter and policing protest coverage follows more of a delegitimizing pattern than stories about women’s or immigrants’ rights protests. A model for a hierarchy of social struggle is proposed.

The meaning of numbers: Effect of social cues perceived as bandwagon heuristic in online news • Jiyoun Kim • “This quantitative study focuses on how peoples’ reactions to an online article are affected by social cues associated with the news article. This study found that online content with a high number of likes, shares, and comments show significant effects on the following: perceived bandwagon, willingness to consume news, perceived news worthiness, and people’s likelihood of news sharing. The findings indicate, however, that social cues have its effect when conditions are low-risk and low-involvement.

Reliance on Government Sources at American Newspapers in the Digital Era • Beth Knobel, Fordham University • This paper examines sources used in over 5,000 enterprise articles on the front pages of nine American newspapers before and after the advent of digital journalism to assess whether newspapers are becoming more reliant on government sources in the Internet era. This research suggests that journalists’ reliance on officials has increased in the digital era, but only slightly, as the ease of finding sources online has been eroded by budget cuts at American newspapers.

Re-examining news overload:  Effects of content characteristics and news topics on selective scanning and avoidance • Angela Lee; Avery Holton, University of Utah; Victoria Chen • The rapid proliferation of digital news platforms has exacerbated average consumers’ perception of overload and complicates the ways they selectively consume and avoid the news. Through an online panel survey, this study advances research on news overload by (1) proposing a more holistic measure of news overload, (2) examining the moderating effect of content characteristics and news topics on overload, and (3) investigating the ways in which these variables influence selective scanning and news avoidance. The results indicate that the antecedents and effects of news overload is more complex than previously thought and deserve more scholarly and industry attention.

Understanding the Role Performance of Native Advertising on News Websites • You Li, Eastern Michigan U • This study compares the role performance of native advertising between the legacy and the digital-only news websites in the United States. By analyzing the content characteristics, the study finds that native advertising primarily plays a service role. Those on the legacy news websites prioritized the civic role, while those on the digital-only news websites emphasized the infortainment role. The composition of native advertising message has yet to comply with the journalistic standard.

Perceptual Learning in Mass Communication Research: Immediate & Delayed Effects of Perceptual-Learning Methods on AP Style Knowledge • Justin Martin, Northwestern University in Qatar; Shageaa Naqvi, Northwestern University in Qatar; George Anghelcev, Northwestern University in Qatar • Perceptual-learning methods teach skills via numerous, rapid-fire questions that provide immediate visual feedback. This study tested the effects of a perceptual-learning module (PLM) on acquiring declarative and procedural knowledge of Associated Press editing style. A quasi-experiment compared a PLM condition of non-journalism majors to a control condition of journalism majors who learned AP style in a traditional way: by taking an introductory journalism class, being assigned the AP Stylebook as a textbook, and submitting AP-compliant assignments. A perceptual-learning module of 200 rapid, multiple-choice questions with immediate feedback significantly improved participants’ declarative and procedural knowledge of AP style, and was clearly more effective than the classroom method. Perceptual-learning participants, who spent just 1 hour 10 minutes completing the PLM, outperformed the classroom/control condition (a 14-week class) on AP editing ability. Importantly, these effects did not attenuate in a delayed posttest seven weeks after initial posttest. This is the first experiment testing effects of a PLM on linguistic editing ability.

Shithole and the President: News use of Trump’s profanity • Michael McCluskey, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • “When President Trump used shithole to describe several countries in discussion of immigration, news organizations faced violating norms against profanity to use his precise language. Evaluation of 2,469 stories containing “shithole” in 70 large newspaper websites over a 15-day period found the meeting and response, public policy and politics, and evaluation of Trump were the most common themes. Analysis showed the influences of news values, journalistic norms and organizational practices on use of profanity.

Healing and recovery as a news value • Michael McCluskey, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • “News values and journalistic values are used to explain which events or issues are mentioned in the news. One common news theme after traumas is healing and recovery, which is not explicitly mentioned as a value. Analysis evaluates the role of journalism after traumatic events to aid the healing and recovery of the affected parties, including communities. Evidence from previously published work and recent traumatic events is used to illustrate eight common themes.

‘Tell me something good’: Testing the longitudinal effects of constructive news using the Google Assistant • Karen McIntyre, Virginia Commonwealth University • In a mixed design quasi-experiment, participants received access to a Google Assistant feature in which they could prompt the assistant to summarize constructive news — stories that highlight societal progress. After two weeks, those who used the feature were more likely, between pretest and postttest, than those who did not to feel positive while consuming traditional news, suggesting constructive news could mitigate the effects of more typical, negative news.

Fact-checking and Facebook users’ engagement: Debunking fake news and verifying Trump’s claims • Paul Mena, University of Florida • “This study explores Facebook users’ engagement with fact-checking regarding categories of this journalistic activity and the authors of the claims being assessed. A content analysis of Facebook posts published by two major fact-checking organizations was conducted. The results show that the debunking of fake news by fact-checkers might produce higher levels of engagement. Additionally, this study found that fact-checking audiences on Facebook were significantly engaged with posts related to the verification of President Trump’s claims.

Fake News: A Concept Explication and Taxonomy of Online News • Maria D. Molina, Penn State University; S. Shyam Sundar • The growth of fake news online has created a need for computational models to automatically detect it. For such models to be successful, it is essential to clearly define fake news and differentiate it from other forms of news. We conducted a concept explication, yielding a taxonomy of online news that identifies specific features for use by machine learning algorithms to reliably classify fake news, real news, commentary, satire, and other related types of content.

Exploring a Branding Alignment Typology: Influences on individual, organizational, and institutional forms of journalistic branding • Logan Molyneux, Temple University; Seth Lewis, University of Oregon; Avery Holton, University of Utah • Contributing to the growing literature on how journalists engage in branding—promoting themselves, their organizations, and fellow journalists—this study proposes, tests, and confirms a branding alignment hypothesis. This typology, examined through a first-of-its-kind survey of journalists and branding (N = 642), sheds new light on how certain branding approaches match up with individual, organizational, and institutional forms of motivation and influence. Moreover, this approach shows how branding is manifest over and above social media dynamics alone.

Readers’ Perceptions of Newsworthiness and Bias as Factors in Commenting on Digital News Content • Greg Munno, Syracuse University • “This study tests a structural model of commenting behavior using survey data (N = 335). The model builds on suggestions of a connection between hostile-media effects and commenting. This study adds newsworthiness to the structural equation. The model tested had indicators of good fit, although hostile-media effects did not play a prominent role in the structural model.

Peace Journalism: A War/Peace Framing Visual Analysis of the Charlottesville Protests • Dara Phillips, Regent University; Stephen Perry, Regent University • Peace journalism has typically applied to international events, but this study examined the Charlottesville protest to determine if war/peace imagery is applicable to domestic conflict. The protest was selected for its imagery and sudden public awareness. Using Neumann and Fahmy’s visual coding, researchers conducted Chi-square analyses to examine what ways war/peace imagery was used in state and national newspapers. Further quantitative analysis showed no difference in peace journalism usage between state and national newspapers.

No Quick Fix: How Journalists Assess the Impact and Define the Boundaries of Solutions Journalism • Elia Powers, Towson University; Alex Curry, University of Texas-Austin • The Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) defines its mission as supporting and connecting journalists interested in “rigorous reporting on responses to social problems.” One problem facing journalists and researchers is the lack of a shared framework for discussing solutions journalism’s impact. This mixed-methods study addresses how SJN and its journalist members assess and discuss impact. Findings shed light on how proponents and practitioners of solutions journalism view its objectives, measure its effects, and define its boundaries.

Solidarity in the Newsroom? Media Concentration and Union Organizing: Case Study from the Sunshine State • Jennifer Proffitt, Florida State University • This paper examines the struggles, actions, and challenges of the journalist organizers at two Florida legacy newspapers—the Lakeland Ledger and the Sarasota Herald Tribune—who unionized in 2016 with The NewsGuild-Communication Workers of America. In-depth interviews with journalists from both papers suggest that unionizing can help to counter the effects of media concentration, corporate practices, and the resulting changes in organizational structure and their impact on the working conditions of reporters.

Tweeting local sports: Best practices of a successful sports reporter • Matthew Reavy, University of Scranton; Kimberly Pavlick, University of Scranton • This paper uses a mixed methodology approach to analyze the Twitter habits of a local sports reporter from the perspective of Uses and Gratifications theory. An in-depth interview with the subject, together with a content analysis of more than 14,000 tweets over a two-year period, are used to compare the reporter’s Twitter habits with ideals defined by journalists in previous research. Suggestions are made for “best practices” in local sports journalism.

Conceptualizing fake news from the perspective of its producers • Craig Robertson, Michigan State University; Rachel Mourao, Michigan State University • “Interest in fake news peaked after 2016, but studies have focused on the way scholars, journalists, audiences, and Trump define it. Guided by Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical model and journalists as interpretive communities (Zelizer, 1993, 2017) this paper explores the ways fake news producers present themselves on their “About us” and social media bios. We found that fake news is an alternative interpretive community guided by openly partisan discourses championing subjective truths and rejecting objectivity.

Measuring quality dialogue: Unproductive, uncivil discourse dominates news commenting forums • Arthur Santana, San Diego State University • Online commenting forums of news sites have been much maligned for the rampant incivility they often engender, and anecdotal accounts are that many news sites are abandoning them. Via content analysis of 4,800 comments from online commenting forums from around the country, this research quantitatively examines not just the civility but the overall quality of the comments. It also quantifies how many news sites host the forums. Key variables are anonymous commenters and non-anonymous commenters.

Geolocated News: How Place, Space and Context Matters for Mobile News Users • Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State • This study examines mobile news consumers and non-mobile news consumers perceptions of geolocated news and their news consumption behavior. Based on a national online survey of U.S. adults (n=979) that was conducted in fall 2017, findings show that mobile news consumers are seeking out geolocated news. The context by which they seek out location-based information is dependent on where they live, work or play as well as where their family and friends live.

Journalism and Trauma: The Role of Education and Trauma Resources in Humanizing Newsrooms • Natalee Seely • Many journalists must report on trauma, but undergraduate journalism education and newsroom resources may not offer adequate trauma preparedness and support. A survey (N=254) examined the relationships between trauma education and workplace resources, and journalists’ level of trauma awareness and their willingness to seek support in their newsroom. Education regarding crisis reporting positively predicted trauma awareness, indicating that journalism programs may produce more prepared journalists if they include curriculum about crisis reporting. Participation in workplace resources also significantly predicted willingness to seek emotional support in the newsroom. Results from surveys also showed that crisis reporting education and trauma-related resources are lacking in journalism programs and newsrooms. Nearly half of journalists surveyed reported that their current newsroom offered no trauma-related resources, such as debriefings, counseling or trauma training. Additionally, more than half (53%) reported never having received any type of education related to crisis reporting or covering trauma.

Reporting on Tragedy and Violence: Journalists’ Perspectives • Natalee Seely • Journalists witness and experience traumatic events as part of their jobs. A lack of education and newsroom resources about trauma, along with a newsroom culture that often stigmatizes vulnerability and promotes a “suffering in silence” attitude, can take its toll on reporters. This study offers a qualitative perspective to reports that newsrooms are facing a “mental health epidemic” (Huffington Post, May 26, 2015). In-depth interviews with journalists from around the country identify journalists’ experiences with trauma, their coping mechanisms, and their perspectives on how their education and newsroom environments have (or have not) prepared them for covering violence, tragedy and conflict.

Context Matters: Journalists’ Ideals, Narration, and Practices in the United States and Malaysia • Moniza Waheed; Lea Hellmueller • A content analysis of newspapers from the United States and Malaysia along with a survey among journalists found that the watchdog role conception, narration, and performance was more pronounced in the United States compared to Malaysia while the loyal facilitator model, akin to development journalism was more pronounced in the latter. The role conceptions of these models were linked to the narration of journalists but were not necessarily reflected in the news reports journalists produced.

Biting The Hand: Accountability Journalism in the Trade Press • Rob Wells, Univ of Arkansas • “This article examines accountability journalism in the trade press, the specialty business publications, a topic not covered in prior research. Qualitative research methods involving interviews with top trade journalists reveal their in-depth reporting led to conflicts with advertisers, such as boycotts. Trade journalists describe a complex relationship with their industries, in line with the political economy theory, yet they adhered to journalistic norms such as autonomy, which readers valued.

Overloaded: The Impact of Visual Density on Advertising Recognition within Sponsored News Articles • Ryan Kor; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georiga • Drawing from load theory, this study hopes to investigate the possible implications of a native ad’s visual density and characteristics of the disclosure label on advertising recognition. The current study uses a 3 x 2, between subjects lab experiment which utilizes eye-tracking software to measure participants’ attention to disclosure label positions based on visual density.

Journalism’s Relationship to Democracy: Roles, Attitudes, and Practices • David Wolfgang, Colorado State University; Tim Vos, University of Missouri; Kimberly Kelling • “Journalism is often discussed in terms of its relationship to democracy. But one’s conception of democracy can influence how one understands journalistic concepts. This study surveyed 204 US political reporters to determine their views on democracy and how their views relate to professional roles, trust, and sourcing. The findings show journalists support traditional norms but differ in their support in interesting ways based on their conception of democracy.

“All the President’s tweets”: A Large-scale Study of Uses of Social Media Content in Online News • Mohammad Yousuf; Naeemul Hassan, The University of Mississippi; Md Main Uddin Rony, The University of Mississippi • This longitudinal study examines uses of social media content in online news from 2013 to 2017. Computational methods were used to analyze 59,356 articles from 68 mainstream news websites and 85 highly controversial online-only news portals. Results show uses of social media content in news almost doubled in five years. Both mainstream and controversial sites prefer Twitter to Facebook as a source of information. Social statuses of cited sources vary across mainstream and controversial websites.

Hostile Media Perception and Intention to Participate in Public Discussion of Mental Health Issues: An Examination of the Role of Involvement • Xueying Zhang; Kim Baker; Kim Bissell; Sarah Pember; Yiyi Yang • “The current study tested the “corrective action hypothesis” by analyzing intentions to discuss mental health issues publicly after exposing to news coverage of mass shootings using a “dangerous people” frame. An online survey of 288 respondents suggested that affective involvement independently predict as well as mediate self-interest involvement in predicting HMP, which then predicted individuals’ intentions to take part in public discussion about mental health.

Student Papers
Breaking Babel: Understanding the Dark Side of Digital News • David Berman, University of Pennsylvania • Using attention economics as a theoretical framework, this paper pursues a comparative historical analysis of William Randolph Hearst’s yellow newspaper The New York Journal and the digital news website BuzzFeed. In so doing, this paper arrives at a structural understanding of the conditions that lead to the production and distribution of misinformation.

Blame the ABC: news framing and the future of public service broadcasting in Australia • Lauren Bridges, University of Pennsylvania • This paper draws on textual analysis of 157 newspaper articles to contend that commercial news framing of recent media reform in Australia work to normalize deregulation as the only way to “save the media” from digital disruption, while also implicating public service broadcasters, as “competing unfairly” in commercial media markets. By conflating the ABC charter with the need for media reform, commercial newspapers aim to delegitimize digital services provided by public broadcasters thereby limiting their future growth.

Message or Medium? Effect of Virtual Reality on News Stories • Noah Buntain; Shengjie Yao, S.I. Newhouse School Of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Dongqing Xu • This quantitative study tested whether viewer reactions to a video story were different when presented in virtual reality. Based on LC4MP, we predicted that the VR medium would elicit higher levels of presence, emotion, and empathy than standard video. Subjects (N=40) were students, staff, and faculty from a large private university in the United States. Results indicated that VR presentations are not significantly different on these factors than standard video.

Learning news credibility cues in politicized news • Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • “Audiences, who cannot investigate the credibility of most news stories for themselves, rely on non-content heuristic cues to form credibility judgments. For most mediums, these heuristics were stable over time. Emerging formats of journalism, however, require audiences to learn to interpret what new heuristics credibility cues mean about the credibility of the story. In an experiment, participants (N=254) were given instructions about how to interpret the credibility cues in three formats as they read a politicized news story, which were compared to a control condition that did not have any instructions. The results show the effects of partisanship and the format of the instructions on both the ability to learn news heuristics and the perceived credibility of the story.

The Politicizing of ESPN: A Content Analysis of its Perceived Partisanship • Adrianne Grubic, — please select a prefix — • Since the 2016 presidential election, politics has not only taken the forefront in news, but in sports as well. ESPN’s protest coverage became a source of debate as various media outlets accused the network of being partisan with a liberal bias. Through a content analysis, this study found that espn.com readers were more likely to be uncivil towards other commenters and were less concerned with a perceived bias.

Control and resistance: The influences of political, economic, and technological factors on Chinese investigative reporting • Lei Guo • “This study utilizes interviews with 12 current or former investigative journalists in China to find out how important systematic players influence on investigative news. By adopting hierarchy of influences model, this study finds that Chinese investigative news is subject to control by both central and local propaganda departments and financial and public relations institutions; while new technology can facilitate journalists’ strategies to finish their reporting.

A Community that has Lost its Way: Framing the Sherman Park Unrest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin • Rachel Italiano, Marquette University • Officer-involved shootings of African Americans have received extensive media coverage recent years. This analysis examines how the local press of a Midwest city framed Syville Smith’s shooting death by a Milwaukee police officer and the subsequent unrest that occurred. Fifty-nine articles from the Milwaukee Community Journal and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel were analyzed. Overall, Sherman Park was framed as a community that has lost its way because of several factors. Implications are discussed.

Fake News and Its Sourcing Patterns • Soo Young Shin, Michigan State University • This study examined the differences in sourcing patterns between fake news and mainstream news.  A content analysis of stories from fake news sites and top circulation mainstream news media during the 2016 presidential election was conducted to compare each of their source selections. The results revealed that fake news mostly relied on other media outlets for their sources, which played a role in reinforcing bias and existing beliefs of fake news consumers. Constructing fake news’ identity by verifying opinions with other media was suggested as one reason for the heavy reliance on other media. Non-official sources were also valued by fake news to arouse public interest.

2018 ABSTRACTS