Mass Communication and Society 2017 Abstracts

OPEN COMPETITION
Beauty ideals and the media: Constructing the ideal beauty for Nigerian women through music videos • Aje-Ori Agbese • The research examined how Nigerian music videos objectify and define beauty for Nigerian women. The contents of 100 music videos with a love/romance theme were analyzed. The study found that Nigerian music videos defined beautiful women as thin/skinny, light-skinned and smiling. Several videos also featured white women as the ideal. The paper also discusses the impact of such messages on a country where women had the world’s highest rates for skin bleaching in 2012.

Framing Blame in Sexual Assault: An Analysis of Attribution in News Stories about Sexual Assault on College Campuses • Ashlie Andrew; Cassandra Alexopoulos • The current study is a quantitative content analysis examining media coverage of sexual assault on US college campuses. In particular, we focus on the language that journalists employ to tell these stories and assign attribution of sexual assault to the people involved. Drawing on two different theoretical perspectives, Attribution Theory and Media Framing, we analyze how frequently the language in news stories on sexual assault implicitly assign attribution (or minimize attribution) to either the victim or perpetrator in sexual assault cases.

The Social Dimensions of Political Participation • Soo Young Bae • This study investigates the social dimensions of political engagement, and explores the underlying mechanism of the relationship between social media use and political participation. Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, this study reveals the growing significance of the source factor in the online information environment, and tests whether varying levels of trust that individuals have toward the information source can meaningfully relate to their engagement in politics.

The Role of Media Use and Family Media Use in Children’s Eating Behaviors, Food Preferences, and Health Literacy • Kimberly Bissell, University of Alabama; Kim Baker, University of Alabama; Xueying Zhang; Kailey E. Bissell, The University of the South (Sewanee); Sarah Pember, University of Alabama; Yiyi Yang, University of Alabama; Samantha Phillips, University of Alabama • The relationship between the individual and social factors that might predict a child’s health behaviors specific to food consumption and eating is quite complex. A growing body of literature suggests that external factors such as media use, use of media while eating, and the home eating environment certainly could predict factors such as a child’s preference for specific food, nutritional knowledge, and even the ability to identify food products in food advertisements. Using a survey of children in 2nd and 3rd grade, this study examined questions about how much or if general media use, media use while eating, and familial media use during mealtimes related to a child’s general understanding of health specific to nutritional knowledge, food preferences, understanding of food advertising, and self-perception. Results indicate that media use by each child and by the parent—in general and in the context of eating—were related to lower scores on the nutritional knowledge scale, a stronger preference for unhealthy foods, an inability to correctly identify food products in food advertisements, and self-perceptions. Further results indicate that children’s ability to correctly identify food products in food advertisements was especially low, especially in children who reported spending more time with different types of media. These and other findings are discussed.

Assimilation or Consternation? U.S. Latinos’ Perceptions of Trust in Relation to Media and Other Factors • Ginger Blackstone, Harding University; Amy Jo Coffey, University of Florida • Among the U.S. Latino community, even documented workers are nervous about the future. What role might Internet news exposure, television news exposure, newspaper exposure, radio news exposure, age, whether one was born in the U.S., or–if not—length of time spent in the U.S. be relevant to feelings of trust in the government, trust in others, and U.S. immigration policies? How do Latinos’ feelings in these areas compare to non-Latinos? Using the most recent American National Election Survey data available, the authors conducted a series of regressions and other statistical tests in search of answers. It was found that Latino respondents were more likely than non-Latinos to trust that the U.S. government will do the right thing. Television news exposure was a positive factor. Non-Latino respondents were more likely than Latino respondents to trust others. Internet news exposure, radio news exposure, and newspaper exposure were positive factors, while television news exposure was a negative factor. Trust in the government did not correlate with trust in others for Latino respondents; however, it did for non-Latinos but the effect was weak. Regarding U.S. immigration policy, difference between Latino respondents and non-Latinos were significant; however, a majority of both groups indicated support for an immigration policy that allowed undocumented workers to remain in the U.S. under certain (non-specified) conditions. Internet news exposure and radio news exposure were factors in some comparisons. Overall, no clear patterns were found; however, the findings correspond to the literature and provide an opportunity for future research.

Toxic Peers in Online Support Groups for Suicidal Teens: Moderators Reducing Toxic Disinhibition Effects • Nicholas Boehm, Colorado State University; Jamie Switzer, Colorado State University • This paper describes the results of a study that examined if moderated online peer support groups for suicidal teens differ compared to non-moderated online peer support groups for suicidal teens in terms of the frequency of pro-suicide response and the frequency of uncivil and impolite response given by peers. Findings suggest pro-suicide, uncivil, and impolite responses are significantly more likely to occur in the non-moderated peer support group, as explained by the online disinhibition effect.

Exploring Third-Person Perception and Social Media • John Chapin, Penn State • Findings from a study of middle school and high school students (N = 1604) suggest most adolescents are using some form of social media, with texting, Instagram, and Snapchat currently the most popular. Most (67%) have some experience with cyberbullying, with 23% saying they have been victims of cyberbullying and 7% acknowledging they have cyberbullied others. Despite the heavy use of social media and experiences with cyberbullying, participants exhibited third-person perception, believing others are more influenced than they are by negative posts on social media. Third-person perception was predicted by optimistic bias, social media use, age, and experience with various forms of bullying. Third-person perception may provide a useful framework for understanding how adolescents use social media and how they are affected by it.

“Defensive Effect”: Uncivil Disagreement Upsets Me, So I Want to Speak Out Politically • Gina Chen • This study proposed and tested a mediation model called the “defensive effect” to explain the influence of uncivil disagreement online comments on emotions and intention to participate politically. An experiment (N = 953) showed uncivil disagreement – but not civil disagreement – triggered a chain reaction of first boosting negative emotion and then indirectly increasing intention to participate politically, mediated through that emotion burst. Findings are discussed in relation to affective intelligence theory.

Facts, Alternative Facts, and Politics: A Case Study of How a Concept Entered Mainstream and Social Media Discourse • Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee; Giselle Auger, Rhode Island College; Sally McMillan, University of Tennessee • Adopting agenda setting as a theoretical framework, this study explored how the term ‘alternative facts’ was covered by both mainstream and social media. The authors used Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio and WordStat to analyze 58,383 total posts. The study follows the development of news story and examines some similarities and differences in top words and phrases used by mainstream and social media. The term ‘alternative facts’ had negative valence in both media types.

Television, emotion, and social integration: Testing the effect of media event with the 2017 US Presidential Inauguration • Xi Cui, College of Charleston; Qian Xu, Elon University • This study empirically tests the social integration effect of media event and its psychological mechanism in the context of the live broadcast of the 2017 US Presidential Inauguration. A national sample (N=420) was drawn to investigate the relationships among television viewing of the live broadcast, viewers’ emotion, and their perceived social solidarity measured by perceived entitativity. In general, viewing the inauguration live on television positively predicted viewers’ emotion. Emotion also interacted with viewers’ national identity fusion to influence perceived entitativity. A significant indirect effect of television viewing on perceived entitativity through emotion was discovered. The same effects were found among non-Trump voters. For Trump voters, television viewing did not have any significant influence on any variable. Through these findings, this study shed light on the psychological mechanisms of media event’s social integration effect at the individual level, explicated the visceral nature of social identification related to media event, and argued for the relevance of this mass media genre in contemporary media environment and social zeitgeist.

New media, new ways of getting informed? Examining public affairs knowledge acquisition by young people in China • Di Cui; Fang Wu • This study examined acquisition of public affairs knowledge as an effect of media use and interpersonal discussion in China, where there is a fast transforming media environment. This study examined public affairs knowledge in both mainstream and alternative forms. Findings showed that attention to traditional sources, exposure to new media sources and face-to-face discussion were correlated with public affairs knowledge. Use of new media sources was correlated with alternative public affairs knowledge. Implications were discussed.

Multi-Platform News Use and Political Participation across Age Groups • Trevor Diehl, University of Vienna; Matthew Barnidge, University of Vienna; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna • News consumption in today’s media environment is increasingly characterized by multi-platform news; people now consume news across several multi-media devices. Relying on a nationally representative survey from the U.S., this study develops an index of multi-platform news use, and tests its effects on age-group differences in the way people participate in politics. Results show that Millennials are more likely to rely on multi-platforms for news, which is positively related to alternative modes of public engagement.

Read All About It: The Politicization of “Fake News” on Twitter • John Brummette; Marcia DiStaso, University of Florida; MICHAIL VAFEIADIS, Auburn University; Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University; Terry Flynn, McMaster University • This study explored the use of the term “fake news” in one of the top news sharing tools, Twitter. Using a social network analysis, characteristics of online networks that formed around discussions of “fake news” was examined. Through a systematic analysis of the members of those networks and their messages, this study found that “fake news” is a very politicized term where current conversations are overshadowing logical and important discussions of the term.

News, Entertainment, or Both? Exploring Audience Perceptions of Media Genre in a Hybrid Media Environment • Stephanie Edgerly, Northwestern; Emily Vraga, George Mason University • This study uses two experimental designs to examine how audiences make genre assessments when encountering media content that blends elements of news and entertainment. In Study 1, we explore how audiences characterize three different versions of a fictitious political talk show program. In Study 2, we consider whether audience perceptions of ‘news-ness’ are influenced by shifts in headline angle and source attribution. The implications of audience definitions of news and its social function are discussed.

A new generation of satire consumers? A socialization approach to youth exposure to news satire • Stephanie Edgerly, Northwestern • This study explores how adolescents—at the doorstep of adulthood—are developing the exposure habit of news satire exposure. Using national survey data consisting of U.S. youth and one associated parent, the paper specifically examines: 1) the prevalence of youth exposure to news satire across a range of media devices and compared to other forms of news, and 2) the socialization factors—parents, school curriculum, and peers—that predict news satire use among today’s youth.

Socially-shared children coming of age: Third-person effect, parental privacy stewardship, and parent monitoring • Betsy Emmons, Samford University; Nia Johnson, Samford University; Lee Farquhar, Samford University • There have been multiple discussions about Facebook’s privacy policies; discourse about parental privacy stewardship has been minimal. As the first generation of socially-shared children become social media users, the collision of privacy with what has already been shared by parents occurs. This study, grounded in third-person effect, asked parents about stewardship of their children’s privacy, and whether other parents were observant. Results affirmed third-person effect for both social media monitoring and privacy among parents.

Journalists primed: How professional identity affects moral decision making • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University; Erin Schauster • Utilizing identity priming, this study examines whether professional journalists apply ethics differently when primed with occupationally identity. This between-subjects experiment (N=171) administered both conditions the Defining Issues Test, a much-used instrument that measures moral development. The results show identity priming does not affect how journalists apply ethics. The study also found that journalists are potentially far less ethical than they were 13 years ago. These results are interpreted through the lens of social identity theory.

Hydraulic Fracturing on U.S. Cable News • Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; Oluseyi Adegbola, Mr.; Jennifer Huemmer • Hydraulic fracturing, called fracking, is a drilling technique that accesses previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves. Although the process could aid U.S. energy independence, it is controversial and public opinion is divided. Guided by agenda-setting and framing, this study content analyses news coverage of fracking (N = 461) across cable networks (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC). Results show issues discussed and sources used vary ideologically, but all networks failed to provide factual information about the process.

Self-Presentation Strategies’ Effect on Facebook Users’ Subjective Well-being Depending on Self-Esteem Level • Wonseok (Eric) Jang, Texas Tech University; Erik Bucy, Texas Tech University; Janice Cho, Texas Tech University • The current study examined the consequences of different types of self-presentation strategies on Facebook users’ subjective well-being, depending on their level of self-esteem. The results indicated that people with low self-esteem became happier after updating their Facebook status using strategic self-presentation rather than true self-presentation. Meanwhile, people with high self-esteem exhibited similar levels of happiness after updating Facebook using both strategic and true self-presentation.

“Aging…The Great Challenge of This Century”: A Theory-Based Analysis of Retirement Communities’ Websites • Hong Ji; Anne Cooper • By 2040, the large over-65 population will change “religion…work…everything” according to an expert on aging. CCRCs are one health care/housing option for the final years of life. This study of 108 CCRC websites found a self-actualized photo population –smiling, wining/dining, and engaged in various fulfilling pursuits. The disconnect with reality — more males, minorities and healthy people than actually live at CCRCs — has implications for source credibility and the image of ideal aging.

The Role of Social Capital in the United States’s Country Brand • Jong Woo Jun, Dankook University; Jung Ryum Kim, City of Busan; Dong Whan Lee, Dankook University • This study explores antecedents and consequences of social capital. Using Korean college students as research samples, survey research was implemented measuring U.S. media consumptions such as TV drama, Hollywood movies, POP music, advertising, and magazine. As results, American media consumptions influenced social capital elements such as interpersonal trust, institutional trust, network, and norms. Also, interpersonal trust, network, and norms influenced attitudes toward the United States which in turn lead to strong beliefs about the United States. This study extended the usability of social capital to country branding settings, and could provide significant managerial implications to academicians and practitioners.

In the Crosshairs: The Tucson Shooting and the News Framing of Responsibility • Matthew Telleen, Elizabethtown College; Jack Karlis, Georgia College; Sei-Hill Kim • This research adds to the framing literature with a content analysis of media coverage following the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Analyzing 535 items from the month after the shooting, it was determined that coverage of the Tucson shooting focused more heavily on societal issues like political rhetoric than on individual issues like mental illness It was also discovered that coverage varied from medium to medium and along political associations.

Tweeting the Election: Comparative Uses of Twitter by Trump and Clinton in the 2016 Election • Flora Khoo, Regent University; William Brown, Regent University • “Social media are increasingly becoming important means of political communication and essential to implementing an effective national election campaign. The present study evaluates the use of Twitter by presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Results indicate substantial framing differences in the tweets released by the two candidates. These differences are discussed along with implications for future research on the use of Twitter for political campaigns.

The Role of Reanctance Proneness in the Manifestation of Psychological Reactance against Newspaper Editorial • HYUNJUNG KIM • This study investigated the role of trait reactance proneness in the affective and cognitive reactance processes in the context of organ donation in South Korea. A web-based survey experiment using a sample of South Korean residents was conducted. Findings demonstrate that an editorial advocating organ donation from ideologically incongruent media is perceived as more biased than the same editorial from other media. The perceived bias is linked to perceived threat to freedom, which, in turn, is related to affective reactance, leading to unfavorable attitudes toward organ donation, particularly for high trait-reactant individuals. These findings suggest that trait reactance proneness may moderate a psychological reactance process in which affective and cognitive processes of reactance operate separately.

Pride versus Guilt: The Interplay between Emotional Appeals and Self-Construal Levels in Organ Donation Messages • Sining Kong; Jung Won Chun; Sriram Kalyanaraman • Existing research on organ donation has generally focused on message types but ignored how individual differences—and possible underlying mechanisms—affect the effectiveness of organ donation messages. To explore these issues, we conducted a 2 (type of appeal: pride vs guilt) X 2 (self construal: independent vs interdependent) between-subjects factorial experiment to examine how different self-construal levels affect emotional appeals in organ donation messages. The results revealed that regardless of self-construal levels, autonomy mediated the relationship between emotion and attitudes toward organ donation. Also, pride appeal messages generated more autonomy than guilt appeal messages, leading to more positive attitude toward organ donation. Furthermore, after controlling for autonomy, those participants primed with an independent self-construal preferred pride appeal messages more than they did guilt appeal messages. These findings offer important theoretical and applied implications and provide a robust avenue for future research.

“Feminazis,” “libtards,” “snowflakes,” and “racists”: Trolling and the Spiral of Silence • Victoria LaPoe; Candi Carter Olson, Utah State University • Using a mixed methods Qualtrics survey of 338 Twitter and Facebook users, the authors explore the impact that the 2016 election had on people’s political posts both before and after the election and whether or not people actually experienced harassment and threats during the election cycle. This article argues that the internet constitutes a digital public sphere. If trolling causes people—particularly women, LGBTQIA community members, and people who identify with a disability—to censor themselves because they feel their opinion is in the minority or that they will be attacked for stating their ideas, then it would follow that trolling is changing our public sphere, which is affecting our political conversations in a profound way.

Coverage of Physician-Assisted Death: Framing of Brittany Maynard • Sean Baker; Kimberly Lauffer • In 2014, Brittany Maynard, 29, diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, moved from California to Oregon, one of only three U.S. states with legal physician-assisted death, so she could determine when she would die. This paper examines how mainstream U.S. media framed Brittany Maynard’s choice to use physician aid in dying, arguing that although frames initially focused on the event, they transformed into thematic coverage of issues underlying her choice.

Do Political Participation and Use of Information Sources Differ by Age? • Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; An-Pang Lu; Yitsen Chiu, National Chengchi University • Most studies on the connection between offline and online political participation either focused on young citizens or treated age as a continuous variable. Many of them also used a limited local sample. This survey study employed a national sample to examine the effects of age and information sources on offline and online political participation. The relationship between age and offline/online participation does not appear to be linear, which has important implications for future studies.

Discussing HPV Vaccination: Ego-centric social networks and perceived norms among young men • Wan Chi Leung, University of Canterbury • This study examined the role of social norms in influencing young men’s support for the HPV vaccination. A survey of 656 young adult males in the United States indicated that the perceived injunctive norm was more powerful in predicting support for the HPV vaccination for males than the perceived descriptive norm. The average tie strength in their ego-centric discussion networks for sexual matters, and the heterogeneity of the discussants significantly predict the injunctive norm.

The effects of message desirability and first-person perception of anti-panhandling campaigns on prosocial behaviors • Joon Soo Lim, Syracuse University; Jiyoung Lee • The current research examined the third-person effect (TPE) of anti-panhandling campaign messages. It tested both perceptual and behavioral hypotheses of the TPE. A survey was administered to 660 participants recruited from Mechanical Turk’s Master Workers. The results demonstrate the robustness of third-person perceptions for persuasive campaign messages. We also learned that the magnitudes of TPP for anti-panhandling campaign messages could be moderated by message desirability. Analyzing the behavioral component of TPE, the current study adds empirical evidence that presumed influence of positive social campaign on oneself can make the audience engage in prosocial behaviors as well as promotional behaviors.

The third person effect on Twitter: How partisans view Donald Trump’s campaign messages • Aimee Meader, Winthrop University; Matthew Hayes, Winthrop University; Scott Huffmon, Winthrop University • A telephone poll of Southern respondents in the United States tested the third person effect by comparing partisan perceptions about Donald Trump’s tweets during the 2016 presidential election. Results show that the third person effect was strong for Democrats who viewed the tweets as unfavorable, but diminished for Republicans who viewed the tweets as favorable. Additionally, Republicans’ estimation of media influence on themselves was comparable to Democrats’ perceptions, but estimations of Democrats varied by Party.

‘Where are the children?’: The framing of adoption in national news coverage from 2014 through 2016 • Cynthia Morton; Summer Shelton, University of Florida • Pilot research explored three specific questions: 1) what frames are represented in print news stories about adoption?; 2) which frames are most prevalent in their representation?; and, 3) what implications can be made about the effect of combination of the news frames and their frequency on audience perceptions? A qualitative content analysis was conducted. The findings suggest that print news’s coverage of the child adoption issue leans toward legal/legality and child welfare/work frames. Implications on adoption perceptions and the potential impact on individuals influenced by adoption are discussed.

Exemplification of Child Abduction in U.S. News Media: Testing Media Effects on Parental Perceptions and Assessment of Risk • Jane Weatherred, University of South Carolina; Leigh Moscowitz, University of South Carolina • Despite decades of research, public misperceptions persist about the threat of child abductions in the U.S. Because prior research reveals that parental perceptions of child abduction are mediated by news coverage, this study offers one of the only experimental designs that found links between media coverage and parental perceptions of child abductions, advancing the literature on exemplification theory. This study advances our understanding of how media coverage can impact public perceptions of crime.

Sharing Values vs. Valuing Shares: A Communication Model a Social-Financial Capital • Paige Odegard; Thomas Gallegos; Chris DeRosier, Colorado State University; Jennifer Folsom, Colorado State University; Elizabeth Tilak, Colorado State University; Nicholas Boehm, Colorado State University; Chelsea Eddington, Colorado State University; Cindy Christen, Colorado State University • Emphasizing the shift in priority placed on social, financial, and professional capital in an era of technological growth, this paper proposes the Communication Model of Social-Financial Capital (CMSFC). The paper discusses the effects of innate and acquired identities, and values on preference for social, financial, and professional capital, which in turn affect preference for social media platforms. Finally, the paper discusses how the model is applicable in realistic settings and suggests next steps for empirical validation.

Understanding antecedents of civic engagement in the age of social media: from the perspective of efficacy beliefs • Siyoung Chung; KyuJin Shim; Soojin Kim, Singapore Management University • This study examines three efficacy beliefs— political self-efficacy, political collective efficacy and knowledge sharing efficacy—as antecedents of social media use and civic engagement. Employing more than one thousand samples in Singapore, we empirically test (a) a conceptual framework that can provide an understanding of the relationship between the three types of efficacy and civic engagement and (b) the underlying mechanism through which the three types of efficacy beliefs affect civic engagement via social media. The findings suggest that the current civic engagement is characterized by excessive use of social media. Also, the study implicates knowledge sharing efficacy was found to play an important role in mediating the relationships between social media and political self-efficacy, political collective efficacy, respectively.

Online Surveillance’s Effect on Support for Other Extraordinary Measures to Prevent Terrorism • Elizabeth Stoycheff; Kunto Wibowo, Wayne State University; Juan Liu, Wayne State University; Kai Xu, Wayne State University • The U.S. National Security Agency argues that online mass surveillance has played a pivotal role in preventing acts of terrorism on U.S. soil since 9/11. But journalists and academics have decried the practice, arguing that the implementation of such extraordinary provisions may lead to a slippery slope. As the first study to investigate empirically the relationship between online surveillance and support for other extraordinary measures to prevent terrorism, we find that perceptions of government monitoring lead to increased support for hawkish foreign policy through value-conflict associations in memory that prompt a suppression of others’ online and offline civil liberties, including rights to free speech and a fair trial. Implications for the privacy-security debate are discussed.

Audiences’ Acts of Authentication: A Conceptual Framework • Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University; Richard Ling, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Oscar Westlund; Andrew Duffy, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Debbie Goh, Nanyang Technological University Singapore • Through an analysis of relevant literature and open-ended survey responses from 2,501 Singaporeans, this paper proposes a conceptual framework to understand how individuals authenticate the information they encounter on social media. In broad strokes, we find that individuals rely on both their own judgment of the source and the message, and when this does not adequately provide a definitive answer, they turn to external resources to authenticate news items.

Committed participation or flashes of action? Bursts of attention to climate change on Twitter • Kjerstin Thorson, Michigan State University; Luping Wang, Cornell University • We explore participation in bursts of attention to the climate issue on Twitter over a period of five years. Climate advocacy organizations are increasingly focused on mobilizations of issue publics as a route to pressure policy makers. A large Twitter data set shows that attention to climate on Twitter has been growing over time. However, we find little evidence of a “movement” on Twitter: there are few users who participate in online mobilizations over time.

Is the Tweet Mightier than the Quote? Testing the Relative Contribution of Crowd and Journalist Produced Exemplars on Exemplification Effects • Frank Waddell, University of Florida • What happens when journalist selected quotes conflict with the sentiment of online comments? An experiment (N = 276) was conducted to answer this question using a 3 (quote valence: positive vs. negative vs. no quote control) x 3 (comment valence: positive vs. negative vs. no comment control) design. Results revealed that online comments only affect news evaluations in the presence of positive rather than negative quotes. Implications for exemplification theory and online news are discussed.

Ideological Objectivity or Violated Expectations? Testing the Effects of Machine Attribution on News Evaluation • Frank Waddell, University of Florida • Automation now serves an unprecedented role in the production of news. Many readers possess high expectations of these “robot journalists” as objective and error free. However, does news attributed to machines actually meet these expectations? A one-factor experiment (human source vs. machine source) was conducted to answer this question. News attributed to robots was evaluated less positively than news attributed to humans. Attribution effects were invariant between individuals scoring low and high in anthropomorphic tendency.

Express Yourself during the Election Season: Study on Effects of Seeing Disagreement in Facebook News Feeds • Meredith Wang, Washington State University; Porismita Borah; Samuel Rhodes • The 2016 election was characterized by intense polarization and acrimony not only on the debate stage and television airwaves, but also on social media. Using panel data collected during 2016 U.S. Presidential election from a national sample of young adults, current study tests how opinion climate on social media affect ones’ political expression and participation. Result shows disagreement on Facebook encourages young adults to express themselves and further participate in politics. Implications are discussed.

Won’t you be my (Facebook) neighbor? Community communication effects and neighborhood social networks • Brendan Watson, Michigan State University • This paper examines the effect of neighborhood social context, specifically the degree of racial pluralism, on the number of residents who use Facebook to connect with their local neighborhood association to follow issues affecting their community. Analysis is based on a new “community communication effects” approach, replacing the city-wide analysis of prior studies with an analysis of neighborhood data more likely to influence users of newer, participatory communication platforms. Results suggest more complicated, non-linear effects than theorized by the existing literature. Some degree of neighborhood heterogeneity is necessary to create interest in neighborhood issues and spur mediated as opposed to interpersonal communication among neighbors. But too much heterogeneity is associated with a decline in following neighborhood associations on Facebook. The paper identifies where that tipping point occurs and discusses practical and theoretical implications.

The needle and the damage done: Framing the heroin epidemic in the Cincinnati Enquirer • Erin Willis, University of Colorado – Boulder; Chad Painter, University of Dayton • This case study focuses on the Cincinnati Enquirer’s coverage of the heroin epidemic. The Enquirer started the first heroin beat in 2015, and it could serve as a model for other news organizations. Reporters used combinations of episodic, thematic, public health, and crime and law enforcement frames in their coverage. These news frames are discussed in terms of how individualism-collectivism, geographic location, available resources, and social determinants inform journalistic and societal discussions of the heroin epidemic in terms of solutions instead of responsibility or blame.

Suicide and the Media: How Depictions Shape our Understanding of Why People Die by Suicide • Joyce Wolburg, Marquette University; Shiyu Yang; Daniel Erickson; Allysa Michaelsen • The contagion effect of the media upon suicide is well documented, given that suicide rates tend to increase following heavy news coverage of a death by suicide. However, much less is known about the influence that the media has upon attitudes and beliefs about suicide, particularly our understanding of why people choose to die by suicide and our tendency to lay blame for suicidal acts. Using text analysis, this study identifies and describes seven reoccurring themes across the entertainment media—in both drama and comedy—that address the reasons people die by suicide. Further analysis demonstrates how blame is assigned. Conclusions are drawn regarding the overall social impact, especially on the surviving friends, family, therapists, etc.

MOELLER STUDENT COMPETITION
How U.S. Newspapers Frame Animal Rights Issue: A Content Analysis of News Coverage in U.S. • Minhee Choi; Nanlan Zhang • Analyzing newspaper articles, this study explores how American newspapers have framed the issue of animal rights. Results indicate that news stories were more likely to present animal rights as a legal and policy issue, rather than a political and an economic issue, talking primarily about illegality of animal mistreatment and radicalized animal rights activists. Based upon the notion of frame building, this study also examines some factors that may influence the media’s selective use of frames.

Moeller Student Competition • Framing the Taxpaying-Democratization Link: Evidence from Cross-National Newspaper Data • Volha Kananovich • This study explores the relationship between the nature of the political regime and the framing of the construct of a taxpayer in the national press. Based on a computer-assisted analysis of articles from 87 newspapers in 51 countries, it demonstrates that the less democratic a country is, the more likely it is for the press to frame a taxpayer as a subordinate to the state, by discussing taxpaying in enforcement rather than public spending terms.

Moeller Student Competition • Who is Responsible for Low-Fertility in South Korea? • Won-ki Moon, University of South Carolina; Joon Kim, University of South Carolina, Columbia • This study investigated how South Korean newspapers have presented low fertility, specifically focusing on how newspapers attribute responsibility to society or individuals. Through a content analysis of South Korean newspapers (N = 499), we found that the newspapers were focusing heavily on societal-level causes and solutions when talking about low fertility. Among potential causes of and solutions for low fertility, insufficient government aids and financial incentives were mentioned most often.

STUDENT COMPETITION
Online Conversations during an Emergent Health Threat: A Thematic Analysis of Tweets during Zika Virus Outbreak • Alexander Moe, Texas Tech University; Julie Gerdes, Texas Tech University; Joseph Provencher, Texas Tech University; Efren Gomez, Texas Tech University • “Days after the World Health Organization declared an outbreak of Zika in Brazil a global emergency on February 2, 2016, United States President Barack Obama responded by requesting over $1.8 billion in Zika research and prevention funds from Congress. This event put the under-researched disease on the radar of American citizens. The present study examines a set of over 70,000 public Tweets during the days surrounding Obama’s request to understand how Twitter users in the States made sense of the emerging infectious disease.

Understanding why American Christians are intolerant toward Muslims: Christian nationalism and partisan media selection • Kwansik Mun • This paper seeks to explain the formation of political intolerance by reviewing theoretical arguments on Christian nationalism and selective exposure theories. Our analysis confirms the significant relationship between Christian nationalism and ideological news selection, and the mediated effect of ideological news media on both perceived threats and political intolerance toward Muslims.

The “Primed” Third-Person Effect of Racial Minority Portrayals in Media • Jiyoun Suk, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study explores how priming of different levels of media effects (either strong or weak) influences the third-person effect of media portrayals of African Americans. Through an online posttest-only control group experiment, results show that priming strong media effects heightened perceived media effects on in-group and out-group others, but not on the self. Also, it was the perceptions of in-group others, after reading the strong media effects message, that led support for media literacy education.

Beyond Passive Audience Members: Online Public Opinions in Transitional Society • yafei Zhang, The University of Iowa; Chuqing Dong • This study examined audience members’ online comments of a popular TV news program featuring controversial social issues in the contemporary Chinese society. Findings suggested that audience members expressed more negative comments, substantial cognitive recognition, and constructive suggestions towards the government, elite class, and media. The pluralistic and legitimate public opinions expanded the literature on online public discourse in transitional societies. Audience members as citizens in the formation of public spheres were also discussed.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Law and Policy 2017 Abstracts

OPEN COMPETITION
‘Famous in a Small Town’: Indeterminacy and Doctrinal Confusion in Micro Public Figure Doctrine • Matthew Bunker, University of Alabama • The determination of which defamation plaintiffs are public figures is frequently outcome-determinative in libel litigation. Yet courts are wildly inconsistent in their rulings on what this paper refers to as micro public figures – individuals who have achieved notoriety within a small geographic area or within a particular cultural niche. Should such plaintiffs be characterized as all-purpose public figures? This paper analyzes the case law and offers a more precise approach to this problem.

Gag Clauses and the Right to Gripe: The Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016 • Clay Calvert, University of Florida • This paper examines new legislation, including the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act signed into law in December 2016, targeting non-disparagement clauses in consumer contracts. Such “gag clauses” typically either prohibit or punish the posting of negative reviews of businesses on websites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. The paper asserts that state and federal statutes provide the best means, from a pro-free expression perspective, of attacking such clauses, given the disturbingly real possibility that the First Amendment has no bearing on contractual obligations between private parties.

Social Media Under Watch: Privacy, Free Speech, and Self-Censorship in Public Universities • Shao Chengyuan • This study examines social media monitoring in the case of two large Southeast public universities. One university has been using a social media monitoring program for years; the other has not adopted this new form of monitoring technology. In this survey, students were asked about their perception and acceptance of monitoring from the university, their concern for online privacy, support for online free speech, and experience with cyberbullying. This study explores the relationships among attitude toward online privacy and online free speech, perception and acceptance of monitoring, and willingness to self-censor when speaking on social media. The correlation analysis showed that the more one is concerned about online privacy and supports online free speech, the less likely that person would regard social media monitoring as acceptable. While those who were more concerned about online privacy were more likely to self-censor, those who were more supportive of online free speech were less likely to self-censor. Most important, this survey found that perception of monitoring was not positively correlated with self-censorship, which goes against the assumption that awareness of surveillance from an authority would cause self-censorship. In addition, this study found that, while 85 percent of the surveyed students use social media on daily basis, more than 60 percent were not greatly concerned about social media monitoring from the university and the government. Implications for studies on social media monitoring and direction for future research are discussed.

Don’t Bother: How Exemption 3 of the Freedom of Information Act Enables an Irrebuttable Presumption of Surveillance Secrecy • Benjamin W. Cramer, Pennsylvania State University • The Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (FOIA) gives American citizens a legally-protected procedure to request documents from federal agencies in the Executive Branch and to appeal denied requests. However, the Act acknowledges that some government-held information should remain undisclosed for purposes of safety or security, so the act has exemptions mandating that certain categories of information can be withheld. Exemption 3 states that a federal agency can withhold a document that has already been deemed non-disclosable in a different statute. Exemption 3 is often used by agencies that are involved in traditional national security practices and the controversial modern techniques of pervasive electronic surveillance, as justification for keeping information on those practices secret. This is possible because there are many other statutes in the security field that already allow those types of documents to be withheld in the event of a citizen request, and FOIA Exemption 3 does not allow flexibility in how those statutes are interpreted. This has allowed agencies to exercise greater discretion toward information that they do not wish to disclose to citizens, while the judiciary has almost uniformly deferred to agency discretion. This article will argue that Exemption 3 has inadvertently made the security and surveillance establishment more secretive, creating a nearly irrebuttable presumption that documents must not be disclosed to citizens or journalists.

Who Should Regulate? Testing the Influence of Policy Sources on Support for Regulations on Controversial Media • Kyla Garrett Wagner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Allison Lazard, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Policy research has explored the relationship between perceived effects of controversial media exposure and support for regulations on controversial media, but it has yet to examine how the source of these regulations impacts support. Therefore, this study used a between-subjects experiment to explore how sources of media policies (government vs. industry) influence support for a media policy. Two policy were used: one on pornography and one on violent video games. Other potential predictors of policy support (source credibility, attitudes, and beliefs) were also assessed. We found that while the source of a media policy did not influence support for a media policy, perceived credibility of the policy source and personal beliefs and attitudes about the controversial media were significant predictors of support for a media policy. However, these variables influenced support for the two media policies differently. This study suggests 1) policymakers should assess regulations on controversial media individually to understand what will gain social support for a policy, and 2) future research is needed to explain the differences in these variables across media policies.

Depictions of Obscene Content: How Internet Culture and Art Communities Can Influence Federal Obscenity Law • Austin Linfante, Ohio University • A recent decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, United States v. Handley (S.D. Iowa 2008), complicates how current obscenity law (notably the PROTECT Act of 2003) can prosecute depictions of obscene content. These would include any sort of artwork or simulation that simulates or uses fictional characters to depict otherwise obscene material without using or harming any real-life living beings. This paper will first look at previous court cases, laws and academic literature to determine how obscene content as well as depictions of obscene content have been ruled in the past in terms of whether or not they are protected speech. This will also include examining how online art communities such as DeviantArt and FurAffinity police themselves when it comes to this type of content. There will also be a discussion about how specific types of obscene content like child pornography and bestiality affect a viewer’s likelihood to commit sex crimes themselves. Afterwards, this paper will present the case behind expanding current federal law on obscene content to include depictions of this type of obscene behavior. These model laws will all be based on how large art communities currently police this kind of content. This should ultimately lead to preventing future sex crimes against children and animals as well as provide effective obscenity law.

A Gap in the Shield? Reporter’s Privilege in Civil Defamation Lawsuits 2005-2016 • Meghan Menard-McCune, LSU • The purpose of this study is to determine how state courts and legislatures have addressed reporter’s privilege in civil defamation cases. After an analysis of court cases in six states, the study found three issues relating to reporter’s privilege that the courts addressed: 1) The state shield law’s definitions of news and news media 2) The waiver of the shield law and the protection of unpublished material 3) The shield law’s defamation exception.

“Oligopoly of the Facts”? Media Ownership of News Images • Kathleen Olson, Lehigh University • This paper examines the use of the idea/expression dichotomy, the fair use doctrine and the First Amendment in cases involving news organizations suing for copyright infringement over the use of their news images, including photographs, film and video footage.

Voting Booth or Photo Booth?: Ballot Selfies and Newsgathering Protection for User-Generated Content • Kristen Patrow • This paper addresses whether ballot selfies qualify for First Amendment protection. The analysis includes both newsgathering and speech claims. Snapchat filed an amicus brief in the First Circuit case, Rideout v. Gardner. The work concentrates on Snapchat’s contention that user-generated work is newsgathering activity. The paper reviews cases on newsgathering during elections and the voting process. The analysis shows that ballot selfies are best understood as a hybrid of speech and access rights.

Say this, not that: government regulation and control of social media • Nina Brown, Syracuse University/Newhouse; jon peters • Internet law and policy discussions are converging on the problem of fake news and the idea that “the private sector has a shared responsibility to help safeguard free expression.” They have also raised the possibility of federal government intervention. This article advances those discussions by exploring what Congress could do to enact legislation requiring social media platforms to remove fake news—and whether that would be prudent. It also explores the First Amendment’s role in the private sector.

The Heat is On: Thermal Sensing and Newsgathering – A Look at the Legal Implications of Modern Newsgathering • Roy Gutterman, Syracuse University; Angela Rulffes, Syracuse University • Thermal imaging technology, which was once used primarily by the military, has made its way into the civilian world. Journalists have already begun making use of the technology, and as that use becomes more prevalent concerns about legal issues also arise. This paper, relying on tort privacy cases, Fourth Amendment case law, and theoretical conceptualizations of privacy, provides an in-depth examination of the legal implications surrounding the use of thermal imaging devices for newsgathering.

Lock or Key: Does FOIA Sufficiently Open the Right to Information? • Tyler Prime, Arizona State University; Joseph Russomanno, Arizona State University • A year after the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Freedom of Information Act was observed, criticism of – and disappointment in – the law is significant. Though written with the strong guidance of journalists, FOIA, according to many, has failed to live up to its initial promise of peeling back the layers that too often shroud the federal government in secrecy, and allowing the news media and other citizens to contribute first-hand to the democracy. The United States was only the third nation to pass such a law, but during the half-century since then, the nation has slipped to 51st among world nations by one measure in right to information. FOIA is much to blame. Issues with response rates, unorganized systems and subjective interpretations of the act and its exemptions have combined to lock information from public access rather than acting as the key it was intended to be. This paper utilizes data from annual federal agency FOIA reports to the attorney general from 2008 to 2015. This information indicates that across multiple metrics, FOIA has increasingly struggled to fulfill and often failed to provide records to requesting parties. The trends revealed suggest that significant overhaul is necessary. Rather than prescribing another round of amendments that are little more than Band-Aids on a withering dinosaur, this paper concludes with a detailed set of recommendations – highlighted by a crowd-sourced request database – that move far from FOIA’s original paper-based model that still rests at its analog core.

The Protection of Privacy in the Middle East – A Complicated Landscape • Amy Kristin Sanders, Northwestern University in Qatar • “throughout the Middle East – erroneously viewed by many outsiders as a homogenous region steeped in conservative Islamic culture – the legal landscape varies dramatically with regard to privacy. This article discusses the many influences that have shaped the legal culture throughout the region, which has drawn inspiration from the British Common Law approach, the European Civil Law heritage and centuries of Islamic thought. The result is unique legal environment that blends together traditional religious values, the impact of decades of colonialism and the recent effects of global interconnectedness as a result of the Internet and social media. Not surprisingly then, the legal framework surrounding the protection of privacy is intricate. It would be much easier to allude to the Middle East in sweeping generalizations, dividing it simply into the Levant countries on the western side and the Gulf countries on the eastern shore. But, that approach fails to address the peculiarities that exist from country to country. Although space constraints require painting with a broad brush, this article endeavors to shed light whenever possible on the region’s similarities and differences by using specific examples from countries. Recognizing the enormous undertaking that would be necessary to catalog each and every law pertaining to privacy across 14 nations, this article instead lays out a comparative framework – highlighting the influences of the common law and civil law traditions on the legal framework throughout the Middle East. It provides a high-level overview of privacy law as it exists throughout the Middle East – comparing various sources of law from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. In addition, a substantive case study highlights important recent developments and helps foreshadow coming trends in the region.”

Killer Apps: Vanishing messages, encrypted communications, and the challenges to freedom of information laws • Daxton Stewart, TCU • In the early weeks of the new presidential administration, White House staffers were communicating among themselves and leaking to journalists using apps such as Signal and Confide, which allow users to encrypt messages or to make them vanish after being received. By using these apps, government officials are “going dark” by avoiding detection of their communications in a way that undercuts freedom of information laws. In this paper, the author explores the challenges presented by encrypted and ephemeral messaging apps when used by government employees, examining three policy approaches — banning use of the apps, enhancing existing archiving and record-keeping practices, or legislatively expanding quasi-government body definitions — as potential ways to manage the threat to open records laws these “killer apps” present.

Knowledge Will Set You Free (from Censorship): Examining the Effects of Legal Knowledge and Other Editor Characteristics on Censorship and Compliance in College Media • Lindsie Trego, UNC-Chapel HIll • Issues of censorship in higher education have lately been common in the news, however it is unclear to what degree college newspapers experience external influences. This study uses an online survey of public college newspaper editors to examine specific censorship practices experienced by newspaper editors at public colleges, as well as editor compliance with these practices. Further, this study explores how personal characteristics of editors might influence perceptions of and compliance with censorship practices.

First Amendment Metaphors: From “Marketplace” to “Free Flow of Information” • Morgan Weiland, Stanford University • As cognitive linguist George Lakoff has shown, metaphors play a central role in structuring what humans understand as possible. In the First Amendment context, the central organizing metaphor for how judges, scholars, and the public understand the freedom of expression is as a “marketplace.” But little scholarly attention has been paid to a second metaphor that animates the Supreme Court’s thinking about expressive freedoms: the “free flow of information.” This paper’s project and contribution is to recover the free flow metaphor in the Court’s First Amendment doctrine, spanning over 40 opinions dating to the 1940s. This paper reviews every First Amendment opinion in which the Court used the metaphor, finding that the metaphor, by providing a new architecture that structures—and limits—how it is possible to think about who or what counts as a speaker, what qualifies as speech, what the proper role for the press is, and what role the state can play in the expressive environment, undergirds the Court’s development of libertarian theories of speech and the press. Understanding the free flow metaphor’s conceptual structure matters not only because it reveals a shift in the deeper logic of rights and responsibility undergirding the freedoms of expression, a perspective unavailable when looking at the doctrine through the marketplace metaphor’s lens. It also provides a better framework for understanding and fixing the contemporary expressive environment online because some of the most pressing social problems—cyberbullying and fake news—make more sense when assessed through the free flow metaphor’s framework.

Fake News and the First Amendment: Reconciling a Disconnect Between Theory and Doctrine • Sebastian Zarate, University of Florida; Austin Vining, University of Florida; Stephanie McNeff, University of Florida • This paper analyzes calls for regulating so-called “fake news” through the lens of both traditional theories of free expression – namely, the marketplace of ideas and democratic self-governance – and two well-established First Amendment doctrines, strict scrutiny and underinclusivity. The paper argues there is, at first glance, a seeming disconnect between theory and doctrine when it comes to either censoring or safeguarding fake news. The paper contends, however, that a structural-rights interpretation of the First Amendment offers a viable means of reconciling theory and doctrine. A structural-rights approach focuses on the dangers of collective power in defining the truth, rather than on the benefits that messages provide to society or individuals. Ultimately, a structural-rights interpretation illustrates why, at the level of free-speech theory, the government must not censor fake news.

DEBUT FACULTY PAPER COMPETITION
Half the Spectrum: A Title IX Approach to Broadcast Ownership Regulation • Caitlin Carlson, Seattle University • Women make up half of the U.S. population yet own less than eight percent of commercial television and radio broadcast licenses. This is incredibly problematic given the important role women’s media production and ownership plays in the feminist movement. Mass media set the agenda for public debate, frames issues, and primes viewers with the frameworks they should use to evaluate those issues. Women’s greater participation at ownership levels would enable women to speak publicly about their experience, which could substantially alter the agenda set by mass media or shift the frames used to interpret current events. For its part, the FCC has been trying for the past 40 years to address the absence of women and people of color from media ownership. However, in 2016 the Commission rejected race- or gender-based considerations in favor of privileging independent media organizations as the most effective way to achieve viewpoint diversity. Given the failure of the FCC to fix the problem, I argue here that a radical new approach is needed. Using Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 a guide, I propose that legislation be developed that prohibits denying members of either sex the chance to participate in broadcast media organizations, which like educational institutions, receive financial benefits from the federal government. Here, I liken broadcast licenses to federal funds and propose that failure to comply with this anti-discrimination policy could result in license removal.

China’s personal information protection in a data-driven economy: A privacy policy study of Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent • Tao Fu • China’s Internet companies are expanding their businesses at home and abroad with huge consumer data at hand. However, in the global data-driven economic and technological competition, China’s personal information protection is behind that of the West. By content analyzing the online privacy policies of leading Chinese Internet and information service providers (IISPs) – Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, this study found their privacy policies to be generally compliant with China’s personal information protection provisions. The three IISPs used proper mechanisms showing their commitment, measures, and enforcement to data security but their Fair Information Practices need further improvement. The ecosystem of personal information protection in China is severe and users need privacy literacy. Privacy policies in this study offer more about ‘notice’ than they do ‘choice’. Chinese IISPs collect and use information extensively in the guise of providing value to the user. Societal mechanisms such as joining a third-party, seal-of-approval program and technological mechanisms such as using a standardized format for privacy policies have not been widely sought by Chinese IISPs. Lagging behind their global acquisition and operation, Chinese IISPs’ efforts in personal information protection have given insufficient consideration to transborder data flow, and to change of ownership. Recommendations were offered.

Reforming the Lifeline Program: Regulatory Federalism in Action? • Krishna Jayakar; EUN-A PARK, Institute for Information Policy at Pennsylvania State University • This paper considers whether common national standards for determining participants’ eligibility and designating service providers in the Lifeline program are preferable to a decentralized system where state utility commissions have greater influence over these program parameters. Two recent decisions of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a 2016 Order and its reversal in March 2017, on the designation of Eligible Telecommunications Carriers to provide broadband Lifeline service, centered on this question. Statistical analysis of program data demonstrates that state-by-state variations in enrollment may be attributed to state-level policy actions, after controlling for alternative demographic and economic explanations. On the premise that state-by-state variations in participation rates in a federal program are unfair because they burden consumers solely based on their location, this paper concludes in favor of national standards.

The Medium is the Message: Digital Aesthetics and Publicity Interests in Interactive Media • Michael Park, Syracuse University • Recent application of the right of the publicity doctrine to interactive media has led to inconsistent rulings and uncertainty to the doctrine’s scope, when pitted against First Amendment considerations. These recent court decisions have inadequately explained the disparate application, and this uneven application of legal principles raises serious free speech concerns for expressive activities with other emerging interactive media platforms such as virtual reality. However, these recent decisions have unveiled discernible principles that help explain the disparate approach of the right of publicity doctrine to new interactive media. This article articulates the assumptions guiding the disparate application of the doctrine. This article begins with a historical overview of the right of publicity doctrine and the various approaches adopted by the courts. It will then focus its attention on the transformative work test and address the recent analytical pivot—from a holistic examination of the work to a myopic focus on the individual avatar—by employing a natural rights theory argument to explain the courts’ narrow approach to transformativity. Furthermore, this paper makes the case that the courts’ discordant doctrinal treatment of interactive games is premised in the misplaced notion that the medium lacks artistry and authorial signature (i.e. interactive games are not art, but rather craft). Finally, this work advances the argument that while today’s interactive games present rich historical and pedagogical content, courts have failed to adequately apply common law and statutory exemptions that include not only news, but works of fiction, entertainment, public affairs and sports accounts.

The Privilege That Never Was: The Curious Case of Texas’ Third-Party Allegation Rule • Kenneth Pybus, Abilene Christian University; Allison Brown, Abilene Christian University • Beginning in 1990, the year the Supreme Court of Texas decided McIlvain v. Jacobs, journalists and media lawyers alike operated under the belief that news outlets in Texas had a powerful protection against libel lawsuits when reporting third-party allegations about matters of public concern. Relying on McIlvain, appeals courts cited the “third-party allegation rule” time and again when finding in favor of media defendants. But, after more than two decades, the Supreme Court threw the state’s libel jurisprudence into discord by ruling in 2013 that the third-party allegation rule didn’t exist in common law and, in fact, never had existed. A corrected opinion withdrew some repudiatory language but introduced more ambiguity. The Texas Legislature responded to this abrupt about-face in the summer of 2015 by crafting and passing an apparently sweeping statutory third-party allegation privilege that restores the protections journalists believed they had in such cases. Little legal scholarship has examined the circuitous history of this privilege and its powerful potential for limiting libel claims against media.

Beyond “I Agree:” Users’ Understanding of Web Site Terms of Service • Eric Robinson, University of South Carolina; Yicheng Zhu, University of South Carolina • With the ubiquitous use of websites and social media, the terms of service of these sites have increasing influence on users’ legal rights and responsilibities when using these sites. But various studies have shown that users rarely review these terms of service, usually because they are too much trouble and are often are too complex for most users to understand; one proposed solution is simplification of the language of these documents. Our experiment took advantage of a major website’s revision of its terms of service to reduce legal jargon and make them more understandable to determine whether the changes resulted in language that more effectively conveyed the intended meanings. But our results show that such changes are likely to have minimal effect, and that users generally based on understanding of what is permitted and not permitted on websites with their preconceived notions. Based on this finding, we present some proposals to address this issue.

Revisiting copyright theories: Democratic culture and the resale of digital goods • Yoonmo Sang, Howard University • This study surveys theoretical justifications for copyright and considers the implications of the notion of cultural democracy for copyright law and policy. In doing so, the study focuses on the first sale doctrine and advocates the doctrine’s expansion to digital goods after discussing policy implications of the first sale doctrine. Arguments for and against a digital first sale doctrine are followed. The study argues that democratic copyright theories, in general, and the notion of cultural democracy, in particular, can and should guide copyright reforms in conjunction with a digital first sale doctrine. This study contributes to the growing discussion of democratic theories of copyright by demonstrating their applicability to copyright policy and doctrine.

A Secret Police: The Lasting Impact of the 1986 FOIA Amendments • A.Jay Wagner, Bradley University • The 1986 amendments to the Freedom of Information Act were a passed as a last-minute rider to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the Reagan era legislative contribution to the War on Drugs policies. The amendments though small in number and limited in congressional discussion have made a lasting impact on FOIA implementation. The three pieces – a broad restructuring of Exemption 7, the law enforcement exemption; the addition of exclusions for law enforcement and intelligence requests; and introduction of a new fee structure – were aimed at addressing concerns from the law enforcement and intelligence communities and in-line with the general aims of the Anti-Drug Abuse in providing law enforcement more tools and less scrutiny in combating illicit drug production, sale and use. The paper looks to consider the amendment along two tracks. In the tradition of legal scholarship, preceding legislative efforts, judicial decision and executive messaging are pursued in an effort to understand motives and purpose of the amendment. The second track uses a dataset of cabinet-level department FOIA annual reports figures from 1975 until 2016 in exploring the ways the FOIA has been used and administered. The dataset gleaned from more than 550 annual reports traces the ways the 1986 amendment altered civic access to information on policing and national security. Presently, Exemption 7 accounts for 57 percent of all exemption claims and “no records” responses – a direct outcome of exclusions – account for the closure of 15 percent of all records processed and demonstrate massive growth after the amendment. The study demonstrates how the 1986 FOIA Reform Act has undermined the public’s ability to provide oversight of law enforcement.

Essential or Extravagant: Considering FOIA Budgets, Costs & Fees • A.Jay Wagner, Bradley University • The budgets, costs and fees of the Freedom of Information Act represent the financial lifeblood of the access mechanism but are rarely considered in scholarship. This study considers these elements of FOIA administration through a combination of traditional legal scholarship and a database composed of more than 500 FOIA annual reports, compiling 93 percent of all cabinet-level department annual reports from 1975 until present. In exploring the legislative and judicial trajectory of the costs and fees of FOIA implementation, including the illustrative Open America decision and its recognition of a lack of resources as an acceptable rationale for delay, the study questions the sincerity of FOIA administration. Lack of resources has existed as a legal claim for delay since the 1976 Open America decision, yet no statutory progress has been made since. FOIA – a galling obligation for most federal agencies – is required to compete for funding with other agency priorities among the general agency budget. There is no legislative requirement nor guideline in how FOIA is funded, and as a result, FOIA funding is remarkably low (all while the federal government countenances resource excuses). Analysis of FOIA annual report data uncovers little in the way of consistent or coherent system in costs accrued, fees collected, staffing measures and general usage data. The study aims to take a small step in asking big questions about how and why FOIA is financed in the manner it is, and, further, whether such lack of funding and oversight demonstrates insincerity on the government’s part.

State-level Policies for Personal Financial Disclosure: Exploring the Potential for Public Engagement on Conflict-of-Interest Issues • John Wihbey, Northeastern University; Mike Beaudet, Northeastern University • This paper examines personal financial disclosure practices required for public officials across U.S. states and finds that more than 80 percent of states rate poorly when evaluated on a set of objective criteria. A “disclosure degree” score is calculated for each state; these scores are then brought together with a related set of measures to evaluate transparency more broadly for public officials in each state. Levels of public corruption in each state are also considered. For financial disclosure to be meaningful, we argue, three interconnected areas must be evaluated: First, the precision of the information required by law to be disclosed; second, the degree of openness and relevance of information toward the detection of conflicts of interest; third, the degree to which institutional monitors – prosecutors, news media, ethics commissions – can generate public knowledge.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Graduate Student 2017 Abstracts

Twitter Building the Agenda: How Journalists Use Twitter as a Source While Reporting • Kaitlin Bane, University of Oregon • With a U.S. president infamous for tweeting, it is becoming exceedingly important for scholars to study and understand how the medium is influencing news reporting. Using quantitative content analysis this paper examines the use of tweets as quotes in web-only news organizations compared to traditional print organizations. Findings show that while print outlets most often use Twitter to quote official sources and for opinion comments, web-only news organizations use the medium differently.

Yoga in Media! Using Theory of Planned Behavior to Examine Media Influences on Intention to Practice Yoga • Nandini Bhalla, University of South Carolina • Using theory of planned behavior as a conceptual framework, this paper analyzes the association between the portrayal of yoga in media with the intention to practice yoga, for both yoga practitioners and non-practitioners. A t-test showed that yoga practitioners have a more positive attitude towards yoga media content than non-yoga practitioners and that they internalize media content more strongly than non-practitioners. Hierarchal multiple regression was used to analyze the results. Implications are discussed.

How Activism and Ethics Intersect in Public Relations: A Pilot Study • Minhee Choi • This pilot study explored how public relations practitioners’ activism is associated with their ethics in the context of corporate social responsibility and communication. Although no correlation was found between activism and ethics, results showed that practitioners with high levels of relativist ethics are less likely to be ethical in their communication. Practitioners with more than 20 years of work experience have higher levels of ethics, and practitioners in PR agencies have the lowest ethical levels compared to other sectors. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Tie Strength and Privacy Concern in Social Context Advertising • Chuqing Dong; Alexander Pfeuffer • Social context advertising is a targeting approach using social relationships to promote brands on social media. Drawing upon the concept of social influence, this study examined how social context ads displaying contacts with varying tie strengths affected brand attitude and purchase intent of consumers with differing levels of privacy concern. Regardless of consumers’ privacy concern, social context ads displaying strong ties increased purchase intent while brand attitudes remained unaffected. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

“Sources Say … He May Have Been Depressed and Angry” • Jacqueline Fellows • An increase in mass shootings in the U.S. has amplified the reporting on mental illness despite weak evidence that links the two issues. A qualitative content analysis of local newspaper coverage of five mass shootings in 2015 shows that journalists ignore professional standards and rely on nonqualified sources in stories that include mental illness as a component of mass shooting coverage. Additionally, sources frame mental illness as dangerous and/or undesirable.

What’s in your school? A content analysis of school persona creation using online messages • Dakota Horn, Illinois State University • Message framing is a key part of designing a message to influence a potential buyer or even a potential citizen within a community system. This study examines “about us” pages on school district websites within the state of Illinois to gain incite as to how and why school districts craft messages to create a persona. The examinations will breakdown goal creation of the district and execution through message features: structure, content, style, as well as the potential efficacy of the audience member. A content analysis was performed to show a common theme of message design in comparison of several school districts. The content analysis developed a theme among content creation in online messages.

Why Social Media? Examining the Motivations of Chinese University Students to Gather Public Affairs News on Social Media Platforms • Liefu Jiang, University of Kansas • Through a survey with 568 participants, this paper employs uses-and-gratifications theory to investigate Chinese university students’ public affairs news consumption on WeChat and Sina Weibo, the two most popular Chinese social media platforms. The findings suggest that students’ news reading is driven by different motivations on the two platforms. Socializing and technological-convenience positively relate to WeChat users’ news reading, while information seeking negatively relates. For Sina Weibo users, only technological-convenience positively relates to news reading.

What Drives Facebook and Instagram Users’ Emotional Attachment and Continuing Use? A Comparative Analysis of Internal and Socio-Cultural Factors • Bumsoo Kim, University of Alabama • This study investigated whether and how the internal and socio-cultural factors that differently enhance the level of intensity toward Facebook or Instagram activities and intention to continue to use the platforms. In this study, I propose individual motivations and gratifications (social interaction, entertainment, passing time, peeking, and need for recognition) and socio-cultural factors (subjective norms and SNS culture), and an online survey with 606 adults was conducted. The results showed significant differences between motivations/gratifications for intention to continue to further use Facebook compared to Instagram. The degree to which individuals have willingness to continue to use both platforms can be different depending upon what motivations they have. Individuals’ perceptual level of differences between Facebook and Instagram are important assets for SNS practitioners in developing better SNS technologies as well as for scholars in developing theories about social media use.

Asian Television and Cultural Globalization: A Critical Analysis from 2000–2015 • Dieer Liao, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University; Yueyue Liang, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University • This study examines 96 articles about Asian television and cultural globalization published in 19 major SSCI journals of communication studies from 2000–15, aiming to present a meta-analysis of relevant research in the context of international communications. It demonstrates the patterns and distribution of theoretical paradigms, flow trends, issues of concern, territory of focus, methodology, and authorship reflected in the studies surveyed through content analysis. The primary findings of this research are that the political economic framework remains the prevailing critical paradigm in this field; that the most-studied issue is structural control of the media sphere; that China-related studies amount to the largest proportion; and that the qualitative method is adopted most frequently. The highlight is that a gradual shift from in-flow to contra-flow and inter-Asia flow has been noticed, and that South Korea is found to have become the focal center of transnational studies in Asian television and cultural globalization.

Mobilizing the Umbrella Movement: An Alternative Framework of Protest in an Information Society • Zhongxuan LIN • This study takes the Umbrella Movement as a case study to investigate the media mobilizing structures of the protest in an information society. It proposes an alternative framework of “contextualized transmedia mobilization” to explore how protestors situated in a specific context employ, create, circulate, amplify, and converge various forms of media to continually mobilize themselves and the public, and, thus heighten participation levels, innovate contentious repertoires, and experiment with organizational transformation.

The Impact of Social Amplification and Attenuation of Risk: A national survey of Chinese Public Reactions Toward Middle East Respiratory Syndrome • Jiawei Liu; Zhaomeng Niu • Human beings are evolved to avoid threats to protect themselves. Threat caused by risk is a primary biological motivator in our environment and elicit automatic aversive responses. In general, people feel more aroused and pay more attention to the potential threat. Recent research studies call attention to how the public perceive the risk under the influences of multiple factors in individual and social amplification stations. This study developed a conceptual model and examined how media exposure, knowledge, as well as information seeking behavior affected lay understanding and risk perceptions toward MERS in China. In general, the results demonstrated that greater information seeking behavior could predict: 1) higher frequency of media exposure; 2) higher level of individual knowledge of MERS; 3) higher likelihood of amplifying the perceived threat of MERS.

Newspaper Coverage of Mars in the United States and the United Kingdom 2011-2016 • Mikayla Mace • A content analysis of three elite print newspapers in the United States and three in the United Kingdom found that the framing and tone of articles about Mars were deployed similarly despite the different objectives of each country’s space program. From the Apollo moon shots to human exploration of Mars, each successive era of spaceflight has been framed in a logical progression from concept to completion that resonates with the values of the times.

First Ladies: Policy Involvement, Public Approval Ratings, and Women in the Workforce • Nia Mason, Louisiana State University • Based on the theory of social influence, a mixed methods approach was used to understand the relationship between First Ladies’ policy involvement and their approval ratings, and between approval ratings and the number of women in the workforce. A textual analysis examined the first research question. A simple linear regression tested the second research question, showing a significant relationship. A Pearson correlation tested the third research question and showed a relationship of no significance.

Real or Ideal: Millennial Perceptions of Pornographic Media Realism and Influence on Relationship Assessments • Farnosh Mazandarani, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study examines pornography and whether content idealism, realism, or sexual explicitness of media genres may affect relationship assessments. Findings indicated greater consumption of pornography predicted lower sex satisfaction, perceived realism indicated higher content identification, and higher identification with pornography lead to greater pornography consumption. Participants who identified more with pornography reported higher sexual expectations. Idealization had no direct effect on relationship assessments yet showed a negative relationship on idealized media consumption on sexual expectations.

Debating What’s Natural: A Qualitative Framing Analysis of “Natural” Food Label News Coverage • Melissa McGinnis, University of Florida • The use of “natural” on food labels is a growing concern for the food industry and consumers. This qualitative framing study uses a literary approach analyzing 51 articles covering the “natural” food label debate in four U.S. nationally recognized newspapers. This study identifies stakeholders most frequently in conflict and the areas of contention in the “natural” food label debate. In addition, this study identifies the terms used to define “natural” foods.

“20 Years is Just the Other Day”: The role of genesis narrative in constructing journalism culture • Ruth Moon, University of Washington • There is evidence that political influences shape professional views, but that the specifics of local culture impact journalists’ actual practices. However, there is little research unpacking the particular ways culture impacts journalism. Using theoretical perspectives from journalism studies and organizational sociology and newsroom ethnographic data gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, I show how narratives constructed from elements of local culture and shared history function as myths that impact journalism culture on both ideological and practical levels.

Visual Framing of Dieselgate: A Content Analysis of Global News Coverage • David Morris II, University of Oregon • News coverage of an event traditionally attempts to provide the largest audience with the greatest information that would impact that audience. In their visual coverage of Volkswagen’s emission scandal commonly referred to as “Dieselgate,” newspapers from around the world seemed to fall short of this practice. This study investigates the type of visuals and themes used by more than 6,000 newspapers from news outlets across the globe in their coverage of Dieselgate. In a content analysis of newspapers’ front pages for one week following Volkswagen’s Clean Air Act of 1963 Notice of Violation, this study reveals that the dominate visual deployed by newspapers from around the world is a single photograph. The research also finds that a dominant visual theme in the newspaper coverage of Dieselgate around the world is financial in nature. Perhaps more concerning is the absence of visual representation of Dieselgate as a global environmental issue.

Effects of Brand Placement in Mobile Applications on Consumer Responses • Haseon Park, University of North Dakota • This study examined the effects of individual thinking style and ad congruency to explore the effects of native advertising on consumer responses in mobile applications. The experimental results revealed the interaction effects of nativity and thinking styles, nativity and congruency. This study findings contribute not only to the understanding of the effects of thinking styles and ad congruency in native advertising, but also to extending the scope of mobile native advertising research.

The UNC Academic Scandal: A Framing Analysis of Local Media Coverage • Matthew Stilwell, University of South Carolina • The purpose of this study is to examine how a local media outlet, The News & Observer, reported the University of North Carolina (UNC) academic scandal. This study used a framing analysis and constant-comparative methodology to analyze the dominant frames that were emphasized or resistant in local media coverage. Results indicated that multiple parties and players were the focus of the news stories. Factors including blame and athletics in higher education are discussed.

Sharing Cultural Goods on Facebook: Social Capital, Opinion Leadership, and Electronic Word-of-Mouth • Alec Tefertiller, University of Oregon • While the role of paid advertising in online environments has diminished, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become increasingly valuable. This study sought to determine if consumers’ trust in their social media network, defined as social capital, or identification as an opinion leader better predicted social media eWOM related to cultural goods. The key finding was that perceived opinion leadership consistently best predicted Facebook eWOM.

Chinese Watchdogs: Journalistic Role Performance in Chinese Media • Emeka Umejei, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa • This paper examines the relationship between journalistic role conception and role performance within Chinese media organisations based in Africa (Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television and China Daily newspaper). It contributes a non-western perspective to the debate on the relationship between role conception and role performance. The paper demonstrates the ways in which the relationship between role conception and role performance within Chinese media is hinged upon conditional autonomy in relation to the typology of stories. Furthermore, it argues the dominant practice of using survey methods in examining the relationship between journalistic role conception and role performance is not suited to contexts outside Anglo-American sphere. It therefore proposes a qualitative approach that combines semi-structured interview and qualitative content analysis in examining this relationship within contexts of limited journalistic autonomy.

Twitter as a digital union: Exploring blogger reactions to corporate collapse • Mariah Wellman, The University of Iowa • This paper asks whether Twitter can afford the formation of digital unions during labor crises using a cast study of Mode Media, a lifestyle publishing and ad network that shut down without compensating its bloggers. Through a textual analysis of tweets containing the hashtag #ModeOwesBloggers, I argue bloggers used Twitter to create a sense of solidarity in a time of struggle by advocating for change, empathizing with other bloggers, and communicating feelings to Mode Media.

Meeting the New Players: A Study of Digital Native Journalists’ Professionalism • LU WU • Digital native journalists have brought new blood and challenges to journalistic professionalism. This paper surveyed digital native journalists and legacy journalists on their three dimensions of professionalism. Findings show that digital native journalists are both preservers and transformers of journalistic professionalism. Identifying how digital native journalists differentiate from legacy journalists on aspects of professionalism has afforded some clues of how journalistic professional values and practices will develop in the future.

Social News: Enhancing Media Richness by Connecting Virtuality with Reality in Cyberspace • Yanfang Wu • Utilizing a purposeful snow-ball rolling strategy, the investigator conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews from June to July 2014. Thirteen interviewees titled journalists, convergence journalists, editors, community editors, and engagement editors, from thirteen different newsrooms of multiple platforms, varied from newspaper, radio, television, magazine to online only news organizations were interviewed. Their affiliated news organizations vary in size, from large to small. Based on media richness theory, the study shed light on how journalists, using social cues, delve into the virtual world, build connections between the “virtuality” and “reality” through finding sources, interacting with audiences, constructing virtual communities in the cyberspace and integrating the “virtuality” with the “reality” into the news production process. With its rich multimedia function that allows immediate response between journalists and audiences, social media becomes a rich medium that connects the “virtuality” to the “reality” in news.

Creating Spaces Revisited: Students Perspectives on International and Multi(inter)cultural Public Relations Education • Kiaya Young • In a global market employees need the skills to be able to work in a multicultural market. International public relation skills are becoming a necessity. Public Relations practitioners are educated on various fundamental skills through their educational programs, but there has been a lack of international and multi(inter)cultural education. This paper is a restudy of Nilajana Bardhan 2003 study Creating Spaces for International and Multi(inter)cultural Perspectives in Undergraduate Public Reactions Education

Perceptions of Advertising with Interracial Couples: The Influence of Race and Attitudes Toward Interracial Dating • Taylor Young, Oklahoma State University • The present study analyzed how models’ race or ethnicity influences attitudes toward advertising that portrays interracial couples. A survey of college students (n=309) was conducted to examine whether the type of couple (interracial or same race) or the configuration of the interracial couple (Black female – White male or Black male – White female) influenced their response. Additionally, it explored how respondents’ race or ethnicity and preexisting attitudes toward interracial dating impacted their response to the ad.

Culture, Media, and Depression: A Focus Group Study in Understanding International Students’ Mental Health Literacy • Nanlan Zhang • This study employed qualitative, in-depth focus groups with international students and U.S. students to explore their perceived mental health literacy and perceptions of information portrayed in mass media regarding depression. The results found that American students showed openness and sufficiency in talking about depression. International students assigned stigma in the Asian and African cultural values as a major barrier to discussing personal experiences regarding depression in public. Both groups held negative attitudes toward media in conveying messages about depression but showed more trust on social support, which implied a need for improving public’s mental health literacy.

2017 ABSTRACTS

Cultural and Critical Studies 2017 Abstracts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2017 ABSTRACTS

Communication Theory and Methodology 2017 Abstracts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2017 ABSTRACTS

Advertising 2017 Abstracts

OPEN COMPETITION
A Contributing Factor to the Obesity Paradox: Biological Food Cues in Food Advertisements and Packaging • Rachel Bailey, Washington State University; Jiawei Liu; Tianjiao Wang, Washington State University • This paper presents two studies that examine how food cues in advertisements and on packaging interact with ad claims and nutrition packaging information to influence encoding and storage of information and evaluations of healthiness. Results indicate that direct food cues facilitate greater perceptions of health, especially for objectively healthy food, and enhance encoding of episodic nutrition information, but may serve to inhibit the encoding and storage of information into semantic networks.

Veiled hyper-sexualization: How the Women’s Tennis Association deciphers collective identity through advertising. • Travis R. Bell, University of South Florida; Janelle Applequist, University of South Florida • This study performs a textual analysis of 36 individual images in the Women’s Tennis Association’s “Strong is Beautiful” ad campaign. The WTA constructs a collective identity of women’s professional tennis players that is empowering, yet contradictory. Instead of promoting the athletic event itself, the WTA follows the financially effective advertising model of product endorsement which deemphasizes the legitimacy of female athleticism and reifies the struggle for female athletes to justify their respective athletic credentials.

Digital Manipulations of the Human Body as a Form of Schema Incongruity in Print Ads • Mark Callister, Brigham Young University; Lesa Stern, Westmont College; Melissa Seipel, Brigham Young University; Matt Lewis • This study explores a popular form of schema violation in print advertising wherein advertisers digitally manipulate the human body through removing, adding, distorting, replacing, reshaping, or disfiguring body parts. Such manipulations are termed body disturbances and introduce a unique form on schema incongruity designed to draw attention to the ad and mark message content. Based on our lifetime of exposure to the human body’s appearance, properties, and capabilities, our schema is quite established, and the disfiguring or distorting of human body parts can carry strong emotional and physiological reactions. Results reveal that compared to non-disturbance, body disturbance ads function similar to schema incongruity reported in previous research in that violations lead to greater eye fixation duration of the visuals and motivate higher elaboration. However, the added elaboration does not result in greater recall of the body disturbance image, copy, logo, brand name, or product. While such disturbance ads are better liked, such liking does not extend to the actual brand, and actually evokes more aversive reactions than non-disturbance ads. Nonetheless, such ads were viewed as more unexpected, original, intriguing, and entertaining, but not more enjoyed than non-disturbance ads. Implications for advertisers are discussed.

Characteristics of High-Engagement Facebook Ads: A Data-Analytics Approach to Engagement, Content and Sentiment Analysis • Chetra Chap, Ohio University • In the light of two-way symmetrical communication framework (TSC), this study measured engagement of—and conducted content and sentiment analysis on—200 randomly selected Facebook advertisements (ads) to identify the characteristics of high-engagement Facebook ads. Confirming previous literature, the findings showed that advertising messages that encourage open and dialogic communication, as explained in TSC, increase ad engagement. Other ad characteristics like featured video, and positive ad sentiment were also found to create high ad engagement.

Is Snapchat a Better Place than Facebook to Advertise? • Huan Chen, University of Florida; Yoon-Joo Lee, Washington State University • The study investigated young consumers’ perception and receptivity of Snapchat advertising by using a mixed method research design. Specifically, a qualitative study was conducted to explore young consumers’ perception toward Snapchat advertising and an online survey was launched to examine young consumers’ receptivity of Snapchat advertising compared to Facebook advertising. The qualitative study revealed that young consumers showed relatively positive evaluation toward Snapchat advertising. Their preference of Snapchat advertising comes from the sense of freedom of choice. Their fondness of Snapchat advertising also comes from the subtle nature of this marketing strategy. Based on the nature and characteristic of Snapchat, events, festivals, and travel related products are perceived to be more appropriated to advertise via Snapchat. The quantitative study confirmed some findings from the qualitative study. The quantitative study further uncovered that while young consumers have a more positive attitude toward advertising on Snapchat, advertising on Facebook works better to motivate their behavioral intention of consumption. Theoretical and practical implications were offered.

Cultural difference and message strategy of global brands • Su Yeon Cho; Suman Lee • This study investigated the global brands’ Facebook message strategy and their Facebook fans’ response by assuming that there are cultural differences of message strategy and people’s response between the US (individualistic and low-context culture) and South Korea (collectivistic and high-context culture). A total of 867 Facebook messages posted by seven global brands operating in both the U.S. and South Korea were analyzed. The results showed that (1) sales/marketing messages appeared more frequently in the US Facebook than South Korea; (2) conversational messages appeared more frequently in the Korea Facebook than the US; and (3) Korean Facebook users respond more actively on sales/marketing messages than conversational messages.

Effects of Multicultural Advertising Strategies on Consumer Attitudes and Purchase Intentions • Carolyn, A. Lin, University of Connnecticut; Linda Dam, California State University, Dominguez Hills • Literature on the effects of racial congruence between consumers and spokespersons on multicultural advertising strategies demonstrates a need for a more comprehensive understanding of the social dynamics between racial groups and advertising effectiveness. Specifically, the potential role of perceived social distance – or individual acceptance of people from another racial background – has not been explored to assess consumer responses toward advertising spokespersons from different racial groups. The current study investigates whether perceived social distance between consumers and multiracial advertising spokespersons will influence consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. This research also applies two theoretical correlates of social distance – social identity and a reconceptualized perceived similarity construct – to help explain consumer decision-making processes. Using a quasi-experimental design, Caucasian participants were randomly exposed to one of three ads that featured a Caucasian, Asian or African American spokesperson. Findings indicated that perceived similarity is a positive predictor of consumer attitudes toward the spokesperson but not perceived social distance. They also showed that participants have the most positive attitudes toward the spokesperson in the African American spokesperson condition and the most favorable attitudes toward the product in the Asian American spokesperson condition. Discussion and implications are also discussed.

Tracing the Emergence and Dominance of Visual Solution Advertising: A Preliminary Study • Mel White; Sreyoshi Dey; Arthur Badalian • This preliminary research focuses upon the emergence of visual solution advertising. Analyzing print and outdoor advertisements since the 1970s, using the method of content analysis, it was observed that with the establishment of the European Union (1993) and Eurozone (1999), there was a shift towards creating advertisements that could be interpreted and understood by a diverse audience. Advertisements were found to have moved away from predominantly language based concepts to more culturally relevant visual concepts.

The Duality of Traits and Goals: An Examination of the Interplay between Consumer Personality and Regulatory Focus in Predicting Consumer Responses to Social Media Ads • Naa Amponsah Dodoo; Cynthia Morton • Along with the growth of social media has been an equal rise of social media advertising. Although personalized advertising appears to be on the rise particularly in social media, the psychological determinants of consumer responses to social media ads still warrant further inquiry. Building on three research streams, this study investigated the effect of consumer personality traits, regulatory focus and product appeal on consumer responses to social media ads. Specifically, this study assessed whether extraversion and conscientiousness functioned to influence how consumers respond to social media ads that employed message strategies highlighting regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention) and product appeal (hedonic vs. utilitarian). Experimental results indicate the main effects of personality traits on responses to social media ads. Furthermore, interaction effects were found which indicated that consumers who scored higher in extraversion were more likely to prefer prevention focus messages combined with a utilitarian product appeal relative to eWOM and purchase intention, in contrast to the proposed findings. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Measuring the Content Characteristics of Augmented Reality Advertising • Yang Feng, San Diego State University; Quan Xie, Bradley University • Despite the rise of featuring AR technology in advertising, generally accepted definitions of the content characteristics of AR advertising do not exist. This study develops and validates a measurement instrument to gauge the content characteristics of AR advertising and to provide a deep understanding of the relationship between each content feature of AR advertising and ad efficacy. To this end, possible items were generated via a review of prior literature, supplemented by content analysis, and a free-association task. The measurement instrument was then refined and validated using a pretest of a general consumer sample, and further validated using a second general consumer sample. Results indicate that the content characteristics of AR advertising can be measured using a 15-item, 4-construct (informativeness, novelty, entertainment, and complexity) index.

Factors Affecting the Performance of China’s Advertising Agencies: A Time Series Cross-Sectional Analysis • Guangchao Feng, Shenzhen University; Yuting Zhang, Jinan University; Qiuyu Hu, Jinan University; Hong Cheng, Virginia Commonwealth University • China is the world’s second-largest advertising market after the United States in terms of advertising spending since 2006. Nevertheless, how advertising agencies in China have performed and what factors have determined their performance have been understudied. Using the Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) model incorporating the agency theory and through time series cross-sectional (TSCS) analysis, we found that concentration in the advertising industry and the number of regulations have had significant negative effects on agencies’ performance. In addition, agencies with mainly foreign capital performed better did than those with only Chinese capitals. Agencies adopting strategies of going public (IPO) and ‘having name changes and merges’ performed better than those doing nothing. Implications are also discussed.

Danger or Fear? Examining Consumers’ Blocking Intention of Online Behavioral Advertising: Integration of the Persuasion Knowledge Model and the Extended Parallel Processing Model • Chang-Dae Ham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Joonghwa Lee, University of North Dakota; Soojung Kim, University of North Dakota • This study examines how consumers intend to block online behavioral advertising, looking at the role of persuasion knowledge in the simultaneous control processes of privacy infringement thereat and preventable efficacy. Integrating the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM) with the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM), this study proposes a hypothetical model that explains how consumers’ recognition of online behavioral tracking technology elicits danger and fear control processes, which in turn, motivate them to block online behavioral tracking. Using quasi-experimental design, the results revealed that consumers intended to block online behavioral tracking only when they appraised the danger of privacy infringement was significantly harmful and when they perceived they could control the blocking technology. Interestingly, perceived severity, vulnerability, and self-efficacy significantly mediated the impact of persuasion knowledge on the blocking intention; but response efficacy did not mediate the relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Catching Eyes: Dissecting Ad Disclosures of Native Advertising • Jun Heo, Louisiana State University; Soojin Kim, Louisiana State University; A-Reum Jung • This study explored how people discover, attend to, process, and identify native advertising by the types of ad disclosure. FTC’s disclosure guideline was used to identify components of ad disclosure (e.g., wording, placement, proximity, font style, size, color, effects, background, and repetition). The results of an eye-tracking experiment revealed that each of the components is related, to a different degree, to the cognitive responses to native advertising. Implications are discussed for regulators and marketers.

All They Want for Christmas: The Agenda-Setting Influence of Television Advertising on Parents’ Gift-Giving Perceptions • Steven Holiday, Texas Tech University; Mary Norman, Texas Tech University; Terri Manley, Texas Tech University; Derrick Holland, Texas Tech University; Glenn Cummins; Eric Rasmussen, Texas Tech University • This study examines the agenda-setting role of advertising in influencing parents’ Christmas season gift-giving perceptions. A content analysis of commercials in children’s programming was compared with a questionnaire of parents to test agenda-setting’s transfer of salience and contingent condition of interpersonal communication through advertising mediation and child purchase requests. Results indicate a significant transfer of salience from advertising agenda to parents’ perceptions of the most important gifts to give during the Christmas season.

The Influence of Self-Brand Congruity and Ad Position on Emotional Responses to Online Video Ads • Todd Holmes, State University of New York at New Paltz • The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of self-brand congruity and ad position and how these factors impact emotional responses to embedded online video advertisements. To achieve these aims, an online experiment was conducted based on a two (self-brand congruity) X two (ad position) between-subjects design. Self-brand congruity and ad position were found to significantly impact the pleasure and arousal dimensions of emotional response.

The Effects of Self-Imagery on Advertisement Evaluations: The Mediating Role of Sense of Presence • Wonseok (Eric) Jang, Texas Tech University; Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University; Akira Asada • The results indicate that when consumers imagined themselves as the main characters in the scene depicted in the advertisement, such imagery experience created a sense of presence in the scene, which in turn enhanced consumers’ engagement with the imagery and their evaluation of the advertisement. However, when the advertisement promoted a high-risk activity, self-imagery decreased consumers’ evaluations of the advertisement because a greater sense of presence evoked by self-imagery induced a feeling of fear.

What Components Should Be Included in Advertising Media Literacy Education?: Effect of Component Types and the Moderating Role of Age • Se-Hoon Jeong; Yoori Hwang • Exposure to advertising could result in multiple health risks, such as obesity or anorexia/bulimia. Ad media literacy education could help audiences view ads critically, and prevent the negative effects of ads. This study examined the effects of different literacy education components in an ad literacy program on children’s knowledge and criticism, and the moderating role of age. An experiment was designed with varying literacy components: (a) content literacy only, (b) content + grammar literacy, and (c) content + grammar + structure literacy. Results showed that, for younger children, there was inverted-U shaped relationship between literacy components and knowledge such that the content + grammar literacy condition was more effective than the content literacy condition and the content + grammar + structure literacy condition. However, this relationship was not observed for older children. Implications for designing effective ad literacy education programs are further discussed.

Firearms, Brass Knuckles… and Instagram: Interactive Effects of Social Media and Violent Media on Gun Control Support • Valerie Jones, Ms.; Ming Wang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • As visual social networking sites keep growing, advertising professionals and researchers are beginning to solve the puzzle of how visuals can best inform and influence audiences. Drawing up priming and desensitization theories, this study explores the mechanism through which Instagram content consumption and prior media use interact in affecting public issue support. A between groups experiment found that the Transportation Security Administration’s Instagram content increases support for gun control depending on levels of crime show and violent video game engagement.

Antecedents of Consumers’ Avoidance of Native Advertising on Social Media: Social Media-related Factors, Institution-based Trust Factors, and Ad Perceptions • Soojung Kim, University of North Dakota; Joonghwa Lee, University of North Dakota; Chang-Dae Ham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Amanda Pasierb, University of North Dakota • This study examined the antecedents of consumers’ avoidance of native advertising on social media. An online survey with 503 respondents from Amazon MTurk showed heavy social media users and consumers who perceived social media platforms as fair to display native advertising were less likely to avoid it. Trust in online advertisers contributed to reducing ad avoidance. Consumers who found native advertising less intrusive and irritating and more entertaining did not tend to avoid native advertising.

Why we #hashtag brand: Consumer motivations associated with posting brand hashtags • Gu Zhiquao; Eunice Kim, University of Florida • Hashtags (#) have received a great deal of attention from academia and industry as an effective tool for engaging consumers and facilitating electronic word-of-mouth for brands. The present study delved into motivations concerning consumers’ brand-related hashtag-posting behavior on social media. The findings revealed three consumer motivations for posting brand-related hashtags on social media: social acceptance, brand related altruism, and incentive seeking. Additionally, the study examined the relationships between motivations and consumer-brand relationship variables.

Antecedents of Skepticism toward Pro-Environmental Advertising: Application of the Persuasion Knowledge Model • Jinhee Lee; Eric Haley, University of Tennessee • The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of consumer prior experience and their coping knowledge on skepticism toward pro-environmental advertising, and to examine the mediation effects of consumer coping knowledge between consumer prior experience and skepticism. An online survey was conducted and a total 186 respondents participated in the survey. The study revealed that three types of consumer coping knowledge, such as persuasion, agent, and topic knowledge, were significantly related to their skepticism, and were interrelated to each other. In addition, the results showed that consumer prior experience with pro-environmental advertising and products affected three types of coping knowledge. Lastly, the mediation effects of consumer coping knowledge were revealed. . Based on the results, there were several theoretical and practical implications.

Is it the Ad or What Precedes it?: Responses to Ads Following Emotional Content, an Excitation Transfer Perspective • Kristen Lynch, Michigan State University; Tao Deng, Michigan State University; Olivia JuYoung Lee; Ali Hussain, Michigan State University; Emily Clark, Michigan State University; Alex Torres; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University • Based on excitation transfer theory, arousal evoked from a prior stimulus can impact the perception and emotional response subsequent stimuli (Zillman, 1971). Prior advertising research largely focused on ad-elicited emotions and memory outcomes (Bakalash, & Riemer, 2013; Hartmann, Apaolaza, D’Souza, Barrutia & Echebarria, 2014). Little attention has been given to the effects of prior emotional stimuli on processing advertising messages. This study uses a 2 (arousal: low vs. high) x 2 (valence: positive vs. negative) x 3 (ad repetition) x 3 (order) mixed factorial design to investigate the effects of prior exposure of emotional stimuli on later cognitive and affective processing of ads. It is hypothesized that exposure to prior stimuli that are high in arousal and negative valance will produce negative emotions for the preceding ad evidenced by increased heart deceleration, increased skin conductance levels, and increased orbicularis oculi muscle activation; thus resulting in lower ad evaluations. Participant (N=45) were exposed to arousing or calm images that vary in positive or negative emotional valence—selected from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2008)—followed by an ad of a household products of neutral valence; determined by a pretest. Self-reported attitude towards ad and purchase intentions were measured. Results indict that negative images preceding ads produce lower ad and brand rating, purchase intentions and viral behavioral intentions for the ad.

College Students’ Processing of Non-celebrity Male Athletic Spokespersons in Health PSAs: The Mediational Role of Status • Adrienne Muldrow; Yoon-Joo Lee, Washington State University • Studies suggest that spokespersons are supposed to help drive beneficial behaviors. Athletic spokespersons, in particular, due to their known exercise and nutritional regimens in additional to their status in the eyes of college students, should be germane spokesperson for driving these behaviors. Furthermore, with limited budgets, many non-profit public relations practitioners need practical, cost-effective solutions to driving desirable health behaviors. One cost-effective solution may be the use of an unknown athletic spokesperson in the health advertisement. Hence, this experimental study investigates how college students process non-celebrity athletic spokespersons in advertisements to build their health intentions. In this study, we examined three common features present in athletic spokesperson advertising: athletic identity, ethnicity, and status. In particular, 173 college students were either exposed to an athletic, non-celebrity, White or Black spokesperson in a health PSA and answered similar questions about their athletic identity, commonalities to their ethnicity, status-orientations with regard to health, and health intentions. We used social cognitive theory to form hypotheses stating that more perceived similarities with the athletic spokespersons and thus greater identified advertising appeal would lead to greater intentions to perform health behaviors. We extended knowledge on existing advertising literature by examining how college students’ acknowledgement of reward-oriented, status-seeking through health behaviors could aid processing of health intentions. We used a Hayes’ PROCESS model to reveal the process of how college students interpret characteristics of non-celebrity athletic figures in helping them form health intentions.

Investigating Psychophysiological Processing of Alcohol Advertising on Social Media among Underage Minors: Policy Implications • Juan Mundel, DePaul University; Kristen Lynch, Michigan State University; Michael Nelson, Michigan State University; Emily Clark, Michigan State University; Tao Deng, Michigan State University; Ali Hussain, Michigan State University; Duygu Kanver, Michigan State University; Yadira Nieves-Pizarro, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; McAlister Anna, Michigan State University; Elizabeth Quilliam, Michigan State University; Jef Richards, Michigan State University • Underage drinking remains a significant health risk among young adults in the United States. Alcohol marketing and advertising has been charged with being one of the most influential factors in consumers’ intentions to drink. With few regulations imposed on the Internet in relation to alcohol marketing, underage youth may receive alcohol promoting messages through electronic word-of-mouth. We hypothesized that alcoholic beverage ads including young models will be more motivationally relevant due to similarities between participant and model. To test this hypothesis, this study relied on psychophysiological and self-reported measures. Our findings showed that when beer ads featured younger (vs. older-looking) models, participants exhibited greater intentions to drink. We outline recommendations for policy changes based on our findings.

Examining E-cigarette Advertising through Social Media: Effects of Consumer-Celebrity Risk-Oriented Image Congruence and Parasocial Identification on Ad Attitude, Electronic Word-of-Mouth, and E-Cigarette Smoking Intentions • Joe Phua, University of Georgia; Jhih-Syuan Elaine Lin, University of Georgia; Dong Jae Lim, University of Georgia • This study examined effects of congruence between consumers’ risk-oriented possible self and celebrity endorsers’ image on attitudes towards an Instagram e-cigarette advertisement, eWOM and smoking intentions. Results indicated consumer-celebrity risk-seeking image congruency led to significantly more positive ad attitudes, eWOM and smoking intentions. Consumer-celebrity risk-averse image congruency, meanwhile, led to significantly more negative ad attitude, eWOM and smoking intentions. Parasocial identification also moderated effects of celebrity-product congruence and consumer-celebrity image congruency on key dependent measures.

Facebook Organic Reach Has Viral Marketers Down: Post Content That Drives Shares, Likes And Comments. • Keith Quesenberry, Messiah College; Michael Coolsen, Shippensburg University • Facebook is a prominent form of viral marketing, yet with declining brand page organic reach, which factors influence virality or engagement? A textual content analysis of 1,000 brand Facebook posts found significant (or marginally significant) effects for: (1) new/now posts on increasing shares and comments, (2) time/date posts on increasing shares, and (3) education posts on decreasing likes and comments. Promotion/contest and social cause/CSR posts produced no significant results. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.

Visuals, Inferences, and Consumers’ Biased Information Seeking • Sann Ryu; Patrick Vargas; Sang Ryu, University of Edinburgh • We investigated how varying product visual appeals—package design (plain vs. good design) and image quality (low vs. high resolution)—can influence consumers to generate inferential beliefs about the product and skew their subsequent information search. We also tested consumers’ cognitive responses a mediator between product visuals and brand attitudes, and the moderating role of need for cognition between brand attitudes and selective exposure.

The Influence of Mood States on Information Seeking and Evaluations of Advertised Novel Shaped Fruit: The Moderating Roles of Variety Seeking Trait • Sela Sar; Supathida Kulpavaropas; Lulu Rodriguez • This study investigated the influence of consumers’ pre-existing mood states and variety seeking trait on their information seeking about a novel-shaped product and their attitude and purchase intention toward the product. The results revealed that consumers in a positive mood and with higher variety-seeking trait showed a more favorable attitude toward the product, sought more information and had higher purchase intention than those in the same mood with a lower variety-seeking trait. There were significant main effects of mood on attitude toward the product and information seeking. There were also significant main effects of variety-seeking trait on information seeking and purchase intention. Implications for advertising research and practice are discussed.

What’s Your Favorite Filter? An Exploratory Analysis of Snapchat Advertising • Alexandra Ormond, St. John Fisher College; Morgan van der Horst, St. John Fisher College; Ronen Shay, St. John Fisher College; Lainie Lucas, St. John Fisher College; Kyle Cataldo, St. John Fisher College • Snapchat presents advertisers with a variety of interactive formats by which to engage consumers with relevant and thoughtful ad experiences. Through the use of three focus groups (n = 21) this study examines the perceptions young adults (18-24) have towards Snapchat advertising by exploring themes that include the temporary nature of communication on the platform; factors that contribute to a user’s engagement with geofilters, interactive lenses, and snap ads; tolerance towards the high volume of advertising on the platform; and why the lack of traditional like or share features can both help and hinder advertisers.

Blowing smoke: Uncovering and addressing college students perceptions, use and knowledge of e-cigarettes • Debbie Treise, University of Florida; Summer Shelton, University of Florida; Nicki Karimipour; Vaughan James, University of Florida • Electronic cigarette use is rising dramatically among young people, and advertising is thought to be one of the contributors to those increases. This study employed focus groups and in-depth interviews to determine user and potential user knowledge of product ingredients, risk assessments and uses. Findings showed a general lack of understanding, creative uses for the devices and an emerging community of vapers. Recommendations for PSA informational campaigns and future research are discussed.

“Really Being There?”: Telepresence in Virtual Reality Branded Content • JIE SHEN, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Michelle Stenger, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Julia Lechowicz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Chen Chen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Rachel Yang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Aparna Sivasakaran, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Yanyun Wang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Ji Zhang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Yixin Zou, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Helen Katz, Publicis Media Analytics & Insight; Michelle Nelson, UIUC Department of Advertising • Despite the growing interest of immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) among both professionals and academics, few studies have assessed consumers’ awareness of or attitudes toward VR media or witnessed reactions to VR brand experiences. Eighteen in-depth interviews were conducted to observe how participants perceived VR in general and to gauge their reactions to a branded VR experience for a university. Findings revealed individual differences in awareness of VR experiences. Varying levels of ‘telepresence’ (feeling present in the mediated environment) were noted in interviews and on the telepresence scale. Emerging themes that contributed to or detracted from telepresence included feelings of control, observations of sensory/media richness, seeing the virtual as a ‘microcosm’, and desire for a social experience. The ramifications of VR technology for advertising and branding are discussed.

The Psychological Processes of Mixed Valence Images: Emotional Response, Visual Attention and Memory • Jing (Taylor) Wen, University of Florida; Jon Morris, University of Florida; Mark Sherwood, University of Florida; Alissa Meyer, University of Florida; Nicole Rosenberg, University of Florida • Despite the growing significance of emotional images in advertising, the psychological and physiological responses toward multiple opposite valence images presenting simultaneously remain somewhat unexplored. This research examined the relationship between emotional response, visual attention, and recall. The results showed that individuals were more likely to gaze toward the positive images than the negative ones when exposed to the both simultaneously. More importantly, longer gaze duration translated into their emotional response toward the images. Gaze duration and the Empowerment dimension of emotional response together significantly predicted the recall of the images. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Examining consumers’ identification of native and display advertising on news websites • Kasey Windels, Louisiana State University; Lance Porter • Consumers are spending more time with digital media, causing advertisers to invest more heavily in digital advertising. This has shaken up the newspaper industry, as advertisers have abandoned the high costs and shrinking readership of print newspapers and turned to digital advertising. In conjunction, click through rates on banner ads continue to decline. As digital publishers seek ad revenues and advertisers seek more effective advertising options, native advertising, which is advertising designed to mimic the style and content formats of the publisher’s content, has grown tremendously. Using an eye-tracking method, this study examined whether consumers could identify native and display ads on digital news websites with similar speed and effectiveness. Results suggest that native ads are more discoverable, or more quickly noticed on digital websites. However, only 68% of participants could identify native ads, and those who did took significantly longer to do so. The implications for the news and advertising industries are discussed.

Understanding the Effectiveness of Meaningful Advertisements: The Influence of Mortality Salience and Age Difference • Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina • Meaningful advertisements, which portray moral virtues and life meaning, have been widely produced around the world, but attracted limited academic attention. Based on the Terror Management Theory (TMT), this research investigates how mortality salience (Study 1 & Study 2) and age difference (Study 2) influence the effectiveness of meaningful advertisements. Results from Study 1 indicated that people expressed more favorable attitudes to the meaningful ad under mortality salience compared to the control condition. Study 2 further demonstrated that such a phenomenon was more salient among young participants. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Does Interactivity Benefit New Product Acceptance? The Influence of Desire for Control • Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina; Denetra Walker • The failure rates of new products are surprisingly high in general. Previous advertising research has identified a number of message strategies of encouraging consumers to accept new products. However, little attention has been paid to media interface in this area. To fill this gap, this study investigates how interactivity influences evaluations of new products among consumers with different levels of desire for control. The results indicated that participants high in desire for control expressed more favorable attitudes toward the new product when the level of interactivity was high versus low. Their attitudes toward the classic product didn’t differ across distinctive levels of interactivity. Participants low in desire for control expressed similar attitudes toward both the new and classic product across different interactivity conditions. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Native Advertising on Social Media: the Effects of Company Reputation, Perceived Relevanc and Privacy Concerns • Anli Xiao, the Pennsylvania State University; Ruobing Li; Guolan Yang; MICHAIL VAFEIADIS, Auburn University • “Through an online experiment (N = 207), this study examines native advertisings on social media by investigating the impact of a company’s reputation, the perceived relevance of the sponsored post and the role of social media privacy concerns on consumers’ attitudes toward the sponsored post, perceive brand credibility, company trust and social media engagement intentions. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Social information in Facebook news feed ads: Effects of personal relevance and brand familiarity • Fei Xue; Lijie Zhou • The current research examined effects of the “Social Information” feature in Facebook news feed ads, in relation to personal relevance and brand familiarity. Ads with social information did not always lead to more favorable advertising and brand perceptions. However, interaction effects were found among social information, personal relevance, and brand familiarity, in terms of attitude-toward-the-ad and purchase intention. Social information could help create more favorable advertising responses for unfamiliar and low-relevance brands.

ADVERTISING TEACHING
Development of Conceptual and Attitudinal Advertising Literacy and Influencing Factors among College Students in China • Fangfang Gao; Yusi Liu, Zhejiang University; Tao Shan • Given the pervasive role of advertising and commercial culture in the modern society as well as its substantial influence on the younger generation, scholars have called for more evidence of advertising literacy development among college students, i.e., the ability to recognize, evaluate and understand advertising. Notwithstanding the importance of advertising literacy among college students, most of the current studies are in the Western settings. There are limited empirical studies about the development of advertising literacy among Chinese population. The general purpose of the study is to examine the conceptual and attitudinal advertising literacy among college students in China, exploring possible predicting factors that may influence their level of advertising literacy, suggesting possible interventions to enhance media education and strategic communication. Based on a survey of 515 Chinese college students, our study provided empirical evidence to show that product desires, resistance strategies, BMI, self-esteem, and critical attitudes towards food and fitness products, as well as gender, grade and major are important predictors of college students’ advertising literacy. The current study expands the research of media literacy to a more specific area of advertising, exploring the advertising literacy for college students in China. Moreover, when investigating predicting factors for advertising literacy, two dimensions, both conceptual and attitudinal advertising literacy, were analyzed, providing more detailed information concerning the concept of advertising literacy. Implications for academic research and public policy were discussed. Further research is needed to gain understanding of the complex developmental process of advertising literacy among young people in China.

Global Collaboration to Teach Research Methods for Advertising, Public Relations, and Communication Majors: Review of Student Reflections and a Plan • Pamela Morris • This study investigates an innovative way to teach undergraduate research methods courses, specifically by collaborating globally. The paper provides an example of a research methods course taught by pairing U.S. and South Korean university students and an evaluation of the course based on the students’ reactions of the semester. The method of investigation is review of 22 student reflection papers. The student responses suggest that this model created an effective learning environment as seen in several themes, such as a wider perception, better understanding, and more respect for research, acknowledgement of the fun and excitement in conducting research, gaining more confidence, using skills in other classes, and considering how research could be used in their future careers. Culturally, students reported it was an eye-opening experience and that they also learned about themselves. The exploratory study attempts to add to the literature, as well as provide a foundation for new ideas and creative ways to leverage current technology, the globalized world, and students’ interest of other cultures.

Teaching Ad Tech: Assessing Collaborative Teaching in an Advertising, Computer Science, and Design Course • Jay Newell; Wallapak Tavanapong; Sherry Berghefer, Iowa State University • Advertising technology is advancing quickly, incorporating digital techniques that may be beyond the experience of the individual faculty member. Collaborative teaching, where faculty members from different disciplines co-teach a course, may be a solution. This report assesses the learning outcomes of an advertising technology course taught by faculty from advertising, computer science and human-computer interaction programs. Two semesters of pre- and post-tests were analyzed, finding increases in student comfort with preparing and presenting technologically-advanced solutions to marketing challenges.

PROFESSIONAL FREEDOM & RESPONSIBILITY (PF&R)
Mentors and minority advertising students: A survey of the 2017 Most Promising Multicultural Student class • Alice Kendrick; Jami Fullerton • U.S. advertising agencies have struggled to attract and retain ethnic and racial minority talent for decades, and the absence of professional mentors has been cited as an issue in job satisfaction among minority employees in the advertising industry. University advertising programs are recognized as an important pipeline of prospective minority hires, especially for agencies. This paper examines a group of minority advertising college students in terms of whether they currently have a professional mentor, as well as their career preferences and perceptions of advertising industry employment. The role of mentorship for minority advertising students as well as implications for advertising educators and employers who seek to diversify their advertising organizations are discussed.

Aspiring Advertising Professionals: Workplace Expectations Through a Gendered Lens • Jean Grow; Shiyu Yang • Generation Z, whose personal and professional expectations differ from previous generations, are entering our classrooms. Yet, workplace environments, and their structural underpinnings tend to change slowly. The advertising industry is no exception. This research investigates the expectations of 98 aspiring advertising professionals using social capital theory. We study the gaps between Generation Z’s expectations and workplace realities, while exploring the influences of gender; and suggest ways educators might bridge the gap between expectations and reality.

Effects of Cosmetic Surgery Advertisements on Surgery Intention and Attitudes Toward Surgeons • Sung-Yeon Park, Univ. of Nevada, Reno; Sasha Allgayer, Bowling Green State University • The effects of cosmetic surgery advertising on perceived benefits, risks, acceptance of cosmetic surgery and attitudes toward cosmetic were explored. The advertising exposure was positively related to perceived benefits and surgery intention, but unrelated to perceived risk. Compared with doctors in general, cosmetic surgeons were trusted less, though exposure to cosmetic surgery advertisements improved some perceptions about cosmetic surgeons. In addition, consumer evaluation of cosmetic surgery advertising elements revealed many areas of confusion among consumers.

STUDENT RESEARCH
The Use of Search and Display Advertisements in Digital Advertising • Lindsay Bouchacourt • The purpose of the study is to examine search advertisements and display advertisements used in digital advertising and investigate whether one type of advertisement produces a lower cost-per-acquisition. The study also explores the use of different electronic devices (mobile phone versus desktop computers) and whether this has an effect on cost-per-acquisition. The study uses a Paraguayan mortgage company as the advertiser and Google AdWords as the source of media placement.

It Takes “Less Than U Think”: Implementation Of An Anti Binge-Drinking Campaign Targeting Expectancy • Eric Cooks; Katie Bell • This study analyzed the effectiveness of a student-led anti binge-drinking campaign in influencing alcohol expectancy. Results indicated that several components of social expectations for alcohol use changed significantly at posttest. Negative expectancies increased for alcohol’s ability to make parties fun, and to put people in better moods. Changes were also seen in expectations related to the taste of alcohol. Significant associations were observed in relation to participant gender and Greek affiliation. This campaign represents an integrated communications effort that incorporates psychological theory to address a significant public health concern.

Any Benefits from Anxiety and Curiosity?: Exploring the Impact of Personality Traits in Ad Avoidance on Social Networking Sites • Naa Amponsah Dodoo; Jing (Taylor) Wen, University of Florida • Social network advertising continues to be a prevalent way advertisers employ to deliver their messages to their consumers. In this increasingly cluttered ad environment, consumers may adopt varying strategies, as ad avoidance, to prevent exposure to these ads. Literature suggests the link between personality traits and SNS use. Consumers’ personality traits may be important factors that determine how they engage in SNS ad avoidance. This study investigated potential underlying mechanisms of SNS ad avoidance and how personality traits function to determine consumers’ attitude and behavior toward SNS ads. The results of this study indicate the roles of perceived ad relevance, perceived ad intrusiveness and privacy concern in SNS ad avoidance. Specifically, while perceived ad relevance decreased ad avoidance, perceived intrusiveness and privacy concern increased ad avoidance. Interestingly, neuroticism and openness to experience were found to have significant relationships with perceived ad relevance, perceived ad intrusiveness and privacy concern. Theoretical contributions and implications are discussed.

The effect of celebrity athlete endorser identification on brand attitude in TV advertising • Joongsuk Lee, University of Alabama • This study examined the effect of celebrity endorser identification (ID) on brand attitude under a soccer star’s religious or non-religious goal celebration as well as the reliability, validity, and applicability of Mael and Ashforth’s (1992) organization ID scale in measuring celebrity ID. Goal celebrations are the acts of celebrating a goal scored in a game. Two real and different TV ads, showing a sports drink brand endorsed by a sports celebrity, were used as stimuli to enhance the present results’ generalizability. Findings reported that the effect of celebrity endorser ID on brand attitude is negatively affected by a soccer star’s religious goal celebration (i.e., praying to God without sharing joy of scoring a goal with others) but positively affected by a soccer star’s non-religious goal celebration (sharing such joy with them without praying to God). Other findings showed that five of six items based on Mael and Ashforth’s (1992) organization ID concept were applicable, reliable, and valid in measuring celebrity ID.

Making the unfamiliar the familiar: A qualitative framing analysis of disabilities as inspiration in advertisements • Summer Shelton, University of Florida • Research identified four frames advertising uses to inspirationally portray physical disabilities: inspiration porn, bionic or superhuman, supercrip and pity-heroism or tragedy-charity. Identified as problematic representations among disabled consumers, this study examined the framing of disabilities in advertisements. Because advertisements including models with disabilities are scarce, a purposive sample of 35 advertisements was identified. A qualitative content analysis of these advertisements was conducted. Recommendations for more accurate portrayals of disabilities in advertisements are provided.

Sex, Nudity, and Humor: A Content Analysis of Condom Advertisements and Taboo Content on YouTube • Matthew Struss, Indiana University Of Pennsylvania; Sharon Storch; Mark Beekman, Indiana University of Pennsylvania • YouTube is an ideal media for sharing condom advertisements with taboo content. By conducting a quantitative content analysis of 85 different condom advertisements on YouTube over a 24-hour period we found there were no significant differences in the use of humor in the condom advertisements for birth control and disease control versus advertisements that promoted condoms as pleasure aids. Most condom advertisements with the “be prepared” theme did not employ heavy levels of sex.

Scare’em or Irritate’em: Congruity between Emotions and Message Framing Promotes Advertising Engagement and Message Evaluation • Jing (Taylor) Wen, University of Florida • Emotional messages can capture audience’s attention and therefore be persuasive. Building on prior studies, this research examined the interplay between emotion types (anger vs. fear) and message framing (gain vs. loss) on individuals’ responses to different advertising messages. Experimental results revealed that individuals reported more favorable attitudes toward a fear appeal with a gain-framed message whereas individuals had more positive attitude toward an anger appeal with a loss-framed message. Additionally, increased in advertising engagement drives the observed improvement in attitudes toward the ad. These findings suggest direct implications for advertising design.

From us to me: Cultural value changes from collectivism to individualism in Chinese commercials • Jingyan Zhao • China is generally regarded as a collectivistic society while the United States is treated as a country with individualism. However, Scholars noted that individualism has revealed itself in Chinese younger generation. This change may affect the content of Chinese commercials, as effective advertising must cater to its audience to promote products. This study conducted a content analysis of Chinese commercials in approximately 2006 and 2016 to examine how the cultural value of commercial has changed, with the consideration of merchandise type and production place. Results exhibit an increase of individualism usage in Chinese commercials. Research results exhibited an increase of individualistic factors usage in Chinese commercials. There was no significant difference between imported and domestic merchandise of using individualistic factors around 2006, in 2016 or regardless the time period. In addition, the merchandise usage type affected the percentage of individualistic and collective factors used in commercials. Collective usage merchandise still employed more collective factors regardless the time period. On the contrary, for individual usage merchandise, commercials have begun to apply more individualistic factors than they did ten years ago.

SPECIAL TOPICS
#Sponsored #Ad: An Agency Perspective on Influencer Marketing Campaigns • COURTNEY CARPENTER CHILDERS, University of Tennessee; Laura Lemon; Mariea Hoy • As social media continues to grow in terms of usage, influence, and ad spending, the advertising industry has been forced to develop innovative strategies to bring strong return on investment to clients. One such strategy to recently emerge is influencer marketing, where the focus is placed on connecting with specific online personas that target audience members trust and engage with regularly. eMarketer (2016) found that 48% of marketers plan to increase their budgets for influencer marketing in 2017. This study seeks to gain insight into strategic decision-making, impact on agency life and understanding of sponsorships and disclosures based on in-depth interviews with 15 U.S. advertising agency professionals. Results show that the billion-dollar influencer marketing industry is still largely unchartered territory that involves high cost but offers high reward; is keenly dependent on an effective vetting process; and reflects an appreciation of adherence to FTC endorser guidelines.

Decoding Engagement: Chinese Advertising Practitioners’ Perspective • Huan Chen, University of Florida; Rang Wang, University of Florida; Xuan Liang • A qualitative study was conducted to examine Chinese advertising practitioners’ perception and interpretation of engagement in the digital age. Twenty three face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted to collect data. Findings revealed that in the life-world of Chinese advertising professionals, the meaning of the imported term “engagement” is multidimensional, fluidly, and diversifying lacking consensus on both conceptualization and execution. The current study also uncovered the perceptional gaps between academia and industry regarding the conceptualization and execution of engagement.

Brand Sponsorship of Sport Officiating Technology: Effects of Social Identity and Schadenfreude on Attitude toward Sponsoring Brand • Jihoon (Jay) Kim, University of Georgia; Jooyoung Kim, University of Georgia • This study examined fan perceptions of an ad embedded in an instant replay video (IRV) and its sponsoring brand, using Social Identity Theory and the concept of schadenfreude. Results revealed that the positive emotion induced by a negative outcome supported by IRV for the opposing team (i.e., schadenfreude) led to a positive attitude toward the advertisement (Aad-IRV) and the sponsoring brand (Ab-IRV). The results also showed the suspense level moderated the schadenfreude’s effects on Aad-IRV.

The Effects of Ad Framing, Regulatory Focus and Processing Fluency on Controlling Sugar Intake • Kang Li • Health authorities has pointed out that Americans consume too many sugar, which causes many health problems. The aim of this research was to examine the effectiveness of ad framing (gain vs. loss vs. neither gain nor loss) on persuading people to control their sugar intake. There were 1,104 participants completed an online experiment study. The results showed that both gain and loss frame were more effective than the neutral frame. Gain frame was the most effective one to persuade people to lower sugar intake. Moreover, individual difference of regulatory focus moderated the effect of ad framing (gain vs. loss). In addition, processing fluency mediated the effects of ad framing (gain vs. neutral/loss vs. neutral) on people’s intention to limit sugar intake. Contributions and implications were discussed.

To Vape or Not to Vape: How E-Cigarette Companies Advertise Via Twitter • Joon Kim, University of South Carolina, Columbia; Carol Pardun, University of South Carolina; Holly Ott, University of South Carolina • This study examines how electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) companies advertise and engage with potential customers on Twitter. Using quantitative content analysis, this exploratory study examined 525 tweets from the top five e-cigarette companies that occurred between July 9, 2016, and September 9, 2016. Results highlight differences in how companies used Twitter as an advocacy role or as a purely commercially driven strategy. Theoretical and practical implications for advertising research and practice are discussed.

Can Inspiring Advertisements Bust the Social Media Blues? The Effect of Inspirational Advertising on Consumer Attitudes and Sharing Intentions • Amanda Bailey, University of Florida; Frank Waddell, University of Florida • Social media has become common for advertising, yet research shows that social media use can negatively affect users’ mood. How can advertisers adapt their appeals to be successful in this advertising context? The present study tested the efficacy of “inspirational” advertising as a form of mood repair. Consistent with mood management theory, an experiment (N = 188) showed that inspirational advertising increased brand attitudes and sharing intentions via heightened photographic transportation and meaningful affect.

Direct-to-consumer advertising, vulnerability and ethics of care • Tara Walker; Erin Schauster • This study conducts a textual analysis of direct-to-consumer advertisements for heart disease and cancer prescription drugs using an ethics of care framework. Direct-to-consumer advertising, (DTCA) is a controversial practice, often critiqued for ethical issues. Ethics of care provides a novel approach to understanding the relationships between patients, ethics and vulnerability within the context of DTCA. Ultimately, findings showed that the DTCA examined in the sample considered audience points of view and lived experiences, but fell short of honoring patient vulnerability and providing accurate, useful health information.

2017 ABSTRACTS

2017 Abstracts

AEJMC 2017 Conference Paper Abstracts
Chicago • August 9 to 12

The following AEJMC groups conducted research competitions for the 2017 conference. The accepted paper abstracts are listed within each section.

Divisions:

• Advertising
• Communicating Science, Health, Environment, and Risk (ComSHER)
• Communication Technology (CTEC)
• Communication Theory and Methodology
• Cultural and Critical Studies
• Electronic News
• History
• International Communication
• Law and Policy
• Magazine
• Mass Communication and Society
• Media Ethics
• Media Management and Economics
• Minorities and Communication (MAC)
• Newspaper and Online News
• Public Relations
• Scholastic Journalism
• Visual Communication (VisCom)

Interest Groups:

• Community Journalism
• Entertainment Studies
• Graduate Student
• Internships and Careers
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer
• Participatory Journalism
• Political Communication
• Religion and Media
• Small Programs (SPIG)
• Sports Communication (SPORTS)

Commissions:

• Status of Women

<< AEJMC Abstracts Index

Communicating Science, Health, Environment, and Risk 2016 Abstracts

Using Visual Metaphors in Health Messages: A Strategy to Increase Effectiveness for Mental Illness Communication • Allison Lazard, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Benita Bamgbade; Jennah Sontag, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Carolyn Brown • Depression is highly prevalent among college students. Although treatment is often available on university campuses, many stigma-based barriers prevent students from seeking help. Communication strategies, such as the use of metaphors, are needed to reduce barriers. Using a two-phase approach, this study identified how college students conceptualize mental illness, designed messages with conceptual and visual metaphors commonly used, and tested these message to determine their potential as an effective communication strategy to reduce stigma.

How Journalists Characterize Health Inequalities and Redefine Solutions for Native American Audiences • Amanda Hinnant, University of Missouri, School of Journalism; Roma Subramanian; Rokeshia Ashley, University of Missouri-Columbia; Mildred Perreault, University of Missouri/ Appalachian State University; Rachel Young; Ryan Thomas, University of Missouri-Columbia • This research investigates how journalists for Native American communities characterize health inequalities and the issues with covering determinants of health. In-depth interviews (n = 24) revealed a tension between “medical” and “cultural” models of health, contributing to the oversaturation of certain issues. Interviews also amplified the contexts that shape health inequalities, illuminating the roles of historical trauma and the destruction of indigenous health beliefs and behaviors. Failure to recognize the issues can stymie communication efforts.

Poison or Prevention? Unraveling the Linkages between Vaccine-Negative Individuals’ Knowledge Deficiency, Motivations, and Communication Behaviors • Arunima Krishna • The last few decades have seen growing concerns among parents regarding the safety of childhood vaccines, arguably leading to the rise of the anti-vaccine movement. This study is an effort to understand situational and cross-situational factors that influence individuals’ negative attitudes toward vaccines, referred to as vaccine negativity. In doing so, this study identified two categories of reasons for which individuals display vaccine negativity – liberty-related, and safety-related concerns – and elucidated how situational and cross-situational factors influenced each type of vaccine negativity differently. Specifically, this study tested how knowledge deficiency, or acceptance of scientifically inaccurate data about vaccines, and institutional trust influenced negative attitudes toward vaccines. Using the situational theory of problem solving as the theoretical framework, this also identified and tested a knowledge-attitude-motivation-behavior framework of vaccine negative individuals’ cognitions and behaviors about the issue.

Chronic pain: Sources’ framing of post-traumatic stress disorder in The New York Times • Barbara Barnett, University of Kansas; Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common reaction after witnessing a violent event. While nearly eight million Americans, including combat veterans, have PTSD, few studies have explored how the condition is represented in mass media. This content analysis examined sources’ characterization of PTSD in New York Times articles. Results show that news stories framed PTSD as a long-term problem, with little chance for recovery, a frame that could negatively affect public policy decisions.

This Is Not A Test: Investigating The Effects Of Cueing And Cognitive Load On Severe Weather Alerts • Carie Cunningham • Climate change is increasing and causing more severe weather events around the globe. Severe weather events require effective communication of incoming dangers and threats to different populations. The current study focuses on investigating ways in which severe weather alerts are attended to and remembered better by audience members. To this end, this study used a 2 (primary task cognitive load: low vs. high) x 2 (weather alert cueing technique: cued vs. non-cued) within-subject experiment to understand how television weather alerts evoke attention and memory from viewers. Participants were exposed to TV films that varied in cognitive load, through which they were exposed to both cued and non-cued weather alerts. The findings show that cognitive load changes viewers’ recognition and memory of the weather alerts, but not of the main content. Furthermore, the interaction of cueing and cognitive load influenced fixation and gaze in attention measures, but not the recall measures for the weather alerts. Results are discussed in the context of dependent variables: visual recognition, information recognition, cued recall, free recall, fixation, and gaze. The findings support some nuances to television viewing under different conditions.

A State-Level Analysis of the Social Media Climate of GMOs in the U.S. • Christopher Wirz, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Xuan Liang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Michael Xenos; Dominique Brossard, UW-Madison; Dietram Scheufele • This study is a state-level analysis of the relationship between the social media, news, and policy climates related to GMOs. We performed a systematic and exhaustive analysis of geographically-identified tweets related to GMOs from August 1, 2012 through November 30, 2014. We then created a model using a variety of state-level factors to predict pessimistic tweets about GMOs using states as the unit of analysis.

Psychological determinants of college students’ adoption of mobile health applications for personal health management • Chuqing Dong; Lauren Gray; Hao Xu, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities • “Mobile health has been studied for patient care and disease management in the clinical context, but less is known about factors contribute to consumers’ acceptance of mobile health apps for personal health and fitness management.

This study serves as one of the first attempts to understand the psychological determinants of mobile health acceptance among millenials – those most likely to use mobile apps. Built on an extended model combining the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Reasoned Action approach, this multimethod study aimed to identify which proximal determinants and their underlying salient beliefs were most associated with intention to use mobile health apps in the next twelve months.

Results from the qualitative belief elicitation data analysis indicated 14 different positive and negative consequences (behavioral beliefs) of using mobile health apps, 11 social references (normative beliefs) important to the use of mobile health apps, and 9 behavioral circumstances (behavioral control beliefs) that would enable or make it more difficult to use mobile health apps. Results from the quantitative Reasoned action data indicated perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the app were positively correlated with attitude towards mobile health app use and perceived usefulness was also positively correlated with intention to use it in the next twelve months. Instrumental attitudes and perceived behavioral control (capacity), as well as several of their underlying beliefs, were the strongest predictors of intention to use mobile health apps in the next twelve months.”

Talkin’ smack: An analysis of news coverage of the heroin epidemic • Erin Willis; David Morris II, University of Oregon • The number of heroin users continues to rise in the United States, creating a public health epidemic that is cause for great concern. Recent heroin use has been linked to opiate abuse and national organizations have identified this issue as a serious public health challenge. The Obama administration recently directed more than $1 billion in funding to expand access to treatment and boost efforts to help those who seek treatment. Newspapers are seen as reliable and credible sources of information, and newspapers’ portrayals of public health problems influence readers’ perceptions about the severity of the problem and solutions to the problem. The current study examined national and city newspapers coverage of heroin. The results of this study inform health communication and public health education efforts and offer practical implications for combatting the heroin epidemic.

Exchanging social support online: A big-data analysis of IBS patients’ interactions on an online health forum from 2008 to 2012 • Fan Yang, Pennsylvania State University; Bu Zhong, Pennsylvania State University • This research conducts a big-data analysis to examine why IBS patients offered social support to peer patients on an online health forum. Social network analysis of 90,965 messages shared among 9,369 patients from 2008-2012 suggests that although having received support from others encourages individuals to offer support in the online community, being able to help others previously also emerges as a significant and long-lasting impetus for social support provision online. Reciprocating support with one another, however, prevents one from keeping offering support on the forum over time. Furthermore, based on sentiment analysis, it is indicated that the extent to which one could freely express emotions for support seeking also serves as a significant predictor for the amount of social support he/she could obtain from others. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

To entertain or to scare? A meta-analytic review on the persuasiveness of emotional appeals in health messages • Fan Yang, Pennsylvania State University; Jinyoung Kim, The Pennsylvania State University • This research conducts a meta-analytic review on the how appealing to positive vs. negative emotions in health messages could persuade. Emotional appeals significantly enhance the persuasiveness of health messages on cognition, attitude, and intention, but not on actual behavior. Appealing to negative rather than positive emotions appears to be more persuasive. Furthermore, richer formats of presentations of health messages are significantly more effective than plain texts. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

A Disagreement on Consensus: A Measured Critique of the Gateway Belief Model and Consensus Messaging Research • Graham Dixon, Washington State University • The newly developed Gateway Belief Model suggests the key to scientific beliefs is one’s perception of a scientific consensus. However, inconsistent findings question the explanatory power of the model and its application. This paper provides further depth to the explanatory power of the model, suggesting consensus messages affect audience segments in different ways. This nuanced perspective of the model can usher in future research seeking to close belief gaps between the lay public and experts.

Communicating inaction-framed risk: Reducing the omission bias via internal causal attribution • Graham Dixon, Washington State University • Despite identical outcomes derived from actions or inactions, people often experience more intense affective reactions toward action-framed outcomes. This “omission bias” presents challenges to communicating various risks. Reporting on two experiments, findings suggest that the omission bias occurs across various risk topics and message stimuli. Importantly, dimensions of causal attribution, such as locus of causality and stability, play a mediating role on the omission bias. Recommendations are made for more effective risk communication practices.

You Win or We Lose: A Conditional Indirect Effect Model of Message Framing in Communicating the Risks of Hydraulic Fracturing • Guanxiong Huang, Michigan State University; Kang Li; Hairong Li • This study explores the effects of message framing and reference frame on risk perception and associated behavior intent. Using an environmental hazard of hydraulic fracturing as an example, a 2 (message framing: gain vs. loss) × 2 (reference frame: self vs. group) between-subject experiment shows significant interaction effects between message framing and reference frame, in that gain-framed message paired with self-referencing frame is most effective in enhancing risk perception whereas the loss-framed message paired with group-referencing frame is most effective in increasing willingness to sign a petition to ban hydraulic fracturing. More theoretical and practical implications for environmental risk communication and persuasive message design are discussed.

Messages Promoting Genetically Modified Crops in the Context of Climate Change: Evidence for Psychological Reactance • Hang Lu, Cornell University; Katherine McComas; John Besley, Michigan State University • Genetic modification (GM) of crops and climate change are arguably two of today’s most challenging science communication issues. Increasingly, these two issues are connected in messages proposing GM as a viable option for ensuring global food security threatened by climate change. This study examines the effects of messages promoting the benefits of GM in the context of climate change. Further, it examines whether attributing the context to “climate change” vs. “global warming” vs. “no cue” leads to different effects. An online sample of U.S. participants (N=1,050) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: “climate change” cue, “global warming” cue, no cue, or control (no message). Compared to the control, all other conditions increased positive attitudes toward GM. However, the “no cue” condition led to liberals having more positive attitudes and behavioral intentions toward GM than the “climate change” cue condition, an effect mediated by message evaluations.

An Enhanced Theory of Planned Behaviour Perspective: Health Information Seeking on Smartphones Among Domestic Workers • Hattie Liew; Hiu Ying Christine Choy • This exploratory study investigates the antecedents of health information seeking via mobile smartphone (HISM) among migrant domestic workers. 320 Filipina workers in Hong Kong were surveyed. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was extended with health literacy and external factors like needs of workers’ family as predictors of HISM intention. Findings support the TPB as a predictor of HISM and suggest the importance facilitating health information literacy and technical know-how among migrant domestic workers.

Need for Autonomy as a Motive for Valuing Fairness in Risk Communication • Hwanseok Song, Cornell University • Research shows that people strive to restore autonomy after experiencing its deprivation. An experiment was used to test whether people’s need for autonomy explains why they value non-outcome fairness (i.e., procedural, interpersonal, informational) in risk management contexts. Partial support was found for this effect, moderated by attitudes toward the risk itself. After experiencing autonomy-deprivation, participants who were more negative about the risk valued non-outcome fairness more and technical competence of the risk manager less.

Humor Effects in Advertising on Human Papillomavirus (HPV): The Role of Information Salience, Humor Level, and Objective Knowledge • Hye Jin Yoon; Eunjin (Anna) Kim, Southern Methodist University • As human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, it is imperative that health communicators seek message strategies that educate the public on prevention and treatment. Guided by the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), an experimental study tested the effects of sexually transmitted disease (STD) information salience, humor level, and objective knowledge in HPV public service advertisements (PSAs). The findings show objective knowledge moderating responses to advertisements varying in STD information salience and humor levels. Theoretical implications for humor and knowledge effects in health communication and practical implications regarding the design and targeting of HPV campaigns are provided.

Media Use and Antimicrobial Resistance Misinformation and Misuse: Survey Evidence of Information Channels and Fatalism in Augmenting a Global Health Threat • Jacob Groshek, Boston University; James Katz; Chelsea Cutino; Qiankun Zhong • Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is giving rise to a global public health threat that is not reflected in public opinion of AMR. This study thus proceeds to examine which individuals among the general public are more likely to be misinformed about AMR and report misusing AMR-related products. Specifically, traditional media (newspaper, radio, television) consumption and social media use are modeled as factors which may not only reinforce but perpetuate AMR misinformation and misuse.

Who is Scared of the Ebola Outbreak? The Influence of Discrete Emotions on Risk Perception • Janet Yang; Haoran Chu • Utilizing the appraisal tendency framework, this study analyzed discrete emotion’s influence on the U.S. public’s risk perception and support for risk mitigation measures. An experimental survey based on a nationally representative sample showed that discrete emotions were significantly related to public risk perception. Further, fear exhibited an inhibitive effect on the relationship between systematic processing of risk information and institutional mitigation support. Systematic processing, in contrast, had the most consistent impact on mitigation support.

Sexual Health Intervention Messaging: Proof Positive that Sex Negative Messages are Less Persuasive • Jared Brickman • As comprehensive sexual health education programs are adopted by universities, there is a need to evaluate what messaging approaches might connect best with students. This study measured reactions to sex positive or negative messages, framed as a gain or loss. Participants evaluated 24 messages on their mobile phones. Gain framing was preferred over loss framing, and sex positive messages were rated as more believable and persuasive. An interaction between the two concepts was also found.

Examining the Differential Effects of Emotions: Anxiety, Despair, and Informed Futility   • Jay Hmielowski, Washington State University; Rebecca Donaway, Washington State University; Yiran Wang, Washington State University • Using survey data collected during the fall of 2015, we examine the role of different emotions in increasing and decreasing active information seeking and processing behaviors. We replicate results from the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model focusing on anxiety as a key variable that triggers these active information seeking behaviors. We also test the informed futility hypothesis, which proposes that learning about an issue leads people to become disengaged with solving the problem.

Public Support for Energy Portfolios in Canada: How Cost and National Energy Portfolios Affect Public Perception of Energy Technologies • Jens Larson; Jiawei Liu, Washington State University; Zena Zena Edwards; Kayla Wakulich; Amanda Boyd, Washington State University • In this study, we examine current energy perceptions in Canada, exploring how regional differences of current electricity-producing energy portfolios and evaluable information affect support for energy sources. Our results show that individuals support electricity-producing energy portfolios that vary significantly by region. We demonstrate through the use of a portfolio approach that evaluable information could significantly change support for electricity-producing energy technologies.

The effects of gain vs. loss framed medical and religious breast cancer survivor testimonies on attitudes and behaviors of African-American female viewers • Jensen Moore, University of Oklahoma • African-American women are at elevated risk for the most advanced form of breast cancer due to late detection. This 2 (Message Type: Religious/Medical) X 2 (Message Frame: Loss/Gain) X 4 (Message Replication) experiment examined breast cancer narratives aimed at African-American women ages 35-55 who had not had breast cancer. Narratives contained medical/religious messages and gain/loss frames. Effects of the narratives on attitude, credibility, behavioral intent, arousal and emotions were examined. Results suggest medical, gain framed narratives were the most effective. Specifically, gain framed narratives increased attitudes, mammogram behavioral intentions, arousal, and positive emotions while medical narratives increased credibility, mammogram behavioral intentions, and arousal.

Gap in Scientific Knowledge and the Role of Science Communication in South Korea • Jeong-Heon Chang; Sei-Hill Kim; Myung-Hyun Kang; Jae Chul Shim; Dong Hoon Ma • Using data from a national survey of South Koreans, this study explores the role of science communication in enhancing three different forms of scientific knowledge (factual, procedural, and subjective). We first assess learning effects, looking at the extent to which citizens learn science from different channels of communication (interpersonal discussions, traditional newspapers, television, online newspapers, and social media). We then look closely into the knowledge gap hypothesis, investigating how different channels of communication can either widen or narrow the gap in scientific knowledge between social classes. Our data indicated that among the four mass media channels examined, television was the most heavily-used source for science information in South Korea. Also, television was found to function as a “knowledge leveler,” narrowing the gap between highly and less educated individuals. The role of online newspapers in science learning is pronounced in our research. Reading newspapers online indicated a positive relationship to all three measures of scientific knowledge. Contrary to the knowledge-leveling effect of television viewing, reading online newspapers was found to increase, rather than decrease, the gap in knowledge. Implications of our findings are discussed in detail.

Beyond the worried well: Emotional states and education levels predict online health information seeking • Jessica Myrick, Indiana University; Jessica Willoughby • This study combined conceptual frameworks from health and risk information seeking, appraisal theory of emotions, and social determinants of health literatures to examine how emotional states and socioeconomic status individually and jointly predict online health information seeking. Using nationally representative data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 4, Cycle 3), we found that different discrete emotions predicted information seeking in different ways. Moreover, education levels interacted with anxiety to predict online information seeking.

The Effect on Young Women of Public Figure Health Narratives regarding HPV: An Application of the Elaboration Likelihood Model • Jo-Yun Queenie Li • “The Genital Human Papillomavirus (also called HPV), the most common STD which causes virtually all cases of cervical cancer in the U.S, has been overlooked by society due to a lack of knowledge and stigma surrounding STDs. This study explores the effectiveness of public figure health narratives and different media platforms on young women’s awareness of HPV and their behavioral intentions to receive vaccination. An online between-groups experiment with 275 participants based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model revealed that the effectiveness of public figure health narratives on individuals’ awareness and behavioral intentions are maximized when the messages appear in newspapers rather than in social media, and when the message recipients are in high involvement conditions. The interaction among the three variables is discussed, along with implications for health communication and HPV promotion campaigns.”

“I believe what I see:” Students’ use of media, issue engagement, and the perceived responsibility regarding campus sexual assault • Jo-Yun Queenie Li; Jane O’Boyle, University of South Carolina; Sei-Hill Kim • The topic of campus sexual assault has received much news media attention recently, prompting scholars to examine media effects on students’ attitudes and behaviors regarding the issue. Our survey with 567 college students examines how students’ media use have influenced their engagement with the issue of campus sexual assault and their perceived responsibility regarding the issue, looking particularly at the question of who is responsible and the perceptions of rape myths. Results revealed that newspapers’ coverage regarding campus sexual assault may contribute to college students’ victim-blaming and enduring victim myths. However, these may be minimized by raising students’ perceived importance about the issue. And the most effective media channel in which to increase students’ perceived importance is social media. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Cultural Representations of Gender and Science: Portrayals of Female STEM Professionals in Popular Films 2002-2014 • Jocelyn Steinke, Western Michigan University; Paola Paniagua Tavarez, Western Michigan University • This study focused on a textual analysis that examined representations of female STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) characters in speaking roles and portrayals of female STEM characters in lead, co-lead, and secondary roles in popular films that featured STEM characters from 2002 to 2014. Findings indicated that female were outnumbered by male STEM characters in speaking roles by 2 to 1. Portrayals of female STEM characters were varied. Some portrayals revealed gender stereotypes although scientist stereotypes were rare. Most female STEM character were portrayed as equal members of research teams, almost all portrayals focused on their attractiveness, and about half of the portrayals highlighted their romantic relationships. The findings from this study were compared with those from previous research in order to trace changes in cinematic representation and portrayals of female STEM characters over time. A discussion of the implications for future research in this area and implications for broadening participation in STEM will be addressed.

“You Made Me Want to Smoke”: Adaptive and Maladaptive Responses to Tweets from an Anti-Smoking Campaign using Protection Motivation Theory • Jordan Alpert, Virginia Commonwealth University; Linda Desens • The F.D.A. developed the Real Cost campaign to prevent and reduce the number of teens who experiment with smoking and become lifelong tobacco users. The $115 multimedia campaign utilizes channels such as television, radio, print and online, including social media. Since social media allows for interaction and immediate feedback, this study analyzed how Twitter users responded to anti-smoking messages containing fear-appeals created by the Real Cost. Over 300 tweets exchanged between a Twitter user and @KnowtheRealCost were gathered between 2015 and 2016. Through the lens of Protection Motivation Theory, content analysis discovered that 67% (220) of responses were maladaptive and 33% (111) of tweets were adaptive (intercoder reliability, κ = .818). Iterative analysis was also performed to identify and categorize themes occuring within threat and coping appraisals. For threat appraisals, it was found that perceived vulnerability was lessened due to incidence of the boomerang effect, perceived severity was reduced by comparison to other dangerous activities, and rewards included relaxation and reduced anxiety. Coping appraisals included evidence of self-efficacy and social support. Results of the study indicated that although users reacted in a maladaptive manner, Twitter can be a powerful platform to test messages, interact with users and reinforce efficacious behavior.

“Pass the Ban!” An Examination of the Denton, Texas, Fracking Ban • Judson Meeks, Texas Tech University • This paper examines how groups on both sides of the fracking debate presented their cases to the public by conducting a visual and textual analysis to examine campaign materials. The study found that anti-fracking advocates presented the issue as one about local control and unity, whereas the pro-fracking advocates presented the issue as an economic threat the local community and the financial well-being of future generations.

Promoting Healthy Behavior through Social Support in Mobile Health Applications • Jung Won Chun, University of Florida; Jieun Cho; Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • Mobile health applications serve as a venue for promoting personal well-being by allowing users to engage in health-promoting behavior, such as sharing health information and health status/activities with each other. Through social interactions enabled by mobile health apps, people are likely to engage in healthy behavior and well-being with support from others. The current study explored which factors of smartphone use and motives for using health applications influence the perceived social support from mobile health applications. It also investigated the effect of perceived control as a mediating variable on the relationship between perceived social support in the applications and healthy behavior and well-being. The results showed that perceived social interaction and technological convenience were the main predictors of perceived social support in mobile health apps, which have indirect effects on exercise and perception of well-being. Perceived control positively mediated the relationship between perceived social support in the applications of both exercise and well-being.

Are you talking to me? Testing the value of Asian-specific messages as benefits to donating healthy breast tissue • Kelly Kaufhold, Texas State University; Yunjuan Luo; Autumn Shafer, University of Oregon • The Komen Tissue Bank at the Indiana University collects breast tissue samples from volunteers but suffers from a dearth of donations from Asian women. This two-part study was devised to test messages targeting Asian women. Applying Health Belief Model to a survey and five focus groups, low perceived susceptibility and severity yielded increased barriers and lower benefits among Asian women. Asian-specific messages showed significantly higher benefits for Asian women who suggested even more Asian-specific messaging.

Sources of Information About Emergency Contraception: Associations with Women’s Knowledge and Intentions to Use • Kyla Garrett, University of North Carolina; Laura Widman; Jacqueline Nesi; Seth Noar • Emergency contraception (EC) is a highly effective form of birth control that may lower rates of unintended pregnancy among young women. Currently, lack of adequate information and misunderstandings about EC hamper efforts to disseminate EC to women who need it. The purpose of this study was to determine the sources from which women had learned about EC (including health care providers, friends or interpersonal sources, media sources, or no information sources), and to examine whether source credibility was associated with accuracy of knowledge about EC and intentions to use EC. Participants were 339 college women (M age = 18.4) who reported where they had received information about EC, if anywhere, along with their EC knowledge and behavioral intentions. In total, 97% of women had heard of EC from at least one source and 49% indicated they were highly likely to use EC in the future, if needed. Results demonstrated significant positive relationships among higher credibility of EC information sources, more accurate EC knowledge, and greater intentions to use EC. Moreover, EC knowledge mediated the relationship between source credibility and intentions to use EC. Future EC education efforts should capitalize on credible information sources to positively influence EC knowledge and increase uptake of EC in emergency situations. Additional research is needed to examine the content, quality, and frequency of messages young women receive about EC.

Stymied by a wealth of health information: How viewing conflicting information online diminishes efficacy • Laura Marshall, UNC Chapel Hill; Maria Leonora Comello, UNC Chapel Hill • Confusing information about cancer screening proliferates online, particularly around mammography and prostate antigen testing. Whereas some online content may highlight the effectiveness of these tests in preventing cancer, other sources warn these tests may be ineffective or may cause harm. Across two experiments, we found support for the notion that exposure to conflicting information decreases self-efficacy and response efficacy, potentially discouraging the likelihood of behavior change that could prevent cancer.

Thematic/Episodic and Gain/Loss Framing in Mental Health News: How Combined Frames Influences Support for Policy and Civic Engagement Intentions • Lesa Major • This current research tests whether changing the way online stories frame depression affects how audience members attribute responsibility for depression and their civic engagement intentions towards policy solutions for depression. This study uses two framing approaches: 1) emphasis on an individual diagnosed with and living with depression (individualizing the coverage or episodic framing) and 2) emphasis on depression in more general or broader context (thematic or societal framing).This research examines gain (emphasizes benefits – e.g. lives saved) and loss (emphasizes costs – lives lost) frames to measure the interaction effects of frames (e.g. thematic-loss coverage or episodic-gain coverage) in news stories .A significant contribution of this research is the construction of the episodic frame. Findings of this research indicated loss-framed stories increased support for mental health policy solutions for depression, but the episodic frame increased societal attribution of responsibility for causes associated with depression.

Obesity News: The Effects of Framing and Uncertainty on Policy Support and Civic Engagement Intentions • Lesa Major • This study examined the effects of episodic (individual) frames and thematic (societal) frames in news on the causes (causal attribution) of and treatments (treatment attribution) for obesity. Interactions are investigated in this research by including gain and loss frames. Gain and loss frames have been examined in health messages, but have not received as much scholarly attention in terms of framing effects in health news. Finally, this study explored the effects of uncertainty and certainty on responsibility attribution. Findings suggest combined frames could influence support for obesity related policies.

Examining Ad Appeals in Over-the-Counter Drug Advertising in Japan • Mariko Morimoto, Sophia University • A quantitative content analysis of Japanese OTC drug TV commercials broadcasted during prime time was conducted to provide an overview of pharmaceutical advertising in Japan. In the sample of 204 ads, nutritional supplement drinks were the most frequently advertised drug category. Ad appeals including effective, safe, and quick-acting were popular. Additionally, these ads predominantly used a product merit approach, and celebrity endorsers, particularly actors/actresses and “talents” (such as TV personnel and comedians), were frequently featured.

Effects of Persuasive Health Information on Attitude Change and Health Behavioral Intentions in Mobile Social Media • Miao Miao; Qiuxia Yang; Pei-Shan Hsieh • Previous research has shown that online health information suffers from low credibility. Drawing on the elaboration-likelihood model (ELM), the central and peripheral routes were operationalized in this study using the argument quality and source credibility constructs respectively. We further examined how these influence processes were moderated by receivers’ health expertise. A between-groups, 2 (argument quality) × 4 (source of credibility) factorial design was tested from WeChat which is the dominant mobile social media in China.

Health Literacy and Health Information Technology Adoption: The Potential for a New Digital Divide • Michael Mackert, The University of Texas at Austin; Amanda Mabry, The University of Texas at Austin; Sara Champlin, The University of North Texas; Erin Donovan, The University of Texas at Austin; Kathrynn Pounders, The University of Texas at Austin • Approximately one-half of American adults exhibit low health literacy. Health information technology (HIT) makes health information available directly to patients through electronic forms including patient portals, wearable technology, and mobile apps. In this study, patients with low health literacy were less likely to use HIT or perceive it as easy/useful, but perceived information on HIT as private. There is room to improve HIT so that health information can be managed among patients of all abilities.

Sharing Health-Related Information on Facebook: An Integrated Model • Ming-Ching Liang, Metropolitan State University • This study proposes a model that explains proactive and reactive information sharing behaviors. In the context of sharing influenza-related information on Facebook, a survey study (N=338) was conducted. Results confirmed the applicability of the proposed information sharing model in current research context. Perceived norms of information sharing, need for self-presentation on SNSs, and sense of virtual community were identified as predictors for proactive and reactive information sharing behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Impact of Fear Appeals in The Tailored Public Service Announcements Context • Nam Young Kim, Sam Houston State University • In the context of an anti-binge drinking health campaign, this study particularly tested how the emotional content (i.e., fear appeals) in tailored messages influences people’s messages processing as well as their attitudinal/behavioral changes. Using a 2 (regulatory fit: fit vs. non-fit) X 2 (level of fear appeals: low vs. high) experimental design, the findings indicate that the influence of tailored messages should be discussed cautiously, because the tailored message’s effectiveness is reduced when combined with a high fear appeal. The findings have theoretical and practical implications on the use of emotional appeals in tailored communication.

Testing the effects of dialogic communication on attitudes and behavioral intentions related to polarized and non-polarized scientific issues • Nicole Lee, Texas Tech University • Dialogue has been presented as an alternative to the deficit model. This online experiment tested the impact of dialogue on trust in science, relationship qualities, and behavioral intentions. In order to examine the influence of political polarization, the issues of climate change and space exploration were compared. Dialogue significantly affected relationship qualities and behavioral intentions for space exploration, but not climate change. Results serve to integrate public relations theory and science communication scholarship.

Science in the social media age: Profiles of science blog readers • Paige Jarreau, Louisiana State University; Lance Porter, Louisiana State University • Science blogs have become an increasingly important component of the ecosystem of science news on the Internet. Yet we know little about science blog users. The goal of this study was to investigate who reads science blogs and why. Through a survey of 2,955 readers of 40 randomly selected science blogs, we created profiles of science blog users based on demographic and science media use patterns. We identified three clusters of science blog readers. Super users indicated reading science blogs for a wide range of reasons, including for community seeking purposes. One-way entertainment users indicated reading blogs more for entertainment and ambiance. Unique information seeking users indicated reading blogs more for specific information not found elsewhere. But regardless of science blog users’ motivations to read, they are sophisticated consumers of science media possessing high levels of scientific knowledge.

Using Weight-of-Experts Messaging to Communicate Accurately about Contested Science • Patrice Kohl; Sharon Dunwoody, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Research indicates that balanced news coverage of opposing scientific claims can result in heightened uncertainty among audiences about what is true. In this study, we test the ability of a weight-of-experts statement to enhance individuals’ ability to distinguish between more and less valid claims. An experiment found that the WOE narrative led participants to greater certainty about what scientists believed to be true, which made participants more likely to “buy in” to that belief.

Framing climate change: Competitive frames and the moderating effects of partisanship on environmental behavior • Porismita Borah • The present study conducted both focus groups and experiments to understand the influence of frames on environmental behavior intention. The focus groups and the first experiment were conducted with undergraduate students for pilot testing while the main experiment used an U.S. national sample. Findings show that a message with elements from both problem-solving and catastrophe frames increases individuals’ environmental behavior intention. This relationship is moderated by political ideology, such that only those participants who identified as Democrats and Independents showed more willingness to pro-environmental behavior. Over all, Republications were low on pro-environmental behavior intention compared to the Democrats. But within the Republicans, participants showed more likelihood for pro-environmental behavior intention in the catastrophe framed condition. Implications are discussed.

Abstract or Concrete? A Construal-level Perspective of Climate Change Images in U.S. Print Newspapers • Ran Duan, Michigan State University; Bruno Takahashi; Adam Zwickle; Kevin Duffy, Michigan State University; Jack Nissen, Michigan State University • Climate change is one of the most severe societal environmental risks that call for immediate actions in our age; however, the impacts of climate change are often perceived to be psychologically distant at a high level of construal. This research presents an initial exploration of newspapers’ visual representations of climate change using a construal-level perspective. Focusing on the recent years from 2012 to 2015, this study content analyzed a total of 635 news images with regards to image themes and nine other factors in relation to construal level (e.g., image formats, chromatic characteristics, etc.) Unexpectedly, the results show that overall, climate change has been visually portrayed as a relatively concrete rather than abstract issue and has mostly been portrayed with a high level of specificity. In particular, USA Today visually covered the issue as most concrete, followed by the New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. Human themed images were the most concrete images as compared to nature themed and industry themed images. Findings indicate that construal level aspects in the news images provide another way of understanding and interpreting climate change imagery in the media in the U.S.

“Standing up for science”: The blurring lines between biotechnology research, science communication, and advocacy • Rebecca Harrison, Cornell University • Targeted for their vocal support for genetic engineering and their work in science outreach, upwards of 50 academic agricultural biotechnologists have received Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests since February 2015. The U.S. Right to Know (US-RTK), a self-described watchdog organization who filed the requests, sought to uncover any conflicts of interest (COI) between industry and tax-payer-funded scientific research on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The action has been called a “witch hunt” and “bullying” by supporters of the scientists, and an October 2015 Nature Biotechnology Editorial challenges its audience to “stand up for science” in the wake of this “smear campaign.” The dominant view of science communication is rooted in the idealized assumption that the very act of communication is nothing more than an apolitical transfer of a simplified version of scientific knowledge. The conceptualization of general COI by the scientific community often reflects this outdated framework. But, as scientists become politically engaged as advocates for their own work, this framework is challenged. Using the 2015 case of biotechnology researchers and records requests, this paper explores the question: Why is “scientific outreach” often considered categorically different than “research” — both structurally at the university level, but also as a distinction internalized by these particular scientists — and therefore perceived as immune to charges of COI?

Effects of Heuristic-Systematic Information Processing about Flu and Flu Vaccination • SangHee Park, University of Michigan, Dearborn • This study applied the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) in order to explore risk perceptions of flu and the flu vaccination because the HSM explains individual’s information processing as an antecedent to attitude. Accordingly, this study examined how people process different types of risk information applying a 2 (Message framing: heuristic information message vs. systematic information message) by 2 (expert source vs. non-expert source) online experiment. The experiment found that risk perception of flu illness was positively related to benefit perception of the flu vaccination. The result also indicated that heuristic messages affected risk perception of the flu vaccination, but not flu illness perception. Implications and limitations of these findings were discussed.

Exploring the Multi-Faceted Interpersonal Communication Strategies Used By College Students to Discuss Stress • Sara Champlin, The University of North Texas; Gwendelyn Nisbett, University of North Texas • Mental health issues are a prevalent problem on college campuses yet stigma remains. We examine patterns of college students either seeking help for personal stress or providing help to a stressed friend. Textual analysis was used to extract themes of participant comments and identify common behaviors. Results suggest that students use direct, indirect, and avoidant approaches to addressing stress with friends. Distinctions are blurred in self help-seeking behavior. Implications for creating interpersonal campaigns are discussed.

“Warrior Moms”: Audience Engagement and Advocacy in Spreading Information About Maternal Mental Illness Online • Sarah Smith-Frigerio, University of Missouri • One in seven women will experience a maternal mental illness, yet little is known about why individuals seek information about maternal mental illness and treatments, or how they make use of messages they find. By employing a grounded theoretical approach, involving a close reading of Postpartum Progress, the world’s most read online site concerning maternal mental illness, as well as analysis of semi-structured audience interviews of 21 users of the site, this study contributes a more nuanced understanding of how participants use information and peer support on the site. In addition, the research explores how participants move beyond seeking information anonymously online about a stigmatized mental illness or use private support forums for peer support, to engage in online and offline advocacy efforts.

From Scientific Evidence to Art: Guidelines to Prevent Digital Manipulation in Cell Biology and Nanoscience Journals • Shiela Reaves, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Steven Nolan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • As technological advances have made it easier to digitally manipulate images, the scientific community faces a major issue regarding ethics of visual data. A content analysis of editorial guidelines for the scientific images in cell biology and nanoscience journals demonstrates differences between the two disciplines. Cell biology images in high impact journals receive detailed guidelines about digital manipulation. However, nanoscience journals and low-impact journals have less detailed instructions to prevent misleading visual data.

The Influence of Internal, External, and Response Efficacy on Climate Change-Related Political Participation • Sol Hart, University of Michigan; Lauren Feldman, Rutgers University • This study examined how changing the type and valence of efficacy information in climate change news stories may impact political participation through the mediators of perceived internal, external, and response efficacy. Stories including positive internal efficacy content increased perceived internal efficacy, while stories including negative external efficacy content lowered perceived external efficacy. Perceived internal, external, and response efficacy all offered unique, positive associations with intentions to engage in climate change-related political participation.

Recycling Intention Promotes Attitudinal and Procedural Information Seeking • Sonny Rosenthal; Leung Yan Wah • Information seeking is more likely to occur when the information has utility to the seeker. Prior scholarship discusses this property of information in terms of instrumental utility and, more recently, informational utility. Research on information seeking describes various factors that may motivate information search, but none has directly modeled behavioral intention as an antecedent. The current study examines the effect of recycling intention on intention to seek two kinds of information: attitudinal and procedural. Results show strong effects, which suggest that in the context of recycling, information seeking may serve functions of behavioral and defensive adaptation. Additional findings suggest that recycling personal norms and recycling-related negative affect influence information seeking, albeit indirectly, as forms of cognitive and affective adaptation. Results have implications for selective exposure theory and the practice of environmental communication.

The Effects of Environmental Risk Perception, and Beliefs in Genetic Determinism and Behavioral Action on Cancer Fatalism • Soo Jung Hong, Huntsman Cancer Institute • This study investigates the effects of environmental risk perception, and beliefs in genetic determinism and behavioral action regarding cancer development on cancer fatalism, as well as the moderation effect of education and the mediating role of environmental risk perception on those associations. Nationally representative data from the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) 2013 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) was employed. Findings reveal interesting and meaningful dynamics between those variables and suggest directions for future research.

Perceptions of Sexualized and Non-Sexualized Images of Women in Alcohol Advertisements: Exploring Factors Associated with Intentions to Sexually Coerce • Stacey Hust; Kathleen Rodgers; Stephanie Ebreo; Nicole O’Donnell, Washington State University • The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with college students’ intentions to sexually coerce. An experiment was conducted with (N= 1,234) participants from a college sample. One condition was exposed to sexualized alcohol advertisements and a second condition to non-sexualized alcohol advertisements. Identifying as a man, adherence to traditional gender roles and heterosexual scripts, and exposure to alcohol advertisements with sexualized images of women were positively associated with intentions to sexually coerce.

Enabling Tailored Message Campaigns: Discovering and Targeting the Attitudes and Behaviors of Young Arab Male Drivers • Susan Dun, Northwestern University in Qatar; Syed Owais Ali, Northwestern University in Qatar; Rouda almeghaiseeb, Northwestern University in Qatar • Citing the preventable nature of traffic accidents and the unacceptably high number of causalities, the World Health Organization recently issued an international call for action to combat the needless loss of life and injuries (Nebehay, 2015). Because of dangerous driving behaviors 18-25 year old men are the highest the risk group for accidents, yet they are resistant to typical risk communications. Young Arab men are particularly at risk within this group. The study reported here discovered the driving attitudes and behavioral intentions of young Arab men to enable communication campaigns to specifically tailor persuasive messages for this high-risk yet understudied group in a bid to save lives and decrease the injuries from accidents. We suspected that they are high sensation seeking, fatalistic, and as members of a collectivistic, masculine culture, likely to engage in risking driving behaviors. Using a culturally contextualized focus group setting, we confirmed that they fatalistic, value assertive driving by equating good driving with high-risk behaviors, dislike fear appeals and blame other drivers for accidents. Suggestions for risk communication campaigns are provided. We discovered tensions in their belief systems that could provide an avenue for persuasive messaging, by exposing the contradictions and resolving them in a pro-attitudinal direction. Basic safety beliefs need to be targeted as well, such as the importance of seat belts and defensive driving. Finally, a novel campaign that is not recognizable as a dramatic or sad safe driving campaign is a must, especially initially, or the message is likely to be ignored.

MERS and the Social Media Impact Hypothesis: How Message Format and Style Affect TPE & Perceived Risk • T. Makana Chock, Syracuse University; Soojin Roh, Syracuse University • This study examined the effects of narrative transportation and message context on third person effects (TPE), perceived risk, and behavioral intentions. A 2 (Format: Narrative/Factual news) X 2 (Context: news site, news story on Facebook page) plus 1 (personal account on a Facebook page) between-subject experimental design (N=269) conducted in South Korea examined the differences between reading news stories about the risks of The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in different media contexts – online news sites and Facebook pages – and different formats — narrative, factual, and personal accounts. TPE were found for factual news stories read on news sites, but not for the same story when it was read on a Facebook page. Narrative versions of the story elicited greater transportation and limited TPE regardless of whether the news stories were read on news sites or Facebook pages. TPE was found for personal accounts read on a Facebook page. Source credibility and identification were found to partially mediate the relationship between narrative transportation and perceived story effects on self. In turn, perceived effects on self contributed to personal risk perceptions and risk-prevention behaviors.

Tracking public attitudes toward climate change over time: The declining roles of risk perception and concern • Tsung-Jen Shih, National Chengchi University; Min-Hsin Su; Mei-Ling Hsu • Increasing public risk perception of and concern over climate change has long been regarded as an effective strategy to motivate environmental-friendly behaviors. However, the levels of risk perception and concern may be volatile. For one thing, people may deny the existence of climate change when they feel threatened and, at the same time, do not know what to do. Furthermore, the concept of “issue fatigue” may occur when people are chronically exposed to threatening information. Based on two nationally representative telephone surveys conducted in Taiwan (2013 and 2015), this study examines how people’s risk perception and concern may change over time and whether the impacts on the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors will be different. The results indicate that, although people were more likely to take actions aimed at mitigating climate change in 2015 than in 2013, the levels of risk perception and concern declined significantly. Regression analyses also showed that the effects of risk perception and concern were moderated by time. Implications of the findings will be discussed.

On the Ever-growing Number of Frames in Health Communication Research: A Coping Strategy • Viorela Dan; Juliana Raupp • Recent years have brought a large number of studies citing framing as a theoretical guide in science and health communication research. Keeping track of this literature has become increasingly difficult due to a “frustrating tendenc[y]… to generate a unique set of frames for every study” (Hertog & McLeod, 2001, p. 151). In this study, in an attempt to assist those intending to keep track of this literature, we report the results of a systematic review of literature on news frames in the media coverage of health risks. In the studies scrutinized (k = 35), we found forty-five frame-names for just fifteen frames. They were: attribution of responsibility, action, thematic, episodic, medical, consequences, human interest, health severity, economic consequences, gain, loss, conflict, uncertainty, alarmist, and reassurance. In the paper, we address the overlap between some of these frames and other concepts and frameworks. Also, as some frames entail others or intersect with others, we provide a visualization of how frames relate to each other (see Figure 1). We suggest that building framing theory is stalled by the use of various frame-names for the same frames; yet, we realize that scholars using framing in their studies may follow other goals than building framing theory. However, those new to the field may have difficulty coping with the ever-growing number of frames. In this regard, we hope that our systematic review can help towards reaching consistency, a characteristic indispensable to any theory.

Who Are Responsible for HPV Vaccination? Examination of Male Young Adults’ Perceptions • Wan Chi Leung • HPV vaccination is an important public health issue, but past research has mostly been done on the HPV vaccination for females. An online survey was conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk, and responses from 656 males aged 18-26 in the United States were analyzed. Attributing the responsibilities for getting HPV-related diseases more to women and to the self were associated with weaker support for the HPV vaccination for males. Attributing the responsibilities for getting the HPV vaccine more to women and to the self were associated with stronger support for the HPV vaccination for males. Findings point to suggestions for future promotions of the HPV vaccination for males.

Media Use, Risk Perception and Precautionary Behavior toward Haze Issue in China • Xiaohua Wu; Xigen Li • The study examined to what degree people’s risk perception of the haze in China was affected by mass media exposure, social network sites involvement and direct experience towards haze. The risk perception was examined in two levels: social risk perception and personal risk perception. Impersonal Impact Hypothesis was tested in the digital media context. The study also explores the influencing factors of precautionary behaviors. The key findings include: 1) mass media exposure and SNS involvement regarding haze issue mediate the effect of direct experience on risk perception; 2) Impersonal Impact Hypothesis was not supported in the context of multi-channel and interactive communication; 3) vulnerability slightly moderates the effect of mass media exposure on personal risk perception; 4) mass media exposure and SNS involvement positively affect precautionary behavior mediated through personal risk perception.

Expanding the RISP Model: Examining the Conditional Indirect Effects of Cultural Cognitions • Yiran Wang, Washington State University; Jay Hmielowski, Washington State University; Rebecca Donaway, Washington State University • This paper attempts to connect literature from the Risk Information Seeking and Processing model with the cultural cognitions literature. We do this by assessing the relationship between cultural cognitions and risk perceptions, then examine whether these risk perceptions are associated with the three outcomes of interest relative to the RISP model: Information seeking, systematic processing, and heuristic processing, through a full serial mediation model using 2015 data collected from ten watersheds communities across the U.S.

Introducing benefit of smoking in anti-smoking messages: Comparing passive and interactive inoculation based on Elaboration Likelihood Model • Yuchen Ren • This study tested the effect of message interactivity in inoculation (interactive inoculation message versus passive inoculation message) on children’s attitude towards smoking based on elaboration likelihood model. Eighty-two primary school students were recruited from Shenzhen, China. Experiment results showed that compared with passive inoculation message, interactive inoculation message generated more negative attitude towards smoking and higher involvement in both central route and peripheral route. Moreover, mediation analysis showed that only the central route indicator mediates the effect of message interactivity on children’s attitude towards smoking. In conclusion, this study not only introduces message interactivity to inoculation theory in smoking prevention context, but also reveals the mechanism of the proposed persuasion effect.

Adolescents’ Perceptions of E-cigarettes and Marketing Messages: A Focus Group Study • Yvonnes Chen; Chris Tilden; Dee Vernberg • “Prior research about e-cigarettes has rarely focused on young adolescents exclusively and explored their perceptions of the industry’s marketing efforts. This focus group study with adolescents (n=39) found that factors that motivate them to experiment with e-cigarettes (e.g., looking cool, curiosity, flavors) are identical to traditional tobacco uptake among adolescents. E-cigarette advertising was memorable because of color contrast, sleek design, and promised benefits. Restricting flavors and advertising may reduce e-cigarette experimentation and future tobacco use.”

Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Texts? Investigating the Influence of Visuals on Text-Based Health Intervention Content • Zhaomeng Niu; Yujung Nam; QIAN YU, Washington State University; Jared Brickman; Shuang Liu • Healthy eating and exercise among young people could curb obesity. Strong messaging is needed for weight loss interventions. This study evaluated the usefulness of visual appeals in text messages. A 2 (gain vs. loss) X 2 (picture vs. no picture) design with pretest and posttest questionnaires (N=107) revealed text-only messages with loss frames had an influence on affective risk response, while text messages with pictures had a positive effect on attitudes, intentions, and self-efficacy.

2016 Abstracts

Religion and Media 2016 Abstracts

Just a Phone Call (or Facebook Post) Away: Parents’ Influence at a Distance on Emerging Adults’ Religious Connections • Andrew Pritchard; Sisi Hu • New communication media have to a great degree erased the barriers of distance that once diminished parents’ ability to keep their emerging adult children (ages 18 to 25) connected to the family’s religion. A survey of emerging adults (N = 727) finds that parents’ influence is greatest when they communicate through media in which emerging adults are willing to discuss intimate subjects, and when religiosity and spirituality are frequent topics of conversation.

Moral Mondays in the South: Christian Activism and Civil Disobedience in the Digital Age • Anthony Hatcher, Elon University • This paper is a case study of the 2013 Moral Monday movement in North Carolina and the use of progressive Christianity and religious rhetoric as tactics for protest in the modern media era. Themes explored include: 1) the role religious rhetoric played in this 21st century protest movement; 2) the tone of media coverage; 3) how social media was used by both protestors and their critics; and 4) the political effectiveness of the protests.

Defining the Christian Journalist: Ideologies, Values and Practices • Brad Schultz, University of Mississippi; Mary Sheffer, University of Southern Mississippi • This study sought to understand how working Christian journalists perceive themselves in terms of how their faith shapes their professional practice. An international survey of self-identified Christian journalists showed that they perceive themselves differently from their secular counterparts primarily in terms of ideology (ethics and public service). Younger Christian journalists were the drivers of these perceptions more so than older journalists, who remain more tied to traditional journalistic practice. Interestingly, those who worked at non-religious media outlets were more connected to ideology, while those at Christian outlets were more committed to journalism practice. The implications of these findings were discussed.

Morality and Minarets: The moral framing of mosque construction in the U.S. • Brian J. Bowe, Western Washington University • Journalism is a moral craft with particular social obligations. Moral evaluations are one of the main functions of media frames. Yet morality is a complex concept that includes both individualizing and binding elements. This study applies Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) to examine the moral dimension of frames. Analyzing news articles (n=349) from five newspapers about controversies surrounding the construction of mosques in the United States, this study found four moral frames: Ethnocentric Loyalty, Social Order, Altruistic Democracy and Moderate Individualism. These frames were strongly rooted in socially binding moral foundations, and they were connected to enduring values of journalism.

“I Pray We Won’t Let This Moment Pass Us By”: Christian Concert Films and Numinous Experiences • Jim Trammell, High Point University • This manuscript analyzes the Christian concert film Hillsong United: Live in Miami to investigate how mass media evoke numinous experiences. Using a framework that locates technological determinism within theories of religious encounters, the analysis explores how Christian concert films create numinous experiences through shot composition, editing, and content selection. The manuscript argues that mass media technologies and aesthetics can create expectations of religious encounters, and challenges the use of mass media to manufacture religious experiences.

Thoughtful, but angry: Media narratives of NFL star Arian Foster’s “confession” of nonbelief. • John Haman; Kyle Miller • In 2015, Arian Foster became the first active professional football player to announce he was an atheist. To analyze the media’s framing of Foster’s nonbelief within the context of the overtly evangelical Protestant religious culture of the NFL, we analyzed all news and editorial coverage of Foster’s “confession.” By extending Silk’s methodology for examining religious topoi, we examine how journalists use familiar themes to negotiate the boundary between belief and nonbelief in American culture.

Religion, coping and healing in news about school shootings • Michael McCluskey, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga; Hayden Seay • Religion offers comfort to those undergoing trauma, including communities affected by a school shooting. News content offers one means to heal. Analysis of news content about school shootings showed the presence of five key functions of individual religious coping methods identified in prior research. Most common were comfort/spirituality, meaning and control, followed by intimacy/spirituality and life transformation. Presence of healing and coping themes in the news reflect a journalistic role to heal the community.

Believing news from the Christian Broadcast Network: The intersection between source trust, content expectancy, and religiosity • Robin Blom, Ball State University • A randomly-selected sample of 200 U.S. adults indicated their believability of a news headline attributed to the Christian Broadcast Network to test whether an interaction between news source trust and content expectancy could predict believability levels. Overall, the data indicate that certain non-religious people or those with low levels of religiosity considered the Christian Broadcast Network headline highly believable, whereas some people with high levels of religiosity did not—depending on whether they were surprised on unsurprised that the headline was attributed to CBN—and not just because of their religiosity level. In fact, religiosity was not a statistically significant predictor of believability in a regression model with news source trust, news content expectancy, and its interaction. This provides new insights to whether non-secular media outlets could be considered valuable news sources for people outside the traditional, religious target audience for those organizations.

Media Framing of Muslims: A Research Review • Saifuddin Ahmed, University of California, Davis; Jörg Matthes, University of Vienna • This study provides an overview of English language academic research on media framing of Muslims from 2001 to 2014. Through content analysis of 128 studies we identify patterns involving research trend, methodological approach, media analysis, and authorship. A qualitative review results in presentation of seven common frames. Attention is paid to frame commonality across media sources and regions. Current research gaps are highlighted and findings point to key directions for future scholars.

2016 Abstracts