Communication Theory and Methodology Division
Uses and Gratifications of Mobile Gaming: When Is Playing No Longer Just Fun and Games? • Karin Haberlin; David Atkin • The present study explores problematic ritualized uses of mobile videogames—available through smartphones and tablets — using Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory as a guide. Online survey results uncover a positive relationship between materialism and Internet addiction and a negative relationship between social support and Internet addiction. Social support mediated the relationship between materialism and Internet addiction. Fantasy, coping, and escape motivations were moderately correlated with Internet Addiction Test scores.
The evolution of research in Journalism and Communication: An analysis of scholarly CIOS-indexed journals from 1915-present • David Atkin; Carolyn Lagoe; Tim Stephen; Archana Krishnan • Assessments of programmatic research remain important in the current higher education landscape, as the field of Journalism/Mass Communication (JMC) enters its 2nd century. This study profiles scholarly productivity across the larger discipline’s first century, focusing on scholarly output for institutions in referred journals indexed by the CIOS database since 1915. All but four of the 30 most prolific units grant doctoral degrees. The 30 most prolific scholars all have at least a decade of experience and typically publish with a coauthor. Implications of converging research areas wrought by emerging digital media—and their erasure of the field’s sub-domains–are discussed.
Leveraging intermedia agenda setting for forecasting coverage: A case study of the Mueller investigation • Matthew Brockman, University of Arizona • While a lot of progress has been made in modeling factors influencing news production, there is a dearth of research for providing ways to compare the accuracy and persistence of models used in current journalism research. This quantitative study provides evidence that news coverage can be forecast with better-than-chance accuracy when evaluating models mean absolute scaled error by modeling news coverage of the case of a government investigation and presidential tweeting concerning collusion or interference in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Furthermore, the study examines how the estimated relative influence of different factors changes depending on the time frame to which the computational models were fit. The author theorizes that further including additional theory in models and re-evaluating the resulting change in error can provide insight to how much predictive value those theoretical contributions account for media production.
Mediation analysis and warranted inferences in media and communication research. Examining research design in the field’s prominent journals • Michael Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Macau K. F. Mak, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Panfeng Hu • The number of communication studies employing mediation analysis has increased exponentially in in the past two decades. Focusing on the aspect of research design, this study examines 333 articles published in the Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Communication Research, and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly between 1996-2007. Findings show that while the majority of studies report statistically significant indirect effects, they are inadequate to make causal inferences about the mediating mechanisms. Authors also often infer that the significant mediators they uncovered are the ‘true’ mediators while plausible alternative models and mediators are rarely acknowledged or discussed. Future studies should pay more attention to the role of research design and its implications for making causal inferences. More rigorous research designs for strengthening causal claims in communication research are suggested.
The COVID-19 pandemic and heightened hostility toward China: Expanding the theoretical underpinning and scope of the third-person perception • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Shih Hsin University; Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Macau • This timely study examined the widely documented third-person perception in the context of the raging COVID-19 pandemic. It included a new variable, information transparency, normatively treated as a given in past research. Constructs of social distance, news exposure, news attentiveness, and self-efficacy were included for testing. Additionally, this study is among the first in media effects literature to treat TPP as a moderation variable. The implications, contributions, and limitations of this study are discussed in detail.
The Broadcast Journalism Credibility Scale: A Robust Measure for Examining Ethos, Logos, and Pathos • Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama; Chris Roberts, University of Alabama • Credibility is an ancient, well-studied, and complicated construct. Most credibility measurements consider either messenger (ethos), message (logos), or both. Aristotle’s definition also included pathos—the speaker’s emotion, which now comes into play with broadcast journalists. This study analyzed 45 variables representing ethos, logos, and pathos, characteristics; results showed high correlations among Aristotle’s three concepts. Factor analysis yielded a new three-pronged credibility measure for broadcasters, with 21 variables that distinguish among the three concepts.
Still a man’s world? Framing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election • Eliana DuBosar, Univeristy of Florida • This study compared coverage of Clinton and Trump in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal during the 2016 presidential election. Specifically, it looked at quantity of coverage as well as personal, issue, and strategic game framed coverage. For the difference between quantity of coverage for the two candidates and attribution of feminine issues to Clinton were significant. However, personal and strategic game framed coverage differences between Clinton and Trump were not statistically significant.
* Extended Abstract * The geolocation gap: The effect of being a political minority in communities on news media trust • Megan Duncan, Virginia Tech; David Coppini, University of Denver • Whether exposure to political disagreement will increase participation in democracy and media trust is up for debate. This study uses U.S. survey data to compare the effects that holding political opinions in the minority or majority within discussion networks and place-based communities have on political engagement and trust in news media. This study finds supportive discussion networks increase participation in democracy, but dissimilarity with community opinions decrease trust in news media.
Dismantling the hierarchy: An organization-centric model of influence for media sociology research • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder; Timothy Kuhn, U of Colorado-Boulder • This theoretical paper proposes a new model for understanding influence on journalistic practice. Studying influence in the 21st century requires a model that does not include a hierarchy and therefore does not implicitly validate a universal journalism culture. The paper first explains the hierarchy of influences model, argues for its extinction and then resituates that model’s levels of analysis into a new model that more appropriately accounts for the growing agency of individual organizations. Finally, the paper envisions avenues for future research utilizing the new model.
Response Quality Comparison Between Computers and Smartphones in Different Web Survey Modes and Question Formats • Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University; Chenjie Zhang, Jiangsu Normal University; Weiwei Jiang • Low response rates in Web surveys and the use of different devices in entering Web survey responses are the two main challenges to response quality of Web surveys. This study compared the effects of using interviewers to recruit participants in computer-assisted self-administered interviews (CASI) vs. computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI) and smartphones vs. computers on participation rate and Web survey response quality. Two field experiments using two similar media use studies on U.S. college students were conducted to compare response quality in different survey modes and response devices. Response quality of computer entry was better than smartphone entry in both studies in open-ended and closed-ended question format only. But device effect was only significant on overall completion rate when interviewers were present.
Thinking, feeling, and reporting: An exploration into emotionality in U.S. political journalism • Kimberly Kelling • Many Western cultures privilege rationality in the workplace and perceive emotionality as reason’s lesser counterpart. Within the U.S. journalism landscape, the perpetuation of this dichotomy is prevalent, yet it is a relatively under-explored area in social scientific research. Although journalism in the U.S. has a strong tradition of objectivity, the realities of journalistic work expose journalists to emotional situations almost daily. Therefore, this study uses a mixed methods approach to understand how often political journalists employ emotional labor at work and to describe the emotion regulation strategies of those journalists. Findings suggest journalists practice both proactive and reactive emotion regulation strategies, yet still prioritize rationality in their work.
Defining media environment: An introduction to a communication infrastructure-structure-action (CISA) model • Yong-Chan Kim, Yonsei University • The purpose of this work is twofold: (1) to review how empirical media research has addressed the issue of context; and (2) to propose theoretical definitions of media environment as part of communication environment. In defining media (and communication) environment, this study introduces a communication infrastructure-structure-action (CISA) framework as a way to understand and explain how media (and communication) environments work for communicative action. The CISA framework is proposed as a theoretical framework upon which to develop empirical research on media and communication environments. With such goals in mind, I discuss some potential variables of media (and communication) environment and communicative action as well.
Seeing Oneself in Online Sources: Self-Esteem and Self-Construal Impact Information Exposure in the Filter Bubble • Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick; Axel Westerwick • An experiment mimicked the filter bubble: Participants browsed all attitude-aligned political content. It varied source cues, with two out of eight bylines displaying individual participants’ name initials as author initials. Selective exposure spent on messages from same-initials authors was logged in seconds to capture egotism (based on name-letter effect). Pre-exposure state self-esteem influenced this egotism indicator, contingent on personal-self and social-self importance. Perceived source similarity affected state self-esteem change, contingent on same moderators.
Does watching animals in real life and on the screen have the same effects on stress reduction? • Anastasia Kononova, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University; Patricia Huddleston, Michigan State University; Tao Deng, DePaul University; Duygu Kanver, Michigan State University; Narae Park, Michigan State University; Luis Graciano Velazquez, Michigan State University; Alan Smith, Michigan State University; Noah Hirsch, Michigan State University; Anish Nimmagadda, Michigan State University; Yao Dong, Michigan State University; Kristen Lynch, Michigan State University • A set of two studies provided empirical evidence that visiting a zoo and watching online videos of zoo animals reduces stress. In order to showcase the stress-reduction effects, we designed a procedure that was implemented at a local zoo and at a U.S. Midwestern university’s psychophysiological laboratory, where we experimentally induced stress using a widely-accepted psychological task and then provided participants with the experience of proximally physical or mediated exposure to zoo animals. In addition to measuring stress levels using self-report measures, we recorded participants’ psychophysiological responses, such as heart rate, pulse, and skin conductance. We detected changes in stress levels and attitude toward zoo animals as a function of exposure to zoo animals and observed field study participants’ (N = 8) psychophysiological responses that indicate parasympathetic activation of the central nervous system. Our lab study results (N = 87) showed that the stress-reducing effects of watching zoo animals in a video were more evident among Generation Z participants (those between the ages of 18 and 24 years old). We also found that watching the video of zoo animals elicited moderately arousing and the least unpleasant emotional responses from participants when compared with other types of videos.
Perceived message desirability is not good enough to explain first-person effect: Testing multiple moderating variables of first-person effect • Sangki Lee, Arkansas Tech University; Virginia Jones, Arkansas Tech University • This study attempted to explain inconsistent research findings of previous first-person effect studies by testing its moderating variables. A 2 X 2 X 2 mixed design was employed with a between-subject variable of message relevance and within-subject variables of reference group and message dimension (knowledge and attitude). Significant main and interaction effects of message attributions were found. Locus of control was not a significant moderator. A measurement issue of first-person effect was discussed.
* Extended Abstract * Database discrepancies: News stories and child separation at the border • Carol Liebler, Syracuse University; Noah Buntain, Syracuse University; Kyle Webster • The purpose of the current study is to compare and contrast four news databases to explore how exhaustive each appears to be, and to further examine the degree of convergence among them. Using a month’s worth of news on child separation at the border, we examine search results from Google News, Newsbank, NexisUni and Proquest. Our data reveal considerable differences across all of the dimensions studied: number of stories, geographic reach and media outlets.
From Theory to Profession: Mapping Global Knowledge Networks in Communication Studies • Yi-Hui Huang, City University of Hong Kong; Hai Liang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Yuanhang LU, Hong Kong Baptist University • “This study collects and analyzes the titles and descriptions of 200 top communication programs worldwide. Results indicate that the field is moving towards divergence rather than convergence. Communication programs tend to highlight their own unique features (i.e., social sciences, humanities/culture, practical application, media studies) and programs examined within different continents (i.e., Europe, North American, Asia, Australia, Africa) of the world also demonstrate similar patterns.
‘Instagram versus Reality’: Psychological Effects of Viewing Realistic and Thin-Idealized Body Presentations on Instagram • Alice Binder; Joerg Matthes, U of Vienna • Two experimental studies examined the effects of presenting ‘ideal vs. reality’ body pictures on Instagram on women and men. Whereas in Study 1, young women in the ‘ideal vs. reality’ condition showed a more realistic perception of an ideal body, Study 2 revealed that adult women in the ‘ideal vs. reality’ condition showed a thinner ideal self compared to the thin-idealized condition. This effect was most prominent in adult women with a higher BMI. No effects on men were observed.
Modeling attitude reinforcement within the elaboration likelihood model • Nikki McClaran, Michigan State University; Nancy Rhodes • The present study examines the importance of reinforcing favorable attitudes to strengthen the attitude-behavior relationship. In accordance with the elaboration likelihood model, this study attempted to determine how the way in which pro-attitudinal messages are processed influences behavioral intention via attitude reinforcement. More so, message features of argument strength and emotional tone were examined for their role in impacting this relationship. Participants (N = 315) were randomly exposed to a PSA video regarding donating to animal shelters. Results found that while the impact on attitude reinforcement was conditional on the message’s emotional tone, the influence of processing type on behavioral intention was contingent on message strength. However, no relationship was found between attitude reinforcement and behavioral intention. These findings reiterate the need for more research on pro-attitudinal processing and point to the potential role of peripheral cues in encouraging attitude-behavior consistency.
* Extended Abstract * Deliberating Alone: Immigration and “Rational” Arguments against Political Talk • Bryan McLaughlin, Texas Tech University; Kenton Wilkinson, Texas Tech Univ.; Hector Rendon, Texas Tech University; TJ Martinez, Texas Tech University • While interviewing people about the topic of immigration, one constant theme kept coming up—participants wanted to talk politics, but they believed it was not possible because other people were too irrational. Using a symbolic interactionism framework, we explore the reflexive process through which deliberation is considered, then ultimately decided against. We argue that these are normative performances used to demonstrate a commitment to the value of rationality, allowing individuals to reaffirm an ideal self.
Uses-and-gratification for parasocial grief and grief policing in the 21st century • Ajia Meux, University of Oklahoma • The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between parasocial grief and parasocial grief policing from a uses-and-gratifications framework. Uses-and-gratification theory suggests that people use media to meet a number of different needs. Celebrities use social media to create authentic and credible online personalities to cultivate niche audiences looking for connectedness and identification. Rapid advancements in social media technologies facilitate communications that allow for feelings of “being there.” This enables new ways to engage and develop parasocial relations, friend-like relationships with mediated personae and audiences. When these mediated personae die, fans experience parasocial grief and use social media to both grieve and participate in others’ grieving acts. This grief is met with policing efforts from individuals who perceive parasocial relationships as an illegitimate loss of the person grieving. Broader cultural implications (i.e., family, ethnicity, gender, culture, social media) are present when considering the importation of norms to online spaces which create a conflict between those who believe it be a space for grieving behavior and those who do not.
How theoretical are media social science theories? It’s difficult to tell. • Serena Miller; Stephen Lacy; Jen Lovejoy • Theories discipline our thinking by holding it to intellectual standards, yet standards are not standards if minimal agreement exists regarding what constitutes social science theory. During a pilot test of a content analysis aimed at assessing media scholars’ use of formal social science theory, we could not meaningfully record how theory guided scholars. This essay discusses previous such efforts, what the pilot test taught us about the use of formal social science theory in media journals, and what can be done to improve theory building in media scholarship.
A World of Two Agendas: Agenda Setting Sampling • Milad Minooie, Kennesaw State University • This article studies the efficiency of different samples for content analysis of news in media effects studies by comparing the agenda-setting effect of a sample drawn by the researcher with the effect of a sample drawn based on audiences’ self-reported media habits. Contrary to the belief that exposure to sampled media content is necessary for observation of media effects, samples drawn based on overall readership/viewership of the media are more efficient than samples based on audience’s actual consumption habits. A traditional media sample yields a stronger agenda-setting effect compared to a sample drawn based on self-reported media habits. But correlations between the two media samples are also strong. The findings suggest that a broad intermedia agenda-setting process makes it possible for researchers to draw a traditional sample that is representative of the issues salient to audiences regardless of their level of exposure to the sampled media. In other words, even in a demassified media environment, traditional samples are still the best option for media effects researchers.
* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: How global is the World Wide Web? Identifying user-defined geographies from websites, YouTube and Twitter Trends in over 100 countries • Yee Man Margaret Ng, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Harsh Taneja, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign • Do web users really transcend national boundaries? This study examines the extent of similarities between countries’ web use patterns simultaneously accounting for different modes of online consumption: country’s most popular websites and trends from YouTube and Twitter. Utilizing platforms’ API and scraping, we collected two months of usage data and analyzed usage pattern similarities between a hundred countries. Unlike prior studies, we find social media usage to be even more heterogeneous than global website usage.
* Extended Abstract * Explaining the Process: How Journalistic Transparency and Perceptions of Importance Can Promote Credibility and Engagement • Jason Peifer, Indiana University – Bloomington • Faced with declining public trust in news media, numerous proposals have been presented to combat the problems of journalistic credibility. Increased transparency is one commonly identified approach as a key for addressing these challenges—aspects of which could include disclosing how and why a story was selected, how it was reported, and how it was funded. This research employs an experimental design to investigate the efficacy of such transparency for fostering newspaper credibility and engagement.
Media Agenda-Setting versus Political Agenda-Setting: Towards a Needed Convergence of Research across Two Related Literatures • Alexander Rochefort, Boston University • Despite longstanding agenda-setting research within the communication and political science literatures, few scholars have attempted to synthesize these fields in a comprehensive and systematic way. This research fills this gap by explicating the interaction between the media agenda and the political agenda for a salient public issue—the oversight of social media platforms. Examining editorials in the New York Times, this project finds that editorial pages play a key role in linking these agendas together.
* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: Methodological Implications of Between-Coder Variance in Content Analysis • Iago S. Muraro, Michigan State University • This short paper investigates a topic that has been ignored in the content analysis literature: the effect of non-zero correlations within coders on critical statistical assumptions. By employing a data simulation approach, we generated three distinct content analysis scenarios to examine the relationship between non-perfect intercoder reliability and between-coder variance. Our findings demonstrate that non-perfect reliability indices may indicate that content analysis data can be clustered around coders. Statistical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.
Media Effects on Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories • Christian Schemer; Marc Ziegele; Tanjev Schultz; Oliver Quiring; Nikolaus Jackob; Ilka Jakobs • The present research examines how exposure to various news sources affects beliefs in conspiracy theories in Germany. Three surveys demonstrate that frequency of exposure to news on alternative news sites, video-sharing platforms, commercial television, and in tabloids increase beliefs in conspiracies. Conversely, frequent exposure to quality newspapers, public broadcasting television news, news aggregators, and legacy news sites reduce beliefs in conspiracy theories. Reading news on social media or user comments is unrelated to conspiratorial beliefs.
Delineating the Transnational Network Agenda Setting of Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Movement: A Machine Learning Approach • Yan Su; Danielle Ka Lai Lee, Washington State University • Grounded in the network agenda setting (NAS) model, this study applied both supervised and unsupervised machine-learning approaches to analyze the newspaper coverage in Hong Kong, Mainland China, the U.S. and the U.K. (N = 2,118), and discussions in Twitter (N = 152,509), about the Hong Kong protest. Network analyses indicated that all media used distinct approaches in setting and bundling issue and attribute agendas. Time-series analyses revealed a reciprocal while asymmetrical relationship in which Twitter exhibited a stronger power in transferring bundled issues and attributes to the media. Contributions and implications are discussed.
* Extended Abstract * Developing a Perceived Social Media Literacy Scale • Edson Tandoc; Andrew Yee, Singapore University of Technology and Design • This paper seeks to contribute to the growing discussion about the need for social media literacy by developing and testing a perceived social media literacy (PSML) scale. It draws from data and analyses involving three national surveys. A pilot study developed 32 items that described different forms of literacies associated with social media. Four domains of literacies emerged from the qualitative analysis: technological, social, informational, and privacy related. Items were developed within each of these domains. Following the qualitative study, three separate nationally representative surveys were conducted to (1) explore the factor structure of those items, (2) confirm the factor structure found in (1), and (3) examine the validity of the PSML scale. At least 3,146 participants took part in the entire process from item pool development to examining scale validity.
Critical Reflection in Narrative Persuasion: Thinking beyond Transportation • RAN TAO, UW-Madison • Because of its effectiveness in communication, narrative-based persuasion is deemed as a potent tool to reduce health disparities and promote better health outcomes, especially for people from disadvantaged groups and people with high resistance. However, the mechanism of this communication strategy is still under debate. The dominant explanation suggests transportation results in receptivity to persuasion. Another line of research incorporates the transportation experience with the message-receivers’ cognitive needs to interpret and extrapolating from narrative. Following the logic of cognition-based narrative processing, this theoretical paper adds critical reflection to the model of narrative persuasion. This paper argues, after returning from narrative world to the real world, narrative receivers use logic and reasoning to reflect upon their experience and make assessments on the narrative’s soundness and value. And this meta-level assessments is important to understand the narrative persuasion outcomes. Acknowledging the strengths of narrative persuasion, this paper also makes a case that narrative strategy should be promoted with caution, in that the effectiveness of narratives could be utilized for wrong causes. Some individual-level factors are proposed to identify people who are more receptive to narrative persuasion, and more vulnerable to the pitfalls of narrative-based strategies.
The Journalism-Public Relations Role Continuum • Leigh Anne Tiffany, Michigan State University • In the current new media era, journalists and public relations practitioners are taking on new responsibilities in their respective professions. In meeting these new demands, the demarcated barrier between these distinct vocations has faded. This blurring of lines has led to definitional uncertainty for these roles. This paper proposes three models to provide clarity for the boundaries—or lack thereof—for these role holders. Two of the models—the Archetypal Model and the Continuum Model—provide the historical and foundational context for the third model. The Role Snapshot Model is presented as the best representation for roles in the constantly changing media realm. Additionally, this model provides a scholarly channel for increased interdisciplinarity between journalism and public relations.
A two-study qualitative exploration of ecological momentary assessment as a tool for media, behavior measurement • Jessica Willoughby, Washington State University; Stephanie Gibbons; Shuang Liu • Ecological momentary assessment, a method of collecting data in real-time on mobile devices, may offer certain benefits for communication research. We were interested in participants’ experiences with EMA for addressing communication-based research questions. We conducted two EMA studies on different topics in 2017 and 2018 and followed them up with in-depth interviews (N=19 and N=16). Participants described potential changes in behavior associated with the EMA, which could contribute to changes in data collected.
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