Communication Theory and Methodology 2004 Abstracts
Communication Theory and Methodology Division
Attitude Strength, Ad Recall and Candidate Issue Knowledge • Soontae An and Hyun Seung Jin, Kansas State University • Research on political advertising and voter issue learning has produced conflicting results. This study used data from the 2000 National Election Study to evaluate how a contingent condition – the strength of candidate preference – affects the information value of political advertising. The results showed that the effect of ad recall on voters’ knowledge of candidates’ issue positions differed, depending on the strength of candidate preference. Only those with weak candidate preference showed increased issue knowledge when they recalled watching political advertising. Those with strong candidate preference demonstrated biased memory of candidate issue positions, characterized by stereotyping and project bias. This study underscores why the candidate-centered information structure of political advertising needs to be accounted for when studying issue learning from political advertising.
Increasing Perceived Similarity of Exemplars: Effects on Message Evaluation • Julie Andsager, Victoria Bemker, Hong-Lim Choi and Vitalis Torwel, University of Iowa • Communicators seek effective messages for attempting to reduce college students’ drinking. The purpose of this experiment was to examine the relationships among social desirability and social orientation, the behavior of alcohol consumption, perceived similarity of exemplars, and message effectiveness. Perceived similarity of exemplars was positively related to message effectiveness. Messages including alcohol consumption and social situations were most effective. Subjects’ drinking and social orientation were closely related to similarity. Exemplars appear useful for such messages.
Television Sports and Athlete Gender: The Differences in Watching Male and Female Athletes • James Angelini, Indiana University • Women are an underrepresented population, particularly in the world of televised sports. Women are undervalued as athletes, due to their perceived lack of athletic skill and competitive spirit. This paper demonstrates, via physiological measures, that while men’s sports garner more attention it is women’s sports that are actually remembered better. Also discussed is how men’s and women’s sports do not elicit any significant differences in physiological arousal, but still have differences in self-reported arousal.
The Comparative Effects of Logic and Affect-Added Teaching Strategies on Media Literacy Outcomes in a Test Focused on Channel One News • Erica Weintraub Austin, Michelle Arganbright, Yvonnes Chen, Maria Ortega, Jessie Quintero Johnson, Rebecca Van de Vord, David Goehner, Christopher Fowler, Ilsa Gramer, Susan Jeffery, Lindsay Thomas, and Bruce E. Pinkleton, Washington State University • A field experiment (N=239) with randomized assignment of 15 seventh- and eighth-grade classes to one of three media literacy lesson conditions (logic, affect-added and control) and random mixing of classes to the extent possible evaluated a media literacy lesson with respect to a theoretical model of message processing. The lesson demonstrated some effect on 14 of the 15 outcomes measured. The findings of this study confirm that a theoretical basis exists to support the value of media literacy education. The results also suggest that developmental stages and personal experience affect students’ reactions to lessons about the media. Finally, the results provide support for the perspective that media literacy can have value to students regardless of cultural and knowledge differences.
The Effects of Message Valence and Imagery on Listeners’ Attention and Arousal to Radio Advertisements • Paul D. Boils, Lindsay Thomas, Wayne Popeski and Guangxin Xie, Washington State University • This study tested the interaction effect of imagery and emotional valence in radio messages on attention and emotion. An experiment was conducted in which participants listened to six high-imagery and six low-imagery, 60-second radio messages. Within each level of imagery there were three positive and three negative messages. Results indicate that participants focused resources on encoding during exposure to negative, high-imagery messages but seemed to focus resources on internal mental tasks during exposure to positive, high-imagery messages.
Neural Network Stimulations Support Heuristic Processing Model of Cultivation Effects • Samuel Bradley, Indiana University • Many studies have shown that heavy TV viewers make social reality judgments more in line with televised reality. Shrum’s (2001) heuristic model of cultivation effects predicted and found that biases in first-order cultivation judgments resemble heuristic processing. Systematic processing erased the effect. This paper presents a connectionist model to examine whether a model can learn the cultivation effect from natural frequencies and whether attention to source can mitigate the effect. Results closely fit human data.
Thinking While Viewing: The Influence of Thoughts About Program on Transportation and Perceived Realism • Rick Brusselle and Jessie Quintero Johnson, Washington State University • Based on narrative theory, this study explored relationships among involvement and perceived realism of a specific episode of a crime drama program, and the nature of viewers’ thoughts about the episode. Participants (60) were told that a program was based on an actual crime or was based on a fictional short story. After viewing they completed a thought listing procedure, a transportation (involvement) scale, and perceived realism items. Thoughts reported after viewing predicted transportation into the narrative and perceived realism of the program.
Meshworking: A New Theoretical Approach to Online Communication by Non-Governmental Organizations • James Carstens, University of South Alabama • The sociological theory of meshworking is discussed conceptually as a communication theory applicable to online cybernetworks that are enabling advocacy groups and new social movements to achieve changes in social, cultural, economic and political practices. The main characteristics of meshworking — self-organizing, articulation of heterogeneous elements, hybridity with other meshworks and hierarchies, and high connectivity — are reflected in the communication structures, processes and strategies of the online communications of non-governmental organizations.
Priming and Framing Effects: A Comparison of the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War • Chingching Chang and Ven-hwei Lo, National Chengchi University • A content analysis demonstrates that the news coverage in Taiwan of the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War differed significantly in the portrayal of the United States and in news frames. Surveys conducted in 1991 and 2003 showed the priming effects of news coverage. Consistent with the media coverage, people in Taiwan perceived the United States more negatively in 2003 than in 1991. Taiwanese news coverage generated framing effects that influenced attitudes toward the two wars. Most important, respondents who knew more about the war were more likely to hold a position consistent with the leading news frames. In addition, the more they knew, the greater that news frames affected their views of causes of the war. These findings suggest enhanced framing effects for the knowledgeable.
Mass Communication Research and Invisible College Revisited: A Field with a Few Ideas, but No Classics? • Tsan-Kuo Chang, University of Minnesota at Twin Cities; and Zixue Tai, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville • No abstract available.
Dynamic Interactional Agenda Setting Model: A Case Study of Wartime Presidency of George W. Bush • Young Jae Choi, Hallym University • This research tests dynamic interactional agenda setting models of the presidency, the media and the public by examining changes in the president’s issue management, the media’s agenda setting influence and the public’s representation of national issues during the war time presidency of President George W. Bush (February, 2001 – August, 2003). Employing time series Vector Autoregression (VAR) analysis, we traced four primary issues — war, economy, domestic and foreign issues — during the George W. Bush presidency. From the interactional agenda setting analysis, our data revealed that President Bush led the war issue, the media led the domestic issues, the public led the economy issue and the president and the media exchanged influences on foreign issue regardless of the public.
The role of scene in framing a story: An analysis of scene’s position, length and dominance in a story • Yun Jung Choi, Syracuse University • This paper proposes a “scene” as a micro unit of analysis in broadcast news by exploring the concept of a scene and describing the role of a scene in broadcast news stories. A scene is defined as a sub-unit of a broadcast news story that is composed of several shots with a unifying theme, a character, or a place. This study explicates the concept of scene by examining the relationship between scene position, scene length, and dominance of scene frame in a story, and scene valence with the overall story frame and valence. First, the study suggests that early, middle and ending positions of scenes do not affect the overall evaluation of the story. Second, the study suggests that frames featured longer scenes do not particularly influence the overall story frame. Third, the study reveals that the dominance of scene frame and valence, defined as the proportions of a scene frame or valence in a whole story, has impacts on the overall frame and valence of a story.
The Influence of Communication Modality, Prior News Exposure, and Anticipated Communication on the Nature of Local Public Affairs Discussion • William P. Eveland, Jr., Juliann Cortese and Mihye Seo, Ohio State University • The purpose of this study was to understand the nature of public affairs discussion and some of the factors that can improve or harm it. The study employed a factorial experimental design, direct observation and coding of discussion, and a mostly non-student adult sample. Results reveal few accurate restatements of news content, questioning a two-step flow process. Prior news exposure and FTF discussion (vs. CMC) tended to improve the quality of contributions to the discussion.
Effects of Positive Media Images, Media Use, and Information-Processing Strategies on Attitudes and International Knowledge During Wartime • Kenneth Fleming and Esther Thorton, University of Missouri at Columbia • Analyses of a nationwide telephone survey (n = 428) show both positive images and attention had independent effects on public attitudes toward the Gulf War II, but the main effects varied across the media and some displayed opposing predictive patterns. Elaborative processing significantly predicted international knowledge. The compensatory model of media images and information-processing strategies were reviewed for the theoretical framework of the study. Also reviewed were distinct characteristics of Fox News and CNN coverage of the Gulf War II to discuss the results.
Health Content in Local Television News • Walter Gantz and Zheng Wang, Indiana University • Local television news is an important source of health information for the public. This content analysis assessed the extent and nature of local television news coverage of health and used a composite week of local newscasts from four English language channels and one Spanish language channel. The length, location, topics, tone, viewpoints, and inclusion of follow-up options were examined and reported. One in ten news stones were about health issues, although there was considerable variation across channels. Stories tended to be shod, with follow-up options rarely included.
The Internet and Its Impact on Traditional News Media Use: A Test of the Principle of Relative Constancy • Mugur Geana and Wayne Wanta, University of Missouri at Columbia • Using data from a national survey (N=3002), this study examines how time spent using the Internet is impacting traditional media use. Results go directly counter to the notion of the Principle of Relative Constancy. Internet use did not substitute for traditional media use but instead was positively related to traditional media use. While being online searching for news contributes to information overload, Internet users nonetheless perceived this information overload positively.
Testing the Robustness of a Risk Information Processing Model • Robert J. Griffin and David Clark, Marquette University; Maria Powell and Sharon Dunwoody, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Kurt Neuwirth, University of Cincinnati; and Vladimir Novotny, Northeastern University • Two survey data sets test a model of Risk Information Seeking and Processing, informed by Eagly and Chaiken’ s (1993) Heuristic-Systematic model, that describes characteristics of individuals that predispose them to seek and process information about health and environmental risks in different ways. Results indicate that information insufficiency relates positively with active seeking and systematic processing of risk information and negatively with avoidance and heuristic processing of it. Individuals are more likely to process systematically if they believe that media channels contain essential validity cues.
Presumed Influence: How Mass Media Messages Indirectly Affect Adolescent Smoking • Albert C. Gunther, Daniel Bolt, Janice L. Liebhart and James Dillard, University of Wisconsin at Madison; and Dina L.G. Borzekowski, Johns Hopkins University • Processes underlying the influence of pro- and anti-smoking media content on adolescent smoking are not well understood. Using a middle school sample (n=818), this study examined a theoretical model suggesting that smoking-related media content may indirectly influence adolescent smoking via perceived peer norms. Both pro- and anti-smoking messages indirectly influenced smoking behaviors through perceived norms, and this effect was stronger for pro-smoking messages. Innovative strategies based on this model may help reduce adolescent smoking adoption.
Exploring the Forms of Self-Censorship: An Experimental Investigation of the Effect of the Climate of Opinion on Strategies of Opinion Expression Avoidance • Andrew F. Hayes, Ohio State University • In almost all studies of the spiral of silence, the outcome variable has been a person’s reported willingness to express his or her opinion, and interpretations have focused on whether willingness to express one’s opinion differs as a function of the perceived climate of opinion. But there are other responses to a probe for one’s opinion that can be affected by the climate of opinion. In the research presented here, the climate of opinion was experimentally manipulated in a hypothetical discussion context and participants were asked to indicate how they would respond to a probe for their opinion.
Variable Splitting, Statistical Interaction, and the Efficient Use of Data in Communication Research • Andrew F. Hayes, Ohio State University • Communication researchers often test whether two or more variables interact in predicting or explaining an outcome variable. Tests for interaction are frequently undertaken after first categorizing participants into groups based on their scores on one or more quantitative measures and then conducting an analysis of variance. In this paper, I review the many reasons for not analyzing data in this fashion. Splitting continuous independent variables into categorical ones before testing for interaction, compared to alternatives, lowers reliability of measurement, tends to yield smaller effect sizes, produces statistical tests that are generally either lower in power or more likely to yield spurious effects, and can contribute to the proliferation of conflicting findings in the literature.
Social Capital In A Community Context: Community Structural Pluralism, Media Use, And Conflict Versus Non-Conflict Forms Of Social Participation • Douglas Blanks Hindman, Washington State University • This paper set out to a) distinguish among the various types of social participation that are expected to be related to social capital, including both conflict-related activities as well as more benign forms of social participation, and to b) analyze social participation from a community context. Findings showed that conflict-related activities were positively associated with community size and complexity, and negatively associated with television viewing. Implications for the “dark side” of social capital are discussed.
Framing Frames: Locations of frames and their Connections in Signifying Processes • Kideuk Hyun, University of Texas at Austin • This study examined four different locations of frames, deep frames, action frames, news frames and individual frames to clarify the notion of frames and the mechanism of framing through the critical review of framing studies. Theoretical concerns were discussed to connect different locations of frames in overall signifying processes. Also, based on theoretical premises about human action and social structure, and analytical focus among four locations of frames, framing studies were classified into three different approaches: ideological, socio-cognitive, and cognitive approach.
Mass Communication, Community and Public Opinion: Charles Horton Cooley’s Social Organization • Sonho Kim, University of Pennsylvania • This paper proposes that Charles Horton Cooley’s Social Organization (1909) should be seriously considered as a prominent candidate for the canonic texts not only in communication studies but also among those who are interested in public sphere and communication theories. Contrasting diverse perspectives on the roles and effects of mass communication on society, community and public opinion, this paper explicates the originality of Cooley’s conceptualizations, and argues that Social Organization is a must-read especially against the contemporary theoretical discourses on the decline of communitarian ideals and civic engagement, on the one hand, and against the futurological discourses on the new communication technologies, on the other hand.
Laughing All The Way: The Relationship Between Television Entertainment Talk Show Viewing and Political Engagement among Young Adults • Nojin Kwak, Xiaoru Wang and Lauren Guggenheim, University of Michigan • Findings of this study demonstrate that entertainment talk shows matter for young people’s political engagement. Use of television entertainment talk shows, particularly late night talk shows, was found to relate to all three categories of the criterion variables either directly or via interacting with a third variable. Findings also suggest that a greater role of television talk shows may be in psychological and affective domains, in that viewing entertainment talk shows on television was directly related to young people’s attitudinal reactions, such as self-efficacy and trust; behavioral effects of the talk shows, however, was subtler.
Parsing the Resource Pie: Using STRTs to Measure Attention to Mediated Messages • Annie Lang, Samuel D. Bradley, Mija Shin and Yongkuk Chung, Indiana University • A previous study (Haverhals, Bradley, Lang, & Chung, 2003) directly tested the hypothesis that secondary task reaction times (STRTs) measured during television viewing index available resources rather than resources allocated by the viewer, resources required by the message, or resources remaining in the system. Results did not support the hypothesis. This paper reports a secondary analysis of that data and introduces a new measure of television message complexity called information introduced. The stimuli were recoded using this measure and reanalyzed to test the same hypothesis. Results of the secondary analysis yielded a pattern of STRT responses supporting the prediction that STRTs are indexing available resources.
Attribute Salience Transfer of Global Warming Issue From Online Papers to the Public: Attribute of Environment vs. Attribute of Economy • Gunho Lee and Chang Yun Yoo, University of Texas at Austin • This study examines the second level-agenda setting process in the new media environment. Specifically, it explores the online media’s agenda-setting effects of different attributes of a same issue. By exposing two groups of subjects respectively to two different online newspaper stimuli, each of which focuses on opposite attributes (the environment vs. the economy) of the global warming effects, the experiment attempts to determine (1) if there are attribute agenda setting effects in the digital era, and (2) if the attribute salience transfer affects the issue salience transfer.
Narrative Structure in Sexually Violent Video Games and Its Impact on Adolescents’ Cognitive Attitude Formation • Hyangsun Lee, Indiana University • This paper examines an increasingly important characteristic of today’s sexually violent video games: its sophisticated narrative structure. In terms of narrative, video game playing is newly conceptualized as the participation in the process of narrative construction under the control of the medium and the programmed plot. This conceptualization reveals that the sophisticated narrative structure of sexually violent video games facilitates adolescents’ overuse of the game and development of a distorted cognitive attitude toward sexuality.
Relationship between Rebellious Tendency and Psychological Reactance: Implications in Effective Health Campaign Message Designs • Moon J. Lee and Yi-Chun Yvonnes Chen, Washington State University • This paper discusses the importance of understanding individuals’ behavioral and psychological characteristics in designing effective campaign messages. Two useful characteristics were examined: rebelliousness and psychological Reactance. In particular, this study investigates a relationship between individuals’ rebellious tendency and psychological reactance. In an effort to better understand these tendencies and their applicability to effective health message designs, issues related to the operationalization of both constructs and scale developments were also discussed. In conclusion, individuals’ rebellious tendency seems a stronger predictor of risky behaviors than their physiological reactance.
What If Everyone Were Fully Informed and Talked about Politics Everyday? Political Knowledge, Political Conversation, and Public Opinion • Nam-Jin Lee, University of Wisconsin at Madison • The simulation modeling technique has often been used to estimate statistically what public opinion would look like if people were fully informed. By correcting not only the low levels and uneven distribution of political knowledge but also those of political conversation in simulating higher-quality opinion, this study found that people’s everyday conversation with family and friends has a substantial influence on policy preferences. The simulation results also suggest that the influences of conversation do not merely supplement the information effects but often times operate as countervailing forces on opinion changes.
Media Effects on Political Alienation Revisited: A Multiple-Media • Tien-Tsung Lee, Washington State University • Numerous studies have been conducted about media effects on political alienation. To reflect the proliferation and influence of new and non-traditional sources of political information in recent years, including such news interview shows as Larry King Live, and the growing prominence of Fox News and The O’Reilly Factor, the present study measures the effects of an extensive list of information sources that are rarely found in existing literature. Present findings reveal that media in general do not contribute to political alienation as suggested by some existing research. A few news sources, such as PBS and National Public Radio, may in fact reduce political cynicism and promote political trust.
“Bring ‘em on”: Framing Public Support for the Iraq War • Carolyn Lin, Cleveland State University • This study examined how individual frames, perceived media frames, news exposure and perceived media credibility shape public opinion on the on-going Iraq War. The survey findings confirmed the theoretical assumptions regarding: (1) the strong correlation between individual frame and how the media frame was perceived, and (2) the predictive strength of individual frame and media frame combined on shaping public support for the war, at the beginning and at the time of the survey.
Assessing Dimensionality of the Parasocial Interaction Scale • Shu-Fang Lin and Daniel G. McDonald, Ohio State University • Although originally posited as a unidimensional measure, it has recently been suggested that A.M. Rubin, et al.’s PSI Scale may be multidimensional. This paper investigates the dimensionality of the PSI scale in two studies conducted over time (one with two time points and one with three timepoints), comparing the fit of 1, 2 and 3-factor models. Results suggest that a three-factor model provides the best fitting solution in all cases.
Worldview in message perception and processing: Epistemological assumptions as a construct in mass communication theory • Robert G. Magee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • A worldview is a set of epistemological assumptions and beliefs that shape the way a person perceives and interprets reality. The incorporation of worldview as a construct in communication theory should contribute to greater conceptual rigor and promote fertile cross-disciplinary research. The author explicates worldview and then suggests uses as a variable in several fields of mass communication.
Relevance Construction: How “the news” becomes news in everyday life • Vivian Martin, Central Connecticut State University • This paper introduces Relevance Construction, a concept that accounts for the processes through which people come to assess some news media items as worthy of direct attending. Much news must make its way through social networks and other structures for to come to people’s attention. Relevance construction is part of a broader theory of Purposive Attending, which was created through the use of grounded theory as a full-service methodology.
Rethinking the target corollary: The effects of social distance, perceived exposure and perceived predispositions on third-person perceptions • Patrick Meirick, University of Oklahoma • This study set out to examine the effects of social distance, perceived exposure and perceived predispositions on perceived media effects for desirable and undesirable health messages. It finds support for the social distance corollary as traditionally measured, but not as an individual measure. The target corollary is confirmed for cigarette ads but not for desirable messages. Perceived attitudes of comparison groups toward message-relevant behaviors emerge as a factor that deserves inclusion in models of perceived effects.
Selective Exposure as a Theoretical Approach to Internet Advertising Message Preference • Jensen Moore, University of Missouri at Columbia • This study examines the influence of selective exposure on eight different Internet advertising messages. A survey of 178 university students found that the variables of attitude, avoidance and experience help to predict message selection for different advertisement types. Avoidance and attitude emerged as the strongest predictors of message selection. The results also indicate that experience was an important predictor of returning to previous sites as well as selecting familiar sites. Implications for advertisers are discussed.
Habitual And Intentional Consumption Of Electronic Media • Jay Newell and Robert Larose, Michigan State University • The possibility of habitual media consumption has long been overlooked and perhaps misunderstood within the uses and gratifications paradigm that dominates research about media selection behavior. To examine the role of habit in the selection of electronic media, surveys of television and Internet habits and intentions were matched to diaries among a sample of university students (N=178). Structural equation models that included habit, intention, media gratifications and future media selection behavior were tested. The best fit was found for models in which gratifications preceded both habits and intentions, and where habit and intentions each were predictors of media use behavior.
Who are the European Influentials: Applying an Engagement Model of Opinion Leadership • Erik Nisbet, Cornell University • Though overlooked in the original conceptualization, information-giving and information-seeking behaviors are key mechanisms of opinion leadership. In addition, the concept of opinion leadership arose out of empirical research conducted primarily within the United States and whether it may be applied to other nations remains to be fully explicated. This paper examines the ecological and constructive validity of the engagement model of the opinion leadership across a European context. The findings suggest that the model may be most valid in Western European nations. Furthermore, the media behaviors of opinion leaders vary more across countries as compared to other socio-psychological traits or behaviors commonly associated with opinion leadership.
Exploring a Reinforcement Model of Perceived Media Influence on Self and Others • Mary Beth Oliver, Hyeseung Yang, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Jinhee Kim and Sangki-Lee, Pennsylvania State University • An experiment was conducted to explore the idea that when making estimates of media influence on self and others, individuals employ a heuristic of assuming reinforcement of existing attitudes. Support for the reinforcement model was obtained, and was further applied to perceptions of the effects of media violence on the self versus others. Results are discussed in terms of providing a framework for interpreting third-person perceptions.
Does Personality Type Impact Preference for Computer-Mediated Communication • Elizabeth Owens Palmieri, University at Buffalo, SUNY • With the advent of the Internet and the widespread use of personal computers, people’s interpersonal communication habits are changing. The effects of the Internet on interpersonal communication have led to concern regarding people’s motives in communicating via computer, and a need to research individual and sociological effects of this new form of interpersonal communication. This study looks at various personality types to determine if any one type determines a preference for computer-mediated communication. In the end, rather than introversion (the expected type to prefer CMC) or extroversion, this study found that an external locus of control personality type seemed to have more affect on a person’s preference for CMC.
The Effect Of Presumed Media Influence On Eating Disorder Symptomatology • Sung-Yeon Park, Bowling Green State University • This study investigated the effect of magazine use on drive for thinness in the theoretical framework of presumed media influence. Survey data confirmed that beauty and fashion magazine reading increases drive for thinness not only directly, but also via indirect pathways composed of perceived prevalence of the thin ideal in the mass media, presumed influence of the thin ideal on others, and perceived influence of the thin ideal on self. Differences between presumed influence on other women and on other men as a moderating variable were found and discussed in the context of individuals’ copying strategies against social pressure to be thin.
Personality and Individual Media Dependency Goals • Bryant M. Paul, Jae Woong Shim and Zheng Wang, Indiana University • This study investigated hypothesized relationships between three personality traits, as defined by (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985) PEN model, and individual media dependency (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976). We predicted that higher levels of extraversion would be related to a greater likelihood of utilizing television for “social” aspect goals, whereas higher levels of neuroticism and psychoticism would be related to a greater likelihood of utilizing television with the intention of fulfilling “personal” aspects-related goals.
Does television kill? Is Brandon Centerwall the Peter Duesberg of media research? Testing a period-characteristic model • David Perry, University of Alabama • This study examined whether historical percentages of U.S. households with television predict homicide arrest rates from 1960 through 2000. Controlling for age and birth cohort, increased television penetration 15 years earlier predicted often-dramatically greater arrest rates. This possible effect appeared to decline among older age groups. Two interpretations are discussed. First, increased penetration may have coincided with the causes of crime. Second, television may increase homicide arrests.
The Effects of Structural and Regulative Conditions of Communication on the Quantity and Quality of On-line Deliberation: Preliminary Results from the Daum Deliberative Democracy Project • June Rhee and Taejoon Moon, Seoul National University; and Eunmee Kim, Yonsei University • The emergence of the internet and the potentials it has for building up public sphere has sparked a renewed interest on the concept of deliberative democracy. As a first of multiple waves of studies, currently undergoing for The Daum Deliberative Democracy project, this paper attempts to develop a comprehensive research model of deliberation on the internet and to empirically test it by a field experiment. By manipulating the structural and regulative conditions of communication in on-line deliberation (display of social identity cues, intervention of moderators, and reinforcement of deliberation efficacy), this study examines whether the communicative conditions affect the quantity and quality of deliberation on the internet, while the independent effects of communicator characteristics are controlled for.
Grasping at Straws: Newspapers and their Three Rationalizations • Anne Rundell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Belief in three myths is prevalent in the newspaper industry: 1)Young people will read more as they age, 2)By targeting the educated and affluent, newspapers can continue to provide a desirable audience for advertisers, and 3)Declining frequency is not a problem because newspaper reach remains high. The author tests these beliefs using data from the General Social Survey and provides evidence that the salvation of the newspaper industry is unlikely to lie within these myths.
When Online Meets Offline: A New Approach to the Operating Mechanism of the Ideal Public Sphere for Deliberative Democracy • SungJin Ryu, Ohio State University • This study is to investigate the effect of an interaction between online and offline forums on online users’ deliberation. The experiment results showed that groups that have both online and offline forums have significantly higher understanding than groups that only have online forums while there was no significant difference in expression, attention and flaming between them. Implications of this study could lay the cornerstone for future research on the relationship between online forums and deliberation.
Democracy Based On Difference: Examining The Links Between Structural Heterogeneity, Heterogeneity Of Discussion Networks, And Democratic Citizenship • Dietram Scheufele, Erik Nisbet, Bruce Hardy, Dominique Brossard and Israel S .Waismel-Manor, Cornell University • This study explores the direct and indirect links between structural heterogeneity, network heterogeneity and political participation. We review the often conflicting scholarship on discussion network heterogeneity and political participation and place it within a multilevel conceptual framework of heterogeneity. Based on this integrated theoretical model, our study uses a combination of true structural, i.e., macro-level data and individual-level survey data from two sources. Our results show positive links between structural and network heterogeneity that are both direct and indirect, i.e., mediated through various communication processes.
Civic Attachment in the Aftermath of September 11 • Mike Schmierbach, Michael Boyle and Douglas McLeod, University of Wisconsin at Madison • After September 11, many theorists saw indications of a surge in social capital, indicated by increased trust and civic engagement. This surge may have been linked to factors such as rally effects and the spiral of silence as well as to behaviors like participation and conversation. This study analyzes data from a panel study conducted shortly after September 11 and several months later. Media use influenced community attachment immediately after the attacks, but traditional factors like participation and values drove attachment in the second wave. We argue that surges in attachment and other attitudes after September 11 were short-lived and distinct from standard patterns of social capital.
Online News, Issue Discussion and Issue Importance: Individual Level Agenda-Setting Effect Study • Mihye Seo, Juliann Cortese and William Eveland Jr., Ohio State University • One of the central arguments of the present study is that issue salience in online news media influence issue salience perceptions indirectly through issue specific exposure. At the same time, the significant role of issue specific discussion in issue importance decisions was examined. Finally, the positive relationship between issue importance and issue centrality in an individual’s cognitive structure was tested implying the extension of priming studies to interconnections with other public issues.
Cue Convergence and Frame Amplification: Linking Portrayals of Arabs to Social Intolerance and Minority Disempowerment • Dhavan Shah, Homero Gil de Zuniga, Jaeho Cho and Doug McLeod, University of Wisconsin at Madison • Studies examining the effects of news cues (i.e., labels and terms used to characterize issue domains and social groups) typically fail to consider the possibility that multiple cues may exist within a single news story and that these cues may have interactive effects on audience processing and opinion expression. Using a 2X2X2 experimental design embedded within a Web survey, we manipulated the features of a news report about civil liberties restriction targeted at Arabs. Findings indicate that the convergence of certain cues and frames do encourage stronger associations between group evaluations, social intolerance, immigration opposition, and minority disempowerment. Implications for future media effects and media psychology research are discussed.
Economic Individualism, Humanitarianism and Welfare Reform: A Value-Based Account of Framing Effects • Fuyan Shen and Heidi Edwards, Pennsylvania State University • This paper examines whether individuals’ core values and news frames might affect how individuals think and reason about controversial political issues. Using a between-subjects design, we conducted an experiment in which subjects were exposed to newspaper articles framing the issue of welfare reform by emphasizing the need for public assistance or strict work requirement. Results indicated that both news frames as well as values (i.e., humanitarianism and individualism) had significant impact on individuals’ issue thoughts and attitudes. Further, individual values and news frames were found to have some significant interaction effects on audience responses, indicating that the effects of news framing might vary as individual values differ.
The Organizational Ecology Of Newspapers • Jessica Smith, University of South Florida • The rapidly changing media environment requires newspapers to maintain their traditional delivery method as well as develop new ones. Newspapers must respond to technological, economic and political developments, and instead of haphazard research of newspapers’ changes, evolution should be studied under a unifying theory. This paper suggests the framework of organizational ecology, which has roots in work by Hannan and Freeman (1977), because the theory has principles that underlie many studies of newspaper evolution.
The Effect of Online Deliberation on Opinion Quality and Political Tolerance • Hyun-Joo Song, Sueng Min Shin and Hyunseo Hwang, University of Missouri at Columbia • The Internet use becomes popular in South Korea and political use of the Internet is extending to the discussion on EBB’s. Through the communication on EBB’s, citizens are getting more and more engaged in political activities in Korea. The present study tried to investigate the democratic potential of EBB’s. Data were drawn from a survey of Korean adults conducted in two city districts during the summer 2003. The results show that EBB’s use is positively related to argument repertoire and political tolerance.
Parents’ third person perceptions regarding the influence of television: Rebelde Way in Israel • Yariv Tsfati, Rivka Riback and Jonathan Cohen, University of Haifa • Using the framework of the third person effect, this study examines parents’ perceptions of the influence of a youth-targeted telenovela, on their own versus other children. Survey data (N= 132) demonstrate that parents perceived the show to have greater impact on other children than on their own. Consistent with prior findings on “the social distance corollary” of the third person effect, the perceived influence of the show was stronger for children who were more socially remote from one’s own. In addition, regression analyses show that parents who thought that the show had an influence on their own children tended to monitor their child’s TV viewing. In contrast, parents concerned about the influence on other children tended to monitor and examine their child’s choice of friends.
A content analysis of methodological issues in four communication journals: 1978-2002 • Xiao Wang, Florida State University • The study employed a stratified proportional skip sample of 341 articles from four mainstream communication journals published during the 1978 to 2002 period, and content analyzed the use of quantitative methods, sampling, and statistical analytical procedures. Results indicate that the use of different methods and the nature of the sample remain relatively constant over the period. Though Chi-square analysis reveals an increase in the use of more advanced statistical tests, they are still rare in communication publications.
Fear and Tolerance: Exploring Motivations for the Spiral of Silence • Zuoming Wang and Dietram Scheufele, Cornell University • This study examines two interrelated motivations for the spiral of silence: fear of isolation and tolerance for opinion expression by others. Fear of isolation, associated with the threat of ostracism, suppresses the free opinion expression, while tolerance for opinion expression by others is positively related to speaking out. As hypothesized, we found respondents more fearful of isolation were less tolerant for opinion expression by others and also less willing to speak out. This study also proposes a new measure “congruency bias” for perceived opinion climate that better grasps the essence of mechanisms for willingness to speak out.
Message Framing and Cognitive Response to Islam and Terrorism: A Comparison between Christians, Jews and Muslims • Robert Wicks, University of Arkansas • This study considers how members of three religious communities perceived and responded cognitively to televised reports about Islam the Middle East and terrorism that the media framed in various ways. Transcriptions of the focus group discussions were analyzed to evaluate cognitive processing using computerized content analysis procedures that isolated key conceptual domains addressed throughout the discourse. The results suggest that membership within specific religious communities significantly influenced both perception and reception processes.
Who’s Setting the Media Agenda? A Look at Non-Traditional Interactive Media and the Gatekeeping Process • Shelley Wigley, Oklahoma State University • This study attempts to shore up gaps in agenda setting theory by looking at non∫traditional, interactive media, such as sports talk radio and Internet message boards. Previous studies have found correlations between the public agenda and the media agenda; however, little research has been done on whether the public’s agenda influences the media’s agenda. The findings provide an initial step toward developing a survey instrument to further explore the impact of non-traditional, interactive media on the gatekeeping process.
What gets voters to the polls? Employing logistic regression and an innovative new model to settle the debate • W. Joann Wong, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • What prompts people to vote? Some researchers report that the media have significant impact. Others conclude that the media have a negligible effect. This research employs logistical regression and likelihood ratio tests to build an innovative model that both settles the argument about media’s impact on voter turnout and sheds new light on the complex nature of voting behavior. Most notably, this research shows that although the media have a measurable impact when considered in isolation or in a limited context, the media’s impact on voter turnout virtually disappears when all key factors – media use, political expression, campaign involvement, and campaign canvassing – are considered.
Legitimacy, Public Relations, and Media Access • Youngmin “Ymee” Yoon, Syracuse University • No abstract available.
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