Communication Theory & Methodology 2006 Abstracts
Communication Theory & Methodology Division
Assessing the Effect of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising: A Cultivation Perspective • Soontae An, Kansas State • This study examined the effect of antidepressant direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) on perceived prevalence of depression. A survey of Midwestern residents showed that those with high recall for antidepressant DTCA tended to estimate the prevalence of depression higher than those with low ad recall. However, with a source-priming cue before their estimation, the significant association was eliminated.
Effects of Exemplification and Attribution of Blame on Perceived Influence of Self and Others • Julie Andsager, Choonghee Han, Katherine LaVail, Joseph Schwartz, Marina Vujnovic and Joshua Grimm, Iowa • This experiment examined whether exemplars and base-rate information differentially influenced individuals’ perceptions of message effects on self versus others, using two levels of attribution of blame. Subjects perceived themselves more influenced than others by a news story on a high-blame disease, but evinced third-person perceptions for a low-blame disease. Subjects expected themselves and others were more influenced by base-rate information than an exemplar for low-blame disease. Implications for third-person effects, exemplification, and attribution are discussed.
Social Desirability Effects in the Reporting of Online Shopping and Internet Usage • Brian Blake, Cleveland State, Jillian Valdiserri, Kimberly Neuendorf, Cleveland State and Jack Powers, Syracuse • Overwhelmingly, researchers and practitioners turn to self report surveys to understand the dynamics of online behavior. But are such surveys sensitive to distortions due to social desirability (SD) bias? This study examines whether the popularly recommended procedure of embedding a measure of SD in the survey can detect the presence of SD bias, and whether the oft recommended procedure for statistically correcting for SD bias is effective.
Perceived Authority and Communication Channel: Experiments with Instant Messaging • Xin Chen, Texas, J. Sonia Huang, Texas and Nilo Figur, Concordia and Mark Tremayne, Texas • The effects of diminished social context cues in computer-mediated communication between students and instructors are examined using instant-messaging (IM) technology. Two experiments verified such effects, students perceived informal surroundings in IM and, in one experiment, decreased presence of the instructor, but results of hypothesized effects on the perceived authority of the instructor were mixed. Students did show more self-centered behavior in IM but experienced increased feelings of regulation.
Hostile Media Perception: Exploring the Role of Involvement, Third-Person Perception, and Media Skepticism • Jounghwa Choi, Myeng Ja Yang and Jeong-Heon Chang, Michigan State • Hostile media perception is a phenomenon, which shows the significance of individual factors in evaluation of media content. Extending theoretical understanding of hostile media perception, this study is proposed to meet two ends: (1) to examine the roles of different types of involvement in the hostile media effect, i.e., value-relevant and outcome-relevant involvement, and (2) to explore the relationships between hostile media perception and other media-related perceptions, such as third person perception, media skepticism, and perceived opinion climate.
The Effectiveness of Electronic Communication on Employees’ Job Perceptions • Christina Chung, University of Southern Mississippi • This study focused on media selection in organizational communication to explore how new communication media influence employees’ job perceptions. The results indicated that three communication channels, bulletin board, supervisor, and e-mail, were mainly used for organizational communication. Among them, e-mail was the most powerful communication medium for internal communication and job empowerment.
Affective Priming of the 2004 Presidential Candidates: Exploring the second-level agenda-setting effect through visual information • Renita Coleman, Texas and H. Denis Wu, Louisiana State University • This study examines the second-level agenda-setting effect of visual portrayals of the 2004 presidential candidates and finds that visual displays in the news media have a small but significant effect on the public’s feelings toward the candidates and opinions of their character traits. Significant correlations between the media’s and the public’s affective agendas were found, but only for the candidate who was portrayed negatively.
Access attitudes: A measurement tool for gauging support for press access to government records • David Cuillier, Washington State University • This paper describes a new psychometrically valid measurement instrument that conceptualizes support for press access to public records. The 8-item self-report scale is tested over five datasets including college students and the U.S. population, by paper and telephone, demonstrating consistent internal reliability, construct validity, and test-retest reliability. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling identified several subdimensions that explain how people think about government transparency. Research implications for scholars, politicians, and the media are discussed.
The Benchwarmers Hit a Home Run: Non-Traditional Political Communication Effects in 2004 • William P. Eveland Jr., Ohio State • Expectations of important effects for non-traditional media since their rise in popularity beginning in 1992 have been met with mixed empirical results. Data from three surveys conducted in 2004 suggest that non-traditional political communication forms are finally producing consistent positive effects equivalent to traditional media such as television news and newspapers. Moreover, there is some evidence that these positive effects may be amplified among the less educated, helping to close the knowledge gap.
Assessing the role of information-processing strategies in learning from the news about sources of social capital • Kenneth Fleming and Esther Thorson, University of Missouri • This study examines the effects of local news media, informational use of the Internet on interpersonal trust, reciprocity, and associational membership. Analyses of a telephone survey data (n = 546) of American adults in a medium-sized city in Midwest show that local news media were influential in predicting sources of social capital, after controlling for demographic and structural anchoring variables.
Cognitive Dissonance: A Review of the Theory’s Evolution and Applications in Communication and Consumers • Ignatius Fosu, University of Arkansas • Cognitive dissonance theory has evolved over the years since its introduction in 1957. This paper is a review of the theory. This review examines the theory’s evolution as well as the various revisions to the theory since it was proposed by Festinger in 1957. Some applications of the theory in communications and consumer behavior are also noted, particularly the theory’s influence in selective exposure, information seeking, and post decision dissonance research.
Testing cultivation theory for media influences on suicidal thought • King-wa Fu, The University of Hong Kong • The short-term impact of media influence on suicide rate has been well studied but long term and cumulative media influence on individual’s suicidal thought or behavior remain unclear. Based on a population-based survey with 2,016 respondents aged between 20 and 59, this paper aims to test the cultivation theory in the context of media influences on suicidal thought. Cultivation effect, mainstreaming effect and resonance effect are examined.
Opinions as Norms: Applying a “Return Potential Model” to the Study of Communication Behaviors • Carrol Glynn, Michael Huge, Ohio State and Irkwon Jeong, Kwangwoon University, KOREA • This research investigates the impact of normative power on public opinion. By adapting the “return potential model,” set forth by Jay Jackson, we examine perceptions of communication behaviors as a normative opinion process. Telephone survey respondents were asked to offer their own personal opinions regarding several communicative behaviors. By calculating the normative power associated with each of these behaviors, predictions were made regarding the frequency of behavior.
Late Night Malaise? Late Night Talk Shows and Political Trust among Young Adults • Lauren Guggenheim, Michigan • Late night talk shows are becoming an increasingly important source for political information among young audiences. In this study, the negative tone of late night jokes is argued to lead to a less trustful and less politically motivated audience. Using a national survey of young adults 18-29 taken during the 2004 election, findings indicate that watching late night talk shows is associated with distrust in the candidates, though not with distrust in the political system.
Understanding Systems Theory: Transition from equilibrium to entropy • Shelton Gunaratne, Minnesota State University, Moorhead • What we call systems theory is more a metatheory than a monolithic theory. It has provided a set of common signposts for all systems theorists to follow. This essay, written from the perspective of communications scholarship, examines the transition of systems theory from the age of equilibrium to the age of entropy during the middle of the 20th century. It distinguishes between the old equilibrium-based systems theory and the “new” entropy-based systems theory.
Episodic and Thematic Frames Impact on Associative Networks • Michel Haigh, Oklahoma • How a story is framed influences how individuals process the information presented and how they add new information to their associative networks (Pan & Kosicki, 1993; Price & Tewksbury, 1997). Research indicates the media uses frames and these frames impact people in different ways depending on individuals’ associative networks and reveals the presence of different types of frames (i.e., episodic or thematic).
Bootstrapping Specific Indirect Effects in Multiple Mediator Models of Media Effects • Andrew Hayes, Ohio State and Kristopher Preacher, University of North Carolina • In a 2003 Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media article, Holbert & Stephenson (2003) did a great service to the media effects research community by advocating the importance of assessing and quantifying indirect effects in structural equation models of media effects. They also advocated the product of Zs test as a hypothesis test for specific indirect effects. A better and more convenient approach we advocate here is bootstrapping.
‘Real Talk’ for Real: Individual Differences in the Effect of the Climate of Opinion on Expression • Andrew Hayes, Brian Uldall and Carroll Glynn, Ohio State • Most research conducted on the spiral of silence has examined peoples’ responses to hypothetical discussion situations in nonexperimental designs to see if willingness to speak one’s opinion is related to perceptions of the distribution of opinion. Furthermore, researchers have rarely acknowledged that people likely differ in their use of information about the climate of opinion or their susceptibility to various social forces that would discourage open expression when choosing to speak their opinion publicly.
Dependency and Adolescents’ Perceived Usefulness of Information on Sexuality • Amir Hetsroni, Yezreel Valley College, ISRAEL • The study examines the usefulness of information sources on sexuality in the eyes of Israeli adolescents from three ethnic groups: Jews, Moslem-Arabs and Christian-Arabs. The sources are interpersonal (parents, siblings, peers), professional (school, health professionals) and the mass media (television, radio, internet, films, books and newspapers and magazines). In general, all of the sources are perceived as moderately useful at best.
The Effects of Self-Efficacy Statements in Anti-Tobacco Fear Appeal PSAs • Myiah Hively, Washington State University • Students participated in an experiment examining reactions to anti-tobacco messages with a self-efficacy statement. Results include that those who viewed the PSAs indicated greater intention to change their behavior when they perceived that characters were similar to themselves, and indicated higher levels of realism and fear than participants in the control condition. Results regarding differences in perceptions of fear, realism, intentions to change behavior and self-efficacy in the two conditions were in the predicted direction.
Perceptual Filters, Mass Media, and Knowledge: Understanding Attitudes Toward Stem Cell Research • Shirley Ho, Dietram Scheufele and Dominique Brossard, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study examines the influence of perceptual filters, news media use, and scientific knowledge on general support for stem cell research and on support for human embryonic stem cell research. We use data from a national three-wave panel survey conducted between 2002 and 2005.
Deliberative Reporting, Conflict Frame, and Civic Cognitions • Huiping Huang, National Taiwan Normal University, TAIWAN • Deliberative democracy and public journalism are two recent ideas emerged in political philosophy and journalism. Both originate from reflexive thoughts on elite-centered decision-making process and emphasize the subjectivity of citizens in political decisions. The practice of deliberative democracy requires publicity, equality, nontyranny, and reciprocity. News discourse needs to fulfill these principles to cultivate a deliberative culture. Public journalism offers opportunities to implement the principles of deliberative democracy.
The influence of post-debate commentary on candidate evaluations: Examining “hydraulic” media effect • Hyunseo Hwang, Sun-Young Lee, Douglas McLeod, and Dhavan Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • A vast body of post-debate analysis and criticism is practiced by all news media during presidential election years, saying that it affects viewers’ evaluations of candidates and voting decisions. Yet, relatively little has been known about whether and how such media practices affect citizens’ candidate evaluations.
Effects of Media Celebrity Endorsement on Blood Donation: Meaning Transfer and Celebrity Identification • Bumsub Jin, Florida • Grounded on two theoretical models for celebrity endorsements, this study investigated the effects of media celebrities on public blood donation. The empirical results revealed that individuals’ attitudes toward blood donation were predicted by identification with a celebrity who is perceived as altruistic. However, the intention of donating blood was not predicted by the celebrity. The study provides implications that theory-based media campaigns for blood donation can be effectively designed by the appropriate selection of celebrity endorsers.
“I feel therefore I enjoy” Affective Disposition, Presence and Para-Social Interaction In Video Games • Seung-A Jin, University of Southern California • This work aims to apply various psychological theories of entertainment to enjoyment in interactive video/computer game playing. Main foci will be on affective disposition theory (ADT), more recent theories and models of presence, and para-social interaction. The potentials of affective disposition theory and theories of presence to account for the enjoyment of users while playing video/computer games will be addressed.
Teenagers’ Exposure to Sexually Explicit Online Material and Their Attitudes Toward Virginity • Peter Jochen and Patti M. Valkenburg, University of Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS • To test the relationship between adolescents’ exposure to sexually explicit online material and their attitudes toward virginity, we developed an exposure-as-mediated-mediator model. Drawing on a survey among adolescents, this model was largely supported: Exposure to sexually explicit online material mediated the impact of adolescents’ gender and sensation seeking on their attitudes toward virginity. Concurrently, the effect of exposure to sexually explicit online material on attitudes was itself mediated by the perceived realism of such material.
Race, Social Distance, and the Third-Person Effects: The Case of Hurricane Katrina Donation Advertising • Hyo Jung Kim, Missouri • This study, an experiment, explored the reverse Third-person Effects in the context of Hurricane Katrina donation advertisements. As opposed to the expectations, original Third-person Effects were found. This study also revealed positive relationships between social distance, particularly race, and the Third-person gaps. A negative relationship between message desirability and Third-person effects was found. Psychological processes such as downward social comparisons were provided as an explanation for these findings.
Communicant Activeness in Problem Solving (CAPS) • Jeong-Nam Kim, Xavier • The present paper starts from one theoretical question: What are the unique features in communication behavior during a problematic situation? Any life, even that of amoeba, consists of a seamless experience of problem finding and problem solving (Popper, 1999). Nevertheless, only humans have the sophistication in using information to solve problems. Hence, understanding better about communicative features in problem solving should lead to a better problem-solving capability in our lives.
Community storytelling network, neighborhood context, and civic engagement: A multilevel approach • Yong-Chan Kim, Alabama and Sandra Ball-Rokeach, University of Southern California • From a communication infrastructure theory perspective, the current study examined individuals’ civic engagement (neighborhood belonging, collective efficacy, and civic participation) as influenced by two multilevel components of the communication infrastructure–an integrated connection to a storytelling network (ICSN) and the residential contexts—focusing on ethnic heterogeneity and residential stability.
Abu Ghraib follow-up stories: A legitimate controversy frame • Anup Kimar, Iowa • The elite print media failed to report on prison abuse stories even though the news was out there. The elite print media was absent from the action. Eventually the story was broken on in the news features section of TV and a fortnightly magazine. This paper undertakes conceptual and normative analysis of the follow-up news on Abu Ghraib in the print media from the perspectives of Hallin’s news typology of war reporting and journalistic paradigm.
Agenda-Setting and Voter Turnout among Youth: Implications for Political Socialization • Spiro Kiousis, Florida and Michael McDevitt, Colorado • The current study examines the role of agenda-setting in impacting voter turnout using panel data of adolescents in Arizona, Florida, and Colorado from 2002 (T1) and 2004 (T2). Specifically, a model is developed probing the multiple influences of interactive civics instruction, media attention, and discussion on the following sequence of outcomes: perceived salience, opinion strength, political ideology, and finally voter turnout.
News Selection Patterns as a Function of Race: The Discerning Minority and the Indiscriminating Majority • Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick and Osei Appiah, Ohio State and Scott Alter, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School • This study examines whether majority and minority members differ in selections of news that either featured individuals of their own group or dissimilar others. Hypotheses derived from distinctiveness theory were tested utilizing unobtrusive observations of news selections. The sample consisted of 112 blacks and 93 whites, who browsed ten online news stories while exposure was recorded. The news displayed equal numbers of black and white characters.
Effects of the Subjective Experience of Knowledge Difficulty on Self-Judgment of Political Interest • Dominic Lasorsa, Texas • In a survey experiment, political interest self-judgments declined when preceded by political knowledge questions. The effect was lessened when buffering knowledge from interest were two items evaluating how well officials and media keep one informed, which could serve as excuses for knowledge difficulty. Placed before the knowledge items, however, the evaluation items worked less like an excuse for, and more like additional evidence of, knowledge difficulty. Sources of these question context effects are explored.
Effects of Sensation Seeking on processing messages with Slow Motion • Seungjo Lee, Indiana • This study investigates how the personality trait, Sensation Seeking, influences information processing of slow motion edited into various television messages with moderately intensive emotional tone. The results demonstrate that the high sensation seeker processes slow motion more thoroughly compared to the low. The low sensation seeker shows tendency to reject slow motion.
Effects of Endorser Credibility and Message Typicality on Delayed Attitude Change • Joo Soon Lim, University of Florida • In an assumption that a source memory decays over time faster than a persuasive message, this study attempted to test the sleeper effect. Unlike previous studies, the persuasive message in this experimental study was varied with argument typicality.
The Content Analysis of Media Frames: Towards Improving Reliability and Validity • Joerg Matthes, University of Zürich, SWITZERLAND and Matthias Kohring, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, GERMANY • The main purpose of this study is to shed light on methodological problems in operationalizing media frames. After a review of five common methods for the measurement of media frames, we will present an alternative procedure that aims at improving reliability and validity. The proposed method is then demonstrated with data on the coverage of the issue biotechnology in the New York Times.
Beyond Accessibility? Towards an On-line and Memory-Based Model of Framing Effects • Joerg Matthes, University of Zürich, SWITZERLAND • This theoretical paper investigates the effects of media frames on individuals’ judgments. In contrast to previous theorizing, we suggest that framing scholars should embrace both, on-line and memory-based judgment formation processes. Based on that premise, we propose a theoretical model that distinguishes between two levels of framing effects. Along the first level, the media’s framing contributes to the formation of an on-line or a memory-based judgment. The second level describes six hypothetical routes for the stability or change of these judgments.
Everybody Wants to Make a Mark on the World: A Narrative Analysis of an American Culture • Kimberly McCormick, University of North Florida • People have used narrative art to communicate, to educate, and to pass down values verbally and nonverbally between generations. This study analyzed narratives of one graffiti artist (Draw) to determine his self-perception in the graffiti culture. In written reactions to several photographs of his friends and himself, Draw discussed authority as an entity of the past, his life in the present, and graffiti in terms of the future.
The Targeted Audiences of Anti-drug Ads: Message Cues, Perceived Exposure and Perceived Effects • Patrick Meirick, Oklahoma • This study (N = 160) shows demographic cues in anti-drug messages may communicate who the intended targets are, thus influencing perceived exposure and perceived effects for different age, gender and racial groups. In turn, perceived combined effects on self and others (especially the self) predict support for funding anti-drug message campaigns, but not drug enforcement. The possible impact of perceived similarity between a group and the “implied audience” on perceived effects is discussed.
AAPOR Guidelines Are Not Enough – Misreporting Surveys: A Case Study • Bruce Merrill and Tara Blanc, Arizona State • Because surveys published in the media have the ability to create as well as measure public opinion, it is important that professionals who publish and report public opinion surveys report them accurately. While the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers and The National Council on Public Opinion Research have suggested voluntary guidelines for reporting surveys, research has shown spotty compliance with their suggestions.
The Influence of Source Credibility on Attitude Certainty • Xiaoli Nan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This research investigates the influence of source credibility on attitude certainty, referring to an individual’s subjective confidence in his/her attitude. Results of a laboratory experiment (N = 220) show that low source credibility, compared with high source credibility, leads to greater attitude certainty. This source credibility-attitude certainty relationship only emerged when the source was identified before rather than after message exposure and for participants who were low in need for cognition.
The Relative Persuasive Effect of Gain versus Loss-Framed Messages • Xiaoli Nan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • A persuasive message can focus on either the advantages of compliance (i.e., gain-framed) or the disadvantages of non-compliance (i.e., loss-framed). Previous findings regarding the relative persuasive effect of gain- versus loss-framed messages have been largely inconsistent. This research suggests that there exist two distinct operationalizations of message framing, with one involving desirable end-states and the other involving undesirable end-states.
Social Distance, Framing, and Judgment: A Construal Level Perspective • Xiaoli Nan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This research investigates the influence of social distance on responses to persuasive messages from the perspective of construal level theory, which contends that as psychological distance increases the salience of high-level construals (i.e., abstract mental representations of information) increases while the salience of low-level construals (i.e., concrete mental representations of information) decreases.
Adolescent Pre- and Post-Orientations that Determine Antismoking Campaign Effectiveness • Hye-Jin Paek, Georgia • Based on Markus and Zajonc’s (1985) O-S-O-R model, this study explores how adolescent pre- and post-orientations determine antismoking campaign effectiveness. Analyzing nationally representative survey data, this study finds that sensation seeking as an internal orientation and antismoking education as a learned orientation play critical roles in adolescent receptivity to both antismoking and cigarette ads. In turn, exposure to both kinds of smoking-related media messages influences adolescent smoking intention.
Interaction of Ideology, News Source and Story Bias: An Experimental Study on Hostile Media Effect • Zengjun Peng, St. Cloud State • This experimental study went beyond the original promises of the hostile media effect theory to test the interaction effects of ideological partisanship, news source and story bias on perceived news bias. Results indicated significant main effects consistent with previous studies and three-way interactions that generally suggest that ideological partisanship, news source and story biases, when congruous with each other, tend to prompt and enhance significant hostile media effect.
Participants’ Perceived Effectiveness of a Peer-Led Media Literacy Curriculum for Adolescent Sex Education • Bruce Pinkleton, Erica Austin, Marilyn Cohen, Yi-Chun “Yvonnes” Chen and Erin Fitzgerald, Washington State • The purpose of this study was to determine if a teen-led media literacy curriculum focused on sexual portrayals would be help increase adolescents’ awareness of media myths, decrease the allure of sexualized portrayals, decrease positive expectancies for sexual activity, and increase students’ intentions to delay sexual activity. A posttest-only with control groups was conducted at 22 school and community sites in Washington state (N=532).
Quantifying Accuracy in Measures of Public Opinion Perception • Jason Reineke and Lindsay Hoffman, Ohio State University • Despite its importance and prominence in the social sciences, researchers have encountered difficulties measuring accuracy. Using a case study in public opinion research, this analysis applies 12 different quantifications of accuracy. Equations yield either difference or accuracy. Three criteria are used to judge accuracy: an objective external criterion, an aggregation of survey responses to a relevant item, and an average estimate of individuals’ responses to the item of interest. Implications for future research are discussed.
Television and the cultivation of gender role attitudes in Japan • Shinichi Saito, Tokyo Women’s Christian University, JAPAN • This study uses cultivation theory as a critical, social scientific theory to determine whether television viewing cultivates traditional attitudes in relation to gender roles. Data from a sampling survey conducted in Tokyo revealed that among politically neutral and liberal females and politically neutral males, television viewing was related to more traditional attitudes regarding gender roles.
Framed Video Processing and the Spread of Activation: Implications for Deliberative Reasoning • Rosanne Scholl, Raymond Pingree, Melissa R. Gotlieb, Aaron S. Veenstra and Dhavan V. Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Research on framed video processing has been neglected in this age of mixed media news. Using manipulations of a value-based frame and a video news report, we tested effects on two unique measures of spreading activation: number of reasons for a position on a controversial issue and the speed with which respondents generated reasons. Results show significant main, and more importantly, interaction effects, which we contend have implications for deliberative processing and discussion.
Community Integration as the Contextual Moderator: Another Look at Time Displacement Hypothesis • Fei Shen, Ohio State • The current study discovered that time displacement and cultivation effects were constrained by psychological elements of community integration such as localism and psychological attachment. Data for analysis were obtained from a telephone survey of a random sample of 593 Hong Kong residents in 2004. Pervasive interaction effects were identified by the data, meaning that localism and psychological attachment play important roles as psychological contexts to influence the relationship between media use and civic/political participation.
Examining the Moderating and Mediating Roles of News Exposure • Michael Slater and Andrew Hayes, Ohio State • Ample evidence exists that adolescent risk judgments predict use of substances such as alcohol. The present study (a nationally-representative telephone survey, n = 406) examines how attention to accident and crime stories among adolescents predicts such judgments regarding alcohol related risks, and how effects of two key individual difference variables—sensation seeking and negative first- or second-hand personal experiences with alcohol risks—are mediated by attention.
Internet and Uses and Gratifications Research: Opportunities, Challenges and New Research Agendas • Youngju Sohn, The University of Georgia • In examining the trend of emerging Internet research, this paper seeks to explore issues such as how the uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective works on Internet research and, conversely, how Internet studies have contributed to U&G research, as well as what challenges Internet research has brought to the U&G perspective. Based on these discussions, this paper proposes new research agendas that will further enrich U&G research.
Is it Tailoring or is it Agency? Unpacking the Psychological Appeal of Customized News • S. Shyam Sundar and Sampada Marathe, Penn State • What makes customization so appealing? Is it the tailoring of content to meet one’s individual needs and preferences? Or the sense of agency and ownership created by acting as one’s own gatekeeper? Or is it simply a novelty effect? This paper tests these competing theoretical propositions by way of a between-subjects experiment (N = 85) which exposed Power users as well as regular users to a news-aggregator Website that was either personalized, customized, or neither.
Other-Person Perceptions of Media Effects: Methodological Questions Pointing Toward Theory’s Demise • Don Umphrey, Southern Methodist University • Since the introduction of the theory dealing with perceived media effects on self and others, mean scores have been used to determine whether such an effect was present. However, the literature has gone beyond questioning the existence of such an effect to examining its underlying reasons.
Exploring sample sizes for content analysis of online news sites • Xiaopeng Wang, Ohio University • Studies of research trends predict that the Internet will continue to be an important topic in communication scholarship. However, content analysis has been facing many challenges in measuring the hypertextual and interactive Web content. One of the problems is sampling methods that unfortunately draw little attention from the scholars.
Reconsider the Relationship between the Third-Person Effect and Optimistic Bias • Ran Wei, South Carolina and Ven-Hwei Lo, National Chengchi University, TAIWAIN and Hung-Yi Lu, National Chung Cheng University, TAIWAN • Whether the relationship between the third-person effect and optimistic bias is spurious is controversial. The purpose of this study is to help resolve the controversial relationship between third-person effects and biased optimism in the context of assessing the impact of the news about bird flu outbreaks in Taiwan. Using a random sample of 1,107 college students, the third-person perception and optimistic bias were found robust phenomena.
Seeing is Perceiving: The Impact of Message Structure on Televised Presidential Debates • Rob Wicks, Arkansas • A natural experiment was conducted in which college students were exposed to the third televised Presidential debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry in 2004. Randomly assigned participants viewed one of five presentation conditions (i.e., ABC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News and PBS). The results suggest that presentation styles influenced perceptions of candidates. Perceptions of Kerry changed favorably on the attributes of friendliness, success and on the feeling thermometer.
Effects of Experientiality and Story Attributes on Risk Perception and Story Evaluation • Shuhua Zhou, Alabama, Chia-hsin Pan, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, TAIWAN and Xin Zhong, Renmin University, Beijing, CHINA • This study tested the conjoint effects of participant experientiality and two story attributes, severity and context, on perception of the SARS threat and on story evaluation. Participants’ rationality was assessed by the Rational-Experiential Inventory. Stories of SARS were manipulated to be either severe or non-severe, and with context or without context. Two experiments using identical manipulations and measurement instrument were conducted, one in the US and one in China.
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