Political Communication 2013 Abstracts
Political Identity as a Moderator of Third-Person Comedy News Effects • Lee Ahern; Mike Schmierbach, Pennsylvania State University • The effects of “comedy news” have been an area of research interest, especially when it comes to the younger audiences who are increasingly getting news content from these shows. However, comedy news perceptions have not been examined in the context of the third-person effect. Because comedy news has been found to have perceptual and political-identity impacts, the third-person framework is a promising direction for research. This experiment exposed college students to coverage of the same issue/story in both traditional news and comedy news. Third-person effects were evident, and political identity played a moderating role for comedy news but not for traditional news. These results shed light on how the third-person effect operates in an important emerging news programming format, and implies broader theoretical implications for the increasingly partisan US media landscape.
Did the Media Matter in “Battleground” North Carolina? Campaign Interest, Knowledge and Efficacy in 2012 • Lisa Barnard; Daniel Riffe, UNC; Martin Kifer; Sadie Leder • Telephone survey in North Carolina before the 2012 presidential election examined voter interest, knowledge, and efficacy; and media exposure, attention, and performance, including online seeking and partisan cable shows. Campaign attention predicted interest and knowledge, and online seeking predicted knowledge. Interest and knowledge were predicted by individual efficacy and epistemic political efficacy—the belief one can find “truth” in politics. News attention and online seeking predicted EPE, but FOX News ratings negatively predicted EPE.
Anatomy of the Egyptian Revolution through Twitter images • Ozen Bas, Indiana University; Tamara Kharroub • This exploratory content analysis examined Twitter images of the Egyptian revolution in terms of emotionally-compelling (violence and facial emotions) and efficacy-eliciting (crowds, protest activities, and national and religious symbols) content. The analysis of 574 images shows more focus on efficacy-eliciting than emotionally-compelling images. However, emotionally-compelling content decreased over time, whereas efficacy-eliciting content increased. Protest activities were the best predictor of image reposting. Finally, highly-influential users posted significantly more efficacy-eliciting content than images of emotionally-charged content.
Thinking About Romney: Frame Building in a Battleground State in the 2012 Presidential Campaign • Sid Bedingfield, University of South Carolina; Dien Anshari, University of South Carolina • Analyzing newspaper articles (n=466), this study investigates the framing of Mitt Romney in a key battleground state during the 2012 presidential election. Campaign officials and political journalists contend that attacks launched by President Obama in late spring defined Romney for the remainder of the campaign. Results suggest partial support for this claim by revealing increased use of negative media frames after the attacks began. Findings offer theoretical insights into the concept of frame building during political campaigns.
Burglar Alarm Fatigue. Media-hype, human-interest frames and audience reactions to a real-life news serial • Audun Beyer, University of Oslo, NORWAY; Tine Figenschou • The presence of media-hypes in the media’s coverage of politics and current affairs is well known. Media coverage sometimes tends to grow out of proportions, and news stories take on a life of their own. We argue that such media-hypes often use elements from the human-interest frame, and that a media-hype consisting of strong, dramatic, and emotional news stories to some degree fulfill Zaller’s notion of a positive media frenzy. In this paper we take one particular such media-hype as a starting point to examine what audiences think of this kind of coverage. Thus, we bring the notion of a media-hype together with a certain view of normative standards for journalism (Zaller), and explore if such coverage really is appreciated with news audiences. Through a survey conducted as the story peaked in the media, it finds that the audience was highly critical of the media coverage, and that members of the audience show a high degree of sophistication when they evaluate this real-life human-interest news serial as it unfolds.
Perceptions of credibility and television news: Examining the moderating effects of cynicism and skepticism • Porismita Borah; Michael Beam, Washington State University; Bruce Pinkleton; Erica Austin, Washington State University • Although scholars have studied the perceptions of news credibility, fewer studies have compared news credibility perceptions across television news genres. In an experimental study, we examine the differences in news credibility perceptions amongst four different news sources. We also studied the moderating role of cynicism and skepticism. Our findings show strong skeptics perceive broadcast media and news satire as most credible while weak skeptics and strong cynics find conservative media most credible. Implications are discussed.
Why the Fake News Really Matters: Political Knowledge Gain and The Daily Show • Nicholas Browning • Employing a uses and gratifications perspective, this study experimentally investigates political knowledge gain for young adult audiences of The Daily Show in comparison to the national nightly network news. Findings show that young people learn from The Daily Show, that political knowledge acquisition is greater for infotainment than for news, and that knowledge gains from infotainment increase when individuals are exposed to the news. Finally, political knowledge gain for infotainment audiences correlates with gratifications obtained.
Sourcing and Framing the 2012 Battle for the White House: A Student Media Analysis • Aimee Burch, Iowa State University; Raluca Cozma, Iowa State University • Drawing on scholarship on framing, sourcing, and bias in election news coverage, this content analysis explores a neglected type of news organization whose editorial output has potentially far-reaching and indelible effects on both its receivers and its creators: student newspapers. The analysis of college newspapers in four swing states found that election stories in these newspapers focus more on human interest and issue coverage than their professional counterparts, are more neutral in tone, and are also more richly sourced. The analysis lends support to the literature on the relationship between sourcing and framing.
The impact of partisan media exposure on diversity of public affairs interests and agenda diversity • Michael Chan; Lap Fung Lee, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • A deliberative democracy calls for a citizenry who are well informed in a diverse range of public issues and a media system that shapes the public agenda for deliberation and consensus-building. However, with the proliferation of a high choice media environment citizens nowadays can engage in partisan selective exposure by only consuming news that match their own political attitudes and dispositions. This study examines two under-researched consequences of partisan selective exposure: 1) the reduction in the diversity of interests in public affairs, and 2) the reduction in the number of issues in society that an individual considers important (i.e. nominal agenda diversity). A national survey was conducted in Hong Kong, a transitional democracy with a highly partisan media environment. Results showed that while reading more newspapers is positively related to interest diversity and agenda diversity, citizens who receive their news only from partisan newspapers are less likely to be interested in a range of public issues and are less able to name the pressing issues facing society. Equivalent findings for television news exposure were not found. The findings provide supportive evidence that partisan selective exposure can lead to a fragmented public agenda.
Divided Versus Polarized Voters: Media Influences and Third-Person Perceptions • Chingching Chang; Ran Wei, University of South Carolina; Ven-hwei Lo • This study differentiated “polarized” and “divided” voters and argues that divided voters may need information to reach a decision, which implies they are more open to persuasion through media coverage than polarized voters. In turn, they may infer that election coverage exerts a greater influence on them, resulting in a smaller self–other perceptual discrepancy in terms of their susceptibility to this coverage. On the other hand, polarized voters have made their voting choices early on during the campaign; under such a circumstance, the potential influence of campaign news on them and their self–other perceptual gap should vary as a function of the desirability of the intended influence. This desirability in turn depends on two media factors: coverage target (supported vs. opposing candidates) and coverage valence (positive vs. negative). The results of a survey conducted during the official campaign for the 2012 Taiwanese presidential election supports these predictions, demonstrating the utility of categorizing voters as divided or polarized when examining the perceived effects of election campaign news.
Examining the Reciprocal Relations between News Exposure and Political Discussion: Evidences from the four-wave ANES 2008-2009 Panel Data • Chu-Jie Chen, City University of Hong Kong; Jared Tu, City University of Hong Kong • Despite considerable studies on political discussion in the field of political communication and political sciences, most attention has been paid to the cross-sectional effects of political discussion as a mediator or a moderator, leaving underexplored about the longitudinal reciprocal relations between news exposure and political discussion. Employing the four-wave data from ANES 2008-2009 Panel Study, this paper adopted a cross-lagged path analysis approach which is widely used to infer causal associations in longitudinal research design. Using structural equation modeling, the measurement model and structural model were specified and the analysis results indicated that the reciprocal effects between news exposure and political discussion did not change after adding exogenous variables. Limitation of this paper and further research direction were also discussed.
Networks versus news media, or networks and news media? The interactive effects of network heterogeneity and news sharing on social network services (SNSs) on citizens’ participatory activities • Jihyang Choi; Jae Kook Lee, Indiana University School of Journalism; Emily Metzgar • This study investigated how the use of SNSs is associated with citizens’ political participation by focusing specifically on the effects of the structure of social networks and news consumption activities on SNSs. Specifically, we introduce the concept of news sharing on SNSs as another potential predictor of participation. The present study found the presence of two sub-dimensions of news sharing: news externalizing and news internalizing. News sharing behavior – particularly news externalizing on SNSs as identified and conceptualized here – was found to be a significant and positive predictor of political participation, while news internalizing was not. Additionally, the results show that network heterogeneity itself has non-significant or only marginally significant effects on participation, either online or offline. However, out data revealed the moderating effects of news sharing that condition the relationship between the level of network heterogeneity and the extent of participation. The findings indicate that heterogeneous online social networks may boost citizens’ participation when they are active in posting news links to share with other members on SNSs.
Hit ‘em hard! Political Partisans and Negative Ads • David Coppini, University of Wisconsin Madison; Bryan McLaughlin, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Catasha Davis; Doug McLeod • As the last two Presidential election cycles have shown, campaign attack ads have become pervasive in American politics. However, political communication scholars still argue on in which circumstances attack ads can be effective and avoid backlash. Using an experimental design with a national representative sample (N=409) this study investigates the effectiveness of attack ads in the context of sex scandals. Results show that attack ads can be a powerful to mobilize partisans, even when the attack ads is extreme. Theory of motivated reasoning and social identity theory are introduced to explain the mechanism behind these findings. In conclusion, a discussion of the implications of the findings for democratic outcomes is introduced.
Hope vs. Fear: Emotional Response to Political Attack Ads as a Mediator of Ego Defense Strategies • Yang Feng, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Aaron Veenstra; Wenjing Xie • Numerous studies investigating the effects of negative political advertising on political participation have provided mixed findings. We propose an emotion-based explanation in face of the discrepancy, and hypothesize that emotional responses to an attack ad, evoked by one’s ego-defensive mechanism, mediate the relationship between attack ad exposure and attitudinal and behavior responses. We tested the mediating role of emotional responses using an online experiment in the context of the campaign between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Results provided some support for partisan’s ego-defense reactions influencing one’s attitude certainty and open-mindedness, which subsequently affected information seeking intention.
Amplifying America’s Voice? Journalists’ coverage of deliberation • Caroline Foster, University of South Carolina; John Besley, Michigan State University • Based on interviews with journalists and quantitative analysis of media content, we aimed to explore journalists’ perceptions of the newsworthiness of public engagement events. We asked journalists how they decided whether to cover Our Budget, Our Economy (OBOE), a nationwide public meeting designed to engage the American public in considering policy options for balancing the federal budget. Our data suggest that while “process” stories often lack impact and thus hold little appeal to journalists, some parts of the OBOE process did capture journalists’ attention because they are unique and have potential to affect national economic policy. Implications of these findings for public deliberation and journalism practice are discussed.
Believing in the Public: Orientations toward Facebook and Social, Political, and Media Trust • Itay Gabay, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Jackson Foote; Hernando Rojas, University of Wisconsin – Madison • If Facebook is the mirror of offline social space that it claims to be, then we must take seriously the diverse experiences and orientations toward that. Democratic theorists have left behind old notions of coffee-house salons in favor of a networked sphere of communicative agency, in which the Internet can act as a platform to organize social and communicative action, achieve mutual understanding, and facilitate communicative reflexivity between civil society and the public sphere. We investigate how common-sense notions about the role of publicity, opinion-formation, information-exchange, deliberation, and political expression inform Internet users’ relationship to traditional institutions. This survey of Internet users in Colombia explores how the orientations that users have about the technology relate to the modern institutions that democratic scholars associate with positive social and political engagement. We find that social networking site users who have a public orientation toward the sites and use the broader Internet for political purposes are more likely to have high levels of political and social trust; whereas those who have what we label a private orientation toward the sites have higher levels of media trust. This finding proves most true for those citizens in the lowest socio-economic categories, demonstrating that social networking sites in particular might be a force for mitigating the institutional trust gap between middle-class and poor citizens in the developing world.Those in the lower strata of Colombian society are most likely to gain greater political and social trust from their publicly oriented views about the societal function of Facebook and other social media.
Frame competition after key events: A longitudinal study of framing of economic policy • Stefan Geiss, Department of Communication, U of Mainz; Mathias Weber, University of Mainz; Oliver Quiring, University of Mainz • Key events catalyze frame building processes and competition between frames. A longitudinal study investigates media framing of economic policy after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers (2008–2009). Status and resources of frame sponsors and cultural resonance of frames prove critical for a frame’s success. The frames ranking high on these categories are more competitive and have the capability to displace and suppress alternative frames. Diversity of framing of economic policy was high and constant.
Fighting the War on (Appalachian) Coal in Local and National News • Maxine Gesualdi, Temple University • During the 2012 presidential campaign, a rhetorical war on coal was waged by the candidates and covered in local and national news. This study compares framing of the war on coal in 67 articles from Charleston, WV, newspapers and in 54 Associated Press and nine New York Times stories. In addition, the analysis highlights the role of a local activist journalist and provides insight into media representations of Appalachia.
Relationship Development through Social Networking: How United States Governors are Using Facebook • Melissa Graham, University of Tennessee; Danijela Radic, University of Tennessee • Through a content analysis of the Facebook profiles of the United States Governors, this study examines the relationship development strategies that are being incorporated by governors on their social networking pages. Results indicate that most of the governors have incorporated the majority of Facebook applications available to them. Examining the governors’ profiles for disclosure, information dissemination and involvement revealed that disclosure and information dissemination were the most often used strategies.
YouTube / OurTube / TheirTube: Official and Unofficial Online Campaign Advertising, Negativity, and Popularity • Jacob Groshek; Stephanie Brookes • This study explored online campaign advertising as it existed in the primary season of the 2012 presidential campaign. In looking at official and unofficial advertising of five viable candidates on YouTube for a nearly one-year time period during the 2012 primaries, analyses reported here undertook key features of negativity, popularity, and content producers. Results demonstrated a number of noticeable and significant differences, as well as several similarities across the candidates, the parties, and the producers of online advertising with regard to the level of negativity found in ads posted to YouTube during this election. To some extent, the patterns observed indicate the normalization and embeddedness that YouTube has taken on in political campaigning and situate YouTube as a permanent fixture among many channels in elections.
Biased Partisan News and a Divided Nation: A Test of Self-categorization Theory • Jiyoung Han • This study explores the processes that might underlie the influence of biased partisan news media on opinion polarization. Consistent with self-categorization theory, exposure to biased partisan news is expected to indirectly generated opinion polarization by making one’s party identification salient as opposed to its counterpart (i.e., Democrat vs. Republican). A pretest/post test experimental study (N = 298) demonstrated that that causal effect of biased partisan news effects on opinion polarization. Departing from selective media exposure prediction, this study demonstrated that the changes in opinion shown in incongruent conditions were no smaller than the changes in opinion shown in congruent conditions. In addition, joint significant tests also supported the mediation effects of the strength of party identification in the process of opinion polarization. This study is one of the first studies showing group polarization can occur via mass communication in the absence of any kinds of group discussion. Theoretical implications of this study were discussed.
Bridging the Partisan Divide? Exploring Ambivalence and Information Seeking Over Time in the 2012 US Presidential Election • Jay Hmielowski, University of Arizona; Michael Beam, Washington State University; Myiah Hutchens, University of Arizona • Research has shown that holding conflicting attitudes may lead people to live up to the normative ideal of how citizens should act in a democracy. One example of this ideal behavior is the research showing that ambivalence leads to information seeking. To expand on this line of inquiry, this study examines the relationship between ambivalence and information seeking over time using three-wave panel data. In addition, we also examine whether ambivalence leads people to seek out attitudinally consistent or inconsistent media, and whether use of pro- or counter-attitudinal outlets increases or decreases ambivalence, respectively. Results suggest that a higher level of information seeking leads to a reduction in ambivalence. This decrease in ambivalence seems to be driven by using pro-attitudinal media. Experiencing ambivalence, however, is associated with an increase in counter-attitudinal media use.
Differential Effects of Fear and Anger Appeals in Political Advertisements • Elizabeth Housholder, University of Minnesota; Philip Chen, University of Minnesota • The 2012 election saw unprecedented spending on negative political advertising, yet research in this area has produced conflicting results about the effects on downstream political behavior. Using an original experiment, this study investigates an understudied area in political advertising research: the differential mobilization, information-seeking and evaluation effects caused by anger and fear appeals. The results indicate that anger appeals have cause greater mobilization and more positive evaluations of the sponsor, as compared to fear appeals.
Does the Horserace Really Sell?: Examining Election News Preferences • Seung Mo Jang, University of Michigan; Yu Won Oh, University of Michigan • This study investigated how citizens select election news online. Voluntary national samples browsed a news website featuring four types of election news (horserace, candidates’ issue positions, campaign trails, and voters). Their online activities, including article selection and the length of exposure, were unobtrusively measured by behavior tracking software. Findings revealed that participants tended to choose issue-based election coverage but avoid news stories about campaign trails. The horserace was irrelevant to the popularity of news stories.
Toward a Virtuous Circle: The Role of News Consumption and Media Trust • Qihao Ji, Florida State University; Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University; Jingyu Bao • The current study reconciles the social capital perspective with virtuous circle/media malaise approach by examining the relationship among news consumption, media trust, and civic engagement. It confirms the influences of demographic variables on media’s democratic effectiveness. Moreover, Television news consumption was found having a positive power in predicting political participation and civic engagement. In addition, different demographic groups and news consumption patterns across media lead to significantly different likelyhood of specific media trust.
The Shape of the Pack in U.S. Political Journalism • Vincent Kiernan, Georgetown University • This study applies the concept of opinion leadership to pack journalism among political journalists in the United States. Journalists were surveyed about stress and autonomy in their work and were asked to identify other journalists whose work influences them. There was no correlation between autonomy or stress and the number of journalists followed by a respondent. Journalists at elite media outlets were commonly designated as leaders of others, but follower relationships also were grouped geographically.
Knowledge vs. Stereotype: Exploring the Mediating Mechanisms of the Relationship between Selective Exposure, Attitudinal Polarization, and Political Participation • Yonghwan Kim, The University of Alabama • This study tests two models that explicate the relationship between selective exposure and political polarization and participation. The knowledge model suggests that the effects of selective exposure on individuals’ attitudinal polarization and political engagement are mediated by knowledge of candidate issue stances. The stereotype model proposes that selective exposure indirectly influences political polarization and participation via stereotypical perceptions of candidates (i.e., McCain’s age and the prospect of a Black presidency). By posing issue knowledge and stereotypical perceptions as potential mediators, this study extends current literature to analyze why and how selective exposure leads to polarization and political participation. The results provide evidence that individuals’ stereotypic perceptions of the candidates’ age and race mediate the influence of selective exposure on attitudinal polarization and participation while there was no support for the knowledge model. These findings thus challenge the argument that selective exposure is normatively desirable due to its contribution to citizens’ greater levels of political participation. The findings of this study call into question such a contention because the results show that individuals who engage in selective exposure are motivated to participate in political activities by forming stereotypic perceptions of candidates rather than by gaining factual issue knowledge.
Facebook to offline or offline to Facebook: A longitudinal study for the 2012 Taiwan Presidential Election • Jih-Hsuan Lin, National Chiao-Tung University • The study collected data before and after the 2012 Taiwanese Presidential Election to examine the mobilization direction between online Facebook and offline political participation. The panel data supported four SEM models proposed in this study. In addition, young population significantly indicated more positive attitudes for Facebook than the elder population. However, no differences were found between these two populations regarding their Facebook political activities, mostly due to the perceived culture of not discussing politics with friends.
Uncertain Future: Media Influence and the Republican Party • Bryan McLaughlin, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Catasha Davis; Mallory Perryman, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Kwansik Mun • Following the 2012 election, media coverage centered on whether the Republican Party should compromise its stances on issues core to conservative identity (taxes or abortion). We test whether news framing the GOP’s future in terms of compromise or policy maintenance affects Republicans. The compromise frame led to lower Republican identity salience in the taxes conditions. Further, we found a main effect of compromise on perceptions of public opinion and individual assessment of need to compromise.
Covering the Conventions: Bias in Pre and Post-speech Media Commentary during the 2012 Presidential Nominating Conventions • Dylan McLemore, University of Alabama; Youngju Kim, University of Alabama; Reema Mohini, University of Alabama; Scott Morton, University of Alabama • Presidential nominating conventions traditionally mark the beginning of the general election, and research suggests they may have an effect on voters. However, studies of convention coverage remain few. This content analysis evaluates instant media commentary from the 2012 Republican and Democratic national conventions for ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. Coverage across networks was generally favorable to both parties, though significant differences in valence frames emerged between cable rivals Fox News and MSNBC.
Blogging the Irrelevant?: A Content Analysis of Political Blog Coverage of the 2012 Democratic National Convention • Laura Meadows, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Creighton Welch, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Daniel Riffe, UNC; Daniel Kreiss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This content analysis examined coverage of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in the 25 most-trafficked conservative and 25 most-trafficked liberal political blogs from September 1 to September 9, 2012. A total of 1,501 individual blog posts were coded during this eight day period. The convention was found to have an aggregative function, drawing the attention of both conservative and liberal blogs in similar numbers, though the two partisan groups differed significantly in terms of tone and focus of coverage.
But How Does it Play in Peoria? China’s Public Diplomacy & American Public Opinion • Emily Metzgar; Lars Willnat; Shuo Tang, Indiana University; Tunga Lodato, Indiana University • Using content analysis and original survey data we ask if China’s public diplomacy efforts in the United States have resulted in more positive media coverage in recent years and if so, whether this correlates with more positive attitudes toward China among the American public. We find no improvement in the tone of American coverage. Moreover, we find media coverage has only limited influence on American opinion of China. We discuss the implications of these findings.
Citizen Journalism and Civic Participation: Theory of Reasoned Action and Its Mediating Effects • Seungahn Nah, University of Kentucky; Kang Namkoong, University of Kentucky; Rachael Record, University of Kentucky; Stephanie Van Stee, University of Kentucky • Drawing on the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein, 1967; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), this study examines the direct and indirect effects of citizen journalism on civic participation. Through a quasi-experimental design, the analyses show that citizen journalism practice has a direct effect on civic participation with volunteering/donating to nonprofit and voluntary organizations. This study also reveals that attitude toward nonprofit and voluntary organizations mediates the relationship between citizen journalism and civic participation.
Examining How Normative Opinion Cues and Incivility on Social Networking Sites Influence Political Engagement • Rachel Neo, The Ohio State University • This study uses Pew Research Center survey data to examine how social media influences political outcomes. Findings suggest that people use social media to selectively attend to opinion congruent political information, and to selectively avoid opinion incongruent political information. Perceived opinion incongruence was positively associated with willingness to self-censor on social media. Incivility on social media was negatively associated with political engagement. People were likely to post about politics if their peers were doing likewise.
Crunching the Numbers: Network Newscasts and the Reporting of Polling Data During the 2012 Election • Chad Nye, Keene State College; John Mcguire, Oklahoma State University • This study examined 250 separate presidential polling reports from the ABC, CBS and NBC nightly newscasts between Labor Day and Election Day 2012. The researchers found significant differences between the networks in the accuracy of poll reports and in attention given to margin of error in poll reports. The researchers also found that despite the opportunity to enhance poll reporting by using their web pages, none of the three networks took advantage of that opportunity.
Negative Super PAC Advertising: Involvement, Affective Responses, and Political Information Efficacy • David Painter, Full Sail University; Eisa Al Nashmi, Kuwait University; Jessica Mahone, University of Florida • This investigation parses the influence of partisanship and political expression on the effects of negative Super PAC ads. Using a pretest-posttest design with two experimental conditions and 585 participants, both enduring and situational involvement exerted significant main and interaction effects on viewers’ affect toward the general election candidates and levels of political information efficacy. These results suggest enduring and situational involvement moderate the effects of negative Super PAC advertising in primary contests.
Socially Networked Politics: Effects of Facebook Use on Political Attitudes of Young Female Adults • Azmat Rasul, Florida State University; Ulla Bunz, Florida State University • This study scrutinizes the relationship between one of the social networking websites (Facebook) and political attitudes of young female adults. We were interested in examining the effects of Facebook on the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions of the attitudes of the young female users. We focused on young female adults as females are conventionally and stereotypically considered a politically alienated section of the society. Our objective was to investigate if new and interactive modes of social and political communication were influencing attitudinal and behavioral patterns of young girls when they are exposed to a variety of political messages on Facebook. Using survey data collected at a large Southern university (n = 242), we were able to predict that Facebook use is positively associated with political self-efficacy and political support for various institutions.
Diagnosing the Disease of American Politics: Jimmy Carter, George F. Will, and the 1976 Campaign • Lori Roessner, UTK; Natalie Manayeva, UTK • On March 25, 1976, Washington Post columnist George F. Will offered an account of the day-to-day life of a political reporter. Four years later, the Pulitzer-Prize winner would be criticized for his lack of transparency on the campaign trail. This study examines the role that the academic turned columnist played in contributing to the image of Jimmy Carter and in constituting the form of political journalism in the post-Watergate era.
Thematic and Episodic Framing of Occupy Wall Street in The Washington Post • Jeremy Saks, Ohio University • This study is a content analysis of The Washington Post to see how it framed the Occupy Wall Street movement. The two concepts that are key to the analysis are episodic and thematic framing. The results showed that The Washington Post published more articles with episodic than thematic framing. The majority of the most emphasized sources were from outside of the protest movement
Facebook as a Campaign Tool during 2012 Elections: A New Dimension To Agenda Setting Discourse • Arthur Santana, University of Houston; Lindita Camaj, University of Houston • Using the theoretical framework of agenda setting, this research examines the extent to which the messages of the presidential candidates during the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign were transferred to the public via Facebook. Results reveal that Facebook has risen to become an important campaign tool while also raising new questions about the extent to which the agenda setting paradigm is being reshaped with the advent of this new media.
Engagement of Young Adults: Long-term Effects of Family Socialization and Media Use • Rosanne Scholl, LSU; Chance York, Louisiana State University • This paper uses inter-generational panel survey data to show that young citizen’s political engagement is affected by family characteristics they experienced as adolescents. A young person is more likely to vote if, when he or she was a teen, parents read and talked about the news. However, adolescent media use has no association with voter turnout as a young adult. Effects were found for parent and young adult news use, but not entertainment TV use.
Cumulative and Long Term Campaign Advertising Effects on Democratically Valuable Outcomes • Rosanne Scholl, LSU; Melissa R. Gotlieb, Texas Tech University; Travis Ridout; Ken Goldstein; Dhavan Shah • Political advertising research has mostly ignored the possibility that advertising effects may build up across multiple election seasons or extend past Election Day. This study investigates the short- and long-term effects of both same-cycle and cumulative exposure to ads on a range of normatively desirable attitudes and behaviors using two different election-year survey datasets and an extensive content analysis. Effects within and across elections are shown, as well as sleeper and sustained effects over time.
The Visual Representation of Presidential Candidates in Online Media • Shuo Tang, Indiana University; Edo Steinberg, Department of Telecommunications, Indiana University; Yanqin Lu • Through a framing analysis of 786 candidate images published by major newspapers, newsroom blogs, and partisan blogs during the 2012 presidential campaign, the present study analyzed and compared how mainstream and online media visually framed the presidential candidates. The results suggested that while the mainstream media kept a balanced view in framing the candidates, the liberal blogs did not specifically favor Obama over Romney. The conservative blogs, however, demonstrated their favorability by positively framed Romney and negatively framed Obama through the images they selected to publish.
Network Issue Agendas on Twitter during the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election • Chris Vargo, UNC Chapel Hill; Lei Guo, The University of Texas at Austin; Donald Shaw, UNC Chapel Hill; Maxwell McCombs • Twitter contained discussion of issues by citizens and news organizations during the 2012 U.S. presidential election. This investigation of how the salience of issues varied across these groups on Twitter was guided by agenda melding, Network Agenda Setting Model and the concept of selective exposure. Both horizontal and vertical media correlated highly with each other. Moreover, both vertical media and horizontal media were also correlated highly with the network issue agendas of candidate supporters.
Communication’s Next Top Model: Comparing the Differential Gains and Communication Mediation Models as Predictors of Political Participation and Knowledge • Hong Vu, University of Texas at Austin; Joseph Yoo, The University of Texas at Austin; Maegan Stephens, The University of Texas at Austin; Brian Baresch, University of Texas; Rachel Reis Mourao, University of Texas at Austin; Tom Johnson • Scholars agree interpersonal communication works with mass communication to influence political participation and knowledge, but disagree about the nature of that relationship. This study tests two competing models: The Differential Gains Model, which examines the interaction between media and discussion, and the Communication Mediation Model, which focuses on discussion as a mediator between media and political measures. This study found considerable support for the Communication Mediation Model, but little support for the Differential Gains Model.
The Argument and the Source: News Coverage, Competitive Partisan Issue Framing, and American Public Opinion • Michael Wagner, University of Wisconsin-Madison • What are the consequences of the long-term framing strategies of partisan elites on American public opinion and party identification? While Carsey and Layman (2006) explicate the different conditions for issue-based party change and party-based issue change, recent evidence suggests that partisan-sourced issue frames play a key role in affecting who is aware of elite differences on issues over time (Author Citation 1 deleted) and when party-based issue change is likely to occur (Author Citation 2 deleted). However, this evidence only examines the internal consistency of issue frames within parties, ignoring the actual content of the frames themselves. Baumgartner, DeBoef, and Boydstun’s (2008) development of evolutionary factor analysis provides scholars a new way to examine how the content of different frames about the same issue are salient, resonant, and persistent over time; but, it doesn’t account for the sources of the content. I merge ANES Cumulative file data (from 1976-2008) with the first evolutionary factor analysis of partisan-sourced issue frames coded from Newsweek magazine on two issues (abortion and taxes) from 1976-2008 to show how the salience and persistence of partisan-sourced issue frames affect long-term shifts in party identification and changes in public opinion. The analysis shows that Republican and Democratic elites highlight different aspects of the same issue and that the salience, persistence, and resonance of these frames affect partisanship in different ways for abortion and taxes over time.
Comparing Ann Romney’s RNC Speech with Michelle Obama’s DNC Speech in 2012 • Qian Wang • The study examined what kinds of strategy Ann Romney and Michelle Obama used in their speeches to the National Conventions of their own Parties as well as how the audience perceived and resonated with their speeches. Through a quantitative textual analysis of the speeches and a content analysis of audience comments to the speeches on Fox News website and CNN News website, the study found Obama’s speech is more gender-balanced and issue-balanced than Romney’s. Further, more audience perceived Obama’s speech authentic expression and Romney’s, strategic promotion.
United States College Students’ Social Media Use and Online Political Participation • Hongwei Yang, Appalachian State University; Jean DeHart, Appalachian State University • After Election 2012, 4,556 college students were surveyed to investigate which elements of social media use predict online political participation. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical multiple regression results showed that political uses of Facebook and Twitter, political self-efficacy, online social capital, and group participation were positive predictors of online political participation. Extensive Facebook and Twitter use was a negative predictor, and social trust did not directly influence participation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Powered by Democracy? – A multilevel model of media uses and political participation across Asian countries • Xinzhi Zhang, City University of Hong Kong; Feifei Zhang, State University of New York – University at Albany • Voting is not the only way that people influence policy making. The present study concentrates on two alternative modes of political participation – the contact-mode participation, i.e., contacting governmental or non-governmental agencies to express political concerns, and the demonstrative form of participation, i.e., petitioning, demonstrating, and protesting – in 10 Asian countries where free public election has not been implemented in all of them. We propose that the political impact of media is contingent upon the democratic development level within the society. Multilevel linear regression models using wave 2 Asian Barometer Survey (n=16,737) show that newspaper, TV, and the informational use of the internet yield different but significant impacts on the different modes of participatory behaviors whereas such impacts are moderated by the level of democracy. Positive associations between reading newspaper and political participation are stronger in pro-democracy countries. The same patterns occur between the informational use of internet and political activities as well.
Perceived Speech Conditions and Disagreement of Everyday Talk: Effects on Political Efficacy • Weiyu Zhang; Leanne Chang, National University of Singapore • Motivated by the theoretical debate on whether everyday talk is qualified to be part of the deliberative system, this study proposes two middle-range concepts, perceived speech conditions and perceived disagreement, to theorize the deliberativeness of everyday talk based on Habermas’s theory of communicative action. Three dimensions of perceived speech conditions, including free proposal, symmetrical opportunity, and fair treatment, are conceptualized and operationalized in the context of everyday talk. Situating the empirical test in a hybrid political system, the study finds that perceived speech conditions demonstrate positive associations with both internal and external efficacy after controlling for amount of discussion and perceived disagreement. Study findings offer insights into understanding a variety of deliberation practices using the two theory-driven concepts.
News use, infotainment and political participation: Advancing the mediating role of news and infotainment cognitive elaboration • Pei Zheng; Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Texas at Austin • Media fragmentation has favored the emergence of “softer” news programs. Although, previous research showed the links between traditional news exposure and participation, the relationship between infotainment-use and participation has not been so clearly established. Based on U.S. national two-wave-panel-data, this study examines the relationship between news use, infotainment, and political participation; proposing a novel theoretical addition through the mediating effect of individual’s cognitive news-use/infotainment elaboration. Results indicate effects are mediated by these cognitive elaboration efforts.
Tweeting “Red” and “Blue”?: How Fox, MSNBC, CNN Journalists Use Twitter to Cover the 2012 Presidential Debates • Pei Zheng • Did journalists tweet “Red” and “Blue” during the 2012 presidential debates? Or did they use their 140 characters for objective reporting? Journalism as a profession is expected to be objective. However, with Twitter as a new reporting tool, objectivity may have taken a back seat.Using the Twitter data during 2012 presidential debates, this study provides insight into whether Twitter was used by cable news journalists as an objective reporting tool or for partisan purposes.
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