Communication Theory and Methodology 2016 Abstracts
Open Call Competition
What is a shared interest?: How ex parte can be used to reveal the overlap of public and corporate interests in FCC policy making • Amy Sindik, Central Michigan University; Brian Creech, Temple University • Additional theoretical and methodological development is needed to consider the FCC’s role overseeing public and corporate interests. This study uses ex parte contacts to examine the FCC policy process in order to discern the interests it considers when crafting policy. This article introduces a term to be used when neither a discussion of public or private interests is sufficient: the shared interest. The shared interest is used to define the areas where the public good may overlap with industry profit motive and gives a scholar a particular concept to search for when parsing the complications of communication policy.
Attention Ecology of the Web • Anegla Xiao Wu, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Harsh Taneja, University of Missouri • Taking an ecological approach, our study conceptualizes and empirically demonstrates the associations between website-level media structures and global patterns of online attention. We develop (1) a typology of website formats along the curatorial and the productive dimensions, and (2) two measures to capture distinct aspects of attention that complement the typical aspect of popularity. We implement these methodological innovations on world’s 850 most popular sites and their shared usage data at three recent time points.
Affect, Risk and Online Political Criticism in Restricted Information Environments Aysenur Dal Although political outcomes of using information and communication technologies in restricted information settings have attracted scholarly attention from various disciplines, some important questions remain unanswered. Why do the measures taken against citizens’ online political activities in authoritarian settings often fail for great enough crowds? What is the explanation for the psychological processes of those who engage in “risky” political expression in settings where there may be direct consequences of anti-government online behavior? In this study, we suggest a model that explains how individuals living in restricted information environments perceive and react to risks of online political expression. The main theoretical contribution is to draw links between literatures of perceiving risk and political communication so that our knowledge on government responses to expanding political role of ICTs incorporates citizen behaviors’ underlying judgment and decision making mechanisms as well. Using an original web survey, we study the underlying processes that individuals go through in evaluating and responding to the risk of engaging in expressive behaviors in an increasingly restricted information environment, Turkey.
New Directions in Selective Exposure: Measurement and Mitigation • Benjamin Lyons, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • Individuals often seek out agreeable information, increasing polarization and impairing knowledge. This study contributes new ways to measure and potentially mitigate this bias. First, contextually-activated discussion networks are examined alongside traditional media choice as dependent variables. Next, self-affirmation and social identity complexity primes are investigated as interventions. Results (N = 600) show social identity complexity marginally reduced selective exposure to media, and significantly reduced activated network density. Neither intervention impacted network homogeneity.
The Effect of Collaborative Filtering on Online News Processing • Christina DeVoss, University of Connecticut; Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, University of Connecticut • “Online news consumption is increasing, which can produce different effects on agenda setting and learning compared to offline news consumption. Using an experimental design (N=178), this study tests how collaborative filtering of online news affects information processing, based on the cognitive mediation model. Results indicate that bandwagon cues indicated by collaborative filtering positively influence cognitive elaboration about the news, and that both surveillance and interpersonal utility motivations are related to news attention and elaboration.
How Can Media Users Feel Presence by Fictional Media Content? • Euijin Ahn, Yeungnam University; Hwiman Chung, New Mexico State University • Few studies have explained why media users experience presence by fictitious media objects or events. The most challenging problem is that media users implicitly know they are just visual fabrications. Here, we try to solve this paradoxical phenomenon of presence. We propose cognitive models of presence that are independent from a belief system. The proposed models are based on a perceptual experience of stereopsis which is related to the perception of egocentric distance.
Data Analysis with Topic Models for Communications Researchers • Frederick Boehm • We present a non-technical introduction to data analysis with topic models for communications researchers. We motivate the discussion with a research question from social media communications research. We then discuss statistical aspects of topic models as we illustrate these methods with data from Twitter and from The New York Times. We complement our discussion with computer code (in the R computing language) that implements our methods. We close with ideas about the future value of topic modeling to communications researchers.
Perusing Pages and Skimming Screens: Selective Exposure to News Articles in Online vs Offline Contexts • George Pearson, The Ohio State University; Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick • The rise of soft and user-generated news cause fundamental changes for recipients’ news selections. A carefully designed 2x2x2 experiment had participants (n = 197) sample from the same soft and hard news in an online or offline context, while presenting amateur or professional source cues. Soft news was generally preferred, unexpectedly more so in the offline setting and more so among habitual print news consumers. Amateur vs. professional sources did not affect selections.
Defying censorship: A framework for reactance and learning in the face of media controls • Golnoosh Behrouzian; Emma Fete; Aysenur Dal • Media censorship is a significant issue plaguing over 80 percent of the world’s population. This suppression of information can have damaging consequences for the public’s knowledge base and negatively impact the capability of citizens to make well-informed decisions, by withholding information or creating misperceptions, amongst other things. While most research addresses the implications of censorship from a more normative institutional level, we propose a novel theoretical framework looking at the individual-level effects of perceived censorship on political knowledge. Through the integration of psychological reactance as a mediating variable, we use data from a two-wave longitudinal survey, taken by Turkish citizens before the June 2015 general election, to conduct an exploratory study of the underlying psychological and communication processes that may motivate increased political learning. We find that those citizens who perceive a threat to their media freedom are more likely to experience psychological reactance, which heightens their level of political learning. Our results both challenge and expand on previous findings that suggest censorship broadly dampens political knowledge, since the boundary condition provided by psychological reactance suggests that higher levels of perceived censorship may, in fact, motivate higher achievement in knowledge. We discuss the implication of these findings as it relates to information-seeking strategies that may further clarify how individuals in repressed media environments manage their media freedom.
Evaluating Sampling Methods for Content Analysis of Social Media Data • Hwalbin Kim, University of South Carolina; Seung Mo Jang, University of South Carolina; Sei-Hill Kim; Anan Wan, University of South Carolina • Despite the existing evaluation of the sampling options for periodical media content, little is known about whether the traditional sampling methods are applicable to social media content. This paper tests the efficiency of simple random sampling and constructed week sampling, varying the sample size of media content in the context of the 2014 South Carolina gubernatorial election. This study also provides initial evidence that each day can be better used as a unit of analysis.
Agreement between Humans and Machines? — A Reliability Check among Computational Content Analysis Programs • Jacob Rohde, Boston University; Denis Wu • As data generated from social networking sites become larger, so does the need for computer aids in content analysis research. This paper outlines the growing methodology of supervised machine learning in respect to document topics classification and sentiment analysis. A series of tweets were collected, coded by humans, and subsequently fed into a selection of six different popular computer applications: Aylien, DiscoverText, MeaningCloud, Semantria, Sentiment 140, and SentiStrength. Reliability results between the human and machine coders are presented in a matrix in terms of Krippendorff’s Alpha and percentage agreement. Ultimately, this paper illuminates that, while computer-aided coding may lessen the burden and accelerate for researchers in coding social media content, the results of utilizing these programs indicate low reliability for analyzing political content.
Establishing an EMA-style Collection Method for Intervention Message Testing • Jared Brickman; Jessica Willoughby • Evaluating messages is important for message creation. Previous research has often used long-form surveys to test messaging. This study asks whether real-time sampling on a mobile phone could serve as a message-testing alternative. Participants evaluated messages over a week using mobile phones. More than 90 percent of messages were evaluated, and a majority of participants preferred this methodology. This approach, while not without limitations, is a viable and important tool for diversifying message testing.
The social media mourning model: Examining tie strength and “acceptable loss” in Facebook mourning posts • Jensen Moore, University of Oklahoma; Sara Magee, Loyola University Maryland; Jennifer Kowalewski, Georgia Southern University; Ellada Gamreklidze, Louisiana State University • Social media allows people to grieve. However, not all deaths are equal. In a 2 (death type: acceptable vs. non-acceptable) x 2 (Tie strength: strong vs. weak) experiment, we found individuals felt more positive toward those who died in an acceptable manner, and who had a stronger relationship with the deceased. However, the strength of relationship appears to be more influential in its effect on the views toward grieving than how a person died.
Explicating the Meaning of Social Media Literacy • Jeremy Ong; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University • This paper explicates the concept of social media literacy, arguing that the increasing digitization of social life on social media confronts users with novel problems, such as misinformation, identity theft, privacy concerns, and matters of taste and decency. By engaging in the process of meaning analysis, this paper identifies four domains of social media literacy: technical, privacy, credibility, and social domains. The paper also argues for the theoretical and practical utility of this proposed typology.
Evaluating a sexual health text message service using short message service (SMS) surveys with adolescents • Jessica Willoughby; Kelly L’Engle, University of San Francisco; Kennon Jackson; Jared Brickman • Two-way mHealth interventions allow for feedback solicitation from participants. This study explores the use of a text-message survey to assess demographics and program feedback from users of an adolescent sexual health text message question-and-answer service. The text message survey achieved a 43.9% response rate. When compared to respondents who used the service and completed an online in-school questionnaire, text survey respondents were more likely to be female and older. They also reported higher service satisfaction.
“The First Decision for My Child”: Mechanisms through which Parents of Children with and without Autism Decide on Their Children’s Vaccination • Juwon Hwang, University of Wisconsin – Madison • Based on O1-S-O2-R model, this study explores the mechanisms through which parents decide on their children’s vaccination. Analyzing nationally representative survey data, this study assumes that the evaluation of health information sources plays a critical role in parents’ benefit perception and decisions on their children’s vaccination. This study finds that print and interpersonal communication as stimuli are positively associated with parents’ benefit perception of their children’s vaccination whereas social media is negatively associated with it. In turn, benefit perception is significantly related to parents’ decisions on their children’s vaccination. However, there is no interaction effect of parents of children with autism (PCA) and the evaluation of health information sources on parents’ benefit perception and decisions on their children’s vaccination. The results seem to suggest that targeted messages addressing PCA’s concerns and to mitigate mistrust are needed.
Global Network Agenda Setting: Visualizing the South China Sea Dispute • Lei Guo, Boston University; Kate Mays, Boston University; Jianing Wang, Boston University • This study theoretically and methodologically advances the Network Agenda Setting Model, a third level of agenda setting, through a media analysis of the South China Sea dispute. Combining a sophisticated semantic network analysis approach and the Granger causality test, the study examined the interplay between three involved countries’ media coverage and the global public opinion as reflected on the Twittersphere. Network visualization techniques were also used to graphically represent the media network agendas.
Sampling Strategy for Conducting Content Analysis of Digital Native Sites • Lu Wu, UNC-Chapel Hill; Joe Bob Hester • This study investigates sampling strategies for efficiently creating representative samples of digital native sites. Using 90,117 stories from BuzzFeed, the authors compare simple random, consecutive day, and constructed week samples. Similar to previous research, the study concludes that constructed week sampling is the most efficient technique. For variables with low variability (coefficient of variation < 0.30), 3 to 5 constructed weeks may be sufficient. For situations with a greater degree of variability, 6 to 12 constructed weeks may be required in order to create a representative sample.
When gaps become huuuuge: Donald Trump and beliefs about immigration • Magdalena Saldana; Lourdes Miri Cueva Chacon, University of Texas at Austin; Victor Garcia-Perdomo, University of Texas at Austin/Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia • The belief gap argues that ideology and partisanship—instead of education—explain people’s beliefs about politically contested issues. Relying on nationally representative panel data, this study explores how ideology and education work together to predict belief gaps about immigration. In addition, we test if support for Donald Trump increases negative beliefs about immigrants. Findings suggest that ideology and education interact to predict attitudes (but not beliefs), and Trump’s supporters exhibit significantly negative beliefs about immigration.
Perceived Hostile Media Agenda in the 2016 Democratic Primary • Mallory Perryman, University of Wisconsin – Madison • This survey of young voters (n=187) explored perceived bias in news coverage of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary race. We introduce the idea of the hostile media agenda, where, in addition to sensing hostile bias in the valence of a candidate’s news coverage, the audience also senses a hostile bias in the volume of a candidate’s coverage. Indeed, voters felt media had slighted their candidate in both valence and volume of coverage.
Communication Activities as a Source of Perceived Collective Efficacy • Masahiro Yamamoto, University at Albany – SUNY • This study examines two communication-based sources of neighborhood collective efficacy, communication ties with neighbors and local media use. Data from a Web survey of Chicago residents show that communicative relationships characterized by weak ties are associated with increases in perceived collective efficacy. Data also indicate a positive link between attention to neighborhood social news and perceived collective efficacy. Both weak communication ties and attention to neighborhood social news also have indirect associations with perceived violence in the neighborhood through perceived collective efficacy. Implications are discussed for the role of interpersonal and mediated communication in neighborhood safety.
Understanding information encountering: A case of newspaper reporting behavior at Midwestern metropolitan-area newspapers • Matt Bird-Meyer, University of Missouri • This study considers how journalists embrace the unexpected as part of their reporting routine using Erdelez’ framework of information encountering. Five journalists from metropolitan-area newspapers participated in the study. The study began with a semi-structured interview. The participants were asked to keep a diary to record their reporting behavior. The researcher followed up with a debriefing. By embracing the unexpected, it was clear that these journalists routinize encountering and make themselves open to encountering.
Party or Peers: Where is the loyalty? Corrective action effects on opinion and expression in the context of intergroup political conflict • Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; David Coppini • This study extends the corrective action hypothesis, addressing three important gaps in the literature. First, we directly test corrective action hypothesis in controlled opinion climates within the American partisan context and we pit this hypothesis against a competing hypothesis, support-based engagement. While most research on corrective action used cross-sectional data, this study attempts a causal explanation by manipulating comments about a fictitious candidate. Second, we measure the change in opinion caused by peer comments while accounting for the effect of party identification. Third, we pit party loyalty and peer influence against each other to find which has the larger effect on predicting the change in opinion about a candidate and the likelihood of expressing that opinion. Specifically, this study uses a 2 (political party) X 3 (comment opinion climate) experiment embedded in a survey of the adult American population (N=350). The study purported to be a beta-test for an election mobile application to test the effects of party cues and opinion climate on support for a candidate and individuals’ expression. Our design built three distinct political climates, allowing us to test directly how partisans and non-partisans act in each environment. The results show a corrective action effect in opinion change about the candidate.
Comment is free, but biased: Spiral of silence and corrective action in news comment sections • Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; David Wise, UW-Madison; Ayellet Pelled, University of Wisconsin; Shreenita Ghosh, University of Wisconsin Madison; Yuanliang Shan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Mengdian (Mandy) Zheng; Douglas McLeod, University of Wisconsin–Madison • Our online experiment provides evidence that the opinion climate of news comments have an effect on the formation of news audience opinions about news issues. Through the lens of spiral of silence theory, corrective action hypothesis, and peer influence research, we see differences in the reactions to varying opinion climates on the news audience. The study adds to the literature by manipulating the perception of opinion climate on an issue by using a fictitious current event, it measures changes in opinion instead of merely resulting opinion, and it adds nuance to the discussion of opinion climate by reflecting five conditions. The experiment allowed participants to reply, comment, do both, or do nothing and so comes closer to measuring real-world expression behavior. Results suggest the interaction between opinion climate and personal opinion can predict who will engage with a news comment section through the mechanism of spiral of silence, and the expressed opinions in a news comment section influence the direction of opinion change about the issue.
Reluctance to talk face-to-face and post on Facebook about politics: Examining the roles of fear of isolation, willingness to self-censor, and network structure • Michael Chan • Based on concepts from spiral of silence theory, this study examines Hong Kong citizen’s willingness to publically express support for a political party or candidate face-to-face and on Facebook during the 2015 District Council elections. Findings from a national survey showed that fear of social isolation (FSI) exhibited an indirect effect on public expression of support through willingness to self-censor (WTSC) for both offline and Facebook contexts. Moreover, there was evidence of moderated mediation for the Facebook condition, such that the indirect effect was stronger for those with more homogeneous Facebook networks. This particular finding is framed in terms of the technological affordances of Facebook (e.g. persistence and scalability of posted messages vis-à-vis spoken communications) as well as increased identifiability and decreased anonymity of Facebook interactions, which accentuate the publicness of political expression and individuals’ fear of social isolation and sensitivity to the opinion climate.
Testing Intergenerational Transmission of News Content Preference: A South Korean Case • Minchul Kim, Indiana University • Understanding of how adolescents develop news preference is closely associated with understanding of how a democratic society works. This study tested the intergenerational transmission of news content preference between parents and adolescents. Specifically, our findings suggest that mothers’ news content preference, but not that of fathers’, had independent and lasting influences on adolescents’ news content preference. This implies that mothers may play a more direct role in the intergenerational transmission of news content preference than do fathers.
Racial Diversity in News: How Journalist, Officeholder, and Audience Intersect to Affect Racialized Issue Coverage • Mingxiao Sui; Newly Paul; Paru Shah, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Political Science Department; Johanna Dunaway, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University; Brook Spurlock • This study examines whether and how the presence of minority journalists affects media coverage of racialized issues. We focus our analysis on data from more than 1,500 state legislative elections in 2012 and content analysis data from local news coverage of 3,400 candidates in these elections. Our finding indicates that minority journalists in newsrooms may not help increase the coverage of racialized issues. However, in states with a larger minority population, minority journalists are more likely to cover race-related issues.
Does News Still Serve as a Public Forum? Broadcast News and the Public Agenda, 1968-2010 • Patrick Meirick, University of Oklahoma; Jill Edy • An analysis of quarterly public opinion and broadcast news coverage from 1968 through 2010 shows the news agenda is as strongly related with the public agenda as ever. However, it does not function as has been assumed. The agenda-setting relationship appears to diversify the public agenda rather than winnowing it to a narrow list of action items. That is, broadcast news may foster consensus by making us aware of each other’s concerns.
Who Sets the News Agenda on “Chinese Twitter”? The Interaction between the Media and Opinion Leaders on Weibo • Qian Wang • Within the theoretical framework of agenda setting, this study applied granger causality analysis to examine the relationships between the news agendas of the media outlets and opinion leaders on one Chinese social network platform—Weibo. The study not only applied agenda setting to Chinese social media, but it also approached the agenda-setting effects of social media from a completely different perspective, recognizing and differentiating the segmented agendas on social media platforms. It examined more nuanced agenda-setting effects among the most influential groups on social media platforms, determining and comparing the news agendas of these groups. The results showed agenda-setting effects exist only between the opinion leaders and commercial media outlets rather than the official media in China. Although journalists and celebrities tended to the most influential ones on Twitter, business elites were the most influential opinion leader on Weibo.
Cultural Cognition, Psychological Sense of Community, and Offshore Oil Risk Perceptions in Ghana: A Scale Development and Adaptation Study • S. Senyo Ofori-Parku, The University of Alabama • The cultural cognition thesis observes that individuals’ worldviews or cultural biases orient how they think about environmental health issues, messages, and policy prescriptions. However, the cultural cognition worldview scale, which has been extensively validated in the United States, has not been validated in African contexts. Since environmental hazards have asymmetric impacts on developing countries and the poor in general, this study uses Ghana’s burgeoning offshore oil production industry as a context, to test and systematically develop a cultural cognition worldview measure that is sensitive to the local Ghanaian context. The psychological sense of community and Schwartz’ universal values scale were also tested. Initial assessments of the ability of these scales to predict offshore oil risk perceptions are reported.
I Am In A Relationship With Harry Potter: Evaluation of Parasocial Interactions and Textual Poaching in Harry Potter Fandom Forums • Sara Erlichman • Author J.K. Rowling is notorious for producing fandom content in order to keep the Harry Potter alive. The objective of this study seeks to identify parasocial interaction and textual poaching themes such as interpretations, constructed fan content, and identification with the community in online Harry Potter fandom forums. This pilot study analyzed 100 posts from MuggleNet.com’s discussion forums to measure the prevalence and relationship of textual poaching and parasocial processes within these posts.
The link between crime news and guilty verdicts: An examination of the largest jury summons in US history • Sarah Staggs, University of Arizona; Kristen Landreville • The trial for Colorado theater shooter James Holmes summoned a record 9,000 potential jurors to serve. As media continue to publicize and sensationalize high-profile crime stories, it becomes more difficult to find individuals and potential jurors with little to no exposure to pretrial publicity. This study explores the association between interest and exposure in a case, as well as subsequent knowledge of the case and judgments of a criminal offender’s guilt. Agenda setting, framing, and predecisional distortion are the theoretical foundations used to explore this relationship between media and cognition. A national survey (N = 236) was distributed to measure exposure to pretrial publicity to the Colorado theater shooter case, recalled knowledge about the crime, and views of the offender’s guilt. Results show that perceptions of the criminal offender’s guilt were influenced by increased exposure to pretrial publicity, interest in the case, media credibility beliefs, and knowledge of the crime event. Evidence was found supporting the link between exposure to pretrial publicity and predecisional distortion favoring the offender’s guilt.
Rethinking Communication Infrastructure and Civic Participation: Interaction Effects between Integrated Connection to a Storytelling Network (ICSN) and Internet and Mobile Uses on Civic Participation • Seungahn Nah; Masahiro Yamamoto, University at Albany – SUNY • This study draws on communication infrastructure theory (CIT) to examine the extent to which Internet and mobile devices may drive integrated connection to a storytelling network (ICSN) on civic participation. Data were collected through a nationwide online panel (N=1201) to test conditional effects of ICSN on civic participation in physical and virtual settings by Internet and mobile uses. Results indicate that the relationships between ICSN and civic participation in offline and online contexts were moderated by expressive uses of Internet and mobile media concerning local politics or community issues. In other words, these relationships were stronger for those who more frequently engaged in locality-oriented expressive activities such as expressing opinions and passing along information encountered online on local politics or community issues. This study reveals locality-based expressive uses of Internet and mobile media as driving and mobilizing mechanisms that may help citizens to engage in place-based civic and community life. This study also discusses theoretical insight, policy implication, and practical application to advance the communication infrastructure theory (CIT).
Selecting Serious or Satirical, Supporting or Stirring News? Selective Exposure to Traditional versus Mockery News Online Videos • Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick; Simon Lavis, The Ohio State University • Selective exposure to satirical and traditional news was examined with online clips to test cognitive dissonance and entertainment-education hypotheses. An experiment (n = 146) presented news choices, varied in stance (conservative, liberal) and format (traditional vs. satirical news). Results show political interest fosters traditional news selection. Clips with partisan alignment were more frequently selected. Selecting satire news affected internal political efficacy, and selecting online news clips induced attitude shifts according to message stance.
Millennials vs. Boomers: Using Behavioral Data to Compare the Digital News Networks of Two Cohorts • Stephanie Edgerly; Harsh Taneja, University of Missouri; Anegla Xiao Wu, Chinese University of Hong Kong • This study takes a macro “audience-centric” approach to studying the online news habits of two age cohorts. While surveys suggest that millennials and boomers differ in online news exposure, we use metered data from comScore to analyze shared usage between the 789 most popular news (and social networking) websites for both cohorts. We compare the resulting two “digital news usage networks” to determine how prominent both social media and legacy media are for each cohort.
Examining the Interaction Effect between Media Favorability and Media Visibility of Business News on Corporate Reputation • XIAOQUN ZHANG, University of North Texas • This study showed the significant interaction effect between media favorability and media visibility of business news on corporate reputation, indicating that the first-level agenda-setting effect and the affective dimension of the second-level agenda setting effect take place simultaneously when the public use media messages to form corporate reputation. It also suggested that the composite measure of media favorability and media visibility is superior to the measure of favorability, and a threshold of media visibility is a necessity to create a valid measure of media coverage to predict corporate reputation. This study was based on the content analysis of 2,817 news articles from both elite newspapers and local newspapers.
Social media, political disagreement, political participation, and self-censorship • Yangsun Hong, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The purpose of this study is to examine the specific mechanisms of the relationship between social media use for politics and engagement in participatory activities. This study argues that exposure to political disagreement will be an important mechanism explaining the association between the social media use and engagement in participatory activities, especially for expressive type of participatory activities. In this regard, this study expects a moderating role of self-censorship in the proposed mediation pathway. The result confirms political disagreement as a mediator of the relationship between social media use and expressive type of political activities. It also shows while self-censorship has a suppressing effect on individuals’ willingness to speak out which is a strong antecedent of expressive activities, the greater experience of political disagreement cancels out the suppressing effect of self-censorship on expressive activities.
A Meta-Analysis of News Media’s Agenda-Setting Effects, 1972-2015 • Yunjuan Luo; Hansel Burley, Texas Tech University; Alexander Moe, Texas Tech University; Mingxiao Sui • This project involved exploring the agenda-setting hypothesis across a range of studies using rigorous meta-analytic approaches. The researchers drew upon empirical agenda-setting studies published from 1972 to 2015, and 67 studies that met the inclusion criteria for analysis produced a moderate grand mean effect size of .487. A multiple regression analysis revealed significant predictors, most notably was the predictor that classified the basis for the study correlation as either the number of content categories or the number of participants. A multiple regression of a subgroup using text analysis produced homogeneity (non-significance). The mean for these studies was .51. This is an indication of consistency in findings across agenda setting studies. Study limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed in the article.
The Communication Research Matrix: An Alternative Approach to Kuhn’s Conception of Paradigms • Zachary Sapienza; Aaron Veenstra, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • Utilizing an implicit general semantics framework, this article explicates Thomas Kuhn’s conceptions of paradigms with specific attention paid to their context and application within the field of mass communication. In doing so, this paper will highlight three potential problems with the concept of paradigms ranging from multiple and diverse definitions to Kuhn’s insistence that it was not applicable to the social sciences. Building off the work of Rosengren (1983) and Renckstorf & McQuail (1996), this paper will examine the potential of research quandrants as an alternative to paradigms and make a case for their use in the field of mass communication.
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