Electronic News 2019 Abstracts
The ‘Michael’ Effect: Risk Perception and Behavioral Intentions through Varying Lenses • Cory Armstrong; Jue Hou, University of Alabama; Nathan Towery • The project was to examine individual responses to impending disasters in areas that were recently touched by Hurricane Michael. We employed two theoretical frameworks and developed an experiment testing how media messages surrounding an impending hypothetical hurricane were interpreted by residents and their influence on an individual’s risk perception and decision-making in the situation. With 567 respondents, analysis determined that the live video was most likely to motivate respondents to prepare activities for the storms.
When a Plan Comes Together: An Analysis of Assessment Plans from Accredtied US Broadcast Journalism Programs • Timothy Bajkiewicz, Virginia Commonwealth University; Katherine Nash, Virginia Commonwealth University • Assessment of learning outcomes is a challenging standard for broadcast journalism programs accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, accounting for half of all annual noncompliances. This study conducts the first content analysis on assessment plans from such programs, using a Council-approved guide. Findings show that while most plans include many recommended components, including every plan having direct learning measures, plans varied widely in component inclusion and assessment activities.
Women Broadcast Journalists and the Emotional Labor of Dealing with Harassment • Kaitlin Bane, University of Oregon; Seth Lewis • Harassment from organizational outsiders is an understudied phenomenon, despite its prevalence in many occupations, especially journalism. This paper explores the nature of harassment perpetrated by sources, strangers, and others against women broadcast journalists at U.S. local television stations. Through interviews, this study identifies four common types of harassment as well as how journalists manage their subsequent emotions, illustrating the emotional labor associated with harassment at a time of growing hostility toward the press.
The Effect of Corporate Media Ownership on Depth of Local Coverage and Issue Agendas • Justin Blankenship, Auburn University; Chris Vargo • Sinclair Broadcast Group owns over 170 different television stations in the US. It has received criticism for reducing the amount of local reporting and inserting a conservative bias into its news content. This study examined the effect of Sinclair ownership on news content by examining six Sinclair news websites. Results found an overall drop in news coverage, no significant change in local news, and some difference in issue agenda after Sinclair took over operation.
Local TV News and Audience Engagement in Social Media • Monica Chadha, Arizona State University; K. Hazel Kwon, Arizona State University; Jiun-Yi Tsai • This study explores factors that influence audience engagement with local TV news on Facebook. It compares Facebook pages of local stations to those of the national channels with which they are affiliated. Effects of news topics and content characteristics were examined on audience engagement metrics namely sharing, liking and commenting. Results suggest that local and nationwide news were different in terms of the critical information needs they serve, level of audience engagement, and content strategies.
Natural Disasters and Community Uses of Media and Information: How Hurricane Maria Impacted Puerto Ricans • Manuel Chavez, Michigan State University School of Journalism; Bruno Takahashi, Michigan State University; Luis Graciano, Michigan State University • This paper examines how Puerto Ricans experienced and confronted the total collapse of the communications infrastructure before, during and after Hurricane Maria. As they lost their power and communication systems, they scrambled to get news and information from whatever sources were available to protect their lives, properties and to learn about Maria’s impacts. Analog radio became the sole communication operating system to provide information and this study complements current research on news media during crisis.
Neutrality and Nonverbal Expression in Sandy Hook Coverage • Danielle Deavours, The University of Alabama • A key tenet of journalism is unbiased reporting. Especially during a national crisis, it can be challenging for reporters to keep their emotions and personal beliefs in line with this guideline. While live television reporters do their best to keep their verbal communication messages unbiased and unemotional, nonverbal behaviors are more difficult to control and conceal, especially during crises. Doris Graber’s (2002) stages of crisis coverage theory discusses the process that journalists use to communicate messages to viewers during national breaking news events. Graber’s work addresses the need to prevent bias in verbal messages and shows the unintentional impact of biased language during crisis coverage. However, Graber’s study does not address journalists’ nonverbal behavior and the potential impact it can have on the audience. They built upon Graber’s stages of crisis coverage theory in their 2006 study to determine whether nonverbal behaviors were prevalent during live broadcast coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Coleman and Wu (2006) found nonneutral nonverbal cues were widely present during reports, and the patterns of nonneutral nonverbal behaviors corresponded with Graber’s stages of crisis. However, Coleman and Wu stated additional researchers needed to replicate their methodology in other contexts to ensure the validity of their findings. This study replicates the work of Coleman and Wu’s work, that focused on the 9/11 attacks, and applies it to the December 14, 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The Sinclair Effect: The effect of ‘must-read’ scripts on the perceptions of sincerity, credibility and parasocial relationships • Megan Duncan, Virginia Tech; Michael Mirer, University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee • Journalists promoting their product as authoritative and truthful is as old as American journalism itself. Research, though, provides little theoretical guidance to understand how audiences perceive these appeals for journalism when they are part of a corporate campaign. In an experiment (N=218), audiences report a higher perception of sincerity, credibility and parasocial relationships from a single local television station appeal for journalism than a compilation of the appeals. However, in neither version do they report a perceived ideological bias. The results have implications for how local television news can credibly promote their product and expand the Persuasion Knowledge Model to a journalism context.
Toward A New Conceptualization and Typology of Journalistic Competency: A Job Announcement Analysis of U.S. Broadcasting • Lei Guo; Yong Volz, University of Missouri • Journalistic competency is a constitutive element of professional values and practices in journalism. But what constitutes journalistic competency in today’s ever-changing media landscape? Existing literature lacks theoretical and empirical understandings of journalistic competency, especially in broadcasting. Drawing on Cheetham and Chivers’ competence model, we examine professional competencies as defined by broadcast media through a content analysis of 359 job announcements. Four dimensions of journalistic competency were explicated and empirically assessed: cognitive, functional, behavioral, and ethical competence.
Rescuing a legacy: The professionalization of local television digital news producing • Keren Henderson, Syracuse University • Warren Breed published ‘Social Control in the Newsroom’ when owning television stations was akin to owning money-printing machines. Times have changed. This case study asks whether today’s journalists can maintain professionalism while adopting market-driven digital routines. Analyzing six months of observations, in-depth interviews, and a survey of newsroom staff, this study explores the recent professionalization of local digital news producing currently unfolding across local television newsrooms in the United States.
Social Media News Production, Emotional Facebook Reactions, and the Politicization of the Opioid Epidemic • Danielle Kilgo; Jennifer Midberry • The 2017 federal decision to elevate the opioid epidemic to a national health emergency led to a significant uptick in media coverage. Considering the diversity of the news landscape and the developing professionalization of social media practices for media organizations, this research examined evaluating features of narrative coverage alongside user engagement numbers using the emotional reaction functions available on Facebook. Results indicate that Trump’s actions drove media coverage and angered audiences, triggering a blame game and an overall narrative emphasis on political movement rather than the effect on people and the realities of the emergency.
Consolation Strategies in Children’s Television News: A Longitudinal Content Analysis • Mariska Kleemans, Radboud University Nijmegen; Sanne Tamboer, Radboud University Nijmegen • Producers of news for children face a trade-off between fully informing children and not causing distress. To get more insight into the production of news for children, a longitudinal content analysis of the use of consolation strategies in children’s television news between 2000 and 2016 was conducted. This study focused on strategies used within the entire newscast (N = 408 programs), within items (N = 2,304 items), and within camera shots (N = 41,338 shots).
Severe allergies and price increases: Framing the 2016 EpiPen crisis and U.S. pharmaceutical pricing • Hayley Markovich • In 2016, Mylan Pharmaceuticals and EpiPen made news headlines due to a 600% price increase. This study of the EpiPen price increase utilized a framing analysis of three U.S. evening news programs’ coverage of the story from August 2016 until November 2018. Analysis revealed four frames: economic, attribution of responsibility, morality and human interest, and conflict and powerlessness. Pharmaceutical price increases were depicted as a societal level problem where government was expected to provide solutions.
You Can’t Handle the Lies!: How the Gamson Hypothesis Explains Third-person Perceptions of Being Fooled by Fake News • Taeyoung Lee, The University of Texas at Austin; Tom Johnson, University of Texas at Austin; Heloisa Sturm Wilkerson, University of Texas at Austin • This study examined third-person perception of fake news through the lens of the Gamson hypothesis, analyzing attitudes and behaviors associated with fake news. Data from a national survey (N = 902) indicates that Assureds and Subordinates who consume ultra-conservative media are more likely to share fake news, and Dissidents who consume social media are more likely to believe fake news is a threat to democracy. Implications for the current political landscape are discussed.
WeChat or We Set? Examining the Intermedia Agenda-Setting Effects between WeChat Public Accounts, Party Newspaper and Metropolitan Newspapers in China • Yan Su, The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University • In an attempt to explore the intermedia agenda-setting effects between party newspaper, metropolitan newspapers, and WeChat public accounts in China, this study analyzes the issue agendas on all three platforms. Through analyzing the rank-orders and cross-lagged correlations, we found that negative associations have emerged between WeChat’s and party newspaper’s agendas, no cross-lagged impact was found between WeChat’s and party newspaper’s agendas, whereas positive reciprocal effects appeared between the party and metropolitan newspapers’ agendas.
Trial by Media?: Media Use, Fear of Crime, And Attitudes Toward Police • Brendan Watson, Michigan State University; Soo Young Shin, MSU • This study uses Chicago, a media-rich city, whose struggles with gang violence, as well as with police misconduct have been extensively covered by news media, to examine the cultivation effects of local news media use on residents’ fear of crime and attitudes toward police. Controlling for individual-level variables, including previous crime victimization and neighborhood-level context, a survey of Chicago residents found support for local TV news’ cultivation of residents’ fear of crime. Local TV news’ popularity as a source of local crime-related information and its cultivation effects are eclipsed by those of social media, Facebook specifically. Regarding attitudes toward police, we found that based on specific content features, such as sensationalism and reliance on single police sources, local news media can have positive effects on local residents’ perceptions of police. We found zero support for the “Blue Lives Matter” movement’s contention that media contribute to “anti-police” public opinions. Only local TV news had a negative effect on public perceptions of a specific officer whose shooting of a local black teenager was caught on tape. Implications for future academic studies of cultivation effects and for obviously politically-divisive policy discussions revolving around local criminal justice, including accountability for racial disparities in police’s use of force, are discussed.
From taped up to mic’d up: Exploring the experiences of former athletes and the meaning of athletic identity in sports media spaces • Allison Smith, University of New Mexico; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee • Drawing from the socio-cultural qualitative tradition, this research uses in-depth, long interviews to explore how former athletes working in sports media make sense of their athletic identity and how working in the industry shapes the transition process for athletes moving away from sport. Findings show that former athletes assign status to their athletic identity, which they perceive to aid them in doing better broadcasting and journalism work. Discussion focuses on the implications of those findings, with a particular focus on how discourses of athletic status may create hierarchies among women working in this male-dominated industry.
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