Visual Communication Division

Extended Abstract • Cultural mediation through travel photography in news media • Ivy Ashe, The University of Texas at Austin • This study develops two new conceptual forms of cultural mediation, cultural reassurance and novelty presentation, in order to better explicate the means by which travel media images help shape perception of frequently-visited destinations. Findings show that novelty presentation was far more common than cultural reassurance, standing in contrast to how destinations are written about.

The Myth of American Exceptionalism Yesterday and Today: Robert Frank’s “Fourth of July ” • Christopher T. Assaf, University of Texas At Austin • This paper will examine and analyze Robert Frank’s photograph “Fourth of July – Jay, New York, 1954” through the critical framework of historical close reading as devised and used by Paul Hariman and John Louis Lucaites in No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy. The critical framework is grounded in a close rhetorical analysis and compositional interpretation of the photograph included in Frank’s foundational work The Americans in light of the backdrop of the myth of American exceptionalism.

Extended Abstract • Visualizing Citizenry-in-the-Making: Representations of youth protest in Reuters news photography • Elizabeth Bent; Shane Epping • Representations of youth in news media are one of a number of elements contributing to the wider discursive social construction of youth. While current research in journalism studies has explored images of protest and critically explored representations of other socially constructed categories, representations of youth within news discourses remains underexplored. This study applies a youth lens to a qualitative visual analysis of news photographs of worldwide youth protests. Findings suggest that representations of youth protesting future-oriented topics such as climate change are framed more positively and with more adherence to presumptions of “normal youth” activities. Youth are shown to practice their citizenship, rather than actively engage as real citizens in these contexts. The researchers suggest future inquiries into how youth as individuals and as a social category can provide useful insights in journalism studies.

Extended Abstract • Fun in the sun or something more serious?: An analysis of news story visuals about heat waves • Matthew Binford, University of Georgia; Laura Hudgens • While heat waves can be a potentially dangerous weather phenomenon they are often not depicted as such in the images chosen for news stories about periods of extreme heat. The present study used a content analysis to determine the prevalence of varying visual frames associated with news stories about heat waves. It was found that the most prevalent visual frame consisted of people engaging in some type of recreational activity.

Self-Disclosure and Intimacy in Computer-Mediated Communication Differentiating Emojis, Stickers and GIFs • Zhe Cui • This study investigated the differences between emojis, stickers, and GIFs regarding the different levels of intimacy they rose. A between-subject experiment (N = 317) with 4 conditions (text-only, text-emoji, text-sticker, and text-GIF) was conducted on WeChat. Results indicated that using pictorial expressions in computer-mediated communication (CMC) generate a more intimate experience than text-only communication. Moreover, using GIFs rose the highest level of intimacy due to the highest level of self-disclosure in certain situations.

Using subtitles to increase attention to pro-environmental videos on Facebook • Breanna Daugherty; Robin Blom, Ball State University • This eye-tracking study examined the extent to which the presence of a person and subtitles led to more attention to a pro-environmental video on a Facebook newsfeed as well as whether those visual elements were more or less important when study participants were exposed to the newsfeed in noisy conditions. Measuring total fixation duration for the video and total fixation duration specifically for the area of the video depicting subtitles, the results indicated that there was a higher attention to video conditions with subtitles, regardless of noisy or quiet circumstances. Presence of a spokesperson in the video did not lead to differences in visual attention. Overall, this warrants additional research to better understand how visual elements, in particular subtitles, in videos with pro-environmental messages affect visual attention.

Extended Abstract • Identifying Through Visuals: An Analysis of How Social Movements Use Facebook Photos. • Candice Edrington, North Carolina State University • The affordances of technology have changed the way we as individuals and organizations share information, create identification, and build relationships with others. In particular, social movements have used these affordances to their advantages by creating both social media pages to widely disseminate visual information regarding their advocacy and activist agendas. Black Lives Matter and March For Our Lives are two such movements. In consulting the Facebook pages of these movements, it was discovered that BLM uses their Timeline Photos album as a promotional tool while MFOL uses theirs as an informative tool. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications for visual communication and social movement scholars, particularly those interested in digital spaces. These implications provide insight into how visual communicators and other social movements can use different communication channels in ways other than to simply disseminate information, and how visual interactions can engage audiences.

Extended Abstract • Effects of facial recognition technology on perceptions of privacy • Muize Lemboye; Chris Etheridge, University of Arkansas at Little Rock • As facial recognition technologies (FRTs) have become increasingly popular components in today’s globalized society, this project aims to discover people’s perception on its effect on privacy. In-depth interviews were conducted with students and staff at a mid-sized Southern university to explore these perceptions. Findings indicate people typically do not know how their faces and information are used before signing up for online services but are aware that this information is available. The study also showed the privacy concerns people have about using FRTs on social media, applications, and online, the threats FRTs may invoke and the recommendations to protect one’s privacy from FRTs threats. Communication Privacy Management Theory is used to consider how facial recognition technology may impact individual perceptions of privacy.

Extended Abstract • The narrow-minded world in the free atmosphere of Twitter: Exploring the visual narratives and patterns of Personalized Journalism in the Yemen Civil War • Hasan Karademir; Shahira S Fahmy, The American University in Cairo • This preliminary analysis of Yemen war images shared in personal Twitter accounts of Western, Saudi, Yemeni and Iranian journalists, suggest the presence of different narratives and patterns of visual framing by journalists from different backgrounds. Our study here, therefore will contribute to the growing literature on journalistic practices on social media. It will allow for a deeper understanding of the extent and role of Personalized Journalism, specifically in the context of visual reporting on Twitter.

Extended Abstract • Discovering the secrets of successful photojournalism programs during industry decline • Sarah Fisher, University of Florida; John Freeman • When the news industry converted to online news, primarily between 2005 and 2010, major layoffs resulted in fewer positions for photojournalists. Typically, changes in any industry directly influence the demand for higher education programs that prepare students for that profession. Despite the major industry cutbacks, some photojournalism programs are not only managing to retain enrollment and stay afloat but are thriving. This study examines six thriving programs to discover their secrets of success.

Extended Abstract • ‘How the other half lives’ in Chicago: How Jane Addams’ Hull House used photography for reform • Robin Hoecker, DePaul University • This study examines how Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams and her Hull House settlement used photography in their advocacy work in Chicago in the late 1800s. It specifically looks at the book Tenement Conditions in Chicago, published in 1901, and compares it to Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives. Hull House largely followed a similar blueprint to Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives. Both projects documented cramped and dirty living conditions, and showed people working from their homes. They also emphasized the architecture of tenement buildings that left residents with little natural light or air flow. Besides showing children and families in squalor, Tenement Conditions in Chicago ends on a positive note by showing clean streets, clean children playing on playgrounds and planted trees on wide streets lined with sidewalks. One possible way to interpret this is through the horizontal leadership structure of Addams’ Hull House settlement, where reformers lived among the poor rather than parachuting in to document them, resulting in a more asset-based approach. Overall, this project expands the traditional canon in progressive-era photography beyond Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine, connecting Addams and Hull House to the history of photography and reform.

Extended Abstract • The Influence of Minimalist Package Design on Beauty Consumers’ Attitudes and Behavior Toward Cosmetic Products • Rachel Matthews; Toby Hopp, University of Colorado Boulder • “This study explored the degree to which various package design schemas influence people’s perception of cosmetic products. We predicted that despite the cosmetic industry’s wholesale adoption of “less-is-more” package design principles, people actually prefer elaborate package designs. The results of an experiment suggested that participants found complex package designs more visually pleasing than minimalistic package designs. Visual attractiveness was subsequently shown to have important implications for factors such as product quality perceptions and purchase intentions.”

Extended Abstract • Appealing to Brand Personification on Social Media: How Do Humanized Graphics and Texts Lead to Consumer Engagement in Brand Communications? • Hyun Ju Jeong; Jihye Kim, University of Kentucky • Brands are increasingly personifying themselves, particularly when they communicate with consumers on social media. Responding to this trend, this study aims to investigate whether and how personified brand visuals on social media fuel consumer engagement in brand communications. Using two online experiments, we examine two major visual strategies for brand personalization: brand graphics (anthropomorphic vs non-anthropomorphic) in a brand post (Study 1) and brand texts (human tone vs corporate tone) in a brand reply to a consumer post (Study 2). In Study 1, we find that the brand post with anthropomorphized brand graphics is more effective in generating the willingness of consumers to engage in brand communications than the brand post without any anthropomorphized brand graphics. Further, this effect is psychologically mediated by a sequence of two social perceptions consumers feel toward brands – perceived brand presence first, then perceived quality of consumer-brand relationships. In Study 2, we find the brand reply using a human tone is more effective in generating consumer willingness of engagement than the brand reply with a corporate tone. This effect is mediated by both a perceived brand presence and a perceived quality of consumer-brand relationships, as well as sorely by a perceived brand presence. While anthropomorphized brand graphics (Study 1) also directly influence consumer willingness of engagement, the human tone in brand texts (Study 2) has no direct impact on consumer willingness of engagement except through mediators. These findings highlight that both visual strategies for brand personification lead to persuasion in favor of brands indirectly through the core psychology of consumers that brands are socially present with them on social media. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed with specific reference to the strategic use of visual communication for brand personification to foster consumer engagement on social media.

Extended Abstract • It’s so meta: Metacommunicative storytelling on news organizations’ Instagram accounts • Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Rich Johnson, Creighton University; Dustin Wilson, Creighton University; Emily Gamel, Creighton University; Molly Bohannon, Creighton University • Humans use visual narratives as a primary form of communication. Social media offers new narrative forms, as users add text or filters to photos. Such metacommunication can often alter the intrinsic narratives of a photograph but also result in increased audience engagement. Traditional photojournalism norms state that images should not be altered. This study examines whether metacommunicative news images receive more engagement and whether some outlets are more likely than others to share metacommunicative images.

Extended Abstract • CSR Advertising in Social Media: A Content Analysis of the Fashion Industry’s CSR Advertising on Instagram • Kyeongwon Kwon, Florida State University; Jaejin Lee, Florida State University • This study analyzes how the fashion industry responds to public pressure in terms of sustainability through CSR advertising in social media. The findings from the study indicate that the fashion industry uses strategic framing practices in CSR advertising to highlight their ethical practices to the public. In addition, fashion brands focus on sustainability efforts for the environment and visually communicate their CSR practices through a framework that highlights environmentally friendly messages in CSR advertising.

Extended Abstract • Judging photojournalism: The metajournalistic discourse of judges in two photojournalism competitions • Kyser Lough, University of Georgia • This study investigates how discussions during photojournalism award judging can be used as metajournalistic discourse to gain insight about the definition, boundaries and legitimization of the field. Photojournalism awards shape the field by showing what is valued, but the process of judging can also provide insight. The author carries this out through discourse analysis of publicly-available video of judging rounds from two photojournalism competitions, Best of Photojournalism (BOP) and Pictures of the Year International (POYi).

Extended Abstract • A Critical Race-Visual Communication Analysis of Immigration-Themed Memes • Mia Moody-Ramirez, Title; Emily Guajardo, 2006 • This study employs visual communication and Critical Race Theory (CRT) to study the public conversations that emerged in 2019 in light of the political focus on immigration and the rhetoric surrounding President Donald Trump’s emphasis on building a wall to deter Mexicans from immigrating to the United States. Specifically, it analyzes how individuals used memetic texts to virally spread cultural narratives about Mexicans and immigration. The most popular memes referred to pop culture icons, racial stereotypes and politicians. Findings indicate the most salient themes were primarily political in nature most often referring to Trump either to praise or criticize his administration for its efforts to deter immigration. Memes also included narratives of nativism to indicate Whites were not the first inhabitants of the United States. Study findings are important, as they extend CRT and document how memes are used to promote and counteract messages of hate.

Extended Abstract • A (meta) picture is worth a thousand “clicks”: a biometric analysis of images on Instagram • Lindsay Taele Mariner; Aaron Fitzner, Brigham Young University; Audrey Halversen; Jacob Gibb; Michael Shreeve; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Kevin John, Brigham Young University; Rich Johnson, Creighton University • This purpose of this study seeks to explore the types of images that generate key social media engagement metrics. Researchers conducted a biometric analysis of 21 randomly sampled Instagram images. Results indicate that social media images containing metacommunicative elements, as well as narrative themes, increase audience engagement. These findings offer insights into improving social media interactivity.

Extended Abstract • Peering Down at the Junkie: Authority and the Visual Construction in TIME’s Opioid Diaries • Alex Scott, University of Texas at Austin • Focusing on the special issue of TIME entitled “The Opioid Diaries,” this study examines the way drug users are visually framed through both an embodied image making process and a constructed end product. Using a multi-modal analysis, it argues that James Nachtwey’s images created a simplified view of addiction while inserting an asymmetrical power dynamic between the depicted subject and viewer. This study also examines how images can carry and construct discourses of drug use.

Extended Abstract • Ten years of longitudinal research of airliner disaster news photography: The case of The New York Times • Richard Lewis, University of Southern Mississippi; Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Southern Mississippi; Shahira S Fahmy, The American University in Cairo • This study bridges a gap in communication research by conducting a longitudinal visual framing analysis of airliner disaster news photographs. It extends past visual communication research on airliner crashes and other topics involving catastrophe that have attracted the attention of media scholars. We examine how photographs of crashes appearing in the New York Times between 2006 and 2016 were depicted by assessing frequencies of several variables, including subject, region, cause, tone, injury, and damage. We find human interest frames and negative emotion were most prevalent, indicating that empathy is the normal and appropriate viewer response.

Extended Abstract • Comics/graphic news: A spectrum of visual storytelling narratives from realistic to imaginative • Roma Subramanian • Through semi-structured interviews, this study investigated how creator of comics news define their craft and conceptualize their role. Findings revealed that comics journalism exists on a spectrum of visual storytelling practices that vary in their degree of realism. In terms of their professional identify, some participants were hesitant to identify themselves as journalists and used other terms to conceptualize their role, including, cartoonist and documentarian.

Picturing Presidential Power: Gender differences in photographic coverage of the 2019 Slovakian presidential election • Simona Mikušová, Comenius University, Department of Journalism; Wayne Wanta, University of Florida • Photographs published in two Slovakian newspaper were analyzed for gender differences in the country’s 2019 election. Overall, the two main candidates were depicted similarly. The female candidate and eventual winner, Zuzana Čaputová, however, tended to be depicted in more formal poses and with less emotion than her male rival. Thus, while the two candidates were similar on photographic techniques suggesting power, such as camera angles and prominent depictions of faces, the election winner was portrayed as more presidential.

<2020 Abstracts

Participitory Journalism Interest Group

Extended Abstract • A multi-level analysis of commenting’s effects on journalism practice • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder; David Wolfgang, Colorado State University • This study examines how allowing reader comments on news stories influences journalism practice. Through in-depth interviews with journalists working at both organizations that perform in-house comment moderation and organizations that employ outside organizations such as Facebook to do moderation, the study aims to illuminate how comments can influence newswork on multiple levels of analysis, all the while decreasing journalistic autonomy. The paper concludes by theorizing how to both protect autonomy while still prioritizing community participation.

Extended Abstract • Citizen News Content Creation: Perceptions on Professional Journalists and the Additive Double Moderating Role of Social Media and Traditional News Use • Manuel Goyanes, Carlos III University; Homero Gil de Zúñiga • Since the emergence and growing popularity of digital technologies and social media platforms, the relationship between professional and citizen journalism has been challenging. In recent years, however, this critical relationship has de-escalated due to a growing collaboration in shaping a complemental news repertoire. This study examines how social and traditional news use and users’ perceptions on professional journalism affect citizens’ news content creation. Based on survey data from Spain, we first find that social media use for news and users’ positive perceptions on professional journalism predict citizens’ news production behavior. Second, social media use for news and traditional media consumption are explored as additive moderators over the relationship of users’ perceptions on professional journalism on citizens’ news content creation, showing a positive significant effect. This study contributes to current conversations on the potential symbiotic association between professional and citizens journalism, arguing that citizens’ perceptual appraisals on professional journalism are key in fostering public’s participation through news content creation.

Extended Abstract • Audience as Boundary Worker: Deconstructing the CNN Live Broadcast from the San Bernardino Shooters’ Apartment • Volha Kananovich, Appalachian State University; Gregory Perreault • Through a textual analysis of online comments in response to live broadcast from the San Bernardino shooters’ apartment, we explore the rhetorical strategies the audience used to assert themselves as legitimate agents of boundary work. Although commenters did rely on established legitimating strategies (e.g., acting as proto-professionals), they appropriated them in distinctive new ways (e.g., by parodying, rather than authentically emulating, the journalistic style), as well as used novel tactics: direct address and rhetorical questions.

Extended Abstract • Ventriloquism as a Communicative Strategy of Journalists on Twitter • Erin Perry, Wayne State University; Ashley Teffer; Crystal Coleman; Subhashini Pandey • This study is a qualitative textual analysis of journalists’ social media engagement regarding a 2019 Lifetime docuseries about R&B singer R. Kelly, who has spent years entangled in allegations of sexual crimes against women and girls. The study analyzes Twitter activity of 401 journalists, news organizations and other profiles affiliated with the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution to reveal the six strategies journalists employ during participatory communication on Twitter about a social issue.

Extended Abstract • Comments that hurt. Incivility and offensive speech in online discussion of minority-related news • Magdalena Saldana, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Valentina Proust • This study relies on a content analysis of 1,176 news articles and 4,225 user-generated comments to explore the extent to which news coverage of minority groups fosters deliberative or negatively passionate discussions in online contexts. We found high levels of incivility traits in the public conversation posted to several news topics. Findings indicate marginalized groups are the target of offensive speech at higher rates than other groups. Implications for the discipline are discussed.

Extended Abstract • Seeing 360-Degree: Toward a Framework of Authentic Representation of Indigenous Communities Through Citizen-driven Reporting • Jiun-Yi Tsai, Northern Arizona University; Rian Bosse, Arizona State University; Nisha Sridharan, Arizona State University; Monica Chadha, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University • Literature on how journalism practices attend to Native people’s needs for accurate representation is scarce. Qualitative analysis of 15 in-depth interviews with tribal members illuminates the agentic processes for Indigenous citizen journalists to offer 360-degree authentic representation, empowering indigenous people of various tribal affiliations. 360-degree reporting encourages meaningful interpretations of humanizing Native people, engenders media trust through evoking feelings of relatability and belonging, and strengthens Indigenous identity by foregrounding the focus on peoplehood. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

<2020 Abstracts

Graduate Student Interest Group

The Power of Technology: How Do International Graduate Students at a U.S. University Use Social Networking Sites to Seek Social Support? • Annalise Baines, University of Kansas; Muhammad Ittefaq, University of Kansas; Mauryne Abwao, University of Kansas • College graduate students face new challenges when starting a graduate degree. Besides adjusting to their environment, they cope with financial and academic stress. While previous research has mainly focused on the undergraduate and international undergraduate student population, this study explores how and why international graduate students seek social support using social networking sites. Based on in-depth interviews (N=15) with international graduate students from a large, public U.S. Midwestern university, four major themes were identified from the data: challenges during graduate school, adjusting to a new culture, type of social support depends on identifying with a community, and use of social networking sites for social support. The type of social support (emotional, instrumental, and informational) depends on the affordances of social networking sites and the people who share similar interests join online communities to seek the type of social support they need. More research is needed to help academics and administrators understand and offer online support to this population and alleviate some of the challenges they experience while working toward their graduate degree.

It’s Not Me, It’s You. And That Is OK: Perceptions of Mental Health and Self-Efficacy • Sharon Baldinelli, University of Alabama • Using two common health communication scales, this study provides information about how individuals perceive their own abilities to assist in seeking assistance for mental health care. Participants answered survey questions about their self-efficacy and perceptions of mental health, after watching television clips depicting potential strong mental health image scenes. This study provides a foundation to further research of self-efficacy and potential priming for understanding how these population views their own negotiations regarding mental health.

Extended Abstract • The Impact of Perceived Social Media Body Ideals on Self-Image Fixation and Exercise Tendencies • Max Bretscher, University of South Carolina • This study intends to add to existing research on social comparison, which has primarily focused on movies, television and beauty and thin ideals, by focusing on social media and the growing “muscular” ideal. Findings thus far indicate a motivating factor to engage in exercise when internalizing this body ideal through social media.

Extended Abstract • It’s All About The Money: Commercial Influences in Women’s Lifestyle Magazines • Lydia Cheng • This study examines the extent to which lifestyle journalists from women’s magazines experience commercial pressures, how they handle such pressures, and how economic influences is reflected in the content they produce. Based on interviews with journalists from Singaporean women’s magazines and the textual analysis of the content of these magazines, the results show that commercial influences have increased drastically and has led to changes in the conceptualisation of professional identity and editorial outputs.

Extended Abstract • The Effects of Narrative and Ethnicity on Public Attitudes on Instagram • Sera Choi; Joy Enyinnaya, Colorado State University; Di Lan • This study investigates the impact of narrative message and influencer-audience ethnicity match on message and brand attitude. Two (narrative: non- vs. narrative) x 2 (ethnicity: match vs. mismatch) between-subjects factorial design was employed (N=204). There were main and interaction effects between the variables. A matched ethnicity between influencer and audience was more effective under narrative message, but there was no such interaction effect under non-narrative message on message attitude. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Matters of Partisanship: Perception, Online News, and the U.S.- China Trade War • Shimeng Dai • “A 2 (pro-tariff, anti-tariff) by 3 (The New York Times, China Daily, The Guardian) experimental design was conducted to investigate Americans’ perceptions of the media coverage of the U.S.-China trade war. This study found that left-leaning subjects were typically more anti- tariff and tended to rate the balanced news story to be more credible, while right-leaning subjects were more likely to be support tariffs and tended to determine the same story to be less credible.”

Misinformation Correction and Its Effects: A Systematic Literature Review • QINYU E, University of Tokyo • This study aims to consolidate existing knowledge by systematically mapping and reviewing the four-decade research on misinformation correction and its effects. Through searching topic-relevant bibliographic databases and online resources, we assembled 89 published articles fitting exclusion and inclusion criteria of our review. We analyzed these studies and summarized key trends in this body of research. We found the landscape of relevant research is complex as diverse disciplinary frameworks, theoretical principles, and methodological approaches have been employed. Nevertheless, most of these studies are built upon psychological inquiries and quantitative methodologies. Although this approach presents opportunities to advance relevant practice and research, our receive has identified several theoretical and methodological gaps of current literature. Especially prominent are the lack of investigations on social dimensions of debunking effects, the absence of theoretical insights from qualitative data collection and analysis, as well as the dearth of empirical studies in non-Western societies. Based on these results, we recommend several worthwhile focuses for further exploration.

Extended Abstract • Plagues, Cults, Wars & Apocalypses: Difficult heritage rhetoric and popular culture in COVID-19 memes • Bobbie Foster, University of Maryland Phillip Merrill College of Journalism • A collection of 325 COVID-19 memes were qualitatively coded for the use of difficult heritage as a framing tool for news coverage of the virus pandemic. Difficult heritage is a concept from cultural heritage studies that refers to the preservation or remembrance of difficult events, such as wars, pandemics, and other social struggles. Cultural heritage scholars argue the past is debatable, and is never really the past — this paper explores the use of cultural heritage rhetoric as a framework to understand how individuals use cultural heritage to both frame and create action in the present. Findings suggest war, especially WWII is the most dominate heritage frame used, but that a new emergent category of imagined future heritage is also present – in which individuals discuss how they might frame the current event for future generations.

My country is boycotting NBA, but I don’t care: Effects of brand loyalty, issue involvement, information undesirability and third – person effect on Chinese NBA fans’ boycotting behavior • An Hu, University Of Texas at Austin • Using the Daryl Morey’s tweet, which read “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong,” as a context, this study aims to examine the interplay between the third-person effect – people tend to perceive that media influence others more than themselves – and brand loyalty. Results of an online survey (N = 455) show that Chinese NBA fans perceived that Morey’s tweet news influences those who do not watch the NBA more than themselves. Besides, the brand loyalty toward the NBA is positively related to perceived issued involvement and information undesirability, which are key antecedents of the third-person effect. Moreover, although Chinese NBA fans acknowledged that Morey’s tweet will make others perceive the NBA negatively, they reported to watch more NBA games and are more willing to reveal their NBA fans’ identities in front of others. This study contributes to the third-person effect research by examining whether different levels of brand loyalty can be viewed as social distance, and further can influence the third-person effect. Furthermore, this study also tests whether people will accommodate their own behavior due to third-person effect. More importantly, since an increasing number of foreign brands has been boycotted by Chinese consumers, this research suggests that there is a possibility of keeping both profit and integrity when facing such a crisis. Comparing with seeking forgiveness from the Chinese Communist Party, keeping a good relationship with their consumers and increasing their brand loyalty can help international corporations when facing boycotting crisis in China.

Blue wave as a strategic game frame? • Sang Jung Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Heysung Lee; RAN TAO, UW-Madison; Shreenita Ghosh, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Yibing Sun • This study examines the use of the term blue wave during the 2018 midterm elections. This study confirms that both mainstream and partisan news outlets utilize the term blue wave as a strategic game frame. Partisan news outlets used the blue wave to favor their in-party candidates. This study contributes to journalism studies by illustrating the use of a specific term as a strategic game frame and extending the understanding of the strategic game frame.

Extended Abstract • Oral Health Messages among College-aged Populations • Euirang Lee, Ohio University • This study examined how different types of message appeals (i.e., social- and health-focused) and efficacy beliefs (i.e., self-, collective-, and no efficacy) influenced perceived effectiveness of oral health messages among college-aged populations. The study found that health-focused messages had significantly less psychological reactance, more positive evaluation, higher perceived self-efficacy, and more favorable attitude than social-focused messages. Also, messages with collective-efficacy information showed significantly higher perceived self-efficacy, and more favorable attitude than those with self-efficacy information.

Extended Abstract • Reflecting on Their Role: Former members of Fashion Editors and Reporters Association (FERA) Deconstruct Normative Practices in the Newsroom • Lisa Lenoir, University of Missouri-Columbia • Little research explores the role of fashion editors and reporters and their collective identity. This semi-structured, interview-based study provides insight into the normative practice and roles of these lifestyle journalists, who used to belong to the Fashion Editors and Reporters Association (FERA), an organization founded in the 1970s and disbanded in the 2000s. This examination aims to expand journalism studies scholarship on lifestyle journalism and helpfulness.

Construction of blurred social boundaries on Twitter: Discourse analysis of #JusticeForNimrita movement in Pakistan • Muhammad Masood, City University of Hong Kong • A Hindu girl, Nimrita, was found dead in her hostel room on 16th September 2019 in Pakistan. The incident triggered a deluge of online discussion, trending #JusticeForNimrita on Twitter. Allowing to examine Twitter discourse related to one of the critical social phenomena of Pakistani society, construction of social boundaries for the religious minorities. Discourse analysis of tweets containing #JusticeForNimrita found that using hashtag communication strategy tweeters constructed blurred boundaries for the Hindu community in Pakistan.

Extended Abstract • Factors enhancing interpersonal communication in cross-cultural marriage: A survey studying South Asian-Chinese and Afro-Chinese couples in Hong Kong • Muhammad Masood, City University of Hong Kong; Eugene Yat-him Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Zelalem Jabessa Gabul, Chinese University of Hong Kong • The advancement of communication and transportation technologies offer various means of mobilities and migration opportunities. The mobilities facilitate intercultural marriage among people of diverse cultures, traditions, and values to live under the same shade endeavoring to respond to their socio-economic and other needs. As couples from various backgrounds live together, they likely face challenges in their daily interpersonal communication. This study examines factors enhancing interpersonal communication of South Asian-Chinese and Afro-Chinese couples in Hong Kong.

Masking Justice: Immunity or Impunity? • Michelle Michael • As the world becomes increasingly more dangerous for journalists, many suffer human rights violations and ultimately death. However, the perpetrators evade domestic courts and cover under the umbrella of immunity in foreign courts. This paper explores how foreign official immunity claims are used as impunity to escape jus cogens violations against journalists. It then emphasizes the importance of exercising jurisdiction in such cases to bring justice to those who are killed for exposing the truth.

Lure of the Rural: Urban Audiences’ Consumption of Rural Self-Media in China • Yu Mu, University of Florida • China’s urbanization is not only transforming the physical environment and living conditions for a large population, but it also affects the psychological state and media consumption behaviors. Rural self-media (social media accounts operated by rural users that produce rural-theme content in rural settings) has gained great popularity among Chinese urban audiences. This study proposes a conceptual model that offers a theory-driven explanation for urban audiences’ consumption of rural self-media to facilitate further data testing.

Extended Abstract • Making health social: Effects of health PSA videos on social media • Adriana Mucedola, Syracuse University • In the digital age, social networking sites are an essential tool for health educators to promote and spread awareness about health issues that may be plaguing society. Internet and mobile media, such as social media, offer tremendous opportunities for modifying health because it allows people of all demographics to access health information. The current study examined the effectiveness of health public service announcement (PSA) videos on social media and examined how the heuristics of social media “likes” may play a role in how social media users perceive health messages. To assess how messages on social media are perceived, the present study used an experimental design (N = 272). This study could not find statistical support for the hypotheses that subjects were likely to show more favorable attitudes, self-efficacious behaviors, perceived norms, or intentions when exposed to health messages containing a high amount of social media “likes.” Results indicated, however, that attitudes (F(1, 270) = 162.38, p < .001), perceptions of self-efficacy (F(1, 270) = 347.69, p < .001), and perceived social norms (F(1, 270) = 139.25, p < .001) were related to intentions to exercise, as predicted by the Theory of Planned Behavior. The results of this study indicate that health messages on social media are extremely complex, and deserve future attention in literature.

Extended Abstract • Battling the invisible: Migrant domestic workers’ connections to storytelling networks during public health crises • Jeffry OKTAVIANUS • Guided by the communication infrastructure theory, this study scrutinizes the role of various actors in a vulnerable community’s storytelling network amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Situated against the Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, the interview data with 31 participants revealed that the connections to interpersonal communication, community organizations, and local media offered necessary social supports to cope with the health crisis. However, these relationships also yielded several negative consequences.

Fostering mediated community resilience: An analysis of recovery after the 2019 Jefferson City Tornado • Erika Schneider, University of Missouri • In the aftermath of disasters, communities engage in a state of communal functioning to adapt to a post-event reality. During the 2019 Jefferson City Tornado, the community united in a Facebook group to collectively share information, experiences, and resources. A content analysis of 1,963 posts and comments examined the emergence of community resilience, or the ability to bounce forward, through social media interactions. Implications extend to research in disaster recovery through the social-mediated disaster experience.

Extended Abstract • A Content Analysis of Causal Sex, Social Status, and Substance Use in Teen-Based Netflix Shows • Andrea Smith; Adriana Mucedola, Syracuse University; Sierra Holland, Syracuse University; Kyle Webster • This study examined how causal sexual activity is portrayed in teen-based Netflix original shows, depending on substance use and social status. Analyses revealed frequent problematic depictions of sexual activity, such as coercion and sexual assault. Characters under the influence of alcohol were more likely to have casual sex, while high school social status did not determine whether or not characters engaged in problematic sexual behaviors. The results of this study suggest that teen shows on Netflix can normalize harmful sexual practices.

Within- and Between-Person(s) Emotional Reactions toward Crisis Communication • Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University; Nahyun Kim, Pennsylvania State University • Adopting both within-person and between-persons approach, the study explored people’s affective dynamics in response to corporate crisis communication. A 2 x 2 x 3 online experiment (N = 381) was conducted using Qualtrics panel. The results showed people felt angrier when the cause of crisis was attributed to an organization compared to individual. In addition, negative emotions appeared to diminish to a greater extent when people read a high-fit post crisis CSR.

Goal disruption and psychological disequilibrium during the outbreak of COVID-19 • Qiyue ZHANG; Jichen FAN • Using panel data from mainland China, this study incorporates uncertainty, information seeking, and social support into the goal disruption theoretical model to examine the indirect influence of goal disruption on psychological disequilibrium through uncertainty and the moderating role of information seeking and social support in this relationship. The results demonstrate that goal disruption causes uncertainty and then leads to psychological disequilibrium. Information seeking can reduce uncertainty and social support can attenuate psychological disequilibrium as well.

Reimagining Networked Authoritarianism: A Techno-cultural Perspective on Citizens’ Co-option in the Chinese Internet Police Reporting System • Lynette Jingyi Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Haibin ZHANG, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • “This study proposes a new techno-cultural intertwined perspective to enrich the current theoretical framework of networked authoritarianism and examines Chinese citizens’ new-emerging Internet police reporting practices on China’s biggest microblogging platform Weibo. Findings from content analysis and digital ethnography demonstrate a multidirectional Chinese networked authoritarianism model, where citizens, empowered by digital technologies but disciplined by socio-cultural ideologies, can connectively initiate bottom-up nationalist activism to consolidate regime control via co-option. Implications of the results are discussed.

Extended Abstract • Visual Cues and The Bandwagon Effect: Do Images and Review Votes Make Online Reviews More Credible? • Lina Zhu, Colorado State University • Today, reading online reviews is an important part of consumers’ decision making, whether buying a product at Amazon or going to a new restaurant. Consumers use reviews from other consumers to evaluate products and services before making purchasing decisions. Before online reviews were possible (pre-Internet), customer-to-customer information exchanges regarding products and services solely relied on the Word-of-Mouth (WOM). However, as social media has become more expansive, WOM conversations began shifting to digital space. These digital exchanges are referred to as electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM). eWOM has been criticized for providing fewer social interactions and cues when compared to interpersonal communication. With the goal to create a better user-friendly platform and help users’ decision makings become easier, online review sites have developed a variety of features to overcome the lack of social cues compared to interpersonal communication WOM. This study uses an experimental design to examine the impact of heuristic cue-based features on online review sites. Specifically, this study looks at the impact of images reviewers upload and the number of the review votes on consumers’ perceived credibility of the review, and how perceived credibility affects users’ attitudes and purchase intention towards the reviewed product.

<2020 Abstracts

Sports Communication Interest Group

* Extended Abstract * “Extended Abstract: [Framing COVID-19 in sport: A content analysis of ESPN’s SportsCenter as a first draft of history]” • Travis Bell, University of South Florida; Lauren Smith, Indiana University • An unexpected intersection between health and sport was cemented on March 11, as the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and NBA player Rudy Gobert tested positive. This moment was dubbed “the day the sports world stopped.” A content analysis was used to examine how the emergence of and identification of COVID-19 as a global pandemic changed how ESPN’s flagship news program SportsCenter covered and discussed sport over a one-month period.

Parasocial grieving in sports: Examining the online response to the death of Kobe Bryant • James Bingaman, University of Delaware • Although there is a bevy of research acknowledging the existence of parasocial relationships with athletes, it stands to reason that if these relationships are possible then, inevitably, the relationship will dissolve. The emotions associated with parasocial dissolution – especially that of grieving – are integral to understanding the totality of relationships between spectators and athletes. After the devastating death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, a longitudinal content analysis was used to explore the response of fans on Reddit using existing parasocial grieving measures. Results from the study suggest that sadness, memorializing, shock, and reminiscing are the most common emotional expressions of grief. Furthermore, this study suggests that like real relationships, emotional expressions dissipate over time and coping mechanisms like religion increase. Therefore, any study that examines parasocial grieving must do so longitudinally as parasocial grief, like real grief, is a process, not a momentary feeling.

Joining the Athletic: Paradigm repair, metajournalistic discourse and the boundaries of sports journalism practice • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder • Utilizing textual analysis, this article examines the metajournalistic discourse inherent in The Athletic’s “why I enlisted” columns. Through this type of study, it is possible to begin to understand how actors within the field of sports journalism delineate and navigate the boundaries of the profession. This study found that providing time for stories, valuing experience and conducting focused audience engagement are inside the boundaries, while rushed stories, a subpar user experience and overall market-driven practices should sit outside – though they do not at most organization. These findings are then discussed with an eye toward understanding the future of normative journalism.

* Extended Abstract * I hate that F**king School: A Case Study of Fan Behavior on Twitter Among College Football Rivalries • Cody Friesen, Kansas State University • The study examines multiple college sports rivalries and fan interaction on Twitter. Specifically, this study examines the level of civility towards rivals and the concept of glory out of reflected failure using the Barstool Sports student-run affiliates. Preliminary findings identify a significant number of incivility and glory out of reflected failure instances across all accounts, which can inform future studies of individual fan behavior on social media.

Devising a Historical Political Economic Narrative Method: A Feminist Materialist Critique of WNBA Pay Inequity • Christopher Garcia, Florida State University • By using a critical, feminist political economic approach informed by new materialist methodology, this analysis seeks to enrich previous research conducted on representational aspects of sports media coverage of women’s basketball (Banet-Weiser, 1999; Lisec & McDonald, 2012; McDonald, 2012; Messner, 1988; Messner et al., 1993). In particular, this examination seeks to contribute toward building a feminist epistemology that can perceive the intersectional, material experiences generated by the oppressive working conditions faced by WNBA players. Prioritizing the narrative data provided by those who live through the embodied results of the NBA’s inequal treatment of its women’s league within the historical context of the establishment of what was deemed “market rate” for such a product allows one to further deconstruct the naturalized notion of the secondary status of women’s sports. Influenced by Hemmings’ (2005) historiographic approach to feminist storytelling, narratives can be central to critical political economic analysis through historiography’s concern “with the contested politics of the present over the ‘truth of the past’” (p. 118). By expanding the focus of political economic analysis into realms of subjectivity and material experience, this approach seeks to empower counter-resistance narratives created by professional WNBA players while also acknowledging the structural barriers limiting the meso- and micro-level agency of such athletes.

Assumption of Active Audience Assumptions and New Needs: Comparing Consumption Motivations of Esport and Traditional Sport Spectatorship. • Jue Hou, The University of Alabama; Andrew C. Billings, The University of Alabama • In two short decades, the esport industry grew exponentially from small-scale group competitions to billion-dollar competitive spectator events. The resemblance between esport and traditional sport can be observed in multiple aspects, including tournaments, live streaming, corporate sponsorship and more. Using uses and gratifications approaches for theoretical guidance, the present study examines the field of esport in terms of consumption motivation factors and the degree to which esport is similar to or different from traditional sport. Results indicate that communication between fans, the information-seeking need, and intentions to support the industry positively predict esport consumption while family-bonding and informational superiority were negatively associated with esport consumption. Meanwhile, young male fans generally consume more esport contents than others. Applications of uses and gratification approaches in esport are offered, as well as suggestions for esport media coverage and postulates for further development of general consumption measurements.

“It’s Impossible”: Local Sports Broadcasters and the Prospect of Motherhood • Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Kirstin Pellizzaro, University of South Carolina; Denetra Walker • Local sports broadcasters work long hours, make little money, and often perform a host of different tasks in the newsroom and out in the field. Add the prospect of also being a mother, the job can seem impossible. A survey of local female sports broadcasters throughout the United States found that the majority of them have delayed starting a family due to their perceptions of work requirements and worry about their employment if they became pregnant.

#Gramming gender: The cognizance of equality on Instagram accounts of prominent NCAA athletic departments • Rich Johnson, Creighton University; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Benjamin Burroughs, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • Under the federally mandated Title IX, NCAA athletic departments are directed to strike a balance between gendered sports. This study examines how gender is represented on the Instagram accounts of prominent NCAA athletic departments. Findings indicate mixed results: female athletes, when showcased, receive similar promotional efforts as their male peers; their athleticism is highlighted; and fan engagement metrics are as high as male sports. However, female athletic achievements are overwhelmingly underrepresented, suggesting equality is still deficient.

Occupational and job sex segregation in sports information: A 10-year Update • Charli Kerns, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee, Knoxville • Findings from this study, a 10-year update to work done by Whiteside & Hardin (2010), show some improvement in sex segregation at both the occupational and job level in sports information, but reveal a profession that still appears to be highly organized around gender lines in ways that may contribute to women’s comparatively low career longevity and salary compared with men. The authors situate the findings in the context of contemporary gender narratives, and offer suggestions for change in the conclusion.

From #EndtheStigma to #RealMan: Responding to Athlete Mental Health Disclosures • Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama; Andrew C. Billings, The University of Alabama; Samuel Hakim; Patrick Gentile • A number of professional athletes have used social media to disclose personal experience with mental illness, including NBA All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love in 2018. The disclosures could serve to challenge the stigmatization of mental illness, given the positive social standing of professional athletes and the potential power of parasocial relationships in health promotion and behavior. The present study quantitatively examined 3,366 fan responses to the mental health disclosures of both athletes, unpacking the extent to which fan commentary perpetuated or challenged the stigmatization of depression and anxiety. Fans provided overwhelmingly positive response to the athletes’ mental health disclosures, creating a normative environment in which disclosure translated into acceptance rather than rejection. While more frequently offering messages of advice and strength to DeRozan, fans were more likely to offer messages of encouragement and personal experiences with mental illness to Love.

Journalism from a Sports Perspective: Field Theory and the re-defining of digital practices of sports journalists • Gregory Perreault; Travis Bell, University of South Florida • As with many niches of journalism, sports journalism has needed to adjust to changes within the technology of the field. Through the lens of field theory, the present study reports on long-form interviews with 46 sports journalists who self-defined their work as digital journalism. This study argues that the digital turn in the industry, and the resulting adjacent fields represented in team and player media, has caused division on the very definition of the field.

* Extended Abstract * Game Time or Not? Behavioral Predictors of Sports Brand Engagement on Social Media • Matthew Pittman, University of Tennessee; Brandon Boatwright • The following survey (N = 450) takes a modified uses and gratification approach to explore the nexus of sports fandom, social media use, and advertising engagement. We assess how sports fans use social media to follow their favorite teams. Next, we use regression analyses to determine the extent to which these behaviors predict ad preference. Initial results indicate checking scores during the game and reading commentary generally predict a willingness to engage sports ads on a platform.

Conquering Boys’ Clubs Using Issues Management: How Women’s Soccer May Pioneer Paths to Pay Equity • Terry Rentner, Bowling Green State University; David Burns, Salisbury University • The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, 2019 Women’s World Cup champions, recently challenged their management power structure for equal rights by suing their governing body for gender discrimination. This classic labor vs. management dispute created a case study that will be studied for decades. Using Issues Management as its foundation, this paper analyzes the case and then recommends how organizations can apply strategic communication strategies to all stakeholders to address controversial issues like pay inequity.

* Extended Abstract * Celebration or Something More?: Press Coverage of the 1992 Chicago Bulls Riot • Brandon Storlie, University of Wisconsin-Madison • June 14, 1992, brought the Chicago Bulls their second consecutive National Basketball Association championship. It also sparked one of the most infamous episodes of sports-related violence in American history. Yet for all its newsworthiness, the riot presented a problem for journalists, who struggled to find a clear-cut way to frame the event. While reporters failed to construct a single, dominant narrative, the varied approaches to coverage reflected the event’s complexity, intertwining celebration with racial tension.

* Extended Abstract * Players as Public Health Prompts: Celebrity Athlete Influence During the COVID-19 Pandemic • Nathan Towery, The University of Alabama; Andrew C. Billings, The University of Alabama; Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama • Celebrity athletes played an important role in public health promotion as the COVID-19 pandemic struck the U.S. People affiliated with sport shared information with social media followers, interviewed public health officials, solicited donations, and helped amplify the work of medical professionals. Simultaneously, other athletes belittled public health efforts by sharing misinformation and trivializing the gravity of the illness. In this project, we examine how athletes and coaches helped and hindered public health attitudes and behavior.

Framing the Changemakers • Eryn Travis, Indiana University of Pennsylvania • In 2019, the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) won a historic fourth FIFA World Cup Championship and global attention for its players efforts to change soccer’s status quo by fighting for equal treatment of female athletes. Yet, the USWNT was not the only organization calling for or impacted by change. Changes in the amount of global viewership for the Women’s World Cup and the level of international play were also hot topics in popular media during this time. This study employed a thematic analysis to examine how U.S. journalists framed topics related to change during the weekend of July 5, 2019, to July 8, 2019, a time period that included the final FIFA World Cup match on July 7, 2019 between the United States and The Netherlands. The study yielded three distinct coverage themes related to change: 1) winning the “American Way”; 2) the evolution of the team’s personality; and 3) the team’s impact on perceptions of women’s soccer.

<2020 Abstracts

Small Programs Interest Group

State of DataViz and Data Storytelling Education in Journalism and Communication Programs: An Exploratory Study • Masudul Biswas; Carrie Sipes • Utilizing multiple methods – survey, document analysis and email interviews – this exploratory study has assessed the state of data visualization and data storytelling education in 27 U.S. communication and journalism programs. The findings of this study reflect how these courses are offered by various types of programs, i.e. accredited vs. non-accredited programs, large vs. small programs, what topics and tools are taught in these courses, how students’ learning outcomes are assessed, what challenges the course instructors encounter, and what teaching strategies they find effective.

Mindfully Preparing Generation Z Undergraduates for Communication Workplace Realities • Doug Swanson, California State University, Fullerton • The communication professions offer today’s college students a future with many potentially rewarding career opportunities. At the same time, employers continue to express concern about college graduates’ preparation for the realities of entry-work. This is particularly true for Generation Z, a demographic group noted for vastly different values and soft skill deficiencies as compared to college students of the recent past. This paper takes the position that much of what appears as poor conceptual preparation may actually be a lack of mindful awareness by students. Seven best practices recommendations are presented that faculty could use to integrate secular mindfulness concepts within higher education instruction. The recommendations, especially relevant for small enrollment programs, could help educators enhance communication students’ career preparation so students can enter the professional world not only knowing what to do but how to think about the doing.

<2020 Abstracts

Scholastic Journalism Division

Faculty Papers
* Extended Abstract * Investigative vs. Mandatory Reporting: Weaponizing Title IX Against College Journalists • Genelle Belmas, University of Kansas • In 2019, NPR and ProPublica published a series of articles about faculty sexual assault coverups at the University of Illinois. Administrators responded by requiring journalists at the NPR station at Urbana-Champaign to be “mandatory reporters” under federal Title IX rules – eliminating the confidentiality that assault victims might need before telling journalists their stories. This paper discusses the nascent problem and offers both legal and extra-legal solutions to the potential impact on student journalists.

* Extended Abstract * Campus Free Expression and Student Self-Silencing: Why Students Don’t Feel Comfortable Expressing Their Views • Victoria Ekstrand; Kriste Patrow; Shao Chengyuan, University of Tuebingen, Germany • In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, U.S. college administrators have faced increasing pressure on campus free expression. Previous research indicated that although students believe a university education should expose them to a variety of political, social and economic viewpoints, many students reported feeling less comfortable discussing controversial issues. The purpose of this paper is to better understand why students self-silence and how they navigate increasingly polarized campus climates.

“Quizzes or editing exercises? In teaching AP style, both methods work equally” • Christina Littlefield, Pepperdine University • Journalists refer to the Associated Press stylebook as their bible. Educators drill students on AP style, helping them navigate grammar, accuracy and ethical issues. However, there is no peer-reviewed research testing which methods are most effective. This paper used a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest methodology over six semesters to test timed, in-class quizzes versus editing exercises versus take-home exercises. No one method proved statistically superior. All types moved students from high Fs to Cs.

The push and pull of digital skills in journalism curriculum • Gretchen Macchiarella, California State University, Northridge; Elizabeth Smith, Pepperdine University • This exploratory study uses college journalism accreditation self-study documents to assess nine programs for indications that they are moving to push digital competencies into existing courses or pull those skills out to stand-alone courses. Researchers found that, while there was not a strong single direction, programs tended to pull digital skills to specialized courses, especially if there was a program-wide digital emphasis.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: Supplemental Instruction in Journalism: Efforts to Improve Student Success in a ‘High-Risk’ Gateway Course • Laura Moorhead, San Francisco State University • Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a peer-guided non-remedial academic support program that has proved successful in a range of college courses. This study considers an SI effort to accompany a Reporting course offered by a Journalism department at a large minority-serving institution. This study asks, How, if at all, did SI affect grades and perceived learning experiences among students who opted to attend SI sessions during the semester of their enrollment in Reporting?

Using Micro-Writing Assignments for Qualitative Assessment in Media Lecture Classes • Perry Parks, Michigan State University • This case study examines a constructivist approach to teaching a large media lecture class (N=199) using conceptual readings and micro-writing assignments collected and evaluated through Google forms. The approach sought to bring a critical and qualitative sensibility to a course typically run through a traditional textbook and quantitative exams. Feedback suggests students appreciated the structure and preferred the qualitative online assessment forms to more commonly used quantitative “clicker” technology. Challenges and potential improvements are discussed.

Opting In: Free Expression Statements at Private Universities and Colleges in the U.S. • Erica Salkin, Whitworth University Department of Communication Studies; Colin Messke • While all colleges and universities are challenged by questions about free expression in the current environment, private higher educational institutions do so without the constitutional mandate of their public counterparts. Some private colleges and universities have sought to independently affirm their commitment to free speech through statements of principle or purpose. This study explores those statements in an attempt to understand if – and how – free expression is presented as worth protecting in private higher education.

* Extended Abstract * Seeing and Doing: The Use of Simulations and Training Videos to Increase News Literacy Awareness • Elizabeth Smith, Pepperdine University; Theresa de los Santos, Pepperdine University • In this study, we test the effectiveness of learning from training videos and simulations for increasing news literacy. Using an existing simulation, we manipulated whether high school participants (N= 236) were exposed to a news literacy skills video delivered by a journalist. Preliminary findings suggest the combined effect of exposure to a journalist and experiencing the news decision-making process for long-term change in students’ attention to self-perceived news literacy and news sources.

<2020 Abstracts

Religion and Media Interest Group

Negotiating Normality: Using Digital Media to Combat the Stigma and Perceptions of Islam in the West • Ahmet Aksoy, Texas Tech University; Nihar Sreepada, Texas Tech University • In the aftermath of a terrorist attack on an Islamic community in New Zealand, how has the stigma and perceptions of the West about Islam impacted the reaction of audiences? Drawing on Tweets and the statements of Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, this paper explores how individuals construct their messages to establish a discourse that aspires to blend Islam into the ‘norm’ of Western ideas and values. Applying the Goffman framework, I observe how the two compose their messages to resist the West’s stigma and perceptions of Islam and plea to being ‘normal.’ Specifically, attention is placed on how normality is constructed through the presentation of Muslim’s place of worship, mosques, and their communities. Through a qualitative textual analysis, it revealed different interpretations of how these places of worship and their communities identify ‘normalness’ in an attempt to de-stigmatize the negative construction of Islam in the West. Therefore, I consider how these interpretations produce normality amongst a perceived stigma of Islam in the West in the aftermath of a terrorist attack.

News media perceptions and evaluations among Jews in Germany • Philip Baugut • How individuals perceive and evaluate media coverage has important implications for understanding journalism’s influence on a micro-level. The present study is the first to systematically explore news media perceptions and evaluations among Jews living in Germany. We conducted 29 semi-structured interviews with German Jews and found that they perceived German media coverage of issues related to Jews to be strongly biased and to foster antisemitism. Participants primarily criticized the media for its emotional coverage of antisemitism, its consistent focus on the Holocaust, its equation of Jews and Israel, and its stereotypical portrayals of everyday Jewish life. Such media coverage led participants to believe that German non-Jews perceived Jews as strangers in German society. These findings suggest the importance of responsible reporting on religious minorities and raise questions about established routines in news production, such as the focusing on negativity and stereotypes.

North American Muslim Satire on YouTube: Combatting or reinforcing stereotypes? • Omar Hammad, Media Studies program at the department of School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University • Based on interviews with 10 college students and textual analysis of the YouTube series, Guess Who’s Muslim, using Kumar’s five discursive frames of how Islam is articulated in mainstream media (2010), this paper illustrates how satire is being used by young North American Muslims in efforts to challenge Islamophobia. While there is a long history of satire being used to combat negative stereotypes, this study illustrates that it can also unintentionally introduce them.

* Extended Abstract * News, pews and polls: How religiosity moderates news and voting during a midterm election • Timothy Macafee; Sarah Holtan • Although scholarship has documented the relationship between news and voting robustly, individuals’ religiosity added to this dynamic may provide additional information. In addition, research about news and religion’s role in electoral politics often focuses on presidential elections. The current study addresses these gaps. Results from a two-wave panel survey of voters in a “toss-up” state during the 2018 U.S. midterm election demonstrate religiosity may moderate the role of news on voting.

“They are Amongst us”. News About Terror, Perceptions of Sleeper Terrorists, and Negative Stereotypes Toward Muslims • Joerg Matthes, U of Vienna; Ruta Kaskeleviciute, U of Vienna • When reporting about Islamist terrorism, news media often include descriptions of so-called sleeper terrorists, who live inconspicuously amongst us. To test how perceptions of sleeper terrorists influence negative stereotypes toward Muslims, we conducted a quota-based two-wave panel survey (NT2=524). Results showed that exposure to terror news did not affect negative stereotypes toward Muslims, but increased perceptions of sleeper terrorists over time. Perceptions of sleeper terrorists had a positive influence on negative stereotypes toward Muslims.

Flat-Smacked! Converting to Flat Eartherism • Alex Olshansky, Texas Tech University; Robert Peaslee; Asheley Landrum, College of Media & Communication – Texas Tech University • The “Flat Earth” movement has emerged out of a combination of Biblical literalism (e.g., young Earth creationism, geocentricism) and previous conspiracy theories (e.g., NASA faked moon landings). Interviews with participants of the first International Flat Earth Conference in 2017 revealed that the majority of Flat Earthers have come to endorse Flat Earth ideas only within the last few years after watching videos on YouTube. However, the novelty of the movement means that there is a lack of literature on this group, on what exactly convinced these new Flat Earthers, and how that conversion took place. Here, we provide evidence for a gradual process of conversion after multiple exposures to the Flat Earth videos, an initial skepticism to the content in the videos, and then a failure to debunk Flat Earth arguments. Furthermore, evidence is presented here regarding the crucial role YouTube played in their conversion process, suggesting the platform is potentially a strong avenue for changing beliefs. The narratives provided here also support much of research on conversion, describing a gradual process of deep personal change, via the relatively new mechanism of social media, where one finds a new center of concern, interest, and behavior, and a different view of reality.

* Extended Abstract * Political Consumerism, Religious Factors and Social Media • Jan Wicks, University of Arkansas School of Journalism and Strategic Media; Shauna Morimoto, University of Arkansas Sociology and Criminology Department; Robert Wicks, University of Arkansas Communication Department • A national email survey with over 2,000 respondents was administered to examine whether religious affiliation is associated with political consumerism and participating in political consumerism activities on social media. Evangelical Protestants participate in political consumerism and related activities on social media more frequently than other religious affiliations. Other major variables from previous political consumerism research are also examined, suggesting that religious and social media factors help to explain participation in boycotting and boycotting.

<2020 Abstracts

Public Relations Division

Doug Newsom Award for Global Ethics and Diversity
How Do Stakeholders React to Different Levels of LGBTQ-related Diversity and Inclusion CSR in India? Examining Social Acceptance, Perceived Fit, and Value-driven Attribution • Nandini Bhalla, Washington and Lee University; Yeonsoo Kim, James Madison University; Shudan Huang • This study examined stakeholders’ responses toward LGBTQ-related diversity and inclusion CSR practices in India. The study proposed a dual-route model and explored how different degrees of LGBTQ-DI CSR practices (i.e., active, passive and refusal) influence stakeholders’ perception of CSR levels, CSR fit evaluation and CSR attribution and in turn, impact CSR outcomes (i.e., corporate evaluation, supportive communication intent and purchase intent). An online experiment with real stakeholders in India was conducted. The findings suggest an interaction influence between social acceptance and perceived levels of CSR on CSR fit. Also, CSR- induced value-driven motives can strongly influence CSR associations. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Open Competition
Examining Problem Chain Recognition Effect: How Issue Salience and Proximity Impact Environmental Communication Behaviors? • Nandini Bhalla, Washington and Lee University • This study applied the STOPS theory and tested the mechanism of problem chain recognition effect in the realm of environmental communication. Using a 2 (environmental issue salience: salient vs. non-salient) × 2 (environmental issue proximity: local vs. global) experimental design, this study found that if individuals have high motivation for climate change problem, they are more likely to perceive and talk about other related lesser known environmental issues (air pollution/land degradation).

CSA and the OPR: Corporate Attachment and Stakeholder Motivations to the Organization-Public Relationship • Jonathan Borden, Nowhere • As increasing professional and academic interest turns towards corporate social advocacy as a practice, it is crucial we consider theoretical frameworks to understand the mechanisms of CSA’s effects on the organization-public relationship. This study applies the attachment theory of interpersonal relationships to understand how corporate political behaviors can motivate stakeholder attitudes and behavioral intentions.

Towards a Conceptualization of Corporate Accountability • Jonathan Borden; Xiaochen Zhang, University of Oklahoma • Corporate accountability remains a significant construct in normative public relations theory and in applied crisis response, yet it remains ambiguous in practice. This research operationalizes a three-factor accountability scale based on the extant literature and validates this scale among three sample publics. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.

* Extended Abstract * Effective Social Media Communication for Startups in China: Antecedents and Outcomes of Organization-Public Dialogic Communication • Zifei Chen; Grace Ji, Boston University • This study examines the mechanism through which startups can drive publics’ trust and positive word-of-mouth using effective social media communication. Results from an online survey with 1,061 social media users in Mainland China revealed that startups’ conversational human voice and social presence on social media helped drive organization-public dialogic communication, and startups’ organization-public dialogic communication, in turn, fostered publics’ trust and positive word-of-mouth. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

CEO Activism & Employee Relations: Factors Affecting Employees’ Sense of Belonging in Workplace • Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee; Sifan Xu, University of Tennessee Knoxville; Brandon Boatwright • Acknowledging the importance of CEO activism in employee relations, this study examined how perceived employee-CEO value fit influences employee’s sense of belonging. Furthermore, using expectancy violation theory (EVT) and the concept of salience, this study explored moderating effects of expectation-reality discrepancy and salience of CEO activism. Conducting an online survey with 429 employees in the U.S., the study provides both theoretical and practical implications for effective CEO activism.

* Extended Abstract * Balancing Between a Global and Local Perspective in the Public Relations Agency Industry • Surin Chung, Ohio University; Suman Lee, UNC-Chapel Hill; Euirang Lee, Ohio University • This study examined the current status of globalization and localization of public relations industry and its market environmental factors by analyzing 101 countries. Using content analysis and the secondary data analysis, this study found that the degree of globalization of public relations industry in a country was influenced by its economic (foreign direct investment inflow), legal (rule of law), cultural (power distance, individualism, masculinity) and media system (press freedom) factors. The degree of localization of public relations industry in a country was also influenced by its economic (trade) and media system (press freedom) factors.

Building the science news agenda: The permeability of science journalism to public relations • Suzannah Comfort; Mike Gruszczynski; Nicholas Browning • The current study examines the relative influence of press releases about scientific studies in terms of their impact on news coverage. Using an innovative approach that allowed for analysis of a large corpus of text and calculation of similarity scores, we were able to trace the influence of press release materials into news media articles. We found that news organization characteristics were a more important indicator of PR success than press release characteristics. News organizations that had a history of producing award-winning science journalism were much less likely to draw on PR materials, reaffirming the importance of news organizations’ dedication to providing resources for science journalism. In some cases, news articles incorporated up to 86% of the material from a press release – a shocking indication of how powerful information subsidies can be. While our results contain some good news for public relations practitioners, they also carry a warning for consumers of journalism and for the public science agenda, which may be left vulnerable to bad actors exploiting the natural trust that the public, and journalists, have in science.

* Extended Abstract * Reconstructing the PR history time machine: Missing women and people of color in introductory textbooks • Tugce Ertem-Eray, University of Oregon; Donnalyn Pompper • This exploratory study offers a critical perspective on reasons for and effects of missing women and people of color across introductory public relations textbooks’ history pages, leading instructors to supplement public relations history lessons with their own pedagogical materials. Viewing survey findings of public relations instructors through feminist and critical race theory lenses yields two important recommendations to include women and people of color in recorded public relations history.

Hot Issue and Enduring Publics on Twitter: A Big Data Analysis of the Charlotte Protest • Tiffany Gallicano; Ryan Wesslen, UNC Charlotte; Jean-Claude Thill, UNC Charlotte; Zhuo Cheng, UNC Charlotte; Samira Shaikh • This study is the first of its kind to contribute to theory regarding hot issue and enduring publics in a naturalistic setting, and it models a way to conceptualize these types of publics based on their Twitter behavior. We applied structural topic modeling to 151,004 tweets to investigate tweet content, the duration of tweeting behavior, and the extent to which a small group of people shoulder the majority of the content generation in hot issue and in enduring publics. We found not only validation for existing theory but also questions for future researchers to explore based on surprising findings. This study also updates the conceptualization of hot issue publics for the social media age.

Saying vs. Doing: Examining the Effects of Corporate Issue Stances and Action • Eve Heffron, University of Florida; Melissa Dodd, University of Central Florida; Jay Hmielowski, University of Florida • This study expands the body of research surrounding corporate social advocacy (CSA). Using an experimental design, participants were exposed to three conditions for Nike’s engagement with the issue of equal pay. Results indicated that taking a stance with action was associated with more positive outcomes than both the stance-only and no-stance conditions; and taking a stance only was associated with more positive outcomes than the non-stance condition. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: Thriving Under the Sun: Stakeholder Relationships of Small Firms in the Emerging Field of Solar • Nell Huang-Horowitz; Aleena Sexton • This paper explores stakeholder relationships of small firms in the emerging field of solar. Interviews were conducted with 29 small firm executives. Results show that executives view customers as their number one priority, employees as family and partners, and government as supporter and opponent. Some challenges faced include the lack of credibility and legitimacy, limitation in resources, widespread misconception, and uncertainty about the future. Solutions on how these challenges can be addressed are also discussed.

Engaging employees in CEO activism: The role of transparent leadership communication in making a social impact • Grace Ji, Boston University; Cheng Hong, California State University, Sacramento • “With a survey of 600 U.S. employees, this study investigated the effect of transparent leadership communication on employee engagement in the context of CEO activism. Employees’ perceived psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) were examined as mediators. Results showed transparent leadership communication was positively associated with employees’ psychological needs. In turn, needs for autonomy and relatedness both positively influenced employees’ information sharing and activism participation intentions. Theoretical and managerial contributions were discussed.”

Mapping CSR Communication Networks on Social Media: The Influence of Communication Tactics on Public Responses • Yangzhi Jiang, Louisiana State University; Hyojung Park • Grounded in the networked stakeholder management theory and two-way communication, this study provides a snapshot of networks between companies and publics on Twitter in a CSR communication context. Results showed that CSR communication activities (i.e., informing, retweeting, and mentioning) empowered a corporation through centralizing its network position and gaining public support (i.e., emotional, influencer, and knowledge support). In addition, degree centrality mediated the relationship between corporate retweets and stakeholders’ knowledge supports.

How controversial businesses look good through CSR communication on Facebook: Insights from the Canadian cannabis industry • Ran Ju, Mount Royal University; Chuqing Dong; Yafei Zhang • This study advances our current understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in a controversial industry by analyzing CSR-related Facebook posts from seven Canadian public cannabis companies. Our findings indicated that these companies’ CSR communication was mostly instrumentalist, lacked transparency, and used effective multimedia characteristics. In addition, public reactions (# of likes, comments, and shares) suggested an association between CSR communication efforts and engagement revealing both opportunities and ethical concerns for CSR scholars and practitioners.

Who’s Posting That? Roles and Responsibilities at Civil Rights Organizations • Kate Keib, Oglethorpe University; Katie Hunter; Sarah Taphom • Ethnic Public Relations asserts that organizations focused on particular cultural groups are unique from general organizations. Civil Rights Organizations fall into that category and deserve their own area of study. Messaging on social media is a heavily relied upon tactic by advocacy organizations. Utilizing role theory, as well as two scales aimed at understanding how social media communicators function in organizations, this survey based study examines the communications teams at civil rights organizations, the levels of role conflict and ambiguity, as well as the levels of social media self-development and leadership. Results begin to fill a void in ethnic PR work focused on civil rights organizations, extend role theory and can help such organizations understand how to best structure their teams.

How Strategic Internal Communication Leads to Employee Creativity: The Role of Employees’ Feedback Seeking Behaviors • Yeunjae Lee, University of Miami; Jarim Kim, Yonsei University • “This study examined how organizations’ internal communication affects employee creativity through the lens of the symmetrical communication model in public relations and the theory of creativity, using a survey with 405 full-time employees in the U.S. The results suggested that information flow, supportive supervisory communication, and CEO relational communication positively influence symmetrical internal communication systems. The analysis also indicated symmetrical internal communication caused employees to seek more feedbacks, which in turn enhanced creativity.”

Online Firestorms in Social Media: Comparative Research between China Weibo and USA Twitter • Sora Kim, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Kang Hoon Sung, California State Polytechnic University; Yingru JI; Chen Xing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Jiayu Qu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Through a quantitative content analysis of top trending keywords and associated top tweets in the United States (US) Twitter and China (CN) Weibo, this study offers significant insights into how users in varying countries engage in online firestorms, extending the existing knowledge in cultural aspects of crisis communication. Users on the two platforms showed difference in attribution focus (individuals vs. group/organizations), target scope (government/politics vs. business arena), and prioritized social problems (racism vs. corruption/bribe).

The determinants of support for crowdfunding sites: Understanding internal and external factors from PR’s perspectives • Eunyoung Kim, Auburn University at Montgomery; Sung Eun Park, University of Southern Indiana • “This study aims to examine the factors affecting behavioral intention of online donation and word-of-mouth via crowdfunding sites, so we have conducted an online survey. The results confirm that social identification, relationships with SNS connectors, involvement, and attitudes toward online donation positively predict intention to donate online. Also, attitudes toward helping others, social identification, involvement, and SNS features had predictive power on intention of word-of-mouth. Theoretical and practical implications are presented in discussion and conclusion.”

Is timing everything? : Exploring benefits and drawbacks of stealing thunder in crisis communication • Soo-Yeon Kim, Sogang University; Jeong-Hyeon Lee, Gauri Communication Co.; JIN SUN SUL, SOGANG UNIVERSITY • Qualitative responses from 286 Korean consumers were collected to find their perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of stealing thunder. Although more consumers evaluated stealing thunder positively, others pointed out its negative consequences. Consumers identified positivity, credibility, consumer behavior, and ethics as benefits, while they considered backfire effects, irrelevant consumer behavior, negativity, and admittance to be drawbacks. Follow-up actions and transparent crisis communication, along with stealing thunder, were also emphasized as positive aspects of crisis communication. For stealing thunder to be acknowledged positively in society, it must fulfill the ethics of justice and care, and consumers must experience it in real world situations.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: The Impact of Fairness Perception on the Public’s Attitudinal and Emotional Evaluation of an Organization • Nahyun Kim, Pennsylvania State University; Suman Lee, UNC-Chapel Hill • “A 2 (distributive fairness: high vs. low) x 2 (procedural fairness: high vs. low) between-subjects experiment (N = 134) was conducted online to test the impact of (un)fairness perception on trustworthiness, quality of organization-public relationship, and the publics’ anger and attitude toward an organization, and positive/negative word-of-mouth intentions. Procedural fairness had significant impact on all of the dependent variables while distributive fairness had significant impacts on some dimensions of trustworthiness (e.g., competence, integrity) and attitude.”

Diversity-oriented leadership, internal communication, and employee outcomes: A perspective of racial minority employees • Yeunjae Lee, University of Miami; Queenie Li, University of Miami; Wanhsiu Tsai • Through 633 samples of racial minority employees in the United States, the current study examines the effect of diversity-oriented leadership on the excellence of internal communication and employee outcomes. Using the normative model of internal communication and organizational justice theory, this study advances the theoretical links among leadership, communication, and organizational justice, and its resulting effects on employee engagement and behavioral outcome. Results of an online survey showed that diversity-oriented leadership enhances symmetrical internal communication and racial minority employees’ perceived fairness of an organization, thereby increasing employee engagement and advocative behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and internal communication are discussed.

Power of Apology: Comparative Analysis of Crisis Response Strategy Effects between China and the United States of America • Moon Lee, University of Florida; Sunny Yufan Qin, University of Florida • The purpose of the study was to investigate differences in how people respond to two distinctive crisis response strategies (i.e. apology vs. bolstering strategy) in comparison with combined strategy (i.e. apology followed by bolstering strategy) and no comment strategy (e.g. strategic silence: the control group). In addition, the publics’ responses between two different countries (USA vs. China) were compared. Two experimental studies were conducted with a total of 629 people (297 in America vs. 332 in China). In both countries, apology strategy works the best in garnering the public’s trust and reputation in an accidental crisis, particularly in comparison with bolstering strategy. Practical/theoretical implications are further discussed in the paper.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: Exploring the Effects of CSR on Perceived Brand Innovativeness, Brand Identification and Brand Attitude • Yukyung Lee, University of Connecticut; Carolyn A. Lin, University of Connecticut • This experimental study reveals that exposure to a sustainable (vs. generic) fashion ad increases perceived CSR image and brand innovativeness. The relationship between sustainable fashion ad exposure and CSR image is stronger when attitude towards sustainable fashion is more positive. Perceived CSR image is also positively related to perceived brand innovativeness, consumer-brand identification and brand attitude. Moreover, perceived brand innovativeness and consumer-brand identification both significantly mediate the relationship between perceived CSR image and brand attitude.

From tragedy to activism: Publics’ emotions, efficacy, and communicative action on Twitter in the case of the 2017 Las Vegas Mass Shooting • Queenie Li, University of Miami; Taylor Wen, University of South Carolina • Guided by the Anger Activism Model and pain and loss activism literature, this study analyzes public discussion in a particular case of activism on social media (i.e., the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting) to present a refined activism framework that advances predictions for policy change engagement during pain and loss events. Key insights about the joint effects of emotion and efficacy in activism communication, public segmentation, and communicative action provide direction for future research investigations that can strengthen theoretical arguments and best practices in activism and advocacy. Public relations or activism scholars can use this research as a stepping stone for conceptualizing more comprehensive ways to identify activist publics and motivate inactive publics to take action.

A View from the Margins of the Margins: How a Queer of Color Critique Enriches Understanding of Public Relations • Nneka Logan; Erica Ciszek • This paper examines the public relations field from the perspective transgender communicators of color. It unites queer of color literature with Bourdieu’s conceptualization of habitus to explore issues of race, gender and marginalization within the discipline. Interviews were conducted with 13 transgender communicators of color and revealed several themes with important implications for public relations theory and practice including advocacy, representation and empowerment. Building on anti-racist and queer scholarship, the purpose of this paper is to expand public relations research by offering a more inclusive conceptualization of the discipline through centering marginalized voices.

Image Repair in the #MeToo Movement: An Examination of Kevin Spacey’s Double Crisis • Don Lowe, University of Kentucky • Through examination of the news articles and Tweets that followed the Anthony Rapp Buzz Feed News article and Spacey’s response Tweet, I argue: (1) double crisis exist; (2) proxy communicators often feel the need to speak out for the profession/industry; (3) proxy communications can be positive or negative; (4) proxy communication can cause harm to the individuals who practice the concept often creating a new crisis; and (5) LGBTQ community members are treated differently as well as the same as their heterosexual counterparts during crises. The Spacey case clearly exemplifies and qualifies as a double crisis. While the severity of the initial and following legal proceedings and publication of numerous other sexual assault claims are proving to be detrimental to Spacey, his Tweet conflating sexual orientation with pedophilia coupled with the conflation that being gay is a choice caused considerable harm to his reputation. Harm that could have been avoided with a sincere apology Additionally, proxy communicators often feel the need to speak out in behalf of the industry/profession. Fellow actors both LGBTQ and heterosexual rushed to Twitter and some to the media to distance the industry/profession from Spacey. Social activists and LGBTQ actors also felt the need to defend the LGBTQ community and distance it from Spacey as well. Spacey’s conflation of sexual orientation with pedophilia and his equating being gay with a choice were both widely condemned in Tweets.

Corporate diplomacy and media: How local news contribute to organizational legitimacy in the host country • Sarah Marschlich; Diana Ingenhoff • Applying neo-institutional public relations approaches, this study explored if and how media frames on corporate diplomacy contribute to organizational legitimacy of foreign multinational corporations in the United Arab Emirates. Conducting a quantitative content analysis of local news media coverage (N=385) from 2014 to 2019, we identified three corporate diplomacy frames, of which two enable corporations to build moral or pragmatic legitimacy. Understanding how media frames contribute to organizational legitimacy has several theoretical and practical implications.

Political Issues Management: Framing the Climate Crisis on the Campaign Trail • Meaghan McKasy; Diana Zulli • This mixed-methods analysis examines the way that democratic presidential candidates at CNN’s 2019 climate crisis town hall presented climate change to the public using fact vs. value-based frames, choice frames, and responsibility frames. Results indicate that candidates predominantly used value-based frames, “gains” were presented in the context of the economy, and candidates were more likely to use prognostic frames over diagnostic frames. These findings speak to the value of framing in political issues management.

* Extended Abstract * From Advocacy to Activism: Scale Development of Behavioral Steps • Brooke McKeever; Robert McKeever; Minhee Choi; Shudan Huang • Although advocacy and activism have gained increasing importance in organizational success, conceptual definitions and valid measurement of the concepts are lacking. By searching the literature, seeking expert feedback, and employing two survey data sets (N= 1,300) for scale development, this study advances a new measurement model of behavioral outcomes that can be useful for future research as well as practice. Findings indicate six dimensions of advocacy and activism. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

Scientific Evolution of Public Relations Research: Past, Present, and Future • Bitt Moon • Public relations, as an independent domain of applied communication research, has developed unique, original theories to describe, explain, and predict public relations practices that range from the organizational environment to organization-public relationships to publics over the last four decades. This study views public relations as a scientific discipline and takes a scientific evolutionary approach to examine how public relations scholarship has evolved since the 1970s. The four evolutionary stages are applied to illustrate the scientific evolution of public relations research from the 1970s to the 2010s. This study also reviews public relations theories to comprehend research trends in the field. This article concludes that public relations research is in the final stage of scientific evolution (synthesizing) with significant theoretical shifts and calls for another new perspective that fosters innovative and insightful public relations research.

* Extended Abstract * Are employees better spokespeople for CSR initiatives? Findings from a cross-national study • Geah Pressgrove, WVU; Carolyn Kim; Cristobal Barra, Universidad de Chile • This study explores the impact of cultural values on perceptions of spokespersons in a corporate social responsibility context in both the United States and Latin America. Findings indicate individuals with masculine cultural values, perceive spokespersons with managerial titles as a more credible source for information. Conversely, people with more feminine cultural values perceive spokespersons with an employee title as more credible. Further, it was found that different dimensions of transparency (openness, integrity, respect) drive results.

Toward an Informed Employer: The Implications of Organizational Internal Listening for Employee Relationship Cultivation • Sunny Yufan Qin, University of Florida; Rita Linjuan Men, University of Florida • This study examined whether and how organizational internal listening (i.e., organizational- level and supervisory-level listening) influences the quality of employee-organization relationships. Informed by the self-determination theory, employees’ psychological need satisfaction for autonomy, competence, and relatedness was examined as a mediating mechanism in this process. An online survey was conducted with 443 employees across various industries in the U.S. Results showed that organizational-level listening positively influenced the quality of employee relationships with the organization both directly and indirectly via satisfying employees’ psychological need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The impact of supervisory-level listening on the quality of employee- organization relationships was fully mediated via employees’ psychological need satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

* Extended Abstract * A Construal-level Approach to Post-crisis Response Strategies • Soojin Roh, Peking University HSBC Business School; Hyun Jee Oh • Summary: In order to provide guidance for effective post-crisis communication, this study explores under which circumstances differently framed crisis response message is likely to be effective, building on construal level theory of psychological distance (CLT; Liberman & Trope, 2008; Trope & Liberman, 2010). This study demonstrates significant interaction effects of social distance and crisis message framing (e.g., why vs. how vs. why and how) on publics’ anger and trust toward the organization in crisis.

* Extended Abstract * Suffragists as Early PR Pioneers: The Development of the National American Woman Suffrage Association Press Bureau • Arien Rozelle, St. John Fisher College • Through an examination of Susan B. Anthony’s push to create a Press Bureau for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), this paper argues that Anthony and fellow suffragist Ida Husted Harper should be recognized as early public relations pioneers. Anthony and Harper employed a strategic approach to public relations at the same time – if not before – Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays, who are often credited as the “founding fathers” of modern public relations. Anthony and Husted worked to advance an activist approach to public relations during the dawn of modern public relations in the United States. The early development of the NAWSA Press Bureau tells the story of a grassroots, strategic, coordinated and women-led integrated press effort for social good beginning in 1897, three years before the establishment of the Publicity Bureau, which is largely credited as the first public relations firm in the U.S. (Cutlip).

Building Consumer Communal Relationships through Cause-Related Marketing: From the Perspective of Persuasion Knowledge • Baobao Song; Weiting Tao; Taylor Wen, University of South Carolina • This study investigates the value of cause-related marketing campaigns in consumer relationship management. Specifically, following the tenets of Persuasive Knowledge Model and Equity Theory, this study proposes that the effect of consumers’ inferences of the companies’ manipulative intent in cause-related marketing campaigns on consumer-brand communal relationships is contingent on their knowledge about the degree to which the company and the social cause respectively benefit from the cause-related marketing campaigns. A panel of 506 consumers was recruited to complete an online survey. Results supported the significant three-way interaction effects among the variables of inferences of manipulative intent, corporate benefit knowledge, and social benefit knowledge on consumer communal relationship. Generally, when consumers believe that non-profit partners benefit more from a cause-related marketing campaign than the company does, inferences of manipulative intent positively affect consumer communal relationships. However, when consumers perceive greater corporate benefits than social benefits, inferences of manipulative intent will negatively affect consumer communal relationships. This study provides significant theoretical and managerial implications for future corporate social responsibility/cause-related marketing research and practice.

Appealing to the Marketplace of Audiences: The Anti-Proposition 112 Public Relations Campaign in Colorado • Burton St. John III, University of Colorado-Boulder; Danielle Quichocho, University of Colorado – Boulder • In the fall of 2018, fracking interests in Colorado initiated a public relations campaign against Proposition 112—a measure that these interests perceived as an emergent threat to their continued viability. This study reviewed the messaging used by the industry and its supporters as it appeared across 1,515 text articles (e.g., news accounts, op-eds, etc.) and 38 Facebook posts. We found that pro-fracking messages, rather than concentrating on the quality of the ideas offered in support of fracking (e.g., facts and data) often chose to emphasize connections to the lived experiences of the audiences. As such, this work offers a model of this phenomena called the marketplace of audiences, which includes the components values, aesthetics, and resonance. This model offers both a theoretical and applied framework for how an organization may affirm alliances with key audiences, especially when detecting an emergent threat to its continued existence.

* Extended Abstract * Scholarly Books, Reviews, and Public Relations: Publicity and the Perception of Value • Meta G Carstarphen, University of Oklahoma; Margarita Tapia, The University of Oklahoma • With the sheer volume of books published, global marketplaces, and technology, the field for academic book publishing is robust—and crowded. Survey data gathered from 150 publicists/marketing staff from the Association of University Presses form the basis of this study. A discussion of the results from this study offers an opportunity to re-examine key theoretical constructs about the role of publicity in public relations—including rhetoric, narrative, third-party endorsements, and relationship-building.

Servant Leadership and Employee Advocacy: The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment and Perceived Relationship Investment • Patrick Thelen; April Yue • The current study examines how servant leadership relates with employee advocacy behaviors through the mediating role of psychological empowerment and perceived relationship investment (PRI). Through a quantitative survey with 357 employees who work for a variety of organizations, the study’s results indicated that servant leadership plays a critical role in fostering psychological empowerment and PRI, which in turn, encourage employee advocacy behaviors. Relevant theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

* Extended Abstract * How CSR partnerships affect nonprofit organizations (NPOs): The mediating role of consumer-brand identification, CSR motives, and NPO social objective achievement • Michail Vafeiadis; Virginia Harrison, Penn State University; Pratiti Diddi, Lamar University; Frank Dardis, Penn State University; Christen Buckley • This study examined how CSR partnerships with corporations affect nonprofit organizations (NPOs). A 2 (NPO reputation: low vs. high) x 2 (CSR fit: low vs. high) x 2 (partnership duration: short vs. long) between-subjects experiment showed that CSR partnerships are more effective for high-reputation NPOs. Also, NPOs should partner only with high-fit corporations. Consumer-brand identification, perceived corporate extrinsic motives, and fulfillment of nonprofit social objective can influence stakeholders’ supportive intentions toward the NPO.

Public Relations in the Age of Data: Corporate Perspectives on Social Media Analytics (SMA) • Kathy Fitzpatrick, University of South Florida; Paula L. Weissman, American University • The aim of this study was to understand how public relations leaders view and use social media analytics (SMA) and the impact of SMA on the public relations function. Personal interviews with chief communication officers (CCOs) from leading multinational corporate brands revealed that although CCOs perceive social media analytics as strategically important to the advancement of public relations, the use of social media data is limited, slowed by challenges associated with building SMA capacity.

Responding to Online Hoaxes: The Role of Contextual Priming, Crisis Response Type and Communication Strategy • Anli Xiao; Yang Cheng, North Carolina State University • Hoaxes present detrimental threats to individuals and organizations. This paper examines how companies should respond to hoaxes on social media using different crisis response types and crisis communication strategies. In addition, this paper investigated how contextual priming might influence participants’ judgment on the company’s responses. Results indicated that a narrative response might be more effective, and people’s judgment of the crisis response is partially influenced by the contextual priming. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Effects of Narratives on Individuals’ Skepticism toward Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts • Sifan Xu, University of Tennessee Knoxville; Anna Kochigina, University of Tennessee Knoxville • Skepticism is prevalent surrounding companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. Existing research on narratives suggests that narratives can reduce counterarguing and increase story-consistent beliefs and attitudes. However, research is still in its preliminary stage in understanding how narratives may help alleviate individuals’ skepticism toward companies’ CSR initiatives. The current study first tested multiple videos searched on YouTube depicting a real organization’s CSR initiatives. Four videos (two in narrative format and two in non-narrative format) were eventually selected and used in the experiment, where participants recruited from MTurk (n = 345) were randomly assigned to watch one of the selected videos. Results of the study suggest that narrative significantly reduced almost all of the previously identified dimensions of CSR skepticism and significantly increased perceived extrinsic (public-serving) motive. Furthermore, narrative engagement and perceived CSR motive were significant mediators in the effect of narrative format on CSR skepticism. Considering the growing perspective of using engagement as a framework to unpack public relations theories and practices, the current study provides valuable insights to narrative engagement in public relations research.

Does the Medium Matter? A Meta-analysis on Using Social Media vs. Traditional Media in Crisis Communication • Jie Xu, Villanova University • There has been a growing body of crisis communication research that treats social media as a critical variable, which might alter how people perceive and react to crisis communication messages. The meta-analysis of 8 studies (k = 22, n = 3,209, combined n = 9,703) compared the impact of social media vs. traditional media in crisis communication. Five studies (n = 1,896) contained 8 relevant effect sizes on crisis responsibility, representing 3,294 individuals. Seven studies (n = 3,185) contained 14 relevant effect sizes on persuasiveness, representing 6,409 individuals. Compared to traditional media, using social media significantly lessened consumers’ perceived crisis responsibility (r = -.134, 95% CI -.212– -.054, p = .001). There was no significant difference between using traditional media and social media in crisis communication on persuasiveness (r = -.039, 95% CI -.114– .035, p = .30). The moderator analysis indicated that for both crisis responsibility and persuasiveness, the effect size was more noticeable when an organization communicates with college students vs. non-student publics. The ability of social media in dampening crisis responsibility was more pronounced for fictitious organizations compared to real organizations. Compared to traditional media, social media was significantly more negative for preventable crisis, the influence was weak for accidental crisis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as directions for future research.

Publics’ Emotional Reactions and Acceptance of Organizational Crisis Response in the Case of Boeing 737 MAX Crisis • Hao Xu, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota; Smitha Muthya Sudheendra, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Debarati Das, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; Jaideep Srivastava, University of Minnesota Twin Cities • This study examined publics’ emotional reactions to a crisis, and the impacts of such emotions on their acceptance of organizational crisis response communications, using computational analysis of the real-world example of the Boeing 737 MAX crisis. The results reveal sadness and fear as the two primary emotions among publics, and, for publics in this emotional state, specific and accommodative crisis response strategies seem to be better accepted and generate favorable reactions in certain stakeholder groups.

Understanding the Impact of Brand Feedback to Negative eWOM on Social Media: An Expectation Violation Approach • jing yang, Loyola University Chicago; Juan Mundel, DePaul University • The current study investigated the effects of brand feedback strategies in response to negative eWOM on social media on consumers’ positive and negative expectation violations, as well as the consequences of such expectation violation. Results indicated two routes of mechanisms (i.e., positive and negative), such that positive consumer expectation violation results in higher consumer satisfaction, which leads to brand love. On the other hand, negative consumer expectation violation results in higher consumer dissatisfaction, an antecedent to brand hate. Our study also revealed that it is important for brands to respond to negative eWOM to avoid consumer backlash. Moreover, providing compensation to consumers is also an effective approach to attenuate consumer dissatisfaction, potentially restoring consumer satisfaction.

Do instructing and adjusting information make a difference in crisis responsibility attribution? Merging fear appeal studies with the defensive attribution hypothesis • Xueying Zhang; Ziyuan Zhou, Savannah State University • The research on crisis response strategy has long been a popular topic in crisis communication. Image repair strategies, such as apology, excuse, deny, sympathy, to name a few, have been well documented in the literature. However, empirical evidence on instructing and adjusting information is scarce. Extant research generates inconsistent, sometimes even contradicting conclusions (Kim & Sung, 2014; Park & Avery, 2018). This study joins the discussion of the two types of information and adds empirical evidence on how the two strategies work. A 2 (high vs. low threat) × 2 (high vs. low efficacy for instructing information) × 2 (high vs. low efficacy for adjusting information) factorial experiment was conducted using Qualtrics national research panel to test the effect of instructing and adjusting information on participants’ account acceptance, attribution of crisis responsibility and evaluation of organizational reputation. Overall, the results highlight the role of efficacy in adjusting information in promoting account acceptance, alleviating crisis responsibility, and protecting organizational reputation. The mixed results of threat and efficacy in instructing information encourage managerial considerations when organizations design initial crisis responses. Many interesting directions for future research are also inspired.

Organizational Legitimacy for High-Risk Facilities: Examining the Case of NBAF • Xiaochen Zhang, University of Oklahoma; NANCY MUTURI • Through an online survey of community residents living nearby the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), this study examined how high-risk organizations can communicate organizational legitimacy, and how legitimacy perception may affect public trust and risk perceptions. Results illustrated the importance of transparent and consistent communication in organizational legitimacy-building, as well as the role of legitimacy, especially for high-risk organizations, to garner public trust, to ease public uncertainty, and to increase public preparedness.

Provincial and Municipal Leaders’ Coronavirus Discourse Repairs Local Governments’ Image • Ernest Zhang, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Yitao Liu, Meishi Film Academy of Chongqing University; William Benoit, Department of Communication Studies of University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences; Fritz Cropp, University of Missouri School of Journalism • “Seventeen years ago, SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) wreaked havoc in China and across the world. Zhang and Benoit (2009) pointed out that the then Chinese health minister failed to defend the image of the Chinese government because he ineffectually used image-repair tactics. Seventeen years later, did the leaders of Hubei province and its capital city Wuhan more effectively protect the image of Hubei and Wuhan? The first case of COVID-19 was believed to originate in Wuhan on December 1, 2019 (Huang et al., 2020). The virus up to April 6 caused 1,331,032 infections and 73,917 deaths across the world (Johns Hopkins CSSE, 2020). Since most of deaths and infections had happened in Hubei and Wuhan before March 28 (Ansari et al., 2020), people in the world for a while considered the province and the city “Wuhan Pneumonia” equivalent to COVID-19. To repair the image of Hubei and Wuhan as liars for covering up the disaster and as equivalent to the virus, Hubei and Wuhan’s leaders held 65 press conferences and were interviewed over 10 times between January 19 and April 6. Using Benoit’s image repair theory (1995, 2015), the authors analyzed the leaders’ discourse at eight selected news conferences and five interviews, concluding that the leaders succeeded in applying seven of Benoit’s (1995) image-repair tactics but failed in the other three ones. The study argues their discourse succeeded in repairing Wuhan’s and Hubei’s images.

Student Papers
Finding an Antidote: Testing the Use of Proactive Crisis Strategies to Protect Organizations from Astroturfing Attacks • Courtney Boman, University of Missouri; Erika Schneider, University of Missori • “Astroturfing, or the orchestration of manipulative propaganda campaigns, has become the center of conversations amid Fake News disputations. Exploring an astroturf attack as a paracrisis, this research investigates the effects of an attack and how proactive communication strategies can protect organizational outcomes (i.e., credibility, crisis responsibility, account acceptance, and organizational reputation). In addition to expanding theoretical crisis response models, this research offers practitioners with advice that emphasizes the use of proactive strategies.

Crisis Communication Strategy in Crisis of Chinese Celebrities with Huge Fan Base • QINXIAN CAI, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Chinese celebrities with huge fan base have recently attracted much attention, and some of them have some crises within the social media environment. In this study, four cases were chosen and divided into two types, competence-violated and integrity-violated. This article offered a comprehensive angle including celebrities, fans and media to understand the interaction during the crises. The analysis indicated that the different strategies were used in different kinds of crises among different parties and the reasons, and also the suggestions about how to deal with the celebrities’ crises.

Effects of Crisis Severity and Crisis Response Strategies on Post-Crisis Organizational Reputation • Sera Choi • Using SCCT, this study investigates the impact of crisis severity and crisis response strategies on post-crisis organizational reputation. Two (crisis severity: low vs. high) x 2 (crisis response strategy: match vs. mismatch) between-subjects factorial design was employed (N=289). There were main and interaction effects between the variables. A matched response strategy was more effective under high crisis severity, but there was no such interaction effect under low severity condition. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Social Movements and Identification: Examining BLM and MFOL’s Use of Identification Strategies to Build Relationships. • Candice Edrington, North Carolina State University • With the rapid connectivity and mobility provided by the technological affordances of the Internet, individuals and organizations have been able to broaden their reach in terms of sharing information. In particular, social movements have used these affordances to their advantages by creating social media pages/accounts to widely disseminate information regarding their advocacy and activist agendas. Black Lives Matter and March For Our Lives are two such movements. Due to their unique communication and relationship building needs, activist organizations are of particular importance in public relations scholarship (Taylor et al., 2001). Coombs and Holladay called for the reconsideration of activism from a public relations perspective by asserting that activists seek to alter the behaviors and policies of organizations in some fashion, which requires them to utilize power and persuasion, thus noting the similarities between public relations and activism (Coombs & Holladay, 2012). However, advocacy and activism on digital platforms has been examined in public relations scholarship from the perspective of nonprofit organizations. Sommerfeldt (2007) notes that “the study of public relations, the Internet, and activism have rarely converged” (p. 112). Thus, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to analyzing the message strategies that social movements employ on digital platforms. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to bridge the gap through an analysis of the message strategies used by these two social movements in an effort to build relationships through establishing identification with their key publics via their Twitter pages.

Explicating Moral Responsibility in Crisis Communication • Yoorim Hong, University of Missouri, Columbia • Moral responsibility has been widely used by publics and public relations practitioners to imply an organization’s accountability for an incident with negative impact on society. Despite its frequent usage, the concept of moral responsibility has not been sufficiently explicated in the field of public relations. This concept explication paper makes its departure from reflecting on nearby concepts such as blame, causal attributions, and crisis responsibility. By integrating ideas from other fields of study, the theoretical definition of moral responsibility, its dimensions and indicators are proposed. This paper also guides the future empirical analysis, by suggesting possible antecedents and consequences of attributions of moral responsibility in an organizational crisis. The authors believe that investigating how publics attribute moral responsibility to organizations would help public relations researchers and practitioners develop more effective communication strategies in ways that protect the organization’s reputation and its relationships with publics in a crisis.

What Makes Organizational Advocacy More Effective?: The Moderating Effect of the Public’s Perception of Issue Polarization • Ejae Lee, Indiana University • This study focuses on individual publics’ perceptions about the attributes of hot-button issues on which organizations take a stance, in order to better understand the effect of organizational advocacy. This study examined (a) how individuals perceive an organization’s stance and their own stance on a controversial sociopolitical issue, (b) whether the alignment of issue stances is positively related to pro-company support, and (c) how perceived issue polarization could moderate the association between individuals’ perceived issue alignment and their support for companies doing organizational advocacy.

Protecting Intangible Assets on Twitter: The Effects of Crisis Response Strategies on Credibility, Trust, Reputation, and Post-Crisis Behavior • James Ndone, University of Missouri (School of Journalism) • This study investigated the effects of crisis response strategies of stealing thunder, apology, and denial on a hospital’s intangible assets of reputation, credibility, and trust on Twitter using an online survey. Besides, the study investigated social amplification and post-crisis behavior such as purchase intentions and negative word-of-mouth on Twitter. The findings suggest that stakeholders will trust, treat a message as credible, and hold the reputation of an organization at high levels if it posts apologetic tweets and steals thunder during a crisis. When an organization denies its responsibility for a crisis on Twitter, stakeholders are likely to spread negative word-of-mouth and reduce their purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

* Extended Abstract * Effects of Inconsistent CSR Information on Customer’s Attitudes: A Mediation Model • Moon Nguyen, Hong Kong Baptist University • The study proposes a model to examine effects of inconsistent CSR information on customer’s attitudes. Using a between-group experiment, results show that corporate hypocrisy is a mediator in this relationship. Corporate hypocrisy is mediated by CSR belief and company reputation. Implications are that companies should be conscious when adopting CSR activities as customers are sensible to information inconsistency, and they should maintain good reputation and enhance CSR belief as these factors can have buffering effects.

Favoring Emotional or Analytical? Exploring Corporate Brand Personality Projected on Twitter • Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University; Jinping Wang, Pennsylvania State University • The present study sought to unveil corporate brand personalities that top-ranking brands might project on social media using a machine-learning approach. We collected pertinent data at two time points and examined 99 most valuable brands’ corporate brand personality on Twitter along with how Twitter users engaged with different corporate brand personalities. We found different types of corporate brand personalities were presented on Twitter, and there was a close relationship between projected personality and public engagement.

Stand on Parties or Issues? Comparing the Effects of Different Corporate Social Advocacy (CSA) Strategies • Hao Xu, University of Minnesota Twin Cities • This research project examined the effects of three different CSA strategies – standing on a political party, standing on multiple issues along with one particular ideology, and standing on a single issue – on publics’ attitudes and supportive intentions. The results demonstrate that for both Democratic and Republican publics, the three strategies can generate similar effects, but the effects between Democrats and Republicans can possibly be asymmetrical. Implications for academic research and practices are discussed.

Teaching
* Extended Abstract * Analytics in Public Relations Measurement: Desired Skills for Digital Communicators • Melissa Adams; Nicole Lee, North Carolina State University • This exploratory study examined the analytics education and skills agencies seek in new digital public relations hires and extends recent research on the topic of public relations analytics education. In-depth interviews with 14 senior managers at O’Dwyer’s Top 50 ranked agencies identified the analytic training and tool knowledge most desired in new hires. Results show that basic education in analytic measurement and data analysis is necessary preparation for the digital public relations job market.

* Extended Abstract * Forming and Implementing an Interdisciplinary Public-Interest Course Experience on Emerging Technology Communication and Policy • Julia Fraustino, West Virginia University; Kakan Dey, West Virginia University; Dimitra Pyrialakou, West Virginia University; David Martinelli, West Virginia University; John Deskins, West Virginia University • This study investigates an interdisciplinary public-interest course experience for upper-level undergraduates. Five instructors in public relations, economics, and engineering created and piloted a course with students across multiple disciplines to explore the challenge of an Appalachian state’s potential autonomous vehicle (AV) implementation and policy from an interdisciplinary perspective. Pre- and mid-semester data collected from public relations students along with the instructors’ field observation and reflection memos provide preliminary qualitative insights into the course’s benefits and challenges.

What It Really Takes: Revealing the Shared Challenges in PRSSA Faculty Advising • Amanda J. Weed, Kennesaw State University; Adrienne Wallace, GVSU; Betsy Emmons, Samford University; Kate Keib, Oglethorpe University • PRSSA supplements the traditional public relations curriculum by providing student members with enhanced learning and networking opportunities. PRSSA faculty advisers assume an advanced mentoring role by facilitating experiential learning and networking that connects classroom learning to practical application of knowledge, skills, and understanding of the public relations profession. A two-wave survey of current PRSSA faculty advisers examined the shared challenges that impact the personal and professional satisfaction of those who hold the role.

<2020 Abstracts

Political Communication Division

Main Paper Competition
Affective Polarization and Political Engagement in the United States: What Factors Matter? • Mohammad Ali, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Abdulaziz Altawil • This paper examines the factors that influence affective polarization and political engagement in the United States. Using an original survey dataset (N=606), this study found several insights influencing affective polarization and political engagement. The findings would be helpful to further study affective polarization, which is reportedly affecting democracy and the country’s greater interest as well. Insights found in this paper could also be utilized in devising political communication strategies related to people’s polarized political views. Future research is encouraged to combine survey data and social media data for a more refined outcome.

Role of Traditional Media in Influencing Presidential Election Outcomes in Ghana • Elinam Amevor, University of Oregon • The traditional roles of the media in informing and educating the public are emphasized. But research into other critical functions of the media in a democracy such as public opinion formation and power alternation in presidential elections in Africa are less researched. This paper analyzes the role of the traditional news media in influencing presidential election outcomes in Ghana and makes a case for media effects research in analyzing voting behavior in African elections.

Between authoritarianism and democracy: Rethinking old and new media roles for political re-socialization in forced migration contexts • Rana Arafat, University of Lugano • While political scholars study news media as agents of political learning, the processes of political re-socialization of a conflict-generated diaspora moving from authoritarian to democratic regimes pose significant theoretical challenges that remain insufficiently researched. To this end, this study investigates the importance of traditional and digital media sources from the homeland and host country in fostering refugees’ understanding of the democratic norms and values, and political opportunities offered by the receiving country. Further, it investigates the role of online diaspora communities as agents for political re-socialization and tools for information acquisition about Arabic, Swiss and international politics. 60 semi-structured interviews with Arabs from refugee origins in Switzerland were analyzed. Findings show the influence of the early-life political socialization, received prior to forced migration, on the purposive consumption of media from various sources. As Facebook started to lose its value as a source of political information, participants shift to producing and consuming news distributed by strong ties on private WhatsApp groups as a counter-strategy to acquire trustworthy information. Further insights on the impact of perceived media credibility and individual trust in news on the consumption behavior and political learning are discussed.

The News Expectations Predicament: Comparing and Explaining what Muslims and Members of the Mainstream Society Expect from Journalists’ Roles and Reporting Practices • Philip Baugut; Sebastian Scherr • Media coverage of right-wing extremism pertains to the media’s information and watchdog function in a democratic political system. However, little is known about the audience’s expectations of journalists regarding their role for society and their reporting practices in order to fulfil their democratic function. To bridge this gap, a quota sample representative of the general German population (n = 1314) and an independent sample of Muslims living in Germany (n = 248) demonstrates that Muslims expect from journalists a more active role and accept more controversial reporting practices to combat right-wing extremism. More liberal individuals were found to show heightened expectations; however, these were reduced when more liberal individuals were afraid of right-wing extremism. In a country particularly sensitive toward right-wing terror, we found strong value-oriented views in that fears of right-wing extremism should not make a democratic society give up its core principles–including the professional autonomy of journalists.

* Extended Abstract * “You are a disgrace and traitor to our country”: Uncivil rhetoric against the ‘squad’ on Twitter • Porismita Borah; Itai Himelboim, University of Georgia; Bryan Trude, University of Georgia; Matthew Binford, University of Georgia; Kate Keib, Oglethorpe University • Scholars have highlighted the negative consequences and implications of excessive uncivil discourses. Incivility on twitter is a rising trend. We conducted a content analysis of the replies to the tweets of four congresswomen known as the “squad” and examined the different types of uncivil rhetoric targeted against these congresswomen. Our findings show that name calling, aspersion, and stereotype were the most common types of incivility.

“It’s all yellow journalism now”: How White evangelical Christian women’s contempt of mainstream media contributes to their support of politician Donald J. Trump • Gayle Jansen Brisbane, California State University Fullerton • This paper will examine connections between White evangelical Christian women’s presumably paradoxical allegiance for Donald Trump and their cynicism towards mainstream media. This preliminary qualitative study employed focus groups composed of White women who support Donald J. Trump as president and also identify themselves as evangelical Christian women. Endeavoring to understand the extreme divisiveness in the current political climate between liberal and conservative and between secular and religious citizens should be undertaken often. This paper will present a brief recap of the relationship between Christianity and politics in modern times, then review why the media is regarded as having a “liberal bias” and finally explore the theory of selective processes and how these may be operating among evangelical women as they encounter discordant information about Trump. Through discourse analysis, it will also examine these focus group interviews of White evangelical Christian women’s points of views on politics and the media in order to shed light on their contradictory support of President Donald J. Trump. The research questions endeavor to clarify the participants’ most important political issues, how they justify Trump’s misogynist lifestyle vis-a’-vis their moral standards, their assessment of mainstream media, what news outlets they trust and whether they seek to verify their news consumption.

Indexing, Source Hierarchy, and Cultural Congruence: Op-Ed Coverage of Nuclear Negotiations with Iran • Bill Cassidy, Northern Illinois University; Mehrnaz Khanjani, University of Iowa; Mehdi Semati, Northern Illinois University • This paper utilizes indexing theory to examine op-ed coverage of nuclear negotiations with Iran in the New York Times and Washington Post from August 2013-June 2016. Results show that while U.S. presidential administration sources were most prominent in the 211 articles examined, the official perspective did not control the valence of coverage. Oppositional sources remained prominent and negative statements from op-ed authors significantly increased even after a deal with Iran was reached.

Partisan News Repertoire and Echo Chamber in High-Choice Media Environment • ching chun chen, National Defense University and National Chiao Tung University; Chen-Chao Tao, National Chiao Tung University • Although echo chamber phenomenon has attracted considerable attention, the measurement of echo chambers has been inconsistent and insufficient. Using a nationally representative panel survey from Taiwan (N = 1,926), the current study introduced the Partisan News Repertoire Index to explore the presence of echo chambers in high-choice media environment, and found support for polarization in echo chambers by integrating news repertoire approach and biased assimilation theory. Results showed that two of five news repertoires were mainly driven by political ideology, indicating stronger partisan news repertoire. Moreover, people with strong partisan news repertoires tended to be polarized by self-confirming process when encountering consistent partisan media; and also strengthen their prior attitudes through motivated reasoning when exposed to inconsistent partisan media.

Analysis of Campaign Issue Dynamics: Case Study of Taiwan’s 2020 Presidential Election • Yi-Ning Chen, National Chengchi University; CHIA-HO RYAN WEN • The dynamics of issue emphases is thought of as the key to candidates’ chance of winning or losing an election. By analyzing Taiwan’s presidential election held on January 11 2020, our research goals are to characterize how media attention converged or diverged from the issue attention of the two principal candidates, Tsai Ing-Wen and Han Kuo-Yu, respectively representing the Democratic Progressive Party and the Kuomintang, as well as delineate what strategies were employed between them in response to each other’s campaigns. Separately retrieving 8,531,207 posts from the mass media, 55,080 from Tsai Ing-Wen’s official social media and 132,323 from Han Kuo-Yu’s official social media, we first find that the election day was the foremost factor for the issue emphases by the candidates and the mass media to converge. Second, mass media coverage was more convergent with Tsai’s issue emphases rather than Han’s, in particular on Taiwan’s anti-infiltration bill, although Han’s number of posts was twice that of Tsai’s. Third, as the incumbent candidate, Tsai used a divergence strategy to neglect Han and not share popularity with him despite his intensive posting from November 11 to early December 2019. However, as the election day got closer, Tsai Ing-Wen’s campaign went aggressive and brought public attention to agendas that best embodied her values and performance as the incumbent (e.g. green energy, marriage equality, labor reforms) while continuing to neglect Han’s attacks. Finally, both of them, as well as their supporters, discredited the other side by labelling the counterpart’s speech as fake news.

White Democratic Candidate Outreach and Exposure to Black Voters: A Black Press Analysis • George Daniels, The University of Alabama • In January 2020, Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg made a $3.5 million advertising buy with Black-owned newspapers, the largest investment of its kind in the 193-year history of the Black Press. Based on a review of three months of issues of 15 different black-owned newspapers in eight states and exit poll data, this paper assessed the impact of Democratic hopefuls’ financial investments in black press on voters’ decisions in early presidential primaries.

How Do People Learn About Public Affairs When Incidentally Exposed to News? Clarifying Political Knowledge Paradoxical Direct and Indirect Effects • Homero Gil de Zúñiga; Porismita Borah; Manuel Goyanes, Carlos III University • Citizens’ political knowledge is regarded as a vital element for well-functioning democracies. Accordingly, there is a burgeoning literature assessing the link between individuals’ news seeking behavior and learning about public affairs. There are, however, more limited efforts devoted to clarify how incidental news exposure may facilitate political learning. So far, inconclusive research findings have offered positive, null or even negative effects, emphasizing an urge for scholars to further explore this relationship. Drawing upon U.S. representative survey data, this study seeks to explicate and further advance the paradoxical paths that connect citizens’ incidental news exposure and political knowledge, both directly and indirectly. Our analysis first shows either null or mild negative direct associations between incidental news exposure and political knowledge. However, relying on a two serial mediators’ model, when citizens thoroughly engage with and cognitively elaborate on the information they unintentionally stumble upon, incidental news exposure yields positive mediated effects on political learning. This study contributes to a better understanding over the potential direct and indirect mechanisms that both facilitate and hinders political knowledge acquisition through inadvertent news consumption.

Is Facebook-Based Political Talk Associated with Political Knowledge? • Toby Hopp, University of Colorado Boulder; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder; Chris Vargo, University of Colorado Boulder; Luna Liu, University of Colorado Boulder • Prior research has shown that talking about politics can help facilitate political knowledge obtainment. However, such research has not addressed the extent to which specifically online political talk—which is often structurally and mechanistically different than offline talk—may or may not be associated with political knowledge. Accordingly, this study explored the association between text-based political commentary on Facebook and performance on a political knowledge quiz. Moreover, we investigated the degree to which a basic indicator of talk-apparent elaborative thinking (the inclusion of a testable proposition) was differentially associated with political knowledge levels. Finally, we assessed the extent to which different patterns of Facebook use moderated the relationship between political talk and knowledge. These questions were addressed using a novel method that paired behavioral Facebook data with self-reported survey data. The results indicated that political talk frequency on Facebook was positively and significantly associated with political knowledge. We observed similar associations between knowledge scores and political talk that featured high and low levels of elaborative thinking. Finally, we found tentative evidence that the relationship between Facebook-based political talk and political knowledge was strongest among those who regularly use Facebook for political learning.

* Extended Abstract * Morally Covering Politics: A Case Study of the New York Times’ Reporting on Clinton and Trump During the 2016 U.S. Election • Qihao Ji, Marist College • Focusing on the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, this study aims to address how Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were covered by the country’s leading news outlet—the New York Times. To that end, more 1,000 highly transmitted NYT stories regarding Trump and Clinton were collected before the election and subsequently subjected to computerized textual analysis. Results indicated that highly transmitted stories on Trump were much more morally charged and negatively valenced compared with Clinton’s.

Emotions and Political Participation: The Impacts of Discrete Emotions on Citizens’ Voting Likelihood • Yangzhi Jiang, Louisiana State University • This study investigated the effects of different emotions (i.e., anger, disgust, anxiety, hope, and pride) on Americans’ voting likelihood. The 2016 American National Election Studies (ANES) data were adopted. Results showed that only pride functioned as a significant predictor of citizens’ voting likelihood. However, anger did not influence Americans’ voting willingness in 2016, which was inconsistent with previous studies’ findings. As expected, disgust, hope, and anxiety had little impact on the voting likelihood.

* Extended Abstract * Who’s picking up the tab? The effects of framing taxpayers’ money on citizen oversight • Volha Kananovich, Appalachian State University • This study experimentally tests if various ways to frame government corruption in the news as the misuse of either “government funds” or “taxpayers’ money” can influence motivation for citizen oversight. The findings show that the mere rhetorical changes in describing the funds can encourage people to view the issue of misspending as more personally relevant, which makes them more motivated to hold the government accountable for its spending decisions.

Media Models for Nonviolence: Social media representations of the #womensmarch mass mobilization and Instagram audience engagement • Danielle Kilgo, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities; Samantha Munoz • This research explores the representation of the massive-but-peaceful demonstrations for women’s rights in 2017. Employing the framework provided by the protest paradigm in a content analysis of Instagram posts, results indicate coverage was most often framed with positive emotional behaviors and movement demands and agendas, by mainstream media producers, influencers and other news curators on the site. Findings indicate media account type, rather than content features, may be the most influential engagement factor.

Online keyword activism in political crisis: Moderation roles of like-minded public opinion and proxy control of crisis outcomes • Sora Kim, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Yingru JI; Hyejoon Rim, University of Minnesota • Through a national online-panel survey, this study examines the underlying psychological mechanism of online keyword activism supporting an in-crisis party (pro-activism hereafter) in a recent Korean political crisis. This work finds decisive boundary conditions in determining pro-activism participation. Like-minded opinion mitigates and even nullifies the effects of perceived majority opinion on crisis blame attribution and pro-activism participation when it is extremely valenced (negative) toward the crisis. Government controllability intensifies and even nullifies the effects of crisis blame attribution on pro-activism when it is extremely low. What makes people to more actively participate in pro-activism is driven by perceived like-minded public opinion through external attribution of crisis blame (e.g., blame-media), whereas the decisive driving factor for people to refrain from participating in the pro-activism is low perceived government controllability over crisis outcomes through internal attribution of crisis blame (e.g., blame-in-crisis party).

Representing Minorities in Deliberative Discussions: The Effects of Minority Presence and Group Identity Salience • Nuri Kim; Zijian Lew; Benjamin Detenber • This study examines how different ways of representing minority members in deliberative discussions can affect the content and tone of discussion. The effects of physical presence of minority members (i.e., present versus absent) and the salience of different group identities (i.e., superordinate identity versus subgroup identity) were experimentally examined for zero-history deliberation groups in a lab setting (N = 236, in 46 discussion groups). The discussions were content analyzed to assess the communicative effects. Results showed that the presence of minority members strongly affected the discussion content and tone in the small groups. Priming common identity also had some impact but in different ways, and to a lesser degree.

Revisiting Nasty Effect: How Do Online Incivility and Emotions toward In-group Interact on Cross-cutting Attention and Political Participation? • Jiyoung Lee; Jihyang Choi, Ewha Womans University; Jiwon Kim • Incivility has been a primary concern of healthy discussions especially in the online environment. Realizing the individual and societal impacts of incivility, much research has examined the role of incivility; however, it still has not reached a consensus on how incivility plays a beneficial role in politics. In the current study which used a two-wave longitudinal survey of 933 Americans in the context of 2016 presidential election, we revisited the role of online incivility in cross-cutting attention and online/offline political participation with a focus on anxiety, outrage, and pride toward the candidate respondents support (i.e., emotions toward in-group). Our results revealed that online incivility was positively associated with cross-cutting attention. When encountering incivility online, people who were anxious about in-group’s incivility paid more attention to cross-cutting opinions. Pride showed a reverse pattern, such that those who felt proud toward ingroup did not pay much attention to cross-cutting opinions when facing incivility online. Such cross-cutting attention ultimately led to online/offline political participation. This study advances current understanding of inter-group emotions theory and nasty effect by suggesting the intervening roles of distinct emotions toward in-group.

What’s Fake News to You?: How Divided Epistemologies Shape Perception of Fake News • Taeyoung Lee; Tom Johnson, University of Texas at Austin; Joao Vicente Seno Ozawa, The University of Texas at Austin • Scant attention has been paid to how the public define fake news. This study addresses how different epistemic worldviews – intuitionism and rationalism – lead to different definitions of fake news. Findings demonstrate that intuitionists tend to agree with Donald Trump’s label of fake news: accurate stories that cast a politician in a negative light. Rationalists tend to agree with the scholarly definition that describes fake news as distorting facts. Simultaneously, both epistemic beliefs see poor journalism as fake news.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: When the Desert Matters: Contextual Differences in Local News Environment and Polarized Perceptions of Local Economy • Jianing Li; Jiyoun Suk; Josephine Lukito, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Ceri Hughes, Brunel University; Jordan Foley; Lewis Friedland; Chris Wells; Dhavan Shah; Michael Wagner, UW-Madison • Despite abundant research about individual-level partisan polarization we know little about the effects of the meso-level information environment on partisan opinion polarization. Our study reveals the importance of contextual differences in the local news environment, represented by the number of local newspapers a county has, in moderating the effects of individual-level media use patterns in contributing to polarization in partisans’ retrospective evaluations of the local economy.

Wall and Sword: Attitudes towards Two Types of Online Censorship in China • Xining Liao, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Focusing on online censorship in China, this study seeks to answer two important questions: what do Chinese people think of online censorship in China and what factors are related to censorship attitudes? We tested two competing theories: reactance theory and balance theory as they may predict attitudes toward online censorship in China. Furthermore, instead of conceptualizing Chinese online censorship as being a homogenous system, we conducted a survey to investigate attitudes towards two separate censorship policies: the Great Firewall and citizen reporting. The former is a technical tool that blocks domestic online access to overseas websites, and the latter a new form of censorship targeting in Chinese domestic online sphere, by which netizens could report any perceived harmful information to online media platforms, and the information will be deleted by professional censors from online platforms once has been confirmed as “bad information”. The results of this study are congruent with balance theory, suggesting that the Chinese express overall positive attitudes towards censorship policies and the attitudes are influenced by their attitudes towards other agents related to censorship.

Fake News and Cloaked Propaganda: Exploring the Pro-China Facebook Groups in Taiwan • Chao Chen(Caroline) Lin, Graduate Institute of Journalism, National Taiwan University • This research analyzes Facebook groups that spread political propaganda but lack clear user profile identities. Based on the ethnography online method, this research studies a dataset leaked from some security bureau in Taiwan, including 18,933 accounts and 130,839 Facebook group posts. This research explores the active users of pro-China Facebook groups who connect with Taiwanese Facebook groups. Analysis results indicated that pro-China group posts were propaganda either campaigning for mainland China, criticizing Taiwan’s ruling party, or spreading fake news. This article argues that propaganda has happened in an increasingly interactive social media environment, especially when user profiles are vague, cloaked and missing.

Online Political Engagement, Fake News Exposure, and Fake News Sharing in Sub-Saharan Africa • Saifuddin Ahmed, Nanyang Technological University; Dani Madrid-Morales, University of Houston; Melissa Tully, University of Iowa • Using an online survey in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, this study explores the association between online political engagement, exposure to fake news, need for cognition, and fake news sharing. The findings suggest that online political engagement is positively associated with both fake news exposure and sharing. In contrast, those who have higher need for cognition were less likely to share fake news. Theoretical implications for misinformation and political engagement research are discussed.

Exposure to Personalized Political Advertising Dampens Trust in Democracy but Increases Political Interest: Evidence from a Panel Study • Joerg Matthes, U of Vienna; Melanie Hirsch; Marlis Stubenvoll; Alice Binder; Sanne Kruikemeier; Sophie Lecheler, U of Vienna; Lukas Otto • There are rising concerns that personalized political advertising (PPA) may be harmful for democracy and democratic representation. However, research has largely ignored potential positive democratic outcomes of PPA. This two-wave panel study revealed that the impression of being exposed to PPA led to a decrease of trust in democracy, but also to an increase in political interest. Therefore, the results suggest that PPA can have harmful and beneficial effects for modern democracy.

* Extended Abstract * Partisanship, news outlet use, and COVID-19 misperceptions • Patrick Meirick, University of Oklahoma • A Pew panel survey from March 2020 (N = 8,914) asked about two false beliefs about the pandemic: that a vaccine will be available in a few months and that the novel coronavirus was created in a lab. Republican party ID and Fox News use predicted both misperceptions, although the apparent effect of Fox News use was greater for Democrats. Facebook use was related to the lab misperception, which was spread widely on the platform.

Trump fatigue: Exploring the relationship between perceived media bias and news exhaustion • Adriana Mucedola, Syracuse University; Shengjie Yao • In today’s highly polarized political climate, media consumers are constantly being bombarded with arguments for and against their views, particularly relating to the high- profile presidency of Donald Trump. The present study was conducted to examine how biased news perceptions (or the hostile media phenomenon) can explain how consuming news about President Trump may be a negative emotional and exhausting experience. Data from a web-based survey (N = 1100) were analyzed. Findings showed that the perceived bias of the media and feelings of being “overloaded” explain some of the variance in negative emotions towards and exhaustion from news about President Trump. However, findings also indicate the perception of a biased media is negatively associated with negative affective outcomes, such as anger or sadness. Implications of these findings for future hostile media phenomenon research in the context of Trump’s presidency are discussed.

Judging “them” by my media use: Adapting the IPI model for a polarized media environment • Youran QIN, Hong Kong Bapist U • Adapting the IPI model to a polarized information environment, this study shows that individuals tend to accept retaliation against antagonists if they perceive the antagonists as heavy users of pro-antagonist media. Furthermore, individuals’ estimation of antagonists’ media use is a projection of their own media habit. The findings demonstrate an indirect effect of selective exposure – polarizing us by letting us believe that our antagonists are using and polarized by media on their side.

Factors Influencing Midwest Farmers’ Attitudes Toward China and US-China Trade Dispute • Lulu Rodriguez; Han Guang; Shuyang Qu, Iowa State University • The trade war between the U.S. and China had Midwest farmers reeling as sales of agricultural products to a major market was cut in half. This study examines the factors that significantly influenced their attitudes toward China and the trade dispute. Based survey data, the findings show that mass media use, credibility of mediated sources, and education predicted attitude toward China. Farmers’ attitude toward China, media exposure, media credibility, and years farming predicted attitudes about the trade dispute.

Meaningfully Entertained: Exploring the Relationship between Exposure to Meaningful Media and Political Engagement • Mian Asim; Muhammad Ehab Rasul; Azmat Rasul, Zayed University • The central objective of this paper is to broaden research on meaningful, inspirational, and prosocial media and its effects on political attitudes. Specifically, this research examines the implications of exposure to meaningful media and the feelings of affective elevation on connectedness with humanity and perceived connectedness among those with differing political affiliations Meaningful media content holds much promise of elevating audiences’ affective states and makes salient the common bonds that we share with others. How these perceptions translate into other domains awaits future investigations. This study suggests that exposure to meaningful media may be one avenue to address divisions among political groups, though the path may be much more difficult.

Social Media and Misinformation: The Impact of Education and Political Affiliation on News Sharing Behavior • Sean R Sadri, University of Alabama; John P Kelsey, University of Alabama; Candice D Roberts, St. John’s University • The present study examines demographics and sourcing as ways to potentially combat the dissemination of misinformation. An experiment using a nationwide sample of U.S. adults (N = 324) helps better understand social media sharing habits and political news credibility. The results provide evidence of educational attainment and political affiliation as predictors of tendency to share news information. The findings also suggest that the combined presence of political affiliation and article sourcing will increase share likelihood.

* Extended Abstract * Extended Abstract: Disconnecting Crises: The Refugee Crisis and the Roma Problem in Official State Discourse • Adina Schneeweis, Oakland University • This article is a study of political discourse about Europe’s reaction to refugees in the mid-2010s in the context of its dealing with another migrant population – the Roma (Gypsies). This study examines governmental and state-affiliated committee reports, research summaries, macroeconomic analyses, country reports, and risk analyses, and concludes that the refugee crisis received consistent attention, whereas issues specific to minorities in general, or related to the Roma in particular, garnered little to no interest.

Agenda-Setting Effects of Fake News on the Public’s Issue Agenda • Joao Vicente Seno Ozawa, The University of Texas at Austin; Hong Tien Vu; Dhiraj Murthy; Maxwell McCombs • This study draws upon the tradition of agenda-setting studies to investigate the impact of fake news in setting the public agenda. Although previous findings suggest that a minority of people are exposed to fake news, we found evidence that this type of information may be indeed having an impact on public opinion. The study was based on data extracted out of the complete historical archive of Twitter from 2012 to 2016. The researchers conducted secondary analysis of four million tweets regarding 2,448 news stories, labelled as fake news and verifiable true news according to six fact checking companies. The Twitter issue agenda was compared with the public issue agenda measured by the Gallup Poll’s open-ended question: “What is the most important problem facing this country today?”. We assembled the results of this question for each month of the five years studied, a total of 60 poll results. Correlations at all levels – monthly, quarterly, annual and five-year – show evidence of correspondence between the Twitter agenda based on fake news and the public agenda expressed in responses to the Gallup MIP question. Results were above the average of the baseline established by two meta-analyses of agenda-setting effects, especially in 2015 and 2016. Explanations of why access to fake news could be concentrated, but in the same time have an important effect on the public agenda, are discussed within the well-established framework of agenda-setting theory.

Partisan Ambivalence, Emotions, and Civic Engagement: Hierarchy Regression Analyses on Online and Offline Civic Engagement • Jian SHI, Syracuse University; Laura Canuelas-Torres, Syracuse University; Catherine Annis, Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; Zanira Ghulamhussain • American public continues to feel ambivalence towards political issues during the Trump administration. Using an online national survey (N=1,100), this research investigates the impact of partisan ambivalence, media exposure, and emotional reactions toward news about President Trump on online and offline civic engagement. Results show ambivalent Americans are more likely to engage in offline civic engagement. Also, negative emotions had a stronger positive correlation than positive emotions with both online and offline civic engagement.

The Mediating Path to Political Consumerism: Do News Consumption and Interpersonal Communication Count? • Jian SHI, Syracuse University; Lars Willnat, Syracuse University • Although past research has shown that news exposure can promote political consumerism, few studies have investigated the mediating effects of social media communication on political consumerism. Drawing on the communication mediation model, we utilize online survey data gathered in 2019 among U.S. adults (N=1,069). This study suggests that both face-to-face and social media communication act as mediators of media consumption on political consumerism. More importantly, this study provides support for conceptualizing political consumerism from a communicative perspective.

How the Left, Center, and Right Covered the #MeToo Movement: Structural Topic Modeling, Thematic Structure and Language Patterns • Min-Hsin Su, UW-Madison; Jiyoun Suk; Shreenita Ghosh, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Kruthika Kamath; Porismita Borah; Teresa Correa; Christine Garlough; Dhavan Shah • This study explores the thematic structures and linguistic patterns of US news coverage surrounding the #MeToo movement across media spectrum. Using a combination of several automated textual analysis techniques, such as structural topic modeling and TF-IDF scores, we examine a random sample of news articles from nine news outlets during the first five-months after the Harvey Weinstein accusation. The results suggest clear partisan differences both in terms of topical prevalence and language patterns.

Am I with Her or with…Him?: Public and Online Participation in the 2016 US Presidential Election • Jiyoun Suk; Doug McLeod; Dhavan Shah • There is no question that the 2016 presidential election was one of the most memorable campaigns in U.S. history. Using national rolling cross-sectional survey data collected daily throughout the 2016 election, we used three-level multilevel modeling to examine how contextual factors such as the neighborhood-level political climate as well as state-level legislative presentation were associated with online and public participation. Our findings generally reveal asymmetrical patterns of participation between Republicans and Democrats.

* Extended Abstract * The Political Use of Search Engines: Differences in the Information Seeking Habits Between Right-leaning and Left-leaning Users • Chau Tong, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study explores how political ideology influences information-seeking habits and behaviors regarding the use of Internet search engines for political information. Drawing on the literature of selective exposure, political psychology and customization technologies, this study employs secondary analysis to survey datasets of six democracies. Findings in the US sample show that political liberals and conservatives statistically differ in knowledge of search engine algorithms and attitudes towards human editorial or algorithmic curation of political news.

Politics and Politeness: Analysis of incivility on Twitter during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary • Briana Trifiro, Boston University; Sejin Paik; Zhixin Fang, Boston University; Alexander Rochefort, Boston University; Li Zhang, Boston University • This large-scale computational content analysis examines the amount of uncivil Twitter conversation about Democratic presidential primary candidates. Using the online disinhibition effect as the theoretical basis, this article expands on the prevalence of incivility in tweets in regards to the candidates’ gender, bot accounts, and anonymous users.

Framing COVID-19: A case study of the Chinese translated news behind the U.S.-China blame game • Shiqi Wang, Hong Kong Baptist University • With a framing analysis of the Chinese translations of English news concerning the coronavirus dispute between the largest two superpowers in the world, this paper attempts to show how China is trying to self-present as a responsible leader who triumphed over the coronavirus while the U.S., ex-leader of the world, has stumbled. With the theory of self-presentation, one can see how foreign news is translated to work as an ideological “vaccine” for its people.

Effects of Soft and Hard News Consumption on 2012 and 2016 Presidential Candidate Evaluations • Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University; Jinping Wang, Pennsylvania State University • Through an automated content analysis, the present study examined effects of soft news and hard news consumption over both broadcast and digital media on people’s presidential candidate evaluations in 2012 and 2016 election cycles. We found issue-focused evaluations slightly outnumbered character-focused ones, and soft news consumption over different media impacted on the distribution of and affectiveness in candidate evaluations in a different manner compared to hard news consumption.

How sea-level rise is communicated by governments, news media, and social media: An examination of realities shaped by partisan and regional influences and intermedia agenda-setting • Denis Wu; Yiyan Zhang • This study investigates the issue of sea-level rise presented by governmental public announcements, news coverage, and tweets generated in all 50 states of the United States during 2014-2017. Both human and machine codings were conducted to detect the pattern of sea-level rise communication across states with sea shore and landlocked states and between liberal and conservative states. Intermedia agenda-setting among the three distinct sources of information was also executed. Results indicate that patterns of sea-level rise content differ significantly between the groups of states with regard to their geographic location and political inclination. The sea-level rise content generated from the three sources are related significantly. Implications of these findings were provided in the paper.

A Linkage of Traditional and Social Media Use with Political Knowledge and Participation • Masahiro Yamamoto, University at Albany; Fan Yang • This study examines news media use in relation to political knowledge and political participation. Data from a two-wave panel survey indicate that social media use for news is related to increases in subjective political knowledge, whereas traditional news use is related to increases in factual political knowledge. Data also show that factual political knowledge has a negative cross-lagged association with political participation, whereas the influence of subjective political knowledge is positive. Implications are discussed for the role of news consumption in the political process.

Predicting perceived media bias of the mass shooting coverage and intention to participate in discursive activities: Examining the effects of personal involvement and social identities • Xueying Zhang; Mei-Chen Lin • Americans are seeing the most devastating era of mass shootings in modern history. Following each gruesome mass shooting is heated and polarizing political debates in the media, and among the policy makers and the public. News audiences of mass shooting do not passively accept message from the media, but rather make active judgement by relating it to their own lives or interpret it from the lens of their important values and identity. This study examined how predispositions of news audience predict perceived media bias in mass shooting coverage and intention to participate in discursive activities concerning gun issues. A survey among 300 participants recruited from Qualtrics’ research panels highlighted the role of social identity and individuals’ outcome-relevant involvement. The results extend the theoretical discussion of biased media perception and increase understanding of public’s sentiment regarding gun policy discussions.

Muting Opposing Political Opinions on Facebook: The Mediating Role of Emotions on Facebook Muting Behaviors • Bingbing Zhang, Pennsylvania State University; Heather Shoenberger, The Pennsylvania State University • Selective exposure theory posits that individuals prefer information aligned with pre-existing ideologies while avoiding opposing opinions. Using a nationally representative sample of Facebook users recruited via a Qualtrics panel (N = 505), this study explores the ideology strength, political disagreement and adds the context of negative emotions felt when viewing opposing viewpoints on Facebook on three different types of muting those with opposing political opinions. The three muting behaviors examined include “taking a break”, unfollowing, and unfriending others. Results offer insights into the idea that exposure to incongruent opinions are positively related to political muting behaviors. Additionally, the emotions of anger and dread mediate the relationship between exposure to incongruent views on social media and unfriending others with different opinions. Results are discussed through the lens of selective exposure and selective avoidance in understanding social media users’ online behaviors. This study indicates the important role of emotions in the formation of echo chambers on social media.

Investigating the Effects of Pro-attitudinal and Counter-attitudinal Media Exposure on General Political Talks and Cross-cutting Political Talks: Evidence from 2014 and 2018 U • Li Zhang, Boston University; Jacob Groshek • Everyday political talks play an important role in deliberative democracy and should be considered as gateway political behavior. This study examines the effects of selective exposure to pro-attitudinal and counter-attitudinal media on two types of political talks, general political talks and cross-cutting political talks. Drawing on a three-wave panel data during the 2014 U.S. midterm election and a cross-sectional dataset during the 2018 U.S. midterm election, mixed results were reported: in 2014, selective exposure to pro-attitudinal media is positively associated with both types of political talks, while exposure to counter-attitudinal media has no significant effect. However, in 2018, the effects of pro-attitudinal media disappeared and exposure to counter-attitudinal media is shown to be positively associated with cross-cutting political talks. In addition, a possible mediating mechanism proposed by recent literature is tested and found no support. Finally, discussion and explanation is offered.

Special Call for Preregistered Papers – Election 2020
Headline news: A theoretic model to explore the believability and selection of political news • Robin Blom, Ball State University; Tim Huang, Ball State University • Misperceptions could cause people to take positions on political issues that they otherwise would not take. Therefore, it is important that they believe news content that is true and ignore news content that is false. But in reality, many people are skeptical about factual news from distrusted source and much more accepting of misleading news from trusted sources. This study further develops a news believability model and extends it with a news selection model to better predict why people make certain news selections based on content and the context in which the news is presented, namely a combination of news source trust and news content expectancy. Evidence from this overall model could aid attempts to create media literacy modules to teach people about roles of their own cognitive biases and perceptions of expectancy violations in news selection, which could help them avoid misperceptions in the future.

<2020 Abstracts

Newspaper and Online News Division

Open Competition
* Extended Abstract * Examining Augmented Reality in Journalism: Perceived Usability of AR Visualizations in News Articles • Tanja Aitamurto, University of Illinois at Chicago; Laura Aymerich-Franch, Pompeu Fabra University; Jorge Saldivar, Barcelona Supercomputing Center; Catherine Kircos; Yasamin Sadeghi, University of California in Los Angeles; Sukolsak Sakshuwong, Stanford University • In this study, we examined the usability of augmented reality (AR) visualizations and users’ interest in adopting AR as a storytelling medium in journalism. In a mixed experimental design, 79 participants were randomly assigned to view three New York Times articles in one of three viewing modalities: (1) AR visualizations, (2) interactive (non-AR) visualizations, or (3) non-interactive, static visualizations. There were no statistically significant differences in the perceived usability of the visuals or in the participants’ interest in seeing more visualizations between the viewing modalities. Regardless of the viewing modality, the participants perceived the visualizations as easy, comfortable and desirable to use and as useful ways to learn information. The participants were neither more nor less interested in adopting the technology for their daily use. The findings suggest that usability may not be a major challenge hindering the use of AR in journalism. However, the findings also suggest that the users are not more interested in using AR in their daily lives compared to other, more traditional visual media. These results pose a challenge for news organizations hoping to develop an audience for their AR content: How could they increase the users’ interest in adopting AR as a visual medium for journalistic storytelling?

* Extended Abstract * Statistical numeracy and polling literacy among news readers • Alyssa Appelman, Northern Kentucky University; Mike Schmierbach, Pennsylvania State University • Through an experiment (N = 495), this study tests the effects of errors in polling and statistics on news readers’ perceptions. In all, findings suggest that most readers do not notice these types of errors. Once enough mistakes are included, however, readers do seem to notice, but they do not seem to be bothered by them. This suggests the need for additional media literacy training for readers, as well as additional numeracy training for journalists.

The default motive: Blaming mental illness for violence depicted in news stories • Jessica Roark, Ohio University; Robin Blom, Ball State University • Though the mentally ill are more likely to be the victims of violent crimes than the perpetrators, saturation of negative media images can lead to the belief that the mentally ill are more likely to commit violent acts than others. This study aimed to provide evidence of the degree to which news consumers connected news stories of violent crimes with mental illness as a motive. By examining perceptions of mental illness as a possible motive when presented with composite news stories depicting crimes with different levels of violence, and where mental illness was either included or excluded from the narrative, the researchers were able to demonstrate that news consumers connected mental illness with violent acts, even when mental illness was not part of the narrative.

Truth, Justice, and Sexual Harassment: A comparative analysis of Op-Eds in the Hill-Thomas and Ford-Kavanaugh hearings • Kelli Boling, University of South Carolina; Leigh Moscowitz, University of South Carolina • Using textual analysis to examine Op-Eds during the Hill-Thomas and Ford-Kavanaugh hearings, this paper explores how media can function as an arbiter of public opinion during controversial events. Findings show a shift in Op-Ed contributors, from mostly men in 1991 (60%) to predominantly women in 2018 (70%). Support for women was largely absent in Op-Eds from 1991, replaced by discussions of fairness and justice; while in 2018, Op-Ed authors offered tangible support for Dr. Ford.

Making sources visible: Representation of evidence in news texts, 2007-2019 • Mark Coddington, Washington and Lee University; Logan Molyneux, Temple University • Journalism’s shift toward more aggregative forms of work could be expected to induce a parallel shift in the forms of evidence presented in news texts. A content analysis of news texts from newspapers and digital newsrooms in 2007, 2013, and 2019 shows firsthand evidence is rarely presented. Non-mediated attributed speech was by far the evidence most often presented, but it has become less common over time, with corresponding increases in mediated speech and thirdhand evidence.

Revealing problems, pointing fingers, and creating impact: A survey of investigative reporters/editors regarding journalistic impact • Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon; Brent Walth, University of Oregon • One measure of success for investigative reporting is impact: Did the story lead to any sort of outcome, from public awareness and dialogue to meaningful policy change? While investigative reporting is historically impact-oriented, there is a dearth of academic scholarship as to what journalists seek and expect when it comes to generating impact. Using data from a national survey of investigative reporters/editors, this research develops a more holistic conceptualization of journalistic impact.

Mapping Peace Journalism: Toward a Shared Understanding of Success • Meagan Doll, University of Washington; Patricia Moy, University of Washington • “Peace journalism has received notable attention in recent decades, though this interest does not necessarily correspond with more peaceful societies around the world. This paper traces three primary domains of peace journalism research—as a concept, as a practice and, by extension, as media content and effects—to demonstrate how uncoordinated metrics for success obscure peace journalism’s normative goals and evaluation. Future work should consider conceptual bridging between research domains alongside mechanisms for cross-institutional assessment.

Same scandal, different standards: The effect of partisanship on expectations of news reports about whistleblowers • Megan Duncan, Virginia Tech; Mallory Perryman, Virginia Commonwealth University; Brittany Shaughnessy, Virginia Tech • The New York Times in 2019 published a story revealing key details about an anonymous whistleblower and included a short quote from the editor defending the decision. The Times did not name the whistleblower, but it revealed enough to ignite a controversy with clear ideological lines. One explanation of Hostile Media Perception is that audiences adjust their standards higher or lower depending on the context of journalism. In this experiment (N=591), we test the different standards explanation on both the perceptions of a story participants just read and their expectations of a follow up story. The experiment manipulates (1) the news brand publishing the news story; (2) the political identification of a politician at the center of a scandal; and (3) the transparency of an editor’s note explaining journalistic process. The results suggest the relationship between an audience member’s ideology and the news story shapes whether the person thinks a whistleblower’s name should be revealed. We find main effects for news brand and politician political identity on current and future journalism. Additionally, the transparent editor’s note improves the perception of the quality of journalism among independents. These results support transparency on the part of news editors to increase perceptions of good reporting. Further, they add to HMP research by suggesting audiences raise and lower the bar of what they consider fair journalism based on who is reporting about whom. In other words, audiences reading about the same scandal have different standards for the details they think should be included.

Constructing city images through local online media: Evidence from 21 major U.S. cities • Lei Guo; Yiyan Zhang • Based on evidence collected from 21 major U.S. cities, this study explores the intermedia agenda setting (IAS) impact of the city-based local online media in transferring the salience of urban issues to the national media agenda. The results suggest a city’s economic power and the scale of its local news industry, especially the traditional media sector, are significantly correlated with its local media’s power to determine how the city is portrayed in the national media.

Varying amounts of information in health news headlines can affect user selection and interactivity • Ronald Yaros, University of Maryland-College Park; Md Mahfuzul Haque, University of Maryland College Park; Md Main Uddin Rony, University of Maryland College Park; Naeemul Hassan, University of Maryland College Park • This experimental study (N = 308) tested if varying the amounts of information in health news headlines significantly affects user selection. Participants exposed to eight headline pairs selected one preferred headline then asked why, and whether they’d like, comment on, or share its content. Results indicate a consistent preference for more informative headlines because they provided more detail. Although fewer low information headlines were selected, the primary reason was they raised curiosity.

* Extended Abstract * Corrections decrease following The New York Times editing consolidation—is this a good thing? • Kirstie Hettinga, California Lutheran University; Elizabeth Smith, Pepperdine University • The New York Times “streamlined” its editing process in 2017 and reduced the editing staff by about half. Through content analysis on corrections (N=1,149), this research examines the effects of these cuts. Preliminary analysis revealed that there were more corrections before the editing process was changed, but that corrections appeared more quickly after the original error occurred following the streamlining of the editing desk. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Ideological Hierarchy in Current China • Yezi Hu, Washington State University; Stacey Hust • Since the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) had to come up with a new ideology to supplement communism in China after the cold war, the complex ideology in China has become a mystery. This study analyzed 200 newspaper articles in Peoples’ Daily to examine and compare the salience of the 12 Socialist Core Values that the CCP is currently promoting in the country. It confirmed the existence of the ideological hierarchy and the five latent themes under the discussion of the values in People’s Daily. This study also found some significant ideological changes after 2018 China’s constitutional amendment, which removed the presidential term limit. It is the first quantitative study of the Socialist Core Values, and it helps the world better understand the ideological foundation behind Chinese behavior and policies.

Transparency in the News • Kirsten Johnson, Elizabethtown College; Burton St. John III, University of Colorado-Boulder • An experimental study was conducted to see what impact varying the level of self-disclosure by a journalist, as well as providing information about why and how a story is being covered, has on the perceived credibility of the journalist, the story, and the organization for which the journalist works. A nationwide study was conducted that included 885 participants. Results indicate the group that saw a picture of the journalist, a low level of disclosure regarding the journalist, and information about why and how the story was being covered rated the journalist, story, and organization highest in terms of perceived credibility. These findings indicate that traditional news organizations, when it comes to building audience credibility, should consider including at least some information about the journalist, and perhaps, more importantly, information about why and how the story is being covered.

* Extended Abstract * Organizational Culture in a Converged Community Radio Station – A Case Study Look at How News Is Made • Angelica Kalika, University of Colorado Boulder • Abstract: As nonprofit community journalism shifts its resources to digital endeavors, this case study examines the organizational culture of a converged community radio station newsroom. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews, the role journalism plays in a nonprofit and independent newsroom is analyzed. Schein’s definition of culture demonstrates how community digital journalistic practices are described and fulfill a community’s information needs. The author makes a case for the professional relevance of the role culture plays in an organization and how news is made in a converged radio newsroom.

A Missed Opportunity? President Trump, the Truth Sandwich, and Journalistic Monitoring of the Executive Office Across Ideological Mainstream Outlets • Linda Jean Kenix, University of Canterbury; Jovita Manickam, University of Canterbury • Journalists have called for a ‘truth sandwich’ in the reporting of President Donald Trump to better ascertain the certitude of his public comments. This paper first reviews the norms of journalism to better understand the present challenges and then attempts to examine journalism in the era of President Trump. It is easier to understand how different contemporary journalism might be if there is a better understanding of the how the practice has evolved. This research then employs quantitative content analysis to examine online articles from four newspapers across the ideological spectrum to uncover sources, tone and presence of the truth sandwich in The United States. Minimal evidence of the truth sandwich was found and coverage of President Trump was largely negative in tone, with differences noted between conservative and liberal media. The stark differences found here have potentially profound implications for democracy and for journalism in America, which are discussed.

Comparative Frame Analysis of a False Ballistic Missile Alert Crisis • Ji Young Kim; Ann Auman, University of Hawaii • News media framing of a community crisis can be studied to better understand the impact of government messages on community reaction. Government is a powerful political actor and source in an emergency for the news media and the public. This study evaluates Hawai’i news media reports and interpretations of state government’s messages about a false missile attack alert. A content analysis was conducted using news frames to evaluate news media’s response to the crisis and compared that to government message frames.

News and Online Public Agenda for the Environmental Health Risk Issues in S. Korea • Ji Young Kim • Grounded in the agenda-setting framework, a total of 587 news and public online messages were analyzed. First, news media articles were collected from the Integrated News Database System where articles were retrieved from nine different daily newspapers in Korea, and then public’s online messages were also collected from an online portal site using the same keywords. Results of this study show some useful communication patterns in terms of sub-issues, stakeholders, and issue frames in the context of environmental health risk. Moreover, this study found some differences between the news and public agendas on the environmental health risk issues.

Audience Engagement with Individual News Organizations and Their News Content, and Influencing Factors • Jisu Kim, Yale Law School; Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota • Using survey data from the audience of six national news organizations in the United States, this article explores the influences of factors for audience engagement with the news organization at the organizational level. The result shows that familiarity with the news organization, frequency of getting news from the news organization, trust in the news in social media, trust in the news organization, and demographics affect audience engagement with news content and the news organization differently.

Third-party candidates, newspaper editorials and political debates • John Kirch, Towson University • This paper examines how newspapers in Virginia covered Sarvis’s campaign and the 2013 gubernatorial election on their editorial pages. In addition to comparing the volume and type of coverage each candidate received, the study analyzed whether newspapers in Virginia supported, opposed, or were indifferent to the Libertarian’s inclusion in the debates. Central questions include: Were newspapers interested in broadening political discourse beyond the confines of the major parties? How did newspaper editorial boards respond once they learned that Sarvis was not invited to the debates? Did any newspaper endorse the Libertarian? And did the news media fulfill its role as a forum of robust discussion, or did it act as an “agent of power,” helping the establishment stifle political discourse rather than enhancing it? The paper finds that third-party candidates receive significantly less coverage than major-party candidates on newspaper editorial pages. Most newspapers also were indifferent to the Libertarian’s exclusion from the debates.

* Extended Abstract * Early Coverage of the Coronavirus Pandemic at US Local Newspapers • Beth Knobel, Fordham University • The outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic provides an opportunity to investigate several aspects of the work of local newspapers in the United States, including gatekeeping, the effect of news wires and news syndication services, and the possible effect of political polarization on hard news coverage. To provide insight on these issues, this study examines the early coverage of COVID-19 at a selection of American local newspapers in 28 states—15 Republican-dominated and 13 Democrat-dominated.

* Extended Abstract * 12 years left—how a climate change action deadline influences attitudes • Patrice Kohl; Neil Stenhouse • “Following the release of a 2018 IPCC report, numerous news media announced we have only “12 years” to avoid abrupt, catastrophic climate change. This experiment tested the influence of this climate change “deadline-ism” narrative on participant attitudes and behavioral intentions. A news article presenting the “deadline-ism” narrative increased support for prioritizing climate change and reduced fatalism, compared to a control condition. It also increased a sense of response efficacy in addressing climate change among liberals.”

Anchoring in the past, tweeting from the present: Exploring cognitive bias among reporters in 2016 presidential election coverage • Jihye Lee, Stanford University; James Hamilton • This study explores how cognitive biases influence news coverage by journalists facing uncertainty and time-pressures on the campaign trail. Examining text corpora generated by 81 reporters covering the 2016 presidential election, we found that journalists who had covered previous presidential elections anchor in the past by making more references to previous political events in their 2016 reporting. Comparing text of their articles and broadcasts to language in their tweets, we found journalists used language on Twitter reflecting more emotion, greater certainty, and a focus on the present. These results were consistent with Kahneman’s model of System 1 versus System 2 thinking.

The Synergistic Effects of Solutions Journalism and Corporate Social Responsibility Advertising • Minjie Li, The University of Tampa • This study explores the synergistic effects of solutions journalism and corporate social responsibility advertising. More specifically, it experimentally investigates how news story orientation (i.e. Problem-Oriented, Solution-Oriented) interacts with the relevance of the advertisement (i.e. Irrelevant, Low-Relevance, High-Relevance) displayed alongside the news story to redirect people’s affective and cognitive responses to the news story and advertisement. The findings demonstrated that the solution-oriented story elicited more positive affect, issue interest, self-efficacy, and favorable evaluations of the advertisement.

The Discursive Construction of Forza Nuova in Italy’s Corriere della Sera: Legitimizing the Ultra-Right? • Cinzia Padovani, Scuola Normale Superiore/Loughborough University • “What is the role of mainstream media in the discursive construction of ultra-right political actors? In order to answer this question, I propose a case study in which I draw from critical discourse studies to investigate Italy’s newspaper of record (Corriere della Sera)’s coverage of the ultra-right party Forza Nuova (FN). I argue that Corriere, one of the most important news organizations in the country, has tended to represent this party as a legitimate player in the political and public sphere, rather than providing the reader with the necessary background on its neo-fascist roots and ideology. The findings provide us with insight into the potential dangers and pitfalls of some core principles of ethical journalism (such as impartiality and fairness) when reporting on ultra-right political actors. This case study shows the importance of a journalism that is shaped by the post-WWII core values of anti-fascism and anti-racism, in a more contextualized and historicized practice.

“Setting Your Own Agenda”: Selective Exposure as a Mechanism for Re-Enforcing Issue Importance • George Pearson, The Ohio State University; Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick; Birkan Gokbag • “Classic agenda setting hypotheses suggest audiences take cues from media as to the most important issues in society. However, this is challenged by a high-choice media environment that allows users to choose topics based off pre-existing interests. A selective exposure experiment found pre-exposure issue importance and media emphasis both predict selective exposure which in turn predicts post-exposure importance. However, media emphasis did not directly predict post-exposure importance, implying selective exposure is necessary for agenda setting.

* Extended Abstract * Covering Parkland: How reporters cope with living through a school shooting • Theodore Petersen • When tragedy strikes, journalists are often among those who run toward the danger. This qualitative study explores the lived experience of 10 South Florida journalists who covered the Parkland school shooting. The journalists shared moving stories. For example, one had her Twitter account faked and received death threats; another worried about his brother who taught at the school. By understanding these experiences, newsroom leaders and journalism professors can better prepare journalists to handle these situations.

News Story Aggregation and Perceived Credibility • Chris Roberts, University of Alabama; Stan Diel, Francis Marion University • The practice of aggregating news content—repurposing content created by other news organizations—raises questions about credibility. This experimental study suggests that news organizations can boost credibility of aggregated content by more clearly identifying originating sources than by increasing or decreasing the use of aggregation. Relationships between levels of aggregation and credibility showed little or no significance, while relationships between credibility and receivers’ confidence in identifying originating sources were significant.

* Extended Abstract * A Qualitative Analysis of US Immigration Coverage by Media During the Obama and Trump Presidencies • Jennifer Sadler • This qualitative analysis examines the frequency of immigration-related posts by media organizations and audience reactions on Facebook from the last three years of Barack Obama’s Presidency and the first three years of Donald Trump’s Presidency: January 2014 – December 2019. The results of this analysis indicate that media have significantly increased posting about this topic since 2014 and audiences have also elevated their participation through comments, shares, and reactions.

A Frame Analysis of Climate Change Solutions in Online News and Media • Michelle Seelig; Huixin Deng, University of Miami; Songyi Liang, University of Miami • Even though the public is aware of climate change, deficient is an adequate discussion about real solutions, preventive measures, or necessary actions that may prevent further deterioration or damage to Earth. The present study seeks to know how online news and media discusses (a) actions to address climate change, (b) self, external, and response efficacy of actions that may be taken to address it, and (c) how are climate solutions visually framed in the news.

Partisan Selective Exposure on Social Media: Individual Preference vs. Community Structure • Jieun Shin, University of Florida • This study examined two different levels of selective exposure phenomenon: the individual level (i.e., a tendency to favor like-minded sources) and network level (i.e., partisan community structures). We linked survey responses from a representative sample of twitter users in the U.S. with their digital trace data from Twitter including media following and exposure to news via their friends. We found that selectivity bias was present in all types of data including self-reported media consumption (survey), media following (digital trace), and indirect exposure to media (digital trace). However, individual- level preferences did not translate into macroscopic network structures in which partisan groups are clustered and isolated. A moderate level cross-cutting exposure and a common use of neutral media hindered extreme partisan segregation. Additionally, we observed an asymmetric pattern of selective exposure between conservatives and liberals. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to the roles of mainstream media, selective avoidance, and incidental exposure.

National Prisms of a Global Phenomenon: A Comparative Study of Press Coverage of Climate Change in the US, UK and China • Yunya Song, Hong Kong Baptist University; Zeping Huang; Jonathon P. Schuldt, Cornell University; Connie Yuan, Cornell University • Although a number of studies have compared media coverage of climate change issues across countries, most focus on comparisons between the European and US contexts. Chinese media, by comparison, has received much less scholarly attention. This study examines the US, UK versus Chinese media coverage of climate change from 2013 to 2018. Our analysis entails a 39.4 million-word corpus of news texts retrieved from six leading national newspapers. A combination of computer-assisted quantitative linguistic analysis with critical discourse analysis was used to identify and compare linguistic elements as well as the moral reasoning that underpins the journalistic positioning across large corpuses. The findings suggested that the US and UK newspapers tended to frame climate change coverage as a domestic issue, while Chinese media tended to frame it as a global issue that the world at large needs to tackle. Moreover, the Chinese media were more likely to adopt one-sided rhetoric than their Western counterpart, and whereas the U.S. and UK newspapers more often adopted the balanced reporting norm to include a wider range of views. Our finding showed mixed support for the contrast between the West and the East in moral reasoning underlying their climate change stance. Even if the media in these three countries shared certain moral values and concerns regarding climate issues, their relative importance nevertheless varied due to their different socio-political systems and cultural repertoires.

Identity Denied: An Examination of News, Affective Responses, and Behavioral Tendencies among Audiences • David Stamps, Louisiana State University • It is well documented that news coverage of racial minorities impacts audiences’ cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses. Yet, our knowledge is limited in understanding the influence of news coverage of whites on white audiences. By applying assumptions for social identity, self-categorization, and the black sheet effect, the current study experimentally examines these relationships. Results indicate that race-focused, versus non-racialized news, provoke heightened, complex affective and behavioral responses based on group identification.

The Strategic Ritual of Emotionality in Trafficking, Immigration, and Asylum News • Allison Steinke, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Valerie Belair-Gagnon, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities • Human trafficking, immigration, and asylum are crucial elements of international human rights covered frequently in American news media. A qualitative content analysis of articles published in three leading U.S. newspapers reveals that the strategic ritual of emotionality provides a helpful lens and analytic framework through which scholars can examine news media discourse on these topics that cultivates a sense of cosmopolitan citizenship while at the same time reproducing established norms of journalism.

* Extended Abstract * The competing ‘content studio’ agenda: A large-scale analysis of sponsored content in elite U.S. newspapers and its agenda cutting effect on corporate news • Chris Vargo, University of Colorado Boulder; Michelle Amazeen, Boston University • 2,711 sponsored content articles from 27 major U.S. corporations were analyzed across five years in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. The degree to which sponsored predicted significant changes in news coverage for elite media and 2) the U.S. online media was investigated. Half of the corporations change in salience across the media landscape. Agenda cutting was the most common effect observed, happening both inside of elite media and across the media landscape. Corporate sponsored content mildly suppresses coverage of that corporation in online news. Agenda building, however is very rare, or perhaps nonexistent. In this way we suggest that “content studios” may be acting more like advertisers, which have been known to suppress critical coverage of their corporation from time to time, and less like public relations practitioners who amplify and boost the salience of a company’s good deeds.

Greater Expectations: How the Public Perceives News Bias and Journalistic Routines • Tamar Wilner, University of Texas at Austin; Dominique Montiel Valle, The University of Texas at Austin; Gina M. Masullo, School of Journalism, The University of Texas at Austin • “This study, using the hierarchy of influences model, investigates how individuals conceive of bias in the news and of how journalists do their jobs. We find that focus group participants’ conception of bias is broad, actually penalizing reporters for following journalistic routines. Data also shows participants hold high and possibly unattainable expectations for journalists’ adherence to ethics, such as reporting the truth and holding power to account. Implications for media trust are discussed.

Political Journalism and Democracy: How journalists reflect political viewpoint diversity in their reporting • David Wolfgang, Colorado State University; Tim Vos, Michigan State University; Kimberly Kelling; Soo Young Shin, MSU • Journalists express support for providing a diversity of viewpoints in their reporting, but how is this reflected in their content? This study compared survey results of U.S. political journalists’ statements with a content analysis of their reporting. There was limited support for journalists reflecting a diversity of viewpoints in their reporting, but only for those who support civic or direct models of democracy. Results related to sourcing and trust in institutions are also discussed.

Collective Sensemaking with Big Data: Sentiment Analysis of Tweet Content for Journalistic Inquiry • Yanfang Wu • Twitter is recognized by journalists as a powerful journalistic instrument. However, it consumes a great deal of journalists’ time and effort in order to verify the accuracy of the flood of information and transform raw information from social media to reportable results. Moreover, there is a lack of research on how journalists may classify Twitter content. This study seeks to fill in the knowledge gap by utilizing sentiment analysis and sensemaking theory to differentiate Twitter content from a journalistic perspective. This case study focused on 1,771,785 tweets from August 22 to September 16 in the Hurricane Dorian in 2019. The study found analysis of large-scale user-generated data on Twitter helps journalists in sensemaking in a crisis. The impact of opinion leaders on information diffusion on Twitter is declining. Although both subjectivity and polarity predict retweets, a negative association was recognized between subjectivity of a tweet and retweet counts. Moreover, tweets with negative polarity opinions were retweeted more.

* Extended Abstract * Digital News Work: Skills and Attributes Online-only News Websites Seek in their Employees • Casey Yetter, University of Oklahoma; Asma Khanom; Peter Gade • This research looks at the skills and attributes digital-native news sites look for in their employees. A quantitative content analysis of 246 job advertisements from 37 digital native news websites was conducted. Results reveal that these sites seek previous experience more than any other attribute or skill, and while several digital-based skills are common in the ads, those most related to emerging areas of professionalism are seldom present. Online news sites are more niche-oriented than traditional media, and results show that although core journalism skills remain important, there are some important differences the skills these sites seek.

What’s Wrong with Newspapers’ Digital Readership? An Empirical Analysis of the Top 50 U.S. Newspapers’ Online Metrics with the Multidimensional Web Attention Model • Nan Zheng; Iris Chyi; Yee Man Margaret Ng, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Kelly Kaufhold • This study applies the Multidimensional Web Attention Model to 50 U.S. newspapers’ digital readership using Scarborough and Comscore metrics data, showing a less optimistic view of newspaper online readership across all dimensions. National newspapers outperform local newspapers only in audience size. Mobile users surpass the number of desktop users but lack loyalty and depth. Users age 18-24 are a small group and read fewer pages than those 45 or older. Managerial implications are discussed.

Student Papers
* Extended Abstract * Reporting on Syrian conflict from exile: Examining advocacy journalism in diaspora journalists’ online productions and networks • Rana Arafat, University of Lugano • Searching for an inclusive definition of diaspora journalism and the changing roles of journalists in exile, this paper employs an inductive approach to examine how diaspora journalists build online networks that blur boundaries between journalism, activism, human rights advocacy, social movements, and civil society work. Using digital ethnography, qualitative content analysis, and in-depth interviews, the study further investigates the online textual productions of two Syrian opposition news websites to explore their media advocacy strategies and the main topics their reporting activism agendas involve as well as examining the diaspora journalists’ own perceptions of the changing nature of their profession after fleeing the Syrian repressive political spheres. Preliminary findings demonstrate that diaspora journalism poses various challenges to traditional journalism paradigms as journalists’ roles go beyond merely collecting information and publishing stories to include fundraising, training local citizen journalists, collaborating with civil society organizations and carrying out various forms of institutional work. State intervention, objectivity, cyber threats, funding, and accessibility of sources pose other limitations to diaspora journalists’ advocacy efforts.

Intermedia Attribute Agenda-Setting among Hong Kong, U.S. and Mainland Chinese Media • Yining Fan; Vincent Wong • “This study integrates the Protest Paradigm into the analysis of intermedia agenda-setting among major newspapers in Hong Kong, the U.S., and Mainland China concerning the 2019 anti-extradition bill protests. A total of 9,646 news headlines/headings were analyzed. Granger causality tests revealed that paradigm-related attributes transferred from the more “elite” U.S. media to Hong Kong newspapers, while a bottom-up effect was also identified, with Hong Kong newspapers influencing U.S. ones regarding Chinese authority and international society.

News Grazing in the Era of Information Overload: The Underlying Motivations and Technological Affordances for News Grazing • Li Xuan Hong; Xiang Yuan Brenda Pong; Wan Xin Rachelle Lye; Ngiag Gya Trisha Sng • “Guided by the niche theory, this study explored news grazing — the act of skimming through bite-sized news intermittently, or at regular interstices of time, in a summarised format, underpinned by the prioritisation of efficiency. News grazers are motivated by individuals’ increasing demand for efficiency, information motivation and socialisation needs. News grazing is facilitated by the affordances of customisability, accessibility, aesthetics, and simultaneity within the given app (i.e., Telegram) that this study examined.

* Extended Abstract * It doesn’t flow through the taps for free: Framing of Detroit’s water shutoffs by mainstream newspapers • Kelsey Mesmer, Wayne State University; Scott Burgess, Wayne State University; Darryl Frazier, Wayne State University • This content analysis of news stories about the Detroit water shutoffs seeks to understand how the on-going water crisis is framed in the local news—as a human rights issue, or in relation to the city’s financial burden. Using a deductive framing approach, we pay special attention to the frames used within stories and whether articles contained context related to the water shutoffs, specifically about health implications and the cost of water in Detroit.

Framing Media Disinformation in a Time of Crisis: Social Media’s Response to COVID-19 • Hoa Nguyen; Sara Browning • This study examines traditional mainstream media stories published online (N=107) by domestic and international news outlets in January 2020 to decipher how stories frame disinformation in the media during a crisis event. The study draws on Doris Graber’s crisis journalism concept that focuses on audiences’ perceptions that coverage of hazardous events is insufficient to fulfill audiences’ information needs. To this end, the study explores how mainstream journalists educate audiences concerning disinformation types. We find that traditional mainstream media criticize social media for serving as a conduit for disinformation and that mainstream journalists rely mostly on interest group members to correct disinformation.

Law enforcement “journalism” in the modern age: How does social media erode journalistic authority? • Elizabeth (Beth) Potter, University of Colorado Boulder • “In the age of social media, both journalists and law enforcement personnel have changed their news-gathering and dissemination routines. Specifically, journalist interactions with law enforcement sources have changed, both in number and in timing.

What does this say about eroding journalistic authority, if anything? This study finds that journalists continue to follow industry norms of objectivity and verification – especially verification through multiple sources – while using social media tools to help them find information they need to do their work. Law enforcement public information officers often decide not to talk to journalists. Instead, law enforcement officers post information directly to social media site “followers”. This study poses questions about both journalistic and law enforcement authority. It also examines how social media blurs journalists’ “watchdog role” in a modern democracy. While the study is limited to less than 50 participants because of the small number of people working in this particular area (both journalists and public information officers in one western state), it provides valuable insights into the changing nature of who is considered authoritative in providing public information, which can pave the way for a systematic analysis of this issue across the United States.”

Get engaged: Newsletters as a new habit • Elizabeth (Beth) Potter, University of Colorado Boulder • “This study explores the relationship between news engagement and public participation in the digital age at a time when the number of local news outlets around the country has dropped precipitously. As such, this study appears to be the first to look at how online news newsletter subscribers engage in civic life. Participants (N=315) were recruited through the online-only Colorado Sun newsletter – The Sunriser (www.coloradosun.com) and the legacy newspaper, the Denver Post newsletter – Mile High Roundup (www.denverpost.com). This relationship has been studied many times as it pertains to other news platforms and other forms of public participation – particularly voting. But it rarely has been studied as it pertains to other forms of civic engagement. This theme is particularly pressing now, after more than 2,100 local news outlets have gone out of business in the last 15 years (Abernathy, 2018; Pew Research Center, 2018.) Despite the rapid changes going on in the media industry – including increased financial turmoil for virtually every news outlet – findings show that these particular e-newsletter consumers are more likely to follow the news and are more likely to be engaged in their communities. Specifically, the more time that the e-newsletter subscribers spend with the news, the more likely they are to be engaged in specific types of public participation, including attending community meetings, addressing community issues, and attending rallies or protests. People with higher household incomes who subscribe to online news newsletters also are more likely to be engaged in their communities.”

Defending Credibility in Attacks on Online News • Erika Schneider, University of Missori; Courtney Boman, University of Missouri • In the growth of online news, the industry faces new threats on a polarized landscape, such as online astroturfing attacks, that result in real consequences. This research informs scholarship and practice with how news organizations can raise their credibility while lowering the astroturfer’s credibility. As online news has not been immune to these attacks, it recognizes how organizations can effectively inoculate themselves by warning stakeholders and exposing the nature of ongoing malicious campaigns.

Epidemic arrives in political times: Comparing Hong Kong Newspaper Reporting on SARS and COVID-19 • Cheryl S.Y. SHEA, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Wendy L.Y. LEUNG, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • “This study compares how Hong Kong newspapers with distinctive political affiliations adopt contextual frames in discussing the outbreak of SARS and COVID-19 from a socio-political angle through content analysis (N = 764). We propose a new frame, resistance, to show how the local government’s legitimacy crisis, which arose due to the unresolved Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Movement, is reflected in the presumably unrelated health crisis and how people reacted to the legitimacy crisis through public resistance.”

Ideal Image for News Media: A Typology for Repairing Public Trust • Soo Young Shin, MSU • This study proposes the use of a multidimensional construct of news media—news media image—to better understand the public’s perception and potentially, to repair the public’s trust. Through a multidisciplinary literature review, and qualitative and quantitative analysis, the research identified seven categories of news media image as a heuristic which uncovered: respondents evaluate the public’s perception based on their daily utilities, journalists’ empathetic capabilities, and accessibility to news content, adding to traditional understanding of credibility. The seven categories of news media image were: news usefulness, empathy, news selection bias, personality, credibility, usability, and social responsibility.

Journalism Ethics Shift as Native Advertising Evolves • Ava Sirrah, Columbia • The goal of the study is to see if the creation and dissemination of native advertising shapes the values journalists are asked to uphold and protect. Native advertising is commercial content that is designed to mimic non-advertising content— like stories crafted by journalists— and it is placed alongside non-commercial content. This study examines if a news publisher’s values are challenged when they allow their advertising and marketing departments to produce native ads. The method of inquiry draws upon a series of 35 in-depth interviews with people who sell, help produce, or disseminate native advertising and 10 interviews with people who work in the newsroom. The interviews suggest that a subset of people inside branded content studios are able to shape or influence the work of newsroom journalists and editors.

Mitigating the Negative Bias of the News • Christian Staal Bruun Overgaard, The University of Texas at Austin • An experiment (N = 270) tested the effects of exposure to constructive journalism on social media. Subjects read a series of constructive – or a series of negative – updates made by a fictitious news organization. Compared to those reading negative updates, subjects who read constructive updates perceived the news organization as more credible, expressed stronger intentions to like the updates, felt more efficacy regarding solving societal problems, and experienced more positive – and less negative – affect.

Who Sets the Media Agenda for Nonprofit News Organizations? • Jiehua Zhang, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama • “Nonprofit news organizations are expected to fill the reporting voids left by traditional news outlets; traditional, commercial media sources have recently experienced extreme financial difficulties, and they’ve had to cut content and laid off staff. Nonprofit news organizations have been able to overcome some of those financial challenges through donations and sponsors. However, their heavy reliance on contributions and donations raises concerns about their objectivity and independence. The present study applies issue ownership theory to examine agenda and regional bias of news coverage from two nonprofit news organizations: ProPublica (N=186) and the Center for Public Integrity (N=141). The results showed that both nonprofit news organizations put more focus on performance issues, such as government functioning, than Democrat- or Republican-owned issues. However, both organizations covered significantly more Democratic issues than Republican issues. The study also examined the partisan preferences of donors for the organizations. While the Republican Index showed that donors for both news organizations donated more money to Democratic than to Republican politicians, further research is still needed to identify whether or not there was relationship between issue coverage and donors’ political predispositions. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Newspapers as propaganda: How Communist Party of China newspapers frame images on the South China Sea disputes for national and international audiences • Runping Zhu • “Using both quantitative and qualitative content analysis, this study offers a comparative analysis of how two Chinese Communist Party newspapers frame the South China Sea disputes to international and national audiences over the period 2014 to 2016. Building on Lee and Lee’s classification of propaganda techniques, the study examines how a Chinese language paper targeting domestic readers and an English language newspaper targeting the international community use different techniques when presenting the same story to different audiences to create positive images of China and negative images of its opponents. Papers for the domestic market adopted news frames that buttressed citizens’ support for the state’s actions on a foundation of nationalism. In contrast, the primary objective of the newspaper aimed at international readers was to undermine foreign governments’ arguments opposing China’s viewpoint. The empirical findings illustrate how propaganda techniques originally developed and applied in Western and democratic countries have been adopted and refined by newspapers in a state-run Communist press environment to create frames that best align with the cultural and political predispositions of domestic and international readers. These textual techniques are augmented by a variety other article features tailored to the two different target audiences to enhance the credibility of articles. The findings indicate Chinese authorities understand Western communication theory and appreciate how that theory can be applied to disseminate propaganda messages to both foreign and domestic audiences.

<2020 Abstracts