Community Journalism 2018 Abstracts

Bringing the community to the journalism: A comparative analysis of Hearken-driven and traditional news at four NPR stations • Mark Poepsel, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; Jennifer Cox, Salisbury University • Hearken is a news engagement organization providing tools to help publications better provide community journalism by soliciting story ideas from citizens and taking them along on the reporting process. Hearken promises different types of stories that engage the community and boost revenues. This study examined all 2017 Hearken content from four U.S. public radio stations and compared it with a matching number of traditional content produced by those stations for a sample of 406 stories. This study revealed significant differences in the types of content produced and number and types of sources used, with Hearken content geared more toward local news on lifestyle/living topics reported using a high frequency of non-official sources. The results of this study show Hearken is fulfilling its community journalism objectives by engaging with citizens and providing valuable information that produces audience engagement.

Pursuing Civic Capital: Journalistic, Economic, and Political Goals at a City Magazine • Joy Jenkins • This study examines the representational practices of staff members at an award-winning city magazine, D Magazine in Dallas, Texas. The study used field theory to address how external and internal social, political, economic, and technological influences informed staff members’ perceptions of D’s local function. The findings suggest that staff members balanced journalistic- and economic-oriented editorial emphases through reinforcing a city-magazine mentality that dictated and legitimized content approaches. The study also recognized how D attracted and engaged various forms of capital while also shifting its focus to amassing civic capital as a means of manifesting its local agenda in tangible ways.

Assessing Local Journalism:  News Deserts, Journalism Divides, and the Determinants of the Robustness of Local News • Phil Napoli, Duke University; Matthew Weber, Rutgers University; Katie McCollough, Augustana University; Qun Wang, Rutgers University • The economic challenges confronting local journalism have been well documented. However, there has been relatively little research that has sought to systematically examine the nature of local journalism across a large sample of communities.  This paper seeks to address this gap.  The goals of this paper are threefold.  The first is to present a rigorous, replicable methodological approach to assessing the robustness of local journalism in a way that scales to the analysis of a large number of communities, and that can be used to assess differences in the state of local journalism either across communities or over time.  The second goal is to provide descriptive data on the robustness of local journalism that will provide an indication of the extent to which local communities are receiving journalism that is original, local, and that addresses critical information needs.  The third goal is to explore whether there are any relationships between the characteristics of individual communities and the robustness of the local journalism that is available to those communities, in an effort to determine whether certain types of communities are particularly vulnerable to the declines affecting local journalism.

The Galapagos Syndrome of Korean Local Television News: How Regulatory Restrictions Alter the Norms and Routines of Local Television News Work • Sung Yoon Ri, Syracuse University; Keren Henderson, Syracuse University • Like the Galapagos tortoise, local television news in South Korea has evolved under harsh and isolated conditions. Strict governmental regulations have weakened Korea’s local journalistic autonomy, gatekeeping function, newsgathering processes, and credibility. This qualitative study analyzes how governmental regulations have distorted traditional journalistic practices of local Korean TV newsrooms. The results suggest that with interactive news storytelling and local-friendly attitudes, these newsrooms have altered their norms and routines in order to cope and thrive.

Exploring Options to Build Trust Between Journalists and Audiences in Collegiate Community Journalism Education • Melanie Wilderman, Gaylord College, University of Oklahoma • This case study research explored options for improving trust between journalists and their communities within the boundaries of collegiate community journalism education. Data collected from students who completed a community journalism class, their instructor, and journalism professionals who engaged with the class was analyzed using qualitative text analysis. Conclusions from findings indicate: student journalists understand that trust is not easily gained, and they understand reliability and credibility as related to trust, but have less of a grasp on the element of responsiveness; students want to implement community journalism practices across multiple platforms; political divisiveness continues to shape how journalists think of trust; students often blame audience members for shortcomings in the journalist/audience relationship; and seasoned professionals and educators may not fully understand how generational differences in the media landscape have shaped the younger journalists’ thoughts about trust and relationship with audience.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Visual Communication 2018 Abstracts

From Reel Life to Real Change: The Role of Social-Issue Documentary in U.S. Public Policy • Caty Borum Chattoo, American University School of Communication and Center for Media & Social Impact; Will Jenkins • This study examines three digital-era U.S. documentary films – Sin by Silence (2009), Playground (2009), and Semper Fi (2011) – to reveal cultural and narrative elements of influence that underscored their successful U.S. policy engagement on federal and state levels. Expanding the coalition model of documentary’s political impact (Whiteman, 2004) through case studies constructed by interviews with the collaborating policymakers, policy advocates and film directors, this study finds that social-issue documentaries may be influential for policy engagement because their narratives are perceived as emotional, factual, and nonpartisan. Documentary narrative is positioned as “situated knowledge” (Epstein, Farina & Heidt, 2014), narrative that presents human implications and lived experiences within the policymaking context. Ultimately, the policy impact of these three social-issue documentary films can be attributed to the dual defining characteristics of documentary as a visual mediated storytelling genre: both creative artistic expression and reflection of truth.

Giving Guidance to Graphs: Evaluating Direct and Indirect Annotations of Data Visualizations for the News • Russell Chun, Hofstra University • This study quantifies the effectiveness of information recall with direct and indirect labeling of the annotation layer in a news data visualization. Three variations of a New York Times graphic were presented to participants in a crowd-sourced experiment to measure their story comprehension. Our results demonstrate that direct labeling offers no advantage over indirect labeling. More significantly, annotations on visualizations do no better to enhance comprehension than visualizations without them, contradicting data visualization orthodoxy.

“This is still their lives:” Photojournalists’ ethical approach to capturing and publishing graphic/shocking images • Kaitlin Bane, University of Oregon; Nicole Dahmen, University of Oregon • Graphic and gut-wrenching images of death, violence, and the aftermath of pain fill our news media. This paper uses in-depth interviews with photojournalists to explore fundamental ethical questions about the decision-making process and ethical considerations involved in photographing and publishing such images. Research found participants utilize an ethic of care and focus on subjects when taking pictures, and consider audience effects only tangentially. Additionally, they maintain that images can create positive change, but not always.

To tone or not to tone: A hierarchy of influences examination of photojournalistic image manipulation • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado Boulder; Ross Taylor, U of Colorado-Boulder • This study investigates how professional photojournalists apply toning ethics in their news routines and whether those ethics vary by organization. Utilizing data collected from in-depth interviews with professional photojournalists and a hierarchy of influences framework, we found that while some ethical decisions are embedded in photojournalists’ news routines, these do vary greatly by organization. These findings illustrate how journalistic norms could be potentially changing and that individual news organizations are applying ethics differently.

Recoding Language with Fatty Memes: How Chinese Netizens Avoid Censorship When Referring to North Korea • Bingbing Zhang, Texas Tech University; Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; David Perlmutter, Texas Tech University • Memes are humorous images, often featuring captions with superimposed text, that are shared online. In an effort to avoid censorship, Chinese netizens strategically use memes to discuss political issues. This study content analyzes memes that feature an image or likeness of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un posted by Chinese social media users on the Weibo platform. Results highlight how politically astute, tech-savvy publics can express political dissent, even in a high-censorship online environment.

Capturing the Crisis: A Content Analysis of News Photographs of the Syrian Refugee Crisis • Tamar Gregorian, The University of Southern Mississippi; Elizabeth Radley • The Syrian refugee crisis, the largest migration of displaced persons in recent history, has been widely documented through photographs. In an attempt to understand the media frames and tones that the media used in covering the crisis through photographs of the refugees, the researchers conducted a content analysis of 629 photographs and captions from The New York Times and The Washington Post from May 2014 – May 2016. Results indicate that the majority of the photographs containing Syrian refugees had a negative tone, a main message of migration, and stereotyped the refugees as victims.

Mobile Augmented Reality through the Lens of Eye Tracking • Sheree Josephson, Weber State University; Melina Myers, Weber State University • This eye-tracking study compared the usability of Yelp’s Augmented Reality app with its familiar map-based app. Results showed AR users could successfully find a destination using the location-based technology that augments a display of the physical landscape with digital information. However, AR users took longer to find the location. They also spent more time looking at the mobile screen and looked back and forth between the screen and the environment more often than map users.

Effects of Playfulness on SNS Emoji Uses • Yeon Joo Kim; Jaehee Park; Jong Woo Jun, Dankook University • This research tries to verify, from a marketing strategy perspective, various purchasing motivations and factors affecting the purchase of special emoji graphics and explore the relationship between these purchase motivations and psychological factors, including playfulness that contribute to emoji purchases. For this study, Kakao which is the number one SNS service in Korea was selected as a research target and examined relationships among four latent constructs: Self-presentation, symbolic values, playfulness, and purchase intentions. The results illustrated that self-presentation influenced symbolic values, and self-presentation is positively related with playfulness. Symbolic values influenced playfulness, which in turn lead to purchase intentions of the characters. Direct relationships between symbolic values and purchase intentions were also found.

All About the Visuals: Image Framing, Emoticons and Sharing Intention for Health News Posts on Facebook • Yen-I Lee, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georiga; Katherine Keib, Oglethorpe University; Brittany Jefferson, University of Georgia; Jennifer Malson, University of Georgia; Hyoyeun Jun, University of Georgia • Responding to calls for research on effects of visual communication in the cognitive processing of health information, a 2 (visual framing: gain/loss) x 2 (personal relevance of topic: high/low) x 2 (emoticon valence: positive/negative) mixed-factorial eye-tracking experiment tested effects of photographic images (gain-or-loss framed) and visual sentiment displays (emoticons) on sharing of health news posts. Negative emoticons led to greater sharing intent, while image framing shaped perceptions of disease severity and susceptibility.

Who Can Be Put at Risk by “Virtual Makeovers”?: Self-Photo Editing, Disordered Eating, and the Role of Mindset among Adult Female Instagram Users • Roselyn Lee-Won, The Ohio State University; Dingyu Hu, The Ohio State University; Yeon Kyoung Joo, Myongji University; Sung Gwan Park, Seoul National University • We investigated the relationship between self-photo editing on Instagram and disordered eating among adult females. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with U.S. female Instagram users (N = 382). Results showed that more frequent self-photo editing was associated with greater rumination about eating, weight, and shape, which in turn was associated with disordered eating. Furthermore, a moderated mediation analysis revealed that the mediation was significant among those with moderate and high levels of fixed mindset.

Social beautifying: How personality traits and social comparison affect selfie-editing behavior • Yu Liu, Florida International University; Weirui Wang • Individual users worldwide purposefully and selectively edit their selfies and post their photos on social networking sites. Based on social comparison framework, this study examines how personality traits affect individuals’ selfie-editing behavior through social comparison process: downward identification, downward contrast, upward identification, and upward contrast. The findings suggest individuals with high public self-consciousness, low self-esteem, and high neuroticism tend to engage in different types of social comparison, which are associated with their selfie-editing behavior.

Two days, twenty outfits: Coachella attendees’ visual presentation of self and experience on Instagram • Kyser Lough, The University of Texas at Austin • This study uses visual discourse analysis to study how people utilize social media and photography at events such as a music festival, theoretically guided by how technological affordances allow for a new way of presentation of self. Analysis of 200 Instagram posts from attendees at the 2017 Coachella music festival reveals they care less about sharing photos of the concerts and more about curating a sense of taste, sense of embrace and sense of place.

Celebrating Life or Adversity? The Redefinition of Features in the Pictures of the Year International Contest • Jennifer Midberry; Ryan N. Comfort, Indiana University Bloomington; Joseph Roskos, Indiana University-Bloomington • “Photojournalism contests have been criticized for continually awarding top prizes in hard news categories to images that depict conflict, disaster, poverty, and other problems. Pictures like these, which have a social issues visual frame, usually focus on people from countries other than the United States and on minorities. Some photojournalism contests, like Pictures of the Year International (POYi), include a features category. Traditionally, feature photos capture

humorous, tender, or picturesque moments of everyday life, and their purpose is to celebrate the human condition. The feature photo category should theoretically be an area in photojournalism contests that breaks from the pattern of emphasizing social issues. However, in recent years of POYi the features category appears to also be dominated by images that stress hardship. To investigate whether this represents an increasing trend in POYi of awarding prizes to pictures that focus on social issues, a content analysis of the winning photographs from the past twenty years was conducted. Understanding whether the feature category in POYi has evolved is important because when it comes to shaping discourses about social issues, national identities, ethnicity and race, feature photos have the potential for emphasizing commonality. If the newsworthiness of feature photos starts to become tied to similar criteria as hard news photos, that potential will be diminished.”

Internet memes and copyright law: The transformativeness of memes as tools of visual communication in remix culture • Natalia Mielczarek; W. Wat Hopkins • Internet memes have become popular artifacts of visual communication in digital culture. They are, by definition, reiterative as they remix already existing content to produce new rhetorical statements. This interdisciplinary study explores the legal implications of such “produsage” vis-à-vis the U.S. copyright law. With the help of legal research and theoretical framework of remix culture and memetics, the study shows how and why memes deserve legal protection as transformative work.

Reinvestigating the Beauty Match Up in Food Ads • Juan Mundel, DePaul University; Patricia Huddleston, Michigan State University • In two studies, we explore how males evaluate models of different body sizes in snack and fast food ads, and the effects of the pairing of different models with products perceived to be healthy (vs. unhealthy) on participants’ evaluations of the the product, the ad, and purchase intentions. Overall, participants had better evaluations of the ads when presented with unhealthy foods and models with idealized bodies.

The Visual Framing of Immigrants and Refugees in U.S. News: Content and Effects • Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama; Jennifer Hoewe, Purdue University; Minghui Fan, The University of Alabama; Keith Huffman, The University of Alabama • This research examines the visual framing of immigrants and refugees by U.S. news outlets and its effects on news consumers. In Study 1, coders examined the photographs used in stories about immigrants and refugees that were shared on Twitter by regional news outlets in each of the 50 states. Stories most often contained one of two visual foci: a human interest frame, featuring immigrants and refugees as everyday people; or a political frame, showcasing politicians. In an experiment, Study 2 determined the equivalency framing effects of these visuals on participants’ emotions and, in turn, their attitudes toward immigrants and refugees. Exposure to a human interest visual frame predicted more positive emotional responses, leading to greater support for immigrants and refugees. Conversely, exposure to a political visual frame predicted more negative emotional responses and then less support for immigrants and refugees.

Profile Pictures Across Platforms: How identity visually manifests itself among social media communities • T.J. Thomson, Missouri School of Journalism; Keith Greenwood, University of Missouri • A profile picture is a ubiquitous and salient part of almost any online account and provides a window not only into the individual user but also to the larger online community’s culture. Profile pictures have been called “one of the most telling pieces of self-disclosure or image construction” in online communities and users face dizzying freedom when deciding on their selection. Such choices have been studied in discrete contexts, such as how personality type affects profile picture selection on Twitter, but they have not yet been studied across platforms to see whether the same photo is used across multiple sites or whether users select different photos for different communities and what such differences or similarities reveal both about the users and about the communities from which they originate. Informed by literature in social psychology and self-representation, this study offers a seminal look into how profile pictures differ across platforms and how user personality and perceived audience affect such decisions. It does so through a three-pronged approach of personality assessment, textual analysis, and in-depth interview. The findings reveal that the younger users sampled in this study overwhelmingly prefer polychromatic images and a majority preferred to have a unique picture on each platform. These same users are comfortable having their identifiable features in their profile pictures and those who are more extroverted preferred to share the frame with someone else. In many ways, the users in the sample rejected artifice for authenticity in terms of their profile pictures’ form, content, and the the way they were processed, if at all, in post-production.

Analysis of Photographic Representation of Refugees in France • Anna Warner, Biola University; Tamara Welter, Biola university; Jason Brunt, Biola University • This research investigates the photographic representation by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) of Middle Eastern refugees seeking asylum in France. The objective is to determine how refugees were represented to audiences and whether that depiction changed in the wake of the November 2015 Paris Suicide Attacks. Analysis shows that refugees were represented differently after the attacks, in a way that aligned more closely with French collectivism than before.

Feminine, Competent, Submissive: A Multimodal Analysis of Depictions of Women in U.S. Wartime Persuasive Messages • Easton Wollney, University of Florida; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication • This analysis used Peirce’s triadic approach to interpret 58 public depictions of wartime women from 1914 to 1918 and from 1941 to 1946. The images appeared in government posters or as ads and illustrations in U.S. magazines and newspapers. Aligned in five thematic clusters, many invited polysemy through discrepant visual and verbal cues aimed at different audiences. Women as viewers and as objects of representation were addressed in the context of both citizenship and consumption.

It Costs a Lot to Look This Cheap: Preference for Low Quality Graphic Design • Shannon Zenner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Some 1000 surveys were conducted on Amazon’s MTurk, asking respondents to rate a high and low-quality visual design, in this case, a billboard ad. While most respondents preferred the high-quality ad, over a third opted for the low-quality design. The qualities they described liking in the ad differed from those respondents who preferred the high-quality design. Age also played a role in preference. Implications for many different types of visual communication are discussed.

Effects of Visual Theme and View Perspective on Visual Attention and Brand Constructions: An Eye-Tracking Study on Instagram Posts • Lijie Zhou, Southern Utah University; Fei Xue, The University of Southern Miss • This eye-tracking study examined the effects of visual theme and view perspective on Instagram users’ visual attention. It also explored whether visual attention influenced brand attitude and recognition. Results showed that participants spent the longest time viewing and paid the most attention to customer-centric images with a first-person view perspective. When in a third-person view, product-centric images received the longest fixation duration and most fixation frequency. It was also found that brand recognition was positively influenced by fixation frequency but not by fixation duration.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Public Relations 2018 Abstracts

Doug Newsom Award for Global Ethics Global Diversity
Julia Daisy Fraustino, West Virginia University; Sang (Sammy) Lee, West Virginia University; Ji Young Lee, WVU Public Interest Communication Research Lab • Being Bad Abroad: Effects of Stealing Thunder by Self-Disclosing Corporate FCPA Violations • Tensions between legal counsel and pubic relations counsel, especially during crises, are well established. For example, legal and PR professionals might find themselves at odds when an organization learns of its officials’ possible global ethics violations. Publics relations crisis best practices urge for quick, accurate, and full disclosure with publics; and the US government may require reporting; but legal and business teams may hesitate and request organizational silence, fearing image and financial concerns. Thus, this study seeks to investigate the public relations outcomes of voluntary disclosure to publics and the US government regarding corporate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. Primarily using the situational crisis communication theory and stealing thunder frameworks, this work offers a moderated serial mediation model of the effects of stealing thunder (i.e., self-disclosing crisis information first before a third party breaks the news). A 2 (stealing/thunder: organization vs. media) x 2 (corporate social responsibility history: CSR vs. no CSR) experiment probes participants’ responses. Results indicate a significant mediation effect of stealing thunder x CSR history on (a) attitudes toward the company, (b) perceived company ethics, and (c) investment intentions serially through perceived crisis severity and level of anger. Ultimately, results practically provide evidence to support legal teams joining PR teams for a transparent and perhaps more ethical approach to communicating about FCPA violations—while theoretically adding to SCCT and crisis communication literature by advancing knowledge about the mechanisms driving the scarcely researched but meaningful effects of stealing thunder in a global ethics context.

Open Competition
Alan Abitbol, University of Dayton; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication • Championing Women’s Empowerment as a Catalyst for Purchase Intentions: Testing the Mediating Roles of OPRs and Brand Loyalty in the Context of Femvertising • This survey of U.S. adults (N = 419) examines company–cause fit, CSR association, purchase intention, organization-public relationships, and loyalty for four Fortune 500 companies in the context of messages that portray girls and women positively through empowering words and imagery. Results show consumers believe the women-empowerment messages fit with the tested companies. Company loyalty, by itself, or combined with OPRs, mediates the CSR association–purchase intention relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; Peter Bobkowski, University of Kansas; George Diepenbrock, University of Kansas; Patrick Miller • Research exposure: Associations between university news release features, news coverage, and page views • This study identified the features of a university’s news releases about faculty research and expertise that were related to news coverage of the university, and to unique page views on the university’s website. More than 800 news releases generated by one university’s news affairs office over nearly two years were examined. News release subjects (i.e., social sciences, arts and humanities), and the use of adverbs and distribution tools, were related consistently to news release effectiveness. Labeling the news release as an advisory, headline length, and the use of a video were not related to news release effectiveness.

Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University; Xiaochen Zhang, Kansas State University • Ultimate Crisis? An Examination of Linguistics and Ultimate Attribution Error in International Organizational Crisis • Through an experiment, this paper examines linguistics and ultimate attribution error in international organizational crisis. Findings suggest that attribution error exists when additional attribution information is minimal (e.g., low attribution victim crisis). Crisis attribution (crisis clusters) directly affects publics’ use of abstract language in describing and commenting on the social media crisis news. Results empirically test and apply two attribution-based theories, Linguistic Categorization Model and Ultimate Attribution Error, in international organizational crisis contexts.

Nicholas Browning, Indiana University; Sung-Un Yang, Indiana University; Young Eun Park, Indiana University; Ejae Lee, Indiana University; Taeyoung Kim, Indiana University • Do Ethics Matter? Investigating Donor Responses to Primary and Tertiary Ethical Violations • Using 2 x 2 experimental survey, the researchers examined how frequently committed (single vs. repeated occurrence) ethical misconduct regarding values closely aligned to an organizational mission (primary vs. tertiary values) affect stakeholders’ attitudes toward, support of, and relationship with an offending nonprofit. Findings showed negative main effects on attitudes toward the organization and donation intention. Additionally, perceived organizational responsibility for ethical misconduct and deteriorating organizational-public relationships (OPRs) significantly mediated the effects of primary ethical violations.

Zifei Chen, University of San Francisco • Examining the Impact of Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Consumer Responses toward Company: An Alignment-Social Influence Model • An Alignment-Social Influence Model is proposed to examine the impact of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) by addressing its alignment with prior corporate associations and anticipated interaction on social media. Through a 2 (associations) x 2 (valence) x 2 (interaction: lurker vs. poster) experiment, three-way interactions showed lurkers who saw aligned negative eWOM had greater attitude shift than lurkers who saw nonaligned negative eWOM; no such difference was found for posters. Positive eWOM helped maintain positive attitude.

Ying Xiong, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee; Brandon Boatwright • Hashtag Activism and Message Frames Among Social Movement Organizations:  Semantic Network Analysis and Thematic Analysis of Twitter During the #MeToo Movement • In the recent #MeToo movement, social movement organizations (SMOs) establish an emotional bridge between the target public and the appeal for feminism. Applying both semantic network analysis method and thematic analysis, this study explored how SMOs address feminist activism and they use hashtags to participate in the #MeToo movement. Findings of the study enhance literature of social movement organizations and activism as well as provide practical implications for effective social movement.

Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Soo-Yeon Kim, Sogang University • Strategic Value of Conflict, Activism, and Two-way Communication: Examination of Activists’ Public Relations • This study investigated the relationships between activists’ perceptions of conflict, activism, and two-way symmetrical communication, and their use of public relations tactics, by surveying activists in Korea. Two conflict subdimensions, conflict and mediation approach, had significantly positive relationships with activism perception. Conflict approach had a positive relationship with a few legal and informational public relations tactics. This study found that activists are more likely to focus on informational activities through two-way symmetrical communication.

Angie Chung; Kang Bok Lee • Dealing with Negative Publicity: A Dual Process Model of CSR Fit and CSR History on Purchase Intention and Negative Word-of-Mouth • This paper proposes and tests a dual process model of CSR communication. Building upon the framing theory and associative network theory, the authors examine how including statements about a company’s CSR fit and CSR history in apology statements can impact purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth. Perceived integrity, attitude towards the apology statement and attitude towards the company are the sequential mediators that will subsequently affect purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth. The results show that CSR fit will positively affect purchase intention and negatively affect negative word-of-mouth through increased perceived integrity and attitude towards the apology statement, which will positively affect their attitude towards the company. The findings also show that CSR history will positively affect purchase intention and negatively affect negative word-of-mouth through increased perceived integrity and attitude towards the apology statement, which will positively affect their attitude towards the company. For managers, the results of this study suggest that communicating a company’s CSR activities after bad publicity can help increase purchase intention and reduce negative word-of-mouth but two factors—CSR fit and CSR history—should be taken into account.

Hue Duong, University of Georgia; Hong Vu; Nhung Nguyen • Grassroots Social Movements in Authoritarian Settings: Examining Activists’ Strategic Communication and Issues Management • Triangulating 16 in-depth interviews with activists and campaign participants, news coverage, and social media content related to the campaign “6,700 people for 6,700 trees”, this study identifies activists’ strategic communication and its influence on a public protest in Vietnam. Results indicate that activists strategically used social media and interpersonal communication to advance an issue to the public arena. Activists’ unique strategies were key to the protest’s success. This study offers meaningful theoretical implications on issues management and practical lessons for activists on how to apply these strategies to foster social change.

Savannah Coco, Wayne State University; Stine Eckert • #sponsored: Consumer Insights on Social Media Influencer Marketing • Through in-depth interviews with 15 women, this study begins to fill the gap in scholarship on consumer perceptions of sponsored content posted by social influencers online. Findings show women follow social influencers because of prior topic interests, when they can relate to them, and find them authentic. But social exchange and relationship management theories cannot account for purchasing decisions despite negative views of consumers. We argue for a new theory called Influencer Relationship Management Theory.

Virginia Harrison; Michail Vafeiadis, Auburn University; Pratiti Diddi; Jeff Conlin • What about Our Cause? The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Nonprofit Reputation • While research has shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can boost a corporation’s reputation, little is known about how CSR impacts the nonprofit partner’s reputation. An online experiment tested how corporate reputation (high vs. low) and CSR message credibility influenced a high-reputation environmental nonprofit. While credibility and corporate reputation increased the nonprofit’s reputation, only the partnership with a low-reputation corporation increased supportive intention toward the CSR initiative. Implications for nonprofit CSR messaging are discussed.

Seoyeon Hong, Rowan University; Kyujin Shim, University of Melbourne • ETHICAL PUBLIC TYPOLOGY: How Does Moral Foundation Theory and Anti-Corporatism Predict Public Differences in Crisis? • This study proposes a new public typology utilizing Moral Foundation Theory and anti-corporatism. Based on a survey using population representative data (N = 1124), four ethical public types are classified as moralists, antagonists, optimists, and pragmatists. In testing the applicability of the new typology, our results suggest that ethical public types react differently in attributing crisis responsibility, expressing their emotional responses, and showing boycott intentions in evaluating a corporate crisis.

Hyun Ju Jeong, University of Kentucky • The roles of self-identity cues and public self-consciousness in supporting stigmatized causes on social media • The current study examines whether and when socially stigmatized cause (e.g., prochoice) campaigns can fuel the volunteering intention of young people through effective communication on social media. A 2 (self-identify cues: group vs individual) x 2 (public self-consciousness: high vs low) online experiment study found that the group-cues were more effective in generating the intention to volunteer than the individual-cues, in particular for those low in public self-consciousness. For those high in public self-consciousness, however, the intention to volunteer was not differently shaped by the type of self-identity cues soliciting the causes. Public self-consciousness negatively influenced the intention to volunteer. Theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.

Jeesun Kim, Incheon National University; Hyun Jee Oh, Hong Kong Baptist University; Chang-Dae Ham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • Leadership Matters: The Role of Values Congruence between Leadership Styles and CSR Practice in Corporate Crises • Studies have examined the role of CSR in the crisis context; but no studies examined the role of values congruence between leadership styles and CSR practice. We aim to fill this gap by conducting a 2 (crisis type) x 2 (leadership style) x 2 (CSR motive) between-subjects experiment. We found that insulating effects of CSR practice were maximized when leadership styles and CSR motives were congruent, but only when a victim crisis occurred. Implications are discussed.

Arunima Krishna, Boston University • Climate Change Lacuna Publics: Advancing a Typology of Climate Change Disinformation Susceptibility • The purpose of this study is to (a) identify lacuna publics about climate change, and (b) reconceptualize Maibach et al.’s (2009) Global Warming’s Six Americas segmentation into a typology of disinformation susceptibility by integrating it with Krishna’s (2017a) operationalization of lacuna publics. Surveys were conducted among American adults to understand lacuna publics’ information behaviors compared to non-lacuna publics, and to identify individuals falling within four zones of disinformation susceptibility conceptualized in this study.

Seow Ting Lee, University of Colorado Boulder • H1N1 News Releases: How Two Media Systems  Responded to a Global Health Pandemic • Pandemics, as non-linear, atypical health communication contexts characterized by high uncertainty and information scarcity, present a valuable opportunity for explicating the relationships between health authorities’ information subsidies and news coverage. This study is based on a two-country comparative analysis to examine the intersections of public relations and journalism in the U.S. and Singapore with respect to the use and influence of information subsidies in shaping news coverage of the H1N1 Influenza A pandemic. It examines framing characteristics related to episodic-thematic frames, gain- and loss-frames, and tonality and traces the development of framing devices in two public health agencies’ news releases to subsequent news stories about the 2009 H1N1 A influenza. Findings reveal parallels and differences, and salient patterns that are contextualized to assess the relationships of variants between the two distinct media systems.

Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University; Young Kim, Marquette University; Yeuseung Kim • The Co-Creation of Shared Value: What Motivates the Public to Engage with Participatory Corporate Social Responsibility Activities • The purpose of the study is to explore contextual factors—an organizational factor and four issue-related factors—that might influence the public’s intention to engage with a participatory CSR activity, based on the scholarship on organization–public relationships (OPRs) and the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS). We conducted a survey with 698 respondents living in the U.S., and we tested the model across two issues (girls’ empowerment and deforestation). The results showed that constraint recognition, involvement recognition, and a referent criterion, and OPRs were significant factors, and that OPRs and involvement recognition were the strongest predictors. Problem recognition, however, did not have significant relationships with CSR participation intention. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.

Zongchao Cathy Li, San Jose State University; Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina • The Love-Hate Dilemma: Interaction of Relationship Norms and Service Failure Severity on Consumer Responses • This study aims to investigate consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes after service failure encounters with companies they previously established good relationships with. The study argues that consumers’ decision making is guided by the conformity or violation of relationship norms, and that their subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes are further dependent on the severity of the service failure. Through a 2 (relationship norm types: exchange vs. communal) ✕2 (service failure severity: minor vs. major) between-subjects experiment, the study shows well-maintained relationships can help companies mitigate the negative impact of service failure under the minor failure condition. Such a buffering effect holds true for both communal and exchange relationships. However, the study also evidences a counterintuitive situation where communal relationships backfire and induce more negative consumer responses than exchange relationships when the severity of the service failure becomes extreme. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Wenlin Liu, U of Houston; Weiai (Wayne) Xu, University of Massachusetts • Tweeting to (Selectively) Engage: A Network Analysis of Government Organizations’ Stakeholder Management on Twitter during Hurricane Harvey • The ability to manage a multitude of stakeholder relationships has long been viewed important for effective crisis management. With stakeholder communication increasingly taking place on social media like Twitter, however, it remains less explored how organizations may selectively engage with multiple stakeholders (e.g., citizens, NGOs, media, businesses) on this networked platform, and how engagement priorities may shift dynamically across different stages of a crisis. Using stakeholder theory for crisis management, the current study examines the stakeholder engagement network on Twitter by 42 government and emergency management (EM) organizations across three stages of Hurricane Harvey. Organizational actors’ reply and mention networks were analyzed, suggesting that government and EM organizations prioritize engaging with primary stakeholders including citizen groups and peer governmental agencies during crisis, whereas secondary stakeholders like media and nonprofit organizations are more prioritized only at post-crisis stage.

Hua Jiang; Yi Luo, Montclair State University • Driving Employee Organization Engagement through CSR Communication and Employee Perceived Motives: CSR-Related Social Media Engagement and Job Engagement • Employee engagement and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been two important issues attracting an increasing amount of attention from both public relations and CSR researchers. A theory-driven model that conceptualizes employee social media engagement, job engagement, and organization engagement and explicates how they are related to CSR communication strategies and motives is still lacking. To place our study in the context of employee/internal communication and CSR communication, we proposed a strategies-motives-employee engagement model. Results from an online Qualtrics survey (n = 836) supported all our hypotheses except for the direct link between interacting CSR communication strategies and employee organization engagement. Interacting CSR communication strategies significantly predicted employees’ CSR social media engagement and job engagement. Employee perceived intrinsic CSR motives were significantly associated with all three engagement variables in our model. We conducted a two-step Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis to test all our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

Liang (Lindsay) Ma, Texas Christian University; Joshua Bentley, Texas Christian University • Understanding the Effects of CSR Message Frames and NWOM Sources on Customers’ Responses on Social Networking Sites • Negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) communication on social networking sites (SNSs) is influential to customers’ responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. This study examined how strategic framing of CSR communication can better counter the effects of online NWOM, depending on the NWOM information source. Four hundred Starbucks’ customers recruited from a Qualtrics panel participated in this 2 (strategic framing: company-centered vs. engagement-centered)  2 (NWOM source: stranger vs. friend) online experiment. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Angela Mak; Song Ao, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University • Revisiting social-mediated crisis communication model: The Lancôme regenerative crisis after Hong Kong Umbrella Movement • This paper intends to 1) identify how this case follows the regenerative crisis model, 2) explore the trends of emotions and engagement of different publics and Lancôme in the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication model, and 3) identify the roles and strategies used by social media influencers. An online content analysis revealed the interlocking connection among the involved publics. Followers’ emotional responses were not only attached to Lancôme, but also the re-framing strategies adopted by the influencers.

Menqi Liao; Angela Mak • “Comments are disabled for this video”: A heuristic approach to understanding perceived credibility of CSR messages on YouTube • Scarce research has focused on the technological aspects of social media in CSR communication. This study explored how bandwagon heuristics (more likes/dislikes) and identity heuristics (enable/disable commenting) influence the perceived source credibility assessment (trustworthiness, goodwill, and competence) on YouTube through a 2 x 2 experiment (N=108). No main effects were found separately, but an interaction effect existed towards perceived competence of the company. Implications of CSR communication research and effectiveness of using YouTube are discussed.

Brooke McKeever; Robert McKeever, University of South Carolina; Geah Pressgrove; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina • Predicting Public Support: Applying the Situational Theory of Problem Solving to Prosocial Behaviors • This study explores the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) through a survey of people (N=1,275) who supported issues they care(d) about in 2017, a year filled with social movements, natural disasters, and other important issues. Beyond finding support for the STOPS model in terms of predicting communicative action, this study found support for situational motivation influencing other behaviors, including volunteering, donating, and other forms of advocacy. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Rita Men, University of Florida; Cen April Yue, University of Florida • Creating a Positive Emotional Culture: Effect of Strategic Internal Communication and its Impact on Employee Supportive Behaviors • The study surveyed 506 employees in the United States to test the effect of strategic internal communication (i.e., corporate-level symmetrical and leadership-level responsive communications) on fostering a positive emotional culture characterized by companionate love, joy, pride, and gratitude. In addition, we tested the interplay between corporate internal communication and a positive emotional culture and its influence on positive employee behaviors, specifically, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and employee advocacy. Results indicated that symmetrical communication and responsive leadership communication cultivated a positive emotional culture in organizations. Such culture also fostered employee OCB and advocacy. Moreover, corporate symmetrical communication directly and positively influenced employee OCB. Finally, this study found that employee OCB positively affected employee advocacy. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings for public relations scholars and practitioners were discussed.

Tham Nguyen, University of Oklahoma; Robert Pritchard, U of Oklahoma • Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes from the Business Side of Student-run Public Relations and Communication Firms • Existing studies found pedagogical benefits of public relations and communication student-run firms. Yet, very little research has been done in this area. In a recent study, Bush, Haygood, and Vincent (2017) found that although interviewees placed the highest value on real-world experiences, developing soft skills, securing first jobs as well as career successes, student-run firms fell short in providing a better understanding of the business process and protocols of public relations and communication firms. This study examines the student learning outcomes from the business and financial side of student-run firms. Specifically, four research questions are proposed, including (1) To what extent are the students involved in determining services being offered?, (2) How do student-run firms approach potential clients?, (3) How do student-run firms formulate fee structure?, and (4) What business process and protocols do student-run firms teach their members? The study included an online survey, followed by interviews with firm advisors at different universities in the U.S. A preliminary report from the online survey data revealed that students mostly suggested offering multimedia/digital media services, or expanding their scope of services beyond their traditional services. Word-of-mouth and referrals were the most popular ways to recruit new clients, while sales pitches were undertaken only occasionally. Fee structures were formed depending on the firm’s business objectives and learning opportunities for students. Teaching business processes and protocols was also discussed. Theoretical implications for experiential learning theory as well as practical implications to enhance learning outcomes from the business side of student-run firms are offered.

Chuka Onwumechili • The Sun (UK) Newspaper: Strategic Audience Choice in Crisis and Reputation Repair • Organizations and individuals depend on the mass media to transmit a transgressor’s apologia to the public. However, agenda setting scholars point out that such a transgressing party (Organization or individual) is forced to depend not only in its ability to choose effective apologia strategies but also on the media to frame the apologia in ways that the party may be successful. Unfortunately, with most studies focused on transgressors who rely on media as third party, little is known of what happens when that third party (media) is the transgressor. This study on the Sun newspaper explores media as transgressor. It investigates the following: (1) how do other media react when a competing medium transgresses? and (2) how is audience reaction shaped, considering that the transgressing mass medium has direct communication line to that audience?

Jo-Yun Queenie Li, University of South Carolina; Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; nandini bhalla, University of South Carolina; Won-ki Moon, University of South Carolina; Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Nanlan Zhang, University of South Carolina • What Shapes Environmental Responsibility Perceptions? Measuring Collectivistic Orientations as a Predictor of Situational Motivations and Communicative Action • “This study investigates individuals’ cognitive, motivational, and communication responses regarding an environmental CSR issue using arguments from the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) with a cross-situational factor as an antecedent. Survey results provide empirical support for the application of the STOPS in a CSR communication context and suggest that a collectivistic orientation predicts individuals’ situational perceptions and cognitive reactions toward organizations’ environmental CSR efforts. Theoretical and practical implications for strategic communicators are discussed.”

Yufan Qin, University of Florida; Rita Men, University of Florida • Exploring Negative Peer Communication of Companies on Social Media and Its Impact on Organization-Public Relationships • This study examined whether and how the publics’ negative peer communication (NPC) about companies on social media could influence the quality of organization-public relationships through the theoretical lens of social learning theory. It also explored the sundry individual (i.e., social media dependency, tie strength) and corporate-level factors (i.e., perceived corporate reputation, public interactions with companies on social media) that could affect the publics’ engagement in NPC behavior about companies on social media. Through an online survey of 356 social media users in the U.S. who have discussed negatively about companies and brands on social media and a structural equation modeling analysis, results showed that NPC about companies on social media negatively influenced the quality of organization-public relationships. Publics who were more dependent on social media and who had stronger ties with their peers on social media tended to engage more in NPC about companies. Publics who perceived a favorable reputation of the company were less likely to engage in NPC about companies on social media. Further, perceived corporate reputation and public interactions with companies on social media positively predicted the quality of organization-public relationships.

Hyejoon Rim; Jisu Kim, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Chuqing Dong • A Cross-National Comparison of Transparency Signaling in CSR Reporting • This study examines the level of transparency signaling in CSR reports in three countries: the U.S., South Korea, and China. By analyzing 181 CSR reports from 2014 to 2017 with a computer-aided content analysis program, Diction 7.0, this study found that the three dimensions of transparency signaling – participation, substantial information, and accountability in CSR reports were varied across different countries. In CSR reports, companies in the U.S. and South Korea showed higher scores in the participation and accountability dimensions than China, while companies in China showed high scores in the substantial information dimension. In CEO letters, we discovered that the U.S. companies emphasized the participation aspects, while South Korea and China companies underscored the accountability aspect of transparency signaling. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Erin Schauster; Marlene Neill, Baylor University; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado Boulder; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University Singapore • Public relations primed: An update on practitioners’ moral reasoning, from moral development to moral maintenance • To understand how professional identity influences moral reasoning and guided by theories of moral psychology and social identity, 153 public relations practitioners working in the United States participated in an online experiment. According to the results, moral reasoning scores have remained steady since the last time they were measured in 2009. Professional associations appear to be a valuable resource for socialization as members of PRSA who, in addition to engaging in higher levels of moral reasoning than the average adult, report they have access to regular ethics training, ethics resources and mentors, and are familiar with their industry’s code of ethics. In addition, socialization in later career stages appears to incorporate aspects of maintenance rather than development, helping to sustain levels of moral reasoning. Other communication disciplines should take note of public relations’ strong commitment to ethics education and implement similar professional development opportunities.

Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University; Yang Cheng, North Carolina State University • The Relationship Exchange Theory: Organization-Public Relationship (OPR) in the Big Data Age • With the expressive behavior on social media in the big data era, public relations researchers can easily track the information flows among organizations and their publics on common issues over time. Instead of examining organization-public relationships at a static point by using experiments or surveys, this study posited the relationship exchange theory, including an issue-stance-relationship phase framework and the operational six relationship modes aiming to provide a longitudinal approach to examining the relationship dynamics among two or multiple parties. Empirically, this study presents a case study on the conflicts between McDonald’s and its activist publics. By tracking the changing stances of the organization and its publics longitudinally, results show how the relationship exchange theory can help examine the intensity and direction of OPR over time.

Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University; Hua Jiang • Dedicated to Our Work? An Employee Engagement Model in Public Relations • Engagement has emerged as an important concept in public relations scholarship. Yet a theoretically-informed model with a clear and coherent explication of the construct is still lacking. By situating our study in the internal context, we provided an updated conceptualization and operationalization of employee engagement and proposed a strategy-engagement-behavior three-step employee engagement model. Results from an employee survey (n = 568) supported our conceptual model, showing that organizational engagement strategies positively predicted employee engagement, which in turn accounted for employees’ positive and negative messaging behavior as well as their contextual performance behavior. After controlling for significant demographics variables of gender, age, organizational size, number of subordinates, and level of management position, we identified a complete mediation effect of employee engagement in our two-step structural equation modeling analysis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Melissa Dodd; Hilary Sisco, Quinnipiac University; John Brummette, Radford University; William Kennan • Developing a Measure of Social Capital for Public Relations • This research synthesizes literature in order to propose a comprehensive conceptualization of social capital as a resource- and exchange- based function of public relations that provides an ontological argument for the discipline as a whole. More than conceptualization, this research proposes and empirically tests a disciplinary-specific measure of social capital among a random sample of public relations professionals. Findings suggest some relational factors of social capital shared a significant predictive relationship with public relations outcomes.

Diana Sisson, Auburn University • Control Mutuality and Social Media Revisited: A Study of National Animal Welfare Donors • Guided by OPR, relationship management, and social media literature, this study employs an online survey panel to examine national animal welfare donors’ (n = 1,033) perceptions of control mutuality and its role in social media engagement. Findings suggest that heightened perceptions of control mutuality may have positive implications for social media engagement on a national level. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for strategy development.

Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Cheng Hong; Wanhsiu Sunny Tsai, University of Miami; Bora Yook, University of Miami • Publics’ Communication on Controversial Sociopolitical Issues: Extending the Situational Theory of Problem Solving • Capturing a unique moment within a particularly volatile political climate where various issues such as climate change, immigration, and healthcare are increasingly polarized, this survey examines the factors driving publics’s engagement and disengagement in communications on controversial sociopolitical issues. It applies and expands Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) by integrating the theoretical insights from the literature of information omission and avoidance. Results not only support the applicability of the STOPS model in explaining publics’ communication on controversial sociopolitical problems but also the viability of integrating two new behavioral outcomes of information omission and avoidance into the STOPS framework. Theoretical and strategic implications on social issue advocacy are provided.

Jiun-Yi Tsai, Northern Arizona University; Janice Sweeter, Northern Arizona University; Elizabeth Candello, Washington State University; Kirsten Bagshaw, Northern Arizona University • Examining Efficiency and Effectiveness in Online Interactions Between United States Government Agencies and Their Publics • Text-based computer-mediated communication (e.g., email) has become indispensable for U.S. state agencies to respond to requests and engage with citizens, thereby contributing to build public trust in local governments. Despite the essential role of digital communication in enhancing public engagement, there is limited understanding of how government agencies manage generic queries to maintain relationships with publics. By synthesizing chronemics research and organization-public relationship (OPR) scholarship, we introduce an original Response Engagement Index (REI) consisting of response speed, communicated commitment, and conversational voice to measure various levels of communication engagement. We conduct a field experiment encompassing emailing a request for information to 438 state agencies based in New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Rhode Island. A total of 293 organizational responses were manually analyzed to reveal the usages of engagement strategies. Results show the interactive potential of e-government communication is largely underutilized as the average scores of response engagement remain low. Human responses are less engaging than auto-reply messages, and require one-day waiting period, if not longer. Response types and gender significantly differ in response time and engagement strategies. Findings advance the OPR literature and identify best practices for government communicators to promote citizen engagement.

Michail Vafeiadis, Auburn University; Denise Bortree, Penn State University; Christen Buckley, Penn State University; Pratiti Diddi, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY; Anli Xiao • Combatting fake news: Examining the role of crisis response strategies and issue involvement in refuting misinformation on social media • The dissemination of fake news has accelerated with social media and this has important implications for both nonprofit organizations and their stakeholders alike. Hence, the current study attempts to shed light on the effectiveness of the crisis response strategies of denial and attack in addressing rumors on social media. Through an online experiment, users were first exposed to a fake news Facebook post accusing the American Red Cross of failing to protect its donors’ privacy because of an alleged data breach, and then participants were exposed to a version of the nonprofits’ rebuttal. Results show that highly involved individuals are more likely to centrally process information and develop positive supportive intentions toward the affected organization. In addition, low involvement individuals who were exposed to a denial response rather than an attack response rated fake news as less credible. Finally, the attack response was more effective for high involvement individuals (for whom privacy was important) than those with low involvement. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Rachel Deems, Moroch Partners; Jan Wicks, University of Arkansas School of Journalism & Strategic Media • Exploring Tweeting at the Top: Do Goods-Producing and Service-Producing Firms Appear to Set Different CSR Agendas on Twitter? • This exploratory content analysis examined how 33 Global 2000 companies portray corporate social responsibility (CSR) on Twitter, and whether the agenda firms appear to present varies by industry category. Goods-producing firms appear to set an environmentally-friendly agenda, tweeting about sustainable development and using interactivity to promote their agenda widely. Service-producing firms appear to set a customer-friendly agenda, tweeting about philanthropy topics affecting many people, perhaps to transfer salience to the largest number of stakeholders.

Chelsea Woods, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) • Responding to Product (Mis)Placement: Analyzing Crock-Pot’s Paracrisis Management • Social media can breed publicly visible threats, known as paracrises. In 2018, an emotional television episode sparked online chatter surrounding Crock-Pot, which effectively managed the threat, turning the event into a public relations opportunity for the brand. This case extends our knowledge of effective paracrisis management by describing how humor can be used alone or with denial, altering our perception of ‘credible’ sources during these unique threats, and introducing two new paracrisis management strategies.

Xiaohan Xu; Maria Leonora Comello, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Suman Lee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Richard Clancy • Exploring Country-of-Origin Perceptions and Ethnocentrism: Implications for PR Efforts to Introduce U.S. Dairy Products to China • American dairy producers face an unprecedented opportunity to export products to China. This study examines the influence of country-of-origin effect and ethnocentrism (COO) in purchase intentions of U.S. dairy products by conducting an online survey of 505 Chinese urban consumers.  Results suggest that purchase intentions of U.S. dairy products are positively associated with higher levels of affective and cognitive COO, as well as lower ethnocentrism.  Implications for PR efforts are discussed.

Aimei yang, University of Southern California; Yi (Grace) Ji, Virginian Commonwealth University • The Quest for Legitimacy and the Communication of Strategic Cross-Sectoral Partnership on Facebook: A Big Data, Social Network Study • Nowadays, many wicked problems such as environmental issues require organizations from multiple sectors to form cross-sectoral alliances. Cross-sectoral alliance networks can transfer resources and they can also signal affiliations and value alignment between strategic partners. The communication of cross-sectoral alliances is a form of CSR communication that serves organizations’ strategic goals and objectives. Drawing on the literature on digital CSR communication and legitimacy theory, this article examines what legitimacy needs shape the formation of cross-sectoral ties on Facebook in addressing environmental issue and sustainable development issues in the United States. Combining data-mining, text-mining, social network analysis, and exponential graph modeling, this research investigates the structure of a network among 3071 organizations across multiple sectors. Findings show that organizations’ cross-sectoral tie formation is mainly driven by social legitimacy and alliance legitimacy needs. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Su Lin Yeo, Singapore Management University; Augustine Pang, Singapore Management University; Michelle Cheong, Singapore Management University; Jerome Yeo, Singapore Management University • Emotions in Social Media: An Analysis of Tweet Responses to MH370 Search Suspension Announcement • Considered one of the deadliest incidents in the history of aviation crises and labeled a “continuing mystery”, the ongoing search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 offers no closure. With endless media attention given to the crisis and negative reactions of stakeholders to every decision made by the Airlines, this study investigates the types of emotions found in social media posted by publics to the MH370 search suspension announcement. It content analyzed 5.062 real-time tweet messages guided by the revised Integrated Crisis Mapping Model. Our findings indicated that, in addition to the four original emotions posited, there was a fifth emotion because of the long-drawn crisis and only two dominant emotions were similar to the Model. A redrawn version to better encapsulate all the emotions is offered for one quadrant in the Model. Implications for both crisis communication scholarship and the importance of social listening for organizations are discussed.

Xiaochen Zhang, Kansas State University; Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University • Linguistic Crisis Prediction: An Integration of Linguistic Categorization Model in Crisis Communication • Through two experiments, this study examines the relationship between linguistic choice and attribution perception in organizational crises. Results showed that abstract (vs. concrete) language in crisis news elicited higher attribution and lower purchase intentions. High (vs. low) attribution crisis led to higher usage of abstract language and that language mediates crisis types’ effect on purchase intentions. The findings empirically connect two Attribution Theory-rooted theories: Linguistic Categorization Model and the Situational Crisis Communication Theory.

Ziyuan Zhou; Xueying Zhang; Eyun-Jung Ki, The University of Alabama • Were These Studies Properly Designed?: An Examination of 22 Years of SCCT Experimental Research • This study examines the current state of the application of experiment method to studies investigating SCCT published between 1995 and 2017. Through a content analysis of 55 experiments in 50 articles published in 16 journals, the results revealed that the use of manipulation checks is questionable in the field. One-fourth of the published experiments failed to provide any information about manipulation checks, which poses a serious challenge to the validity of the experiments. The generalizability can be significantly improved if researchers set up crisis scenarios in diverse situations, such as a different way of presenting the stimuli, a different medium of the stimuli, a different industry the organization belongs to, etc.

Student
Sarah Aghazadeh, University of Maryland • “Recovery warriors”: The National Eating Disorder Association’s online public and rhetorical vision • This paper explores how organizations facilitate shared meaning with publics in an online context. I used Bormann’s symbolic convergence theory to identify rhetorical vision on the National Eating Disorder Association’s (NEDA) Facebook page. The results suggest that NEDA facilitated rhetorical vision of eating disorder “recovery warriors” by extending its rhetorical community and encouraging the “chaining” process. Lastly, I argue for theoretical and practical implications of NEDA’s efforts.

Brooke Fowler, University of Maryland, College Park • The internal angle of police-worn body cameras:  A hommo narrans approach to understanding patrol officer perceptions of body cameras • Relatively little research is available on how patrol officers perceive body cameras.  This paper conceptualizes patrol officers as an internal public and utilizes the homo narrans approach known as the theory-behavior complex, which combines symbolic convergence theory and situational theory of publics (Vasquez, 1993, 1994).  Twenty six semi-structured interviews were conducted.  This study adds to the limited number of homo narrans pieces in PR and proposes a new type of covert internal activism, under-the-table activism.

Virginia Harrison • “I Don’t Consider Myself a Corporate Fundraiser”: Understanding the Nonprofit Perspective in CSR Relationships • Taking an often-neglected viewpoint, this study examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships from the perspective of nonprofit beneficiaries. In-depth interviews with corporate relations officers at public research universities across the U.S. revealed three main factors have contributed to a rapidly evolving climate for corporate partnerships: CSR partnerships help universities build their reputations rather than endowments; feature new preferences in communication-based stewardship practices; and raise questions about university autonomy and authority. These findings contribute new understandings to how CSR-related communication creates mutually beneficial relationships.

Yingru Ji, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Exploring Publics’ Expectations for Crisis Outcomes: A Communication Mediated Psychological Mechanism in Social Media Era • The study conceptualizes consumer publics’ expectations for outcomes, in times of a preventable crisis, as a construct with three dimensions—organizational accommodation responses, punishment of the organization, and societal level regulations. The study also develops a reliable and valid scale to measure the construct. Using an online survey in Beijing China, this work empirically investigates the degree to which publics’ crisis blame and varied communication behaviors (i.e., information seeking and online expression) serially mediates the relationships between publics’ causal attribution and various publics’ expectations. The simple mediation results of crisis blame indicate that the largest mediation effects were on the psychological mechanism leading to publics’ expecting the organization to be punished. Moreover, the findings regarding serial mediation—crisis blame and communication behaviors as two mediators—suggest that active information seekers expect organizational accommodations and societal level interventions. Active online expressers, in contrast, expect to see the organization punished.

Yingru Ji, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Moderating Effects of Perceived Government Controllability over Crisis Outcomes and Consumer Collective Efficacy on Responsibility Attribution and Demands for Regulatory Interventions • Through an online survey of Beijing consumer publics, the study empirically examined a moderated mediation model of public demands for regulatory interventions. The findings revealed that as issue involvement improved, publics—who perceived both high levels of government controllability over crisis outcomes and consumer collective efficacy—attributed less responsibility to the in-crisis company and were less likely to demand regulatory intervention. The study also found that perceived government controllability had larger impacts on public demands for regulatory interventions than responsibility attribution did in China. By delineating the relationships among issue involvement, responsibility attribution, perceived government controllability over crisis outcomes, and consumer collective efficacy, the study outlines a comprehensive psychological mechanism of public demands for regulatory interventions in times of crisis.

Keqing Kuang; Sitong Guo, University of Alabama • Being honest to the public: Lessons from Haidilao’s crisis responses in China • On August 25th, 2017, the news was reported by Legal Evening News in terms of a restaurant in China named Haidilao Hot Pot’s irresponsibility to its kitchen hygiene and it went viral on social media and online news websites. Facing the scandal, Haidilao uses several crisis-response strategies to win back public support as well as to save its reputation and image. The purposes of this study are twofold: (1) understanding publics’ responses regarding Haidilao’s crisis communication, and (2) examine whether publics think the organization being honest or not. A content analysis is conducted through collecting publics’ comments and reposts on Weibo, a popular social media platform in China. The results indicate that publics respond to Haidilao and its crisis communication strategies positively and favorably in general, and results of perceived organizational performance of Haidilao are mixed.

Ejae Lee, Indiana University • Authenticity in Public Relations: The Effects on Organization-Public Relationships • This study aimed to explicate an organization’s authenticity, develop the authenticity measurement, and investigate the effects of perceived authenticity on OPR outcomes to address the implication of perceived authenticity of an organization in public relations. The study examined the validity and reliability of the proposed authenticity measurement with two constructs, awareness and consistency. The results of SEM found the direct and indirect effects of authenticity on transparency, trust, distrust, commitment, and switching intention.

Jungkyu Rhys Lim, University of Maryland • How Public Relations Builds Mutually Beneficial Relationships: Public Relations’ Role in Creating Shared Value (CSV) • Public relations strives to build mutually beneficial relationships. However, public relations scholarship has not clearly developed strategies for mutually beneficial relationships. Creating Shared Value (CSV) is one answer, as CSV strengthens the company’s competitiveness and improves the communities simultaneously. While public relations scholars have studied Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), CSV is understudied. This paper examines how public relations contributes to CSV and mutually beneficial relationships, through a case study on a multinational company’s CSV program.

Keonyoung Park, Syracuse University • Sharing the Problem-Solving Experience with Corporations: How Brand Activism Creates Brand Loyalty • Brand activism is a corporations’ advocacy on social issues. Although corporations’ social engagements have been already popularized phenomena, there are only limited academic attention on brand activism. Building on social identity theory, this study investigated brand activism as a shared problem-solving experience between publics and a corporation. The current study tried to suggest a comprehensive social media brand activism model showing the relationships between individuals’ activism engagement triggered by a corporation, brand trust, and brand loyalty. In doing so, this study conducted an online survey adopting the case of #AerieREAL campaign. Results showed that brand activism has impacts on mobilizing public engagements, which increase brand trust and loyalty. Practical implications of the study were discussed, considering both activism- and business-perspectives.

Patrick Thelen • Supervisor Humor Styles and Employee Advocacy: A Serial Mediation Model • This study examines how supervisor humor styles influence employee advocacy by building the linkage between affiliative humor, aggressive humor, supervisor authenticity, employee-organization relationships, and employee advocacy. Through a quantitative survey with 350 employees who work for a variety of organizations, this study’s results indicated that the relationship between supervisor humor style and employee advocacy is fully mediated by supervisor authenticity and employee-organization relationships. Significant theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Teaching
Gee Ekachai, Marquette University; Young Kim, Marquette University; Lauren Olson, Marquette University • Does your PR course syllabus excite, intrigue, and motivate students to learn? • The purpose of this study is to examine how a format of a syllabus influences student motivation and engagement in a public relations course and impression on the course and course instructor.  The course syllabus functions as a pivotal role in evaluating initial course perceptions by students that could lead to student motivation to engage in classroom activities.  However, there has been a lack of research that examines how a format—design or length—of a course syllabus can affect or promote student engagement in PR courses. To fill the research gap, two studies, focus group interviews (Study I, N = 10) and a lab experiment (Study II, N = 84), were conducted with undergraduate students. Results from the two focus group interviews revealed that students preferred the long version of the visually appealing syllabus. However, findings in the experimental study indicate the importance of a visually-appealing and short syllabus as an initial point of positive impressions on the course and instructor in a public relations classroom.

Hong Ji; Parul Jain; Catherine Axinn • Perceptions of Guest Speakers in Strategic Communications Courses:  An Exploratory Investigation • Using linkage beliefs theory and focus group methodology, we conducted a systematic investigation to understand students’ perceptions of having guest speakers in strategic communications courses. Our findings suggest that students prefer speakers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences with whom they could relate and prefer to hear about tips related to networking, job search, and career advancements. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Carolyn Kim, Biola University; Karen Freberg, University of Louisville • Online Pedagogy: Navigating Perceptions and Practices to Develop Learning Communities • With the maturation of online education, there has been increased attention given to standards, motivations and best-practices within online education. This study is designed to explore the intersections between perceptions and practices that educators who teach online hold in relation perceptions and practices of students who are taking online courses. Implications from the findings on online education and ties to the recommendations from the Commission of Public Relations Education Report are noted.

Christopher J. McCollough, Columbus State University • Visionary Public Relations Coursework: Assessing Economic Impact of Service Learning in Public Relations Courses • Literature in public relations education on service learning offers strong examples of a wide variety of benefits, yet little is said about the potential long-term benefits for economic development. Given the obvious connection between public relations functions and successful businesses, this paper dis-cuss the course development, execution, and subsequent early indicators of economic impact of a collaborative project to promote a visionary arts venue and the community that neighbors it.

Amanda Weed, Ashland University • Is advertising and public relations pedagogy on the “write” track?: Comparing industry needs and educational objectives • Writing skills are paramount to the success of entry-level employees in the fields of strategic communication, yet sparse pedagogical research has been published in the past decade that specifically address methods to teach unique writing skills in the strategic communication curriculums. This study examines three unique categories of written communication—business writing, creative writing, and writing pedagogy—to provide a set of pedagogical recommendations that address the needs of the advertising and public relations industries.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Newspaper and Online News 2018 Abstracts

Open Competition
Examining who political journalists @mention on Twitter • Brooke Auxier, University of Maryland, College Park; Kalyani Chadha, University of Maryland, College Park • Many journalists have adopted social media platforms as a means for gathering breaking news and promoting their work. Though tools like Twitter allow journalists to interact directly with their audiences and average users, some critics suggest that journalists often write for each other and interact largely with others in the industry. An analysis of 5,000 tweets found that political journalists mostly @mention other journalists, news organizations and politicians.

The Journalism and Mass Communication Capstone Course: Bringing It All Together? • Brian J. Bowe, Western Washington University; Robin Blom, Ball State University; Lucinda Davenport • Although most higher education programs include a capstone course to culminate the student experience, program directors disagree on what the experience should look like. Updating previous research, this study examined the main goals, teaching methods, and subject areas covered in journalism and mass communication capstone courses. It also compared capstone course content and format to what professionals say is important to know. Based on a survey of department chairs and directors, the results show that capstone courses have become increasingly focused on individual coaching, the production of individual student projects, and the examination of issues related to careers and media in society.

Data journalism and black-boxed data sets • Wilson Lowrey, University of Alabama; Ryan Broussard, University of Alabama; Lindsey Sherrill, University of Alabama • Interviews with data journalists reveal there are differences in practices for data-driven journalism across different types of news outlets and levels of expertise in data journalists. Findings include an unlikeliness to question data categories from government agencies and a difference in how journalists at national and digital-only organizations generally systems in place to check data compared to journalists at smaller publications. Authors argue for a need to increase critical thinking in how data is used.

Knowledge begets knowledge:  Impacts of civic and political knowledge on knowledge gain from online news • D. Jasun Carr, Idaho State University; Mitchell Bard • “This paper uses a Twitter-based experiment to examine relationships between the content choices Post-Millennials make in a social media context, and how their civic and political knowledge influence factual recall. Results indicate that, while Post-Millennials were more likely than expected to select news over entertainment – leading to increased knowledge gain – their existing civic and political knowledge influences retention of information with increased base knowledge leading to higher factual recall.

Routine Adjustments: How Journalists Framed the Charleston Shootings • Bill Cassidy, Northern Illinois University; Betty La France; Sam Babin • National newspaper coverage of the 2015 mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. was analyzed via a two-dimensional measurement scheme for examining media frames. Results suggest that journalists incorporated attributes unique to this tragedy into their coverage when compared to studies of similar events. A wider variety of frames on time and space dimensions were consistently utilized, and there was increased attention to the societal/past frame combination.

To share or not to share? Credibility, emotion and false news on Twitter • Haoran Chu; Janet Yang; Jun Zhuang • An experimental survey based on a nationally-representative sample showed that source credibility features such as verification badge increased people’s perceived credibility of false news on Twitter, while high social approval reduced such belief. Credibility perception further mediated the effects of tweet features onto sharing intention. Additionally, anger as a high-arousal emotion led to stronger intention to share false tweets, while the low-arousal emotions like fear and sadness did not.

What to Think About: The Applicability of Agenda-Settings in a Social Media Context • Holly Cowart • “This study examined how agenda-setting works in a social media setting. Three areas were tested for their effect on issue salience. More than 360 participants viewed variations of a mock Facebook feed and answered questions about issue importance. Results showed that increased repetition of a news story did influence participants’ perception that the news story topic was important. Total time spent on Facebook, gender, and ethnicity had a significant influence on perceived story importance.

Don’t Quote Me: Effects of Named, Quoted and Partisan News Sources • Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kathleen Culver, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Douglas McLeod; Christopher Kremmer, University of News South Wales, Australia • “Many news organizations have developed policies on use of named and unnamed sources in stories, including when the latter should be directly quoted or paraphrased. In an experiment, we test how audience members respond to these policy dictates by measuring news credibility in a political story that manipulates whether the source is named, whether that source is directly quoted, and the political relationship between the person accused and the accuser. We find that while each of these manipulations has little or no effect, the combine to trigger a discernible change in credibility in the eyes of the audience.

Does a more diverse newspaper staff reflect its community? Analyzing The Dallas Morning News’ content • Tracy Everbach, UNT; Jake Batsell, Southern Methodist University; Sara Champlin, The University of North Texas; Gwendelyn Nisbett, University of North Texas • This analysis of print and digital content in The Dallas Morning News examines whether a regional newspaper’s coverage reflects the diversity of its community on multiple platforms. Using a constructed week from Fall 2017, this study employs mixed methods to research bylines, visual credits, text sources, and visual subjects in the Morning News’ print editions and website. Results show that the content does not match the diversity of the surrounding community, which is 40% Latinx.

Understanding the Conflict Between Journalism Professionalism and Emotional Trauma • Kenna Griffin, Oklahoma City University • This study measures how journalists’ professionalism may play a role in their willingness to admit suffering emotional trauma or seeking help for it, and how professionalism may affect journalists’ views of work-related trauma, in general. The 829 respondents reported a strong sense of professionalism, but agreed that it is difficult to remain objective when covering traumatic events. The respondents also disagreed that journalists have a special resiliency that allows them to do their jobs without suffering emotional trauma. Despite this, the journalists still identified emotional trauma as a problem for others in the industry, but thought it was unlikely to happen to them.

Fake news is not controlled in a controlled environment: An analysis of China’s online news • Lei Guo, Boston University • The widespread dissemination of fake news has become a serious concern in many western democracies. This study adds to the literature by demonstrating that fake news is not controlled even in a controlled media environment like China. Based on a comprehensive intermedia agenda-setting analysis, the research suggests that official news websites in China also contributed to the perpetuation of fake news by advancing fake news themselves and by inducing other media outlets to do so.

The Local-Mobile Paradox:  Missed Innovation Opportunities and The Future of Local News • Meg Heckman, Northeastern University; John Wihbey, Northeastern University • “We employ a mixed methods approach to examine the state of mobile web publishing among U.S. local newspapers. Analysis of the mobile version of news websites (N=100) across the 50 states yields an uneven picture, with innovation lagging in key areas. A survey with local owner-operators (N=77) in a large U.S. state suggests that devoting attention to mobile audiences may be associated with revenue opportunities, and the ability to innovate is not necessarily associated with firm size. We explore implications for the viability of local news.

All the News That Tweets: Newspapers’ Use of Twitter Posts as News Sources from 2009 to 2016 • Kyle Heim, Shippensburg University • This study analyzed a sample of New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today stories from 2009 to 2016 in which Twitter posts were cited as news sources (N = 440). Although the use of tweets as sources has increased, the tweets generally were not featured prominently within the stories. Tweets were used most often in international stories, and journalists relied mostly on the tweets of official sources such as politicians rather than ordinary citizens.

Strangers to the Game? Interlopers, intralopers, and shifting news production • Avery Holton, University of Utah; Valerie Belair-Gagnon, University of Minnesota • The contours of journalistic practice have evolved substantially since the emergence of the world wide web to include those who were once strangers to the profession. Bloggers, hobbyists, amateur journalists, programmers, mobile app designers, web analytic professionals, non-governmental organizations, start-ups, and many others have become part of the organizational field of journalism, collectively influencing news production. These strangers, whether welcomed by journalists or shunned as interlopers, represent what the sociologist Georg Simmel (1950) described as potential wanderers, or those individuals who might influence journalism briefly before moving on, as well as those who might have a more lasting footing. This conceptual essay argues that by beginning to delineate differences among these strangers—those who have not belonged to traditional journalism practice but have imported their qualities and work into it—a more holistic understanding of the impact of outsiders on news production, and journalism broadly, can be advanced. Following Eldridge’s (2018) call to consider the organizational field of journalism as a fluid one, we offer typologies of these strangers as explicit and implicit interlopers as well as intralopers, offering possible definitions and examples for each. In working to understand these strangers as innovators, disruptors, and challengers of news production, we begin to unpack how they are contributing to increasingly un-institutionalized meaning of news while also suggesting a research agenda that begins to give definition to the various strangers who may be influencing news production more specifically, and the organizational field of journalism more broadly.

Fake News Cues: Examining content, source, and typology cues in identifying mis- and disinformation • Avery Holton, University of Utah; Amber Hinsley, Saint Louis University • Using a survey of U.S. adults, this research examines the content, source, and other credibility cues people rely on when assessing fake news. This study also considers people’s perceptions about various emerging fake news typologies. Participants who had lower confidence in their ability to identify fake news were less reliant on multiple credibility sources as well as cues like headlines and visuals to help them determine mis- and disinformation. These signal a need for increased, continuous digital literacy education.

Sentiment Contagion in the 2016 U.S Presidential Election Media Tweet Networks • Claire Youngnyo Joa, Louisiana State University Shreveport; Gi Woong Yun, University of Nevada, Reno • Sentiment contagion across the media tweet, including traditional and non-traditional news media, network of 2016 U.S. presidential election was identified and analyzed using a series of time-series analysis. Online non-partisan media reported the highest use of positive sentiment words, while political commentators reported the highest level of negative sentiment word use. Online partisan media Twitter accounts, including @drudgereport, were identified as intermedia agenda setters that led negative sentiment contagion in multiple media categories. No evident individual agenda setter was found in positive sentiment contagion.

“Not one of us”: Social Identity and American Metajournalistic Discourse Surrounding Glenn Greenwald • Courtney Johnson, Pew Research Center • Journalists increasingly face challenges to their professional autonomy. The internet allows anyone with a computer or mobile device to post content online, making it easy for individuals with little or no journalistic training and no formal news outlet affiliation to engage in reporting. Whether this content creation constitutes “journalism,” however, is often contested by those traditional journalists affiliated with mainstream media outlets (Carlson, 2012; Singer, 2007). Mainstream journalists now feel challenged by online actors who consider themselves journalists, or at least consider the work they do to be journalistic in nature. Given the recent challenges posed to journalism by the internet, and guided by past research on social identity theory and boundary work, this paper examines the relationship between evolving journalistic professional identity and mainstream journalists’ treatment of Glenn Greenwald. Using a textual analysis of metajournalistic discourse, this study illustrates how definitions of journalism are changing in the digital age, and how journalists working for traditional news organizations draw boundaries around their profession and attempt to differentiate themselves from new forms of journalism enabled by the internet. Results indicate that journalists moved to protect their professional boundaries in ways predicted by social identity theory: Journalists enhanced their profession identity by subsuming the innovative aspects of Greenwald’s work under the rubric of traditional journalism, and used the other (less professionally desirable) aspects of Greenwald’s behavior to place him outside the boundaries of real journalism.

Mediating Empathy: The role of news consumption in mitigating attitudes about race and immigration • Kelly Kaufhold, Texas State University • Controversies over racism and xenophobia during and after the campaign of President Donald Trump contributed to big increases in media consumption – and racist incidents. This study examines whether and how much news media consumption mitigates perceptions of 12 measures of attitudes about race and immigration, using a national instrument of 64,600 cases. News media use – especially newspaper use – does soften attitudes about race and immigration, although it isn’t as predictive as party identification.

Protests, Media Coverage, and a Hierarchy of Social Struggle • Danielle Kilgo, Indiana University; Summer Harlow, University of Houston • News coverage is fundamental to a protest’s viability, but research suggests media negatively portray protests and protesters that challenge the status quo (a pattern known as the protest paradigm). This study questions that assumption, interrogating how topic, time, and region shape coverage. Results suggest Black Lives Matter and policing protest coverage follows more of a delegitimizing pattern than stories about women’s or immigrants’ rights protests. A model for a hierarchy of social struggle is proposed.

The meaning of numbers: Effect of social cues perceived as bandwagon heuristic in online news • Jiyoun Kim • “This quantitative study focuses on how peoples’ reactions to an online article are affected by social cues associated with the news article. This study found that online content with a high number of likes, shares, and comments show significant effects on the following: perceived bandwagon, willingness to consume news, perceived news worthiness, and people’s likelihood of news sharing. The findings indicate, however, that social cues have its effect when conditions are low-risk and low-involvement.

Reliance on Government Sources at American Newspapers in the Digital Era • Beth Knobel, Fordham University • This paper examines sources used in over 5,000 enterprise articles on the front pages of nine American newspapers before and after the advent of digital journalism to assess whether newspapers are becoming more reliant on government sources in the Internet era. This research suggests that journalists’ reliance on officials has increased in the digital era, but only slightly, as the ease of finding sources online has been eroded by budget cuts at American newspapers.

Re-examining news overload:  Effects of content characteristics and news topics on selective scanning and avoidance • Angela Lee; Avery Holton, University of Utah; Victoria Chen • The rapid proliferation of digital news platforms has exacerbated average consumers’ perception of overload and complicates the ways they selectively consume and avoid the news. Through an online panel survey, this study advances research on news overload by (1) proposing a more holistic measure of news overload, (2) examining the moderating effect of content characteristics and news topics on overload, and (3) investigating the ways in which these variables influence selective scanning and news avoidance. The results indicate that the antecedents and effects of news overload is more complex than previously thought and deserve more scholarly and industry attention.

Understanding the Role Performance of Native Advertising on News Websites • You Li, Eastern Michigan U • This study compares the role performance of native advertising between the legacy and the digital-only news websites in the United States. By analyzing the content characteristics, the study finds that native advertising primarily plays a service role. Those on the legacy news websites prioritized the civic role, while those on the digital-only news websites emphasized the infortainment role. The composition of native advertising message has yet to comply with the journalistic standard.

Perceptual Learning in Mass Communication Research: Immediate & Delayed Effects of Perceptual-Learning Methods on AP Style Knowledge • Justin Martin, Northwestern University in Qatar; Shageaa Naqvi, Northwestern University in Qatar; George Anghelcev, Northwestern University in Qatar • Perceptual-learning methods teach skills via numerous, rapid-fire questions that provide immediate visual feedback. This study tested the effects of a perceptual-learning module (PLM) on acquiring declarative and procedural knowledge of Associated Press editing style. A quasi-experiment compared a PLM condition of non-journalism majors to a control condition of journalism majors who learned AP style in a traditional way: by taking an introductory journalism class, being assigned the AP Stylebook as a textbook, and submitting AP-compliant assignments. A perceptual-learning module of 200 rapid, multiple-choice questions with immediate feedback significantly improved participants’ declarative and procedural knowledge of AP style, and was clearly more effective than the classroom method. Perceptual-learning participants, who spent just 1 hour 10 minutes completing the PLM, outperformed the classroom/control condition (a 14-week class) on AP editing ability. Importantly, these effects did not attenuate in a delayed posttest seven weeks after initial posttest. This is the first experiment testing effects of a PLM on linguistic editing ability.

Shithole and the President: News use of Trump’s profanity • Michael McCluskey, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • “When President Trump used shithole to describe several countries in discussion of immigration, news organizations faced violating norms against profanity to use his precise language. Evaluation of 2,469 stories containing “shithole” in 70 large newspaper websites over a 15-day period found the meeting and response, public policy and politics, and evaluation of Trump were the most common themes. Analysis showed the influences of news values, journalistic norms and organizational practices on use of profanity.

Healing and recovery as a news value • Michael McCluskey, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • “News values and journalistic values are used to explain which events or issues are mentioned in the news. One common news theme after traumas is healing and recovery, which is not explicitly mentioned as a value. Analysis evaluates the role of journalism after traumatic events to aid the healing and recovery of the affected parties, including communities. Evidence from previously published work and recent traumatic events is used to illustrate eight common themes.

‘Tell me something good’: Testing the longitudinal effects of constructive news using the Google Assistant • Karen McIntyre, Virginia Commonwealth University • In a mixed design quasi-experiment, participants received access to a Google Assistant feature in which they could prompt the assistant to summarize constructive news — stories that highlight societal progress. After two weeks, those who used the feature were more likely, between pretest and postttest, than those who did not to feel positive while consuming traditional news, suggesting constructive news could mitigate the effects of more typical, negative news.

Fact-checking and Facebook users’ engagement: Debunking fake news and verifying Trump’s claims • Paul Mena, University of Florida • “This study explores Facebook users’ engagement with fact-checking regarding categories of this journalistic activity and the authors of the claims being assessed. A content analysis of Facebook posts published by two major fact-checking organizations was conducted. The results show that the debunking of fake news by fact-checkers might produce higher levels of engagement. Additionally, this study found that fact-checking audiences on Facebook were significantly engaged with posts related to the verification of President Trump’s claims.

Fake News: A Concept Explication and Taxonomy of Online News • Maria D. Molina, Penn State University; S. Shyam Sundar • The growth of fake news online has created a need for computational models to automatically detect it. For such models to be successful, it is essential to clearly define fake news and differentiate it from other forms of news. We conducted a concept explication, yielding a taxonomy of online news that identifies specific features for use by machine learning algorithms to reliably classify fake news, real news, commentary, satire, and other related types of content.

Exploring a Branding Alignment Typology: Influences on individual, organizational, and institutional forms of journalistic branding • Logan Molyneux, Temple University; Seth Lewis, University of Oregon; Avery Holton, University of Utah • Contributing to the growing literature on how journalists engage in branding—promoting themselves, their organizations, and fellow journalists—this study proposes, tests, and confirms a branding alignment hypothesis. This typology, examined through a first-of-its-kind survey of journalists and branding (N = 642), sheds new light on how certain branding approaches match up with individual, organizational, and institutional forms of motivation and influence. Moreover, this approach shows how branding is manifest over and above social media dynamics alone.

Readers’ Perceptions of Newsworthiness and Bias as Factors in Commenting on Digital News Content • Greg Munno, Syracuse University • “This study tests a structural model of commenting behavior using survey data (N = 335). The model builds on suggestions of a connection between hostile-media effects and commenting. This study adds newsworthiness to the structural equation. The model tested had indicators of good fit, although hostile-media effects did not play a prominent role in the structural model.

Peace Journalism: A War/Peace Framing Visual Analysis of the Charlottesville Protests • Dara Phillips, Regent University; Stephen Perry, Regent University • Peace journalism has typically applied to international events, but this study examined the Charlottesville protest to determine if war/peace imagery is applicable to domestic conflict. The protest was selected for its imagery and sudden public awareness. Using Neumann and Fahmy’s visual coding, researchers conducted Chi-square analyses to examine what ways war/peace imagery was used in state and national newspapers. Further quantitative analysis showed no difference in peace journalism usage between state and national newspapers.

No Quick Fix: How Journalists Assess the Impact and Define the Boundaries of Solutions Journalism • Elia Powers, Towson University; Alex Curry, University of Texas-Austin • The Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) defines its mission as supporting and connecting journalists interested in “rigorous reporting on responses to social problems.” One problem facing journalists and researchers is the lack of a shared framework for discussing solutions journalism’s impact. This mixed-methods study addresses how SJN and its journalist members assess and discuss impact. Findings shed light on how proponents and practitioners of solutions journalism view its objectives, measure its effects, and define its boundaries.

Solidarity in the Newsroom? Media Concentration and Union Organizing: Case Study from the Sunshine State • Jennifer Proffitt, Florida State University • This paper examines the struggles, actions, and challenges of the journalist organizers at two Florida legacy newspapers—the Lakeland Ledger and the Sarasota Herald Tribune—who unionized in 2016 with The NewsGuild-Communication Workers of America. In-depth interviews with journalists from both papers suggest that unionizing can help to counter the effects of media concentration, corporate practices, and the resulting changes in organizational structure and their impact on the working conditions of reporters.

Tweeting local sports: Best practices of a successful sports reporter • Matthew Reavy, University of Scranton; Kimberly Pavlick, University of Scranton • This paper uses a mixed methodology approach to analyze the Twitter habits of a local sports reporter from the perspective of Uses and Gratifications theory. An in-depth interview with the subject, together with a content analysis of more than 14,000 tweets over a two-year period, are used to compare the reporter’s Twitter habits with ideals defined by journalists in previous research. Suggestions are made for “best practices” in local sports journalism.

Conceptualizing fake news from the perspective of its producers • Craig Robertson, Michigan State University; Rachel Mourao, Michigan State University • “Interest in fake news peaked after 2016, but studies have focused on the way scholars, journalists, audiences, and Trump define it. Guided by Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical model and journalists as interpretive communities (Zelizer, 1993, 2017) this paper explores the ways fake news producers present themselves on their “About us” and social media bios. We found that fake news is an alternative interpretive community guided by openly partisan discourses championing subjective truths and rejecting objectivity.

Measuring quality dialogue: Unproductive, uncivil discourse dominates news commenting forums • Arthur Santana, San Diego State University • Online commenting forums of news sites have been much maligned for the rampant incivility they often engender, and anecdotal accounts are that many news sites are abandoning them. Via content analysis of 4,800 comments from online commenting forums from around the country, this research quantitatively examines not just the civility but the overall quality of the comments. It also quantifies how many news sites host the forums. Key variables are anonymous commenters and non-anonymous commenters.

Geolocated News: How Place, Space and Context Matters for Mobile News Users • Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State • This study examines mobile news consumers and non-mobile news consumers perceptions of geolocated news and their news consumption behavior. Based on a national online survey of U.S. adults (n=979) that was conducted in fall 2017, findings show that mobile news consumers are seeking out geolocated news. The context by which they seek out location-based information is dependent on where they live, work or play as well as where their family and friends live.

Journalism and Trauma: The Role of Education and Trauma Resources in Humanizing Newsrooms • Natalee Seely • Many journalists must report on trauma, but undergraduate journalism education and newsroom resources may not offer adequate trauma preparedness and support. A survey (N=254) examined the relationships between trauma education and workplace resources, and journalists’ level of trauma awareness and their willingness to seek support in their newsroom. Education regarding crisis reporting positively predicted trauma awareness, indicating that journalism programs may produce more prepared journalists if they include curriculum about crisis reporting. Participation in workplace resources also significantly predicted willingness to seek emotional support in the newsroom. Results from surveys also showed that crisis reporting education and trauma-related resources are lacking in journalism programs and newsrooms. Nearly half of journalists surveyed reported that their current newsroom offered no trauma-related resources, such as debriefings, counseling or trauma training. Additionally, more than half (53%) reported never having received any type of education related to crisis reporting or covering trauma.

Reporting on Tragedy and Violence: Journalists’ Perspectives • Natalee Seely • Journalists witness and experience traumatic events as part of their jobs. A lack of education and newsroom resources about trauma, along with a newsroom culture that often stigmatizes vulnerability and promotes a “suffering in silence” attitude, can take its toll on reporters. This study offers a qualitative perspective to reports that newsrooms are facing a “mental health epidemic” (Huffington Post, May 26, 2015). In-depth interviews with journalists from around the country identify journalists’ experiences with trauma, their coping mechanisms, and their perspectives on how their education and newsroom environments have (or have not) prepared them for covering violence, tragedy and conflict.

Context Matters: Journalists’ Ideals, Narration, and Practices in the United States and Malaysia • Moniza Waheed; Lea Hellmueller • A content analysis of newspapers from the United States and Malaysia along with a survey among journalists found that the watchdog role conception, narration, and performance was more pronounced in the United States compared to Malaysia while the loyal facilitator model, akin to development journalism was more pronounced in the latter. The role conceptions of these models were linked to the narration of journalists but were not necessarily reflected in the news reports journalists produced.

Biting The Hand: Accountability Journalism in the Trade Press • Rob Wells, Univ of Arkansas • “This article examines accountability journalism in the trade press, the specialty business publications, a topic not covered in prior research. Qualitative research methods involving interviews with top trade journalists reveal their in-depth reporting led to conflicts with advertisers, such as boycotts. Trade journalists describe a complex relationship with their industries, in line with the political economy theory, yet they adhered to journalistic norms such as autonomy, which readers valued.

Overloaded: The Impact of Visual Density on Advertising Recognition within Sponsored News Articles • Ryan Kor; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georiga • Drawing from load theory, this study hopes to investigate the possible implications of a native ad’s visual density and characteristics of the disclosure label on advertising recognition. The current study uses a 3 x 2, between subjects lab experiment which utilizes eye-tracking software to measure participants’ attention to disclosure label positions based on visual density.

Journalism’s Relationship to Democracy: Roles, Attitudes, and Practices • David Wolfgang, Colorado State University; Tim Vos, University of Missouri; Kimberly Kelling • “Journalism is often discussed in terms of its relationship to democracy. But one’s conception of democracy can influence how one understands journalistic concepts. This study surveyed 204 US political reporters to determine their views on democracy and how their views relate to professional roles, trust, and sourcing. The findings show journalists support traditional norms but differ in their support in interesting ways based on their conception of democracy.

“All the President’s tweets”: A Large-scale Study of Uses of Social Media Content in Online News • Mohammad Yousuf; Naeemul Hassan, The University of Mississippi; Md Main Uddin Rony, The University of Mississippi • This longitudinal study examines uses of social media content in online news from 2013 to 2017. Computational methods were used to analyze 59,356 articles from 68 mainstream news websites and 85 highly controversial online-only news portals. Results show uses of social media content in news almost doubled in five years. Both mainstream and controversial sites prefer Twitter to Facebook as a source of information. Social statuses of cited sources vary across mainstream and controversial websites.

Hostile Media Perception and Intention to Participate in Public Discussion of Mental Health Issues: An Examination of the Role of Involvement • Xueying Zhang; Kim Baker; Kim Bissell; Sarah Pember; Yiyi Yang • “The current study tested the “corrective action hypothesis” by analyzing intentions to discuss mental health issues publicly after exposing to news coverage of mass shootings using a “dangerous people” frame. An online survey of 288 respondents suggested that affective involvement independently predict as well as mediate self-interest involvement in predicting HMP, which then predicted individuals’ intentions to take part in public discussion about mental health.

Student Papers
Breaking Babel: Understanding the Dark Side of Digital News • David Berman, University of Pennsylvania • Using attention economics as a theoretical framework, this paper pursues a comparative historical analysis of William Randolph Hearst’s yellow newspaper The New York Journal and the digital news website BuzzFeed. In so doing, this paper arrives at a structural understanding of the conditions that lead to the production and distribution of misinformation.

Blame the ABC: news framing and the future of public service broadcasting in Australia • Lauren Bridges, University of Pennsylvania • This paper draws on textual analysis of 157 newspaper articles to contend that commercial news framing of recent media reform in Australia work to normalize deregulation as the only way to “save the media” from digital disruption, while also implicating public service broadcasters, as “competing unfairly” in commercial media markets. By conflating the ABC charter with the need for media reform, commercial newspapers aim to delegitimize digital services provided by public broadcasters thereby limiting their future growth.

Message or Medium? Effect of Virtual Reality on News Stories • Noah Buntain; Shengjie Yao, S.I. Newhouse School Of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Dongqing Xu • This quantitative study tested whether viewer reactions to a video story were different when presented in virtual reality. Based on LC4MP, we predicted that the VR medium would elicit higher levels of presence, emotion, and empathy than standard video. Subjects (N=40) were students, staff, and faculty from a large private university in the United States. Results indicated that VR presentations are not significantly different on these factors than standard video.

Learning news credibility cues in politicized news • Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • “Audiences, who cannot investigate the credibility of most news stories for themselves, rely on non-content heuristic cues to form credibility judgments. For most mediums, these heuristics were stable over time. Emerging formats of journalism, however, require audiences to learn to interpret what new heuristics credibility cues mean about the credibility of the story. In an experiment, participants (N=254) were given instructions about how to interpret the credibility cues in three formats as they read a politicized news story, which were compared to a control condition that did not have any instructions. The results show the effects of partisanship and the format of the instructions on both the ability to learn news heuristics and the perceived credibility of the story.

The Politicizing of ESPN: A Content Analysis of its Perceived Partisanship • Adrianne Grubic, — please select a prefix — • Since the 2016 presidential election, politics has not only taken the forefront in news, but in sports as well. ESPN’s protest coverage became a source of debate as various media outlets accused the network of being partisan with a liberal bias. Through a content analysis, this study found that espn.com readers were more likely to be uncivil towards other commenters and were less concerned with a perceived bias.

Control and resistance: The influences of political, economic, and technological factors on Chinese investigative reporting • Lei Guo • “This study utilizes interviews with 12 current or former investigative journalists in China to find out how important systematic players influence on investigative news. By adopting hierarchy of influences model, this study finds that Chinese investigative news is subject to control by both central and local propaganda departments and financial and public relations institutions; while new technology can facilitate journalists’ strategies to finish their reporting.

A Community that has Lost its Way: Framing the Sherman Park Unrest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin • Rachel Italiano, Marquette University • Officer-involved shootings of African Americans have received extensive media coverage recent years. This analysis examines how the local press of a Midwest city framed Syville Smith’s shooting death by a Milwaukee police officer and the subsequent unrest that occurred. Fifty-nine articles from the Milwaukee Community Journal and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel were analyzed. Overall, Sherman Park was framed as a community that has lost its way because of several factors. Implications are discussed.

Fake News and Its Sourcing Patterns • Soo Young Shin, Michigan State University • This study examined the differences in sourcing patterns between fake news and mainstream news.  A content analysis of stories from fake news sites and top circulation mainstream news media during the 2016 presidential election was conducted to compare each of their source selections. The results revealed that fake news mostly relied on other media outlets for their sources, which played a role in reinforcing bias and existing beliefs of fake news consumers. Constructing fake news’ identity by verifying opinions with other media was suggested as one reason for the heavy reliance on other media. Non-official sources were also valued by fake news to arouse public interest.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Minorities and Communication 2018 Abstracts

Faculty Research Competition
Acculturation, Pluralism, Empowerment: Cultural Images as Strategic Communication on Hispanic Nonprofit Websites • Melissa Adams; Melissa Johnson, North Carolina State University • This quantitative visual content analysis investigated the use of acculturation, pluralism, empowerment, and resistance-themed messages and images in nonprofit strategic communication and digital intercultural communication. The study analyzed data from 135 U.S.-based Latino nonprofit websites. Based on study findings, the authors argue that these nonprofits may be missing opportunities to strengthen relationships and cultural ties with target publics. This analysis applies acculturation theory to visual communication and extends the literature on digital intercultural public relations.

Racially Framed: A content analysis of media frames in the coverage of the Ferguson controversy • Kris Boyle, Brigham Young University • After the death of Michael Brown in 2014, protests in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked nationwide discussion about race, police use of force, and police militarization. This study analyzes the media’s framing of the events in Ferguson, comparing coverage from local media (The St. Louis Dispatch) with national media (The New York Times). Both framed the events as a conflict between police and protesters. However, the Times used more race-based terms in its coverage than the Post-Dispatch.

‘Sharing Hope and Healing’: A culturally tailored social media campaign serving Native Americans • Rebecca Britt, The University of Alabama; Brian Britt; Jenn Anderson, South Dakota State University; Nancy Fahrenwald; Shana Harming • Social media campaigns designed to promote health can be effective when tailored appropriately and can successfully improve quality of life, including an increased number of living kidney donors among ethnic minorities. In the current manuscript, the authors discuss the results of a social media campaign designed to promote communication and education about living kidney donation and transplantation (LKDT) among Native Americans, who experience a uniquely great need for increased transplantation and suffer from a disproportionate number of related health burdens. Engagement, reach, and impressions were measured within the campaign for its duration via a set of hierarchical linear regressions.  Notable results indicated that success stories about LKDT were statistically significant predictors of campaign engagement, reach, impressions, as well as negative feedback. Implications, limitations, and future directions for partnering with tribal communities, relevant stakeholders, and developing advertising and mass communication efforts are outlined.

Racist Media Representations of Police Shootings: The Problem of Primary Definition • Alfred Cotton, University of Cincinnati • The purpose of this paper is to analyze the narratives of two cases of police-involved shootings of Black men as presented in mass media to show how, if left unchecked, allowing elites and officials (particularly when they are representative of the individuals in the case) to define the narratives of such events can lead to misrepresentation of the narrative of the events.  Only when video evidence disputing the police officers’ version of events did mainstream journalists begin to question the veracity of the officers’ claims their decisions to shoot these men were justified.  The analysis examines the shifting discursive positions of the police, public officials, and media representatives over time and how those evidence a racist system of journalistic practices in American mainstream news media.

Impact of Media Use and Pro-Environmental Orientations on Racial/Ethnic Groups’ Attitudes Towards Ecobranding • Troy Elias, University of Oregon • This research uses national survey data from 1,180 Hispanics, African-American, non-Hispanic White, and Asian-Americans to explore the comparative likelihood of Hispanic, African-American, White, and Asian Americans engaging in pro-environmental behaviors and harboring pro-environmental orientations, in particular attitudes towards eco-branding. The results of the study indicate that Hispanic, African-American, White, and Asian-American respondents did not significantly differ in their attitudes towards eco-branding. Additional results indicate that Asian-Americans and Hispanics, to a relative extent, outpace everyone else in terms of pro-environmental attitudes, behaviors, and attitudes towards green purchasing. These results further disconfirm the notion that ethnic/racial minorities care less about the environment than racial minorities.

More than a Black and White Issue: Racialized Identity Constructs and Support for the Black Lives Matter Movement • Lanier Holt, The Ohio State University; Matthew Sweitzer, The Ohio State University • We examine which factors guide opinions about Black Lives Matter. We find ethnic identity predicts why African Americans’ have positive attitudes towards BLM, but is a poor predictor of Whites’ beliefs. Attitudes about social dominance better predicts which Whites will oppose BLM. However, when Whites discuss racial issues, the impact of social dominance is negated, leading them to more positively evaluate BLM. These processes have implications for communication about racial issues.

How Race, Gender, and American Politics Influenced User  Discourse Surrounding the Jemele Hill Controversy • Guy Harrison, Youngstown State University; Ann Pegoraro, Laurentian University; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina • On September 11, 2017, ESPN’s Jemele Hill tweeted that United States President Donald Trump was a “white supremacist.” Online reaction was swift and divided. The purpose of this study was to analyze how people were discussing the incident on Facebook using the theoretical lens of framing. Results demonstrate that discussions devolved into stereotypical tropes and uncivil discourse. Ultimately, Hill’s race and gender became as much of a topic of contention as did her comments about Trump.

Media Effects and Marginalized Ideas: Relationships Among Media Consumption and Support for Black Lives Matter • Danielle Kilgo, Indiana University; Rachel Mourao, Michigan State University • Building research analyses of Black Lives Matter media portrayals, this inquiry uses a two-wave panel survey to examine the effects coverage has on the evaluation of the core ideas from the BLM agenda. Results show conservative media use increases negative evaluations; models suggest this relationship works as a multidirectional feedback loop. Mainstream and liberal media consumptions do not lead to more positive views on BLM.

An Examination of Non-White Crime Portrayals in Local Broadcast News • Jeniece Jamison, University of Memphis; Stephanie Madden, Pennsylvania State University • The purpose of this study is to examine trends in the coverage of crime stories in local broadcast television news. Findings showed that while whites may have been underrepresented as criminal actors, non-whites’ representation in crime stories were on par with their representation within the market area. Interviews from newsroom employees revealed newsrooms try to eliminate bias by hiring individuals from a variety of backgrounds, creating open dialogue concerning diversity in the newsroom, and considering the effects of crime on their communities before deciding to air a crime-related story.

Civil Rights and Sports: Jackie Robinson’s Continuing Crusade as a Newspaper Columnist • Raymond McCaffrey, University of Arkansas • This historical study explores the journalistic career of Jackie Robinson, who began writing a newspaper column for the African-American press after retiring from the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team with which he broke Major League Baseball’s so-called “color line” in 1947. Of particular interest is a consideration of Robinson’s use of his column to advance the growing movement of athletes fighting for civil rights on the sports field in the 1960s. This study involves a reading of hundreds of Robinson columns. This examination focused on the period after Robinson’s retirement from baseball in 1957, when the civil-rights trailblazer came to be labeled by some as an “Uncle Tom” because of what was viewed as a too conciliatory approach to race relations. This study suggests that a review of his columns throughout the 1960s reveals that not only did Robinson’s positions on numerous civil-rights issues evolve through the decade. He was strategic in his taking of positions, coming out early in support of key battles to advance civil rights on the sports field. Robinson ultimately came to take almost militant stands on major issues, a revelation considering he had once backed Richard Nixon and had been an outspoken critic of Malcolm X.

Old Stereotypes Made New: A Textual Analysis on the Tragic Mulatto Stereotype in Contemporary Hollywood • Brandale Mills, Norfolk State University • Historically, Black women’s most persistent images on-screen have typically neither been Black nor that of a woman, partly because of media’s love affair with damaging stereotypes such as the Tragic Mulatto, marked by gendered racism (Cartier, 2014; Mask, 2015). Media representations of Black culture, people and their communities have been a major force in shaping their portrayals in popular culture (Barnett & Flynn, 2014) and this has especially been true for fostering an environment of racial (in)tolerance and acceptance. While Black characters have historically shaped audience member’s perceptions, biracial representations in the media have provided a space for discussion and at times the disregard of multicultural politics. This study examined biracial female characters in films directed by Black women, using Black Feminist Thought to assess whether these depiction strayed from the historic portrayals of the tragic mulatto. The study’s finding illustrated evidence of the traditional tragic mulatto with elements of empowerment and liberation.

The Effects of Latino Cultural Identity and Media Use on Political Engagement and Vote Choice in Election 2016 • Maria Len-Rios, The University of Georgia; Patricia Moy • Using a post-2016 U.S. presidential election national Qualtrics panel survey (N = 720), we examined individual, cultural-identity and media variables predicting political knowledge, political participation and vote choice among Latino voters. Findings show acculturation was associated with greater political knowledge. Social dominance orientation decreased both political knowledge and participation. Print news and social media use fostered participation, while TV use eroded it. Spanish-language news negatively predicted knowledge. Gender was strongly associated with vote choice.

Representation of Minorities in Hospitals’ Online Platforms: Manifestation of Diversity in Images and Videos • Taryn Myers; Finie Richardson; Jae Eun Chung, Communication • While hospitals’ health promotion via social media has the potential to be a critical source of health information, research shows racial and ethnic disparities exist in health-related knowledge that may be, in part, related to media representation. The purpose of this study is to examine the racial and ethnic representation of people featured on Washington, D.C. hospitals’ social media platforms to understand how hospitals embed cultural competency into their health communication. By comparing the diversity of images on hospitals’ social media platforms with the demographics of hospitals’ neighboring communities, the researchers intend to highlight opportunities to improve targeted health messaging to underserved communities, particularly Black and Latino communities. Among the 1,305 images coded, the researchers found that Whites and Asians were over-represented while Latinos were severely under-represented in hospitals’ social media representation as compared to the community demographics. Enhancing minority representation on hospitals’ social media-based health promotion may contribute to addressing the disparities in healthcare.

Stuck in the myth of Model Minority: Representation of self in Asian Indian ethnic newspapers • Somava Pande, Washington State University • Extant literature posits that ethnic media play an important role in constructing their readers’ perception and knowledge of race and ethnicity. This study extends scholarship on Asian Indian ethnic media, by demonstrating how in the recontextualization of social constructs like borders, immigration, etc., in the current socio-political scenario Asian Indian ethnic newspapers construct their own group identity. Critical discourse analysis of 289 news articles revealed the presence of ambivalence as they represent their own group.

“To Ferguson, Love Palestine”: Mediating Life Under Occupation • Cristina Mislan; Sara Shaban, University of Missouri • Palestinian activists and Black protesters in Ferguson, MO created a transnational network of solidarity after recognizing their shared experiences of police brutality. The authors focus on both the online and offline politics of #Ferguson through a textual analysis of the digital media discourse and by conducting interviews with community activists. Findings reveal the shared ‘resistance culture’ made visible through digital media, emphasizing the affective expressions of Brown and Black voices resisting the force of militarization.

Student Paper
A Conceptual Model on Black Consumer-Brand Identity Congruence and Personal Care Purchase Intentions • Yewande Addie, UF; Brett Ball, University of Florida; Kelsy-Ann Adams, University of Florida • Nielsen reports black buying power is expected to increase nearly $1 trillion by 2021. Thus our research is rooted in offering intellectual support to exploring that economic contribution and filling existing gaps in academic literature on black female consumer relationship with brands. This study offers a conceptual model aimed at analyzing the potential impact of brand-consumer identity congruence between personal care brands and black female consumers and its influence on purchase intentions.

Marketing to One Color: An Analysis of the Emergent Themes in Cancer Television Commercials from 2014-2017. • Aqsa Bashir, University of Florida • There is considerable amount of research available on cancer incidence and mortality; however, the role of the media in framing cancer as a health issue has not been analyzed. This paper uses framing analysis approach to analyze cancer television commercials to better understand how the social marketers are portraying cancer to the masses. Four themes emerged from a framing analysis of the ads: emotional appeal, empowerment, social support and research advancements. Additionally, this study explored whether racial disparities and underrepresentation of racial minorities exist in cancer advertisements. The findings revealed that Blacks in particular are underrepresented in cancer advertisement even though cancer incidence and mortality rates are higher in the Black population. This study provides practical implications for cancer organizations and social marketers by offering insights on the popular themes being applied in cancer advertisements.

Racialized Reporting: Newspaper Coverage of Hurricane Harvey vs. Hurricane Maria • STEFANIE DAVIS, The Pennsylvania State Universtiy • There is little that is natural about natural disasters. Storm impact site to relief efforts are rooted in geographical, social, and racial inequalities. News coverage of natural disasters is subject to these same biases. This study aims to tease out the different news frames used in coverage of Hurricane Harvey (Texas) and Hurricane Maria (Puerto Rico). A content analysis of newspaper articles, supplemented by a qualitative textual analysis, suggests significant differences in framing techniques of each storm. Specifically, Maria was framed more politically than Harvey, and coverage of Harvey included more human interest stories than Maria. Implications on issues of geography, race, and citizenship are discussed.

____ Lives Matter: The Impact Of Exemplar Race and Story Frame on Percieved Issue Severity • Robert Jones, Missouri School of Journalism • Exemplification research on minorities has focused on the relationship between stereotypical portrayal of minorities and stereotypical judgments. Research that observes the interaction between exemplar race and frame in news media is lacking. The study observed the relationship between exemplar race and story frame on perceptions. Results show media that focus on the accounts of common folk are perceived as more credible than those that focus on accounts of police officers.

Immigrant frames and responses to mass media identity positioning • Debra Kelley, University of Minnesota, School of Journalism & Mass Communication • Somali-American women research participants call on discourses from mass media to negotiate social status and sexual identity and explain contradictions they exhibit in different discursive situations. For the immigrants in my study, mediation both enables and constrains representations of themselves. This paper provides a voice to these Somali-Americans, adding to a paucity of literature about the Somalis’ trajectory as one of the largest refugee groups in the United States and cultural conflicts inherent in re-locating.

Media Framing of the Movement for Black Lives: Tone and Changes Over Time • Michelle Perkins, University of Houston • Media attention is a vital factor in a social movement’s struggle against hegemonic norms, thus framing can greatly impact their influence. Frequency of coverage within the initial four years of Movement for Black Lives was compared to social occurrences to determine impacts on coverage. Employing a content analysis, the present study examined coverage about the movement to determine overall tone and changes in coverage over time, with results compared by ideology of the media outlet.

Black Masculine Scripts in Hip-Hop Media • Christin Smith • This paper investigates scripts of the Black masculine sexual body and Hip-Hop music based on Jackson’s Scripting the Black Masculine Body (2006). The scripts are the pimp, thug and roughneck, thug misses, stud, player, and baller scripts (Jackson, 2006). Through a textual analysis of Hip-Hop music videos and a semiotic textual analysis of Hip-Hop lyrics, this paper argues that Black bodies in Hip-Hop media have internalized negative inscriptions of their bodies to be true.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Media Management, Economics, and Entrepreneurship 2018 Abstracts

Open Competition
Substitutability and Complementarity of Broadcast Radio and Music Streaming Services: The Millennial Perspective • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida; Rang Wang, University of Florida; Kyung-Ho Hwang, School of Liberal Studies, Kyungnam University • Digital technologies have redefined how audiences use audio media. Faced with great challenges, broadcast radio stations launched mobile apps to compete with music streaming services in engaging the largest generation in the U.S., the Millennial. Guided by the uses and gratifications approach, this study investigated the Millennial’s perceptions of the substitutability and complementarity of broadcast radio, its apps, and music streaming services through a national survey. Strategic implications for broadcast radio were provided. The paper was based on the collaborative work among partners from the academic, radio stations, and the mobile app industry with professional relevance.

The Impact of Organizational Climate on Trauma Suffering in Journalism • Kenna Griffin, Oklahoma City University • This study measures the role of the newsroom organizational climate in preparing journalists for trauma exposure and providing them with support afterward. The 829 respondents reported high levels of trauma exposure at work and intense symptoms as a result. Despite this, few journalists were trained about trauma exposure. This support would help them cope with emotions related to experiencing traumatic events and could help them avoid emotional trauma altogether, creating a more emotionally healthy profession.

Entrepreneurial News Sites as Worthy Causes? Exploring Readers’ Motivations Behind Donating to Latin American Journalism • Summer Harlow, University of Houston • “This study uses surveys with readers of entrepreneurial news startups in seven Latin American countries to examine their motivations for donating to journalism. Using the donor-organization relationship from public relations scholarship as a framework, this study showed content, independent/objective journalism, interactivity, and community as main motivating factors for donating. A lack of priority, techno concerns, and capitalism were reasons why readers did not donate. Professional and theoretical implications are discussed.

The digital linchpin for mobile startup? Exploring the social media knowledge and managerial skills of mobile entrepreneurs • Gejun Huang, The University of Texas at Austin; Wenhong Chen, The University of Texas at Austin; Bryan Stephens, The University of Texas at Austin • The flourish scene of high-tech entrepreneurship in the U.S has prompted growing academic interests in the relationship between social media and entrepreneurship. However, limited attention has been paid to exploring the degree to which entrepreneurs’ social media knowledge and managerial skills affect their business performances. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the variations of mobile entrepreneurs’ social media strategies from the perspectives of technological knowledge and IT managerial skills that derive from resource-based theory. Using qualitative data drawn from 45 semi-structured interviews with mobile entrepreneurs and advocates in the major U.S. tech hubs, we find the formation and implementation of their social media strategies are premised on social media knowledge and managerial skills. The knowledge and skills correspond with mobile entrepreneurs’ understanding of mobile technologies and user practices, their business development needs and network, as well as the broader industry context.

Examining Cord-Cutting Media Consumers: Usage, Perceptions, Motivations, and Segments • Hun KIM; Kyung-Ho Hwang, School of Liberal Studies, Kyungnam University; Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida; Byeng-Hee Chang, Sungkyunkwan University • This study investigates factors affecting consumer segments within cord cutting using IDT, U&G theory, the media substitution, channel repertoire and media usage. Theoretically, this study is an early study of consumer segment related to cord cutting and is based on IDT and U&G to analyze perceptions of two services consumer. Practically, this study provides practical insight to cord media and streaming video service industries.

The Economics of State-Run News Media Policy: A Case Study of Vietnam • Huyen Nguyen, Ohio University; Trung Bui • In Western world, government intervention via media policy is supposed to help correct market failures such as the existence of external cost/benefit on third parties, the  lack of public goods, and the abuse of monopoly power (Rolland, 2008; Hoskins, McFayden & Finn, 2004; Picard, 1989). In still communist nations, government intervention is more often viewed as to protect political ideas (Chin-Chuan, Zhou & Yu, 2006; Silverblatt & Zlobin, 2004; Siebert, Peterson & Schramm, 1978). However, in the post-communist era, communist governments have always been steered towards a market economy, leading to their mixed media policy goals. In this study, the analysis of 267 policy tools and seven interviews with media scholars, news leaders and state officials   in Vietnam, a still communist nation, unveil that correcting market failures is an involuntary and secondary goal of Vietnam news media policy. Besides, a survey of 40 news organizations indicates that organizations who perceive policy effectiveness  tend to yield more revenues and commit more to news quality than those who do not.

McClatchy’s “Reinvention” and Socially Responsible Existentialists: An interview-based case study • Mark Poepsel, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • As the McClatchy news chain introduces a “Reinvention” plan in its newsrooms, some journalists are wary. Questions of autonomy arise when upper-level management hands down checklists and digital engagement targets. Journalists’ concerns must be balanced with the organization’s need to focus on digital revenues. Management’s efforts at financial salvation must be balanced with the need to preserve the social responsibility role of news outlets. This is a case study of a small-city news organization with national investigative journalism chops. This manuscript examines through the normative theoretical frame how journalists, accomplished at balancing their autonomy with social responsibility, respond to “Reinvention.”

Does Geographical Location Matter in Business-to-Business Advertising Expenditure Decisions? Evidence from Manufacturing Firms • Nur Uysal, DePaul University; Juan Mundel, DePaul University • Previous literature on advertising spending typically related advertising to the sales or profitability of the firm or industry. Even though the relationship between advertising and sales has been studied extensively, the results are usually muddied by other marketing mix elements, such as promotion and distribution effect. Although the marketing literature has showed an enduring interest in geographic location, there has been relatively scant research on geographical proximity as a determinant of B2B advertising expenditure in the advertising scholarship. Using Cluster Theory as a framework, this paper tests whether industry cluster affect B2B marketing expenditure decisions. The researcher constructed a study sample of manufacturing firms (with primary three-digit SIC between 200 and 399) with a high percentage of their assets and employees located at the firm’s corporate headquarters (N = 2331 firm-year observations from 651 firms). Results of a t test and a series of multiple regression analysis yielded empirical evidence that geographic proximity to an industry cluster location affects firms’ decisions on B2B advertising expenditure. Implications for media management research and theory are discussed.

Comparing Online and Offline Media Engagement: A Triangular Measurement Approach • Lisa-Charlotte Wolter, University of Florida; Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida; Daniel McDuff • Media engagement can serve as a useful approach for cross-platform effectiveness measurement and optimization. Through an industry-academic research partnership between a research university, Google/YouTube, and Microsoft, the study conducted online-offline cross-platform comparisons of YouTube and TV video usage experience using both implicit and explicit measurements. Results from the comprehensive lab-based mixed-methods study shed light on how the two video platforms differ in terms of attention and engagement – measured triangularly (cognitive, affective, behavioral). (Industry Relevance)

Legacy Media Versus Emerging Online Sources of News and Information: A Niche Study of Competition and Coexistence • Mohammad Yousuf • This study applied the Theory of the Niche to examine if the legacy news media competes with institution-generated content, activist-generated content, and user-generated content—three emerging sources of news and information. A survey of online media users (N=1,103) shows each of four content types has a moderate niche on news gratifications. Niche overlap coefficients suggest moderate to strong competition among the content types although the legacy news media maintains competitive superiority over all others.

Special Topics
Business Characteristics of a Network Media Agency:  A Case Study Using a Dyadic Perspective of Agency–Client Joint Business Activities • Melanie Herfort, University of Bayreuth, Germany; Reinhard Kunz • This paper studies a media agency’s business characteristics using a dyadic agency–client view to explore the collaborative value of co-creation business activities. The paper applies a qualitative case study method based on a network media agency. We contribute that the knowledge about nonmedia services, such as content and technology, and their clients as business partners play a large role in furthering the business activities of this agency.

Emotional Responses to Online Video Ads: The Differential Effects of Self-Brand Congruity and Ad Duration • Todd Holmes, California State University Northridge • The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of self-brand congruity and ad duration and how these factors impact emotional responses to embedded online video advertisements. To achieve these aims, an online experiment was conducted based on a two (self-brand congruity) X two (ad duration) between-subjects design. Two dependent measures, emotional response to the ad (ERad) and emotional response to the brand (ERb) were used to examine the effectiveness of the ads and three brand personality dimensions (excitement, sophistication, ruggedness) were included in the model as replicates. Self-brand congruity was found to significantly impact respondents’ level of pleasure experienced when they viewed an ad for a brand that was low or high in excitement. Significant differences were found in terms of the pleasure that subjects ascribed to brands deemed to be low or high in sophistication. In addition, an interaction effect was found in the sophistication dimension with respect to arousal.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Media Ethics 2018 Abstracts

Carol Burnett Award
Fake News and the Fourth Estate: The Role of Editorial Messaging in Repairing the Journalistic Paradigm • Deborah Dwyer, Student • The White House has weaponized the term “fake news” to brand mainstream media as unethical. Ironically, this presents an opportunity for the Fourth Estate to reestablish credibility at a time when trust in media is frighteningly low. This content analysis explores traditional media’s editorial discourse about fake news to determine if it has sparked efforts to repair the journalistic paradigm—the unwritten and fundamental behaviors and standards media assert to be intrinsic to the profession.

Carol Burnett Award
“This Corporation Cares”: Considering Ethics in Communicating Nonprofit CSR Relationships Online • Virginia Harrison • A qualitative content analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) webpages of top-ranked corporations was conducted to determine the ethical nature of online communications surrounding nonprofit partnerships. Evidence shows that website communications often engage in self-promotion rather than genuine support for nonprofit partners. Through corporate branding of CSR activities, advertising through philanthropy stories, and using employee volunteerism and donations as unpaid labor, the balance of CSR relationships tilts heavily in the corporation’s favor.

Open Competition
An Ethic of Advocacy: Metajournalistic discourse on the practice of leaks and whistleblowing 2004-2017 • Brett Johnson; Elizabeth Bent, University of Missouri; Caroline Dade, University of Missouri • Leaks are vital to journalism, especially since the early 2000s. This study analyzes the discourse surrounding leaks crafted by online journalism trade publications since 2004 to understand how journalism has shaped itself as an institution vis-à-vis the role of leaks in reporting and the meta-ethical norms surrounding the use of leaks. Findings suggest that journalism has embraced an advocacy role with leaks despite (or perhaps because of) ethical contradictions surrounding their use of leaks.

Facebook and the Virtue of Friendship • Jeffrey Maciejewski, Creighton University • Although social media are used by billions worldwide, they have not received commensurate attention by ethicists. This paper is an attempt to fill this vacancy in the literature by examining Facebook friendship using Aristotelian virtues as a normative lens. Given that Aristotle envisions the highest form of friendship––perfect friendship––as arising from quid pro quo friendships of utility and pleasure, and since self-love, addiction and compulsion are entwined with Facebook use, this paper examines the virtue of friendship as it relates to the nuanced nature of Facebook relationships. Requirements of virtue friendship are analyzed and applied to Facebook friendships, and the complicating influences of asynchronous “frictionless” interactions, sometimes fueled by narcissism, are discussed.

How “activist” ethics at the New York Times overcame the “chilling effects” of libel • Ali Mohamed, UAE University • The civil rights movement of the 1960s serves as context in exploring deployment of ethical principles associated with activist democracy by the New York Times. A content analysis shows that the Times maintained a vigorous challenge to the social order in Alabama even after a series of libel suits were brought by state officials. This suggests that when media cover a story in an activist spirit, the intimidating “chilling effects” of libel can lose effect.

“Ethically Listening” to Different Perspectives : News Fixers’ Thoughts on the Dangers They Face in the Field • Lindsay Palmer, UW-Madison • This paper attempts to answer Stephen J.A. Ward and Herman Wasserman’s call for more “ethical listening” in communications scholarship, most especially where cross-cultural dialogue is concerned (2015). Drawing upon qualitative interviews with 75 news “fixers” in 36 different countries, the paper argues that these locally-based media employees are vital in protecting correspondents in the field. Because news fixers guide correspondents through unfamiliar locations and give them advice on how to navigate dangerous cultural differences, international news organizations depend heavily on fixers to keep their journalists safe on assignment. Yet, these news organizations do not return the favor by protecting news fixers in any systematic way. Because of this, the paper ultimately argues that journalism practitioners and scholars need to engage in more “ethical listening,” actively considering and respecting news fixers’ perspectives on the risks they face in their work. Without news fixers, the work of international reporting simply would not be possible; therefore, international news outlets and the scholars who study them need to take news fixers’ perspectives seriously, relying on these particular perspectives as a guide for how to improve fixers’ safety.

Electoral Reckonings: Press Criticism of Presidential Campaign Coverage, 2000-2016 • Elizabeth Bent, University of Missouri; Kimberly Kelling; Ryan Thomas, University of Missouri • Elections offer the press a relatively predictable cycle to enact its democratic role. The cyclical nature of presidential elections allow a level of self-reflexivity as the press reflect on election coverage. Through a textual analysis of press criticism after presidential elections from 2000-2016, this study explores how themes around routines, norms and values remained relatively steady until the 2016 election creates a hyperactive response and discursive shift as the press moves from public-advocate to self-advocate.

Fair balance or false balance: Accuracy or impartiality in climate change reporting • Kristin Timm, George Mason University; Richard Craig, George Mason University • Despite the scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is occurring, it continues to be presented as a two-sided debate-creating a ‘false balance’ that can distort the audience’s perceptions of the issue. With 52 interviews and a survey of nearly 2000 news media professionals from the U.S., we reveal how frequently an opposing viewpoint is included in climate change stories, why it is included, and how journalists understand and practice objectivity in climate change reporting.

The Discursive (Re)Construction of the Objectivity Norm • Tim Vos, University of Missouri; Ryan Thomas, University of Missouri; Amanda Hinnant; Yong Volz, University of Missouri • While objectivity has long been an ethical anchor for the institution of journalism, it has seemingly been contested in the last two decades. This study examines two decades of journalists’ discourse – what has come to be called metajournalistic discourse – to examine the meaning, state, and legitimacy of objectivity. While we find that the meaning of objectivity has shifted and faces a steady stream of discursive contestation, the objectivity norm or ethic still finds purchase.

Ethics of Authenticity: Travel Influencers and the Production of Sponsored Content • Mariah Wellman, University of Iowa; Ryan Stoldt; Melissa Tully, University of Iowa; Brian Ekdale • This paper argues travel influencers rely on an ethics of authenticity to build credibility when deciding which commercial brands to work with, what content to produce, how to disclose brand relationships to audiences, and whether to omit experiences that might otherwise damage their personal brands. An ethics of authenticity puts the influencers’ brand identity and relationship with their audience at the forefront while also allowing them to profit from content designed to benefit brands and destinations.

Special Call for Advertising and Public Relations Ethics • Still no End to Gender Stereotypes in Advertising: A Content Analytical Comparison of Different Channels. • Kathrin Karsay, University of Vienna; Jörg Matthes, U of Vienna; Valerie Fröhlich • Scholars repeatedly voiced ethical criticism with regards to stereotypical gender role portrayals in television advertisements. The present study analyzed gender stereotypes in a total of N = 1022 advertisements from four Austrian television channels: a public service channel, a commercial channel, and one commercial special interest channel for men and for women respectively. The results showed that well-known stereotypical gender portrayals are prevalent in all four channels. However, significant differences between channels exist.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Mass Communication and Society 2018 Abstracts

Moeller Student Competition
Effects of Self-Construal and Environmental consciousness on Green Corporate Social Responsibility perceptions • nandini bhalla, University of South Carolina • “Using a 2 (location of the company: India vs. U.S.) x 2 (location of the CSR: India vs. U.S.) between subjects experimental design, the study examines the citizen’s attitudes, WOM, and purchase intent towards a fictitious company doing green CSR in India and in the U.S. A SEM model is created, and results indicated that the individuals’ self-construal orientation play an important role in perceiving and evaluating corporation’s environmentally-friendly initiatives.”

Nothing but the Facts? Journalistic Objectivity and Media Adjudication of President Trump’s False Claims • Deborah Dwyer, Student • Previous research indicates reporters tend to shy away from formally settling disputed claims when covering political topics. This does not assist readers in determining what is true, damaging their epistemic political efficacy and interest. This content analysis examines the type of adjudication practices journalists use when covering untrue statements made by U.S. President Donald Trump. Adjudication practices by outlets that audiences consider “conservative” or “liberal” are compared to determine if and how they differ.

Open Competition
Examining the Rage Donation Trend: Applying the Anger Activism Model to Explore Communication and Donation Behaviors • Lucinda Austin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; Denise Bortree, Penn State University; Brooke McKeever • A national survey (N = 1275) explored how individuals’ anger and efficacy predict attitudes toward political and social activism, related communication behaviors, and financial support behaviors. Findings revealed partial support for the Anger Activism Model, which was tested in this unique context. Efficacy emerged as a stronger predictor compared to anger, and path analysis suggests that while anger directly predicts attitudes and communication behaviors, it also partially predicts efficacy.

From Reality to Drama: The Role of Entertainment TV Storytelling in Empowering U.S. Hispanic Parents • Caty Borum Chattoo, American University School of Communication and Center for Media & Social Impact; Lauren Feldman, Rutgers University; Amy Henderson Riley, American University School of Communication and Center for Media & Social Impact • In 2017, the Univision network and Too Small to Fail, a prosocial multi-media campaign, produced media content across three television storytelling genres (scripted drama, reality TV, news) in order to entertain and educate Hispanic parents and primary caregivers of children aged 0-5 about early brain development, and consequently, the role of parents and caregivers in the successful development of young children. This experimental study assessed the impact of each TV genre and found significant direct effects on knowledge, attitudes, and behavior; the effects were mediated by perceived entertainment value and positive emotions.

Explaining the “Racial Contradiction:” An Experimental Examination of the Impact of Sports Media Use and Response Strategy on Racial Bias towards Athlete Transgressors • Kenon Brown, The University of Alabama; Joshua Dickhaus, Bradley University; Ray Harrison, Jefferson State Community College; Stephen Rush, The University of Alabama • Previous studies (Authors, 20XX, Authors, 20XX) have found that minority athletes were perceived more positively than their White counterparts, counterintuitive to previous research. In order to explain this “racial contradiction,” this study analyzes the racial differences in response to criminal accusations based on the response strategy utilized and the amount of sports news consumed by participants. A between-subjects, double blind experiment was conducted among 464 participants to examine how an athlete’s race, an athlete’s chosen response strategy, and participants’ level of sports news consumption affects the perception of athletes accused of criminal allegations. Results show that while low sports news consumers did not differ in their perception of an athlete, whether he was Black or White, high sports news consumers perceived Black athletes more positively than White athletes, supporting the “racial contradiction.” Also, results showed that while participants that were low sports news consumers accepted the White athlete’s use of denial more than the Black athlete, participants that were high sports news consumers accepted the Black athlete’s use of denial more than the White athlete.

Music Use and Genre Choice as Coping Strategies for Emotions • Jewell Davis; Li-jing Chang, Jackson State University • This study used a survey to explore music use and genre choice as coping strategies for emotions. A total of 605 people answered the survey. Results showed a plurality of the respondents use music frequently to help cope with stress, deal with an issue and express emotions. The study also found rock, country, and pop were top genre choices to help cope with specific emotions, and mood maintenance drives more music use than coping needs.

Effects of Scandals and Presidential Debates in the U.S. 2016 Presidential Elections • Esther Thorson, Michigan State; Weiyue Chen, Michigan State University; Leticia Bode • The study investigates the impact of the presidential debates and two political scandals (Trump groping scandal and Comey reopening of the Clinton email case) on attitudes toward Clinton and Trump, and vote intent. The data include 49 days of a rolling cross section sample of 100 U.S. adults. Results show the campaign events have major effects that differ by partisanship, and that candidate attitudes often mediate the effect of events on vote intent.

Individual differences in second-level agenda setting • Renita Coleman; Denis Wu, Boston University • Studies of individual differences in agenda setting focus primarily on the first level, not the second. This study found some individual differences that make people more susceptible to the media’s agenda of issues do not work the same for affect. Education works in the opposite direction, with the highly educated more protected against media influence. Political party affiliation helps inoculate against the media’s affective agenda, but only when it comes to the opposition party’s candidate.

Effects of Race, Attractiveness, and Mental Health Attribution in Mass Shooting News • Tao Deng, Michigan State University; Syed Ali Hussain; Samuel M. Tham, Michigan State University; Saleem Alhabash, Michigan State University • This study explored effects of shooter ethnicity, attractiveness, and mental illness on a Facebook post using a 2 (ethnicity: White-Muslim) x 2 (attractiveness: low-high) x 2 (mental illness: present-absent) between-subject factorial design (N = 699). Findings showed that negative stereotypes against Muslim can be intensified by reading mass shooting news with Muslim perpetrator. Combining Muslim ethnicity and mental illness, participants expressed less favorable attitude toward mental illness. This trend reversed when the perpetrator was White.

Why? Because I like you: Effects of familiarity on perceptions of media trustworthiness • Stephanie Dunn, Missouri Western State University • This paper assesses the role familiarity and parasocial relationships have on perceptions of trustworthiness and credibility, particularly in evaluation of political commentators. Research presented demonstrates how familiarity and PSR allow commentators to overcome retraction messages. Findings suggest increased familiarity and higher PSR generate more positive message evaluations, higher assessments of source credibility, and increased likelihood of persuasion.

PTSD and Depression in Journalists Who Covered Harvey • Gretchen Dworznik • Thirty journalists from some of the most hardest hit cities during Hurricane Harvey were surveyed for symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTSD) and depression 2 months after the storm. 20% had storm related PTSD and 40% had depression. Though not all met the criteria for diagnosis, 90% were experiencing symptoms of both disorders to varying degrees. Implications for disaster coverage planning and newsroom managers are discussed.

Parents, Children, and Social Media: A Study of Value Congruence • Lee Farquhar, Butler University; Betsy Emmons, Samford University; Nia Johnson • This study examines value congruence, identity stewardship, and parent awareness of child’s behaviors. Participants had typical behavior patterns regarding social media use and concerns for privacy. However, parent monitoring of children’s online behaviors was remarkably low. These same parents were also confident that children were not taking part in behaviors they were not aware of. Lastly, value congruence was associated with open communication and positive behavior modeling, which supports past research.

Hot or Cold: #climatechange Societal Sentiment on Pinterest • Jeanine Guidry, Virginia Commonwealth University; Lucinda Austin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Linsey Grove, University of South Florida • This study examined visual social media posts focused on climate change through a quantitative content analysis of 500 Pinterest posts. Posts from nonprofit organizations received the least engagement. Inclusion of perceived benefits of addressing climate change and self-efficacy were associated with increased engagement; however, these concepts were mentioned far less frequently than severity of and susceptibility to climate change, which did not drive engagement.

Errors and Corrections in Digital News Content • Kirstie Hettinga, California Lutheran University; Alyssa Appelman, Northern Kentucky University • A between-subjects experiment (N = 386) explores the effects of correction features and reader investment on perceptions of digital news content. Findings suggest that participants paid more attention to the source and the correction when they read from the digital news outlet (Yahoo.com), rather than the legacy news outlet (The New York Times). Findings also suggest that liberal readers cared more than conservative readers about the LGBT-rights-related correction. Recommendations for online corrections practices are discussed.

The Effects of Constructive Television News Reporting on Prosocial Intentions and Behavior in Children • Iris Van Venrooij; Tobias Sachs; Mariska Kleemans • To overcome negative effects of news on young audiences and, instead, foster prosociality, constructive journalism promotes the inclusion of positive emotions and solutions in negative news stories. We experimentally tested whether including constructive elements in a story about a disaster indeed increased prosocial intentions and behaviors among children (N=468; 9-13 y/o). Results showed that solution-based news led to less prosocial behavior than emotion-based and non-constructive news. Negative emotions, but not self-efficacy, served as a mediator.

D.C. media coverage of the District’s Death with Dignity Act • Kimberly Lauffer; Sean Baker, Central Michigan University; Natalee Seely • In 2016, the District of Columbia City Council passed the Death with Dignity Act. Afterward, Congress attempted to block implementation of the law by invoking its power first to overturn the law and then, when unsuccessful in that effort, withhold money from the District. Previous studies examining local media coverage of aid-in-dying legislation have identified several recurrent frames, including fear of abuse, good death vs. bad death, preserving rights/autonomy, and culture war. D.C. media invoked those frames as well as others more specific to the District and the publications within it

Framing and Persuasion: A Frame-building Perspective • Jiawei Liu; Douglas McLeod • Research on framing effects has demonstrated that exposure to frames leads to shifts in readers’ preferences and attitudes. Applying this to message construction, we expect that frames’ persuasive effects will also be reflected in the frame-building process: in order to change preference in a particular direction, the corresponding frame will be selected. Our experimental findings suggest that the link between persuasion and frame-building is strong for emphasis frames but relatively weak for equivalence frames.

“They’re Turning the Frogs Gay!” Credibility and Attributes of Parasocial Relationships with Alex Jones • T. Phillip Madison, University of Louisiana – Lafayette; Emily Covington, University of Louisiana – Lafayette; Kaitlyn Wright, University of Louisiana – Lafayette; Timothy Gaspard, University of Louisiana – Lafayette • Exploitation of Americans’ information diets by foreign powers for the purpose of creating civil unrest is a well-documented practice and relies on “knowing” people whom we will never meet. Much of our responses to fake news, whether we buy into it or not, center around the one-sided relationships we have with people whom we see in the media. Such relationships are called “parasocial relationships,” or PSRs (e.g., Horton & Wohl, 1956) and have a tendency to shape our senses of reality and reactions to those senses of reality. Horton and Wohl (1956) originally identified “para-social relationships” as the one-sided relationships audiences have with mediated personae, namely people we see on television. Parasocial relationships seem to be more powerful than ever, as illustrated by fake news, inflamed divisiveness in the western word, weaponization, and Russia’s countless bots, trolls, and social media pages. According to Westneat (2017), “The information war is real, and we’re losing it.” In this bizzare, new era, fake news occupies all forms of media. In fact, many of today’s societal problems have been blamed on the pervasiveness and influential nature of fake news. This study examines parasocial relationships as well as perceived credibility and viewing frequency of Infowars, hosted by Alex Jones. Through our sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) users (N = 584), we have explored which attributes of PSRs are related to perceived credibility of Alex Jones and viewing propensity. This research highlights the value of parasocial research as scholars navigate this post-2016 American presidential election news cycle. Parasocial relationships have become a large part of our identities and, thus, warrant thoughtful scrutiny.

Social (Media) Construction of Public Opinion in the Press • Shannon McGregor • A content analysis of election news and in-depth interviews with journalists documents the use of social media to report public opinion, classifying uses along the type of data, well as its function. Journalists used social media posts as sources of vox populi quotes, especially to showcase public reaction to media events. Social media firms marketed their quantitative metrics as public opinion to journalists, who reported these mostly in service of positioning candidates in the horserace.

Younger millennials’ media use: A qualitative gratifications and media repertoires approach • Danielle Myers LaGree, Kansas State University; Margaret Duffy, U of Missouri • The new media landscape has encouraged media multitasking behaviors. This exploratory study sought to understand why younger millennials are motivated to routinely attend to media across multiple sources and devices. An intregated uses and gratifications and media repertoires theoretical approach guided this qualitative study. In-depth interviews (N = 21) revealed that participants were more emotionally connected to their laptops than their cellphones and use media sources and devices to create work and entertainment spaces.

An experimental test of the effects of hurricane news about human behavior on climate-related attitudes • Jessica Myrick, Penn State University; Jeff Conlin • Mass communication about hurricanes–via traditional and online outlets–often features stories about morality. The best of us help others and the worst of us take advantage of the situation. The present study investigated how these types of hurricane news coverage, when displayed online featuring other users’ reactions, impacts climate-change intentions and policy support. A between-subjects online experiment (N = 514) was conducted using a 3 (news content: acts of kindness, acts of cruelty, control) x 3 (Facebook emoticon reactions: mostly love with some anger, mostly anger with some love, equal love and anger). Results reveal that emotional responses are key mediators of message effects.

Expanding Visibility on Twitter: Author and Message Characteristics and Retweeting • Chang Sup Park, University at Albany, SUNY; Barbara Kaye • Using a content analysis of 3,429 tweets about the South Korean Anti-Terrorism Act of 2016, this study finds that the tweets created by civil society, political actors, and mass media/journalists are more likely to be retweeted than the tweets written by ordinary individuals, suggesting the role of heuristic strategy. This study also finds that content factors influence retweeting (systematic strategy). Emotional tweets are more likely to be retweeted, and rationality of tweets moderates the association between author characteristics and retweeting.

Switchers & Seniors: Evaluating technology versus cohort-based changes in TV news consumption, 1984 -2008 • Patrick Parsons, Penn State University; Krishna Jayakar, Penn State University • This study uses cohort analysis and comparative simulation to gain a better understanding of the relative influence of technological displacement versus shifting demographic patterns in television news consumption from 1984 to 2008 with special attention to TV news consumption declines in the early and mid-1990s, prior to expansion of internet-based news. It considers implications of the research for current and near-future news consumption patterns.

The Effects of Flow in Mobile Gaming: Involvement, Spending Practices, and Attitude • Gregory Perreault, Appalachian State University; Samuel M. Tham, Michigan State University • This research studies free-to-play mobile game players in the United States (n=592) regarding their experience of flow, gaming involvement, and attitude towards the game’s financial model. Following Creswell and Clark’s (2007) exploration model of mixed methods, both qualitative and quantitative measures were utilized to identify and examine the variables. Even though participants reported low attitude towards advertising, the more involved participants indicated they would be accept alternative advertising if it led to more in-game currency.

Content Analysis of Music Alcohol-Dependent Women and Controls Associate with ‘Going Out’ versus ‘Staying Home’ • Anastasia Nikoulina, Indiana University; Thomas James, Indiana University; Joshua Sites, Indiana University; Edgar Jamison-Koenig, Indiana University; Glenna Read, Indiana University; Robert Potter, Indiana University • A content analysis of 636 songs was conducted for alcohol content, drug content, sexual content, risk-taking content, and musical tempo. The song corpus was created by female participants in a previous experimental study and represented their favorite titles for ‘going out with friends,’ or ‘staying home by yourself.’ Participants were selected for the experiment from two cohorts: those with self-reported alcohol dependency and controls. Results of the content analysis show that, as predicted by theory, Party Music was more likely to contain lyrical mentions of alcohol, drugs, and sexual behaviors. Party Music was also significantly faster in tempo than Home Music. These main effects did not interact with which cohort provided the titles. In addressing a research question, results show that regardless of cohort,Party Music was more frequently from the Pop and Hip-hop genre while Home Music was more often Rock and Indie.

Who is to blame? Analysis of government and news media frames during the 2014 earthquake in Chile • Magdalena Saldana, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile • This study relies on Entman’s definition of framing to analyze how the Chilean government and news media framed an earthquake occurring in Chile in 2014. Using structural topic modeling, 705 news stories and 174 press releases were content-analyzed to identify under which conditions the media may attribute blame when disasters are framed beyond the realm of accident. Findings are particularly relevant to understand the relationship between political actors and the press when disasters occur.

“What’s racist about deporting criminal illegal ‘Felons’?” Examining the link between emotion and cognition in tweets about immigration • Saif Shahin, American University; Laura Seroka, Bowling Green State University; Md Rezwan Islam, Bowling Green State University • This study examines nearly 4 million tweets about immigration posted during the 2016 U.S. presidential election (July-December). Sentiment analysis reveals Trust, Fear, and Anger to be the most prominent emotions. Topic modeling suggests Trust was on account of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, while Muslims and Mexicans aroused Fear and Anger. We also explain how emotions may produce cognitive connections among seemingly disparate issues and lead to post-hoc rationalization of anti-immigrant tweets.

Field and Ecological Explanations of Data Journalism Innovation: A Focus on the Role of Ancillary Organizations • Wilson Lowrey, University of Alabama; Lindsey Sherrill, University of Alabama; Ryan Broussard, University of Alabama • This study assesses the roles of ancillary organizations in data journalism innovation from the perspectives of both field and ecology paradigms using interviews with actors in the data journalism profession, including working journalists, leaders of foundations and professional associations, and educators. These two meso-level spatial approaches, field theory and ecology theory, are compared to shed light on the relative helpfulness of field approaches vs. ecology approaches in our social understanding of journalism and news construction.

Exploring Mechanisms of Narrative Persuasion in a News Context: The Role of Narrative Structure, Homophily, Stigma, and Affect in Changing Attitudes and Altruistic Behavior • Daniel Tamul, Virginia Tech; Mary Beth Oliver; Jessica Hotter, Virginia Tech • Two exploratory studies demonstrate, for the first time, that narrative persuasion can diminish the stigma attached to social groups featured in journalistic narratives. Study 1 shows narrative format improves attitudes toward Syrian refugees and this effect is mediated by narrative engagement and subsequently stigma, homophily, and meaningful affect. Study 2 replicates these findings against a separate participant pool, an additional story topic, and compares changes in engagement and stigma to a non-narrative fact sheet and a control condition.

What the fake?! How social media users define, spot, and respond to fake news • Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Darren Lim, NTU Singapore • Through dyadic interviews involving 20 social media users in Singapore, where members of each pair are friends both offline and on social media, this study sought to understand how social media users define, spot, and respond to fake news. The study found that the participants define fake news in terms of facticity, intention, and ethics. They verify if news is real or fake based on their own gut-feel, the content itself, through interpersonal checks, and through institutional sources. Finally, whether or not they correct others who post fake news depends on issue relevance, interpersonal relationships, and personal efficacy. While correcting others might be consistent with their need to do what is right, it might also negatively affect their need to maintain social relationships.

Post-Network Television: Motivations, Behaviors, and Satisfaction in the Age of Netflix • Alec Tefertiller, Kansas State University; Kim Sheehan, University of Oregon • Newer video technologies such as smart TVs and web streaming applications have radically altered how audiences consume televised content. Using an online, national survey (N = 790), this study identified five motivational factors for television viewing, most notably relaxing entertainment. In addition, patterns of ritualistic and instrumental viewing were identified. Audience activity facilitated by new technology was strongly associated with satisfaction and affinity for the television medium.

Dual Influences of Media Figures on Young Undergraduates’ Life Values: The Role of Wishful Identification • Caixie TU; Stella Chia • This study examined media and social influences of media figures and proposed a theoretical framework wherein two influences exert effects on undergraduates’ values. This study also adopted a psychological mechanism of wishful identification to investigate how it mediated such two influences. The whole framework was tested by survey data. Results showed media consumption was directly associated with value endorsement. The indirect associations were mediated by interpersonal discussion about media figures and wishful identification with figures.

Don’t Believe the Next Tweet: Designing and Testing News Media Literacy Interventions for Social Media • Melissa Tully, University of Iowa; Emily Vraga; Leticia Bode • Scholars have called for media literacy interventions as a response to the spread of misinformation online. This study examines the effectiveness of “news media literacy” (NML) messages for Twitter. Using two experimental designs, this study tests NML tweets designed to mitigate the impact of exposure to misinformation and to boost people’s perceptions of their own media literacy and its democratic value. Findings suggest it is difficult to craft messages that achieve these goals simultaneously.

Creating Agents of Change through Civic Media Production, Critical Media Literacy and Experiential Learning • Cindy Vincent, Salem State University; Jennifer Jeffrey, Salem State University • This study applies the civic media model within a media literacy course to examine how the convergence of critical media literacy, civic education and experiential learning help college students understand themselves as engaged community members. Interviews with college students collected over three semesters is qualitatively analyzed to understand how civic media production and experiential learning build a sense of civic agency within college students as collaborators of voice, dialogue and critical consciousness.

Can Inspiration Cross Party Lines? How News Framing of Morality and Partisan Cues Influence Elevation, Disgust, and Moral Judgments of Political Actors • T. Franklin Waddell, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida • Do partisans judge political actors based on the consistency of their moral behavior, or does partisan affiliation override moral evaluation? An online experiment (N = 710) revealed that participants exposed to acts of altruism or redemption reported higher levels of elevation relative to control, while acts of transgression or falls from grace elicited higher levels of disgust relative to control. No evidence of moderation by partisanship was revealed. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Do Press Releases about Digital Game Research Influence Presumed Effects? How Comparisons to Real World Violence and Methodological Details Affect the Anticipated Influence of Violent Video Games • T. Franklin Waddell, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida • Do comparisons to real world violence or details about how aggression is measured in the laboratory affect the presumed influence of violent video games? An online experiment (N = 505) examined this question using a 2 (comparison to violence: present vs. absent) x 2 (measurement details: present vs. absent) between-subjects design. Results reveal that comparisons to violence elicit differential effects on presumed influence contingent on the presence of methodological details and respondent sex.

Is the Grass Greener on the Other Side of the Geofence? • Kearston Wesner • Geofencing technology enables companies to obtain users’ physical location and deliver customized communications, including political messages. But to accomplish this, some businesses transmit user data to third parties without consent. The privacy tort of intrusion and Federal Trade Commission actions target unfair or deceptive practices, but these avenues are inadequate. Users’ privacy should be safeguarded by creating a federal privacy statute that requires opt-in notification and periodic reminders of data collection, usage, and transmission practices.

Depictions of Asperger’s Syndrome on Prime-Time Television: An Intergroup Contact and Social Cognitive Theory Approach • Stephanie Whitenack, Louisiana State University; David Hamilton; Meghan Sanders • Certain depictions of Asperger’s syndrome (AS) on prime-time television can affect how individuals perceive the disorder (Holton, 2013). Learning and relational differences among those who view onscreen portrayals of AS can affect audiences’ understanding, perceptions, and behavioral intentions of the out-group. An experiment was conducted with a total of 130 participants. Results reveal that people identify with more explicit portrayals on screen, however this may produce greater intergroup anxiety when thinking about real-life interpersonal contact.

Conceptualization of the public health model of reporting through application: The case of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s heroin beat • Erin Willis, University of Colorado Boulder; Chad Painter, University of Dayton • This case study seeks to demonstrate the Cincinnati Enquirer’s use of the public health model of reporting and public health news frames. The Enquirer created the first newspaper heroin beat in January 2016. Enquirer reporters framed the heroin epidemic as a public health issue, focusing on solutions, contextualizing the issue through societal determinants of health, and incorporating the voices of constituent groups. Findings are discussed using news framing and the public health model of reporting.

Big Data and Journalism Transformations: Evaluating Automation as a New Entrant to the Journalistic Field • Shangyuan Wu, Nanyang Technological University; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University Singapore; Charles Salmon • As information circulates in unprecedented amounts, contemporary newsrooms are turning to automation to manage the data deluge. Amid falling revenues and newsroom closures, this study uses field theory and in-depth interviews to investigate how automation, as a new entrant, is transforming the journalistic field, including its impact on the field’s governing principles, the types of capital that journalists must acquire to remain competitive, and journalist attitudes towards the transformation and/or preservation of the field.

Undesirable Issue Indeed, but No Censorship Please! The Third Person Effect in Fake News on Social Media • Fan Yang, University at Albany, SUNY; Michael Horning, Virginia Tech University • An online survey (N =335) was conducted to examine the third person effect (TPE) in fake news and suggested that individuals indeed perceived a greater influence of fake news on others than on themselves. Although they evaluated fake news on social media as socially undesirable, they were also unsupportive of censorship as a remedy. Instead, individuals reported to be less willing to share the news they read on social media either online or offline.

Digital inequalities or personality differences? A longitudinal analysis of social media usage divides in China • Yiyan Zhang, Boston University; Lei Guo, Boston University; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna • This study contributes to the digital divide literature by better explicating a usage divide and by adding a China’s context based on a longitudinal analysis of varied social media uses among a national representative sample collected in mainland China. The results showed age and income significantly predicted many aspects of the usage divide, moderated by individuals’ personality traits. The study also demonstrated that the age- and income-generated usage divide were not significantly widened over time.

Student Competition
Stuck on Social Media: Predicting Young Adults’ Intentions to Limit Social Media Use • Nick Boehm • Health concerns of social media overuse (e.g., depression, anxiety, social isolation, etc.) warrant examinations of factors influencing the use of these technologies. While studies have characterized people’s adoption and use of social media, none have examined factors that would drive individuals to limit their social media use. This study found that an extended theory of planned behavior model significantly predicted intentions to limit daily social media use and behavior surrounding social capital maintenance and growth.

Colorism and Love for Fair Skin: Exploring Digitization’s Effect on India’s Arranged Marriage Matrimonial Ads • Dhiman Chattopadhyay, Bowling Green State University; Sriya Chattopadhyay, Bowling Green State University • Previous studies have found the presence of colorism, especially a bias toward fair-skinned women, in India’s newspaper matrimonial advertisements, where fair complexion is equated with beauty among Indian women. Historically matrimonial advertisements in newspapers are posted by family elders, such as parents of prospective brides. This study explores if the advent of online matrimonial portals has empowered marginalized members of families such as prospective brides greater access to and control over posting matrimonial ads, and if this in turn has changed the way women are depicted in matrimonial ads. Textual analysis of 150 online matrimonial ads indicated that younger women such as would-be brides posted more ads in online media, compared to older family members such as parents; that while there was less overt focus on physical attributes of women such as fairness of skin, colorism was present in more subtle forms; and that while online ads described women’s skills, and desires, they were unable to break free from shackles of socially constructed patriarchal norms where women’s physical attributes such as fair skin were considered critical qualities. Findings were consistent with the tenets of Critical Race Theory that colorism is an ingrained feature of social systems and is constantly negotiated based on a group’s own social interests. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Asian International Students’ Mass Media Use and Acculturation Strategies: Considering the Effects of Remote Acculturation • Lin Li; Shao Chengyuan • Surveying Asian international students in two U.S. universities about their mass media use and acculturation strategies, this study found that American news media use before relocation was positively related to assimilation and negatively related to separation, whereas American TV use after relocation had positive effects on assimilation, integration, and marginalization through increased cultural knowledge. Asian TV use was found to be positively related to separation and negatively related to assimilation and integration across time periods.

Crisis Management on Social Media: Inoculation Strategy and Organizational Interactivity • Pratiti Diddi, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY; Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University • In this study we conducted a three-phase online experiment to examine the efficacy of the inoculation strategy and organizational interactivity in bolstering attitudes in crisis management on social media. With exposure to crisis of selected issues, if not preempted, users’ threat levels went up; if preempted, on the other hand, low response rate to negative comments led to undesirable perceptions of the organization. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Discussing Vulcans, Hermione, Khaleesi, and the Winchesters: An evaluation of parasocial interactions in online fandom forums • Sara Erlichman, Penn State • As parasocial interactions (PSI) are increasingly becoming observable in online settings and associated with fandom, it brings to question the role of parasocial relationships (PSR) in fandom communities. By conducting a content analysis, this study analyzes whether PSIs were present in online fandom forums (i.e. Star Trek, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Supernatural), as a possible indicator of fans actively maintaining their PSRs. The presence of parasocial interactions was supported in this study demonstrating the overlap of participatory fandom and fans’ relationship maintenance for fictional characters.

Social Media as an Emerging Institution: Expectations and Norms Online at the U.S. State House • Meredith Metzler • This paper draws on Polsby’s (1968) classic piece to ask: is social media an emerging political institution? Social media is a differentiated communication medium, but state legislative offices find it difficult to navigate. The perceived behavioral norms of the site—speed, confrontation, and boundary-less communication—conflicted with the legislators’ norms of “civil” interpersonal communication primarily with constituents. As social media emerges as an algorithmic communication institution, the conflicting norms will need to be reconciled.

Fake News Correction: How USDA Corrects Fake News about Organic Foods on Social Media • Keonyoung Park, Syracuse University; Jun Zhang, Newhouse School of Syracuse University; Laura Canuelas-Torres; Zheng Li • Building on the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion, we explored the effects of different social media sources (i.e. government, nonprofit organizations, news corporations, and businesses) in correcting misinformation from fake news about organic foods. We conducted an online experiment, using a Mturk sample of US adults (N=264). Government (i.e., USDA) was the only source with significant impact on leading individual’s efforts to correct previous knowledge. Users seem to activate the central processing during this activity.

Local to global via social media: Using social media for news could make you global-minded • Aditi Rao, University of Connecticut • Contemporary society is becoming increasingly global. This globalization is often referred to in the context of businesses, tourism, trade, education, etc. However, globalization of individuals, i.e., having a global mindset, especially in the context of social media is not often heard of. The current study aimed to investigate whether using social media for news correlated with global-mindedness. A cross-sectional survey administered online asked college students (N = 324) to indicate their news-seeking habits on the four social media platforms—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. A Global-Mindedness Scale was also included in the same survey to measure global-mindedness and its five dimensions (responsibility, cultural pluralism, efficacy, globalcentrism, and interconnectedness). Results showed a positive correlation between social media use for news and global-mindedness and its dimensions, except for globalcentrism. With regard to using social media for seeking news, Facebook and Twitter were found to be used the most. However, Snapchat and Instagram were the most used social media platforms. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Finding A Voice: Newspaper Editors and The Effect of Sexual Assault and Rape News • Susan Tebben, Ohio University • A qualitative study on newspaper editors in northern and southern Ohio. Using in-depth interviews, the study focuses on personal experiences and training and its effect on victim-naming policies, word choice in stories of sexual assault and rape, and the effect of an editor’s particular training and/or experience on how the topic is covered in newsrooms. Journalistic standards are consistent among the editors interviewed, but editorial decisions depend on the particular editor’s experience and training.

Underlying Effects of Endorser Identity and Bodily Addressing in Public Service Announcements • Lewen Wei, Pennsylvania State University; Arienne Ferchaud; Bingjie Liu • This study conducted a 2 x 2 between-subjects online experiment (N = 423) to explore audience reactions towards public service announcements (PSA) varying in the identities of message endorsers (peer vs. celebrity) and their bodily addressing styles (front vs. side), and the underlying psychological mechanisms. Findings suggest that on selected issues (anti-smoking and anti-sexual-abuse), celebrity endorsers with a frontal bodily addressing style induced more positive reactions to PSA via parasocial interaction experience with the endorser, whereas peer endorsers with a side bodily addressing rendered more message effectiveness via elicited empathy towards the endorser. Implications and limitations are discussed.

2018 ABSTRACTS

Magazine 2018 Abstracts

Satiric magazines in Latin America as Hybrid Alternative Media • Paul Alonso, Georgia Tech • This article explores the cases of two satirical publications—The Clinic (Chile) and Barcelona (Argentina). Through critical humor, visual subversions, and parody, these independent magazines challenged mainstream journalism and official political discourse, offering alternative interpretations about the ruling class and society after traumatic periods—the Pinochet’s military dictatorship in Chile and the 2001 economic crisis in Argentina. This article examines how these satirical publications responded to their respective national contexts by questioning the functioning of power on several levels of society. Through interviews with the editors and content analysis, this study also analyzes the patterns of production and the evolution of the magazines after they became popular and examines how they negotiated their space within the national mediascape. Finally, it suggests the notion of “hybrid alternative media” to describe these publications, which had become part of a liberating process of collective healing. Initially perceived in opposition to mainstream media in contexts when the press’ credibility had decreased, they filled gaps in their society’s political communication.

Selling Yoga ‘Off the Mat’: A 10-year Analysis of Lifestyle Advertorials in Yoga Journal Magazine • nandini bhalla, University of South Carolina; Leigh Moscowitz, University of South Carolina; Jane O’Boyle, Elon University • This content analysis of advertorials from 10 years of Yoga Journal suggests that Health supplements, herbal remedies and lifestyle products such as clothes, shoes were most often featured between 2008 and 2017. The most common format was a regular feature, entitled “Off the Mat,” which promotes yoga lifestyle products identified by the magazine as “our partners.” Implications about the commodification of yoga and the role of advertorials in print magazines are discussed.

So they claim: A content analysis of magazine food advertising techniques and branding. • Clay Craig, Texas State University; Mark Flynn, Emmanuel College; Andrea Bergstrom, Coastal Carolina University • This study addressed a gap in the current literature on food advertising in U.S. magazines. A content analysis of food advertisements from fifteen magazine across five genres (men’s, women’s, health, fashion, and food) was conducted to determine the different tactics (product category, claims, endorsements, and product interaction) used by advertisers. Some key findings suggest: foods high in fat/sugar was the most frequently advertised food category; consumer-focused claims were most common; seals and/or celebrity endorsements were not used often; and more than 15% of ads featured individuals interacting with the food product being advertised. Also, magazine genre and season-based differences were present in the types of food products advertised. The paper concludes with managerial, theoretical, and ethical implications for advertisers when using magazines to promote food-oriented products.

Slam Dunk: An Examination of How Magazines Can Create Loyal Readers • Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Daniel Haun, University of South Carolina; Matthew Stilwell • As various sports magazines have eliminated print issues, the basketball magazine Slam continues to have a strong and loyal following. Using impression management and social identity theory as a guide, both visual and textual analyses was used to examine the magazine’s covers. Results demonstrate that Slam’s covers were designed for a demographic that is familiar with the players, interested in being on the cutting edge of information, and passionate about the sport of basketball.

Understanding the Process of Construction of Masculinity in Indian Editions of Global Men’s Lifestyle Magazines • Suman Mishra, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • This case study explores the process through which Indian editions of American and British men’s lifestyle magazines are produced. It shows connections between global strategies and local production of content. It highlights commercial logic, global strategies, formal and informal structures, and power dynamics within which local producers operate and negotiate to create local editions and construct assimilatory hybrid models of masculinity.

Traditional Journalists on Gaming Journalism: Metajournalistic discourse on the rise of lifestyle journalism • Gregory Perreault, Appalachian State University; Tim Vos, University of Missouri • Gaming journalism, which finds its origins in public relations-oriented gaming magazines, attached itself discursively to traditional journalism in the wake of the GamerGate controversy. Yet it is unclear where a journalistic niche like gaming journalism fits within the ecology of journalism. The present study examines metajournalistic discourse regarding gaming journalism from 2010-2018 and analyzes 53 discrete articles about gaming journalism from that period in order to understand how the broader journalistic field conceptualized gaming journalism’s place within it. This study argues that gaming journalism is consigned to a lower and marginal form of journalism due to differences in paradigmatic professional values and journalistic savviness.

2018 ABSTRACTS