Commission on the Status of Women 2016 Abstracts
x#UVARAPE: Twitter Reactions to the Rolling Stone’s U.Va. Rape Article • Angela Rulffes, Syracuse University • This study utilizes textual analysis of tweets to examine, through a feminist lens, public discourse surrounding a 2014 Rolling Stone article regarding the alleged rape of Jackie, a U.Va. student. Results indicated that Twitter users blamed feminists and the media for the article’s discrepancies. Initial tweets focused on campus rape issues. Support for Jackie came after people began questioning her story; however, negative tweets regarding Jackie remained pervasive and illustrated a perpetuation of rape myths.
Are Parents Gendering The Problem?: Gender’s Role in Parents’ Discussions about Sex and Sexual Media Content with Their Children • Bailey Thompson, Texas Tech University; Mary Norman, Texas Tech University; Eric Rasmussen, Texas Tech University • Research suggests media acts as a sexual socialization agent for young people, especially when they depend on media for their sexual information. This can be problematic as they form sexual attitudes and behaviors. While parental mediation is suggested as a way to combat sexual media content, in-depth interviews revealed parents may be gendering both concerns about sexual media content and discussions about sex with their children, complicating parental mediation and discussions about sex and media.
Selling to Soldiers: A Cultural Shift from Class Division to Warrior Heroes in Stars and Stripes • Cindy Elmore, East Carolina University • An analysis of Iraq war advertising in the Stars and Stripes newspaper finds a masculine Warrior Hero archetype was constructed. Ads constructed women as the dependent helpmate/mother who waits and worries; the victim who needs rescue, financial support, or a marriage visa from the Warrior Hero; or the embodied reward for the Hero Warrior when he returns from battle. World War I advertising, however, had a rhetorical frame that emphasized socioeconomic class difference.
A Longitudinal Analysis of the Gender Income Gap in Public Relations From 1979 to 2014 • David Dozier, San Diego State University; Katie Place, Quinnipiac University; Jennifer Vardeman-Winter, University of Houston; Hilary Fussell Sisco, Quinnipiac University; Bey-Ling Sha, San Diego State University • This study provides a longitudinal analysis of the pay inequity between men and women in public relations. A thirty-five year compilation of data from surveys of a random sample of public relations professionals, track the progress of income disparity between genders and other influencing factors such as professional experience and manager role enactment. Unfortunately, we found that pay inequity still exists between men and women practitioners because of their gender, after controlling for all the other covariates. Possibly most disheartening is that women are still paid less despite enacting the managerial role.
“Caught up in the Times”: Women in Sports Newsrooms, 1975-1990 • Dunja Antunovic, Bradley University • The change in gender relations resulting from the women’s movement in the United States opened doors for women in sports journalism. This study documents the lives of five women who entered the sports journalism industry in the 1970s and broke gender-based barriers. Drawing upon oral history interviews, this study reveals how women experienced being “firsts” in the newsroom and assesses the contributions of these women to sports journalism and to women’s sports coverage.
Rape, Storytelling and Social Media: How Twitter Interrupted the News Media’s Ability to Construct Collective Memory • Dustin Harp, University of Texas at Arlington; Josh Grimm, Louisiana State University; Jaime Loke, University of Oklahoma • This study, using the Mary Kay LeTourneau interview on ABC’s 20/20 television program, investigates the concept of how social media coupled with citizen’s voices interact with mainstream media in the telling of a story and the construction of collective memory. Grounded in discourse analysis, this research examines the 20/20 story and accompanying Twitter conversations to understand how dominant and feminist ideologies about gender, rape, sexuality and love are presented and countered in these texts. In doing so, this study considers how a newly opened public sphere via social media may have the capabilities to influence our collective memories and remove the long-held power away from traditional mainstream media.
Adolescent perceptions of objectifying magazine ads and feelings of body consciousness • Jason Wheeler, Washington State University; Stacey Hust; Kathleen Rodgers • Purpose: To examine how adolescents perceive objectifying media, and how perceptions are associated with feelings of body consciousness. Method: Experimental survey study using a national sample of 15-17 year olds. Results: The objectified advertisement condition had a positive and significant effect on body consciousness for boys. Adolescent perceptions of the ads differed, and associated differently with body consciousness. Conclusion: Adolescents’ perceptions of women in magazine advertisements may play a role above and beyond mere exposure.
Surviving Silence: The Internalized Communication of Meaning as an Active Strategy for Surviving Acquaintance Rape • Jennifer Huemmer, Texas Tech University; Lindsey Blumell, Copenhagen Business School/Texas Tech University • Public communication and reporting are traditionally considered “active” rape survival strategies. This emphasis has resulted in a body of literature that is informed almost exclusively by the data collected from rape survivors who report or publicly acknowledge their rape. This study analyzed the interview data of five non-reporting rape survivors through the lens of symbolic interaction. Results revealed the internalized negotiations of meaning that occurred as survivors performed silence as an active strategy for survival.
What Can We Change with a Hashtag? A Case Study of #iamafeminist • Jinsook Kim, The University of Texas at Austin • This article explores feminist activism via the hashtag #iamafeminist on Twitter in South Korea. #iamafeminist started to resist against prevailing misogyny and anti-feminist sentiment. Although critics often dismiss the potential of hashtag activism due to its ephemeral nature, I reveal that the hashtag #iamafeminist – what I call the “mother tag” – lasted for three months, by continuing to connect to other hashtags regarding real-time gender issues, and by initiating activism against misogyny both online and offline.
Reconstructing Collective Professional Identity: A Study of Women Journalist Associations in the Post-Second Wave Feminist Movement • Joy Jenkins, University of Missouri; Yong Volz • This study explores the relationship between social movements and professions by focusing on the development of women journalist associations in the post-feminism era. We consider this phenomenon through the prime example of JAWS (Journalism and Women Symposium), including 41 oral history interviews with JAWS members and archival research. The analysis illustrates how members of JAWS defined, contested and negotiated the collective identity of their organization as well as the meaning of women journalists more broadly.
I want to be like her: Celebrity lifestyle brands on Pinterest • Lindsey Conlin, The University of Southern Mississippi; Coral Rae, Columbia University; Richard Anthony Lewis, The University of Southern Mississippi • The current study analyzed celebrity lifestyle brands Pinterest pages in order to determine how they framed their brands to female users. Pinterest features an almost-entirely female user base, and users employ the site to collect items that they aspire to purchase, or aspire to be like. Results indicate that celebrities use their lifestyle brands to promote their celebrity status, give advice on home décor and design, and tell audiences what clothes they should buy and wear. Interestingly, purchasable items were not more likely to be repinned or liked, contradicting the idea that celebrity lifestyle brands are “aspirational” places for women, as female users do not seem to be interested in purchasable items any more than do-it-yourself crafting projects or food.
Burning brides and baby killers: A meta-analysis of journalistic depictions of violence against women in India • Meenakshi Durham, University of Iowa • This paper interrogates news depictions of sexual violence against women in India through a meta-analysis of the scholarship on this topic, tracing the trajectory of news narratives from colonial times through the present day. The analysis demonstrates how structures of gendered power are transcoded discursively to reassert geopolitical hierarchies. The findings highlight the major contributions of this body of research and identify gaps in the literature that represent new avenues of inquiry for feminist scholars.
Spanning the Decades: An Analysis of Monica Lewinsky’s Image Restoration Strategies During a 2015 TED Talks Appearance • Mia Moody, Baylor University; Elizabeth Fassih, Baylor University; Macarena Hernandez, Baylor University • This case study uses a feminist lens to explore Monica Lewinsky’s use of a TED Talks speech to counter narratives of shaming that emerged in the late 80s and remained for several decades. The Lewinsky-Clinton scandal occurred before social media and the term ‘cyber bullying’ existed, but the case has implications today as the same narratives that plagued Lewinsky endured in the 90s are much more prevalent. Findings indicate the speech was well-received, as audience feedback was favorable on Twitter and the TED site that showcased a video of her talk and a transcript. The former intern used the TED Talks platform, not only to delve into the biggest political scandal of recent history, but also to discuss timely topics such as Internet shaming, suicide and bullying. While Lewinsky opted not to use mortification, she reduced the offensiveness of the affair by using humor and building on the narrative that she was young and did not know any better.
Framing Domestic Violence: How Gender Cues and News Frames Impact Attitudes • Natalee Seely, UNC- Chapel Hill • The literature has identified common news narratives and framing devices within coverage of domestic violence incidents. A 2 (story frame) X 2 (source gender) experiment was conducted to determine how a “gendered” news frame and “de-gendered” news frame, as well as the gender of a journalist, may influence individuals’ perceptions of both news credibility and societal blame for domestic violence. Results found that viewing the gendered frame story—which quoted a domestic violence advocate and included statistics on domestic violence incidents—resulted in higher attribution of blame on societal factors for domestic violence, indicating individuals viewed it as more of a social issue rather than a personal or isolated incident. Results also found that viewing the gendered story resulted in lower perceptions of news credibility, indicating that framing a domestic violence story as a more contextualized social issue may cost the news media credibility in the minds of readers. No differences were found between the story written by a male reporter and the story written by a female reporter.
“When I ask a question, they look at me strangely”— An exploratory study of women political reporters in India • Paromita Pain, The University of Texas at Austin; Victoria Y Chen Chen • This study uses qualitative interviews with 60 women journalists from the print, broadcast and online media in India, to understand how women political reporters assigned to the political beat negotiate gender issues and organizational and news routines while being effective journalists entrusted to cover matters of policy and enhance political awareness among audiences. Using Shoemaker and Reese’s (1996) hierarchy-of-influences model that introduces the five levels of influence on news content and feminist readings of Habermas’s theory of the public sphere, this study explores how institutional, news gathering and societal procedures and practices influence the functions of women journalists on the political beat and percolate into the content they produce. The results show that in India’s growing media market, organizational and news routines as well as the contentious issue of gender controls access to beats, especially the political beat, and percolate into news content produced by women political journalists.
Gendered shushing: Girls’ voices and civic engagement in student journalism • Peter Bobkowski, University of Kansas; Genelle Belmas, University of Kansas • Prior research has demonstrated that women and girls are disproportionately silenced compared to men and boys. However, no study has focused on the censorship of high school female journalists. This paper shows not only that female student journalists are willing to address serious topics that can contribute to their civic engagement, but also that they are more often told not to cover sensitive issues and are more likely to self-censor than their male counterparts.
What’s Wrong with Being #Confident? Female Celebrity Identity on Twitter • Roseann Pluretti • Social media, including Twitter, allow celebrities and adolescents to create their own self-representations to a wide audience. This study observed how female celebrities create their identities as women in their Twitter profiles. The researcher conducted a qualitative content analysis of 211 tweets from four female celebrities. Results reveal the female celebrities’ brand and strategic friend identities as well as traditional and nontraditional femininity. These representations may serve as templates for female adolescent gender identity formation.
Teaching girls online skills to tackle STEM gender gaps: Results of the WIKID GRRLS intervention • Stine Eckert; Jade Metzger • This study conducted interviews and surveys with 37 girls participating in an after-school program we implemented 2013-2015 to teach online skills. Girls’ online skills and confidence in them increased due to the program. Using theories of feminist intervention and the reader-to-leader framework, we argue that such interventions bring immediate learning rewards for participants. Yet, we conclude that digital skills need to become regular features in school curricula to narrow gender gaps in STEM, including Wikipedia.
Monica Lewinsky and Shame: 1998 Newspaper Framing of “That Woman” • Tracy Everbach, University of North Texas • This study examines mainstream newspaper coverage of Monica Lewinsky in 1998, the year her relationship with President Bill Clinton came to public light. It looks at how a private citizen became a media phenomenon and takes into account Lewinsky’s 2015 TED Talk, in which she discussed her public shaming. The analysis of 175 articles in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times showed that Lewinsky was among the first viral Internet sensations. As she noted in her talk 17 years later, the news media exploited and shamed her, speculating about her life to an extent that apparently no other private figure had endured. The research confirmed that newspapers framed Lewinsky in a trivial manner by reducing her to stereotypes, mocking and humiliating her. The newspapers also portrayed feminists as a homogenous group that was hypocritical in its responses. The male-dominated culture of newspapers replicated stereotypical coverage that symbolically annihilated women.
Sports Communication 2016 Abstracts
More than the Usual Suspects • Bill Cassidy, Northern Illinois University • This study compares source prominence and the views expressed by sources in daily newspaper coverage of the coming out of NBA veteran Jason Collins and college football All-American Michael Sam. A content analysis of 1,972 attributed comments by sources in 248 articles published during the first 30 days after each athlete’s announcement found that in addition to comments from Collins and Sam, official sources such as players, coaches and executives were often heard from. However, gay and lesbian sources were also present in the articles signifying that sports journalists are incorporating a wide variety of voices into their stories.
The Mascot that Wouldn’t Die: A Case Study of Fan Identification and Mascot Loyalty • Brad Schultz, University of Mississippi; Mary Sheffer, University of Southern Mississippi • The issue of sports mascot loyalty, especially to those mascots considered offensive, was investigated through fan identification theory, and applied to the mascot controversy at the University of Mississippi. Replicating a previous university survey on the mascot question, a current survey of university students (N = 3,616) revealed a strong relationship between mascot loyalty and fan identification, particularly related to one’s perceptions of “belonging to the university sports family,” and “associating with sports fans” of the university. Other important findings include age differences and the marginalization of Asian-American fans. The implications and applications of these findings was discussed.
‘Crammed in the locker room:’ Sports journalists and access to sources • Brian Moritz, SUNY Oswego • This study looks at the institutionalized nature of modern sports journalism, specifically access to official sources. In-depth interviews with reporters and editors show that sports journalists rely on players and coaches as sources, a practice that has been institutionalized and impacts story selection and publication. The data also suggest that sports journalists’ access to sources is being limited, as digital and social media make it possible for athletes and coaches to communicate directly with fans.
Sports Team Identity & Sports Media Consumption Motivations as Predictors of Total Sports Media Consumption • Daniel Krier, Michigan State University • This study investigates whether an increase in social identity with sports teams is related to increased motivations and consumption of sports media. Additionally, the study examines what types of motivations to consume sports media relate to time spent consuming. Lastly, an investigation into significant gender differences in motivations to consume as predictors of consumption per day is carried out. Structural Equation Modeling analysis was employed to analyze changes in levels of total sports media consumption.
“I Don’t Think it’s Worth The Risk”: Media Framing of the Chris Borland Retirement in Digital and Print Media • David Cassilo, Kent State University; Jimmy Sanderson, Clemson University • Football player safety, and specifically concussions, has been a growing area of debate in U.S. mainstream media. However, little scholarly attention has focused on the ways that this issue is framed in the media. This study analyzed media framing of the voluntary retirement of San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland. A textual analysis of 112 digital media and 187 print media articles revealed 10 frames that were used to discuss the Borland decision. Analysis revealed that the most prominent frame used in both digital and print media was the health risks and consequences of playing football. Yet, frames devoted to portrayals of Borland, and current NFL players being more cognizant of health risks also were largely evident. The results of this research suggest that that sports journalists are creating awareness of the health risks caused by playing football. Such media attention promoting more awareness of health risks could impact the future of football; particularly as parents weigh the decision to let their children play tackle football.
Understanding motivations and engagement outcomes of social TV participation: A case study of the Super Bowl 2016 • Di Wu; Eunice Kim, University of Florida • This study investigated audience motivations for using social media while watching sports program (i.e., the Super Bowl 2016), that is, social TV participation, and examined relationships between identified motivations and key audience engagement outcomes. The results revealed four motivations for social TV participation: information-seeking, social-interaction seeking, relaxation, and sports-related interaction seeking. Further, results showed that social-interaction seeking predicted satisfaction toward the program, while information-seeking and sports-related interaction seeking predicted investment and commitment.
Toward a Better Understanding of Sport Fanship: Comparing Objective Sport Knowledge and Subjective Self-Identification • Dustin Hahn, Texas Christian University; Glenn Cummins • Understanding the nature of sports fans has long been a facet of sports media research. However, one recent assessment of the field voiced concerns with the imprecise conceptualization and operationalization of fanship. This study advances the understanding of sport fanship by examining how self-reported interest in sports correlates with objective knowledge. Then using exemplification theory as a context, results of an experiment are presented that illustrate how outcomes are dependent upon how fanship is operationalized.
Michael Sam’s Coming Out: Media Frames of An Openly Gay NFL Athlete • Jane O’Boyle, University of South Carolina; Leigh Moscowitz, University of South Carolina; Andrew Billings • This study analyzes 120 broadcast and print news stories about the 2014 announcement from NFL prospect, the SEC All-American defensive end Michael Sam, that he was gay. Using a qualitative method built on framing theory, this paper finds that media discourses began with historic and celebratory frames, which evolved into more foreboding stories about the potential “distraction” in the locker room while questioning the readiness of the NFL to truly accept and support an out gay athlete.
Race and the deep ball: Applying stereotypes to NFL quarterbacks • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University • This study experimentally tested whether White participants (n=274) applied stereotypes to Black and White professional quarterbacks. Utilizing common stereotypical descriptors established in prior research, this between-subjects experiment found that while the participants did not stereotype White quarterbacks, they did apply the stereotypes of “physically strong” and “naturally gifted” to Black quarterbacks, thus othering, or using race to establish an out-group. These results are then interpreted through the framework of social identity theory.
How the West was lost: Geographic bias on sports network highlight shows • Rich Johnson, Creighton University; Miles Romney, University of South Carolina • Fans and sports media watchdogs have criticized national sports networks for demonstrating a preferentially toward East Coast teams. In particular, critics argue that news and highlight programs display preferential treatment toward Eastern teams. This study examined the most popular network sportscasts to determine if regional and market bias exists. Mirroring a methodological framework that was previously used in the study of geographic bias in network news, a quantitative content analysis was conducted of same-day highlight packages on the flagship programs of the two most prominent sports cable networks, ESPN’s SportsCenter and FOX Sports’ FOX Sports Live. The research indicated that sports networks do demonstrate geographic bias in their news and highlight shows, most notably in the length and depth of stories involving teams from the Northeastern United States. Conversely, West Coast teams consistently were given less attention by networks across all variables. Additionally, sports networks show preference toward teams from larger markets.
High power kick: Framing of the USWNT 2015 World Cup victory on American front pages • Roxane Coche, University of Memphis; Travis R. Bell, University of South Florida • The FIFA Women’s World Cup, won by the United States’ national team (USWNT), was the most-watched soccer match (men or women) in U.S. history. The current quantitative content analysis examined 491 front pages published on July 6, 2015, the day after the USWNT win. Results reveal significant coverage, and indicate a small step toward improvement of stereotypical identifiers for female athletes. However, editorial decisions produce further questions and insight into the old model of journalism.
“I’m not a fan. I’m a journalist”: Measuring American sports journalists’ sports enthusiasm • Sada Reed, Arizona State University • This study uses a multi-contact survey (Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2008) and Izzo, Munteanu, Langord, Ceobanu, Dumitru, and Nichifor’s 2011 measure of sports fan motivation to analyze American sports journalists’ sports enthusiasm. This study also examines correlations between fandom and newspaper circulation size, as well as what demographics can predict levels of sports fandom. Results suggest sports journalists’ sports enthusiasm can be categorized into three elements: Vicarious achievement, [appreciation for] physical skill, and socialization. There was a statistically significant relationship between circulation size and vicarious achievement, but not between circulation size and socialization and physical skill. Each of these elements correlated negatively with age, which supports Hardin’s (2005) argument that young editors, often working at smaller circulation newspapers, see themselves more as sports fans than journalists. Results also suggest demographics like sex, race, education, years at current newspaper, and newspaper circulation size could predict vicarious achievement and socialization, but not physical skill.
Perennial Performance and Fan Identification: Beyond BIRGing and CORFing Theory • Stan Diel, The University of Alabama • In the context of fan communication on social media following college football games, long-term team performance was added to variables commonly considered in analyses related to basking in reflected glory theory and cutting off reflected failure theory. The results indicate that game outcomes inconsistent with perennial team performance are a predictor of level of identification and simultaneous positive and negative fan emotion.
Team Identification in Traditional and Fantasy Football Fandom: Contradictory or Complementary Concepts? • Yiyi Yang; Andrew Billings; Brody Ruihley • Fantasy football participation is now a major element of over 56.8 million North American sports fans, leaving questions as to whether identification with one’s fantasy team bolsters or hinders traditional conceptions of identification with one’s favorite NFL team. Using a within-group comparison, this study found different attitudinal and behavioral attributes between team identification in the NFL and in fantasy football. The levels of team identification were significant correlated with Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRGing), but not Cutting Off Reflective Failure (CORFing). Team identification in fantasy football has a significant positive correlation with NFL team identification, focusing more on enhancing the overall sports fan experience.
Small Programs 2016 Abstracts
What is taught about diversity and how is it taught? A 2015 update of diversity teaching at U.S. journalism and mass communication programs • Masudul Biswas, Loyola University Maryland; Ralph Izard, Louisiana State University; Sepi Roshan, Astute Radio • Using survey method, this study explores how diversity courses are offered, what is taught in those courses and how learning outcomes are assessed in those courses in 64 U.S. journalism and mass communication programs. This study also seeks to determine the preferred teaching approach to diversity in these programs and whether there is a relationship between the status of a program’s offering of a dedicated course on diversity and its teaching approach.
‘Taking the J out of the J-School’ Motivations and processes of program name changes • Matthew Haught, University of Memphis; Erin Willis • As enrollments, industry trends, and professional demands have embraced digital media, journalism schools throughout the country are reconsidering their own brands. Specifically, many are asking if the program’s name accurately reflects its course content and projects an ideal image to the profession. This research questions administrators at schools with changed names and seeks to understand their program’s motivations for changing their names, as well as the processes by which name changes were considered and approved.
What Trauma? Social Invention and a Pedagogy of Compassion for Teaching Reporting and Writing about the Pain of Others • Michael Longinow, Biola University • This paper uses the theoretical lens of social invention as a guide to the teaching of writing and reporting about trauma, adding to a growing literature about trauma journalism instruction. It suggests the neglect of writing instruction generally, and lack of teaching about trauma, stem from a misunderstanding of journalistic approaches to cultural language leading to neglect of curricular framing aimed at experiences of students. The paper suggests a cross-cultural, empathetic and dialectical approach.
Journalism as/is memory: The role of journalism textbooks in maintaining deep collective memory • Nicholas Gilewicz, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania • This paper is a case study of five journalism textbooks used at dozens of undergraduate and graduate journalism training programs in the United States. This research builds on the consonance found between journalism and mnemonic practices, and suggests that training in newswriting and reporting articulates and maintains through practice a deep cultural memory of journalism. Journalism training is found to induct students into journalism’s mnemonic practices, which themselves indicate and generate journalism’s mnemonic culture.
Perceptions of Credibility and Likeability in Broadcast Commentators of Women’s Sports • Angela Pratt, Clemson University; Morgan Tadlock, Clemson University; Lauren Watts, Clemson University; Taylor Wilson, Clemson University; Bryan Denham, Clemson University • The purpose of this study is to understand perceptions of female sportscasters commentating on female athletes playing feminine sports. Using survey research with university students , results showed that female participants found female sportscasters more credible and likeable than did male participants. The findings may indicate changing attitudes toward female sportscasters, or reinforce female sports as a domain not threatening to male performance. This exploratory study may assist future research concerning women in sport broadcasting.
Religion and Media 2016 Abstracts
Just a Phone Call (or Facebook Post) Away: Parents’ Influence at a Distance on Emerging Adults’ Religious Connections • Andrew Pritchard; Sisi Hu • New communication media have to a great degree erased the barriers of distance that once diminished parents’ ability to keep their emerging adult children (ages 18 to 25) connected to the family’s religion. A survey of emerging adults (N = 727) finds that parents’ influence is greatest when they communicate through media in which emerging adults are willing to discuss intimate subjects, and when religiosity and spirituality are frequent topics of conversation.
Moral Mondays in the South: Christian Activism and Civil Disobedience in the Digital Age • Anthony Hatcher, Elon University • This paper is a case study of the 2013 Moral Monday movement in North Carolina and the use of progressive Christianity and religious rhetoric as tactics for protest in the modern media era. Themes explored include: 1) the role religious rhetoric played in this 21st century protest movement; 2) the tone of media coverage; 3) how social media was used by both protestors and their critics; and 4) the political effectiveness of the protests.
Defining the Christian Journalist: Ideologies, Values and Practices • Brad Schultz, University of Mississippi; Mary Sheffer, University of Southern Mississippi • This study sought to understand how working Christian journalists perceive themselves in terms of how their faith shapes their professional practice. An international survey of self-identified Christian journalists showed that they perceive themselves differently from their secular counterparts primarily in terms of ideology (ethics and public service). Younger Christian journalists were the drivers of these perceptions more so than older journalists, who remain more tied to traditional journalistic practice. Interestingly, those who worked at non-religious media outlets were more connected to ideology, while those at Christian outlets were more committed to journalism practice. The implications of these findings were discussed.
Morality and Minarets: The moral framing of mosque construction in the U.S. • Brian J. Bowe, Western Washington University • Journalism is a moral craft with particular social obligations. Moral evaluations are one of the main functions of media frames. Yet morality is a complex concept that includes both individualizing and binding elements. This study applies Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) to examine the moral dimension of frames. Analyzing news articles (n=349) from five newspapers about controversies surrounding the construction of mosques in the United States, this study found four moral frames: Ethnocentric Loyalty, Social Order, Altruistic Democracy and Moderate Individualism. These frames were strongly rooted in socially binding moral foundations, and they were connected to enduring values of journalism.
“I Pray We Won’t Let This Moment Pass Us By”: Christian Concert Films and Numinous Experiences • Jim Trammell, High Point University • This manuscript analyzes the Christian concert film Hillsong United: Live in Miami to investigate how mass media evoke numinous experiences. Using a framework that locates technological determinism within theories of religious encounters, the analysis explores how Christian concert films create numinous experiences through shot composition, editing, and content selection. The manuscript argues that mass media technologies and aesthetics can create expectations of religious encounters, and challenges the use of mass media to manufacture religious experiences.
Thoughtful, but angry: Media narratives of NFL star Arian Foster’s “confession” of nonbelief. • John Haman; Kyle Miller • In 2015, Arian Foster became the first active professional football player to announce he was an atheist. To analyze the media’s framing of Foster’s nonbelief within the context of the overtly evangelical Protestant religious culture of the NFL, we analyzed all news and editorial coverage of Foster’s “confession.” By extending Silk’s methodology for examining religious topoi, we examine how journalists use familiar themes to negotiate the boundary between belief and nonbelief in American culture.
Religion, coping and healing in news about school shootings • Michael McCluskey, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga; Hayden Seay • Religion offers comfort to those undergoing trauma, including communities affected by a school shooting. News content offers one means to heal. Analysis of news content about school shootings showed the presence of five key functions of individual religious coping methods identified in prior research. Most common were comfort/spirituality, meaning and control, followed by intimacy/spirituality and life transformation. Presence of healing and coping themes in the news reflect a journalistic role to heal the community.
Believing news from the Christian Broadcast Network: The intersection between source trust, content expectancy, and religiosity • Robin Blom, Ball State University • A randomly-selected sample of 200 U.S. adults indicated their believability of a news headline attributed to the Christian Broadcast Network to test whether an interaction between news source trust and content expectancy could predict believability levels. Overall, the data indicate that certain non-religious people or those with low levels of religiosity considered the Christian Broadcast Network headline highly believable, whereas some people with high levels of religiosity did not—depending on whether they were surprised on unsurprised that the headline was attributed to CBN—and not just because of their religiosity level. In fact, religiosity was not a statistically significant predictor of believability in a regression model with news source trust, news content expectancy, and its interaction. This provides new insights to whether non-secular media outlets could be considered valuable news sources for people outside the traditional, religious target audience for those organizations.
Media Framing of Muslims: A Research Review • Saifuddin Ahmed, University of California, Davis; Jörg Matthes, University of Vienna • This study provides an overview of English language academic research on media framing of Muslims from 2001 to 2014. Through content analysis of 128 studies we identify patterns involving research trend, methodological approach, media analysis, and authorship. A qualitative review results in presentation of seven common frames. Attention is paid to frame commonality across media sources and regions. Current research gaps are highlighted and findings point to key directions for future scholars.
Political Communication 2016 Abstracts
I Like You, You’re Like Me: Influences of Partisan Media Use on Ideological Primary Voting • Aaron Veenstra, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • The two major political parties in the U.S. are increasingly polarized in terms of ideology, which is reflected in the diminishing tendency of liberals to identify as Republicans or conservatives to identify as Democrats. Another way of looking at this phenomenon is that each party is a social group in which being in the “correct” ideological grouping has become an important social norm. This study examines how that norm influences vote choice in partisan primary elections, where all the available choices are members of the in-group. National Annenberg Election Study data from the 2008 presidential primary season shows that voters were most likely to express intent to vote for the candidate they saw as ideologically closest to themselves. Subsequent analysis found that this was a robust relationship between out-party media use and greater distance between oneself and one’s candidate, while in-party media only had effects for Democrats. That is, out-party media, which should weaken group norms, was related to weaker expression of the norm of ideological voting, while fro Democrats, in-party media was related to stronger expression of that norm. These findings demonstrate the importance of perceptions about ideology to performing one’s identity as a partisan, and also provide key evidence of a role for partisan media and specifically television, in bolstering or diminishing that ideological behavior.
Folksy talk or simplistic chatter? An analysis of rhetorical complexity and charisma in U.S. presidential campaign speeches • Ben Wasike, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley • This study used integrative complexity to examine partisan dynamics of rhetorical complexity and charisma in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 presidential stump speeches. While the candidates demonstrated low IC levels overall, the decline in rhetorical complexity was faster for Republicans. Democrats displayed more complexity and charisma. The findings also show correlation between IC and charisma. Unique contributions to scholarship include linking charisma to IC and using IC rather than readability scales to measure rhetorical complexity.
Source Networks and Environmental Regulation: Proposing a New Measure of Partisanship in the Portrayal of Climate Policy • Bethany Conway, Cal Poly; Jennifer Ervin, University of Arizona; Kate Kenski, University of Arizona • This study used social network analysis to explore the networks of news sources used in coverage of the Obama administration’s climate change report and the subsequent emission reductions proposed by the EPA in summer 2014. Coverage from May through July 2014 by CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC was coded for source use. Aggregate and monthly source networks were created and analyzed for similarities. Results suggest unmistakably partisan patterns of source use, with MSNBC using a larger number of sources than CNN and Fox News. We suggest such patterns facilitate the conceptualization of an ideology of news construction on behalf of cable news organizations.
Partisan Assessment and Controversial News Online: Hostile Media Perceptions of the 2014 Chris Christie “Bridge” Scandal • Boya Xu, University of Maryland • The cognitive process of audience response has caught increased attention among media effects scholars. Hostile media phenomenon exemplifies the extent to which media coverage is perceived as agreeable or disagreeable to one’s own opinion, which serves as an important indicator of perceived news bias. Over the past few decades, hostile media effect studies have researched several cases of notable conflict between two different groups of interest. Guided by literature on this theory and partisan assessment of controversial news, the current study examines the 2014 Chris Christie bridge scandal in the commentary coverage of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The findings demonstrate that partisan news consumers reacted to constructed news information in hugely different ways. The present research extends hostile media research by offering an expanded model to examine people’s perceptions in the psychological sense, and places the discussion of hostile media effects toward the direction of online media environment.
Meeting Diversity and Democratic Engagement: Mobile Phone Usage Patterns, Exposure to Heterogeneity and Civic Engagement • Chang Sup Park, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania • This study, based on a survey of 1,351 mobile phone users, investigates the relationships among patterns of mobile phone use, exposure to heterogeneity, weak-tie networks, and civic engagement. It finds that informational uses of mobile phones are positively associated with civic engagement. Relational and recreational uses have a null association with civic engagement. Using mobile phones for informational or recreational purposes is significantly linked to meeting diverse voices in mobile communication. The current study also finds that both exposure to heterogeneity and weak-tie networks moderate the impact of mobile phone use on civic engagement. This research indicates that even using the mobile phone for non-informational purposes can result in engagement in civic affairs if mobile phone users meet diversity frequently and have large weak-tie contacts.
Effects of Online Comments on Perceptions of a Political News Interview: Experiments Extending Theories of Blame and Equivocation to Web 2.0 • David Clementson, The Ohio State University • Research indicates that online comments overpower the substance of web news items. We created experimental stimuli of a political news interview and manipulated comment sections beneath. We ran experiments with college students (Study 1, N = 154) and voters (Study 2, N = 153). Results indicated that people made attributions of blame, source credibility, and evasiveness, as well as their own attitudes and comments, based on whether comments implicated the politician or the media.
Think Tanks and News Media in U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda-Setting: Who is Telling Whom What to Talk About? • Dzmitry Yuran, Florida Institute of Technology • This study explores the roles news media and think tanks play in U.S. foreign policy in an analysis of their possible effects on each other’s agendas The connection between the agendas of think tanks and the news agenda, as well as the possible impact of think tanks on news media attention to countries, suggest that think tanks should be included in foreign policy agenda-setting models, traditionally limited to policymakers, public, and media as active participants.
People Power and Media through the Eyes of Late Night Comedy Viewers • Edo Steinberg, Indiana University • Using secondary data analysis of NAES and Pew surveys from 2008 and 2012, this study examines the relationship between watching late night comedy shows and trust in the media and external efficacy. Total number of shows watched is positively correlated with external efficacy and low evaluations of the media, but individual shows’ relationship to these variables is complex. Furthermore, the paper argues that The Daily Show promotes a constructive form of distrust in media.
Does the Political Apple Fall Far from the Tree? Agenda-Setting in Tweens’ and Teens’ Agreement with Parental Political Beliefs • Esther Thorson, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Di Zhu, University of Missouri • There have been few studies of how closely parent political beliefs match their children’s. That question is addressed here with a national survey of parents and their children 12-14 and 15-17 on 14 various political belief questions (e.g., “government has gotten too big”). Social salience of the beliefs in news and public opinion influences youth beliefs. Parental beliefs are the best predictors for both younger and older children’s beliefs even after extensive controls are applied.
How High School Classroom Experiences Influence Youth Political Knowledge and Participation: A Mediation Model • Esther Thorson, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Joseph Moore, University of Missouri; Benjamin Warner, University of Missouri • This study utilizes an OSROR model of political socialization to examine the effects of demographics, school socialization, news media exposure, interpersonal and online communication, and political knowledge on adolescent political participation. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) revealed that, among all the criterion variables, school socialization, and particularly participation in mock trials, had significant direct and indirect effects on youth political participation. Contrary to previous studies, this study found a negative relationship between online communication and political knowledge.
Questionable democratizing soft news effects on political knowledge • Heesook Choi, Missouri School of Journalism • This survey study investigates the relationship between the exposure to soft news and political knowledge based on the incidental learning hypothesis. To replicate Baum’s (2002) findings, I employ the media consumption survey data that the Pew Research Center collected in 2010 and 2012, which were the last two. Unlike Baum’s findings, this study illustrates a strong negative relationship between people’s consumption of soft news and their knowledge about politics. People who consume relatively more soft news are less likely to be knowledgeable about politics, compared to people who consume relatively less soft news. In general, the relationship is not conditional on people’s level of political interest. However, when it is, the exposure to entertainment-oriented soft news is more likely to lead to the lower level of political knowledge even among politically attentive individuals. These incompatible findings also highlight the need to revisit what constitutes soft news and create a more sophisticated or multidimensional scale to measure more precisely people’s exposure to soft news in comparison to hard news programs, rather than blindly relying on the oversimplified dichotomy, hard versus soft news. This study also examines the role of recording services such as TiVo in political learning. The results suggest that TiVo does not necessarily have a negative effect on political knowledge.
Political Persuasion on Social Media: A Moderated Moderation Model of Political Disagreement and Civil Reasoning • Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna; Matthew Barnidge, University of Vienna; Trevor Diehl, University of Vienna • A fair amount of scholarly work highlights the importance of news use and political discussion to fuel political persuasion. Exposure to both novel information and diverse opinions are key for individuals to change their views over a political issue. In the context of social media, news use arguably contributes to the prevalence of contentious politics, in part because individuals can express dissent through their social networks as they consume news content. However, individuals might be more open to political persuasion in social media environments, especially if they are exposed to political disagreement and discuss it in a civil and reasoned manner. Relying on national survey data from the United Kingdom, results of a moderated moderation model shows that 1) social media news use predicts political persuasion on social media (direct effects); 2) discussion disagreement and civil reasoning levels moderate this relationship in a two way, and three way interactions
How Does Political Satire Influence Political Participation? Examining the Factors of Exposure to Pro- and Counter-Attitudinal Political Views, Anger, and Personal Issue Importance • Hsuan-Ting Chen, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Chen Gan, the Chinese University in Hong Kong (CUHK); Ping Sun, Chinese University of Hong Kong • While research has shown that exposure to political satire elicits negative emotions, which in turn mobilize political participation, we use experiment data to extend this line of research by examining the type of exposure (i.e., exposure to counter-attitudinal and attitude-consistent political views) and investigating a specific negative emotion—anger—in influencing political participation. Results document that exposure to counter-attitudinal political satire is more likely than attitude-consistent exposure to increase the likelihood of participation in issue-related activities through evoking one’s anger about the political issue. More importantly, this indirect effect functions under the condition when people consider the issue to be personally important, and the indirect effect is stronger when one’s personal issue importance is greater. Implications for the functioning of deliberative and participatory democracy in media genres that are emotionally provocative are discussed.
Shaping Media Trust: News Parody, Media Criticism, and Valuations of the Press • Jason Peifer, Indiana University – The Media School • This study explores how news parody and perceptions of news media importance (PNMI) can contribute to shaping perceptions of the press’s trustworthiness. A two-wave survey (N=331) exposed participants to news parody stimuli, measuring media trust and PNMI one week before and immediately after the parody exposure. Results demonstrate a mediated process of influence, wherein parody’s implicit commentary about the press (compared to explicit criticism) promotes PNMI, which in turn fosters trust in the news media.
Predicting voting intentions using congruity theory and stereotypes related to political party and race/ethnicity • Jennifer Hoewe, University of Alabama • This study explores the intersection of the cues of race/ethnicity and political party affiliation as they are presented in the news media and predict evaluations of political candidates. It predicted individuals’ responses to political candidates after considering the expectations of congruity theory and cueing. It found that congruity theory is an appropriate theoretical mechanism for explaining intentions to vote for political candidates, where individuals’ political party affiliation is the necessary moderating variable to consider. Also, a candidate’s political party affiliation as well as race/ethnicity are salient in determining voting preferences and attitudes toward the candidate, but party is more consistently salient. Finally, this study identified that Independent Party candidates are not favored or disfavored when compared to Republican and Democratic candidates, and Independent voters do not show significant preference for Independent Party candidates.
Is Group Polarization a Function of Conflict Framing or a Pre-existing Rivalry Group Schema? • Jiyoung Han, University of Minnesota • Two experimental studies tested whether conflict framing of the news promotes group polarization along party lines. Informed by self-categorization theory, an underlying mechanism behind the news effect was also identified. Specifically, Study 1 showed that Democrats and Republicans exposed to partisan conflict-framed news adopted more extreme positions on a disputed issue. This polarization effect of the news emerged via partisan identity salience and perceived in-party prototype. Study 2 retested the group polarization hypotheses in an apolitical context. The results showed that gender conflict-framed news heightened the level of gender identity salience in the minds of news consumers and lead women and men to express more polarized positions. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Closing the technocratic divide: How activists utilized digital form letters to engage the public in the FCC’s 2014 net neutrality debate • Jonathan Obar • Building upon research suggesting activists close technocratic divides with digital form letters, this study investigates the extent to which structural/rhetorical subordination central to the divide was overcome during the FCC’s 2014 net neutrality debate. Results suggest activists helped address impediments of geography, time and access; however, the prevalence of standardized language in many comments suggests the public’s voice was largely absent. This raises questions about ‘slacktivist’ tactics advancing mobilization efforts while avoiding principal-agent problems.
Different Strokes for Different Folks: Examination of Open-Carry Frames on Twitter Across States in the United States • Joon K Kim; Yicheng Zhu, University of South Carolina • This paper examines the online conversation about open carry policy in the U.S. Twittersphere in terms of its connection to media frames in traditional media. We collected 54,699 tweets about open carry policy using Sysomos Twitter API and our analysis showed that Twitterers from different states have significant distinct preferences over frames. Such preference was influenced by both the open carry policy and the political inclination of the states, while the later has a stronger influence than the former. For the open carry policy, tweets from Democratic states uses more safety and racial frame, while those from Republican states prefer legal and gunrights frame.
Learning the Other Side? Motivated Reasoning, Awareness of Oppositional and Likeminded Views, and Political Tolerance • Jörg Matthes, U of Vienna; David Nicolas Hopmann, University of Southern Denmark; Sebastian Valenzuela, Pontificia U Catolica de Chile • We posit that two basic information-processing motives—accuracy and directional goals—help explain when people learn from counterattitudinal news. Study 1 uses a two-wave survey matched with a media content analysis, and finds that awareness for oppositional views increases with cross-cutting news only for people with high accuracy motivations. In Study 2, we corroborate this finding with a survey experiment, and also find that a high directional motivation may actually hinder learning from counterattitudinal news.
Social Media and Civic Engagement: Results from a European Survey • Josef Seethaler, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies; Maren Birgit Marina Beaufort • There is considerable controversy as to the effects of social media on political participation. Drawing on Bennett and Segerberg’s concept of “connective action,” which – contrary to “collective” action – puts more emphasis on civic engagement as an act of personal expression, the study analyzes the relationship between media use and various forms of political participation across 15 European countries. Results indicate a notable switch from “collective” to “connective” forms of participation, particularly among people under 40.
Political Gratifications of Internet Use in Five Arab Countries: Predictors of Online Political Efficacy • Justin Martin; Ralph Martins; Shageaa Naqvi • Informed by research into uses and gratifications of the internet for political utility, this study examines predictors of online political efficacy, the belief that the internet has political utility, among internet users in five Arab countries (N=4,029): Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Qatar and the U.A.E. As hypothesized, variables in Arab countries often assumed predictive of political activism—being young, being unemployed, distrust of news media, progressive ideology, and more—were not consistently associated with online political efficacy. Yet counter to hypothesized, internet dependency and social media use were also not strongly or consistently associated with efficacy in the five countries. Rather, the strongest predictors of efficacy were belief in news media credibility, print media use (newspapers, magazines, books), belief in the reliability of online information, and tolerance of free speech online.
Do journalists facilitate a visionary debate among US presidential candidates? Content analysis reveals temporal orientation of debate questions • Karen McIntyre; Cathrine Gyldensted • Applying prospection — or imagining possible futures — to political journalism, a content analysis examined questions asked during U.S. presidential debates. Half of debate questions asked from 1960 to 2012 focused on the present, one-third focused on the future, and 12% focused on the past. Members of the public were more likely than journalists to ask future-oriented questions. The percentage of future-oriented questions also related to the specific election cycle and which news organization hosted the debate.
When and How Do Media Matter in a Policy Debate? The Multi-faceted Role of Newspapers in the Fracking Debates in New York and North Carolina • Kylah Hedding, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study brings together framing research from political science and communication through the lens of the Advocacy Coalition Framework. It examines the role of the media in the fracking policy debates in North Carolina and New York, two states with very difference policy outcomes. A multi-method approach shows that the media had a multi-faceted role in the policy process that may differ from the way scholars have previously conceptualized the media.
Not credible but persuasive? How media source and audience ideology influences credibility, persuasiveness and reactance • Lelia Samson, Nanyang Technological University; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University • This paper seeks to understand the impact of media source and audience ideology on how readers process political editorial news in the context of the Singaporean press, particularly focusing on the perceived credibility and persuasiveness of news message, as well as audience reactance to them. It does so through the framework of information processing and within the peculiar cultural, historical and social context of the Asian press, particularly that which lead to the formation and development of the Singaporean press. Through a mixed factorial experiment (N= 110) conducted online, the study found that both media source and audience ideology affected ratings of source credibility, persuasiveness of the political editorial news message, and audience reactance to them. Participants identifying with the dominant political ideology rated the dominant news source as more credible, while participants with alternative political ideology rated the alternative news source as more persuasive as well as higher in reactance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as are directions for future research.
Perceived Agenda-Setting Effects: Factors Impacting Awareness of Media Influence • Linsen Su, Beijing Jiaotong University; Wayne Wanta, University of Florida • Using the air pollution issue in Beijing as the focus, the current study examines respondents’ perceived media impact on both issue agenda-setting (first-level) and attribute agenda-setting (second-level) effects through a self-reported telephone survey in January 2015.The results confirm media impact on the awareness of issue agenda-setting effects but only partly support attribute agenda-setting effects. The results show perceived media credibility, direct personal experience with air pollution, interpersonal communication frequency, and media (TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, and Internet) exposure frequency all positively predict the perceived issue agenda-setting effect by individuals. Only media credibility and direct personal experience predict perceived attribute agenda setting effects. The findings suggest that Chinese media are effective in telling people what to think about, but ineffective in telling people how to think.
A Linkage of Online Political Comments, Perceived Civility, and Political Participation • Masahiro Yamamoto, University at Albany – SUNY; Francis Dalisay, University of Guam; Matthew Kushin, Shepherd University • This study investigates how exposure to uncivil and reasoned online political comments is related to offline and online political participation. Data from a survey of online panels show that exposure to reasoned online political comments was positively associated with offline and online political participation both directly and indirectly through one’s perceptions of civility in society. Data also show that exposure to uncivil online political comments predicted decreases in perceived civility in society, which in turn was related to lower levels of offline and online political participation. Implications are discussed for political deliberation and uncivil political discourse.
Mobile Information Seeking and Political Participation: A Differential Gains Approach with Offline and Online Discussion Attributes • Masahiro Yamamoto, University at Albany – SUNY; Seungahn Nah • This study, derived from a differential gains model, examines how mobile-based political information seeking is associated with offline and online political participation in interaction with three political discussion features: frequency, size, and heterogeneity. Data from a Web survey of an online panel indicate that the link between mobile information seeking and offline political participation is greater for respondents who discuss politics with others face-to-face and online more frequently and a greater diversity of others face-to-face and online. Data also reveal that the link between mobile information seeking and online political participation is stronger for those who discuss politics with others offline and online more often, a larger number of others online, and a greater diversity of others offline and online. Implications are discussed for the role of informational use of mobile phones in fostering political engagement.
Framing Without Attribution: Party Competition, Issue Ownership and how Journalists Frame the News • Michael Wagner, UW-Madison; Mike Gruszczynski, Austin Peay State University • Do journalists index news coverage even when they are not quoting a source? We specify the circumstances under which indexing occurs during times that journalists frame issues on their own. Our analysis of news coverage of abortion, energy, taxes, and Iraq from 1975-2008 demonstrates that during periods when the two major parties fail to frame issues with consistency within their party and competition between the parties, journalists are more likely to frame issues while acting as their own source, even when controlling for economic factors and public opinion. When journalists do frame issues on their own, they often “self-index,” adopting preferred frames from the party that “owns” that issue while applying game frames as Election Day draws near.
Learning Politics from Facebook Friends? The Impact of Structural Characteristics of Facebook Friend Network on Political Knowledge Gain • Minchul Kim, Indiana University; Yanqin Lu, Indiana University; Jae Kook Lee, Indiana University • This study examines whether and how people learn about politics from Facebook. In particular, we hypothesize that structural characteristics of one’s Facebook friend network can promote political knowledge gain. Results indicate that the proportion of Facebook weak ties, but not the size of Facebook friend network, has direct effects on political knowledge gain. The impacts of these structural characteristics on political knowledge are more pronounced for the politically interested. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Weapons and Puppies: Effectiveness of TSA’s Use of Instagram • Ming Wang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Valerie Jones, UNL • This paper examines the effectiveness of communication on visual social networking sites by government agencies, using TSA’s Instagram account as a case. Results show that TSA’s Instagram account elicited stronger emotional reactions a private business’ Instagram account. More importantly, perceived usefulness of content, perceived persuasive intent of content, and negative emotions all affected attitudes toward the TSA and all three except persuasive intent of content also influenced communicative action regarding the TSA account.
Political Divide in Twitter: A Study of Selective Exposure Clusters • Mohammad Yousuf, University of Oklahoma; Abu Daud Isa, University of Georgia • This study tests the Selective Exposure Clusters model by examining connections among Twitter users engaged in discussion on shared political topics. A network analysis was conducted on two topic networks defined by the hashtags #SOTU and #WeAreAllMuslim. Results show that Twitter users form distinct clusters as they participate in Twitter discussion on political topics. Most hubs and top mentioned users within a cluster appeared to have identified themselves with one side of a topic. The top mentioned users and the most shared URLs also identify with the dominant political standpoint within a cluster.
Look Who’s Writing: How Gender Affects News Credibility and Perceptions of Issue Importance • Newly Paul; Mingxiao Sui; Kathleen Searles, Louisiana State University • Studies indicate that women reporters are underrepresented in newsrooms and assigned to gender-stereotypic roles. In this paper, we explore how women journalists can make a difference in a gendered newsroom. Using an experiment, we examine how gender affects readers’ perceptions about: a reporter’s credibility, a news outlet’s credibility, and importance of the issue being written about. Results indicate that readers consider women’s issues important, but reporters who deviate from their gender-stereotypic roles are evaluated negatively. Readers’ gender perceptions, however, do not affect the credibility of the news outlet.
Understanding the interplay between selective and incidental exposure online: The influence of nonlinear interaction on cross-cutting online political discussion • Nojin Kwak, University of Michigan; Brian Weeks, University of Michigan-Department of Communication Studies; Dam Hee Kim, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Daniel Lane, University of Michigan; Slgi Lee, University of Michigan • This study analyzes whether two patterns of information exposure online, pro-attitudinal selective exposure and counter-attitudinal incidental exposure, work in concert to foster or undermine people’s cross-cutting political discussion online. Using data from a two-wave national survey conducted during the 2012 US presidential campaign, three theoretical accounts that provide alternate predictions were examined. Findings show that incidental exposure may affect how selective exposure contributes to cross-cutting political discussion in a curvilinear way.
A disturbed relationship? Politicians’ view of journalists’ effect on democracy in German-speaking democracies • Peter Maurer • In an environment where the distinction between news and opinion is unclear, this study explores how politicians view the press across three German-speaking countries. It tests how politician’s attitude toward a mediatized political process affects their tendency to contact journalists. Drawing on an international survey, the study finds that when political actors view the press as pundits, they tend to have a lower evaluation of the press in general, and also contact journalists less often.
Read, share, discuss: Examining the relationship between news processing, face-to-face, and online political discussion • Rebecca Donaway, Washington State University; Myiah Hutchens, Washington State University; Michael Beam, Kent State University; Jay Hmielowski, Washington State University • This study seeks to examine differences in online and face-to-face discussion via exposure to online news and people’s information processing strategies. Using national survey data, we determined that online discussion has direct relationships with online news exposure and heuristic processing, whereas face-to-face discussion is associated with systematic processing. We also found an interaction where increased systematic processing and online news exposure also predicts online discussion, but no interactive relationships are related to face-to-face discussion.
Silence on the second screen: The influence of peer-produced social media cues on political discourse and opinion • Rebecca Nee, San Diego State University • A 2 by 3 between-subjects factorial experiment tested the effects of peer-produced Twitter posts on political opinions and online discourse via the second screen. Researchers manipulated a Twitter feed as participants simultaneously watched a debate excerpt and were also invited to post to Twitter. Qualitative interviews with participants and a content analysis of the tweets show the primacy effect of peer-produced social media cues and evidence of both the spiral of silence and bandwagon effect.
Why Candidates Turn to Twitter Campaigning? An analysis of 2014 Indian General Elections • Saifuddin Ahmed, University of California, Davis • This study focuses on party and individual characteristics of 2014 Indian general election candidates, to explain why some candidates were more likely to adopt Twitter and use it for broadcasting, conversational and mobilization purposes. Findings revealed, candidates from fringe and minority parties and less covered in traditional media adopt and use Twitter more frequently than others – thereby suggesting Web 2.0 technologies to close the existing offline political power structures. Implications of the findings are discussed.
“Wishing to be Trump” and Other Parasocial Predictors of Trust, Likeability, and Voting Intention for The Apprentice Host • Sara Hansen, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; Shu-Yueh Lee • This study evaluates parasocial effects of Donald Trump in The Apprentice on attitudes and behaviors toward his presidential run, and effects of political leaning and charismatic leadership. Analysis of survey data from 174 young voters shows wishful identification positively influences liking, trusting, and voting for Trump. Interest positively influences likeability and voting. Being conservative and feeling Trump is a charismatic leader was influential. Impacts of celebrity identification and symbolic modeling on Trump’s popularity are discussed.
Second Screening Donald Trump: Conditional Indirect Effects on Political Participation • Shannon McGregor, University of Texas – Austin; Rachel Mourao • This paper assesses the moderating role of support for Donald Trump to the relationship between TV news and political participation through second screening. Applying a cross-lagged autoregressive panel survey design to the communication mediation model, our results suggest that the mediating role of second screening is contingent upon attitudes towards Trump. For those who do not view Trump favorably, second screening during news leads to a decrease in political participation, both online and offline.
Media frames in mainstream newspaper coverage of Indian general elections: A structural equation modeling method • Uma Shankar Pandey, Surendranath College for Women, Kolkata • “This paper provides a structural equation modeling approach to detect latent unobserved endogenous ‘accessibility-emphasis’ frames through well-defined content analysis variables in news content. This empirical method is more transparent in identifying ‘Emphasis’ frames in election news stories. It also addresses reliability concerns since coding of the news content is done for the text variables and not for frames directly. Election related news appearing on the front page and one special election page of three mainstream English newspapers in India, from the three biggest cities of India — The Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Telegraph are selected for a 53 day period from March to May, 2014. 1767 stories from the 316 pages of these newspapers are content analyzed for themes using Entman’s schemes. These observed themes are then used to define the unobserved latent frames, both generic and issue-specific — Alliances, Conflict, Strategy, Horserace, Novelty and Human Interest. The identification of generic frames — observed in extant literature in western contexts — in a non-western context points to a limited convergence of emphasis framing across diverse democracies. Standard goodness of fit indices is used to measure the acceptability of the proposed model.
A Fine-Tuner of the Q-Sense: Exposure to Political Communication and Misestimating Public Opinion on Immigration • Volha Kananovich • This study explores the role of political communication in increasing the accuracy of citizens’ estimations of public opinion on immigration. Using data from a national survey (N=1132), it shows that greater attention to a presidential campaign predicts a more accurate estimation. Results suggest that political communication can serve as a useful source of public opinion cues that may inhibit pluralistic ignorance, despite the potentially biased samples of opinion that voters are exposed to by competing sides.
Political associational ties on mobile social media: A cross-national study of Asia-Pacific region • Wan Chi Leung • This study examined 30 Asia-Pacific countries for national-level factors that can influence the penetration of mobile technology and mobile social media, and development of associational ties with political organizations on Facebook and Twitter. Findings showed that Asia-Pacific countries had nearly caught up Americas’ and Europe’s mobile phone and social media use. Indulgence in a culture was found to predict mobile social media use, which was associated with becoming a fans of Facebook pages of the government, news, political communities, and NGOs. Political participation and civil liberties predicted following Twitter accounts of news and NGOs. Implications on political use of mobile social media in Asia-Pacific region are discussed.
The Moderating Effect of Social Identity on Collective Political Action in Hong Kong: A Communication Mediation Approach of Social Networking Service Use • Yingru Ji, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Yanmengqian Zhou • As social networking service (SNS) has been found to have increasingly significant impact on political discussion and participation, this study integrated SNS into the communication mediation model, exploring the relationship between overall SNS use, hard news use of newspaper, television, news website and SNS, online and offline political discussion and participation in collective political action in post-umbrella Hong Kong. Data were gathered via a survey of 648 college students in Hong Kong. Results showed that SNS and newspaper hard news, offline and online political discussion, and education significantly predicted the participation in collective political action in Hong Kong. The results also demonstrated that social identity plays a moderating role between political discussion and participation as for those who have higher Hong Kong identity, the more discussion they are involved in the more likely they will participate in collective political action while for those who are less identified with Hong Kong society, more discussion will lead to less participation.
Network structural polarization of opinion leaders: the example of Sina Microblog • Yunxia Pang • This study investigates the composition, interaction and evolution of opinion leader groups on Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo, using social network analysis. By analyzing the “following” and “interactive” patterns among the opinion leaders over 1.5 years, we find that the basis of group polarization is network structural polarization. Based on the analysis of 241 selected opinion leaders, this paper finds that traditional classification for “Left” and “Right” intellectuals is still the key factor to differentiate opinion leaders on Sina Weibo, while the different careers do not amplify polarization. We find the in-group interaction density of the “Left” and the “Right” increased significantly as time went, while the “neutral” group’s internal interaction density does not change.
Participatory Journalism 2016 Abstracts
Communicative Antecedents of Political Persuasion. The Roles of Political Discussion and Citizen News Creation • Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu, University of Vienna; Matthew Barnidge, University of Vienna; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Vienna • For quite some time researchers have paid attention to how media and interpersonal discussion influence the way people persuade others politically. Recent academic efforts have been geared toward better explaining the mechanisms by which digital media technologies have afforded people new ways to persuade others. Within this context, a vibrant yet less explored area entails not only political discussion, but also the creation of news and public affairs content online. This study seeks to shed more light on how communicative behaviors lead to attempted political persuasion. Using two-wave panel survey data, we find that political discussion and citizen news creation mediate the relation between news use and political persuasion attempts. Furthermore, strength of partisanship moderates the relationship between content creation and attempted persuasion.
Asserting Credibility in a Crisis: How Journalists, Activists and Police/Government Officials Used Twitter During Ferguson • Amber Hinsley, Saint Louis University; Hyunmin Lee, Saint Louis University; Christopher Blank, Saint Louis University; Ricardo Wray, Saint Louis University; J.S. Onesimo Sandoval, Saint Louis University; Keri Jupka, Saint Louis University; Claire Cioni, Saint Louis University • This study examines the validity of Becker’s (1967) classic credibility model in today’s social media landscape. Interviews with activists, journalists and government/law enforcement officials explore how they used acts of journalism to establish their own credibility and assess the credibility of others via Twitter following Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson. Though their “truth” often was different, they applied similar measures of credibility. Crises like Ferguson that are influenced by social media necessitate a revised hierarchy of credibility.
A Comparison of Journalistic Roles by Visual Journalists: Professionals vs. Citizens • Deborah Chung, University of Kentucky; Yung Soo Kim, University of Kentucky; Seungahn Nah • Using a Web-based survey targeting visual professionals, this study examines their professional role conceptions along with their views on emerging visual citizen contributors’ roles. While participants’ ratings of the two roles were generally correlated within each group, few correlations resulted between the two groups. Further, visual professionals rated their roles as significantly more important for all five roles. When assessing views on citizen-contributed visuals, it was clear that participants did not welcome citizens’ visual contributions.
News and Local Information on Reddit: An Online Ethnography of Collective Gatekeeping • Frank Michael Russell, University of Missouri School of Journalism • This study explores sharing and discussion of news and information on Reddit from the perspective of gatekeeping theory. Although Reddit is primarily an entertainment platform, “redditors” also use the site to share and discuss news and local information. Although they share mainstream news media content on the site, they vote for higher placement of stories in a way that seems to reflect more libertarian or socially liberal views than those reflected by traditional news media.
Spreading the News – Examining College Students’ Awareness of Their Participatory News Habits • Jennifer Cox, Salisbury University • A recent study of what news items college-age students post on Twitter revealed they largely focus on national/international news topics rather than items that affect them locally. The study also showed these college-age Millennials preferred softer news topics, including sports, entertainment/celebrity, and lifestyle items, as well as topics that contained elements of oddity/novelty and conflict. This study builds on that research to reveal whether students are aware of their preferences when posting news. A post-test survey was administered to students to compare what types of stories students thought they posted with the ones they actually did post. Students’ awareness of their news preferences could help researchers understand disparities in their self-reporting and their perceptions of their own online personas. The results indicate students overestimated the amount of hard news topics and local news items they posted, suggesting the image they think they are portraying online may not be accurate. This study also asked students to assess their news knowledge and habits as a result of tweeting the news. Students reported being more knowledge about news and believed the activity to be valuable in helping them understand their news habits.
To whom are they speaking? The imagined audience of online news commenters • Jisu Kim, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities • As the first study examining news commenters’ perceptions of imagined audience, this study attempts to expand the boundary of news commenting research. Through interviews with 12 news commenters, we find that they usually perceive their audience as those having similar backgrounds, journalists, or politicians. News commenters who primarily comment on news websites perceive their audience as public and broader in scope, while news commenters on Facebook consider their audience as being more connected with themselves.
Assessing the impact of citizen publishing on Freedom of Information laws • Jodie Gil, Southern Connecticut State University • This exploratory study looks at proposed changes to Freedom of Information laws in 10 states to explore whether citizen publishing prompts attempts to restrict access to records. Privacy was cited in 69 of 138 law proposals, and a majority of those proposals sought to protect “personal information.” The data in the sample points to clear concerns about personal information being shared, a practice that can more easily happen with unrestricted publishing on the Internet.
Where Did You Get That Story? An Examination of Story Sourcing Practices and Objectivity on Citizen Journalism Websites • Kirsten Johnson, Elizabethtown College • A content analysis of 560 articles from 56 citizen journalism websites based in the U.S. showed more than a quarter of the stories didn’t use sources. When they were used, traditional media and press releases were often cited. More than 90% of the stories did adhere to the traditional journalistic norm of objectivity since many stories were sourced from mainstream media reports and press releases. Stories reported most often included event, political, and business stories.
Metrics, Clickbait, and the Anemic Audience: Audience Perceptions and Professional Values among News Aggregators • Mark Coddington, Washington and Lee University • Journalists have long been dismissive of their audiences, but the rise of online metrics and participatory journalism have challenged that attitude. This study examines that challenge by looking at aggregators’ audience perception, exploring its influence on their news judgment and the role of metrics in their work. It finds that the audience weighs heavily on aggregators’ work, but their conception of it is thin and non-participatory, mediated largely through the professionally contested tool of metrics.
Digital pitchforks: Latent publics and justice-gone-wrong narratives • Nathan Rodriguez • This study examines online discussions of justice-gone-wrong narratives in popular culture. To date, fan studies have not analyzed online collectives that are organized around true-crime narratives. This paper uses grounded theory to approach 8,900 user comments on a highly trafficked website regarding the Netflix miniseries, Making a Murderer. Results from the study contribute to the growing academic discussion of the suasive force of latent publics, particularly within the context of justice-gone-wrong narratives in popular culture.
Networked: Social media’s impact on news production in digital newsrooms • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado • This study examines social media usage by journalists through the prism of actor-network theory and the hierarchy of influences model. Utilizing interviews with 53 digital journalists, it identifies the actors playing a role in producing news through social media. It finds that journalists, opinion leaders, audience and extra-media organizations impact news production. It calls for a revisiting of the hierarchy of influences model to understand on what levels of influence the audience impacts news production.
“It’s like a bar journalists hang out at:” Social Media’s erosion of walls between journalists and their Twitter followers • Rich Johnson, Creighton University • While journalism does not fit the traditional definition of a profession, recent scholars, such as Lewis (2012) and Singer (2003) suggest that professional boundaries may be a reason journalists struggle to engage with their audience on social media. Although journalists often are early adopters of new platforms, they often use them for traditional practices. Using qualitative in-depth interviews and constant comparative analysis, this study identifies three walls that block journalists from engaging in the Internet’s facilitation of personal connectivity, engagement, and a true community forum. Although a wall of objectivity has somewhat been broached by Twitter use, walls of storytelling and routine and traditional news values continue to hold strong.
A hit on American football: Bottom-up framing in op-ed reader comments • Travis R. Bell, University of South Florida; Jimmy Sanderson, Clemson University • Dr. Bennet Omalu, who is credited with discovering chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), wrote a New York Times’ op-ed story on December 7, 2015 and presented reasons why parents should not let their children play American football. This fueled national debate and this research, which used bottom-up framing to examine 114 reader comments connected to Omalu’s story. A mixed methods approach, including linguistic analysis, reveals new conversation points afforded by this new concept of media effects.
Internship and Careers 2016 Abstracts
What Works at Work: An Analysis of Micromanagement in the Workplace • Christina Jimenez Najera, California State University, Fullerton • Research has shown that good or poor management can deeply influence the culture of a company and its success. The purpose of this research was to analyze perceptions and effectiveness of micromanagement as a management style. The results of this research provide insight into individuals’ preferences of the concept of micromanagement through their experiences and knowledge of this management style. Furthermore, the results of this research explored the prevalence of micromanagement in the workplace.
Help Wanted: Expanding Social Media, Mobile and Analytics Skills in Journalism Education • Debora Wenger, University of Mississippi; Lynn Owens, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Identifying the most commonly required journalism job skills and attributes within the profession is essential for creating relevant curricula. More than eleven hundred job postings from the top ten newspaper and broadcast journalism companies in the U.S. were part of a content analysis conducted over a three-month period in 2015. Researchers identified gaps in journalism education, particularly related to social media, mobile and audience analysis or engagement skills.
The use of LinkedIn as a recruitment tool in the UAE: An evaluation • Swapna Koshy, University of Wollongong in Dubai; Iman Ismail • This study looks at the use of LinkedIn in the United Arab Emirates. In–depth interviews with representatives of five organizations and five recruitment companies based in the UAE were conducted to evaluate the use of LinkedIn as a recruitment tool. The study showed that LinkedIn is a cost effective recruitment tool. It is efficient when looking for candidates at the senior level or for those with specialized and unique skills. Recruitment agencies also see it as a competitor. The study concluded that to use LinkedIn effectively organizations should have a clear social media strategy.
Graduate Student 2016 Abstracts
Typology of Digital Social Advocacy Strategy in the Boundary of Public Relations • Ah Ram Lee, University of Florida • Public relations has expanded its boundary broadening its functions to diverse organizations and incorporating new media technologies. Advancement in digital technologies has allowed numerous nonprofit organizations and agents to practice strategic communications as public relations management and goal fulfillment. A great deal of social media campaigns were planned and executed by activists and advocacy groups for positive social change, demonstrating these digital social advocacy campaigns as an important branch of public relations practices. However, there has been little consensus about the expansion and demarcation of public relations, whether public relations need to consider digital social advocacy campaigns as a part of its domain. The goal of this research is to enhance understanding of digital social advocacy campaigns and communication efforts within the public relations. This paper provides functions and purposes of public relations practices throughout the history and extension with digital social advocacy campaigns. This paper suggests a typology of digital social advocacy campaign strategies. There are four types of digital social advocacy campaigns—urgent-interactive, pressing issue, viral, and intriguing-inactive, which were conceptualized based on public relations campaigns and activism literatures. The goal of this paper is to establish a foundation for future study on digital social advocacy campaigns by integrating the existing research on communicative efforts through new media technologies for positive social change.
Netflix Versus the Cable Box: Media Substitution, Cord Cutting, and the Adoption of Streaming Television • Alec Tefertiller, University of Oregon • This study sought to better understand what factors best predict consumers’ intention to cut the cord on cable television and adopt streaming as their primary source of television. Based on media substitution theory, this study utilized a nationwide survey to find that it was the perceived advantages streaming applications offer over traditional television coupled with streaming technology’s ability to provide companionship that best predicted intentions to cut the cord on cable and adopt web streaming.
What is Beneath the Facebook Iceberg? Revealing the Relationship between Rational Fatalism and the Online Privacy Paradox • Amy Fowler-Dawson, Southern Illinois University; Wenjing Xie; Anita Tvauri • “Previous has revealed the privacy paradox, which suggests that though people are concerned with their online privacy, they still reveal a large amount of personal information and don’t take measures to protect personal privacy online. Using data from a national-wide survey, this study takes a psychological approach and uses the rational fatalism theory to explain the privacy paradox on the Internet and the social networking sites (SNSs). The rational fatalism theory argues that risks will become rational if the person believes he or she has no control over the outcome. Our results support the rational fatalism view. We found that people with higher level of fatalistic belief about technologies are less likely to protect their privacies on the Internet in general, and the SNS in particular. Moreover, such relationship is stronger among young Internet users compared with older users.
Conceptualizing the Bolivarian Revolution: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Chávez’s Rhetorical Framing in Aló Presidente • Ayleen Cabas • The present study examines the mediated discourse of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez to identify and analyze the rhetorical frames he employed to characterize the Bolivarian Revolution in his weekly television and radio show Aló Presidente. A critical discourse analysis of 40 Aló Presidente episodes led to the conclusion that historical, socio-economic and religious rhetorical frames helped the president promote the revolution as a transcendent, patriotic and desirable governance manifesto for Venezuela.
Beyond Transparency: Linking CSR Authenticity to Organizational Trust • Baobao Song • This study proposes that consumers’ perceived authenticity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) could overturn their skepticism and raise their overall trust towards the organization. Experimentally, this study examined the effects of the two operational dimensions of authentic CSR – distinctiveness and social connectedness on consumers’ perception of CSR authenticity, and its effect on organizational trust. Results indicate that with higher perceived social connectedness, embedded CSR will be evaluated as more authentic than peripheral CSR, which further leads to stronger organizational trust. Whereas, with low perceived social connectedness, there will be no significant difference in stakeholders’ perception of CSR authenticity and organizational trust between embedded and peripheral CSR programs.
The Establishment of Psychological Contracts in Online Fan Marketing in China – Based on the Psychological Continuum Model • Bingjing Mao • This article researches on the new-emerged online fan marketing in China, through analyzing the consumers’ psychological characteristics in the method of participant observation and find out the formation mechanism of fans’ psychological contract based on the psychological continuum model. According to different four phases, the marketers, which are the cyber celebrities both on social media and individual e-commerce platform, will conduct proper approaches, and the social media contributed to close the psychological distance between consumers and cyber celebrities.
God’s Authority! A Frame Analysis of Kim Davis’ Refusal to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses • Burton Speakman; Nisha Garud • This study conducted a framing analysis of media discourse on the refusal of Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis to issue same-sex marriage licenses after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriages. Analysis of articles published on the websites of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News showed that religion and values emerged as dominant frames. Davis and her decision to deny licenses were portrayed as her religious right whereas homosexuals and their rights were underrepresented. Analysis also showed that the media present a religious controversy in conjunction with political issues. This study suggests that in spite of the recognition of legal rights of homosexuals, the media still do not provide equal coverage to homosexuals at least in situations where there is another potential opposition. The study recommends that journalists should give more attention to homosexuals and not politicize religious issues.
Uses and Gratifications of Space • Carl CLark, Texas State University; Jeremy Mullins, Texas State University; Qian Yu, Texas State University; Colin Woods, Texas State University • NASA has enjoyed overall support from the American people. This does not translate to active engagement, with NASA’s communications efforts, by a majority of the public (Launius, R. 2003). NASA would benefit from knowing what new segments of the population might be reached. A focus group discussed these communication issues framed in uses and gratifications. The broad implications of the focus group were the problems of relevance and availability which NASA has yet to overcome.
Not agreeing with Nat: major party hegemony, minor party marginalization in the UK Election debate • Ceri Hughes, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The 2010 UK General Election saw televised leaders debates enter UK politics. The 2015 election continued this development, expanding the roster to seven party leaders. The debates were sold as an equitable televised agora beaming rational-critical debate into households. This research questions whether the debates achieved such a normative aim, finding instead that the debates more likely served to reinforce the existing hegemony of the major parties while marginalizing the smaller parties.
The Framing of Online Commenting: Commenting Effects on Audiences’ Perceptions of a Public Health Issue in the Context of Social Media • Chang Bi, Bowling Green State University • This study investigated the persuasive effects of commenting on public health issues—specifically the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine—via Facebook. A survey-based experiment with a 2 (support vs. attack comments) × 2 (support vs. attack prior information) fully crossed factorial design were conducted to examine such effects. The results demonstrate that exposure to supportive comments following a CDC Facebook post in favor of MMR vaccination led to increased source credibility, while exposure to attack comments led to decreased source credibility. In addition, the study shows strong and consistent pre-existing attitudes toward MMR vaccination cannot be easily altered.
Differential effect of SNS use and social capital during life transition: A survey of mainland China students in Hong Kong • CHUN YANG, Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong • This study explores differential SNS uses of overseas students, and their impacts on social capital and adjustment to life transition. A survey of 221 mainland China students studying in Hong Kong reveals that social searching activities on SNS positively predict bridging social capital. Public interaction activities contribute to both bridging and bonding social capital. Bridging social capital reinforces life satisfaction. Bonding social capital moderates the relationship between bridging social capital and feeling of homesickness.
Complexity Theory and State Emergency Preparedness • Claire Tills, University of Maryland • While it may seem that preparedness communication falls under the purview of risk and crisis communication scholarship, the existence of organizations that solely focus on preparedness and preparedness communication efforts indicates that this communication may have unique challenges and characteristics that are yet unexamined. This explanatory case study used in-depth interviews, social media content, and archival reports to understand how a state emergency management agency plans for, conducts, and evaluates a National Preparedness Month (NPM) campaign. Perspective from both emergency management and crisis communication scholarship were used to guide this research including chaos and complexity theories, planned agility, and evaluation standards from both public relations and emergency management. Results indicate that these campaigns are still in the early stages of developing strategic goals and methods for evaluation while still succeeding in reaching audiences and meeting surface-level objectives. From these findings, theoretical implications for preparedness communication and the extension of complexity theory are discussed.
Silicon Valley and the New Gatekeepers: A Conceptual Model of Risks and Potential Benefits for Journalism • Frank Michael Russell, University of Missouri School of Journalism • Digital media platforms owned by Silicon Valley companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have changed the relationship between journalism and citizens. This paper offers a conceptual model for understanding that transformation. In the legacy media model, a direct reciprocal relationship, expectations between journalism and citizens were relatively clear. However, with audience preference for getting news from digital platforms, journalism and citizens now engage in an indirect reciprocal relationship, increasing risk for news media.
Turning off or tuning in? Testing two competing mechanisms of expressive behavior in online discussion • Hyesun Choung; David Coppini; Jessica Schmidt, UW-Madison; Yiping Xia, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Moonhoon Choi, University of Wisconsin Madison; Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study uses an online experiment (N=415) that manipulates opinion climate around a local issue to test the mechanisms of two competing theories: spiral of silence and corrective action. Results of the interaction between opinion climate and personal opinion provide stronger support for the corrective action hypothesis. In addition, our findings identify willingness to self-censor as a moderator of expression based on corrective action. Theoretical implications are discussed.
A case study examining how reporters deal with the challenges of the economy and technology • Jenny Dean, University of Oregon • The technology behind journalism has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, and it has affected how reporters do their jobs, as well as how they approach storytelling. With the demand for multimedia presentations on newspaper websites, reporters need to be able to tell stories on different platforms. In addition, as the media world has downsized due to economic turmoil in the field, the reporters who remain employed have taken on extra duties as their colleagues have been laid off. This results in a dramatic change in their job descriptions. There has always been a competitive need to get the story first, but now that means getting it online first even if it is only an initial paragraph or two, which will not even go through the copydesk. The complete story follows later. The challenge is that newspapers compete against a much larger media world with bloggers and citizens reporting the same stories. The newspaper’s goal is for it to be the most accurate, complete, and timely record of news. The purpose of this study is to understand reporter routines, given the current state of the media industry over the past decade. To explore this issue, 18 interviews were conducted with reporters at a large paper in the U.S. Even though reporters may or may not be expected to use technology, the question is whether they use it and how.
Student Perceptions of Teacher Power and the Relationship with Engagement and Social Presence • Joseph Provencher, Texs Tech University; Adam Testerman • Findings from a survey to undergraduate students suggest prosocial perceptions of power have a greater impact on social presence than antisocial power. Perception of prosocial power has a significant and positive relationship with student engagement r(86) = 0.400, p < .01 (1-tailed), explaining 16% of the variance in student engagement. Our findings also establish a significant and positive relationship between perception of prosocial power and social presence in face-to-face communication r(86) = 0.429, p < .01 (2-tailed), which explained 18% of the variance in face-to-face social presence.
Clarifying the Concept of Journalistic Integrity: A concept explication • Kimberly Foster • The ambiguous definition of journalistic integrity in literature does little to address the conceptualizations of what journalistic integrity involves. Following Chaffee’s (1991) outline for concept explication, this essay provides an empirical definition of journalistic integrity premised on four key components: the information is useful; the information is factual, reliable, and timely; the journalist or organization behaves consistently over time and in accordance with socialized morality; and the journalist or organization treats others with fairness.
A Comparative Examination on Haze-related Content on Traditional Media and Social Media in China: Using the Extended Parallel Process Model and Network Agenda-setting • Liang Chen, Nanyang Technological University; Weijie Zheng • The current study aims to explore hazed-related content on between traditional media and social media in China. Specifically, we not only examined the nature of haze-related messages based on the extended EPPM, but also identified the central components in the networks of attributes of haze (i.e. EPPM components). Besides, the correlation between the interrelationships among attributes of haze on People’s Daily and Weibo was examined based on the network agenda-setting theory. The results revealed that while there were more than half of the total messages on both media reflecting EPPM components, either threat or efficacy, a greater number of messages mentioned threat than efficacy on Weibo. Moreover, limited messages on both media contained severity components. Furthermore, according to social network analysis, response efficacy and collective efficacy played central roles in haze-related content on People’s Daily, whereas the most central role was susceptibility on Weibo. Finally, the results from Quadratic Assignment Procedure (QAP) indicated that the interrelationships among attributes of haze on People’s Daily were positively associated with that on Weibo.
Where Should We Eat? A Content Analysis Examining What Factors Yelp Users Perceive Useful When Picking Restaurants • Mark Tatge, University of South Carolina; Alex Luchsinger, University of South Carolina • This research examines the characteristics of experiential online reviews to see what factors are perceived to be most useful by consumers after evaluating the ratings, views and information offered by individuals publishing restaurant critiques. The study investigated reviews written by restaurant patrons and published on Yelp.com (N=600) in two major U.S. cities – New York and Chicago. The analysis examined key variables appearing in the review – tone, price, service, cleanliness, cost, perceived value and star rating. Scrutiny was also given to heuristics such as reviewer’s social activity, friend count and number of reviews published. The study found socially active reviewers were perceived to have greater expertise, prompting restaurant goers to assign greater weight to these social active reviewers’ assessments when deciding where to eat.
How Socially Supportive are Online Support Groups? Examining Online Interactions for Managing College Stress • Ren-Whei Harn • College experience is a major life transition causing immense stress for many students. Unmanaged stress creates health problems and can cause lasting effects of depression and anxiety within an individual. This study observed a publicly available support group for college students. Content analysis examined the common topics of distress and how social support is enacted in response. The research study found that complexity of message and topics of distress enact certain types of social support.
Guilt by Association: Barry Goldwater, the Anti-Communist Fringe, and CBS’s Thunder on the Right • Rich Shumate, University of Florida • This study explores the origins of the perception of liberal media bias by analyzing a 1962 CBS Reports program, Thunder on the Right, as a case study on how elite media covered the emergence of movement conservatism in the early 1960s. Using a scene sequence analysis of the program’s 10 scenes, this paper posits that the program’s skillful conflation of mainstream and extreme strains of conservatism did a disservice to CBS viewers and helped fuel the belief among conservatives that the media have a liberal bias, which colors American politics to this day.
Social Media as a Resource in Social Movements: An Online Resource Mobilization Study of the formation of Social Movement Organizations • Samuel Tham, University of Missouri – School of Journalism • 65% of Americans use social media for its utility. The social networks formed through social media has allowed social movement organizations to utilize it as a resource to fuel their causes. This study traces the formation of an SMO through a case study, utilizing social media as a resource to fuel their cause. The alacrity of the organization’s formation revealed characteristics about how social media as a resource that can effectively mobilize an organization.
The social value of Snapchat: An exploration of motivations for Snapchat use • Taj Makki; Julia DeCook; Travis Kadylak; Olivia JuYoung Lee • The present study proposes that undergraduate students’ use of Snapchat is driven by several factors related to affiliation motivation: playfulness, subjective norm, trust, critical mass (Technology Acceptance Model constructs), and the assurances, openness, and positivity (Relational Maintenance behaviors) that users can enact through the medium. Highlighting the social value of Snapchat, findings reveal affiliation motivation as a significant predictor of Snapchat use, with general relational maintenance and critical mass found to be the strongest motivators.
Online credibility, media use and past experience of health information on social media in China: factors that impact health-related behavioral intention • Zhaomeng Niu; Chan Chen, Washington State University • Social media is a new form that provides online health information. A survey of Chinese adults (n=452) was conducted to examine predictors of intentions to use the health information on the social media site. Two constructs of the TPB with three additional variables (perceived credibility, media use and past experience) significantly impacted intentions to use health information on social media. Perceived credibility acted as a mediator between social media use and health-related behavioral intention.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer 2016 Abstracts
Transitioning: Visibility and Problematic Practices in U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Transgender Issues • Anna Hornell; Patrick Howe, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo • This content analysis compares U.S. newspaper coverage of transgender issues in the year 2009 to 2014. The study examines the visibility of transgender issues and the incidence of media practices deemed problematic by the LGBT rights group GLAAD. Results show visibility rose based on both volume of stories and on the prominence of transgender issues within them. Problematic practices decreased markedly; 10 of 11 examined practices appeared less commonly in 2014 than in 2009.
Confessing Caitlyn: A Textual Analysis of the Verbal and Visual Constructions of Gender, Family, and Patriotism in the Bruce Jenner/Diane Sawyer Interview • Jennifer Huemmer, Texas Tech University • This paper examines the Bruce Jenner/Diane Sawyer interview through the lens of Foucault’s confession to understand the elements used to construct a case for or against Jenner’s transgenderism in the minds of the American audience. Specifically, this paper dissects the visual and discursive elements that are used to construct meaning. Results indicate that underlying elements of the interview serve to argue that Jenner’s transition will not disrupt traditional gender boundaries or the heteronormative family structures.
Space, Otherness, And Public Intimacy: An Observation Of The Current Lgbt Activism In Mainland China • Li Chen, Syracuse University • In this essay, I start from my own observation of a specific event of LGBT activism in China. I then use the concept of public intimacy instead of the public sphere to analyze this event’s context and particularities. Finally, I come to a tentative conclusion about the pros and cons of the contingent public intimacy created by the LGBT activism of mainland China. I want to argue that, under the context of mainland China, with extreme authority and government control, the normative public sphere cannot be built up from vanity. However, the development of social movements needs a public space that partly functions as the public sphere. Hence, commercial spaces such as the coffee house assume the responsibility of public discussions and create a new type of public intimacy.
The way she looks: Media, social discrepancy and lesbian women appearance • Lizhen Zhao; Carol Liebler • The present study aims to understand how lesbian women experience and construct their physical appearance in the context of American society, and how media may affect these experiences and constructions. In-depth interviews were conducted to address the research questions. Self-discrepancy theory (SDT) (Higgins, 1987) was adopted as the theoretical. Findings show patterns: lesbian women employ “double evaluation processes” to obtain a holistic picture of their own appearance; and three major discrepancies also emerged.
Transitioning Together: Negotiating Transgender Subjectivity with Family and Other Trans People on Reality Television • Minjie Li, LSU • Through an intersectionality-guided discourse analysis, the present study investigates how reality television programs represent 1) the main transgender characters, 2) family relational negotiation process, and 3) negotiation with other transgender people in relationship to transgender subjectivity. I found that while the main trans characters still reflect the White womanhood and heteronormativity, presenting the negotiation processes with family members and other transgender people demonstrate transgender subjectivity that are oftentimes programmed to disappear.
Pride and Prejudice: Anita Bryant, Same-Sex Marriage, and “Hitler’s View” in The Miami Herald • Rich Shumate, University of Florida • To create the perception of balance in coverage of LGBT issues, the media in the past included inaccurate, stereotypical, and defamatory charges leveled by anti-LGBT forces. Using a content analysis of news coverage in The Miami Herald, this study explored whether, and to what extent, the media had abandoned inclusion of such “Hitler’s view” frames in coverage and also how terminology used to describe LGBT people and issues changed over time. The results showed statistically significant decreases in the use of pejorative frames and a shift to terminology preferred by the LGBT community.
Journalism Values Undermining Valuable Journalism: How Modified Morality Politics Influenced News Framing of Same-Sex Marraige Backlash • Shawn Harmsen, University of Iowa • “This research looks at how local television news framed the efforts in Iowa in 2010 and 2012 to unseat Iowa Supreme Court Justices whose 2009 ruling in the case Varnum v. Brien made Iowa the third state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. By looking at relevant news packages and interviewing journalists, news directors, and spokespersons, I traced the way the traditionally ignored judicial retention votes became a top political story, and how particular frames entered the news. I found that despite a well-meaning intention to cover the story in a professionally acceptable fashion, traditional news values and reporting rituals blinded journalists to how their attempts to provide “balance” ultimately accomplished the opposite.
Evidence studied here suggested that morality politics was the dominant frame throughout most of the coverage, with the civil rights aspects of the issue mostly relegated to the day after each election rather than in the weeks prior. Political science literature defines morality politics as a campaign strategy that relies upon arguments based on “morality,” “values,” or even “sin” to motivate supporters. In the Iowa case, this concept gets modified because while the conservative campaign engaged the logics of morality politics, they also felt the need to couch their campaign in issues like “judicial activism.” I conclude the ability to get news coverage of the anti-retention campaign and to get this modified morality politics framing as dominant in that coverage reveals an exercise of political and social power in defense of the hegemonic heteronormative cultural matrix.”
Queering Facebook: Exploring the role of Facebook groups among the LGBTIQ community in India • Sreyoshi Dey • This paper explores the role of the social media platform of Facebook Groups for the LGBTIQ community in India against the backdrop of the societal taboos, lack of legal support and infrastructural loopholes like education and technology. Following from the social identity model of de-individuation effects (SIDE), this qualitative research analyzes interviews conducted with Indian citizens who identified as LGBTIQ members of active Facebooks groups and focuses on the identity formation for the community using computer mediated communication.
Entertainment Studies 2016 Abstracts
Gendered Discrepancies in Educational Messages on Television Channels Targeted at Boys vs. Girls • Adriane Grumbein, University of Kentucky; Kyra Hunting, University of Kentucky; Maria Cahill, University of Kentucky • While research has been done on the educational potential of television for children, how television for children depicts education and educational settings has not been considered. This paper establishes that education and educational settings an important theme in children’s television but how prevalent this topic is varies significantly from one channel brand to another. We found that whether looking at general school themes, STEM, or humanities themes, channels targeted at girls were significantly more likely to discuss education then channels targeted at boys. This discrepancy is notable because it mirrors gender discrepancies observed by researchers into educational performance and attitudes.
Sex, drugs and sports ‘n’ divorce: How TMZ satisfies its audience • Angelica Kalika, U of Colorado; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado • TMZ remains one of the most popular destinations for people searching for news on the web. However, this news is of the celebrity kind. This study, utilizing textual analysis, examines all stories published on the site during a one-month period (N=1,002). We illustrate the types of content the site publishes (paparazzi-based content; document-based reporting; sports-themed material; and reader polls) and the results are interpreted through the lens of market theory for news production.
Enjoying celebritization of politics: Construction and validation of a scale to measure political influence of celebrities • Azmat Rasul, Florida State University; Betsy Becker, Florida State University • Political parties and candidates are deeply interested in securing support from media savvy personalities such as entertainment-industry celebrities, spin-doctors, and famous journalists to attract undecided young voters. Considering the importance of celebrity-laden entertainment media, we introduce a new measure, Political Influence of Celebrities Scale (PICS) in this article, and examine the psychometric properties of this scale specifically designed to explore the extent to which celebrities politically inspire their fans. We explored the factor structure, internal consistency, and the relationship between assorted dimensions of PICS. We confirmed our results employing a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which examined the three-factor construct and found sufficient evidence confirming the validity and reliability of the scale. Another question motivating this study concerns the relationship between attitude towards celebrities, enjoyment associated with the presence of celebrities in election campaigns, and the influence of celebrity endorsement on political participation of young voters. The study yielded significant results and validated our scale that dependably measured political influence of celebrities.
The Message of Meals: What YouTube Commercials Tell Us About Our Lives • Carol Pardun, University of South Carolina; Marcie Hinton, Murray State University; Anan Wan, University of South Carolina • This study analyzed 38 commercials hosted on YouTube, representing 43 of the world’s most valuable brands. Commercials that included some form of meal time were included in the sample. The study argued that the creative use of food in commercials is a meaningful message strategy portraying families interacting, connecting and negotiating their days. The textual analysis revealed five overall themes: crossroads of tradition and transformation; gendered food; family makeup; food as caring; and healthy, happy and home-grown. The study also discusses the importance of analyzing content of online advertising as well as the importance of YouTube as an advertising channel.
The Effects of Sexually Provocative Programming: A Preliminary Study about the Effects of Sexually Provocative Programming and Sexual Risk and Responsibility • Elise Stevens, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Diane Francis; Jeannette Porter • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People campaign aims to reduce unintended pregnancies by 10% by 2020. The present study is a preliminary survey of young adults in the south, a region of the U.S. that is high in unwanted pregnancies, and the effects of sexually provocative programming. Using a structural equation model, results showed a significant positive relationship between watching sexually provocative programming and perceived vulnerability to pregnancy. Perceived vulnerability to pregnancy led to increased intentions to use condoms, visit a doctor for sexual health, and talk to one’s partner about sexual health. Interesting, watching sexually provocative programming had a direct inverse relationship with condom use. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Television’s Masculinities: “New Man” Portrayals in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” • Erika Engstrom, UNLV • This paper examines how the NBC comedy series “Parks and Recreation” utilizes alternative forms of masculinity as embodied in its male characters to counter traditional notions of the male identity familiar in mass media, those that idealize what it means to “be a man.” Working from the context of hegemonic masculinity, the current study analyzes the commonality and differences in the portrayal of the male characters in “Parks and Recreation” Unlike other comedic treatments in which effeminate male characters remain unrewarded for breaking with the form of masculinity that espouses emotional inhibition, the men of “Parks” show their true selves. The friendships and open communication presented by the “New Men” portrayed hence add to other mediated versions of counterhegemonic portrayals, which have the potential to become positive hegemony regarding the performance of manhood.
Redefining the News Journalist for the Millennial Generation: College Women’s Relationships with Celebrity News Personalities • Halie Wenhold, University of Michigan • “This study investigated the association between college women’s perceptions of their favorite female TV news personalities and the way they envision their own future journalistic careers and professional values. College women pursuing media-related degrees (N = 138, average age 19.58 years) selected a favorite TV news personality (TVNP) and completed survey measures of personal work values, perceived work values of their TVNP, engagement with their TVNP, and wishful identification with their TVNP. The TVNPs selected by respondents included both journalists and non-journalist celebrities (e.g., Kim Kardashian), indicating generational change in the way aspiring journalists define journalism. Controlling for age, race, and parents’ education, respondents’ perceived extrinsic work values of their TVNPs were correlated with their own work values both intrinsically and extrinsically. Discussion focuses on the importance of assessing journalism and media students’ perceptions of TVNPs as they envision and formulate their own career plans and expectations.
I Vape, Therefore I Am: Construction of Electronic Cigarette Users’ Identity through Entertainment Social Media • Joon K Kim • E-cigarettes have become a popular alternative to traditional tobacco products. Although people are motivated to use Instagram for entertainment, e-cigarette users could construct and display their identity on Instagram. This study investigated e-cigarettes posts to understand e-cigarettes users’ perceptions of e-cigarettes. The use of textual analysis revealed three themes: vaping e-cigarettes as a fun activity, sharing a moment of daily life with e-cigarettes, and building an identity as an e-cigarette user through hashtags and captions.
What Happens on Snapchat Stays on Snapchat? A Content Analysis of Themes in Screenshots • Kaitlyn Skinner • Snapchat offers an instant messaging feature where content disappears after being viewed. This paper analyzes what content is being sent and “screenshotted,” which is important, since many users choose Snapchat because their content disappears. The research examines what content users screenshot and post online through a content analysis of a sample of Snapchat screenshots. While Snapchat has a negative sexting connotation, results showed there are many reasons users send and screenshot snaps.
Ideological and Cultural Boxes: Blacks in Super Bowl Commercials • Kenneth Campbell, University of South Carolina; Ernest L. Wiggins • While there has been significant change in the racial context on the football field during the Super Bowl, such as increased presence of Black head coaches and quarterbacks, this textual analysis of Super Bowl commercials from 1989 to 2014 found limited portrayals of Blacks that fall into two ideological and cultural boxes — as athletes and entertainers in one box, and as workers and individuals within a fairly narrow spectrum in the other box.
Just One More Episode: Developing and Testing a Binge Viewing Index • Larry Webster, University of South Carolina • This study proposes an index to measure the binge viewing phenomenon. Previously, binge viewing has been defined as watching two to six episodes of a show at one sitting. The Binge Viewing Index is based on scales measuring binge drinking behavior and includes the differences in duration of binges, frequency of binges and number of binges over time. The study then uses the index to explore the correlation between binge viewing and parasocial interaction.
Perfecting Fatherhood: Gender Discourse on Reality TV in China • Li Chen, Syracuse University • “This project used textual analysis to analyze a popular reality TV show in China, “Dad where are we going?”. Five episodes of the first season of this show were transcribed and translated by the researcher and coded through the qualitative analyzing software DeDoose. Through the poststructuralist lens, this feminist cultural analysis project examined the binary oppositions of gender discourses embedded in the text of this reality TV show. Meanwhile, the project identified the flexibility of the binary oppositions of men/women in this media text to explore the possibility of deconstruction. Major themes like “perfecting fatherhood, silencing motherhood”, “ boys as small men, girls as small beauties”, and “negotiations” emerged through the analysis.
The War on Drugs: An Audience Study of The Netflix Original Series Narcos • Maria Cano • Netflix has adopted an emerging subgenre, narcodrama, in the production of their new original series, Narcos. This study investigates what motivates Colombian and American audiences to watch Narcos and examines the uses and gratifications for each audience when it comes to violence in television shows. Results show that Colombian and American audiences differ on four variables related to their viewing habits: 1) information seeking, 2) social learning and development, 3) social contact, and 4) diversion.
Eudaimonic Motivation to Entertainment Media Influences Entertainment Education in Prescription Drug Abuse Intervention • Ming Lei • Prescription drug abuse is a problem among U.S. college students. Results from the current experiment suggest that a communication strategy called entertainment education with medical dramas can help students receive treatment. Further, the results reveal that the effectiveness of entertainment education may be influenced by an audience characteristic called eudaimonic motivation to entertainment media. The process through which eudaimonic motivation influences the effectiveness of entertainment education may be via the attention to entertainment education contents.
Animated aggression across the ages: A content analysis of violence and aggression in animated content • Nicholas Scott Smith, Wayne State University • This study is an initial look at the use of aggression and violence in cartoon content. This article is a first step into the understanding of just how pervasive the aggressive communication and violent actions are in animated content. This is done by conducting a content analysis of cartoons from all five of the American cartoon era’s in attempt to describe the content in this genre and provide some insight into how this content has progressed through the different eras.
Border Crossing: Sean Penn’s Interview with El Chapo • Oray Egin, University of Maryland; Alexander Quiñones, University of Maryland; Linda Steiner, U of Maryland • Sean Penn’s interview with the infamous drug lord El Chapo in Rolling Stone was highly controversial for many reasons. We analyzed critiques in 58 articles published in English and Spanish language news outlets. Some U.S. journalists accepted his self-definition as a journalist; nearly everyone agreed his celebrity status was what accounted for his access. Critics were unanimous that he violated journalistic standards. Mexicans were outraged Penn would ignore how dangerous covering drugs is for journalists.
“Jamming” the South Asian Color Line: Comedy, Carnival, and Contestations of Commodity Colorism • Radhika Parameswaran, Indiana University • Challenging the racist commodity stories of skin-lightening cosmetics that peddle dark skin’s abject status in India’s burgeoning consumer landscape, media activists and progressive cultural entrepreneurs deploy the techniques of “culture jamming,” defined as the playful critique and subversion of mainstream hegemonic culture, in their short amateur comedic YouTube video productions and in satirical cyber-images and narratives. My analysis of the scope and potential of these artistic media contestations of colorism, which mimic and parody skin-lightening commercials, will draw from Bakhtinian concepts of “carnival” (folk reversals of the social order), theoretical formulations of counter-publics, and writings on transnational practices of cultural citizenship that exceed the logics of sanctioned official nation-state models of citizenship. How do these amateur digital media productions make “strange” the normality of pervasive colorism and racism in India? How do they cross-pollinate the rhetorical strategies of anti-racist activism birthed in western contexts with resistance towards commodity colorism in South Asia? The paper will argue that these modest mediated articulations of dissent against the skin-lightening industry’s commerce in pigmentocracy encourage active “recognition” of skin color discrimination in a culture that has willfully ignored entrenched and abiding forms of oppression based in domestic skin color distinctions and global racial divisions.
Privileged gay man: The intersection of race, gender and sexuality in network television sit coms • Robert Byrd, University of Memphis • This essay argues that white gay characters in primetime network television programs are given a pass from white male privilege. This pass comes not only by way of their sexual minority status but also through the symbolic annihilation of people at the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. The discourse then places white gay men as stand-ins to represent all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people despite race and/or gender identity.
Man Down: Fandom and White Male Anxiety in Popular Narratives of Professional Football • Thomas Oates, University of Iowa • Building on recent scholarship about white male identity politics in and around contemporary sport, this paper argues that mainstream narratives of National Football League (NFL) fandom articulate anxieties about white masculinity in the United States. The paper offers a close reading of two symptomatic texts: the television series The League and the 2009 film Big Fan, arguing that they present cultures of fandom characterized by deep ambivalence about fandom’s potential to deliver hegemonic identities.
Black Panther and Black Agency: Constructing Cultural Nationalism in Comic Books Featuring Black Panther, 1973-1979 • William Schulte, Winthrop University; Nathaniel Frederick, Winthrop University • This study looked at ways cultural nationalism manifested in comic books featuring the character Black Panther between 1972 and 1978. As politics and agency became goals for the African American collective, agency and strength were presented as an actualized reality in the character, Black Panther. This study explored the ways creators of the Black Panther comic books interpreted and navigated the dynamics of the Black Power Movement. The primary method for this study was textual analysis to examine narratives and visuals within the context of the genre. Overall, this study found the medium was able to take several abstract feelings and notions and give them voice. However, in doing so they ended up reinforcing stereotypes associated with African Americans and the Black Power Movement. The book’s creators facilitated an interpretation of the black aesthetic and cultural nationalism to acknowledge their positive influence but relied on stereotypes to achieve those goals.
Race, Media, Nation: American Sniper and the Construction of the Racio-Religioscape • Zachary Vaughn, Indiana University • In this paper I build on Appadurai’s timeless insights of the five scapes originally proposed as lenses with which global cultural flows are marked. To do this I offer a definition of the racioscape as well as the religioscape, and I argue that these two scapes have been collapsed into a single theoretic. The racio-religioscape is a tension between national identity and global cultural flows. The racio-religioscape racializes people of color as different, and through this difference they are imagined as un-American in a perspectival sense. Once racially marked, these individuals are perceived to belong to a mytho-essential prehistory. The racio-religioscape can be seen as an anchor that moors a people to primitive and barbaric lands. For my purposes, I investigate how audience reception on the IMDb message boards to American Sniper produces a racio-religioscape of Arab-Americans in the white hegemonic racial order. The racio-religioscape visualizes “the enemy within” at the same time it elides their presence ideologically, if not phenotypically. Further, it allows us another lens through which we can critically examine identity and difference.
Play between love and labor: Gold farming in China • Zixue Tai, University of Kentucky; Fengbin Hu, Fudan University • This research interrogates the widespread practice gold farming in China through two years of field research conducted in 13 gold farming studios across five cities involving 64 participants. The analysis offers insight on the rationales, motivations, and perceptions of gold farming through the insiders’ perspectives of gold farming studio owners, managers and players. The discussion contributes to the understanding of China’s youth-led game culture in general, and the variegated intricacies of the trade of gold farming in particular.
