International Communication 2009 Abstracts

International Communication Division

Bob Stevenson Open Papers
Mediating Identity: Nigerian Videos and African Immigrants in the U.S. • Adedayo Abah, Washington and Lee University • African immigrants living in the DFW, TX were interviewed for their views on the role of the Nigerian video industry in the way they sustain their multiple identities in their society of settlement. Results indicate that most of the immigrants view the videos as affirmation of the values they grew up with and with which they still identify. This is in direct contradiction of cultural denigration some feel in their professional lives in the U.S.

Framing North Korea’s nuclear crisis:Comparing the media and audiences’ frames in U.S. and South Korea • Hyun Ban, University of Incheon, Korea; Kanghui Baek, The University of Texas at Austin; Soo-Jung Kim, University of Incheon, Korea; Stephen Reese, The University of Texas at Austin • This research investigated and compared not only how U.S. and South Korean newspapers framed the North Korean nuclear crisis over time but also how the media frames influenced audience frames of the issue. The experiment results found individual schema played a significant role in framing effects, specifically when audiences formed an opinion toward their governments’ foreign policies. The study found that U.S. media frames affected audience frames more than South Korean media frames did.

Looking through Different Lenses: Media Coverage of the Northern Ireland Conflict and Peace Process • Janice Barrett, Lasell College • The conflict in Northern Ireland is unique, in that after decades of violence and thousands of deaths, the parties involved on both sides of the divided society eventually agreed to political and economic power sharing with a peaceful resolution.

A Changing World, Unchanging Perspectives: American Newspaper Editors and Enduring Values in Foreign News Reporting • Tsan-Kuo Chang, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Brian Southwell, University of Minnesota; Hyung Min Lee, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Yejin Hong, University of Minnesota • The purpose of this paper is to examine, through a longitudinal analysis over a 20-year time span, the priorities and beliefs that American newspaper editors hold toward foreign news reporting. Informed by the sociology of knowledge perspective and using the theory of cultural values as the framework, this study seeks to compare how American newspaper editors evaluate the importance of factors in their selection of foreign news between 1988 and 2008.

Extra-Media Influences on the Issue-Attention Cycle: Global Warming Coverage in the People’s Daily and The New York Times, 1998-2007 • Xiaofang Ma, Ohio University; Hong Cheng, Ohio University • This study examined the change in amount of the global warming coverage in the People’s Daily and The New York Times from 1998 through 2007, aiming at finding out if the media coverage of environmental issues in these two national newspapers in China and the United States followed Downs’ (1972) issue-attention cycle model.

A Comparative Network Analysis of Theoretical Structure of Communication Research • Chung Joo Chung, State University of New York at Buffalo; George Barnett, SUNY at Buffalo; Kitae Kim, SUNY at Buffalo; Derek Lackaff, SUNY at Buffalo • There is a lack of recent research on the theoretical structure of communication scholars in the United States and other countries. This paper explored the structure and status of theories in the communication discipline. Also, it examined what the widely cited theoretical contention among academic articles and how they were connected to each other.

Of ‘ominous dragons’ and ‘flying geese’: South African media coverage of China in Africa • Arnold de Beer, Stellenbosch University; Wadim Schreiner, Media Tenor South Africa – Inst for Media Analysis    • The question is interrogated whether China’s involvement in Africa should be seen (metaphorically) as either that of the “ominous dragon” ready to re-colonise Africa, or that of the “flying goose” bringing economic development and aid to a struggling continent. A content analysis of South African media coverage of China in Africa is presented.

Coverage of Obesity as a Global Health Issue by U.S. and British Newspapers • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Shih Hsin University; Fu-Jung Chen, Independent Researcher; Eric Freedman, Michigan State University • This paper reviews health-related literature on obesity and content analyzes how four U.S. and British elite newspapers covered the issue. Findings reveal that public health advocates dominated as the main type of social actor. Over time, these newspapers switched their assignment of treatment responsibility to the food industry. Among 30 micro-perspectives, the impact of the public health problem on personal health was the prevailing aspect of coverage.

Perspectives in framing reality: Comparing Virginia Tech shooting reports in U.S. and South Korean newspapers • Jaesik Ha, Southern Illinois University; Uche Onyebadi, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • This study examines and compares the media coverage of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacres in prominent newspapers in the U.S. and South Korea. It uses framing as the theoretical guide and content analysis as the method of operation for the research.

Toward a Roles Theory for Strategic Communication: The Case of South Africa • Derina Holtzhausen, Oklahoma State University; Natalie Tindall, University of Oklahoma • In this study, public relations roles theory was extended and measured through an online survey among a population of 782 South African advertising, public relations, and government practitioners. Eight of the roles were previously tested in public relations research, and a ninth, the role of strategist, was conceptualized based on the work of Steyn (2002, 2007).

A myopic view of Asia? How U.S. news organizations covered the region in 2006 • Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri; Maria Garcia, University of Missouri • The study analyzed 2006 Asian news coverage by The Associated Press, New York Times and four other U.S. newspapers. Overall, only a handful of Asian nations received significant coverage, and the coverage did not match real-world indicators such as the number of significant events occurring in different Asian countries. Compared with the Times and the AP, the nonelite newspapers included a significantly higher proportion of stories about combat and that had a U.S. angle.

A Study on the News Values of International Disasters: Determinants of News Coverage of International Disasters in the U.S. News Media • Yongick Jeong, LSU; Tulika Varma, Louisiana State University • This study explores the relationship between the various factors of a country and the news coverage of international disasters in the U.S. media. Media coverage of international disasters was assessed by the number of news stories reported in 12 representative news media. The results indicated that the extent of death toll and economic damages caused by a disaster, military expenditure, and close trading relations with the U.S. influence the media coverage of international catastrophic events.

What do reporters do in the People’s Republic of China? • John Jirik, Lehigh University • This paper uses ethnographic observation and analysis carried out from mid-2003 to late 2005 to explain the work of reporters at CCTV International (CCTV-9), China’s 24-hour global English-language channel.

Cross-national Content Analysis of the Russia – Georgia Conflict Coverage • Yusuf Kalyango, Ohio University; Petya Eckler, University of Missouri; Alexandra Cristea, Ohio University • This study compares media framing of the Russia-Georgia conflict across leading news outlets in Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Russia. A content analysis of 288 stories from eight news media outlets in these countries examined two major frames – reactionary depiction and partisan alignment. Results show that Russian and Ukrainian news outlets covered the conflict through the partisan alignment frame but with different categories from it.

Entertainment and Stereotype: Representation of the Arab in Reality Show on Israeli Television • Yuval Karniel, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya; Amit Lavie Dinur, IDC • This study examined the participation of Arab citizens in reality shows on Israeli commercial television. Since Arabs are “others” vis a vis Israeli mainstream society, their presence in these programs has distinct cultural, social, and ideological connotations – as the literature in this field has shown. This study, the first of its kind, addresses three central issues: What is the degree of visibility of the Arab participants in these reality shows?

Resistance narratives in radical, alternative media: A historical examination of New Zealand’s Earwig magazine • Linda Jean Kenix, University of Canterbury • This research examined a radical, alternative publication titled Earwig that ran in New Zealand from 1969-1973. The study aimed to expose the cultural values and identities inherent in Earwig; extrapolate a meta-narrative that could be associated with the magazine as a cultural site; and examine how that narrative could impact emancipatory or hegemonic forms of resistance.

Under Fire: A Survey of Iraqi Journalists’ Perception of Physical Danger in Covering News after the Fall of Saddam Hussain • Hun Shik Kim, University of Colorado at Boulder • Iraqi journalists operate in a newsgathering environment that is rated as one of the most deadliest in the world, where news workers routinely face physical threats in the form of murders, kidnapping and death threats that affect the quality of the news, and prevent journalists from reporting on important stories.

A Cross-National Comparison of the Effect of Media Products on Country Image: South Korea Images in Six Countries • Byeng-Hee Chang, Sungkyunkwan University; Yang-Hwan Lee, Sungkyunkwan University; Sang-Hyun Nam, Sungkyunkwan University; Bo-Mi Kim, Sungkyunkwan University • Although understanding how media reflect country characteristics and how media affect the formation of individual’s country images are of critical importance, little study has been done so far. This study attempted to verify the effect of media products such as news, TV show, movie, advertising, book, music, Website, game, and mediated sports on shaping individual’s general country image (GCI) and product-specific country image (PCI).

Moderating effect of collectivism on Web-based customization: An exploratory study with tailored and targeted messages • Cong Li, University of Miami; Sriram Kalyanaraman, UNC-Chapel Hill • Web-based customization is widely adopted in a variety of domains today. Current conceptualization of customization is to provide individualized messages to message recipients based on their particular needs or preferences. A growing body of empirical research has shown positive effects for customization, suggesting that customized messages generate stronger memories and more favorable attitudes than non-customized ones because they match message recipients’ need for unique self identity.

The Portrayal of Hamas and Israel on CNN and EuroNews • Michael Murrie, Pepperdine University; Sarah Ivosevich, Pepperdine University; Rachel Friedman, Pepperdine University; Jacquelan Vujovich, Pepperdine University • After Israel invaded Gaza on December 23, 2008, a media frenzy covered related events varying across nations, raising the question whether geographic proximity to the conflict was related to media portrayal of who was victim and who was aggressor. A content analysis of CNN and EuroNews transcripts of accounts of the fighting in Gaza indicated balanced coverage despite the difference in proximity of the two networks to the conflict and hypotheses to the contrary.

Communication Technology and Culture: Analyzing Selected Cultural Dimensions and Human Development Indicators • George Musambira, University of Central Florida; Jonathan Matusitz, University of Central Florida • Correlations of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions – that is, the individualism-collectivism and the masculinity-femininity dimensions – and selected indicators of the Human Development Report (HDR) were investigated.

Thai Culture Revisited: An Investigation of Self-Representation Through Travel Web Sites • Anchalee Ngampornchai, Florida State University • This study analyzes three travel Web sites that are based in Thailand in order to identify dominant images of Thai culture and people. It uncovers four media representations of Thailand—royal heritage, Buddhist culture, people of nature, and agrarian and service-oriented country. It discusses ideology behind these representations, especially the connection to the maintenance of monarchical beliefs. The study also addresses the effects of media representation, especially Thai self-exoticization in the context of tourism promotion.

Professionalism in Chinese newswork: From concept to practice • Judy Polumbaum, Schl of Jourmalism & Mass Comm, The University of Iowa • Whether professionalism in Chinese journalism is best understood as a matter of rhetorical legerdemain, normative vision or ascertainable practice in a changing news environment may depend on whether one is a cynic, an idealist or an activist. Across a spectrum of political, occupational and academic discourse, however, the concept carries rhetorical utility and normative influence in China today. Furthermore, what might be termed professionalism in practice is evident in the conduct and results of news work.

Evaluating Social Networking in Public Diplomacy • Hyunjin Seo, Syracuse University; Stuart Thorson, Syracuse University • While much of e-government has focused on governments connecting their citizens with services, recently ubiquitous digital networks together with social networking tools have begun to transform the practice of public diplomacy by permitting governments to build and maintain direct relationships with citizens of other countries. In this paper, we describe several such initiatives undertaken by the U.S. Department of State (DOS). Our particular focus is on efforts aimed at South Korea.

Quality Control: Perceptions about User-Generated Content among Local British Newspaper Journalists • Jane B. Singer, University of Central Lancashire / University of Iowa • This UK study explores the boundaries that local print journalists see as distinguishing them from outside contributors, particularly in relation to occupational roles and the quality of the news product. The findings suggest journalists appreciate the potential of user contributions to generate hyperlocal information and boost website traffic, but believe it can undermine professional values unless carefully monitored – a gatekeeping task they fear cannot fit within newsroom routines threatened by resource constraints of increasing severity.

Culture or Position? Cross-Cultural and Cross-Positional Comparison of the Opinions about Creative Advertisements: The Case of the U.S. and Korea • Jay (Hyunjae) Yu, Louisiana State University; Yongick Jeong, LSU • Despite advertising creativity’s subjective and non-scientific characteristics, many advertising professionals and researchers consider it extremely important for making effective advertisements. Due to its interesting status, many studies have dealt with people’s different perspectives on creative advertising. This exploratory study investigates the different cultures/positions’ possible influences on interpreting this concept, using advertising professionals and advertising major students in two countries from western and eastern society: the U.S. and Korea.

Markham Student Papers
Civil Liberties and Democracy: Measuring the Impact of Freedom of the Press • Katharine Allen, The Pennsylvania State University • In a democracy, freedom of the press is arguably the most important civil liberty in the bundle of civil liberties and political rights. A free press is essential to both the functioning and quality of democracy. The free flow of ideas from independent sources provides transparency to the citizenry and requires accountability of the political elites. Where political officials and bureaucrats are held accountable to the masses, democracy can take root and flourish.

Lost in cinematic translation?: The Lake House, Siworae and the Hollywoodization of Korean culture • Keunmin Bae, Penn State University • Using the notion of communication as ritual activities through which people reaffirm cultural values they share, this study analyzes the cultural values reflected in the Korean original film Siworae, and the extent to which these values were removed or replaced with American values when it was reborn as The Lake House, the first-ever Hollywood version of Korean film. Implications for the globalization of media products are discussed.

Constructing “Globalization”: Media Framing of Globalization in the Coverage of The U.S. and Korea Free Trade Agreement • Kanghui Baek, The University of Texas at Austin • This cross-national study examines the recent issue of U.S and Korea FTA. Based on quantitative content analysis and qualitative textual analysis, this study found that U.S. newspapers were more likely to frame the FTA and globalization as a viable path to prosperity and focused more on their positive effect; however Korean liberal newspaper was more likely to frame the FTA and globalization as the neo-economic colonization of Korea and focused more on their negative effects.

Media effects in a transitional country: Setting the political agenda in the Kosovo elections of 2007 • Lindita Camaj, Indiana University • This study suggests that during the 2007 campaign in Kosovo, political parties and mass media set the agenda of the elections while disregarding the priorities of the public. However, neither media nor parties were able to set the public agenda independently. These results confirm recent scholarship which suggests that media and politics have achieved some balance in Eastern European countries.

Opinions and Willingness to Speak Out About the U.S. Military Buildup on Guam • Francis Dalisay, Washington State University • Roughly 8,000 U.S. Marines and 18,000 of their dependents in Okinawa, Japan will be relocated to Guam. A survey of Guam residents revealed that support for this military buildup was predicted by colonial debt, local attitudes toward the military, and perceived majority support. Willingness to speak out about this buildup was positively predicted by interest, perceived knowledge, attention to information sources, and perceived majority support, but negatively predicted by lack of efficacy and conflict avoidance.

Bringing Society In: A Theoretical Account of China’s Press under Transformation • Dong Dong, University of Minnesota • In this theoretical paper, I propose to add a dimension of “society” to the current discussions on China’s media transformation. My approach will be as follows: First I will deliver a background review on the ongoing process of China’s media transformation, especially in the area of newspaper industry. Next I will depict Chinese journalists’ everyday practices based on previous research as well as real examples.

Global News Frames and Media Events: Frame Convergence • Nathan Gilkerson, University of Minnesota • The inauguration of Barack Obama was undoubtedly a global media event, covered by news media from around the world. This paper explores the various dominant news frames utilized by the international media in their coverage of Obama’s inauguration, and theorizes and investigates the possibility of the emergence of “global frames” in the worldwide news media’s coverage of Obama.

The Dazhalan Project: a Case Study of Citizen Media in China • Lei Guo, the University of Texas at Austin • Majority of the studies that examine citizen media are conducted in western countries. However, this study on the Dazhalan Project was a case study that focused on citizen media in China. Combining in-depth interviews and textual analysis, the study demonstrated the uniqueness of citizen media under China’s State-Party media system. Also, it suggested it was the collaboration among ordinary citizens, professionals, and journalists that framed the issue in the mainstream media in an alternative way.

Stifled Chinese Media Contra-Flow: A Case Study of Hong Kong-Based Phoenix Satellite TV • Jing Guo, Graduate Student/Miami University-Oxford • The concept of contra-flow is about a geographical shift of Western production capacities and the appreciation of contra-flow content in Western locations. Analysis of ownership and overseas expansion of the Hongkong-based Phoenix TV suggests that it exemplifies a powerful Chinese media contra-flow. However, by examining suppressive media regulations, I argue that the Chinese government, being afraid of losing control over public sphere, is thwarting its own effort to nurture an information contra-flow through local media.

Framing Dictators as “Enemy” vs. “Friend”: Comparing Pervez Musharraf and Kim Jong-il in U.S. newspapers • Jaesik Ha, Southern Illinois University • This study focuses on how the New York Times and the Washington Post framed differently Kim Jong-il, the chairman of North Korea, and Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan. It uses framing theory as the theoretical foundation and content analysis as the research method. The research findings show that prestigious U.S. newspapers more frequently used “enemy framing” in the news coverage of Kim Jong-il and “friend framing” in the coverage of Musharraf.

Telethon Viewing, Social Capital, and Community Participation in South Korea: A Case Study • Bumsub Jin, University of Florida; Soyoon Kim, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities • On the grounds of Putnam’s social capital, this study suggests one underlying mechanism that results in citizens’ participation in altruistic activities in South Korea. Specifically, the study hypothesizes a sequential relationship among telethon viewership, the two resources of social capital (i.e., trust and neighborliness), and citizens’ intent to participate in altruistic activities. By virtue of cultivation theory, telethon viewership is assumed to enhance those two resources, which subsequently spur individuals’ intent to participate in altruistic activities.

Who frames the Nuclear Test: A Study of Frames and News Sources in the U.S. and South Korean News Coverage of the North Korean Nuclear Test • Yonghwan Kim, University of Texas at Austin; Mi Jahng, Universty of Missouri-Columbia • This study examined news frames and the source diversity of U.S. and South Korean newspapers in reporting the North Korean nuclear test on October 9, 2006. A content analysis of the New York Times, the Washington Post, Chosun Ilbo, and Hankyore Daily found that although the U.S. newspapers used more news sources, both the U.S. and South Korean newspapers used more U.S. official sources than sources from other countries.

Media Environment for Public Relations Practice: Perceived Influences on Media in the Urals Federal District of Russia • Anna Klyueva, University of Oklahoma • This research explored perceived factors that influence media practice in the Urals Federal District of Russia. This study adopted four factors of influence from the propaganda model (Herman & Chomsky, 1988) to guide the research. The data was collected from 43 media professionals in the region. The findings revealed three main factors that are perceived to influence practice of media in the Urals Federal District of Russia: corporate ownership of the media, municipal government, and advertisers.

A Study of The New York Times Coverage of Darfur: July 2003 – 2006 • Ammina Kothari, Indiana University – Bloomington • This multi-method study examines how The New York Times reported on the Darfur conflict in Sudan, which has led to an estimated 300,000 deaths and over 2.3 million people displaced due to fighting between tribes of Arab and Black Sudanese. Drawing on postcolonial and normative theories and prior studies of Africa’s representation, I analyze how the conflict was framed and what role sources played in reinforcing or resisting Western neocolonial values.

Avian Influenza News from China. Is China coming clean on bird flu? • William Lai, University of Hong Kong; Adrian Weisell, The New School University, New York, United States • Based on a report published in Science in November 2006 titled: “Is China coming clean on bird flu?” we sought to answer this question by comparing media coverage of avian influenza from two English-language newspapers in China. We coded bird flu stories from the China government-sanctioned China Daily and Hong Kong’s independent South China Morning Post newspapers during a one-year period.

Framing China and the United States: the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Current Affairs Television Program in the 21st Century • Xiufang (Leah) Li, Miss • Media as a key player in international affairs shapes public attitudes towards events. China as a superpower has greatly attracted the global media attention and raised controversy. The improved Sino-Australian relation, the historical baggage and the world dynamics determine the examination of how the Australian media frames China in the 21st century.

Chinese foreign correspondents’ perception on their journalistic role in the Sino-U.S. relations • Xianglin Liu, University of Missouri, School of Journalism • The purpose of this research is two-fold: First, by field observation and conducting interviews with correspondents in different cities working for different media organizations, this study describes the basic working life of Chinese foreign correspondents in the United States as well as their professional attitude; secondly, by doing in-depth interviews and asking open-ended questions, this study also explores factors in different levels that may affect correspondents’ professional work.

A Shared Platform Model of the Media • T. Randahl Morris, Georgia State University • Theories of the press developed since the 1950s have been instrumental in analyzing media and society in relation to power, government influence, and social and political forces. The philosophical and ethical underpinnings that have formed the basis for numerous theories have been enlightening at certain points in time.

Thin as Paper, Light as Air: The Weight of Print, Broadcast Freedom on Interstate Conflict • Jeffrey Joe Pe-Aguirre, University of Missouri School of Journalism • Government leaders facing the specter of an interstate dispute are motivated by the desire to remain in power. As such, a leader’s calculus in arriving at a policy of restraint or resolute use of military force accounts for the sentiments of the public. Print and broadcast media are pervasive sources of political information and may influence foreign policy decisions.

World Systems Theory and Second-Level Agenda-Setting in Mexican News Online • Mark Poepsel, University of Missouri-Columbia, Missouri School of Journalism • This study is a second-level agenda-setting analysis of international news stories originating in newspaper-affiliated websites in Mexico, a semiperiphery country according to an interpretation of World Systems Theory. Analyzing each paragraph in hundreds of news stories, it discusses the prevalence of each country mentioned in three major Mexican news outlets.

Russian Disaster Coverage is No Accident: How Two Russian Newspapers and their Readers Frame a Russian Plane Crash • Svetlana Rybalko, Texas Tech University, College of Mass Communications • The present study is a content analysis of disaster frames found in 2008 Russian plane crash news coverage. A total of 182 paragraphs from two Russian newspapers, and 77 readers’ postings were analyzed to examine which of six news frames and level of responsibility were used by the media and readers. While the dominant frames used by newspapers were disaster aftermath, cause, and human interest, readers were mostly interested in the cause and attribution of responsibility.

Media Coverage of Hostage Taking: Source Credibility and Source Use during Afghan Hostage Case • Hyunjin Seo, Syracuse University • This study examines South Korean journalists’ coverage of the 2007 Afghan hostage case in which the Taliban abducted 23 South Korean missionaries. This study analyzes journalists’ perceived credibility of sources and their source use under the unusual circumstance in which the South Korean government banned journalists’ entry to Afghanistan.

Inter-media agenda-setting effects in Ghana: newspaper vs. online and state vs. private • Etse Sikanku, University of Iowa • The purpose of this study was twofold: to examine the inter-media agenda setting relationships between government-controlled (state) and private media and the pattern of inter-media agenda setting between solely online news websites (non-newspaper websites) and print newspaper websites in Africa’s emerging era of media plurality.

“Crowdsourcing Crisis Information”: Internet, Mobile Phones, and Reporting Human Rights Violations in Kenya • Melissa Tully, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This paper explores the means by which people attempted to record and report the violence during the aftermath of the 2007 Kenyan general election. On December 31, 2007 the government banned live television broadcasts in an attempt to control the flow of information. Because the mainstream media was limited, alternative media outlets often became the place to receive information about the violence and human rights violations.

“Government Influences on News Media Content: The Media Strategy of 2004 Olympic Games” • Miron Varouhakis, Michigan State University • As predicted by the theories of influence on mass media content by Shoemaker and Reese, the study found that the Greek government’s media strategy for Olympic security issues clearly sought to influence the media content by instituting strict information control and a dominant presence as a source in the stories.

Image Constructions of New Civil Actors: Analysis of Media Coverage of Chinese NGOs Before and After a Natural Disaster • Aimei Yang, University of Oklahoma • Chinese NGOs’ activities during and after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake has been considered the largest demonstration of NGOs’ power in Chinese history. This paper utilized framing theory to analyze how Chinese media covered Chinese NGOs in 2008, and how NGOs’ social roles were portrayed in Chinese media. Finding suggests a ghettoization phenomenon of NGOs’ social roles. Findings also reveal the earthquake has impact on the way media framing NGOs’ activities.

Africa Through Chinese Lenses—China’s Perception of Africa • Liang Zheng, University of Colorado, Boulder • China’s involvement in Africa, especially in recent years, has raised eyebrows of many countries. This article aims to study China’s perception of Africa by examining African reporting of two major Chinese newspapers during an important China-African summit in 2006. The article finds that China’s perception of Africa is different from notions like neo-colonialism and ideological concern, and Chinese media have varied strategies for Africa reporting that based on their own audiences and goals.

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History 2009 Abstracts

History Division

The Pig in the Parlor: Uncle Charlie Walker and the First Amendment • John Armstrong, Furman University • The Pig in the Parlor: Uncle Charlie Walker and the First Amendment In the early 1960s, Charlie Walker, a disc jockey at WDKD AM in Kingstree, South Carolina, was embroiled with the FCC over offensive language. Walker was one of the more colorful characters in radio history and he used crude, rustic humor in his broadcasts. After a public hearing that drew national attention, WDKD’s owner was stripped of his broadcast license.

American Landscape: Environmental Journalism and Utah’s First National Park • Matthew Baker, Northern Kentucky University • After gaining statehood in 1896, Utah struggled to overcome perceptions of its unAmericanness – fueled by threats of theocracy and its history of polygamy. The national park movement provided a means for the state to promote its landscape as a contribution to the Union and proof of its worth to America. Environmental journalism associated with designation of Zion National Park (1919) shows how the press used landscape to promote the state’s Americanness, reigniting a booster press.

Across the Globe and Around the World: Two Black Southern Newspapers Cover the Integration of Little Rock’s Central High School • Dianne Bragg, University of Alabama • The Nashville Globe and the Birmingham World were two black southern newspapers in publication during the 1950s. The differences in their respective news coverage of the incidents and events involving public school integration in America, in particular the integration of Little Rock, Arkansas’ Central High School, reflected the varying philosophies of black Southern Americans on how to approach the issues of integration, segregation, equality.

Citizen Blame: How a Massive Campaign to Discredit William Randolph Hearst Set his Legacy • Paul Braun, University of Florida • Neither historians nor journalists have focused on what is arguably a systematic smear-job to discredit Hearst during the 1936 election that pitted Hearst’s handpicked Republican Governor Alfred Landon against Democratic incumbent President Roosevelt. Besides setting his legacy, the anti-Hearst campaign contributed to his financial bankruptcy in 1937. This work engages discussion by examining contemporaneous voices and expands the record concerning one of mass communication’s premier contributors and one of history’s notoriously rich and influential Americans.

Fright beyond measure? The myth of The War of the Worlds radio dramatization • WJoseph Campbell, American University • This paper revisits newspaper coverage of the famous War of the Worlds radio dramatization of October 30, 1938, and presents compelling evidence that the mass panic and hysteria so readily associated with the program did not occur. While many Americans may have been frightened by the program, overwhelming numbers of listeners quite simply were not. They recognized it for what it was—an imaginative, entertaining show on the eve of Halloween.

“Praising my people”: The Negro Star newspaper and the integration of baseball in Kansas, 1930-1935 • Brian Carroll, Berry College • This paper examines newspaper coverage in Wichita during the first half of the 1930s to show how commentators responded – and failed to respond – to increasingly interracial athletic competition as the decade progressed. This paper seeks, therefore, to reveal something of changes underpinning and animating integration in the American heartland in the Depression-era 1930s, or more than a decade before Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers broke major league baseball’s color barrier.

Off our backs’ Controversial Coverage of Pornography: The “pornography war” of 1985 • Mackenzie Cato, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Off our backs, the longest running radical feminist publication, worked diligently to cover significant issues related to the women’s movement. Labeled the “pornography wars,” heated debates surrounding pornography took place within the pages of off our backs throughout the eighties. These debates dominated coverage and presented two conflicting viewpoints within the feminist movement.

In Sullivan’s Shadow: The Use and Abuse of Libel Law Arising from the Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1989 • Aimee Edmondson, Ohio University • This is a study of libel cases filed by southern public officials relating to African Americans’ escalating fight during the Civil Rights Movement. The focus is on little-known lawsuits filed in the shadow of the famous New York Times. v. Sullivan case in Alabama in 1960, through its adjudication in 1964 and even in its aftermath.

Juggernaut in Kid Gloves: Inez Callaway Robb, 1901-1979 • Carolyn Edy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Inez Callaway Robb, in her 50-year career as a reporter, society editor, WWII correspondent, and columnist, wrote more than 10,000 articles, syndicated to about 150 newspapers. This biographical essay uncovers Robb’s life and writings, while considering the apparent contradiction of her work, corresponding from more than 40 countries around the world, while advocating traditional gender roles and opposing equal rights for women.

Women and Children of the Santa Anita Race Track: Japanese Family Internment through the Lens of Photographer Clem Albers and the War Relocation Authority (WRA), 1942 • Arielle Emmett, University of Maryland • Although several of Clem Albers’ Japanese-American internment photographs are widely published, he remains the least studied among the War Relocation Authority (WRA) photographers. Why did this “anonymous” newspaper photojournalist of The San Francisco Chronicle escape the recognition his fellow WRA photographers enjoyed? And how should critics interpret Albers’ disquieting and often sardonic portrayals of Japanese-American adjustment, negotiation, and defiance in the camps?

Publishers, Watchdogs, and Shyster Lawyers: Libel Law Reform and the Late Nineteenth-Century Newspaper Industry • Patrick File, University of Minnesota • This study examines the watchdog concept of journalism in American social life in the late nineteenth century; when the newspaper business was growing and evolving as an industry, and publishers called for reform in state libel laws.

How Local Newspapers Covered The Campaign Of Phoenix’s First Female Mayor, Margaret Hance • Amanda Fruzynski, Arizona State University • When Margaret Hance campaigned successfully to become Mayor of Phoenix in 1976, she was the first woman to win this prominent role. Local newspapers covered the campaign in a time when women’s rights were a hot topic in the country. This project analyzes the media coverage of Hance’s campaign to look at whether local newspaper coverage in the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette was biased and sexist against Hance.

Reporting on the Rise of American Labor and the Problem of Unions in the Newsroom • Philip Glende, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Critics routinely condemned newspapers and their publishers for opposition to organized labor during the 1930s and 1940s. This paper suggests the personal experiences and ideological beliefs of writers and editors complicate the anti-union reputation of the press. This essay discusses rising interest in the labor movement as a news story, explores the range of backgrounds and attitudes of individuals who covered unions, and examines the rise of the American Newspaper Guild and reaction to it.

When the Journalist Becomes the Story: Lippmann, Stone, Liebling, Jewish identity, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict • Julien Gorbach, University of Missouri School of Journalism • Journalists Walter Lippmann, I.F. Stone and A.J. Liebling all confronted their Jewish origins as a result of historic twentieth century events, and each responded in strikingly different ways. This study contrasts their different conceptions of Jewish identity and their normative understandings of their roles as journalists. They are analyzed within the theoretical frameworks of Lippmann’s ideal of objectivity, Bernard Cohen’s journalist as participant, and David Mindich’s accounting of what transpires when the journalist becomes the story.

Honor of a man: Adolph Ochs’ influence on corrections in The New York Times • Kirstie Hettinga, Penn State • This research examines corrections in The New York Times from 1896 to 1935 when Adolph Ochs was publisher. Ochs’ personal life and industry reputation are used to demonstrate his impact on The New York Times. Through an examination of corrections in the publication, correspondence by Ochs and letters by his contemporaries, the author seeks to establish a relationship between Ochs’ personal integrity and adherence to fact and the increase of newspaper corrections under his tenure.

Voicing Opinions in the Face of Change: An Analysis of Norfolk Newspaper Readers’ Feedback During Virginia’s Massive Resistance • Lynette Holman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In 1958, Virginia’s political leadership chose to close public schools in three districts rather than follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 directive in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas and allow black children to enter schools with white students. The effort resulted in the September 29, 1958 closure of six formerly white secondary schools in Norfolk by Gov. Lindsay Almond and displaced nearly 10,000 students.

CEOs’ Letters to the Editor: Executive Participation in the Public Forum, 1970 – 1995 • Nell Ching Ling Huang, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This qualitative study explores chief executive officers’ (CEOs) letters to the editor in The New York Times during a 25-year period. While CEOs today are able to directly address their stakeholders through the Internet, the letters section was a key way to reach the public in the 1970s and even into the 1990s.

Nineteenth Century Ship Captains in Reality and Mythos: The Role of News Stories in Defining Seafaring Heroes • Paulette D. Kilmer, University of Toledo • Between 1850 and 1900, The New York Times ran stirring accounts of heroic and dastardly sea captains. These stories emphasized narrative over facts and contained archetypes embedded within them. This essay analyzes nineteenth century news reports as artifacts that reflect C.G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Carol Pearson’s ideas as well as S.I. Hayakawa’s two-valued orientation. It closes with an example, the January 2009 coverage of a pilot’s miraculous ditching of an airbus into the Hudson River, as indication that timeless archetypes conveying American values continue to permeate the news.

When Medicine and Ethics Meet in the Public Sphere: The Role of Journalism in the History of Bioethics • Amy Landa, University of Minnesota • This paper examines the role that journalists have played in several key events in the history of bioethics in the United States. The development of this interdisciplinary field and its impact on American society might have been different if Associated Press reporter Jean Heller had not uncovered the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in 1972 or Jessica Mitford had not published her indictment of medical experiments on prisoners in 1973.

“God Help Our Democracy”: Investigative Reporting in America, 1946-1960 • Gerry Lanosga, Indiana University School of Journalism • Histories of investigative reporting generally hold that it was prominent during only two periods in the twentieth century – the muckraking period and the era surrounding Watergate. This study reveals the practice was also abundant in the post-World War II decades. At the same time, news organizations and industry associations were actively agitating for freedom of information laws. These related findings suggest a need to reconsider the notion of a passive press during the post-war years.

Outstanding American Female Journalists in the 1960s: Organizational Promotion of A Professional Identity • You Li, missouri school of journalism, university of missouri • This study adds to the historical understanding of professionalism in journalism by investigating how a grassroots organization promoted professional qualifications for female journalists in the 1960s. It exemplified what particular traits the National Federation of Press Women valued and upheld by organizing and granting the Woman of Achievement Award from 1960 to 1969. Valued qualifications included commitment to the profession, professional skills, leadership in community services, and a willingness to take challenges.

Beer Belongs: A Historical Analysis of the U.S. Brewers Foundation’s Advertising Campaign to Normalize Beer Consumption in Post-War America • Christina Malik, UNC-Chapel Hill • From 1945 to 1958 the United States Brewers Foundation (USBF) ran an advertising campaign targeted to reach American women with the message that beer is a socially acceptable beverage.

The Japanese “Problem” During World War II and the Central Utah Relocation Center: Reaction and Response in The Salt Lake Tribune • Kimberley Mangun, The University of Utah • This study seeks to fill a gap in the historical record by analyzing editorials and letters published in The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah’s largest newspaper, between December 7, 1941, and September 30, 1942, to discover what readers and editors were writing about the internment of Japanese Americans in the Central Utah Relocation Center, known as Topaz. The dialogue that ensued offers insights into racism, agenda-setting, journalistic responsibility, the use of a public forum, and religion.

“What Flag do you Fight for, Baby: Chicago Defender Editorials on American Involvement in Vietnam • Meagan Manning, SJMC, University of Minnesota • My research highlights editorial positions of The Chicago Defender on American involvement in the Vietnam War during 1968. My analysis is of a historical moment, but this moment is part of an understudied narrative of black consciousness as told through the black press.

The Legacy of Yellow Journalism: An Issue of Class, Education, and Ambition • Thomas Miller, Indiana University • This study analyzes the clash of journalistic paradigms using articles from or around March 1897. Through careful comparison questions begin to emerge about the “high road” versus the “low road” reputations history has attributed to the Journal and the Times respectively. Taking a fresh approach this study considers how the New York Times earned its reputation as the nations leading paper for truth and accuracy in reporting.

Censorship in a Different Name: Press “Supervision” in Wartime Japanese American Camps 1942-1943 • Takeya Mizuno, Toyo University, Tokyo • When the federal government in 1942 forced Japanese Americans to move into “relocation centers,” camp officials allowed internees to publish their own newspapers “freely” under governmental “supervision,” but not “censorship.” In reality, however, the camp press was hardly a “free” press. Press “supervision” took various forms, including pre- and post-publication reviewing, selective staff employment, convocation of “meetings,” supplying information material, and occasionally even direct and coercive editorial interference that officials themselves admitted to be “censorship.”

The Movement to Lower the Voting Age: The Legitimizing Function of the Media • Jason Moldoff, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This research asks how the struggle to lowering the voting age to 18 in the 1960s was told through the pages of the New York Times. The news and editorial pages of The New York Times provide a vivid illustration of the changes in arguments for and against lowering the voting age, and offer evidence of increased awareness of the importance of media coverage on the legitimization and success of the movement.

The Influence of the American Sunday Supplement in Toronto, Canada, 1886-1895 • Paul Moore, Ryerson University-Toronto; Sandra Gabriele, University of Windsor • Between 1886 and 1895, the Sunday newspaper in U.S. cities became a cauldron for an emerging mass, popular culture—one with global reach. The concurrent development of weekend newspapers in Toronto, Canada, distinguished local innovations against the unspecified, general influence of the “American Sunday paper.” The Sunday World and The Saturday Globe followed and refuted, respectively, the ideal set by the American Sunday paper, but together defined Canadian weekend leisure reading.

Teaching Girls about Sexuality and the Element of Desire Using Post-World War II Sex Education Films from 1947-1960 • Rebecca Ortiz, Syracuse University • Integrated sex education programs in public schools gained popularity in the United States after World War I, and while many conservatives were apprehensive about teaching sex education to youth, the problematic emergence of venereal disease made it painfully clear that sex education was necessary.

Learning from the Trades: Public Relations, Journalism, and News Release Writing, 1945-2008 • Lisa Mullikin Parcell, Wichita State University; Margot Opdycke Lamme, The University of Alabama; Skye Chance Cooley, The University of Alabama • Given the importance that PR and journalism place on media writing and given that many in PR did not receive a formal PR education, this study examines how news release writing has been “taught” in professional publications since 1945, when the rise of journalism’s readability studies and of PR’s postwar professionalism coincided. Findings spotlight a historical intersection of journalism and PR not yet explored and expand the role of writing in communication history.

Redefining the Magazine Reader: The Curtis Publishing Company, Holiday, and Market Research • Richard Popp, Louisiana State University • This study explores the biggest magazine project of the 1940s – the Curtis Publishing Company’s Holiday – and with it the origins of lifestyle and psychographic marketing. By combining market research and reader-response studies with socio-cultural analysis, and by making research integral to managerial planning, Curtis introduced a new conception of media products and audiences.

War, Peace, and Free Radio: The Women’s National Radio Committee’s Efforts to Promote Democracy, 1939-1946 • Jennifer Proffitt, Florida State University • This paper traces the efforts of the Women’s National Radio Committee to promote democracy in a time of war. The organization did so by giving awards to radio programs that best supported democracy and informing women about issues of war and peace, denouncing FCC regulations, proposing news coverage and musical program improvements, supporting the war effort through volunteer work, and encouraging radio to help curtail the problem of juvenile delinquency.

“Up from the Notes: Sporting Life and the Color Line, 1883-1889” • Lori Amber Roessner, University of Georgia • This paper will explore how race was portrayed within Sporting Life, a prominent yet understudied journal, from its inception in 1883 until the unofficial “color line” was drawn in professional baseball in 1889. One question will serve to guide the narrative: how did Sporting Life cover race during the first decade of its existence? Drawing heavily on the scholarship of Barbara Fields, this study will explore how race was constructed within the well-known national publication.

Pressing the Press: William E. Chilton III’s investigation of fellow newspaper owners between 1980 and 1986 • Edgar Simpson, Ohio University • William E. Chilton III was the third generation of his family to serve as publisher/owner of the Charleston Gazette, West Virginia’s largest newspaper. Despite his wealth, Chilton chose to spend his career honing his philosophy of “sustained outrage.” His efforts included two separate investigations into his fellow newspaper owners, which revealed corrupt legal advertising practices, failure to challenge local politicians and businessmen and a widespread focus on profits rather than principles.

Journalist Privilege in 1929: Sen. Arthur Capper and the Start of the Shield Law Movement • Dean Smith, University of North Carolina • John Henry Wigmore, the great legal treatise writer and expert on evidence, was wrong at least once. In 1923, when Maryland still had the nation’s only statutory shield law to protect journalists from compelled disclosure of confidential sources, Wigmore declared it “as detestable in substance as it is crude in form,” and he predicted that it “will probably remain unique.”

A View that’s Fit to Print: NAM Propaganda and the NY Times, 1937-1939 • Burton St. John, Old Dominion University • This study examines the appearance of National Association of Manufacturers’ propaganda, from 1937 to 1939, in articles within the New York Times. NAM’s ability to place such rhetoric in the Times reveals both the presence of integration propaganda and the beginning of a press acclimation to propaganda as news. Such propaganda is now endemic. The press needs to move beyond privileged sources to seek out the wider range of voices that constitute our democratic discourse.

A Legendary Journalist and the Woman Behind the Woman: Janet Flanner and Solita Solano • Rodger Streitmatter, American University • This paper focuses on Janet Flanner, who was Paris correspondent for The New Yorker from 1925 through 1975 and who is credited with originating a new style of foreign correspondence that was enriched by personal details about her subjects. The paper breaks new ground by illuminating the role that Flanner’s same-sex partner Solita Solano played in the journalist’s career, including her evolving writing style.

“Picture within the Frame – Framing American Public Issues: An 1855-2005 New York Times Case Study” • Thomas Terry, Idaho State University • Frederick Siebert postulated in Freedom of the Press in England 1476-1776 that whenever pressure is exerted on a political system, diversity shrinks. A content analysis of The New York Times was conducted and found strong evidence supporting Siebert’s thesis.

Semi-Colonialism and Journalistic Sphere of Influence: American and British Press Competition in Early Twentieth-Century China • Yong Volz, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Chin-Chuan Lee, Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong • The American and British press competition occurred in semi-colonial China in the early twentieth century, where the U.S., as a rising world power, challenged British monopoly by advocating the “Open Door Policy.” Attacking each other, the newspapers’ nationalistic representations of China were at odds with the emerging professional norms of journalism in their native countries.

The newspaper as mirror: A history of a metaphor • Tim Vos, University of Missouri School of Journalism • This is a cultural history of how the mirror was invoked as a metaphor for newspapers and journalism during parts of the 19th and 20th centuries. This study examines how journalists’ own discourse invoked the mirror as a metaphor and how this discourse related to the broader cultural understanding about the nature of mirrors. Of particular interest is how this discourse interacted with the articulation of objectivity as an occupational norm.

Murder in Mississippi: The unsolved case of Agence French-Press reporter Paul Guihard • Kathleen Wickham, University of Mississippi • Agence French-Press reporter Paul Guihard was the only reporter killed during the civil rights era in the United States. He was murdered on the University of Mississippi campus in 1962 while covering the enrollment of James Meredith. He was shot in the back 30 minutes after arriving in Oxford. His killer was never identified.

Fragmented imperialism: U.S. control over radio in Panama, 1914-1936 • Rita Zajacz, University of Iowa • Radio in Panama (1914-1936) seems to provide a most likely case for a strong form of imperialism, given the relative insignificance of Panama as a military power and America’s strategic interests in the Panama Canal. Yet, the U.S. government was far from unified, the Navy locked horns with United Fruit and policymakers’ expansive understanding of the national interest included such intangibles as American prestige in the region.

<< 2009 Abstracts

Cultural and Critical Studies 2009 Abstracts

Cultural and Critical Studies Division

“Pictures in Our Heads”: Symbols as representations of cultural meaning in Nigerian mass media advertising • Emmanuel Alozie, North Carolina A&T State University • Over the past 40 decades, spurred by McLuhan’s prediction and the growing importance of international marketing and communication in a shrinking world, studies on the role of advertising as it relates to culture have grown. Despite the increased interest on the subject, few, if any studies, have dealt with an African country. This study serves as an attempt to bridge that gap.

Rapture in the Rave: Orientalism, Hybridity, and Trip Hop • Mary Grace Antony, Washington State University • This study interrogates the discourses surrounding the creation and reception of hybrid cultural products, using the electronic music subgenre trip hop as a case study. Although Indian motifs have been integrated in popular Western entertainment artifacts for centuries, the reception of these culturally hybrid products among Western audiences is often characterized by Orientalist discourses (Said, 1978) that exoticize and fetishize non-Western peoples and cultures.

Constructing hegemonic parenting and gender roles: the case of Jane Swift in ‘The Boston Globe’ • Jaime Loke, University of Texas; Dustin Harp, University of Texas, Austin – School of Journalism; Ingrid Bachmann, University of Texas at Austin • Media discourse scrutinized Massachusetts’ governor Jane Swift when she gave birth to twins. From a feminist perspective, this research uses articulation theory to examine discursive links and frames in news coverage of Swift as governor and mother. Articulations served to vilify Swift’s parenting and governing because she strays from a dominant intensive mothering ideology. Her husband, a stay-at-home father, is nearly invisible because his fathering rather than paid work further disrupts hegemonic white masculinity.

Race Language on the Right: Coded Appeals in Online Discourse • Brian Baresch, University of Texas • Barack Obama in 2008 became the first black person to win the U.S. presidential election, as national discourse on race continued its nearly century-long shift away from overt racism and direct racial appeals in politics. Overt appeals to white racism were largely absent throughout the campaign, but some more subtle, coded language did appear in the appeals of Republican supporters and the candidates themselves.

Rethinking Public Discourse in the Age of Digital Media: A Discourse Analysis of Online Discussion and News Stories on a Local Legislative Issue • Masudul Biswas, Forum on Media Diversity, Louisiana State University • This study compares discourses of readers’ comments on a legislative issue, posted on a blog site of a local TV station in Louisiana, with the discourses of television news stories. The pay raise proposal for the Louisiana lawmakers, got the approval from the State Senate in June, 2008, evoked a public outcry in the middle of economic slowdown and higher living cost.

The Dialogism of News • Jeffrey Cannon, Indiana University – Bloomington • The present study reconsiders the role of conflict in journalism, considering it in a Bakhtinian dialogic context. From this position, a conflict-based news item assumes an official role in the “chronotope” of news, offering a socially enacted, event-based update qua news.

‘Journalism on Trial:’ Plamegate, Scooter Libby, and the Problems of Journalistic Autonomy • Matt Carlson, Saint Louis University • The 2007 trial and conviction of Scooter Libby exposed less-than-ideal relationships between elite Washington journalists and their unnamed government officials. This paper examines how the discourse around the trial and the broader Plamegate controversy sheds light on the precariousness of journalistic autonomy and the uneven distribution of power marking source-journalist interactions.

Discourses of the “Too-Abled”: Contested Body Hierarchies and the Oscar Pistorius Case • Thomas Corrigan, College of Communications, Penn State University; Jamie Paton, College of Communications, Penn State University; Erin Holt, College of Communications, Penn State University • This study explores print coverage of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius’ quest to compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics. A textual analysis of New York Times and Time Magazine coverage revealed four themes: issues of fairness; inconsistency in describing the prosthetics; a privileging of medical discourse; and a fear of the ‘cyborg’. Our study suggests that media discourses, as contested sites for meanings inscribed on the body, served in this case to reinforce body hierarchies.

Becoming Extra-Ordinary: Negotiation of Media Power in the Case of Super Girls’ Voice in China • Li CUI, Miss; Francis Lee, Mr. • The purpose of this study is to examine the reproduction and negotiation of media power in the Super Girls’ Voice (an American Idol type show), which was one of the most successful television entertainment programs in 2005 of China.

Women watching women: Negotiating female representation on Survivor • Carolyn Davis, Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications • Reality television, it is now clear, does not portray ‘real’ events, but it still has a significant impact on how female identities are created in this ubiquitous and popular type of programming.

The Discourse of White Supremacy: a textual analysis of racist Websites • Betsy Dortch, Middle Tennessee State University • The Ku Klux Klan, racist skinheads, and neo-Nazis have all embraced the Internet as a communication tool. This study conducts a textual analysis using the theoretical lens of discourse analysis, qualitatively examining the individual Websites of six prominent white supremacist organizations. Religion, victimhood, and legitimacy are the recurring discursive elements use to justify white supremacy on the groups’ Websites. This discourse on these Websites reveals the reality upon which white supremacist ideology is built.

Advocating Advocacy: Acknowledging and Teaching Journalism As Persuasion • Margaret Duffy, University of Missouri; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • In this paper, we suggest that journalism is a rhetorical and persuasive enterprise. Based on the rhetorical nature of journalism, we propose a new approach to teaching: We argue that journalists should abandon the pretense of objectivity or neutrality and acknowledge their roles as advocates in society. We argue that this will bolster news credibility and has the potential to help news organizations more effectively build audiences and foster democratic institutions.

EMPOWE(RED)?: Consumer activism in the (RED) campaign to aid Africa • Spring-Serenity Duvall, Indiana University School of Journalism • The history of celebrity involvement in politics, activism, and philanthropy is a long and complex one, but a new generation of celebrity activists raises fresh theoretical concerns in large part because of its close link to capitalist consumerism. This paper critically examines U2 frontman Bono’s (RED) campaign as a media phenomenon that supports existing power structures by promoting capitalism and consumerism as effortless and effective forms of activism.

Balancing the Mediasphere: Bias and Legitimacy in Alternative Labor Radio • Brian Ekdale, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Over the past several decades, the amount of business news reporting from a top-down, corporate perspective has far surpassed news from a bottom-up, workers perspective (Douglas, 1986; Park & Wright, 2007; Ryan, 2004; Samuelson, 2002). While the three major cable business channels reach over 100 million homes daily, there is no television or radio network of near equivalence that covers labor news.

Socialism’s Loss and Meat Safety’s Gain: The Agenda-Setting Power of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” • Michael Fuhlhage, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • American lore holds that The Jungle, Upton Sinclair’s fictionalized exposé of squalor in Chicago’s meatpacking houses, is responsible for the creation of the FDA. But Sinclair’s intent was to elevate consciousness of the need for socialism, not to press for reform of meat safety.

Journalism and Social Change: The Globalization Discourse in World Music Reviews • Elfriede Fursich, Boston College; Roberto Avant-Mier, Boston College • This study examined the coverage of world music in the popular press in a textual analysis of 350 newspaper and magazine reviews. We found that over the course of the last thirty years music journalists developed a new cultural sensibility on globalization in several distinctive phases. The position of music reviews as popular journalism helped and hindered the discussion of cultural globalization. However, at its best, the reviews created a relevant and productive discourse on globalization.

Text-Audience Convergence or Divergence? A Cross-Cultural Fantasy Theme Analysis of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima • Koji Fuse, University of North Texas; James Mueller, University of North Texas • Six decades after the Battle of Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood dedicated two movies—Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima—to respectively represent the viewpoint of each side of the fighting. This paper applied fantasy theme analysis to user reviews of the movies available on the U.S. Yahoo! Movies and Yahoo! Japan Eiga and compared the results with the movies’ dramatizing messages to contribute to cross-discourse and cross-cultural applications of symbolic convergence theory.

De-metaphorization in Paratexts: Powers behind EPA’s distinguishing between Climate Change and Global Warming • Yi-Hsing Han, Florida State University • Global warming is a conceptual metaphor associated with pressing, harmful, adverse, threats, catastrophic, alarm, and combat. It is originated from a metaphorical illustration: greenhouse. There are two dimensions for understanding a metaphor. The first is the factual metaphorical dimension, which means how people perceive metaphorical phenomenon; the second is the judgmental dimension, that is, how people interpret or evaluate a metaphor and by which criteria. Power works underlying both dimensions.

Palestine Media Watch and the U.S. News Media: Strategies for Change and Resistance • Robert Handley, University of Texas at Austin • This study historically focuses on Palestine Media Watch, a media watchdog, and its strategic interactions with the U.S. news media to add to models of news production that pay special attention to collective resistance to mass media portrayals. The study employs the dialogic and dialectical models of the news media to understand efforts by Palestine Media Watch to change news media representations of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, assess its effectiveness, and catalogue journalistic resistance to change.

U. S. Network TV Newscasts and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War • Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee; Catherine Luther, University of Tennessee • The researchers examined all 44 U. S. network (ABC, CBS, and NBC) television newscast stories involving the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) from October 1968 until January 2001. These videotapes were available from the Television News Archive and Index maintained at Vanderbilt University. The results conform to past research about Social Movement Theory, specifically heretical social movement organizations.

(Re)Locating Reality TV as Popular Science • Paul Hillier, University of Tampa • By locating reality TV within a wider context of popular science, this paper indentifies traditions and practices that have been drawn upon to help formulate reality TV in the United States. Adding to more recent work of critical genre analysis, one of the contributions of this paper is to explore social experiments as a genre while also documenting the shared characteristics of scientific and commercial versions of social experiments.

Food Endearments and Rubber Duckies: Public Morality and Constructions of Family and Culture in an Abstinence Campaign • Mara Hobler, University of Maryland • In 2007 and 2008 the Parents Speak Up National Campaign produced a series of public service announcements urging parents to stress to their children the value of waiting until marriage to become sexually active. This study examines the federally funded Parents Speak Up National Campaign’s 2008 Muffinhead advertisements using historical, contextual, and textual analysis.

More than black and white: A critical analysis of newspaper coverage of the 1968 Olympic protests • Sarah Janel Jackson, University of Minnesota • This study draws from framing theory and public sphere theory in a critical discursive investigation of the 1968 newspaper coverage of the Olympic stand protest by John Carlos and Tommie Smith. Findings reveal that while the mainstream press largely reinforced hegemonic constructions of race the black press functioned as a counterpublic sphere, responding to the dominant discourses presented in mainstream media and presenting unique contextual frames for understanding the protest. Audience implications are considered.

State sponsored cyborgs: Gender, technology and immaterial labor in NBC’s ‘Bionic Woman’ and ‘Chuck’ • Robin Johnson, University of Iowa • This paper analyzes two primetime television series on NBC: ‘Chuck’ and ‘Bionic Woman.’ The narratives and representations in the two programs raise questions about the role of immaterial labor, gender, technology, and bio-power in contemporary life. Multiple theoretical perspectives, including the political economy of post-industrialism, immaterial labor, and technofeminism, are engaged to reveal how each series articulates the dominance of techno-masculinity and reifies the unequal sexual division of labor around prized technological work.

Information anarchy: The effect of the Internet on conspiracy theory encoding and decoding • William Kaufhold, University of Texas at Austin • Interactions with self-described conspiracy believers revealed commonalities of both thought and media consumption. Participants shared nearly identical, critical and oppositional views on the September 11 terrorist attacks, the flooding after Hurricane Katrina and the role of the Bush administration. They also shared a commonality of interest in a great number of alternative online information sources and a unified distrust and rejection of mainstream media.

“They are Romanies”: Social construction of an oppressed minority for an elite audience • Rick Kenney, University of Central Florida • With the Cold War ended and walls literally having come down by the 1990s, journalists in formerly oppressed countries were granted greater freedom to cover the world, as well as tiny corners of it. Stories, issues, and photographs that never came to light prior to these changes were published for the first time. One minority group, however, remained largely in the shadows of civil society in eastern Europe, a victim of the hegemony of journalistic discourse.

“Redemption for Our Anguished Racial History”: The Embrace and Evasion of Race in Commemorative Journalism of Barack Obama • Carolyn Kitch, Temple University; Siobahn Stiles, Temple University • This paper considers how race was discussed in commemorative journalism produced after Barack Obama’s election and inauguration by major American newspapers, magazines, and television news. A discourse analysis reveals that these news media contained competing narratives: some celebrated Obama’s victory as a racial milestone, while others elided racial issues, instead emphasizing diversity and democracy. Overall, while racial representation changed during coverage of this election, racial discourse—and journalists’ thematic avoidance of racial issues—did not.

A New Contract for the Press: Copyright, Public Journalism, and Self-Governance in the Digital Age • Daniel Kreiss, Department of Communication, Stanford University; Mike Ananny, Department of Communication, Stanford University • Drawing from the underlying principle of copyright and positive interpretations of the First Amendment, we propose a two-tiered system of state incentives for journalism. Our first tier subsidizes those who voluntarily surrender the right to control the dissemination of their work. Our second tier supports any actor who follows practices – transparency, accountability, dialogue, reliability, and collaboration – that increase the overall quality of journalism. We conclude by proposing an institutional model for administering these incentives.

Reporting and decision-making in Kolkata: Indian journalists navigate culture, class, and chaos in Nandigram • Patricia Spencer, University of North Texas; Jacqueline Lambiase, University of North Texas • Reporters gather news for four English-language newspapers in Kolkata, the West Bengal state capital in India. Collected in many languages, their English narratives target Kolkata’s emerging middle class. Using semi-structured interviewing, qualitative theme analysis, and grounded theory, this study explores how culture, training, and tradition affect the decision-making practices of 21 Kolkata journalists. Themes include class and violence in Nandigram, sensitivity and idealism, and ethics as tied to accuracy, fairness, and other professional competencies.

ICE, ICE Baby! Local News, Immigration Raids and Audience Reactions On-line • Kim LeDuff, University of Southern Mississippi; Robin C. Kauth, University of Southern Mississippi • In late August 2008, Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raided Howard Industries, a major industrial company in Laurel, Mississippi and detained 350 illegal immigrants. In the course of one week, the region’s local newspaper, The Hattiesburg American posted a total of 41 stories related to the incident on the newspaper’s website.

Politicization of Teen Pregnancy: Fox News Channel’s Coverage of Bristol Palin’s Pregnancy During the 2008 Presidential Election • Hye-Jin Lee, University of Iowa • In general, discussions on teen pregnancy in the media have remained in the realm of the moral. Fox News Channel (FNC) has been no exception in criticizing teen pregnancy as a result of lack of moral values. FNC’s general stance on teen pregnancy, however, faced challenges when the news on Bristol Palin’s pregnancy surfaced in September 2008 in the midst of a heated U.S. Presidential election.

Striving for Hegemony in a Public Health Crisis:Xinhua News Agency’s Framing of the Sanlu Tainted Formula Scandal • Zhaoxi (Josie) Liu, University of Iowa • This study analyzes the framing of the melamine-tainted baby formula scandal by Xinhua News Agency, China’s official news agency, in September 2008. From a critical perspective, this study argues that Xinhua’s framing of this public health crisis is an example of China’s state-run media’s hegemonic role in today’s China, where the ruling Communist Party is seeking to maintain hegemony in a country that is fast-changing and full of antagonism among different groups of its people.

On Deadline in Harm’s Way: A Qualitative Study of Trauma Journalists • Mark Masse, Ball State University • An exploratory qualitative study analyzed statements from in-depth interviews and published accounts of thirty-six (U.S., international) journalists who have covered tragedy and trauma (e.g., war, terrorism, natural disasters, accidents, crimes). A purposive (non-probability) sample examined the motivation for coverage, the effects of such coverage on journalists, the coping techniques employed by affected journalists, and the lessons for other journalists, their media audiences, and the communities in which they live.

Antiauthoritarian Editorial Cartoons of the 2008 U.S. Bailout Bill • Christopher Matthews, University of Missouri-Columbia • A critical textual analysis of 75 editorial cartoons published on political blogs from September 18, 2008 to October 3, 2008 shows how blog coverage of the economic bailout bill used editorial cartoons as a depiction of antiauthoritarianism. The editorial cartoons’ depictions demonstrated antiauthoritarianism in two ways: by engaging in “personal attacks” against authority figures and by illustrating an “indignant exploitation” of non-authority figures by more powerful political entities.

Commodity Fetishism in the Digital Era • Matthew McAllister, Penn State • This paper applies the Marxian concept of commodity fetishism to digital media, focusing on how the “commodity-sign” of brands is celebrated and production contexts co-opted in new media. After first reviewing commodity fetishism, characteristics of commercial websites and integrated/database marketing for the future of commodity signs are discussed. The essay then argues that digital consumer discourse, rather than masking capitalist production, appropriates production via web-distributed “insider information,” and the consumer as various forms of digital labor.

Looking-Glass Journalism: Social Drama in the Control of Intellectual Deviance • Michael McDevitt and Marco Briziarelli, University of Colorado-Boulder and Brian Klocke, State University of New York, Plattsburg • We propose a model of looking-glass journalism (LGJ) to describe how media operate in the control of intellectual deviance. In doing so, we explicate a dramaturlogical scheme that links journalism sociology with cultural perspectives on media hegemony. When absolutist beliefs are challenged, journalism takes its cue by reifying a punitive public, and aggressively performs a social drama in accordance with Victor Turner’s theory. We apply LGJ to the case of newspapers coverage on Ward Churchill.

Making News Popular: Cable News Wars and the Industry Popular • Anthony Nadler, University of Minnesota • A frantic competition among cable news channels has spawned new ideas about popularizing news. Through an analysis of discourse on the cable news wars in trade journals, executive interviews, books by cable personalities, and the columns of media critics, this paper examines how certain strategies have been deemed viable for popularizing cable news.

A Tale of Two Campuses: The (Un)covering of College Shootings • Temple Northup, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • On February 8, 2008, a shooting occurred at the Louisiana Technical College. Less than a week later, another shooting occurred at Northern Illinois University. While the former received virtually no media coverage, the latter was widely covered. A textual analysis examined local newspaper coverage of the two shootings, paying attention to language that highlighted class, race, and gender differences. Findings indicate the language used reinforced racial, gender, and class stereotypes.

Olympic Orchestration: Bud Greenspan’s Re-presentation of Sport • Lori Amber Roessner, University of Georgia • This study will explore the mass-mediated construction of the Olympics through the lens of eight-time Emmy award-winning filmmaker Bud Greenspan. Examining a sample from his body of work, the study will offer a critical-cultural analysis of his re-presentation of the Olympic Games. One question will serve to guide the narrative: how does Greenspan construct the Olympics within his twentieth-century sports documentaries?

Shooting, Shopping Sprees, Satire and the Curious Case of Sarah Palin • Kathleen M. Ryan, Miami University-Ohio • “Saturday Night Live” lampooned 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as a sexy, but ultimately unqualified, candidate. This paper uses framing theory to investigate how Tina Fey’s caricature became an accepted presentation of Palin in both news and comedic programming. The caricature can be seen as a doppelgänger, who became more legitimate to the audience than Palin and was reinforced by the candidate’s own actions. Its acceptance raises questions about ethics in television news reporting.

Shades of War: A Framing Analysis of John Sack’s “M” • j. keith saliba, jacksonville university • This study analyzes the ways famed literary journalist John Sack framed the events within his influential Vietnam War piece, “M.” Employing qualitative framing analysis, the study found that Sack’s emphasis of particular attributes, quotes, anecdotes and personal interjections-and the exclusion of others-created a disproportionately negative framing of the events of “M.” The author contends that framing emphasizing only positive or negative attributes undermines journalism’s stated goal of accurately portraying nonfiction events.

Where are all the ‘Others’? – reconstructions of inequality and discrimination in public service broadcasting • Laura Schlotthauer, USC Annenberg School for Communication • In contrast to its mission there is evidence that ethnic diversity in public media continues to be largely insufficient. Yet, investigations into the reasons for this exclusion are extremely rare. The present study seeks to address this lack of research by adopting a discourse theoretical framework to individualist accounts of inequality and discrimination of established agents in the field.

Negotiating with the Hermit Kingdom: A Cultural Perspective on North Korean Nuclear Talks • Hyunjin Seo, Syracuse University • This paper examines major problems in Washington’s negotiations with North Korea and offers specific policy recommendations to resolve these problems. The author argues that Washington’s failure to effectively understand cultural values and norms that determine Pyongyang’s worldview and negotiation styles is one of the main reasons that Washington has been unsuccessful in dealing with Pyongyang. If Washington were to understand these underlying factors, they would see that North Korea’s behavior is actually consistent and predictable.

Restoring the Primacy of Industry; Psychological Action Propaganda and Advertising during the Depression Era • Burton St. John, Old Dominion University; Ana Timofte, Old Dominion University • In the aftermath of the Great Depression, business interests used advertising to assert the beneficence of industry and private enterprise. Corporations used a more personal approach in their advertising to persuade Americans that business leadership would help Americans manage tough times and move forward toward a brighter tomorrow. This study examines these ads as psychological action propaganda that uses both truth-telling and mind-pressuring to assert the primacy of business interests.

The Shark Became a Vegetarian: Regulating Children’s Programming in a Digital World • Margot Susca, Florida State University • Children in the United States watch on average 17 hours of television each week and annually see 40,000 commercials. As marketers enhance strategies to reach this youth market, Americans are on the cusp of a digital television revolution. In late 2006, in light of the pending transition to digital, children’s advocates and industry executives reached agreements that led to modifications to the Children’s Television Act of 1990.

Moral Panics & Happy-Slaps (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology) • Ryan Thomas, Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University; Matthew Kushin, Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University • Happy-slapping – the act of assaulting someone and documenting and sharing it using a camera phone – is a phenomenon that has dominated British headlines since early 2005. We undertake a discourse analysis of newspaper reports of a year’s coverage of happy-slapping. We find that technology and mediated communication is blamed for the phenomenon, that its perpetrators are characterized as menaces to society, and that solutions to the problem are cosmetic and not structural.

Do it for the Polar Bears: An Examination of Global Warming Discussion After Hurricane Katrina • Melissa Thompson, University of Minnesota • Climate change is a topic of heated debate in the media and Hurricane Katrina added a new dimension to this debate. A framing analysis of climate change coverage in the newsweekly magazines Time and The Economist the year after Hurricane Katrina revealed a number of frames that relied on the news values of conflict and immediacy, among others. These news values imparted a sense of fleetingness to climate change, which may inhibit public understanding.

Planning for Power: News Media Discourse in the Debate about a High-Voltage Transmission Line in Vermont • Richard Watts, University of Vermont • This paper examines the media discourse surrounding a proposed 63 mile high-voltage transmission line in Vermont. The author examines the prominence of certain frames and the absence of others by reviewing the frame’s cultural resonance, narrative fidelity and the framing activities and media standing of the frame sponsors. The dominance of the electric utility sponsored frames contributes to the understanding of how economic elites promote the creation of frames in the news media.

<< 2009 Abstracts

Communication Technology Division 2009 Abstracts

Communication Technology Division (CTEC)

A Comparitive study of online privacy regulations in the U.S. and China • Tuen Yu Lau, Stanford University; Yangfang Wu, University of Washington; David Atkin, University of Connecticut; Carolyn Lin, University of Connecticut • Online privacy seeks to protect the identity of an individual who uses the internet to collect information or express opinions. However, given the proliferating vehicles through which one’s identity can be ascertained, the question remains as to what policies can most effectively protect personal identity. This paper explores the similarities and differences with online privacy regulation in the United States and China.

Online Sexual Solicitation and Online Sexual Risk Taking: Age and Gender Differences • Susanne Baumgartner, University of Amsterdam; Patti Valkenburg, University of Amsterdam; Jochen Peter, University of Amsterdam • There are widespread concerns that on the internet, adolescents are especially vulnerable and take more risks than adults. However, research to validate this concern is still missing. The aim of this study was to explore whether a) online sexual solicitation, (b) online sexual risk taking and (c) the perception of risks and benefits of online sexual risk taking vary by age and gender.

A Whole New Ballgame: Mainstream Media Attitudes Toward Fan-Based Internet Sports Communities • Vincent Benigni, College of Charleston; Lance Porter, Louisiana State University; Chris Wood, JWA Communications • This study illustrates the impact of fan-based Internet sports communities (FBISCs), through a survey (n = 217) of sports media members in print, broadcast, and online. A shifting paradigm is evident in that most traditional media members use FBISCs to perform key tasks and many work for such sites. Respondents indicate that while such sites generally lack credibility, they wield some influence to sports administrators and student-athletes, and to a great degree, sports fans.

A New Space for Political Expression: Predictors of Political Facebook Use and its Democratic Consequences • Leticia Bode, Department of Political Science – University of Wisconsin Madison; porismita borah, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Emily Vraga, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dhavan Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Facebook currently boasts more than 175 million active users worldwide, many of whom are young people. With the exception of some pieces on the broad potential of Facebook to impact political communication, no study has ventured into the growing political realm that exists on Facebook.

Facebooking to the Polls: A study in online social networking, social capital, and political behavior • Leticia Bode, Department of Political Science – University of Wisconsin Madison • Facebook has risen in use and popularity over recent years, but research has only just begun to examine the potential implications of such use. Given that such a large percentage of Facebook users are young citizens, yet to be fully politically socialized, the participatory impact of Facebook use is particularly important to understand. This study utilizes survey research to analyze how undergraduates are using Facebook and what political implications such use has.

Framing Second Life for Use in Higher Education • Kevin Bowers, University of Florida; Donna Davis, University of Florida; Jeffrey Neely, University of Florida • This study employed a framing analysis to examine articles from The Chronicle of Higher Education and EDUCAUSE Review related to the use of Second Life in academia. Four main frames were identified: exploration, growth, overcoming challenges, and level of endorsement or rejection. Additionally, sub-frames were identified in the exploration and endorsement/rejection main frames. Discussion of the results focuses on the overall perception of Second Life in higher education and implications for the future.

Moving the Crowd at Threadless: Motivations for Participation in a Crowdsourcing Application • Daren Brabham, University of Utah • Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem solving and production model already in use by businesses such as Threadless.com, iStockphoto.com, and InnoCentive.com. This model, which harnesses the collective intelligence of a crowd of Web users through an open-call format, has potential for government and non-profit applications. Yet, in order to explore new applications for the crowdsourcing model, there must be better understanding of why crowds participate in crowdsourcing processes.

Reporters, Commenters, or “Gate”keepers?: Mainstream Coverage of Professional Blogging Organizations • Deborah Carver, University of Minnesota • This paper examines qualities of large blogging organizations—group blogs that have emerged to combine reporting and discussion of news in order to make a profit—and addresses how such blogs are treated in scholarly discussion. This study seeks to encourage consideration of larger blogging organizations as different from more personal political blogs by individuals.

Gaining Gratifications or Losing Privacy on Social-Networking Sites? Exploring Privacy Concerns and the Relationship with Gratifications and Internet Addiction • Hsuan-Ting Chen, University of Texas at Austin • The study explored the three types of privacy concerns – improper information sharing, errors, and collection among users of social-networking sites. Further, it examined potential relationships among gratifications sought from social-networking sites, three types of privacy concerns, and Internet addiction. The findings showed that individuals’ privacy concerns for improper information sharing will decrease their Internet addiction.

Cultural differences in social relationships on SNSs: Cross-cultural comparison between Americans and Koreans • Seong Eun Cho, Rutgers University • This study explores cultural differences in SNS relationships between Americans and Koreans. In doing so, this study aims to confirm the effect of national cultures on SNS usage and to understand indications from previous single-culture studies. 322 American and 241 Korean college students participated in a survey. To analysis data, this study mainly employed independent sample t-test, correlation, and multiple regressions.

Participation divide among “online experts”: Prediction of psychological factors, experience and skills on web content creation among college students • Teresa Correa, University of Texas at Austin • This study explored the factors that predict the creation of online content among college students. A Web-based survey revealed that there are differences by gender, race, and age in creating content. Using self-determination theory as theoretical framework, this study found that psychological factors such as perceived usefulness, perceived competence and motivation are strong predictors of content creation. The gender divide disappears when perceived competence and skills are taken into account.

A Content Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates’ YouTube Sites • Juliann Cortese, Florida State University; Jennifer Proffitt, Florida State University • This study examines how the 2008 presidential candidates differed in the number, type, and content of videos posted on their YouTube sites. Results indicate that the Obama campaign posted significantly more videos and a variety of videos as compared to the McCain campaign. Further, McCain’s videos were predominantly negative while the Obama videos tended to be more balanced. Neither candidate fully utilized the space and time available on YouTube to specifically outline policies and proposals.

Standing at the Intersection of the Digital Divide and Environmental Justice: How One Community Made Sense of It • Jane Dailey, Marietta College • This study examined whether historically marginalized citizens perceive the Internet as a tool for environmental advocacy. Qualitative data collected from 44 adults living in poor working class neighborhoods suggest the Internet is not an end-all solution but does play a role. Participants viewed the Internet as an information source, but preferred face-to-face communication for mobilizing support. Their view is consistent with their claims of how they make use of the Internet in their everyday lives.

Determinants of High-Definition Television Awareness, Familiarity, and Knowledge • Michel Dupagne, University of Miami; Paul Driscoll, University of Miami • This study investigated whether education, income, mass media use, interpersonal communication, social participation, cosmopoliteness, perceived attributes of new communication technologies, and ownership of communication technologies predicted high-definition television (HDTV) awareness, familiarity, and knowledge. Results revealed mixed support for the hypotheses and identified different predictors for the three regression models. While education, income, and newspaper reading were positive predictors of HDTV awareness, perceived attributes and ownership of communication technologies were significantly related to HDTV familiarity.

A Case for a Greater Attention to Technology in the Individual-Level Political Communication Effects Research • Ivan Dylko, The Ohio State University • In this paper, a case is being made for an increasingly important role of technology in the individual-level research on mass and interpersonal political communication effects. The role of technology is particularly important in today’s age of information environment diversity. The Functional Model of Communication Technology is proposed as a helpful heuristic for advancing communication theory.

Gatekeeping and YouTube: News Filters and the Intermedia Dynamic in the Age of User-Generated Content • Ivan Dylko, The Ohio State University; Kristen Landreville, The Ohio State University; Michael Beam, The Ohio State University; Nicholas Geidner, The Ohio State University • The primary purpose of this study is to refine gatekeeping theory, by examining it in the new context of user-generated news content. Videos from YouTube were utilized as an approximation of user-generated content, due to YouTube’s leadership position in the online user-generated video streaming market.

Network Effect in Adoption and Use of Online Social Network Sites: The Case of Facebook • J-en Teo, Nanyang Technological University; Seraphina Seng, Nanyang Technological University; Wayne Fu, Nanyang Technological University • This study examines user-network effect on the adoption and use of social networking sites (SNSs). Online survey data were gathered from Singaporeans to test the effect among individuals’ choices about using Facebook.

New Scheme of Communication: An Exploratory Study of Interactivity and Multimedia Use in Chinese J-blogs and the Implications • Fangfang Gao, University of Florida; Renee Martin-Kratzer, University of Florida • This study examined the use of new technologies in Chinese j-blogs and found there is a positive correlation between the use of hyperlinks, videos and pictures with reader comments, indicating that the use of these features sparks a better dialogue with readers. The shift in the model of communication between journalists and readers through j-blogs changes the traditional concept of gatekeeping, providing broader implications for the flow of free information in China’s controlled media environment.

Stealing Television’s Eyeball Share? The Impact of Alternative Video Distribution Platforms on Traditional Television Viewing • miao guo, University of Florida; Chunsik Lee, University of Florida • This study examined the impact of alternative video distribution platforms, such as online video streaming on computer and mobile television through portable video devices, on traditional television viewing patterns. By drawing upon the uses and gratifications approach, the technology acceptance model (TAM), and the innovation diffusion theory, this study explored how motives, perceived media characteristics, affinity for alternative outlets, and viewing behavior jointly shaped the substitution phenomena between newly emerging alternative platforms and traditional television.

Good for business? IM and the virtual newsroom • Elizabeth Hendrickson, University of Tennessee • This research examines the newsgathering processes and production of an entertainment website, Futé.com, to understand how the site’s use of a virtual newsroom and computer mediated communication influences organizational dynamics and culture. By employing a case study of Futé, this research utilized in-depth interviews and observations to examine the role of instant messaging (IM) in organizing work and shaping organizational culture. The primary research question was: How does IM affect communication and organizational dynamics?

Revealing Myself in Games: Constructing an Identity Through Game Creation • Renyi Hong, Nanyang Technological University; Lin Zhi Jasmine Lee; Nathanael Tan, Nanyang Technological University; Ting Hui Grace Ong, Nanyang Technological University; Vivian Hsueh-hua Chen, Nanyang Technological University • The proliferation of media production technologies has allowed for game players to become game creators, tinkering and forging their own games. This qualitative project explores how amateurs express and construct their identity through the activity of game creation. Forty interviews were conducted with renowned game modifiers and independent game developers internationally. The findings revealed that the game creation performance is characterized by the practices of play, object-relating and public performance.

An Examination of the Business Strategies in the Second Life Virtual Market • J. Sonia Huang, Department of Communication and Technology, National Chiao Tung University • Second Life (SL) is now experiencing its own dystopia. The SL in-world market is perfectly competitive; largest businesses do not sustain over years. The study thus takes a diagnostic approach using real-world business strategies to examine whether largest businesses are creating a defendable position in the market and what choices they have to obtain competitive advantage.

Blogging in U.S. Newsrooms: A National Survey of Perceptions and Practices • Sun Ho Jeong, University of Texas at Austin • A national survey of 489 working journalists found that they spend about 2.5 days every week and an average of 40 minutes daily reading blogs for reporting and research. Journalists are turning to blogs to keep up with news and find out about alternative viewpoints. About 60 percent of the journalists write blogs. Earliest adopters of blogs are the most likely to perceive journalist-blogs as making positive contributions to journalism and perceive blogs credible.

Facebook. MySpace. Two-faced?: Credibility of Social Network Sites for Political Information • Tom Johnson, Texas Tech; Barbara Kaye, University of Tennessee • This study employed an online survey to examine the degree to which politically interested Internet users judge social network sites as believable, fair, accurate and in depth. More specifically, this research focuses on the degree to which reliance on social network sites predict their credibility after controlling for political and demographic factors.

Uses and Gratifications of Twitter: An Examination of User Motives and Satisfaction of Twitter Use • Philip Johnson, Syracuse University; Sung-Un Yang, Syracuse University • Our study applied a uses and gratifications approach to investigate Twitter—an internet medium and micro-blogging platform with both mass and interpersonal communication features for sharing short messages to others. Twitter user motives (gratifications sought) and the perceived fulfillment of these motives (gratifications obtained) were examined. In addition, satisfaction of Twitter use was investigated by comparing the differences between gratifications sought and gratifications obtained.

Debauchery and Disclosure: Employer Perceptions of Facebook Profiles • Shannon Kennan, Pennsylvania State University; Haiyan Jia, Pennsylvania State University; Alice Shapiro, Pennsylvania State University • Can the party pictures that we post online hurt our job prospects? A 2×2 factorial experiment (N=81) with HR professionals showed that images of debauchery and excessive self-disclosure on a Facebook site affected their personality assessments and hiring decisions. Perceived extroversion and conscientiousness mediated the effects of debauchery while perceived agreeableness mediated that of self-disclosure upon hirability of a candidate. Interestingly, employers who had a Facebook account were significantly more sensitive to debauchery.

Exploring eWOM in Online Consumer Reviews: Experience versus Search Goods • Jinsoo Kim, University of Florida; Jaejin Lee, Univ. of Florida • The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide a description of eWOM that allows a better understanding of this new communication phenomenon by conducting content analysis. The study analyzes 828 online consumer reviews based on product characteristics (experience/search goods) and website characteristics (specialized/general sites) from various angles. This study reveals that product and website characteristics are closely associated with quality/quantity of content, review characteristics, preference, and consumer rating. Implications/suggestions for future studies are discussed.

“You Say Net Neutrality, I Say Net Neutrality”: Content and Semantic Network Analyses of Newspaper Coverage of Net Neutrality • Minjeong Kim, Colorado State University; Jang Hyun Kim, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Chung Joo Chung, State University of New York at Buffalo • The issue of network neutrality has generated a great deal of attention and conflict among interested parties in recent years. The purpose of this study was to explore how net neutrality has been conceptualized and understood in the media. This study examined, through categorical content analysis and semantic network analysis, a total of 134 net neutrality stories that appeared in the four major newspapers from February 2004 through January 2009.

Did Social Media Really Matter? College Students’ Use of Online Media and Political Decision Making in the 2008 Election • Matthew Kushin, Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University; Masahiro Yamamoto, Washington State University • We examined young adults’ use of internet content for political information as well as online expression behaviors for the 2008 election. Media attention variables were assessed using regression analysis for their relationship with involvement and efficacy. Results supported a moderate relationship between attention to traditional internet sources, efficacy and involvement. Social media attention was not significantly related to efficacy or involvement after controlling for other political internet variables. Online expression was significantly related to involvement.

Information Hierarchy in Web 2.0 Context: An Exploratory Study of ‘Folksonomy’ • Kyounghee Kwon, SUNY-Buffalo; Shin-il Moon, SUNY-Buffalo • Based on theoretical contention between information decentralization and the persistency of preexisting information hierarchy on the Internet, the study examines how folksonomy, a Web 2.0 practice, retrieves and organizes issue-sensitive information. The results support the thesis of persistent preexisting hierarchy, revealing major retrievals from traditional mass media and previously well-known sources. On the other hand, diversity does exist in folksonomy, as seen from different agendas set between mainstream and alternative sources.

Political Discourse on Facebook: A New Public Sphere? • Lindita Camaj, Indiana University; Seong Choul Hong, Indiana University; Gerry Lanosga, Indiana University School of Journalism; Yunjuan Luo, School of Journalism, Indiana University Bloomington • In messages posted on presidential candidates’ Facebook pages, users carry on an energetic political discussion, not limited to those with whom they happen to agree most. However, the discourse appears concentrated among a small, hardcore group of users, and there is little evidence that these conversations inspire any offline political activity, an important element in public sphere theory. A content analysis of these messages challenges the notion of a true Habermasian public sphere online.

When the Mask Governs the Mind: Effects of Social Category Representation on Task Performance and Motivation in Avatar-Represented Virtual Groups • Jong-Eun Roselyn Lee, Stanford University • This experiment examined how social category representation via avatars affects stereotype-relevant task performance in virtual group settings. In particular, this study focused on the phenomenon of stereotype threat – a type of psychological threat induced by situations in which negative stereotyping about a group leads its members to fear the risk of confirming the stereotype, which leads to behavioral consequences such as performance and motivational deficits in the stereotype-relevant domain.

Anti-Smoking Videos on Social Media: Comparative Analysis of the Persuasive Attributes on YouTube Videos • Hyunmin Lee, University of Missouri • This study seeks a descriptive understanding of anti-smoking videos posted on YouTube and users’ reaction toward the videos. The appeals, themes, model characteristics, and viewers’ reactions were examined based on a content analysis of 199 anti-smoking videos. While the study finds that cessation theme and fear appeal are the most frequent strategies utilized by these videos, industry manipulation and fear appeal received the lowest ratings from video viewers.

Text me when it becomes dangerous: Exploring the Determinants of College Students’ Short Message Service (SMS) Text Alerts Service Adoption • Doohwang Lee, University of Alabama; Jee Young Chung, The University of Alabama • Based on Davis’ (1986) technology acceptance model and Brehm’s (1989)’s reactance theory, this study sought to explore the determinants to college students’ SMS text alerts service adoption. The results showed that the probability of being the SMS text-service subscribers or non- subscribers was not directly affected by perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and social norms.

Exploring the Roles of ICT Adoption in the Migratory Adaptation of the Rural-urban Migrants in Beijing • Weizhen Lei, School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China; Martin Gibbs, Information System Department, the University of Melbourne; Shanton Chang, Information System Department, the University of Melbourne; Heejin Lee, Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University, Korea • In the current era where globalization and ICT (Information and Communication technology) use is pervasive, the understanding of technology-based social structure, such as how ICT is applied to enhance the rising networked society (Castells, 2000; van Dijk, 2005), becomes significant. In studying this phenomenon, exploring various migrant populations and how they use ICT can explicitly show the relationships between human mobility, social network, autonomy and new media technologies.

Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Facilitate Learning • Mitzi Lewis, Midwestern State University; LaRae Donnellan, Florida A&M University • This paper examines a collaboration between instructors and students at two higher education institutions in different states. Web 2.0 technologies were used to facilitate group efforts in the development, implementation, and evaluation of an Internet survey. Instructors discuss lessons learned and offer suggestions for successful implementation of Web 2.0 technologies in an educational environment.

Stonewalling Manipulation Effects on Internet Use and Beliefs: The Resiliency of College Internet Users • Jennette Lovejoy, Ohio University; Erin Armstrong, Ohio University; dave sennerud, Ohio University; Roshan Noorzai, Ohio University; Chong Wu, Ohio University • This experiment using college students (n=189) at a large midwestern university utilized a 2×2 between subjects design with a fifth control group to explore the interaction between positive or negative news stories and their effect on self-reported Internet use and Internet belief measures. Both the angle of the news story and the positioning of the news story within the experiment packet were manipulated.

When blogs become organizations • Wilson Lowrey, University of Alabama; Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama • This exploratory study first examines the degree to which bloggers, who pride themselves on challenging mainstream journalism, are adopting an organizational form in pursuit of heightened popularity, status, and advertising revenue. The study also examines the relationship between organizational form and formality of content, namely, whether blog postings resemble traditional journalism. Relationships among pursuit of revenue, organizational form and level of popularity are also assessed.

Soap Box or Box of Soap: Consumer Understanding of the Relationship between Content and Advertising in the Context of User-Generated Content • Sally McMillan, University of Tennessee • Mass media in the United States have hosted news content and delivered audiences to advertisers. But while advertiser support for traditional media has been dropping, activities of online ‘citizen journalists’ have been on the rise. A key question for both traditional news organizations and citizen journalists is who will pay for content of online news and information.

An Exploration of the Policy Objectives of South Korea’s Broadband Convergence Network • Siddhartha Menon, Michigan State University • The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the South Korean government’s policy objectives for the Broadband Convergence Network (BcN) between 2004 and 2007. The BcN is envisioned as conduit for broadband content and applications. This paper uses generativity as a conceptual framework to determine whether the objectives for the BcN, based on a content analysis of policy documents and interviews with experts, empowered the network to sustain a generative critical information infrastructure.

The Exploratory Study of High Definition Advertising and Consumer Response • Jang Ho Moon, University of Texas at Austin; Jong-Hyuok Jung, University of Texas at Austin; Wei-Na Lee, The University of Texas at Austin • In just a few months, all full-power broadcast television stations in the U.S. will begin broadcasting only in digital format. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of high definition technology on television advertising at this time of digital transition. By conducting an experimental study and a follow-up explanatory focus group, this study suggests that high definition technology may have a significant impact on advertising effectiveness in the digital television era.

Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Technology: Hofstede’s Dimensions and Human Development Indicators • George Musambira, University of Central Florida; Jonathan Matusitz, University of Central Florida • Correlations between Hofstede’s dimensions of power distance and uncertainty avoidance and selected indicators of the Human Development Report (HDR) were analyzed. Three communication technology indicators – i.e., cell phone subscription, Internet use, and the number of telephone main lines – were predicted to measure the development of a nation. Results indicate a negative correlation between high power distance and communication technology in terms of the three technologies examined in this study.

Moving One Step Closer to Reengaging Citizens: Discovering Patterns of Online Political Activity • Lindsay Newport, Louisiana State University • An exploratory factor analysis of survey data (N=1,238) revealed four primary classifications of Internet users based on their typical online political activities: videophiles, highly interesteds, pass alongs, and content creators. These four classifications support the notion of a psychological model of Internet effects and may aid in discovering targeted and effective ways of motivating these citizens to political action based on their online activities.

Attributes and Consequences of New Communication Technologies in the Values of Transnational Work • Fernando Paragas, Nanyang Technological University • This study tests a literature-based means-ends chain (MEC) framework that depicts the relationship between the attributes of new communication technologies (NCTs), the consequences of using such NCTs, and the values of self and family among migrant workers from the Philippines using data from a random survey of 320 respondents.

Explaining Online Health Information-Seeking and the Physician-Patient Relationship • Songyi Park, Northwestern University • Although the use of the Internet for health information continues to grow rapidly, its impact on health care is still unclear. Previous studies have shown inconsistent findings with regard to which demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of patients influence online health information seeking. Few studies have analyzed the association between the discussion of online health information and the physician-patient relationship at the multivariate level.

Age Differences in Perceptions and Intention of Online Community Participation: An Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model • Jae Eun Chung, University of Southern California; Namkee Park, University of Oklahoma; Helen Hua Wang, University of Southern California • This study examined age differences in perceptions of online communities and the factors that affect future intention of online community participation, within the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The study supported the major propositions of the TAM but found that age was a moderator of certain key relationships in the model.

Denying Destiny: Viewtron and the refusal to recognize mutual shaping of technology • Mark Poepsel, University of Missouri-Columbia, Missouri School of Journalism; Seth Ashley, University of Missouri School of Journalism • This paper combines a qualitative content analysis of newspaper and trade magazine reports about Knight-Ridder’s Viewtron project with a close reading of primary sources in order to inform a discussion about why Viewtron failed. Mutual Shaping of Technology theory is applied. This theory suggests that new technologies both affect the cultures into which they are introduced, and they are shaped by cultural processes as well.

Keeping Up with Mrs. Jones: Mommy Blogging, Social Comparison, and Self-Esteem • Anesha Brown, Brigham Young University; Holly Wallace, Brigham Young University; Liz Mott, Brigham Young University; Brad Rawlins, Brigham Young University; Karson Denney, Brigham Young University; Autumn Linford, Brigham Young University • As the community of mommy bloggers increases, it raises the question of the effects of engaging in this socially interactive medium. This study examines the phenomenon through the lenses of social comparison and self-esteem. A survey of 619 blogging mothers reveals that those scoring higher on a social comparison index are likely to spend more time reading and maintaining blogs, while a regression analysis shows that this activity can have a negative impact on self-esteem.

Type Up, Speak Out! An Analysis of the Spiral of Silence in an Online Forum • Lauren Reichart, University of Alabama; Skye Chance Cooley, The University of Alabama • 522 user ratings and reviews of nine separate movies on a movie review website were examined in order to determine if the opinions all conformed to either all positive or all negative. The mass communication theory of the spiral of silence was used to analyze the website.

Facebook groups as an e-learning component in higher education courses: one successful case study • Gary Ritzenthaler, University of Florida; Dave Stanton, University of Florida • This case study examines the benefits that a social networking site like Facebook can add to a university-level course. A Facebook group was created as a platform to distribute content related to the course as well as provide a venue for students to meet, discuss and socialize.

The Path Already Taken: Technological and Pedagogical Practices in Convergence Education • Jeremy Sarachan, St. John Fisher College • Communication departments considering adapting or further implementing a convergence curriculum can benefit from exploring choices made at other universities. In this survey, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 110 AEJMC affiliates as a means to explore course content, student assessment methods, lab space, software, and other technical considerations. A range of solutions were found to exist, but common curriculum choices and tools emerged.

What do your friends say about you? Activist group evaluations in a social networking context • Mike Schmierbach, Penn State University; Qian Xu, College of Communications Penn State University; Saraswathi Bellur-Thandaveshwara, Pennsylvania State University; Erin Ash, Pennsylvania State University; Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, Pennsylvania State University; Andrew Kegerise, Penn State University • Research suggests that individuals use cues about the popularity of a cause or group to make judgments. This idea of a bandwagon phenomenon has found particular support in an online context, where cues about the number of supporters are readily available. However, perceptions regarding the group may also depend on the identity of those supporters, with race being one potentially important factor.

Innovation processes in journalism as actor-networks and communities of practice • Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State University; David Domingo, University Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain) • This paper explores two different but complementary theoretical approaches to frame innovation in online media: Actor-Network Theory and Community of Practice. The principles and key concepts of each are presented and their applicability is discussed. Four research programs are presented for developing use of these theories, which offer efficient tools to understand and analyze the actors involved in innovation decisions, the dynamics of the negotiation and learning processes, and the factors constraining and fostering evolution.

Give-and-take: Why the wireless signal sharing movement is growing and its potential policy implications • Gwen Shaffer, Temple University • Using a resource mobilization framework, this study attempts to better understand the factors that motivate people to join wireless community networks that enable members to share bandwidth. In addition, the research illuminates ties between peer-to-peer networking and civic engagement at a broader level.

“I’ ll poke you. You poke me!” Self-disclosure, social attraction, predictability and trust as important predictors of Facebook relationships • Pavica Sheldon, Louisiana State University • The purpose of this research was to test how social attraction on Facebook influences self-disclosure, predictability and trust in another individual. Results of a survey of 243 students showed that we tell our personal secrets on Facebook to those that we like. The relationship between the depth of self-disclosure and trust is mediated by predictability.

Grand Theft Auto IV Comes to Singapore: The Effects of Repeated Exposure to Violent Video Games on Aggression • Kie Zin, Scott Teng, Nanyang Technological University; Sok Cheng, Amy Siew, Nanyang Technological University; Yew Mun, Gabriel Chong, Nanyang Technological University; Marko Skoric, Nanyang Technological University • This study is longitudinal lab-based experiment that examined longer-term effects of playing a violent video game. Participants played Grand Theft Auto IV for a period of three weeks and were compared to a control group on trait aggression, attitudes toward violence, and empathy. The findings do not support the assertion that playing violent video games increases aggression nor reduces empathy as predicted by the General Aggression Model, but they suggest an increase in proviolence attitudes.

Anatomy of Interaction Experience: Distinguishing Sensory, Semantic, and Behavioral Dimensions of Interactivity • Dongyoung Sohn, The Ohio State University • Most previous interactivity studies have focused on what technological characteristics make (mediated) interaction possible, but very few scholarly attempts have been made to answer what constitutes a person’s interactivity perception or experience. The primary objective of this article is to redefine interactivity as a construct that captures the general human interaction experience so that it can be applied to an interaction with any medium or in any context.

Mapping the Role of Information: A Model of the Press for a Post-Broadcast World • Steven Stuglin, Georgia State University • Four Theories of the Press set a comparative media systems standard for fifty years, but the contemporary world has a dramatically different press system than the one investigated in 1956. New theories are needed that can account for the declining role of the traditional press and the growing prominence of digital networking and information systems. This essay presents a model for comparing media systems using views of the role of information as a differentiating variable.

Online News Websites: How much information how fast? • Ryan Pierce, Baylor University; Amanda Sturgill, Baylor University; Yiliu Wang, Baylor University • Questions about the efficacy of the Internet for delivering online news are rapidly vanishing, as Internet news use is putting great financial pressure on print media. But questions on the best way to deliver content to readers in a way that keeps them coming back to a site remain both open and important. Usability and user satisfaction are both major issues behind a site’s adoption.

User Attitudes toward Customization and Personalization: A Priming Study of Gratifications Expected and Obtained • Hyunjin Kang, Penn State University; S. Shyam Sundar, Penn State University; Hyang Sook Kim, Pennsylvania State University; Keunmin Bae, Penn State University • Customization is everywhere these days, from faceplates on cell phones to background color on computer desktops to the arrangement of widgets on one’s internet start page. What lies behind the tremendous popularity of tailored content? We answer this question with a priming study (N = 322) that explores the gratifications expected and obtained from different kinds of tailored internet services. Self-esteem moderates gratifications derived from tailored services whereas identity, involvement and relevance mediate the relationship.

Kids these Days: Examining Differences in Political Uses and Gratifications, Internet Political Participation, Political Information Efficacy, and Cynicism based on Age • Kaye Sweetser, University of Georgia; Ruthann Weaver Lariscy, University of Georgia; Spencer Tinkham, University of Georgia • Using a telephone survey of randomly selected voters from the general population, this study sought to understand the interrelatedness of use of the Internet as a political information source with perception of political participation, political information efficacy, and cynicism. Guided by the traditional political uses and gratifications theory that divides media choice into approach and avoidance motives, we examine these constructs in terms of emergent generational differences.

Active within Structures: An Integrated Model of Internet Use • Tang Tang, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh • This study represents one of the first attempts to empirically integrate three primary theoretical traditions in audience research — the uses and gratifications approach, structural approaches, and technology adoption theories — to explain Internet use. The findings suggest that Internet use is an active choice within structures. The study calls for a broader and integrated scheme to guide our understanding and exploration of new media users.

Tracking the Blogs: An Evaluation of Attacks, Acclaims and Rebuttals Presented on Political Blogs during the 2008 Presidential Election • Robert Wicks, University of Arkansas Department of Communication; Amy Mertensmeyer, University of Arkansas; Gregory Blackburn, University of Arkansas; Tiffany Fields, University of Arkansas • This study employed Benoit’s Functional Theory of Presidential Discourse to study the incidence of attacks, acclaims and rebuttals on four politically-aligned websites and six political non-aligned blogs. Results suggest that candidates use their own websites for acclaims, political parties use their blogs to level attacks against opponents, and rebuttals are on blogs are rare.

Emotional Responses During Facebook Use: Two Conceptual Frameworks • Saleem Alhabash, University of Missouri, School of Journalism; Hyojung Park, University of Missouri; Kevin Wise, University of Missouri • Based on existing research on social networking, it was proposed that Facebook.com serves a need for connectivity and that a great deal of its use could be conceptualized using two conceptual frameworks: the first as either social browsing (i.e. Newsfeeds) and social searching (i.e. Friends’ profiles), while the second, as either interactive or extractive information-seeking strategies. This study explored whether these categories adequately reflect Facebook use and whether they moderate physiological indicators of emotion.

How does a Virtual Community Influence Older Netizens’ Social Capital? • Huan Wu, School of Jouranlism and Communicaiton in The Chinese University of Hong Kong • What this study seeks to answer is: “How does a virtual community influence its members’ social capital in face-to-face (FtF) communities?” The virtual community examined in this research is OldKids website, the earliest and the most influential senior-oriented virtual community in nowadays’ mainland China. And the FtF communities are OldKids club, set up by the founders of OldKids website; and OldKids salons, built up by OldKids netizens voluntarily.

Is Multimodality Better than Single Modality? Exploring modality effect on inter-cultural virtual collaboration • Qian Xu, College of Communications Penn State University; Deanna Behring, Ph.D. student • This study used a 2×2 within-subjects experiment to explore how media modality and presence of partner’s picture influenced inter-culture virtual dyad’s collaboration and communication accommodation. The results of the study showed that participants were more likely to be persuaded in audio than in text conditions. Modality and picture interactively influenced perceived ease of communication, language difference, and consensus. It also found that dyad members adopted different linguistic characteristics to accommodate each other in different conditions.

Faculty Adopters of Podcasting: Satisfaction, University Support and Belief in Podcasting • Jin Yang, University of Memphis • This study surveyed university and college professors who have used podcasts in their classroom and found that these early adopters of podcasts were very innovative in general. Most of them believed that podcasts can enhance the pedagogical value of teaching because podcasts provide alternatives to learn and engage students more on their turf.

Comparisons between Avatar users and Non Avatar users: People’s Personal Characteristics as Consumers and Their Attitudes toward Virtual World Advertising • Jay (Hyunjae) Yu, Louisiana State University • Avatars are Internet users’ representations that are created and utilized as animated characters in virtual worlds. Lately, many Internet users have created avatars and enjoyed a second life by experiencing a virtual world in which they can enjoy many things that they enjoy in the real world. Along with the rapid growth of avatar users, a growth of virtual places, where avatars can hang out is seen as well.

News Use and Social Use of the Internet: Testing a Substitution Model in Three Levels • Lingzi Zhang, National University of Singapore • Embedded in mass media and interpersonal communication theory, current study sheds light on news consumption and interpersonal communication in online settings. We hypothesized a mutual displacement between interpersonal social use and news use of the Internet, based on previous scholarship on media usage, online social relation, and Gratifications of Internet users.

Effects of Perceived Gratification-opportunities and Personal Network on Preference between MSN and QQ • Xiaoxiao Zhang, The School of Journalism and Communication in CUHK • Focusing on the dramatic overriding of QQ on MSN in China, this exploratory study explores the important role of perceived gratification-opportunities and personal network in IM preference and use. Data were gathered from an online snowballing sample of 410 Chinese IM users in 2008. Of the users, 88.0% preferred QQ while merely12.0% preferred MSN. Factor analyses identified three same MSN and QQ gratification-opportunities: entertainment, synchronism and risk.

<< 2009 Abstracts

Advertising 2009 Abstracts

Advertising Division

Research
Motivation Crowding and Word of Mouth Advertising: Why Extrinsic Incentives Could Make People Less Likely to Buzz • George Anghelcev, Penn State University; John Eighmey, University of Minnesota • Drawing on research in psychology and economics, the study explains how extrinsic incentives such as coupons, discounts, or other tangible rewards can decrease rather than increase consumer response. An experiment shows that when consumers who like a brand are offered tangible extrinsic rewards for engaging in Word-of-Mouth advertising, their response diminishes in extent and quality compared to a condition when no rewards are offered. Theoretical and practical implications for WOM and buzz advertising are discussed.

Communicating to Ethnic Minorities with Culturally Embedded Ads: The Effect of Cultural Identification and Self-Construal • Osei Appiah, The Ohio State University and Yung-I Liu, Cleveland State University • This study examines Chinese consumers’ reactions to advertising messages that contain symbols indicative of Chinese culture. In Study 1, a total of 121 Asian participants viewed targeted and non-targeted advertisements that were either absent or present of traditional ethnic-specific cultural cues. The strength of Chinese participants’ interdependent cultural identity was also assessed.

Stay Away From Me: A Conceptual Model of Personalized Advertising Avoidance • Tae Hyun Baek, University of Georgia; Mariko Morimoto, University of Georgia • This study focuses on the effects that personalized advertising carried by different media formats, including unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam), postal direct mail, telemarketing, and text messaging, can have on consumer skepticism toward the advertising media as well as on the likelihood of ad avoidance. The results of this study show that among the potential antecedents of ad skepticism and avoidance, personalization has the strongest effect, followed by perceived irritation associated with personalized advertising and perceived privacy concern.

Across the Ages: Are College Age Adults a Viable Segment for DTC Prescription Drug Advertising? • Jennifer Ball, University of Texas at Austin; Danae Manika, The University of Texas at Austin; Patricia Stout, University of Texas at Austin • Direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising studies have typically focused on older adults or a general population of adults. However, college students have the potential to be viable targets for DTC advertising too. In this paper, we compare college students and an adult sample divided between younger and older adults. Our findings indicate all age groups had relatively high awareness of DTC ads and similar attitudes and behavioral responses to the ads.

“You Are What You Eat!” An Investigation of CARU Cases Involving Nutritional Complaints from 2000-2006 • Courtney Carpenter Childers, University of Tennessee; Mariea Hoy, University of Tennessee; Margaret Morrison, University of Tennessee • Advertising food and beverage products to children has long been linked to rising obesity rates among children in the United States. The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) plays a key role in monitoring all advertisements targeted to consumers under the age of 12. Using content analysis, CARU nutritional complaint cases from 2000-2006 were examined. Results show that 34.3% (n=24) of CARU cases during this time frame dealt with nutritional complaints.

Effects of Gaming System and Interpersonal Playing Context on Individuals’ Memory of In-Game Advertisements • Frank Dardis, Penn State University; Mike Schmierbach, Penn State University • Research on the effects of in-game advertising has grown steadily during the 2000s. However, there are two interesting gaps in this research that are noteworthy to scholars and practitioners alike: no studies have compared different gaming systems vis-à-vis each other in the same experiment, and no studies have incorporated multiple-player contexts into their research designs.

Spoofing: Social Commentary or Effective Marketing Tool? Testing the Reciprocal Mediation Hypothesis in Spoof Advertisements • Lucian Dinu, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Sidharth Muralidharan, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; William Davie, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; William Swain, University of Louisiana at Lafayette • This paper tested the culture jammers’ implicit assumption that spoof ads work as a social commentary that prevent consumers from using spoofed brands. An experimental design was used to follow the propositions of the Reciprocal Mediation Hypothesis. Although attitudes toward spoofed brands were not influenced by spoof ads, purchase intentions were. Spoofing in itself, rather than attitudes towards the spoof ads, may lead to lower purchase intentions.

Live Fast, Die (in memory) Older?: Seeing Faster Banner Ads Increases Memory for Products in Unrelated Ads • Brittany Duff, University of Illinois; Sela Sar, Iowa State University • While previous research on banner ad animation has generally indicated that animation leads to arousal, there have been conflicting findings for memory and behaviors related to the ad causing arousal. We offer two competing theoretical explanations and conducted an experiment that showed that not only is self-reported arousal higher for faster animation ads, but also that those who saw the faster ad are more likely to remember products in a subsequently seen circular ad.

Understanding Consumer’s Creating Behavior of User-Generated Contents, An Application of Uses and Gratification and Theory of Reasoned Action • Chang Dae Ham, University of Missouri; Joonghwa Lee, University of Missouri; Hyung-Seok Lee, University of North Florida • Based on the theory of uses and gratification with combination with theory of reasoned action, this study examined why consumer creates user-generated contents (UGC) and how their behavioral belief, in combination with subjective norm, influence attitudes toward, intention to, and behavior of creating UGC respectively. The result identified five significant motivations to create UGC, which partly predicted attitudes, intention and behavioral factor of creating UGC.

When Trust Falters: Consumer Responses to Online Risks and Implications for Internet Advertising • Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota • A number of surveys suggest that consumers have been cutting back or retreating from online shopping. This paper examines the role of trust and its absence in online consumer behavior using data from a national survey. The results reveal that some consumers reduce or retreat from online shopping and trust measures are more useful predictors of consumer stances toward online shopping than demographic characteristics.

Is Your Tourist Destination Sincere, Rugged, or Sophisticated? An Exploratory Examination of Online Brand Personality of Nations • Rajul Jain, University of Florida; Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • Adopting Aaker’s (1997) brand personality framework, this study explores how nations communicate their brands online in the context of international tourist destinations. Results of computer-aided content analysis of official tourism websites and correspondence analysis indicate that the countries examined do indeed possess distinctive brand personalities and communicate them online. The personality of “sincerity” was expressed most frequently by these nation brands. There are no observable similarities in brand personality based on regional similarities.

Advertising in A Live Drama: Audiences’ Game Involvement in the Super Bowl and Advertising Effectiveness • Yongick Jeong, LSU; Lance Porter, Louisiana State University • This quasi-experiment investigates the impact of audiences’ game involvement during the Super Bowl on advertising effectiveness by testing three determinants (field position, time and score). Using commercials aired during four years of Super Bowl broadcasts, we found that two measures of game time (official game time and actual broadcasting time) negatively affect the recognition of brands.

Recall of and attitudes toward brand placement in reality TV programming • Temitayo Fayemi, University of Central Florida; Rick Kenney, University of Central Florida • This study measures college students’ attitudes toward, and the effectiveness of, brand placement in the genre of reality television (TV). Surveys were used to discover the level of brand recall for the products and brands displayed in reality TV programming and to discover viewers’ reported reasons for paying attention to these brands.

When and Who Should Use a CSR Corporate Strategy: Examination of Relative Effectiveness for Corporate Strategies on Consumer Responses • Sora Kim, DePaul University • The study found that when a company is well-known to consumers as Motorola and Kellogg used in this study, a CSR strategy is more effective in influencing both consumer corporate ability (CAb) and CSR associations and in turn, company/ product evaluations. Consumers tend to automatically assume a company is also good at making reliable products when consumers associate the company with strong CSR, indicating transferring effects of CSR associations onto CAb associations, and onto company/product evaluations.

Something Larger than the Nation: “SELF” • Nam Young Kim, Louisiana State University; Jay (Hyunjae) Yu, Louisiana State University • Military enlistment is a life-long commitment for youths to make. Therefore, the military needs to consider how to convince potential enlistees about the merits of joining the military through informative advertising, in response to the youths’ demands to know. In particular, the modern young generation has been characterized as “self-interested” individuals who pursue personal achievement and material possessions.

Determinants of Cause-Related Marketing Consumer Support and Its Consequences • Hyuksoo Kim, The University of Alabama; Seounmi Youn, Emerson College • This study investigated the determinants of support for CRM alliances and its consequences. As a theoretical framework, this study incorporated two theories, the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Theory of Social Behavior, into one integrative model. This model was used to assess attitude toward companies with either positive or negative CSR reputations. The findings provide valuable information to companies with bad reputations about whether CRM can be a useful tool for strengthening brand equity.

Who are the Opinion Leaders? The Physicians, the Patients, and Direct-to-consumer Prescription Drug Advertising • Annisa Lai, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • A popular perception holds that physicians prescribe requested drugs to patients influenced by mass mediated direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising. This study finds that physicians only prescribe requested drugs to patients influenced by other healthcare providers, such as pharmacists, nurses and other physicians.

Attitudes toward Food Advertising and Issue Importance:Influence on Obesity Attribution and Food-Marketing Policy Evaluation • Jung-Sook Lee, Towson University • Using attribution theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the study investigates the influence of consumers’ attitudes toward food advertising and the perceived importance of obesity on social attributions of obesity and consumers’ attitudes toward food-marketing policy. Findings from a survey of 315 college students indicate that both attitudes toward food advertising and the perceived importance of obesity show significant relationships with attitudes toward food-marketing policy, both directly and indirectly through social attributions of obesity.

Branded Product Information Search on the Web • Chunsik Lee, University of Florida; Junga Kim, University of Minnesota; Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • Drawing upon the cost-benefit framework and trust mechanism as a risk reducer, this study examines the role of brand factors and source credibility in branded product information search on the Web. The online survey was conducted under the pre-purchase context of digital camera brands. The results revealed that brand factors did not influence overall branded information search efforts. However, brand trust and source credibility appeared to influence the different types of online information sources sought.

Structural Equation Modeling of Consumer Perception of Values Advocacy Advertising: The Consequent Effects of Self-Construal on the Outcomes, Behavioral Intention, and Purchase Intention. • Yoon-Joo Lee, University of Southern Indiana; Eric Haley, University of Tennessee; Kiseol Yang, University of North Texas • This study attempted to show a holistic picture of how consumers may process values advocacy advertising messages and expanded on prior studies by incorporating individual differences in terms of how consumers perceived themselves through the concept of self-construal. A majority of prior studies have focused on the various factors leading to the positive attitude toward the company sponsoring social issues (Rifon, et.al., 2004; Dean, 2002), or the purchase intention (Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001).

A mediation model of the impact of for- and non-profit environmental advertisement • Andrea Maruniak, University of Missouri; Glenn Leshner, University of Missouri • This study tested how participants react to both non-profit and for-profit advertising in the domain of pro-social environmental marketing, and tested whether certain reactions predicted the likelihood that they will act on the behaviors requested by the ads. A second aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of non-profit environmental advertising to for-profit environmental advertising. The growth of environmental marketing has generated advancement for environmentally conscious advertisers and their products.

Presidential TV Commercials: Isolating the Key Lexical Characteristics of “Winners” and “Losers,” 1952-2004 • Dennis Lowry, Southern Illinois University; Md. Naser, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • Many studies have been conducted on presidential TV commercials, but analyzing the commercials in terms of “winners” versus “losers” has been largely overlooked. This study used Diction 5.0 lexical analysis software to analyze 1,027 presidential TV commercials from 1952 through 2004. Commercials of winners were significantly higher on “positive and dynamic” variables such as Inspiration, Accomplishment, Concreteness, and Activity, while losers tended to emphasize variables such as Self-reference, Tenacity, Cognition, and Passivity.

The Changing Face of the U.S. Military: A textual analysis of U.S. Army and Navy Recruiting Advertisements from pre-9-11 to six years into the Iraq War • Maryann Rowland, Louisiana State University; Lisa Lundy, Louisiana State University • This study examined changes in U.S. military recruiting advertisements on television during the eight-year period of the Bush administration. A comparative socio-historic analysis found that the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy responded to the downturn in military enlistment due to anti-war and anti-militarism climate by shifting the focus of message strategies in recruiting advertisements that aired on television.

Portrait of the Brand as an Extension of the Self: Effects of Self-Brand Connections and Argument Strength in Social Marketing • Christina Malik, UNC-Chapel Hill; Sriram Kalyanaraman, UNC-Chapel Hill • Research has shown that people’s relationships with brands are more complex than merely viewing the brand as favorable or unfavorable. We report results from an experiment that examined the interplay between self-brand connections (strong and weak SBCs) and argument strength (strong and weak arguments) in the context of a social marketing message. The results broadly support the heuristic systematic model (HSM) and suggest that both SBCs (heuristics) and arguments influenced persuasion, albeit in different ways.

I approve this message: Effects of sponsorship, ad tone, and reactance in 2008 presidential advertising • Patrick Meirick, University of Oklahoma; Gwendelyn Nisbett, University of Oklahoma • Existing research on the effects of candidate vs. third-party sponsorship of political ads has reached divergent conclusions. In this experiment (N = 198), political knowledge and sponsorship interacted such that high-knowledge respondents reacted more favorably to candidate-sponsored ads. Negative ads provoked more reactance and lower evaluations than positive ads.

Understanding High Sensation Seekers: Perceived Persuasiveness and Emotional Response to Blame and Attack Anti-tobacco Ads • Jensen Moore, West Virginia University • This study used 2 (SS – Low/High) X 2 (Message Type – Attack/Blame) X 2 (MSV – Low/High) repeated measures experimental design to examine what type of anti-tobacco message (i.e., Blame vs. Attack) and sensation levels would influence attitudes, behaviors, and emotional responses of High Sensation Seeking (SS) individuals – those most likely to currently smoke or smoke in the future.

Promoting Health (Implicitly)? A Longitudinal Content Analysis of Implicit Health Information in Cigarette Advertising, 1954-2003 • Hye-Jin Paek, Michigan State University; Leonard Reid, University of Georgia; Hojoon Choi, University of Georgia; Hyunju Jeong, Michigan State University • Health information in cigarette advertising is important because of its potential to impact consumers’ smoking-related perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors. This study analyzed implicit health information in cigarette magazine ads —”light” cigarette, cigarette pack color, verbal and visual health cues, cigarette portrayals, and human model-cigarette interaction—and changes in the use of those cues in ads across the five distinct smoking eras covering the years, 1954-2003.

Movies and MySpace: The Effectiveness of Official Websites versus Online Promotional Contests • Emily Mabry, Louisiana State University; Lance Porter, Louisiana State University • This study used a comparison of survey results from an official movie site and a movie contest promotion within a MySpace site to compare and contrast the effectiveness of the two online promotional tactics. Results found overall positive attitudes toward the sites produced more favorable intent to purchase and movie opening weekend behavior. In addition, the official website was more effective than the MySpace promotional page at increasing intent to see and attendance on opening weekend.

The Role of Mood and Gender in Consumer’s Information Processing: Exploring the Effects on Memory and Judgment • Sela Sar, Iowa State University; Brittany Duff, University of Illinois • Two experiments were conducted to explore the effects of mood and gender in information processing strategies, and to investigate their effects in memory and attitude toward advertising messages. Results indicated that people in positive mood and women were more likely to use the assimilative processing style whereas people in a negative mood and men tended to use the accommodative processing style. Implications for advertising strategies and measurement are discussed.

Put Them in a Positive Mood! Effects of Affective Conditioning Techniques on Cognitive and Emotional Responses to Print Ads • Mija Shin, Washington State University • This study examined how readers process print ads featuring various stimuli that generate emotions and how they evaluate the ads. Three stimuli (nature images, animated characters and celebrities) frequently seen in print ads were selected in this study and compared with the control ads. Taking the perspective of affective classical conditioning theory, this study predicted that the ads featuring these stimuli would be more effective than their counterparts (i.e., ads without such features).

Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices on Mobile Phone Companies • Alex Wang, University of Connecticut-Stamford • Despite the increasing importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices as an effective reputation management, there has been limited understanding about its impact on mobile phone companies. Research has identified ethical, discretionary, and relational practices as three main dimensions of CSR practices. This study examined the effects of consumers’ perceptions of these three dimensions on their attitudes toward mobile phone companies.

Predictors of Consumer Behavior of Avoiding Mobile Phone Ads: A Structural Causal Modeling Analysis• Ran Wei, University of South Carolina; Xiaoming Hao, Nanyang Technological University • This study explores predictors of consumer avoidance of mobile phone advertising with a structural modeling approach. The model underscores the effects of perceived goal impediment, perceived irritation, past negative experience, and privacy concerns on avoidance of mobile phone advertising. Using empirical data collected from a survey of 407 mobile phone users in Singapore, the theoretical model was tested.

What’s on the menu in food advertising on child-rated television programs? • Jan Wicks, University of Arkansas Journalism Department; Ron Warren, Univ. of Arkansas Communication Dept.; Ignatius Fosu, University of Arkansas; Robert Wicks, University of Arkansas • A content analysis of over 2,400 food advertisements on 10 broadcast and cable networks was conducted in 2008. The results suggest most disclaimers were not presented in dual modality or simultaneously in the ad’s audio and video content. Ads appearing in child-rated programs present more of the emotional appeals and production techniques that might distract youngsters from attending to disclaimers. Future research should examine whether these techniques and appeals divert children’s attention from disclaimers.

Are All Products Placed Equal?: The Integration Effects of Conspicuous Product Placement on Affective Brand Attitude • Sukki Yoon, Bryant University; Yung Kyun Choi, Dongguk University; Sujin Song, University of Rhode Island; Sangho Seo, Konkuk University • Using real movie scenes as stimuli, Study 1 demonstrates that consumer feelings toward the placed brand improve when the product is seamlessly integrated, but deteriorate when the product is intrusively integrated. Study 2 shows that poor integration’s brand-damaging can be reversed to a brand-enhancing effect if viewers are cognitively preoccupied with another task. Study 2 further suggests that poor integration’s reactance-induced boomerang effect might increase the affective evaluation of the not-shown competitor.

Gender Difference in College Students’ Interpretation of Alcohol Advertising • Yanjun Zhao, SUNY Morrisville • This study examined gender differences in college students’ interpretation of alcohol advertising. It followed the various mediating variables mapped out in Austin’s MIP model. A judgment-task survey by 94 college students was conducted in 2008. Results showed significant differences in identification with characters in ads and positive expectancies toward drinking. Future study should also pay attention to the important role of drinking pattern as a control variable.

Teaching
Quality of Work and Team Spirit as Drivers of Student Peer Evaluation on Advertising Group Project Performance • Jooyoung Kim, University of Georgia; Tae Hyun Baek, University of Georgia; Daehyun Kim, University of Georgia • Using advertising management and campaigns course students, this study investigates the dimensions of peer evaluation criteria used by college students, and examines their effects on overall peer evaluation under the influence of three moderating self-related concepts: self-esteem, self-competence, and goal orientations (i.e., learning goal orientation and performance goal orientation). The results from Study 1 suggest Quality of Work and Team Spirit as two important factors for students’ evaluation of their peers.

Experiential Learning and Advertising Media Sales: A Case Study Perspective • Bobbi Kay Lewis, Oklahoma State University • Experiential Learning Theory, largely based on the educational philosophy of John Dewey, Paulo Friere, and Carl Rogers, provides an understanding of how the process of learning works. David Kolb developed the Experiential Learning Model of experiential education that involves a cyclical approach including experience, reflection, abstract conceptualization and application in a new situation. This article applies the concept and the roots of experiential learning theory to the application of teaching advertising media sales. A case study illustrates the use of project-based curriculum using student media.

Crossed Swords: The Teaching of Creativity in Advertising Courses • Mark Stuhlfaut, University of Kentucky and Margo Berman, Florida International University • The study investigated teaching of creative strategy within undergraduate advertising courses at U.S. colleges and universities. Using Web-site information, 17 curricular structures were found, which indicate a lack of pedagogical consensus. Using 55 current syllabi, researchers analyzed goals, content, textbooks, and teaching methods. Copywriting and creative-strategy courses duplicated each other in all categories, suggesting that reorganization may be needed. The challenge for educators is to keep the teaching of creative strategy relevant and current. The study should be interesting to administrators who are restructuring their programs and to educators who are designing new curricula or who would like new idea for their courses.

Professional Freedom & Responsibility
Content Analysis of Male Domesticity and Fatherhood in Taiwanese Commercials: Family Man in Advertising? • Wanhsiu Tsai, University of Miami • This study examines how Taiwanese commercials represent women, and in particular, men, in the family context as spouses and parents. A content analysis of prime-time commercials is conducted. Advertising representations of gender roles have made only slight and slow progress. Men are much less likely than women to be shown doing housework and taking care of children. Although men are shown as nurturant fathers, their involvements with children are limited to playing with children.

Regulatory Focus and Proportional Representation: Can Minority Status Affect Motivation in Female Creatives? • Kasey Windels, DePaul University; Wei-Na Lee, The University of Texas at Austin • Females are underrepresented in advertising agencies by a ratio of 2.3 to 1. This paper examines the impact of gender proportions on motivational regulatory focus. It is hypothesized that group gender proportions can induce regulatory focus. Whereas minority proportions should induce a prevention focus, majority proportions should induce a promotion focus. Results of an experiment support this assumption. The possible impact of minority status and a prevention focus on female creatives in advertising is discussed.

Are Food Commercials Healthy Enough? – Health Information Manifested in TV Food Ads Aiming at Children • Jay (Hyunjae) Yu, Louisiana State University • Since TV food advertising has been accused by several groups to be one of the major factors influencing children’s unhealthy eating habits and even obesity, the food companies kept promising to make some changes by including more health information for children in the content of their advertising. However, there have not been enough empirical studies investigating if the advertisements actually contain health-related messages and information for their major target audience, children.

Special Topics
Sponsortising or Advership: The Views of One Collegiate Athletic Program’s Corporate Supporters • Glenda Alvarado, University of South Carolina • The line between sponsorship and advertising is one that is burred. Researchers and practitioners offer a definition that is separate and allows for some kind of clarity. When looking at the sponsoring businesses, the focus on what constitutes a sponsorship begins to disappear.

Art Museum Marketing Communication: an account planner’s perspective • Jim Avery, University of Oklahoma • Art museums have adopted a new level of sophisticated marketing in order to increase revenue and attract new audiences. This paper seeks to identify the information necessary to determine marketing strategy for art museums by learning: 1. who are the target group(s) 2. what is the criteria this audience uses to make decisions 3. what is unique about art museums This paper addresses these issues by conducting in-depth interviews with high level art museum marketing professionals.

“Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet”: A History of Advertising’s Most Controversial Campaign • Fred Beard, University of Oklahoma; Anna Klyueva, University of Oklahoma • This historical study examines arguably the most controversial advertising campaign of all time. Critics have condemned The American Tobacco Company’s “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet” campaign for its explicit attempt to encourage smoking among women by linking cigarettes with themes of slenderness and youth.

Been There. Haven’t Done That Yet: An Innovative Technique for Introducing The Creative Process into 21st Century Education • Linda Correll, affiliation • There’s a change in the air. Creativity has become a hot commodity, and 21st century education must update itself to introduce students to the 21st century skills they will need to compete successfully in the global business arena. Creative Aerobics is an evolutionary idea generation system that lets users create, on demand, in a comfortable, relaxed brainstorming environment. It is a cross-cultural, process-driven system that exponentially increases results.

The Abercrombie Effect: Consumer Responses to “Gay Vague” Imagery in Advertising • Glenn Griffin, SMU; Jacqueline Lambiase, University of North Texas; Kartik Pashupati, Southern Methodist University • Advertising that uses “gay vague” imagery in an effort to appeal to both straight and gay consumers is popular among fashion brands, most notably by U.S. clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. This study analyzes consumers’ responses to “gay vague” ads, their “reading strategies” for images, and how the strategy affects attitude toward the brand (Ab).

Insights from Venus for Academic Creative Directors • Jean Grow, Marquette University • This study addresses gender issues in creative departments based on the interviews of 21 top creative women from the United States and Canada. Content analysis of interviews led to six thematic categories related to creative work, gender and personality. The study defines some of the unspoken rules of the creative game. It suggests the need for an evolution to a fluid and open creative domain, extending beyond the constraining bonds of gender-bound creative culture.

Will digital media change the world for creative women? An exploratory study. • Karen Mallia, University of South Carolina • Advertising watchers have seen seismic changes in the business since the dawn of digital media. New channels have rapidly supplanted traditional media, as advertising has moved beyond rudimentary Internet display ads into the likes of viral video and social networking. While many have studied new creative products, few have investigated whether the creative process has changed, as new players nudge out traditional agencies and traditional agencies struggle to reinvent themselves.

Cultural Values of Generation Y Reflecting in iPod Commercials • Nutthanun Rajanakorn, University of Tennessee • Semiotic analytical method was utilized to investigate 20 iPod TV commercials to reveal the cultural values of Generation Y. Five crucial elements from iPod TV commercials: language, color, characters, movements, and shot were identified, and interpreted into first level meanings, which are the silhouettes, the movements and shot, and the music. Further analysis revealed the underlying themes associated with Gen Y’s cultural values: individualism, diversity, optimism, fun, and freedom.

Is the Television Ratings Industry Facing Structural Change? • Dan Shaver, Jönköping International Business School/MMTC • Although the audience research industry is competitive, the segment of that industry that produces television/video ratings data is essentially monopolistic in structure. This study examines whether a convergence of changes in audience consumption patterns, dissatisfaction with current measurement techniques and data by those who buy it and technological innovation are creating a situation where competitive challenges to current measurement firms may emerge.

Teens and Trends: Measuring Innovativeness • Amy Struthers, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • This study is part of a long-term research agenda aimed at better understanding consumer trends, and the small segment of people who create and advance trends. In particular, this quantitative study is an exploration of what characteristics teenage trend leaders possess. The researchers addressed the problem of finding an effective methodology and measurement tools that could be used to discover this important information about teenagers.

How Can We Make People Better Recognize and Recall Advertising Disclaimers? -The Possible Influences of Humor in Ads and Disclamiers’ Repetition • Jay (Hyunjae) Yu, Louisiana State University • This experimental study, a 2*2 factorial design, focuses on young adults’ (between ages 20 and 27) recognition and recall of disclaimers in television advertising (e.g., “Keep Your Pace. Please Drink Responsibly”). As a stimulus for the experiment, humor was applied to advertising to determine if participants are better able to recognize and memorize advertising disclaimers. In addition, the participants were divided into two other groups: the treatment being exposed either once or twice to advertising disclaimers.

Student Papers
The Influence of Advertising Spacing on Candidate Evaluation • Juliana Fernandes, University of Florida • An experimental study investigates the influence of message spacing on candidate evaluation. Participants watched a 30-min TV show with one, three, or five insertions of a negative political advertisement. Repetitions of the advertisement were close together (massive presentation) or spread out (spaced presentation). Results show that massive presentations can harm the sponsor and benefit the target candidate. Spaced presentations greatly benefit the sponsor candidate and may produce a backlash effect toward the target candidate.

A Structural Model of the Communication Process in the Context of Internet Advertising • Jun Heo, University of Florida • This research develops a structural equation model that examines the causal relations among motives for using the Internet, Internet involvement, and outcomes such as media usage time and attitude toward Internet advertising. The results show that certain ritualistic motives predict affective involvement in the Internet, whereas certain instrumental motives predict cognitive involvement.

Transportation and Selective Interest in Advertising: The Cultivation of Consumerist Values through Genre-Specific Media Use • Fan Hu, Hong Kong Baptist University; Ning Wang, Hong Kong Baptist University • This research delineates what media use influences values judgments and what values judgments are influenced by media use. The specific media genre of beauty and fashion magazines is examined for spreading consumerist values of materialism and beauty-and-thin ideal. Two media variables—transportation and interest in advertisements—are used to gain new insights into cultivation processes. Traditional cultivation survey is employed. Young women, both college students and non-students are included in the sample (n = 413).

Incidental Exposure Effects of Brand Placement: Comparisons of incidental exposure effects between familiar and unfamiliar brands placed in a televised sports program • Dae-Hee Kim, University of Florida • For the purpose of extending knowledge about the effects of incidental exposure, a laboratory experiment using incidental brand exposures in a TV sports program was conducted. By manipulating brand familiarity and exposure frequency for the stimuli, attitude toward brands and brand choices were measured. The results indicate that the effects of incidental exposure can be observed only for familiar brands, not for unfamiliar brands. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Our Brand or Their Brand? Consumers’ Responses to Negative Online Product Reviews Regarding Domestic versus Foreign Brands • Mikyoung Kim, Michigan State University • This study examines how different cues influence consumers’ responses to negative online reviews. The results demonstrated that under high consensus condition, a negative review of the foreign brand led highly ethnocentric consumers’ brand attitudes to deteriorate compared to a negative review of the domestic brand. Contrarily, no such difference emerged for less ethnocentric consumers. Under low consensus condition, both highly and less ethnocentric consumers did not show different patterns of attitude change.

Attacking or Self-Promoting? The Impact of Political Advertising on Candidate Evaluation and the Likelihood of Voting • Yonghwan Kim, University of Texas at Austin; Hsuan-Ting Chen, University of Texas at Austin • This experimental study examines whether negative advertising is effective for candidates, especially for challengers, and investigates the influence of issue relevance in negative political advertising. Results indicate that when advertising sponsored by a challenger was perceived as negative, individuals’ likelihood of voting for that candidate decreased.

Attribute-Goal Framing and Gain-Loss Framing Effects in DTC HPV Vaccine Drug Advertising • Kenneth Kim, University of Florida • The present study attempts to explore the interactive effect of gain-loss framing domain with the attribute-goal framing tactic on the persuasive outcomes associated with DTC HPV vaccine drug advertising. An experiment was designed with a 2 (framing tactic: attribute versus goal framing) × 2 (framing domain: gain versus loss framing) between-subjects design, exploring the interactive effects of framing tactic and framing domain on the consumer’s attitude toward HPV vaccination prescription drug, DTC-promoted behavior intentions.

Why People Pass Along Online Video Ads: from the Perspective of the Theory of Reasoned Action • Joonghwa Lee, University of Missouri; Chang Dae Ham, University of Missouri at Columbia; Mikyoung Kim, Michigan State University • This study employed the Theory of Reasoned Action to explore factors influencing consumers’ intention to pass along online video ads. Structural equation modeling test results indicated that attitude and subjective norm positively influenced intention. Among six expected outcomes (pleasure, affection, inclusion, escape, relaxation, and control) identified using the interpersonal communication motives (ICM) scale, only pleasure and escape had positive impacts on attitude. Finally, normative beliefs had positive influences on subjective norm. Implications are also discussed.

The Image of African-American Females in Advertising: A Content Analysis of African-American Magazines in 2007 • Mia Long, The University of Alabama; Cynthia Nichols, The University of Alabama; Creshema Murray, The University of Alabama; Terra Moody, University of Alabama • Throughout the years, the image of the African-American in advertising has changed from subservient roles to those of various occupations. The present study sought to examine the representation and portrayal of the African-American female in magazine advertising. Researchers analyzed advertisements in Ebony, Essence, Vibe, and XXL magazine for the frequency of African-American females and the presentation of African-American females in terms of status, occupation, setting, interaction, and sexual and family roles.

National vs. Local: The Representation of African-Americans in Advertising in The New York Times and The Advocate • Pavel Mrazek, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge/Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic • African-Americans are present in media and advertising more than ever before. However, the frequency and quality of their representation varies among different media outlets. This study investigates how blacks are represented in newspaper advertisements compared to the white majority. The main focus is placed on the comparison between the representation of African-Americans in advertising in a national newspaper (The New York Times) and a local newspaper from a state with high black population (The Advocate).

Impact of Ad Appeal and Brand Familiarity on the Attitude toward Brand and Advertising • Eun Soo Rhee, University of Florida • Previous studies have yielded conflicting findings regarding the effects of ad appeal and brand familiarity on attitudes toward the ad and the brand. Some studies found that familiar brands produced favorable brand attitudes while others found that unfamiliar brands produced favorable brand attitudes. Therefore, this study attempts to solve the reasons for conflicting findings. Specifically, this study focuses on the interaction between ad appeal and brand familiarity.

The Role of Self Esteem and Self Construal in Effects of Celebrity Endorsement • Nam-Hyun Um, The University of Texas at Austin • The present study is an initial effort to explore how self-esteem (low vs. high) and self-construals (independent vs. interdependent) influence the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. Until now, little has been known about the psychological function of self-esteem and self-construals. The author suggests that self-esteem and self-construal play a decisive role in the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement.

If the shoe fits: Strategic uses of spokesmodels in magazine shoe ads • Lisa Wortman, University of Massachusetts-Amherst • Marketers strategically place spokesmodels in magazine advertising to appeal to consumer groups such as the readers of women’s, men’s, and teen girl magazines. Relying on a content analysis of shoe advertisements published in five magazine titles from April 2006 to March 2007, ads in women’s fashion and beauty magazines were found to rely most heavily on spokesmodels when compared to teen fashion and beauty titles, and men’s sports and fitness titles.

The Role of Presence in Anaglyph 3-D Advertising on Consumer Evaluations • Mark Yi-Cheon Yim, University of Texas at Austin • In order to avoid the reduced uses as a major advertising tool, traditional media are struggling to evolve themselves by adopting new formats of advertising based on technological or technical advancements. The current study introduces anaglyph three dimensional (3-D) magazine advertising that allows ad viewers to sense the true depth of objects. We investigated the impact of this new format of advertising on attitude toward ad, brand, and, purchase intention via entertainment and information routes.

<< 2009 Abstracts

Communication Theory and Methodology 2009 Abstracts

Communication Theory & Methodology Division

The Blame Game: Media Rituals and Blame in Recurrent Technological Disasters • Mary Grace Antony, Washington State University • This study analyzed how blame patterns emerge and develop in recurring technological disasters, specifically the 2008 Manhattan crane collapses. A quantitative content analysis examined newspaper coverage in the New York Daily News and The New York Times following each disaster. Results corroborated the principal tenets of Attribution Theory (Heider, 1958; Hindman, 2003) and the media as societal guard dog theory (Donohue et al., 1995). The implications of these results and future research opportunities are discussed.

An Integrative Model of Ambivalence • Young Min Baek, University of Pennsylvania • Ambivalence is a widely experienced psychological state, but inter-disciplinary studies define and conceptualize ambivalence separately. In spite of its ambiguity, ambivalence has become an increasingly popular concept, utilized in hypotheses concerning a variety of social phenomena. This paper overviews extant studies on ambivalence, and summarizes the similarities and differences between social psychology, political science, and sociology in adopting the concept.

Synthesizing Presence: A Cross-Disciplinary Review of the Literature • Dennis Beck, Boise State University; Paul Fishwick, University of Florida; Rasha Kamhawi, University of Florida; Amy Jo Coffey, University of Florida; Julie Henderson, University of Florida; Benjamin Hamilton, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) • This multidisciplinary literature review satisfies a need for a comprehensive, integrated understanding of “presence,” a concept applicable to virtual reality studies. Eighty peer-reviewed articles from five academic disciplines were analyzed, and their presence definitions compared and contrasted. While presence was sometimes based on specific qualities, it was elsewhere based on application or function. Scholars are encouraged to use the synthesized definitions presented here to formulate research questions that advance our understanding of presence theory.

Differentiating measures of news media use along dimensions of attention and exposure, medium, and content domains • Andrew Binder, University of Wisconsin-Madison • In spite of much progress in the development of media-effects theories in the past few decades, research has neglected to address important questions related to the measurement of news media use in survey instruments. This points to a variety of problems addressed in this paper. First is the changing landscape of the media environment with the advent of the Internet as a major source of news for audiences.

Attention to exemplars: Moderating effects of information processing and personal involvement in exemplification • Porismita Borah, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ashley Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jiun-Yi Tsai, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Al Gunther, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The goal of this study is two fold—(1) to examine the influence of news-article exemplars on individuals’ judgments and (2) to explore the moderating roles of information processing and personal relevance in exemplification.

Framing as a distinct social influence process: The role of the individual • Porismita Borah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Although the consistently growing literature on framing adds to the allure of the theory, the range of multiple approaches is “both a blessing and a curse”. The present article examines the extant literature on framing to answer one central question—in what ways is framing a distinct process of social influence? In order to examine this question the article attempts to explore where frames come from in the first place and how they influence audience members.

Implications of perceived fairness and issue importance for media and interpersonal information seeking • Michael Boyle, West Chester University; Mike Schmierbach, Penn State University • Information seeking is driven by a number of factors including perceived utility and issue importance. Much of this work has considered general measures of information seeking across broad contexts. This paper extends that by considering information seeking about a specific issue deemed important by the study participant. In addition, we consider three contexts for information seeking: media-driven, interpersonal, and online discussion.

Consensual Invasion – A path model of how Facebook users conceptualize and contextualize privacy • Christopher Brott, University of Kansas • Repeatedly, privacy issues associated with the social network site Facebook have attracted attention from both researchers and the popular press. However, little is known about how users of these sites conceptualize privacy and protect their personal information. Based on focus group and survey data, this study proposes a new path model to explain Facebook users’ concept of online privacy.

A Comparison of Two Perspectives on the Concept of Need for Orientation • Gennadiy Chernov, University of Regina; Sebastian Valenzuela, University of Texas at Austin; Maxwell McCombs, School of Journalism, The University of Texas at Austin • Need for orientation (NFO) is a contingent condition for agenda-setting effects. This concept has been explicated recently to include three dimensions. The current experimental study tested how comparable the traditional and new NFO scales are, and how strongly they predict agenda-setting effects. Findings indicate that both NFO scales are reliable tools for predicting first-level agenda-setting effects and they both are significantly correlated with each other.

Framing Groups as Distinctive: Implications of Optimal Distinctiveness Theory for Persuasive Communication • Maria Leonora Comello, The Ohio State University • Optimal Distinctiveness Theory posits that valued groups are those that can satisfy needs to belong and to be different. Persuasive messages with a social-identity theme should therefore frame the group accordingly. This strategy was examined in a drug-prevention context using ads that framed non-users as a distinctive or majority group. Distinctive framing lowered willingness to use drugs among non-users, and served as a source of identity threat (contingent on gender) among users.

Testing the Limits of “Post Broadcast Democracy”: Adolescents, Media Choice, and Participatory Engagement • Stephanie Edgerly, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, SJMC; Ming Wang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Emily Thorson, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania; Dhavan Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study seeks to replicate Prior’s (2007) conditional learning model using panel data from12-17 year olds. We find no support for the interaction between Relative Entertainment Preference (REP) and media access on levels of political knowledge. We do, however, find REP to be an unstable preference that is negatively related to levels of political talk and participation. Implications are discussed in terms of the political socialization of adolescences and future studies on media preferences.

Beyond Deliberation: New Directions for the Study of Informal Political Conversation from a Communication Perspective • William Eveland, The Ohio State University; Alyssa Morey, Ohio State University; Myiah Hively, The Ohio State University • The past two decades have witnessed important contributions to our understanding of political discussion and its effects. However, in many ways we have yet to scratch the surface of what we need to learn. Here we will briefly review the state of the political discussion literature.

Geo-identity and Media Use: Modeling the Process of Political and Civic Participation in the • Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin • In recent years scholars have assessed the influence of people’s media use to crucial aspects of the political realm. Research has generally shown that news consumption is positively related to certain attitudes (e.g. interpersonal discussion) mediating the effects toward political participation. Similarly, scholars have also provided evidence of the importance of social identity in issues pertaining to in-group/out-group and its potential in the participatory arena.

Old Theory, New Use: An Uses & Gratifications Revival in a New Media World? • Geoffrey Graybeal, University of Georgia • This paper is a critical review and analysis of the Uses and Gratifications Theory. The paper examines the history, current academic debate, recent applications and future directions for one of the most used mass communication theories of the past 50 years. This paper argues that the traditional theory of U&G remains an appropriate theoretical perspective to study mass communication issues in a new media world.

Influences of Audience Feedback on News Content in Traditional and New Media: A Theoretical Evaluation • Gang (Kevin) Han, Greenlee School of Journalism & Communication, Iowa State University; Donald Holeman, S.I.Newhouse School of Public Communication, Syracuse U. • By explicating the concept of feedback both outside and inside of the mass communication field and assessing several theoretical perspectives that are related to feedback, audience and news production, this study outlines a new theoretical framework examining the role of audience’s feedback plays in news production for both traditional and new media. This study characterizes the computer-mediated mass media and suggests a variety of attributes of audience’s feedback.

Measuring Change: What’s Possible with Multiple Waves of Data and its Application to Political Communication • Myiah Hively, The Ohio State University • Given that role of change is central to many communication theories, it perhaps goes without saying that being able to effectively model change is critical for scholars’ ability to effectively test and refine theories. The most current methodological research suggests that the most effective way to model change utilizes multi-wave data and the use of latent growth models, which allows researchers to examine differences in change within and between individuals.

The influence of health consciousness on individual processing of television health news and message acceptance • Hyehyun Hong, University of Missouri • The purpose of this study is to examine the role of health consciousness in processing TV news that contains potential health threats and preventive recommendations. Based on the Extended Parallel Process Model (Witte, 1992), the relationships among health consciousness, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived response efficacy, perceived self-efficacy, and message acceptance were hypothesized. Using the bootstrapping analysis (Hayes & Preacher, 2006), this study revealed three mediators in the relationship between health consciousness and message acceptance.

The Development of Media Framing Theory Research • Jiran Hou, University of Georgia • Based on the recent studies of media framing (1998-2008), this study further develops the framing process model proposed by Scheufele in 1999 and extends its use in this continually evolving media landscape.

Testing Regulatory Focus Theory in Interactive 3D Virtual Environments • Seung-A Jin, Boston College • Online virtual worlds have great potential as sites for research in social, behavioral sciences as well as in human-computer interaction. Drawing from the regulatory focus theory, the present study tested the role of regulatory fit in 3D virtual environments by manipulating the fit between experimentally primed regulatory focus and means for goal pursuit.

The mediating role of knowledge and efficacy in an O-S-R-O-R model of political participation • Nakwon Jung, The University of Texas at Austin; Yonghwan Kim, University of Texas at Austin; Jae Kook Lee, The University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin • This study investigates mediating roles of political knowledge and efficacy between communication variables and online and offline political participation within the framework of an O-S-R-O-R model. Results from structural equation modeling analysis indicate that including political knowledge and efficacy significantly improved the model fit. We also found that while data supported all variables of news media use and discussion significantly predicted efficacy, political knowledge was significantly associated only with offline political discussion.

The Influence of Source Credibility and Controversial Content on the Third-person Effect • Guan-Soon Khoo, Pennsylvania State University; Utkarsh Subnis, Pennsylvania State University • Does increasing social distance produce a greater third person effect (TPE) only when the message content is controversial? A 2x2x5 mixed-design experiment revealed a significant influence of source credibility, controversial content and social distance on TPE. Controversial content was demonstrated as an important moderating variable, producing higher TPE for the high credibility condition compared to low credibility condition. The study raises important implications for the design of pro-social messages.

Reactance and the Hostile Media Effect: Placing the Effect within the Theory • William Kinnally, University of Central Florida; Laura Arpan, Florida State University • This project examined whether the theory of reactance can be used to explain the hostile media effect (HME). Two studies representing traditional and relative HME contexts examined whether variables associated with reactance such as personality characteristics, involvement, and social power were related to bias judgments that are commonly associated with the HME. Partisanship and third-person effect in the HME were used as parallels to involvement and social power in reactance. Partisanship was strongly correlated to involvement.

Agenda Setting, Issue Ownership, and Priming: Exploring Linkages and Impact on Vote Choice • Spiro Kiousis, U of Florida; Jesper Stromback, Mid Sweden University; Michael McDevitt, University of Colorado • The current study examines agenda-setting, issue ownership, and priming processes in impacting vote choice using panel data during the 2006 Swedish national elections. Specifically, a model is developed probing the multiple influences of news attention and discussion on issue salience, party evaluation, candidate evaluation, and vote decision. The results suggest that the synthesis of these perspectives offers a valuable framework for understanding critical mechanisms predicting ballot choice.

Processes of Communicative Socialization: A Communication Mediation Approach to Youth Civic Engagement • Nam-Jin Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dhavan Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison • By analyzing data from a national panel survey of adolescents and their parents conducted around the 2008 election season, this study explores the processes in which a range of communicative activities, from talking politics at home or in school to consuming conventional and digital news content, cultivate civic activism among adolescents. Results indicate that communication among adolescent citizens, both face-to-face and online, mediates the effects of the factors pertaining to key socializing agents on civic engagement.

First-person Perceptions and Self-enhancement Explanation • Sangki Lee, Arkansas Tech University • The present study explored the self-enhancement explanation for first-person perceptions in an experimental setting. The self-enchantment motivation was manipulated using two different methods. The study found that needs for self-enhancement play a role in people’s perceptions of media influences. Particularly people who are high in self-esteem tended to enhance their positive self-view more evidently than do people who are low in self-esteem in a way that is consistent with the ego-defensive mechanism.

Voters’ attribution of responsibility for a political sex scandal and opinions about the impeachment • Joon Soo Lim, Middle Tennessee State University; Moon Lee, Washington State University; Hyun Jung Chae, Middle Tennessee State University • We investigated how individuals, observing a political sex scandal, would make biased attributions of responsibility based on their group identity, prior vote choice, and partisan media use. Two logit models were tested using 2000 ANES Pilot Study data. Results supported all the hypotheses, demonstrating the effects of individuals’ motivational and cognitive biases along with regular listening to political talk radio on predicting attributions of responsibility and subsequent judgment on the punishment of the politician.

Analysis of Strength of Attribute Salience among Elite News Web sites in terms of Attention and Prominence Levels • Jeongsub Lim, Austin Peay State University • The question of to what extent elite news Web sites cover similar attributes on their main posting sections has received scant attention despite the presumed influence of the Web sites on public opinion. This study examines this question by measuring attribute salience in terms of two conditions: attention level only and both attention and prominence levels.

The Click and the Vicissitudes of Object a • Ke-Ming Lin, National United University, Department of Taiwan Language and Communication • Why are people so addicted to “Net surfing” or “mouse clicking”? The article seeks to argue that it is the empty touch, manifested in the action of the mouse click, which leads people to repeat the action of web surfing. Lacan’s concept of object a is also introduced in order to understand why the emptiness becomes a source to lure people.

Three peas in a pod?: Toward a theory that guides effective public relations practices via the three sectors • Brooke Liu, DePaul University; Teresa Mastin, DePaul University • Public relations scholars herald the critical link between theory and practice, yet practitioners continue to downplay and, sometimes, negate the relevance of public relations theory to practice. One major roadblock to integration of theory into practice is that current dominant theories predominately treat the public relations practice as universal, ignoring the effect of the environment (e.g., public, nonprofit, or private sector) on how public relations is practiced in different sectors.

Bringing Media Effects into Terror Management Theory: Video Threats, Mortality Salience and Support for Torture • Michael McCluskey, Ohio State University; Jay Hmielowski, Ohio State University; Rachel Lichtenfeld, Ohio State University • More than 300 articles have been published on Terror Management Theory, yet just one used video content as a prime to trigger mortality salience. Experiment shows that separate videos from the TV show “24” depicting societal and individual threats raised mortality salience to a similar level as traditional paper-based prime. Analysis shows subjects in mortality salience condition gave greater support to some torture policies and tactics than control group.

Attention, Attitude and Behavior: Second-level Agenda-Setting Effects as a Mediator of Media Use and Political Participation • Soo Jung Moon, University of West Georgia • This study explicates the process ranging from media use to political participation by relying upon second-level agenda-setting. The model suggests the following sequence of C(cognitive)-A(affective)-B (behavior): News attention of presidential candidates affects second-level agenda-setting effects (cognitive dimension) on readers/viewers; in turn, agenda-setting effects trigger strong attitudes (affective dimension) toward the candidates among the public and, finally, strong attitudes lead to various types of political behaviors.

Does Tobacco Use Influence Cognitive Processing of Traditional vs. Counter Anti-tobacco Ads? • Jensen Moore, West Virginia University • Previous research comparing traditional “Blame” anti-tobacco advertisements that conceptualize smoking problems and consequences as caused by the individual to the new “Attack” ads that challenge the institutions behind tobacco products produced conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of both types of messages. The current study seeks to inform as to what overall message type (i.e., Blame vs. Attack) is likely to influence individuals who currently smoke or are likely to smoke in the future.

What Drives Political Discussion: The Influence of Social, Informational, and Epistemic Motivations • Alyssa Morey, Ohio State University; William Eveland, The Ohio State University; Myiah Hively, The Ohio State University • This paper examines the influence of motivational needs on different dimensions of political discussion. Study 1 examines the influence of two social motivations, willingness to self-censor and fear of social isolation. Study 2 expands Study 1 by re-examining social motivations as well as investigating motivations of need for cognition and need to evaluate, and the epistemic needs of dogmatism and post-materialism.

Online Social Networks Increase Political Participation • Lindsay Newport, Louisiana State University; Rosanne Scholl, Manship School of Mass Communication, LSU • Users of social network sites may be less likely to participate in politics due to time displacement or cynicism-producing opposition, or more likely due to exposure to motivating information and talk. Survey data show that dependence on a social network increases both online and offline participation, but time spent on the site does not, even when controlling for news use, Internet use, and political talk. Democratic benefits of involvement in social network sites are discussed.

Challenging the State: Transnational TV, Transnational Identity, and Public Opinion in the Middle East • Erik Nisbet, Ohio State University; Teresa Myers, Ohio State University • This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding how the rise of transnational media influences processes of mediated identity formation and the consequences for national identity and public opinion. We apply our framework to test the effects of transnational Arab TV in the Middle East.

Exploring Priming Effectiveness According to Media Modality and Valence • Temple Northup, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Francesca Dillman Carpentier, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • There is a substantial body of literature that has demonstrated media act as primes that affect our thoughts or behaviors. Yet, relatively little attention has been paid to questions such as ‘which media content are more effective primes than others’ among the sea of media messages with which we are bombarded.

Re-examining the Role of Interpersonal Communications in “Time-of-Voting Decision” Studies • Poong Oh, University of Southern California • This study re-examined the findings of previous “time-of-voting decision” studies with two important changes. First, it treated the “time-of-voting decision” as a dependent variable rather than an independent variable. Second, it added a new variable – level of heterogeneity within one’s interpersonal political communication networks. This new variable was made possible by a series of special questions added to the 2000 American National Election Study dataset.

Exploring Factors in the Hostile Media Phenomenon: Partisanship, Political Engagement and Media Use Patterns • Hyun Jee Oh, University of Missouri; Jongmin Park, Kyung Hee University; Wayne Wanta, University of Missouri • Using survey data from 2000 and 2007, this study examines individual-level variables influencing the magnitude of the hostile media phenomenon. HMP was found for Republicans in 2000 and 2007 and Democrats in 2000, but not in 2007, perhaps because of the extensive coverage of the Democratic presidential candidates prior to the primaries. High political engagement was also related to HMP.

Adolescents’ Use of Sexually Explicit Internet Material and Sexual Uncertainty: The Role of Transportation and Gender • Jochen Peter, University of Amsterdam; Patti Valkenburg, University of Amsterdam • Recent research has shown that adolescents’ use of sexually explicit material (SEIM) is associated with an important characteristic of the developing sexual self, sexual uncertainty. However, the causal relation between SEIM and sexual uncertainty is unclear. Moreover, we do not know which processes underlie this relationship and whether gender moderates these processes. Based on a three-wave panel survey among 956 Dutch adolescents, structural equation modeling revealed that greater exposure to SEIM increased adolescents’ sexual uncertainty.

Modeling the Effects of Online Information Use and Expression on Young Adults’ Political Efficacy • Yushu Zhou, Washington State University; Bruce Pinkleton, Washington State University • This study advanced an O-S-R-O (orientations-stimuli-reasoning-orientations) model to examine the roles of political information consumption and online political expression in young adults’ political decision making and also explored the information mediation process. One online survey was conducted in one large northwestern university (n=434).

Can a Constructed Week Sample Produce Qualitatively Inaccurate Results when Content Analyzing Race and Ethnicity? • Paula Poindexter, University of Texas at Austin; Ingrid Bachmann, University of Texas at Austin • This study compared a census and a constructed week as content selection methods when analyzing racial and ethnic diversity in news coverage. There was no statistical difference in the two content selection methods but there was a qualitative difference. The constructed week undercounted African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.

When There’s Little to Fear: How Perceived Tolerance of Others Moderates Fear of Social Isolation in the Spiral of Silence • Jason Reineke, Middle Tennessee State University; Alyssa Morey, Ohio State University; Kenneth Blake, Middle Tennessee State University; Robert Wyatt, Middle Tennessee State University • Spiral of silence theory posits that when individuals perceive their opinion to be in the minority or losing favor they will tend to withhold those opinions due to fear of social isolation. However, we propose that if the group is perceived to be tolerant, and thus unlikely to exclude or otherwise punish the individual for an incongruent opinion, there is little reason why the individual should fear social isolation or withhold her or his opinion.

Perspective Taking, Personal Distress and Positive Affect: Clarifying Factors in Transportation • Melanie Sarge, The Ohio State University; Daniel McDonald, The Ohio State University • This study provides insight into the relationship between empathy and transportation and the role positive affect plays in this relationship. A mediation analysis is conducted revealing an indirect effect of the perspective taking dimension of empathy on transportation through positive affect. Further, moderated mediation effects are demonstrated when empathy’s personal distress dimension is added to this relationship. Personal distress is shown to moderate this indirect effect of perspective taking on transportation through positive affect.

Understanding issue-specific information seeking in an election context • Mike Schmierbach, Penn State University; Michael Boyle, West Chester University • Even as media content becomes increasingly diversified, few models in political communication treat news at a granular level, instead clumping entire media together. In this study, we propose several factors that might explain why people seek content on specific issues, focusing on prior attitudes regarding news coverage.

Innovation and Normalization Reconsidered: Examining the Evolution of Party-Centered E-Campaigning in German Elections • Eva Johanna Schweitzer, University of Mainz, Germany • This paper challenges the traditional innovation and normalization paradigm of e-campaigning by a longitudinal analysis of German party Web sites. The results suggest two theoretical revisions: First, innovation and normalization do not represent mutually exclusive opposites, but rather form a dynamic conceptual continuum which signifies parallel stages in the development of online campaigning. Second, this continuum is affected by the Web site dimension as well as by the status of the political actors being observed.

Beyond Coethnic Boundaries:Coethnic Social Context, Ethnic Media and Asian Americans’ Political Participation • Mihye Seo, University at Albany • This paper examines when and where Asian Americans’ strong ties with their own ethnic groups help and hurt their political participation. Using Pilot National Asian American Political Survey (PNAAPS) data, this paper found that coethnic contexts measured by ethnically homogeneous residential area, friendship, and ethnic media helped Asian-related political awareness, which in turn facilitated engagement in Asian-relevant political activities.

Television Viewers’ Motivational Disposition and Media Message Processing • Mija Shin, Washington State University • Taking the perspective of LC4MP, this study investigated whether individuals’ motivational dispositions lead to different physiological and cognitive responses to media messages. Television viewers possess differential activation functions of the appetitive and the aversive system. In LC4MP, individuals’ different motivational dispositions are defined using the two concepts of positivity offset and negativity bias. Positivity offset indicates differential activation functions in the appetitive system among individuals whereas negativity bias relates to aversive activation.

Networks that Matter: How Online and Offline Discussions among Citizens Relate to Political Engagement • Sebastian Valenzuela, University of Texas at Austin; Yonghwan Kim, University of Texas at Austin; Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin • We examine how face-to-face and computer-mediated discussion networks relate to traditional and online political participation. Using original survey data from a large national sample of U.S. adults, we find evidence that offline and online discussion networks contribute to both forms of participation. Network size, discussion with people outside family and friends, and demographic diversity among discussants are particularly consequential.

No Laughing Matter: The Rhetoric of Comedy in the Movie Hitch • Tammy Vigil, Boston University • The popular equation of comedy and humor leads to misunderstandings and misinterpretations of what it means for rhetoric to be comic rather than tragic. This essay explores various perspectives on comedy to develop a coherent and applicable definition of comedy from a rhetorical perspective. Relying primarily on the works of Kenneth Burke and Hugh Duncan, the definition posited here focuses on the didactic function of comedy as a frame of acceptance.

Emotions vs. cognitions? Testing competing models of response to a media message in predicting participation • Emily Vraga, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kjerstin Thorson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, SJMC; Timothy Fung, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Hans Meyer, University of Missouri • This study tests an enduring debate about the role of emotions and cognitions as a response to a media message, as well as their subsequent effects on encouraging political participation. Specifically, we test the process of mediation between cognition and emotion in response to an uncivil partisan attack. Our study suggests that cognitive evaluations partially mediate emotional reactions, but that both play a role – funneled through negative feelings – in predicting participation.

Party preference dissonance, news exposure, and media perceptions: Message response during the 2008 presidential campaign • Emily Vraga, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study uses an experiment to test whether an attack to an individual’s party identification can interact with exposure to a news story covering political advertisements by a preferred or opposing candidate to affect ratings of story credibility, media trust, and media bias. Path analyses suggest that the combination of a partisan attack and dissonant news exposure impacts ratings of story credibility and indirectly influences media perceptions, but these effects were centered among Republicans.

Sample sizes for content analysis of two online newspaper sites • Xiaopeng Wang, University of South Florida St. Petersburg • This study compared multiple sample sizes on the home pages of The New York Times and Los Angels Times and found that a sample of 14 consecutive days was effective and efficient for an analysis of a daily updated newspaper site’s content, during a one-year period of time. Generalizing the results to other Web content analyses may need special caution because of the enormous variability in Web sites and the particular variables used of this study.

Issue Advocacy in the Internet Age: The Case of California Proposition 8 • Kevin Wang, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities • This study explores how the Internet might serve as a mechanism for communication and exchange of information among advocacy groups using the California Proposition 8 as a case study. Drawing on previous research of cyberactivism and social networks, a hyperlink analysis was conducted to examine the linking pattern among the supporter and the opposition groups, as well as the overall characteristics of the proposition issue network.

Examining the Role of Credibility, Attention and Elaboration in Moderating the Third-person Effects of News about Tainted Food Product Recalls • Ran Wei, University of South Carolina; Ven-Hwei Lo, National Chengchi University of Taiwan; Hung-yi Lu, National Chung Cheng University • This study examines the third-person effect in estimating the influence of news coverage of tainted food product recalls due to a milk scandal in China on oneself relative to others. Using data from a survey of 1,213 respondents in Taiwan, the study found that respondents tend to think the influence of the news on others was greater than on themselves.

A Multi-dimensional Model of Involvement with News • Bartosz Wojdynski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In searching for elusive variables that moderate media effects, a frequently utilized concept has been that of involvement. Zaichkowsky’s (1985) widely adapted involvement scale is based on a three-dimensional view of involvement, in which products, advertisers, and purchase decisions serve as distinct targets of involvement. This paper relies on evidence from other research paradigms in mass communication to examine four potential components that may comprise distinct aspects of involvement with a news message.

Examining Differential Gains from Mass Media in Japan: Voting and Participation • Masahiro Yamamoto, Washington State University • A differential gains model put forward by Scheufele (2002) suggests that political discussion serves to facilitate political participation, as it helps citizens more meaningfully acquire political information from mass media. As empirical support for the model is limited to the United States, this study assesses whether the differential gains model generalizes to Japan’s political contexts. Given a long debate about dimensionality of political participation and Japan’s political contexts, voting and general participation are distinguished.

Message Desirability and Social Distance: Testing the Third-Person Perception in a Gubernatorial Election • Qingjiang Yao and Zhaoxi (Josie) Liu, University of Iowa • In the context of a gubernatorial election, this study (N = 311) test the variable of message desirability and social distances based on some new conceptualizations. The study finds a substantial negative linear correlation of the difference in perceived media influences on the self and on others with the message desirability (measured by individual perception of the message). The social distance corollary is tested in different dimensions.

The Effects of MMORPG-play on Gamers’ Social Capital • Zhi-Jin Zhong, Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong • This paper conceptualizes MMORPG-play as a combination of general-play represented by gaming time and duration and collective-play represented by the frequency and quality of gaming with other people. This study conducts a two-wave survey on gamers’ gaming experience and social capital which is combined by bonding social networks, bridging social networks and civic engagement. Structural equation modeling is used to investigate the effects of MMORPG-play on gamers’ social capital.

<< 2009 Abstracts

1997 Abstracts

AEJMC 1997 Convention Paper Abstracts
Chicago, IL • July 30 to August 2

The following AEJMC groups conducted research competitions for the 1998 convention. The accepted paper abstracts are listed within each section.
Divisions:

• Advertising
• Communication Technology and Policy
• Communication Theory and Methodology
• History
• International Communication
• Law
• Magazine
• Mass Communication and Society
• Media Management and Economics
• Minorities and Communication
• Newspaper
• Public Relations
• Qualitative Studies
• Radio-TV Journalism
• Scholastic Journalism
• Visual Communication

Interest Groups:

• Civic Journalism
• Graduate Education
• Internship and Careers
• Lesbian, Gay and Family Diversity
• Media and Disability
• Science Communication
• Small Programs

<< AEJMC Abstracts Index

1998 Abstracts

AEJMC 1998 Convention Paper Abstracts
Baltimore, MD • August 5 to 8

The following AEJMC groups conducted research competitions for the 1998 convention. The accepted paper abstracts are listed within each section.
Divisions:

• Advertising
• Communication Technology and Policy
• Communication Theory and Methodology
• History
• International Communication
• Law
• Magazine
• Mass Communication and Society
• Media Management and Economics
• Minorities and Communication
• Newspaper
• Public Relations
• Qualitative Studies
• Radio-TV Journalism
• Scholastic Journalism
• Visual Communication

Interest Groups:

• Civic Journalism
• Graduate Education
• Internship and Careers
• Media and Disability
• Science Communication
• Small Programs

Commissions:

• Status of Women

<< AEJMC Abstracts Index

1999 Abstracts

AEJMC 1999 Convention Paper Abstracts
New Orleans, LA • August 4 to 7

The following AEJMC groups conducted research competitions for the 1999 convention. The accepted paper abstracts are listed within each section.
Divisions:

• Advertising
• Communication Technology and Policy
• Communication Theory and Methodology
• History
• International Communication
• Law
• Magazine
• Mass Communication and Society
• Media Management and Economics
• Minorities and Communication
• Newspaper
• Public Relations
• Qualitative Studies
• Radio-TV Journalism
• Scholastic Journalism
• Visual Communication

Interest Groups:

• Civic Journalism
• Graduate Education
• Internship and Careers
• Media and Disability
• Media Ethics
• Religion and Media
• Science Communication
• Small Programs

Commissions:

• Status of Women

<< AEJMC Abstracts Index

2000 Abstracts

AEJMC 2000 Convention Paper Abstracts
Phoenix, AZ • August 9 to 12

The following AEJMC groups conducted research competitions for the 2001 convention. The accepted paper abstracts are listed within each section.
Divisions:

• Advertising
• Communication Technology and Policy
• Communication Theory and Methodology
• Cultural and Critical Studies
• History
• International Communication
• Law
• Magazine
• Mass Communication and Society
• Media Ethics
• Media Management and Economics
• Minorities and Communication
• Newspaper
• Public Relations
• Radio-TV Journalism
• Scholastic Journalism
• Visual Communication

Interest Groups:

• Civic Journalism
• Graduate Education
• Internship and Careers
• Media and Disability
• Religion and Media
• Science Communication
• Small Programs

Commissions:

• Status of Women

<< AEJMC Abstracts Index