Communication Technology 2011 Abstracts

Open Competition

Exploring the Motivations of Online Social Network Use in Taiwan • Saleem Alhabash; Hyojung Park, University of Missouri, School of Journalism; Anastasia Kononova, American University of Kuwait; Yihsuan Chiang; Kevin Wise, University of Missouri, School of Journalism • The current study explores the motivations of online social network use among a sample of the general population in Taiwan (N = 4,105). The study investigated how seven different motivations to use Facebook predicted the intensity of Facebook use, specific content generation behaviors on Facebook, and other indicators of Facebook use. Results showed the motivation to use Facebook for updating one’s own status and viewing other peoples’ status updates was the strongest predictor of the intensity to use Facebook, followed by four other motivations as significant predictors. The motivation to view, share, tag and be tagged in photographs was the strongest predictor of content generation behavior on Facebook, followed by five other motivations as significant predictors. Results are discussed in terms of expanding motivations to use Facebook to the study of social networking sites and other new and social media.

Body by Xbox: The Effects of Video Game Character Body Type on Young Women’s Body Satisfaction and Video Game Enjoyment • Vincent Cicchirillo, University of Texas at Austin; Osei Appiah, The Ohio State University; Whitney Walther, The Ohio State University; Christopher Brown, The Ohio State University; Kristen Carter, The Ohio State University • Numerous studies have examined the relationship between women’s body satisfaction and their exposure to thin women in the media. However, few if any studies have examined women’s body satisfaction after exposure to female video game characters.  This study looks at the influence of different female body shapes (i.e., thin, average, and overweight) within a video game on outcomes related to identification, enjoyment, and body satisfaction among women video game players. Two-hundred twenty-two young women played a third-person shooter game on Xbox featuring female characters that consisted of one of three different body sizes (skinny, average, or overweight). The findings indicate female participants who played as either a skinny or average sized female character reported greater body dissatisfaction than participants who played as an overweight female character. Additionally, results show participants were more likely to identify with and perceive similarity to skinny and average female characters than they were the overweight female characters. These results support upward comparison of social comparison theory.

Motivational Influences of Linking: Factors guiding behaviors on Facebook • Kanghui Baek, University of Texas at Austin; Avery Holton, University of Texas-Austin; Dustin Harp, University of Texas School of Journalism; Carolyn Yaschur, University of Texas at Austin • More than 600 million people currently use the social network site Facebook, which allows for multiple forms of interaction. Noting the importance of sharing links to news and information − a key function of Facebook – this study determined user motivations for linking, the influence of those motivations on linking frequency, and the content of those links. Building upon uses and gratifications theory, this study found the need for sharing information, convenience and entertainment, to pass time, interpersonal utility, control, and promoting work contributed to the propensity to share links. Information sharing also predicted the frequency of linking. Further, this study found that motivations for linking influenced the types of links posted. Higher educated individuals who desire to share information were more likely to post news links. Those who did not seek to control others posted more entertainment links. Users interested in promoting their work posted job-related content. The findings of this study and their implications are discussed.

Does Negative News Have Positive Effects? The Influence of Blog Posts and Comments on Credibility • Elizabeth Bates, Baylor University • The blog poster, level of company guilt in blog post, and ratio of company-supportive to company-critical blog comments were varied to determine how each affected perceptions of company and source credibility. Data suggests public relations practitioners are less trustworthy than journalists. However, the company and its public relations practitioner are more credible when the dominant opinion in the blog, particularly in the blog comments, suggests the company is not guilty.

Examining the relationships of smartphone ownership to use of both legacy and new media outlets for news • Clyde Bentley, University of Missouri; Kenneth Fleming, University of Missouri-Columbia • The overriding research question of the study is to see if ownership of mobile phone would affect use of both traditional and new media outlets for news. Analyses of a national survey (n = 496) in early 2010 show that ownership of mobile phone was a significant factor in explaining use of mobile phone, online media, and newspaper’s website for news; it had no impact on readership of print daily or weekly newspaper and watching news on television, after age, gender, education, and income were statistically controlled. In addition, age was significantly and positively associated with use of traditional news media, and negatively associated with use of online media and mobile phone for news. On average, smartphone owners were significantly younger than those who had either simple cellphone or no cellphone at all.

The hyperlinked world: A look at how the interactions of news frames and hyperlinks influence news credibility and willingness to seek information • porismita borah, Maryville University • Prior research has already identified the influence of using hyperlinks in online information gathering. The present study attempts to understand first, how hyperlinks can influence individual’s perceptions of news credibility and willingness to seek information. Second, the paper extends previous research by examining the interaction of hyperlinks with the content of the story. And in doing so, the paper examines the influence of hyperlinks on communication concepts such as news frames. The data for the study were collected using an experiment embedded in a web-based survey of participants. Findings show that hyperlinks in news stories can increase perceptions of credibility as well as willingness to seek information. Results also reveal the interaction of news frames in the process, for example participants’ perception of news credibility increases in the value framed condition. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Great Expectations: Predicted iPad adoption by college students • Steven Collins; Tim Brown • While the iPad has been popular, newspaper and magazine publishers have not had the same fortune in drawing people to their applications for the device. A longitudinal study of college students, future news consumers, shows that interest in adopting the iPad has grown over two points in time. However, among potential adopters, interest in paying for digital newspaper and magazine iPad content has not grown. However, data do show that those with smartphones are much more likely to adopt the iPad and other tablets. In addition, the influence of change agents on adoption intent is confirmed and seems to indicate that the iPad has moved beyond the critical mass phase.

Mobile News Adoption among Young Adults: Examining the Roles of Perceptions, News Consumption, and Media Usage • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted; Hyejoon Rim, University of Florida; Amy Zerba • Using the frameworks of innovation diffusion and technology acceptance model, this study examines the predictors of mobile news consumption among young adults. Survey findings showed the perceived relative advantage of mobile news is positively related to its adoption and willingness to pay for mobile news services. Perceived utility and ease of use play significant roles in mobile news adoption. This study validates the importance of examining the adoption process from multiple perspectives.

Deciphering Blog Users: Personalities, Motivations, and Perceived Importance of Blog Features • Szu-Wei Chen, University of Missouri-Columbia; Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz • Different from many past studies that mainly focused on bloggers, this research aimed to explore how general blog users browse, read or comment on others’ blogs. More specifically, we employed the uses and gratifications framework to link blog users’ personality traits (the Big Five inventory), motivations to use blogs (entertainment, information seeking, social interaction, and personal identity) and perceived importance of various blog features (e.g., content and source credibility, hyperlinks, ease to use, interactivity, author anonymity, popularity and reputation). A pilot study was first conducted to clarify whether participants have a consistent understanding of what a blog is. Then, 341 participants were recruited to fill out a self-administered online survey. A two-step structural equation modeling approach was used to test the proposed model. The results not only helped clarify several inconsistent findings in the past, but also provided insightful directions for future research.

Determinants of Intention to Use Smartphones: Testing the Moderating Role of Need for Cognition                  • Hichang Cho; Byungho Park • By integrating the technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989) with the need for cognition (NFC; Cacioppo & Petty, 1982), we aimed to specify the conditions under which different internal beliefs (e.g., perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) and social influence factors (e.g., subjective and descriptive norms) are important in determining behavioral intention to use smartphones. The results based on survey data (N =172) provided support for our hypotheses that NFC is an important motivational construct that moderates the linkages between cognitive instrumental beliefs, social influence factors, and behavioral intentions (BI). Specifically, perceived usefulness had a stronger effect on BI for high NFC people, whereas perceived ease of use and subjective norms had stronger effects on BI for low NFC people. The findings reveal possible important variations in technology acceptance and the role of NFC in governing these alternative processes.

Social Networking in Higher Education: A Collaboration Tool for Project-Based Learning • Amy DeVault, Wichita State University; Lisa Parcell, Wichita State University • This case study explores the use of social networking to enhance project-based service-learning. The researchers found that the student group used social networking, specifically Twitter and Facebook, for collaboration among group members to complete this project-based objective, to build a community of practice with local communication professionals, and ultimately to successfully promote their event.

Hiding or Priding? A Study of Gender, Race, and Gamer Status and Context on Avatar Selection • Robert Dunn, East Tennessee State University; Rosanna Guadagno, University of Alabama • We conducted an experiment to determine the effects of gender, race, online gamer status and game context had on avatar selection, based on eight metrics. As predicted, online gamers selected avatars that were taller, thinner, and more attractive than participants who did not play online games. Non-white participants selected avatars with lighter skin-tones, whereas white participants selected avatars with darker skin-tones. Contrary to predictions and previous research, male participants selected shorter avatars than female counterparts.

My Students will Facebook me but Won’t Keep up with my Online Course • Francine Edwards, Delaware State University • An examination of the current body of literature has found that despite the interest in transforming education to fit a growing body of technologically astute students, few studies have investigated the characteristics or competency of that population and their ability to meet with academic success in this digital era or an informational age.  However, what has been revealed in the research is that assumptions about digital natives (students from grade K through college who represent the first generation to grow up with this new technology) may not be correct and that a focus on digital immigrants (individuals that did not grow up in this generation) face a similar set of challenges.  While today’s college students are immersed and fluent in social media, consumer electronics and video games, they are not nearly as proficient when it comes to using digital tools in a classroom setting – thus countering the myth that academicians are dealing with a whole generation of digital natives.  Other studies that have investigated the extent and nature of college students’ use of digital technologies for learning have found that students use a limited range of mainly established technologies and that use of collaborative knowledge creation tools, virtual worlds, and social networking sites was low.  This study investigates the ability of digital natives to incorporate new technologies in the academic process and the challenge that digital immigrants as instructors face.

Live Tweeting At Work: The Use of Social Media in Public Diplomacy • Juyan Zhang, University of Texas at San Antonio; Shahira Fahmy, University of Arizona • This study used a survey to examine factors that affect adoption of social media in public diplomacy practice by foreign diplomatic practitioners in the United States. Results showed the key factors identified in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) framework: Effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence and attitudes, facilitating conditions, in addition to perceived credibility had positive influences on the adoption process. Findings also showed respondents most often used social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) followed by video sharing sites, intranet, blogs, video conferencing, text messaging and Wiki. Further more women reported the use of social media than men, but on average, men used more different types of social media than their female counterparts. Finally gender, age and level of gross national income (GNI) appeared to have significant moderating effects on the adoption of social media in the context of public diplomacy.

Who are the heavy users of Social Network Sites among College Students? A Study of Social Network Sites and College Students • Ling Fang, Bowling Green State University; Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University • The indulgence in social networking sites (SNS) among college students has drawn scholars’ attention and research interest.  But who the heavy users of SNS among college students are and how SNS use in relation to cellular phone text messaging use, another popular medium, has not been studied.  Based on a survey on 476 college students from 24 classes in a public university, this study focused on sociability gratifications and information searching gratifications with behavioral indicators as predictors of SNS use and examined their relationship between SNS usage and with text messaging use. Specifically, this study examined (1) the demographic predictors of college students’ SNS usage, (2) how sociability gratifications and information seeking gratification contribute to college students’ SNS usage, and (3) the relationship between college students’ cell phone usage and SNS usage. Results show a complementary relationship between SNS use and text-messaging use.  Heavy users of SNS are most likely to be females and minority students and those who relied on SNS as a news medium.

Measuring, Classifying and Predicting Prosumption Behavior in Social Media • Louisa Ha, Bowling Green State University; Gi Woong Yun, Bowling Green State University • This paper compares college students’ and general population’s prosumption behavior in social media and proposes a set of measures of prosumption in online media settings with special emphasis on social media including a prosumption index which can be used in future studies on prosumption. We classify prosumption behavior in a quadrant of four main types along the two dimensions of production and consumption. A polarized trend of prosumption was observed.

How the Smartphone Is Changing College Student Mobile Usage and Advertising Acceptance: A Seven-Year Analysis • Michael Hanley, Ball State University • This study employs online surveys conducted between 2005-2011 to investigate college student smartphone versus feature phone content usage, and acceptance of mobile advertising. Ad acceptance is measured using six mobile advertising acceptance factors from the Wireless Advertising Acceptance Scale (Saran, Cruthirds & Minor, 2004). Results show that incentives are a key motivating factor for advertising acceptance, but the perceived risk associated with receiving mobile ads could become a significant barrier to ad acceptance.

Play global, cover local: News media, political actors and other Twitter users in the 2010 US Elections • Itai Himelboim, University of Georgia, Telecommunications; Hansen Derek, College of Information Studies/University of Maryland; Anne Bowser • In times these challenging times for traditional media, news organizations join social media platforms such as Twitter to attract new and existing audiences.  On this field, they compete for attention against millions of users.  This study examines the use of Twitter in four gubernatorial races by news media, political candidates and the general public of Twitter users.  Examining patterns of follow relationships indicate two types of clusters.  The local clusters include a subgroup of more densely interconnected users, in which local news media on Twitter and political candidates became hubs. The national clusters include a subgroup of more sparsely interconnected users, in which national media and online-only news sources play as hubs.  Theoretical and practical implications for news media and political candidates are discussed.

The Real You?: Visual Cues and Comment Congruence on Facebook Profiles • Seoyeon Hong, University of Missouri; Edson Jr. Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Eunjin (Anna) Kim, University of Missouri; Bo Kyung Kim, University of Missouri, Missouri Journalism School; Kevin Wise, University of Missouri, School of Journalism • Despite current extensive interdisciplinary research, the impact of Facebook profiles has been the subject of little systematic study, though investigators have explored with other forms of social networking sites. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social cues in self-presentations and the congruence of other-generated comments with the self-presentation in people’s evaluations of a profile owner. A 2 (level of social cues; high vs. Low) X 2 (congruent vs. incongruent) X 2 (order) X 2 (messages) mixed-subject design was conducted with 106 college students as participants. The results showed that a profile owner was perceived less socially attractive when other-generated comments were incongruent with the profile owner’s self-presentation. Also, the profile owner was perceived to be more popular when there were more social cues available than when there were fewer social cues. Interestingly, an interaction effect between congruence and level of social cues suggested that perceived popularity was low in the incongruent condition regardless of level of social cue. This is consistent with the warranting theory that emphasized the significant role of information from the others in people’s judgment of self-presentations online. That is, no matter how people package themselves with extravagant self-presentations, it cannot be very successful without validation from others. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.

Red-Hot and Ice-Cold Web Ads: The Influence of Warm and Cool Colors in Web Advertising on Click-Through Rates • Kimberly Sokolik, Virginia Tech; James D. Ivory, Virginia Tech • Previous research has examined responses to advertisements featuring warm and cool colors, but such research with web advertisements is limited and consists of laboratory experiments rather than studies using natural data and actual consumer activity.  This study compared the click-through rates of “”box”” and “”banner”” web ads with red and blue color schemes using data from more than 1.5 million ad impressions from 12 months of traffic on a popular news web site.  Ads with red color schemes generated substantially higher click-through rates, particulary for box ads, though the effect of color was reduced in the case of banner ads.

Having a Blog in this Fight:  Testing Competing Models of Selective Exposure to Political Blogs • Tom Johnson, University of Texas; Weiwu Zhang, Texas Tech University • This study tested two competing theories of selective exposure, the “”anticipated agreement hypothesis”” that suggests people will seek information about candidates they agree with and avoid contact with ones they disagree with and the “”issue publics hypothesis”” that asserts that voters consume information on issues they consider personally important. The study found indirect support for the anticipated agreement hypothesis as partisans relied heavily on candidate/party sites for information and reliance was linked to selective exposure.

A Winner Takes All? Examining Relative Importance of Motives and Network Effects in Social Networking Site Use • Mijung Kim; Jiyoung Cha, University of North Texas • Over the past several years, social networking sites (SNSs) have increasingly become an essential part of life for many U.S. Internet users. The present study explores the motives for using the three most-visited SNSs, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and whether differences exist between the SNSs with respect to the motives for using each SNS. Furthermore, this study examines how motives and network size relevant variables affect SNS usage. Although the motives sought for the three SNSs were similar across the SNSs, the result demonstrated that the primary motives for using SNSs differed. The result also demonstrated that the motives behind the use of an SNS have a much stronger association with SNS usage than the perceived network externality and perceived personal network size of the SNS.

When Ordinary Citizens Produce Media Content: A Comparative Analysis of Most Popular and Random YouTube Videos • Eunseong Kim, Eastern Illinois University; Liz Viall, Eastern Illinois University • As the online video-sharing site, YouTube’s motto, “”Broadcast Yourself”” indicates, YouTube has taken a leading role as the platform that invites everyone to create and share video content with others. YouTube has also enjoyed unprecedented popularity among Internet users and become a representative example of user-generated content in the Web 2.0 era. When everyone is invited to participate in content creation, what do ordinary citizens create? The current body of research provides little information about what typical videos on YouTube look like and how they may be similar to or different from those videos that garner an extraordinary level of popularity (i.e., viral videos). To fill this void, 195 top favorited and most viewed videos on YouTube were analyzed and compared to 203 randomly selected YouTube videos. Findings indicate that typical (random) videos on YouTube exhibit different characteristics from most popular (top favorited and most viewed) videos on YouTube. The paper discusses differences and similarities between typical videos and most popular videos on YouTube.

The Effects of LCD Panel Type on Psychology of Video Game Players and Movie Viewers                  Ki Joon Kim; S. Shyam Sundar • As computer-based devices become the primary media via which users view movies and play interactive games, display technologies (e.g., LCD monitors) have focused increasingly on quality of video fidelity, with much debate surrounding the relative efficacy of different panel types of LCD monitors. A 3 (TN panel vs. S-IPS panel vs. S-PVA panel) x 2 (game vs. movie) between-subjects experiment was conducted to examine the effects of LCD panel type in facilitating regular viewing as well as enhanced interactive TV experiences. Preliminary data from the experiment showed that LCD panel and stimulus type as well as computer literacy were important factors affecting monitor users’ viewing and interaction experience. Limitations and implications for theory and ongoing research are discussed.

Multitasking across borders: Media multitasking behaviors in the U.S., Russia, and Kuwait • Anastasia Kononova, American University of Kuwait; Saleem Alhabash; Zasorina Tatyana; Diveeva Natalia; Kokoeva Anastasia; Anastasia Chelokyan • A cross-national study has been conducted to explore media multitasking behaviors among the young people in three countries: the U.S., Russia, and Kuwait (N=532). A theoretical model that was proposed in this research included factors predicting media multitasking (media ownership, socio-economic status, sensation seeking, and media use), two media multitasking variables (multitasking with media and multitasking with media and non-media activities), and media multitasking outcomes (perceived attention to media contents and perceived ease of media technology use). While some of the paths among the different variables were not statistically significant, the fact that model fit indices were in line with the acceptable rules of thumb qualified the data for analyzing the parameter estimates. The model was run with three samples, American, Russian, and Kuwaiti. Among others, the findings suggest to consider cultural and structural context to be taken into consideration in the analysis of media multitasking behaviors in foreign countries.

Hostile Media Perceptions: Coloring the (New) Media Red or Blue • Ammina Kothari, School of Journalism – Indiana University; Seong Choul Hong, Indiana University; Shuo Tang; Lars Willnat • Past research on the hostile media effect mainly focused on how people perceive media bias of traditional media, while in the current dynamic media environment mobile technology is changing how people consume media. This study expands the scope of current research and tests the interplay of bi-partisan media consumption, selective media exposure and the hostile media effect within the realm of both traditional and online mediascape. An analysis based on a national survey of 3,000 American adults detects a variance in the hostile media effect depending on demographic factors, media selection and media platform. Age, gender, and political affiliation contribute to the perception of media bias. Selective exposure to traditional bi-partisan media like newspapers, television and especially political talk shows also generate the hostile media effect. Online media consumption is a weak predictor of the hostile media effect: On the one hand, consumers of news websites, news aggregators or email news perceive a low level of media bias; on the other, news sources like blogs, social network sites or mobile phones are not indicators of the hostile media effect.

When Do Online Shoppers Appreciate Security Enhancement Efforts? Effects of Financial Risk and Security Level on Evaluations of Customer Authentication • Jong-Eun Roselyn Lee, Hope College; Shailandra Rao, CafeBots; Clifford Nass • As the popularity of online shopping grows, concerns about identity theft and fraud are increasing. While stronger customer authentication procedures may provide greater protection and hence benefit customers and retailers, security tends to be traded off against convenience. To provide insight into this security-convenience trade-off in customer authentication, we experimentally investigated how levels of authentication security and financial risk factors affect perception and evaluation of authentication systems. In two experiments, participants performed simulated purchasing tasks in the context of online shopping. The findings show that financial risk factors moderate the effects of security levels on consumers’ evaluation of authentication systems. In Experiment 1, participants rated the high-level security system as less convenient and more frustrating when the amount involved in the transactions was higher. On the other hand, Experiment 2, which introduced a more explicit risk for consumers (liability for fraudulent activities), showed that participants gave more positive ratings of the high-level security system under full liability than under zero liability. Taken together, the present research suggests that consumers’ perception and appreciation of authentication technologies may vary depending on the characteristics of the financial risk involved in the transaction process.

Understanding the “”Friend-Rich””:  The Effects of Self-Esteem and Self-Consciousness on Number of Facebook Friends • Jong-Eun Roselyn Lee, Hope College; Eun-A (Mickey) Park, University of New Haven; Sung Gwan Park • The present research examined whether and how self-esteem and self-consciousness (private vs. public) predict number of social network friends, particularly in the context of Facebook use. It was predicted that self-esteem and private self-consciousness would have a negative association with number of Facebook friends while public self-consciousness and number of Facebook friends would show a positive association. In addition, it was hypothesized that self-esteem and public self-consciousness would have an interaction effect on number of Facebook friends. Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey data conducted with a college student sample in the U.S. (N=234). While private self-consciousness did not yield a significant association with number of Facebook friends, self-esteem had a negative association and public self-consciousness had a positive association with number of Facebook friends, which suggested that lower self-esteem and higher public self-consciousness would likely lead to more active friending, thereby resulting in a greater number of friends listed on their Facebook profile. Furthermore, the data supported the hypothesized interaction between self-esteem and public self-consciousness. Implications for number of Facebook friends as a social “”commodity”” are discussed.

Are You Following Me? A Content Analysis of TV Networks’ Corporate Messages on Twitter • Jhih-Syuan Lin, The University of Texas at Austin; Jorge Peña • This study analyzed the content of TV corporations’ messages in social networking sites by employing Bales’s IPA method. This study also explored the diffusion of information in social networking sites by examining users’ “”retweeting”” behavior. The findings showed that TV networks tended to employ more task than socioemotional communication across program genres. Also, giving suggestions was the most frequently used message strategy in the current sample. Additionally, socioemotional messages got retweeted more often than task-oriented messages. The findings suggest managerial implications for corporate message management and relationship-building efforts in social networking sites.

With a Little Help from My Friends: Motivations and Patterns in Social Media Use and Their Influence on Perceptions of Teaching Possibilities • Miglena Sternadori, University of South Dakota; Jeremy Littau, Lehigh University • This study explores what journalism and mass communication educators believe to be appropriate uses of social media as teaching and communication tools with students and alumni, including the motivations that drive these beliefs and the decisions that follow them. There was a negative relationship between age and gratifications from using Twitter and Facebook, and a positive relationship between educators’ use of these tools in the classroom and their perceptions of usefulness. The hypothesis that use of social media would lead to higher evaluation scores was only partially supported. A qualitative analysis of answers to open-ended questions identified five themes: (1) recognition of the importance of Twitter and Facebook to the study of mass communication; (2) ethical concerns about boundaries; (3) perceived negative judgment or praise from administrators or students for using social media; (4) digital divide concerns; (5) perceived disutility of Twitter and Facebook in comparison to platforms such as Blackboard as well as blogs and wikis. The results are discussed in the context of their theoretical implications for the Media Choice Model (MCM: Thorson & Duffy, 2006) as well as practical implications for educators considering ways to implement social networking in their teaching.

A Little World in My Hand —The Use of Smartphones Among Low Income Minority Women • xun Liu, california State University, Stanislaus; Ying Zhang • Under the guide of social cognitive theory, the current study investigated the use of smartphones among low-income minority women. Twenty-eight low income minority women were interviewed about their smartphone use patterns and their beliefs pertaining to self-efficacy, and outcome expectations. As the first study that explores smartphone use among this demographic group, the current research makes a unique and original contribution.

New TV Resistance: Barriers to Implementation of IPTV in the Living Room • Duen Ruey Liu, Shih Hsin University; Yihsuan Chiang, Shih Hsin University; Niann Chung Tsai, Shih Hsin University • Families relax in living rooms and watching TV should be carefree. Researchers care about interaction between human and machines of IPTV, the study are interpreted with theory of affordance by James Jerome Gibson (1979) and technology acceptance model (TAM) by Davis (1989). We add marketing strategies, program contents, interface operation, use experience and fear of technology of five external variables in attempt to propose IPTV TAM of future promotion and development of digital TV.

Color and cognition: The influence of Web page colors on cognitive inputs • Robert Magee, Virginia Tech • A Web page’s red color scheme seemed to lead participants to engage in rule-based processing, while a blue color scheme lead them to engage in associative processing. In an experiment (N = 211) with physical temperature and Web page color as between-subjects manipulated factors and Attitudes Toward Charities and Need For Cognition as a measured independent variables, participants were asked to view a Web page for a trade-based development organization. When participants experienced the sensation of physical cold, those who were cognitive misers tended to report less favorable attitudes toward the Web page. This interaction disappeared, however, when participants viewed a Web page that featured a red color scheme, as red seemed to have stimulated arousal and an increase in analytic rule-based cognitive processing. In addition, an accessible knowledge structure, participants’ general attitude toward charitable organizations, was a predictor of their impressions of that organization only when they viewed a red Web page. The implications of color and cognition for communication technology are discussed.

A Lesson Before Dying: Embracing Innovations for Community Engagement as a Survival Strategy for Media in Crisis. • Samuel Mwangi, Kansas State University • As media organizations confront an uncertain future unleashed by disruptive technologies, they are searching for ways to successfully navigate the changing information landscape. This paper argues that one way out of the present crises is for media to embrace a culture of innovation and use engaging communication technologies that are mutually beneficial to the media and to the communities they serve. The paper maps trends in media innovations and then reports on a unique innovation project that designed a new digital tool to help media re- engage their communities in new ways. The success of the project suggests that innovative tools and services that are specifically geared towards community engagement can provide a lifeline for media in crises as well as transform community news, information distribution and visualization, and impact community conversations, making new media technology a valued ally to media organizations and communities rather than a disruptive threat.

Coproduction or Cohabitation?  Gatekeeping, Workplace, and Mutual Shaping Effects of Anonymous Online Comment Technology in the Newsroom • Carolyn Nielsen, Western Washington University • This study explored whether the technology that enables readers to post anonymous comments on the same platforms with newspaper journalists’ articles has transformed journalists’ workplaces or work practices. Data from a nationwide survey examined through the lens of mutual shaping found that journalists are mostly ignoring the technology, continuing to assert their territoriality, and seeing little impact of comments as artifacts mediating between editors and reporters. Mutual shaping is constrained by journalistic norms and practices.

Affect, Cognition and Reward: Predictors of Privacy Protection Online • Yong Jin Park, Howard University; scott campbell; Nojin Kwak, University of Michigan Ann Arbor • In recent years emotion and cognition have emerged as new dimensions for understanding media uses. This article examined the interplay between cognition and affect in Internet uses for privacy control as this is conditioned by reward-seeking rationale. A survey of a national sample was conducted to empirically test the relationship between affective concern and cognitive knowledge. We also tested for three-way interactions that consider reward-seeking as a third moderator. Findings revealed that concern did not directly play a meaningful role in guiding users’ protective behavior, whereas knowledge was found significant in moderating the role of concern. The interactive role of reward-seeking seems particularly salient in shaping the structure of the relationships. These findings suggest that the intersections between knowledge, reward, and concern can play out differently, depending on the levels of each. Policy implication in relation to users’ cognitive, affective, and reward-seeking rationalities are offered, and future research considerations are discussed.

Factors Influencing Intention to Upload Content on Wikipedia in South Korea: The Effects of Social Norms and Individual Differences • Naewon Kang, Dankook University, Korea; Namkee Park, University of Oklahoma; Hyun Sook Oh, Pyeongtaek University • This study examined the roles of social norms and individual differences in influencing Internet users’ intention to upload content on Wikipedia in South Korea. Using data from a survey of college students with users and non-users of Wikipedia (N = 185 and 158), the study found that the effect of social norms was minimal, while that of individual differences—self-efficacy, issue involvement, and ego involvement—was more important to account for the uploading intention.

Seeking Environmental Risk Information Online: Examining North Carolina’s Urban-Rural Divide • Laurie Phillips; Robert McKeever, UNC Chapel Hill; Daniel Riffe, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Kelly Davis, UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication • Using statewide telephone survey data (N=406), this “”digital divide”” study oversampled rural households to explore urban-rural differences in Internet access, time online, and information-seeking about environmental risk. Although the access divide has closed, parallel regression analyses revealed urban-rural differences in demographic predictors of time online and information seeking. No urban-rural differences emerged in preference for Internet as an environmental risk source, though Internet use was a strong predictor of rural respondents’ sense of “”environmental confidence.””

News Feed Indeed:  Social media, Journalism and the Mass Self-Communicator • Sue Robinson, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This research takes up the Castells’ (2009) notion of the mass self-communicator, referring to the ability of citizens to employ digital technology to produce and disseminate information via vast networks. A hundred Madison, WI, residents were interviewed about their attitudes as potential mass self-communicators on blogs and social networking sites. Some reported posting content on their Facebook pages and other SNS material that helped them converse, understand new perspectives, prove their knowledge, document their presence on an issue, and mobilize others. Their acts of “”information witnessing”” – particularly during the Winter 2011 Madison protests – transformed them into news networkers in a way that altered the established information flows in this Midwestern city. Others rejected the opportunity as too public.

Country Reputation in the Age of Networks: An Empirical Analysis of Online Social Relations and Information Use • Hyunjin Seo, University of Kansas • This study identifies and examines effects of individuals’ online social relations and information use regarding other countries on their ratings of the reputation of those countries. Theoretical and operational definitions of the two variables are developed and used to establish and test a theoretical model accounting for how people form perceptions of other countries in the age of information technology and online social networking. A survey of South Korean Internet users provides the empirical data for this paper.     The survey shows that negative information South Koreans get about the United States through their online social networks can have significant influence on their perceptions of the United States. In comparison, information they get through U.S.-based websites did not significantly influence their views of the United States. This study also shows that first-hand experience of visiting the United States remains the most significant positive predictor of South Koreans’ favorability toward the United States in this networked age. These results reinforce the importance of relationship-based networked public diplomacy. It is important that countries lay out digital media-based strategies that help build relationships with their foreign constituents rather than simply delivering information to them.

Explicating Use of ICTs in Health Contexts: Entry, Exposure, and Engagement • Dhavan Shah; Kang Namkoong, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Tae Joon Moon; Ming-Yuan Chih, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Jeong Yeob Han, University of Georgia • We explicate ‘use’ of eHealth systems, or more generally ‘use’ of a wide variety of information and communication systems (ITCs).  A review of the literature makes clear that ‘use’ has been applied to a number of different operational measurements, each implying differences in meaning.  To address this multiplicity of meanings, we propose and discuss three central meanings of eHealth ‘use,’ introduce likely applications of each, and consider potential submeanings and operationalizations: Entry into the system, Exposure to its content, and Engagement with the system.  We argue that this three part distinction is critical to both conceptualizing and operationalizing ‘Use’ in meaningful and analytically useful way. Measurement and analysis strategies are discussed in relation to this concept explication.

Why Do People Play Social Network Games? • Dong-Hee Shin, Sungkyunkwan University; Tae-Yang Kim • Recently, Social Network Games (SNGs) over social network services have become popular and have spawned a whole new subculture. This study examines the perceived factors which contribute to an SNG user’s behaviors. It proposes an SNG acceptance model based on integrating cognitive as well as affective attitudes as primary influencing factors. Results from a survey of SNG players validate that the proposed theoretical model explains and predicts user acceptance of SNG very well. The model shows fine measurement properties and establishes the perceived playfulness and security of SNGs as distinct constructs. The findings also reveal that flow plays a moderation role that affects various paths in the model. Based on the results of this study, both the appropriate practical implications for SNG marketing strategies and the theoretical implications are provided.

Exploring the Immersion Effect of 3DTV in a Learning Context • Dong-Hee Shin, Sungkyunkwan University; Tae-Yang Kim • With the conceptual model of flow and immersion, this study investigates immersion/flow effects in an educational context. This study focuses on users’ experiences with 3DTV in order to investigate the areas of development as a learning application. For the investigation, the modified technology acceptance model (TAM) is used with constructs from expectation-confirmation theory (ECT). Users’ responses to questions about cognitive perceptions and continuous use were collected and analyzed with factors that were modified from TAM and ECT. While the findings confirm the significant roles by users’ cognitive perceptions, the findings also shed light on the possibility of 3DTV serving as an enabler of learning tools. In the extended model, the moderating effects of confirmation/satisfaction and demographics of the relationships among the variables were found to be significant.

The Factors Affecting the Adoption of Smart TV • Dong-Hee Shin, Sungkyunkwan University; Tae-Yang Kim • Smart TV, a new digital television service, has been rapidly developing. With the conceptual model of interactivity, this study empirically investigates the effects of perceived interactivity on the motivations and attitudes toward Smart TV. A model is created to validate the relationship of perceived interactivity to performance, attitude, and intention. Further, the model examines the mediating roles of perceived interactivity in the effect of performance on attitude toward Smart TV. Empirical evidence supports the mediating role of perceived interactivity. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of building a theory of interactivity and providing practical insights into developing a user-centered Smart TV interface.

The Anonymous Chatter: Testing the Effects of Social Anonymity and the Spiral of Silence • Madeleine Sim; Jamie Lee; Kristle Kwok; Ee Ling Cha; Shirley S. Ho • Using the spiral of silence as the theoretical framework, this study examines the relationship between social anonymity in computer-mediated communication settings and opinion expression in Singapore; we conducted an experiment to assess participants’ use of avoidance and engagement strategies. Results indicate that social anonymity and future opinion congruency were significantly associated with opinion expression. Findings suggest that the lack of visual and status cues, rather than perceived anonymity, were more likely to elicit opinion expression.

The Differing Effects of Communication Mediation on Social-Network Site and Online Political Participation • Timothy Macafee; Matthew Barnidge, Hernando Rojas, University of Wisconsin – Madison • This study uses a national survey of 10 cities in Colombia to explore how communication mediation influences social-network site and other online political participation. We argue these two type of participation should be distinct and illustrate how attention to information and information dissemination affects them differently. Specifically, both offline and online information sharing lead to social-network site participation, while online information seeking and sharing predict other online political participation.

Social Media Policies for Professional Communicators • Daxton Stewart, Texas Christian University • As social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have become increasingly prevalent ways for people to share and connect, professional communicators have increasingly incorporated these tools into their daily practice.  However, journalism, advertising and public relations practitioners have little formal guidance to help them navigate the benefits and risks of using these tools professionally.  The codes of ethics of their professional fields have not been updated, and to date, social media policies have not been examined from an academic perspective.  This study reviews 26 social media policies of journalism and strategic communication companies to find common themes and concerns and to suggest best practices for professional communicators using social media tools.  These themes include transparency, balancing the personal and the professional, maintaining confidentiality, rules for “”friending,”” and other matters central to developing an effective social media policy.

An Exploration of Motives in Mobile Gaming: A Uses and Gratifications Approach. • Lakshmi N Tirumala, Texas Tech University; Weiwu Zhang, Texas Tech University; Anthony Galvez • Global sales of video games have increased to $54.9 billion in 2009 and are expected to earn $68.3 billion by 2012. Although video games are mostly being played on devices like PlayStation, recent advances in mobile phone technologies has created a new platform for video game play. Given the unique nature of the gaming experience this study proposes to examine motivational dimensions of mobile gaming from a uses and gratifications approach.

The role of third-person effects in the context of Facebook: Examining differences in perceived consumption and impact between self and others • Mina Tsay, Boston University • The immense popularity and adoption of Facebook in the lives of more than 500 million users has sparked the attention of new media scholars. While much is known about Facebook members’ motivations, use, and gratifications of this social networking site, minimal attention has been given to examining the perceived consumption and impact of Facebook on users themselves versus others. Applying the third-person effect (TPE) hypothesis to the context of social media, this study (N = 375) investigates: 1) differences between estimated Facebook effects on self versus others, 2) relationship between perceptions of Facebook use and estimated impact of Facebook on self versus others, and 3) association between perceived desirability of Facebook as a social medium and estimated Facebook influence on self versus others. The aforementioned relationships are also moderated by gender and age. Implications for the relevance of TPE on users of social networking sites are discussed.

Will Communication Journals Go Online? An Analysis of Journal Publishing Formats and Impact Factors • Nur Uysal, University of Oklahoma; Joe Foote, University of Oklahoma; Jody Bales Foote • Academic journals are regarded as a platform on which scholarly communication takes place to validate and disseminate academic knowledge.  They provide a means to examine the question whether online/electronic publishing improves the dissemination of quality information.  The primary focus of this study is the migration of academic journals from print to hybrid (print and electronic) to electronic format.  It focuses on journals in six disciplines, including communication/journalism.  The study addresses three research questions:  a) To what extent have communication journals embraced electronic publishing? b) How do online journals in communication compare to those in business, psychology, geology, meteorology, and physiology? c) What is the relationship between journal publishing format and impact factor in the journal sample and in communication journals? Content analysis of all journals listed in the ISI database (n=716) was conducted regarding publishing format, publihsing start date, publisher etc. In order to understand the relationship between impact factor and publishing format a multiple regression analysis was deployed. The results showed that on the contrary to forecasts journals experience a slow migration to e-only publihsing format. They stick to hybrid publishing on whihc this study showed that there is a positive relationship.

Use of Social Networking Sites: An Exploratory Study of Indian Teenagers • Peddiboyina vijaya lakshmi, Sri  Padmavati Women’s University • Social Networking Sites have   become popular and have become a vital part of social life in India, especially among teenagers.  .   There is no in-depth study as to how and why Indian teenagers engage with social networking sites.  This study, using focus groups, explored the experiences of teenagers with social networking sites. Information from the groups was analyzed in terms of their usage of social networking sites, profile construction, online vs offline friendships, and extending friendships beyond cyberspace.  The gender variations and social norms in how teens are using these sites are other possible areas that require attention.

Technological Constructions of Reality: An Ontological Perspective • Cindy Vincent, University of Oklahoma • This paper seeks to address how ontological constructions are shaped through technological dependency.  Depending on the exposure and usage of hypermediated technology, individuals will have different constructs of reality to coincide with the styles of technology they use.  Currently, there is a gap in research in addressing the impact of technological dependency on individual constructs of reality.  This paper seeks to make progress in identifying a hypermediated technological ontological perspective and recommendations for future research.

Followers, Friends, and Fame: Political Structural Influence on Candidate Twitter Networks • Ming Wang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Alexander Hanna; Ben Sayre; JungHwan Yang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Michael Mirer; Young Mie Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dhavan Shah • To understand the antecedents and consequences of political candidates’ online social networks, we captured egocentric Twitter networks of candidates who ran for the 2010 midterm elections. To be more specific, our data include information on a sample of political candidates running for the 2010 congressional and gubernatorial elections as well as their connections to their followers and friends on Twitter. Adopting a social network analysis approach and focusing on political structural determinants, we find that Senate and gubernatorial candidates had both larger follower networks and friend networks. Furthermore, Republican candidates had larger follower networks and incumbent candidates had smaller friend networks on Twitter. But neither network size measures affected whether the candidates were likely to win the elections or not. Our results showed strong political structural influence on how candidates managed their online social networks.

Social Network Sites Use, Mobile Personal Talk and Social Capital • wenjing xie, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • Using data collected from a nationally representative survey, this study explores social network site use and mobile communication among teenagers as well as their influences on social capital. We found that, older teenagers tend to be more likely to use social network site. Among social network site users, older teenagers and teen girls use SNS more intensively. Hierarchical regression analysis shows that adoption of social network site and mobile personal talks not only have main effects on teenagers’ network capital, but also interact with each other. Intensity of SNS use also significantly predicts teenager’s civic and political participation among SNS users. Moreover, join groups on SNS or not interacts with mobile personal talks to predict civic participation.

Incidental Exposure to Online News: An Insight from the Pew Internet Project Introduction • Borchuluun Yadamsuren; Sanda Erdelez; Joonghwa Lee, University of Missouri; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri • Incidental exposure to online news (IEON) is becoming more prominent as people spend more time on the Internet. However, little research on this behavior has been done in the field of mass communication. Through a secondary data analysis of the Pew Internet & American Life Project study (2010), this study aimed to explore association of the IEON in two contexts (news reading and non-news reading) using various demographic, technology usage, and news exposure variables. Findings of the present study suggest that both types of IEON are positively associated with higher education, home access to the Internet, strong interest in news, and online news use. However, there is no correlation between either types of IEON and legacy media use. This study extends the research on online news consumption and incidental exposure to online news. The findings have important implications for online media business.

Walled Gardens?: Social Media and Political Disaffection among College Students in the 2008 Election • Masahiro Yamamoto, Washington State University; Matthew Kushin, Utah Valley University • This study evaluates the ways in which social media influenced political disaffection among young adults during the 2008 presidential election campaign. The effects of social media, online expression, and traditional Internet sources on political cynicism, skepticism, and apathy were examined using data from an online survey of college students. Results show that attention to social media for campaign information is positively related to cynicism and apathy. Online expression has a positive effect on skepticism. Implications are discussed for the role of social media in bringing a historically disengaged demographic group into the political process.

Motivations for and Consequences of Participating in Online Research Communities • Juyoung Bang, Samsung Electronics; Seounmi Youn, Emerson College; James Rowean, Emerson College; Michael Jennings, Communispace Corporation; Manila Austin, Communispace Corporation • Utilizing the functional approach of attitudes, this study identified the motivations that consumers have for attitudes toward participation in online research communities: knowledge, utilitarian, value-expressive, ego-defensive, social, and helping the company. Further, this study explored the influences of respective motivations on consumers’ sense of identification with communities, which subsequently affects consumers’ feeling heard by companies, community loyalty, and brand trust. Online survey data (n=1,461) supported the hypothesized relationships and offered theoretical and managerial implications.

Student Papers

Opting Into Information Flows: Partial Information Control on Facebook • Leticia Bode • While we know a great deal about purposive information seeking online, and we have some understanding of incidental exposure to information online, Web 2.0 challenges this dichotomy. Social media represent a new type of information environment, in which users have partial control over the information to which they are exposed. While users opt into information flows, they are then exposed to information they might not have sought out themselves. This study is a first step in understanding the dissemination of information in this environment, as well as the effects of exposure to such information. Utilizing survey data relating to the specific case of the popular online social network, Facebook, the study tests for likelihood of exposure to information in this environment, as well as the relationship between exposure and opinion change. Results indicate that users do recognize exposure to information in this new environment, and exposure to information in that medium significantly increases the likelihood of opinion change as a result.

Building Frames Link by Link: The Linking Practices of Blogs and News Sites • Mark Coddington, University of Texas-Austin • This study uses content analysis and depth interviews to examine the use and conceptions of hyperlinks among news web sites, independent bloggers, and blogging journalists, particularly the way that they contributed to episodic, thematic, and conflict news frames. News sites’ links functioned thematically to provide context through background information produced by a limited body of traditional, non-opinionated sources. Bloggers’ links, however, served as a more social connection while pointing toward immediate, episodic news issues.

For Love or Money?: The Role of Non-Profits in Preserving Serious Journalism • Emily Donahue Brown, University of Texas • This study employed elite, in-depth interviews with executives of online non-profit journalism organizations to ascertain their sense of mission, audience and the model’s potential for long-term relevance. They see their organizations assuming investigative, in-depth reporting roles vacated by mass media. The online non-profit model enables deeper interactive engagement with local audiences.  Securing stable funding and broader audiences are critical concerns. Cross-platform collaboration is crucial to establishing brand; engaging younger audiences is not a major priority.

Linked World: Applying Network Theory to Micro-Blogging in China • Fangfang Gao • Micro-blogging is one of the latest Web 2.0 technologies with great impact in the world. Drawing on network theory, this study focused on the recent micro-blogging phenomenon in China, analyzing the characteristics of micro-blogs. Content analyzing the secondary data from Sina micro-blogs, this study found that lifestyle and entertainment/celebrity were the most popular and the most reposted topics in Chinese micro-blogs. Features of micro-blogs such as topic, authorship, and multimedia usage can predict their emergence as hubs in the Chinese micro-blogging network. Implications of results were discussed.

Will the Revolution be Tweeted or Facebooked? Using Digital Communication Tools in Immigrant Activism • Summer Harlow, University of Texas-Austin; Lei Guo, University of Texas at Austin • Considering the debate over U.S. immigration reform and the way digital communication technologies increasingly are being used to spark protests, this study examines focus group discourse of immigration activists to explore how digital media are transforming the definitions of “”activism”” and “”activist.” Analysis suggests technologies are perhaps pacifying would-be activists, convincing them they are contributing more than they actually are. Thus, “”armchair activism”” that takes just a mouse click is potentially diluting “”real”” activism.

Go to the People: A Historical Case Study & Policy Analysis Of Massachusetts and Open Standard Document Formats • Andrew Kennis • In 2004, Massachusetts announced it would switch the format of its electronic documents for its public records from a proprietary, to an ostensibly open standard.  My case study examines the struggles, controversies, and successes of the monumental Massachusetts policy.  It is an epic tale and one that is casually known to most internet policy scholars, if not the general public.  This case study not only closely details the development of what was a monumental policy initiative, but also undertakes a critical analysis of the history observed in Massachusetts. A policy argument is posited which calls for the organization of democratic, grassroots-based support for the furtherance of an open standard document format not developed or maintained by a corporation which currently monopolizes the office suite market. An “”open coalition”” is called upon to undertake a public awareness and grassroots lobbying campaign, which would connect the open source community to the cause of adopting a genuinely open standard document format by tying open source and standard initiatives together.

The effect of emotional attachment to mobile phone on usage behavior:  Meditation effect of deficient self-regulation and habit • Mijung Kim • Considering pervasiveness of mobile phones, the literature of media use has focused on a wide range of predictors of mobile phone usage behaviors such as motivations, gratifications, self-efficacy, personality traits, media dependency, and demographic characteristics. Nonetheless, the existing theoretical models focusing on rational or utilitarian media usage cannot reflect the emotional and relational aspect of usage behaviors. In other words, what past studies of media use has not paid attention is the possibility that users develop relationship with media and emotional attachment to media including both cognitive and affective based media-self connections. Thus, focusing on psychological connections between users and media, this study demonstrates users’ emotional attachment to mobile phones, influence their mobile phone usage behavior. Specifically, this study focuses on the mediation effects of deficient self-regulation and habits.

Crude comments and concern: Online incivility’s effect on risk perceptions of emerging technologies • Peter Ladwig; Ashley Anderson, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Uncivil rhetoric has become a growing aspect of American political discussion and deliberation.  This trend is not only confined to traditional media representations of deliberation, but also online media such as blog comments.  This study examines online incivility’s effect on risk perception of an emerging technology, nanotechnology.  We found that reading can polarize audiences’ attitudes of risk perception of nanotechnology along the lines of religiosity, efficacy, and support for the technology.

Motivations and Usage Patterns of Online News: Use of Digital Media Technologies and Its Political Implications • Shin Haeng Lee, University of Washington – Seattle; ChangHee Choi, School of Journalism, Indiana University at Bloomington • With an interest in contextualized use of new communication technologies and its implications, this study examines the relationship of individuals’ motivations for news consumption to their frequencies and patterns of online news use and attempts to explain the role of online features in the news consumption by dividing online activities into active and passive usage patterns. Based on a secondary analysis of data collected by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project that conducted a national survey on the media and technology consumption of individuals in 2010, this study aims to identify online users’ motivations for using online news and to examine relationships between user motivations for news consumption and usage patterns of online news services. The findings of this study demonstrate associations of individuals’ different motivations with not only their usage frequencies but also patterns of online news services. The results also suggest that the examination of various activities engaged with different functions the Internet provides should be considered in studies of what motivates people to experience new practices in using web-based media. Given different modes of Internet usage in getting news, this study shed light on the important role of new tools or functions web-based media provide in online practices its users perform as well as the examination of what contents or services they consume or engage with. Finally, the study suggests that scholars should consider for future research the investigation of individuals’ different practices online in using news, contingent on their motivations for media use.

Online users’ news consumption practices and technological tools • Shin Haeng Lee, University of Washington – Seattle • Online users’ different motivations with respect to news consumption lead to different practices in using news media and related ICTs. However, media institutional actors endeavor to hold their power as a traditional gatekeeper even on the Web. In this sense, online users’ activities can be explained with not only traditional mass communication models but also individual motivations for social networking. This paper allows for an explanation in which the application of new ICTs to web-based media reflects institutional actors’ attempts to get access to arenas that draw larger audiences online. Likewise, individual actors who use shared digital network technologies with a motivation for human interactivity play a much more dynamic role in reconfiguring a distinctive flow and patterns of news and information on the Web from traditional communication models. Thus, digital network technological tools can be considered to not only provide online users with more opportunities to access alternative sources of news and information but also allow news media institutions to appropriate technologies for new opportunities to maintain control over users and their participations through technologies in order to reinforce their communicative power. In an effort to examine the consequences of the use of new technologies in news consumption, future research should therefore take into account institutional as well as individual actors’ practices in a process of interaction between their motives and tools for satisfying their needs in the historical and cultural context.

Issue Information and Technological Choice in a Senate Election Campaign: News, Social Media, Candidate Communications, and Voter Learning • Jason A. Martin, Indiana University School of Journalism • As candidates, the news media, and much of the public increasingly focus on digital and mobile media, it is important to understand the impact of these communication technologies in a variety of election contexts. This paper addressed that research problem by asking citizens about their use of various election information resources and their knowledge about key issues in a U.S. Senate campaign. A representative survey of randomly selected voters (n = 220, 50.9% response rate) in one of the nation’s 20 most populous cities was conducted immediately following the November 2010 Senate midterm election. Respondents were asked how frequently they used traditional and digital news media, social media, and campaign communications, including both advertising and candidate websites.  A hierarchical regression model including media use, alternate information sources, motivation measures, and demographics revealed that newspaper use and online news use were the most important independent predictors of issue knowledge, followed by voting status and general civics knowledge. Also, newspaper use and news website use were not correlated, indicating that they were similarly but separately effective in influencing voter issue learning. On the other hand, blog use, social media use, and campaign website use did not have significant effects on issue learning after controls. These findings indicate that although citizens had a greater range of information available to them than ever before, they preferred traditional campaign content and learned the most from the news media’s printed word even as they diversified the platforms on which they received that election news.

Perceived Credibility of Mainstream Newspapers and Facebook • Andrew Nynka, University of Maryland; Raymond McCaffrey, University of Maryland • This study examines whether consumers perceived differences in the credibility of news from a mainstream newspaper compared to a social media web site where a friend provides a link to a story. Measures indicated significant differences across four indices, with a New York Times story rated higher in terms of professionalism, authority, and information, while participants indicated they were more likely to provide a link to the friend’s Facebook story on their own Facebook page.

The Roles of Descriptive Norms and Communication Frequency in Forming Information Communication Technology Adoption Intention • Yi Mou, University of Connecticut; Hanlong Fu • Previous studies have not examined the roles of descriptive norms and communication frequency in the process of information communication technology adoption.  This study aims to fill the gap using podcast as an example.  Results show that descriptive norm is an additional significant predictor of adoption intention.  Injunctive norms play a moderating role in the relationship between communication frequency and descriptive norms.  However, frequent communication in one’s social networks does not necessarily reduce the discrepancy between an individual’s beliefs and perceived others’ beliefs related to podcast using.  Implications for future studies are also discussed.

Look At Me Now: The Need To Belong And Facebook Use • Stephen Prince, Brigham Young University; Adam Anderson; Sarah Connors • The objective of this study was to examine if an individual’s need to belong was associated with specific types of participatory Facebook activities, particularly those that might provide functional substitutes for more traditional interpersonal interaction and involvement with others. A secondary objective was to determine if gender mediated the relationship between need and activity frequency. Data were collected via an online survey (N = 398) administered to Facebook users ranging in age from 14 to 73 (M = 25.93). Our results indicate that those individuals with the greatest need to belong were more likely than those with the lowest need to update their Facebook status on a regular basis, tag photographs, and to use Facebook Chat with a larger number of their friends. Our findings also suggest gender impacts usage patterns based on need to belong. Men with high need are more likely to use Facebook for more interactively immediate forms of communication, such as chatting, than women.  Women with high need were more likely than those with low need to engage in activities that were more designed to draw attention to the individual rather than to create an immediate means of two-way interaction.

Consumer Motivations and the Use of QR Codes • Jennifer Seefeld, University of Nebraska – Lincoln; Meghan Collins, University of Nebraska – Lincoln • The development of QR codes and the increase of mobile phones among college students has developed a new media outlet. Many companies are investing in mobile marketing campaigns but there is little academic research on QR codes. This pilot study attempts to bridge this gap in literature. It analyzes the view of advertising agencies as well as the motivations and knowledge of QR codes in the target market of college students.

New Media in Social Relations: The Cell Phone Use among College Students in Building and Maintaining Friendships • Ivy Shen, University of Oklahoma • This study explores the role of cell phone in maintaining and establishing friendships among college students. A comparison between the cell phone use and face-to-face communication was drawn to see which communication approach is preferred by those young people in terms of supporting friendships. Gender’s affect on college students’ attitudes toward the cell phone use in friendship maintenance and establishment was also examined. The results demonstrate that the cell phone does help in maintaining friendships. College students prefer using the cell phone to having face-to-face conversations to maintain the relationships. Yet, face-to-face interaction turns out to be more preferable in initiating friendships. The findings also suggest that gender is not an influential factor in college students’ cell phone use in the connections with friends.

From Stereoscopy to 3D HD Image:A Review of 3D HDTV Diffusion from the Perspective of Technology Adoption • Xu Song • 3D HDTV is in its early days. 3D technology still needs to be improved to be ready for mass promotion in the market. This study reviews the 3D HDTV technology development and its diffusion in society. Based on the review of the current 3D HDTV adoption situation, individual and social factors which may influence the adoption of 3D HDTV are identified. Some factors such as media technology use and attitude are oriented from the individual difference; some factors such as cost and health risks focus on social aspects. This study analyzes the challenges faced by 3D HDTV diffusion and provides some recommendations for the success of 3D HDTV diffusion.

The Bottom Line: The Negative Influences of Technology on the Good Work and Ethics of Journalism • Ian Storey, Colorado State University • New communication technologies have some positive influences on journalism, but overall have added to the decline of “”good work”” by journalists who are pressured to publish sooner in a culture of immediacy. This immediacy has serious consequences on the profession of journalism and the practitioners of it. In the pursuit to be first, news agencies are creating ethical problems that include providing the public with unverified information and failing to adequately deliberate about their actions.

Gift Economy: Contributors of Functional Online Collaborations • Yoshikazu Suzuki, University of Minnesota Twin Cities • As the Internet transformed into a social platform following Web 2.0, active audience participation and commons-based peer production has been argued as an alternative arena of production for socially and culturally meaningful artifacts. Past literatures have mainly focused on the societal and cultural implications of such change in the landscape of contemporary Internet. However, despite the significant economic implications of peer production, existing literatures remain silent to investigating the phenomenon through the theoretical scope of economic systems. The present study is a qualitative investigation of user contributions and collaborations aimed provide an alternative understanding of the phenomenon of online collaboration through the scope of gift economy.

Reciprocity in social network games and generation of social capital • Donghee Yvette Wohn, Michigan State University • Social network games—games that incorporate network data from social network sites—use exchange between players as a main mechanism of play. However, the type of exchange facilitated by the game is both social and economical. Players get an immediate reward by the system by initiating an exchange with another player, but they can also anticipate an unspecified return from that player. In this dual-exchange environment where reciprocity is triggered by two different stimuli, does reciprocity generate social capital?  This paper describes a longitudinal experiment using a Facebook game (N=89) to examine the effect of behavior and affect on social capital development among zero-sum acquaintances. Reciprocity indicated a significant but small main effect. Affective measures—trust and copresence, but not intimacy—were positive indicators of social capital.

Consumer’s purchase power and ICT diffusion: Theoretical framework and cross-national empirical study • Xiaoqun Zhang • Combining the theories of Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Consumer Theory, this paper constructs a three dimensional framework for the diffusion process of ICTs. This framework shows how the s-shape curve changes when the average purchase power of a nation increases. Hence, it explains the digital divide between different nations due to the economic gaps. The hypotheses based on this framework are proposed and justified by the cross-national empirical studies.

Narcissism, Communication Anxiety, Gratifications-sought on SNS Use and Social Capital among College Students in China • pei zheng; Hongzhe wang • This study investigates whether and how gratifications, narcissism and communication anxiety impact people’s social network sites (SNS) use and perceived social capital. Firstly, a factor analysis of a survey data of SNS users (N=581) outlined a set of specific gratifications obtained from Renren, the most popular Chinese social network site. Four aspects of gratifications-sought (self-expression and presentation, peer pressure, social networking maintenance, and information seeking) have been identified. Then Pearson correlation showed narcissism significantly related to identified gratifications and SNS use, while communication anxiety was partially related to them; Intensity of SNS use was positively related to social capital. After that, hierarchical regression revealed that gratifications were the most powerful predictors for SNS use, while narcissism and intensity predicted social capital powerfully. Moreover, the initial significant relationship of narcissism to intensity of SNS use became insignificant when gratifications were entered in subsequent step into the regression, suggesting a mediation effect occurred.

The emerging network paradigm in computer-mediated communication: A structure analysis of scholarly collaboration network • Aimei Yang • As the important influence of social networks on communication increasingly being recognized by scholars, a growing number of studies have applied the network perspective to study online communication. This article extensively reviewed the major research topics, patterns of publications, and the structure of scholarly collaboration of an emerging sub-field of online communication research: research into online networks. Findings of this study provide not only an overview of a growing new sub-field but also a baseline that will enable future scholars to see where the sub-field began and trace its shift over time.

<< 2011 Abstracts

Advertising 2011 Abstracts

Research Papers

The Clearer, the Better?: The Effect of Sufficient Clarification and Specificity of Risk Disclosure in Broadcast  Direct-To-Consumer Advertising • Ho-Young (Anthony) Ahn, U of Tennessee; Lei Wu, University of Tennessee; Eric Haley, U of Tennessee • This study examined the effectiveness of clarifying the limitation of broadcast DTCA and the disclosure specificity.  Results of a randomized 2 x 2 online experiment (n=235) indicated that the ad featuring numerical disclosure without the ad-limitation statement produced more favorable attitude and trustfulness than (1) the ad featuring numerical disclosure with the ad-limitation statement, and (2) the ad featuring general disclosure without the ad-limitation statement. The ad presenting general disclosure with the ad-limitation statement earned more trust than that presenting general disclosure without the ad-limitation statement. Perceived trustfulness did not guarantee favorable attitude toward the ad. The implications for researchers and DTCA advertisers are discussed.

Practitioner Views of Comparative Advertising: A Twenty-Year Update • Fred Beard, University o Oklahoma • A replication of a survey of senior advertising creative practitioners revealed there has likely been neither a significant increase or decrease in the use of comparative advertising since the late-1980s, although the findings also show their beliefs remain quite favorable toward the tactic. In addition, respondents rated both comparative and noncomparative advertising effective for achieving almost all the same objectives and outcomes and under almost all the same conditions that the original study’s respondents did. Differences between the original survey and its replication suggest valuable directions for future research.

Science, Restraint, and J. Edgar Hoover:  Building and Maintaining the FBI Brand, 1933 to 1972 • Matthew Cecil, South Dakota State University; Jennifer Tiernan, South Dakota State University; Didem Koroglu, South Dakota State University • This study argues that J. Edgar Hoover’s disciplined focus on the FBI brand and on accruing brand equity and social capital was a key factor in the Bureau’s dramatic growth from a bureaucratic backwater into an iconic giant in American society. The success of FBI branding during the Hoover era offers an early, normative model of how to generate brand equity on a nationwide scale.

Children’s Prime-Time Food Commercials in China:  A Content Analysis of National and Provincial TV Channels • Xiaoduo Wang, Ohio University; Hong Cheng, Ohio University • In this content analysis of children’s prime-time TV commercials (N = 761) in China, two national channels (CCTV-1 and CCTV-Children) were compared with two channels (SXTV and HNTV) at the provincial level. Particular attention was paid to food product categories, promotional claims, eating occasions and locales, and characters’ body sizes. It was found that while China’s national channels were more likely to promote healthier food products and eating locales, its provincial channels tended to advertise more high-calorie food products, away-from-home eating locales, and underweight characters. Possible reasons and managerial implications of these disparities in the national and provincial TV commercials—a new and important finding about advertising in this booming market—were discussed.

Brand Placement in the Mosaic Screen: How Placement, Animation, and Onset Timing Impact Viewer Attention • Glenn Cummins, Texas Tech University College of Mass Communications; Jillian Lellis; Robert Meeds • Concerns over ad avoidance have led advertisers and content producers to explore novel forms of co-presentation of commercial and television content.  We report on two studies that used eye tracking to examine one possible vehicle for co-presentation, a mosaic-style presentation of televised sports.  Evidence demonstrated the effectiveness of this technique, as viewers did attend to the inserted brands. Moreover, attention varied dependent upon spatial location of the insertion, use of animation, and timing of onset.

Seeing the Big Picture: Multitasking and Memory for the Ad • Brittany Duff, University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign; Sela Sar, Iowa State University; Sangdo Oh, UIUC; Yulia Lutchyn, U of Tennessee; Sydney Chinchanachokchai, U of Illinois • While media multitasking is said to be an increasing behavior for consumers, little work has been done looking at ads exposed during multitasking.  Multitasking is largely thought to have detrimental effects for consumer memory, particularly toward ads encountered during these times.  However, there may be situations and individuals for which multitasking does not cause a detriment to performance.  Two studies explore how holistic and systematic processing (either primed, state or mood induced) may affect both individual propensities toward multitasking as well as memory for the ads exposed during multitasking.

Responses to User-Generated Brand Videos: The Persuasion Inference Model • Chang-Dae Ham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri • User-generated brand videos are online video contents created and shared by ordinary people, collectively describing a brand. Based on the concept of the Marketplace Metacognition (Wright 2002), this study proposes a simultaneous process of the Persuasion Inference Model in which two different metacognitions i.e., persuasion knowledge (PK) and persuasion acceptance (PA) interact with each other in response to user-generated vs. advertiser-produced brand videos. In particular, the impact of persuasion knowledge (PK), evoked from recognizing message source’s motives of persuasion intention, was significantly mitigated when persuasion acceptance (PA) was aroused by the brand video’s strong emotional appeal.

Consumer Attitude Toward Product Placement in the Movies: The Hierarchical Model of Individual Differences • Ilwoo Ju, University of Tennessee; Spencer Tinkham, University of Georgia • This study examines the influence of six individual differences (self-concept clarity, need for emotion, consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence, attention to social comparison information, need for cognition, and transportability) on consumer attitude toward product placement in the movies. The results show statistically significant relationships between three hierarchical levels of individual differences and attitude toward product placement in the movies. Two dimensions of attitude toward product placement in the movies exhibited substantially different patterns of relationships to these individual differences. The theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.

Think Smart: Smartphone User’s Intention to Accept Mobile Advertising • Jong-Hyuok Jung, Syracuse University; Yongjun Sung; Wei-Na Lee • This study explores motivations that influence smartphone users’ intention to accept mobile advertising. In order to accomplish this research objective, the relationships among various factors identified from past literature were tested via online survey. The empirical findings from the current study suggest that consumer’s attitude toward mobile advertising from his or her previous experience is the most powerful predictor of intention to accept mobile advertising on smartphone. In addition, consumer perception of the smartphone as a compatible device that fits with individual life style and the social benefits of using a smartphone predict intention to accept mobile advertising among smartphone users.

Direct-to-consumer prescription drug websites for stigmatized illnesses • Hannah Kang, University of Florida; Soontae An, Ewha Womans University • Given the growing importance of Internet as a source of health information, this study evaluated whether DTC prescription drug websites for stigmatized illnesses contained stigma-reducing components. We examined the content of first-level and second-level web pages in 88 stand-alone websites for 15 different stigmatized conditions. Results showed that on the homepages, textual cues and visual cues were rarely offered, especially for onset controllability. On the second layer, 22.7 percent of websites offered the three components together. Onset controllability (52.3 percent) and recategorization (54.5 percent) were the more prevalent, while offset controllability (38.6 percent) was relatively less frequent. Implications of the finding were discussed from health theory perspectives.

Assessing Circumplex Model as an Alternative Approach for Measuring Brand Personality • Chang Won Choi, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies; Hyoungkoo Khang, University of Alabama; Yoo-Kyung Kim, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies • In responding to the limitations of the factor approach to brand personality, this study aims to suggest Circumplex model that demonstrates the correlations among the brand personality attributes. The results show that brand personality traits are related to each other in a highly systematic mode. Two dominant factors, activity and potency, were extracted and most brand personality attributes were evenly distributed around the circumference of these two dimensions. To some extents, thus, brand personality attributes are considered to be combinations of these two dimensions. In addition, the finding showed that brand personality items were identified into eight facets, youth, cheerfulness, warmheartedness, tradition, faithfulness, ascendancy, leadership and innovation. This study is expected to provide a theoretical foundation of brand personality studies, complement limitations of the five-factor model, and serve as a practical implication for creating varied brand related strategies in marketing and advertising.  Applicability and implication of the findings as well as suggestions for further research are discussed.

When Does Green Advertising Work? — The Modertating Role of Product Type • Ying Kong, Towson University; Lingling Zhang • Using environmental appeals to promote products is a popular marketing technique. However, little is known about how the effectiveness of green appeals varies across different product categories. The purpose of this study is to examine whether and to what extent green appeals in advertising are effective and how that effectiveness differs between products with more vs. less environmental impact. Using the theoretical frameworks of ad-product fit hypothesis, our two product types (more harmful vs. less harmful) x two appeal types (green appeal vs. non-green appeal) experiment shows that ads with a green appeal are more effective for more-harmful products, whereas for less-harmful products, there is no significant difference between a green and a non-green appeal. Furthermore, cognitive response was found to mediate the interaction effect of green appeal and product type on ad persuasiveness. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Country-of-Origin Cues in Cross-Border Strategic Brand Alliance: How Do Advertisers Do it? • Jin Kyun Lee, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; Wei-Na Lee • This study explores the effects of cross-border strategic brand alliance (SBA) through two studies. A content analysis of magazines ad found that cross-border SBA was a dominant communication strategy. Follow-up experimental study confirmed that subjects in the low COO fit condition were more likely to recall partner brand’s product category and brand name than those in the high COO fit condition. Discussions and suggestions for future research in this area are provided.

Learning from the competition: Analysis of advertising appeals for healthy foods and unhealthy foods • Jung-Sook Lee, Towson University • Food advertising appeals are analyzed from 173 food advertisements found in 12 issues of People magazine from January through December 2008. Findings indicate that both taste appeals (30%) and emotional appeals (31%) are more common than nutritional appeals (22%). The other common appeals are new product appeals and convenience appeals. Taste appeals are dominant in food advertising for both healthy foods and unhealthy foods. Nutritional appeals are also found to a similar extent in ads for unhealthy foods as in ads for healthy foods. However, emotional appeals, are used more frequently in ads for unhealthy foods than in ads for healthy foods.

Combining Product Placements and Spot Advertising: Forward Encoding, Backward Encoding, and Image Activation Effects • Joerg Matthes, University of Zurich; Florence Horisberger • Although brand placements are frequently accompanied by traditional advertising in marketing campaigns, prior academic research has focused primarily on the distinct stand-alone effects of placements. In an experiment working with realistic audiovisual stimuli, the combined effects of product placements and TV spot advertising were examined. Three conditions involving the same target brand were created (placement-only, commercial-only, commercial-placement). Results revealed higher brand awareness for the placement-only and the placement-commercial condition compared to the commercial-only condition. It was also shown that exposure to a subsequent placement can enhance memory for the preceding commercial (backward encoding). However, exposure to a preceding commercial did not facilitate placement recall (forward encoding). Results also revealed that placements can strengthen brand images that were established by a preceding TV commercial (image activation). However, this effect was conditional on individuals’ persuasion knowledge. Implications of these findings for advertising campaigns are discussed.

Practitioner and Audience Attitudes toward Product Placement in Reality Television • Alex Walton, Cartoon Network; Barbara Miller, Elon University • As product placement continues to become a part of the television advertising landscape, television audiences are becoming more exposed to product placements and more aware of product placement as a persuasion tactic. Reality television, which represents a large percentage of the primetime television programming, provides an opportunity to present brand information in a context involving real events with real persona, perhaps limiting the activation of persuasion knowledge. Further, while including a brand name in a scripted show requires planning, capturing reality inevitably provides opportunities to place brand names into programming. This study examined product placements in reality television from multiple perspectives, including (1) in-depth interviews with network entertainment executives; and (2) a series of focus groups with audiences. The Persuasion Knowledge Model was applied as an analytic induction tool to analyze the findings for synthesis with existing literature. Implications for practitioners are discussed and a model of audience response to product placements and integrations is presented.

PKM: Changes in Millennials’ Experience with Media & Attitudes, Attention, and Coping Behaviors Regarding Advertisements Since 2004 • Jensen Moore-Copple, West Virginia University; Blair Dowler, West Virginia University; Kelley Crowley, West Virginia University • This study examines changing attitudes, attention, and avoidance of advertising as well as experience with different media for early (born between 1979 and 1987) vs. late (born between 1985 and 1993) millennials. The Persuasion Knowledge Model is used as a basis for understanding how audiences develop attitudes about persuasive attempts (e.g., advertising messages) and use this information to “”cope”” with future advertising interactions. This investigation extends work done by Speck & Elliot (1997) and Moore (2004) by comparing both traditional media (newspapers, magazines, radio, television) and the Internet.  Using survey methodology, this research examines “”coping”” behaviors associated with exposure to today’s abundant advertising messages. Results suggest that between the five media, early vs. late millennials report very different attitudes toward advertising, attention to advertising, avoidance of advertising, and media usage. Implications for advertisers wishing to target millennials are discussed.

Direct-to-Consumer Antidepressant Advertising, Skepticism toward Advertising, and Consumers’ Optimistic Bias about the Future Risk of Depression • Jin Seong Park, University of Tennessee; Ilwoo Ju, University of Tennessee; kenneth eunhan kim, oklahoma state university • Although exposure to direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising is reported to influence the public’s beliefs about diseases, no research has investigated how DTC advertising may affect the extent of consumers’ optimistic bias about the future risk of diseases. Based on a survey with members of an online consumer panel (N = 699), the current study revealed that: (a) consumers exhibited a tendency to believe they were at less risk of developing clinical depression in the future than their peers, demonstrating an optimistic bias; (b) exposure to DTC antidepressant advertising acted to reduce the extent of such bias, especially when consumers were less skeptical towards prescription drug advertising. When consumers were highly skeptical, DTC exposure did not significantly relate to the extent of optimistic bias; and (c) once formed, the extent of optimistic bias negatively related to consumers’ intention to seek information about depression. Implications of the research for the theory and practice of DTC advertising were discussed.

Can You Say What You Feel? A Matter of “”Wearin”” for (Musical) Codes in Advertising • Caroline Johnson; Carson Wagner, Ohio University • Research has shown that viewers may have more negative explicit attitudes toward brands using advertising codes perceived as “”worn out,”” the presence of the code led to more positive implicit attitudes. This suggests the possibility of detecting wearin—wherein viewers engage the codes—using implicit measures.  While viewers may express more positive explicit attitudes toward a brand that has replaced the codes with new ones, implicit attitudes may be more negative in response to the new code.

Effects of Emotion and Interface Design on Mobile Advertising Effectiveness among Chinese College Students • wenjing xie, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Yunze Zhao, Renmin University of China; Wenya Xie • This study examines the effect of emotional appeals and the interface design of mobile devices on people’s emotional reaction to attitude towards mobile ads as well as their purchase intention of the advertised products. A survey with 442 college students in Beijing shows that emotional appeal as a whole predicts all three dependent variables. Interface design factors of hand-held device, especially screen size, also predict attitude and purchase intention. Moreover, the ubiquitous feature, interface friendliness and advertisement size influence attention to mobile Internet ads. People’s emotional reaction to mobile ads can also predict their attitude and purchase behavior.

Young American Consumers’ Social Media Use, Online Privacy  Concerns, Trust, Risk, and Support for Advertising Regulation • Hongwei Yang, Appalachian State University • A web survey study of 422 American college students was conducted in October, 2010 to test a conceptual model of consumers’ regulatory support for social media advertising, built upon previous studies. It shows that consumers’ prior negative experience of online disclosure significantly increased their online privacy concerns that in turn elevated their perceived risks and undermined their trust of online companies, marketers and laws. Consumers’ heightened risks built up their support for government regulation of social media advertising while their trust enhanced their support for industry self-regulation. Interestingly, young consumers’ trust and perceived risk of online disclosure did not negatively influence their time spent on social networking and blogging websites. Implications for digital interactive marketers, government and self-regulatory agencies are discussed.

Predicting Reactions to Sex in Advertising: The Interplay of Emotional Arousal, Ethical Judgment, and Sexual Self-Schema on Responses to Sexual Content • Kyunga Yoo, University of Georgia; Hojoon Choi, University of Georgia; Tom Reichert, University of Georgia; Michael S. LaTour, University of Nevada Las Vegas; John B. Ford, Old Dominion University • Employing a large national sample, the current research examined how consumer’s emotional arousal and ethical judgment mediate between their sexual ad perception and ad response processes. Simultaneously, the influence of Sexual Self-Schema (SSS) on this mediating mechanism was also assessed. Findings show that consumers experience a conflict between their emotional arousal and ethical morality on processing sexual content in advertising, and SSS plays an important role in manipulating the extent of this conflict.

Effects of Purchasing Experience and Repeated Exposure to the Website on Online Customers’ Brand Relationship • Doyle Yoon, University of Oklahoma • This study examines the effects of prior purchase experience, Internet efficacy, and repeated exposure on consumers’ relationship with retailers, using data collected from an online survey of 802 respondents (465 for a web-based e-retailer version and 337 for a click-and-mortar retailer version). Three relationship quality constructs – trust, satisfaction, and commitment &#61485; are higher in respondents with prior purchasing experience and higher Internet efficacy. However, decreasing trends are found in all three constructs over repeated exposure to the Website. Belyne’s (1970) Two-Factor Theory is used to explain the decrease of relationship quality over repeated exposure. More implications are discussed.

To Help You or To Serve Myself? Exploring the Two Psychological Tendencies that Motivate Online Influentials to Communicate • Jie Zhang, University of Evansville; Wei-Na Lee • This paper describes a study in the psychology of eMavenism, the consumer tendency to acquire general marketplace information from the Internet and become especially involved in electronic word-of-mouth communication. The purpose of the study was to investigate empirically the associations between eMavenism and two important psychological tendencies, altruism and status seeking. The findings support the notion that eMavenism is driven by both other-regarding concern and self-serving interest. Furthermore, the relationship between altruism and eMavenism was found to be negatively moderated by revealing true identity online. Revealing true identity online did not significantly impact the relationship between status seeking and eMavenism. These findings enrich the knowledge of the psychology of eMavenism, improve the concept of eMavenism, and suggest some motivations for engaging in eMavenism. Practically, advertising strategies can be fine-tuned to appeal more effectively to eMavens by satisfying their psychological tendencies.

Am I Really Doing It For Your Benefit? Exploring Social and Personal Motivations for Providing Positive versus Negative Electronic Word-of-Mouth • Jie Zhang, University of Evansville; Wei-Na Lee • This paper describes a study examining whether social and personal motivations affect presenting positive versus negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) similarly or differently. Altruism, consumer self-confidence—social outcome decision making, and personal innovativeness for Web were selected to represent social, social-personal, and personal motivations for eWOM giving. The findings support that all three motivations are important driving forces for eWOM provision in general. In particular, the social-personal motivation, consumer self-confidence—social outcome decision making, was significantly more associated with positive than negative eWOM giving. Advertisers need to incorporate themes linked to this motivation in their campaigns in order to get more “”good”” word from consumers. Both altruism and personal innovativeness for Web affected providing pleasant versus unpleasant product information similarly. Advertisers need to monitor these two motivations when consumers form negative impressions concerning a product. The findings expand the knowledge of social and personal motivations for providing eWOM and improve the theoretical understanding of the relationship between motivations and the type of eWOM presented.

Risk, Realism, and Responsibility in Beer Commercials • Lara Zwarun • When exposed to beer commercials that creatively circumvent the spirit of self-regulatory advertising guidelines by juxtaposing drinking with risky physical activities, participants who drink alcohol perceived them as more realistic than non-drinkers did. The Message Information Processing (MIP) model is applied to illustrate how this perceived realism is part of logical mental processing that reinforces drinking beliefs and behaviors. Drinkers also found the commercials more responsible than non-drinkers, despite some participants believing they had seen people engaging in risky activities while under the influence. A commercial featuring designated driving was viewed as less realistic by drinkers; open-ended comments reveal this may be because in their experience, the use of designated drivers is rare.

Teaching Papers

Consumer Insights, Clients, and Capstone Campaigns Courses: Teaching Research in Advertising Curricula • Danielle Coombs, Kent State University • Evidence suggests that teaching research to undergraduate advertising students can be one of the most challenging roles an advertising faculty member will undertake. Unlike classes in copywriting, media planning, or account management, students often fail to see the connection between the course content and their eventual careers. This disconnect is exacerbated by fears and anxiety surrounding the topics of statistics (and its often equally disliked sibling, mathematics in general). Evidence indicates that some students chose advertising over marketing majors in part because of the reduced math requirements, and—for many—research classes are explicitly linked to these dreaded areas. Despite these challenges, research remains core component for most advertising curricula. This research is designed to understand how research currently is taught and the perceived value of teaching research in a contemporary advertising program, both in terms of individual, specific research-centered classes and as a component of strategy- or campaigns-driven courses. Within that context, we also explore how experiential learning (operationalized for our purposes as client-based projects) can be utilized to better support objectives associated with teaching research to undergraduate advertising students.

Is diversity “”non-existent”” or a “”non-issue?””: Preliminary results from a thematic  analysis ascertaining how educators define diversity in advertising • Laurie Phillips • In the past four decades, diversity has been the subject of heated debate on Madison Avenue and within the halls of the academy alike. Within the ad industry, diversity has been the catalyst for lawsuits concerning employment discrimination, vitriol about monocultural representations within ad messaging, and frequent trade press coverage of America’s changing demographics. Building upon this information, this study reports on qualitative data from an on-going nationwide survey assessing educators’ attitudes toward teaching about diversity in advertising. Reviewing nearly 300 responses to the query “”how do you define diversity in advertising?”” from educators at both accredited and unaccredited institutions, the study includes feedback from those who are rarely surveyed: educators in ad programs housed both inside and outside of schools of journalism and mass communication.

Why Students Major in Advertising • Ron Taylor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville • A total of 145 essays written by students seeking admission to an advertising degree program at a major Southeastern university were examined for student motivation for pursuing an advertising major.  All essays for three academic years, each five years apart, were selected to maximize the opportunity to find differences.  The essays were submitted in the academic years 1997-98 (46 essays), 2002-03 (38 essays), and 2007-08 (61 essays). The opportunity to express one’s creativity ability is the primary reason students are attracted to advertising.

Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R) Papers

Job Satisfaction Among Minority Advertising Professionals: An Update • Jami Fullerton, Oklahoma State University; Alice Kendrick, Southern Methodist University • This paper partially replicated and updated a study of job satisfaction among  minority advertising graduates honored through a national program.  In the current study, responses from alumni of the American Advertising Federation’s Most Promising Minority Students in Advertising from the years 2006-2010 were compared with results from a similar study of alumni from 1997-2005. In the current study, overall job satisfaction for those working in advertising was on the positive side of neutral but significantly lower than alumni who did not work in advertising.  Minority advertising professionals were most satisfied with their co-workers and least satisfied with their compensation.  Salary was positively correlated with job satisfaction, as was the presence of a professional mentor. Verbatim responses about employment challenges described a steep learning curve for recent graduates who joined the workforce. Implications for industry and academic programs are discussed.

Special Topics Papers

Dealing with Conflicting Health Messages:  A Qualitative Study of College Students’ Understandings of Tanning and Skin Cancer Prevention Advertising Messages • Ho-Young (Anthony) Ahn, U of Tennessee; Stephanie Kelly, University of Tennessee; Lei Wu, University of Tennessee; Eric Haley, U of Tennessee • The aim of the current study was to explore how college students make sense of conflicting health messages in relation to tanning in an advertising context. In-depth interviews with 30 college students revealed a certain degree of conflict between advertising message claims, their beliefs and feelings toward the messages. Self-resolution strategies such as problem-solving, compromising and avoiding emerged. Suggestions and implications for health promotion practitioners were provided in terms of advertising skepticism, advertising moderation, credible message sources in advertising and a gap between attitude and behavior.

Maximizing Optimization:  A Small Business Owner Confronts SEM (A Case Study In Search Engine Marketing) • Martine Beachboard, Idaho State University • A New England auto mechanic launches an online specialty auto parts shop and considers how best to market it:  through pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, or a combination.  He seeks advice from a professional web consulting firm and examines their proposal for three levels of analysis and support.  This teaching case offers a relevant and detailed example to supplement textbook coverage of search engine marketing.  It is designed to promote class discussion and critical problem solving.

Connecting Virtual World Perception to Real World Consumption: Chinese Female White-Collar Professionals’ Interpretation of Product Placement in SNSs • Huan Chen; Eric Haley, U of Tennessee • A phenomenology study reveals the lived meanings of product placement in social network sites (SNSs) among Chinese female white-collar professional users through an investigation of a newly launched SNS, Happy Network. In total, 15 face-to-face, in-depth interviews were conducted to collect data. Findings indicated that participants’ interpretations of product placement were interrelated with the socially constructed meanings of the SNS, participants’ social role of white-collar professionals, and consumer culture of contemporary Chinese society. In particular,  the socially constructed meanings of product placement in the context of SNS are jutisfying the existence, connecting to the real world, noticing the familiar, insinuating brand image, and linking to consumption.

“The Other Hangover””: A Case Study in Implementing and Evaluating an Anti-Binge Drinking Advertising Campaign • Nathan Gilkerson, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities; Michelle Gross; Andrea Ahneman • The Other Hangover is an award-winning anti-binge drinking advertising campaign created by students and launched on the University of Minnesota campus in the fall of 2010.  Undergraduates led development and implementation of the campaign, and multiple surveys were designed to evaluate the impact and success of the project.  Following an overview of the research and creative strategy behind the campaign, a summary of the evaluation results — including both quantitative and qualitative data — is presented.

Exploring the Effects of External Brand Placement on Game Players’ Processing of In-Game Brand • Eunice Kim, The University of Texas at Austin; Matthew Eastin, The University of Texas at Austin • There are many branded game-related products, which we call as external brands. This study explores the effects of external brand experience during game play on players’ processing of in-game brand. Results reveal that the in-game brand is better recalled by players experiencing an identical external brand to the in-game brand than players experiencing no external brand or a competing brand. Brand memory was greater for the competing external brand than the in-game brand.

The Cat Herder: The Role and Function of the Agency Creative Director • Karen Mallia, University of South Carolina; Kasey Windels, DePaul University; Sheri Broyles, University of North Texas • While creativity is the lifeblood of the advertising agency, little is known about the role of the creative director in guiding the creative process. This exploratory research aims to uncover the role of the creative director as perceived by agency creatives. Utilizing quasi-ethnographic methods, this research is based on data from six agencies. Findings suggest successful creative directors are transformational leaders with many roles, including brand steward, culture builder, and champion of creative teams.

Channeling the Spirit of IMC: Analysis of the Context and Conditions that Underscore Integrated Marketing Communication • Brian Smith • Integrated marketing communication (IMC) has been discussed as both a process and a concept. On the one hand it is mechanical, through message and image matching, channel management, and measurement. On the other hand, it is also conceptual, based on a unique organizing philosophy that underscores communication mechanics. The latter, which can be termed “”the spirit”” of integration, has received little attention in the literature in spite of its influence on communication. This study outlines the organizational variables that underscore integration, including informal processes and social interactions, which facilitate the mechanics of integration. Results provide theoretical insight and progress integrated communication theory beyond the current emphasis on mechanics to co-creational and socially-constructed considerations in communication integration.

Extending TPB and TAM to Mobile Viral Marketing: A Cross-cultural Study  of Young American and Chinese Consumers’ Attitude, Intent and Behavior • Hongwei Yang, Appalachian State University; Liuning Zhou, Center for the Digital Future, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California • A web survey of 440 American college students was conducted in April, 2010 and a paper survey of 835 Chinese college students was administered in May, June and October, 2010 to validate the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Technology Acceptance Model in predicting young American and Chinese young consumers’ mobile viral marketing attitude, intention and behavior. Structural model testing results confirmed the chain of mobile viral marketing attitude to intent to actual behavior. Subjective norm, behavioral control, perceived utility, and perceived cost predicted their attitude toward viral marketing. Their attitude and perceived utility predicted their viral marketing intent while their intent and attitude predicted the actual behavior. The implications for the industry and academia were discussed.

Student Papers

Advertising Images of Gender and Race Portrayed in Sports Illustrated Kids, 2000-2009 • Ashley Furrow, Ohio University • Gender and racial discrimination in sport remains rampant, and sports media continue as a leading arena for the reproduction of dominant, traditional images of gender and race and of inequality between the sexes and races (Sage, 1990; Smith, 2007). This study conducted a content analysis of advertising images (N=1,490) in Sports Illustrated Kids to determine whether these visual images reflect actual participation rates in athletic competition based on gender and race and whether the number of images of women in the magazine has increased during the magazine’s second decade of publication, 2000 to 2009.  This study found that women and racial minorities continue to be vastly underrepresented within the magazine’s advertising pages. Photographs featuring men were found to vastly outnumber those featuring women in SIK advertising photographs by a ratio of nearly 4 to 1 (79.7% to 20.3%).  As far as a racial difference, African, Asian, and Hispanic models are still fighting for representation in the magazine with only 27.8% depicted in advertising images.

Examining the Influences of Online Comments on Viewers’ Perceptions of  Corporate Advertising on YouTube • Jiran Hou, The University of Georgia; Hojoon Choi, University of Georgia • This study examines the impact of the co-appearance of online peer comments and corporate advertising on online viewers’ attitudes toward the ad, claim believability and attitudes toward the brand. The findings show that the impacts of online peer comments on ad processing and attitudes varied depending on the comment valences and individuals’ previous attitude toward the brand. Negative comments were more influential than positive comments in affecting viewers’ claim believability, attitude toward the ad and attitude toward the brand. Viewers with negative prior brand attitudes were hardly influenced by any types of peer comments, and viewers with positive prior brand attitudes were more easily influenced by negative comments.

The influence of fear appeal on persuasion effects for skin cancer public service announcements (PSAs) according to fear message framing and fear type • Hannah Kang, University of Florida • This study examined the impact of fear message framing and fear type in fear appeal on the persuasion effect of skin cancer public service announcement (PSA). To examine persuasion effects, this study used attitude toward advertising, attitude toward using tanning beds and sunbathing, and behavioral intention as the dependent variable. The experiment was designed by a 2 (message framing: positive message/negative message) X 2 (fear type: health risk/ social risk) factorial design between-subjects experimental design. Results indicated that the main effect of fear type was found on the attitude toward advertising. Moreover, there was significant interaction between fear message framing and fear type not only on the attitude toward using tanning beds or sunbathing, but also on behavioral intention. Implications and limitations of the findings were discussed.

Goal Theories and Attention to Online Banner Advertisements • Dae-Hee Kim, University of Florida • Drawing upon several findings from goal theories in cognitive psychology, the present study investigates a potential mechanism about how consumers process online banner advertising. Two online experiments with simulated web pages revealed that consumer’s goals could determine the attention to online banner advertising. More specifically, the first study showed that subjects paid more attention to the banner stimuli that was relevant to their primed goal. In the second study, subjects attended more to banner advertising on the webpage where they completed the goal-directed tasks rather than on a webpage where their tasks were ongoing. Implications and directions for future research are extensively discussed.

Boys will be Boys: An Analysis of the Male Image in Advertising over the Past 60 Years • Katherine Krauss, Manhattan College • This paper examines conceptions of masculinity, commercialization of personal hygiene, and the formation of the American male identity in order to create a general foundation of understanding as to why masculinity is perceived in the way that it is and why advertisers sell the way that they do to men. Focusing on the advertising efforts of Proctor & Gamble’s beauty and grooming product, Old Spice, this paper analyzes the commonalities and differences of theme and content in advertisements of the 1950s and 2000s.  This paper discusses the advertised messages being conveyed to the 18- to 36-year old age demographic in both decades, where each ad is examined for the cultural values it represents and markets to men.  Using a textural analysis approach, each advertisement is examined in its wording and image to highlight the representation of hegemonic ideals, namely, sex, pleasure-seeking, and reputation.  This in-depth analysis of the Old Spice campaigns allows this paper to identify that the image of the young macho-man lifestyle has been strongly static throughout American history, mirroring and perpetuating the hegemonic male ideal.

The influence of relevance and emotional appeals in public service ads on attitudes and behavioral intentions toward global climate change • Supathida Kulpavaropas • This study examines the main and interactive effects of two emotional appeals (happy and fear) in public service advertisements and the degree to which this topic is assessed as relevant on people’s attitudes and behavioral intention toward global climate change. The results of an experiment showed that participants with high issue relevance reported more positive attitude toward global climate change and more positive behavioral intention when they viewed an ad with a happy vs. fearful appeal.

Effects of Message Involvement and the Tone of Reviews on Facebook:Perceived Credibility, Attitude toward the Ad and Brand • Jinhyon Kwon, University of Florida; Ji Young Kim • This study examines how the Facebook brand page environment, where advertisements and consumer reviews coexist, affects consumers’ attitudes toward the advertisement and the brand. A 2 x 3 experiment manipulated the level of ad message involvement and the tone of online reviews. Results suggest that the tone of online reviews affects consumers’ perceptions of review credibility. Furthermore, an ad message involvement and the review tone interaction emerged for attitude toward the brand.

Effects of Fair Trade Label, Consumers’ Social Responsibility, and Message Framing on Attitudes and Behavior • Seul Lee • This study explored the effectiveness of a Fair Trade certified label, differences of personal social responsibility, and the message framing through an online experiment. The findings indicated that more socially concerned group manifested more positive attitudes and purchase intention than less socially concerned group and that gain-framed messages had a more positive impact than did loss-framed messages. However, this study failed to present that a Fair Trade certified label generated more positive impact.

Effectiveness of blog advertising: Impact of message sidedness, communicator expertise, and advertising intent • Hyun-Ji Lim; Jin Sook Im; Yoo Jin Chung, University of Florida • This study attempts to examine how three factors — message sidedness, communicator expertise, and advertising intent of blog messages — can affect the perception of the message recipients regarding the credibility of the message, improve their attitudes toward the product or the brand reviewed, and provoke changes in their intended behavior. A 2 x 2 x 2 factorial experiment was designed. The experiment involved stimulus material in the form of a blog post, which was modified according to the treatment factors of message sidedness (one-sided vs. refutational two-sided), communicator expertise (high vs. low), and advertising intent (explicit vs. implicit). 388 data sets were collected. This study concluded that a one-sided message was found to be more effective than a refutational two-sided message for blog advertising. Communicator expertise is an important factor while advertising intent was not. This study suggested additional findings related to gender difference.

What Path, Advertising Framing? Tracing the Travels of Framing Through the Advertising Journals, 1996-2010. • Carmen Maye, University of South Carolina • Frame analysis in advertising journals is examined between 1996 and 2010. Included are Advertising & Society Review, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising and Journal of Interactive Advertising. Frame  analysis appears to be gaining traction in the advertising literature. That advertising journals have more slowly embraced framing research than their communications counterparts may owe to inherent differences between news content and advertising.

From Unspeakable to Homosexual to Gay to LGBT: The Evolution of Research on Marketing’s Most Controversial Market Segment • Laurie Phillips • For nearly two decades, collectively the trade press, LGBT marketing firms, tremendous ad expenditure growth in LGBT publications, the explosion of LGBT-targeted, ad-supported media outlets, and strong buying power figures have justified the existence of an LGBT market. Through an in-depth literature review of over 75 five pieces of peer-reviewed advertising and marketing scholarship, this study addresses how scholars have studied the market. In addition to providing one of the most extensive literature reviews on the topic to date, this study provides researchers with a roadmap for future research.

The Effects of Using “”Real Women”” In Advertising • Amber Remke, Oklahoma State University • Are advertisements that use more realistic models as effective as those that use “”ideal”” models? This study seeks to answer that question using an experimental design to determine whether there is a difference in how females will respond to ads featuring an “”ideal”” model or a more realistic model and whether body-esteem or self-esteem are moderating variables. Results show that regardless of high or low body- or self-esteem, the women surveyed preferred the ad featuring the more realistic model. This study has important implications for providing a greater understanding of how media affects self-image, as well as the implications of these unrealistic standards and how they impact a consumer’s attitudes toward advertising.  This study also has important implications for American women with an unrealistic image of true beauty. If advertisements focused on portraying more realistic models, American females’ perception of beauty could possibly shift away from an unattainable ideal to a more realistic vision of beauty.

Trappist or Tropist? The Monastic Brewing Heritage and Its Effect on Perceptions of Product Authenticity and Intentions to Purchase • Susan Sarapin, Purdue University; Christine Spinetta, Purdue University • This study explored perceived authenticity of a beer brewed by monks in a monastery and four inauthentic beers, measured on respondents’ awareness of the “”real”” beer’s heritage, and what influence that knowledge has on intentions to buy it. The heritage narrative had a significant effect on authenticity ratings and purchase intentions. Respondents’ religious preferences had no effect on the dependent variable. The study has implications for the marketing of Trappist and inauthentic, abbey-style beers.

Signaling Theory and Its Role in Branding University Contract Training Programs • Shelley Stephens, University of South Alabama • Academic outreach divisions (AOD) within institutions provide open enrollment and contract training. Often surrounding businesses are unaware of this resource, despite holding the institution’s name in high regard through association sets and frequency. The unawareness creates information asymmetry for AODs according to the Signaling Theory.  Larger association sets and frequency of encounters with the institution’s brand name deepens implicit memory encoding. This quantitative study found that feelings for the institution transfers to other divisions AODs are cobranded.

Verbal Claims and Graphical Features on Toddler Food Packaging:  Advertising “”Healthy”” Products • Chan Le Thai, University of California, Santa Barbara • Advertising features, verbal and graphic, on food packages and labels can convey a wealth of information to consumers, including whether the product is healthy.  A content analysis was conducted to investigate how often certain health-implying front-of-package features appear on packages of toddler snack foods. Five undergraduate coders coded 68 products for health claims, nutrient claims, ingredient claims, and graphics.  Ingredient claims and graphics of potential ingredients were identified and cross-referenced with the ingredient list on the back of the package. The data revealed that almost all of the packages used the coded features: 82% of the sample featured nutrient claims; 52% featured health claims; 97% included graphical depictions and 66% of those graphics were possible ingredients in the product; and 86% featured ingredient claims. Of all the products that contained an ingredient claim or graphics of a potential ingredient, the ingredient used in the claim or graphical feature was present in the ingredient list, but the ingredient was rarely the first ingredient on the list and was often in a non-conventional form, such as a puree, a powder, flavor, or color.  The findings from this study provide a foundation of knowledge that may guide future research and policies related to package  advertising and labeling.

Use of Culturally Meaningful Symbols or Iconographies in Gay-Themed Ads • Nam-Hyun Um • This study examines the characteristics of gay-themed ads, focusing on culturally meaningful symbols and iconographies, in gay magazines (specifically The Advocate, Out, and Curve). In recent years, advertising scholars and practitioners have grown more interested in how gay-themed ads influence gay consumers and non-gay consumers. In gay-themed ads, advertisers employ culturally meaningful symbols or iconographies as part of an effort to not alienate non-gay consumers. Gay-themed advertising, however, has yet to be deeply analyzed in terms of creativity or consumer reactions. Hence, Study 1 examines the characteristics of gay-themed ads using content analysis of gay-targeted magazines (The Advocate, Out, and Curve). As a follow up study, Study 2 assesses consumers’ responses to gay-themed ads. The study, using implicit and explicit gay-themed ads, gathers reactions from straight and gay participants. We go on to clarify the findings’ implications, discuss some concerns raised over gay-themed ads, and suggest directions for future research.

What should I eat today?  An exploration of how college-aged females use different media platforms to influence food decisions • Mari Luz Zapata Ramos, University of Florida • This study sought to assess if and how college-aged females use smart phones and other informational sources to make or influence food related decisions.  A survey administered to 365 female college students revealed that respondents use smart phones to influence food decisions.  Four focus groups were conducted using survey participants with the required characteristics.  Dominant reasons for using a range of informational sources to influence food decisions were identified.

<< 2011 Abstracts

AEJMC Code of Ethics Research

Statement on Professionalism
(March 2021)

AEJMC members share a common responsibility for maintaining collegial relationships inspired by high standards for professional behavior. Civility in words and behaviors are rooted in AEJMC values of accountability, fidelity and truth telling, justice, and caring – which include but exceed politeness alone. All communications (written, spoken or physical acts) related to the research competition — including but not limited to the  submission of papers, abstracts, nominations and proposals — should be respectful and civil. All associated with these processes should not succumb to potential negative effects linked to anonymity or social media online identity that may contribute to incivility and manifest in bullying, direct or indirect threats, or other destructive behaviors. Thus, disagreements should be handled in a civil manner. All efforts to resolve disputes related to the research competition should occur through the division, interest group, or commission to which the paper, abstract or proposal was submitted. Authors should exhaust all levels of  the relevant group’s chain of command before bringing an issue to the Elected Standing Committee on Research (SCR). The SCR will be the ultimate arbiter of research competition decisions. While we respect freedom of speech, we also expect professionalism. Abusive, threatening or intimidating communications directed toward division, interest group or commission officers for issues related to the research competition may result in suspension or being barred from submitting to a division or to the annual AEJMC conference.

Statement Approved by the Standing Committee on Research, March 2021

Recommended Ethical Research Guidelines for AEJMC Members(1)

Unanimously Approved by the Standing Committee on Research, August 11, 2005

Preamble

Every aspect of research must be guided by ethical research standards. It is the responsibility of AEJMC members to follow ethical research standards when designing, conducting, analyzing, publishing, and supervising research studies. In the fields of journalism and mass communication, research studies may be conducted on humans or their artifacts. Research methodologies involving humans may include surveys, experiments, participant observation, depth interviews, or focus groups while research studies that focus on artifacts of humans might include methods such as content analysis, textual analysis, or unobtrusive observation.

If Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is required for human subjects research, it is the responsibility of AEJMC members to follow the guidelines of their university’s IRB. It is important to emphasize, though, that these guidelines should not include the practice of journalism. Because the practice of journalism, due to its First Amendment protection and separate ethics codes, is different from the federal government’s definition of research involving human subjects2, IRB review of news gathering procedures should be inappropriate. It is important to keep in mind that IRB’s are primarily concerned with the treatment of human subjects, but human participants represent only one, albeit important, component of a research study. Once IRB approval is received, it does not absolve AEJMC members from following ethical standards for other aspects of research studies. Ethical standards apply to AEJMC members conducting or supervising research studies as well as journal editors, editorial boards, research chairs, and reviewers.

I. Plagiarism and conflict of interest violate ethical research standards.
AEJMC members must never plagiarize nor take credit for another individual’s work, whether published or not. AEJMC members must accurately and fully document sources for ideas, words, and pictures. Research studies must be designed free of conflict of interest; studies tailored to produce an outcome consistent with the interests of a funding sponsor, institution, or research agenda are in breach of ethical research standards.

II. Knowingly causing harm to research participants is unethical.
In addition to adhering to a university’s IRB requirements that protect human research participants, AEJMC members must treat all research participants with respect, fairness, and integrity, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, religion, culture, or sexual orientation. Actions that may cause harm include but are not limited to: coercing participation in a research study; disclosing information that the researcher has promised will remain confidential; failing to secure informed consent from participants in experimental studies; failing to debrief participants at the conclusion of an experiment; failing to disclose in advance that participants will be observed or taped; failing to warn participants in advance that they will be queried about sexually explicit or illegal behavior.

III. Data collection, processing, and analysis must be undertaken with integrity.
AEJMC members must make every effort to safeguard the integrity of the research data from collection through analysis. It is unethical to fabricate data. Likewise, concealing data that do not support hypotheses, a research agenda, or a funding sponsor’s goals is unethical.

IV. Research studies must be reported accurately and objectively.
The research report must accurately represent the study’s purpose, procedures, and results. It is unethical to exclude information about research procedures that may influence the validity or interpretation of results. Procedures for selecting participants for a survey, experiment or focus group or media content for a content analysis must be explained fully. Sample size, response rate, question wording, inter-coder reliability, weighting, analyses of sub-samples, and recoding of data must be reported accurately and completely. Finally, slanting the writing of a research study to produce an outcome that is inconsistent with the results or to satisfy an outside sponsor or to make consistent with a research agenda, is unethical. If the author ever discovers an error in the study after the article is submitted, accepted, or published, the author must immediately inform the journal’s editor.

V. Authorship credit must be fair, accurate, and without conflict of interest.
An author is involved in conceiving, designing, conducting, and writing a research study. The first author usually has primary responsibility for most components of a study. Although co-authors contribute to a study, the co-author credit often means less involvement than the first author. In cases where the contribution of co-authors is truly equal, which author gets listed first can be determined alphabetically, randomly, or by some other method acceptable to the authors. When three or more authors contribute to a study, the order of authors’ names should be consistent with the level of involvement for each author, ranging from most to least involved.

Although the results of a Standing Committee on Research survey of AEJMC members suggested the membership is split on the ethics of faculty co-authorship of a student dissertation or thesis, the Standing Committee recognizes the potential for conflict of interest in publications produced from student work.3 Faculty should never pressure graduate students for co-author credit and graduate students should always acknowledge the contributions of faculty advisors to their scholarly publications.

VI. Submit original work for publication.
AEJMC members should only submit manuscripts representing original work and not work that has been published elsewhere or work that is a re-write of previously published articles. It is the responsibility of the author to inform editors when manuscripts are based on dissertations or theses.
Because multiple and simultaneous submission policies vary by disciplines, it is imperative that editors and research chairs publish submission guidelines. Disregarding editorial policies on multiple and simultaneous submissions is unethical.

VII. Ethical research principles should guide the supervision of students and mentoring of junior faculty.
AEJMC members are responsible for ensuring that the students they supervise and junior faculty they mentor follow ethical research standards. Furthermore, AEJMC members must be sensitive to the potential for conflicts of interests and breaches of ethical research standards when advising students and junior faculty on research matters. Faculty should not pressure students to select certain dissertation topics; students and junior faculty should not feel obligated to give undeserved co-author credit to faculty advisors or mentors. Demanding undeserved credit for work done by a student or junior faculty member is unethical.

VIII. Ethical research standards should guide the handling of manuscripts by editors, editorial boards, research chairs, and reviewers.
Manuscripts must be handled with confidentiality and integrity during every phase of the editorial review process. Without exception, authors’ manuscripts must be evaluated objectively on the quality of work, not on personal preferences, hidden agendas, or politics. Additionally, AEJMC members who are editors and reviewers should follow American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines when handling manuscripts: “Editors and reviewers may not use the material from an unpublished manuscript to advance their own or others’ work without the author’s consent.”4

Notes
(1)The idea of writing Guidelines for Ethical Research for AEJMC members was conceived in Kansas City during the meeting of the Standing Committee on Research at the 2003 convention. After discussing the results of a 2003 ethical research survey of AEJMC members that found evidence of violations of research ethics, the research committee decided to develop ethical research principles that could be adopted by the organization as a whole. Members of the 2002-2003 Standing Committee on Research included: Linda Steiner (Chair), Alison Alexander, Tsan-Kuo Chang, Jack Dvorak, Michael Real, Mary Alice Shaver, Elizabeth Toth, Sandra Utt, and Paula Poindexter who conducted the ethical research survey and drafted the guidelines. The draft guidelines reflected Standing Committee on Research member concerns, results of the ethical research survey of AEJMC members, ethical standards emphasized in research textbooks, journals, and publications from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the American Psychological Association (APA), and Institutional Review Board (IRB) requirements. The draft ethical research guidelines were first reviewed and discussed with the 2003-2004 research committee during the 2004 convention in Toronto. The 2004-2005 research committee further discussed revisions during the mid-winter meeting in San Antonio. The final version of “Recommended Ethical Research Guidelines for AEJMC Members” was unanimously approved by the 2004-2005 Standing Committee on Research which included the following members: Elizabeth Toth (Chair), Alison Alexander, Julie Andsager, David Domke, Carolyn Kitch, David Mindich, Michael Shapiro, Don Stacks, and Paula Poindexter who spearheaded the initiative to write ethical research guidelines for AEJMC members.

(2)Research means a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. <http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.htm#46.102>

(3)Paula M. Poindexter, “Ethical Issues and Dirty Little Secrets in Journalism and Mass Communication Research.” Results of the AEJMC member survey presented at the Plenary Session on “Ethics in Research and Teaching,” AEJMC Annual Convention, Kansas City, MO, July 31, 2003.

(4)American Psychological Association, “Ethics of Scientific Publication” in Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (5th ed.) (Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2001) p. 355

References
American Association for Public Opinion Research, Best Practices for Survey and Public Opinion Research and Survey Practices AAPOR Condemns. Ann Arbor, MI: American Association for Public Opinion Research, May 1997.

American Psychological Association, “Ethical Standards for the Reporting and Publishing of Scientific Information” in Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.) (Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2001) 387-396

American Psychological Association, “Ethics of Scientific Publication” in Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (5th ed.) (Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2001) 348-355.

Babbie, Earl, The Practice of Social Research, (7th ed.) (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company) 448-457.

The Belmont Report <http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/Belmont.html>retrieved 31 July 2004.

Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health Office for Protection from Research Risks, Code of Federal Regulations: Title 45 Public Welfare, Part 46, Protection of Human Subjects. <http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.html> retrieved 29 June 2004.

Historical Perspectives on Human Subject Research, UT Training Model, Part I <http://www.utexas.edu/research/rsc/training/3.html>retrieved 31 July 2004.

Poindexter, Paula M., “Ethical Issues and Dirty Little Secrets in Journalism and Mass Communication Research.” Results of the AEJMC member survey presented at the Plenary Session on “Ethics in Research and Teaching,” AEJMC Annual Convention, Kansas City, MO, July 31, 2003.

Poindexter, Paula M. and Maxwell E. McCombs, Research in Mass Communication: A Practical Guide (NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s), 364-368.

Schiff, Frederick and Michael Ryan, “Ethical Problems in Advising Theses and Dissertations,” Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 51 (spring 1996): 23-35.

Stempell III, Guido H. and Bruce H. Westley, eds., Research Methods in Mass Communication (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981) 117-118, 255-257, 387-388.

Wimmer, Roger D. and Joseph R. Dominick, Mass Media Research: An Introduction, (4th ed.) (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company) 399-411.

<Elected Standing Committees

AEJMC Code of Ethics Teaching

A Code of Ethics for Teaching Journalism and Mass Communication

(Submitted by the Standing Committee on Teaching Standards, AEJMC, Dec. 5, 2005)

Preamble

Journalism and mass communication educators, believing in the worth and dignity of each human being, recognize the supreme importance of the pursuit of truth, devotion to excellence and the nurture of democratic principles — especially the nurture of freedom of expression. They recognize the magnitude of the responsibility inherent in the teaching process.
(adapted from NEA Code of Ethics, 1975)

1. Respect for the Autonomy of Others.
Journalism and mass communication educators:

• respect individual learners, their development and their learning needs;
• value freedom of expression — and appropriate, respectful reactions to ideas and opinions expressed;
• acknowledge the rights of students, faculty and staff to make their own decisions as long as their decisions do not interfere with the welfare or rights of others;
• value academic freedom, of students as well as colleagues;
• foster student discovery, rather than indoctrination.

2. Minimizing Harm.
Journalism and mass communication educators:

• engage in relationships with students and colleagues that are not exploitative;
• seek consultation when ethical problems arise;
• attempt to mitigate any injurious effects of bias in their work;
• convey personal ideology or positions in respectful ways;
• do not mandate social or political behavior in their students;
• do not tolerate, even passively, unethical behavior on the part of colleagues or students.

3. Benefits to Students and Colleagues.
Journalism and mass communication educators:

• accept responsibility for their part in student welfare and development;
• deliver the services to which students are entitled (e.g. dependable performance in teaching, advising);
• whenever appropriate, acknowledge assistance from students or colleagues;
• recognize and attempt to fulfill their role as exemplars, both in scholarship and in ethical behavior.

4. Fairness and Equity.
Journalism and mass communication educators:

• treat others as they would wish to be treated under similar circumstances;
• maintain fair and judicious practices when evaluating students or colleagues;
• pursue sanctions for academic misconduct only after gathering thorough evidence.
• advocate and practice non-discrimination in all aspects of teaching.

5. Fidelity and Honesty.
Journalism and mass communication educators:

• exhibit truthfulness and keep promises in their dealings with students and colleagues;
• demand and foster honest academic conduct;
• label their own opinions as such and expect others to do the same;
• avoid conflicts of interest and other behavior that would reduce others’ trust in the faculty or academic profession;
• display openness in dealing with students, colleagues and the public;
• use procedures for informed consent whenever applicable.

6. Dignity.
Journalism and mass communication educators:

• accord dignity to students and colleagues;
• respect the confidential nature of the student-instructor relationship;
• respect diversity in all its forms.

7. Caring.
Journalism and mass communication educators:

• exercise institutional duties with care;
• extend compassion and sensitivity to the greatest extent possible toward students and colleagues.

8. Pursuit of Excellence.
Journalism and mass communication educators:

• maintain their own competence, in both their subject and in their pedagogy;
• engage in continued reflection and evaluation — and are committed to consequent improvement of their own practice;
• engage in continuous professional development by learning and adopting new instructional methods and strategies;
• are open to criticism and new ideas, from students and colleagues, yet do not succumb immediately to any suggestion;
• take pride in their work and encourage students and colleagues to do the same.

9. Commitment to the Learning Community.
Journalism and mass communication educators:

• are collegial with colleagues, staff and students;
• maintain an environment that is conducive to teaching and learning.

10. Opportunity.
Journalism and mass communication educators are committed to greater participation in higher education in journalism and mass communication, and especially committed to equality of educational opportunity.

<< Code of Ethics Index

AEJMC Code of Ethics PF&R

Recommended Ethical Professional Freedom & Responsibility Guidelines

Preamble

Professional freedom and responsibility encompasses research, teaching and service and is related to AEJMC members’ interaction with the media professions through preparation of students for media careers, research examining media roles and responsibilities, and service to the professions through engagement and training. Service in support of professional freedom and responsibility is an essential expectation of every member of AEJMC. Members should work in support of the principles of professional freedom and responsibility within this organization, at their home institutions, and in society at large.

I. Free expression should be nurtured and protected at all levels.
AEJMC members should promote and protect free expression, particularly freedom of speech and freedom of the press. AEJMC members should work to improve the understanding of free expression intellectually, historically and legally. They should also work to implement this freedom in the broadest sense: within the organization, on their campuses, in their communities, and nationally. Free expression is a fundamental right and responsibility; AEJMC members should serve as the voice and support of free expression on their campuses and in their communities whenever that right is threatened. AEJMC as an organization should establish and maintain a position as an advocate of free expression with regional and national authorities that seek to limit this right.

II. Ethical behavior should be supported and promoted at all times.
AEJMC members should seek the highest ethical standards possible through education, research and service. Ethical concerns include such topics as individual privacy, confidentiality, conflict of interest, sensationalism, truthtelling, deception and social justice. AEJMC members should also act ethically with regard to their dealings with students and colleagues, avoiding any appearance of impropriety or unfair treatment.

III. Media criticism and accountability should be fostered.
AEJMC members should conduct and/or encourage their students to conduct constructive evaluation of the professional marketplace. AEJMC members should work with practitioners and industry watchdog groups to inspire media analysis and foster media accountability. AEJMC members should act as media critics on their campuses and within their communities. AEJMC as an organization should promote the recognition and reward of effective media criticism, and should provide a voice in regional and national discussions of media accountability.

IV. Racial, gender and cultural inclusiveness should be encouraged and recognized.
AEJMC members should work to make certain that racial, gender and cultural inclusiveness are included in curricula and focused on in institutional hiring decisions. The work of women and minorities should be represented in the curriculum; efforts should be made to include segments of the population historically excluded from public communication because of lack of opportunity. Within AEJMC, divisions and interest groups that show marked success in embracing racial, gender and cultural inclusiveness should be identified and, whenever possible, rewarded. AEJMC as an organization should collaborate with other media organizations that promote diversity and should provide a voice in regional and national discussions in this area.

V. Public service contributions should be expected of all AEJMC members.
AEJMC members have a mandate to serve society beyond their teaching and research. AEJMC members should offer services related to their appropriate professional fields, particularly activities that enhance understanding among media educators, professionals and the general public. AEJMC members should assist the organization, other media organizations, and media practitioners.

VI. AEJMC programs and faculty should make every effort to insure equal opportunity for students to enter student contests.
Preference and special coaching should not be offered to individuals singled out by faculty. The effort to win contests should not have undo influence over curriculum or the way in which student publications of broadcasts are staffed or structured.

<< AEJMC Code of Ethics Index

AEJMC Code of Ethics

Preamble and the Core Values

AEJMC Code of Ethics

Overall Preamble: AEJMC members are educators, scholars, and advocates of free and responsible journalism and media, and free inquiry in pursuit of knowledge. We are committed to fulfilling our responsibilities with high standards of professional competence and integrity in the service of our discipline, peers, students, institutions, and society. We adhere to the following core values:

• ACCOUNTABILITY. AEJMC members act with openness and transparency in our scholarship, teaching, and service roles.
• FIDELITY AND TRUTH TELLING. AEJMC members value honesty, promise-keeping, and faithfulness to our discipline and stakeholders.
• JUSTICE. AEJMC members strive for fairness, impartiality, and distributive justice in our relationships with peers, students, and other stakeholders. We celebrate and promote diversity.
• CARING. AEJMC members act with respect, sensitivity, consideration of others, compassion, and mercy. We try to protect others from abuse and coercion.

In Research

Preamble: AEJMC members follow ethical research standards as researchers, in designing, conducting, analyzing research; when publishing research; as reviewers, referees, and editors; and as teachers, including when teaching methods and supervising studies. As researchers, AEJMC members are committed to:
Accountability. AEJMC members accurately and fully document sources for ideas, words, and pictures. We never plagiarize or take credit for another individual’s work, whether published or not, nor do we ever fabricate data. We safeguard the integrity of research data and report accurately and fully a study’s purpose, procedures, and results. Authors inform editors when manuscripts are based on dissertations or theses. Researchers who discover errors after an article is submitted, accepted, or published immediately inform the journal’s editor.
As editors, reviewers, referees, and research chairs, AEJMC members handle manuscripts with confidentiality and integrity during every phase of the review process. We evaluate manuscripts without reference to our personal preferences or political agendas. We do not use the material from unpublished manuscripts to advance our work; as editors, we ensure that authors whose work we are publishing conform to ethical standards Because multiple and simultaneous submission policies vary by disciplines, AEJMC editors and research chairs make submission guidelines public.
Fidelity and truth telling. AEJMC members submit to journals manuscripts representing original work, not work that has been published elsewhere. AEJMC members design our work to be free of conflict of interest, and we ensure that the conclusions of our work are consistent with the data we find. We inform subjects of our status as researchers. We do not tailor studies to produce outcomes consistent with interests of funding sponsors or institutions, nor do we conceal data or slant the writing of a study to satisfy an outside sponsor or funding agency.
Justice. AEJMC members acknowledge co-authorship credit fairly and accurately, such that the order of co-authors’ names is consistent with the level of involvement for each coauthor. When the contribution of co-authors is truly equal, we agree on and explain the order for listing co-authors.
Caring. AEJMC members protect research participants; treat all research participants with respect, fairness, and integrity, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, religion, culture, or sexual orientation. We ensure that participants provide informed consent and that participation in research is not coerced; keep promises regarding confidential information.

In Teaching

Preamble: AEJMC members believe in the worth and dignity of each human being, recognize the supreme importance of the pursuit of truth, devotion to excellence and the nurture of democratic principles — especially the nurture of freedom of expression. We recognize the magnitude of the ethical responsibilities inherent in the teaching process. As teachers, AEJMC members are committed to:
Accountability. AEJMC members respect the autonomy of others, including of individual learners, their development and their learning needs. We acknowledge the rights of students, faculty, and staff to make their own decisions as long as their decisions do not interfere with the welfare or rights of others.
AEJMC members are accountable to students and colleagues, accepting responsibility for our part in student welfare and development. We deliver the services to which students are entitled (e.g. dependable performance in teaching, advising); whenever appropriate, we acknowledge assistance from students or colleagues. We recognize and attempt to fulfill our role as exemplars, both in scholarship and in ethical behavior, and ensure that ethical principles guide the supervision of students and mentoring of junior faculty. We do not tolerate, even passively, unethical behavior on the part of colleagues or students. Simultaneously, we are collegial with colleagues, staff, and students, and promote environments conducive to teaching and learning; we do not involve students in faculty conflicts.
Fidelity and truth telling. AEJMC members exhibit honesty and keep promises to students and colleagues. We demand and foster ethical academic conduct; avoid conflicts of interest and other behavior that would reduce others’ trust in the faculty or academic profession; display openness in dealing with students, colleagues, and the public. We use procedures for informed consent whenever applicable.
We value academic freedom and freedom of expression as well as appropriate, respectful reactions to ideas and opinions expressed by students as well as colleagues; we label our own opinions as such and expect others to do the same. We foster student discovery, rather than indoctrination.
Justice. AEJMC members are committed to fairness and equity. We treat others as we would wish to be treated under similar circumstances; maintain fair and judicious practices when evaluating students or colleagues; pursue sanctions for academic misconduct only after gathering thorough evidence; advocate and practice non-discrimination in all aspects of teaching. We accord dignity to students and colleagues; respect the confidential nature of the student-instructor relationship; respect diversity in all its forms. We are committed to extended participation in higher education in journalism and mass communication, and especially to equality of educational opportunity.
Caring. AEJMC members seek to minimize harm. We engage in relationships with students and colleagues that are not exploitative; do not coerce students to select our favored dissertation and thesis topics, or give undeserved co-author credit; seek consultation when ethical problems arise; and attempt to mitigate any injurious effects of bias in our work. We convey personal ideology or positions in respectful ways; and do not manipulate or coerce social or political behavior in our students. We exercise institutional duties with care, extending compassion and sensitivity to the greatest extent possible toward students and colleagues.
AEJMC members pursue excellence. We engage in continued reflection, evaluation, and improvement in both our subject and in pedagogy. We engage in continuous professional development by learning and adopting new instructional methods and strategies; are open to criticism and new ideas from students and colleagues; take pride in our work and encourage students and colleagues to do the same.

In Professional Freedom & Responsibility

Preamble: Professional freedom and responsibility encompasses research, teaching, and service. This is related to AEJMC members’ interaction with the media professions through preparation of students for media careers, research examining media roles and responsibilities, and service to the professions through engagement and training. Service in support of professional freedom and responsibility is an essential expectation of every AEJMC member. Members work in support of the principles of professional freedom and responsibility within this organization, at our home institutions, and in society at large. As ethical researchers, teachers, and citizens, AEJMC members are committed to:
Accountability. AEJMC members conduct (and encourage students to conduct) constructive evaluation of the professional marketplace. We work with practitioners and industry watchdog groups to inspire media analysis, to foster media accountability, and to promote attention to ethics in journalism and other forms of mass communication. We act as media critics on our campuses and within our communities.
Fidelity and truth telling. AEJMC members nurture, promote, and protect free expression, particularly freedom of speech and freedom of the press, at all levels and at all times. AEJMC members work to improve the understanding of free expression intellectually, historically, and legally. We also work to implement this freedom in the broadest sense: within organizations, on campuses, in our communities, and nationally and globally. Free expression is a fundamental right. When that right is threatened, we act on our ethical obligation to serve as the voice and support of free expression on our campuses and communities.
Justice. AEJMC members work to ensure that racial, gender, and cultural inclusiveness are included in curricula, considered during hiring decisions, and taken seriously by media organizations with which we collaborate. We encourage AEJMC divisions and interest groups to embrace racial, gender, and cultural inclusiveness and include populations historically excluded from public communication.
Caring. AEJMC members have a mandate to serve society beyond our teaching and research. We offer services related to our appropriate professional fields, particularly activities that enhance understanding among media educators, professionals, and the general public. We assist AEJMC, other media organizations, and media practitioners.

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Entertainment Studies 2007 Abstracts

Entertainment Studies Interest Group

The effect of the writers’ Communist ideology on the 1950s Television Series The Adventures of Robin Hood • Mary Blue, Tulane University • The Adventures of Robin Hood was produced in England and first aired in England, Canada and the United States between 1955 and 1958. The show is a perfect choice for a content analysis of the television writing of blacklisted communist writers since recent articles have added to the list of blacklisted writers, the series to which they contributed, the pseudonyms used by most of the writers, and what is known about their level of participation.

Too Late to Make it Right? Country music, patriotism, & the Dixie Chicks • Naeemah Clark, Kenneth Levine and Daniel Haygood, University of Tennessee • In March 2003, Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience, “Just so you know….we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” In the days following this statement, the Dixie Chicks were ostracized by the country music community. Radio stopped playing their music and some former fans publicly tore photos and destroyed their CDs.

The Scope of Music and Film Piracy on College Campuses: A Study of Knowledge, Behaviors, and Perceptions • Victoria Smith Ekstrand and Terry Rentner, Bowling Green State University • The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the scope of music and film piracy on campus as the basis for effective anti-piracy education programs. The study concluded that students thought their peers illegally downloaded more than was the case; that students don’t understand the laws regarding file sharing; and that they don’t perceive their actions to be unethical. The study recommends that such findings be addressed in the creation of anti-piracy campaigns.

Violently Sexy: A Content Analysis of Newspapers’ Schizophrenic Coverage of Violence in Videogames • Howard Fisher, affiliation • Videogame controversy has grown over the years, most recently with the release of “Grand Theft Auto III” that buried graphic sex scenes deep inside the game. The news media have wrung their hands at the content while also praising the games through glowing reviews. This content analysis of videogame articles from 1991-2006 analyzes the language used to discuss videogame violence and finds that it changes when the article is an editorial vs. a review (X2 (50, 934), = 571.609, p < .001).”

Sexuality on Network TV: A Comparison of Sexual References and Behavior by Gay/Lesbian and Heterosexual Characters • Rhonda Gibson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Joe Bob Hester, Texas Tech University • Critics have claimed that although the number of gay and lesbian characters on network television shows is increasing, they are portrayed as less sexual than straight characters because of television executives’ fears of offending viewers. This content analysis of references to romance or sexuality and sexual behavior indeed found disparities between heterosexual and homosexual characters.

What Encourages Online Sports Fan’s Gratification? • Moonki Hong and Arthur A. Raney, Florida State University • Sports websites are among the most popular sites on the Internet. Using survey responses among 442 individuals, the current study investigates why frequent visitors (online sports fans, n=299) of sports information or news websites (e.g., ESPN.com, Yahoo!Sports.com, etc.) use their favorite sites. Based on Uses and Gratification (U&G) approaches and discussion of mediated sports events, three key antecedents of attitude toward and satisfaction with the sites are identified: entertainment, informativeness, and perceived interactivity.

Simplification and Entertainment in the Public Sphere: Habermas Reconsiders the Mass Culture Critique • Thomas Hove, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This commentary traces revisions in Habermas’s normative assessments of mass culture, the mass media, and their influence on the public sphere. The early Habermas emphasized the public sphere’s critical function of holding state authority to public account. But his recent work assigns it the neutral, pragmatic functions of disseminating information and seizing public attention. Correspondingly, he has reconsidered his earlier critique by recognizing the positive political functions of mass media simplification and entertainment.

The potential for crime dramas to educate: Popular crime dramas and knowledge about sexual violence • Stacey J.T. Hust, Moon Lee, Ana Haase-Reed and Mija Shin, Washington State University • A survey of 934 college students indicated viewers of crime dramas were more likely to believe that sexual violence is more prevalent than what is portrayed on television, yet they were more aware that sexual violence is often committed by non-strangers. Given that an awareness of who is likely to commit the crime is instrumental to preventing sexual violence, these findings indicate that future research should investigate the potential educational impact of crime dramas.

Emulate the style: A content analysis of body image and social behaviors in teen-centered films • Tahlea Jankoski, Brigham Young University • The purpose of this study was to evaluate body image and social behaviors in teen-centered movies. This film sample was chosen to understand the common messages being presented to adolescents as they can emulate the images and behaviors disseminated by their celebrity peers. A content analysis found an overrepresentation of underweight or average weight characters, limiting the portrayal of overweight characters. It also found negative associations existed between overweight images and social characteristics.

Western news media complicity in the shameless spectacle of Borat • Rick Kenney, University of Central Florida • Western news media reporters and editors abandoned their ethics in their complicity in publicizing, projecting, and promoting the image of Borat Sagdiyev, protagonist in the wildly successful feature-length film Borat!: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan as a racist, sexist and anti-Semitic documentary journalist from Kazakhstan.

Coping with Loss: The Use of Media and Entertainment as a Mood-Management Device • Cynthia King and Rebecca Calagna, Cal State Fullerton • This study examined how people use media and entertainment to cope with feelings of grief resulting from relational loss. Adults in divorce support participated in a survey study on coping with loss and entertainment preferences. Consistent with predictions based on mood management, catharsis and empathy theories, participants indicated film and music preferences consistent with their stage in Kubler-Ross’s five stage grief process.

Doing what is “necessary”: The legitimization of torture on Fox’s 24 • K. Maja Krakowiak, Pennsylvania State • As the topic of torture gains prominence in news reports, its depiction in media content becomes worthy of examination. This paper examines the use of torture on Fox Network’s show, 24, and argues that the show focuses on the necessity of such techniques for the preservation of national security while eliminating discussion of alternatives to torture, and discrediting calls for the upholding of human rights. The implications of these depictions are discussed.

Glen, Stacey, and Me, Too…?: Textual Analysis of 2004 Starbucks Advertising Campaigns • Ji Hoon Lee, University of Florida • This study examines, compares, and contrasts the texts of DoubleShot Espresso and Frappuccino TV commercials by Starbucks in 2004. The study text-analyzes and describes key elements that are essential to the foundation of true message and moral behind the ads and explores what make them entertaining, yet equally appealing and persuasive. By combining humor and music, the commercials allow us to identify with the main characters and the situations depicted in the texts.

Popular Music Nostalgia: A Refined Approach • Ji Hoon Lee, University of Florida • Although any culture can be defined by its nostalgia, there is little scholarly work on nostalgia as a cultural phenomenon as exemplified in the historical re-emergence of the pop music of the past. By explicating the concept of nostalgia and by providing historical examples, the study focuses on the proliferation of nostalgia in popular music, including discussion on the retrograde tendencies and general characteristics of nostalgia in popular music.

Through the Eyes of Pornography: The perceptions men come to hold about women • Jaime Loke, University of Texas • Numerous studies have emerged about the role of pornography in social and sexual behavior as well as the wellbeing of the consumers’ psychological health. This study examined the perceptions of women from men who were heavy consumers of pornography. Obtaining testimonials from men who reported to watch more than an hour of pornography daily, similar patterns amongst the interviews surfaced during the analyses of the transcripts. The results revealed the men’s skewed perceptions of women.

A Common Media Culture? Patterns of Magazines, Movies, and Music Among Early Adolescents • Carol J. Pardun, Middle Tennessee State University, Jane D. Brown and Kelly Ladin L’Engle, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • A sample of Black and White early adolescents (Mean age: 12.8 years; N= 2,942) completed media use questionnaires, noting which magazines they read, which musicians they listened to regularly, and which movies they had seen recently. Comparisons by race and gender found few commonalities across demographic groups. Blockbuster movies and a few of the most popular rap musicians were consumed by large proportions of males and females and Blacks and Whites.

Dora the Explorer: Giving Power to Preschoolers, Girls, and Latinas • Erin Ryan, The University of Georgia • “Dora the Explorer” is a highly successful animated program on Nickelodeon; its title character has captured the imaginations of children across the globe. This study examined Dora within the framework of Gramsci’s hegemony, exploring how the program is changing the “face” of children’s television while giving power to three traditionally powerless groups: preschoolers, girls, and Latinas. Two episodes of the program were analyzed: “Dora Saves the Prince” and “Dora’s Fairytale Adventure.”

From “Where the Boys Are” to “I am Curious Yellow”: Sex in the Cinema 1960-1968 • Danny Shipka, University of Florida • This paper examines the few short years between 1960 and 1968 when sexuality in the movies moved out of the backrooms of private projectionists and into the mainstream of popular culture. Considered landmark years for the abolishment of censorship in motion pictures due to court actions, government intervention and the changing social morals of the mass population, the paper will look at the films and auteurs that successfully navigated the changing political and cultural waters.”

“The Daily Show Effect” Revisited: Satire’s contributions to political participation in trust in young audiences • Daxton Stewart, University of Missouri • In 2006, Baumgartner and Morris examined what they called “The Daily Show Effect,” which suggested that viewership of the humor-based news show on Comedy Central corresponded with an increase in political efficacy but a decrease in perceptions of trustworthiness of candidates. This effect was further examined in this study in the context of political participation and trust in politicians in general.

Scenarios USA: Identity Construction, Friendship and Male Narratives in Entertainment-education • Kallia Wright, Ohio University • This paper presents the findings of a textual analysis of three short films produced from the 2004 Scenarios USA scriptwriting competition. These are entertainment-education products which first present characters with evolving identities. Second, all three films emphasize the role of peers in defining identities and demonstrating behaviors. We also observe that in the construction of male identity, men are often defined as being irresponsible. However, counternarratives are presented which resist negative definitions of men.

<< 2007 Abstracts

Public Relations 2007 Abstracts

Public Relations Division

Work-Family Discourse in Public Relations:Development of a Work-Personal Continuum for Gender Theory • Linda Aldoory, Hua Jiang and Elizabeth Toth, Maryland and Bey-Ling Sha, San Diego State • This study extended gender theory in public relations by examining how work-family balance is perceived by public relations professionals. Eight focus groups were conducted. Findings revealed gendered constructions of a fluid, complex work-personal continuum affected by such factors as societal norms; perceived organizational contradictions; technology; perceived professional identity; and parenthood. Practitioners discursively constructed blame and guilt narratives. Communicative, cognitive, temporal and behavioral strategies were used to adjust and relieve stress.

The Effect of Shared Experience on Problem Recognition and Involvement: An Elaboration of the Situational Theory of Publics for Risk Communication • Linda Aldoory, Maryland, Jeong-Nam Kim, Purdue University and Natalie Tindall, Oklahoma • The notion of whether actual, shared experience with a media portrayal could influence various cognitions-such as concern, sense of personal involvement, self-efficacy, and desire to learn more-that are important for behavior change. This study examined shared experience within the realm of news rather than planned campaigns. The research presented here used the situational theory of publics in order to evaluate whether shared experience is an antecedent to the factors leading to communication behavior.

A Model for Teaching Public Relations Students a Continuum of Power Distribution between Organizations and Publics in Two-way Web Site Communication Tools • Terri Ann Bailey, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Noting the importance of two-way communication in relationship building, this study presents a model of power distribution in two-way web site communication tools, related considerations, and supporting literature that can be used by instructors to present a teaching module to students on the subject of organization-public communication on the web from a power-differential standpoint.

Testing OPR: Relationship Management • Stephen Banning, Bradley and Mary Schoen • This study employed the organization-public relationship scale to measure member perceptions of an art museum. The scale is a 15-item, multi-dimension tool developed by Bruning and Ledingham (1999) to measure a public’s relationship with an organization (Ledingham, 2001) using the three dimensions of personal relationship, community relationship, and professional relationship.

Admiring the organization: A study of the relational quality outcomes of the volunteer-nonprofit organization • Denise Bortree, Florida • Because nonprofit management often faces challenges in deciding how to best incorporate volunteers in working toward the organization’s mission, it is important to understand how volunteers view their involvement with organizations. This study measured the volunteer-nonprofit relationship using the four relational quality outcomes proposed by Hon & Grunig (1999). In addition, the study introduced the measurement of admiration as an outcome in the organization-public relationship.

University Reputations and Campus Health Education Campaigns: Managing Strategic Stakeholder Relationships • John Brummette and Michael Palenchar, Tennessee • Developed from an issues management and stakeholder theory approach, the purpose of this study is to examine how parents’ perceptions of a university’s reputation are affected by its efforts in health education and public relations programs. The efforts addressed include university binge drinking prevention, assessment of parental knowledge of prevention programs, and parental perceptions about the university in dealing with this issue.

Reality is Greater Than Fiction • Alexa Chilcutt, Alabama • The relevance of Mohamed, Gardner, and Paolillo’s 1999 A Taxonomy of Organizational Impression Management is examined in a “”real world”” context. The object is to give credence to the tactics and effectiveness of OIM in reality situations that involve an organization’s efforts to manage its impressions when dealing with its publics.

Agenda-tapping: Conceptualizing the relationship between news coverage, fund raising and the First Amendment • Colleen Connolly-Ahern, Penn State • Agenda setting represents a promising framework for understanding donation behavior. This paper reports the results of a pilot study investigating the link between the agenda setting function of the press and nonprofit donations. Using financial information from two nonprofit organizations associated with the issue of gun control/control rights, this study found strong and significant correlations between media mentions of gun control, donations to a gun control-oriented nonprofit, and nonprofit contributions to political campaigns.

The Contingency Integration Matrix: A Public Relations Crisis Communication Tool • James Cunningham and Michael Mitrook, Florida • This study proposes and tests the Contingency Integration Matrix, a crisis communication tool based on the situational variables of the contingency theory of accommodation and the framework of Public Relations Field Dynamics. Practitioners at three test locations found the matrix validated public relations postures, actions, and strategies while providing an additional tool to present public relations efforts to the dominant coalition.

Maintenance of Standard, Regardless of Cost: Early Public Relations and the Fred Harvey Company • Patricia Curtin, University of Oregon • This paper fills a gap in the literature by examining the publicity efforts of, and on behalf of, the Fred Harvey Company from 1876 to 1933.

Krafting the Obesity Message: A Case Study in Framing and Issues Management • Keren Darmon, Kathy Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Bronstein, DePaul • This study examined the application of framing theory in issues management. Using case study methodology, the researchers analyzed message frames used by Kraft Foods in its public response to the obesity crisis, how the Kraft frames were reported by the media and whether Kraft’s approach might help define effective framing and issues management practices in public relations. The case suggested that framing was indeed useful in Kraft’s attempt to manage the issue of obesity.

How Do Past Crises Affect Current Events?: An Experiment Testing Corporate Reputation During a Crisis • Drew Elliot, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Research has shown that a corporation’s history of crises has a damaging effect on reputation during a current crisis. This experiment tests not only the effect of a corporation’s own crises on reputation, but also the effect of a corporation without a crisis history but in an industry with a history of similar crises, called extraorganizational crisis history. Findings show that publics’ knowledge of extraorganizational crisis history may protect an organization’s reputation in a crisis.

Knowledge is Power: Examining how General Public Relations Training Influences Non-major Graduate Students’ Attitudes about our Profession • Lisa Fall and Jeremy Hughes, Tennessee • This study examines pre- and post-perceptions about the public relations field among non-major graduate students who have successfully completed some general training. Results indicate significant decreases regarding how much the media, general public, and practitioner behavior influences their viewpoints about the profession. Additionally, significant increases are reported with regard to students’ overall positive perception toward the public relations field, the profession’s proactive behavior, and how the industry serves the good of the public.

Educational Crisis Management Practices Evolve to Address New Public Engagement Constructs and the New Media • Barbara Gainey, Kennesaw State • This study provides an initial look at how public school districts are engaging their many publics and using communication techniques that extend beyond traditional media to incorporate many new media tactics. This pilot study of school districts in a major metropolitan area of the United States will lay the groundwork for a future nationwide study that will propose additional ways to improve the crisis-ready status of public school districts, with implications for other public-sector organizations.

Mediation Effects of Customer-Company Identification in Models of Public Relations Effectiveness • SooYeon Hong and Sung-Un Yang, Syracuse • By combining the growing body of knowledge on organizational reputation and organization- public relationships with insights from marketing literature on customer-company identification, the present study develops and tests models of public relations effectiveness. Specifically, this study examines the effects of organizational reputation and relational satisfaction on customers’ positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions, and the critical mediation role of customer-company identification in such effects.

Managing Community Crisis: an Analysis of a Health Department’s Response to the Influenza Vaccine Shortage • Deena Kemp, South Florida • This article reports the results of a case study on crisis management at a county health department following the 2004 flu vaccine shortage. The study compares the department’s approach to established crisis communication principles, which emphasize image restoration following organizational wrongdoing. The results show that the department relied on strategic partnerships to navigate the crisis. Accepted crisis communication theories provide limited explanation of this community-based crisis. The implications of two emerging crisis frameworks are discussed.

Reliability and Validity of Organization-Public Relationship Measurement and Linkages among Relationship Indicators on a Membership Organization • Eyun-Jung Ki, Alabama and Linda Hon, Florida • This research was to develop reliable and valid measures of the outcomes of quality relationships. Hon and J. E. Grunig’s (1999) extended scales for four relationship dimensions were tested using multiple-item measurement procedures suggested by Spector (1992). The constructed measures were refined further using factor analysis-EFA and CFA. This study also tested the causal linkages among relationship quality indicators.

An experimental test of public relations message: Effects of involvement, corporate trustworthiness, goodwill and message sidedness in Weblogs • Jangyul Kim, Colorado State • An experimental study (n=216) examined the effect of involvement in public relations messages and its interaction effect with source trustworthiness, source goodwill and message sidedness on the message recipients’ attitude toward the message, the public relations issue, and toward the company.

Public relations’ place in corporate social responsibility: Practitioners define their role • Sooyeon Kim, Florida and Bryan Reber, Georgia • Qualitative responses from 173 PR practitioners were used to analyze their roles and contribution to corporate social responsibility. Practitioners identified five roles for public relations in CSR – Significant Management, Philanthropic, Value-Driven, Communication, and None. PR professionals illustrated these roles by describing their contributions to social responsibility programs. They also expressed limitations to their ability to contribute to CSR programs. Contributions of the research to theory and practice are examined.

Assessing Dominant Corporate Communication Strategies on Fortune 100 Company Web Sites: Corporate Ability versus Corporate Social Responsibility Focus • Sora Kim, Scott Rader and Eric Haley, Tennessee • This paper suggests three possible corporate communication strategies used to affect publics’ corporate associations: 1) corporate ability (CAb) strategy, 2) corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, and 3) a hybrid strategy. Through content analysis, the results demonstrate that a majority of corporate advertising for Fortune 100 companies emphasizes a CSR communication strategy over a CAb or hybrid strategy. Corporations higher in the list of Fortune 100 companies displayed more prominent use of a CSR strategy.

The White House and Public Relations: Examining the Linkages between Presidential Communications and Public Opinion • Spiro Kiousis, Florida and Jesper Stromback, Mid-Sweden • The purpose of this study was to probe the linkages between presidential communications and public opinion. More specifically, it investigated the associations between the use of press conferences and speeches by the White House and presidential job approval from 1961-1997. The results suggested that there is a positive linkage between the frequency of presidential press conferences and perceived foreign policy job approval but a negative linkage with perceived economic job approval.

Student-to-Professional Mentoring as a Supplement to Public Relations Education • Phyllis Larsen, Nebraska-Lincoln • Mentoring is a practice that helps individuals and organizations to maximize potential and skills in the workplace. Limited information exists about student-to-professional mentoring, providing an opportunity to explore its potential as a supplemental teaching tool in public relations. A two-year study of a pilot program of one-to-one mentoring of students by practicing PR professionals showed that both mentors and protégés perceived benefits.

Examination of Relationships as Resources in Successful PR Campaigns: Guidelines for effective PR strategy development • Youngah Lee and Sungwook Hwang, Missouri • This research explored the possible guidelines for successful public relations strategy development through content analysis of 10 years of PRSA Silver Anvil Award winning cases. Specifically, the resource usage patterns for different organizations, campaigns, and target audiences were examined with special attention to relationships as resources.

Building Trust Through Blog-Mediated Public Relations (BMPR) • Joon Soo Lim, Middle Tennessee State and Sung-Un Yang, Syracuse • This experiment tested blog-mediated public relations (BMPR) in which the salience of narrative structure, dialogic disposition as a dialogical self, and perceived blogger credibility were assumed to lead to increased interactivity, which ultimately culminates in higher trust between the corporate blogger and blog visitors.

Framing emergency management communication: How to generate media coverage for disaster messages • Brooke Liu, DePaul • Ninety-one percent of Americans live in places at moderate to high risk of natural disasters. Yet only 16% of Americans say they are well prepared for the next natural disaster or public emergency (Ripley, 2006). This study evaluates how state emergency management agencies (SEMAs) frame messages to persuade citizens to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.

From aspiring presidential candidate to accidental racist?: An analysis of Senator George Allen’s image repair during his 2006 reelection campaign • Brooke Liu, DePaul • In summer 2006, Senator George Allen, a Republican from Virginia, was seeking reelection in November. But, with a double-digit lead over his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb, Allen was less concerned with his reelection campaign than positioning himself for a likely 2008 presidential bid (Barnes, 2006).

Infusing Two-Way Symmetry with Postmodern Values: Isocratean Rhetoric and Public Relations’ Dominant Theoretical Paradigm • Charles Marsh, Kansas • Postmodern philosophy has presented significant challenges to the practicality, universality, and justice of the dominant paradigm of public relations theory: the Excellence Theory, including the concept of two-way symmetrical relationships. This paper seeks to show that the successful, symmetrical rhetoric of Isocrates in fourth century BCE Athens presents a practical model for the infusion of postmodern values into 21st-century two-way symmetry.

Are Two Heads Better Than One?: The Dynamics and Efficacy of Coalition Building • Andrew Miller, Maryland • Coalition building is an important part of public relations, yet there is not much empirical data or theory that explains this phenomenon. This paper explores coalition building as a social process and considers both its advantages and disadvantages. The findings suggest that although coalition building is not suited for everyone or every situation, it can be an effective strategy when principles of successful coalition building are applied to maximize the advantages and minimize the disadvantages.

Community Stakeholders and Marketplace Advocacy: A Model of Advocacy, Agenda Building, and Industry Approval • Barbara Miller, Elon • The study used survey data and structural equation modeling to examine how community stakeholder attitudes were influenced by a marketplace advocacy campaign, a form of issue advocacy. The validated model demonstrates how awareness of a marketplace advocacy campaign initiated by an industry influenced the salience of industry-promulgated issues among the stakeholders. Subsequently, an agenda-building influence resulted in more favorable attitudes toward the industry. Environmental concern moderated this relationship by decreasing the salience of industry-related issues.

Building Multi-Sector Partnerships for Progress with Strategic, Participatory Communication: A Case Study from Colombia • Juan-Carlos Molleda and Belio Martinez, Florida and Ana-Maria Suarez, Medellin • This study focuses on the use of strategic, participatory communication to build multi-sector partnerships. A multidisciplinary literature informs the dimensions of partnership formation and development. A case study from Colombia describes the role of strategic, participatory communication in facilitating multi-sector partnerships. Results indicate that partnerships require a clear expression of collective commitment; avoidance of dominance by partners; agreement on shared goals and key messages; and a transparent, inclusive and protracted dialogic process to achieve synergy.

Increased Persuasion Knowledge of Video News Releases: Audience Response and Public Policy Issues Related to Source Disclosure • Hye-Jin Paek, Georgia “Michelle Nelson, Michelle L. M. Wood, Hye-Jin Paek” • Public policy implications for disclosure of video news release (VNR) sources in broadcast news are reviewed in this paper. Across two studies (experiment, national survey), we investigate how increased persuasion knowledge about VNRs impacts audience members’ views of media and support for source disclosure policies. Findings show that increased knowledge about VNRs is positively related to beliefs in media commercialization and distrust. Each of these factors is related to support for governmental regulation of VNRs.

Building an Integrated Crisis Mapping (ICM) Model: Organizational Strategies for a Publics-Driven, Emotion-Based Conceptualization in Crisis Communication • Augustine Pang, Missouri, Yan Jin, Virginia Commonwealth and Glen Cameron, Missouri • Extending current theories in crisis communication, the authors have developed a more systemic approach to understanding the role of emotions in crises and the strategies used to respond. The authors’ Integrated Crisis Mapping (ICM) model is based on a public-based, emotion-driven perspective where different crises are mapped on two continua, the organization’s engagement in the crisis and primary public’s coping strategy.

Strengthening Internal Relations Among the United States Army National Guard Soldiers: Testing Predictors of Employee Satisfaction • Erich Randall and Lisa Fall, Tennessee • Recruitment of soldiers to serve in the Army as well as the Guard has become very difficult, partially due to the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan. With recruiting activities being so challenging, it becomes more and more important to retain existing soldiers within the organization.

Relational communication strategies, psychological empowerment, and relational trust in employee communication • Yunna Rhee, Hankuk-Foreign Studies • In this study, employee relations is defined as a special practice area of public relations. The purpose of this study was to explore the associations among three key concepts in employee relations-interpersonal communication strategies, interpersonal trust, and employee empowerment. Relevant constructs were adopted through a review of literature in interpersonal communication, organizational psychology, and public relations.

An analysis of the Reagan Administration’s crisis communication using image restoration discourse theory • Danny Rigby, Florida • This study uses image restoration discourse theory to provide insight into the failure of the Reagan Administration to manage the Iran arms crisis that was preceded the Iran-contra scandal. Analysis via image restoration discourse theory indicates the Administration’s representatives invoked a variety of defensive discourse strategies, many of which were self-contradictory. This study illustrates the utility of image restoration discourse theory as a tool for analyzing crisis rhetoric.

What’s Behind a Name? The Effect of Source Attribution on Spokesperson and Institutional Credibility • Jonathan Riley, San Diego State • All public spokespeople thrust into the spotlight to respond to a major organizational crisis situation surely recognize the perception of their own character as a central component to the persuasive power of their arguments. This study uses the heuristic-systematic model to measure the effects of four spokesperson attribution models on spokesperson credibility under differing heuristic and systematic processing conditions.

Dimensions and Models of Investor Relations Practice: A National Study of Public Relations’ Neglected Specialization • Gregory Rosenstein, Superior Energy Services, Inc., Kathleen Kelly and Alexander Laskin, Florida • Although public relations claims investor relations as one of its specializations, or sub-functions, scholars have paid little attention to it and practitioners historically have been divided between finance and corporate communication/public relations. A survey of 145 investor relations officers in publicly owned corporations tested models and dimensions of practice to build theory.

Strategic Corporate Philanthropic Relationships: Nonprofits’ Perceptions of Benefits and Corporate Motives • Gregory G. Rumsey, Southern Adventist and Candace White, Tennessee • This study examines strategic philanthropy, a component of corporate social responsibility, from the perspective of nonprofit managers engaged in strategic philanthropic relationships. Using a grounded theory approach, the study found nonprofits perceive multiple corporate motives, with blends of altruism and self-interest. They describe a negotiating environment in which nonprofits analyze potential corporate donors’ needs, then pitch mutual-benefit packages. In the most strategic alliances, relationships were characterized as interdependent and benefits were viewed as equal.

Corporate Public Relations and Democracy: Arthur W. Page and the FCC, 1935-1941 • Karen Russell, Georgia • The connections between consumer research, corporate public relations, and government regulation may not be readily apparent, but a 1930s FCC investigation of the telephone industry called the relationships among them into question. This paper seeks to understand how, under Arthur W. Page, AT&T’s lauded consumer relations program served to protect its status as a regulated monopoly.

Coorientational Measurement of Organization-Public Relationships • Trent Seltzer, Florida • This paper details the development of a coorientational approach for measuring organization-public relationships. The coorientational approach advocated by Broom and Dozier (1990) is integrated with the relationship measures developed by Hon and Grunig (1999). Results of an exploratory study using the method are presented to illustrate how the relationship scales were modified, how the procedure is implemented, and how the information generated by the approach can be used to evaluate organization-public relationship quality.

The Nature of Activism and the Complexities of Identity: A Phenomenological Inquiry • Bey-Ling Sha, San Diego State • Using the qualitative method of phenomenology, which Marshall and Rossman (1999) defined as “”the study of lived experiences and the ways we understand those experiences to develop a worldview”” (p. 112), this manuscript reflects on my experience with regards to a declared faculty union strike and explores how that experience offers insight into both (a) the nature of activism and (b) the implications of collective action for the complexities of identity.

The Effect of Shared “From Baby Boomers to Generation X: What Has Changed and What Hasn’t for Women in Public Relations • Bey-Ling Sha and David Dozier, San Diego State and Elizabeth Toth and Linda Aldoory, Maryland • After more than 25 years of gender research in public relations, we know that gender inequities persist for men and women in the field with respect to salaries and roles, even when age and years of experience are controlled statistically. This paper reports the results of the 2006 Survey on Work, Life, and Gender, sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America, finding that much has not changed for women in public relations.

Image Repair in Politics: Testing Effects of Communication Strategy and Performance History in a Faux Pas • Catherine Sheldon, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Lynne Sallot, Georgia • A 3×2 factorial experiment tested effects of crisis communication strategy (mortification, bolstering, and corrective action) and performance history (positive and negative) in conjunction with a politician’s faux pas involving racial remarks. Benoit’s (1995, 1997, 2004) image repair theory and Coombs’ (2004) crisis response standards theory and experimental methods (Coombs & Schmidt, 2000) provided the theoretical and methodological framework for this study.

Toward an Ideal Master’s Curriculum in the 21st Century • Hongmei Shen and Elizabeth Toth, Maryland • This study provides further endorsement for a cross-disciplinary graduate public relations curriculum based on in-depth interviews with leaders in industry and education and qualitative Web content analysis. It summarizes prior research studies that have tracked master’s curriculum since 1985 and concludes that although there is little curriculum consistency in place, there is more vision and expectation on the part of leaders in the field for an ideal public relations master’s curriculum.

Persuasion, Motivators and Obstacles: Influences in the Evolutional Transition from Public Relations Practitioner to Professor • Patricia Silverman, Lee • The purpose of this study was to look at the practitioner to professor transition experience using in-depth interviews of public relations faculty. Using Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) coding paradigm, five themes evolved in the analysis and findings indicated that practitioners made the transition successfully based on perceived self-efficacy (Bandura, 1986) and self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985) along with the fulfillment of an additional need, situation. Additionally, a practitioner to professor model was proposed.

When Corporate Public Relations Hits the Limit of Collaboration in High Conflict: What the Public Thinks • Simon Sinaga and Emily Kinsky, Texas Tech • While collaboration is generally considered the right communication strategy for businesses embroiled in a conflict with an activist group, in reality, organizations often shift to non-collaborative strategies, including avoidance and confrontation. The results of this experimental study indicate that collaboration is the best option; however, when an organization chooses to cease collaboration, confrontation appears to be a more acceptable choice than a cessation of communication with the media or a hostile public.

Corporate Citizenship and Social Responsibility: How Effective are Pharmaceutical Companies Communicating These Business Initiatives? • Morgan Sones, Hartford • Major pharmaceutical companies in the United States have a strategic process that, under the emphasis of philanthropic efforts and benevolent image projection, annually continue to contribute to profitability in unprecedented rates. Pharmaceutical companies’ business initiatives of corporate citizenship and corporate social responsibility have been utilized as a strategic method to communicate and demonstrate their commitment to their employees and to their targeted consumer audiences.

Public Relations in a Non-Conventional War Disaster: Advice Framing during the Anthrax Attacks • Kristen Swain, Kansas • This content analysis examined advice for citizens that appeared in U.S. news coverage of the anthrax attacks, in light of coverage of outrage, hypotheticals, contradictory or confusing evidence, and risk comparisons. Five coders analyzed 833 stories from AP, NPR, 272 newspapers, and four national television networks. Over time, an inverse relationship between coverage of practical advice and outrage rhetoric appeared, and the ratio of practical advice to vague advice stories was higher during the post-impact phase.

Journalist and Official Source Attitudes Concerning News about a Terrorist Attack: A Co-Orientation Analysis • Christopher Swindell, Marshall and James Hertog, Kentucky • The paper presents partial findings from a survey of journalists and official sources regarding emergency messages following a hypothetical terror attack. The co-orientation model is used to assess the groups’ views about features of emergency news and to evaluate their expectations about each others’ views on the topic. Journalists and official sources exhibit similar attitudes with regard to the importance of timeliness, accuracy, and reassurance against panic, but perceive their views to differ significantly.

Public Relations and Conflict Resolution: Toward a Synthesis of Excellence and Contingency Theory Approaches • William Szlemko and Cindy Christen, Colorado State • Research in public relations has recently been dominated by a debate between those espousing excellence theory and those espousing the contingency theory of accommodation. Briefly, excellence theory suggests that two-way symmetry represents the most ethical and effective way of resolving conflicts, while contingency theory posits that the optimal approach is situation dependent. This paper proposes a theoretical solution to the debate, derived from the literature on conflict resolution.

Into The Vortex: A Case Study in Big League Public Relations Throwing A Curveball in a Defamation Lawsuit • Samuel Terilli, Sigman Splichal and Dustin Supa, Miami • In 1997 a small public relations firm and family-owned beer distributor issued press releases characterizing a legal dispute with Anheuser-Busch as “”David taking on Goliath”” and recalling memories of deceased family patriarch, baseball legend Roger Maris. The distributor claimed the rhetorical high ground, but paid a price when a court ruled the campaign made it a vortex public figure that had to satisfy a difficult legal burden to win its defamation lawsuit against the brewer.

Resonance as the Mechanism for the Message Effect in Motivating Behavioral Intention-Examining Crisis Communication in A Tourism Context • Hua-Hsin Wan, Texas at El Paso • This study proposes that resonance could be the underlying mechanism that accounts for that tailoring effect. To investigate that possibility, resonance, operationalized as involving both cognitive and emotional components, was examined in an experiment to see how it might impact attitude formation and behavioral intention. The results of the investigation revealed that resonance is indeed a strong factor in influencing attitude and behavioral disposition.

National image and Olympic coverage • Kaisheng M. Wang, Edelman Public Relations Worldwide Ltd., Taipei Branch and Xiuli Wang, Syracuse • Hosting Olympic Games is used by nations to enhance their image and economic benefits. This study examines the U.S. media coverage of South Korea, Spain, Australia and Greece before and during the year they hosted the Olympic Games. Independent t-tests found that hosting such global event improves a nation’s visibility and valence in media coverage. The change of news topic selection also makes the news coverage of the host countries less deviant in general.

Comparing the Two Sides of the Donor-Nonprofit Organization Relationship: Applying Coorientation Methodology to Relationship Management • Richard Waters, Florida • Despite advances in the measurement of the organization-public relationship, there have been few attempts to measure the views of both sides of the relationship. Even though public relations literature strives for symmetry, the research is still asymmetrical when it comes to organization-public relationship. Ferguson (1984) called for the measurement of both sides, and this sentiment has been echoed by others in the late 1990s though their calls went unanswered.

Coming Out to Tell Our Stories: The Career Experiences of Gay Men in Public Relations • Richard Waters, Florida and Natalie Tindall, Oklahoma • Despite the increasing focus on understanding the diversity of the public relations profession, academics and practitioners have largely ignored gay men. This qualitative study seeks to understand the gay male experience of working in the public relations industry and why they were drawn to public relations and communications management.

The Effect of Doing Good: An Experimental Analysis of the Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behavioral Intention • Kelly Werder, South Florida • Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives identified by Kotler and Lee (2005) were tested using Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1975, 2005) theory of reasoned action to determine their influence on individuals’ beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward an organization and its products. Results indicate that CSR initiatives influence salient beliefs about an organization; however, they do not influence attitudes and behavioral intention toward an organization. Support is shown for the propositions of the theory of reasoned action.

Assessing the Value of the Public Relations Curriculum: A Survey of Opinions of Educators and Practitioners • Donald K. Wright, Boston and Michelle Hinson, Institute for Public Relations • This paper explores the disconnect some claim exists between public relations educators and practitioners in terms of the value and importance of what is taught in university-based public relations degree programs. It compares the perceived importance of the most recent curriculum recommendations of the Commission on Public Relations Education’s The Professional Bond report with a list of alternative curriculum suggestions prepared by a small group of mid-level, high-performing, New York-based public relations practitioners.

Coverage of E. Coli Contaminated Spinach: Sources and Messages Chosen by National and Local Print Media • Emma Wright, Tennessee • In September 2006, the FDA issued a recall of E. coli contaminated spinach. Situations like this allow crisis communicators and public relations professionals to investigate messages created during a crisis situation, sources that are utilized, and messages that are conveyed – through the media – to key stakeholders. This paper extends an analysis of the crisis messages framed by the media coverage regarding the sources of information and the message strategies used by these sources.

Measuring Country Reputation in Multi-Dimensions: Predictors, Effects, and Communication Channels • Sung-Un Yang, Syracuse, Hochang Shin, Sogang, Jong-Hyuk Lee, Central Michigan and Brenda Wrigley, Syracuse • A country’s reputation is a subject of increasing interest for the practice and research of public relations. South Korea’s reputation as viewed by Americans, the country’s most strategic foreign constituent, is the topic of this study.

Culture and Chinese Public Relations: A Multi-Method ‘Inside out’ Approach • Ai Zhang, Hongmei Shen and Hua Jiang, Maryland • This study adopts an “inside out” approach to examine contemporary Chinese public relations and culture’s effect on it, based on an analysis of 15 top domestic Chinese public relations agencies’ Web sites and 17 in-depth interviews of public relations professionals from multinationals operating in mainland China. Results indicate an emerging trend of Chinese strategic management and a new understanding of guanxi as an on-going process of one-on-one bonding.

Returning to the Ark: An In-depth Investigation of Public Relations Theory Articles • Lynn Zoch, Hilary Fussell Sisco and Erik Collins, South Carolina • The research reported in this paper looks at the presence of theories, theoretical concepts, models and frameworks, and the names given to each by the article’s author(s) as well as whether or not articles either expanded or proposed theory. The research builds on previous studies, particularly of Ferguson (1984) and Sallot et al. (2003), by using the same classification and topic ideas (with modifications) in the coding.

The Influence of Media Visibility on Firms’ Corporate Social Performance • Stelios Zyglidopoulos, Cambridge, Andreas Georgiadis, London School of Economics and Political Science and Craig Carroll, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper investigates the effect that media visibility has on Corporate Social Performance (CSP). Drawing on agenda-setting theory and the business and society literature, we develop and test two hypotheses regarding the impact media visibility has on the firm’s CSP. Our findings indicate that while media visibility does have a positive impact on the firm’s CSP, some aspects of CSP are affected more than others.

<< 2007 Abstracts

Newspaper 2007 Abstracts

Newspaper Division

Examining Episodic and Thematic Framing of the 2005 French Riots in Cross-National Press • Angela D. Abel, Cynthia-Lou Coleman, Portland State University • Framing theories have provided a rich landscape for viewing media coverage of political conflicts, social protests, and wars, and the current study joins the body of research that examines news through a framing lens. Specifically the authors extend Shanto Iyengar’s thesis of episodic and thematic news framing, honed by analysis of television coverage, to print media.

Preserving News Integrity: Ethical Certainty and the Boundary Spanning Roles of Newspaper Advertising Executives • Soontae An, Kansas State University and Lori Bergen, Texas State University-San Marcos • This study examined a boundary spanning role of advertising sales executives who sell newspaper advertising, i.e., the degree to which advertising sales executives’ duties may influence a newspaper’s editorial content. A survey of 219 advertising directors measured their amount of formal and informal communication with advertisers to assess their boundary spanning activities.

Editorial and Editorial Cartoon Content in the 2006 Ohio Gubernatorial Campaign • Erin Armstrong, Lisa Forster, Katherine Muse, Jared Rutecki, David Sennerud, Mai Tang and Yi Tian, Ohio University • This study analyzed the content and differences between editorials and editorial cartoons in the six largest Ohio daily newspapers during the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial campaign. Instead of gubernatorial campaign issues—like education or the economy—the election process, including endorsements and horse-race coverage, was the topic most frequently covered. Additionally, there was significant editorial coverage on international and national security content during a statewide election, when more local content might have been expected.

Citizen Journalism and the TMC: User content as a driver for a free newspaper • Clyde Bentley, Hans Meyer and Jeremy Littau, University of Missouri • A random-digit-dialing survey was used to test the impact of citizen journalism content on a weekly total market coverage (TMC) edition of a Midwestern daily newspaper. Regression analysis of the data showed high interest in and readership of the user-generated content supplied to the TMC by a citizen journalism Web site was a major driver of the overall readership of the publication.

Keeping Which Gates for Whom? Choosing Nation/World News at Local Daily Newspapers • Dan Berkowitz, University of Iowa • This paper explores the selection of national and world news at daily newspapers. Data come from interviews with editors at small- and medium-sized newspapers. Unlike the gatekeeping days of Mr. Gates, wire news selection was a minor task, with nation/world stories relegated to a small inside space. Editors worked alone with minimal guidance, and the news they chose had a low priority compared to local news, which increasingly dominated the overall news hole.

“Well worth the dime”: Reader Loyalty to The New York Standard When Television Was New • Joseph Bernt and Marilyn Greenwald, Ohio University • During New York’s 114-day newspaper strike of 1962-1963, nine newspapers throughout the city closed, causing economic stress and forcing New Yorkers to alternative media. This paper carefully examines one successful alternative news source: The New York Standard, a six-day-a-week newspaper published by a credit-card company and staffed by out-of-work journalists. This study indicates that The Standard’s publishers and staff offered readers desired news, features, and advertising—which earned high readership, reader loyalty, and ad-lines.

Bias in the Newsroom: Newspaper Staff Describe the Personal, Organizational and Structural Influences on Coverage • Carrie Brown, University of Missouri • A secondary analysis of survey data collected by the Committee of Concerned Journalists from 896 journalists at 18 newspapers identifies six kinds of biases modern journalists believe influence their work. While some journalists said that the political biases the public perceives in the news do affect coverage, more responses indicated that inherent human biases, structural biases produced via the routines of news production, and the lack of staff diversity are a larger influence on the news.

Not So Different After All: An Examination of the Uses and Gratifications of a Newspaper’s Youth Section • Amanda Brozana, Stillman College and University of Alabama • A survey, from the uses and gratifications approach, was conducted with readers (N=152) of a Southern daily, specifically who took interest in the paper’s youth section. The study found teens often use the newspaper and youth sections in order to gain information that they may pass on to others. Further, adults and youth use this youth section in different ways and the gratifications this section are higher than of the general newspaper for young readers.

Selling Gay Rights in Colorado: A New Approach for the Centennial State • Christopher Burnett, California State University-Long Beach and Genelle Belmas, California State University-Fullerton • In 2006, Colorado became a battleground in the struggle for gay rights. In an attempt to blunt the impact of the potential passage of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman, gay rights advocates promoted an alternative approach – providing domestic partnership rights for same-sex couples. This paper explores whether a rural-urban divide, or other factors, played the key role in determining the vote.

Haunted by the Babe: Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick’s Newspaper Columns about Babe Ruth • John Carvalho, Auburn University • In 1961, Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick, a former newspaper sports columnist, announced that Roger Maris’s home run record would not be recognized unless he set it in 154 games, as record-holder Babe Ruth did. Frick’s announcement sparked criticism. This paper demonstrates that the motive for Frick’s actions was loyalty toward Ruth, as reflected both in his ghostwriting for Ruth and his columns in the New York Journal newspaper.

Outside Influences: Extramedia Forces and the Newsworthiness Conceptions of Online and Print Newspaper Journalists • William Cassidy, Northern Illinois University • This paper examines the influence of extramedia (outside) forces on the newsworthiness conceptions of online and print newspaper journalists. A national survey (N=655) found that while extramedia forces exerted only a moderate influence overall, there were more influential on the online group. Online newspaper journalists rated Audience Research, Advertisers, Public Opinion Polls, Wire Service Budgets, and Prestige Publications as significantly more influential than did print newspaper journalists.

Setting the Record Straight: An Analysis of Letters to the Editor about Gay Marriage • Kristin Comeforo, Berkeley College • The current study analyzed 256 letters to the editors about gay marriage. The goals were to explain how letter writers come to understand gay marriage, and to evaluate the letters page as a public sphere. Findings suggest that letter writers attempt to interpret gay marriage through existing frames of reference, in various ways, and to different ends. In this way, the letters page functions as a marketplace of ideas rather than a public sphere.

Lessons Learned from Covering Katrina: Comparing Local, Regional, and National Newspapers and Staff Perspectives • Roxanne Dill and Denis Wu, Louisiana State University • This study examined the first two-week coverage of Hurricane Katrina by local, regional, and national newspapers. Specifically, the researchers looked at topics covered, frame, types of sources cited and authorities quoted, geographic focus, and assignment of blame for the devastation and evacuee distress that followed this historic storm.

Boosting the home team: The framing of business news in a large metro daily • Felicity Duncan, University of Missouri • This paper analyzes the ways in which a large midwestern metro daily covers local, national and international businesses and individual businesspeople. Business news forms an integral part of today’s metro newspaper and readers appreciate quality business coverage, yet little research has focused on business news content. Using a framing approach, this paper studied the subject matter and tone of business news coverage, and identified the frames used in covering business.

War of Words: How 22 Newspapers in 11 Countries Framed the Buildup to the Iraq War • John Hatcher, University of Minnesota-Duluth • The buildup to the Iraq war offered the ideal test for what Babbie (2001) calls a natural experiment. This study compares 528 news items from 22 newspapers in 11 democracies. It asks if differences in news coverage are explained by differences in the social structure of a country, the public opinion of a country or with a country’s political position with respect to a specific global event.

International news coverage in U.S. newspapers in a post-Sept. 11 world • Beverly Horvit, Robyn Kriel, Karen Anderson and Jackie Rodriguez, Texas Christian University • An analysis of a four-week constructed sample of international news (N=1,024 stories) in The New York Times, USA Today, Houston Chronicle and Buffalo News indicates the volume of coverage has declined since the 1990s. Iraq received the most coverage, and the top topics were combat/political violence, government and diplomacy. The Middle East received the most coverage in all papers but The Times, which covered Asia more. Of the papers, USA Today had the least coverage.

U.S. News Media: Guardians of Freedom? • Ralph Izard, Louisiana State University and Weimin Chang, Shantou University • This study looks into coverage of the USA Patriot Act to determine whether four prominent newspapers adhere to their traditional function of being guardians of civil liberty. The content analysis found that concerns for individual liberty topped the framing and generally coverage was negative toward the act. Results also showed framing changed as the debate on the act advanced.

The real gender-bender: The curious case of news coverage of the Steve Stanton story • Rick Kenney, University of Central Florida • In its editions for Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007, the St. Petersburg Times reported: “With the mayor at his side, longtime Largo City Manager Steve Stanton disclosed to the St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday that he is undergoing hormone therapy and counseling in preparation for a sex-change operation” (Helfand and Farley, 2007, p. 1A).

Modern-Day Slavery: News Frames of Human Trafficking and Attributes of Trafficking Victims • Jeesun Kim and Wayne Wanta, University of Missouri • This study explores news frames and attributes used in the coverage of human trafficking from 1996 to 2007 in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Results show the responsibility frame was dominant, while the victim-centered attribute, emphasizing “modern-day slavery,” was the most frequently used to identify trafficking victims. Most victims are from Asia, Latin America, or Africa.

Differential News Coverage of Female and Male Athletes During the 2004 Olympic Games • Nathan Kirkham, Catherine Luther and Robin Hardin, University of Tennessee • This study examined how U.S. newspapers covered female and male athletes during the 2004 Olympic Games. Previous research has indicated framing devices that reflect bias against female athletes would be present in the coverage. This research found that although male athletes received more coverage than female athletes, the traditional regressive framing devices against females found in other studies were not significantly present. The only appreciably present frame was physical attractiveness.

Public Opinion Formation of a President: An Agenda Setting study of newspaper coverage of George W. Bush and how it associated with Gallup Poll • Jennifer Kowalewski, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study examined 15 newspapers to determine the relationship between the supportive tone and Gallup Poll approval ratings. The study showed a positive correlation between public approval rating and supportive newspaper coverage, including an increase in supportive tone following the terrorist attacks, and a decrease in supportive tone leading up to Hurricane Katrina. In a presidency where public approval rating has shifted, newspaper supportive coverage and Gallup Poll relate in their view of the president.

The News Readability Problem • Dominic Lasorsa and Seth Lewis, University of Texas-Austin • Low readability of news has often been attributed to production and format features (e.g., deadlines; lead-packing). This study puts blame elsewhere. Stories found deceptive were more readable than authentic stories from the same news organizations. Because the stories were written under similar production and format conditions, findings indicate that low readability is due to the challenge of journalism to convey information only about the real world. Not so constrained, deceptive “news” portrays a simpler world.

The Impacts of Declining Newspaper Readership on Young Americans’ Political Knowledge and Participation: A Longitudinal Analysis • Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas and Lu Wei, Washington State University • Using national survey data from 1984 to 2004, this study examines changes over time in newspaper readership among Americans aged 17 to 24. Newspaper readership is the lowest in this age group and has been declining, which has negative effects on political knowledge and participation. Possible solutions and implications, including competing media and the impacts of political ideology and partisanship, are discussed.

Next-generation news consumers: An exploratory study of young adults and their future with news and newspapers • Seth Lewis, University of Texas-Austin • This study explored the link between young adults’ perceptions and intentions toward news. It surveyed 1,222 students at two large universities and found that five years from now young adults expect to get less of their news from social-networking sites and more from traditional media—especially newspapers. A factor analysis revealed that perceptions toward the future of news have five dimensions: Time and Effort Consuming, Satisfying Civic and Personal Needs, Socially Useful, Devoid of Fun, and Biased.

Editorializing Immigration: A Content Analysis of Op-Ed Columns • Jennifer Lloyd, University of Texas-Austin • A content analysis of New York Times and Washington Post op-ed columns over two one-year periods found that coverage of immigration issues increased over time and was framed in terms of political action. Columnists were more likely to mention politicians as initial sources of immigration information than expert or immigrant sources. Columnists were also more likely to address immigration issues with a positive overall tone which was significantly related to the immigrants’ area of origin.

Tip of the Iceberg: Published Corrections Represent Less than Two Percent of Factual Errors in Newspapers • Scott Maier, University of Oregon • To assess how frequently inaccurate news stories are corrected, this investigation tracks 1,200 factual errors identified by news sources in a cross-market accuracy audit of ten daily U.S. newspapers. The study showed that less than 2 percent of errors identified by news sources resulted in published corrections. The findings challenge how well journalism’s “corrections box” sets the record straight or serves as a safety valve for the venting of frustrations by wronged news sources.

Framing the Storm: Comparison of Frames Used in Impending Storm Coverage • Chris McCollough, Louisiana State University • This is an examination of newspaper coverage of the hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2006 to determine if the hurricane season of 2005 impacted impending storm coverage. Content analysis of 164 articles in four newspapers, guided by framing theory demonstrated differences with traditional scholarship (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). Findings surprisingly indicated valence of frames was more neutral in the 2006 season than in the 2004 season.

Reporter beat and content differences in environmental stories • Michael McCluskey, Ohio State University • Literature suggests story content varies by reporter beat, but little confirming evidence exists. Project used environmental news, which cuts across beats, to analyze differences in story content and context. Analysis of 484 newspaper articles and survey responses from 37 environmental groups shows environmental writers wrote stories more positive to environmental groups than business, political and general reporters. Context of environmental group resources and goals showed some variance among reporter types.

Researchers Are Writing the Obituary, but Geography Is Not Dead Yet • Rachel Mersey, University of Minnesota • The idea of geography is fundamental to the local newspaper, which covers both community news and news from a community perspective. But now scholars suggest that “geography is dead.” A survey of 1,171 adults living in Maricopa County, Ariz., uses geographic and online sense of community measures in order to determine the importance of geography in today’s Internet-rich environment. Results rebuff scholars’ suggestions and indicate that respondents are still attached to their geographic communities.

Maybe the Internet Can Not Save Journalism: The Geographic Sense of Community Gap • Rachel Mersey, University of Minnesota • This research, a survey of 1,171 adults living in Maricopa County, Ariz., is rooted in the idea that there is a virtuous cycle linking newspaper readership to sense of community for the benefit of social capital. Using psychological sense of community measures, it is designed to address what is happening to this relationship when news and news consumers move online. Evidence suggests that newspapers still have a stronger hold than the Web over geographic communities.

The Ties that Bind: News Discourse, Gay Marriage and the Politics of GLBT Representation • Leigh Moscowitz, Indiana University • This paper employs critical-cultural perspectives to examine the mainstream news media as the central battlefield where America’s latest “civil war” is waged—the debate over same-sex marriage rights. Through an analysis of prominent television and print news texts, this paper is concerned with how the journalistic selection of particular couples and the use of certain images and narratives both shape and reinscribe dominant definitions of gay and lesbian identity in our modern culture.

Sampling Error and Presidential Approval Ratings: How Three Major U.S. Newspapers Reported the Polls • Matthew Reavy, University of Scranton • This paper examines coverage of presidential approval ratings in three major U.S. newspapers to determine the accuracy with which those newspapers discuss poll changes in light of sampling error. It finds that the majority of the articles under study over-emphasize change in the polls even when that change could be accounted for by sampling error alone.

Newspaper journalism in crisis: Burnout on the rise, eroding young journalists’ career commitment • Scott Reinardy, Ball State University • The three-component Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (Exhaustion, Cynicism and Professional Efficacy) was implemented to examine burnout among newspaper journalists (N = 770). With a moderate rate of exhaustion, a high rate of cynicism and a moderate rate of professional efficacy, burnout among the journalists in this study demonstrate higher rates of burnout than previous work.

Measuring the Relationship Between Journalistic Transparency and Credibility • Chris Roberts, University of South Carolina • Declines in mainstream media credibility, and the Internet’s rise of alternative voices, have heightened calls for news organizations to be more transparent in news reports and decision-making. In two online experiments, participants read the same newspaper story but had varied access to data sources and/or editor’s explanation. Extra “transparency” boosted neither story nor message credibility, suggesting transparency’s limits in boosting credibility of a traditional news story from a well-known messenger.

City Editor Job Satisfaction and Perception of Local News Reporters • Charles St. Cyr, Butler University • A survey of 303 city editors at daily newspapers found that 88 percent of respondents said they are less than very satisfied with their jobs, almost all expressed less than very high satisfaction for every measure of local news reporter performance used in the study, and most rated themselves favorably for how they interact with reporters.

Gulf Coast Journalists and Hurricane Katrina: Mounting Challenges to the Work Routine • Shearon Roberts, Louisiana State University • This mixed methodological study contrasted changes in news sourcing and framing with changes in the work routine of Gulf Coast journalists one year into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Newspaper content analysis found significant increases in human interest framing techniques with ordinary people as sources. Interviews with Gulf Coast journalists revealed that these findings were consistent with a new found connection and identification with the public given a common suffering these journalists shared with readers.

Measuring an eroding base: Use of the circulation robustness variable for U.S. daily newspapers • Glenn Scott, Elon University • This study examines the circulation performance of a randomly selected sample of 195 U.S. daily newspapers by applying a methodological tool that calculates their circulation robustness. Aimed at measuring the support of a paper’s key base of readers, this tool pioneered by media researcher Philip Meyer calculates changes over time in newspapers’ penetration rates for their home counties. Only eleven newspapers showed increases over a period of about six years ending in 2003. Newspapers as a whole showed a decline.

Press Coverage of Ohio’s 2006 Gubernatorial Election • Michael Sheehy, University of Cincinnati • This content analysis examines coverage of the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial election by six metropolitan daily newspapers. The study tracks story type, subject, focus and candidate advantage in the nine weeks before Election Day. A major finding was that the papers published relatively few in-depth stories profiling the issues and candidates, even though one had never before run a statewide race. The study also found that the Democratic candidate received more advantageous coverage than the Republican.

Washington Post Policies and Practices On Unnamed Sources Over Four Decades • Michael Sheehy, University of Cincinnati • This qualitative study focuses on the Washington Post’s policies and practices on the use of unnamed sources over four decades beginning in the early 1960s. The study begins with an examination of the style book under editor Russ Wiggins, then continues with policies under Benjamin Bradlee and Leonard Downie Jr. Archival research, interviews with prominent editors and an analysis of Post coverage produced this study, which tracks the evolution of policies and factors influencing change.

You Must Read This: A content analysis of most e-mailed stories from five news sites • Stephen Siff, Ohio University • The lists of most e-mailed stories presented on many news web sites present a new tool for evaluating reader preference. This study analyzes the topics, treatments and news values present in most e-mailed stories from five major online news sites during a two week period. The study uses established coding methodologies to allow comparison with prior research into the types of stories generally present in newspapers and on newspaper front pages.

Legal qualifications and perceived ideologies: How the New York Times framed the Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts • Derigan Silver, University of North Carolina • Today, the Supreme Court nomination process is one of the most confrontational aspects of American politics and garners wide media coverage. Despite its importance, little research has focused on how the media covers the nomination process. This research used framing analysis to identify how the New York Times and politicians set the agenda for John Roberts’ 2005 nomination hearings and represented the debate over his nomination.

Out of the Gate, Onto the Front Page: Coverage of Presidential Candidates, 2000 to 2004 • Elizabeth Skewes, University of Colorado • This paper examines news coverage of the 2004 presidential candidates in the political season that ran from November 2000 to November 2004. It finds that only a few candidates received a significant amount of coverage; that issues and policy received the greatest coverage early in the election season; and that the two eventual nominees – George W. Bush and John Kerry – received both more positive and negative coverage than the other candidates, whose coverage was more neutral in tone.

The Weblog Forest: The effectiveness of staff-produced blogs in engaging newspaper audiences in conversation • Mary Spillman, Lori Demo and Larry Dailey, Ball State University • This exploratory study examines the conversation created by staff-produced political blogs at general-circulation daily newspapers one week prior to the November 2006 election. Results show that the blogs studied contained a small number of postings, failed to create much interaction between the blogger and the audience, and attracted few audience comments, calling into question whether political blogs are effective in meeting newspaper goals to encourage civic discourse.

Anonymous Sourcing and “Contest-Winning” Impact on Story Credibility • Miglena Sternadori and Esther Thorson, University of Missouri • This study explores the effects of two variables, use of anonymous sources and journalistic judgment of story quality, on news credibility. These variables were tested in an experiment where the stimuli consisted of 12 abridged stories from the morgue of Investigative Reporters and Editors, a professional association.

Interactivity in J-Blogs: Opportunities for Online Communication between Journalists and the Public • E. Jordan Storm, Syracuse University • If done well, j-blogs can enhance communication between journalists and the communities they serve but if done badly, j-blogs simply act as repositories for static content. In order to determine to what degree newsrooms are communicating with their publics on j-blogs, this study analyzed a proportionally representative sample of j-blogs on American daily newspaper Web sites.

An Exploratory Study of International News Coverage in Indian Newspapers • Venkata Ratnadeep Suri, Indiana University • The exploratory study investigates the patterns of International news coverage and the influence of some systemic determinants on international news coverage in two leading Indian English language newspapers. Based on previous studies, 5 systematic determinants were selected as predictors of international news coverage: Diaspora ties, colonial ties, geographical proximity, trade volume measured by average volume of Indian imports and exports to a particular country, and a particular guest country’s economic power measured by its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

News Sourcing in a Bioterror Disaster • Kristen Swain, University of Kansas • This content analysis examines risk framing in relation to sourcing and play in 457 newspaper stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks. Health agency and law enforcement sources dominated the coverage, followed by scientists, victims, and citizens. After the initial outbreak, fear, speculation, and victims characterized coverage of the acute crisis, while health officials dominated post-crisis coverage. Stories that received less play were more likely to explain risks. The more sources a story used, the less likely it was to include vague advice.

Why women are dropping out of newspaper jobs: Exploring the factors influencing their decision to leave • Amber Willard, University of Texas • This study assessed the job satisfaction of current and former newspaperwomen and their reasons for leaving their last newspaper position. Recent research has found women are leaving the newspaper industry at a higher percentage than other mediums. A job-satisfaction theory was applied to form many of the questions in an online survey that used snowball sampling, and the study found many women left their previous position because of salary and management-related issues.

Factors that Predict Newspaper Reading Habits in College Students • Brenda Wilson, Tennessee Technological University • A sample of first-time college students (N=343) at a four-year university in Tennessee completed a questionnaire measuring their newspaper reading habits as well as their previous experiences with newspapers. Factors studied included the students’ current newspaper reading habits, their family newspaper literacy practices during childhood, their experiences with newspapers in their K-12 education, and their civic interests.

Putting the Story Back in Hard News Stories to Engage Young Audiences • Amy Zerba, University of Texas-Austin • This experimental study examines young adults’ expectations of hard news stories and whether narrative storytelling can positively influence their reading experiences for comprehension, learning, interest and enjoyment. Participants reported an increased understanding and interest in an Iraq story after reading a narrative version than what they had expected. They enjoyed and stayed interested in a murder story better than the traditional storytelling group, which reported learning less and losing interest more quickly than they had expected.

<< 2007 Abstracts

Media Ethics 2007 Abstracts

Media Ethics Division

The Trouble With Transparency: The Challenge of Doing Journalism Ethics in a Surveillance Society • David Allen, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee • This paper argues for a more complex understanding of how the ethic of transparency is used within American journalism. Following the ethical theories of Jürgen Habermas and Michel Foucault, it suggests that transparency has become central to debates about identity formation, disputes over professional jurisdiction, and how journalists have come to cover political events. It calls for the articulation of an ethical framework to justify when transparency is needed.

When is the Truth Not the Truth? Truth Telling and Libel by Implication • Elizabeth Blanks Hindman, Washington State University • Implied libel cases involve defamatory news stories composed entirely of factual, truthful material, which challenges ordinary libel law and ethical norms. This research applies philosophical theories of truth to determine how judges articulate expectations of truth from news media.

Revising journalism ethics through cultural humanism: Lessons from the press coverage in Iraq • Peggy Bowers, Clemson • Previous philosophical viewpoints guiding journalism ethics have become an impediment. Journalism ethics cannot respond to the exigencies of contemporary media practices or the demands of a global community. This paper argues that a framework that more closely reflects the lived human experience can move journalism ethics forward. It offers a preliminary sketch of cultural humanism and then illustrates these features through two case studies from coverage of the Muslim world.

Ethical Guidelines for the Media’s Coverage of Crime Victims • Jack Breslin, Iona College • This study suggests ethical guidelines for the media’s coverage of crime victims utilizing practical and theoretical approaches drawn from several ethical major philosophies. These guidelines should aid journalists in reaching an ethical balance between the needs of the crime victim and the demands of the news media

Universal Principles in Autonomous Systems • Michael Bugeja; Iowa State University • This analysis investigates the existence of universal principles in technological systems. Principles are grounded in space, culture and time, which Internet may obliterate and/or obfuscate. What is the effect of that in a multimedia environment without physical and linear dimensions? Do principles metamorphose in tact in cyberspace (which is no space at all) or do they falter? Discussion focuses on unexplored nuances of theory in virtual environments with recommendations for applications and future study.

The Suffocating Ethicist: A Model of Journalistic Ethical Constraints • Jenn Burleson Mackay, University of Alabama • Journalists are encapsulated by constraining forces that shape their ethical decisions. Individual traits play a significant role in journalistic ethical choices, but additional influences come from the type of media that employ the journalist in addition to organizational, professional, and cultural factors. This paper builds on previous models of structural constraints and proposes a new model of journalistic ethics, which suggests that media that employ journalists act as filters that exert control over ethical decisions.

Forgive Me Now, Fire Me Later: Journalism Students’ Perceptions on Academic and Journalistic Ethics • Mike Conway and Jacob Groshek, Indiana University • Survey data on journalism students’ perceptions of plagiarism and fabulism indicate that students are more concerned about ethical breaches in journalism than in academics. Further analyses found that students near graduation had higher levels of concern and suggested harsher penalties for unethical journalistic behavior, as did students with experience in student media or internships, specifically journalistic ones. Results here demonstrate that applied media experiences and coursework are crucial in developing future journalists’ perceptions of ethical behavior.

Communitarian Theory and Health Journalism: The Feeling is Mutuality • Megan Cox, University of Oklahoma • Health information has become increasingly popular has a news topic. Journalists must decipher complicated information for audiences who may have difficulty understanding the complex news. In this paper, a normative theory such as Communitarianism shows that it may offer some direction in formulating a health story; however, freedom of expression under the First Amendment must be protected over any obligation placed on a journalist.

The Third Person Effect and Reporting Sexual Assault Victims’ Private Information: Applying Mass Communication Theory to an Ethical Dilemma • Erin Coyle, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill • In the wake of high profile sexual assaults, some journalists claim it is time to reconsider policies that perpetuate the stigma of sexual assault. For decades, most American newspapers have withheld victims’ names, recognizing that naming victims could deepen their devastation and prevent others from reporting the crime. Little empirical research uses mass communication theory to inform the debate. This paper provides a roadmap for research to apply mass communication theory to the ethical dilemma.

The Ethics of Outing in the 21st Century: Two Case Studies • Gary Hicks, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas • The past few years have brought media and scholarly attention to a topic once thought passé – the outing of homosexual public figures in the United States. Using framing analysis, this study analyzes the nature of news coverage of both cases. A theory of media ethics is then used to examine the similarities and differences in how the two politicians were outed.

Global Journalism Ethics at the Turn of the 20th Century? Walter Williams in the ‘World Chaotic’ • Hans Ibold, University of Missouri • This paper identifies principles for global journalism ethics in speeches and essays by the early 20th century journalist and founder of the first journalism school, Walter Williams. Williams is not known as a media ethicist, nor is he a major figure in ongoing scholarly work on global journalism ethics. However, his nascent ethical principles offer an important foreshadowing of current discussions on how journalism ethics might work in a global context.

Salience of Stakeholders and Their Attributes in PR and Business News • Soo Jung Moon and Kideuk Hyun, University of Texas at Austin • This study examined which stakeholder groups are salient and whether there has been a change of salience after the Enron collapse. It also investigated which attributes — legitimacy, power and urgency — render certain stakeholders salient based on stakeholder and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory. Content analyses of press releases from fifty Fortune 500 companies and news stories of The New York Times and The Washington Post found the most frequently mentioned stakeholder was stockholders.

The ethics of the gory details • Kimberly Lauffer, Towson University • Using the framework of care-based social responsibility, this paper examines two news stories that had the potential for the inclusion of graphic details. The two journalists who wrote these stories gathered graphic details in the course of their reporting but differed in their choices to include those details. This paper argues that although multiple factors may have affected these journalists’ decisions, a care-based social responsibility framework evaluates one story as more ethical than the other.

Postconventional Reasoning in Public Relations: A Defining Issues Test of Australian and New Zealand Practitioners • Paul Lieber, University of South Carolina and Colin Higgins, Massey University • This study employed an online version of the Defining Issues Test (DIT) (Rest, 1979) to gather data on the ethical decision-making process patterns of 78, Australian and New Zealand public relations practitioners. Results displayed no statistically significant differences in levels of moral development based on country of origin. Political persuasion, however, proved salient to ethical prediction. Practitioners who self-identified as more liberal reasoned differently about their ethics than right-wing peers.

Serving Two Masters: Reconciling Journalistic Exceptionalism and a Codified Ethical Imperative • Gwyneth Mellinger; Baker University • The founders of the American Society of Newspaper Editors saw themselves as pioneers of newspaper ethics, but during the organization’s early decades, some members struggled to abide by the code the ASNE board had adopted in 1922. This paper examines three case studies in which journalistic exceptionalism, a manifestation of self-interest and blindness to double standards, prevented the ASNE from fulfilling its self-appointed role as standard bearer for journalism ethics.

Stalking the Paparazzi: A View from a Different View • Ray Murray, Oklahoma State University • Because of their pursuit of celebrities, paparazzi have a reputation for doing almost anything to get a photograph. This study examines what ethical standards Los Angeles paparazzi use while searching for a lucrative photograph and what boundaries they draw. The study found longtime paparazzi routinely establish ethical guidelines and are upset with newer paparazzi who do not and have much lower standards; as a result, the newer paparazzi are changing the business.

Dimensions of Journalistic Message Transparency • Chris Roberts, University of South Carolina • The past few years have seen new calls for news organizations to be “more transparent” with the public, but there has been little effort to explicate the construct of transparency. This paper uses the “source-message-channel-receiver” communication model to suggest 11 dimensions of messenger transparency, along an opaque-translucent-transparent continuum for each dimension. The ethical considerations of transparency are discussed.

An Ethical Exploration of Free Expression and the Problem of Hate Speech • Mark Slagle, University of North Carolina • The traditional Western notion of freedom of expression has been criticized in recent years by critical race theorists who argue that this ethos ignores the gross power imbalance between the users of hate speech and their victims. This paper examines the arguments put forth by both the proponents of the classical libertarian model and the critical race theorists and the competing ethical models behind these arguments in an effort to mediate between the two.

Karen Ryan is on the air – the VNR and hegemonic expediency in the newsroom • Burton St. John, Old Dominion University • In 2004, the New York Times broke the story that the Bush Administration had developed and disseminated a video news release (VNR) about the 2003 White House-backed Medicare law. This VNR appeared on more than 40 stations. Subsequent press stories and editorials framed the airing of the Ryan VNR as an unethical communication that violated journalism’s professional standards. This piece explores, from a deontological perspective, how journalists and scholars have articulated those standards.

Recovery in New Orleans and the Times-Picayune: Reviewing the Limits of Objectivity, the Possibilities of Advocacy and the Reform of Public Journalism • N.B. Usher, University of Southern California • Along with the challenges of daily life in post-Katrina New Orleans, journalists at the Times-Picayune face a philosophical dilemma: how can they construct fair and balanced news content in the aftermath of Katrina when virtually everyone has had their lives dramatically changed by the storm? This paper relies on interviews with journalists at the Times-Picayune to explore the ethical dilemmas facing this newsroom—including the limits of objectivity and the need for advocacy journalism.

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