Communication Theory and Methodology 2012 Abstracts
Faculty
The Role of Content Enjoyment in Effects of Sexual and Romantic Media Primes • Francesca Dillman Carpentier, University of North Carolina; Scott Parrott, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Temple Northup, University of Houston • This study tested how enjoyment of content featuring an overtly sexual prime or a romantic prime (versus control) moderates priming effects on social judgments, especially if the context of the judgment did not readily lend itself to a sexual lens. In this study, sexual primes worked best when the evaluation most related to the primed concept. Enjoyment enhanced priming effectiveness when the prime was not as relevant to the evaluation context.
Diffusing Deviant Behavior: A Communication Perspective on the Construction of Moral Panics • Bryan Denham • Although mass media play an important role in defining and amplifying deviant behavior, much of the research on the construction of moral panics, or exaggerated responses to social problems, has originated in disciplines other than communication. This article offers a conceptual explanation of how media amplify deviance, drawing on previous work grounded in exemplification theory and news icons before addressing how amplification processes stand to follow – and deviate from – an S-shaped logistic curve.
Measuring Public Opinion Formation: Assessing First- and Second-Level Agenda Setting through Salience Measures • Jennifer Kowalewski; Maxwell McCombs, University of Texas • Although scholars have measured both first- and second-level agenda setting often using open-ended response, more close-ended measures might assist in measuring the theory, adding to the rich data. This experimental study directly compared open-ended responses shown to gauge an agenda-setting effect with close-ended responses to enhance the assessment of both first- and second-level agenda setting. The findings identified five close-ended scales that add to the precision of measuring the salience of issues and attributes.
Tradeoffs between Webcam, Chat, and Face-To-Face Focus Groups on Dimensions of Data Quality and Richness • Katie Abrams, University of Illinois; Sebastian Galindo-Gonzalez, University of Florida; Gina Song, University of Illinois; Zongyuan Wang, Department of Advertising, College of Media, UIUC; Chanju LEE, Department of Advertising, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • This study offers an examination of data quality (topic-related data, unrelated data, data richness) and logistical tradeoffs between face-to-face, text-only chat, and webcam focus group mediums. Two focus group sessions were held for each type of medium. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Differences were observed among the mediums on word counts, topic-related and unrelated passages, and data richness. Recommendations for medium selection and future research are provided.
Information-Seeking Self-Identity: Scale Development and Validation • Sonny Rosenthal, Nanyang Technological University • This study developed a scale to measure people’s self-identities as information seekers. Novel scale items drew on prior research of self-identity in behavior. Scale validation resulted in seven- and four-item versions (α > .85) of an information-seeking self-identity (ISSI) scale. Concurrent validation affirmed the scale’s psychometric properties on four criterion variables: openness to experience, need for cognition, desire for control, and innovativeness. As well, the scale differed significantly between respondents who seek information and those who do not.
Developmental Provocation: Youth Prompting of Purposeful Political Parenting • Mike McDevitt, University of Colorado; Spiro Kiousis, University of Florida • This study represents the first attempt to conceptualize and measure purposeful parenting as a dependent variable in political socialization. A model of development provocation captures contributions of youth to parenting in families of low socioeconomic status. Adolescent-parent dyads in Arizona, Colorado, and Florida were interviewed after the 2002 and 2004 elections. Youth news attention, opposition to Iraq war, and first-time voting contributed to gains in purposeful political parenting across election cycles.
Multiplying Incongruence: How the Emotional Response to Diverse Sources of Incongruent Messages Mediates Participatory Intentions • Emily Vraga, George Washington University • During a campaign, individuals are exposed to messages that invoke their partisan identification. Using a series of two experiments, this study tests participants’ emotional arousal when faced with two competing sources of incongruent information: a test refuting their party identification and campaign messages, such as political advertisements and news coverage. The positive and negative emotions that result from exposure to political attack and messaging differentially influence whether and how individuals desire to participate in politics.
Searching for Salience: The Interplay of Media Coverage and Online Search Behavior during the BP Oil Disaster • Matthew Ragas, DePaul University; Hai Tran, DePaul University; Jason Martin, DePaul University • In an effort to advance agenda-setting theory online, this longitudinal study employed a series of content analyses of news content paired with aggregate search behavior data to explore the over-time relationship between media attention and search interest in BP during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. The study results provide strong evidence of agenda-setting linkages between media coverage and search trends – even after controlling for possible explanatory variables.
Excitation Transfer Effects between Semantically Related and Temporally Adjacent Stimuli • Glenn Cummins, Texas Tech University College of Mass Communications; Wes Wise; Brandon Nutting, Texas Tech University College of Mass Communications • Although excitation transfer theory has been supported in numerous contexts, questions remain regarding transfer of arousal between events that are semantically and temporally related. This paper summarizes two studies exploring excitation transfer between such events. Study one failed to support the theory, instead suggesting contrast effects between stimuli. A follow-up study demonstrated that arousal may transfer between semantically related, temporally adjacent events.
Behavioral Pluralism of the Third-person Effect: Evidence from the News about Fukushima Nuclear Crisis • Ran Wei, University of South Carolina; Ven-hwei Lo, Chinese U of Hong Kong; Hungyi Lu, National Chung Cheng University; Hsin-Ya Hou • This study focuses on examining the behavioral component of the third-person effect by exploring how perception of the influence of nuclear pollution news predicts taking multiple actions — such as “corrective,” “protective,” and “promotional” — in a situation where the nuclear pollution news has already been widely reported and others have already been influenced by the news.
Does Automatic Attention Allocation to Auditory Structural Features Habituate? • Robert Potter, Indiana University; Matthew Falk, Indiana University; Soyoung Bae, Indiana University; Teresa Lynch, Indiana University; Nicholas Matthews, Indiana University; Ashley Kraus, Indiana University; Sharon Mayell, Indiana University • Past research shows that structural changes in the auditory environment cause people to briefly but automatically pay attention to auditory messages such as radio broadcasts, podcasts, and web streaming. We also know that the voice change–an example of such an auditory structural feature–elicits automatic attention across multiple repetitions.
Incorporating Motivated Cognition into the Extended Parallel Process Model: An Integrative Theoretical Essay • Glenn Leshner, University of Missouri; Paul Bolls, University of Missouri; Anthony Almond, U of Missouri • The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical extension of the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) that includes the role of emotional message features and their impact on message processing. Specifically, we attempt to demonstrate how recent research informs how emotional message features and emotional responses impact individuals’ processing of information about health content communicated through television messages.
Explicating time: Toward making content analysis research describing time frames more meaningful • Julie Andsager, University of Iowa; Joseph Schwartz, Northeastern University • This study examined the extent to which scholars explicate time intervals used to track changes in messages in content analysis. We analyzed 218 content analysis-based studies published in two leading peer-reviewed media communication journals to understand the status of explication of time. Of 78 studies using time intervals, nearly half left time intervals unexplicated. We presented two case studies demonstrating how meaningful time intervals produce more nuanced, theoretically meaningful results compared to non-explicated time frames.
Elaboration or Distraction? Knowledge Acquisition from Thematically Related and Unrelated Humor in Political Speeches • Jorg Matthes, University of Vienna • There is an ongoing debate in public opinion research as to whether traditionally serious political issues are better learned by the public when they are connected to humor. This paper adds to this debate by proposing a moderated mediation model of humor-based learning effects. Humor is theorized to increase or decrease knowledge acquisition depending on humor-message relatedness and individual differences in need for humor (NFH).
A Comparison of Three Approaches to Computing Information Insufficiency: Challenges and Opportunities • Sonny Rosenthal, Nanyang Technological University • Models of information seeking often concern information insufficiency. Common methods to compute this construct have a tendency to produce bias in model estimates in conditions of high multicollinearity among dependent variables. This article (1) describes the analysis of partial variance per Cohen and Cohen’s (1983) original derivation that is necessary to compute information insufficiency and (2) contrasts this method with existing alternatives using analyses of simulated data and secondary analysis of real data.
Talking about Healthcare: News Framing of Who Is Responsible for Rising Healthcare Costs in the United States • Sei-Hill Kim; Andrea Tanner, University of South Carolina; Soo Yun Kim, University of South Carolina; Caroline Foster, University of South Carolina • Our content analysis examines how the American news media have presented the problem of rising healthcare costs, looking particularly at the question of who is responsible. More specifically, we examine how often the media have discussed five major causes, including patients, healthcare providers, insurance companies, the government, and pharmaceutical companies. Implications of the findings are discussed in detail.
A Reliability Index (ai) that Assumes Honest Coders and Variable Randomness • Xinshu Zhao, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University, and Journalism School, Fudan University • The available indices of reliability assume either zero chance coding or maximum chance coding by dishonest coders. Some chance-adjusted indices, including the often-used Cohen’s κ, Scott’s π and Krippendorff’s α, also assume that coders apply quota, while the other chance-adjusted indices assume coders equate the number of categories in a coding scale with the number of marbles in a urn.
The Dualities of Social Network Sites • Kyu Hahn, Seoul National University; Hyelim Lee • In this analysis, we addressed the validity of various popular conjectures concerning representativeness and polarization on social network sites (SNS’s), using the U.S. and South Korea as test cases. In doing so, we modeled Twitter followership as a bipartite network and estimated ideological positions of individual Twitter users “following” members of the 111th U.S. Senate and the 18th Korean National Assembly.
Conceptualizing the Intervening Roles of Identity in Communication Effects: The Prism Model • Maria Leonora (Nori) Comello, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill • This paper reviews conceptualizations of identity from the social identity perspective and other psychological perspectives on the self. Across these various models, identity is characterized as dependent on context and as composed of multiple components, with the components varying in both accessibility and weight as a function of contextual stimuli.
Attitude change in competitive framing environments? The moderating role of open/close-mindedness on framing effects about global climate change • Erik Nisbet, Ohio State University; P. Sol Hart, American University; Teresa Myers; Morgan Ellithorpe, Ohio State University • Scholarship on framing effects about policy issues has primarily focused on either how competitive message environments alter framing effects or how individual differences moderate the impact of frame exposure. This study combines both of these focal areas of research by examining how individual open/close-mindedness moderates framing effects about climate change within competitive and non-competitive framing contexts.
Student
The gates around the book: Applying gatekeeping theory to Facebook • Patrick Ferrucci, U of Missouri; Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Adam Maksl, University of Missouri • Traditionally, gatekeeping theory has only been tested on mainstream journalism outlets such as newspapers and television. This study applies the popular mass communication theory to Facebook. Using a diary method, participants recorded everything they did or did not do on Facebook for a full week. It was found that participants did in fact gatekeep their own profiles in similar ways as journalists. Participants chose to share or not share information based on a series of influences.
Erring on the conservative side?: Assessing psychological conservatism as integrated latent predictor of selective exposure • Angela M. Lee, University of Texas at Austin; Thomas J. Johnson, University of Texas at Austin • Previous studies examining whether conservatives are likely to practice selective exposure offer mixed findings, and only examine conservatism in terms of political conservatism. This research fills in these gaps in the literature through secondary data analysis of the 2008 National Annenberg Election Survey (N=19,234). This study proposes psychological conservatism as an integrated latent predictor of selective exposure, which comprises four components: political conservatism, ethnocentrism, militarism, and religious conservatism. Implications of this study are also discussed.
Aggregating agendas: Online news aggregators as agenda setters • Paige Madsen, University of Iowa • This study examined the agenda-setting influence of online news aggregators, such as Google News, which use a computer algorithm rather than human editors to make story selection decisions and produce no original content. The study found significant differences between aggregators and traditional news sources in the topics of top stories, their use of photographs, and the use of wire services in reporting international stories. Findings suggest important implications for the agenda-setting function of news.
Hearing the Other Side Revisited: Toward a Unified Theory of Deliberative and Participatory Democracy • Hoon Lee; Nojin Kwak; Scott Campbell • This study seeks to shed light on the highly publicized democracy dilemma signaling that encountering disagreement tends to promote deliberative democracy, while the same experience can dampen a citizen’s motivation to participate. By assessing the processes wherein the interplay of cross-cutting discussion and strong tie homogeneity is simultaneously associated with the outcomes of deliberative and participatory democracy, we provide a number of key insights into the puzzling quandary.
In the mood for learning: How mood, pacing, and semantic difference influence learning of children’s education television programming • Michael Devlin, University of Alabama; Natalie Brown, University of Alabama; Cynthia Nichols • The purpose of this study investigated the impact that induced mood had on children’s ability to learn from E/I television programming. This study used an experimental method to assess how a child’s induced mood affected the cognitive processing and encoding ability of television content when pacing and semantic difference between educational and narrative content were manipulated. Results showed that children in positive moods were more likely to encode information than children in sad moods regardless of semantic difference.
Testing the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model: Context-specific and construct-related extensions • Jessica Willoughby; Jessica Myrick, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Data indicate that people seeking health information online look for something specific. We therefore conducted a survey (N= 963) to test and extend the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model, a general model. The model fit well for the topics of cancer and sexual health, but not all paths were significant. Extending the model with paths that increased the roles of risk and affect improved model fit, supporting extension of search theories based on emotion theory.
The hostile media effect and political talk: Expanding the corrective action hypothesis • Matthew Barnidge, University of Wisconsin – Madison • A developing theory called “corrective action” proposes that perceptions of media bias prompt people to seek out avenues for political expression. This study hypothesizes that people who have higher HME will have larger political talk networks, talk politics more often, and will be exposed to a wider array of viewpoints. Analysis of survey data from a national representative sample of Colombian adults largely supports these hypotheses.
An evaluation of social conformity theory: understanding cross-discipline extension and relevant to computer-mediated communication • yan shan, University of Georgia • Social conformity theory came from Asch’s famous experiments in the 1950s, and has existed for almost sixty years. It predicts the modification of individual opinion and behavior caused by exposing to large group pressure. Specifically, in communication field, it provides theoretical contribution in studying the formation of public opinion, as well as the attitude changes.
Spirals Into Fragmentation: Rethinking the Spiral of Silence for Reference Groups in the New Media Environment • Andrew Pritchard, North Dakota State University • The new media environment has empowered groups to produce media for their members, and spiral of silence theorizing must account for differences in internal media among groups. Suggested theoretical modifications include the realization that in-group media likely will be more influential than the mass media on group members; increased emphasis on the powers of media as media; and the likelihood of multiple, contradictory spirals of silence on a topic rather than one society-wide effect.
Modeling Longitudinal Communication Data with Time Series ARIMA • Hanlong Fu; Jun Wang; Arthur VanLear • Although it is a truism that communication is a process, communication researchers, for years, grappled with analyzing longitudinal data. In recent years, linear models such as multilevel models greatly expand the analytic “toolbox” of communication researchers in dealing with longitudinal observations. However, these models are often limited because they usually assume a linear trend in longitudinal change and simple error structures.
Gains or losses, or gains and losses? Expanding the conceptual boundaries of prospect theory • Jessica Myrick, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Sri Kalyanaraman • We attempt to extend our understanding of prospect theory by examining the conceptual importance of mixed-frames—the juxtaposition of both gain and loss frames in the same message. An experiment (N = 108) measured participants’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a health issue (skin cancer) after exposure to a gain-only, loss-only, or gain-and-loss framed messages. Results revealed the mediating role of credibility and discrete emotions information processing and intentions, suggesting promising directions for future research.
Evaluation of the Theory of Planned Behavior • Kuan-Ju Chen, University of Georgia • The study explicates the theoretical constructs of the theory of planned behavior along with its empirical applications in diverse research realms. The theory of planned behavior is evaluated based on the criteria of theory evaluation such as explanatory power, predictive power, parsimony, testability, internal consistency, heuristic provocativeness, and organizing power (Chaffee & Berger, 1987; Heath &Bryant, 1992). The boundary condition and limitations of the theory are also discussed. This paper is a submission for student paper competition.
Survey Data Analysis with Continuous Moderator Variables in Multiple Regression Modeling • Mohammed Al-Azdee, Indiana University School of Journalism • Some methodologists recommend that a continuous moderator should be recoded as a categorical variable in Moderated Multiple Regression (MMR) modeling of survey data. We argue that changing a variable’s scale from continuous to categorical can cause severe elimination of meaningful interpretations. Our goal in this study is to introduce and apply an alternative methodology. We use survey data to build and compare two multiple regression models.
The Reader’s Willingness to Comment on Online News Articles: A Study of the Individual’s Behavioral Responses in light of Media Effects Theories and Online News • Soo-Kwang Oh, University of Maryland; Xiaoli Nan • This study applies what is known about the current workings of media effects theories (hostile media effects, third-person effects, influence of presumed influence) to online news to investigate factors that influence the individual’s willingness to engage in behavioral responses (leaving user comments). Findings suggest that media effects theories in conjunction with each other may result in an increased willingness to leave comments and that existing user comments may also be a significant factor.
Who (or What) Sets J-bloggers’ Agenda? A Comparison Between the Political J-blogs of Newspapers and Television Networks • Jihyang Choi, Indiana University • “The present study attempts to explore how the shifting media environment affects media agenda setting by asking the question “who (or what) sets j-bloggers’ agenda?” J-blogs, written by journalists affiliated with mainstream media outlets, provide an interesting setting to examine the changes in the individual journalists’ selection of agendas, since journalists are less likely to be influenced by organizational norms when writing on blogs. The study employed link analysis to examine the scope and directionality of agenda setting.
The impacts of message framing and risk type in skin cancer prevention public service announcements (PSAs) • Hannah Kang, University of Florida; Moon J. Lee, University of Florida • This study examined the impacts of message framing and risk type on the persuasiveness of skin cancer prevention public service announcements (PSAs). To examine the persuasiveness of message framing and risk type, we measured attitude toward the message, attitude toward using tanning beds or sunbathing, and behavioral intent of avoiding tanning beds or sunbathing.
Player Agency, In-Game Behaviors, and Effects: Toward Developing a More Robust Theory of Video Games • J.J. De Simone, University of Wisconsin — Madison; Justin Mozer • The two leading video game theories, the General Learning Model and the General Aggression Model, conceive of games as uniform in content. Thus, the effects process is one-dimensional; game content directly influences non-virtual world behaviors. While the GAM and GLM possess merit, they ignore several important components, including player agency and in-game behavioral practices.
The Roles of Emotions and News Media on Political Participation • Doo-Hun Choi, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Michael Cacciatore, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Sei-Hill Kim • Analyzing data from the 2008 ANES, this study explored the role of emotions and media use in the political process. More specifically, it examined how news media interact with political ideology to arouse discrete emotions in individuals toward the U.S. federal government. This study also examined how discrete emotions interacted with one’s political ideology to facilitate political participation. The results showed that people’s cognitive appraisals, including perceptions the economy, are the most influential factor in eliciting emotions.
Examining news quality on Twitter • Ashley Kirzinger, Manship School, LSU; Johanna Dunaway, Louisiana State University; Kirby Goidel, Louisiana State University • Social media journalism is a significant part of today’s media environment. This project uses content analysis to examine how organizational factors influence the quality of news on Twitter. An examination of 4136 tweets from 77 journalists demonstrates that political news on Twitter does not adhere to the same institutional practices as traditional political journalism. Political news on Twitter is a high quality news product focusing on hard news stories and is less concerned with horse-race election coverage.
Exploring “the World Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads”: A Network Agenda Setting Study • Hong Tien Vu, University of Texas; Lei Guo, University of Texas at Austin; Maxwell McCombs, University of Texas • This study tested the Network Agenda Setting Model, asserting the salience of network relationships among issue can be transferred from the news media to the public’s mind. Conducting network analyses on the secondary data – the Project for Excellence in Journalism news indexes and the Gallup Polls in 2009, 2010 and 2012 -, this study found significant correlations between the media and public network agendas regarding the most important issues facing the country in three years.
Beyond Content: Framing through the Roles of Journalists • Lea Hellmueller; Edson Tandoc, University of Missouri-Columbia; Tim Vos, University of Missouri • This study aims to make a theoretical contribution by conceptualizing framing as a manifestation of journalists’ role conceptions. Based on a survey of Washington correspondents and a content analysis of those same journalists’ news stories we analyzed how journalists’ role conceptions affect journalists’ tendencies to frame stories. Our findings suggest that the relationship between role conceptions and news frames is not particularly straightforward. Results are discussed within the framework of gatekeeping theory and framing research.
Multiple opinion climates in online forums: Role of website source reference and within-forum opinion congruency • Elmie Nekmat, University of Alabama; William Gonzenbach, University of Alabama • This study examines Yun & Park’s (2011) postulation of the presence of multiple layers of opinion climates online that affects individual’s willingness to post messages in online forums. Framed according to the Spiral of Silence theory, a between-groups 2 (reference source: activist website versus news website) x 2 (opinion congruency: majority- versus minority opinion position) online-based experiment was carried out. Results showed no significant differences in individuals’ willingness to post messages between different website sources.
Depriming Hypothesis: A Theoretical Exploration of the Reverse Phenomena of News Priming Effects • ByungGu Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study focuses on cognitive mechanisms involved in priming processes and on the bidirectional nature of news priming. Based on the psychological literature on knowledge activation and knowledge use, this study provides the theoretical background for the possibilities that media treatments of issues can decrease weights attached to issues in constructing political evaluation standards, a notion labeled “depriming hypothesis.”
An Examination of Social Network Theory • Eun Sook Kwon • The social network has been studied for over 100 years. Beginning in rudimentary stages simply emphasizing patterns of interaction and communication, social network research has expanded, popularized, and developed into its own theoretical paradigm. By shedding light on the research using social network analysis, this paper examines how social network theory has developed and how strength of ties has been applied in sociology, anthropology, and marketing communication.
Filling in the Blanks between Corporate Communication and Financial Performance: Corporate Associations and Customer Satisfaction • Weiting Tao, University of Florida • This study attempts to explore the causal linkage between corporate communication and corporate financial performance (CFP). Its purpose is to 1) explain whether corporate communication could attain financial returns for corporations; 2) explain why corporate communication and CFP could be causally related; and 3) discuss what communication strategies corporations should utilize in order to improve their CFP. To this end, a theoretical framework was offered; its theoretical and practical contributions were then introduced.
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