International Communication 2016 Abstracts
Markham Student Paper Competition
Framing the 2014 Indonesian Presidential Candidates in Newspapers and on Twitter • Ary Hermawan, University of Arizona School of Journalism • The 2014 Indonesian presidential election was the first election in the world’s largest Muslim democracy where social media played a significant role. Social media became a public forum where Indonesians framed the presidential candidates in the most polarizing election in the nation’s history. A content analysis of four national newspapers and tweets showed that both legacy media and social media framed the candidates in terms of personality but differed in how they did it.
Surveying television drama in China Central Television’s foreign language channels • Dani Madrid-Morales • This paper surveys over one hundred and seventy drama series (dianshiju) broadcast in four of China Central Television’s (CCTV) foreign language channels between 2004 and 2015. By analyzing the genre, theme, time of action and location it seeks to understand how, through the narrative of fiction, China’s public broadcaster contributes to constructing a global narrative on contemporary Chinese society. It also highlights the seemingly uncoordinated logic behind China’s efforts to internationalize its television drama.
Dolphins and Deviants: News Framing and the Birth of a Global Prohibition Regime • Jay Alabaster • This exploratory study bridges this gap by examining the birth and widespread adoption of a global prohibition regime. The Cove, a U.S. documentary highly critical of annual dolphin hunts in the small Japanese town of Taiji, was released to high acclaim in 2009. It won an Academy Award the following year and was screened around the world. This triggered a surge of global activism aimed at pressuring local Taiji fishermen and the Japanese government to stop the town’s hunts. The resulting moral standoff between Western activists campaigning to save Taiji’s dolphins and various actors within Japan steadily backing the long-running hunts in Taiji was closely covered by international media. This study uses a content analysis to examine framing and sources in articles from the three main Western news agencies, the Associated Press (AP), Agence France Press (AFP), and Reuters, as well as the main Japanese news agency, Kyodo News (Kyodo). The study reveals significant evidence for the emergence of a global prohibition regime.
The journalistic construction of English as a global lingua franca of news • John Carpenter • This study examined the journalistic coverage surrounding the launch of Al Jazeera’s English language news service in 2006 to uncover the dominant, socially-constructed meanings for the English language as it relates to news in a global context. Using theories of language ideology, media counter-flow, and journalistic interpretive communities, analysis showed that that the journalistic interpretive community created ideologies of English as a global lingua franca that would allow news providers to reach a global audience. Furthermore, journalists created ideological meanings for English as the language of news counter-flow, capable of balancing the influence of CNN and BBC by introducing a developing world perspective into global news flows. The study concluded that journalists should reflexively consider the universality of English as a language of the developing world.
Professionalizing the Indigenous: Kabaddi as an Indian Object of Global Media Diaspora • Jordan Stalker, University of Wisconsin • This paper contributes to the field of global media by introducing the concept of “diasporic media objects.” Using Arjun Appadurai’s hard and soft cultural form framework, I show how the once-indigenous Indian sport of kabaddi has been received by the Western press throughout the past and how it has used digital media platforms to professionalize itself and bolster India’s global media presence. The modern Indian diaspora involves objects rather than individuals.
Understanding Entman’s Frame Functions in American International News • Josephine Lukito • The purpose of this article is to examine which countries are covered most in American international news and to apply Entman’s (1993) frame functions to an international news frame analysis. Important here is the understanding of generic framing analyses, such as coding for generic frames or for parts of a frame. Results of a content analysis suggest that Entman’s interpretation of frame functions is too narrow to capture all possible frames in American international news.
War Advertising: Themes in Argentine Print Advertising During the Malvinas / Falklands War • Juan Mundel, Michigan State University; Yadira Nieves-Pizarro, Michigan State University • This study explores the extension of discursive war strategies to print advertisements in 1981 and 1982. A content analysis on newspaper advertising before and after the war supports the notion that advertisements reflect changes in market conditions. With the advancement of the war efforts, there was a change in (1) the tactical intent of the ads, (2) the nature of advertiser, and (3) products advertised. Additionally, our study show that the discursive strategies employed by advertisers were consistent with those emphasized by other media, such as television and print journalism.
Securitization: An approach to the framing of the “Western hostile force” in Chinese media • Kai Xu • This study content analyzes a well-known frame “Western hostile force” in Chinese media from the perspective of securitization. Results suggest that “Western hostile force” is a securitizing move that encompasses an array of different threats. The results also suggest evidence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintaining that China is constantly under these threats, even if in some cases, it never identifies the identities of those threats.
Cross National Newspaper Coverage of Transit Migration: A Community Structure Approach • Kevin O’Brien; Madison Ouellette; Maria Gottfried; Petra Kovacs; John Pollock, The College of New Jersey • A cross-national community structure analysis compared national characteristics/demographic differences with variations in coverage of transit migration in sixteen leading papers worldwide, yielding combined article “prominence” and “direction” “Media Vector” newspaper scores emphasizing “government” or “society” responsibility for transit migration. The findings illuminate two distinct types of “vulnerability”: “economic” vulnerability (crop production index, 27.4% variance) linked to coverage emphasizing government responsibility; and “political” vulnerability (global instability index, 11.9% variance) connected to coverage emphasizing society responsibility.
Do large countries hunger for information less? Country’s size and strengths as determinants of foreign news volume • Miki Tanikawa, University of Texas • This study hypothesized that the size of the GDP, population, geography and the military strengths of the country are inversely related to the volume of international news reporting in the news media of the countries in question, reflecting different perceptions of the needs to monitor the international environment. Data analyses in this study found that these variables broadly predicted the size (smallness) of foreign news volume of the countries under study.
Effectiveness of Global and Local Brands’ Facebook Strategies in Engaging the Saudi Consumer • Mohammad Abuljadail • This paper seeks to investigate the “posting” behavior of global and local brands ’Facebook pages and the effectiveness of these strategies in engaging the Saudi consumer. Specifically, the author examines whether the “posting” behaviors differ between local and global brands in Saudi Arabia and whether the different posting strategies used by local and global brands are more effective than others in generating engagement (likes, comments and shares). Findings and implications are discussed.
Does Paris matter more than Beirut and Ankara? A Content Analysis of Frames Employed in Terrorism Coverage. • Mustafa oz, The University of Texas at Austin • The main purpose of this study is to examine the coverage of Beirut, Ankara and Paris terrorist attacks to see whether there was a western bias in terms of the coverage of these three terrorist attacks. While these three terrorist attacks were similar, they did not have the same amount of attention from the western media outlets. The results suggested that while the attacks were equally shocking, the US media failed to cover the Beirut and Ankara attacks as much as they covered the Paris attacks.Keywords: Framing, Terrorism, Media, Coverage, Content Analysis
A Network Agenda-Setting Study: Opinion Leaders in Crisis and Non-Crisis News on Weibo • Qian Wang • Within the theoretical frame of agenda setting, this study utilized network analysis to compare the interrelationships of the networked agendas in crisis and non-crisis news. It also explores patterns of the relationships between the media outlets and opinion leaders during these crisis and non-crisis news. The results show that business elites rather than Chinese media outlets set the agendas of both crisis and non-crisis news on Weibo. Furthermore, the agenda-setting process among these opinion leaders changed in these two cases.The agendas of these opinion leaders were highly correlated with each other in the Tianjin explosion, while they were much less correlated in Tu Youyou’case. The findings prove that the agenda-setting effect on social media platforms is not a linear process directly from one direction to another. It is a diversified and dynamic process where different parties interact and influence each other, and each party has the potential to set other agendas in certain issue topics.
Framing and Agenda Interaction of Epidemics under the Globalization Era: A cross-national study of news coverage on Ebola virus disease in China, U.S, Japan, and UK • QIAN YU, Washington State University • This study analyzes news coverage of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in China, U.S, Japan, and UK to examine variations in framing and agenda interactions. A content analysis was conducted on 730 news articles from highly circulated and prestigious newspapers in these four countries during the period of March, 24 to December 31, 2014. The findings revealed that common characteristics shown in news frames, sources, and predominant tones used by the four countries’ coverage on portraying the EVD; agenda interactions with different extents were identified among the four newspapers. This study enriches understanding of how journalists with variations in media systems, cultural values, political systems, and social ideologies construct a global health risk. Limitations and future directions are also discussed in the ending part.
One newspaper, double faces? A cross-platform content analysis of People’s Daily on Twitter and Weibo • Shuning Lu, The University of Texas at Austin • News organizations have increasingly adopted social network sites in news production, however, not many studies have probed into the content produced by media organizations across different social media platforms. By situating itself in the intersection of media globalization and technological innovation in journalism, the study systematically examined the characteristics of content posted by People’s Daily, the official press in China, on two social media platforms, Weibo and Twitter. It revealed that there was a Weibo-versus-Twitter difference in the volume, topic and style of online news in People’s Daily. The study also discussed the implications of the findings how different ecologies of Weibo and Twitter help to shape the variation in both content and news style of People’s Daily on the two social media platforms.
Mediated public diplomacy: Foreign media coverage of Sochi Olympics • Yanqin Lu, Indiana University • This study employs content analysis to examine the differences between American and Chinese media coverage on the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics. The findings indicated that media coverage in both countries did not present substantial differences in the salience of each event theme. However, American media covered these themes in a more negative tone than Chinese media did. Implications are discussed in terms of the effectiveness of mediated public diplomacy.
National Outlook on Transnational News Event: Comparative Audience Framing on Malaysian’s MH370 Plane Incident • Yearry Setianto, Ohio University; Qianni Luo • This study compares how Malaysian and Chinese audiences framed the news report of their respective national media on the Malaysian’s MH370 plane incident. Using audience framing, we explored similarities and differences of the frames. While Chinese audiences framed that the Malaysian government should take the responsibility, Malaysian audiences defended their government’s effort in dealing with the incident. Researchers found audiences’ nationalism, preexisting knowledge and cultural values to be important factors in understanding the audience frames.
Cultural Influences on Product Placement in American and Chinese TV Situation Comedies • Yiran Zhang, University of Minnesota Twin Cities • Through a textual analysis, this study explored how individualism, power distance and long-term orientation were presented in American and Chinese product placements in situation comedies. The results demonstrated that individualism was mostly presented as positive self-images in Chinese product placements, but as self-independence in American ones. The presentation of short-term orientation in Chinese product placements focused on completing a task under time pressure, while that of American ones concentrated on temporary entertainment.
Journalism and the Fight for Democracy: Framing the 2015 Myanmar Election • Zin Mar Myint, Kedzie Hall – Kansas State University; Bondy Kaye, Kansas State University • The 2015 elections in Myanmar represented a turning point in the country and a major leap toward establishing a democracy. Informed by framing theory, this study analyzed coverage of the Myanmar election by state-owned and privately-owned media firms in Myanmar and major media firms in the U.S. through a content analysis of 732 news articles. Results indicate that U.S. media and privately-owned media in Myanmar converged in coverage of democracy and the opposition NLD party. Their frames lean towards the push for change.
Robert L. Stevenson Open Paper Competition
U.S. Foreign Policy Interests and Press Coverage of the Kashmir Dispute between India and Pakistan • Abhijit Mazumdar, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Catherine Luther, University of Tennessee • This paper researches U.S. press portrayals of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and explores if the portrayals were in line with shifting U.S. foreign policy interests. Findings indicated no significant differences between the two timeframes in the portrayal of the cause of the dispute and its solutions. The stories gave a balanced account of the dispute. Significant differences, however, were found in source usage.
Impact of Economic Hardships on Kyrgyzstan Journalism: Results from In-Depth Interview with Journalists • Bahtiyar Kurambayev • In-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews with 27 journalists based in capital Bishkek city reveal that revenue starving Kyrgyz news outlets employ a variety of unusual tactics to generate some income including financially punishing journalists for failing to meet the set normative, imposes obligations to locate cash-paying news story clients. This study also reveals that news outlets have introduced barter as a system of payment. The author employed a snowball sampling to locate initial several research participants and seek their suggestions of other journalists. The interviews were held during the period of January 4-January 23, 2016. They were held primarily in Russian language. The practical implications are also discussed.
Characteristics of Exemplary Conflict Coverage: War and peace frames in Pulitzer Prize-winning international reporting • Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Kimberly Foster • Amid the current state of global conflicts, scholars urge journalists to provide rich detail and depth in conflict coverage that enhance foreign reporting, and other scholars focus on the theoretical and practical challenges of such detailed reporting. One such way for journalists to report on detail is Galtung’s (2000) method of peace journalism. This qualitative study explores the prevalence of peace journalism frames in Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting and finds evidence crucial to peace journalism advocates.
Beyond Hybridity: Intralocal Frictions in Music Video Production, Distribution, and Reception in Kenya • Brian Ekdale, University of Iowa • While the hybridity framework has inspired many valuable studies, global media research has hit a period of theoretical stasis. Drawing on the concepts of critical transculturalism (Kraidy, 2005) and global friction (Tsing, 2005), this paper introduces intralocalism as a way to study the entanglement of global cultural flows in grounded social practices. This paper demonstrates the analytic utility of intralocalism through an examination of music video production, distribution, and reception in Kenya.
News Media Uses During War and Conflict: The Case of the Syrian Civil War • Claudia Kozman, Lebanese American University; Jad Melki, Lebanese American University • Using the Syrian conflict as a case study, this survey of displaced Syrian nationals in four countries revealed that the major uses and gratifications of traditional and new media is receiving and understanding information, ahead of entertainment and overcoming loneliness. Among all media, TV consumption showed the highest correlation with people’s perception of TV as useful for providing information about Syria. Among digital media, social media were the most important in receiving information about Syria.
A New Sensation? Exploring Sensationalism, Online Journalism and Social Media Audiences across the Americas • Danielle Kilgo, University of Texas at Austin; Summer Harlow, Florida State University; Victor Garcia-Perdomo, University of Texas at Austin/Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia; Ramón Salaverría, University of Navarra • Sensationalism is a term without complete consensus among scholars, and its meaning and implications have not been reconsidered for a digital environment. This study analyzes 500 articles from digitally native news organizations across the Americas, evaluating the sensational treatment of news categories and values, and their associated social media interactions on Facebook and Twitter. Findings suggest that characteristics of sensationalism have shifted, and audiences are not necessarily more likely to respond to sensational treatments.
Collectivism Appeal and Message Frames in Environmental Advertising – A Comparison between China and the U.S. • Fei Xue • The current study examined the effects of appeal types (self vs. group) and message framing (positive vs. negative) on American and Chinese consumers’ responses to environmental advertising. It was found that group appeal generated higher level of green trust and purchase intention in both countries. However, positive message frames seemed to work better for American consumers while negative message frames were more effective among Chinese consumers.
Sourcing International News: A comparative Study of Five Western Newspapers’ Reporting on the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Dispute • Guofeng Wang, School of Foreign Language Studies, Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University • This study examines the sources of information used by five Western newspapers from 2011 through 2013 to report on the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands territorial dispute between China and Japan. A quantitative analysis of sources and a qualitative approach to news frame analysis in the selected U.S., U.K., Australian, French and German newspapers reveals many similarities in their reporting on this ongoing conflict. This study also shows that while the selection of one source or another does not ultimately determine how a news article is framed, identifiable sourcing patterns do exert a significant influence on the overall balance or bias of the reporting.
Discursive Construction of Territorial Disputes: Foreign Newspaper Reporting • Guofeng Wang, School of Foreign Language Studies, Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University • This study examines how five foreign newspapers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France and Australia discursively construct the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute through a quantitative analysis. The findings reveal that they share a similar intergroup conflict schema based on competition and the pursuit of respective national interests, and that noticeable differences between the editorial position of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and that of the others may be due to current public opinion of Germany’s socio-historical context.
What Moves Young People to Journalism in a Transitional Country?: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations for Working in Journalism in Serbia • Ivanka Pjesivac, University of Georgia • This study examined the motivations among journalism students in Serbia, through a national survey at four major journalism programs in the country. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations had a significant impact on willingness to work in journalism, with the moderating effect of experience. The study is the first one conducted in a transitional country of Eastern Europe. The results are discussed in the context of the Self-Determination Theory of motivations applied to international journalism.
Perspectives of journalists, educators, trainers and experts on news media reporting of Islam and Muslims • Jacqui Ewart, Griffith University; Mark Pearson, Griffith University; Guy Healy, Griffith University • This paper uses data from an Australian study to ascertain issues associated with news media coverage of Islam and Muslims from the perspectives of journalists, journalism educators and media trainers. We draw on data from interviews with 37 journalists, editors, educators, media trainers, Muslim community leaders and other experts located in Australia and New Zealand to explore their understandings of the ways stories about Islam and Muslims are reported and why.
Attitude change among U.S. adults after the Castro-Obama announcement: The role of agenda-setting • Jami Fullerton; alice kendrick, smu; Sheri Broyles, 1155University of North Texas • The United States and Cuba made history in late 2014 by announcing the resumption of diplomatic relations. Using the media coverage and social media content related to the announcements as a quasi-experimental stimulus, this pre-post-study noted increases in U.S. adults’ levels of perceived knowledge, salience of attributes as well as attitudes toward Cuba after the joint proclamations. Results suggest that media coverage and social media content played major roles in influencing both public knowledge and attitudes toward Cuba as a country. These first- and second-level agenda-setting effects are positioned within the Model of Country Concept as an example of how a powerful byproduct of international media can factor in both cognitive and affective evaluations among the citizens of one country about the government and citizenry of another.
New Digital Dialogue? A Content Analysis of Chinese Political Elites’ Use of Sina Weibo • Jiawei Liu, Washington State University; Wenjie Yan • This study aims to add current understanding of what Chinese politicians use Sina Weibo for, as well as whether and to what extent they use Sina Weibo to communicate with the public. We content analyzed 69 Chinese politicians’ Sina Weibo posts between January 1 and March 31, 2015. Our results showed that Chinese political elites actively read and repost Weibo. However, they still communicate with the public in a predominantly top-down manner on Sina Weibo.
The Networks of Global Journalism: Global news construction through the collaboration of global news startups with freelancers • lea hellmueller; Sadia Cheema; Xu Zhang • This study explored the way global news startups connect freelancers with traditional news organizations. Through ten interviews with founders and editors the results reveal a networked marketplace of global journalism: The startups build on new technologies as well as on-the-ground evidence as their business model and de-localize the distribution of news within a digital marketplace. Through a content analysis of their edited stories (N=226), global journalism as an outcome of this marketplace is discussed.
Disentangling and priming the perceived media credibility in Singapore: Declared/theoretical versus tacit/applied definitions • Lelia Samson, Nanyang Technological University • The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, it explores what audiences associate with the notion of media credibility in Singapore. It thus investigates to what extent do Singaporean audiences associate the notion of media credibility with standard journalistic practices, with issues of press independence, and with dimensions of social consensus and popularity. These associations are examined within the context of the Singaporean audiences’ responses to declared/theoretical versus the tacit/applied definitions of credibility. Second, the current study examines whether dominant and alternative news sources can prime different meanings in audiences. 112 volunteers participated in a mixed factorial experiment and their open ended responses were content analyzed. Results indicate that media credibility was least associated with notions of press independence. Interesting findings were found between the declared/theoretical versus the tacit/applied definitions. Singaporean audiences associated the journalistic practices for the declared/theoretical definition of media credibility up to 78% of the cases – but their tacit/applied definition of credibility are associated with journalistic practices for only 36% of the cases; and they only associated the dimensions of readership and popularity for the declared/theoretical definition for 5% of the cases. But their associations with the dimensions of readership and popularity for the tacit/applied definition of credibility reach over 52% of the cases. Priming of dominant versus alternative news sources indeed influenced the perceived credibility and the meaning activation as expected.
At A Crossroads or Caught in the Crossfire? Crime Coverage Concerns for Democracy in Portugal, Spain, and Italy • Maggie Patterson, Duquesne University; Romayne Smith Fullerton, Western University of Ontario; Jorge Tunon, Carlos III University of Madrid • This study of crime reporting shows that keeping crime records secret hurts democratic consolidation. While many reporters and journalism experts interviewed claimed to value the presumption of innocence, many skirted restrictions by getting leaks from police and prosecutors. This porous secrecy leads to publication of rumors and unreliable eye-witness accounts. Four exacerbating factors affect this reporting method: widespread “clientelism;” a partisan news media; an alternative definition of “public interest”; and weak professionalism.
Localness and Orientalism in The New York Times • Marcus Funk, Sam Houston State University • Computerized content analysis of New York Times coverage demonstrates that orientalist language is used significantly more frequently when covering Middle Eastern nations and the American South than the Tri-State Area. This analysis of 15 years of Times coverage also finds that unifying language is more common concerning the Middle East and American South than Tri-State Area, but argues such positive language is othering and orientalizing. It further postulates that orientalism is rooted in cultural distance.
Covering Argentine Media Reform: Framing the Conversation to Keep Control • Mariana De Maio, San Diego State University • Using second-level agenda-setting and framing theories and content analysis, this paper examines the coverage of the Argentina’s 2009 media reform. To investigate the attributes media used in framing the law, data were collected from three national newspapers’ online publications (Clarín, La Nación, and Página/12). Results from the analysis suggest that the three newspapers framed the media reform debate using different attributes and tone.
Explaining the formation of online news startup in France and the US: A field analysis • Matthew Powers, University of Washington, Seattle • This paper explores the differential formation of online news startups in France and the US. Drawing on interviews with journalists and Bourdieu’s field theory, we argue that while journalists in both countries created startups as a way to enter into the journalistic field, the volume of capital they held varied as a result of journalism’s structural position vis-à-vis the field of power. These differences shaped the extent and style of online startups in both places.
The International News Hole: Still Shrinking and Linking? 25 Years of New York Times Foreign News Coverage • Meghan Sobel, Regis University; Seoyeon Kim; Daniel Riffe • This study uses quantitative content analysis of 25 years of New York Times international news coverage to extend the exploration of how nations’ economic status impacts the amount and topic of coverage received and how coverage is linked to American interests. Data suggest an increase in the percentage of foreign news items, with growing attention given to low- and middle-income countries. However, U.S. links are prevalent and developing country coverage remains largely negative.
Everything’s Negative About Nigeria: A Study of U.S. Media Reporting on Nigeria • Oluseyi Adegbola; Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; Jacqueline Mitchell, University of Nebraska at Omaha • U.S. television coverage of other countries can be misrepresented or go under-reported. Utilizing media framing theory, the current study content analyzes 10 years of U.S. television media coverage of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Reports broadcast by the big three networks were coded for issues, sources, valence, and frames (N = 643). Results corroborate existing research regarding the predominance of episodic frames and negative coverage and present new findings pertinent to coverage of foreign nations.
Social Media As A Marketing Tool: Why Kuwaiti Women Entrepreneurs Prefer Instagram To Sell Their Fashions, Food, And Other Products • Shaikhah Alghaith, Colorado State University — Department of Journalism & Media Communication; Kris Kodrich, Colorado State University — Department of Journalism & Media Communication • The purpose of this study is to identify the preferred types of social media adopted by Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs. Instagram was found to be the most adopted among women entrepreneurs to utilize as a marketing tool. Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion of Innovations theory was applied to explore the attributes of Instagram. The attributes of Instagram that influenced Kuwaiti women entrepreneurs’ decision to adopt it include photo-sharing nature (relative advantage), ease of use (complexity), and popularity (observability).
Visual Dissent: Examining Framing, Multimedia, and Social Media Recommendations in Protest Coverage of Ayotzinapa, Mexico • Summer Harlow, Florida State University; Ramón Salaverría, University of Navarra; Danielle Kilgo, University of Texas at Austin; Victor Garcia-Perdomo, University of Texas at Austin/Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia • The 2014 forced disappearance of 43 college students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico prompted protests throughout Mexico and the world. This bilingual, cross-national study of multimedia features in stories related to the Ayotzinapa protests examines how social media users responded to news coverage of the protests. This study sheds light on differences in mainstream, alternative, and online media outlets’ coverage of protesters, indicating whether the protest paradigm remains a problem in this digital era of information choice.
Factoring media use into media system theory — An examination of 14 European nations (2002-2010) • Xabier Meilan, University of Girona; Denis Wu • This study incorporates media use pattern into examining three distinct media systems proposed by Hallin and Mancini (2004). The uses of newspapers, radio, television, and Internet in European Social Surveys were included. North-Central European nations, particularly the Nordic countries, demonstrate more widespread media use than other European nations. Media-use Gini indexes support Hallin and Mancini’s original demarcation. Cluster analysis, however, indicates that the European nations of the three groups slightly differ from the original typology.
The Third-Person Effect of Offensive Advertisements: An Examination in the Chinese Cultural Context • Xiuqin Zeng, Xia’men University; Shanshan Lou; Hong Cheng • This study examined the third-person effect hypothesis (Davison, 1983) in offensive advertising in the Chinese cultural context. Based on a survey of 1,539 Chinese Internet users about the third- and first-person effects among offensive ads, neutral ads, and public service ads, the study inquires into the relationship between the TPE and respondents’ levels of acceptance toward advertising. Besides confirming the TPE existence in an Eastern cultural context, the results suggest that the TPE predict WOM spreading for both offensive and neutral product ads, but not for PSAs. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of these findings were discussed.
Social Media, Public Discourse and Civic Engagement in Modern China • Yinjiao Ye; Ping Xu; Mingxin Zhang • The current study investigates the relationship between social media use and public discourse and civic engagement in mainland China. A survey of 1, 202 Chinese show that social media use significantly relates to both public discourse and civic engagement. Moreover, political interest modifies the role of social media use in public discourse and civic engagement. Both general trust in people and life satisfaction moderate some of the relationships examined but not all of them.
A cross-cultural comparison of an extended Planned Risk Information Seeking Model • Zhaomeng Niu; Jessica Willoughby • This study tests the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) in China and the United States with a personal risk, and two additional factors: media use and cultural identity. Both additional variables predicted health information seeking intentions and were valuable additions to PRISM. Based on our findings, cultural identity and media use should be considered when designing interventions to address mental health information seeking or evaluating the process of mental health information seeking.
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