Graduate Student 2018 Abstracts
Insecure and Girls: Innovative or the Same? • Tessa Adams, The University of Iowa • This study analyzes the sexualized images and dialogue of black female characters in the show Insecure and white female characters in the show Girls, to find out how the representations differ. Feminist theory and critical race theory are theoretical framework. The literature review consists of information related to patriarchy, race, sexuality, and stereotypes. The methodology is a rhetorical analysis with an ideological criticism focus. Results suggest that hegemonic racist and gendered stereotypes prevail in media.
Enjoying Crime: Examining Disposition Theory in the True Crime Podcast Audience • Kelli Boling, University of South Carolina • This study explores disposition theory within the true crime podcast audience and potential impact on the criminal justice system. Using an online survey (n = 308), this study found that the true crime podcast audience listens for entertainment (92.47%) and enjoyment (84.58%), but they also see the potential for societal impact and they want to be part of the movement. Over 80% of respondents believe the podcasts are already having an impact on the cases covered.
Reddit’s Cops and Cop-Watchers: Context Reclamation in Online Interpretive Communities • Michael Buozis, Temple University • Among the many online message boards hosted by the platform Reddit—known as subReddits—two have emerged as spaces where two very different, often oppositional, communities produce discourses about law enforcement in the United States: r/Bad_Cop_No_Donut, a community critical of police conduct, and r/ProtectAndServe, a community representing police. These subReddits can be understood as online interpretive communities, who use the digital spaces provided by Reddit in order to develop and sustain an interpretive regime consisting of “the sharing, transfer, accumulation, transformation, and cocreation of knowledge” (Faraj, Jarvenpaa, & Majchrzak, 2011, p. 1224). In creating and fostering these communities, members express the importance of context reclamation, or a practice of unraveling the context collapse inherent in broader social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. With this reclaimed context, users of these subReddits engage in three discursive community practices: the creation of community-specific genres out of the raw material of media; making meaning through community rituals and practices; and the translation of that knowledge into community practices.
Stop Watching Me: Examining a Moderated Mediation Model of Privacy Concern and Information Control. • BIN CHEN, Tsinghua University; AN HU • Social media has experienced exponential growth in recent years. They offer attractive means for communication, but also raise privacy concerns. This study investigated the relationship between young adults’ privacy concern and their information control in social media. The result shows the relationship between privacy concern and information control is mediated by information control affordance and this indirect effect is moderated by individual’s extraversion personality. The implication of these findings was also discussed.
Score! How Female Hockey Players Around the World Score More Likes on Instagram • Tanja Eisenschmid • This study examined effective social media strategies for female hockey players from four nations, the U.S., Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, particularly focusing on their Instagram posts. The result from the content analysis of 1,011 Instagram posts showed that posts highlighting hockey careers (e.g., achievement in the athlete’s sport) and athlete endorser’s role (e.g., promotional posts) were more likely to generate higher likes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Ad-Brand Schema Incongruity Effects on Engagement with Facebook Posts • Drake Glatter • This study takes schema theory and schema incongruity and applies it to modern advertising on Facebook. Ad-brand schema incongruity’s effects are measured with a psychological social media engagement scale. This study finds success in applying this theory for the first time to social media and identifying three distinct levels of incongruity, proving schema theory can be applied to modern social media advertising efforts.
No Country for Selfies: Privacy Concerns on Facebook and Instagram • Daniel Haun, University of South Carolina • Members of social networking services reveal a great deal of personal information, and are not very aware of their privacy options (Acquisti and Gross, 2006). To further explore the privacy, authorship, and safety and security concerns presented by social networking sites (SNS), a textual analysis was conducted of six user agreements of social networking site Instagram and its parent company Facebook. Three themes emerged from Instagram and Facebook’s Terms of Use and Service: privacy concerns, questions of user generated content authorship, as well as safety and security concerns.
TMZ and Mass Media: A Love/Hate Relationship • Angelica Kalika, CU Boulder • Tabloid media can have a contentious relationship with mass media. TMZ in particular is now making headlines for its breaking news stories. When the popular celebrity news site breaks journalism norms, newspapers and other sites can jump on the chance to repair journalism’s image. The paper will analyze this form of paradigm repair to see how TMZ violated normative practices and use attribution theory to see why a paradigm was broken in the first place. A textual analysis demonstrates the media’s response to TMZ stories that break professional boundaries (Reinforcing the Broken Paradigm, Breaking News Paradigm, and Disrupter status).
Media Representation of Female Candidates in Ugandan Parliamentary Elections: A Content Analysis of three Newspapers • Juma Kasadha, City University of Hong Kong; Rehema Kantono, Islamic University in Uganda • A total of N=1704 newspaper articles were content analyzed from studied newspapers; the New Vision (State owned) and privately owned Daily Monitor and Red Pepper. Results show that newspapers represented more of male candidates in all analyzed topical issues compared to female candidates. All studied newspapers scored less than a minimum of 3 issues covered as representative of female candidates. Female candidates’ coverage in all newspapers’ on dominant topical issues on average was (2.70 ±3.74). Placement of a news article and page number; were statistically significant in giving male candidates prominence in news compared to female candidates. For Placement of News Article F(1, 1703)=7.909, p <0.005 and Page number F(1,1701)=5.593, p <0.018 statistical significance. Findings also show that State Media set the agenda on how private newspaper considered covering female candidates. This was evidenced in all private newspapers not covering female candidates on issues of foreign affairs and law since state owned newspaper did not cover them. Daily Monitor and New Vision did not cover male candidates on the issue of agriculture and yet gave prominence to agriculture when covering female candidates. This positions female candidates as those suitable for agriculture roles on average (3.00±.) compared to politics on average; Daily Monitor (2.80±.60); New Vision (2.94±.31) and Red Pepper (2.90±.32). Based on findings in this study, there is need for more and equitable representation of female candidates in media by state owned media as one that should set the agenda for private owned media to follow.
Tailoring genetic testing communication for mental health patients’ stability and controllability attributions • Amanda Kastrinos • The integration of genetic testing into the mental healthcare has the potential both alleviate and reinforce mental health stigma. Using the lens of attribution theory, this paper explores how patients’ stability and controllability attributions can predict their emotional response to genetic testing results. Communication strategies are recommended for each emotional response type based on extant literature. The typology presented here is intended to serve as a framework for both future research and mental health providers.
How Motives for Political Information Seeking Online Influence Political Discussion Offline • Sangwon Lee • The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between online political information seeking and offline political discussion. I examined how different motives for seeking political information online influence offline political discussion with heterogeneous others. The results showed that strong partisans with entertainment motivation are more likely to avoid cross-cutting political discussion, while weak partisans with the same motivation are more likely to engage in cross-cutting political discussion.
Love Triangles: Effects of Relationship Status, Reception Partners, and Interpersonal Communication on Romantic Parasocial Interactions • Nicole Liebers, University of Würzburg • Besides many insights into romantic parasocial attachments, the effect of relationship status and reception partner on romantic parasocial interactions (romantic PSIs) remains unclear. This study attempts to close that research gap with new findings on romantic PSIs in cinemas based on a 2×2 quasi-experiment (N = 103). The presence of a romantic partner decreased romantic PSIs, whereas singles had the most intensive romantic PSIs. Interpersonal communication concerning a media character enhanced romantic PSIs.
Using an expanded Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict WeRun Users’ Intention to Engage in Sports in China • Yingying MA • A study was conducted to test an expanded Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in predicting sports intention among WeRun Sport users in mainland China. Two variables (perceived barriers and self-efficacy) were added in the TPB. A purposive sampling design was adopted to WeRun Sport. Altogether 635users were asked to complete a structured questionnaire about sports engagement. Results of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling supported the structural validity of the proposed expanded model. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that selected items of the perceived behavioral control and perceived barriers should be combined to form a new measure of perceived behavioral control. The new measure of perceived behavioral control and self efficacy were found to be more influential than attitude as well as subjective norm in predicting sports behavior . Past behavior and gender were found to be significant moderating variables.
Time Enough at Last: Pornography Viewership Motivations and Obstacles • Farnosh Mazandarani, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill • This study explores obstacles, avoidance, and attitudes of pornographic access patterns. A survey through Amazon’s MTurk asked about usage, motivations, attitudes, discrete emotions, and stressors that may influence pornography use and change. The research found a decrease in usage in relation to increased age. Respondents with increased usage reported porn fulfills a need, is entertaining, and healthy. Decrease users reported no longer being interested, found pornography offensive, are bored by the content, and having new life stressors.
Habrá que callar la tragedia del Yasuní : A muted group theory perspective of media coverage of indigenous communities inhabiting the Ecuadorian Amazon • Maria D. Molina, Penn State University • Using a muted group theory framework, this study analyzes media coverage of the indigenous communities of the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. A content and thematic analysis of newspaper articles from 2013-2014 reveal the communities were rarely given voice in coverage. Nevertheless, the coverage of these communities was counter-hegemonic and expressed the importance of understanding the cultural worldviews of indigenous people and developing the Ecuadorian system to encompass the multiculturality of the nation.
Understanding the influence of employee communication behavior: How job board reviews impact millennial perceptions of organizational reputation, relational trust & intent to apply • Katy Robinson; Patrick Thelen; Cen April Yue, University of Florida • Employees are seen as important contributors to an organization’s strategic communication efforts. Using experimental design, this study evaluates the impact of responsive leadership communication and rewards-based culture on corporate reputation, relational trust and overall intent to apply. Results indicate employees’ communication behaviors, specifically employee-generated job board reviews using responsive leadership communication and a rewards-based culture information, have separate effects on organizational reputation and relational trust, but collective effects on overall intent to apply.
Understanding User Behaviors Regarding Smart Speakers: A Multidisciplinary Perspective • CHUN SHAO, Arizona State University • As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies became increasingly common in people’s daily lives, understanding the social and psychological factors behind individual’s usage of AIs remain a central concern of both media and information system’s research and practice. Through a multidisciplinary perspective, this study explored the underlying mechanism behind individuals’ usage of virtual personal assistant (e.g., Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant). The results showed that the usefulness of virtual assistant can be perceived due to not only its functional utility, playfulness and social presence also played important roles in shaping user’s satisfaction and usage intention. Individuals with strong feelings of social presence have more positive perceptions of virtual assistants, and they may treat virtual assistants as social actors rather than as mere machines.
The NCAA and Crisis Communication: Examining Controversial Issues in Collegiate Sports • Matthew Stilwell; Branden Birmingham • The goal of this study is to examine the perception of controversial issues involving the NCAA. Guided by the lens of a crisis communications perspective, this study surveyed sports fans to assess views on how the NCAA is ruling on controversial issues related to college sport, media consumption patterns, and demographic information. Results of the study found fans tend to view the NCAA in a negative light, but also put blame on its member insitutions for these issues.
Risky Business: A Case Study of a Leader’s Framing of News Coverage of Organizational Risk-Taking • Josh Watson, University of Oklahoma • Recently, one of the top energy companies in the world was the target of sustained, national media criticism. After each story, the company and its CEO sought to frame the critical story. Drawing on previous studies of organizational rhetoric, framing, and risk communication, this study proposes a unique model of apologia called social media intertextual responsiveness. The conditions of this model are explicated, as are the boundaries. Implications are offered for scholars and practitioners.
How Employees Perceive Organizational Change? An Investigation into Change Management from an Internal Communication Perspective • Cen April Yue, University of Florida • Organizations are experiencing constant changes in an unstable business environment. Organizational changes pose challenges to management and the success of change initiatives depend on employees’ support. A conceptual model is proposed to illustrate how perceived transparent communication can foster employee openness to change by decreasing change-related uncertainty. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the change management scholarship from the internal communication’s perspective. Implications on public relations scholarship and practice are discussed.
The Effects of Presence on Responses to Argument Quality in a Virtual Environment • Qiankun Zhong, Boston University; James Cummings • This study examines how presence may influence the cognitive resources available for persuasive message processing. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, this research aims to connect the key concept of presence with the cognitive mechanisms underlying persuasion though a 2 x 2 mixed factorial experiment. The result indicates that weak messages have a better persuasive effect than strong messages in a low presence level. Weak messages also work better in a low presence level than that in a high presence level.
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