Most recent papers:

• YouTube for Good: A Content Analysis and Examination of Elicitors of Self‐Transcendent Media.
  Katherine R. Dale, Arthur A. Raney, Sophie H. Janicke, Meghan S. Sanders, Mary Beth Oliver.
  Journal of Communication. October 20, 2017
  Despite the increased attention to eudaimonic media experiences, to date scholars have paid little attention to the specific portrayals responsible for those experiences. Study 1 of this project reports the first systematic content analysis of self‐transcendent media—a particular type of eudaimonic media—using a sample of 100 “inspirational” YouTube videos. The presence of 20 specific elicitors associated with self‐transcendent emotions was examined and reported. In Study 2, respondents provided real‐time self‐transcendent emotional reactions while viewing 3 “inspirational” videos. As expected, ratings significantly increased immediately following exposure to each specific elicitor. Thus, this project reports the first empirical evidence directly linking specific representations to content identified as “inspirational” and directly linking those representations to self‐transcendent emotional reactions.

  October 20, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12333   open full text
• Presidential Communication About Marginalized Groups: Applying a New Analytic Framework in the Context of the LGBT Community.
  Kevin Coe, Robert J. Bruce, Chelsea L. Ratcliff.
  Journal of Communication. October 20, 2017
  Scholars have long observed that presidential communication about a marginalized group can help shape that group's reality. Yet most analyses of such communication focus on a relatively small number of texts, making it difficult to identify important changes over time and analyze factors that might explain those changes. The present study proposes an analytic framework that specifies 4 measurable parameters of presidential communication about marginalized groups, as well as 4 explanatory factors. We use this framework to analyze the census of presidents' formal communications about the LGBT community. Results highlight presidents' limited communicative engagement with the LGBT community and the roles that political party, rhetorical context, public opinion, and sociocultural touchstones play in explaining presidential communication about this important group.

  October 20, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12335   open full text
• Toward an Interaction‐Centered Approach to Media Events: Mediated Public Intimacy on the Reality TV Show Big Brother.
  Danny Kaplan, Yoni Kupper.
  Journal of Communication. September 07, 2017
  Scholarship on media events has rarely considered how interpersonal interactions between participants mobilize collective feelings of solidarity. Drawing on a study of Big Brother Israel, we demonstrate how several structural‐interactional features of the show encourage viewers to shift from a position of bystanders to one of confidants and companions of the contestants. We analyze this shift through the lens of mediated “public intimacy”—the staging of exclusive interactions in front of a third party. The emergent sense of collective complicity affects everyday interactions between viewers and public discourse on social media. We conclude that beyond the public staging of self, it is the staging and concretization of social relations in media events that serves to reaffirm the collective's solidarity.

  September 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12322   open full text
• Wild Public Networks and Affective Movements in China: Environmental Activism, Social Media, and Protest in Maoming.
  Elizabeth Brunner.
  Journal of Communication. September 07, 2017
  In the following essay, I offer and explain the concept of wild public networks as a tool for social movement scholars interested in taking a network approach to contemporary protests via poststructuralism. Wild public networks offer scholars a means of approaching social movements that moves past binaries to productively incorporate affect. In so doing, the concept of wild public networks advances an ontological shift for social movement scholars that also alters what we examine and how. Wild public networks consider how the movement of the social can be witnessed in changes to relationships between actants and the configurations of networks. To explicate this new concept, I turn to contemporary environmental protests in Maoming, China.

  September 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12323   open full text
• Still an Agenda Setter: Traditional News Media and Public Opinion During the Transition From Low to High Choice Media Environments.
  Monika Djerf‐Pierre, Adam Shehata.
  Journal of Communication. September 05, 2017
  This study analyzes whether the agenda‐setting influence of traditional news media has become weaker over time—a key argument in the “new era of minimal effects” controversy. Based on media content and public opinion data collected in Sweden over a period of 23 years (1992–2014), we analyze both aggregate and individual‐level agenda‐setting effects on public opinion concerning 12 different political issues. Taken together, we find very little evidence that the traditional news media has become less influential as agenda setters. Rather, citizens appear as responsive to issue signals from the collective media agenda today as during the low‐choice era. We discuss these findings in terms of cross‐national differences in media systems and opportunity structures for selective exposure.

  September 05, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12327   open full text
• Behavioral Effects of Framing on Social Media Users: How Conflict, Economic, Human Interest, and Morality Frames Drive News Sharing.
  Sebastián Valenzuela, Martina Piña, Josefina Ramírez.
  Journal of Communication. August 28, 2017
  We hypothesize that generic frames influence what news people share on Facebook and Twitter through three different routes: emotions, motivations, and psychological engagement. Using a mixed‐methods design, a content analysis of a representative sample of articles published in six Chilean outlets was combined with in‐depth interviews with digital journalists. After controlling for issue, newsworthiness, informational utility, valence, and other confounds, results show that—across platforms—a morality frame increases news sharing, whereas a conflict frame decreases it. Emphasizing economic consequences also decreases sharing, but only on Facebook. Surprisingly, the human interest angle has no noticeable effects. These results show that news frames can have behavioral consequences, and confirm the existence of a gap between preferred frames of journalists and users.

  August 28, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12325   open full text
• Children's Responses to Negative News: The Effects of Constructive Reporting in Newspaper Stories for Children.
  Mariska Kleemans, Rebecca N. H. de Leeuw, Janel Gerritsen, Moniek Buijzen.
  Journal of Communication. August 24, 2017
  For a well‐functioning democracy, it is crucial that children consume news. However, news can elicit overly negative emotions and discourage engagement in children. The question, therefore, is how news can be adapted to children's sensitivities and needs but can still inform them. This study investigated whether constructive reporting (solution‐based narratives including positive emotions) in news about negative events improved emotional responses and encouraged engagement (intention and inspiration to engage). In an experiment, 8–13‐year‐olds (N = 332) read a story containing either constructive elements or not. Constructive news elicited lower levels of negative emotional responses and provided more inspiration for engagement than nonconstructive news. These promising findings open doors for follow‐up investigations regarding constructive news reporting, also among adult audiences.

  August 24, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12324   open full text
• Activist Strategic Communication for Social Change: A Transnational Case Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Activism.
  Erica L. Ciszek.
  Journal of Communication. August 22, 2017
  This study explores activists as producers of strategic communication for social change, suggesting communication for development and social change (CDSC), activism, and public relations are not antagonistic but rather occupy a fluid space informed by cultural‐economic forces. This article presents a model of cultural intermediation for social change, arguing that activism is a form of strategic communication embedded in micro, meso, and macro levels. Through a case study of transnational LGBT activism, this research demonstrates how activists function as cultural intermediaries, playing a mediating role that is often concerned with (re)producing and challenging cultural meaning.

  August 22, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12319   open full text
• Communication Activism as a School of Politics: Lessons From Spain's Indignados Movement.
  Angel Barbas, John Postill.
  Journal of Communication. August 14, 2017
  In this article, we draw on ethnographic research to examine some key communication activism practices of Spain's indignados (15M) movement. The 15M radically transformed communication activism in Spain through its strong political‐pedagogical orientation. Here lies the greatest 15M lesson for Communication for Social Change: Ordinary citizens in countries like Spain are rejecting traditional roles as “beneficiaries” of institutional communication campaigns. Instead, they have become active political actors who are able to generate their own processes of political pedagogy and communication. We conceptualize this lesson by positing the existence of three principles of 15M communication activism as a school of politics: the principles of pedagogical sovereignty, action, and networking.

  August 14, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12321   open full text
• The Deliberative Politics of the Consultative Layer: Participation Hopes and Communication as Design Values of Civic Tech Founders.
  Daren C. Brabham, Kristen L. Guth.
  Journal of Communication. August 10, 2017
  Drawing from communication as design and the spirit of technology, this study investigated the political values embedded in consultative layer companies, with particular attention to the influence of normative deliberative democratic ideals in tech design. Interviews with the founders of consultative layer tech startups explored (a) founders' visions for their technologies and how they were incorporated, (b) the imagined user groups for these technologies, and (c) expected broader outcomes as a result of using their platforms. Six interrelated themes emerged in the analysis that illuminate ideologies, ideals, and pragmatic considerations embedded in the consultative layer, raising new theoretical and practical questions about the role of communication in understanding this emerging industry and its reimagining of government in the online space.

  August 10, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12316   open full text
• Storytelling for Social Change: Leveraging Documentary and Comedy for Public Engagement in Global Poverty.
  Caty Borum Chattoo, Lauren Feldman.
  Journal of Communication. August 07, 2017
  Narrative is essential for public engagement with global poverty. Stand Up Planet, a documentary about global development, was produced to evaluate the effects of a little‐utilized nonfiction comedy narrative. Using a pretest–posttest experimental design, this study examines shifts in U.S. audience engagement with global poverty after watching Stand Up Planet, compared with a somber documentary, The End Game. Both documentaries increased awareness of global poverty, support for government aid, knowledge, and intended actions. However, Stand Up Planet produced significantly larger gains in awareness, knowledge, and actions; these effects were mediated by the narrative's relatability, positive emotions, and entertainment value. The End Game's effects were mediated by narrative transportation and negative emotions. Implications for narrative in social change campaigns are discussed.

  August 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12318   open full text
• News Media, Knowledge, and Political Interest: Evidence of a Dual Role From a Field Experiment.
  Sophie Lecheler, Claes H. de Vreese.
  Journal of Communication. July 31, 2017
  Political knowledge and political interest are generally positively influenced by news media exposure. Yet, at the same time, knowledge and interest are among the most important predictors of news media exposure in the first place. We conduct a field experiment (N = 393) as a test of this dual function of knowledge and interest in a realistic news media choice setting. We examine whether preexisting interest and knowledge predict which individuals can be encouraged to read an unfamiliar information‐rich newspaper, and if using this newspaper, in turn, has effects on interest and knowledge. Results show that interest and knowledge are predictors of compliance in the experiment. While political knowledge shows some response to the additional news exposure, interest remains stable.

  July 31, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12314   open full text
• Evaluating Scientists as Sources of Science Information: Evidence From Eye Movements.
  Jessica McKnight, Jason C. Coronel.
  Journal of Communication. July 25, 2017
  In the new information environment, individuals can be exposed to different scientists who disseminate information on scientific topics which may or may not be in the scientist's area of expertise. The current study investigates people's ability to evaluate finer, but critical, distinctions in expertise. We use eye movements and self‐report measures to determine the extent to which individuals retrieve, from their memories, professional facts about scientists that signal their area of expertise. Our results suggest that individuals can discern expert from nonexpert scientist sources but self‐report measures may not accurately reflect this phenomenon, thus highlighting the value of a converging methods approach. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

  July 25, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12317   open full text
• Are News Audiences Increasingly Fragmented? A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis of Cross‐Platform News Audience Fragmentation and Duplication.
  Richard Fletcher, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen.
  Journal of Communication. July 25, 2017
  The move to high‐choice media environments has sparked fears over audience fragmentation. We analyze news audiences across media platforms (print, television, and online) in 6 countries, going beyond platform‐specific, single‐country studies. We find surprisingly high levels of news audience duplication, but also that cross‐platform audiences vary from country to country, with fragmentation higher in Denmark and the United Kingdom than in Spain and the United States. We find no support for the idea that online audiences are more fragmented than offline audiences, countering fears associated with audience segmentation and filter bubbles. Because all communication exists in the context of its audience, our analysis has implications across the field, underlining the importance of research into how trends play out in different contexts.

  July 25, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12315   open full text
• Negative Stereotypical Portrayals of Muslims in Right‐Wing Populist Campaigns: Perceived Discrimination, Social Identity Threats, and Hostility Among Young Muslim Adults.
  Desirée Schmuck, Jörg Matthes, Frank Hendrik Paul.
  Journal of Communication. July 19, 2017
  Anti‐Islamic sentiments have become central to right‐wing populist mobilization in Western societies, which often results in negative portrayals of Muslims in political campaigns. Although these portrayals may have detrimental effects on minority members' identity formation and attitudes toward majority members, little is known about their effects on members of the depicted group. A lab experiment with 145 young Muslims reveals that right‐wing populist ad exposure increases perceived discrimination, which in turn decreases individuals' self‐esteem and national identification, and encourages hostility toward majority members. Religious identification, in contrast, is not affected by ad exposure. Implications of these findings for intergroup relations and democratic processes are discussed.

  July 19, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12313   open full text
• News Values, Cognitive Biases, and Partisan Incivility in Comment Sections.
  Ashley Muddiman, Natalie Jomini Stroud.
  Journal of Communication. July 18, 2017
  Partisan incivility is prevalent in news comments, but we have limited insight into how journalists and news users engage with it. Gatekeeping, cognitive bias, and social identity theories suggest that journalists may tolerate incivility while users actively promote partisan incivility. Using 9.6 million comments from The New York Times, we analyze whether the presence of uncivil and partisan terms affects how journalists and news users engage with comments. Results show that partisanship and incivility increase recommendations and the likelihood of receiving an abuse flag. Swearing increases the likelihood of a comment being rejected and reduces the chances of being highlighted as a NYT Pick. These findings suggest that journalists and news users interact with partisan incivility differently, and that some forms of incivility may be promoted or tacitly accepted in comments.

  July 18, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12312   open full text
• Networks and Innovation in the Production of Communication: Explaining Innovations in U.S. Electoral Campaigning From 2004 to 2012.
  Daniel Kreiss, Adam J. Saffer.
  Journal of Communication. July 11, 2017
  We outline a network analytic framework for analyzing the production of communication. In our framework, individuals—in part the products of the history of their social and professional ties—merge from various fields and a medley of prior production experiences within organizations to produce communicative innovations. Organizations with individuals who have diverse backgrounds and significant overlap in work experiences will be more innovative. We demonstrate this through a network analysis of the professional biographies of 629 staffers on U.S. presidential campaigns from 2004 to 2012. Democratic staffers came from more diverse organizations and shared significant overlap in prior experiences than their Republican counterparts. Through interview data, we argue that this in part explains Democratic innovativeness in technology during this period.

  July 11, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12302   open full text
• Contentious Actions and Communication for Social Change: The Public Hearing (Jan Sunwai) as Process.
  Pradip Ninan Thomas.
  Journal of Communication. July 11, 2017
  This article explores the relationship between ‘contentious actions’ and communication processes in communication for social change (CSC) theory. Beginning with an analysis of the contributions made by Charles Tilly to the understanding of the methods and repertoires of popular protest and E. P. Thompson's interpretation of the moral economy of protests, it explores the history of contentious action in India, before focusing on the empowerment potential of the ‘Public Hearing’ as contentious action, specifically in the context of the Right to Information Movement in India. It argues that contentious actions such as public hearings need to become a focus for study in CSC theory precisely because it contributes to the validation of Voice, and to individual and collective empowerment.

  July 11, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12301   open full text
• Global Intermedia Agenda Setting: A Big Data Analysis of International News Flow.
  Lei Guo, Chris J. Vargo.
  Journal of Communication. July 05, 2017
  This study contributes to international news flow literature methodologically, by significantly expanding its scope, and theoretically, by incorporating intermedia agenda‐setting theory, through which we reveal how news media in different countries influence each other in covering international news. With a big data analysis of 4,708 online news sources from 67 countries in 2015, the study shows that wealthier countries not only continue to attract most of the world news attention, they are also more likely to decide how other countries perceive the world. However, international news flow is not as hierarchical and U.S.‐centric as found earlier. Online‐only, emerging media in core countries are not necessarily more impactful in setting the world news agenda than those in (semi)peripheral countries.

  July 05, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12311   open full text
• Visual Expressions of Black Identity: African American and African Museum Websites.
  Melissa A. Johnson, Keon M. Pettiway.
  Journal of Communication. May 15, 2017
  This qualitative and quantitative content analysis examines 46 African and African American museum websites. Merelman's cultural projection concept serves as a foundation to explain the societal importance of Black cultural expression. The analysis reviews how the African‐ and African American‐centric organizations communicate Black and organizational identities on their digital platforms. Described are images, sound, and visual dynamism. The findings add to the literature on counterstereotypes and digital cultural expression, linking visual communication research with intercultural communication and strategic communication.

  May 15, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12298   open full text
• Social Media and Citizen Participation in “Official” and “Unofficial” Electoral Promotion: A Structural Analysis of the 2016 Bernie Sanders Digital Campaign.
  Joel Penney.
  Journal of Communication. May 13, 2017
  Drawing on interviews with leaders of the effort to promote the 2016 Bernie Sanders U.S. presidential candidacy on social media, this study contrasts the structure and content of various organizational networks to map the hybrid ecosystem of the contemporary digital campaign. While the “official” Sanders organization built applications to transform supporters into a tightly controlled distribution network for its social media messaging, this was complemented by “unofficial” grassroots networks that circulated more informal and culturally oriented appeals. The latter are classified according to the models of organizationally enabled and self‐organized connective action in digital social movements, with structural differences in oversight and moderation that suggest varying levels of creative autonomy for citizens and reputational risk for the associated campaigns.

  May 13, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12300   open full text
• A Meta‐Analysis of Uncertainty and Information Management in Illness Contexts.
  Kai Kuang, Steven R. Wilson.
  Journal of Communication. May 11, 2017
  This study meta‐analyzes 32 studies that examined uncertainty's effects on anxiety and information management within a variety of illness contexts (e.g., cancer, sexually transmitted disease, heart disease). Results indicate that the direction and magnitude of uncertainty's effects vary for different information management strategies. Illness uncertainty is strongly, positively associated with anxiety and avoidance. In contrast, the average effect of uncertainty on information seeking is nonsignificant, but the association does vary depending on uncertainty conceptualization and age. Implications for understanding the nature of illness uncertainty and for communicative efforts designed to facilitate uncertainty management in illness contexts are discussed.

  May 11, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12299   open full text
• Television and the Cultivation of Authoritarianism: A Return Visit From an Unexpected Friend.
  Michael Morgan, James Shanahan.
  Journal of Communication. May 08, 2017
  The 2016 Presidential election brought a surprise: the rise of Donald Trump as a viable candidate for the Republican nomination. What started as a seeming publicity stunt morphed into something more. Trump raised fears of authoritarianism—and even fascism—that were thought to be mostly confined to other countries. This study uses a national sample to examine television viewing's relationship to authoritarian values. We find that heavy viewers of television are more likely to be authoritarian, and that authoritarians are more likely to support Trump. We find an indirect relationship between amount of viewing and Trump support through authoritarianism. These findings have implications for current political debates as well as for media effects theory.

  May 08, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12297   open full text
• Protest Paradigm in Multimedia: Social Media Sharing of Coverage About the Crime of Ayotzinapa, Mexico.
  Summer Harlow, Ramón Salaverría, Danielle K. Kilgo, Víctor García‐Perdomo.
  Journal of Communication. April 28, 2017
  In 2014 protests erupted around the world after 43 college students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico, were kidnapped and massacred. This bilingual, cross‐national content analysis explores the relationship between multimedia features in stories about the Ayotzinapa protests and how social media users liked, shared, and commented on that coverage. This study furthers our understanding of the protest paradigm in a digital context, and sheds light on differences in mainstream, alternative, and online media outlets' coverage of protesters. Additionally, this study suggests social media users might prefer more legitimizing coverage of protesters than mainstream media typically offer.

  April 28, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12296   open full text
• Comparative Optimism About Privacy Risks on Facebook.
  Miriam J. Metzger, Jennifer Jiyoung Suh.
  Journal of Communication. April 27, 2017
  Comparatively optimistic people feel that they are less susceptible to risks than are others. This study investigated predictors and outcomes of comparative optimism about privacy risks on Facebook. Results from a nationally representative survey of adult U.S. Facebook users (N = 1,156) show that users exhibit comparative optimism in believing that they are less susceptible to privacy risks than are average users. However, unlike prior findings in offline contexts, this study finds that comparatively optimistic Facebook users do not appear to engage in riskier privacy behaviors. The findings of this study shed light on how privacy decision‐making may be different in social networking contexts compared to other contexts due to the networked nature of the communication platform.

  April 27, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12290   open full text
• Hospitability: The Communicative Architecture of Humanitarian Securitization at Europe's Borders.
  Lilie Chouliaraki, Myria Georgiou.
  Journal of Communication. April 27, 2017
  This paper explores the communicative architecture of reception at the peak of Europe's 2015–2016 “migration crisis.” Drawing on fieldwork at one of Europe's outer borders—the Greek island of Chios—the paper examines the border as a site where refugee and migrant reception takes place and where the parameters of Europe's ethico‐political response to the “crisis” are set. The paper demonstrates that the continent's double requirement of security and care produces a new and highly ambivalent moral order, hospitability. Constituted through techno‐symbolic networks of mediation, hospitability reaffirms dominant theorizations of the border as an order of power and exclusion but goes beyond these in highlighting micro‐connections of solidarity that simultaneously coexist with and attempt to challenge this order.

  April 27, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12291   open full text
• Reframing the Iraq War: Official Sources, Dramatic Events, and Changes in Media Framing.
  Isaac Speer.
  Journal of Communication. April 26, 2017
  This study examines how official sources and dramatic events influence media framing of political issues, assessing the claims of the indexing hypothesis and event‐driven models. Through an analysis of the New York Times' coverage of the Iraq War in late 2005 and early 2006, this study compares coverage from before and after the bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine in Iraq. The analysis shows that journalists avoided the preferred frame of the White House while amplifying the preferred frame of the military. It also shows that the bombing spurred journalists to reframe the conflict. These findings challenge parts of the indexing hypothesis and support a more event‐driven model of media framing.

  April 26, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12289   open full text
• Understanding Why Scholars Hold Different Views on the Influences of Video Games on Public Health.
  Christopher J. Ferguson, John Colwell.
  Journal of Communication. March 29, 2017
  Despite decades of research, no scholarly consensus has been achieved regarding the potential impact of video games on youth aggression or other public health concerns. In recent years, hypotheses have been raised that scholarly opinions on video games may resemble past moral panics, with attitudes reflective of generational conflicts. These hypotheses are tested in a sample of 175 criminologists, psychologists, and media scholars, examining both overall negative attitudes about video games and perceived linkages with youth assaults specifically. Results reflected continued lack of scholarly consensus on the issue of video game influences with only 15.3% of scholars endorsing the view that violent video games contribute to youth assaults. As hypothesized, older scholars endorsed more negative views of video games generally, although this appeared to be related to experience with games rather than age per se. Scholars with more negative attitudes toward youth themselves were also more negative about games. Criminologists and media scholars were more skeptical of violent video games contributing to youth assaults than were psychologists. These results are discussed in relation to Moral Panic Theory.

  March 29, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12293   open full text
• Dynamic Spirals Put to Test: An Agent‐Based Model of Reinforcing Spirals Between Selective Exposure, Interpersonal Networks, and Attitude Polarization.
  Hyunjin Song, Hajo G. Boomgaarden.
  Journal of Communication. March 13, 2017
  Within the context of partisan selective exposure and attitude polarization, this study investigates a mutually reinforcing spiral model, aiming to clarify mechanisms and boundary conditions that affect spiral processes—interpersonal agreement and disagreement, and the ebb and flow of message receptions. Utilizing agent‐based modeling (ABM) simulations, the study formally models endogenous dynamics of cumulative processes and its reciprocal effect of media choice behavior over extended periods of time. Our results suggest that interpersonal discussion networks, in conjunction with election contexts, condition the reciprocal effect of selective media exposure and its attitudinal consequences. Methodologically, results also highlight the analytical utility of computational social science approaches in overcoming the limitations of typical experimental and observations studies.

  March 13, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12288   open full text
• You Brought it on Yourself: The Joint Effects of Message Type, Stigma, and Responsibility Attribution on Attitudes Toward Medical Cannabis.
  Nehama Lewis, Sharon R. Sznitman.
  Journal of Communication. March 10, 2017
  This study uses a web‐based randomized experiment (N = 396) to test the effects of message type (narrative vs. expository), stigma (stigmatized vs. nonstigmatized illness), and attribution of responsibility for disease (internal vs. external) on attitudes toward medical cannabis. Narrative‐formatted videos produced more favorable attitudes toward medical cannabis, compared with nonnarrative videos. Effects of narratives on attitudes were mediated through transportation and identification with the protagonist. Participants who viewed narratives in which the protagonist had a stigmatized illness and was responsible for contracting the disease expressed more negative attitudes toward medical cannabis. Effects of attribution were mediated through social distance toward medical cannabis users, and moderated by stigma. Implications for narrative persuasion and public opinion regarding medical cannabis are discussed.

  March 10, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12287   open full text
• Partisan Selective Sharing: The Biased Diffusion of Fact‐Checking Messages on Social Media.
  Jieun Shin, Kjerstin Thorson.
  Journal of Communication. February 28, 2017
  Using large Twitter datasets collected during the 2012 U.S. presidential election, we examined how partisanship shapes patterns of sharing and commenting on candidate fact‐check rulings. Our results indicate that partisans selectively share fact‐checking messages that cheerlead their own candidate and denigrate the opposing party's candidate, resulting in an ideologically narrow flow of fact checks to their followers. We also find evidence of hostile media perception in users' public accusations of bias on the part of fact‐checking organizations. Additionally, Republicans showed stronger outgroup negativity and hostility toward fact checkers than Democrats. These findings help us understand “selective sharing” as a complementary process to selective exposure, as well as identifying asymmetries between partisans in their sharing practices.

  February 28, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12284   open full text
• When We Stop Talking Politics: The Maintenance and Closing of Conversation in Contentious Times.
  Chris Wells, Katherine J. Cramer, Michael W. Wagner, German Alvarez, Lewis A. Friedland, Dhavan V. Shah, Leticia Bode, Stephanie Edgerly, Itay Gabay, Charles Franklin.
  Journal of Communication. February 07, 2017
  Despite the democratic significance of citizen talk about politics, the field of communication has not considered how that talk is weathering stresses facing our civic culture. We examine political talk during an archetypal case of political contentiousness: the recall of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin in 2012. Pairing qualitative and quantitative methods, we show that a fracturing of civic culture took place in which many citizens found it impossible to continue political discussion. Individuals at fault lines of contention, by nature of occupation, geographic location, or other personal circumstance, were most prone to this breakdown. Our results call into question the ability of talk to bridge political and social differences in periods of polarization and fragmentation, with implications for democratic functioning.

  February 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12280   open full text
• Organizational Media Affordances: Operationalization and Associations with Media Use.
  Ronald E. Rice, Sandra K. Evans, Katy E. Pearce, Anu Sivunen, Jessica Vitak, Jeffrey W. Treem.
  Journal of Communication. January 17, 2017
  The concept of affordances has been increasingly applied to the study of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in organizational contexts. However, almost no research operationalizes affordances, limiting comparisons and programmatic research. This article briefly reviews conceptualizations and possibilities of affordances in general and for media, then introduces the concept of organizational media affordances as organizational resources. Analysis of survey data from a large Nordic media organization identified six reliable and valid organizational media affordances: pervasiveness, editability, self‐presentation, searchability, visibility, and awareness. Eight media scales based on frequency of use of 10 media within each of three organization levels were differentially associated with these affordances. The conceptualization, measurement approach, and results from this study provide the foundation for considerable future organizational communication and ICT research.

  January 17, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12273   open full text
• Selecting Serious or Satirical, Supporting or Stirring News? Selective Exposure to Partisan versus Mockery News Online Videos.
  Silvia Knobloch‐Westerwick, Simon M. Lavis.
  Journal of Communication. January 17, 2017
  The present investigation combines cognitive dissonance theory with entertainment‐education frameworks to study selection and effects of news. Selective exposure to satirical and partisan news was examined with online clips to test hypotheses on overcoming resistance to persuasive messages. An experiment (n = 146) presented news choices, varied in stance (conservative vs. liberal) and format (serious partisan news vs. satirical news). Results show political interest fosters selection of serious partisan news. Clips with partisan alignment were more frequently selected; only for the satirical news clips, Democrats did not exhibit such confirmation bias. Selecting satirical news affected internal political efficacy, and selecting online news clips induced attitude reinforcement according to message stance.

  January 17, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12271   open full text
• Online Privacy Concerns and Privacy Management: A Meta‐Analytical Review.
  Lemi Baruh, Ekin Secinti, Zeynep Cemalcilar.
  Journal of Communication. January 17, 2017
  This meta‐analysis investigates privacy concerns and literacy as predictors of use of online services and social network sites (SNSs), sharing information, and adoption of privacy protective measures. A total of 166 studies from 34 countries (n = 75,269) were included in the analysis. In line with the premise of privacy paradox, privacy concerns did not predict SNS use. However, users concerned about privacy were less likely to use online services and share information and were more likely to utilize privacy protective measures. Except for information sharing, the relationships were comparable for intentions and behavior. Analyses also confirm the role that privacy literacy plays in enhancing use of privacy protective measures. The findings can be generalized across gender, cultural orientation, and national legal systems.

  January 17, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12276   open full text
• Maximizing Opportunities and Minimizing Risks for Children Online: The Role of Digital Skills in Emerging Strategies of Parental Mediation.
  Sonia Livingstone, Kjartan Ólafsson, Ellen J. Helsper, Francisco Lupiáñez‐Villanueva, Giuseppe A. Veltri, Frans Folkvord.
  Journal of Communication. January 11, 2017
  As Internet use becomes widespread at home, parents are trying to maximize their children's online opportunities while also minimizing online risks. We surveyed parents of 6‐ to 14‐year‐olds in 8 European countries (N = 6,400). A factor analysis revealed 2 parental mediation strategies. Enabling mediation is associated with increased online opportunities but also risks. This strategy incorporates safety efforts, responds to child agency, and is employed when the parent or child is relatively digitally skilled, so may not support harm. Restrictive mediation is associated with fewer online risks but at the cost of opportunities, reflecting policy advice that regards media use as primarily problematic. It is favored when parent or child digital skills are lower, potentially keeping vulnerable children safe yet undermining their digital inclusion.

  January 11, 2017   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12277   open full text
• Convergent News? A Longitudinal Study of Similarity and Dissimilarity in the Domestic and Global Coverage of the Israeli‐Palestinian Conflict.
  Christian Baden, Keren Tenenboim‐Weinblatt.
  Journal of Communication. December 22, 2016
  News coverage of the same events is simultaneously driven by homogenizing and heterogenizing influences. In this paper, we assess whether and when conflict news in different media become more similar or dissimilar by analyzing the coverage of the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict in 13 leading Israeli, Palestinian, and international media over almost 10 years. We distinguish between drivers of enduring similarity, gradual convergence and temporary (dis‐)alignments in the news, and relate them to the detected concept association patterns in over 200,000 news texts. We find a slow, context‐dependent convergence trend in the news, and temporary alignments and dis‐alignments in interpretation in response to major conflict events. Discussing the underlying, interacting influences, the study highlights implications for investigating current transformations in global journalism.

  December 22, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12272   open full text
• I Saw You in the News: Mediated and Direct Intergroup Contact Improve Outgroup Attitudes.
  Magdalena Wojcieszak, Rachid Azrout.
  Journal of Communication. December 19, 2016
  This study extends the boundary conditions of mediated contact theory by (a) differentiating between mediated contact quantity and quality, (b) examining whether mediated contact exerts effects above and beyond direct contact, and (c) offering causal and generalizable evidence on the effects of exposure to numerous individual outgroup members in news media. We match individual‐level data from a representative panel survey with data on the amount of coverage about members from two outgroups and with the results from validated sentiment analysis. Mediated contact, and especially its quantity, improved outgroup attitudes independently of direct contact. These findings emerged for both outgroups and across two outcome measures.

  December 19, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12266   open full text
• Linking Network Structure to Support Messages: Effects of Brokerage and Closure on Received Social Support.
  Jingbo Meng, Minwoong Chung, Jeffrey Cox.
  Journal of Communication. December 19, 2016
  Building on the network theory of brokerage and closure, this study takes a structural approach to examine network structure and its influence on reception of different types of social support. The study extracted ego networks of 227 active users from a large online health social network and tracked their received supportive comments on personal profiles for 3 months. A total of 3,270 comments were analyzed. The results showed that network brokerage (operationalized as effective size) predicted the amount of informational and network support, whereas network closure (operationalized as local clustering coefficient) predicted the amount of emotional and esteem support received on one's profile. Moreover, brokerage was found to predict received emotional support. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

  December 19, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12268   open full text
• Harmonious Contact: Stories About Intergroup Musical Collaboration Improve Intergroup Attitudes.
  Jake Harwood, Farah Qadar, Chien‐Yu Chen.
  Journal of Communication. December 19, 2016
  Watching contact between members of one's ingroup and members of an outgroup in the media (mediated vicarious contact) improves intergroup attitudes. We compare mediated vicarious contact with observing only members of the outgroup (parasocial contact), and examine whether the activity of the portrayed contact matters. Building on theory, we predict that watching outgroup members playing music should reduce prejudice more than watching them engaged in nonmusical activities, particularly with vicarious (vs. parasocial) contact. Results show that vicarious musical contact enhances perceptions of synchronization, liking, and honesty between ingroup and outgroup actors in a video, which in turn results in more positive attitudes toward the outgroup. Counter to predictions, parasocial musical contact results in less positive outcomes than parasocial nonmusical contact.

  December 19, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12261   open full text
• Should Altruism, Solidarity, or Reciprocity be Used as Prosocial Appeals? Contrasting Conceptions of Members of the General Public and Medical Professionals Regarding Promoting Organ Donation.
  Nurit Guttman, Gil Siegal, Naama Appel, Gitit Bar‐On.
  Journal of Communication. December 19, 2016
  Moral appeals to altruism as a means to influence people's prosocial behavior are common, especially in organ donation, but communicators might not consider that conceptions of altruism differ among people, cultures, and scholars. In organ donation employing altruism as the main appeal is contested and some propose using solidarity or reciprocity as alternative prosocial appeals. This qualitative study explored views of people from diverse Israeli groups (29 focus groups) and medical professionals (140) regarding the appropriateness of employing these 3 moral appeals in organ donation. The analysis presents frameworks of contrasting conceptions of altruism that point to potential unintended effects when applying a restrictive conception. It also identifies communication challenges associated with introducing solidarity or reciprocity as prosocial and value‐laden persuasive appeals.

  December 19, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12267   open full text
• Applying the Gateway Belief Model to Genetically Modified Food Perceptions: New Insights and Additional Questions.
  Graham Dixon.
  Journal of Communication. November 16, 2016
  The Gateway Belief Model (GBM) suggests that highlighting a scientific consensus is the key to improving beliefs about important scientific issues. However, questions have been raised on how one's perception of a scientific consensus affects his or her personal scientific beliefs. Reporting on 2 online experiments, findings suggest that consensus messages designed to impact beliefs on a controversial scientific issue—genetically modified (GM) foods—affect audience segments in different ways. People with low prior support for GM foods are less affected by a message emphasizing a scientific consensus about GM food safety. Including visual exemplars of a scientific consensus in these messages might make them more salient. However, questions remain on how best to apply the GBM to persuasive science communication.

  November 16, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12260   open full text
• The Appearance of Accountability: Communication Technologies and Power Asymmetries in Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Recovery.
  Mirca Madianou, Jonathan Corpus Ong, Liezel Longboan, Jayeel S. Cornelio.
  Journal of Communication. November 07, 2016
  New communication technologies are celebrated for their potential to improve the accountability of humanitarian agencies. The response to Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 represents the most systematic implementation of “accountability to affected people” initiatives. Drawing on a year‐long ethnography of the Haiyan recovery and 139 interviews with humanitarian workers and affected people, the article reveals a narrow interpretation of accountability as feedback that is increasingly captured through mobile phones. We observe that the digitized collection of feedback is not fed back to disaster‐affected communities, but is directed to donors as evidence of “impact.” Rather than improving accountability to affected people, digitized feedback mechanisms sustained humanitarianism's power asymmetries.

  November 07, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12258   open full text
• A Bad Workman Blames His Tweets: The Consequences of Citizens' Uncivil Twitter Use When Interacting With Party Candidates.
  Yannis Theocharis, Pablo Barberá, Zoltán Fazekas, Sebastian Adrian Popa, Olivier Parnet.
  Journal of Communication. October 28, 2016
  Existing studies focusing on politicians' adoption of Twitter have found that they use it primarily as a broadcasting tool. We argue that citizens' impolite and/or uncivil behavior is one possible explanation for such decisions. Social media conversations are rife with harassment and politicians are a prime target. This alters the incentive structure of engaging in dialogue on social media. We use Spanish, Greek, German, and U.K. candidates' tweets sent during the run‐up to the recent European Parliament elections, and rely on automated text analysis and machine learning methods to measure their level of civility. Our contribution is an actor‐oriented theory of political dialogue that incorporates Twitter's specific affordances, clarifying how and why Twitter's democratic promise may be limited.

  October 28, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12259   open full text
• Implicit and Explicit Attitudes as Predictors of Gatekeeping, Selective Exposure, and News Sharing: Testing a General Model of Media‐Related Selection.
  Florian Arendt, Nina Steindl, Anna Kümpel.
  Journal of Communication. October 06, 2016
  Media‐related selection (MRS) is an umbrella concept for selection processes such as gatekeeping by journalists, selective exposure by audience members, and news sharing by social network site (SNS) users. Importantly, individual attitudes can influence MRS. Previous research on attitude‐based MRS has relied almost exclusively on overtly expressed evaluations (i.e., explicit attitudes) as predictors of selection outcomes. We tested whether automatic affective evaluations (i.e., implicit attitudes) can predict MRS as well. In three studies (gatekeeping, selective exposure, and news sharing), we found that journalists', audience members', and SNS users' implicit and explicit attitudes predicted selection. Thus, attitudes may exert their influence even “under the radar” of conscious awareness.

  October 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12256   open full text
• More Than Shoot‐Em‐Up and Torture Porn: Reflective Appropriation and Meaning‐Making of Violent Media Content.
  Anne Bartsch, Marie‐Louise Mares, Sebastian Scherr, Andrea Kloß, Johanna Keppeler, Lone Posthumus.
  Journal of Communication. September 14, 2016
  Media violence research has mainly focused on aggression effects so far. But are audiences' thoughts about violent portrayals actually confined to aggressive fantasies? This study examines more complex thought processes about violent portrayals that involve reflection, meaning‐making, and truth‐seeking about violence as a fact of social reality. We conducted qualitative in‐depth interviews with 39 participants from different backgrounds, including professions at risk for exposure to violence, media professionals, and interviewees from the general population. The interviews revealed three main categories of reflective thoughts about violent media content, including thoughts about (a) the truth value, (b) the life‐world relevance, and (c) the psychological and moral implications of the violence depicted. Participants also discussed unrealistic content features that interfered with meaning‐making.

  September 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12248   open full text
• Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach and Communication for Development and Social Change.
  Thomas L. Jacobson.
  Journal of Communication. September 14, 2016
  This article argues that Amartya Sen's capabilities approach to development should be employed as an overarching conceptual framework for studies of communication for development and social change (CDSC), presenting two justifications. First, the capabilities approach offers CDSC researchers a definition of development, one that is interdisciplinary, cosmopolitan, and oriented to public communication. This approach resembles the scope of modernization theory but is free of modernization theory's dichotomous thinking, neoliberal assumptions, and ethnocentrism. Second, CDSC research can contribute to the capability approach's analysis of communication. I review key capabilities concepts and illustrate the relevance to the capabilities approach of CDSC theory and research. A conclusion summarizes benefits of a capabilities approach to the study of CDSC.

  September 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12252   open full text
• Rebuilding Babel: A Constitutive Approach to Tongues‐in‐use.
  Nicolas Bencherki, Frédérik Matte, Émilie Pelletier.
  Journal of Communication. September 14, 2016
  In this paper, we suggest that the Montreal School (TMS) tradition of organizational communication offers a fruitful analytical framework that allows us to better take into account the way people practically deal with plurilingual situations as they go on with their daily activities and contribute to shaping their organizations. We identify six core features of TMS and show their analytical power in studying plurilingual interactions. TMS, we argue, is conceptually well equipped to reveal the ways in which multiple tongues are dealt with in everyday organizational settings and to uncover the constitutive nature of tongue‐in‐use.

  September 14, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12250   open full text
• Explaining the Formation of Online News Startups in France and the United States: A Field Analysis.
  Matthew Powers, Sandra Vera Zambrano.
  Journal of Communication. August 30, 2016
  This article examines the differential formation of online news startups in Toulouse, France, and Seattle, United States. While Seattle is home to many startups, in Toulouse there have been just 4—and only 1 continues publishing. Drawing on Bourdieu's field theory, we argue that amount and types of capital held by journalists in the 2 cities varied as a result of differences in journalism's position in the field of power. These differences shaped the extent of startup formation in each city and structured journalists' capacities to convert their capital into the resources needed to form startups (e.g., funding, credentials, partnerships). These findings are positioned in relation to literatures on journalism innovation and comparative media.

  August 30, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12253   open full text
• Microcoordination 2.0: Social Coordination in the Age of Smartphones and Messaging Apps.
  Rich Ling, Chih‐Hui Lai.
  Journal of Communication. August 26, 2016
  This paper examines how mobile messaging apps have changed the way that people microcoordinate. It is based on five focus groups of young adults in Singapore and Taiwan. Originally, microcoordination usually assumed dyadic interaction using either SMS or mobile voice calls. Increasingly, mediated communication uses mobile messaging apps that allow multisided interactions that facilitate task‐based chat groups. Groups are easily formed but can be difficult to manage. This paper advances our understanding of microcoordination via the use of messaging apps. Specifically, it provides insights into the dual roles of instrumental and expressive interaction integral to the functioning of these messaging groups, ambient‐mediated sociation in the form of readily available communication partners in groups, and the emergence of meme‐based coordination.

  August 26, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12251   open full text
• Poles Apart: The Processing and Consequences of Mixed Media Stereotypes of Older Workers.
  Anne C. Kroon, Martine van Selm, Claartje L. ter Hoeven, Rens Vliegenthart.
  Journal of Communication. August 25, 2016
  This study uses the Stereotype Content Model to examine how mixed‐media stereotypes about older workers affect the implicit activation and application of competence and warmth stereotypes among employees. By means of a 2 × 2 experiment, we show that a newspaper article portraying older workers in a stereotypical manner (i.e., high rather than low in warmth, low rather than high in competence) inhibits and evokes negative employability perceptions, resulting in a net negative effect on intentions to hire an older worker. Findings indicate that mixed‐media portrayals have stronger effects on implicit stereotype activation compared to stereotype application. We propose a tailored media‐based stereotype reduction strategy, whereby the negative component of older workers' stereotypes is replaced by stereotype‐disconfirming information.

  August 25, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12249   open full text
• Effects of Cultural Tailoring on Persuasion in Cancer Communication: A Meta‐Analysis.
  Yan Huang, Fuyuan Shen.
  Journal of Communication. August 08, 2016
  This meta‐analysis examined the persuasive impact of culturally tailored messages in cancer communication. The study sample includes 36 articles with 58 experimental pairs (N = 30,006). Results showed that culturally tailored cancer messages had an overall small and significant influence on persuasion (r = .120, p < .001). Deep tailoring, which integrates the cultural values, norms, and religious beliefs of the target ethnic group, had a significantly stronger effect compared to surface tailoring, which only incorporates surface cultural features such as language, diet, and risk statistics. Moreover, the moderating effects of cancer types, ethnicity, message format, media channels, message design approach, gender, and study design factors were explored. The theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed.

  August 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12243   open full text
• Selective Use of News Cues: A Multiple‐Motive Perspective on Information Selection in Social Media Environments.
  Stephan Winter, Miriam J. Metzger, Andrew J. Flanagin.
  Journal of Communication. August 08, 2016
  This study investigated the effects of message and social cues on selective exposure to political information in a social media environment. Based on the heuristic‐systematic model, we hypothesized that readers' selective consideration of specific cues can be explained by situational motivations. In an experiment (N = 137), subjects primed with motivational goals (accuracy, defense, or impression motivations, as well as a control group) were asked to search for information. Participants preferred attitude‐consistent information and balanced information over attitude‐inconsistent information, and also preferred highly recommended articles. Defense‐motivated partisans exhibited a stronger confirmation bias, whereas impression motivation amplified the effects of social recommendations. These findings specify the conditions under which individuals engage in narrow, open‐minded, or social patterns of information selection.

  August 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12241   open full text
• When Arabs and Jews Watch TV Together: The Joint Effect of the Content and Context of Communication on Reducing Prejudice.
  Nurit Tal‐Or, Yariv Tsfati.
  Journal of Communication. August 08, 2016
  While previous research has examined the effect of the content and context of communication on the communication experience and effect, this study explored their interactive effect with an eye to reducing stereotypes and prejudice. In an experiment, Israeli Jews watched a movie about the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict that was edited to be either pro‐Palestinian or pro‐Israeli in the company of either a Jew or an Arab confederate coviewer. We then measured their attitudes toward Arabs. We found an effect of both movie type and the coviewer's ethnicity on stereotypes as well as an interactive effect of these variables, mediated by the identification of the participants with the Arab protagonist.

  August 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12242   open full text
• The Impact of Sound‐Bite Journalism on Public Argument.
  Eike Mark Rinke.
  Journal of Communication. August 08, 2016
  The rise of sound‐bite news is one of the most widely bemoaned findings in political communication research. Yet, the detrimental effects of this trend have been more assumed than demonstrated. This study examines one consequence of sound‐bite journalism: the creation of incomplete argument, in which speakers presenting their political position in the news do not also justify it. Drawing on data about television news in Germany, Russia, and the United States, it shows that shrinking sound bites consistently reduce the probability of opinion justification across widely differing national contexts. Sound‐bite journalism emerges as harmful to television news' ability to produce public justification.

  August 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12246   open full text
• Audiences and Disasters: Analyses of Media Diaries Before and After an Earthquake and a Massive Fire.
  Teresa Correa, Andrés Scherman, Arturo Arriagada.
  Journal of Communication. August 08, 2016
  Media diaries of 36 Chilean adults were being collected as two disasters unfolded: an earthquake on the northern coast and 11 days later a massive fire in Valparaíso. From an audience reception theoretical approach, these events provide a unique opportunity to compare people's engagement with media and responses to two mediated disasters. By complementing textual and computerized linguistic analyses, this study reveals that audiences' responses differ by type of disaster and proximity. Where earthquakes abound, people express more rational analyses of media quake coverage and more emotional responses to the fire. Also, proximity played an expected role with the fire but not the quake, suggesting that audiences' engagement with media events depends on the context and the type of disaster.

  August 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12245   open full text
• Social Pressure on Social Media: Using Facebook Status Updates to Increase Voter Turnout.
  Katherine Haenschen.
  Journal of Communication. July 08, 2016
  The widespread adoption of the Internet offers tangible potential for increasing political participation through disseminating digital reminders to vote. This study presents three experiments in which confederates mobilize members of their networks to vote by tagging them in Facebook status updates. Relying on the technological affordances of Facebook, treatments publicize individuals' past participation or failure to vote in an ongoing election. The results show substantial increases in turnout greater than that which is usually produced by face‐to‐face methods. Findings suggest that digital media offer citizens the potential to generate tremendous gains in voter participation, and address concerns that our increasingly digitally networked society may prove harmful to democracy.

  July 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12236   open full text
• Sexy, Strong, and Secondary: A Content Analysis of Female Characters in Video Games across 31 Years.
  Teresa Lynch, Jessica E. Tompkins, Irene I. van Driel, Niki Fritz.
  Journal of Communication. June 30, 2016
  We analyzed in‐game content from titles released between 1983 and 2014 (n = 571) featuring playable female characters. Results indicate that sexualization has diminished since an observed height in the 1990s. Traditionally male‐oriented genres (e.g. fighting) have more sexualized characters than role‐playing games. Games rated Teen or Mature did not differ in sexualization and featured more sexualization than Everyone games. Despite an increase in games featuring playable female characters, games still depict female characters more often in secondary roles and sexualized them more than primary characters. A positive relationship emerged between the sexualization of female characters and their physical capability. Critical success of games was unrelated to sexualization. We discuss these findings in light of social identity and objectification theories.

  June 30, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12237   open full text
• Reliance on Direct and Mediated Contact and Public Policies Supporting Outgroup Harm.
  Muniba Saleem, Grace S. Yang, Srividya Ramasubramanian.
  Journal of Communication. June 30, 2016
  Two studies examined the effects of reliance on direct and media‐based contact for information about Muslims on Americans' stereotypic beliefs of and negative emotions toward Muslims and support for public policies harming Muslims domestically and internationally. Results revealed that reliance on media for information about Muslims was positively associated with stereotypic beliefs, negative emotions, and support for harmful policies. Reliance on direct contact for information about Muslims produced the opposite results. Results from a three‐wave longitudinal design revealed that reliance on media and direct contact significantly predict changes in negative emotions which then predict changes in support for civil restrictions for Muslim Americans. We discuss the differential effects of reliance on media‐based and direct contact in influencing intergroup outcomes.

  June 30, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12234   open full text
• The Communicative Accomplishment of Collaboration Failure.
  Matthew A. Koschmann.
  Journal of Communication. June 06, 2016
  This study develops a communicative model of collaboration failure to address one of the key challenges of collaboration theory and practice: the discrepancy between the promise of collaboration and the reality of persistent failure. A theoretical framework is developed based on notions of dialogue, discourse, and coorientation, which informs three key aspects of collaboration: knowledge production, shared identity, and collective agency. This theoretical framework is then combined with analytic themes from an empirical case study of a failed civil society collaboration. Themes of communication practice that constitute collaborative failure are detailed, while also contrasting these with alternative practices that can enable more successful collaboration. Further implications are discussed, specifically in terms of rethinking common collaboration dualisms of structure/process and talk/action.

  June 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12233   open full text
• The Social News Gap: How News Reading and News Sharing Diverge.
  Jonathan Bright.
  Journal of Communication. June 06, 2016
  This article seeks to explain variation in news sharing patterns on social media. It finds that news editors have considerable power to shape the social media agenda through the use of “story importance cues” but also shows that there are some areas of news reporting (such as those related to crime and disasters) where this power does not apply. This highlights the existence of a social “news gap” where social media filters out certain types of news, producing a social media news agenda which has important differences from its traditional counterpart. The discussion suggests that this may be consequential for perceptions of crime and engagement with politics; it might even stimulate a partial reversal of the tabloidization of news outlets.

  June 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12232   open full text
• There Are No Old Media.
  Simone Natale.
  Journal of Communication. May 31, 2016
  Despite its ubiquity in scholarly and popular publications, relatively few attempts have been made to interrogate the meanings and implications of the notion of “old media.” This article discusses this notion in the context of theoretical debates within media and communication studies. Defining old media as artifacts, technologies, or in terms of their social use is problematic, because media constantly change, resisting clear‐cut definitions related to age. The article therefore proposes to treat new media as a relational concept: not an attribute characterizing media as such, but an element of how people perceive and imagine them. Rhetoric, everyday experience, and emotions are key contexts where new ground can be found to redefine the concept of “old media.”

  May 31, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12235   open full text
• Predictive Validity of an Empirical Approach for Selecting Promising Message Topics: A Randomized‐Controlled Study.
  Stella Juhyun Lee, Emily Brennan, Laura Anne Gibson, Andy S. L. Tan, Ani Kybert‐Momjian, Jiaying Liu, Robert Hornik.
  Journal of Communication. May 13, 2016
  Several message topic selection approaches propose that messages based on beliefs pretested and found to be more strongly associated with intentions will be more effective in changing population intentions and behaviors when used in a campaign. This study aimed to validate the underlying causal assumption of these approaches which rely on cross‐sectional belief–intention associations. We experimentally tested whether messages addressing promising themes as identified by the above criterion were more persuasive than messages addressing less promising themes. Contrary to expectations, all messages increased intentions. Interestingly, mediation analyses showed that while messages deemed promising affected intentions through changes in targeted promising beliefs, messages deemed less promising also achieved persuasion by influencing nontargeted promising beliefs. Implications for message topic selection are discussed.

  May 13, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12227   open full text
• Entertainment and Expanding Boundaries of the Self: Relief From the Constraints of the Everyday.
  Benjamin K. Johnson, Michael D. Slater, Nathaniel A. Silver, David R. Ewoldsen.
  Journal of Communication. May 13, 2016
  The temporarily expanding boundaries of the self (TEBOTS) model identifies challenges faced by the self as a fundamental impetus for engagement with mediated narratives. To test how everyday pressures on the self influence enjoyment, appreciation, and immersion into narrative worlds, this study used self‐affirmation to alleviate the everyday demands of self‐concept maintenance, in an experimental design. When self‐affirmed, people experienced less narrative engagement, consistent with the TEBOTS argument that the demands of self‐concept maintenance motivate narrative engagement. Additionally, the study developed a boundary expansion scale that measured the processes described by TEBOTS. Finally, search for meaning in life was found to moderate effects, and the new boundary expansion measure mediated effects when search for meaning in life was high.

  May 13, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12228   open full text
• The Persuasive Force of Political Humor.
  Beth Innocenti, Elizabeth Miller.
  Journal of Communication. May 06, 2016
  Political humor is ubiquitous in some contexts and forbidden in others, and yet scholars have described political humor as unreliable and attempts to control its meaning as futile. How do speakers design political humor to influence audiences, and why do they expect those designs to work? We argue that speakers design persuasive political humor by making visible their intent and undertaking obligations to act in accord with specific norms. We explain how designs constrain audiences from discounting the message as just a joke and create reasons to scrutinize arguments.

  May 06, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12231   open full text
• Information and Arena: The Dual Function of the News Media for Political Elites.
  Peter Van Aelst, Stefaan Walgrave.
  Journal of Communication. May 05, 2016
  How do individual politicians use the news media to reach their political goals? This study addresses the question by proposing an actor‐centered, functional approach. We distinguish 2 essential functions (and subfunctions) the mass media have for political elites. The media are a source of information; politicians depend on it for pure information and they can profit from the momentum generated by media information. The media also are an arena elites need access to in order to promote themselves and their issues. These 2 functions offer certain politicians a structural advantage over others and, hence, are relevant for the power struggle among political elites. A systematic functional account enables comparisons of the role of the media across politicians and political systems.

  May 05, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12229   open full text
• Media Ethics Theorizing, Reoriented: A Shift in Focus for Individual‐Level Analyses.
  Patrick Lee Plaisance.
  Journal of Communication. May 05, 2016
  This project argues that multidisciplinary methods and work to reconsider key concepts are critical if media ethics scholarship is to continue to mature. It identifies 3 dimensions of a reoriented framework for media ethics theory: one that conceptualizes moral motivation as the focus of inquiry at the individual level; another that focuses on promising assessments of autonomy and organizational influences for a transformed media landscape; and a third that applies formalist virtue ethics as the best framework for normative claims arising from the first 2.

  May 05, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12230   open full text
• Taking Time Seriously? Theorizing and Researching Change in Communication and Media Studies.
  James Stanyer, Sabina Mihelj.
  Journal of Communication. March 22, 2016
  This article argues that in order to adequately comprehend and explain change, the field needs to engage more completely with the challenges of researching change over time, and ground the theorizing of change more firmly in empirical research. The goal of this article is to foster a more concerted discussion on these issues that will hopefully move research forward. The first part of the article reviews the breadth and diversity of existing empirical approaches to comprehending change over time across the field. The article then identifies some of the problems and oversights of current approaches and discusses possible solutions, drawing both on proposals developed by communication and media scholars and those developed in other disciplines.

  March 22, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12218   open full text
• Should We Be Charlie? A Deliberative Take on Religion and Secularism in Mediated Public Spheres.
  Hartmut Wessler, Eike Mark Rinke, Charlotte Löb.
  Journal of Communication. March 21, 2016
  The terror attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 serves to explore the role of religion and secularism in mediated public spheres. We argue that deliberative theory, including its recent criticisms and extensions, helps navigate normative dilemmas presented by the attacks. From a deliberative perspective, journalists should reprint Charlie cartoons that are perceived by Muslims as insulting and incendiary only if this fulfills a real need for public reflection and enlightenment. Media and the wider public should engage in differentiated solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, help transfer the hidden argumentative potential of its cartoons into the realm of truly argumentative discourse, and engage in metadeliberation that explicitly reflects the contexts and rules for public debate.

  March 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12213   open full text
• Leveraging Social Network Analysis for Research on Journalism in the Information Age.
  J. Sophia Fu.
  Journal of Communication. March 21, 2016
  Advances in information and communication technologies connect media organizations, media content, and audiences in new ways. This essay advocates the use of a relational approach to study journalism and media in the information age. This article begins with a review of the communication network typology, highlighting its applicability to journalism studies. A review of journalism studies that use social network analysis reveals a number of new opportunities for research. Finally, the essay illustrates the heuristic value of the communication network typology and multidimensional networks for the study of journalism and media.

  March 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12212   open full text
• Staying Ahead of the Digital Tsunami: The Contributions of an Organizational Communication Approach to Journalism in the Information Age.
  Sandra K. Evans.
  Journal of Communication. March 21, 2016
  This essay addresses the challenges facing journalism in the information age by advocating for the study of journalism from an organizational communication perspective. The communication field has maintained an illogical divide between journalism and organizational communication scholarship. First, I present an overview of subdisciplinary identities. Second, I argue for an organizational communication approach to the study of journalism and refer to an empirical study as an exemplar of this approach. Finally, I present ideas for future research regarding the study of journalism and these subdisciplines. This approach is applicable to settings like newspapers, television news, and other media organizations. Analyzing journalism from an organizational communication perspective can connect academic subdisciplines and aid practitioners in understanding a rapidly evolving media landscape.

  March 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12217   open full text
• Toward Meaningful Connectivity: Using Multilevel Communication Research to Reframe Digital Inequality.
  Vikki S. Katz, Carmen Gonzalez.
  Journal of Communication. March 21, 2016
  Digital inequality, or unequal access to the Internet and technologies that connect to it, has preoccupied communication scholars since the Internet's introduction into popular culture. The relationships between digital and broader social inequalities suggest that meaningful digital connectivity—that is, having the technical skills necessary to engage technology and mobilize information resources to address everyday needs—can empower socially disenfranchised individuals, families, and communities to address challenges related to those disparities. In this essay, we overview the arc of communication research on technology engagement and its consequences. On this foundation, we argue why multilevel research that accounts for individual‐, family‐, and community‐level influences on meaningful digital connectivity is the best path forward for research on digital inequality.

  March 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12214   open full text
• Informed Citizenship in a Media‐Centric Way of Life.
  Maria E. Grabe, Jessica G. Myrick.
  Journal of Communication. March 21, 2016
  Two trends are prominent and universal to contemporary democracies: Voting rates are in steady decline while media use is growing. A transdisciplinary vantage point might help to redirect research trajectories that lead to alarming conclusions of democratic crisis. To that end, dominant ontological positions will need revision or perhaps replacement. This essay calls for (a) knowledge to be explicated beyond the written word, with serious consideration of the information value of images in the conceptualization of informed citizenship; (b) the deliberate entanglement of emotion with knowledge acquisition and political participation in explication and operationalization of active citizenship; and (c) reconsideration of electoral activities as the index of active citizenship, especially in the context of interactive media.

  March 21, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12215   open full text
• Both Sides of the Story: Communication Ethics in Mediatized Worlds.
  Tobias Eberwein, Colin Porlezza.
  Journal of Communication. March 18, 2016
  Current transformations in the media landscape are challenging contemporary communication and media ethics in at least 2 ways. First, digitization of the media creates new ethical problems that stimulate calls for a redefinition of the norms and values of public communication. Second, new instruments of web‐based media observation introduce new possibilities for media (self‐)regulation and accountability, thus complementing the initiatives of traditional institutions like press councils. The article retraces those conflicting developments by reference to 2 comparative studies, representing the diverging traditions of conventional communication ethics and media accountability research. In bridging over the conceptual gap between the 2 forms of research, the article develops new perspectives for ethical reflection in the mediatized worlds of the digital age.

  March 18, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12216   open full text
• Conceptualizing Change in Communication Through Metaphor.
  Christian Burgers.
  Journal of Communication. March 17, 2016
  Modeling communication patterns by individuals and organizations dealing with institutional and social change is an important challenge for communication scholars. Metaphors provide frames of thinking about societal topics. The ways metaphors change can thus reveal how conceptualizations of social topics change over time. Change occurs in two temporal paces: evolutionary (continuous) or revolutionary (discontinuous). Furthermore, change occurs in two ways: through incremental (meaning of extant metaphors change) or fundamental (old metaphors are replaced) transformation. I propose that studying shifts of metaphors can be used to model incremental and fundamental change in communication at both evolutionary and revolutionary pace. I describe how such shifts have been studied on the microlevel, mesolevel, and macrolevel through both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

  March 17, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12211   open full text
• “How Negative Becomes Less Negative”: Understanding the Effects of Comment Valence and Response Sidedness in Social Media.
  Hyejoon Rim, Doori Song.
  Journal of Communication. January 13, 2016
  This study explores the influence of the public's negative comments regarding a corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign in social media and how to best respond to them. It examined the interaction effects of comment valence and the company's response sidedness on the public's attitudes as mediated by the perceived negativity and perceived altruism. Results revealed that 2‐sided CSR responses are more effective than 1‐sided responses in enhancing altruistic motives for CSR, reducing perceived negativity in the public's comments, and eliciting favorable attitudes, especially when comments were negative. The effects of message sidedness disappeared when the public's comments were positive. Results also showed that perceived altruism and negativity mediate the effects of message strategies on the public's attitudes toward the company.

  January 13, 2016   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12205   open full text
• Interactive Narratives: Processes and Outcomes in User‐Directed Stories.
  Melanie C. Green, Keenan M. Jenkins.
  Journal of Communication. May 19, 2014
  Interactive narratives are stories that allow readers to determine the direction of the plot, often at key decision points. Unanswered questions remain about the types of psychological processes evoked by these “Choose Your Own Adventure” style narratives, as well as the relative persuasive influence of interactive narratives compared to traditional narratives. The current paper reviews the existing literature and provides a theoretical framework to guide future research on interactive narratives, particularly as a tool for entertainment‐education efforts. Specifically, we highlight increased user control and looser narrative structure as key elements of interactive narratives, and discuss possible effects of these differences on engagement variables (e.g., transportation, identification, perceived realism), self‐related variables (responsibility), and outcomes (e.g., enjoyment, attitude change, health behaviors).

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12093   open full text
• Entertainment and Politics Revisited: How Non‐Escapist Forms of Entertainment Can Stimulate Political Interest and Information Seeking.
  Anne Bartsch, Frank M. Schneider.
  Journal of Communication. May 19, 2014
  This article revisits the controversial relationship of entertainment and political communication. On the basis of a theoretical integration of entertainment theory with theories of motivated information processing, we suggest that entertainment consumption can either be driven by hedonic, escapist motivations that are associated with a superficial mode of information processing, or by eudaimonic, truth‐seeking motivations that prompt more elaborate forms of information processing. Results of two experiments indicate that eudaimonic forms of emotional involvement (characterized by negative valence, moderate arousal, and feeling moved) stimulated reflective thoughts about politically relevant content, issue interest, and information seeking. This pattern was consistent across two types of entertainment stimuli (fictional films and soft news) and two types of affect manipulations (moving film music and moving exemplars).

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12095   open full text
• Repeated Exposure to Narrative Entertainment and the Salience of Moral Intuitions.
  Allison Eden, Ron Tamborini, Matthew Grizzard, Robert Lewis, Rene Weber, Sujay Prabhu.
  Journal of Communication. May 19, 2014
  R. Tamborini (2011, 2012) recently proposed the model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME), which combines theoretical developments in moral psychology with media theory to predict the influence of media exposure on morality. To test predictions from this model, a quasi‐experimental study conducted over 8 weeks exposed selected participants to an online soap opera. Participants' moral intuitions were measured pre‐exposure and postexposure. Consistent with predictions, results showed that repeated exposure to morally relevant media content is capable of influencing the salience of moral intuitions. The findings are consistent with the model's description of underlying mechanisms explicating the manner in which entertainment can influence moral judgments, and demonstrate the value of understanding the relationship between exposure to entertainment and moral judgment processes.

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12098   open full text
• Entertainment 2.0? The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Need Satisfaction for the Enjoyment of Facebook Use.
  Leonard Reinecke, Peter Vorderer, Katharina Knop.
  Journal of Communication. May 19, 2014
  While intrinsic motivation has received broad attention in recent entertainment research, the effects of extrinsic motivation, such as social pressure to use media, on media enjoyment remain unknown. Based on an online‐survey (N = 230), this study tested the effects of intrinsic need satisfaction and perceived social pressure on the enjoyment of Facebook use with structural equation modeling. The results reveal complex effects of extrinsic motivation: While social pressure negatively affected autonomy need satisfaction, it was positively related to competence and relatedness need satisfaction. This study is the first to develop and test a theoretical model of entertainment experience in the context of social media use and to theoretically integrate the role of extrinsic need satisfaction in media enjoyment.

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12099   open full text
• Testing a Dual‐Process Model of Media Enjoyment and Appreciation.
  Robert J. Lewis, Ron Tamborini, René Weber.
  Journal of Communication. May 19, 2014
  This article presents a dual‐process model of media entertainment representing 2 psychological appraisal processes, and examines how these processes evoke appreciation or enjoyment as a function of the presence/absence of cognitive conflict. The first process (which characterizes experiences of appreciation) is deliberative and slow, and results from cognitive conflict. The second process (which characterizes experiences of enjoyment) is automatic and fast, and occurs when cognitive conflict is inconsequential. Both appraisal processes result from the same underlying framework of intuitive preferences. 2 studies vary narrative conflict among sets of intuitive moral domains to test dual‐process predictions regarding slow/fast response times and the association of the presence/absence of conflict with self‐reported experiences of appreciation/enjoyment. Discussion examines theoretical implications for entertainment research.

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12101   open full text
• Media Entertainment and Well‐Being—Linking Hedonic and Eudaimonic Entertainment Experience to Media‐Induced Recovery and Vitality.
  Diana Rieger, Leonard Reinecke, Lena Frischlich, Gary Bente.
  Journal of Communication. May 19, 2014
  This paper explores the impact of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experience on well‐being. We propose that the satisfaction of recovery needs can provide an important link that connects recent 2‐factor models of entertainment with well‐being after media consumption. Using path modeling, relationships between hedonic/eudaimonic entertainment experiences, media‐induced recovery experience, and vitality as a recovery outcome were explored in an experiment (N = 120). Results suggest that different recovery needs are satisfied by hedonic versus eudaimonic entertainment: Although hedonic entertainment experiences were associated with the recovery dimensions of relaxation and psychological detachment, eudaimonic entertainment was related to mastery experiences. Both entertainment facets, thus, lead to media‐induced recovery and resulted in increased psychological well‐being represented by higher levels of vitality after media use.

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12097   open full text
• More Than Stories With Buttons: Narrative, Mechanics, and Context as Determinants of Player Experience in Digital Games.
  Malte Elson, Johannes Breuer, James D. Ivory, Thorsten Quandt.
  Journal of Communication. May 19, 2014
  Recent research has attempted to describe meaningful experiences with entertainment media that go beyond hedonic enjoyment. Most of this research focuses on noninteractive media, such as film and television. When applied to digital games, however, such research needs to account for not only the content of the medium, but also the unique dimensions of digital games that distinguish them from noninteractive media. Experiences with digital games are shaped by the game mechanics that define the users' interaction with game content, as well as by the opportunities for social interaction that many games offer. We argue that the complex interplay of these dimensions (narrative, mechanics, and context) facilitates or inhibits meaningful user experiences in ways that are unique to digital games.

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12096   open full text
• Temporarily Expanding the Boundaries of the Self: Motivations for Entering the Story World and Implications for Narrative Effects.
  Michael D. Slater, Benjamin K. Johnson, Jonathan Cohen, Maria Leonora G. Comello, David R. Ewoldsen.
  Journal of Communication. May 19, 2014
  A wide variety of motivations for engaging with narratives have been proposed and studied. We propose that underlying these motivations is another, more fundamental motivation. Our premise is that maintenance, defense, and regulation of the personal and social self in daily life are demanding both emotionally and cognitively. Moreover, any individual self is constrained by capability, situation, and social role. Stories and identification with story characters provide a means individuals may use for temporary relief from the task of self‐regulation and from the limitations of individual personal and social identities. Existing supportive research is acknowledged and implications explored, concerning contexts in which story involvement will be particularly attractive and possible impacts on attitudes and acceptance of out‐groups including stigmatized others.

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12100   open full text
• Captivated and Grossed Out: An Examination of Processing Core and Sociomoral Disgusts in Entertainment Media.
  Bridget Rubenking, Annie Lang.
  Journal of Communication. May 19, 2014
  While disgust repels and offends us, it has functionally evolved over time to compel our attention—both to core disgusts (i.e., blood, guts, body products) and sociomoral violations (i.e., injustices, brutality, racism)—making it a quality of many entertainment messages that may keep audiences engrossed and engaged. An experiment exposed participants to two types of core disgusts and sociomoral disgusts in TV/film messages and collected self‐report emotional responses, psychophysiological indicators of dynamic emotional and cognitive processing, and recognition memory for content. Results demonstrate that no two disgusts are alike: Sociomoral disgusts captivate our attention and elicit a slower, more thoughtful response pattern than core disgusts, and the nature of the core disgust elicits different responses as well.

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12094   open full text
• Are You Scared Yet? Evaluating Fear Appeal Messages in Tweets About the Tips Campaign.
  Sherry L. Emery, Glen Szczypka, Eulàlia P. Abril, Yoonsang Kim, Lisa Vera.
  Journal of Communication. April 07, 2014
  In March 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched “Tips from Former Smokers,” a $54 million national campaign featuring individuals experiencing long‐term health consequences of smoking. The campaign approach was based on strong evidence that antitobacco ads portraying fear, graphic images, and personal testimonials are associated with attitudinal and behavior change. Yet it was also controversial; critics cited the danger that viewers might reject such intensely graphic messages. Tasked with informing this debate, our study analyzes the corpus of Tips campaign‐related tweets obtained via the Twitter Firehose. We provide a novel and rigorous method for media campaign evaluation within the framework of the Extended Parallel Process Model. Among the relevant tweets, 87% showed evidence of message acceptance, whereas 7% exhibited message rejection.

  April 07, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12083   open full text
• The Dynamics of Public Attention: Agenda‐Setting Theory Meets Big Data.
  W. Russell Neuman, Lauren Guggenheim, S. Mo Jang, Soo Young Bae.
  Journal of Communication. March 26, 2014
  Researchers have used surveys and experiments to better understand communication dynamics, but confront consistent distortion from self‐report data. But now both digital exposure and resulting expressive behaviors (such as tweets) are potentially accessible for direct analysis with important ramifications for the formulation of communication theory. We utilize “big data” to explore attention and framing in the traditional and social media for 29 political issues during 2012. We find agenda setting for these issues is not a one‐way pattern from traditional media to a mass audience, but rather a complex and dynamic interaction. Although the attentional dynamics of traditional and social media are correlated, evidence suggests that the rhythms of attention in each respond to a significant degree to different drummers.

  March 26, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12088   open full text
• Network Issue Agendas on Twitter During the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election.
  Chris J. Vargo, Lei Guo, Maxwell McCombs, Donald L. Shaw.
  Journal of Communication. March 24, 2014
  This study finds support for agenda melding and further validates the Network Agenda Setting (NAS) model through a series of computer science methods with large datasets on Twitter. The results demonstrate that during the 2012 U.S. presidential election, distinctive audiences “melded” agendas of various media differently. “Vertical” media best predicted Obama supporters' agendas on Twitter whereas Romney supporters were best explained by Republican “horizontal” media. Moreover, Obama and Romney supporters relied on their politically affiliated horizontal media more than their opposing party's media. Evidence for findings are provided through the NAS model, which measures the agenda‐setting effect not in terms of issue frequency alone, but also in terms of the interconnections and relationships issues inside of an agenda.

  March 24, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12089   open full text
• Cross‐Cultural Comparison of Nonverbal Cues in Emoticons on Twitter: Evidence from Big Data Analysis.
  Jaram Park, Young Min Baek, Meeyoung Cha.
  Journal of Communication. March 19, 2014
  Relying on Gudykunst's cultural variability in communication (CVC) framework and culture‐specific facial expressions of emotion, we examined how people's use of emoticons varies cross‐culturally. By merging emoticon usage patterns on Twitter with Hofstede's national culture scores and national indicators across 78 countries, this study found that people within individualistic cultures favor horizontal and mouth‐oriented emoticons like :), while those within collectivistic cultures favor vertical and eye‐oriented emoticons like ^_^. Our study serves to demonstrate how recent big data‐driven approaches can be used to test research hypotheses in cross‐cultural communication effectively from the methodological triangulation perspective. Implications and limitations regarding the findings of this study are also discussed.

  March 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12086   open full text
• Echo Chamber or Public Sphere? Predicting Political Orientation and Measuring Political Homophily in Twitter Using Big Data.
  Elanor Colleoni, Alessandro Rozza, Adam Arvidsson.
  Journal of Communication. March 19, 2014
  This paper investigates political homophily on Twitter. Using a combination of machine learning and social network analysis we classify users as Democrats or as Republicans based on the political content shared. We then investigate political homophily both in the network of reciprocated and nonreciprocated ties. We find that structures of political homophily differ strongly between Democrats and Republicans. In general, Democrats exhibit higher levels of political homophily. But Republicans who follow official Republican accounts exhibit higher levels of homophily than Democrats. In addition, levels of homophily are higher in the network of reciprocated followers than in the nonreciprocated network. We suggest that research on political homophily on the Internet should take the political culture and practices of users seriously.

  March 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12084   open full text
• Second Screen and Participation: A Content Analysis on a Full Season Dataset of Tweets.
  Fabio Giglietto, Donatella Selva.
  Journal of Communication. March 19, 2014
  The practice of using a “second screen” while following a television program is quickly becoming a widespread phenomenon. When the secondary device is used for comments about programs, most discussions take place on popular social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Previous research pointed out the value of these conversations in understanding the behavior of “networked publics.” Building upon this background, this article presents the first study on a complete dataset of tweets (2,489,669) that span an entire season of a TV genre (1,076 episodes of talk shows). A content analysis of the tweets created during the season's most engaging moments indicates a relationship between typology of broadcasted scenes, style of comments, and the way participation (audience and political) is played.

  March 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12085   open full text
• The Logic of Political Coverage on Twitter: Temporal Dynamics and Content.
  Andreas Jungherr.
  Journal of Communication. March 19, 2014
  Social media services have become areas of political communication. Politicians integrate them in their campaigns, journalists use them as sources and topics, and the public uses them for the discussion of politics. In this, political activities on social media are clearly interconnected with the coverage of politics by traditional media. This article analyzes Twitter messages commenting on politics during the campaign for the 2009 federal election in Germany. It will be shown that the temporal dynamics and content of Twitter messages follow a hybrid logic of political coverage, sometimes following the same logic as the coverage of political actors in traditional news media, whereas in other cases following a logic specific to political expression on the Internet.

  March 19, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12087   open full text
• Laboratories of Oligarchy? How the Iron Law Extends to Peer Production.
  Aaron Shaw, Benjamin M. Hill.
  Journal of Communication. March 17, 2014
  Peer production projects like Wikipedia have inspired voluntary associations, collectives, social movements, and scholars to embrace open online collaboration as a model of democratic organization. However, many peer production projects exhibit entrenched leadership and deep inequalities, suggesting that they may not fulfill democratic ideals. Instead, peer production projects may conform to Robert Michels' “iron law of oligarchy,” which proposes that democratic membership organizations become increasingly oligarchic as they grow. Using exhaustive data of internal processes from a sample of 683 wikis, we construct empirical measures of participation and test for increases in oligarchy associated with growth in wikis' contributor bases. In contrast to previous studies, we find support for Michels' iron law and conclude that peer production entails oligarchic organizational forms.

  March 17, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12082   open full text
• On the Cultural Foundations for Universal Healthcare: Implications From Late 20th‐Century U.S. and Canadian Health‐Related Discourse.
  Carl W. Roberts, Hexuan Liu.
  Journal of Communication. February 06, 2014
  Social constructionists approach framing as a process of “sense‐making” within which elites and journalists strive to produce content that resonates with their audiences. From this perspective, long‐term stability in media content may be viewed as due to cultural limitations on authors' framing efforts. This article provides evidence that Canadians' consistent framing of health‐related matters in terms of their common welfare was likely more a recalcitrant cause than a passive response to changes between 1965 and 1999 in their means of healthcare provision. In contrast, concomitant U.S. health‐related framing alternated among economic, welfare, and other frames, leaving citizens to consider policy proposals more in terms of “why” than “how” they do or do not make sense.

  February 06, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12079   open full text
• Reconceptualizing Address in Television Programming: The Effect of Address and Affective Empathy on Viewer Experience of Parasocial Interaction.
  R. Glenn Cummins, Boni Cui.
  Journal of Communication. February 03, 2014
  Much scholarship has examined the parasocial bonds between audiences and media personalities. However, recent research differentiated between the development of parasocial relationships and the actual experience of parasocial interaction (EPSI) that can result from structural elements of a message such as style of address (Hartmann & Goldhoorn, 2011). This study presents an alternate conceptualization of style of address and employs an online assessment to examine its impact on the EPSI. Results indicated that bodily address, where the onscreen performer could be seen speaking to the viewer, fostered a stronger sense of interaction relative to verbal or no address. Moreover, emotional contagion, an affective component of empathy, likewise facilitated these perceived interactions, most strongly in response to bodily address.

  February 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12076   open full text
• The New Media Designs of Political Consultants: Campaign Production in a Fragmented Era.
  Michael Serazio.
  Journal of Communication. February 03, 2014
  New media technologies have been lauded for their potential in de‐monopolizing gatekeeper power and rejuvenating democracy. This research inquires into how those changes in the media environment are affecting (and being affected by) consultants involved in the production of political communication. Drawing on dozens of in‐depth interviews with these elite operatives, this study highlights how strategies are developed, practices are executed, and messages are encoded given increasing fragmentation and narrowcasting. It examines these consultants' roles in managing the news agenda and political discourse by expanding partisan spaces online for content creation and narrowcasting more nuanced, flexible messages to targeted niches. This study concludes with consideration given to how these efforts might hinder certain public sphere ideals.

  February 03, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12078   open full text
• Social Media, Network Heterogeneity, and Opinion Polarization.
  Jae Kook Lee, Jihyang Choi, Cheonsoo Kim, Yonghwan Kim.
  Journal of Communication. January 30, 2014
  Employing a national probability survey in 2012, this study tests relationships between social media, social network service (SNS) network heterogeneity, and opinion polarization. The results show that the use of social media is a positive predictor of the level of network heterogeneity on SNSs and that the relationship is mediated by several news‐related activities, such as getting news, news posting, and talking about politics on SNSs. Testing the association between SNS network heterogeneity and polarization, this study considers 3 different dimensions of opinion polarization: partisan, ideological, and issue. The findings indicate that political discussion moderates the relationship between network heterogeneity and the level of partisan and ideological polarizations. The implications of this study are discussed.

  January 30, 2014   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12077   open full text
• Effectiveness of Politicians' Soft Campaign on Twitter Versus TV: Cognitive and Experiential Routes.
  Eun‐Ju Lee.
  Journal of Communication. August 13, 2013
  An experiment (N = 183) investigated (a) if individuals respond differently to politicians' Twitter messages and their TV interview, and if so, (b) what cognitive and experiential processes account for such differences. Participants viewed either a segment of a TV talk show, wherein a female politician conversed with the hosts about her personal life and political philosophy, or her Twitter page containing identical messages. Exposure to her TV interview (vs. Twitter page) heightened social presence, inducing stronger parasocial interaction (PSI) and more favorable candidate evaluations among those lower in need for cognition (NFC), but the opposite was true for high NFCs. The candidate's TV interview prompted less source‐related thoughts, but more counterarguing among those holding unfavorable attitudes, thereby lowering PSI.

  August 13, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12049   open full text
• Reducing Stigma and Out‐Group Distinctions Through Perspective‐Taking in Narratives.
  Adrienne H. Chung, Michael D. Slater.
  Journal of Communication. August 13, 2013
  We examine how viewers' narrative involvement is impacted by a character's membership in a highly stigmatized group. In particular, we explore how perspective‐taking with a character, a dimension of the identification construct (J. Cohen, 2001), influences in‐group/out‐group perception. Participants viewed 1 of 2 edited versions of the film Sherrybaby, where the main character was manipulated to be relatively more stigmatized (recovering drug addict) or less stigmatized (single mother). As predicted, participants differed with respect to perspective‐taking—the highly stigmatized character corresponded to less perspective‐taking. Furthermore, the mediation and moderation results lend support to the argument that perspective‐taking increases perceptions of in‐group belonging and is of particular importance in determining whether a narrative influences in‐group/out‐group perspectives.

  August 13, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12050   open full text
• Differentiating Cueing From Reasoning in Agenda‐Setting Effects.
  Raymond J. Pingree, Elizabeth Stoycheff.
  Journal of Communication. August 07, 2013
  This study differentiates two explanations of agenda‐setting effects: agenda cueing (the influence of the mere fact of news coverage) and agenda reasoning (the influence of reasons for problem importance in the content of news stories). We isolate the two using a report summarizing recent news coverage as the experimental stimulus, instead of actual news coverage, allowing independent manipulation of agenda cue exposure and agenda reason exposure. A key moderator in both processes is gatekeeping trust, or trust in the media to base coverage decisions on problem importance judgments. Specifically, pure cues (without agenda reasons) are more influential on those with higher gatekeeping trust, and among those with low gatekeeping trust, cues are more influential when backed by agenda reasons.

  August 07, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12051   open full text
• Digital Divides From Access to Activities: Comparing Mobile and Personal Computer Internet Users.
  Katy E. Pearce, Ronald E. Rice.
  Journal of Communication. July 11, 2013
  Digital inequality can take many forms. Four forms studied here are access to Internet, use of different devices, extent of usage, and engagement in different Internet activities. However, it is not clear whether sociodemographic factors, or devices, are more influential in usage and activities. Results from an unfamiliar context show that there are significant sociodemographic influences on access, device, usage, and activities, and differences in activities by device type and usage. While sociodemographic differences are more influential, device type can increase likelihood of use for some “capital enhancing” activities, but only for a computer. Thus, although mobile Internet is available for those on the wrong side of the digital divide, these users do not engage in many activities, decreasing potential benefits.

  July 11, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12045   open full text
• Identification Matters: A Moderated Mediation Model of Media Interactivity, Character Identification, and Video Game Violence on Aggression.
  Jih‐Hsuan Lin.
  Journal of Communication. June 27, 2013
  This study examined the effects of interactivity in violent video games on aggression and tested identification as the moderated mediating mechanism. A total of 169 male undergraduate students participated in a 2 media interactivity (enactive mediation vs. observational mediation) × 2 violence (violent vs. nonviolent) experiment. Results supported a moderated mediation model in which the effect of media interactivity on aggressive affect through identification was moderated by violence. When violence was present, interactive play resulted in higher short‐term aggressive affect through higher character identification than when violence was not present. Additionally, an interaction effect between media interactivity and violence was found for automatic self‐concept in which players associated themselves more with the game character's traits than video viewers.

  June 27, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12044   open full text
• A Communicative Interdependence Perspective of Close Relationships: The Connections Between Mediated and Unmediated Interactions Matter.
  John P. Caughlin, Liesel L. Sharabi.
  Journal of Communication. June 25, 2013
  In response to calls to recognize that both face‐to‐face (FtF) interaction and technologically mediated communication (TMC) often occur in the same relationships, we introduce a communicative interdependence perspective with a central tenet that relational closeness is associated with interconnections among modes of communication. We examined this perspective with a focus group study (N = 17) and a more extensive survey (N = 317). Consistent with the communicative interdependence predictions, relational closeness was associated positively with integration between FtF and TMC and negatively to difficulties transitioning between modes. Also, discussing topics only via technologically mediated channels was inversely associated with closeness and satisfaction, whereas discussing topics only in person was positively related to closeness and satisfaction.

  June 25, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12046   open full text
• Seek and You Shall Find? How Need for Orientation Moderates Knowledge Gain from Twitter Use.
  Eun‐Ju Lee, Soo Youn Oh.
  Journal of Communication. June 24, 2013
  A Web‐based survey (N = 306) examined if Twitter use enhances individuals' news knowledge, and if so, how such effects might vary depending on their need for orientation (NFO) and the type of news (hard vs. soft). The duration of Twitter use positively predicted hard news knowledge, but only for those higher in NFO. In contrast, daily Twitter use had negative influence on high NFOs' soft news knowledge, with no corresponding effect for lows. Although high NFOs were more likely to use Twitter for information‐seeking than their less surveillance‐driven counterparts, such motivation did not facilitate knowledge gain. Systematic processing of public affairs information and selective avoidance were discussed as potential explanations for differential knowledge gain by high and low NFOs.

  June 24, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12041   open full text
• The Priming Effects of Virtual Environments on Interpersonal Perceptions and Behaviors.
  Jorge Peña, Kate Blackburn.
  Journal of Communication. June 20, 2013
  This study investigated how virtual environments prime subsequent interpersonal relations among unacquainted individuals. Participants met in a virtual library or a café. Individuals in the virtual library perceived greater self and partner formality compared to those in the café. In addition, more self‐disclosure correlated with less formality only in the library, showing how revealing more about oneself goes against library norms. In contrast, perceived warmth and word counts were at the center of the effects found in the virtual café. Partner warmth and word counts also mediated the effect of the environments on formality. Overall, this article advances priming research in stimuli‐rich virtual settings by showing how environmental salience and activation of contextual norms affected interpersonal perceptions among unacquainted partners.

  June 20, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12043   open full text
• The Relationship Between Message Recall and Persuasion: More Complex Than It Seems.
  Christopher J. Carpenter, Franklin J. Boster.
  Journal of Communication. June 17, 2013
  A strong message recall‐attitude relationship was predicted when participants were induced to use memory‐based processing to form their attitudes but not when induced to use on‐line processing after exposure to a persuasive message. The recall‐attitude correlation in the memory‐based conditions was expected to be positive when the arguments were strong and negative when they were weak; 240 participants participated in a study to test these predictions. An ample and positive recall‐attitude relationship was found when participants were exposed to strong arguments in both processing conditions. A small but negative relationship was found in the weak arguments, on‐line processing condition but not the memory‐based condition. Parallel findings were obtained when need to evaluate was used to measure processing type.

  June 17, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12042   open full text
• Undermining the Corrective Effects of Media‐Based Political Fact Checking? The Role of Contextual Cues and Naïve Theory.
  R. Kelly Garrett, Erik C. Nisbet, Emily K. Lynch.
  Journal of Communication. June 13, 2013
  Media‐based fact checking contributes to more accurate political knowledge, but its corrective effects are limited. We argue that biographical information included in a corrective message, which is often unrelated to the inaccurate claim itself, can activate misperception‐congruent naïve theories, increasing confidence in a misperception's plausibility and inducing skepticism toward denials. Resistance to corrections occurs regardless of initial belief accuracy, but the effect is strongest among those who find the contextual information objectionable or threatening. We test these claims using an online survey‐embedded experiment (N = 750) conducted in the wake of the controversy over the proposed Islamic cultural center in New York City near the site of the 9/11 attacks, and find support for our predictions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

  June 13, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12038   open full text
• Alexithymia and Impairment of Decoding Positive Affect: An fMRI Study.
  Colin Hesse, Kory Floyd, Emily A. Rauscher, Nick E. Frye‐Cox, John P. Hegarty, Huiling Peng.
  Journal of Communication. June 11, 2013
  Previous research has implicated alexithymia as a psychological impairment to accurately decode emotional messages. This study attempted to explore potential neurological reasons for this impairment. Using functional brain imaging procedures, an experimental design was undertaken to assess group differences between individuals high and low in alexithymia on brain activation while viewing images of individuals displaying neutral or positive affect. While controlling for activation due to neutral affect images, results showed less activation for alexithymic versus nonalexithymic individuals due to positive affect images in several areas of the brain, including the amygdala and the hippocampus. Several implications and directions for future research are also discussed.

  June 11, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12039   open full text
• Attitude Change in Competitive Framing Environments? Open‐/Closed‐Mindedness, Framing Effects, and Climate Change.
  Erik C. Nisbet, P. S. Hart, Teresa Myers, Morgan Ellithorpe.
  Journal of Communication. June 11, 2013
  Framing scholarship on policy issues has primarily focused on how competitive message environments alter framing effects or how individual differences moderate the impact of frames. This study combines both of these focal areas by examining how individual open‐/closed‐mindedness moderates framing effects about climate change within competitive and noncompetitive framing contexts. Contrary to previous scholarship, our experimental study finds effects on attitudes in the competitive framing condition, but not the noncompetitive framing condition. The framing effects found in the competitive condition were contingent upon individual differences in open‐/closed‐mindedness. Analysis shows that individual open‐/closed‐mindedness influences framing effects in part by altering the effects of frame exposure on the perceived costs and benefits of government climate policies.

  June 11, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12040   open full text
• Pornography and Sexist Attitudes Among Heterosexuals.
  Gert Martin Hald, Neil N. Malamuth, Theis Lange.
  Journal of Communication. June 10, 2013
  Using a probability‐based sample of young Danish adults and a randomized experimental design, this study investigated effects of past pornography consumption, experimental exposure to nonviolent pornography, perceived realism of pornography, and personality (i.e., agreeableness) on sexist attitudes (i.e., attitudes toward women, hostile and benevolent sexism). Further, sexual arousal mediation was assessed. Results showed that, among men, an increased past pornography consumption was significantly associated with less egalitarian attitudes toward women and more hostile sexism. Further, lower agreeableness was found to significantly predict higher sexist attitudes. Significant effects of experimental exposure to pornography were found for hostile sexism among low in agreeableness participants and for benevolent sexism among women. These experimental exposure effects were found to be mediated by sexual arousal.

  June 10, 2013   doi: 10.1111/jcom.12037   open full text