Mass Communication and Society Division 2010 Abstracts
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The importance of interpersonal interactions and the role of new communication technologies, including the Internet, email and the cellular telephone, as well as practical inquiry into which persons, organizations and/or media sources are important opinion leaders in the area of implementation of soil conservation were investigated. Information sources used in actual past behavior changes and information sources likely to be influential in a future hypothetical scenario were assessed. Data for this study were gathered through a random sample mail survey of Grant County, Wisconsin rural landowners. A return rate of 48% yielded 268 usable surveys. Findings reveal that farmers use a number of sources for information concerning the adoption of soil conservation innovations, with ‘neighbors and other farmers,’ ‘government agency staff’ and ‘magazines and other publications’ being the most frequently used and the most important sources throughout the decision process. Perceived trustworthiness of a source was found to be a significant predictor of perceived source influence and although 40 % of respondents reported that they are not Internet users, the Internet enjoys a relatively high-perceived trustworthiness among all respondents. Among Internet users, the Internet had a very high level of trust—ranking third behind ‘government agency staff’ and ‘neighbors and other farmers.’ Viral politics: A look into the credibility and effects of online viral political messages • Monica Ancu, U. of South Florida St. Petersburg • Since the advent of YouTube and video-sharing technology, a growing number of political viral ads have attracted both media attention and the audience fascination. These viral ads, either posted on YouTube or spread by online users through e-mail, can reach millions of viewers. The producers of such political messages are sometimes the political candidates themselves, but more often ordinary citizens with no apparent political credentials. It also often happens that the producer of these viral ads remain anonymous, while the viral ad circles the Internet and becomes part of popular culture. This experimental study investigates viewer reactions to viral political ads with various sources (politician, ordinary citizen, and anonymous), and also the impact of such ads on political attitudes. Findings show that viral ad can significantly influence viewers’ opinion of political candidates, despite the fact that the message might be anonymous. Viral ads produced by political candidates, ordinary citizens and anonymous sources received the same (low) levels of credibility among participants to this experiment. Human interest and deceptiveness in the news: faking a human face • Ingrid Bachmann, University of Texas at Austin • This study compares deceptive news stories written by 9 high-profile journalists and authentic news stories from the same news organizations. The deceptive news score higher in Rudolph Flesch’s human interest index and also are more likely to humanize the news event by presenting a human example, emphasizing the human participants and exploring their personal lives. Without the restrictions of the complex world, deceptive reporters can create more interesting, dramatic stories than their non-deceptive colleagues. Online Political Involvement and Connectivity Expectations toward Presidential Candidates Keunmin Bae, Pennsylvania State University; Pamela Brubaker, The Pennsylvania State University; Michael Horning, The Pennsylvania State University; Daniel J. Tamul, Pennsylvania State University • Scholars have demonstrated their research interest in the connections between conversation, media consumption and political participation. However, literature shows the interest can be further investigated in the context of the Internet-savvy media ecology. The current study aims to explore the causal mechanisms that involve political Internet users’ online information seeking and their participations in democratic processes before and after the 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns, taking the O-S-O-R and O-S- R-O-R models as theoretical foundations. Path analysis was employed, using a data set by Pew research center. An extended model of the O-S-R-O-R, which includes a cognitive variable at the end of the model, is presented with discussions of implications from findings. Inequality in Knowledge Acquisition, Political Discussion, and Internet Exposure: Nonlinearity in the Acquisition of Knowledge in the Internet • Sungsoo Bang, UT, Austin • By testing the knowledge gap hypothesis based on South Korea’s 2007 national survey, this study examines whether Internet use increases or decreases the knowledge gap between social classes. This study finds that there is a significant difference in Internet consumption and knowledge acquisition depending on education. The results also support the significance of political discussion in modifying the relationship between education and knowledge acquisition from the Internet. Findings demonstrate that Internet consumption fosters, rather than decreases, the gap in political knowledge between social classes. Furthermore, this study finds that the relationship between knowledge acquisition and Internet exposure is not linear but curvilinear in specific segments of the population. Nonlinearity and nonaccumulation in knowledge acquisition from the Internet of the less-educated suggest the need for a theoretical modification of the knowledge gap, which is based on the linear relationship between knowledge acquisition and media use. Are you a WOMAN? : Representation of Femininity in Two Women’s Magazines, Cleo & Her World • Iccha Basnyat, National University of Singapore; Leanne CHANG, National University of Singapore • Frames of how to be a woman reveals dominant social meanings. Therefore, content-analysis was conducted to examine portrayals of femininity vis-à-vis masculinity within frames of women’s magazines. Findings reflect a blurry line between femininity in opposition to masculinity. However, new frames of being a woman have emerged in dichotomized frames of traditional versus modern. Frames continue to create a lens for interpretation of social meanings of gendered personhood creating expectations to meet the ideal image. Sex, Race, and Misrepresentation: the Political Implications of Interracial Relationships in American Film • Carole Bell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study explored the representation of supportive and critical messages about interracial dating in popular film. More specifically, the study addressed how films depicting interracial couples encourage audiences to view these relationships within distinct political perspectives and racialized systems of belief. Using a combination of frame analysis and a cultural/critical approach, this research showed that the representation of interracial couples in American films has often been, as some scholars theorized, observably problematic and in contradiction of Hollywood’s ostensibly egalitarian ideals. Despite marked social change during the period studied, certain tropes of interracial interaction remain prominent across long periods of time- especially the association of interracial relationships with social costs from peers and family and friends, the tendency to present the interracial romance as one that is less likely to be long lasting and fully realized, and the near ubiquitous association of interracial romance with violence. ‘Every Little Thing’s Gonna Be All Right; Popular Music as a Way of Coping After the Virginia Tech Shootings • Jennifer Billinson, The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University The connection between emotion and music is one that we have come to accept as common knowledge, turning to music as a way of dealing with tragedy and grief. Although it has been explored separately throughout disciplines in the past, in order to truly understand the human connection between music and grief, I have examined literature in the fields of sociology, psychology, and anthropology, paired with uses and gratifications theory in order to explore this occurrence from a communications standpoint. The purpose of this inquiry is to examine how popular music is used in the wake of national tragedies. A textual analysis of the music used in 100 YouTube tribute videos created after the shootings at Virginia Tech was conducted in order to better understand how music was employed to heal and assuage the grief of a college campus, as well as a country. Results show that songs chosen were