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When are Fact-Checks Effective? An Experimental Study on the Inclusion of the Misinformation Source and the Source of Fact-Checks in 16 European Countries Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-03-14 Patrick F. A. van Erkel, Peter van Aelst, Claes H. de Vreese, David N. Hopmann, Jörg Matthes, James Stanyer, Nicoleta Corbu
Despite increasing academic attention, several questions about fact-checking remain unanswered. First, it remains unclear to what extent fact-checks are effective across different political and med...
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A Systematic Content Analysis of the Moral Foundations Featured in Celebrities’, Influencers’, and Athletes’ Instagram Content Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-03-14 Anaëlle J. Gonzalez, Drew P. Cingel, Laura Vandenbosch
Despite the attention that moral media content has received for many years, no research has systematically investigated the moral foundations featured in (visual) user-generated content. This is im...
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Trans Youth Sport Bans and the Facilitation of Moral Panic: A Cross-Platform Comparison of 2022 Media Narratives Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Andrew C. Billings, Leigh Moscowitz, Joshua R. Jackson, Emily Dirks, Spencer M. Tomsett
This study incorporates moral panics as a lens for investigating discussions in US news reports and on social media surrounding anti-transgender youth sports legislation. A total of 210 newspaper a...
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The Effects of Peer Mental Illness Narratives on Reducing Stigma Among U.S. Marginalized College Students Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Najma Akhther, Elizabeth Stoycheff
Mental health stigma remains a significant barrier to accessing mental health care and treatment, particularly among racial, ethnic, gender, and LGBTQIA+ underrepresented groups in the United State...
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The revolution will be hilarious: Comedy for social change and civic power Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Matthew R. Meier
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Changes and Continuity for a Second Editorial Term Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Mike Schmierbach
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Vol. 27, No. 2, 2024)
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Seeing “Us” and “Them”: How Political Symbols Polarize Through Anger, Anxiety, and Enthusiasm Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Christian Staal Bruun Overgaard, Renita Coleman
This study investigated how political symbols influence affective polarization through emotions. Integrating research on visual communication, social identity theory, and the affective contagion hy...
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Evidence of Ambivalent Sexism in Female Video Game Character Designs Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-21 Teresa Lynch, Jessica E. Tompkins, Michael Gilbert, Sage Burridge
This report shares the results of a systematic, quantitative analysis of themes resonant with ambivalent sexism in playable female video game characters. Applying principles of ambivalent sexism’s ...
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User Engagement on Facebook: Examining the Role of Visual and Verbal Politeness Cues Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-08 Fabienne Bünzli, Omid Alizadeh-Afrouzi
Nonprofit organizations have eagerly embraced Facebook as a strategic tool to reach large audiences and promote their advocacy. While there are numerous means to motivate users to engage with Faceb...
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Opinion Leadership via Conversation: How Opinion Leaders Talk About the Media Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-08 Nicole Podschuweit, Stephanie Geise
Opinion leadership is an influential concept in communication research. Although opinion leadership is established through the transmission, classification, and interpretation of mass media content...
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Examining the Dynamics of Uncivil Discourse Between Sub-National Political Officials and the Public on Twitter Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-06 Juliana L. Barbati, Stephen A. Rains, Kate Kenski, Yotam Shmargad, Steven Bethard, Kevin Coe
Despite agreement about the challenges posed by incivility for democratic discourse, much remains to be learned about how incivility manifests in interactions between the public and political elite...
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The Future of Feminism in Public Relations and Strategic Communication: A Socio-Ecological Model of Influences Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-05 Breann Murphy
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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I Do Not (Want To) Know! The Relationship Between Intentional News Avoidance and Low News Consumption Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Dominika Betakova, Hajo Boomgaarden, Sophie Lecheler, Svenja Schäfer
News avoidance is associated with misperceptions and lower political knowledge and participation. Synthetizing the research results in differentiating between intentional news avoidance, a consciou...
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Time to ‘Wine’: A Content Analysis Investigating How Social Media Influencers Refer to Alcohol Use in Instagram’s Feed Posts and Stories Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-06 Sofie Vranken, Sebastian Kurten, Kathleen Beullens
This exploratory content analysis examines how well-known social media influencers (SMIs) refer to alcohol in their Instagram stories and feed messages. Guided by the attention, retention, and moti...
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Why Do People Underestimate Polling Effects? Examining the Gap Between Actual and Perceived Polling Effects Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-02-05 Yujin Heo, Junghyun Moon, S Mo Jones-Jang, Sungeun Chung
Two major challenges have limited the advance of our knowledge about people’s bias in perceived polling effects compared with actual polling effects. The first challenge comes from a methodological...
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Media Salience Shifts and the Public’s Perceptions About Reality: How Fluctuations in News Media Attention Influence the Strength of Citizens’ Sociotropic Beliefs Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-01-29 Monika Djerf-Pierre, Adam Shehata, Bengt Johansson
This article examines whether shifts in news media attention to societal issues matter for how strong beliefs citizens have about those issues. Based on an issue signal approach, in which media sal...
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Picturing Tragedy: A Content Analysis of the Publication of Graphic Images in Newspapers Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-01-23 Gabriela Ruhl Ibarra, Jonathan van ’t Riet, Mariska Kleemans, Marieke Fransen
For decades, the inclusion of graphic photographs in the news has been a matter of controversy. One important criticism made by news audiences is that the publication of graphic imagery could be gu...
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The Scary World Syndrome: News Orientations, Negativity Bias, and the Cultivation of Anxiety Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-01-23 Kim Andersen, Monika Djerf-Pierre, Adam Shehata
Negativity bias is one of the most salient features of news reporting. According to cultivation theory, this bias can foster anxiety about societal issues among news audiences. The relationship is,...
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Comedy for Racial Justice? The Mediating Roles of Narrative Mechanisms and Perceived Humor Types on Persuasive Outcomes Related to Racially Biased Policing Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-01-19 Corinne Weinstein, Lauren Feldman
Despite the greater attention brought to systemically racist policing practices through protest movements in recent years, police in the United States continue to target racial minorities with aggr...
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Miscommunicating the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Asian Perspective Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-01-19 Reviewed by Wenjing Pan
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Ahead of Print, 2024)
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Scriptwriters’ Conceptions of Audience Attitudes Toward LGBTQ+ Characters Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-01-19 María T. Soto-Sanfiel, Isabel Villegas-Simón
Drawing on media production studies, this research observes the understudied figure of the scriptwriters of fictional series to identify their feelings about different audiences and the way they re...
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Who Says “Muslims Are Not Terrorists”? News Differentiation, Muslim versus Non-Muslim Sources, and Attitudes toward Muslims Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2024-01-09 Ruta Kaskeleviciute, Helena Knupfer, Jörg Matthes
Media coverage on terrorism can lead to negative attitudes toward Muslims. We theorize that undifferentiated news—i.e., not explicitly distinguishing Muslims from terrorists—can accelerate these ne...
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Worn Out & Tuned Out: Does Politics Fatigue on Social Media Foster Participatory Inequality Among Americans? Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Daniel S. Lane, Nancy Molina-Rogers, Emilija Gagrčin
In this paper, we take seriously evidence of growing politics fatigue on social media among Americans and consider how this fatigue might ultimately foster participatory inequalities on these platf...
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Political Opinion Leaders in High-Choice Information Environments: Are They More Informed Than Others? Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-11-27 Jesper Strömbäck, Elina Lindgren, Yariv Tsfati, Alyt Damstra, Rens Vliegenthart, Hajo Boomgaarden, Elena Broda, Noelle Lebernegg, Sebastian Galyga
One implication of the transition to high-choice media environments is that what information people are exposed to depends less than on journalistic curation and more on social, algorithmic, and pe...
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‘Look at How Corrupt They Are!’: How Anti-Political Discourse from Politicians Affects Their Own Image and the Image of Politics Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Dieter Dekeyser, Henk Roose
In this article, we use a survey experiment (N = 1,626) to test whether anti-political Facebook messages from politicians improve the character evaluation of the messenger while damaging the image ...
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Why We Broke Up with X (And You Should Too) Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-10-25 Mike Schmierbach
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Vol. 26, No. 6, 2023)
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I Participate in Politics Because the News is Influential Against Me: Hostile Media Perception, Third-Person Perception, and Political Participation Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-10-26 Seungsu Lee, Kyungmo Kim
The present study examines the interactive roles of hostile media perception (HMP) and third-person perception (TPP) on political participation. In the context of partisan news and polarized politi...
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Examining the Role of Distrust in Science and Social Media Use: Effects on Susceptibility to COVID Misperceptions with Panel Data Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-10-16 Sangwon Lee, S Mo Jones-Jang, Myojung Chung, Edmund W. J. Lee, Trevor Diehl
Trust in scientific actors and institutions in the United States is at an all-time low. At the same time, studies show that people use social media for science information and become increasingly v...
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Responses to Mental Health Care Posts by Social Media Influencers: The Moderating Effects of Previous Experience and Follower Involvement Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-10-13 Olivia Simone Reed
Mental health information on social media is more often communicated by regular users as opposed to healthcare professionals, and a subset of these regular users, social media influencers, are empl...
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Exploring the Audience of Alternative News Media: Trust, Reflexivity, and Political Attitudes in the Czech Republic Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-10-10 Alena Macková, lenka Hrbková, jakub Macek
This study explores the audiences of Czech alternative news media (ANM) and seeks the predictors for its use. It examines the relationship between ANM usage and trust in mainstream media, media ref...
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A Meta-Analytical Review of the Determinants of Social Media Discontinuance Intentions Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-09-29 Guangchao Charles Feng, Xianglin Su, Yiru He
The use of social media has grown tremendously, but a considerable number of individuals have stopped using it. This meta-analysis aims to examine the factors that contribute to discontinuing socia...
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The Dynamics of Information-Seeking Repertoires: A Cross-Sectional Latent Class Analysis of Information-Seeking During the COVID-19 Pandemic Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-09-20 Sofia Johansson, Bengt Johansson, Johannes Johansson
Understanding audiences’ information-seeking behaviors during a societal crisis it vital for effective crisis communication. Prior research has identified how individuals combine information source...
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Fuming Mad and Jumping with Joy: Emotional Responses to Uncivil and Post-Truth Communication by Populist and Non-Populist Politicians on Facebook During the COVID-19 Crisis Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-09-21 Alena Kluknavská, Martina Novotná, Olga Eisele
Social networking sites offer politicians an opportunity to mobilize followers through carefully crafted messages appealing to their emotions. We examine the effects of uncivil and post-truth commu...
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Adolescents’ Remembering of Sexual Television Narratives and Their Relations with Positive Sexuality Components: A Biographic Resonance Perspective Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-09-20 Chelly Maes, Ulrike Schwertberger, Diana Rieger, Laura Vandenbosch
Little to no knowledge exists about television’s role in the sexual socialization of adolescents from the perspective of remembrance and resonance of narratives dealing with sexuality. The current ...
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Taking Political Alternative Media into Account: Investigating the Linkage Between Media Repertories and (Mis)perceptions. Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-09-06 Rens Vliegenthart, Jesper Stromback, Hajo Boomgaarden, Elena Broda, Alyt Damstra, Elina Lindgren, Yariv Tsfati, Annelien Van Remoortere
ABSTRACT In most studies on news repertoires and the linkage between media use and (mis)perceptions of social and political matters, the use of political alternative media has not been included. In this paper, we therefore investigate how people combine both traditional and political alternative media into different media repertoires, and how these media repertoires are related to misperceptions. We
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Temporal Framing in Balanced News Coverage of Artificial Intelligence and Public Attitudes Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-09-06 Sukyoung Choi
This study investigates how balanced news coverage, presenting both the positive and negative aspects of artificial intelligence (AI), may lead to attitudinal changes among the public when it is pa...
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“Everything Else is Public Relations” How Rural Journalists Draw the Boundary Between Journalism and Public Relations in Rural Communities Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-08-31 Mildred F. Perreault, Jessica Fargen Walsh, Louisa Lincoln, Gregory Perreault, Ruth Moon
Rural journalists are news professionals, but also citizens engaged in their communities. The function and purpose of local journalism and public relations have become interdependent as media and c...
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Media Representations and Capabilities: An Intergroup Analysis of Muslim Arabs, Bedouin, Druze, and Christian Arabs Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-08-31 Baruch Shomron
This study examines the media representations of the four Palestinian-Israeli subgroups (Muslim Arabs, Bedouins, Druze, and Christian Arabs) in the Israeli broadcast media. This breaks with the emp...
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Real-World Developments Predict Immigration News in Right-Wing Media: Evidence from Germany Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-08-31 Christian S. Czymara
Exclusionist positions on immigration have become a key component of right-wing ideology in most countries around the world. Combining group threat and news values theory, this study sheds light on...
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Mapping the Media Genome: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Analysis of News Framing of Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing Kits Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-08-02 Christopher M. Dobmeier, Yotam Ophir, Dror Walter, Austin Y. Hubner
ABSTRACT Despite their heightening popularity and potential individual and societal implications, little scientific attention has been given to the news coverage of direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) kits (e.g. 23andMe, AncestryDNA, and MyHeritage). To accommodate, this study leverages the Analysis of Topic Model Networks to inductively develop a comprehensive overview of how major U.S. news
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Share to Stop the Harm: How Social Media Metrics Drive Sharing of Fact-Checking Messages via First-Person Perception Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-07-26 Myojung Chung
ABSTRACT While fact-checking has received much attention as an important tool to address the prevalence of misinformation, how to ensure fact-checking messages spread as far and wide as misinformation remains to be studied. To fill this gap, this study examined when people decide to share fact-checking messages on social media and what psychological mechanisms underlie such a decision. Two experiments
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Minding Children’s Media Morals: Parents’ Moral Foundation Salience Differentially Relates to Attitudes and Motivations Toward Children’s Educational Media Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-07-03 Drew P. Cingel, Allyson L. Snyder, Samantha L. Vigil
ABSTRACT Guided by Moral Foundations Theory and the Model of Intuitive Morality and Exemplars (MIME), we examined the relationships between parents’ moral foundation salience and their attitudes and motivations toward using educational media with their young children (N = 449; child ages 4–7 years). Although research has shown that individuals’ moral foundation salience predicts their own liking and
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The Handbook on Religion and Communication Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-06-30 Cylor Spaulding
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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When Appearance Social Comparison Benefits Women’s Body Satisfaction: Examining the Effects of Viewing Lean Sports Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-06-30 Yin Yang, Zizhuo Yin
While media representations of female athletes in lean sports often lead to negative body image perceptions in female audiences, media images depicting athletes playing sports may generate positive...
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A Social Identity Model of Localized Social Media Dependency During Post-Earthquake Disaster Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-06-28 Jinhee Kim, Yong-Chan Kim, Mihye Seo
ABSTRACT Intra- and inter-group dynamics involving local identity have rarely been examined in media contexts. Drawing on Media System Dependency and Social Identity Perspectives, we examine the information power of localized social media (LSM) during post-earthquake disaster. The quake-affected city, Pohang in South Korea, is relatively small-sized and geographically peripheral compared to the Seoul
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A Direct and Indirect Effect of Third-Person Perception of COVID-19 Fake News on Support for Fake News Regulation on Social Media: Investigating the Role of Negative Emotions and Political Views Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-06-21 Mihee Kim
ABSTRACT Based on the third-person effect theory, the present study explored the direct and indirect relationships between the third-person perception of fake news and public support for fake news regulations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study found that the direct effect of the third-person perception of COVID-19 fake news on the support for fake news regulations was significant and
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Politics of Disinformation: The Influence of Fake News on the Public Sphere Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-06-12 Reviewed by Yongjin Wang
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Vol. 26, No. 6, 2023)
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The Impact of Familiarity with a Communicator on the Persuasive Effectiveness of Pandemic-Related Fear Appeals Explained Through Parasocial Relationships Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-05-22 Nicole Liebers, Achim Vogel, Priska Breves, Holger Schramm
ABSTRACT Parasocial relationships can improve the effectiveness of persuasive messages such as advertising. However, little is known about the role of parasocial relationships in the processing of fear appeals—a communication strategy that, despite its popularity, often evokes unwanted responses such as reactance. Perceived self-efficacy is one key variable that determines whether a fear appeal improves
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COVID-19 in International Media: Global Pandemic Perspectives Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-05-16 Raluca Cozma
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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Pragmatics Online Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-05-16 Mila Ida Nurhidayah
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Vol. 27, No. 1, 2024)
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Intention to Participate in Social Activism Activities in Response to Corporate Social Advocacy: A Third-Person Effect Perspective Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-05-08 Xueying Zhang
Drawing on the theory of third-person effect (TPE) and the discrepancy motives model, the current study examined corporate social advocacy’s (CSA’s) influence on the public’s intention to participa...
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Correction Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-05-05
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Vol. 26, No. 4, 2023)
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Another Point of View: Scholarly Responses to the State of Third-Person Research Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-05-01 Mike Schmierbach, Julie Andsager, Stephen Banning, Myujung Chung, Ben Lyons, Douglas M. McLeod, Patrick C. Meirick, Zhongdang Pan, Hernando Rojas, Ye Sun
ABSTRACT In a series of essays, scholars respond to Perloff and Shen’s article, “The Third-Person Effect 40 Years After Davison Penned It.” They offer further thoughts on how to measure the phenomenon, where future research is headed, and even whether the effect is real.
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The Third-Person Effect 40 Years After Davison Penned It: What We Know and Where We Should Traverse Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-05-01 Richard M. Perloff, Lijiang Shen
ABSTRACT Forty years ago in 1983, W. Phillips Davison coined the term “third-person effect,” generating a robust outpouring of research. This paper places the third-person effect in the contemporary age, one vastly different from the era in which Davison conceptualized perceptions of media effects. The article first describes the historical, sociological climate in which Davison operated, noting how
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The Effects of Responsibility Frames and Stigmatizing Headlines in News on Support for COVID-19 Policies in Korea: The Mediating Roles of Responsibility Attribution and Emotions Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-05-01 Lim In-jae, Minsun Shim, Chul-joo Lee, Se-Hoon Jeong, Hyojin Lee
Abstract This study examined the mechanisms through which responsibility frames and stigmatizing headlines influence support for governmental policies to address the pandemic. Based on a factorial design experiment, we examined the effects of 2 responsibility frames (individual vs. societal responsibility) and 4 headline types (non-stigmatized vs. name-stigmatized vs. characteristic-stigmatized vs
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Rethinking the New Technology of Journalism: How Slowing Down Will Save the News Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-04-18 Sally Farhat
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Vol. 27, No. 2, 2024)
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Linguistic Inference Framing: A Linguistic Category Approach to Framing Crisis Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-04-03 Xiaochen Zhang, Jonathan Borden
Abstract This study proposes Linguistic Inference Framing, a linguistic category approach to framing, which can be used to understand the effects of implicit inference language frames on audience perceptions. Study 1, a 2 (language inference frame: low vs. high) x 2 (replication) experiment, demonstrated that high inference language frame leads to higher attribution perceptions in a corporate crisis
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Police, Violence, and the “Logic of Damage”: Comparing U.S. and Chilean Media Portrayals of Protests Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-04-03 Summer Harlow, Ingrid Bachmann
Drawing from the protest paradigm and the mediation opportunity structure, this study textually analyzes mainstream and alternative media coverage of the 2019 inequality protests in Chile and the 2...
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Older Adult Representations, Stereotypes, and Interpersonal Competence in Christmas Television Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-04-03 Susan L. Kline, Elizabeth B. Jones, Katey A. Price, Xiaodan Hu
Recognizing the need to monitor the television depictions of older adults (OAs) we used social cognitive theory to study OA representations, stereotypes, and appearances in the understudied genre o...
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Social Media & Capitalism: People, Communities and Commodities Mass Communication and Society (IF 3.256) Pub Date : 2023-03-30 Yeling Xu, Qian Chu
Published in Mass Communication and Society (Vol. 27, No. 1, 2024)