Sent from My iPhone: The Medium and Message as Cues of Sender Professionalism in Mobile Telephony

The growing ubiquity of mobile telephony able to send e-mail raises new questions, and renews old issues, about the effect of the medium on a message. This article reports experimental results testing effects of user- and medium-generated cues on perceptions of message senders. Grounded in warranting theory, we assess the interaction of low- and high-warrant cues on perceptions of the sender's professionalism, hypothesizing senders of grammatically accurate messages are perceived as more credible. However, we also hypothesize an interaction between grammatical accuracy and the system-generated high-warrant cues from the mobile device used to send the message. Responses from 111 students assessing the credibility of an e-mail sender indicate that, although a message's user-generated content (grammatically accurate vs. erred) influences receiver's perceptions, negative attributions are attenuated by cues reflecting the transmission medium (i.e., a message's mobile signature block). Findings offer theoretical implications for warranting theory. Additionally, results suggest practitioners need to craft a message and indicate the transmission medium strategically to mitigate any impacts on attributions of professionalism to message receivers.     

浅析网络议程设置的特色

议程设置理论的提出基于传统媒体环境。强有力的传播者、处于被动状态中的受众和传统媒体的有限性为实现媒介的议程设置提供了主、客观的保障。然而 ,网络中传播权泛化、信息获取高度自由、时空无限将“议程设置”理论的传统基础一一打破。但打破并不意味着网络不能设置议程。本文分析了网络传播中议程设置在议题设置者、议题内容及议题设置所依赖的技术三方面不同于传统媒体的特色。     

Talking to Ourselves: A Content Analysis of NPR's Use of Journalists as Sources

National Public Radio (NPR) has built its reputation on in-depth analysis and unbiased reporting of information based on questions its reporters ask, the ways reporters tell their stories, and NPR's use of journalists as sources within their stories. This article focuses on understanding how these journalist-sources are used and how this practice contributes to the larger issues of source credibility facing media today. A content analysis of NPR's All Things Considered programming from 1999 to 2009 shows that NPR journalists are used as sources more often in stories about philosophical topics and significantly less often in stories that contain more hard data.     

How can Journalists Promote News Credibility? Effects of Evidences on Trust and Credibility

ABSTRACT

With reference to the current debate about a loss of trust in news media, journalism experts in practice and research often demand that journalists should concentrate on enhancing the quality of their reporting and hence focus on facts and evidences. Building on research on trust and credibility, we investigate how the use of different forms of evidences affects the credibility and quality evaluation of news stories, as well as the reading experience from the audience’s perspective. We conducted an online experiment to detect the influence of the presence of scientific sources, statistical information, and their visualization in an online article. Our findings indicate that these evidences increase the perceived credibility. At the same time, we found that adding scientific sources, statistical data and, visualizations to an article does not lessen its reading enjoyment but improves its perceived vividness in the view of news users. Further results and implications are discussed.     

Putting Radio Localism to the Test: An Experimental Study of Listener Responses to Locality of Origination and Ownership

This experimental study tested localism's influence on listener first impressions of radio programs and stations. Subjects heard program excerpts manipulated to test ownership and locality of origination. Dependent variables were affective response and medium credibility. Respondents in a Southeastern U.S. city (n = 331) heard excerpts manipulated to sound either locally originated or national, on stations ranging from low-power FMs to national groups such as Clear Channel Worldwide. Results showed slight preferences for local origination and a marginal preference for local ownership. Combining the independent variables in a 2 × 2 test strengthened differences, but the interaction term was not significant.     

Readers' Perspectives on Advertising's Influence in Women's Magazines: Thoughts on Two Practices

This study explores how consumers react to advertisers' attempts to influence editorial content of media. Two practices are explored: complementary editorial (magazines giving editorial mentions to advertisers' products or services) and attempts at content censorship. Specifically, the study looks at how adult female readers of women's magazines make sense of the 2 aforementioned practices. Findings indicate that women believe editorial mentions of advertisers' products and services can be useful. Based on what the women in this study stated, attempts by advertisers to prevent media content from being published has greater potential to damage the credibility of both the advertiser and the magazine. Participants drew a basic distinction between the practices of complementary editorial and advertiser influence to prevent content: Editorial provides information, but advertiser influence to prevent content denies information.     

Editors' Preface: Media Bias and the Effect of Patriotism on Baseball Viewership

This article establishes a 2-sided media market in which readers have heterogeneous beliefs, media outlets choose their reporting biases, and advertisement prices are determined by bargaining between media outlets and advertisers. The authors have shown that the presence of advertisers strengthens the reporting bias. The bias is increasing in the advertisers' bargaining power and is generally stronger if the advertisers can advertise in multiple outlets. Finally, the authors present an extension of the model on the formation of joint operating agreements for advertising sales among competing newspapers and show that the media bias will be mitigated.     

Effects of celebrity-organization congruence on audience attitudes,preferences, and credibility ratings for goodwill ambassadors

This study examined the effects of congruence between an organization and its goodwill ambassador in terms of audience attitudes and preferences regarding the organization and the ambassador's own perceived credibility. The analysis showed that audience attitudes and preferences toward the organization and goodwill ambassador's credibility ratings were, generally, more positive with higher levels of celebrity-organization congruence. Comparison of the ambassador's perceived credibility before and after exposure to the campaign showed a significant decline for low congruence, and either no statistical difference or a negative effect for high congruence. The results suggest a need for both the organization and the potential ambassador to take into account the level of congruence, the former when considering the effect with the public from using a celebrity as an ambassador, and the latter when considering his or her personal image management. Theoretical and managerial implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.     

Public Trust or Mistrust? Perceptions of Media Credibility in the Information Age

This article explores perceptions of news credibility for television, newspapers, and online news. A survey was administered to a randomly selected sample of residents in Austin, Texas, to assess people's attitudes toward these 3 media channels. Contingent factors that might influence news credibility perceptions, such as media use and interpersonal discussion of news, were incorporated into the analysis. Findings suggest that people are generally skeptical of news emanating from all 3 media channels but do rate newspapers with the highest credibility, followed by online news and television news, respectively. Furthermore, opinions about news credibility seem to be correlated across media outlets. The data also show a moderate negative linkage between interpersonal discussion of news and perceptions of media credibility for television news but not for newspapers. When controlling for basic demographics, a positive correlation was found between interpersonal communication and online news credibility. Finally, a marginal association was noted between media use and public perceptions of credibility across all 3 media channels.     

Determinants of social media information credibility among university students

This research explored the perceptions of university students about the credibility of information being shared on Facebook. The data were collected using an online questionnaire from university students who were Facebook users. A total of 325 usable responses were received which were analyzed using SPSS. The results revealed that these students perceive information shared on Facebook as credible and of good quality. The source credibility, medium credibility, and information quality had positive and significant relationships with each other. The age, social background, and educational level of students appeared to predict the credibility of information shared on Facebook. These results are useful for information professionals and social media managers in extent to understand and cater to the demands of information consumers. These findings would also be helpful for teachers, information providers, and researchers to understand the perspectives of developing countries' students on the credibility of social media information. Furthermore, this study is supposed to be a valuable addition in existing literature which could provide guidelines for novice researchers, interested in exploring the area, especially in the context of Facebook users in a developing country's context.     

Correlations of Media Habits Across Time,Generations, and Media Modalities

This study investigates media uses and preferences across two generations and across television and video games. Path analyses using data from 335 families show that the number of hours of television viewed by the first generation (parents at age 30) positively predicts the amount of television use by their offspring in the second generation 18 years later, as well as their own amount of television viewing at that time. The analyses also show that the amount of video game playing among offspring is significantly related to their own as well as their parents' concurrent TV use. While there is no similar longitudinal correlation between a preference for violent television by parents at age 30 and that of their offspring 18 years later, parents' violent television preferences at age 48 are positively correlated with their offspring's concurrent preference for violent television content. Additionally, the violent television preferences of offspring are positively correlated with their own preferences for violent video games. These effects were found while controlling for SES, intellectual achievement, and offspring gender. These results suggest that the amount of time devoted to media use and preferences for violent media generalize across media modalities and are transmitted across generations.     

Attachment styles and the evaluation of comforting responses: A receiver perspective

The current study explored emotional distress and comforting messages from a receiver's perspective. This approach differs from most comforting research, which focuses on the sender's ability to provide comfort. After reading a scenario that depicted a major distressing event or a daily distressing event, subjects selected the Burleson and Samter (1985) comforting strategy that would most alleviate their emotional distress. In an attempt to explain a subject's perceptions of comforting, attachment styles, likelihood of seeking support, and level of emotional discomfort were also assessed. Results indicated that subjects desired a mid‐level comforting response regardless of whether they were distressed over a daily event or major event. This result is counter to the sender oriented comforting research, which suggests that providing higher‐level comforting responses is optimal. Subjects in the death scenario were more upset by the event and more likely to seek social support. Secure attachment subjects desired a significantly higher‐level comforting message than anxious/ambivalent and avoidant individuals. Additionally, females desired a higher level comforting response, were more likely to be upset by the distress, and were more likely to seek support than males.     

Compliance‐gaining strategies and communicator role: An analysis of strategy choices and persuasive efficacy

This study investigated not only those compliance‐gaining strategies senders are likely to use but also those strategies to which receivers are likely to respond. Results indicated that persuasive efficacy is maximized when explanation, direct request, and ingratiation are employed, while more punishing strategies such as threat and guilt are mutually perceived as ineffective. The interaction effect of size of request with communicator role proved to be minimal.     

Kern,Jonathan. (2008). Sound reporting: The NPR guide to audio journalism and production

This article examines the emergence of local radio in a rural southeastern Turkish city called Sanllurfa in the early 7990s following the end of the state's media monopoly on broadcasting. Informed by a media ethnography conducted there in 2001, this article discusses local debates over the content and quality of local radio and the influence of the state's official cultural policies on the programming decisions of local radio owners, managers, and DJs. This paper also illustrates Turkish young people's local and national radio preferences, their responses to local programming and on-air personalities, and the meaning of music and local radio in their lives.     

Negotiating the role of sources: Educators' conceptions of credibility in participatory media

Participatory media are commonly used in today's society for a variety of purposes. The credibility associated with these media is sometimes contested, and their acceptance into school practices has been debated. Focus group interviews with teachers and librarians in upper secondary schools in Sweden are used to investigate conceptions and experiences of activities involving the critical evaluation of participatory media, with a particular focus on Wikipedia. Three themes are addressed. The first concerns how the teaching of the critical evaluation of sources is organized and comanaged between teachers and librarians. The second describes educators' experiences of print versus digital media, and their worry because students have problems negotiating the information architecture of print media. The third theme deals with conceptions of the credibility of Wikipedia. Four conceptions of credibility are identified: credibility is associated with the control and stability of a source; it is considered to be strengthened when several sources support a claim; it is viewed as situational and partial, rather than absolute; and it is associated with a multiplicity of voices and democratic forms of production. These findings may be used to inform educational activities around credibility and authority in schools by raising self-awareness among educators of various ways to talk about the credibility of sources with both colleagues and students.     

Media Plurality and the Intensity of Readers' Political Preferences

In this article, the author studied the effect of the intensity of readers' political preferences on the news firms' incentives to choose between a single- and a multi-ideology strategy (i.e., media uniformity vs. media plurality). The author shows that alternative formalizations of the intensity of readers' preferences alter the equilibrium level of media plurality, given that they affect demand for news. In particular, when the readers' disutility of consuming news that differs from their ideal variety is relatively high for politically close news, the media firms choose a multi-ideology strategy, because the increase in demand is large. On the contrary, when the readers' disutility of consuming news that differs from their ideal variety is relatively low for politically close news, media firms choose a single-ideology strategy because a multi-ideology strategy does not significantly increase demand.     

Social Media Type Matters: Investigating the Relationship Between Motivation and Online Social Network Heterogeneity

This study investigated relationships between social media motivation, relative preferences for social media type, and network heterogeneity, using a U.S. national survey. By classifying social media into the symmetrical and the asymmetrical, we showed that relationship motivation was more likely to be associated with a preference for the symmetrical type, whereas information motivation with a preference for the asymmetrical. Network heterogeneity was positively predicted by relationship motivation but not by information motivation. Finally, a relative preference for the symmetrical type was found to mediate the association between relationship motivation and network heterogeneity.     

Distance Learners' Self-efficacy and Information Literacy Skills

This study investigates distance learners' information literacy skills in using digital library resources and the factors (online learning and information manipulation) that correlate with learners' information seeking self-efficacy. In addition, distance learners' preferences with regard to digital resources selection and interests of developing information seeking skills were examined. 3517 students enrolled in one or more distance education courses were invited to participate in the online survey; 219 students completed the survey, for a response rate of 6.2%. The results revealed that distance learners who have higher self-efficacy for information seeking and proficiency in information manipulation exhibited higher self-efficacy for online learning. Moreover, students with high self-efficacy demonstrated superior knowledge of digital resources selection. Students who have low self-efficacy with regard to information seeking were more likely to express interest in learning how to use the library resources, although learning techniques for database searching was the exception.     

“网络为王”时代的媒体公信力认定——网络媒体评价指标与方法

网络媒体的迅速扩张表明其在信息传播中的地位与作用越来越重要，但是这种新媒体也面临着有效传播的问题，要建立网络媒体的公信力，首先要对其进行评价和认定。通过定性和定量的方法，对网络媒体的利用率、网络信息质量、网络影响力等的评价是目前对网络媒体公信力评价的基本方法。