Does 3D Make Sense for Hollywood? The Economic Implications of Adding a Third Dimension to Hedonic Media Products

This article examines the economic effect of the 3D feature on movie success by using secondary data from all movies released in digital 3D between 2004 and 2011, and a 2D control sample. Using propensity score matching, the authors provide evidence for a sample selection bias that leads to an overestimation of the 3D effect if not accounted for. Matching results show that 3D movies are, on average, not economically advantageous when compared with 2D “twins.” However, subsequent weighted least squares regression analyses find that the impact of 3D on movie success varies in a non-linear, inverted U-shaped way with a “trend” variable that measures the point in time of a movie release and with a number of movie genres. A post-hoc analysis shows that a consumer's decision to attend a 3D screening of a 3D movie (instead of a 2D screening) is influenced by several factors, including whether the film is originally shot in 3D or the 3D element is added during postproduction.     

Does Media Coverage of a Celebrity Suicide Trigger Copycat Suicides?: Evidence from Korean Cases

This article investigates the link between media coverage of celebrity suicides and the nation’s suicide rate. The instrumental variable regression is applied to suicide data from Statistics Korea and the media coverage data on celebrity suicides from Mediagaon of the Korea Press Foundation during the period from 1997 to 2009. The estimation results demonstrate that Korean celebrity suicides have significantly increased suicide rates, whereas non-Korean celebrity suicides have not. Moreover, greater media coverage of Korean celebrity suicides is associated with an increase in suicide rates. These findings shed light on the importance of media policy in the prevention of copycat suicides.     

Spain: An Information Society Without Traditional Offline Community Media?

Community radio and television in Spain are not yet fully regulated. It was 2005 in Catalonia and 2010 in Spain before some recognition of this kind of media was included in audiovisual regulations, and then it was marginally and the licensing process was not yet established. Despite this lack of regulation, however, in Spain there are several community or alternative media operating. This article examines the evolution of communication policies regarding these media, and the main issues of discussion in their regulation, to see whether the process and the results of this regulation fit the promises of a deeper democracy implicit in the Information Society project.     

What Does It Take to Make a Great Library?

No abstract available for this article.     

What Drives Media Bias? New Evidence From Recent Newspaper Closures

With the advent of the Internet, many U.S. metropolitan areas have seen newspaper closures due to declining revenues. This provides the researcher with an opportunity to analyze the microeconomic sources of media bias. This article uses a large panel dataset of newspaper archives for 99 newspapers over 240 months (1990–2009). The author found that, after controlling for the unemployment rate, the change in unemployment rate, and the political preferences of surrounding metropolitan area, conservative newspapers report 17.4% more unemployment news when the President is a Democrat rather than a Republican, before the closure of a rival newspaper in the same media market. This effect is 12.8% for liberal newspapers. After the closure, these numbers are 3.5% and 1.1%, respectively. This moderation of media bias after closure of a rival newspaper is robust to the inclusion of newspaper size, newspaper fixed-effects or metropolitan area fixed-effects as controls. The author also found that newspapers in smaller metropolitan areas have a larger moderation in their bias. Findings provide support for theories in which media bias is demand-driven, as surviving newspapers aim to increase their sales by gaining the former readers of a closed newspaper in the same media market.     

Does grant funding foster research impact? Evidence from France

Policymakers are interested in assessing the effectiveness of the competitive grant funding model in producing impactful research. In the French context, we compare the impact of scientific articles supported by competitive grants with the impact of articles not supported by grants using a probabilistic matching procedure. We rely on publication acknowledgments to retrieve funding information and on citation data to assess the articles’ impact. We find that articles supported by competitive grants receive more citations than articles not supported by grants in the long run, while the difference is not significant in the short run. We find heterogeneity across fields.     

Media pluralism: What matters for governance and regulation?

Media pluralism is valued in most jurisdictions because it contributes to a well-informed citizenry. The authors examine what media policy and regulatory levers appear to affect five types of citizen knowledge across the European Union. They conclude that concentration of titles matters more than ownership in newsprint; and that neither type of concentration matters in broadcasting in the same way, but the regulatory regime for public service broadcasting does, particularly for political knowledge.     

Does Title-By-Title Selection Make a Difference? A Usage Analysis on Print Monograph Purchasing

This article compares the usage of print monographs acquired through firm orders and approval plans to determine whether title-by-title book selection makes a difference. The circulation data of print monographs acquired in a four-year period were extracted and separated according to their acquisition methods. Usage data were analyzed according to the Library of Congress Classification system and library's three subject area groups (Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences). The results indicate that books acquired via firm orders had a higher circulation rate in almost all subject areas. The authors discuss how the findings can be used to inform future collection practices.     

Do We Need to Go Cellular? Assessing Political Media Consumption Using a Single-Frame Landline/Cellular Survey Design

Much research has been published on cellular phone only households and the challenges posed by cellular phones to traditional survey methodologies that attempt to generate representative samples using only landline telecommunications. This study reports analyses comparing two separate survey strata (N _landline = 152, N _cellular = 153) collected simultaneously and nested within a single-frame survey of a state in the American Midwest for differences in demographics, political orientations, individual differences, and a variety of political media consumption variables. Focus is also given to differences among audience variables that predict various forms of political media use across the two survey strata.     

Does Watching Television Actually Make One Nicer? The Use of Conflict Management Message Styles

A telephone survey of 122 respondents was conducted to examine whether exposure to television predicted the use of certain conflict management message styles. Television exposure was not a significant predictor of using a “self-oriented” or “issue-oriented” approach. However, it was a significant predictor of using an “other-oriented” approach to conflict management. Viewers with greater exposure to television were more likely to report using positive message responses when dealing with conflict than their lighter-viewing counterparts.     

What is a Media Company? A Reconceptualization for the Online World

The current understanding of a media company is based on the idea of a publisher or broadcaster producing or aggregating, bundling, and distributing content. In this scenario, the content creation mainly is done by professionals. However, with the advent of mobile devices and ubiquitous Internet access, users have been enabled to produce content themselves. This gave rise to a new form of media companies: the platform operators, who aggregate, manage, and distribute user-generated content. Based on a historical summary, this article delineates the characteristics of this new approach of content distribution, draws comparisons to the traditional media companies, derives implications for the media markets, and provides a definition for the term media company that is valid in both the online and offline world.     

Does Commercialized Political Coverage Undermine Political Trust?: Evidence Across European Countries

Media commercialization has long been suspected of exerting a negative influence upon political culture. The news media's interest in intrigues, personal details, and scandals rather than political issues in order to capture audience attention is regarded by many as a prime source of political cynicism. This article scrutinizes this claim by examining whether a commercialized media environment correlates with lower levels of citizen political trust across countries. Integrating cross-national survey data with country-level measures of commercialized political coverage, the findings indicate that, across 33 European countries, a negative link exists between media commercialization and political trust. Replication of the analysis with a separate cross-national survey across 28 countries demonstrated the robustness of the findings. These support the claim that media commercialization undermines political trust.     

Does the Digital Divide Matter More? Comparing the Effects of New Media and Old Media Use on the Education-Based Knowledge Gap

As the Internet has become increasingly widespread in the world, some researchers suggested a conceptual shift of the digital divide from material access to actual use. Although this shift has been incorporated into the more broad social inclusion agenda, the social consequences of the digital divide have not yet received adequate attention. Recognizing that political knowledge is a critical social resource associated with power and inclusion, this study empirically examines the relationship between the digital divide and the knowledge gap. Based on the 2008–2009 American National Election Studies panel data, this research found that, supporting the shift of the academic agenda, socioeconomic status is more closely associated with the informational use of the Internet than with access to the Internet. In addition, socioeconomic status is more strongly related to the informational use of the Internet than with that of the traditional media, particularly newspapers and television. More importantly, the differential use of the Internet is associated with a greater knowledge gap than that of the traditional media. These findings suggest that the digital divide, which can be better defined as inequalities in the meaningful use of information and communication technologies, matters more than its traditional counterpart.     

Does the Federal government need an A-130 for STI?

The article argues that the Federal government needs to develop special government-wide policies, similar to OMB Circular No. A-130, which would be applicable to scientific and technical information (STI). After exploring the relation between government information and government STI, the author points out that Federal statistics has its own special set of policies known as Statistical Policy Directives. STI's situation is different from other government information because it is carried out in the culture of science and academia, in the culture of classified information and export controls, and in the international arena. A policy circular for STI would touch on Federal research and development, technology transfer, classified and export control information, international considerations, interagency sharing, and several existing areas of policy. The Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, or the National Science and Technology Council could issue the policy.     

Does TV Viewing Cultivate Meritocratic Beliefs? Implications for Life Satisfaction

The purpose of this article was to explore the cultivation effects of television viewing on meritocratic belief systems (particularly, system justification) and ultimately on perceived life satisfaction. Results of a cross-sectional survey (N = 276) reveal that genre-specific TV viewing cultivates system-justifying beliefs. More specifically, findings suggest that heavy viewing of competition-based reality TV viewing shapes viewers' economic system-justifying beliefs (i.e., the belief that the economic system is fair and legitimate, rewarding those who put in the effort and hard work). Economic system justifying beliefs, in turn, were shown to enhance viewers' perceived life satisfaction.     

Evidence based library and information practice: what's in it for you?

With its roots in evidence‐based medicine, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice emerged 15 years ago and, with health librarians leading the way, has since been adopted by librarians and libraries in all sectors. EBLIP is an iterative process that may see you undertaking your own research although most likely, it will see you integrate your experience as a library and information professionals with research evidence generated both within and without the library science sector. As a library and information worker, you can use the Evidence Based Library and Information Practice process to help inform your decision‐making, streamline services and identify ways forward to fit your personal context.