Did Social Media Really Matter? College Students' Use of Online Media and Political Decision Making in the 2008 Election

This study examined college students' use of online media for political purposes in the 2008 election. Social media attention, online expression, and traditional Internet attention were assessed in relation to political self-efficacy and situational political involvement. Data from a Web survey of college students showed significant positive relationships between attention to traditional Internet sources and political self-efficacy and situational political involvement. Attention to social media was not significantly related to political self-efficacy or involvement. Online expression was significantly related to situational political involvement but not political self-efficacy. Implications are discussed for political use of online media for young adults.     

Does the Music Matter? Examining Differential Effects of Music Genre on Support for Ethnic Groups

Using data from a post-test only experiment with random assignment, this article examines whether differing music genres influence socially relevant decisions made by listeners. A sample of White college students was exposed to1 of 3 music genres during an ostensible waiting period, and was then asked to allocate funding to projects for different ethnic groups. Three music conditions—radical White power rock, mainstream rock, and Top 40 pop music—were examined to determine whether differential allocations to ethnic groups would emerge following music exposure. As expected, Top 40 pop music exposure led to equal allocations to the various ethnic groups. After listening to mainstream rock, participants allocated significantly higher budgets to White Americans compared to all other race groups. After listening to radical White power rock music, participants also allocated significantly higher budgets to White Americans, but changes in allocations to ethnic minority groups also emerged. Namely, African Americans and Arab Americans received particularly low funding from participants exposed to radical White power rock music.     

Comparing the Rankings of MBA Curricula: Do Methodologies Matter?

We created a matrix of rankings of MBA curricula by six publishers and used a standard SAS program to supply missing data. We then examined the resulting construct to assess the publishers’ ranking similarity and their change over a four year period.     

Librarians’ Use of Images on LibGuides and Other Social Media Platforms

This study compared the use of librarians’ profile images across Web platforms designed for librarian-patron communication. The primary focus was LibGuides profiles at a peer group of Association of Research Libraries institutions. Librarians are currently using a variety of options, including professional head shots, casual head shots, other photos, alternate images, avatars, and no image. Where possible, results were also analyzed by gender. For a smaller selection of libraries, LibGuides photos were compared with Facebook photos to see if different images were used for a professional versus a personal social media setting. This research was done in December 2010 and duplicated in May 2012 to track changes over time. The later study also reviews profile images for the smaller selection of libraries in LinkedIn and ALA Connect. The findings provide a baseline for further comparative research, could also inform individual librarians’ image choices based on patterns among their peers, and gives the profession a starting point for discussions about the types of images librarians use.     

How Can Brand-Owned Media Be Managed? Exploring the Managerial Success Factors of the New Interrelation Between Brands and Media

Although owned media formats that pursue brand-policy objectives have been receiving considerable attention in industries since the beginning of the millennium, virtually no research results are available about their conceptual background and strategic management. Using total interpretive structural modeling, this study examines two research questions: (1) Which success factors for the evolving brand-owned media concept can be identified? (2) How can these factors be systematized in terms of interrelations and hierarchies? Results indicate that the success of brand-owned media depends on a complex interrelation of eight factors. Content-centric factors such as content quality and the non-advertising character of brand-owned media are most important for creating relevant content and for achieving media success in terms of reach and frequency. In contrast, brand strength is not regarded as a precondition of brand-owned media success but rather as a result.     

Back to the 1990s? Comparing the Discourses of 20th- and 21st-Century Digital Image Ethics Debates

In 2010, New York Times photographer Damon Winter sparked controversy when he used an iPhone equipped with the Hipstamatic application to produce heavily filtered, Polaroid-style front-page photographs of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The debate over whether such images were photojournalism, or merely photographs, was reignited the next year as some of his images were honored in one of the country's most prestigious photojournalism competitions, and the practice of using filter-friendly apps for journalism spread. This article compares professional discourses around such journalistic use of smartphone apps with discourses that developed earlier in the digital era around digital image manipulation in Photoshop, with the goal of proposing ways to interrogate imaging technology controversies yet to come.     

Old Against New,or a Coming of Age? Broadcasting in an Era of Electronic Media

“Broadcasting” is often cast as an outdated term—we are constantly told that we are in the midst of a digital/social media revolution that will make the unidirectional, mass communication model obsolete. In response, we argue that to consider the continued relevance of terms like “broadcasting” in an era of electronic media is to neither hastily disregard the legacy of these terms, nor cling to them too rigidly. In this special issue of the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media written and edited by graduate students, we begin a new thread in the longstanding conversation about what it means for media to be “old” and “new.” While this distinction is not one we should take for granted, the articles in this issue all show how we can strategically approach the intricate intersections and interconnections of different media, old and new. As such, this issue collectively calls our attention not to the familiar trope of “old against new,” but rather to the tensions that arise around a “coming of age.” Presenting a wide range of international scholarship from graduate students across many different disciplinary backgrounds, topical literatures, methodological approaches, and theoretical frameworks, this special issue represents an emerging approach to what it means to study broadcasting in an era of electronic media.     

The Impact of Digital Resource and Service Use on Urban Residents in New England Public Libraries—A Survey Report

Today, access to digital information is essential to patrons using public libraries, whether they have contact with computers at home, work or school or whether the public library is their only contact. In order to evaluate and ultimately enhance public library digital resources and services, it is critical for administrators, librarians and digital information architects to recognize the impact their current digital offerings have on users. This study utilizes a survey to gauge the perceptions of patrons who use digital resources and services in six urban New England public libraries as part of ongoing research into digital information access in public libraries in the United States from the perspective of users.     

Off the Campaign Trail and Into the Courthouse: Does a Political Candidate's Use of a Song Infringe on the Performer's Trademark?

As the use of popular music in political campaigns has skyrocketed, so have complaints by musical artists who do not want their songs associated with candidates they do not support. Recently, musical artists have asserted that this constitutes trademark infringement by falsely suggesting that they endorse a candidate. Relying on court decisions and statutes, this article analyzes song-based performer trademarks and whether campaign's uses of music constitute infringement. Ultimately, this article concludes that typically musical compositions and sound recordings cannot be used as performer trademarks and, in any event, political uses would not amount to infringement.     

Modeling the Effects of Political Information Source Use and Online Expression on Young Adults’ Political Efficacy

This online survey conducted at a public university in the Northwest (N = 434) examines the influence of political involvement, information source attention, and online political discussion on young adults’ political efficacy. A factor analysis indicated that political information sources loaded into three factors including conventional and online hard news media such as newspapers, opinion and social media such as blogs or social networking websites, and public affairs websites including government and candidate websites. A path analysis revealed significant differences in their association with online political expression and external efficacy. As an entry point in the theoretical model, involvement in public affairs positively associated with attention to political information sources, online political expression, and external political efficacy. Attention to hard news and to public affairs websites positively predicted political efficacy. Attention to online opinion and social media and to public affairs websites positively predicted online political expression.     

Parents’ Use of the V-Chip and Perceptions of Television Ratings: The Role of Family Characteristics and the Home Media Environment

Nearly 20 years after the Telecommunications Act of 1996, it is unclear how its mandates influence current parents’ mediation behavior. Parents of 2- to 17-year-old children (N = 1,431) were surveyed about their awareness and perceptions of the TV ratings system and use of the V-chip. Most (81%) parents knew about the ratings system and found it to be only “somewhat useful.” Only 16% of those parents had ever used the V-chip. Ratings awareness and perceptions and V-chip use varied with family characteristics. Policymakers should revisit how to provide better tools for mediating children’s viewing in this new information age.     

A Qualitative Inquiry into the Contextualized Parental Mediation Practices of Young Children’s Digital Media Use at Home

Technologies are increasingly adopted and used by young children at home. Parents play an important role in shaping their media use, keeping certain possibilities open for children to play, learn, and socialize while limiting others. Nevertheless, the literature on parental mediation of young children’s media use is scant. In this article, we describe a qualitative, mixed-method study involving 24 parents and 36 children aged 3 to 9, and focus on the contextual factors that shape (transitions between) parental mediation practices. The results point to the emergence of new manifestations of parental mediation and provide evidence of their dynamic, often paradoxical nature. In particular, the insights on distant mediation, various buddy styles, and participatory learning, as well as the value of a wholeness approach for understanding children’s conditions for media engagement, suggest new prospects for parental mediation literature.     

Media’s Influence on the Accessibility of Altruistic and Egoistic Motivations

Previous research suggests that media featuring exemplars of specific altruistic motivations can make those motivations more accessible in viewers’ minds. The present study extends this research to also examine egoistic motivations. We (a) developed a coding scheme to examine how frequently exemplars of altruistic and egoistic motivations appear in media content, (b) developed an intuitive motivation-affect misattribution procedure to measure the accessibility of altruistic and egoistic motivations, and (c) examined whether exposure to media content portraying specific motivations makes those motivations more accessible in audiences. The findings are discussed in terms of the model of intuitive morality and exemplars.     

What's the Use of Use? : Return on Investment Strategies for Consortial DDA Programs

Column Editor's Note. This column focuses on formal collaboration and networking among libraries through consortia. It offers in-depth examinations of issues facing modern library consortia including (but not limited to) e-resource licensing, ebooks, next generation integrated library systems, shared print archiving, shared digital repositories, governance and other relevant topics. Contributions are accepted for this column and must be submitted to George Machovec (george@coalliance.org). Contact the column editor for suggested topics, deadlines and formatting.

ConnectNY has been involved in consortial e-book projects since 2010. Based upon the experience of these group e-book projects, we will explore different methods for assuming the shared cost of group e-book programs and then describe ways in which DDA programs may promote a positive Return on Investment (ROI) for groups as compared to individual institutions. We will argue that while use is a factor that can be taken into account when distributing cost amongst members, a budget-based percentage approach will allow consortia to effectively initiate and manage such projects over time.     

Does Facebook Use Predict College Students’ Social Capital? A Replication of Ellison,Steinfield, and Lampe’s (2007) Study Using the Original and More Recent Measures of Facebook Use and Social Capital

In 2007 Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe published an article on the positive association between Facebook use and social capital that started a decade of research on the social outcomes of social network site use. Although cited almost 9,000 times, it received critique on the conceptualization and operationalization of Facebook use and social capital. In this study we replicate Ellison et al.’s study with original and alternative measures of social capital and Facebook use, thereby shedding light on the robustness, stability, and ecological validity of the original findings. We found that Facebook intensity positively predicts the original social capital measures, lending support to the validity of the original findings. Its relationship with structural measures, however, was weak for bridging and absent for bonding social capital.     

Trivializing the News? Affective Context Effects of Commercials on the Perception of Television News

This study examined whether affect induced by television commercials influences the perception of news programming. An experiment showed that viewers in positive moods generated by television commercials perceive news stories viewed both after and before watching the commercials as more entertaining, relaxing, realistic, and more credible than viewers exposed to neutral commercials do. Of interest, viewers in positive mood, as compared to neutral mood, perceived the topic presented in the news story as less important and serious.