How Perceived Persuasive Intent and Reactance Contribute to Third-Person Perceptions: Evidence from Two Experiments

In two experiments, this study presents a process model that explains third-person perceptions (TPP) as a function of perceived persuasive intent and reactance. Using two nonstudent samples, findings were internally replicated for two topics. The study shows that media messages evoking perceptions of persuasive intent also activate reactance, which in turn predicts TPP topic-independently. Remarkably, half of the total stimulus effect on TPP could be explained through reactance, which offers new implications for existing theoretical explanations of strong TPP after undesirable messages but weak effects after, for example, prosocial messages.     

Reducing the Bias: How Perspective Taking Affects First- and Third-Person Perceptions of Media Influence

Third- and first-person perceptions (TPPs/FPPs) are considered to be biased judgments of media influence on self and others. Research suggests that perspective taking, i.e., thinking from another person’s position, decreases perceptual gaps between self and others via assimilation. In a two-factorial experiment (n = 431), we test whether this effect of perspective taking (Factor 1) holds true for the presumed influence of desirable and undesirable messages (Factor 2). Results indicate that perspective taking significantly reduces TPPs in the case of an undesirable message but not FPPs that are provoked by the desirable message. The observable effect traces back to a change in presumed message influence on the self. Presumed influence on others was independent of both factors, desirability of message influence and perspective taking. These findings are discussed in the light of cognitive and motivational explanations for FPPs/TPPs.     

An Evaluation of Statistical Approaches to Text Categorization

This paper focuses on a comparative evaluation of a wide-range of text categorization methods, including previously published results on the Reuters corpus and new results of additional experiments. A controlled study using three classifiers, kNN, LLSF and WORD, was conducted to examine the impact of configuration variations in five versions of Reuters on the observed performance of classifiers. Analysis and empirical evidence suggest that the evaluation results on some versions of Reuters were significantly affected by the inclusion of a large portion of unlabelled documents, mading those results difficult to interpret and leading to considerable confusions in the literature. Using the results evaluated on the other versions of Reuters which exclude the unlabelled documents, the performance of twelve methods are compared directly or indirectly. For indirect compararions, kNN, LLSF and WORD were used as baselines, since they were evaluated on all versions of Reuters that exclude the unlabelled documents. As a global observation, kNN, LLSF and a neural network method had the best performance; except for a Naive Bayes approach, the other learning algorithms also performed relatively well.     

Comparing Approaches: Telecentre Evaluation Experiences in Asia and Latin America

IDRC has telecentre evaluation initiatives in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Each of these is in the process of establishing evaluation frameworks and each is adopting very different approaches. The current paper seeks to build on the outputs of IDRC's Far Hills Workshop on Telecentre Evaluation (September 1999) to explore the experiences in two of the three regions. These explorations will in turn contribute to IDRC's current initiative to develop a framework for ICTs evaluation.The Far Hills Workshop, and the resulting report entitled Telecentre Evaluation: A Global Perspective, had as objectives to explore challenges and opportunities for telecentre evaluation; understand and compare emerging evaluation frameworks and methodologies; assess needs and resources available; identify salient issues affecting telecentre performance; and provide an opportunity to exchange experiences and lessons across regions.     

政治传播研究方法对马克思主义大众化研究的借鉴意义

我国现行的传播模式对传播马克思主义理论,增强社会主义意识形态的吸引力和凝聚力发挥了非常重要的作用.但是,随着社会历史条件的不断演进,新媒体的出现,迫切需要我们进一步总结历史经验,探寻更具时代特色的、更为有效的传播方法.本文拟对西方政治传播的研究方法作一梳理,以期为当代中国马克思主义大众化研究提供一些方法借鉴.     

走过威权:台湾新闻史报业研究的四个取径

本研究梳理出四种报业研究取径:一,时间序列的编年史;二,政治经济学的结构分析;三,文化领导权的策略共谋;四,历史系谱的再现与重构。第一种为传统史学方法的线性叙事,提供丰富的史料,而较乏分析的观点。第二及第三种,政治经济学与文化领导权的解释,则将焦点置于报业与报人的主体能动性与威权体制的折冲,如何发展出政治、经济、文化构连的侍从报业。第四种则深入新闻史认识论的核心议题:历史书写的视域限制,检视研究者受限于历史情境所做的书写策略。四种研究取径的重点都在政府与知识分子间的对话,笔者提出另一问题:大众在那里?新闻史研究往往不见庶民的活力,只见知识分子的企图与努力,是否能将阅听人研究整合进新闻史中,寻访历史中消逝阅听人的感觉结构?     

Full Text Document Delivery: A Study Understanding User Perceptions and Needs

ABSTRACT

A long and divisive debate ensued on the ILL-L list-server concerning the requirement that some institutions place on the management of interlibrary loan: specifically that the manager of ILL be a librarian holding a Master's Degree in Library Science. This article attempts to show, using published studies and references, why this requirement may be outmoded in the modern academic library. While it is expected that the debate will not be settled or even dampened by this publication, it is hoped that some of the evidence presented may at least cause some to consider the issue in terms that are not absolute.     

提高图书馆员学术水平的途径

文章从本馆的实际情况出发,提出制约高校图书馆进行学术研究的几点因素,并指出提高图书馆员学术水平所采取的主要措施。     

科学研究前沿探测方法综述

阐述科学研究前沿的含义和特征,从引文分析和主题词两个角度探讨科学研究前沿的探测方法与技术,并分析各种方法的优缺点和应用环境.     

Teaching Communication Research Methods: Student Perceptions of Topic Difficulty,Topic Understanding,and Their Relationship with Math Anxiety

The undergraduate Communication Research Methods course is a foundational course offered by a majority of departments across the country. Despite its ubiquity and importance, the course is often seen as a difficult pedagogical experience for students and instructors alike. To more completely understand student learning in this course, this study examined relationships between perceptions of course topic understanding, course topic difficulty, and their relationship with students’ level of math anxiety. Results revealed that statistical topics emerged as the most difficult for students to learn. Significant and strong negative correlations were observed between perceived difficulty and understanding for each of the 19 course topics. Self-reported math anxiety was positively related to both perceived difficulty and understanding of the topics. Suggestions are offered to enhance course instruction.     

Integrating Theoretical Traditions in Media Effects: Using Third-Person Effects to Link Agenda-Setting and Cultivation

In an earlier period of mass communication research, scholars were more adventuresome in advancing “new” theories and less hesitant to “create” theory. The 1970s, in particular, bore witness to the emergence of several such theories—from the knowledge gap and agenda-setting to cultivation. Scholars have generated substantial literatures elaborating work in these and other traditions. Those contributions are now sufficiently robust that it is time to direct some of our energies toward synthesizing theories. This article nominates third-person perception as a candidate for such integration. Several prominent theories of media effects in the mass communication literature are selected to illustrate how the theories can or have been integrated. Results from three surveys provided evidence that the theories of third-person perception, agenda-setting and cultivation can be interrelated. The proposition examined here can serve as a model for further integration of other media theories. This integration attempt harkened back to the times when theory building in media effects was more common and perhaps more optimistic about explaining processes of influence.     

Research Issues in Australian Approaches to Policy Development

Drawing on his experience at the Australian Archives in policy development on electronic records and recordkeeping for the Australian Federal Government sector the author argues for greater emphasis on the implementation side of electronic records management. The author questions whether more research is a priority over implementation. The author also argues that if archival institutions wish to be taken seriously by their clients they need to pay greater attention to getting their own organisations in order. He suggests the way to do this is by improving internal recordkeeping practices and systems and developing a resource and skills base suitable for the delivery of electronic recordkeeping policies and services to clients.     

From Self-Enhancement to Supporting Censorship: The Third-Person Effect Process in the Case of Internet Pornography

This study examined the relationship between self-enhancement and third-person perception. It also investigated the behavioral consequences of third-person perception within a theory of reasoned action framework. A survey on the issue of Internet pornography was administered to 462 undergraduate students. A positive relationship was found between self-enhancement and third-person perception. Behavioral attitude emerged as a key mediator in the relationship between third-person perception and intention to support Internet censorship. Subjective norm overall was not an important factor in the perception–intention relationship. The lack of impact for subjective norm, however, had causes that varied across gender.     

Understanding Teachers' Perspectives on Field Trips: Discovering Common Ground in Three Countries

The school field trip constitutes an important demographic market for museums. Field trips enlist the energies of teachers and students, schools and museums, and ought to be used to the best of their potential. There is evidence from the literature and from practitioners that museums often struggle to understand the needs of teachers, who make the key decisions in field trip planning and implementation. Museum personnel ponder how to design their programs to serve educational and pedagogical needs most effectively, and how to market the value of their institutions to teachers. This paper describes the overlapping outcomes of three recent studies that investigated teacher perspectives on field trips in the United States, Canada, and Germany. The results attest to the universality of some of the issues teachers face, and suggest improvements in the relationship between museums and schools.     

Evolving Institutional Approaches to Subsidizing End User Access to Research Databases: A Case Study

This paper reviews work of the Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP, recently renamed the Getty Information Institute) over the past decade to subsidize end user on-line access to scholarly research databases. A brief history of AHIP's work in the area is followed by a summary of a study of subsidized access to Dialog databases by Getty Center resident scholars which was reported in a series of papers by Marcia Bates, professor of Library Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. This study provided a touchstone for an assessment of the relative merits and opportunities associated with the various contractual arrangements and incentive strategies employed by AHIP with vendors such as Dialog, consortia such as the Research Libraries Group, and a CD-ROM publication program. The effectiveness of each of these methods in reaching the user is compared to print publications and the experimental offer of access to some of the AHIP databases over the World Wide Web.     

Australian Approaches to Policy Development and Resulting Research Issues

This paper is in two parts. The first outlines the context in which the Archives Authority of New South Wales (State Archives) is implementing electronic recordkeeping as part of a recordkeeping regime across the New South Wales public sector. The second part is an attempt to identify what I feel are unresolved issues, which may be resolved by practical or pure research, and as they relate to electronic recordkeeping, that we are facing in implementing the regime.     

The First-Person Effect and Its Behavioral Consequences: A New Trend in the Twenty-Five Year History of Third-Person Effect Research

The perceived effect of the media on the self when compared to others has been adequately established over the last 25 five years. Rather than a third-person effect where individuals perceive a greater effect for self than others, first-person effect perceptions, where individuals perceive a greater effect for self than others, have been considered by scholars recently. Findings indicate support for first-person perceptions. However, research is limited and the behavioral consequences of first-person perceptions are almost nonexistent. The current analysis discusses the evolution of the first-person perception and details the findings of each study as well as the psychological mechanisms used to explain first-person perceptions. Methodological considerations for future studies of first-person effect behavioral consequences are also proposed.