Models,methods, and assumptions: The usefulness of a multi‐method approach to the examination of influence in TV pricing

The author explores the use of different mathematical modelsin considering influences on prices of television advertising rates and concludes that significant variability exists between models due to assumptions and level of data employed. The author argues that existing research on advertising price influences should be reconsidered in like of the differences among models, assumptions, and data used.     

Successful Web Journals

Summary

Two publishers of well-known print newspapers have launched successful Web versions. The editors described the evolution of their sites and discussed the advantages of Web editions: timeliness, depth of content, user-customized access to information, and community-building interactive forums. They detailed lessons learned, outlined future plans, and clarified similarities and differences between the two sites. Discussion centered on three main areas: library access and site licenses, the nature of archives and article retrieval, and advertising.     

Combating greenwashing through public critique

Courses: Environmental Communication, Environmental Media, or Critical Media Studies courses

Objectives: This unit activity is designed to guide students in a critical examination of advertising that utilizes green appeals to sell products or brands. The assignment asks students to use concepts from media analysis, communication ethics, and social justice to critique advertising claims and potential influences of advertising on society's environmental discourse. Students should be able to identify greenwashing in advertisements, research whether the statements of the advertisements are accurate, and discuss the significance of the advertisements’ messages in shaping environmental and social thought. A secondary purpose of the assignment is to give students experience writing for a popular audience in a public forum.     

Television and family communication

The purposes of this study were: to explore current proposals to ban or limit alcoholic beverage advertising; to examine the method by which the Supreme Court is treating commercial speech cases; to focus on two cases, one in which a state banned local advertising of liquor and wine, a ban that was tacitly approved by the Supreme Court, and another in which the Supreme Court indicated that states have expansive power in the regulation of advertising of products such as alcohol; and to assess policy implications of regulatory concerns. This discussion concludes that ultimately the alcohol advertising issue is likely to be addressed on a state‐by‐state basis and then litigated in the courts.     

Advertising Practitioner Perceptions of HDTV Advertising: A Diffusion of Innovations Perspective

Abstract

A nationwide online survey of advertising agency executives was conducted to investigate attitudes toward high-definition television (HDTV) diffusion. The survey was completed by 70 practitioners. The majority of respondents (85.9%) had viewed HDTV, but only 18.6% owned an HDTV set. Among non-owners of HDTV sets, 50% said they would not be acquiring 1 for at least 24 months. More than one half of the respondents believed that HDTV would not become the norm for 5 or more years. Respondents recognized the benefits of HDTV, but were not yet comfortable recommending HD advertising to clients. Factors inhibiting greater support of HDTV advertising include perceptions of insufficient HDTV programming, low HDTV diffusion among viewers, and greater cost of producing HD ads. Agency executives feel under-informed about HDTV, and would like to learn more about it. Industry groups interested in promoting greater acceptance of HDTV among advertising practitioners need to educate executives about the actual rate of HDTV diffusion to convince them that the medium is capable of attaining critical mass.     

Comparing Advertising Agencies’ Resources to Academic Libraries’ Collections

Abstract

Collection development analysis in academic libraries typically involves collection-centered and user-centered methods. These approaches focus on building collections that help students with their academic needs but may overlook resources that students need experience with when employed. To address this gap, the authors analyzed early-career advertising agency positions to identify a list of information resources that advertising agencies expect employees to use. This list was then compared against the library websites of 158 universities with advertising programs to see how sufficiently libraries are fulfilling these resource needs. The authors found that overall, university libraries only subscribe to a small number of resources used by advertising agencies.     

Bouncing off the Paywall – Understanding Misalignments Between Local Newspaper Value Propositions and Audience Responses

ABSTRACT

Declining advertising revenue and print copy sales have propelled extensive paywall experiments in local newspapers to generate new revenue and fund local journalism. The success of these experiments is ultimately depending on whether or not they deliver the value that customers require. This article studies local newspapers’ potential to build successful paywalls by conducting a two-sided analysis of paywall value propositions and local news audiences’ responses to these value propositions. Drawing on mixed methods – in-depth interviews with 20 newspaper managers and a national survey (N = 1586) among local newspaper audiences – our study identifies a major gap between intended value of paywalls and customer value perception and behavior. These are misalignments between the intended attractiveness of paywalled content and audience attitude toward this content, and misalignments between access to paywalled content and use. Local newspapers’ offerings are particularly misaligned with younger, lower income and lower news interest customers. When these groups hit a paywall, they most likely bounce off.     

Diapers full of … pampered,hugged, and “luved” babies: Teaching ideological criticism through diapers

Courses: Communication Criticism, Rhetorical Criticism, Introduction to Rhetoric, Introduction to Communication, Media Studies, and Persuasion courses.

Objective: The aim of this activity is to introduce and explain the method of ideological criticism through commonplace advertising.     

Competition for Viewers and Advertisers in a TV Oligopoly

Abstract

This study considers a model of a TV oligopoly where TV channels transmit advertising and viewers dislike such commercials. It is shown that advertisers make a lower profit the larger the number of TV channels. If TV channels are sufficiently close substitutes, there will be underprovision of advertising relative to social optimum. This study also finds that the more viewers dislike ads, the more likely it is that welfare is increasing in the number of advertising-financed TV channels. A publicly owned TV channel can partly correct market distortions, in some cases, by having a larger amount of advertising than private TV channels. It may even have advertising in cases where advertising is wasteful per se.     

A Quantitative Research Methods Introductory Exercise

Courses: Introduction to Media, Communication Theory, Media and Society, Research Methods

Objectives: This activity introduces students to three quantitative research methods: survey, content analysis, and experiment. Additionally, it allows students to distinguish among methods and demonstrates how these methods yield different data     

Reducing Native Advertising Deception: Revisiting the Antecedents and Consequences of Persuasion Knowledge in Digital News Contexts

Building on the persuasion knowledge model, this study examines how audience characteristics and native advertising recognition influence the covert persuasion process. Among a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 738), we examined digital news readers’ recognition of a sponsored news article as advertising. Although fewer than 1 in 10 readers recognized the article as advertising, recognition was most likely among younger, more educated consumers who engaged with news media for informational purposes. Recognition led to greater counterarguing, and higher levels of informational motivation also led to less favorable evaluations of the content among recognizers. News consumers were most receptive to native advertising in a digital news context when publishers were more transparent about its commercial nature. Beyond theoretical insights into the covert persuasion process, this study offers practical utility to the advertisers, publishers, and policymakers who wish to better understand who is more likely to be confused by this type of advertising so that they can take steps to minimize deception.     

Sacrifice,Consumption, and the American Way of Life: Advertising and Domestic Propaganda during World War II

This paper explores the themes of sacrifice and consumption in World War II advertising, including content analyses of advertisements and editorials in the Saturday Evening Post as well as a textual analysis of articles in the advertising trade publications Printer’s Ink and Industrial Marketing in 1942 and 1943. Results are discussed in terms of Cohen’s (2003) concepts of “citizen consumer,” “purchaser consumer,” and the ultimate American postwar dual-identity: “purchaser as citizen.”     

Antecedents of children's comprehension of television advertising

This study compared the importance of role taking and logical operations stage in predicting children's understanding of the purpose of television advertising. Role taking was found to be the more critical variable.     

Marketing and Advertising

Abstract

The Web is one of the best starting points for marketing and advertising information. The author covers Web sites for top publications as well as sites from academic institutions and professional associations.     

Influences on the survival of new consumer magazines

This study tracks magazines started from 1981 to 1983 that have survived to the present. It finds that magazines started by entrepreneurs, rather than media firms, and magazines that were consumer driven, rather than advertising driven, were more likely to survive.     

Preparation of manuscripts for the journal of broadcasting

This study develops and tests hypotheses concerning the relationship of different media to psychological outcomes. Specifically, it is postulated that print media are related to analytic cognition (reason) and electronic media to syncretic cognition (emotion). Two hundred and forty magazine and television advertisements are analyzed both in terms of their attributes and the reactions they evoke. Media differences are found for both emotional and rational responses and the main effects of media, product category and advertising strategy variables are seen to account substantially for the variance in analytic and syncretic cognition. Of special relevance to advertisers is the finding that the choice of media is the best predictor of emotional response among all the variables in the study.     

Effects of music on source evaluations

Dr. Simpkins is an assistant professor in the department of advertising at Michigan State University, while Mr. Smith is a media analyst at Campbell‐Ewald, Inc. in Detroit. The research that follows offers some useful advice to producers of commercials and other material using a musical background.     

Google's Bid to Build Cooperation and Partnerships Through Librarian Central and Google for Educators

ABSTRACT

This article considers the Google Librarian Central and the Google for Educators sites and related projects, such as The Literacy Project, from the search and advertising giant, and how libraries, schools, and others view their value and impact.     

Consumers’ Willingness to Share Personal Data: Implications for Newspapers’ Business Models

ABSTRACT

As people’s willingness to pay for digital news remains low, this article investigates whether people would be willing to share personal data as a new currency for accessing news. Increasingly, news organizations collect personal data and track cross-media consumption to build detailed knowledge about and (re)connect with digital news consumers. This article presents the results of an industry-driven big data project that allows news organizations to engage with their audience more deeply by suggesting personalized content recommendations, serving targeted advertising and/or improving the user experience. It presents the concept of the datawall, where the user pays with their data, and delivers new insights into the challenges facing data-driven business models.     

Making (Branded) News: The Corporate Co-optation of Online Journalism Production

ABSTRACT

As traditional news outlets decline and corporations cultivate publisher ambitions, brand journalism (i.e., native advertising and content marketing) has grown robustly. This paper examines and critiques the various ways in which those corporations have adopted and mirror news production practices, given the “techno-logics” of convergence culture and the political economy pressures of our media era. The research draws upon 28 in-depth interviews with brand journalism professionals who operate in the United States along with years of trade press coverage of the phenomenon. Findings illustrate how brand journalism is informed by traditional reporting fundamentals and techniques, the affordances and demands of online environments, and industrial shifts in media labor allocation.