Measuring Online Communication Attitude: Instrument Development and Validation

This paper reports a series of studies that develop an empirically-derived instrument for assessing online communication attitude, a multidimensional set of individual cognitive-affective constructs that influence media choice. The first study inductively develops an initial item pool and tests dimensional structure via exploratory factor analysis. The second study further refines this structure and also tests the association between online communication attitude and media use in same-sex friendships. Finally, the third study deductively tests global model fit via confirmatory factor analysis, and establishes concurrent validity with theoretically related communication constructs. Beyond identifying motives underlying media choice, the instrument developed here possesses heuristic potential for clarifying media choice theory and elaborating the association between communication competence and media choice.     

Detecting Deceptive Communication Through Computer-Mediated Technology: Applying Interpersonal Deception Theory to Texting Behavior

Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) argues that deception is an interpersonal action where people employ communication tactics to achieve various goals. Deception is a global concept; thus, much investigation has been conducted to determine the roots of such deceptive behavior. Through IDT, deception is categorized as a dynamic process where both the sender and receiver need to be engaged for deception to be successful. In extension of IDT, a study was conducted to determine the degree to which undergraduate students engage in deceptive behavior via text messaging. Through a survey design, undergraduate students' deceptive texting behaviors and deceptive detection traits were assessed. Results indicate that among undergraduate students, text messaging is an interpersonal form of communication that circumvents professionalism and power. Further, undergraduate students were much more likely to engage in deceptive texting with family and friends, but did so with significantly less frequency in the organizational setting.     

Intercultural Communication Scholarship in the U.S. Heartland

This essay works to debunk the myth that the Central States region is a less-than-ideal location for intercultural communication scholarship. The essay also explores how co-cultural theorizing scholarship—a product of living/teaching/learning in the Midwest—reflects a significant contribution to intercultural communication scholarship.     

人际传播:学科与概念

人际传播在西方已经成为传播学的一个支柱分支学科,其在理论研究、学科建设以及所提供的就业机会方面都功勋卓著。而包括中国在内的亚洲,人际传播始终难以成为一门学科。本文从清理地基——理解人际传播的核心概念开始,探讨了我国在人际传播学科化方面的障碍以及学科化的必要性。     

自由传播为原则,限制传播为例外——媒介传播公共信息的基本原则

我国信息公开条例只规定了政府信息公开应遵循公正、公平、便民的原则,暂时回避了国际法上公开为原则,不公开为例外的基本原则。为完善我国信息公开制度,本文从政府义务相对方的角度提出并论证了媒介传播公共信息以自由传播为原则,限制传播为例外作为基本原则的理论依据及其基本内涵。确立此原则,能使媒介的发展更符合媒介运作规律和民主化社会的要求,保证信息来源的多样性,有效地促进信息的自由流动和有效整合。     

Exploring Family Discourses About Purity Pledges: Connecting Relationships and Popular Culture

This study explores connections between popular culture and family interaction. Multiadic interview data were collected from families who enacted purity pledges. Using contrapuntal analysis, results indicate how competing familial discourses about popular culture serve as both centrifugal and centripetal forces. Fathers rejected many sexual values in popular culture texts, but they also appreciated that popular culture makes purity rings intelligible to others. Mothers expressed frustration at portrayals of teenage pregnancy on television. Children indicated that their parents did not understand how they saw popular culture, in competition with the aforementioned parental discourses, but appreciated that their parents cared. They also articulated parental disapproval of a current generation's popular culture choices as ongoing ritual, thus allowing the competing discourses to operate in a centripetal fashion. Overall, it is apparent that distal popular culture discourses inform proximal, constitutive family discourses about sex and sexuality.     

Effects of Mass and Interpersonal Communication on Breast Cancer Screening: Advancing Agenda-Setting Theory in Health Contexts

Drawing on components of agenda-setting theory and the two-step flow of information from mass media to news audiences, this study examines the effects of mass and interpersonal communication on breast cancer screening practices among college- and middle-aged women (n = 284). We theorized that screening behaviors among younger women would be influenced more by interpersonal sources of information while screening among middle-aged women would be more influenced by exposure to mass-mediated information. Findings supported anticipated patterns, revealing important and varying roles for both mass and interpersonal communication in the health behaviors of women. Implications for health practitioners and campaign planners, as well as recommendations for future research, are discussed.     

A Call to Educate,Participate, Invoke and Indict: Understanding the Communication of Online Hate Groups

This study analyzes the messages in hate group websites using a grounded theory approach. Through this process of interpretive inquiry we propose four prominent themes—educate, participate, invoke, and indict—that characterize the messages examined in 21 hate groups. These message themes speak to the: (a) education of members and external publics; (b) participation within the group and in the public realm; (c) invocation of divine calling and privilege; and (d) indictment of external groups including the government, media, and entertainment industries, and other extremist sects. In advancing a substantive grounded theory of online hate group communication, we also explore the potential of these themes to ostensibly reinforce the hate group's identity, reduce external threats, and recruit new members.     

2010年中国的新闻传播学研究

本文对2010年中国新闻传播学理论研究方面做了扼要的梳理。划分为新传播科技、新闻理论、新闻史,传播学理论等四部分。文章认为,传播科技带来的新的媒介生态和未来发展的趋势,是这年新闻传播学界宏观思考的最大问题;在中观层面,对各二级学科存在的主要问题,已经有所反思。     

Adult Child Perceptions of Communication and Humor When the Parent Is Diagnosed with Cancer: A Suggestive Perspective from Communication Theory

This study examines the function of communication and humor in the older adult parent-adult child dyad when the parent has been diagnosed with cancer. Qualitative data of open-ended data from 46 adult children of a parent recently diagnosed with cancer revealed that discussing diagnosis and treatment procedures was perceived to be a satisfying conversation, whereas withholding information had an adverse affect. The discussion of the parents' feelings during the cancer period was a difficult and complex communicative experience. The Meta-Humorous Interaction Theory (MetaHIT) was used as a conceptual framework to understand the function of appropriate and inappropriate uses of humor in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements of humor. Humor was often used as a coping or relief function for discussing side effects of cancer treatment. This investigation underscores the importance of understanding how adult children use humorous communication to cope with the unknown conversational territory of a parent's cancer diagnosis.     

媒体融合:追求信息传播理想境界的过程

媒体融合,是现代信息技术推进的信息传播的技术手段、功能结构和形态模式的界限改变及能量交换。其趋势性特征表现为:多媒体信息在同一平台上的能量互补;各类媒体之间的信息能量交换;信息传播者与信息接受者之间的信息能量交互;外部产业对传媒业的能量支持。媒体融合本质上不是抑制和同化个性信息需求,而是培植和满足个性信息需求;不是排斥传统媒体,而是优化传统媒体的功能;不是一个定态目标,而是一个动态进程。信息传播技术的发展和传媒市场化的进程已将新闻传播推进到一个革命性变化的临界点。     

肉身即媒介——论基督教的核心传播思想

基督教两千多年来的传播过程表明,与世界上其他宗教相比,它有独特的传播能力。这种传播能力来自于它的核心传播思想:肉身即媒介。这一思想由耶稣亲身饯行并指明。自耶稣受难后,肉身即媒介的思想成为核心教义,在实在和虚拟两个层面上发挥功能,使基督教扩散到世界上的不同文化中并扎根下来。     

被经验的中介和被中介的经验——从传播理论教材的译介看传播学在中国

本文以国外传播理论教材的译介作为视角,考察了欧美传播理论话语在中国的诠释和变异,研究了西方客观经验主义的大众传播理论如何被潜移默化地等同于传播学的过程,同时以《传播理论导引:分析与应用》为例,对我国目前传播学的教学与研究中存在的一些问题进行了探讨,提出应该进一步开阔视野、注重研究范式、重新思考传播理论的教学与应用。     

WARNING—The Existing Media System May Be Toxic to Your Health: Health Communication and the Politics of Media Reform

Our physical health depends, at least in part, upon the health of our media environment. Unfortunately, the commercial media system produces countless messages that not only misinform Americans about their health but also actively promote unhealthy behaviors. Rather than taking the existing media system as a given, this commentary argues that health communication scholars should work with media reformers to transform the media system in ways that advance public health goals. In particular, the ongoing regulatory struggle over low-power radio provides an important opportunity for health communication scholars and media reformers to join forces.     

沟通与对话:公民社会与媒体公共空间——网络群体性事件形成机制的理论基础

新媒体跨越时空的传播,打破了传统社会结构中人际传播、组织传播、群体传播以及大众传播的边界,这意味着社会关系的重构。在社会关系重构中,作为公民社会发展的要素,如公民身份、公共理性以及媒体公共空间等对促进社会有机团结、推动公民社会健康发展意义重大,所有这些集中体现在人们日常生活的对话与沟通中。本文从中国公民社会及其特征、公民身份与公民意识、媒体公共空间中对话与沟通何以可能等方面进行梳理、总结,分析媒体公共空间中中国公民社会发展所涉及的一些基本问题,探讨建构公民日常对话与沟通的思想价值基础。     

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Intercultural Communication Competence and Bilingualism

Research in intercultural communication competence (ICC) has flourished in the past several decades, arguably due to its relevance in an increasingly multicultural world. In fact the pervasive pragmatic relevance of effective and appropriate engagement with cultural diversity has spurred intercultural or cultural “competence” research in a variety of disciplines. While some scholars question the very concept of ICC as a Western formulation, researchers’ interest in studying the phenomenon of authentic, positive connection between individuals from different cultures is indisputable.     

国际新媒介研究近况概述——对一年内《新媒介与社会》杂志的内容分析

本文选取在新媒介研究领域颇具代表性的国际学术期刊《新媒介与社会,》通过对该刊过去一年时间内6期刊物中刊载的37篇论文的研究方法和研究主题的分析,力求对我国学者了解国际新媒介研究近况、提高我国新媒介研究质量有所帮助。     

Communication and marital satisfaction: Social desirability and nonlinearity

In this paper two possible limitations with much of the traditional research on communication and marital satisfaction are explored: The failure to test for social desirability bias and nonlinear effects. Fitzpatrick's RDI, social desirability, and marital satisfaction questionnaires were administered to one hundred seventy‐one couples. The results suggest that social desirability bias may inflate correlations between sharing, traditionalism and marital satisfaction. Further, “traditional” couples were no more satisfied than “independent” couples when social desirability is controlled. Several nonlinear quadratic effects were obtained between sharing, traditionalism and marital satisfaction.