Multitasking With TV: Media Technology,Genre, and Audience Influences

This study explored how media technologies, TV content genres, and demographic and trait individual differences influence the amount of media multitasking while viewing TV, or “second screen viewing,” among college undergraduates. A dual structural and audience factor approach examines influences on multitasking while viewing TV, and a limited capacity theory guides an examination of the effect of TV genre on multitasking while viewing. Survey data reveal that media technology access, sex, age, trait immersive tendency, and multitasking preference predict greater multitasking and that individuals are most likely to multitask during sports content and least likely to during dramatic content.     

Watching TV Series with Horror Content: Audience Attributes,Motivations, Involvement and Enjoyment

This study is the first to explore the motivational, cognitive, affective, and personality factors that influence the enjoyment of and exposure to TV series with horror content. The most-watched TV series identified by 411 study participants were examined in the study. Results indicate that personality traits significantly predict cognitive and affective involvement with these programs and viewing motivations. Viewing motivations significantly influence viewers’ cognitive and affective involvement with these TV series as well as their viewing enjoyment and frequency. While positive affect and negative affect are significant predictors of viewing enjoyment, viewing enjoyment has a positive effect on viewing frequency.     

Audience Motivations for Using Interactive Features: Distinguishing Use of Different Types of Interactivity on an Online Newspaper

This study examines audience uses of three types of interactivity, user motivations for visiting an online newspaper, and the relationship between user motivations and use of the different types of interactive features. There are three types of interactivity on a continuum: medium, human/medium, and human interactivity. In an online survey of 542 respondents, results indicate that medium interactive features were used most frequently and human interactive features used the least. Three motivations for using online newspapers emerged—information seeking/surveillance, socialization, and entertainment. In addition, further analysis found that although all three motivations were predictors of use of medium interactive features, the information seeking/surveillance motivation was not a significant predictor of use of human/medium and human interactive features.     

当今中国城市电视观众的收视特征及传媒对策

本文系国家教育部人文社科立项课题调研报告的一个小结.全文分两大部分一,当今中国城市电视观众的总体收视特征;二,中国电视传媒的生存环境、选择与对策.专家组鉴定认为,这是一份很有价值的调查分析和学术研究成果,对于当前电视业更新办台理念更有启示作用.     

Audience Attributes,Media Supplementation,and Likely Online Service Adoption

Despite the explosive potential for revenue growth on the Internet, research suggests that the advertising industry remains perplexed about how to reach consumers in this new medium. Drawing from several bodies of literature including diffusion, motivation, and media substitution theories, this study explores potential predictors for online service adoption. Findings indicate that the cognitive and affective gratification-seeking factors were the strongest predictors of likely online service adoption. By contrast, whereas adopter attributes were moderate predictors, the existing adoption cluster and media use attributes were both weak predictors of likely online service adoption.     

Audience Valuation in the New Media Era: Interactivity,Online Engagement,and Electronic Word-of-Mouth Value

This national survey of broadband users (N = 200) investigates people’s participatory behavior on Internet video websites by analyzing their use of interactive features. It seeks to identify a group of “interactive audiences” who take full advantage of web interactivity and may be most valuable to advertisers. This study defined audience interactivity based on people’s frequency in using interactive features and three groups were identified—non-interactive audience, average audience, and interactive audience. It compared three audience groups based on traditional audience valuation criteria such as demographics and media consumption levels, as well as newly proposed criteria including online engagement level and electronic word-of-mouth value. Results indicated that interactive audiences are younger, more engaged online, and have higher electronic word-of-mouth value than non-interactive audiences. Because audience interactivity is related to audience value, findings suggest that advertisers should invest more in this highly engaged and influential group online. The results also reveal the need for expanding audience valuation criteria, particularly in the online space, to include other variables such as online engagement level and electronic word-of-mouth influence. The study then offers practical implications for website managers and marketers.     

Effects of Media Use on Audience Framing and Support for Welfare

In this study, I examined cognitive structures consisting of frames that people used in the open-ended responses to a survey question about cuts in welfare benefits. The study shows that patterns of individuals' entertainment and news media use are important sources of frames that people adopt in thinking about an important public issue. In turn, those frames partly derived from the media shape the public's policy preferences beyond controls for individuals' social location, ideology, interpersonal communication, and knowledge. Frames that are related to particular patterns of media use (e.g., increase in differences between poor and rich, need for specific approaches, some will go hungry) have power to alter even deep, ideologically motivated welfare preferences. However, the results suggest that the media's most important role may be in spreading out the field of thinkable solutions to public problems rather than making any particular position dominant in policy decision making.     

Predictors of Social Television Viewing: How Perceived Program,Media, and Audience Characteristics Affect Social Engagement With Television Programming

This study investigated social television viewing by introducing the social engagement construct. Three categories of factors, television program related perceptions, social media characteristics, and audience attributes, were proposed to predict the social engagement experience. This investigation tested 10 audience motives for using social media to engage with television content. It was found that social engagement is a complex process driven by multiple factors, particularly, program-related variables such as affinity, involvement, and genre preferences, as well as individuals' innovativeness trait.     

Predicting Media Use in Very Young Children: The Role of Demographics and Parent Attitudes

This study used a survey design (N = 168) to examine how parent and child demographics, parental media-use motives, parental subjective norms, and parental attitudes toward preschool media use (PMU) are all related to actual media exposure among children 6 months to 5 years in age. Results indicate that, in accordance with the theory of reasoned action, parents’ perceived subjective norms regarding various categories of media were significantly related to actual child consumption. Further, positive attitudes toward media were significantly related to higher rates of child consumption. Interestingly, parental worries about media were only negatively related to television consumption and unrelated to child exposure to other kinds of media.     

Awareness,Reporting, and Branding: Exploring Influences on Brazilian Journalists’ Social Media Use across Platforms

ABSTRACT

This study examines the individual and organizational level factors shaping Brazilian journalists’ use of social media. Results from a survey of 774 reporters show that individual factors influence awareness and reporting uses, while organizational factors are associated with branding. Results suggest no difference between groups of journalists, when it comes to incorporating social media for reporting; but online reporters engage in branding and use social media as an awareness system more than their counterparts. Findings also reveal that journalists have not fully embraced the participatory potential of social media, as only trust in information posted by other journalists relates to adoption.     

The Use of Social Media for Artist Marketing: Music Industry Perspectives and Consumer Motivations

This research addresses the question of why consumers use social media especially in relation to music consumption and how music industry companies could improve their social media efforts by matching company strategies with consumer motives. Four case studies and four focus groups with 28 participants were conducted. As a result, this study found five motives for social media participation: (1) access to content, (2) sense of affinity, (3) participation, (4) interaction, and (5) social identity, in decreasing order of effect. For managers this study set out a detailed social media strategy that corresponds with components of consumer motives for participation at decreasing levels of effect.     

Online Environmental Engagement Among Youth: Influence of Parents,Attitudes and Demographics

Although young citizens may not always politically engage in the same fashion as their elders, research suggests they are using Facebook, Twitter, and other newer communication systems to mobilize politically both generally and around environmental issues. Given the declining environmental conditions facing young citizens, a national stratified quota sample of 1,096 U.S. parents and their children between the ages of 12 and 17 was conducted to investigate the factors potentially related to their efforts to persuade members of their online social networks to be more environmental. We believe that online peer persuasion is an important concept to investigate because peer persuasion can create subjective norms that ultimately may influence behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that, although parents influence youth behavior (Adj. R ² = .11), the greatest variance in behavior was explained by the youth's own environmental self-efficacy, environmental news consumption, political interest, time spent online, gender, and environmental consumerism (ΔR ² = .29). Youth political interest and environmental consumerism were especially important variables in the final model. Structural equation modeling reinforced that parental influence is primarily indirect. This study appears to be among the first to link environmental consumerism with youth online peer persuasion.     

“新媒体使用”概念的有效性——从媒介使用和媒介效果看网络信息渠道的异质性

"新媒体使用"经常作为与"传统媒体使用"相对立的概念获得学界的关注。然而,随着技术的快速发展,媒体家族的迅速壮大,"新媒体使用"在量化研究中的内涵外延也日渐模糊。对此,本文提出了一个元测试(meta-instrument)问题--在用户使用行为和媒介效果两方面,新媒体和传统媒体是否清晰可分?基于对二手数据的分析,本文发现不同的网络信息渠道/平台在使用频率上呈现异质性,在媒介效果上也难以作为同质化的"新媒体"或"网络媒体"一概而论。同时,门户网站在用户使用频率和使用效果上,更接近于传统媒体(如中央电视台、新华社和人民日报),而非社交媒体(如微博、微信等)。本文的研究发现为新媒体使用及其效果研究提供了新的思路,为新媒体理论的发展提供了新的经验资料。     

Something Old,Something New,Something Borrowed From Something Blue: Experiments on Dual Viewing TV and Twitter

The use of second screens to dual-view television and social media is exponentially increasing. As a result, television producers are increasingly augmenting television content with social media comments from viewers, which may serve as a type of real-time public opinion indicator. The current research effort utilizes two experimental studies to explore the effects of this new media production practice on viewer's attitudes and opinions. In these studies, a Twitter feed was integrated in to entertainment (Study 1) and political (Study 2) television broadcasts and manipulated to convey either positive or negative opinions of the content. Participants' opinions were found to conform to the majority opinion presented in the manipulated Twitter feed in nearly all of the analyses. Implications for dual viewing and second screen use are discussed in light of findings.     

Tweet,Retweet, Favorite: The Impact of Twitter Use on Enjoyment and Sports Viewing

Sports fans are increasingly turning to Twitter to experience events and receive commentary. Using the theoretical grounding of disposition theory, this study surveyed sports fans to measure how Twitter potentially influenced their enjoyment of viewing live and mediated sporting events. Respondents primarily used Twitter to augment their consumption of sports, and heavy Twitter users reported higher enjoyment levels when using the social networking site while watching sports. Findings also suggest how the manner in which respondents used Twitter impacted their sports viewing enjoyment.     

Hostile Media Perceptions in the Age of Social Media: Following Politicians,Emotions, and Perceptions of Media Bias

This study explores sadness-based message choices among comedy, game show, and sad drama that correspond to the three perceived goals of sadness regulation—optimization, distraction, and embracement, respectively. Results from an experiment showed that some sad participants selected sad drama with the expectation of realizing that their situations were not the worst possible, of creating new meanings and values, and finally of regaining a sense of control over the event and life in general. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of these cognitive gains and growth distinct from pleasurable experience from the use of entertainment messages.     

Gender,Sports, and New Media: Predictors of Viewing during the 2008 Beijing Olympics

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was the most watched television event in U.S. television history, and represented a broad expansion and emphasis on online sports content. This study examined audience's multiplatform experience with the 2008 Beijing Games, particularly the interactions between and among gender groups, viewing the Olympics, and use of new media. Results indicate that although men and women were significantly different in sports viewing and media use in general, they shared similarities in seeking Olympic content on various media platforms.     

媒介使用频率、风险经验对阅听人风险资讯获取及空污感知态度与行为响应的影响

空气污染能否得到有效控制与缓解,很大程度上取决于民众的行为响应程度。本研究透过结构方程式模型(Structural equation modeling, SEM),检验民众日常媒介使用频率、风险经验、风险感知、风险下资讯获取与行为响应之间的具体关联度,进而讨论如何有效地向民众传播空污风险资讯。研究发现,民众在日常生活中较常使用网络媒体与人际传播获取空污资讯,且这两种媒体能够显著影响到民众的空污风险感知与风险下的资讯获取渠道,而风险经验对民众风险感知与风险下的资讯获取之影响不显著;另一方面,在风险感知中,严重性与关心程度更容易促使积极的行为响应,而易感性与自我效能感对行为响应的影响不显著;最后,本研究也为政府和媒体如何有效提升民众的空污风险感知与行为响应水平提出了具有针对性的策略建议。     

Deep Learning and Online Video: Advances in Transcription,Automated Indexing,and Manipulation

In recent years, the amount of video content created and uploaded to the Internet has grown exponentially. Video content has unique accessibility challenges: indexing, transcribing, and searching video has always been very labor intensive, and there were no automated ways of searching videos for specific content. New software tools that use deep learning methods are automating some of these processes, making video content more discoverable and useful. There are also many new tools for processing and manipulating video in interesting ways. This column will briefly discuss the idea of deep learning and how deep learning tools can be used to transcribe, translate, search, and even manipulate videos. It will suggest ways that librarians can use these tools to help their institutions better manage video content. It also includes a list of video-related software tools.