Suburban American Punks and the Musical Rhetoric of Green Day's “Jesus of Suburbia”

This essay examines Green Day's “Jesus of Suburbia” as an artifact and reflection of suburban American punk culture. It looks at how music, lyrics, and the ethos of the performer interact to create a message that fostered identification between speaker and audience by using Sellnow and Sellnow's Langer-based illusion of life perspective. In this case it was found that music can be seen as an effective tool for expressing the suburban punk experience due to its ability to convey both linguistic and emotional content.     

Rhetorical strategies of continuity and change in the music of popular artists over time

This essay analyzes certain aspects of the music of Bruce Springsteen to determine the impact of rhetorical strategies of continuity and change on musical artists’ appeal over time. Three general observations emerged from this analysis. First, Bruce Springsteen's musical stories and styles have undergone several disjunctive shifts during the course of his career. In making these shifts, Springsteen has remained true to himself as a maturing adult without sacrificing listener appeal. Second, musical score strongly impacts the ultimate message conveyed depending on whether it emotionally reinforces or contradicts the lyrical message. Finally, other musical performers should be mindful of the effect of their rhetorical choices regarding (a) the intensity and release patterns they use within a musical score and (b) why, when, and where they might allow their stories or styles to shift, and what effect those shifts are likely to have on the integrated messages they are attempting to communicate.     

Supportive communication from bystanders of cyberbullying: indirect effects and interactions between source and message characteristics

Cyberbullying is an increasingly common experience that produces psychosocial consequences for targets. Interventions encouraging bystanders to support targets of cyberbullying are limited by a lack of focus on what to communicate. This study considers supportive messages that emphasize emotional comfort, attributions of responsibility, and beliefs that people can change as relevant to this context, and it examines how perceptions of messages differ based on whether support providers have or lack experience with cyberbullying. We extend research on the indirect effects model of supportive communication by randomly assigning participants (N?=?304), who self-identify as targets of cyberbullying, to message and source conditions and assessing their perceptions of messages, providers, and outcomes. Impressions of messages mediate their influence on outcomes, and the experiential similarity of support providers moderates these effects. Certain messages, notably those contending that bullies can change, are less effective when delivered by sources who lack experience with bullying.     

Surprise,Hurt, and Anger as Emotional Responses to Expectancy Violations Following Feedback Messages

ABSTRACT

Using expectancy violations theory, this study examined how the communication of unexpected feedback messages evoke emotional responses. A convenience sample (N = 309) reported instances of unexpected feedback within the last month. Results showed that receipt of the feedback message types were considered moderate-to-high violations. Violation expectedness and valence were negatively associated with the emotional responses, but violation importance was positively associated with the emotional responses. Finally, hurt and anger (but not surprise) were positively linked to perceptions of relational damage between the message sender and receiver. Taken together, our study demonstrates that expectancy violations are connected to emotions and relational outcomes.     

Message fatigue: Conceptual definition,operationalization, and correlates

Despite growing concern over the public’s fatigue toward inundated health messages, communication research has largely neglected such ramifications of prolonged, real-life campaign exposure. This paper offers an initial conceptual and empirical treatment of message fatigue, an important, but understudied, side effect of campaigns. Specifically, it proposes conceptual and operational definitions of the construct and examines psychometric characteristics of a proposed message fatigue scale. The findings from two studies concerning safe sex (N?=?412) and anti-obesity messages (N?=?396) demonstrated solid support for the scale’s unidimensionality. In support of construct validity, the scale exhibited significant associations with message avoidance, annoyance, information seeking, and desensitization. Moreover, in an experimental setting in Study 2, message fatigue negatively predicted attention and message elaboration, while positively predicting counterargument.     

The adaptation of complaints to participation frameworks

Among the strategic uses of various communication media is the practice of addressing and sending messages to multiple participants. The present study was a test of the hypothesis that the participation framework within which a message is sent and the sender's level of message design logic interact to affect message content. Participants sent complaints via email either to a target or to a target and a third‐party peer. Complaints were segmented into thought‐units, with each thought‐unit subsequently categorized according to its junction. The results showed that the two factors interacted to affect complaining, such that persons with conventional and rhetorical design logics often adapted messages to the target‐peer condition, whereas persons with expressive design logics generally did not. Discussion focuses on the implications for research on participation, complaining, and message design logics, as well as for the study of mediated communication.     

The Locus of Message Meaning: Differences between Trained Coders and Untrained Message Recipients in the Analysis of Alcoholic Beverage Advertising

Media scholars often warn against inferring effects when examining media content because message meaning depends on the interpretations of message receivers. Unfortunately, typical message receivers and trained coders conducting content analyses are likely to perceive messages differently because of varying perspectives and processing strategies. Accordingly, this study examined the extent to which trained coders and untrained message receivers converged in their coding of print-based alcohol advertisements. Results from a traditional content analysis of 40 randomly selected print alcohol ads using two sets of trained coders were compared with results from a receiver-oriented message analysis, which used typical message-receivers (n?=?520) as coders. Significance tests indicated that message receivers and trained coders disagreed frequently-often dramatically-on virtually all types of content. Of particular interest, message receivers tended to perceive more frequent portrayals of underage individuals, more appeal to underage drinkers, more frequent sexual connotations, more frequent messages that encouraged drinking a lot of alcohol, and fewer moderation messages. The results demonstrate that potential differences in processing strategy and perspective between trained coders and message receivers can lead to very different conclusions that have implications for the understanding of message effects.     

Critically fun: Analyzing humor in political comedy

Courses: Critically fun is a single-class activity for communication classes discussing persuasive messages, the effects of mass media, or rhetorical analysis (e.g. public speaking, communication theory, mass media, and rhetoric).

Objectives: By the end of the activity, students should be able to analyze critically the rhetorical significance of the setting, visual features, message content, humor, persuasive elements, and impact of a humorous, political artifact. This activity was designed to help students engage in critical thinking, evaluation, and assessment of humor. Although this can function as a non-graded, in-class activity, it could be modified into an out-of-class assignment for traditional, hybrid, or online courses.     

Contextualizing musical rhetoric: A critical reading of the pixies' “Rock Music”

Rhetorical studies of popular music have privileged formalist analysis of musical score and lyrics, suggesting a need for greater inclusion of contextual factors. By explicitly attending to the rhetorical context, critics are more likely to warrant critical judgments within social and cultural discourses, reconceptualize musical texts in intertextual terms, and actively reflect on critical performance. Such a strategy is illustrated through the critical study of the Pixies’ “Rock Music,”; a song whose meaning as an anti‐anthem can be found at a nexus of rhetorical contexts, including punk taste culture, surrealist art, musical argument, post‐punk alternative rock, and anthem rock.     

The Uncanny Valley: The Effects of Rotoscope Animation on Motivational Processing of Depression Drug Messages

The purpose of this study was to investigate how rotoscope animation affects cognitive and emotional processing of depression drug ads. A 2 (animation) × 2 (position of tone) × 4 (message) experiment was conducted. Participants (N = 100) viewed 4, 90-s messages. STRTs (secondary task reaction times) and self-report of emotional responses were collected. Participants also completed an audio recognition task following each message. Among the key findings from this study were that participants in the animated condition showed signs of cognitive withdrawal and descent into a defensive cascade reflective of increasingly fast STRTs and poor encoding of drug side effects.     

THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL DESIRABILITY ON PERCEIVED MEDIA IMPACT: IMPLICATIONS FOR THIRD-PERSON PERCEPTIONS

This study examines variations in perceptions of media influencebased on the locus of impact (self vs. other) and the valenceof the message (pro-social vs. anti-social). After reading oneof four versions of rap lyrics either advocating or condemningviolence or misogyny, 406 undergraduates filled out a surveymeasuring the perceived impact of songs with that type of lyricson themselves and on other students. Results replicated previousfindings of a third-person perception for the anti-social messages.Based on an ego-enhancement motivational explanation, it waspredicted that there would be a reverse third-person perceptionfor the pro-social messages. The findings did not support thishypothesis, and for the pro-social message regarding the treatmentof women, a Lraditional third-person perception was found. However,consistent with the ego-defensive motivational explanation,the size of the third-person perception differential was significantlygreater for anti-social than for pro-social messages. Implicationsof these findings for explanations of the third-person perceptionwere discussed.     

Jimmy Carter and the rhetoric of charisma

Jimmy Carter's unusual success in the Presidential Primaries of 1976 has been the subject of much discussion. One rhetorical explanation posits that Carter's message may be described in terms of Weber's concept of charisma, and Bormann's theory of rhetorical vision. The charismatic message was caught up in a unique rhetorical situation, the social fantasies attending the Bicentennial Celebration. Carter's rhetoric and the people's fantasies transcended along similar lines. This confluence helped to carry Carter to the White House.     

Coaches' Use of Anticipatory and Counterfactual Regret Messages During Competition

By focusing on coaches' use of anticipatory and counterfactual regret messages, this investigation examined video footage (i.e., pre-game, halftime, and post-game speeches) of high school football coaches' interaction with their athletes during competition. Participants were 17 high school football coaches who were found to use a combination of regret messages: accountability, individual performance, collective failure, social significance, regret reduction, and future regret. Results describe how coaches use these regret message types during different points in athletic competition and how they vary as a function of team success (winning or losing at the time of the speech) and whether the game occurred during the regular or post-season. Applications for coaches, including pedagogical and athlete emotional response, are discussed.     

Speech as process: Effects of experimental design

The traditional design for the study of language variables is a controlled message design in which one kernel message is manipulated to produce message variations that represent the language variable contrasts. Thus message content is the same across treatment conditions and hence crossed with the treatment factors. Jackson and Jacobs (1983) criticized this design on three grounds. They argued that messages should be natural rather than contrived, that messages should be nested within treatment conditions rather than crossed with treatment factors, and that each study should use as many messages as possible. Their paper has been used by reviewers as the basis for rejecting studies done using the traditional design. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the arguments presented in Jackson and Jacobs (1983) as well as subsequent papers by Jackson (1984) and Jackson and Jacobs (1987). The arguments are shown to contain both methodological and substantive errors. When the arguments are corrected, it is shown that nested designs and multiple messages should be used only when absolutely necessary. It is the traditional controlled message, crossed design and not the naturalistic message, nested design which is robust; robust against not only incidental but fundamental confounding, robust against message by treatment by message interactions, and relatively robust against Type II error. Taken together with meta‐analysis, the traditional single message, crossed design can detect and identify message by treatment interactions. On the other hand, the multiple message design makes it impossible to identify such interactions.     

The Suasory Force of Sticky Messages: An Application to the Application of Sunscreen

Stickiness refers to the set of persuasive message properties: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and stories (SUCCES). Heath and Heath (2007) argue that a sticky message is expected to be more memorable and hence more persuasive than a non-sticky message. A 2 (sticky v. non-sticky message) x 3 (pretest v. posttest v. delayed test) longitudinal experiment is employed to examine the persuasiveness of sticky messages on applying sunscreen. Results of a mixed model analysis of variance show that the sticky message produces attitudes and behaviors more favorable to the message recommendation than the non-sticky message. Specifically, a time × message induction non-additive effect was found, which sustained only in the sticky message condition across time. Despite this interesting effect, its explanation remains elusive.     

Using the Emotion-in-Relationships Model to Predict Features of Interpersonal Influence Attempts

This paper considers how the Emotion-in-Relationships Model (ERM), a theory designed to predict people's experience of emotion, might explain persuasive messages. A study was conducted in which 248 individuals simulated leaving a date request voicemail message. Consistent with ERM, people's perceptions of interference from partners were positively associated with appraisals of self threat and relationship threat and negatively associated with the fluency of messages. People's perceptions of facilitation from partners were positively associated with identity management strategies, positive politeness, and the affection of messages. These results persisted after covarying relationship satisfaction. Taken together, the findings shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of ERM as a theory of interpersonal communication.     

Recognizing the Relationships between Interactivity,Story, and Message: Lessons Learned from the Summative Evaluation of the Human Plus Exhibition

Interactivity, message, and story are critical, interrelated components of most educational exhibition designs. In this article, we introduce an Interactivity Design Framework for guiding exhibition designers’ intentional inclusion of interactivity, story, and message in exhibition components. This framework emerges from selected findings from summative evaluation of the Human Plus exhibition, which took place at the New York Hall of Science in late 2013. The exhibition was designed to generate interest in engineering among pre‐adolescent girls. Recognizing the target group's interest in human relationships and narrative, the exhibition was designed to be engaging and interactive, driven by compelling narratives of how engineering had enhanced the lives of people with disabilities. Exhibits interwove interactivity and story to convey messages related to both engineering itself and how engineering can meet the needs of people with disabilities. Because of this dual focus, the exhibition evaluation revealed important findings about how, and under what conditions, story and interactivity function to convey message: they can work together or compete.     

Meta-Analysis of the Persuasive Effects of Metaphorical vs. Literal Messages

This study uses meta-analysis to compare the persuasive effects of metaphorical and literal messages and assess various theoretical explanations for the relatively greater persuasiveness of metaphor. The meta-analysis includes studies from 2001 to 2015 that use various message formats and topics. Results indicate an overall effect size of r = 0.09, p < .001, 95% CI [0.06, 0.12], which supports the conclusion that metaphorical messages are more persuasive than literal messages. Moderator analyses indicate differences in effect sizes based on metaphor target familiarity, message topic, and message format. A meta-regression using the theoretical moderators indicates that message format was the strongest predictor of variation in effect size. This study provides implications related to the theoretical mechanism behind the greater persuasive effects of metaphor.     

Confirmation biases in selective exposure to political online information: Source bias vs. content bias

The present work examines the role of source vs. content cues for the confirmation bias, in which recipients spend more time with content aligning with preexisting attitudes. In addition to testing how both source and content cues facilitate this biased pattern of selective exposure, the study measures subsequent attitude polarization. An experiment (N?=?120) presented messages with opposing political stances, associated with unbiased or slanted sources. Software tracked selective exposure in seconds, and attitudes were measured before, immediately after, and two days after message exposure. Further, information processing styles were assessed. The confirmation bias emerged regardless of source quality. Information processing styles moderated the confirmation bias as well as selective exposure to messages from unbiased vs. slanted sources. Selective exposure reinforced attitudes days later.