The influence of citizen disaster communication on perceptions of neighborhood belonging and community resilience

The Citizen Disaster Communication Assessment (CDCA) measures individual disaster communication activities that are intended to help communities cope across all phases of a disaster. Using the CDCA, this study examined associations among citizen disaster communication, neighborhood belonging, and community resilience using three different samples representing different disaster phases (Pre-event, Event, Post-event). Results indicate that more citizen disaster communication was associated with stronger perceptions of neighborhood belonging and community resilience at the Event and Post-event phases. In terms of specific citizen disaster communication processes that proved important, communication to correct disaster rumors and share stories was associated with greater feelings of belonging. Communication intended to confirm disaster information and tell stories was associated with stronger community resilience perceptions. Overall, results (a) confirm that citizen disaster communication is an important part of the disaster response and recovery ecosystem and (b) offer evidence of concurrent validity for the CDCA.     

Testing a mediational model of the effect of family communication patterns on student perceptions of the impact of the college transition through social communication apprehension

An undergraduate college student’s ability to transition successfully to college has been identified as one of the most pressing concerns for institutions of higher education. To understand the challenges associated with transitioning to college and suggest interventions from a communication perspective, we test a mediational model based on family communication patterns theory (FCP) and the communication apprehension perspective (CA). The model examines the influence of FCP and CA on students’ perceptions of the impact of the college transition on their lives. A survey of 2252 students about to transition to college indicated that conversation orientation was associated with lower CA. Both conversation orientation and conformity orientation were associated with more positive perceptions of the impact of the transition to college. An indirect effect was found from conversation orientation to the perceived impact through CA. Practical implications for college retention specialists and educators, families, and students including a pre-transition visualization intervention are discussed.     

XML在图书馆网络化建设中的应用

XML技术的发展对图书馆产生了深远影响.文章从四个方面概述了XML在图书馆网络化建设中的应用进展.     

Social support within an on-line cancer community: an assessment of emotional support,perceptions of advantages and disadvantages,and motives for using the community from a communication perspective

This study investigated an on-line cancer support community emphasizing communication concerns important to the community administrators. The researcher conducted an on-line survey of participants (N v = v 103) focused on their on-line communication activities and social support. The results indicate a modest negative correlation between emotional support received on-line and perceived stress, differences in emotional support scores based on perceptions of disadvantages of on-line support groups, and different motives for using the community between people with cancer and family members. The study also describes suggestions based on the results that were made to community administrators and which could be used by other on-line support communities.     

博客管理属性对网络资源建设的影响

本文分析了博客及其管理属性,研究了博客管理属性对网络资源建设的直接推动作用和潜在影响,并进一步探讨了博客管理属性对网络资源建设的启示。     

Examining the quality of social support messages produced face-to-face and in computer-mediated communication: The effects of hyperpersonal communication

ABSTRACT

The hyperpersonal communication model was used to investigate the implications of the reduced social cues in computer-mediated communication (CMC) for the production of social support messages. Participants were randomly assigned to interact with a confederate seeking help about a problem for which the confederate was or was not responsible. The interactions took place either face-to-face or in one of two CMC conditions. The results were partially consistent with the intensification effect proposed in the hyperpersonal model. Participants evaluated the confederate most negatively, but produced the highest quality support messages, in the CMC condition with visual anonymity followed by the CMC condition and face-to-face condition. Participants’ evaluations of the confederate were also influenced by the confederate’s responsibility for their problem.     

Female farmers and the social construction of access to agricultural information

This article examines the ways in which the transfer of information about farming practice is gendered, and how the gendering of access to agricultural information affects the social realities of farming women. The research focuses on a sample of Ontario female farmers who were interviewed extensively about their farming practices, including the ways in which they sought and found information to help them further their farming knowledge. It was found that female farmers utilized both formal and informal channels of information, but that these channels were not readily nor easily accessible to female farmers. Attempts to extract needed information resulted in the manifestation of issues regarding social and professional legitimacy. Female farmers must, therefore, devise alternate strategies and networks for information gathering. The study demonstrates that information acquisition in farming is a socially mediated process which reflects the socially constructed gender relations of agriculture itself.     

The dangers of unlimited access: Fiction,the Internet and the social construction of childhood

At the beginning of the twentieth century, librarians, teachers, and parents wrote about the dangers to children of unlimited access to what was termed “sensational literature.” At the beginning of the next century, they struggled to deal with the dangers to children of unlimited access to the Internet. Although separated by a hundred years, they appear to be making much the same argument about the much the same issue, that of the public library providing unlimited access to minors to what some view as inappropriate or dangerous materials. However, a closer analysis of the discourse in the professional media regarding these two controversies, one that investigates the mechanisms underlying the changes in attitudes and practice, reveals that any similarities are primarily cosmetic.Such an analysis reveals that different issues were addressed and debated utilizing different social constructions of childhood and different social constructions of the public library and public librarians held by society as a whole and by librarians at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.     

The second digital transition: to the mobile space — an analysis of Europeana

According to industry estimates the mobile device (smartphone and tablet) will soon be the main platform for searching the Web and yet our knowledge of how mobile consumers use information – especially scholarly information, and how that differs from desktop or ‘tethered’ users – is imperfect to say the very least. This article aims to correct this through an analysis of the usage logs of a major cultural, multimedia website, Europeana.eu, which started tackling the mobile challenge in 2011. The challenges of identifying mobile use – no easy matter – are described. The information behaviour of 150,000 mobile users is examined and compared with that for desktop users. The main findings are that mobile users are the fastest‐growing user community and that their visits are very different in the aggregate from those arising from desktops. Mobile visits are information ‘lite‘: typically shorter, less interactive, and with less content viewed per visit. Use takes on a social rather than office rhythm, with use peaking at nights and weekends.     

Effectiveness of health messages to change women's thin-ideal and unhealthy weight control intentions: Connecting social norms and social networks approaches

The thin-ideal is becoming increasingly dominant among women in Eastern Asian countries such as China and South Korea. The internalization of the thin-ideal leads to body image disturbance and unhealthy weight-control behaviors. Based on the social networks and social norms approaches, this study tests the effectiveness of normative messages in reducing women's internationalization of the thin-ideal and weight-control intentions through an experiment among female college students in China. It investigates how the following three factors: content of normative message (psychoeducational or feminist), source of the message (strong ties or weak ties), and characteristics of the recipients (self-weight evaluations) influence women's body image and weight-control intentions. Results of this study suggest that normative messages with a psychoeducational approach delivered through strong ties are more effective in decreasing women's internalization of the thin-ideal than the same message delivered through weak ties. In contrast, normative messages with a feminist approach delivered through weak ties are more effective in reducing women's internalization of the thin-ideal and unhealthy weight-control intentions than the same messages delivered through strong ties. There is an interaction effect between message content and recipients' self-weight evaluation. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.     

The five blind men and the elephant: differing perceptions of the institution of an approval plan

This paper discusses the first-time implementation of a book-in-hand approval plan in a major university library system, with special attention to the expectations of the major groups involved (library administration, technical services, collection development, teaching faculty, and the vendor) and to how these expectations were met. The initial reactions saw the plan as either a panacea to the problems of having to downsize and the escalating cost of processing, or as a sinister form of outsourcing that would lead professional skills to be less prized and attenuate collections so that they no longer fulfilled the University’s needs. Two years later, all these positions have been moderated, but the fears persist, and, as long as they persist, the approval plan will not be used to its full capacity.     

Examining the dimensionality of performance feedback messages: Source and recipient perceptions of influence attempts

Performance feedback is considered an effective means of influencing organizational members. Nevertheless, recipient perceptions regarding such attempts to motivate, change, and/or reinforce certain behaviors and attitudes will determine the eventual response. Often these responses are unexpected and less than desirable. Efforts to better understand the performance feedback construct have produced conceptions emphasizing its complexity and multidimensionality. However, a recent challenge to the usefulness and /or validity of such conceptualizations has prompted the research reported here. This study explores feedback recipients’ and sources’ perceptions of the underlying dimensionality or “hidden structure” of performance feedback messages.     

The practical paradox of technology: The influence of communication technology use on employee burnout and engagement

Technological advancements in the workplace frequently have produced contradictory effects by facilitating accessibility and efficiency while increasing interruptions and unpredictability. We combine insights from organizational paradoxes and the job demands–resources model to construct a framework identifying positive and negative mechanisms in the relationship between communication technology use (CTU) and employee well-being, operationalized as work engagement and burnout. In this study of Dutch workers, we demonstrate that CTU increases well-being through positive pathways (accessibility and efficiency) and decreases well-being through negative pathways (interruptions and unpredictability). We highlight the importance of (1) investigating CTU resources and demands simultaneously to grasp the relationship between CTU and employee well-being, and (2) considering CTU's downsides to successfully implement new communication technologies and flexible work designs.     

Television fiction and online communities: an analysis of comments on social networks and forums made by female viewers

This article analyzes the feeling of communities of female social viewers who watch television fiction and participate in social networks and forums dedicated to the programs. The sample is made up of 7,849 comments from 157 platforms (49 Facebook pages, 71 Twitter accounts, and 37 forums). We describe the characteristics of these communities of fans, which differ significantly from cult fandoms and are based on ICT interweaving between reception and female viewers’ daily lives. The results reveal that these active online poster and lurker communities express themselves through their emotional ties with the television series, self-reflection, and the manifestation of intimacy. Identification with the group is based on the relationship of the storylines with their own lives, with no attempts at constructing a cultural or political identity.     

Social influence in groups: A comparative application of relational framing theory and the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion

Normative influence, as opposed to informational influence, in groups often diminishes decision-making outcomes. Despite the important effect of social influence on group performance, prior research on social influence in groups has largely focused on variable analytic conditions that affect influence, instead of on theoretical explanations of the use of social influence. This paper addressed that limitation by applying Relational Framing Theory (Dillard, Solomon, & Samp, 1996) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) to social influence in groups. A 3 (group interaction goal: task, group, control)×2 (involvement: high or control) factorial design experiment was conducted to test the applicability of these two theories. Results demonstrated that neither theory predicted the occurrence of normative and informational statements in discussion. Additional tests, however, showed greater general support for Relational Framing Theory.     

Establishing the structure of reality for an industry: model and anti-model arguments as advocacy in Nike's crisis communication

This study illustrates the potential role of model and anti-model arguments in organizational crisis communication. Specifically, model and anti-model arguments are described as a strategy for moving the focus of a crisis from an organization to its industry. Model arguments enable organizations to establish their corrective action as industry standards that merit imitation. Conversely, organizations can set minimum standards for their industries with anti-model arguments. Phil Knight's May 12, 1998, speech announcing Nike's new initiatives in global manufacturing is analyzed as a case study. The essay concludes that model and anti-model arguments can suspend criticism of the organization, create the foundation for a return to industry prominence by the organization, and establish proposed new industry standards that are favorable to the organization.     

The "Illusion of Life" rhetorical perspective: an integrated approach to the study of music as communication

–The illusion of life rhetorical perspective increases our understanding about how discursive linguistic symbols and non-discursive aesthetic symbols function together to communicate and persuade in didactic music. We argue that lyrics and music work together to offer messages comprised of both conceptual and emotional content through the constructs of virtual experience (lyrics) and virtual time (music). Both virtual experience and virtual time must exist for music to function rhetorically. For songs without lyrics, virtual experience must be derived from some other source. Emotional content is progressively articulated in music and is understood by considering intensity and release patterns both individually and contextually. Music's rhetorical significance lies in the degree of congruity or incongruity that exists between virtual experience and virtual time. Congruent messages make the meaning more poignant, but could come at the expense of listener appeal. Incongruent messages transform the message in some way, making the holistic message more than, and perhaps different from, the message depicted in the lyrics alone. Incongruity could result in misinterpretation, an emotional message devoid of conceptual content, or subtle and systematic persuasion.