Agenda-setting and the internet: The intermedia influence of internet bulletin boards on newspaper coverage of the 2000 general election in South Korea

The purpose of this study was to explore the intermedia influence of the Internet on traditional news media. Accordingly, this study examined the influence of Internet bulletin boards on newspaper coverage of the 2000 general election in South Korea at both first and second levels of agenda-setting through content analyses of major newspapers and the Internet bulletin boards during the campaign. Results of cross-lagged correlation analyses showed that newspapers influenced Internet bulletin boards at the first level of agenda-setting. Additionally, at the second level of agenda-setting, the influence of Internet bulletin boards on newspapers was found. Although reciprocity appeared in a few time spans, the results imply that the Internet funnels and leads public opinion as well as affecting the coverage of other media.     

Public perceptions of newspapers’ political positions: A perceptual map of Hong Kong newspapers

This study demonstrates for the first time that a newspaper's political orientation is a principal factor used by readers to locate its position in the marketplace. The findings have concrete implications for editors and publishers in Southeast Asia, where newspapers are often aligned with political organizations. The study uses data collected in Hong Kong to create a perceptual map of Hong Kong newspapers. In Hong Kong, there are 25 dailies serving a population of 6 million. Newspaper readership is high. The newspapers span the political spectrum from ultra‐left to ultra‐right. When data were collected for this study, some newspapers were controlled by the Kuomintang of Taiwan, others by the Chinese Communist Party of the People's Republic of China. This study selected eight newspapers whose political orientations had been clearly established by previous research. Some 990 respondents estimated the distance between 28 pairs of newspapers. These ‘perception data’ were pure similarity/dissimilarity measures. Factor analysis and multidimensional scaling both reveal a clear political dimension to the resultant perceptual maps. The study also includes an overview of the contemporary partisan press in Hong Kong.     

Responses to unpleasant work relationships

The likelihood of use in Rusbult's (e.g., Rusbult & Zembrodt, 1983) typology of exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect responses to romantic relationships was assessed for its general applicability to unpleasant work relationships. Correlational analysis revealed that one's own orientation to an unpleasant work relationship and the perception of the other person's orientation to the problematic relationship were associated with the voice response. Loyalty was associated with one's own orientation to the problematic relationship, as was the neglect response. Status relative to the unpleasant person was found to shape one's responses to the relationship as well. Some correlations varied by gender.     

Testing the mediating role of cognitive responses in the elaboration likelihood model

Cognitive response theories such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) have been criticized for lacking appropriate and rigorous empirical testing. As a result, the ELM in particular has little support for the proposed causal mechanism, cognitive responses, as a mediating variable between messages and attitude change. Using argument quality and source credibility manipulations, this investigation examines several causal models to assess the role of cognitive responses in the ELM. In general, the data supported the ELM's prediction that high quality arguments produce more favorable thoughts and subsequently more attitude change for high involvement receivers. Although a structural equation model supports the mediating role of cognitive responses in the ELM, the data are more consistent with a model derived from Information Processing Theory.     

A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Organizational Dissent and Workplace Freedom in Five European Economies

Individuals in five European countries—Finland, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom (n = 1184)—completed a survey exploring the relationship between organizational dissent and workplace freedom of speech. Results revealed workplace freedom of speech is positively correlated with dissent among the entire sample in France and in Germany. Results in Spain were nonsignificant. In the United Kingdom, there was a negative relationship between workplace freedom of speech and dissent. There was a negative relationship between workplace freedom of speech and articulated dissent and a positive relationship with latent dissent in Finland. Moreover, MANCOVA testing showed nationality to have a significant effect on organizational dissent and workplace freedom of speech. Germans scored the highest on dissent and workplace freedom with Spain scoring the lowest.     

Feeling Valued Matters: An Examination of Instructor Confirmation and Instructional Dissent

This study explored the relationship between effective instructor behavior—instructor confirmation—and a potentially negative student behavior—instructional dissent. Previous studies demonstrate that student characteristics provide a limited explanation for how students express dissent (e.g., Goodboy & Myers, 2012 Goodboy, A. K. & Myers, S. A. (2012). Brief report: Instructional dissent as an expression of students’ verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness traits. Communication Education, 61, 448–458. doi:10.1080/03634523.2012.699635[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Thus, scholars have begun to investigate the influence of instructor behaviors along with student characteristics to understand why students express dissent (LaBelle, Martin, & Weber, 2013 LaBelle, S., Martin, M. M. & Weber, K. (2013). Instructional dissent in the college classroom: Using the instructional beliefs model as a framework. Communication Education, 62, 169–190. doi:10.1080/03634523.2012.759243[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). This study revealed that instructor confirmation negatively related to expressive and vengeful dissent, but not rhetorical dissent. Further, the three dimensions of instructor confirmation functioned differently in accounting for variance in expressive and vengeful dissent. Future research should build towards a model of instructional dissent model that reflects the unique characteristics of the instructional context and modifiable instructor behaviors.     

Administrative policies and practices in university speech departments

Adlai Stevenson's speech strategy in the 1956 campaign was radically different from his 1952 approach. How Stevenson conducted his second campaign and why it failed is the subject of this article. The author wrote his dissertation on the 1952 campaign, and in 1956 traveled with Stevenson on his Ohio tour.     

The Effect of Personal and Academic Variables on Student Adoption of Twitter as an Information Source

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the use of Twitter in terms of personal and academic variables of students. These included gender, grade point average (GPA), and year level. Data were collected from undergraduate students at the College of Social Sciences at Kuwait University. A structured questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. The findings show that the majority of respondents use social media, 42.8% use Twitter “sometimes,” and 44.4% use it “always.” There is no significant difference between males and females, except for social influence (SI). There is a statistically significant difference in the use of Twitter as an information source among students for different academic year levels, with the highest mean for senior students. However, no significant differences were found by students' GPA scores. Further investigation focusing on variables such as students' level of confidence and skills of using Twitter, such as the effect of course content, etc., would provide more insight into the use of social media platforms in higher education.     

Books of the Month: Kids!

Gerald S. Lesser's Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street (New York: Random House, 1974 -- $10.00)

Richard M. Polsky's Getting to Sesame Street: Origins of the Children's Television Workshop (Palo Alto, Calif.: Aspen Program on Communications and Society, 770 welsh Rd., 1974 --$3.95...also New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1974 -- $11.00)