Public interest programming: Taxation by regulation

This study examined the relationships among viewers’ family communication patterns, sex and pregnancy experience, music video viewing motivations, and viewers’ cognitive processing of a music video about teenage pregnancy. Respondents were high school students, who watched a music video and filled out questionnaires on two occasions. Results of a path analysis demonstrated different paths for girls and boys: For girls, family communication patterns and sexual/pregnancy experience were directly related to the activity with which they processed the video; for boys, family communication patterns had a direct path to activity, but also had a path through observational goals. Results suggest that family communication patterns may operate as enduring general cognitive structures that predict viewer activity.     

The Influence of Television News Depictions of the Images of War on Viewers

Results of an experiment about the influence of network television news coverage of combat in Iraq on viewers indicated that, compared with a control condition which featured news stories about combat operations in Iraq described by news anchors, news reports also featuring footage of combat operations increased viewer involvement levels about the war and reduced viewer support for continued military presence in Iraq. Television news footage of combat operations also reduced viewers' pride in U.S. military presence but did not affect other emotions. However, regardless of how news stories were packaged, women experienced greater emotional response to network news stories about combat operations than men. The results also shed light on the potential of inoculation to deflect such influence.     

The Behaviorist in the Boardroom: The Research of Frank Stanton,Ph.D.

In 1946, at the age of 38, Frank Stanton was named President of CBS. While much of Stanton's work as a corporate executive has been chronicled, his accomplishments as one of America's earliest scholars of radio audience measurement remain neglected in media scholarship. This article reviews Stanton's research efforts between 1933 and 1942, and in doing so it places his work within the contexts of contemporaneous social and psychological media inquiry. Discussions of Stanton's methodological approach, his innovative dissertation, his scholarship, and his collaboration with key figures in the history of communication research are informed by primary and secondary sources.     

Validity indeed!

A random telephone survey (N=582) of Washington state voters conducted in November 1994 examines relationships among mass media use, specific aspects of political disaffection, political efficacy and participation. Results suggest that negativism toward media campaign coverage reduces media use and that cynicism toward the political system reduces political efficacy. Negativism and media use also are negatively related to cynicism. Contrary to concerns expressed by some scholars and journalists concerning the negative impact of superficial media coverage on political participation, however, mass media use positively predicts voting behavior. In addition, negativism toward campaign tactics appears unrelated to political participation.     

A Comparative Citation Analysis of Web of Science,Scopus, and Google Scholar

This article presents the results of a comparative study of Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and Google Scholar (GS) for a set of 15 business and economics journals. Citations from the three sources were analyzed to determine whether one source is better than another, or whether a new database such as Scopus, or a free database such as GS could replace WoS. The authors concluded that scholars might want to use alternative tools collectively to get a more complete picture of the scholarly impact of an article.     

Use of inoculation to foster resistance to credit card marketing targeting college students

Student credit card debt is a growing problem. This study explores the effectiveness of the inoculation strategy to foster resistance to credit card marketing targeting college students. In order to explore further the medical analogy on which the inoculation strategy is based, this study was the first systematically to alter the argument strength of both the counterarguments and refutations in the inoculation pretreatment message to determine whether argument strengths impact effectiveness of inoculation treatments. In addition, this investigation explored whether inoculation spreads from person to person via social channels, similar to the marketing concept of viral marketing. Results indicated that conventional inoculation treatment messages successfully inoculated college students against credit card advertisements, manifested in attitude valence and behavioral intentions, and that matching argument strength is the most effective inoculation strategy.     

Family sex communication orientation

The United States leads all industrialized countries in unintended teenage pregnancies, teenage births, teenage abortions. Despite the seriousness of this problem, family communication researchers so far, for all practical purposes, have excluded it from the discipline's research agenda. Our study was designed to consolidate and examine a measure of children's attitudes toward family sex communication on the dimensions of comfort, information, and value — the Family Sex Communication Quotient scale (FSCQ) — and to test this orientation against other potential mediators of sex discussion in the family. Our tentative findings suggest: (1) family sex communication in general is infrequent and ineffective, (2) frequent and effective family sex communication may serve as a contextual model for children's communication patterns, (3) a strong family sex communication orientation, particularly as measured by the FSCQ which tested out to be a reliable measure and a significant and consistent mediator, seems to facilitate children's open discussion with dating partners and with parents and to develop responsible pre‐parenting attitudes, (4) discussing sex in the family does not promote an attitude of sexual license.     

The role of communication in managing reductions in work force

Reductions in work force (downsizing, delayering, resizing, outplacement, layoffs, demassing) are used by organizations to achieve desired economic goals and ensure survival. However, these reductions often negatively affect the work behaviors and attitudes of continuing employees and thus, may detract from the success of the reduction in work force. The purpose of this study was to increase our understanding of the effects of multiple workforce reductions on survivors by extending Brockner's (1988) model and outlining the role of communication in the process so that researchers and practitioners can better predict and control for the effects of workforce reductions. In pursuit of this goal, a causal model of effects on survivors was developed and then tested with data collected in a large, midwestern insurance company that implemented two workforce reductions.

The hypothesized model was inconsistent with the data and subsequently was rejected. A revised model was then tested and found to fit at three time periods. The revised model demonstrates survivor reactions to reductions are complex and change over time and in response to multiple reductions. The main conclusion was that managers can influence survivor information deprivation, career future uncertainty, work satisfaction, and propensity for turnover by paying attention to, and if possible controlling, organizational identification, financial rewards, work team communication support, and manager communication support. The results also suggest that survivor reactions to prior organizational interventions may influence the success of current interventions.     

Sex differences in social support in sororities and fraternities

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to assess differences between sorority and fraternity members with regard to the social support provided by the “sisters”; and “brothers”; with whom they live. Based on sex differences in communication in general, and the few findings of sex differences in social support, two research questions were posed: Do members of sororities and fraternities differ in the social support they provide? How do the various types of social support compare with each other within fraternities and within sororities?

Differences found in this study corroborate results of research on sex differences in communication that characterize women as using communication to connect with, support, and achieve closeness with others, and men using communication to accomplish some task and to assert their individuality. In general, differences were mostly confined to two of the eight types of social support studied: members of sororities, in comparison to members of fraternities, reported being more satisfied with the emotional support they receive and perceiving greater availability of listening support. If the goal of fraternities and sororities is to provide their members with the full range of social support, then findings indicate members of fraternities could benefit from becoming more skillful at providing types of support that tend to promote closeness and connection (e.g., emotional support and listening support); and members of sororities could benefit from becoming more skillful at providing types of support that tend to create distance and separation (e.g., technical challenge support and emotional challenge support).     

A typology of drug resistance strategies

This study examined social influences on adolescents' responses to drug offers. Seventy narrative accounts of both successful and unsuccessful attempts to say no were collected. From these data, the authors developed a typology of both drug offers and drug resistance strategies. In addition, typologies were developed for: who made the offer, what substance was offered, where the offer occurred, and why the subject responded as she or he did. As well, the study revealed the influence of the type of drug, alcohol or controlled substance, on the process of offering and resisting.

The analysis revealed that adolescents were more likely to resist offers of controlled substances and did so more often when the offer was made by an acquaintance at school. When they did refuse, they were most likely to simply say no. Also, teenagers were more likely to accept offers of alcohol, particularly from friends in social situations when the friends used persuasive appeals.