Shark Week and the Rise of Infotainment in Science Documentaries

This study used content analysis to determine if the Discovery Channel's Shark Week incorporated more elements of science or entertainment frames after partnering with ocean conservation organizations in 2010. Drawing on cultivation and framing theories, and discussing the rise of infotainment in science communication, the study determined that the Discovery Channel did incorporate more science frames after 2010 but continued to depict sharks primarily as violent killers.     

“Kind,Sensitive, and Above All,Honest”: Long-Term Cancer Survivors’ Quality of Life and Self-Advocacy

ABSTRACT

Long-term survivors of cancer (LTS) are a growing population whose needs differ significantly from patients undergoing cancer treatment. Many LTS suffer from late effects of cancer treatments or symptoms that persist after treatment concludes or appear following remission. This study explored the relationship between LTS perceptions of quality of life with late effects and perceptions of patient self-advocacy through quantitative and qualitative analyses. A negative statistical relationship emerged between the variables. LTS median self-advocacy scores were quite high, reflecting their preference for health-care providers who listen actively, understand patient needs, are knowledgeable and compassionate, and utilize joint decision making.     

Summary from The Committee on the Public Libraries in the Knowledge Society

This article describes the strategic and political work in the public library sector in Denmark resulting in a strategy report The Public Libraries in the Knowledge Society, published in 2010. This report provides a framework for understanding the current situation of the libraries and gives recommendations for library leaders and policy makers in the field.     

Conversations among Coal Miners in a Campaign to Promote Hearing Protection

Although working in a coal mine can diminish one's hearing capabilities by 50%, not until 2000 did federal laws require companies to establish noise standards in order to help prevent hearing loss among their employees. Since then, researchers have worked with safety administrators to develop effective messages promoting hearing protection and testing. This research assessed the effects of campaign messages on discussing campaign postcards and talking with others about a helmet-sticker incentive. The results, which are discussed with a focus on future campaigns, indicate that hearing-related attitudes, intentions, and behaviors are the most influenced by messages that were affectively neutral and least influenced by messages that were affectively negative.     

The Effects of Subjective Camera and Fanship on Viewers' Experience of Presence and Perception of Play in Sports Telecasts

This study examines the use of subjective camera, and its impact on fans’ and nonfans’ experience of presence and subjective evaluations of play. In a mixed-measures experiment, high, moderate, and low sports fans viewed 16 plays from a college football game shown via either subjective or objective camera. The study found that plays viewed through the subjective camera elicited a significantly greater sense of spatial presence as well as presence as engagement. Presence also varied as a function of participants’ degree of fanship. Subjective evaluations of game play were also a function of sports fanship.     

Ethnographic Facilitation as a Complementary Methodology for Conducting Applied Communication Scholarship

This essay presents a methodological approach, ethnographic facilitation (EF), through which applied communication scholars (1) employ ethnographic practices to develop a rich, nuanced understanding of communication within and constitutive of groups, organizations, and/or communities; (2) intervene into communicative practices using group facilitation processes to promote change or development for the group, organization, community, and/or its members; and (3) report their findings to scholarly and relevant practitioner communities. The essay explains how EF draws on, yet differs from, and extends related methodological approaches, such as ethnography, critical ethnography, discourse tracing, and participatory action research, and integrates traditional facilitation practices with ethnography. Implications of the methodology are discussed regarding site selection, researcher conduct and relationships, techniques used to describe and facilitate communication, facilitation assessment, and dissemination of research findings. To illustrate the principles that inform this methodology, examples are included from a case study conducted with a church leadership team.     

Patterns of Social Support Communicated in Response to Expressions of Uncertainty in an Online Community of Young Adults with Cancer

In order to develop more effective ways of helping adolescents and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors cope with cancer-related uncertainty, it is important to understand how AYAs respond communicatively to each other's uncertainty. We designed this project to gain insight into the patterns of social support that occur in response to AYAs' expressions of uncertainty. We analyzed 510 responses to posts in an AYA-focused online discussion group. Eighty-two percent of messages responding to uncertainty contained informational support. Sixty-seven percent contained multiple types of support. Among medical, personal, and social sources of uncertainty, the most typical response tended to be a combination of informational support accompanied by emotional and/or esteem support. AYAs who express uncertainty in online support groups should be advised that their posts are likely to be met with information, such as advice and referrals, which may either facilitate or impede their uncertainty management goals.     

Primacy of Broadcast News: A Mediation Analysis of Recall,Attitudes, and Voting Intentions

This study examines how the order and proportion of scene valence within a television news story influence viewers' processing of political information. The results of the study, based on structural equation modeling and Sobel's mediation analysis, suggest that, in a news story about a political candidate, positive information on the candidate is recalled better if he or she is praised at the beginning of the story and then criticized at the end than if he or she is criticized first and praised later. In addition, there was a strong proportion effect. Stories with a high proportion of positive scenes were more likely to increase the participant's recall of positive information and induce his or her favorable attitudes and voting intentions than those with a low proportion of positive scenes.     

Communication and our environment: Categorizing research in environmental advocacy

Marketplace advocacy campaigns often arise in response to burgeoning societal concerns, especially those faced by energy industries. These campaigns may be launched by a single sponsor or by an industry trade group representing the collective interests of the industry sector. Using focus groups, this research explored how lay audiences with little knowledge of the topic being advocated responded to similar energy-focused marketplace advocacy messages when presented by a corporation versus an industry trade group, research which has potentially significant implications for how corporations allocate communication resources as well as for environmental groups attempting to combat certain industry initiatives. Specifically, this study explored audience response to marketplace advocacy messages when communicated via a corporation versus an industry trade group in two common contexts: (1) ads designed to build support for an industry category and (2) ads designed to build support for a specific, controversial industry initiative. Findings were analyzed through theoretical frameworks in persuasion knowledge and attribution theory. A model is introduced that integrates these perceptions and highlights the study's key findings.