Holistic Media Education: An Assessment of the Effectiveness of a College Course in Media Literacy

The general purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a college course in media literacy. Specifically, the course took a holistic approach to media literacy and was designed to heighten college students' awareness of media structures, content, and impact, as well as to encourage students to become more critical/informed participants in the media environment. A pre-test, post-test, control group post-test only, quasi-experimental design was employed to assess the effectiveness of this approach to media literacy education. Overall, students' responses produced significant differences between the control group and the experimental groups' post-test scores on most (but not all) dependent measures. The implications of these results and suggestions for future research were discussed.     

A Review and Meta-Analysis Examining the Relationship of Music Content with Sex,Race, Priming,and Attitudes

This meta-analysis (k = 35, N = 11,629) examines the effect that listening to music, particularly popular music, has on consumers. Results demonstrate that listening to music generates an effect on listeners consistent with the content of the music (average r = .210, k = 35, N = 11,629). This effect was similar when considering survey research (r = .227) or experimental research (r = .265). The tenets of excitation transfer theory received some support, particularly when considering the effects of music as a priming material (r = .399), demonstrating the impact of music as a means of establishing mood, and ultimately the subsequent reactions of individuals. One conclusion is that efforts toward media literacy or education may prove far more productive than media content restrictions when attempting to curb potential undesirable media effects. Additional implications for policy and theory are discussed.     

Creating Persuasive Messages Advocating Organ Donation

Most people state that they would be willing to be organ donors, however only a small percentage of the population has actually signed an organ donor card. These studies focused on persuasive messages that encourage people to sign organ donor cards. In the first study, people reported their attitudes and knowledge involving organ donation. Results indicated that donor card signing was related to overall knowledge about donation. When only considering those people with positive attitudes toward organ donation, their overall knowledge about donation explained their willingness to sign organ donor cards. In the second study, people read a message involving organ donation before they were asked to sign an organ donor card. The content of the message (i.e., narrative vs. statistics) and the affect of the message (i.e., humorous vs. sad) were manipulated. Results indicated that narrative messages were more effective than statistical messages. Additionally, humorous messages were more effective than sad messages.     

Relational Framing Theory: Utterance Form and Relational Context as Antecedents of Frame Salience

Using relational framing theory, this article examines the influence of utterance type and relational context on the salience of relational frames. The authors report the results of two studies that used scenarios to manipulate utterance form and information about the relationship between interactants. Participants rated the relevance of dominance-submissiveness and affiliation-disaffiliation frames to interpreting the hypothetical interactions. Results showed that judgments of dominance-submissiveness frame salience were sensitive to variations in utterance type and relational context, but the results were mixed for the affiliation-disaffiliation frame. The authors discuss the implications for relational framing theory and the possibility of an affiliation bias.     

Evidence for the Validity of a Social Connectedness Scale: Connectors Amass Bridging Social Capital Online and Offline

One of the key characteristics of effective opinion leaders is that they are highly connected; they know many people and have numerous weak-tie relationships. Two studies were conducted that found evidence consistent with construct validity. The first (N = 35 and N = 57) found that connectors knew more people from a randomly selected list of names. A second study, with two surveys, was created (N = 561 and N = 189) such that the connectedness scores of some of the subjects in the first survey could be linked to how many subjects knew them in the second. Results indicated that those with higher connection scores were more likely to be known by others. Moreover, in the second survey, measures of Facebook use and bridging social capital were found to be associated substantially with connector scores.     

A Fish Out of Water: New Articulations of U.S.–Latino Identity on Ugly Betty

This essay examines representations of U.S.–Latino identity on the ABC television program Ugly Betty. The analysis argues that the show articulates a tension between ethnic “otherness” and cultural assimilation that symbolizes current negotiations of individual and collective identities among young, English-speaking Latinos in the United States. Furthermore, the essay argues that Ugly Betty symbolically endorses a new conceptualization of Latino identity in the United States. The conceptual framework of the analysis is the relationship between media representation and identity.     

“People Killing People on the News”: Young Children's Descriptions of Frightening Television News Content

This article investigated children's fear responses to everyday exposure to the news in the absence of a recent crisis or major event. From March to May 2006, a survey was conducted of 218 kindergarten through 6th-grade children regarding their fright reactions to the news. Results showed that 35.3% of children reported being frightened by the news. Reporting on what frightened them in their own words, children most frequently mentioned natural disasters (24.7% of children frightened), followed by kidnappings (10.4% of children frightened), the Iraq War (7.8%), and burglaries (7.8%). A qualitative analysis suggests that some children have vivid memories of disturbing news content. The accessibility of television in children's households was not related to news exposure or fear. Implications for parental guidance and research methods are discussed.     

When prophecy fails

Inaccurate predictions about educational technology are discussed, and the tendency for them to go unchallenged. Their global generalizability is questionable when the expertise underlying them is restricted to local contexts or is unknown. The limitations of futuristic studies need to be stressed to prevent their conclusions from being applied out of context. Problems arise when studies inaccurately claiming to represent developing-world needs and conditions are used for educational planning in those nations. The article analyzes the predictions made by the annual Horizon Reports and the One Laptop Per Child project. It suggests that these projects are currently responding to criticism in a manner similar to that described in the classic study When Prophecy Fails.     

Minds Between Us: Autism,mindblindness and the uncertainty of communication

This paper problematizes contemporary cultural understandings of autism. We make use of the developmental psychology concepts of ‘Theory of Mind’ and ‘mindblindness’ to uncover the meaning of autism as expressed in these concepts. Our concern is that autism is depicted as a puzzle and that this depiction governs not only the way Western culture treats autism but also the way in which it governs everyday interactions with autistic people. Moreover, we show how the concepts of Theory of Mind and mindblindness require autism to be a puzzle in the first place. Rather than treat autism as a puzzle that must be solved, we treat autism as a teacher and thus as having something valuable to contribute toward an understanding of the inherent partiality and uncertainty of human communication and collective life.