Abstract
We begin this winter issue with our invited forum, “Intellectual Balkanization or Globalization: The Future of Communication Research Publishing.” Five editors and a former academic association leader from six continents were invited to discuss what communication journals can do to address the issue of Western and Global North’s dominance in scholarship publication.
Then, we present a pair of articles on the effects of the use of vox pops (interviews of ordinary people) in TV news with different perspectives. Kathleen Beckers’s online experiment in Flemish Belgium tested the influence of vox pop characteristics on perceived public opinion and personal opinion. She showed that vox pop viewpoints have a substantial influence on the audience, and opinions are more influential than personal testimonies. Christina Peter’s experiment on a German online panel found the populist attitudes of the viewers moderate the perceptual and persuasive effects of vox pops.
We also have another pair of articles on the prosocial effects of different types of media exposure. Thomas Billard’s article compared the effect of binge-watching and weekly viewing and found that weekly viewing of the Amazon series Transparent has much better effect in increasing acceptance of transgender people than binge-watching. Through an online survey of 450 Jewish students who use digital media daily, Sabina Lissitsa and Nonna Kushnirovich found that virtual contact and exposure to negative content about the Arab minority on digital media in Israel reduce subtle prejudice on Arabs, but increased face-to-face contact has no positive effect.
Brian Bowe, Joe Gosen and Shahira Fahmy’s study examined how the three leading international newswires (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images, Associated Press, and Reuters) visually framed the debate surrounding burkini and whether they visually stereotyped women wearing it. Using a mixed-method approach, their study unpacked the role of news agency photography in visual representation. Four visual frames were identified: mediated solidarity, administrative response, symbolic fashion, and active liberation.
Jeeyun Oh, Jisoo Ahn, and Hayoung Sally Lim’s experiment with 112 current smokers examined how website interactivity influences the processing of anti-smoking messages and smoking outcome beliefs. They found that the interactive website elicited more heuristic processing among participants than the noninteractive website, which diminished their outcome beliefs and website attitudes. In contrast, smokers’ positive interface perception functioned as a salient cue that led to greater systematic processing.
Combining rich cable set-top box data with a 165,036 household subscriber sample and primary voting records in six U.S. states in the 2016 election, Thomas Ksiazek, Su Jung Kim, and Edward Malthouse identified different news media repertoire defined by selective exposure that is driven ideologically or by political interest and partisanship. Although both total news exposure and exposure diversity positively predict voter turnout, exposure diversity demonstrates a stronger effect.
Nicholas Browning, Sung-Un Yang, Young Eun Park, Ejae Lee, and Taeyoung Kim’s article examined donors’ reaction when a nonprofit organization violated the trust of the donors with misconduct and unethical behaviors. The effects of unethical behavior were significantly differentiated depending on the locus where the ethical misconduct occurred and varied by number of occurrences. Ethical misconduct in primary values (e.g., poor stewardship of funds) resulted in greater negative effect on attitude toward and intention to donate to the organization than tertiary values (e.g., nepotism). Perceived organizational responsibility of unethical conduct and decreased organization–public relationship were significant mediators.
Happy Reading!