Communication Research

The current study assesses the association between news use and social capital—and whether this association varies by ethnicity and medium. Ordinary least square regression analysis indicates that social capital is predicted by newspaper exposure, but not TV national news exposure or TV local news exposure. In addition, there are two significant interaction terms between the news exposure measures and ethnicity in predicting social capital. First, the association between newspaper exposure and social capital is more positive for Whites than Latinos. Second, the association between TV national news exposure and social capital is less positive for Whites than Blacks. Of four potential contributory factors, the most viable factor is communication culture. Specifically, the relative oral and literate traditions of American ethnic groups are most suitable for explaining how the association between news use and social capital varies by ethnicity and medium.

Does intense engagement with entertainment media programs and characters reflect a psychological need for companionship? The research findings to date have been equivocal. The present study investigates how parasocial interaction (PSI) with media characters and transportation into media programs are related to specific kinds of solitude experiences, as well as to the need to belong (NTB). Results of a questionnaire study (N = 301) show that solitude experienced as self-expansion (e.g., self-discovery), diversion (e.g., engaging in distracting activities), and Other orientation (e.g., loneliness) each contribute to increased PSI with favorite TV characters. Self-expansion and Other-oriented solitude each also predicts increased tendency to transport into media programs and identify with characters. Furthermore, Other-oriented solitude appears to account for the significant association between NTB and PSI. Results provide new evidence for both compensatory and complementary uses and gratifications of entertainment media.

This investigation introduced multiple competitive attacks in order to assess the effectiveness of inoculation treatments in protecting established attitudes in a natural setting. A four-phase experiment was conducted involving 433 participants. The results revealed that the effectiveness of refutational inoculation messages dissipated some in the face of an additional attack. Still, refutational inoculation messages proved to be more effective than supportive, restoration, and control (no message) conditions in protecting established attitudes in the face of multiple attacks. The content of an additional attack (the same as the first attack or different) did not affect the capacity of inoculation refutational messages to confer resistance to competitive attacks.

This study explored an intervention of body image disturbance by employing short educational messages. A public service announcement (PSA) comprised of a realistic body image photo and a text emphasizing genetic diversity of body types improved young women’s body satisfaction, although it did not affect the size of ideal female-body norm. A variation of the PSA, an alignment ad, generated a similarly positive effect on body satisfaction. The alignment ad, in comparison to a control, also increased the size of ideal female-body norm. At the same time, these positive main effects were mostly due to the gains in body satisfaction and the size of ideal female-body norm by women whose body satisfaction was relatively undamaged to begin with. For women who were already suffering from low body satisfaction, the educational messages interacted with the predisposition to further deteriorate body satisfaction and the norm of ideal female body. Theoretical implications of these effects were discussed and practical suggestions were made for healthy body image advocates.

This study used the reinforcing spirals model to investigate the mutual influence between individuals’ media use and their global warming perceptions. Data from the science module of the 2006 General Social Survey were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results offered support for the reinforcing spirals model’s predictions. Media use mediated the effects of age, race, and education on perceived knowledge about global warming. Perceived knowledge and concern over global warming also predicted future information seeking about the polar regions.

The authors attempt here to address a dilemma faced in recent investigation of science and health communication effects: the difficulty of assessing exposure impact in situations beyond the laboratory. Based on social representation theory, we posit that TV news exposure, especially for stories framed as relevant to the everyday lives of individual audience members, can affect people’s beliefs about science and that such exposure also should interact with interpersonal conversation to jointly predict beliefs. To assess these relationships in a real world setting, we integrated market-level and individual-level data from a science TV news project funded by the National Science Foundation and employed multilevel modeling to predict beliefs about science. This move allowed us to combine information about TV Designated Market Areas with responses from a national Internet-based survey and permitted a model that included both market-level and individual-level variables. Results indicate both main effects and interaction effects. Presence of relevant science stories in a TV market, for example, positively predicted subsequent beliefs about the general accessibility of science among audience members in that market even after controlling for individual-level variables.