Digital Commons Network^™

Are Anti-Spit Tobacco Campaigns Striking Out? A Survey Of Iowa And Nebraska College Baseball Players, David C. Ogden, Teresa A. Lamsam, Hugh J. Reilly, Michael L. Hilt

Communication Faculty Publications

Anti-spit tobacco information is replete with fear appeals, including firsthand accounts of death and debilitation, to make users aware of the health risks and dangers. Those dangers, however, are well known by baseball players whose association with spit tobacco is historic. A survey of 217 Iowa and Nebraska college players showed that despite their awareness of spit tobacco's dangers, the players use spit tobacco to relax and focus on the field. This study supports other research showing that fear appeals may not be the most appropriate approach for anti-tobacco advertising campaigns. The study suggests that campaigns should promote relaxation and …

Book Review: Learning To Write "Indian": The Boarding-School Experience And American Indian Literature, Bruce E. Johansen

Communication Faculty Publications

In a twist on assimilation, many boarding school students used the English language, a primary tool of colonization, to "talk back" to the system. As surely as the boarding-schools' inventors understood that language is the vessel of culture, none of them gave much thought to the ways in which Native Americans would use English to critique the schools into which many of them had been unwillingly enrolled.

Their writings, examined by Amelia Katanski, indicate that the boarding-school students were unwilling to surrender as victims. Learning English describes how Native American students in boarding schools often forged new identities, taking a …

Baby Boomers’ Attitudes Towards Product Placements, Nichole M. Schmoll, John Hafer, Michael L. Hilt, Hugh J. Reilly

Communication Faculty Publications

Including branded products within mass media programming is becoming common. Previous research has focused almost entirely on college-age students' attitudes about placements in movies and television. This research focuses on Baby Boomers and is the first to include questions about multiple media in forming attitudes towards product placements. Six hypotheses were tested. Attitude toward product placement is related to media consumption. Males appear more positive than females. Interactions effects of media consumption x gender and media consumption x age appear insignificant. Analytical results, graphs, tables and managerial implications and representative comments from respondents are presented.

Gender Role And Feminism Revisited: A Follow-Up Study, Elizabeth A. Suter, Paige W. Toller

Communication Faculty Publications

In this follow-up to our earlier study (Toller, Suter, & Trautman, Gender role identity and attitudes towards feminism, Sex Roles, 51, 85–90, 2004) we examine the interrelationships among gender role, support for feminism, and willingness to self-label as feminist. Ten percent of college students previously surveyed participated in qualitative interviews, which elicited characterizations of feminists, whether students self-identified as feminist, suggestions for garnering support for feminism, and for interpretation of the initial study’s findings. Students were asked to speculate why we found that highly masculine men and highly feminine women were neither likely to self-identify as feminist nor to …

Aarp Online Portrayal Of Social Security: Engaging Aging Baby Boomers Through Interaction, Michael L. Hilt, Jeremy Harris Lipschultz

Communication Faculty Publications

Although baby boomers were not the sole focus of the American Association of Retired Persons' (AARP) website content on the issue of Social Security reform, their interests were addressed in a variety of ways. AARP provided information, position statements, a live chat forum, and message boards. Additionally, AARP had a partnership with the Rock the Vote website. It was unexpected that AARP would be so interested in younger people and in convincing them about their generation's need to support Social Security as it currently exists. It may be that as the baby boom generation enters retirement, AARP will become increasingly …

Editors’ Note: Simile Progress Report, Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, Michael L. Hilt

Communication Faculty Publications

As Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education (SIMILE) enters its sixth year of publication, the coeditors have identified a number of issues to be addressed in the journal’s development. This editors’ note explores how the field of media and information literacy education has grown in importance. There continues to be a need for both theory-building and empirical research data, which would strengthen conceptualization. SIMILE needs to cultivate a global sense of significance about media and information literacy education issues across many disciplines.