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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Studying Global News: Methodological Issues, August Grant, Yicheng Zhu, Jeff Wilkinson, Diane Guerrazzi Oct 2016

Studying Global News: Methodological Issues, August Grant, Yicheng Zhu, Jeff Wilkinson, Diane Guerrazzi

Faculty Publications

This paper reports on the processes, challenges, and results of a study of news consumers in 16 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States. This study employed a 10-minute, online survey measuring media consumption, news topic preference, news values and demographic information. The results of the primary study will be reported in later papers; the purpose of this analysis is to address the issues and challenges in conducting cross-national research, including language and idiom, sampling issues, data collection procedures, incentives, and time. The analysis begins …


Defining News: A Ten-Nation Perspective, August Grant, Jeffrey Wilkinson, Diane Guerrazzi, Yicheng Zhu Jul 2016

Defining News: A Ten-Nation Perspective, August Grant, Jeffrey Wilkinson, Diane Guerrazzi, Yicheng Zhu

Faculty Publications

Worldwide, the consumption of news and information is greater than ever before. But twenty years of Internet news and a decade of social media have permanently altered the patterns of behaviors associated with how consumers look for news and even how they perceive what ‘news’ is for them. As the media landscape changes and old approaches no longer fit, it may be time to re-assess the fundamental definition of “news.” Traditional news values have been defined and extensively studied by Western researchers, but little attention has been paid to the correspondence of these definitions of news with consumers’ behavior in …


Format Appears To Matter Less Than Story Salience, Diane Guerrazzi, August Grant, Jeffrey Wilkinson Jun 2016

Format Appears To Matter Less Than Story Salience, Diane Guerrazzi, August Grant, Jeffrey Wilkinson

Faculty Publications

Researchers suggest another factor other than format may be at work in determining the amount of time readers spend with an online news story, and that is the story’s relevance. They suggest journalists choose the format based upon the best way for telling a particular story.


“Parallel Poleis”: Towards A Theoretical Framework Of The Modern Public Sphere, Civic Engagement And The Structural Advantages Of The Internet To Foster And Maintain Parallel Socio-Political Institutions, Taso Logos, Ted Coopman, Jonathan Tomhave May 2014

“Parallel Poleis”: Towards A Theoretical Framework Of The Modern Public Sphere, Civic Engagement And The Structural Advantages Of The Internet To Foster And Maintain Parallel Socio-Political Institutions, Taso Logos, Ted Coopman, Jonathan Tomhave

Faculty Publications

The role of the internet in large-scale demonstrations, as witnessed in the Arab Spring, has been debated and reflects continued interest in the intermingling of social movements and digital technology. Yet behind these large photogenic events stand other less obvious social activities that may be equally profound, particularly in the form of alternative institutional frameworks that better meet the social needs of individuals than current models. We categorize these “dissident” frameworks as “parallel poleis” as developed by Czech philosopher and activist Vaclav Benda and offer two case studies to support this contention. At the heart of parallel poleis lies the …


Attempting An Affirmative Approach To American Broadcasting: Ideology, Politics, And The Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, Michael W. Huntsberger Jan 2014

Attempting An Affirmative Approach To American Broadcasting: Ideology, Politics, And The Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, Michael W. Huntsberger

Faculty Publications

The Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) was the largest source of capital funding for U.S. public broadcasters for nearly fifty years. Between 1963 and 2010, the PTFP distributed more than $800 million to support the construction of public broadcasting facilities. Though the PTFP itself was generally noncontroversial, the fortunes of the program were complicated by the partisan politics of public broadcasting and federal fiscal policy. This study provides evidence of the ambiguous and contingent nature of the American approach to public broadcasting, and demonstrates some of the problems associated with affirmative efforts by government to advance public communication.


Impact Of Format On Evaluations Of Online News, August Grant, Jeffrey Wilkinson, Diane Guerrazzi Jul 2013

Impact Of Format On Evaluations Of Online News, August Grant, Jeffrey Wilkinson, Diane Guerrazzi

Faculty Publications

The emergence of online news offers journalists the opportunity to use a variety of formats to present news, including traditional text and video forms and emerging multimedia forms. This paper reports the results of a series of studies exploring these formats, two experiments and a survey. The first experiment compared three formats of video news delivery and found that format was related to time spent viewing a story, and time spent predicted recall of the story, but no direct relationship was observed between format and recall. The secondexperiment compared three different formats (text, text with pictures, and text with videos), …


The Effects Of Video Formats In Online News: A Study Of Recall And Stickiness, August Grant, Diane Guerrazzi, Jack Karlis Apr 2012

The Effects Of Video Formats In Online News: A Study Of Recall And Stickiness, August Grant, Diane Guerrazzi, Jack Karlis

Faculty Publications

News organizations putting content on their websites may better engage their audience by offering a choice of raw video rather than packages. A two-by-three experiment studied the relationships among video format, time spent, and recall for online news. Test subjects viewed a traditional, broadcast-type standard news “package,” a disassembled package, and raw video with text. Results showed users spent significantly more time with the raw video format than with the other two formats. Time spent was strongly correlated with post-test recall of elements of each story, but there was no direct relationship between format and recall. A model is proposed …


U.S. Radio In The 21st Century: Staying The Course In Unknown Territory, Michael Huntsberger Jan 2012

U.S. Radio In The 21st Century: Staying The Course In Unknown Territory, Michael Huntsberger

Faculty Publications

This essay examines the development of the radio industry in the United States as it makes its way into the 21st century. Issues of regulation, technology, commerce, and culture are addressed.


"With The Support Of Listeners Like You": Lessons From U.S. Public Radio, Alan G. Stavitsky, Michael Huntsberger Jan 2010

"With The Support Of Listeners Like You": Lessons From U.S. Public Radio, Alan G. Stavitsky, Michael Huntsberger

Faculty Publications

This chapter provides an assessment of public broadcasting in the United States. It asserts that European public service broadcasting (PSB) could learn from U.S. practices that may prove to be particularly relevant in the current PSB climate.


Digital Radio Strategies In The United States: A Tale Of Two Systems, Alan G. Stavitsky, Michael Huntsberger Jan 2010

Digital Radio Strategies In The United States: A Tale Of Two Systems, Alan G. Stavitsky, Michael Huntsberger

Faculty Publications

This essay analyzes how, despite early interest in the Digital Audio Broadcasting standard (DAB) in the United States, an alternative in-band system (HD Radio) was developed as the approved digital radio standard.


How Can A Video Game Cause Panic Attacks? 1. Effects Of An Auditory Stressor On The Human Brainstem, Judith Lauter, Elizabeth Mathukutty, Brandon Scott Jan 2009

How Can A Video Game Cause Panic Attacks? 1. Effects Of An Auditory Stressor On The Human Brainstem, Judith Lauter, Elizabeth Mathukutty, Brandon Scott

Faculty Publications

The auditory brainstem response (ABR) was recorded during simultaneous binaural presentation of two types of sounds: 1) condensation clicks presented through in-the-ear earphones at 43.1/sec, 60dB nHL; and 2) recordings of breathing sounds, presented through supra-aural headphones, at levels adjusted by participants to be equivalent to the clicks. In alternate blocks, the breathing sounds were either: 1) a recording of quiet breathing (blocks 1, 3, 5); or 2) a recording of erratic (stressed) breathing (blocks 2, 4). The erratic breathing was modeled on a video game soundtrack in which the character was represented as running, wounded, and frightened. Four 2048-sweep …


The Emergence Of Community Radio In The United States: A Historical Examination Of The National Federation Of Community Broadcasters, 1970 To 1990, Michael William Huntsberger Apr 2007

The Emergence Of Community Radio In The United States: A Historical Examination Of The National Federation Of Community Broadcasters, 1970 To 1990, Michael William Huntsberger

Faculty Publications

The National Federation of Community Broadcasters is the oldest and largest organization of community-oriented, nonprofit radio stations in the United States. Nevertheless, only a handful of scholars have considered the NFCB and its place in the history of mass media in the U.S. In the years leading up to and following the establishment of the NFCB in 1975, the public policy environment that guided the activities noncommercial radio, and all of American mass media, changed dramatically. This study provides a historical account of the NFCB during these formative years, and examines the political, economic, and social forces that propelled the …


Creativity, Free Expression, And Professionalism: Value Conflicts In U.S. Community Radio, Michael Huntsberger Jan 2006

Creativity, Free Expression, And Professionalism: Value Conflicts In U.S. Community Radio, Michael Huntsberger

Faculty Publications

This study investigates how the values of free expression and professionalism provide the basis for interpersonal and organizational conflict in U.S. community radio stations, and shape divergent approaches to audience service. Using qualitative methods, the project examines the motivations, expressions, and behaviors of producers and managers to establish how their values contribute to cooperation and dissention within these organizations. The study illustrates the delicate balance that exists between content-centered and audience-centered objectives, concluding that these core values have a pervasive effect on community radio’s capacity to reach audiences and promote social change through the media.


Marriage On Tv, Mary E. Hess Jan 2003

Marriage On Tv, Mary E. Hess

Faculty Publications

While it is important for teachers of religion to consider how television portrays marriage, it may be even more important to consider how we use television and how we help people engage the media with critical perception. People of faith need to do a cultural intervention, providing a deep and sustaining vision of what marriage can be over time and in connection with community.