Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Santa Ana Youth Media Project: Ypar And Media Advocacy, Jorge F. Rodriguez

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The Santa Ana Youth Media Project (SAYMP) was born during the summer of 2019 and grew from a need, expressed by youth, for more critical media literacy that could further amplify and focus on narratives that reflect how youth navigate their personal, cultural-social, and economic environments. Our media projects consist of intentional participative research and journalistic designs that document stories using tools such as narrative inquiry, Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and video/media production to visually capture the narratives of youth and community within the city of Santa Ana and its larger Orange County context. Our goal is to develop …

Selection Homophily And Peer Influence For Adolescents’ Smoking And Vaping Norms And Outcomes In High And Middle-Income Settings, Jennifer M. Murray, Sharon Sánchez-Franco, Olga L. Sarmiento, Erik O. Kimbrough, Christopher Tate, Shannon C. Montgomery, Rajnish Kumar, Laura Dunne, Abhijit Ramalingam, Erin L. Krupka, Felipe Montes, Huiyu Zhou, Laurence Moore, Linda Bauld, Blanca Llorente, Frank Kee, Ruth F. Hunter

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

The MECHANISMS study investigates how social norms for adolescent smoking and vaping are transmitted through school friendship networks, and is the first study to use behavioral economics methodology to assess smoking-related social norms. Here, we investigate the effects of selection homophily (the tendency to form friendships with similar peers) and peer influence (a social process whereby an individual’s behavior or attitudes are affected by peers acting as reference points for the individual) on experimentally measured smoking and vaping norms, and other smoking outcomes, in adolescents from high and middle-income settings. Full school year groups in six secondary schools in Northern …

Relational Effects Of Romantic Partner’S Perceived Parasocial Romantic Attachment With Pornography, Jessica Journeay, Megan A. Vendemia, Rebecca (Riva) Tukachinsky Forster

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

An online experiment investigated heterosexual women’s responses to their romantic partners’ pornography use. Specifically, we examined how a perceived parasocial (i.e., entirely fanciful, one-sided) versus social (i.e., reciprocal) interaction with a porn actress, as well as a perceived parasocial romantic attachment to a porn actress, may pose a relational threat to one’s actual romantic relationship. Results revealed that perceptions of infidelity and jealousy were dampened by women’s belief that their romantic partner had a weak (vs. stronger) parasocial romantic attachment to and parasocial (vs. social) interaction with a porn actress. These findings advance our understanding of the effects of pornography …

Museums, Covid-19 And The Pivot To Social Media, Jamie Larkin, Andrea Ballatore, Ekaterina Mityrova

CCI Articles and Research

This paper examines social media activity by UK museums during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a general perception that as museums closed their doors for extended periods, their digital presence increased to maintain connections with their audiences. However, much of the research conducted in this area is based on small-scale studies and examples of best practice from large, well-resourced museums. By contrast, this study utilizes a comprehensive database of over 3300 active UK museums to understand the use of Facebook and Twitter across the sector. Specifically, the paper examines the frequency with which museums posted to these digital platforms as …

Science Communication Training Imparts Confidence And Influences Public Engagement Activity, Christina M. Swords, Jerlym S. Porter, Amy J. Hawkins, Edwin Li, Melissa Rowland-Goldsmith, Matthew D. Koci, John F. Tansey, Nicole C. Woitowich

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The impacts of science are felt across all socio-ecological levels, ranging from the individual to societal. In order to adapt or respond to scientific discoveries, novel technologies, or biomedical or environmental challenges, a fundamental understanding of science is necessary. However, antiscientific rhetoric, mistrust in science, and the dissemination of misinformation hinder the promotion of science as a necessary and beneficial component of our world. Scientists can promote scientific literacy by establishing dialogues with nonexperts, but they may find a lack of formal training as a barrier to public engagement. To address this, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology …

Understanding The Consumption Of Antimicrobial Resistance–Related Content On Social Media: Twitter Analysis, Hyunuk Kim, Chris R. Proctor, Dylan Walker, Ronan R. Mccarthy

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most pressing concerns in our society. Today, social media can function as an important channel to disseminate information about AMR. The way in which this information is engaged with depends on a number of factors, including the target audience and the content of the social media post.

Objective: The aim of this study is to better understand how AMR-related content is consumed on the social media platform Twitter and to understand some of the drivers of engagement. This is essential to designing effective public health strategies, raising awareness about antimicrobial …

“Some Days Are Much Holier Than Others”: Relational Uncertainty And Partner Influence In Christian Dating Couples' Sexual Intimacy Negotiation, Arielle Leonard Hodges, Jennifer L. Bevan

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

When intrafaith couples' religion strictly prohibits premarital sexual intercourse, negotiating sexual intimacy can become a multilayered process of identity negotiation that compounds the difficulty of sexual communication. Through the lens of relational turbulence theory, this study explored how devout Christian couples negotiate sexual intimacy by reanalyzing qualitative interview data the first author collected in 2017 from 16 self-identified Christians (8 heterosexual couples). Seven themes revealed how relational uncertainty, partner interference, and partner facilitation manifested in the context of sexual intimacy negotiation. Themes of relational uncertainty experience and prevention included assumption of shared values, relationship talk, and sexual behaviors …

Media Convergence For Us–China Competition? Comparative Case Studies Of China Media Group And The Us Agency For Global Media, Wenshan Jia, Fangzhu Lu

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

The present study provides a comparative analysis of the media convergence of China Media Group and US Agency for Global Media to illustrate the increasing US–China rivalry in international communication. It yields the following tentative findings: Both have been undergoing rigorous development at the technological and operational levels of convergence to enhance international communication; both are made to show more explicit loyalty to its official ideology, and both have become more monolithic via convergence; both have integrated their broadcasting services for an increasingly integrated market of information and news; both seem to be weaponizing itself against each other to fuel …

Does (Mis)Communication Mitigate The Upshot Of Diversity?, Keith Hankins, Ryan Muldoon, Alexander Schaefer

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

This paper contributes to the literature on how diversity impacts groups by exploring how communication mediates the ability of diverse individuals to work together. To do so we incorporate a communication channel into a representative model of problem-solving by teams of diverse agents that provides the foundations for one of the most widely cited analytical results in the literature on diversity and team performance: the “Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem”. We extend the model to account for the fact that communication between agents is a necessary feature of team problem-solving, and we introduce the possibility that this communication occurs with error, …

Digital Flourishing: Conceptualizing And Assessing Positive Perceptions Of Mediated Social Interactions, Sophie H. Janicke-Bowles, Tess M. Buckley, Rikishi T. Rey, Tayah Renea Wozniak, Adrian Meier, Anna Lomanowska

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Recent research started to apply concepts of well-being to the context of computer mediated communication (e.g., social media, instant messaging). While much research investigates negative perceptions of mediated social interactions (e.g., “problematic” or “addictive” social media use), a multi-dimensional measure that taps into users? positive perceptions is sorely lacking. The present research therefore develops the first comprehensive measure of digital flourishing, defined as positive perceptions of mediated social interactions. Building on a qualitative pre-study that aided the construction of the Digital Flourishing Scale (DFS), Study 1 (N = 474) employed exploratory factor analysis to reveal five subdimensions of …

Wikipedia’S Intentional Distortion Of The History Of The Holocaust, Jan Grabowski, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

This essay uncovers the systematic, intentional distortion of Holocaust history on the English-language Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia. In the last decade, a group of committed Wikipedia editors have been promoting a skewed version of history on Wikipedia, one touted by right-wing Polish nationalists, which whitewashes the role of Polish society in the Holocaust and bolsters stereotypes about Jews. Due to this group’s zealous handiwork, Wikipedia’s articles on the Holocaust in Poland minimize Polish antisemitism, exaggerate the Poles’ role in saving Jews, insinuate that most Jews supported Communism and conspired with Communists to betray Poles (Żydokomuna or Judeo–Bolshevism), blame …

How Class Matters: Examining Working-Class Children’S Home Technology Environments From A Developmental Perspective, Vikki Katz, Brianna Hightower

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Social class is seldom engaged by scholars as a lens for investigating variations in children’s digital technology engagement. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 33 working-class children in a postindustrial community, we examine how social class shapes these children’s digital technology experiences. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of child development guides our examination of children’s views on digital technology integration into their interactions with proximal influences (i.e., parents, siblings, and friends) and distal influences that indirectly shape their technology environments by affecting their parents’ circumstances. We find that working-class children’s experiences share key commonalities with both their lower- and higher-income peers, consistent with …

An Intersectional Approach To Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Women’S Sexualized Body-Positive Imagery On Instagram, Megan A. Vendemia, Kyla N. Brathwaite, David C. Deandrea

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Our work adopted an intersectional approach to investigate how women’s racial identity may influence how they evaluate and are impacted by body-positive imagery of women on social media. In a 2 × 2 × 2 experiment (N = 975), we examined how source race (Black vs White) and sexualization (non-sexualized vs sexualized) in body-positive images affect Black and White viewers’ impressions of self-interest, moral appropriateness, and body positivity. Results indicated that viewers generally responded more favorably to non-sexualized (vs sexualized) images: Participants reported less self-interested motivations for sharing, found the images more morally appropriate, and believed they were more …

Qanon Deconstructed: Faith And Lies, Sam Andrus

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

All prior categorizations of conspiracy theories fall short when applied to the system of belief known as QAnon. This paper first examines the previous literature that laid down a basis for understanding the nature of conspiracies and isolates aspects of the QAnon canon to delineate and test the predictors of belief. The data for this research were obtained from the 2020 wave of the Chapman Survey of American Fears (CSAF) conducted by the Earl Babbie Research Center at Chapman University. Layered crosstabulation tests and multiple linear regression results find that conspiratorial thinking outweighs partisanship when predicting QAnon belief. Strikingly, despite …

"Why This Post Now?" : Dramaturging Politics And Social Media, Kennedy Kemmerer

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Political events have always been influenced by the media, but social media has provided a much stronger influence than the typical newspaper or radio. Users of social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, etc.) have the opportunity to share whatever they want, to whoever they want, whenever they want. While social media has given immense opportunity for artists and creators alike, it has also given way for creators to participate in uninformed performance, whether intended or not, with their content. Are social media consumers considering whether content, specifically political content, is actually true or are they accepting it at face …

The Dream Machine: The Convergence Of Hallucination And Content Creation, Com 304-03, Creative & Cultural Industries In Practice

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Our research project focuses on how a social media campaign was designed and implemented to explore the ways in which people engaged with the ideas of dreams and hallucinations. Specifically, the class project involved working collectively, and in four dedicated groups, to build a dream machine. The four groups were: designers and creators, who constructed the dream machine; social media recorders, who developed a multi-platform media campaign for the project from inception to implementation, including documenting how the other groups worked and researched their areas; music composers who designed a soundtrack to accompany the machine; and multi-media poster designers, who …

The Student Athlete Wellness Portal: Translating Student Athletes’ Prescription Opioid Use Narratives Into A Targeted Public Health Intervention, Anne E. Pezalla, Hyejeong Choi, Francis Mckee, Michelle Miller-Day, Michael L. Hecht

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Background and Objectives: The opioid epidemic has permeated all strata of society over the last two decades, especially within the adolescent student athletic environment, a group particularly at risk and presenting their own challenges for science and practice. This paper (a) describes the development of a web-based intervention called the Student Athlete Wellness Portal that models effective opioid misuse resistance strategies and (b) details the findings of a single-group design to test its effectiveness. Materials and Methods: Formative research included 35 student athletes residing in the United States, ages 14 to 21, who had been injured in their …

A Mixed Methodological Examination Of Older Adults’ Psychological Reactance Toward Caregiving Messages From Their Adult Children, Hannah Ball, Keith Weber, Alan K. Goodboy, Christine E. Kunkle, Christa L. Lilly, Scott A. Myers

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

This study extends psychological reactance theory (PRT) to family caregiving by exploring autonomy-threatening messages adult child caregivers use to gain compliance from older adult parents. Results of focus groups and interviews with older adult care recipients (Study One) and caregivers (Study Two) corroborated three types of autonomy-threatening messages, which were used to test PRT (Study Three). Older adults (N = 281) were randomly assigned a caregiving message and answered reactance-related survey questions. Results supported serial mediation: relative to an autonomy-supporting message, two types of autonomy-threatening messages (i.e., offering directives, expressing doubt) triggered greater freedom threat, which amplified reactance. In …

Positive Digital Communication Among Youth: The Development And Validation Of The Digital Flourishing Scale For Adolescents, Jasmina Rosič, Sophie H. Janicke-Bowles, Luca Carbone, Bojana Lobe, Laura Vandenbosch

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Research has extensively studied the negative effects of digital communication on adolescents’ well-being. However, positive digital experiences and behavior in adolescence are still poorly understood. The recently developed Digital Flourishing Scale addresses this gap and focuses on the positive perceptions of a user’s experiences and behaviors in digital communication among adults. In this paper, we developed an adolescent version of this scale. Study 1 demonstrated the internal consistency of the scale and the same factor structure for adolescence as for adulthood: connectedness, civil participation, positive social comparison, authentic self-presentation, and self-control. Study 2 confirmed the identified factor structure with a …

The Impact Of Hpv Vaccine Narratives On Social Media: Testing Narrative Engagement Theory With A Diverse Sample Of Young Adults, Amy E. Leader, Michelle Miller-Day, Rikishi T. Rey, Preethi Selvan, Anne E. Pezalla, Michael L. Hecht

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Rates of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection are highest in young adults, who can be vaccinated against HPV if they were not vaccinated as adolescents. Since young adults increasingly access health information on social media, we tested the impact of a social media campaign with narrative-based health information on intentions related to HPV vaccination. We also aimed to understand which ads resonated most with young adults and led to higher survey completion rates. We created social media posts featuring videos promoting HPV vaccination. We launched a sponsored ad campaign on Facebook to reach young women, ages 18–26, across the country. Participants …

A Large-Scale Sentiment Analysis Of Tweets Pertaining To The 2020 Us Presidential Election, Rao Hamza Ali, Gabriela Pinto, Evelyn Lawrie, Erik J. Linstead

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We capture the public sentiment towards candidates in the 2020 US Presidential Elections, by analyzing 7.6 million tweets sent out between October 31st and November 9th, 2020. We apply a novel approach to first identify tweets and user accounts in our database that were later deleted or suspended from Twitter. This approach allows us to observe the sentiment held for each presidential candidate across various groups of users and tweets: accessible tweets and accounts, deleted tweets and accounts, and suspended or inaccessible tweets and accounts. We compare the sentiment scores calculated for these groups and provide key insights into the …

How Conservative Media Influences Views On Illegal Immigration, Juhi Doshi

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Conservative media sources tend to amplify antiimmigrant rhetoric on their news platforms. Relying on the 2021 Chapman Survey of American Fears, I examine how conservative media sources like FOX News may influence how likely one is to fear illegal immigration in comparison to someone who watches CNN. Data is sourced from questions that ask subjects how afraid they are of illegal immigration, where they get their news from, what their racial attitudes are, and their political affiliation. The topic of illegal immigration has been studied for years, however there is not much literature published on how media consumption can directly …

If A Tree Falls In The Forest: Presidential Press Conferences And Early Media Narratives About The Covid-19 Crisis, Masha Krupenkin, Kai Zhu, Dylan Walker, David Rothschild

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, as we confronted questions about social distancing, masking wearing, and vaccines, public safety experts warned that the consequences of a misinformed population would be particularly dire due to the serious nature of the threat and necessity of severe collective action to keep the population safe. Thus, the media and the political elites (e.g., President of the United States) who possess the power to set the information agenda around COVID-19 bear a huge responsibility for the general welfare. Through automated text analysis of complete transcripts of national cable, network, and local news, we explore their narratives surrounding …

Interpersonal Communication In Eye Care: An Analysis Of Potential Impacts On Cataract Surgery Candidates’ Expectations And Behaviors, Amy Hellem, Sara Labelle, Cynthia Matossian, Paul Karpecki

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose: To identify cataract surgery candidates’ knowledge, beliefs, desires and emotions as they relate to cataract surgery generally as well as to their behavioral intent to adhere to a doctor-recommended pre-surgical ocular surface prep routine designed to improve refractive outcomes and prevent surgical complications.

Methods: This national, noninterventional, cross-sectional, mixed methods survey included 278 US adults ages 65 and older with no history of cataract surgery in either eye.

Results: Only 20% of participants said they want to have cataract surgery, and even fewer (8%) said they wish they could have cataract surgery right away. Fear was the predominant emotion …

Manipulating Image Luminance To Improve Eye Gaze And Verbal Behavior In Autistic Children, Louanne Boyd, Vincent Berardi, Deanna Hughes, Franceli L. Cibrian, Jazette Johnson, Viseth Sean, Eliza Delpizzo-Cheng, Brandon Mackin, Ayra Tusneem, Riya Mody, Sara Jones, Karen Lotich

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Autism has been characterized by a tendency to attend to the local visual details over surveying an image to understand the gist–a phenomenon called local interference. This sensory processing trait has been found to negatively impact social communication. Although much work has been conducted to understand these traits, little to no work has been conducted to intervene to provide support for local interference. Additionally, recent understanding of autism now introduces the core role of sensory processing and its impact on social communication. However, no interventions to the end of our knowledge have been explored to leverage this relationship. This work …

Extending Psychological Reactance Theory To Include Denial Of Threat And Media Sharing Intentions As Freedom Restoration Behavior, Noel H. Mcguire, Hannah Ball

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

This study extends psychological reactance theory by examining denial of a public health threat and resistance toward media sharing as two novel types of freedom restoration. Participants (N = 220) were randomly assigned to watch a video advocating COVID-19 guidelines and completed an online survey assessing corresponding perceptions and behavioral intentions. Results of structural equation modeling supported the two-step model of reactance: greater perceived freedom threat was related to greater reactance, which in turn was linked to lower intentions to comply with COVID-19 guidelines, lower intentions to share the video with one’s online social network, and greater denial of COVID-19 …

Inspiration On Social Media: Applying An Entertainment Perspective To Longitudinally Explore Mental Health And Well-Being, Sophie Janicke-Bowles, Arthur A. Raney, Mary Beth Oliver, Katherine R. Dale, Danyang Zhao, Dominik Neumann, Russell B. Clayton, Alysia A. Hendry

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

The conditions under which social media use impacts well-being and mental health are complex. The current 10-day longitudinal quasi-experiment (student sample, N = 111) applied an entertainment theory lens to explore the effects of active posting and engaging with hedonic or inspiring Facebook content (vs. passive browsing) on young people’s eudaimonic well-being (levels of connectedness to humanity, love, compassion, presence of meaning) and mental health (anxiety and depressive symptoms). The results provide tentative evidence that finding and sharing inspiring content to a Facebook group increased love and compassion toward others over time. It also led to more compassion at the …

Media Influences On Fear Of Immigrants, Mira Eissa

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The 2016 election and President Donald Trump’s administration, tapped into U.S. citizens’ polarization regarding the topic of immigration. There was and is a clear negative depiction of immigrants in many different local and national outlets including social media. Using the data collected from Chapman's survey of American fears in 2021, I analyze how fear of immigrants is related to media consumption. Social media and news outlets' coverage of immigrants directly influences the public’s attitudes. Agenda setting, priming, and framing help us understand that news and media construct a perception for people that might not be accurate. Citizens have formed their …

Model Of Inspiring Media, Mary Beth Oliver, Arthur A. Raney, Anne Bartsch, Sophie Janicke-Bowles, Markus Appel, Katherine R. Dale

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Scholars have increasingly explored the ways that media content can touch, move, and inspire audiences, leading to numerous beneficial outcomes including increased feelings of connectedness to and heightened motivations for doing good for others. Although this line of inquiry is relatively new, sufficient evidence and patterns of results have emerged such that a clearer picture of the inspiring media experience is coming into focus. This article has two primary goals. First, we seek to synthesize the existing research into a working and evolving model of inspiring media experiences reflecting five interrelated and symbiotic elements: exposure, message factors, responses, outcomes, and …

Quality Evaluation Of Consumer Health Information Websites Found On Google Using Discern, Craap, And Honcode, Ivan A. Portillo, Catherine V. Johnson, Scott Y. Johnson

Library Articles and Research

Online health misinformation is a growing problem, and health information professionals and consumers would benefit from an evaluation of health websites for reliability and trustworthiness. Terms from the Google COVID-19 Search Trends dataset were searched on Google to determine the most frequently appearing consumer health information websites. The quality of the resulting top five websites was evaluated. The top five websites that appeared most frequently were WebMD, Mayo Clinic, Healthline, MedlinePlus, and Medical News Today, respectively. All websites, except Medline Plus, received HONcode certification. Based on DISCERN and CRAAP scores, MedlinePlus was found to be the most reliable health website.