bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Validity and Reliability of Survey Questions
Authors: SCHERPENZEEL ANNETTE C. , SARIS WILLEM E.
Published: March 2007

Inspired by the research of Frank Andrews on the reliability and validity of survey questions, a large-scale research project was conducted in the Netherlands. The project was comprised of two different stages. For this project, more than 600 survey questions were included in different surveys according to a multitrait-multimethod design. The resulting data were analyzed in two steps. In the first step, estimates of validity and reliability were obtained for each question. The second step was a meta-analysis of the variation in data quality found in the first step. This variation was related to question-specific characteristics, response scale characteristics, context characteristics, and design characteristics. The article describes how the results of this study can be of practical use. In addition, the authors compare them to results of similar studies in the United States, Austria, and other Western, Central, and Eastern European countries.
Graphs, Causality, and Structural Equation Models
Authors: PEARL JUDEA
Published: March 2007

Structural equation models (SEMs) have dominated causal analysis in the social and behavioral sciences since the 1960s. Currently, many SEM practitioners are having difficulty articulating the causal content of SEM and are seeking foundational answers. Recent developments in the areas of graphical models and the logic of causality show potential for alleviating such difficulties and, thus, revitalizing structural equations as the primary language of causal modeling. This article summarizes several of these developments, including the prediction of vanishing partial correlations, model testing, model equivalence, parametric and nonparametric identifiability, control of confounding, and covariate selection. These developments clarify the causal and statistical components of SEMs and the role of SEM in the empirical sciences.
Prediction and Classification with Neural Network Models
Authors: ZENG LANGCHE
Published: March 2007

This article compares neural network models to the logit and probit models, the most widely used choice models in current empirical research, and explores the application of neural network models to social science choice/classification problems. Social and political relationships are generally characterized by nonlinearity and complexity and are usually of unknown functional forms. The logit and probit models assume exact and, in general, linear functional forms for the utility functions underlying the observed categorical data. Neural network models, on the other hand, are capable of approximating arbitrary functional forms under general conditions and can handle rich patterns of nonlinearity in the utility functions. They are therefore potentially better suited to typical social science data than the logit and probit models, which are shown to be special cases of the neural network class. Simulation results show that the neural network models perform significantly better than the logit models and are indistinguishable from the “true” models.
Care, welfare, and treason: The advent of vaccination in the 19th century
Authors: Naraindas Harish
Published: March 2007

This paper attempts to reconstruct the debate that marked the advent of vaccination in the 19th century. Having to contend with the ongoing practice of variolation, backed by professional variolators and a presiding deity, advocates of vaccination sought to portray the practice as a form of treason that needed to be outlawed on the ground that it provoked epidemics and hence was a public threat. The paper recasts the encounter by arguing that the preference for variolation may actually have been based on the continuous failure of vaccination, making it a risky venture for individual patients. Variolation, on the contrary, invariably 'took', and as part of a therapeutics ensured individual care and safe passage to patients. In the light of this, the paper examines the record of vaccination practices in the 19th century. Proffered with fanfare under the sign of individual safety and public welfare, the reach of vaccination was limited. But the rhetoric that sustained it was clearly constitutive of both a European self and a state in the making. As the prototype prophylactic it heralded the insinuation of the state between variolators and their erstwhile clients: a sign of the state's attempt to appropriate the right to be the sole addressee between state and citizen. More fundamentally, it was constitutive of the very terms 'state' and 'citizen', and their mutual relations.
Political Liberalism
Authors: LARMORE CHARLES
Published: March 2007

The business of laws is not to provide for the truth of opinions, but for the safety and security of the commonwealth, and of every particular man's goods and person.

John Locke
Response
Authors: Kiss Elizabeth
Published: March 2007

What philosophers say about reality is often as disappointing as a sign you see in a shop window which reads: Pressing Done Here. If you brought your clothes to be pressed, you would be fooled; for only the sign is for sale.

Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
Habermas and Religious Inclusion
Authors: SHAW BRIAN J.
Published: March 2007

Such a moral theology not only provides us with a convincing certainty of God's being, but it also has the great advantage that it leads us to religion, since it joins the thought of God firmly to our morality, and in this way it even makes better men of us.

Kant, Lectures on Philosophical Theology

This philosophy too, which takes up the thought of confederation in the concept of communicative, historically situated reason, will be able to provide no assurance ( keine Zuversicht); it stands in the sign of a transcendence from within and must content itself with the justified encouragement of a skeptical but non-defeatist “resistance to the gods and demons of a world contemptuous of man.”

Habermas, “Israel oder Athen: Wem gehoert die anamnetische Vernunft?”
Cognitive Access to Negatively Arousing News
Authors: GRABE MARIA ELIZABETH , LANG ANNIE , ZHOU SHUHUA , BOLLS PAUL DAVID
Published: March 2007

Over the past 30 years, survey researchers have documented the existence of a knowledge gap and expressed concern that people with little education are falling behind because they do not acquire the information necessary to participate in socioeconomic spheres. This study is the first to offer (a) experimental evidence for the existence of the knowledge gap and (b) explanations for it in terms of varying levels of information processing capacities, or cognitive access. Participants from higher and lower educational backgrounds paid equal levels of attention to television news stories, but they did not display the same recognition memory for facts. Moreover, participants in the higher education group were physiologically more aroused by news than those in the lower education group. These findings do not pinpoint whether cognitive access is learned or innate, but they do suggest that the biological systems of people from higher educational backgrounds are particularly alert in preparing for information processing.
Media Orientation and Media Use
Authors: VAN EIJCK KOEN , VAN REES KEES
Published: March 2007

Data from the 1975 and 1995 Dutch surveys were used to analyze the relationship between television viewing and reading behavior and the changes in this relationship over time. The central question of the article is, How do specific reader types differ in their television viewing behavior? This question is answered by using latent class analysis to identify the set of mutually exclusive latent classes of readers and by estimating the probability that each reader type will display a specific kind of content-related television viewing behavior. Kinds of print media and television programs are differentiated by referring to the extent to which they each focus on kinds of information or entertainment or both. Five reader types were identified according to how each specifically combines various reading items. Analysis of their television viewing behavior shows the existence of five audience segments with distinct background characteristics. The results give empirical substance to the notions of media orientation and audience segmentation; they document the overall decline in reading.
Parents Versus Peers
Authors: NATHANSON AMY I.
Published: March 2007

Although research demonstrates that parents can protect their children from harmful media effects by engaging in parental mediation, parental influences may wane when children reach adolescence and face pressures from peers. The Sullivan-Piaget thesis suggests that peers become especially important and influential during adolescence. Surprisingly, very little mass communication research has considered the role of peers in shaping media effects on adolescents. This study took a first look at peer mediation of antisocial television and found that it occurs more frequently and is more potent than parental mediation. In addition, peer mediation promotes more positive orientations toward antisocial television, which in turn leads to greater aggression. Whereas parental mediation can inhibit negative media effects, peer mediation seems to facilitate harmful outcomes. It is suggested that future research follow up on this initial study of peer mediation so that this potentially important construct can be further developed and understood.
Communication and Health Beliefs
Authors: MORTON THOMAS A. , DUCK JULIE M.
Published: March 2007

This study investigated the impact of media coverage of a health issue (skin cancer) on judgements of risk to self and others and the role of related communication processes. Consistent with predictions derived from the impersonal impact hypothesis, the effects of mass communication were more evident in perceptions of risk to others rather than in perceptions of personal risk. Perceptions of personal risk were more strongly correlated with interpersonal communication. However, as suggested by media system dependency theory, the relationship between mass communication and beliefs was complex. The impact of mass communication on both personal and impersonal perceptions was found to be moderated by self-reported dependence on mass mediated information. The effect of this two-way interaction on perceptions of personal risk was partially mediated through interpersonal communication. Results point to the interdependence of mass and interpersonal communication as sources of social influence and the role of media dependency in shaping media impact.
Explaining Perceptions of Racist Speech
Authors: LEETS LAURA
Published: March 2007

This two-part investigation evaluated four different explanations potentially governing theory on deprecating speech: social identity, expectancy violation, complexity-extremity, and desensitization. To test the descriptive and predictive usefulness of the first three theories, 614 participants made attributions of the perceived harm of actual racist slurs targeted at African, Asian, or Hispanic Americans. The results pointed to social identity as the most powerful theoretical construct to explain perceptions of racist speech. Although social identity concerns predicted participants' responses better than the two competing explanations, a second study further examined the complexity-extremity and desensitization theories. A sample of 36 Asian Americans demonstrated that previous exposure (low vs. high) mediated participants' perceptions of harm and levels of desensitization. Intergroup perceptions of racist speech seemingly derive from both social identity processes and previous experience. The study concludes with a discussion of the legal implications for hate speech.
Information Sampling and Confidence Within Groups and Judge Advisor Systems
Authors: SAVADORI LUCIA , VAN SWOL LYN M. , SNIEZEK JANET A.
Published: March 2007

This study compared how the judge advisor system (JAS) and unstructured groups discuss common and unique information. Three differences between the two were measured for their effect on communication of information. These were responsibility for decision, consensus seeking, and equity of participation. Participants were given information about two drugs and had to decide which of the two to market. Half met in unstructured 3-person groups and made the decision as a group. The rest met in JASs whereby the judge discussed the information with each advisor separately and then made the decision individually. Advisors mentioned but did not repeat a higher proportion of unique information than group members. Judges felt more responsible for, reported putting more effort toward, and had higher confidence in the decision than did group members. There was more inequity of participation and consensus seeking in JASs compared to groups. Differences are discussed in light of results found on information exchange.
Determinants of Newspaper Circulation
Authors: Bishop Robert L. , Sharma Katherine , Brazee Richard J.
Published: March 2007

This study offers a new approach to the problem of time-series studies and attempts to set up a model to account for the growth in demand for daily newspapers Using U S data on a state-by-state basis for 1850 to 1970, we have used a marketing approach What conditions were necessary for the survival of a daily newspaper? What conditions were conducive to consolidation? What conditions were a barrier to the adoption of social and technological innovation? The data were grouped into geographic and social regions for analysis, using a special case of generalized least squares Independent variables included price as a proportion of per-capita income, percentage of the work force in nonagricultural labor, education, voting, and urbanization. Price proved the most powerful predictor Corrected R2s range from 22636 (m regions where newspaper growth took place very early or late in the period) to 67543 in the Midwest and Southwest The model will be applied to data from the industrialized countries of Western Europe in later work
The U.S. Television Industry
Authors: Larson Timothy L.
Published: March 2007

The U S television industry has often been labeled as being highly concentrated This article attempts to measure levels of seller, buyer, and "additional" concentration in the television station industry and then relates the findings to the Justice Department proposal to examine possible divestiture of the network owned and operated stations An oligopoly schema is used to test the hypothesis that, even when consideration is given to the three national networks in a measured value of concentration, the television industry is not a highly concentrated industry, i e , it would not be classified as a concentrated, type / oligopoly The measures support the conclusion that the television station industry does not have high seller and buyer concentration But, when consideration is given to an "additional" measure (the product representative function of the networks, i e , their networking functions involving program and advertisement sales), the industry was found to be highly concentrated The owned and operated stations, however, do not appear to enjoy a monopoly market situation, and based on this finding, it is suggested that the networks' divestiture of their owned and operated stations would do little to alleviate the problems of increased network revenues and program control
The News Factory
Authors: Bantz Charles R. , McCorkle Suzanne , Baade Roberta C.
Published: March 2007

Based on team observational analysis of a television newsroom, we argue that an analogue for the local television news organization is a factory To illustrate a routinized news organization, we propose a factory model with five steps story ideation, task assignment, gathering and structuring materials, assembly, and newscast presentation The model reflects an assembly line approach to news that limits newsworkers' involvement in the organ ization and its product The specialization, routinization and mechanization of television newswork has four observable consequences inflexibility, lack of personal investment in the product, and evaluation of newswork in productivity terms, and a mismatch between newsworkers' expectations and the reality of the news factory
The Newspaper and Community Integration
Authors: Stamm Keith , Weis Robert
Published: March 2007

Several questions bearing on Janowitz's classic community-integration hypothesis were pursued in a survey of 500 members of a Catholic diocese in the Northwest. Church ties were positively associated with subscribing to the church newspaper, with participation in church groups having the strongest relationship. Some ties to local churches were positively associated with commercial newspaper subscribing, most especially participation in church groups. Ties to church and volunteer associations had separate and joint positive relationships to commercial newspaper subscribing, demonstrating evidence of an additive effect. All these results were consistent with the community integration hypothesis.
THE TRANSFER OF SESAME STREET TO LATIN AMERICA
Authors: MAYO JOHN K. , E OLIVEIRA JOAO BATISTA ARAUJO , ROGERS EVERETT M. , GUIMARAES SONIA DANTUS PINTO , MORETT FERNANDO
Published: March 2007

Here a package of communication technologies, embodied in Sesame Street (a tremendously popular and effective children's TV series) is traced during its transfer from the United States to Mexico and Brazil. The Mexican and Brazilian programs attracted huge audiences of children and adults throughout Latin America, yet the coproductions of Plaza Sésamo and Vila Sésamo ceased after only two or three seasons, and little long-range effect is discernible today in Latin American children's television. Explanations for the short-run success and long-run failure of the transfer of Sesame Street to Latin America can be found in the nature of the supplier-receiver relationships, and in the emphasis on product transfer rather than process modification and adjustment.
CONSEQUENCES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNDER THE KLIEG LIGHTS
Authors: SHARP ELAINE B.
Published: March 2007

This article deals with an open government innovation that many cities are adopting: television coverage of city council meetings. Based on survey data from Wichita, Kansas, which has had such coverage for over a decade, it is shown that less-educated, lower-income, and minority individuals watch the coverage at least as much as the more-advantaged segments of the community. Reasons for interest in the coverage on the part of the disadvantaged are explored. The “knowledge gap” and “videomalaise” arguments suggest possible unintended and undesirable consequences of the broadcasts, but neither argument is found to be applicable in this case.
CONSTRUCTED AND RECONSTRUCTED DISCOURSE
Authors: MARVIN CAROLYN
Published: March 2007

This article considers a theoretical problem at the center of historical research on literacy, the solution to which has implications for studies of contemporary literacies as well. Four models of literacy are identified. The (1) traditionally received skills model still flourishes in educational policy, but is increasingly rejected by literacy scholars who employ either (2) a functional model of literacy as an instrument of power relations or (3) a semiotic “marker” model of literacy. While traditional communications history has evinced little interest in historical studies of literacy, (4) a highly visible grand theory model of literacy associated with McLuhan, Innis, and Ong has its origins in the received model. Where the received model is optimistic about the long-term social and political effects of literacy, however, the grand theory model is pessimistic. Although a growing body of scholars has argued that the definition of any literacy must be located in its actual practices, and although many scholars now believe that oral-literate dichotomies are overly simple historical categories, this article takes that thinking farther and argues that literacy does not merely coexist or interact with oral practices and skills, but includes them. That is, the definition of literacy consists in the written and oral practices organized around texts in a particular culture. Support for this argument is taken from pertinent evidence in the history of literacy.
SPOUSES' DISCUSSION OF TELEVISION PORTRAYALS OF CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS
Authors: FALLIS SUSAN F. , FITZPATRICK MARY ANNE , FRIESTAD MARIAN S.
Published: March 2007

In mass media research there has been a repeated call for (1) abandoning simple two-variable stimulus-response models of television effects, and (2) efforts to integrate research from different fields. This article offers such a perspective, bringing together research on relationship-relevant television content, viewing effects and interpersonal relationships. A total of 51 couples participated in a study to determine if television viewing is related to discussions of the relationship-relevant issues between spouses. As hypothesized, the contingent condition of marital definitions held by spouses predicted the amount of discussion between marital partners about family and relational issues. Such a condition presupposes that the way individuals define their relationships affects how they process the information on interpersonal relationships portrayed on television. Specifically, those who are emotionally distant from their spouses were more likely to discuss relational and family issues as a consequence of television viewing.
AMERICAN MUSIC AND CANADIAN YOUTH
Authors: WINTER JAMES P.
Published: March 2007

Canada's economic dependence on America extends to the music industry. American recordings and radio broadcasts are strongly preferred by Canadian youth despite government policies.
THE BRAZILIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY AND YOUTH
Authors: DE CAMARGO NELLY
Published: March 2007

The development of Brazil's rich musical traditions is examined in respect to structural factors that have affected that development. The cultural industry in Brazil has not yet reached the “mass culture” point. The cultural industry produces a society whose homogeneity is perceptible through a mass culture; if this means that all previous traits characteristic of different cultural contributions are amlgamated and unidentifiable, then the mass culture point is not yet realized in Brazil, because huge income differences create a society that is highly stratified in consumption.
NEIGHBORHOOD NEWSPAPERS AND NEIGHBORHOOD LEADERS
Authors: GAZIANO CECILIE
Published: March 2007

Neighborhood leaders' agendas and definitions of issues were compared with those of neighborhood newspapers and neighborhood residents. Both leaders' agendas and definitions corresponded relatively highly with those of the residents. Neighborhood papers' agendas and definitions were much less related to those of residents. Level of residents' education and level of attention to the issues by papers and organized groups influenced magnitude of correlations. Leaders were especially attuned to the concerns of the most educated residents.
CHILDREN'S ACTIVITY AND TELEVISION COMPREHENSIBILITY
Authors: PINGREE SUZANNE
Published: March 2007

Children's attention to television, measured by visual attention and by self-reports, varied in this study depending on the comprehensibility of the content. Children's visual attention was lower when they viewed Sesame Street, Greek, and backwards language bits than with randomly edited or normal bits, but their visual attention did not discriminate between random and normal bits. However, self-reports of effort to comprehend showed that the oldest children found the random bits harder to understand than the normal bits. Because the older children's visual attention was equivalent for two types of bits that they reported were different in difficulty, the results suggest that comprehensibility may be of limited value in explaining older children's active television viewing, but also that studies explicitly tying together visual attention, effort, perceptions of a wide variety of program characteristics, and comprehension are in order.
Crime News and Real-World Blues
Authors: O'KEEFE GARRETT J. , REID-NASH KATHALEEN
Published: March 2007

The impact of attention to television and newspaper crime news on public perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors pertaining to crime was investigated in the context of social reality concepts, using a two-wave panel survey of metropolitan-area adults. Greater attention to televised news was related to subsequent increased fear, concern, and avoidance activity. No such effects were found for newspaper crime news attention, although greater concern was related to subsequent increased readership.
Determinants of International News Coverage in the U.S. Media
Authors: CHANG TSAN-KUO , SHOEMAKER PAMELA J. , BRENDLINGER NANCY
Published: March 2007

This article goes beyond describing media content and places it in a broader theoretical framework by examining some determinants that have been considered important in the study of international news flow. The article attempts to identify the factors that best differentiate those international events that are covered in the U.S. news media from events that are not. The dependent variable was media coverage of international events. Based on previous studies, seven variables were selected as predictors to separate the two groups: potential for social change, normative deviance, relevance to the United States, geographical distance, language affinity, press freedom, and economic system. A stepwise discriminant analysis was used to distinguish between the covered events and not-covered events, emphasizing identification of the most powerful discriminators. Results show that four variables contribute significantly to the discriminant function in distinguishing between covered events and not-covered events: normative deviance of an event, relevance to the United States, potential for social change, and geographical distance.
Media Use, Reliance, and Active Participation
Authors: GANDY OSCAR H. , MATABANE PAULA W. , OMACHONU JOHN O.
Published: March 2007

This study examines the relationships among different measures of media use, reliance, and perceptions of the continuing conflict in South Africa. Black college students are seen to differ in terms of their knowledge of aspects of the conflict. Gender and interest in the subject, as reflected in efforts to gather information about the conflict, are the most important predictors of knowledge. Reliance measures are more important than general usage measures once demographics and interest are accounted for. Once gender interest and information search are accounted for, none of the general use measures makes a significant contribution to knowledge. Thus this study lends support to the view that holds that intellectual interest and motivation are more important than the medium one chooses to serve that interest.
Press Ideology and Organizational Control in Hong Kong
Authors: CHAN JOSEPH MAN , LEE CHIN-CHUAN
Published: March 2007

This survey of journalists shows that in Hong Kong press ideology is a major determinant of its organizational control. The press imposes a stringent control on staff recruitment, resulting in a high ideological consonance between reporters and their respective newspaper organizations. Because of this high ideological consonance, many reporters do not feel subjected to explicit policy guidance in news reporting. Nevertheless, the party-owned press is more likely to interfere with the coverage of social conflicts than the nonparty press. More educated reporters are less compliant at both types of newspapers.
Communication Processes Leading to Integrative Agreements
Authors: TUTZAUER FRANK , ROLOFF MICHAEL E.
Published: March 2007

Increasingly, conflict researchers are turning their attention to strategies that promote mutually satisfying solutions to problems. They have postulated a variety of communication models to explain the emergence of integrative agreements, but thus far the precise nature of these processes has not been directly verified. After identifying three such models and subjecting them to empirical verification, we found that communication processes both predicted integrative outcomes and mediated the influence of aspirations on integrative outcomes. However, contrary to earlier suppositions, joint concern for one's own and one's partner's needs did not play an instrumental role in any of the communication sequences examined.
Cultural and Role-Based Predictors of Organizational Participation and Allocation Preferences
Authors: MILLER KATHERINE I.
Published: March 2007

This article extends the work of Miller and Monge (1987) by proposing that cultural and role variables within organizations will predict the extent to which individuals hold a collective or individualistic approach to organizational life. This model begins by describing two contrasting models of organizational participation and allocation. One of these models is characterized by collective participation, learning, and communication, with equity as a driving allocational principle. The second model is characterized by individual participation, learning, and communication, with outcome maximization as a driving allocational principle. Research on allocation and participation is explored to investigate possible variables that would point to a preference for the individual or collective model. Two organizational culture variables and two organizational role variables are proposed as important moderators. The two models are then tested on subgroups formed on the basis of these moderators, and the theoretical import of these models is discussed.
On the Use and Interpretation of the Emotional Empathy Scale, the Self-Consciousness Scales, and the Self-Monitoring Scale
Authors: DILLARD JAMES PRICE , HUNTER JOHN E.
Published: March 2007

Uncertainty reduction theory argues that certain trait variables influence the process of information gathering. This article examines the validity of scales designed to tap three such trait variables. First- and second-order confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to assess the psychometric adequacy of the Emotional Empathy Scale (Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972), the Self-Consciousness Scales (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975), and the Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974). The Emotional Empathy Scale was shown to be construct invalid in that it was multidimensional at both the first- and second-order factor levels. The subscales may be useful, but the composite score is meaningless. The data also showed that the two Self-Consciousness Scales could be reduced to a single second-order factor. This raises some questions about how the scales should be treated, but does not pose any problems for interpreting earlier research. Finally, the Self-Monitoring Scale yielded four primary factors and two second-order factors. Consistent with earlier investigations, this study shows that the scale exhibits very little correspondence to the self-monitoring construct. Its continued use is strongly discouraged. Recommendations for the use and interpretation of research that has employed the scales are offered, and the implications for past and present communication theory are examined.
Personal Opacity and Social Information Gathering
Authors: BERGER CHARLES R. , KELLERMANN KATHY
Published: March 2007

Tactics by which individuals withhold information from inquisitive others were explored by inducing individuals to achieve varying goals in conversational encounters. Persons were told to reveal as little as they could about themselves (low revealers), as much as they could about themselves (high revealers), or to have a typical conversation (normals). These individuals were paired in conversation with persons told to find out as much as they could about their conversational partner (high seekers). Information-quality, self-presentation, conversational-management, behavioral, content-focus, and utterance-form tactics were explored. Information-quality and content-focus tactics are the most important tactics for evasion plans, whereas pausal phenomena seem to be indicative of on-line planning of evasiveness. Implications for the study of the negativity effect and disclosure research are discussed.
A Mathematical Model of Academic Citation Age
Authors: BARNETT GEORGE A. , FINK EDWARD L. , DEBUS MARY BETH
Published: March 2007

Using citation data, this article examines the pattern of diffusion in the academic literatures of science, the social sciences, and the arts and humanities. An examination of the citations from a given year to the year in which the cited article was published shows that the initial level of citations starts out small and then increases, reaching a peak in less than two years. It then gradually decreases as articles age. A mathematical model is developed to describe this pattern, which is compared to a linear model. The model explains between 97.2% and 99.2% of the variance, depending on the data set, with the parameters for science and the social sciences being remarkably similar. Based on this model, we find that the age at which citation reaches a maximum is lowest for the arts and humanities, next for science, and last for the social sciences. The peak in the proportion of citations is greatest for science, followed by the social sciences and the arts and humanities. Problems in the model led to an examination of one source of historical change in citation practice. We find that the number of citations per article per year has increased systematically over time. Diffusion research is discussed in light of the utility of the citation model.
The Invisible College Reconsidered
Authors: LIEVROUW LEAH A.
Published: March 2007

In this article, the relationship of bibliometric techniques (especially citation analysis) to communication theory and research is examined, using the invisible college as the principal example. The invisible college is used because it is the best-known model of scientific communication, and because it is based in bibliometric studies of science. As such, the invisible college is typical of constructs that describe processes yet are founded on the study of structures; the ambiguity surrounding the use of the term is symptomatic of the confounding of structure and process in the study of scholarly communication. A revised definition of the invisible college is proposed that reemphasizes its fundamentally communicative nature, and issues for future theory building in scientific communication are suggested.
Of Matters Micro and Macro
Authors: RITCHIE L. DAVID , PRICE VINCENT
Published: March 2007

Micro-macro issues are of continuing concern to many of the social sciences (see, e.g., Alexander, Giesen, Munch, & Smelser, 1987), and they are of particular importance to communication research. Communication has been described as a “cross-level” discipline, a field of scholarship concerned with processes operating simultaneously at many levels—cultural, social, psychological, and neurological (Paisley, 1984). Not surprisingly, there have been repeated calls for better theoretical integration of research across communication's constituent subfields (i.e., interpersonal, organizational, and mass communication). Similarly, within topical research areas such as health communication and political communication, there have been calls for “process” theories that address interrelationships among variables across levels.

The cross-level nature of communication research can be viewed in several ways. Certainly it can be seen as a reflection of the phenomena we study. Human communication behaviors are complex, and they implicate processes at several levels, but the interest in integrating research and theory across levels can also be viewed, against the backdrop of organized institutional divisions within the modern university, as part of continuing efforts to define communication as a unified discipline in the social sciences.
Making Television Reality
Authors: SHAPIRO MICHAEL A. , LANG ANNIE
Published: March 2007

One psychological mechanism that people may use to construct social reality is a reality-monitoring procedure with which they may relatively automatically and unconsciously select relevant event memories in constructing a picture of the world. Contextual information stored with the event memories is one element used to determine the relevance of a memory. Both preattentive psychophysiological responses and higher-order cognitive responses to the stream of television events are likely to be stored with television event memories. Both psychophysiological and cognitive processing of television events are examined to see what kinds of contextual information might be stored as a result of both real and fictional television events and mediated and unmediated television events. Then the decision processes that use this information are examined. It seems likely that television may result in contextual information that is potentially confusing to the reality-monitoring process. The resulting reality-monitoring errors may explain how memories of some fictional or irrelevant television events come inadvertently to influence a person's judgments about the real world. Several suggestions for testing this theory are made.
Controllability of Stressful Events and Satisfaction With Spouse Support Behaviors
Authors: CUTRONA CAROLYN E. , SUHR JULIE A.
Published: March 2007

Among married couples, the effect of the controllability of stressful events was tested as a predictor of the type of social support communications provided and preferred. Sixty married individuals disclosed stressful events to their spouse. Controllability of the stress was rated by observers. The Social Support Behavior Code was used to assess the frequency with which each of five types of social support was provided by the spouse. Action-promoting support (information) was provided most frequently when the stressed person had high control over the event. Of the five types of support communications assessed, only information was evaluated differently in high- and low-controllable situations. Both controllability by the support recipient and controllability by his or her spouse were relevant to support evaluations. Results provide limited support for the optimal matching model proposed by Cutrona and Russell (Cutrona, 1990; Cutrona & Russell, 1990).
Globalization of Mass Media Ownership
Authors: HIRSCH PAUL M.
Published: March 2007

During the last decade, the United States lost its dominance as the owner and producer of mass communication, both domestically and around the world. The globalization of ownership of mass media content, production, and technology has major implications for audience definitions and theories about who controls these media, for what purposes, and with what effects. The articles in this special issue are the first collection to address the issues raised by these recent developments, not only in film but also for book / magazine publishing, record / television production, advertising, HDTV technology, and public broadcasting. The increasing importance of economic analysis is also explored, for the insights it provides in explaining the decline of American dominance and for the implications of redefining “news” when it is viewed as an economic product. This article sets out an overview of major research and conceptual issues that these developments raise for the field of mass communication.
The Effects of Emotional Pictures in Television News
Authors: BROSIUS HANS-BERND
Published: March 2007

Visual illustrations accompanying television news broadcasts are often hypothesized to increase viewers' recall of news items. A review of reported studies, however, yields mixed results for this notion. The present article argues that effects of emotional visuals are reflected not in the exact recall of the text but through specific kinds of errors in recall and the relation of these errors to certain parts of the item. These errors occur because emotional visuals focus attention on specific parts of a news item, and that recall of the item is reconstructed from perceptual judgements that are generalized from these specific parts. Results of an experiment (N = 125) supported the hypothesized effects.
Communication Networks and Modernization
Authors: VAN DIJK JAN A.G.M.
Published: March 2007

The last three decades have witnessed an acceleration in the use, demand, and need of telecommunications, data communication, and mass communication transmitted and, increasingly, integrated into networks. This acceleration can be explained by a synthesis of the modernization theories of Giddens (the concept of time-space distantiation) and Beniger (the problems of control in a complex society). A central theme is the unity of scale extension and scale reduction that can be perceived in all spheres and at all levels of modern Western society. Extending Beniger's thesis of a control revolution at the last turn of the century, it is suggested that the present acceleration in communication and information is part of a second communication revolution.
Agenda-Setting Effects of Television News Coverage and the Effects Decay Curve
Authors: WATT JAMES H. , MAZZA MARY , SNYDER LESLIE
Published: March 2007

Some fundamental concepts in agenda-setting are related to a simple cognitive memory decay process. Accounting for issue obtrusiveness and amounts of prior coverage, predictions for the size of the relationship between declining accumulated television coverage and issue salience are derived. Levels of declining accumulated coverage are estimated by applying an exponential decay function to the prominence of daily television coverage. This function presumably models simple forgetting of coverage that occurs within individual audience members. Three issues (inflation, Iran, and the Soviet Union) were investigated over an 1,826-day period, using the daily prominence of television coverage obtained from television news archives and daily salience of the issues interpolated from monthly archived poll data. The size of the relationship between accumulated coverage and issue salience was found to decrease with the amount of coverage of an issue prior to the beginning of the study period. A new unobtrusive issue (Iran) was found to have the strongest agenda-setting effects and more rapidly declining coverage effects than other issues.
The Acquaintanceship Process:
Authors: DOUGLAS WILLIAM
Published: March 2007

The present study examined the relationship between uncertainty (reduction), information seeking, and liking during unstructured initial interaction. Participants' uncertainty and liking were measured before and after observing their partner, and again after they had interacted with the partner. The preobservation measure of uncertainty dealt with persons' uncertainty about acquaintanceship in general (i.e., their global uncertainty). The conversations, which were tape-recorded, were transcribed and coded to generate measures of question asking and self-disclosure. Analyses showed significant linear and quadratic trends in the uncertainty scores; global uncertainty was also significantly related to uncertainty about the specific partner after interaction and the amount of uncertainty reduction that participants achieved. Uncertainty and liking were inversely correlated both before and after persons talked to each other although the analysis provided little evidence of causal conjunction. Further, whereas global uncertainty was predictive of amount of information seeking, target-specific uncertainty was unrelated to the frequency of both question asking and disclosure. These findings are discussed in the context of uncertainty reduction theory.
Bayesian Inference in Polling Technique
Authors: SATAKE EIKI
Published: March 2007

This study explores the potential utility of Bayesian statistical method in determining the predictability of multiple polls—it compares Bayesian technique to the classical statistical method employed by pollsters.
Uses of Erotica and Acceptance of Rape Myths
Authors: PERSE ELIZABETH M.
Published: March 2007

This study considered two models of the effects of sexually explicit materials: a liberal model that holds that erotica is beneficial and has few negative effects and a feminist social responsibility model that believes that use of sexually explicit materials contributes to negative beliefs about women. This study tested the contribution of reasons for using sexually explicit materials to beliefs in gender-role stereotypes about women and sexual conservatism, and acceptance of rape myths. Questionnaires were completed by 569 college students. Four motives for using erotica were identified: Sexual Enhancement, Diversion, Sexual Release, and Substitution. Sexual Enhancement was positively related to holding stereotyped and conservative beliefs about women and sex. Diversion and Sexual Enhancement were also indirectly related to greater acceptance of rape myths. Sexual Release was negatively linked and substitution was positively linked to acceptance of rape myths. The discussion highlights areas of support for the two models and points out the importance of future research to mitigate the effects of exposure.
The Image of Children in Magazine Advertisements From 1905 to 1990
Authors: ALEXANDER VICTORIA D.
Published: March 2007

This article studies the changing image of children in magazines from 1905 to 1990. Drawing on Goffman's Gender Advertisements, the author examines the portrayals of children in advertising to determine the extent to which, and in what way, the relationship between children and adults has changed. The data suggest that a real shift in the relationship between adults and children has occurred but that it occurred in different linear and cyclical patterns that must be both recognized and examined in relationship to each other and be understood in social and cultural contexts. The research suggests the need for a rigorous methodology for analyzing visual data.
Patient Compliance and Satisfaction With Physician Influence Attempts
Authors: KLINGLE RENEE STORM , BURGOON MICHAEL
Published: March 2007

Utilizing a recently developed health communication theory, Reinforcement Expectancy Theory (RET), we conducted a two-part study to assess the effectiveness of communication strategies designed to improve both initial and long-term medical adherence. Study 1 analyzed patients' evaluations of communication regard strategies and the effectiveness of these strategies in initial encounters. As predicted, negative regard strategies used by male physicians were perceived as more appropriate than negative regard strategies used by female physicians. Physician gender interacted with strategy effectiveness such that male physicians were persuasive if they used either positive or negative regard strategies, whereas female physicians were limited to using positive regard strategies. The results also indicated that the use of negative regard strategies by male physicians does not hinder patient satisfaction or physician perceptions, whereas the use of negative regard strategies by female physicians is negatively related to these outcome measures. The RET framework tested in Study 2 argued that occasional use of non-rewarding communication would facilitate communication effectiveness for both male and female physicians in ongoing physician-patient relationships. The results supported this assumption. Physician gender, however, did not moderate the effectiveness of certain strategy combinations as expected. Implications for future research concerning long-term compliance are offered.