Revising the Communication Mediation Model for a New Political Communication Ecology

A long tradition of research focuses on conversation as a key catalyst for community integration and a focal mediator of media influence on participation. Changes in media systems, political environments, and electoral campaigning demand that these influences, and the communication mediation model, be revised to account for the growing convergence of media and conversation, heightened partisan polarization, and deepening social contentiousness in media politics. We propose a revised communication mediation model that continues to emphasize the centrality of face‐to‐face and online talk in democratic life, while considering how mediational and self‐reflective processes that encourage civic engagement and campaign participation might also erode institutional legitimacy, foster distrust and partisan divergence, disrupting democratic functioning as a consequence of a new communication ecology.     

God and Country: The Partisan Psychology of the Presidency,Religion, and Nation

Overt love of God and country have seemingly been prerequisites to be president in the United States in recent decades, if not always. Indeed, the 2008 presidential race was replete with campaign messages showcasing such perspectives—that Barack Obama and John McCain were religiously faithful and deeply patriotic. Scholarship demonstrates the potential political power of explicit appeals to America and Christianity; however, little research has examined (a) citizens' perceptions of candidates' ties to faith and nation and (b) how these impressions may be related to electoral attitudes and intended vote. We address this gap, measuring both explicit and implicit indicators of the Christian‐ness and American‐ness of Obama and McCain. We expected and found that both explicit and—in a final‐entry regression position—implicit perceptions of these traits related to voters' overall candidate attitudes and intended vote choice and that they were connected significantly more strongly for our sample of self‐described Republicans than Democrats. Results illuminate these partisan differences and raise questions about their implications for U.S. presidential politics in years to come.     

Inoculation in Political Campaign Communication

The use of attack messages in political campaign communication has grown in recent years. This investigation posits a strategy of resistance to the influence of attack messages. A total of 341 initial and follow-up treatment interviews and 392 control interviews were completed among potential voters in a U.S. Senate campaign during October 1986. We hypothesized that political campaign messages can be designed to inoculate supporters of candidates against subsequent attack messages of opposing candidates. This prediction was supported. In addition, the results supported the hypothesis that inoculation confers more resistance to subsequent attack messages among strong political party identifiers as opposed to weak identifiers, non-identifiers, and crossovers. The results of this investigation extend the scope of inoculation theory to new domain, and at the same time, suggest a new strategic approach for candidates in political campaigns.     

Online Information and Communication Systems to Enhance Health Outcomes Through Communication Convergence

The growing use of digital health communication channels has produced dramatic changes, providing broad access to information for making health decisions and addressing users' emotional needs. Digital health communication channels combine mass and interpersonal communication in different ways. Type 1 convergence occurs sequentially: Individuals obtain health information online that they discuss interpersonally with health providers. Type 2 convergence involves discussions occurring via online health information systems. The effectiveness of these systems depends upon seven communication design and implementation strategies. Emerging interactive health information systems provide customized responses tailored to individuals' specific needs and situations. All these forms of media convergence can improve health education, health promotion, and health behavior change.     

Self‐legislation,Respect and the Reconciliation of Minority Claims

It is a widely supported claim that liberal democratic institutions should treat citizens with equal respect. I neither dispute nor champion this claim, but investigate how it could be fulfilled. I do this by asking, as a sort of litmus test, how liberal democratic institutions should treat with respect citizens holding minority convictions, and thereby dissenting from a deliberative output. The first step of my argument consists in clarifying the sense in which liberal democracies have a primary concern for the respectful treatment of citizens qua self‐legislating persons. Taking the second step, I address critically the common tendency in the literature to concentrate on what I have termed the ex ante legem phase, focusing solely on the structure of institutionalized decision‐making processes. I submit, rather, that the principle of equal respect for persons demands more of liberal democratic institutions to enhance citizens' chances to give voice to their consciences and influence, on that ground, the formulation of the rules to which they should conform. Fulfilling this commitment requires democratic theorizing to go beyond the ex ante legem phase and regard forms of ex post legem contestation as an extension of citizens' right to political participation. Against this backdrop, I take the third and last step and argue that a promising way forward consists in the adoption of an ex post legem version of conscientious exemptionism, granting citizens a conditional moral right to request exemptions on the grounds of conscience from certain controversial legal and political provisions.     

Presidential Debate Viewing and Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9–11: A Study of Affect-as-Transfer and Passionate Reasoning

Extant research on presidential debate viewing focuses primarily on the cognitive outcomes (e.g., knowledge gain) associated with this particular mediated communication event. This study expands effects-based research on political debate viewing by focusing on citizens' discrete emotional reactions to candidates (e.g., joy and anger). In addition, the influence of a 2004 Bush-Kerry presidential debate is analyzed in coordination with the consumption of Michael Moore's controversial film, Fahrenheit 9-11. A 2 (view Fahrenheit 9-11, did not view Fahrenheit 9-11) X 3 (low, medium, or high likelihood of elaboration) independent groups design was used for this study. The study finds evidence of both affect-as-transfer and passionate reasoning. In addition, there is clear support for goal oriented emotional reactions to candidates strongly predicting overall confidence in candidates' policy positions.     

Fahrenheit 9‐11, Need for Closure and the Priming of Affective Ambivalence: An Assessment of Intra‐affective Structures by Party Identification

This study extends priming research in political communication by focusing on an alternative political information source (i.e., Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9‐11), affect rather than cognitions, and the existence of intra‐affective ambivalence. In addition, two moderator variables are analyzed: political party identification and need for closure. There is a statically significant three‐way interaction between the viewing of F 9‐11, political party identification, and need for closure relative to the dependent variable of affective ambivalence toward George W. Bush. High need for closure Republicans who viewed F 9‐11 exhibited pronounced levels of Bush‐affective ambivalence. In addition, high need for closure Independents who viewed F 9‐11 exhibited far lower ambivalence toward Bush relative to their control group peers. The findings are discussed relative to the roles performed by emerging alternative political media and the expansion of the theory of priming within the context of political communication.     

When Does the Honeymoon End? Electoral Cycles of Satisfaction With Democracy in Africa

Scholars have argued that multiparty elections have a profound and immediate influence on mass evaluations of political support. However, what is less clear is whether the effects of elections are short lived or long lasting. Investigating dynamic effects of elections on mass perceptions of political regimes has profound implications on popular foundations of democratic consolidation in an era of democratic backsliding. This article examines electoral cycles in citizens' satisfaction with democracy (SWD)—an important dimension of political support—in multiparty regimes. First, we argue that proximity to elections enhances SWD because campaigns and elections include several processes that reduce the costs and increase the benefits of citizen engagement with the political system. This results in a bell-shaped relationship between citizens' proximity to elections and SWD. Second, we contend that electoral cycles in SWD should vary by the quality of elections and citizens' winner/loser status. We examine these hypotheses using Afrobarometer data in 34 multiparty regimes between 1999 and 2015 finding compelling support. SWD is higher among respondents surveyed closer to elections, while electoral cycles in SWD are more prominent among winners and around low-quality elections.     

The Effects of Accumulated Underaccommodation on Perceptions of Underaccommodative Communication and Speakers

This study examined the effects of repeated instances of underaccommodation (i.e., insufficiently adjusted communication) on people's perceptions and evaluations of communication and speakers. Participants (N = 179) completed a series of three map‐based tasks that required them to follow directions that contained insufficient information. Consistent with hypotheses, as underaccommodation accumulated across tasks, participants inferred less positive motives for the speaker's communication, and inferences about motive for each task contributed directly and indirectly to overall evaluations of both the speaker and their communication. These results indicate that accumulated underaccommodation is consequential, and underscore the theoretical importance of motive attributions to predicting reactions to underaccommodation.     

Ratio Bias and Policy Preferences: How Equivalency Framing of Numbers Can Affect Attitudes

Numbers permeate modern political communication. While current scholarship on framing effects has focused on the persuasive effects of words and arguments, this article shows that framing of numbers can also substantially affect policy preferences. Such effects are caused by ratio bias, which is a general tendency to focus on numerators and pay insufficient attention to denominators in ratios. Using a population‐based survey experiment, I demonstrate how differently framed but logically equivalent representations of the exact same numerical value can have large effects on citizens' preferences regarding salient political issues such as education and taxes. Furthermore, the effects of numerical framing are found across most groups of the population, largely regardless of their political predisposition and their general ability to understand and use numerical information. These findings have significant implications for our understanding of framing effects and the role played by numbers in public opinion formation.     

On Bridging the Communication Gap

While we endorse recent calls for greater collaboration between mass communication and interpersonal communication researchers, in this response we delineate four factors that account for the relative lack of integration of these two areas of communication inquiry. The social policy focus of mass communication research, the high level of public concern over media effects, a variety of methodological cleavages, and different cognate field referents are cited as forces that support segregation of the two research areas. The recent turn to cognitive explanations of communication in both of these domains may create the climate necessary for meaningful collaboration between researchers.     

Consequences of Politicians’ Disrespectful Communication Depend on Social Judgment Dimensions and Voters’ Moral Identity

The present study investigates the consequences of respectful versus disrespectful communication in political debates on voters’ social judgments and voting decisions. Reconciling previously mixed results, we argue that the consequences of disrespect vary with the judgment dimension (communion vs. agency) and voters’ moral identity. An initial study (N = 197) finds that a political candidate's disrespect towards his or her opponent affects voting decision through voting intention. A second study (N = 327) shows that disrespect influences voting intention through communion but not through agency ratings. Qualifying the previous finding, a third study (N = 329) shows that both communion and agency judgments act as mediators, but in different ways depending on the level of moral identity. Overall, communion judgments played a more prominent part in explaining the consequences of disrespectful communication. Our findings thus present a nuanced picture of respect and disrespect in political communication and shed light on their ramifications.     

Effects of Interpersonal Goals on Inadvertent Intrapersonal Influence in Computer‐Mediated Communication

This research explores a sequence of effects pertaining to the influence of relational goals on online information seeking, the use of information and arguments as relational management strategies in computer‐mediated chat, and the intrapersonal attitude change resulting from these processes. Affinity versus disaffinity goals affected participants' information seeking for communicatory utility ( Atkin, 1972 ), their conversational behaviors, and their own attitudes toward the topic and partner. People with negative relational goals used the Web to seek information for discussions more than affinity‐goal participants. Individuals expressed affinity‐disaffinity through arguments, agreements, and disagreements with partners' preferences, which led to changes in their own attitudes. Findings suggest renewed consideration of the interplay between mass media and interpersonal sources accessible on the Internet.     

Sex Workers and HIV/AIDS: Analyzing Participatory Culture‐Centered Health Communication Strategies

An emerging trend in health communication research advocates the need to foreground articulations of health by participants who are at the core of any health campaign. Scholarly work suggests that the culture‐centered approach to health communication can provide a theoretical and practical framework to achieve this objective. The culture‐centered approach calls for attention to dialogue and locates the agency of cultural participants in the culture being studied. This approach underlines the import of participation of community members in the enunciation of health problems as a step toward achieving meaningful change. Based on the culture‐centered approach, this article examines narratives of sex workers to analyze how participatory communicative strategies frame discourses and practices of health, particularly those related to HIV/AIDS.     

Complexity and Communication 3.0

There is an increasing interest in the complexity of mainstream communication education, and in the management of today's Global Media Organizations. Real world systems in communication processes cannot be completely designed, controlled, understood, or predicted, even by the sciences of complexity, but they are more effectively understood and explained as complex systems. I explore complexity in this article, analyzing the new paradigm of Agenda-Setting of today's New Media and Communication.     

Flow,Diversity, Form,and Influence of Political Talk in Social‐Media‐Based Public Forums

By investigating social‐media‐based public forums and using network and content analyses, this study explores how political discussions flow, how diverse they are, and what forms of political discussions are influential. The results suggest that the flow of political discussions is not notably centralized and cliquish. Participants refer primarily to the remarks of like‐minded fellow citizens. Political discussions are more emotional than cognitive and express more anger than anxiety, but it appears that cognitive discussions are more influential than emotional ones. Among cognitive components, assertive and strong discussions have greater influence than analytical ones. These results have implications for the practice of citizenship and the theory of selective exposure as well as for future directions in political communication research.     

Online Social Influence and the Convergence of Mass and Interpersonal Communication

Mass and interpersonal communication are rapidly converging as people integrate an assortment of Internet‐based tools into their communication repertoires. This convergence prompts dramatic changes in the conditions that once were presumed to distinguish mass from interpersonal communication, most notably differences in communication directionality and scale, audience size and identification, and a host of cues that signal source credibility. This article proposes a number of features of technological convergence in this context—including shifts in message control, audience scale, and source, receiver, and temporal ambiguity—and describes illustrative implications for social influence processes. These features highlight areas that traditional mass and interpersonal communication perspectives cannot fully describe alone, and suggest new methods and directions for the examination of online social influence.     

Group Productivity and Telematic Communication

Abstract

Evidence offered by Bottger and Yetton has suggested that group performance is a function of member abilities and strategies to use them. This model completed previous ones offered by Steiner and Davis which were developed under the assumption that group communication occurs in a face-to-face situation. However, since the 1980s, a considerable amount of research has focused upon new ways of communication through new technologies. Findings from psychosocial studies suggest that the use of computers for communication changes group processes and outcomes. In this context, a new research question emerges, which is concerned with group performance as a function of the communication channel. New models should be developed for a better understanding of group performance in mediated communication context. This study presents results from a laboratory experiment comparing three communication media: face-to-face, electronic mail, and video-conference, in a multi-decision task (“moon survival”). Its main objective has been to replicate Bottger and Yetton's model but to incorporate the communication channel mentioned above as a moderator variable of group performance. Variables considered have been input variables (members' resources for achieving task); process variables (group composition according to consensus reached, adequate use of resources, and quality of conflict management), and group performance. Our results show the existence of different patterns for predicting group performance according to the communication channel employed. In this sense, in a face-to-face situation groups perform mainly on the basis of their members' knowledge of the task, as in Steiner's model. The performance of video-conference groups was due to the decision schemes, that is, how groups use their resources (the Davis model). Bottger and Yetton's model has been partially replicated in electronic mail situations. The management of the process is crucial for explaining group performance, but it may be necessary to code it in a different way. Therefore, the positive conflict management will be different from face-to-face and video-conference.     

Institutional and Noninstitutional Influences on Information and Communication Technology Adoption and Use Among Nonprofit Organizations

In this study, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in New Zealand were surveyed to explore influences on adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). We sought to extend existing research by considering “institutional” influences alongside organizational and environmental features and by examining how institutional forces affect optimal use of ICTs. Findings suggest that NPOs adopting and using ICTs tended to be self‐perceived leaders or those who scanned the environment and emulated leaders and tended to have organizational decisionmakers with the expertise to enable adoption and use. Furthermore, optimal fit of ICTs tended to be spurred by institutional forces if accompanied by self‐perceived leadership and appropriate organizational resources. Implications for practice and theory are explored.     

Organizational Communication in Emergencies: Using Multiple Channels and Sources to Combat Noise and Capture Attention

This study relies on information theory, social presence, and source credibility to uncover what best helps people grasp the urgency of an emergency. We surveyed a random sample of 1,318 organizational members who received multiple notifications about a large‐scale emergency. We found that people who received 3 redundant messages coming through at least 1 synchronous communication source—for example, phone or face‐to‐face communication—perceived the urgency of the situation the most quickly, whereas those receiving official messages through asynchronous channels—most often text message—had the lowest sense of urgency. Our findings suggest that by understanding people's reactions to various kinds of redundant communication, organizations can design more strategic emergency messages that capture attention.