Wiley: Journal of Communication: Table of Contents

The Relationship Between Online Pornography and the Sexual Objectification of Women: The Attenuating Role of Porn Literacy Education

Laura Vandenbosch, Johanna M. F. van Oosten — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Media literacy interventions partly aim at preventing undesirable media effects at a later point of time. However, longitudinal research on the interaction between media literacy education and media effects is lacking. In this longitudinal study among 1,947 13–25-year-olds, we started to address this lacuna by examining the potential of porn literacy education at schools to attenuate the longitudinal relationship between exposure to sexually explicit Internet material (SEIM) and views of women as sex objects. A two-way interaction effect emerged: The relationship between SEIM and sexist views became weaker, the more users had learned from porn literacy education. No gender or age differences occurred. This study thus provides some first evidence for the role of media education in reducing undesirable media effects.

The Story of Collective Action: The Emergence of Ideological Leaders, Collective Action Network Leaders, and Cross‐Sector Network Partners in Civil Society

Marya L. Doerfel, Maureen Taylor — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Collective action and community ecology theories frame this study of longitudinal interorganizational networks in Croatia during the country's political transition. As time progresses toward political stability, grass-roots organizing activities shift through participation in new networks. Although engaged cross-sector communication was important in early stages of the transformation, homophilous partnering emerged as the system stabilized. System stability left room for organizations to exit the collective action network but with costs associated with centralized organizing. Over time, organizations embodied roles as ideological leaders, collective action network leaders, and within-sector network partners. We offer a unique contribution to community ecology and collective action theories with a communication-centered framework that emphasizes the nature of communication in interorganizational networks over a 4-year period.

YouTube for Good: A Content Analysis and Examination of Elicitors of Self‐Transcendent Media

Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Despite the increased attention to eudaimonic media experiences, to date scholars have paid little attention to the specific portrayals responsible for those experiences. Study 1 of this project reports the first systematic content analysis of self-transcendent media—a particular type of eudaimonic media—using a sample of 100 “inspirational” YouTube videos. The presence of 20 specific elicitors associated with self-transcendent emotions was examined and reported. In Study 2, respondents provided real-time self-transcendent emotional reactions while viewing 3 “inspirational” videos. As expected, ratings significantly increased immediately following exposure to each specific elicitor. Thus, this project reports the first empirical evidence directly linking specific representations to content identified as “inspirational” and directly linking those representations to self-transcendent emotional reactions.

Communicative Resurrection: Letters to the Dead in the Israeli Newspaper

Carolin Aronis — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

By studying letters written to the dead published in the popular Israeli press between 1997 and 2014, this paper examines the practices that constitute communicative acts toward a deceased person using interpersonal and mass media, in order to embody the recipiency of the dead. Using an analytical framework that draws on media ecology, communication theory, and discourse analysis, the paper demonstrates how the epistolary and mass media rhetoric operate to reconstruct the performance of the dead as an addressee. By exploring this understudied phenomenon and revisiting core notions of communication in light of written technologies, distance, and death, the paper argues that this communicative constellation, as a whole, is a performative act that offers a “communicative resurrection” to the dead.

Presidential Communication About Marginalized Groups: Applying a New Analytic Framework in the Context of the LGBT Community

Kevin Coe, Robert J. Bruce, Chelsea L. Ratcliff — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Scholars have long observed that presidential communication about a marginalized group can help shape that group's reality. Yet most analyses of such communication focus on a relatively small number of texts, making it difficult to identify important changes over time and analyze factors that might explain those changes. The present study proposes an analytic framework that specifies 4 measurable parameters of presidential communication about marginalized groups, as well as 4 explanatory factors. We use this framework to analyze the census of presidents' formal communications about the LGBT community. Results highlight presidents' limited communicative engagement with the LGBT community and the roles that political party, rhetorical context, public opinion, and sociocultural touchstones play in explaining presidential communication about this important group.

Organizing Sexuality: Silencing and the Push–Pull Process of Co‐sexuality in the Workplace

Cristin A. Compton, Debbie S. Dougherty — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

How human beings think about, talk about, and organize around sexuality is changing. Growing social legitimization for sexual minority relationships and a more fluid social understanding of sexual identities has shifted how we bound “normal” sexuality. In the workplace, these shifting norms affect employees of all sexual identities who must make sense of new policies and complex daily practices. This paper introduces the concept of co-sexuality, the push-and-pull process of communicatively organizing around sexuality. Using this concept, we take a grounded theory approach to exploring how employees of various sexualities and in different occupations understand “normal” sexuality and subsequently organize around it. Ultimately, participants described being silenced or silencing another to maintain sexual “norms” at work.

The Polarizing Impact of News Coverage on Populist Attitudes in the Public: Evidence From a Panel Study in Four European Democracies

Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

This study explores how news messages carrying parts of the populist ideology contribute to a polarization of public opinion about populism. It combines a content analysis of news coverage on two policy areas (N = 7,119 stories) with a two-wave panel survey (N = 2,338) in four European metropolitan regions (Berlin, Paris, London, and Zurich). In three regions, unopposed media messages with a populist stance have a conditional effect on populist attitudes that depends on prior convictions. A higher dose of exposure to populist news coverage enhances both prior agreement and disagreement with populism. Although the observed interaction patterns vary between regions, the general picture suggests that populist messages in the news foster polarization between public support and disapproval of populism.

The Hybridization of Journalistic Cultures: A Comparative Study of Journalistic Role Performance

Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Influential research on comparative media systems identifies distinctive models according to which certain countries—particularly advanced democracies—share key features in their journalistic cultures. Revisionist literature has not only emphasized the limitations of such models, but also highlighted the hybridization of journalistic cultures elsewhere. This article tests the hybridization thesis, analyzing the presence of six journalistic roles in print news from 19 countries (N = 34,514). Our findings show patterns of multilayered hybridization in the performance of professional roles across and within advanced, transitional, and nondemocratic countries, with journalistic cultures displaying different types of hybridity that do not resemble either existing ideal media system typologies or conventional assumptions about political or regional clusters. The implications of these findings for future studies are discussed.

Bridging Segregation Via Media Exposure? Ingroup Identification, Outgroup Distance, and Low Direct Contact Reduce Outgroup Appearance in Media Repertoires

David Schieferdecker, Hartmut Wessler — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Researchers have started to demonstrate that media exposure to outgroups can reduce prejudice. However, in contexts of segregation a bias to select ingroup-rich media might hinder exposure and prevent those positive effects. We conducted a survey study (n = 1,095) in South Africa, a context with a notorious history of racial separation and persisting informal segregation. In accordance with the social identity gratification approach and social cognitive theory, respondents showed group-related selection biases. Respondents who identified more strongly with their ingroup, who perceived more distance towards outgroups, and who had less direct contact showed stronger biases. The findings remind us that those who would potentially benefit the most from outgroup exposure might also be those who are least likely to be exposed.

Deciding What's True: The Rise of Political Fact‐Checking in American Journalism

David Greenberg — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Journal of Communication, Volume 67, Issue 6, Page E1-E3, December 2017.

The Digital Difference: Media Technology and the Theory of Communication Effects

Stephen Coleman — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Journal of Communication, Volume 67, Issue 6, Page E7-E8, December 2017.

#Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media

Alvin Y. Zhou — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Journal of Communication, Volume 67, Issue 6, Page E12-E14, December 2017.

Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest

Molly Sauter — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Journal of Communication, Volume 67, Issue 6, Page E4-E6, December 2017.

Political Metaphor Analysis: Discourse and Scenarios

Christian Burgers — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0800

Journal of Communication, Volume 67, Issue 6, Page E9-E11, December 2017.