Theorizing Digital Journalism: The Limits of Linearity and the Rise of Relationships

For more than 50 years, our understanding of journalism drew on theories that emerged in an environment in which the components of a mediated message could be isolated well enough to measure and track. Yet today we live in a media world that is simultaneously immersive and interconnected, instantaneous and iterative, and individualized to an extent unimaginable a generation ago. In this environment, theories positing ‘media effects’ are considerably less practical or meaningful than they once were, a topic explored in the first half of this chapter. Some of the ways that contemporary journalism scholars are actively recontextualizing the field are then outlined, followed by consideration of the proposition that our best hope for understanding the “effects” of digital journalism may be to focus on the diversity of relationships it engenders. Looking at connections and interactions can profitably guide our study of this fluid, holistic media world

The Role Of Media In Promoting Good Governance And Building Public Perception About Governance: A Comparison Of China And The United States

The media plays three key roles in promoting good governance: watchdog, civic forum and agenda-setter. Despite decades of scholarship, there is little systematic effort to examine the empirical relationship between the media and governance. Moreover, scholars conceptualized governance with their interests and scope of work. Regardless of political system, this dissertation puts forth a new definition of good governance, and explores how controversies or issues framed by the media can be employed to initiate debates among citizens to enhance their own understanding of the political process, in particular the performance of the government. The first study utilized framing theory to identify media frames in portraying four U.S. and Chinese governance issues which address the different dimensions of good governance. Results from the content analysis suggest that both Chinese and U.S. newspapers employed three major mechanisms to frame governance issues, i.e. thematic framing, responsibility framing and heavy reliance on official sources. The second study employed an experimental method by integrating the theories of framing and the spiral of silence, in particular, to investigate the effect of media framing governance issues on public perception and evaluation of U.S. good governance, especially the way that U.S. government handled two governance issues such as the Flint water crisis and the Syrian refugee crisis. The core research question of this dissertation is: can media framing of governance issues influence one’s perception and evaluation of good governance? Based on two studies, this dissertation has found news framing of governance issues does have an effect on individuals’ opinion and evaluation on the performance of government. In particular, how media frame the governance issues influences the way individuals perceive and evaluate the U.S. government. Additionally, issue attention moderates the governance framing effects. Individuals who pay less attention to governance issues are more likely to evaluate the performance of U.S. government in a positive manner than people who pay more attention. At the same time, the more people are willing to self-censor, the more they will perceive the performance of U.S. government in a positive way. Implications for future trajectory of research are discussed

Revisiting the spiral of silence in a social media environment: Egypt’s 2014 presidential election as a case study

With the advent of the Internet and anonymous features of online media, users have established novel platforms to voice their opinion freely without fear of negative feedback. This thesis explores the application of a long-standing public opinion theory– the spiral of silence by Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann–within the prevalent Social Networking Sites (SNS), particularly Facebook. When applying spiral of silence to online mediated environment, it seems intuitive that the lack of verbal cues and anonymity offered would serve to undermine the fear of isolation and restlessness that results in unwillingness to express minority views. This research contributes to understanding how the spiral of silence might operate in the social media era, and adds a view on how SNS influence opinion-forming variables. This study uses survey and in-depth interviews to assess willingness to speak out on political stands during the Egyptian presidential election of 2014. A survey was distributed to query Egyptian SNS users about their willingness to express their political opinion prior to casting votes in the nation’s 2014 presidential election. In-depth interviews were also conducted offering interpretations to the perception of the general opinion climate, and expected consequences of expressing views about controversial issues to Facebook\u27s friends. This study considered online negative feedback on the users\u27 profile as the form of fear of isolation, to accommodate new form of isolation in social media environment. Tests of negative evaluation fears showed no relation between sample\u27s apprehension of a negative feedback on facebook and their tendency to express their political opinion on the presidential election, questioning spiral of silence\u27s explanation of compelling social factors. Respondents with higher knowledge level showed higher tendency to express their views on the issue of the election than those with lower knowledge level regardless of their social belonging status. The perceived majority\u27s opinion showed no influence on users\u27 inclination to express views, nor did it influence willingness to enter a discussion with holders of opposing views. Willingness to speak out under a minority label was not affected in an online environment. Moreover, no statistical significance was found to indicate that spiral of silence existence is still embedded in a real-life setting. Contrary to literature on the spiral of silence, findings revealed equal attention paid to elements of close circle and community at large, and perceived importance of identifying their opinion on the presidential election prior to evaluating personal opinion. The author can be contacted at [email protected]

Transmission Creep: Media Effects Theories and Journalism Studies in a Digital Era

The nature of digital media challenges the explanatory power of effects theories that rest on a transmission model of communication. As essentially linear conceptualizations reliant on identification and measurement of discrete message components, these twentieth-century theories are poorly suited to contemporary journalistic structures and forms. This article adds to the call for a more richly theorized concept of relationship effects suitable to an immersive, iterative, and interconnected environment of news producers and products

A Qualitative Approach to Spiral of Silence Research: Self-Censorship Narratives Regarding Environmental and Social Conflict

The purpose of this research is to seek narratives of self-censorship from in-depth interviews of 19 participants acquired through a purposive (criterion) sampling protocol. The primary research question driving this study is “What types of sanctions contribute to people choosing to self-censor their strongly held beliefs, values, and opinions.” Previous research conducted on the topic of self-censorship (generally under the rubric of the spiral of silence theory) has been predominantly quantitative and consideration of sanctions influencing self-censorship have been limited to fear of social isolation. I suggest that ostensibly important sanction variables have not been utilized within these existing frameworks. I anticipated that this research, by utilizing a qualitative framework, would reveal other sanctions that operate in the self-censorship decision calculus. I also expected that interviews would portray a broader, more complete picture of how self-censorship operates and the variables that contribute to the construct. Research expectations were partially met as new variables in regard to specific fears of sanctioning were identified. These variables should contribute to self-censorship theory and more specifically, the frequently researched “spiral of silence” theory of mass communication and could be tested in quantitative research to verify their validity. Future research in this vein might consider testing additional sanction variables as part of a quantitative study, continue to refine the definition of self-censorship, develop better strategies to locate and secure additional informants, and continue to utilize qualitative methods to probe further into self-censorship questions

Fear of Social Isolation: Testing an Assumption from the Spiral of Silence

This study is designed specifically to test the fear of isolation assumption and to explore its position in the Spiral of Silence model. It has been unclear from the literature whether fear of isolation is antecedent to opinion formation and dominant opinion assessment or an intervening variable between opinion formation and willingness to voice the opinion. Path analyses are used to empirically investigate the relationship of the fear of isolation variable to other variables in the model

TOXIC CULTURE: AN EMOTION AND SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL FANS IN RELATION TO CONTROVERSY AND WIN-LOSS RECORDS

Fans of certain college football teams will experience a wide array of emotions when their team is involved in a scandal. This study examined the fan bases of three university football teams as they learn about and react on social media to their schools and head coaches becoming implicated in controversies. Under the protection of those with similar likes and the secrecy of social media, users can voice opinions in favor of and against the football team’s firing of a coach or handling of an investigation. Fan bases analyzed in the study are Ohio State University, Maryland University, and Baylor University. Using Crimson Hexagon, Tweets from the fans of each university are used to gauge emotion and sentiment from the time an incident was made public to when a final decision on the program or coach’s punishment was made. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative efforts, findings revealed a moderate amount of sadness felt by each fan base regarding the incident as well as joy and disgust. While many Tweets were identified as neutral in emotion, Crimson Hexagon failed to detect those who were surprised by the news. These results show how fan bases have reacted to information that may jeopardize their team and hypothesizes how future scandals may affect fan bases

Theoretical Motivations for Posting in #MeToo

In 2017, actress Alyssa Milano shared a tweet encouraging survivors of gendered violence to write “me too.” A media storm ensued as survivors answered her call in the millions. Anyone can look back at what survivors posted during the height of #MeToo, but we still don’t know why they felt the need to post in the first place. To answer this question, the social identity model of deindividuation effects and spiral of silence were utilized. The social identification, perceived anonymity affordances, and willingness to self-censor scales were used for this research, along with a perceived deindividuation scale that was created for this study and found reliable. Snowball recruitment focusing mainly on Reddit and other SNSs yielded 256 eligible participants. Through a quantitative survey, it was found that survivors who posted in #MeToo had stronger group identification with others posting, higher perceptions of anonymity afforded on social networking sites, and higher perceptions of deindividuation during #MeToo compared to survivors who chose not to post. Furthermore, survivors who posted had lower willingness to self-censor during #MeToo and in the present day when compared to non-posters. This lends evidentiary support to a causal relationship between posting in #MeToo and a survivor’s willingness to self-censor today

When One Speaks Out and When One Does Not: Online Discussion Forums for Opinion Expression

Individuals’ opinion expression about public affairs has entered a new phase with the growth of new venues for social interaction among fellow citizens such as online discussion forums. However, not much empirical evidence exists to understand an individual’s voicing views in online discussion. Focusing on this attention-deserved form of political activity online, the current dissertation aimed to yield insights into some fundamental questions: who, with what characteristics, more intends and tends to talk on an online discussion forum, and what forum conditions (and combinations of them) facilitate an individual’s opinion expression intention and behavior. To investigate these questions, two experimental research methods – scenario-based thought and website-based true experiments – were implemented. Thought experiments relied on a hypothetical scenario technique, the most widely used method in spiral of silence research, but employed the multifaceted, detailed scenarios. True experiments, on the other hand, used the stimulus online forums designed for this study to actually place the participants in the online discussion situation. The findings from these two different approaches indicated that a person’s race, issue involvement, issue knowledge, and the revelation of identity were factors that generally influenced opinion expression online. Racial minorities, compared to Whites, were consistently more willing and likely to voice their views on the online forum. Those who were involved in and knowledgeable about the issue under discussion were more likely to post messages to the forum. Disclosing one’s real name and other personal information was a big hindrance to actual opinion expression on the discussion forum. However, comparing the findings from scenarios to those obtained from real, analogous situations also revealed that the use of scenarios could not accurately identify some existing phenomena. Thought and true experiments returned incongruent predictions regarding the roles of age, fear of isolation, and the votes climate as well as the contribution degree of issue knowledge (to posting intention). In particular, trait fear of isolation, which has been pointed out as the primary culprit behind silencing minority opinion holders, played a completely opposite role. Against the background of these findings, the theoretical and methodological implications of the study were discussed.PhDCommunication StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116699/1/ywoh_1.pd