The Mainstreaming of Verbally Aggressive Online Political Behaviors

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the relationship between verbal aggression and uncivil media attention on political flaming. More specifically, this paper examines whether the use of uncivil media programming is associated with the perceived acceptability and intention to engage in aggressive online discussions (i.e., online political flaming) and whether this relationship varies by verbal aggression. The results show that individuals less inclined to engage in aggressive communication tactics (i.e., low in verbal aggression) become more accepting of flaming and show greater intention to flame as their attention to uncivil media increases. By contrast, those with comparatively higher levels of verbal aggression show a decrease in acceptance and intention to flame as their attention to these same media increases.Advertisin

The impact of racial representations in video game contexts: Identification with Gaming Characters.

Video games can impact individual’s identification with a character presented within that game. The following study examined the effect that racial representations (character race) in video games have upon identification, perceived similarity, and affective outcomes. Using two popular Grand Theft Auto video games participants rated their levels of identification and perceptions of similarity with characters of different races within that video game (White or Black characters/avatars). The results of this experiment show evidence that Black participants identified with and reported higher levels of perceived similarity with same race characters from a video game. Furthermore, the results showed significant differences for video games with racial representations (Black main character) for lower positive affect. This research shows significant and important findings for how individuals identify with characters in video game contexts. Furthermore, it extends research towards how identification with characters of race in media contexts impacts positive and negative outcomes. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed using the identification process of social influence. Keywords: Race, Video Games, Identification, Affec

Vincent Cicchirillo's Quick Files

The Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity

The impact of video game character viewpoints and task on perceptions of cognitive and similarity identification

The following study examines the effect of character viewpoints in a video game and task (motivation) on outcomes associated with identification and enjoyment. The study employs a 2 (first-person viewpoint vs. third-person viewpoint) × 2 (task vs. no task) experimental design to test potential theoretical impacts of identification. Specifically, this study looked at how first-person and third-person viewpoints impact identification (cognitive vs. similarity) and enjoyment after playing a video game. The results showed that third-person perspectives through manipulated gaming objectives (task) positively impacted identification. Furthermore, task was associated with higher game play enjoyment. This study adds to the current literature by comparing different type’s identification (cognitive vs. similarity) and how these concepts are impacted by point-of-view and motivation. Thus, extending our theoretical understanding of identification

Towards a Communication-Based Approach to Cyber-Bullying

Cyber-bullying, or the repeated (mis)use of technology to harass, intimidate, or terrorize another person (Franek, 2004), is a growing problem among adolescents and teenagers in schools. Although cyberbullying inherently implicates important aspects of the communication process, scholars interested in computer-mediated communication have been slow to investigate this phenomenon. This chapter presents an initial effort to document this phenomenon from a communication-based perspective and offers a theoretical foundation for its examination. In so doing, the present chapter provides a review of how the concept of bullying has been traditionally been understood, contextualizes bullying within a mediated context, discusses existing research on cyber-bullies and victims, and applies existing theoretical approaches to understand the motivation behind and effects of cyber-bullying