Company Spokesperson vs. Customer Testimonial: Investigating Quoted Spokesperson Credibility and Impact in Business-to-business Communication

Highlights: [•] Partial support for greater credibility of customer rather company spokesperson. [•] Quoting a customer adds credibility to business audience\u27s perception of an article. [•] Attitude toward product more positive when information quotes customer spokesperson. [•] Spokespersons trusted more by businesspeople with low expertise than high expertise

COVID-19 and Student Perceptions toward a Swift Shift in Learning Format: Does Experience Make a Difference?

This study examined university students’ response to the sudden change from face-to-face to emergency remote education (ERE) and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their educational experience in spring 2020 through the lens of self-determination and adaptability. Results of a survey of 3,747 college students showed an overwhelming majority perceived a negative impact on their education, their grades and motivation to do academic work. The pandemic also created personal health and financial concerns that affected students and their studies. Statistically significant results found that experience–with fully online learning and as a college student–made a difference in how students responded to COVID-19 and the class format change. Chi-square analysis showed that students who had not taken a fully online class were more likely to have concerns related to COVID-19 and the class format change than those who had done so. In addition, the percentage of students expressing concerns about the effects of the pandemic on their education declined with each year in college, but high numbers of students were still affected

Does Media Coverage Matter? Perspectives of Public Relations Practitioners and Business Professionals on the Value of News Coverage

This study explores the value of news media coverage as part of a strategic communication plan from the perspectives of public relations practitioners and business people, often PR clients and target audiences. Findings from in-depth interviews with 20 public relations and business professionals reflect continued belief in the conventional wisdom that media coverage is more credible than advertising. Interestingly, however, the revealing comments of both PR and business professionals reflect a growing skepticism of the media, which may help explain the results of experimental studies and provide context for the growing use of paid and owned content and native advertising. The research entailed in-depth interviews with 10 practitioners reflecting varied levels of experience in corporate, agency and nonprofit settings and 10 business professionals representing diverse industries, company size and geographic scope. Nearly all those interviewed said they consider independent media as more credible than advertising or other controlled media. They are less confident that the general public perceives media coverage to be more credible than advertising. Practitioners said that clients continue to see value in media coverage as a way to broaden the reach of their messages to target audiences. However, despite their overall belief in media credibility, both groups expressed rising doubts about the believability of media, citing recent cases of plagiarism, breaches of journalistic ethics, and the public's growing cynicism toward news media as a factor in declining media credibility

An Examination of the Role pf Online Social Media in Journalists\u27 Source Mix

Using telephone surveys of business/financial journalists in the United States (n =200), this research investigates the agenda-building role of social media content in journalists’ work. Understanding that more non-public relations content from user-generated and social network sites, like YouTube and Twitter, are fast becoming resources for journalists to get story ideas, break scandals, and find sources, we began this scholarly work to determine the frequency of such uses of social media. Overall, findings indicate very little use of social media by these business journalists. Results and implications for public relations practitioners are discussed in detail

Effects of melody and technique on acoustical and musical features of Western operatic singing voices

Objective: The operatic singing technique is frequently employed in classical music. Several acoustical parameters of this specific technique have been studied but how these parameters combine remains unclear. This study aims to further characterize the Western operatic singing technique by observing the effects of melody and technique on acoustical and musical parameters of the singing voice. Methods: Fifty professional singers performed two contrasting melodies (popular song and romantic melody) with two vocal techniques (with and without operatic singing technique). The common quality parameters (energy distribution, vibrato rate and extent), perturbation parameters (standard deviation of the fundamental frequency, signal-to-noise ratio, jitter and shimmer) and musical features (fundamental frequency of the starting note, average tempo, and sound pressure level) of the 200 sung performances were analyzed. Results: The results regarding the effect of melody and technique on the acoustical and musical parameters show that the choice of melody had a limited impact on the parameters observed, whereas a particular vocal profile appeared depending on the vocal technique employed. Conclusions: This study confirms that vocal technique affects most of the parameters examined. In addition, the observation of quality, perturbation and musical parameters contributes to a better understanding of the Western operatic singing technique