Working on the fundamentals of journalism and mass communication research: Advancing methods in <em>Journalism &amp; Mass Communication Quarterly</em>, 2007-2016

This special virtual theme issue presents eight articles on “methods” selected from Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (JMCQ) issues published between 2007 and 2016. This collection was selected from articles that focused on developing and assessing the quality of a (new) research method or technique, or articles that examined methodological innovations as part of a study on a substantive issue. A scan of the articles in JMCQ over the 10-year period under study revealed that about 7% (n = 28) focused on advancing research methods or data analysis techniques. The articles selected are prime examples of JMCQ’s method articles and deserve renewed attention because of their inspiring approach and the insights they provide. We introduce them briefly below under three categories: methodological issues in content analysis; methodological issues in surveys, interviews, and focus groups; and measurement and scale development

Getting the word out on Twitter: the role of influentials, information brokers and strong ties in building word-of-mouth for brands

Using a sample of over 5300 tweets from top global brands, this study investigated how different types of users can influence brand content diffusion via retweets. Twitter users who influenced followers to retweet brand content were categorized as (1) influentials, because of their above average ability to influence others to retweet their tweets (in general), (2) information brokers, because of their position connecting groups of users or (3) having strong ties, because of their high percentage of friends in common and a mutual friend–follower relationship with the influenced follower. The results indicate that influentials and information brokers are associated with larger number of retweets for brand content. In addition, although information brokers have a larger overall influence on retweeting, they are more prone to do so when influentials are mentioned in the brand tweet, providing support for the strategy that aims to associate the brand with influential users

How much time do you spend online? Understanding and improving the accuracy of self-reported measures of internet use

Given the importance of survey measures of online media use for communication research, it is crucial to assess and improve their quality, in particular because the increasingly fragmented and ubiquitous usage of internet complicates the accuracy of self-reported measures. This study contributes to the discussion regarding the accuracy of self-reported internet use by presenting relevant factors potentially affecting biases of self-reports and testing survey design strategies to improve accuracy. Combining automatic tracking data and survey data from the same participants (N = 690) confirmed low levels of accuracy and tendencies of over-reporting. The analysis revealed biases due to a range of factors associated with the intensity of (actual) internet usage, propensity to multitask, day of reference, and the usage of mobile devices. An anchoring technique could not be proved to reduce inaccuracies of reporting behavior. Several recommendations for research practice follow from these findings