Data Mining Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques

It is a daunting honor to deliver the inaugural Pool Lecture. Ithiel de Sola Pool was a brilliant, broad-gauged scholar whose interests ranged from the Nazi elite to direct satellite broadcasting, from the first rigorous computer simulation of electoral behavior to the development of network theory, from which he invented "small world" research. He helped found the field of political communications. A graduate of the University of Chicago's political science department during its classic golden age, and first chair of the MIT political science department, Pool must also have been a remarkable teacher, for his students continue to contribute to our understanding of technology, communications, and political behavior. When I accepted this honor, I did not guess how close my own inquiry would lead me to Pool's own professional turf. I shall return to the contemporary relevance of Pool's insights at the conclusion of this talk.

/pdf/tuning-in-tuning-out-the-strange-disappearance-of-social-3t8cmwg5sg.pdf

Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America

Research on framing is characterized by theoretical and empirical vagueness. This is due, in part, to the lack of a commonly shared theoretical model underlying framing research. Conceptual problems translate into operational problems, limiting the comparability of instruments and results. In this paper I systematize the fragmented approaches to framing in political communication and integrate them into a comprehensive model. I classify previous approaches to framing research along two dimensions: the type of frame examined (media frames vs. audience frames) and the way frames are operationalized (independent variable or dependent variable). I develop a process model of framing, identifying four key processes that should be addressed in future research: frame building, frame setting, individual-level processes of framing, and a feedback loop from audiences to journalists.

/pdf/framing-as-a-theory-of-media-effects-2r7ssng9hs.pdf

Framing as a theory of media effects

Studying influences on media content beyond processes and effects analyzing media content patterns of media content influences on content from individual media workers influence of media routines organizational influences on content influences on content from outside of media organizations the influence of ideology linking influences on content to the effects of content building a theory of news content.

Mediating the Message: Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content

Introduction PART ONE: COGNITION Ideas and Beliefs Social Beliefs Structures and Strategies Structures of Ideologies Values Mental Models Consistency Consciousness Common Sense Knowledge and Truth Identity Social Cognition PART TWO: SOCIETY Ideology and Society Groups Group Relations Elites Dominant Ideologies? Institutions PART THREE: DISCOURSE The Relevance of Discourse Discourse Structures Context Reproduction From Cognition to Discourse Persuasion Legitimation Ideological Discourse Structures The Ideology and Discourse of Modern Racism Conclusions

Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Ten US presidential elections ago in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the agenda of issues that a small group of undecided voters regarded as the most important ones of the day was compared with the ne...

A Look at Agenda-setting: past, present and future

Communication scholars frequently invoke the concept of a marketplace of ideas during discussions about speechmaking, the diversity of media content and voices, and related First Amendment issues. They invoke it less often during intramural discussions of how specific concepts and perspectives, or our research agendas as a whole, have evolved over the years. Yet communication research does operate in a marketplace of ideas that is the quintessential laissez-faire market. The role of our journals is to create a market for the ideas advanced by members of the field. Individual scholars pick and choose topics at will-idiosyncratically and whimsically, some critics say-and publish at irregular intervals. Research teams, to the extent that they exist in communication research, usually arise spontaneously and have short life spans. Institutionalized focused research programs are rare. The communication research marketplace is a volatile arena, a situation fostered by the rapidly changing nature of communication itself during the past 50 years. Under these circumstances the continuing and growing vitality of agenda-setting research is remarkable. As a theoretical perspective, it has had a rich 25-year history since McCombs and Shaw’s (1972) opening gambit during the 1968 presidential elect ion. Philosopher of science James Conant (1951) noted that the hallmark o f a successful theory is its fruitfulness in continually generating new questions and identifying new avenues of scholarly inquiry. The fruitfulness of the agenda-setting metaphor is documented by three features: (a) the steady historical growth of its literature, (b> its ability to integrate a number of communication research subfields under a single theoretical um-

The Evolution of Agenda-Setting Research: Twenty-Five Years in the Marketplace of Ideas

Although the agenda-setting effects of the news media on people's attention to, comprehension of, and opinions about topics in the news primarily have been studied in political communication settings, the central theoretical idea — the transfer of salience from the media agenda to the public agenda — fits equally well in the world of business communication. In the case of corporate reputations, only the operational definitions of the objects and attributes on these agendas are changed here to frame five key theoretical propositions about the influence of news coverage on corporate reputations among the public. This presentation of five basic propositions about first and second-level agenda setting effects as well as intermedia agenda-setting effects offers a theoretical roadmap for systematic empirical research into the influence of the mass media on corporate reputations.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.crr.1540188.pdf

Agenda-setting Effects of Business News on the Public's Images and Opinions about Major Corporations

Contents: Prologue: "The Game Is Afoot." Part I: The Pictures in Our Heads. S. Ghanem, Filling in the Tapestry: The Second Level of Agenda-Setting. T. Takeshita, Exploring the Media's Roles in Defining Reality: From Issue-Agenda-Setting to Attribute-Agenda- Setting. P-T. King, The Press, Candidate Images, and Voter Perceptions. A. First, Television and the Construction of Social Reality: An Israeli Case Study. L. Willnat, Agenda-Setting and Priming: Conceptual Links and Differences. Part II: The Agenda-Setting Process. J-H. Zhu, W. Boroson, Susceptibility to Agenda-Setting: A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis of Individual Differences. M. Roberts, Political Advertising's Influence on News, the Public, and Their Behavior. D.J. Blood, P.C.B. Phillips, Economic Headline News on the Agenda: New Approaches to Understanding Causes and Effects. W.J. Gonzenbach, L. McGavin, A Brief History of Time: A Methodological Analysis of Agenda-Setting. W. Wanta, The Messenger and the Message: Differences Across News Media. Part III: News Agendas and Social Systems. D.L. Lasorsa, Media Agenda-Setting and Press Performance: A Social System Approach for Building Theory. E. Caudill, An Agenda-Setting Perspective on Historical Public Opinion. A. Rodriquez, Cultural Agendas: The Case of Latino-Oriented U.S. Media. H.A. Semetko, A. Mandelli, Setting the Agenda for Cross-National Research: Bringing Values Into the Concept. D.L. Shaw, B.J. Hamm, Agendas for a Public Union or for Private Communities? How Individuals Are Using Media to Reshape American Society.

Maxwell McCombs

Papers

A Look at Agenda-setting: past, present and future

The Evolution of Agenda-Setting Research: Twenty-Five Years in the Marketplace of Ideas

Agenda-setting Effects of Business News on the Public's Images and Opinions about Major Corporations

Communication and Democracy : Exploring the intellectual Frontiers in Agenda-setting theory

The emergence of American political issues : the agenda-setting function of the press