Showing papers in "Communication Theory in 2003"

Using theory to design effective health behavior interventions.

Abstract: This article demonstrates the usefulness of two theories for the development of effective health communication campaigns. The integrative model of behavioral prediction focuses on changing beliefs about consequences, normative issues, and efficacy with respect to a particular behavior. Media priming theory focuses on strengthening the association between a belief and its outcomes, such as attitude and intention toward performing the behavior. Both the integrative model of behavioral prediction and media priming theory provide guidance with respect to the selection of beliefs to target in an intervention. The article describes the theories, shows how they can be applied to the selection of target beliefs, and, for each theory, defines the criteria for belief selection. The two theories as well as their appropriate analytic strategies are complementary rather than conflicting.

Understanding the Influence of Perceived Norms on Behaviors

Abstract: Although a number of studies demonstrate the impact of perceived norms on human behavior we know little about how this relation works. Extant norms-based campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption among U.S. college students fail to distinguish between descriptive and injunctive norms. In this article we make this distinction and we develop a model of normative influences that also includes the impact of group identity and communication patterns of students alcohol consumption. Based on a survey of college students (N = 353) we found that descriptive and injunctive norms were different in terms of their impact on behavior. Furthermore the inclusion of group identity and communication patterns significantly added to the explanatory power of our model. Overall we were able to explain roughly 53% of the variance in consumption. (authors)

Message Properties, Mediating States, and Manipulation Checks: Claims, Evidence, and Data Analysis in Experimental Persuasive Message Effects Research

Abstract: This article addresses the conceptualization and definition of message variables in persuasion effects research. Two central claims are advanced. First, effectbased message variable definitions (in which a message variation is defined in terms of effects on psychological states, as when fear appeal variations are defined on the basis of differences in aroused fear) impede progress in understanding persuasion processes and effects and hence should be avoided in favor of definitions expressed in terms of intrinsic message features. Second, when message variations are defined in terms of intrinsic features, message manipulation checks, under that description, are unnecessary but similar measures may usefully be understood and analyzed as assessments of potential mediating states. One enduring question in communication research is how and why persuasive messages have the effects they do. But some important conceptual aspects of this subject seem to have suffered from inattention, with resulting needless confusion and impaired research progress. The particular focus of concern in this paper is the set of complex relationships among experimental message variations, message manipulation checks, persuasive outcomes, and mediating states. The purpose is to point to some systematically different sorts of research claims that arise in the context of studying persuasion effects, with an eye to clarifying the different burdens of proof—and corresponding data-analytic treatments—appropriate for each and thereby to untangling some of the complexities and confusions that have arisen in this research domain. Two central claims will emerge from this analysis: First, effect-based message variable definitions impede progress in understanding persuasion processes and effects and hence should be avoided in favor of definitions expressed in terms of intrinsic message features. Second, when message variations are defined in terms of intrinsic features, message

Using Theory to Design Evaluations of Communication Campaigns: The Case of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

Abstract: We present a general theory about how campaigns can have effects and suggest that the evaluation of communication campaigns must be driven by a theory of effects. The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign illustrates both the theory of campaign effects and implications that theory has for the evaluation design. Often models of effect assume that individual exposure affects cognitions that continue to affect behavior over a short term. Contrarily, effects may operate through social or institutional paths as well as through individual learning, require substantial levels of exposure achieved through multiple channels over time, take time to accumulate detectable change, and affect some members of the audience but not others. Responsive evaluations will choose appropriate units of analysis and comparison groups, data collection schedules sensitive to lagged effects, samples able to detect subgroup effects, and analytic strategies consistent with the theory of effects that guides the campaign.

Space Matters: The Power and Practice of Space

Abstract: This article argues for the importance of a spatial perspective in critical communication studies. It suggests that a focus on spatial relations of power enables scholars of communication and culture to understand and theorize the complex ways in which identities are being reproduced in our current moment of globalization. The article suggests that, instead of theorizing cultural power only through the category of identity, we need to adopt a spatial perspective on power that may better enable us to theorize various relations of identity and culture.

The Racial Foundation of Organizational Communication

Abstract: Scholars of organizational communication have begun to focus diligently on organization as gendered, yet we continue to neglect the ways in which it is fundamentally raced. With this article, we seek to stimulate systematic attention to the racial dynamics of organizational communication. We argue that the field's most common ways of framing race ironically preserve its racial foundation. Specifically, our analysis of core organizational communication texts exposes 5 disciplined messages that disguise our field's participation in preserving the normative power of organized Whiteness. We conclude with specific suggestions for revising the racial subtext of our scholarship. The essay follows in the spirit of “a radical rethinking of the role we play in articulating accounts of organizational life” (Mumby, 1993, p. 21).

An Interactive Communication Technology Adoption Model

Abstract: In the evolving research arena of mediated communication technology adoption and uses, one of the most valuable developments involves the increased integration of distinct communication research traditions. This emerging fusion presents an unprecedented opportunity for communication researchers to share, confer, and challenge the “native” tradition that each has followed. This article proposes an integrated research model and explains how it can serve as the basis for mediated communication technology adoption research. In particular, this proposed model is intended to provide a research framework for studying the factors that help shape adoption decisions of various communication technologies and the potential impact of technology adoption on the social system, audiences, and use patterns. Mediated communication, whether it be point-to-point or point-tomultipoint, stands as the backbone of an information society and a significant phenomenon in human communication. As pointed out by Qvortrup (1994, p. 377), information-technology tools should be regarded as “social tools” because they are utilized for the transfer, manipulation, storage, and retrieval of human symbols, cognitive products, and interactive relations. The significance of these social tools is most visible not only in terms of the amount of time they consume in human communication on a daily basis, but also in the level of scholarly research they help generate. The latter scenario is readily observable via the availability of a slew of peer-reviewed academic journals (e.g., Journal of Computer Mediated-Communication, Journal of Electronic Publishing, Behaviour and Information Technology, The Information Society, etc.) dedicated to mediated communication research. Equally important is that other disciplines traditionally distinct from communication—such as library sciences, education, psychology, and information management sciences—have also published scholarly works and dedicated journals to addressing their unique perspectives on mediated communication research. Communication technology research, thus,

A Comparative Analysis of the Diffusion and Participatory Models in Development Communication

Abstract: The field of development communication is dominated by two conceptual models: diffusion and participation. These models have distinct theoretical roots and differing emphases in terms of program designs and goals. This article examines the extent of the gap and the overlap between them by comparing the objectives and outcomes of 44 projects. The two approaches differ in the underlying philosophies, frameworks, program strategies, and measurement tools, but the gap between these approaches is being bridged by proponents of both models, who knowingly or unknowingly have borrowed elements from one another.

Blackophilia and Blackophobia: White Youth, the Consumption of Rap Music, and White Supremacy

Abstract: This paper uses the phenomenon of White youth identification with rap music to argue that Blackophilia (manifested by White consumption of Black popular culture) is linked with Blackophobia (fear and dread of African Americans). Coexistent with White youth fascination with hip-hop culture and African American athletes and celebrities is the continuing manifestation of White youth resistance to programs that challenge institutional racism and the attraction of small but significant numbers of White youth to far-right White supremacist groups. The author argues that these phenomena may be best understood as interrelated aspects of White supremacy.

The Rhetorical Construction of Trust Online

Abstract: The antidote to perceived risk is trust, and transactions on the Internet are rife with perceived risk This article establishes a need for trust messages online in a broader context of declining social trust, reviews trust literature, and then provides four tenets of trust that provide a basis for such rhetorically constructed messages In addition to offering foundations for the rhetorical construction of trust online, the article presents 2 rhetorical paradoxes of trust that contain both opportunity and danger for scholars and netizens alike

International Communication, Ethnography, and the Challenge of Globalization

Abstract: This article articulates media ethnography with international communication theory in the context of globalization. It explores the history and regional trajectories of media ethnography, as well as anthropology's epistemological and political issues of representation that have become relevant to media studies. The authors argue that rethinking the limits and potential of media ethnography to address cultural consumption also necessarily involves considering how ethnography can serve to engender a vision of international communication theory grounded in the practices of everyday life. This reformulation is crucial at a time when some media scholars celebrate difference via microassessments of postcolonial locales and the plurality of cultures without attempting to consider global structural concerns. In fact, the authors argue, if media ethnographies are rigorously developed, they can offer international communication theory the material to bridge the gap between meaning and structure without losing site of the complexity, context, and power imbalances inherent in processes of globalization.

A Rhetoric of Ubiquity: Terminal Space as Omnitopia

Abstract: This article develops the notion of omnitopia as an experience of place as the convergence of multiple spaces such that each individual locale appears as a manifestation of the whole. Aided by thick description of airport “terminal space,” the article proposes three central aspects of omnitopia: generic environments, continual movement, and atomized interactions. In so doing, the article extends upon previous inquiries into utopia and heterotopia while commenting upon the changes to terminal life wrought by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Who's Afraid of Being a Freier+ The Analysis of Communication Through a Key Cultural Frame

Abstract: This work presents an analytical approach to assessing the negotiation of interaction through a key cultural symbol. Six distinct dimensions are proposed to explain how the term freier (roughly glossed as “sucker”) functions in Israeli society and what impact it has on communication: the freier concept as a frame for interaction; its centrality as a key cultural concept within cultural discourse; its prevalence in several social realms; the terms of negotiation delimited by the frame; the dynamics of the freier frame as a scale; and the duality of its function in interaction as both means and end. Critical analysis based on these dimensions shows that the freier frame is detrimental to communication and social interaction and has the potential to threaten the cohesion of an entire society.

The Unacknowledged Role of Emotion in Theories of Close Relationships: How Do Theories Feel+

Abstract: Emotion clearly plays a leading role in close relationships and may even direct their development, durability, and dissolution. In theories of close relationships, however, emotion is often given only a supporting role. Recent research in the study of emotion suggests several ways in which existing theories might be enriched by letting emotion into the limelight: Social exchange theory could become more intuitively appealing by incorporating recent research on the role of emotion in decision making. Dialectical theories could be enriched by incorporating emotions that provide feelings of dialectical tension and drive movement between poles. Stage theories of relational development could be elaborated by including how feelings change as relationships develop and deteriorate.

An Appropriating Aesthetic: Reproducing Power in the Discourse of Critical Scholarship

Abstract: Critical theory and cultural studies have articulated a substantial and vital challenge to the very foundations of traditional scholarship, which remains rigidly scientistic in its orientation. One outcome of this challenge is that claims of subjectivity on the part of the critic are accommodated. The stylistic dimensions of critical scholarship, however, also are noteworthy, and their political implications are perhaps no less significant. The aforementioned relative latitude in content has not been accompanied by a concurrent loosening of aesthetic mores. In this article engaging critical rhetoric as a case study, I argue that the aesthetic conventions of scholarship, as imposed upon the unique, ideologically overt character of critical scholarship, constrain and even undermine the critical project.

Public Relations Planning and Action as “Practical-Critical” Communication

Abstract: A practical-critical approach to communication contends that critical analysis should have practical consequences, specifically to extend participation and to introduce innovative forms of communication. Planning and action process models in public relations illustrate the approach. The practical-critical position develops out of a reconstructive revision of existing, instrumental models. The emphases are (a) variabilities and contingencies in communication, (b) temporal sequencing of cooperative activity, (c) conditions of uncertainty that are part of pursuing a shared focus through joint activity, and (d) the interdependent relations among material, symbolic, and relational dimensions of process planning and action. The practical-critical framework provides for continuous, dialectical analysis of a central focus of activity, while deriving benefits from the sequencing of cooperative effort.

Technology and Context Within Research on International Development Programs: Positioning an Integrationist Perspective

Abstract: We focus on development efforts that use information and communication technologies for educational purposes in developing nations. The oppositional nature of the approaches to development makes constructive dialogue among theoretical perspectives difficult. Using Jackson's (1996) metatheoretical classification scheme, we sort development research based on 4 possible logical relationships between technology as an artifact and the social context. Derivation of the scheme is principled rather than historical and independent of any particular theory. Focusing on assumptions about technology and context brings new understanding of each perspective and can foster a dialogue across the perspectives. Further, we offer that self-organizing systems theory possesses the potential of representing an integrationist perspective in development research.

Editor's Introduction: Theoretical Approaches to Communication Campaigns

Abstract: The articles published in this symposium make contributions to an increased understanding of the theoretical bases for communication campaigns. They add to a growing literature that aims to move communication campaigns from a formulaic craft to a theory-driven, but practical, endeavor (Hornik, 2002a; Rice & Atkin, 2001; Zaller, 1992). This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/110 Editor’s Introduction: Theoretical Approaches to Communication Campaigns The articles published in this symposium make contributions to an increased understanding of the theoretical bases for communication campaigns. They add to a growing literature that aims to move communication campaigns from a formulaic craft to a theory-driven, but practical, endeavor (Hornik, 2002a; Rice & Atkin, 2001; Zaller, 1992). Communication campaigns have long been accepted as a means for forming attitudes, increasing knowledge, and achieving social and behavioral change. Despite the almost formulaic treatment of the design and execution of communication campaigns (Maibach & Parrott, 1995), researchers in politics (Holbrook, 1996), health (Hornik, 2002b), development (Thomas, 1994), and other arenas have questioned the efficacy of even well-designed campaigns. Some are beginning to weigh seriously the conditions under which campaigns might produce consequences opposite to those intended (Werch & Owen, 2002). At the same time, communication campaigns can be effective (Snyder & Hamilton, 2002) even with behaviors that are difficult to modify, such as cigarette smoking (Worden, Flynn, et al., 1988) and drug use (Palmgreen, Donohew, Lorch, Hoyle, & Stephenson, 2001). Understanding the mechanisms that activate campaign effects and, perhaps more importantly for the discipline of communication, the theoretical bases for the creation of effective messages to inform, persuade, and motivate audiences is the sine qua non of the design of effective campaigns. The papers in this symposium take rather different approaches to the theoretical foundations of communication campaigns. Fishbein and Yzer work through the implications of the integrated theory of behavior change to explore the general content of messages that campaign designers need to consider. This is an important step. Some theories of persuasion, such as the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), describe the conditions under which high argument quality is essential. However, the theory is mute about the domain (or topics) of the arguments. Fishbein and Yzer offer useful guidance to campaign designers concerning the Joseph N. Cappella beliefs that are especially relevant to changing a targeted intention or behavior. Rimal and Real focus specifically on the social normative component of behavioral intention, exploring the conceptual bases of social norms that might work alone or in concert to account for alcohol consumption. Social norms are a potentially powerful but complex arena involving not only actual levels of behavior by those in the target person’s social network, but also perception of the prevalence of the behavior. These objective aspects of normative force (that is, prevalence) are balanced by perceived approval and disapproval by significant others and motivation to comply with others’ attitudes. Rimal and Real explore these components’ ability to predict alcohol consumption in an empirical test targeting college-aged drinkers. Hornik and Yanovitzky raise a somewhat different set of theoretical concerns. Many communication campaigns are subjected to careful evaluation to determine their effects on knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. In order to build theory from a strong empirical base, we must know which campaigns are effective and which are ineffective. Hornik and Yanovitzky argue that evaluations of campaigns can themselves fail to detect success if the evaluation investigates an incomplete set of paths through which a communication campaign might exert its influence. In effect, a successful and accurate campaign evaluation requires a well-specified theory of the campaign’s routes to influence. Morris offers readers a metatheoretical perspective on communication campaigns, especially those geared toward developing regions of the globe. She compares campaigns aimed at participation and empowerment to those aimed at diffusion of information and behavior change. In some cases, the former are an inadvertent by-product of the latter class of campaigns. Morris invites campaign evaluators (and designers) to think in terms of both classes of outcomes even if one or the other is primary at the initial stages of design. Morris’s perspective on the problem of campaign goals can be seen as an expansion of Hornik and Yanovitzky’s call for a theory of the campaign’s influence and a broadening of the scope of the more precise (but limiting) perspectives of behavior change and social normative theories. The articles in this symposium make significant steps toward building the theoretical substructure for communication campaigns. Large gaps remain, however. Although theories such as the integrated model of behavior change can tell us what general topics a campaign should pursue, it tells us little about how to build persuasive messages about those topics. Although the field of communication has developed some theories of message design to affect behavior and attitude change (Donohew, Lorch, & Palmgreen, 1998; Zillman & Brosius, 2000), investing additional resources will help to secure a central place for communication theory in the design of campaigns, their evaluation, and the creation of messages carrying the campaign. Joseph Cappella (PhD, Michigan State University) is the Gerald R. Miller Professor of Communication in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joseph N. Cappella, Annenberg School for Communication, 3620 Walnut St., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104–6220 or by email: jcappella@asc.upenn.edu. Donohew, L., Lorch, E. P., & Palmgreen, P. (1998). Applications of a theoretic model of information exposure to health intervention. Human Communication Research, 24, 454–468. Holbrook, T. M. (1996). Do campaigns matter? Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Hornik, R. C. (Ed.). (2002a). Public health communication: Evidence for behavior change. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Hornik, R. C. (2002b). Public health communication: Making sense of contradictory evidence. In R. C. Hornik (Ed.), Public health communication: Evidence for behavior change (pp. 1–22). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Maibach, E., & Parrott, R. L. (Eds.). (1995). Designing health messages: Approaches from communication theory and public health practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Palmgreen, P., Donohew, L., Lorch, E. P., Hoyle, R. H., & Stephenson, M. T. (2001). Television campaigns and adolescent marijuana use: Tests of sensation seeking targeting. American Journal of Public Health, 91, 292–296. Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123–205). New York: Academic Press. Rice, R. E., & Atkin, C. K. (Eds.). (2001). Public communication campaigns (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Snyder, L. B., & Hamilton, M. A. (2002). A meta-analysis of U.S. health campaign effects on behavior: Emphasize enforcement, exposure, and new information, and beware the secular trend. In R. C. Hornik (Ed.), Public health communication: Evidence for behavior change (pp. 1–22). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Thomas, P. (1994). Participatory development communication: Philosophical premises. In S. A. White, K. S. Nair, & J. Ashcroft (Eds.), Participatory communication: Working for change and development (pp. 49–59). New Delhi, India: Sage. Werch, C. E., & Owen, D. M. (2002). Iatrogenic effects of alcohol and drug prevention programs. Journal on Studies of Alcohol, 63, 581–590. Worden, J. K., Flynn, B. S., Geller, B. M., Chen, M., Shelton, L. G., Secker-Walker, R. H., Solomon, L. J., Couchey, S., & Costanza, M. C. (1988). Development of a smoking prevention mass media program using diagnostic and formative research. Preventive Medicine, 17, 531–538. Zaller, J. R. (1992). The nature and origin of mass opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press. Zillman, D., & Brosius, H. (2000). Exemplification in communication: The influence of case reports on the perception of issues. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.