Bella Mody

Empathetic perception of emotional displays in films as a function of hedonic and excitatory state prior to exposure

Abstract A film clip depicting a young couple in a dysphoric encounter was seen following one of four film segments that were selected and pretested to effect a factorial variation in (a) hedonic tone (positive, negative) and (b) excitatory potential (low, high). Reactions to the subsequent film were assessed via ratings to test predictions from excitation-transfer theory and to determine sequential effects in hedonically valued experiences. In a first experiment, in which the subsequent film was viewed immediately after the antecedent film, a nearly significant distraction effect of excitation occurred, that is, affective responses to the subsequent film were less intense following high-excitation films than following low-excitation films. In a second experiment, in which the procedure employed in the interval between films was changed to foster close attention to the subsequent film, an excitation-transfer effect was observed, with the dysphoric encounter being perceived as sadder after high-excitation films than after low-excitation films. In both experiments, hedonic-set effects were also observed. The role of cognitive adjustment in excitation transfer was discussed.

Residual Emotional Arousal as a Distractor in Persuasion

Summary To test the effect of emotional arousal produced prior to exposure to a persuasive message on the impact of this message, subjects were exposed to a persuasive communication immediately after seeing one of four film stimuli selected and pretested to effect a factorial variation in (a) excitatory potential (low, high) and (b) hedonic tone (positive, negative). The subjects residual emotional response to the high-excitation films served as distraction from the subsequent message; the low-excitation films served as non-distracting controls. Different effects on persuasion were predicted from three distinct rationales, based on (a) the distractors interference with counterarguing, (b) the distractors interference with the learning of the message, and (c) generalization of the affective reaction produced by the distractor. Counter to all predictions, no significant effects of distraction were manifest. An unpredicted effect of hedonic tone was obtained, however; acceptance of the speakers persuasiv...

Factoring Poverty and Culture into HIV/AIDS Campaigns Empirical Support for Audience Segmentation

This article argues in favor of the selection of content and dissemination channels based on audience differences in HIV knowledge, perceptions and media preferences. Data were collected from low-income teenagers in Durban, South Africa. Key differences within this low-income group were found between Indians and blacks, and between boys and girls on what to communicate about HIV/AIDS and how to communicate. The argument for audience segmentation beyond income group demographics is supported.

Contextual analysis of the adoption of a communications technology: the case of satellites in India

Abstract Using India as a case study, this article examines the factors which influence the decision by a developing country to adopt a new technology such as communication satellites. A detailed chronology of the planning and experimentation that preceded implementation of the INSAT system is presented. The political, economic, and socio-cultural factors that appear to have influenced the decision are discussed, and a general model of contextual elements that may influence adoption and utilization of satellites is presented.

Predictors of downsizing in the U.S. local telephone industry

Present U.S. local exchange employment is less than half of what it was in 1981. This study tests several alternative explanations from labor economics, industrial organization, and political economy for employment reductions by U.S. local telephone companies. It evaluates the relative strength of the relationship between each explanatory factor and employment change. The contributions of six potential explanatory factors (wages, sales, technological change, competition, productivity, and profit rate) were investigated. Regression equation models were formulated and tested using crosssectional time-series data on 50 local carriers who provided 90% of the service between 1988 and 1995. We found that digitalization and productivity increases were the most important factors in explaining employment reductions by firms. Wage increases and computerization were significant sources for employment reduction only in the short term.

The Morelos satellite system in Mexico: A contextual analysis

The present article deals with the 1985 purchase of satellite communication technology by Mexico for domestic applications. Modys context-analytic framework1 is used to outline the forces and stakeholders in the adoption of this technology to help to understand the decision and the nature of subsequent domestic applications in Mexico.

The marketization of foreign news

Audience segmentation is generally associated with strategic communication (such as advertising and public relations), where content is manipulated to suit reader preferences. News has generally been considered truth-telling unvarnished by such concerns. This article compares how news of the same humanitarian crisis was designed by 10 news organizations in seven countries for different market segments. Comparisons showed statistically significant differences in representation, influenced in part by what the audience-market was. Like advertising, news seemed to share an attribute with the strategic design of advertising and public relations. Increasingly carried online, news will be vulnerable to click-based customization of content like advertising is, taking us beyond currently observed geopolitical influences on segmentation to advertiser and market-based differences.

Towards contextually-grounded comparative scholarship

From 1600 until the end of the 1800s, economic historian Angus Maddison estimated China and India together accounted for more than half the world’s economic output. Protectionism and the world wars in the 1900s coincided with a reduction in their economic output to just 20 per cent. Meredith (2007:13) goes on to point out that the last 100 years have been a historical aberration: by 2015 China and the US will reach economic parity, and by 2030 China’ s economy will be number one, the US will be number two and India will be number three. China will have to develop the military power to protect the sea routes that carry its oil, natural resource imports and manufactured exports. Caught between the US and China, India could ally itself with either one or persist in its efforts to be non-aligned. Over 20 years ago, a young Chinese graduate student at a US university asked me why the people of India still ate with their fingers despite their long rich civilization and scientific achievements. Why, she asked, had Indians not innovated the equivalent of chopsticks that would protect diners from germs and bacteria, since hand washing was not always feasible? Other than quipping about how Indian food tasted better when eaten with the fingers, I did not have an answer then, and I do not have one now. My focus here is on the need for contextually-grounded comparative scholarship in general, and particularly, on how the contexts of China and India in the 21st century shape their media institutions and practices. I make four points:

Technology options for Third World countries: do we have the freedom to choose?

AbstractI predict we can expect major sanctions against Third World countries by Britain, France and the United States that are home to the leading transnational banks, in cases where we opt to exercise sovereignty and control over the transborder flows of our own data, especially with reference to electronic funds transfers.

How well do India's Multiple Language Dailies Provide Political Knowledge to Citizens of this Electoral Democracy?

This article investigates journalisms supply of political knowledge to citizens in Indias democracy. The contribution of newspapers to informed citizenship is measured by content analysis measuring the quantity, quality, and regional equality of political knowledge distribution. The content area selected for analysis of newspaper representations is the indigenous armed struggle modeled on Chinas Maoist revolution, the alternative to electoral democracy that both the Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi administrations consider Indias greatest internal security threat. All coverage from 2011 to 2012 in the highest circulation daily in each of five languages (Hindi, Telegu, Bengali, Urdu, and English) was selected for analysis. Findings in this article focus on the differences in the amount of coverage, topics that set the public agenda, how they were framed, and how the stories performed on a specially prepared news comprehensiveness index. Concerns are raised about significant regional inequalities in political knowledge supply to distinct linguistic electoral constituencies that are pulling at the seams of this young multiple-nation democracy. The article closes with a question relevant to all democracies: can for-profit news organizations be relied on as the only pillar of public citizenship education essential to democratic functioning?