Ernest A. Hakanen

The Emotional Use of Popular Music by Adolescents

This study follows up on some recent calls for study of music as a mass medium. An intensive study of high school teenagers finds that music serves as a powerful communication medium, speaking directly to emotions. Here, both men and women most often associated these emotions with music: excitement, happiness and love. Women were somewhat more likely to associate emotions with music and to use music for “mood management.” Social class, race and ethnicity generally did not discriminate among emotions felt by men and women. Cluster analysis allowed these youths to be sorted into different types of listeners: “mainstreamers” “heavy rockers,” “indifferents” and “music lovers.”

Trend: Sensationalism versus public affairs content of local TV news: Pennsylvania revisited

This research replicated a study by Adams (1978) in which he reported that the bulk of the news hole in local television newscasts was devoted to coverage of local public affairs and not to sensationalism or human interest stories as critics suggested. In 1992, a random sample of newscasts from the same 10 Pennsylvania stations reveals that news organizations devoted significantly more time to sensational/human interest stories in 1992 than they did in 1976. The time spent on such stories came at the expense of news coverage related to local government, politics, and education.

Emotional use of music by African American adolescents

The music industry and the media have painted a biased, monolithic, negative picture of African American adolescents, their music choices, and emotional uses of music. To further investigate this media bias and understand this relationship, African American adolescents (n = 176) were surveyed as to their emotions associated with music and their mood management uses of music, especially their favorite types of music—rap, R&B/soul, and jazz. Positive emotions, rather than negative emotions, were associated with overall music preference. Rap evoked emotions of happiness and excitement. It was used to “get pumped up.” R&B/soul was most related to grief, anger, and pride. Jazz evoked similar emotions with the addition of pride, hope, and confidence. Jazz was also used to strengthen moods and was related to age. A model of music use for mood management is suggested.

The expression of localism: Local TV news coverage in the new video marketplace

The emergence of a new video marketplace raises questions about the commitment of local TV news organizations to the FCC localism doctrine. Local news coverage at ten Pennsylvania stations in 1992 was content analyzed and compared with 1976 data collected by Adams (1980). Results indicate that stations devoted more coverage to outlying market areas in 1992 than in 1976, but emphasized sensationalism/human interest stories at the expense of local public affairs issues.

Lists as Social Grid: Ratings and Rankings in Everyday Life

It is argued that the inundation of lists in our everyday lives has become part of the social grid, which tells us who and what we are and how we relate to the world. Using Baudrillards three mutations of the sign, this paper examines the relationship between lists (rankings and ratings) and social life. This updated grid, which is increasingly defined by market capitalism, makes for not only a greater commodified self but a simulated self based on the external statistical world.

Citation relationships among international mass communication journals

A citation analysis of selected mass communication jour nals using clustering and multidimensional scaling tech niques was performed to determine relationships among international journals in this developing field. Results of the analysis confirm that US journals are currently at the center of the field. The field seems to be heavily described by two dimensions: geography and theory/research. The geograph ical dimension was defined by US journals, European jour nals and others. The theory/research dimension follows a basic critical-empirical dichotomy evident in the literature. The study findings also corroborate current theories of scholarly community development.

Relation of Emotional Intelligence to Emotional Recognition and Mood Management

This study replicated Petrides and Furnhams 2000 test of the multidimensional nature of the Emotional Intelligence Scale by Schutte, et al. A survey of 153 college students (M age = 25.0, SD = 4.4, 54.2% women) was performed. Four factors which closely resembled previous ones were found although there were some differences in item loadings. The factors were Optimism, Mood Management, Nonverbal, and Empathy. Then, the total and factor scores were examined for their relationship to scores on the Emotional Recognition and Mood Management Inventories developed by Wells and Hakanen in 1991 for the purpose of testing predictive validity and developing measures with high internal validity.

Music choice for emotional use and management by Hong Kong adolescents

Popular music is important to the emotional lives of many adolescents. It has been found that adolescents in the US (Hakanen, 1994; Wells, 1990; Wells & Hakanen, 1991) and Japan (Wells, Hakanen, & Tokinoya, 1998) use popular music quite frequently to express or modify their emotions. However, differences in who uses music to express particular emotions have been shown. This paper asks: What types of music do Hong Kong adolescents prefer? Do they use music for emotional management; and, if so, how? It investigates the degree to which Hong Kong adolescents identify emotions with listening to their favourite music, and use music to manipulate their emotional moods. The results are then compared to the previous studies done in Japan and the US.

On autopilot inside the beltway: organizational failure, the doctrine of localism, and the case of digital audio broadcasting

Abstract This paper examines the organizational theory of regulatory failure of the Federal Communications Commission as evidenced in policies and actions concerning the development of the construct of localism. The conceptualization of localism as a market values construct added to a social values construct needlessly limits, misdirects, and construes current policy debates as well as stunts the development of emergent technologies. The digital audio broadcasting debate is used to illustrate the effects of an interpretive communitys selective histories and organizational regulatory failure.

The American connection: Telecommunication planning policy in the Caribbean

The article critically analyzes the FCCs telecommunication planning policy for the Caribbean region for the 1985–1995 period. It is argued that by supporting seemingly unnecessary expansion by the multinational telcos under the auspices of the dubious Caribbean Basin Initiative, the FCC is not acting in the best interest of the region.