Gi Woong Yun

Selective Posting: Willingness to post a message online

The communication environment in CMC is particularly relevant to the discourses of the traditional communication theory, spiral of silence. This paper embarked on the task of developing an experimental research method to test willingness to speak out in the spiral of silence theory on an online forum and to test subsequent attitudinal and behavioral changes as measured in issue position, climate of opinion perception, and message posting. A 2x2 factorial design (congruent messages vs. incongruent messages and anonymity vs. nonanonymity) tested the willingness to speak out on an online discussion forum. The result of the paper suggested a new theoretical framework, selective posting, and called for the modification of the psychological explanation of spiral of silence.

Interactivity Concepts Examined: Response Time, Hypertext, Role Taking, and Multimodality

This paper elaborates on the interactivity concept and theorizes the impact of this feature on new media message processing. The early part of this paper aims to solidify a conceptual definition of interactivity. To do so, it examines many interactive components of the new medium and discusses the potential value of current interactivity concepts. For relevant conceptualizations, potential interactions with other characteristics of the medium are also inspected. The latter part of the paper focused on the empirical evidence of interactivity concepts within the limited scope of human-computer interaction.

The effects of brand familiarity in alignment advertising

This study addresses the issues of managerial concern for both nonprofit organizations and profit-oriented organizations by comparing public service advertising, alignment advertising, and traditional brand advertising as marketing communication tools. Previous findings regarding affective and conative advantages of alignment advertising over brand advertising were replicated and further expanded. At the same time, the investigation revealed that alignment advertising is not necessarily at a disadvantage to brand advertising in terms of brand recall.

On the validity of client‐side vs server‐side web log data analysis

Purpose – This paper seeks to discuss measurement units by comparing the internet use and the traditional media use, and to understand internet use from the traditional media use perspective.Design/methodology/approach – Benefits and shortcomings of two log file types will be carefully and exhaustively examined. Client‐side and server‐side log files will be analyzed and compared with proposed units of analysis.Findings – Server‐side session time calculation was remarkably reliable and valid based on the high correlation with the client‐side time calculation. The analysis result revealed that the server‐side log file session time measurement seems more promising than the researchers previously speculated.Practical implications – An ability to identify each individual user and low caching problems were strong advantages for the analysis. Those web design implementations and web log data analysis scheme are recommended for future web log analysis research.Originality/value – This paper examined the validity ...

Selective Moderation, Selective Responding, and Balkanization of the Blogosphere: A Field Experiment

The idealistic view that the web can function as a public sphere for crosscutting discussions has been met with much skepticism. In the current study, a field experiment was conducted to assess the openness of abortion-related weblogs to input made by new users of the weblogs. Consistent with the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE), existing weblog users selectively responded to new user comments by refuting incongruent comments more frequently than responding to either congruent or neutral comments. Furthermore, they exhibited contrast bias by refuting rather than supporting neutral or even congruent comments made by new users. On the other hand, weblog administrators employed moderation systems on a very limited basis and did not selectively moderate comments, incongruent or otherwise, made by new users. Theoretical and social implications of these findings are discussed.

Inside the spiral

This study took a snapshot at the psychological process of spiral of silence in an online environment with South Korean college students as the study participants. In an experiment, a Weblog-embedded news article from a media source incongruent with ones political orientation, as opposed to the same article from a congruent media source, triggered hostile media perception, which in turn led to presumed influence of the online news article on others. The presumed influence on others became a basis for assessing the online climate of opinion and led people to view themselves as a minority against the online climate of opinion. The media source factor, in conjunction with user comments factor, also generated different levels of minority perception both online and in the general society. In contrast to the notion of spiral of silence, minority perception against the general societys climate of opinion increased rather than decreased willingness to speak out. Spiral of silence theory was delineated under media perception and presumed media influence.The presumed media influence on others became a basis for assessing the online climate of opinion.Disagreeable user comments with hostile media source generated high minority perception online.Agreeable user comments with hostile media source generated low minority perception in society.Minority perception against the climate of opinion increased willingness to speak out online.

Inside the blogosphere: A taxonomy and framing analysis of abortion weblogs

Abstract This study analyses weblog abortion-related content sampled via a search and snowball method. When weblogs located inside of established media Web sites and other weblogs are compared, they are equivalent in the use of advocacy versus objectivist frames. Media weblog posts contain a political frame more frequently than non-media weblog posts do. In terms of diversity of frame, media weblogs employ more frames in their stories. Various explanations for these findings are offered in the context of current abortion-related content patterns.

Hostile Media or Hostile Source? Bias Perception of Shared News

An experiment was conducted with college students to examine the effects of source and user comments on the perceptions of a shared news story embedded in a blog post. When the shared news was credited to a news organization source incongruent with the participants’ political orientation, it was perceived to be biased against the participants’ issue position. When credited to a congruent source, the same news was perceived to be biased in favor of the participants’ position. In addition, the shared news from an incongruent source was perceived to have greater influence on others’ issue position than the same news from a congruent source, although perceived reach of the shared news was not different between the two conditions. A subsequent regression analysis identified source and perceived influence, but not perceived reach, as predictors of news bias perception. On the other hand, the second factor, user comments either agreeable or disagreeable to the participants’ issue position, did not influence how the shared news was perceived. In the discussion, theoretical implications of these findings are elaborated, and suggestions are made to refine the methods of shared news research.

“Where Do I Belong, from Laguna Beach to Jersey Shore?”: Portrayal of Minority Youth in MTV Docusoaps

Based on the notion that reality television is used by the youth to learn about various social identity groups, the portrayal of minority in MTV “docusoap” was analyzed. Whereas Whites were overrepresented, Asians were completely absent. Although a few of them were shown, Latinos were virtually invisible as central characters as well as in social and romantic relationships. Blacks were also severely underrepresented and the problem was more pronounced for women than men. Among the minority groups, only mixed-raced women were shown as normalized as White women and men. Implications and suggestions for future studies were discussed.

Intervention of Eating Disorder Symptomatology Using Educational Communication Messages

This study explored an intervention of body image disturbance by employing short educational messages. A public service announcement (PSA) comprised of a realistic body image photo and a text emphasizing genetic diversity of body types improved young women’s body satisfaction, although it did not affect the size of ideal female-body norm. A variation of the PSA, an alignment ad, generated a similarly positive effect on body satisfaction. The alignment ad, in comparison to a control, also increased the size of ideal female-body norm. At the same time, these positive main effects were mostly due to the gains in body satisfaction and the size of ideal female-body norm by women whose body satisfaction was relatively undamaged to begin with. For women who were already suffering from low body satisfaction, the educational messages interacted with the predisposition to further deteriorate body satisfaction and the norm of ideal female body. Theoretical implications of these effects were discussed and practical suggestions were made for healthy body image advocates.