Itay Gabay

Mediated Public Diplomacy: A Strategic Contest over International Agenda Building and Frame Building

This study focuses on the competition over international agenda building and frame building as one central strategic activity of public diplomacy processes. It is the first analysis of a multi-actor contest over agenda and frame building in foreign media focusing on two strategic acts with evident mediated public diplomacy objectives and implications: Israels disengagement from Gaza and the general elections in the Palestinian Authority. The success of the actors in promoting their agenda and frames in the U.S. and British news media is analyzed, revealing a complex media arena that includes the antagonists, foreign governments, and the media themselves as actors, each trying to promote its own agenda and frames. Cultural and political congruence between a foreign country and an adversary gives that antagonist an advantage over its rival actor. However, the antagonist actor still has to compete with the agenda and frames of foreign governments and media organizations.

Ambivalence Reduction and Polarization in the Campaign Information Environment: The Interaction Between Individual- and Contextual-Level Influences

This study examines how the campaign information environment influences individuals’ ambivalence reduction and polarization. Based on the 2008 presidential television campaign advertising data and individuals’ electoral behavior data in 208 designated market areas nationwide, this study utilizes multilevel modeling to better understand the interactions between the effects of individual-level predispositions and that of the contextual-level campaign information environment. The findings of the study indicate that the campaign information environment does matter in ambivalence reduction and polarization. Individuals living in a media market where the volume of campaign advertising is relatively high are less ambivalent and more polarized in candidate evaluations. The patterns appear to be amplified among partisans, suggesting the campaign information environment functions as a “motivator.” The partisan bias of the ads in a media market, however, exerts only limited influence. The implications for the functioning of democracy are discussed.

Decline in news content engagement or news medium engagement? A longitudinal analysis of news engagement since the rise of social and mobile media 2009–2012:

Based on a 4-year longitudinal analysis of social media and mobile phone users in a Midwest US market, this study differentiates news content engagement from news medium engagement, proposes four levels of news engagement, and compares how social media and mobile media differ in their effects on engagement in news content and news medium between the general population and college students. The analysis shows a steady decline in the interest in political news but not in other types of news. Total news consumption time gradually declined among the general population, and the gap between general population and students diminished over time. Social media use positively predicts total news consumption time. Predictors of news engagement differ for different levels of news engagement.

The Civic Consequences of “Going Negative”: Attack Ads and Adolescents’ Knowledge, Consumption, and Participation

This study explores whether negative political advertising has any impact on adolescents. Two datasets are merged for this inquiry: (1) content-coded ad-buy data on the placement of campaign messages on a market-by-market and program-by-program basis and (2) national survey data of parent-child dyads collected immediately after the 2008 presidential election. The authors’ analysis finds that the negativity of political advertising to which adolescents were exposed predicted human-interest candidate knowledge, but not policy-relevant candidate knowledge. In addition, the negativity of political advertising exposure suppressed political consumerism among adolescents, but had no effect on their levels of political participation. This study shows that political campaigns can affect adolescents’ knowledge and participation in unconventional and potentially deleterious ways.

Mobile phones and political participation in Colombia: Mobile Twitter versus mobile Facebook

In this article, we test the relationships between Twitter and Facebook use on mobile phones and political conversation with offline and online political participation, as well as online expressive communication. Our findings show that using Twitter on mobile phones is associated with a higher likelihood for both online and offline political participation, as well as online expressive communication. Using Facebook is associated with a higher likelihood for online expressive communication only. The key contribution of this article is to show empirical differences between the relationships of social media and social networking on mobile devices with political participation and online expressive communication. Public social media apps, such as Twitter, bring mobile communication back into the public realm of a (albeit diffused) broadcast-like channel. Mobile Twitter adds to the affordances of mobility, networked connectivity, and the publicness of social media.

Participation in Contentious Politics: Rethinking the Roles of News, Social Media, and Conversation Amid Divisiveness

ABSTRACT When political disputes devolve into heated partisan conflicts, do the factors known to trigger electoral political engagement continue to operate, or do they change? We consider this question during a divisive electoral context—a gubernatorial recall—focusing on how media consumption, conversations, and interactions with social media feed into the decision to participate in politics. To do so, we employ high-quality survey data collected in the weeks before the 2012 Wisconsin recall election. Results indicate that during times of contentious politics, political communication does not operate as observed in less polarized settings, calling into question widely held assumptions about what spurs and suppresses electoral participation. Most notably, we find that broadcast news consumption negatively predicts participation, whereas political conversation with coworkers and use of political social media positively predict participation. The implications for electoral behavior research in contentious political environments are discussed.

Does college students’ social media use affect school e-mail avoidance and campus involvement?

The purpose of this paper is to examine how college students’ social media use affects their school e-mail avoidance and campus involvement.,The study employed face-to-face interviews and self-administered survey/quantitative data.,Communication and business students are more involved on campus and likely to use social media as the primary communication medium than other majors. Social media and text messages are not the culprits of school e-mail avoidance. University departments, student organizations, and faculty advisors’ e-mails are most likely to be avoided. Social media users can be categorized as either “instant communicators” or “online content curators.” Facebook is the only social media brand conducive to campus involvement.,This study only used one university’s students as sample. In examining school e-mail avoidance, it only focused on the source of e-mail. The study is limited by its sole reliance on quantitative behavioral data.,University administrators and academic advisors need to reconsider the e-mail communication to students, target at the instant communicator social media users, and use Facebook to create a strong sense of community and campus involvement for their students. Marketers can utilize the two social media user groups in selecting social media in targeting to students.,The study offered empirical evidence to explain how social media affect students’ school e-mail avoidance and the role of campus media and specific social media outlet on campus involvement. It advances the knowledge of media choice of students and the social media user groups.