Jeremy Littau

Interacting Is Believing Interactivity, Social Cue, and Perceptions of Journalistic Credibility on Twitter

This study examined the effect of social cues and interactivity in social media on journalists’ credibility based on literature of journalists’ credibility, social information processing theory (SIPT), and social presence theory. Results from a mixed-design experiment showed participants rated highly interactive journalists to be more credible than those who are less interactive in social media. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical implications for journalists’ credibility in social media and practical applications for journalists seeking to utilize social media to engage with their audiences.

Exploring the Hardwired for News Hypothesis: How Threat Proximity Affects the Cognitive and Emotional Processing of Health-Related Print News

This study explored how the proximity of threatening health news affects cognition and emotion through a 2 (Proximity: High/Low) × 4 (Topic) fractional experiment. Fifty-one participants read four news stories about either local or distant health threats, with their heart rate, skin conductance, and corrugator electromyography recorded. Results showed that high-proximity health threats elicited greater heart rate deceleration than did low-proximity health threats, indicating greater allocation of automatic resources to encoding high-proximity threats. Recognition data demonstrated that details from high-proximity health threats were recognized more accurately than details from low-proximity health threats. There were no significant effects of proximity on either skin conductance levels or corrugator activation. These results are discussed in terms of Shoemakers (1996) hardwired for news hypothesis and A. Langs (2000, 2006) limited capacity model.

Up, Periscope: Mobile Streaming Video Technologies, Privacy in Public, and the Right to Record

Mobile streaming video technologies (MSVTs) such as Meerkat and Periscope, which allow users an easily accessible way to stream live video to followers, have the potential to reshape the way people think about any right to privacy they may have in public places, as well as the rights of people to record video in public places. Using legal research methodology, this article examines the privacy law and policy implications of MSVTs, finding that the intrusion and public disclosure torts are unequipped to provide remedies for potential privacy harms and that the First Amendment likely protects live streaming activities of users.

'Truthiness' and Second Level Agenda Setting: Satire News and Its Influence on Perceptions of Television News Credibility

This study examined the impact of satire news programs on perceptions of media credibility. Using second-level agenda setting as a theoretical framework, the results of this mixed-methods study show that negative portrayals of television news on these satire news shows make salient certain negative attributes that match viewers’ perceptions of credibility. A survey (N = 650) found that Daily Show/Colbert Report viewers had less positive views about the credibility of television news programs, while content analysis (N = 401) of 4 weeks of episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report reflected the results of the survey, showing that television news programs, particularly those on cable, were more frequently portrayed negatively and made the target of jokes. The analysis shows television news is a frequent target of these satire shows’ criticisms and these shows’ negative attributes are made salient, which is reflected in the survey respondents’ low credibility scores for this medium.

New Opportunities For Diversity: Twitter, Journalists and Traditionally Underserved Communities

This study explores the opportunities offered by Twitter for news organizations seeking to connect with communities often underrepresented as both sources and as audiences for news. A recent study by Pew Research Center found that minority Internet users are nearly twice as likely as white Internet users to utilize Twitter, and that young Internet users are also signiicantly more likely than older Americans to adopt the social network. Through in-depth interviews, this study examines how young people and minorities are using Twitter and evaluates its potential to allow news organizations to reach and engage younger and minority audiences. For many, it is not only a site used for entertainment and connection with like-minded others, but also for keeping up with news and giving them a voice on national or local issues they did not previously perceive they possessed.

Participatory news websites feature more opinion pieces

A content study of top stories in eight cities compares professional newspaper story placement to its participatory competitor and finds both are intensely local. While the latter runs softer and more opinionated stories, professional content is rooted in traditional topics such as crime. Results suggest that participatory journalism complements do not replace local news.

The effect of perceived susceptibility on autonomic responses to and memory for health-related news

Presentation of an accessory intense acoustic stimulus coinciding with the onset of the visual imperative stimulus (IS) in a forewarned simple RT task facilitates RTrelative to IS alone trials (StartReac effect) and elicits blinks larger than those seen on control trials. In Experiment 1, 95 or 105 dBA noise bursts of 0 or 30 ms rise time were presented during half the 5 s ISs in a simpleRTtask at lead intervals of 0, 50 and 150 ms and during intertrial intervals. RT was facilitated in the presence of an accessory acoustic stimulus and the extent of RT facilitation decreasedwith increasing lead interval. Blinks were larger at the 0 ms lead interval than at longer lead intervals or during intertrial intervals. However, blink startle magnitude or blink facilitation were not related to RT or RT facilitation suggesting that, contrary to previous suggestions, startle does not mediate the Start- Reac effect. Experiment 2 varied the reporting and response requirements to the IS to assess whether attention to the IS or motor preparation affected blink facilitation at 0 ms. Blinks were elicited 0 or 150 ms after IS onset. RT was shortest in the presence of an accessory acoustic stimulus at 0 ms and slower if presentation of the IS required additional report. Neither motor preparation nor the additional attention requirement to the IS affected the extent of blink facilitation at 0 ms. Thus, blink facilitation at 0 ms seems to reflect on the summation of sub-reflex threshold excitation by the IS and super-reflex threshold excitation by the reflex eliciting stimulus in the motor pathway.The pattern of attentional startle is modulated when the lead stimulus and startle eliciting stimulus are presented in different modalities. Startle modulation is said to be modality specific if startles are inhibited and modality non specific if startles are facilitated relative to baseline. This finding is of theoretical interest as modality specificity is indicative of early selection and modality non-specificity of late selection mechanisms. Previous research provided evidence for modality specificity in continuous performance tasks, and modality non-specificity in tasks that assessed attention to discrete stimuli. The present research investigated experimental conditions that may determine the engagement of early or late selection mechanisms. Participants were given a target detection task under conditions that approximated continuous performance (Group 1), discrete trials(Group 3), and continuous performance with discrete trials (Group 2). Blink startles elicited with a burst of white noise were recorded at 120 ms or 1200 ms, during targets, non-targets and baseline. Blink startle was inhibited relative to baseline in all three groups. Contrary to expectations, greater inhibition during targets compared to non targets was found in Groups 2 and 3 but not inGroup 1. The current results are consistent with a modality specific account of attentional startle modulation. Moreover, we propose on the basis of the current results that within the early selection mechanism, attention may be more or less engaged depending on the overall context of the task.

Time to "Get" Religion? An Analysis of Religious Literacy Among Journalism Students

A survey (N = 503) tested religious knowledge for journalism students and nonjournalism students. Journalism students scored poorly on basic religious knowledge and fared no better than nonjournalism students. When advertising and public relations majors were added to the journalism majors to create a new mass communication major variable, that group scored higher than students studying something else. Within the mass communication major, there were differences by chosen field, with photojournalism, print journalism, and public relations students scoring highest. The results indicate that while journalism students and nonjournalism students agree on the need for journalists to have religious literacy, journalism schools are falling short of making sure journalistic training is resulting in proper levels of religious literacy.