Keith R. Stamm

Mass communication and public understanding of environmental problems: the case of global warming:

Public understanding of global warming, also known as global climate change, is treated here as an example of a mass communication problem that has yet to be adequately solved. A survey of metropolitan area residents found that although people are aware of this problem in a general sense, understanding of particular causes, possible consequences, and solutions is more limited. Both mass media and interpersonal communication appear to make a positive contribution to understanding, as well as to perpetuating some popular misconceptions.

The Relationship of Attitudinal Components to Trust in Media

Past research has proposed that the receivers relationship to the content of a message will affect credibility attributed to the source. Current literature proposes explanatory mechanisms that require empirical distinctions among the various components of attitude, yet researchers often employ measures of “attitude extremity” that confound these components. This study follows Guttmans mathematical theory of attitude and its distinctions between four attitude components: direction, intensity, closure, and involvement. In a survey of 358 adults, relationships between trust in television news and newspaper coverage and each of the four components were tested for six current issues. Significant relationships were found for all four components. Results suggest that existing hypotheses relating credibility to attitude have not anticipated that credibility might be related to more than one component. Interactions occur in which the relation of credibility to one component would be modified by the presence of some other component. Theorizing that introduces contingencies into the consideration of questions dealing with credibility is suggested.

The Newspaper and Community Integration: A Study of Ties to a Local Church Community

Several questions bearing on Janowitzs classic community-integration hypothesis were pursued in a survey of 500 members of a Catholic diocese in the Northwest. Church ties were positively associated with subscribing to the church newspaper, with participation in church groups having the strongest relationship. Some ties to local churches were positively associated with commercial newspaper subscribing, most especially participation in church groups. Ties to church and volunteer associations had separate and joint positive relationships to commercial newspaper subscribing, demonstrating evidence of an additive effect. All these results were consistent with the community integration hypothesis.

Communication and Community Integration: An Analysis of the Communication Behavior of Newcomers

Community integration for newcomers was more strongly related to general information seeking than to specific use of newspapers. Four hundred newcomers in Seattle were polled by phone. When newcomers arrive in a community, they need to fill many information gaps, and this study found that newspapers (which made no special effort to reach newcomers in the city studied) did not fill them especially well. People who were reluctant to leave their old community were most interested in becoming integrated into the new one, in terms of gaining information.

Communication and Coorientation of Collectivities

Many research traditions in applied social science have been concerned with communication between a formal organization and a social collectivity (often called a public, a clientele, or a mass), or between members of two social categories such as socioeconomic classes or ethnic groups. Concepts studied in these traditions include the diffusion of innovations, change agents, marketing, public relations, organizational communication, mass media effects, school-community relations, representative bureaucracies, and social group conflict. Most of the research in these areas has been based on

Agenda-Setting and Consequentiality

Societys need for surveillance makes what is consequential a mutual concern of the media and their audiences. Both need to pay attention to what is consequential. We looked at agenda setting in two ways: (1) reasons given for moving a topic up (or down) on the agenda; and (2) consequentiality as evident in respondent ideas about a topic. A new research technique, Cognigraphics, was used for the second part. Results are discussed in terms of how an agenda, as a societal tool, and how those persons most eager to move a topic on an agenda can make use of the kinds and extent of consequentiality seen for a topic. A societys needs to respond to what is consequential might necessitate agenda-setting innovations to improve media performance.

Balancing Business with Journalism: Newsroom Policies at 12 West Coast Newspapers

Journalists from 12 daily newspapers, surveyed on-site, confirmed what newspaper industry analysts have noted: Newspapers are becoming more reader-oriented and market driven. This is particularly true of group newspapers which, on nearly every level of measurement, showed a stronger market-oriented management. But there are some indications that greater devotion to business principles does not always come at the expense of good journalism and that business-oriented policies are not always viewed as disruptive to sound newsroom policy.

Television Reliance and Political Malaise: A Contingency Analysis

The relationship of media reliance with political powerlessness and political cynicism was elaborated in terms of three measures of political involvement-sense of citizen duty, campaign interest, and importance of political advertising. Data were collected and analyzed from a RDD sample of 459 Seattle voters. The results suggest that Robinsons videomalaise hypothesis is subject to a number of contingencies that limit its generality, including the possibility that newspaper reliance may actually contribute to reduced political malaise.

Strategies for evaluating public relations

In this article, Stamm concludes that evaluative research he has conducted for a number of public relations clients has not yet resulted in a standard set of variables and measures that can be used regardless of the research problem. Rather, his experience suggests that the strategic questions of when, where, how and what research should be done determine the success of evaluative research. When? Formulative evaluations as a project is being planned are too seldom conducted. Where? Too often research is conducted from the organizations point-of-view rather than from the point-of-view of the audience. How? Too many one-shot, large-scale studies are done. More smaller-scale studies should be done during the course of a project. What? Too often researchers look at “types” of people or attitudes. Stamm suggests cognitive strategies and situations as more productive variables to measure. In describing each of these strategic considerations, Stamm provides case studies of measurement projects to illustrate these common research choices.

The 1992 Presidential Campaign and Debates A Cognitive View

The 1992 presidential campaign, especially its presidential debates, produced cognitive, affective, and emotive effects which the Cognigraphics research method was able to distinguish. George Bushs campaign decline was dramatically etched in respondent cognitions. Bill Clinton survived early emotion and continuing affective disadvantage to win the election on what seemed clearly cognitive grounds—the countrys need for a change by someone seen as capable of changing things. Ross Perot was strongly criticized for dropping out of the race, but his debate performance turned around his affective picture, even though respondents seemed unconvinced that he was capable of making the needed changes.