Kimberly A. Neuendorf

Understanding internet adoption as telecommunications behavior

The present study profiles Internet adopters in terms of social locators, media use habits, and their orientation toward adopting new technologies. Findings, in terms of demographics and technology uses, offer some support for the early adopter profiles derived from diffusion theory. Although results fail to confirm our expectation that attitudinal variables of those served by online technology are more explanatory than demographics, we were able to identify technology and media use orientations that differentiate those with and without Internet access.

The Role of Alcohol Advertising in Excessive and Hazardous Drinking

Based on a nationwide survey of 1,200 respondents predominantly in the twelve to twenty-two age range, alcohol advertising appears to contribute to certain forms of problem drinking. There is a moderately positive correlation between the amount of day-to-day exposure to beer, wine, and liquor ads and both excessive alcohol consumption and drinking in hazardous contexts such as automobile driving. These relationships remain significant when demographic attributes and interpersonal influences are controlled. The evidence indicates that advertising stimulates consumption levels, which in turn leads to heavy drinking and to drinking in dangerous situations. When respondents are shown specimen advertisements depicting excessive consumption themes or hazardous drinking situations, these concepts are readily perceived and many infer an implicit endorsement of such behavior by the sponsoring companies. These results have implications for designing alcohol abuse education messages that can effectively counteract the impact of advertising.

Innovativeness and variety of Internet shopping

A survey of 208 US Midwestern Internet users reveals, first, that the nature of Internet dhopping (IS) is a function of consumers’ domain specific IS Innovativeness, not only in regard to product purchasing (as has been previously observed) but also to visiting sites for product information. Second, IS innovativeness is positively associated with the variety of product classes shopped online, and this association is stronger with popular than with unpopular product classes. Third, the impact of IS innovativeness is in addition to, and not simply a reflection of, the positive contribution to online shopping made by the prevalence of online shopping in one’s social setting. Fourth, when IS innovativeness is uncontrolled, apparent support is found for previous contentions that online shopping is greater among those with more extensive Internet experience. However, when IS innovativeness is considered, the predictive ability of Internet experience decreases, in some cases to nonsignificance.

Understanding adopters of audio information innovations

The use of two phone‐based audio innovations—audiotext audio information services and fax—was assessed in a probability survey of urban respondents. Support was found for the notion that social indicators are less important in the prediction of innovation use than are attitudinal and communication variables. Findings are interpreted in light of diffusion of innovation theory and research on the adoption of new technologies.

Reconceptualizing Channel Repertoire in the Urban Cable Environment

Channel repertoire, traditionally the sum of the number of channels accessed by a television/cable viewer, is extended: (1) via frequency weighting, (2) with a distinction between primary and specialized repertoires, and (3) by comparing repertoires across achievement and ascriptive social categories (e.g., income, race). In a probability computer-aided telephone interviewing (CATI) survey of 319 metropolitan cable subscribers, analyses of the new repertoires show novel discrimination among social categories and differential predictions from media and attitudinal variables.

The soaps: What's on and who cares?

This two‐pronged study analyzed soap opera content, centering on demographics, problems, conversations and sex behaviors, and surveyed soap viewers to determine viewing motives, involvement, and possible effects of soap viewing.

Criticism or Praise? The Impact of Verbal versus Text-Only Computer Feedback on Social Presence, Intrinsic Motivation, and Recall

The Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm asserts that human computer users interact socially with computers, and has provided extensive evidence that this is the case. In this experiment (n = 134), participants received either praise or criticism from a computer. Independent variables were the direction feedback (praise or criticism), and voice channel (verbal or text-only). Dependent variables measured via a computer-based questionnaire were recall, perceived ability, intrinsic motivation, and perceptions of the computer as a social entity. Results demonstrate that participants had similar reactions to computers as predicted by interpersonal communication research with participants who received text-only criticism reporting higher levels of intrinsic motivation, perceived ability, and recall. Additionally, the computer was seen as more intelligent. Implications for theory and application are discussed.

Newspaper Reading Supports Community Involvement

Data show that reading the newspaper and talking about things in the media make unique contributions to explaining community social capital and do not merely reflect demographics and values people hold.

Exposure effects and affective responses to music

Radio programming appears to follow a theory of mere exposure, where repeated exposure to a stimulus results in enhanced positive affect toward that stimulus. Although mere exposure has received substantial empirical support, other studies of exposure to music suggest that an inverted—U better describes the exposure‐affect relationship. This study manipulated exposure to rock and popular songs in a counterbalanced design. Subjects heard manipulated songs at frequencies of 1, 8, 16, and 24. An inverted—U relationship was found, with a small but significant effect size that held when controlling for a number of stimulus and subject variables. The collative variables of subjective complexity and subjective novelty were hypothesized to interact with exposure in determining affective evaluations; this was not supported.

Cosmopoliteness in the Internet Age

The concept of cosmopoliteness previously has been associated with the diffusion of innovations. Previous research suggests that cosmopolites are earlier adopters of innovations (e.g., new media technologies) and that they use more diverse media sources. This paper details the history of the concept and identifies eight dimensions. Two surveys were employed to investigate the relationship between the concept of cosmopoliteness and new media technology usage. The results indicate that most Internet use behaviors are positively associated with cosmopoliteness. However, this pattern was not found for other media applications such as e-mail and watching DVDs. Implications of study findings are discussed.