Matthew D. Matsaganis

Agenda Setting in a Culture of Fear: The Lasting Effects of September 11 on American Politics and Journalism

Agenda setting has been developed, expanded, and employed in numerous studies as an analytical tool that affords an understanding of not only how our political reality is formulated but also how “realities” can be manufactured. However, as the authors argue, by grafting agenda setting and media systems dependency theory—two different traditions in mass communication theory—it is possible to better account for changes in the agenda-setting process because of shifts in the power relationships between all actors involved, especially under conditions of increased threat; conditions similar to those the American public has lived in since the September 11 terrorist attacks. Illustrations from Campaign 2004 complement this analysis. The authors suggest that it is critical to understand the dynamics of the making of “mediated realities” so as to alert readers of the importance in furthering critical media literacy skills necessary for the public to distinguish between facades and facts.

The 2000 U.S. Presidential Debate Versus the 2000 Greek Prime Minister Debate A Comparative Analysis

The prevalence of televised debates is growing in popularity among democracies. This study examines the similarities and differences in format, style, journalistic involvement, and issues covered in the first presidential debate of the 2000 U.S. election campaign in October in Boston and the Greek Prime Minister debate of March 2000 held in Athens. A major theme is the dynamics of establishing the rules governing the debate in Greece and the role of the Presidential Commission in the United States as a prototype for such structure.

Communicative Social Capital and Collective Efficacy as Determinants of Access to Health-Enhancing Resources in Residential Communities

This article contributes to the burgeoning literature on the social determinants of health disparities. The authors investigate how communication resources and collective efficacy, independently and in combination, shape residents’ access to health enhancing resources (including healthcare services, sources of healthier food options, and public recreation spaces) in their communities. Using random digit dial telephone survey data from 833 residents of South Los Angeles communities the authors show that communicative social capital—that is, an information and problem-solving resource that accrues to residents as they become more integrated into their local communication network of neighbors, community organizations, and local media—plays a significant role in access to health resources. This relationship is complicated by individuals’ health insurance and health status, as communicative social capital magnifies the sense of absence of resources for those who are in worse health and lack insurance. Communicative social capital builds collective efficacy, which is positively related to access to health-enhancing resources, but it also mediates the negative relationship between communicative social capital and access to health resources. Residents with richer stores of communicative social capital and collective efficacy report better access to health resources. The authors conclude with a discussion of implications of these findings and suggestions for future research.

Interventions to Address Reproductive Health Disparities among African-American Women in a Small Urban Community: the Communicative Construction of a “Field of Health Action”

Guided by communication infrastructure theory (CIT) and based on analyses of multiple sources of data gathered as part of a four-year intervention to address reproductive health-care disparities among African-American women in a small, disadvantaged urban community in the northeastern USA, this mixed-methods study advances understanding of challenges that such health interventions face in smaller urban settings. Findings suggest that factors in residents’ material environment and their social construction of that environment interact to produce a “field of health action,” within which health-care seeking behavior is enabled and constrained. Four factors emerged as salient: actual availability of and perceptions of access to health-care resources, transportation options, communication resources (including interpersonal, media, and organizational) that aid health-care seeking, and privacy concerns around reproductive health-care seeking. The findings are discussed with regard to their implications for future research and health communication interventions that promote reproductive health-care seeking in small urban communities.

How Do the Places We Live In Impact Our Health?: Challenges for, and Insights from, Communication Research

Since the 1990s, there has been a resurgence of research on how the places we live in impact our health. I review this interdisciplinary body of work to identify the main factors that explain how residential communities influence individuals’ health. In doing so, I highlight unanswered questions which communication research can help address. After surveying communication research that addresses the larger issue of how the places in which we live influence our health, I articulate an integrative, multilevel, communication-centered theoretical framework to guide future work on neighborhood effects on health. Central to this framework is the notion that communication is an elementary social process through which neighborhood life is organized and transformed.

Ethnic Media and the Social Incorporation of New Americans

Ethnic media are growing in size, audience, and visibility worldwide, as well as in the USA. Ethnic media have historically, and still actively, supported the integration of immigrant and ethnic populations into the social fabric of US society by serving the critical information needs (CINs) of these populations across the USA. Because mainstream media are interested in appealing to the broadest possible audience, they tend to overlook CINs specific to these vulnerable populations. As a result, ethnic media are a crucial feature of the media landscape for many Americans. In addition to efforts to stabilize the ethnic media sector by recognizing them as legitimate players in media markets across the country, efforts to directly support ethnic media operations are also necessary.

Stress in the Aftermath of the Economic Crisis in Urban Communities: The Interplay of Media Use, Perceived Economic Threat, and Community Belonging

Against the backdrop of the recent financial crisis, we investigate how the interplay of media use, perceived economic threat, and community belonging—conceived as a social support mechanism—impacts stress among urban community residents. Participants (N = 387) were recruited from the New York metropolitan area into an online survey. Results indicated that media do not impact stress directly but rather indirectly by influencing perceived economic threat and community belonging. Community belonging plays a protective role against stress. When perceived economic threat becomes too severe, however, its buffering effects dissipate.