Patrick Ferrucci

Facebook use, envy, and depression among college students

A survey of 736 college students found that Facebook use can trigger feelings of envy.Feelings of envy were found to predict depression symptoms.The effect of surveillance use of Facebook on depression is mediated by feelings of envy.Surveillance use of Facebook has a direct link to depression, but the link is actually negative. It is not-unless it triggers feelings of envy. This study uses the framework of social rank theory of depression and conceptualizes Facebook envy as a possible link between Facebook surveillance use and depression among college students. Using a survey of 736 college students, we found that the effect of surveillance use of Facebook on depression is mediated by Facebook envy. However, when Facebook envy is controlled for, Facebook use actually lessens depression.

Native Advertising Is the New Journalism: How Deception Affects Social Responsibility

Native advertising’s effectiveness lies in its ability to look like content produced by journalists. The potential for deceiving readers and proliferation of native advertising threaten journalism’s credibility along with its core boundary: the separation between editorial and advertising. For the press to function in a normative manner, as a watchdog, contributing to the public’s ability to self-govern, it simply cannot participate in deception. Therefore, 56 qualitative interviews were conducted with journalists, advertising, and public relations executives to examine the extent to which native advertising impedes on the social responsibility of the press. Perspectives revealed that all three professions agreed native advertising raises ethical concerns. Native advertising potentially deceives audiences who are unaware that native advertising is paid, persuasive content versus editorial, thus contributing to the diminishing credibility of journalism. Furthermore, if native advertising is done well, it is undetectable from traditional editorial content. Based on these findings, authors discuss how native advertising threatens several tenets of social responsibility theory.

Public journalism no more: The digitally native news nonprofit and public service journalism

This study utilizes ethnography to examine whether a digitally native news nonprofit, The St. Louis Beacon, practices a new form of public journalism, a movement within the journalism industry that diminished and eventually died in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Using McManus’ market theory for news production as a lens, the data showed that the Beacon practiced a slightly different form of public journalism. Therefore, because of that concept’s negative perception within the industry, this study dubs this new form of public service journalism. Public service journalism still primarily focuses on engagement, but does so without the negative connotations of public journalism and also while allowing the journalists to retain news judgment.

Who’s in, Who’s out?

This study utilizes interviews with 53 full-time digital journalists to understand how they construct their identity. With social identity theory as a framework, the study found that medium, organizational backing, and role conception represent characteristics essential to being a digital journalist (the in-group). While the journalists also identified blogging, social media, and citizen journalism as characteristics that, in some cases, exclude persons from calling themselves digital journalists (the out-group). These results are then interpreted through the lens of social identity theory.

A Black and White Game: Racial Stereotypes in Baseball

The current study experimentally tested stereotypes and credibility of messages associated with athletes. Participants were asked to rate photos of Black and White baseball players based on stereotypes identified in previous literature. They were then given an anonymous paragraph from a newspaper that featured either a stereotype consistent or inconsistent message and asked to rate the authors credibility. Black players were rated significantly higher in physical strength and natural ability, which is consistent with previous literature. However, inconsistent with previous literature, White players were not rated significantly higher in intelligence and leadership. Despite these results, when measuring credibility, this study found White-consistent stereotypes to be credible, whereas Black-consistent ones were not. These results are interpreted in light of Devines model of stereotype processing and in-group, out-group bias.

Unprofessional, Ineffective, and Weak: A Textual Analysis of the Portrayal of Female Journalists on Sports Night

This study investigates the portrayal of five female journalists on the Aaron Sorkin television series Sports Night. The women were depicted as acting unprofessionally, displaying motherly qualities, choosing their personal lives over work, being deferential to men for ethical decisions, and showing a lack of sports knowledge compared to the male characters. The researchers use social responsibility theory to suggest why these portrayals were ethically problematic.

Murder Incorporated Market Orientation and Coverage of the Annie Le Investigation

Research shows that market orientation affects news content. However, very little research examines how market orientation affects the coverage of a particular story. This is the first to examine news content concerning the same story covered by two different organizations: a strongly market-oriented legacy outlet and a weakly market-oriented digitally native news nonprofit. This study employs textual analysis to examine how the New Haven Register and the New Haven Independent electronically covered the Annie Le murder and investigation. While both organizations covered the same story and concentrated on the same aspects of the story, the results appear very different. The Register highlighted the more salacious aspects and focused on speculation and scoops, while the Independent focused more on why it happened and what it meant to readers. The results of this study are analyzed through the lens of gatekeeping theory.

Exploring Public Service Journalism: Digitally Native News Nonprofits and Engagement

Although the public journalism movement met its demise in U.S. newsrooms around the turn of the 21st century, new market models and technological tools now make it far easier for journalists to accomplish the goals of the now-dead movement. Through in-depth interviews with 19 journalists at digitally native news nonprofits (DNNNs), this study seeks to examine whether this relatively new market model practices a new form of public journalism, one prior research dubbed public service journalism. The results show that, indeed, this market model does practice public service journalism. These results are interpreted through the framework of Habermas’s theory of the public sphere.

Primary differences: how market orientation can influence content

Studies have shown that market orientation influences content. However, scant research examines how news organizations with different market orientations covered the same story. This study utilizes textual analysis and long-form interviews to compare coverage of the 2013 St. Louis mayoral race. The study compares the strongly market oriented St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the weakly market oriented St. Louis Beacon. Findings showed major differences in content, especially concerning how the two covered race, periphery candidates and the presentation of campaign issues. These results are interpreted through the lens of gatekeeping theory.

Populism, Journalism, and the Limits of Reflexivity

This study considers how punitive populism as a strain of anti-intellectualism is condoned in the ways that US journalists imagine audiences. A disregard for intellect is nevertheless antithetical to journalism’s understanding of its contribution to an informed electorate. This contradiction between the representation of public antipathy and reason-based reporting leads to an appraisal of how journalists critiqued their work in the rise of presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. To identify boundaries of reflexivity, we compare the near-instant commentaries of scholars to the interpretations of journalists following the startling election of 2016. Textual analysis of news and news commentary documents a form of reflexivity in which practice is not so much justified to the public as the public is imagined in ways that justify problematic practice. Scholars viewed the rise of Trump as predictable when considering long-established routines of the press and journalists’ misunderstanding of populism. We suggest that reform of campaign coverage is contingent on the recognition of journalists that their work is shaped by audiences they imagine.