Porismita Borah

Message design strategies to raise public awareness of social determinants of health and population health disparities.

CONTEXT Raising public awareness of the importance of social determinants of health (SDH) and health disparities presents formidable communication challenges. METHODS This article reviews three message strategies that could be used to raise awareness of SDH and health disparities: message framing, narratives, and visual imagery. FINDINGS Although few studies have directly tested message strategies for raising awareness of SDH and health disparities, the accumulated evidence from other domains suggests that population health advocates should frame messages to acknowledge a role for individual decisions about behavior but emphasize SDH. These messages might use narratives to provide examples of individuals facing structural barriers (unsafe working conditions, neighborhood safety concerns, lack of civic opportunities) in efforts to avoid poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, and other social determinants. Evocative visual images that invite generalizations, suggest causal interpretations, highlight contrasts, and create analogies could accompany these narratives. These narratives and images should not distract attention from SDH and population health disparities, activate negative stereotypes, or provoke counterproductive emotional responses directed at the source of the message. CONCLUSIONS The field of communication science offers valuable insights into ways that population health advocates and researchers might develop better messages to shape public opinion and debate about the social conditions that shape the health and well-being of populations. The time has arrived to begin thinking systematically about issues in communicating about SDH and health disparities. This article offers a broad framework for these efforts and concludes with an agenda for future research to refine message strategies to raise awareness of SDH and health disparities.

A New Space for Political Behavior: Political Social Networking and its Democratic Consequences

Social networking sites SNS currently boast more than half a billion active users worldwide, the majority of which are young people. With notable exceptions, few studies have ventured into the growing political realm that exists on these sites. This study expands research on SNS by examining both what encourages people to express themselves politically in this realm, and what effects such expression may have on classic questions of political participation. We test the proposition that political use of SNS among teens offers a new pathway to their political participation using hierarchical linear regression and panel data analysis. Results demonstrate that political SNS use strongly impacted both levels of and growth in traditional political participation during the 2008 election.

Does It Matter Where You Read the News Story? Interaction of Incivility and News Frames in the Political Blogosphere:

The political blogosphere is replete with uncivil discussions and is apt to examine the influence of incivility on news frames. The present study brings in literature from incivility and framing effects and uses two experiments to examine the influence of incivility on news frames for democratic outcomes such as willingness to participate, online participation, openmindedness, and attitude certainty. Primary findings indicate the detrimental effects of incivility causing less openmindedness and more attitude certainty. At the same time, incivility causes more willingness to participate and online participation. More importantly, the findings demonstrate how incivility interacts with news frames. Implications for news framing effects in the social media landscape are discussed.

Seeking More Information and Conversations: Influence of Competitive Frames and Motivated Processing

A consistently growing body of research focuses on the concept of framing. The present study contributes to framing effects literature in three ways: the study examines frames in competitive environment, investigates the influence of motivated processing, and the effects on behavioral intentions of participants. The data were collected using an experiment embedded in a Web-based survey of participants employing the issue of civil liberties conflict. The study used a 2 (motivated processing) × 3 (framed conditions) between-subjects design. Findings show that in case of both the outcomes of behavioral intent, willingness to seek information and talk, motivated processing intensified framing effects and specifically so in the mixed frame condition.

YOUTUBE AND PROPOSITION 8: A case study in video activism

The present study uses Californias Proposition 8 campaign as a case study for an exploratory investigation of video activism online. We conducted a content analysis of a sample of Proposition 8 videos drawn at random from the results of a keyword search of YouTube. Main findings from the analysis (N = 801) show that a majority of the videos were made up of original content and took a position against Proposition 8. The results also show that video posters on different sides of the debate drew on different mixes of video forms as the election debate progressed. A greater proportion of ‘Yes on 8’ videos were scripted and professionally produced while ‘No on 8’ videos were more often amateur creations and served to witness the widespread protests in the aftermath of the election.

Political Facebook use: Campaign strategies used in 2008 and 2012 presidential elections

ABSTRACT Although there is increasing research about the influence of political use of social networking sites on audience members, few studies have examined the content in candidates’ pages on these sites. To fully comprehend the impact of these online political messages, an analysis of the messages themselves is fundamental. The present study uses theoretical concepts from functional theory, political advertising, emotional appeals, and social endorsement to conduct a content analysis of the official Facebook posts of U.S. presidential candidates in 2008 and 2012 elections. Results demonstrate that John McCain and Mitt Romney attacked more, while Barack Obama acclaimed more. The Republican candidates used higher percentage of fear appeals, while Barack Obama used humor and enthusiasm in his posts. Implications are discussed.

Hearing and Talking to the Other Side: Antecedents of Cross-Cutting Exposure in Adolescents

Although scholars have enthusiastically examined the outcomes of cross-cutting exposure, few studies have explored its antecedents. Moreover, most studies have attended to adults. But it is during adolescence and early adulthood that citizens are most likely to be socialized into valuing and engaging in heterogeneous discussion. The present study employs a panel survey of American adolescents, age 12 to 17, to examine the predictive power of home, school, and media use variables on two outcomes related to valuing and talking to the other side. Our findings demonstrate that adolescents’ attitudes toward valuing cross-cutting exposure as well as indulging in heterogeneous talk are consistently predicted by concept-oriented home environment and school curriculum. Among the media variables, cable news negatively and newspaper and online news positively influenced our outcome variables. Implications are discussed.

Examining media content: A case study of newspaper coverage of dowry in India, 1999–2006

This study employs three methods to understand media content. First, the study examines the ‘peak periods’ to ascertain the pattern of coverage. Second, with a sample of 4058 articles the study examines the prominent frames used by newspapers. Third, with the help of interviews of journalists from the same newspapers, the study examines the factors that influence the way these frames are created in the first place. Results show that, in general, the driving force of this coverage is marketability of the stories. This is implied by the overall coverage as well as the responses of journalists.

Facebook Use in the 2012 USA Presidential Campaign

Politicians and political groups have quickly realized the potential of social networking sites as campaign tools. Although scholars have begun examining the political impact of social networking sites, more research should explore the use of these sites for political purposes. The present study uses content analysis of both the 2012 Presidential candidate’s official Facebook pages to understand how politicians use social networking sites to reach out to voters. Currently, President Barack Obama’s Facebook page has 35 million users, while Mitt Romney’s has 11 million users. Employing concepts from the political campaigns literature, the study examines how each candidate used campaign tools in Facebook. The duration of the study was September 3rd (Labor Day) to November 6th, 2012 (the day of the election). The present study found that both candidates used several similar strategies in reaching out to their fans. Both the candidates’ most common purpose for the posts was to promote their candidacy. However, in case of attack and contrast posts, Romney used the strategies more frequently. Overall, Romney led a more aggressive campaign on Facebook, using negative strategies and fear appeal.

Politics as Usual? When and Why Traditional Actors Often Dominate YouTube Campaigning

ABSTRACT This research explores the extent to which YouTube helps democratize campaigns by allowing nontraditional political actors to be heard. We examine political advertisements posted on YouTube in races for the U.S. Senate in 2010. We find that ads posted by citizens and quasi-political organizations are viewed just as often as ads sponsored by some traditional electoral actors, such as parties and interest groups, but that ads sponsored by candidates are most likely to be viewed. However, news media coverage of ads posted online by nontraditional actors is dwarfed by coverage of traditional television advertisements.