R. Lance Holbert

Understanding Deliberation The Effects of Discussion Networks on Participation in a Public Forum

Participation in a deliberative forum has received relatively little scrutiny as opposed to more traditional forms of participation. This study examines direct and indirect effects of discussion network characteristics on willingness to participate in a deliberative forum. Using data collected in a telephone survey of 416 respondents in Madison, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1997, the authors employ structural equation modeling techniques to explore the roles that local media use, interpersonal discussion of local politics, and reflection of information play in mediating the relationship between discussion networks and participation in public forums. Findings show that network heterogeneity directly influences forum participation, suggesting that membership in heterogeneous networks ensures greater nontraditional participation. Also, having more discussion partners makes frequent discussion of issues and higher levels of local public affairs media use more likely. Communication processes lead to reflection about local issues, which enhances forum participation. Finally, normative implications are addressed.

A Monte Carlo Simulation of Observable Versus Latent Variable Structural Equation Modeling Techniques

In this study, three approaches commonly used by communication scientists to specify structural relationships using full-information maximum likelihood structural equation modeling are investigated. Specifically, a simulation study using Monte Carlo techniques was conducted to compare the structural paths generated by each of the three structural equation model types. Two of the three approaches utilized forms of latent variable modeling, and the third approach employed observed variables only. Of the three, the observed variable approach produced the most conservative structural path coefficients, whereas the hybrid latent variable approach generated the least attenuated coefficients. The appropriateness of each technique in modeling structural relationships is discussed and an argument is made for greater use of latent variable structural equation modeling in the field of communication.

The Importance of Indirect Effects in Media Effects Research: Testing for Mediation in Structural Equation Modeling

This essay addresses the need for media effects researchers to decompose their structural equation models. We highlight the importance of studying specific indirect effects within a conditional effects framework and discuss how the lack of analysis of this type of effect in structural equation modeling does not fit well with the disciplines theoretical foundations. We summarize several classes of mediation formulas and make recommendations for the estimation and testing of mediating relationships. Finally, an argument is made that the study of mediation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for better understanding media influence.

Environmental Concern, Patterns of Television Viewing, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Integrating Models of Media Consumption and Effects

This study merges insights from cultivation and uses and gratifications to examine the relationship between environmental concern, five forms of television viewing, and pro-environmental behaviors. This research considers both the direct effects of various forms of television viewing and their potential mediating roles in the relationship between environmental attitudes and behaviors. Analysis of 7999 and 2000 DDB Life Style Study data reveals that television news and nature documentary use are predicted by environmental concern and contribute to pro-environmental behaviors, whereas three forms o f entertainment television use are not consistently linked to these variables. Implications for future research are discussed.

Television Use and Social Capital: Testing Putnam's Time Displacement Hypothesis

Robert Putnam (1995a, 19956) charged that television is the driving force behind the decline in social capital in America. He argued that television viewing has privatized our leisure time, thus inhibiting participation outside the home. However, Putnams time displacement hypothesis never has been tested. We empirically examined the extent to which television reduces social capital through time displacement. Analyses of data from a Midwestern city (N = 416) did not support the time displacement hypothesis; time spent with television did not affect civic engagement through perceptions of time pressure. There was only a direct negative impact of television viewing time on civic engagement. Time spent reading newspapers enhanced engagement. Moreover, this relation worked indirectly through time pressures-the more time spent with newspapers, the less time pressures one perceived.

Role and Influence of Communication Modality in the Process of Resistance to Persuasion

This investigation examined the role and influence of print and video communication modalities in inoculation. Inoculation is assumed to be an active cognitive process, and past research has assumed that inoculation treatments function in much the same way in fostering resistance to influence, irrespective of the medium employed to deliver them. The pattern of results indicates that print and video forms do not differ appreciably in their capacity to confer resistance, but they vary considerably in terms of how they promote resistance. Compared to controls, both inoculation approaches effectively generated threat but, contrary to what was predicted, only video elicited significant counterarguing output. In addition, the results confirmed that video treatments employ an alternative mechanism in conferring resistance, one that is based more on source considerations. Video treatments immediately generated positive relational perceptions about the source of the treatments, and they immediately bolstered attitudes. Positive relational perceptions of the source of inoculation treatments were subsequently associated with more negative perceptions of the source of counterattitudinal attacks, and to resistance to the attacks. By contrast, print treatments worked through more cognitive means, eventually inducing resistance, but only after participant exposure to counterattitudinal attacks.

Values as Sociotropic Judgments Influencing Communication Patterns

Explanations of why people use various types of media content have been limited mainly to demographic location and self-interested motivational variables. The authors present an alternative, sociotropic source of influence on communication patterns: judgments of how the world works (worldviews), what societal values ought to be pursued (materialism vs. postmaterialism), and what normative roles the news media should play. A well-fitting structural equation model is used to account for substantial amounts of variance in entertainment television viewing, newspaper public affairs reading, and discussion of controversial issues. Sociotropic judgments mediate much of the influence of demographics and ideology on patterns of communication. Diversity in the composition of personal discussion networks has a strong and direct influence on communication patterns.

On the Use of Structural Equation Modeling in Health Communication Research

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a multivariate technique suited for testing proposed relations between variables. In this article, the authors discuss the potential for SEM as a tool to advance health communication research both statistically and conceptually. Specifically, the authors discuss the advantages that latent variable modeling in SEM affords researchers by extracting measurement error. In addition, they argue that SEM is useful in understanding communication as a complex set of relations between variables. Moreover, the authors articulate the possibility for examining communication as an agent, mediator, and an outcome. Finally, they review the application of SEM to recursive models, interactions, and confirmatory factor analysis.

A Theory of Political Campaign Media Connectedness

The study of political mass communication information outlet effects has been dominated by two types of studies, those which focus on a single outlet and those which look at the comparative influence of multiple outlets. The current study seeks to advance a third study type by offering a theory of political campaign media connectedness. Three axioms are offered in this work. In addition, a series of hypotheses involving five political communication campaign information outlets (conservative political talk radio, FOX cable TV news, daily newspapers, national network TV news, debate viewing) are posited. This work emphasizes the need to understand how various information outlets function in coordination with one another to produce a potentially diverse set of direct and indirect political campaign media effects. Future lines of theoretical inquiry and empirical research are outlined.

The West Wing and Depictions of the American Presidency: Expanding the Domains of Framing in Political Communication

This study uses framing to assess how the office of the President of the United States is depicted on NBCs The West Wing. This work represents a theoretical and empirical domain extension of framing in political communication, an area of study dominated by analyses of news content. Three distinct presidential depictions are analyzed: chief executive, political candidate, and private citizen. This quantitative content analysis of the 2001–2002 The West Wing television season addresses the frequency with which the fictional president performs these three roles and posits several hypotheses concerning the relative presentation of personality characteristics across contexts. All three roles are represented with substantive frequency, with the chief executive role dominating. Principled character traits are evident more often when the fictional President Bartlet is acting as chief executive than as a private citizen. Conversely, Bartlet presents more engaging personality traits when acting as a private citizen than as either chief executive or political candidate. Implications for these finding are outlined and future lines of research are detailed.