Se-Hoon Jeong

Predictors of Multitasking with Media: Media Factors and Audience Factors

In this research, multitasking with media is defined as an audience behavior that combines media use with another non-media activity. This study examines (a) the prevalence and patterns of multitasking among 14- to 16-year-olds and (b) the media and audience factors that predict such behavior. Consistent with previous research, this study found that youth frequently multitask with media. Both (a) ownership of media in bedrooms as a media factor and (b) sensation seeking as an audience factor were found to be significant predictors of multitasking with media. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are further discussed.

Visual Metaphor in Advertising: Is the Persuasive Effect Attributable to Visual Argumentation or Metaphorical Rhetoric?

The purpose of this study is to test the persuasive effects of visual metaphors in advertising. Advertisements containing visual metaphors deliver persuasive arguments in visual modality and metaphorical style of rhetoric, both of which may increase the persuasiveness of messages. The study has three message conditions that are advertisements containing (a) non‐metaphorical (literal) visual image with verbal argument; (b) metaphorical visual image with verbal argument; and (c) metaphorical image without accompanying verbal argument. Cognitive elaboration, source credibility, ad attitude, brand attitude, product belief, and purchase intention are considered as outcomes. The study results suggest that visual metaphors may be more persuasive due to both visual argumentation and metaphorical rhetoric. The theoretical explanations and managerial implications of the findings of this study are further discussed.

Revisiting the Knowledge Gap Hypothesis: A Meta-Analysis of Thirty-Five Years of Research:

This knowledge gap meta-analysis examines (a) average effect size of the gap, (b) impact of media publicity, and (c) moderators of the gap. Positive correlation between education and level of knowledge (r = .28) was found, with no differences in the size of the gap (a) over time and (b) between issues of higher and lower publicity. However, gap magnitude was moderated by topic, setting, knowledge measure, and study design, but not by publication status, country, and sampling method. Relatively smaller gaps were found for (a) health-science topics compared to social-political topics and (b) local/personal issues compared to international issues.

What type of content are smartphone users addicted to

Based on a sample of 944 respondents who were recruited from 20 elementary schools in South Korea, this research surveyed the factors that lead to smartphone addiction. This research examined the user characteristics and media content types that can lead to addiction. With regard to user characteristics, results showed that those who have lower self-control and those who have greater stress were more likely to be addicted to smartphones. For media content types, those who use smartphones for SNS, games, and entertainment were more likely to be addicted to smartphones, whereas those who use smartphones for study-related purposes were not. Although both SNS use and game use were positive predictors of smartphone addiction, SNS use was a stronger predictor of smartphone addiction than game use. We examined the predictors of smartphone addiction.Self-control was a negative predictor, whereas stress was a positive predictor.SNS, game use, and entertainment-related use were positive predictors.SNS use was a stronger predictor of smartphone addiction than game use.

Predictors of Pro-Environmental Behaviors of American and Korean Students: The Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action and Protection Motivation Theory

This study employs the theory of reasoned action and protection motivation theory to predict American and Korean students’ intentions to engage in behaviors that can help mitigate climate change. The results indicate that one’s attitudes toward the prevention of climate change, perceived severity of climate change, response efficacy, and self-efficacy regarding climate change prevention were significant predictors of one’s intentions to engage in a series of pro-environmental behaviors. In addition, there were few cross-cultural differences. These results suggest that protection motivation theory, together with the theory of reasoned action, is a useful framework for understanding pro-environmental behaviors.

Situational Factors Competing for Attention

This study investigates how multitasking interacts with levels of sexually explicit content to influence an individual’s ability to recognize TV content. A 2 (multitasking vs. nonmultitasking) by 3 (low, medium, and high sexual content) between-subjects experiment was conducted. The analyses revealed that multitasking not only impaired task performance, but also decreased TV recognition. An inverted-U relationship between degree of sexually explicit content and recognition of TV content was found, but only when subjects were multitasking. In addition, multitasking interfered with subjects’ ability to recognize audio information more than their ability to recognize visual information.

Effects of gain- and loss-framed messages on the sun safety behavior of adolescents: the moderating role of risk perceptions.

This study examined how message framing effects can be moderated by two types of risk: (a) perceived effectiveness in preventing a risk and (b) perceived susceptibility to the risk. The results indicate that the perceived effectiveness moderated framing effects on the intention to use sunscreen such that a loss-framed message was more effective when perceived effectiveness was low, whereas a gain-framed message was more effective when perceived effectiveness was high. In addition, perceived susceptibility to skin cancer moderated framing effects on the intention to use sunscreen and the intention to wear long pants such that a loss-framed message was more effective when perceived susceptibility was high.

Multitasking and Persuasion: The Role of Structural Interference

Although the inhibiting effects of multitasking can be explained by 2 components, capacity interference (CI) and structural interference (SI), studies that have specifically focused on SI are limited. Thus, the present study examined the effects of SI in persuasion using 2 experimental studies. Results of Study 1 showed that SI (not CI) reduced both comprehension and counterarguing. In addition, results of Study 2 showed that SI effects occur not only in single-channel multitasking but also in dual-channel multitasking, and that SI effects occur not only when content interference is high (language-based multitasking) but also when it is low (non–language-based multitasking). The role of SI in multitasking effects has important implications for research on audience behaviors and persuasive communication.

The Emerging Landscape of Health Communication in Asia: Theoretical Contributions, Methodological Questions, and Applied Collaborations

In an early overview of the health communication field, Donald Cassata (1980) wrote, “The role of the communication scholar in the health field has not yet been legitimized, primarily because health communication has not been recognized as a legitimate field of study” (p. 584). Three decades later, few would disagree that the field of health communication has become not only a legitimate but also a major field of study in communication, particularly in the United States. But the remarkable development in this field of study is that it is not a United States-only phenomenon. This essay is an attempt to review the development of health communication in Asia.

Examining the Public’s Responses to Crisis Communication From the Perspective of Three Models of Attribution:

This study applies three models of attribution to examine the public’s responses to corporate crises. Using Kelley’s covariation model and Coombs’s situational crisis communication theory, the study shows that distinctiveness information has strong and robust effects, consistency information has some effects, and consensus information has no effects on attributions of corporate responsibility, purchase intentions, and punitive opinions. Based on Weiner’s model, this study finds that attributions of corporate responsibility result in punitive opinions guided by retributive rather than utilitarian motivations.