Shane M. Semmler

Nuances about the Role and Impact of Affect in Inoculation

This study examined the role and impact of affect in resistance. A three-phase experiment was conducted. The results indicated that inoculation treatments conferred resistance and exerted nuanced outcomes involving cognitive and affective responses to counterarguments and affect. The investigation also compared the effectiveness of cognitive, affective-positive, and affective-negative treatments. The results revealed that affective-negative messages were superior in eliciting threat, issue involvement, and cognitive counterarguing output and in enhancing the cognitive content of associative networks.

Presidential Election Campaigns and American Democracy: The Relationship Between Communication Use and Normative Outcomes

There is very little research about the relative influence of campaign communication forms or venues on normative outcomes concerning the extent to which campaign communication promotes or degrades basic democratic values. This investigation assesses the relative impact of 17 communication forms on three normative outcomes: political expertise, which embodies people’s awareness, knowledge, and interest in politics; attitude about the process used to elect candidates; and likelihood of participating in the political process. Data are based on results of two national surveys conducted in different phases of the 2004 presidential campaign. Hierarchical regression analyses are used to evaluate the relative influence of the 17 communication forms on normative outcomes, controlling for sociodemographic variables.

Role and Impact of Involvement and Enhanced Threat in Resistance

This study examined the relative impact of outcome-relevant (OR), value-relevant (VR), and impression-relevant (IR) involvement on resistance to influence and whether it is possible to enhance elicited threat levels and, if so, to what effect on resistance to counterattitudinal attacks. An experiment was conducted featuring 281 participants. Results indicated that both OR and VR involvement functioned similarly. They both bypassed threat and counterarguing, instead exerting direct impacts on elicited anger, attitude strength, and resistance. There were no statistically significant results for IR involvement. Results concerning standard and enhanced threat revealed that both manipulations functioned similarly: They enhanced elicited threat, boosted the number and strength of cognitive responses to counterarguments, increased elicited anger, enhanced attitude strength, and contributed to resistance. However, the only booster effect for enhanced threat involved greater attitude certainty.

The Influence of Audio-Only Character Narration on Character and Narrative Engagement

Using the Showtime crime drama Dexter (2006–2013), this posttest-only experimental design revealed that narration by the title character (i.e., Dexter Morgan) was significantly associated with more parasocial relationship (PSR) interaction than no narration. The influence of narration was examined while controlling for biological sex, evaluation of the narrating characters motive, evaluation of the narrating character, and previous exposure to the stimulus program. Favorable evaluations of the narrating character predicted more identification and PSR interaction with him. Women were more transported into the stimulus program than men. Findings are discussed in terms of the growing use of character narration in narrative television, Auters (1992) experimental evaluation of audiovisual narration in a situation comedy, and the limitations of using a morally ambiguous narrator.

Consumer Materialism: An Ideological Critique and a Dialogic Response

By constructively critiquing consumer materialism as a fantastic ideological form (Zizek, 1997), this article answered Rogerss (1998) call to develop communication theories that resurrect a place for the natural, affirm that humans are embedded in a nonhuman world, listen to nonhuman agents, and deconstruct binaries like subject/object, social/natural, and ideational/material. Through the lens of Zizeks (1989, 1997) interpretation of Lacanian fantasy, it was revealed that consumer materialism reproduces itself in consumer advertising (intersubjectivity), planned obsolescence (problematic of the fall), popular film (empty gesture), the Gross Domestic Product (symptom), and efforts to resist materialism manifested in presidential Earth Day commemorations (problematic of the fall and empty gesture). This essay concluded by articulating a transhuman, material, dialogic (Rogers, 1998) concept of productive-consumption as a means of transcending the signified Desire of the Other at consumer materialisms ideological core. Productive-consumption was illustrated with wilderness travel, food production, and meal preparation.

Gendered Issue Depictions in Commander in Chief versus The West Wing

Textual analyses show that political communication reflects and/or perpetuates stereotypical assumptions about male and female issue competencies that hinder the ascendance of women to national political office. This study asked if gendered issue competencies were reflected in the first seasons of NBCs The West Wing (male president) and ABCs Commander in Chief (female president). A content analysis revealed that Commander in Chiefs female president placed greater emphasis than The West Wings male president on one masculine issue (crime) and one feminine issue (womens issues), whereas The West Wings male president placed greater emphasis than Commander in Chiefs female president on two masculine issues (international issues and taxes). Overall, masculine issues were depicted more often than feminine issues. Results showed that Commander in Chiefs reliance on a masculine issue frame may have reinforced a masculine image of the presidency. We speculate that this frame continues to disadvantage female candidates for national political office.

Celebrity Politics, by Mark Wheeler

Mark Wheeler’s (2013) Celebrity Politics distinguishes itself by considering the democratic potential of a phenomenon that most political communication and political science scholars have denigrated. Wheeler defines celebrity politics as a set of techniques, rooted in the production of fame, that officeholders and notable citizens might employ for the purposes of aggregating and representing public opinion related to electoral democracy, policy advocacy, and international diplomacy. After reviewing the small but growing body of literature investigating the types, techniques, history, and implications of celebrity politics, Wheeler tours its contemporary manifestations and democratic worth relative to celebrity politics’ ideological substance, connection with causes, recruitment of the disaffected, promotion of political efficacy, and capacity to represent some definition of the common good. In short, Wheeler’s mission is to fairly adjudicate the potential of celebrity politics as a virtuous form of democratic activity in this era of late modernity. Although he successfully articulates the myriad ways that celebrity politics are used to market politics and politicians, Wheeler’s attempt to dignify the functional worth of celebrity politics is obscured behind his book’s exhaustive literature review, assiduous attention to detail, and sincere effort to understand the historical and contemporary manifestations of celebrity politics. Wheeler’s assessment of celebrity politics starts by acknowledging the arguments of its traditional skeptics. Citing authors like West and Orman (2003), Postman (1985), and adherents of the Frankfurt School (Habermas, 1992; Lowenthal, 1968), Wheeler relates that celebrity politics are accused of perpetuating public irrationality, promoting the role of simulacra over reality, reinforcing the false consciousness of consumer society, and promoting the interests of the ruling elite. While acknowledging the potential legitimacy of the traditional paradigm, he contends that its critique obscures the aesthetic dimensions of celebrity politics and its capacity to facilitate or create new forms of citizen engagement and representation. Wheeler organizes the potential of celebrity politics under Street’s (2004) distinction between celebrity politicians and political celebrities. Under those broad categories, he incorporates several types of celebrity politicians articulated by West and Orman (2003), t’ Hart and Tindall (2009), and van Zoonen (2005). Wheeler’s discussion particularly emphasizes van Zoonen’s broad definition of celebrity politicians as those who are both ordinary and extraordinary. His specific discussion of celebrity politicians includes political legacies (e.g., George W. Bush and Jeb Bush), celebrities turned politicians (e.g., Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger), and politicians who use the techniques of celebrity to build and maintain political support (e.g., Barack Obama and Bill Clinton). Wheeler’s discussion of political celebrities includes independent celebrity activists (e.g., Robert Redford and Sean Penn), celebrities who endorse traditional politicians (e.g., Harry Belafonte and Warren Beatty), and celebrity diplomats (e.g., Bono and George Clooney). Citing Keane (2009) and Street (2004), Wheeler acknowledges that the recent proliferation of celebrity politics is concomitant with a decline in the reputation and effectiveness of traditional