William J. Gonzenbach

Assessing university brand personality through logos: an analysis of the use of academics and athletics in university branding

For colleges and universities whose survival depends on external stakeholders, developing a strong brand should be an important component of their marketing strategy. University brand managers could benefit from developing a better understanding of how consumers interact with their brand in order to develop more effective recruiting material, advertisements, and other marketing efforts. The current study applies the concept of brand personality to university academic and athletic logos and examines subsequent relationships between the perceived brand personalities. Results of an online survey indicate that competence is a brand personality dimension mostly associated with academic logos, and excitement is the brand personality dimension mostly associated with athletic logos.

Effects of news exemplification extended: Considerations of controversiality and perceived future opinion

An experimental 3×3 factorial design was used to test the ability of exemplars to prime public opinion on an issue that was controversial, the issue of a prayer in school amendment. The experiment focused on changes in perception of current public opinion and future public opinion as well as changes in personal opinion. Perception of public opinion among Alabamans was affected by a disproportionate distribution of exemplars as was perception of future public opinion nationally. Actual opinion also varied positively with exposure to different exemplar distributions.

Multiple Opinion Climates in Online Forums: Role of Website Source Reference and Within-Forum Opinion Congruency

Through the Spiral of Silence framework, this study examines the online opinion climate effect on individual willingness to post messages in forums, using a 2 × 2 experiment manipulating website source (mainstream news/ideologically homogeneous activist group) and opinion congruency (minority/majority opinion). Individuals’ willingness to post was affected only by their opinion congruency with those expressed in forums. Analysis revealed instances of individuals “speaking up” as compared to “speaking out.” Other deterrents to willingness to post were also uncovered.

The world of U.S. network television news: Eighteen years of international and foreign news coverage

This study updates the research on international and foreign news coverage of U.S. network news with a content analysis of almost 10,000 stories from 1972 to 1989. The results suggest that network news has presented a fairly consistent picture of foreign news over time and that there is little difference between the three networks. A minor increase in on-site correspondent reports has occurred over time, and the difference between in-studio and on-site reports is stronger when time, rather than frequency of stories, is the unit of analysis. Finally, foreign coverage is geographically unbalanced and emphasizes disruption more than domestic coverage does.

The Conformity Hypothesis: Empirical Considerations for the Spiral of Silence's First Link

This experiment tests the spiral of silences conformity hypothesis by manipulating perceptions of opinion, which are not unanimous, about a controversial, morally loaded issue — George Bushs involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. The test incorporates an ideologically consonant media message about the issue and establishes an actual condition of impending public scrutiny. The findings offer partial support for the conformity hypothesis and suggest that conformity is associated with social status and psychological predisposition toward conformity.

Source effects in the micro-mobilization of collective action via social media

Research has shown that micro-mobilization efforts that invoke social media rely heavily on the influence of personal networks to motivate collective action participation. This study examines whether this trend applies (a) to networks of different levels of personalness, (b) to causes and organizations which people are either unaware of or not affiliated with, and (c) how personal networks affect peoples willingness to participate in online versus offline forms of collective action, when personal dispositional factors (activism- and issue involvement, perceived self-, technological-, and group efficacies) are considered. An experiment (N = 315) tested whether calls-to-action by different sources via social media (close personal networks v. distant social networks v. organization officials) influence individuals’ willingness to publicly express support online through social media-based collective activities (e.g. commenting, hyperlinking, ‘Liking’, etc.) and offline activities (e.g. demonstrations, donning campaign materials, etc.). Findings are leveraged to provide practical insight and to inform theoretical development in these domains.

Communications with Management in Times of Difficulty and Crisis: Silence Explained∗

Whether and how employees communicate with management in times of difficulty or crisis, was the primary focus of this article. In particular, the spiral of silence theory was reviewed and critically analyzed and its viability in an organizational communication context as explanation for why employees choose not to communicate with management was considered. The theory has considerable potential with regard to explaining and predicting how individuals communicate in such settings. The role silence plays in an organizational context was a primary focus, and recommendations were made for future research in this area.

Third-person perception of cosmeceutical product advertising: The moderating role of body esteem

This study examines the third-person perception in the context of cosmeceutical product advertising. Experimental results found that female participants showed a relatively negative attitude toward cosmeceutical product advertising. However, most female participants believed that such advertising would influence others more than themselves when they were exposed to both product advertising and product information as appeared in a news story. Moreover, such third-person perception was moderated by various levels of body esteem as reported by female participants. Practical implications for cosmeceutical product advertisers and marketers are discussed.

Determinants of ethical practices of public relations practitioners in Korea

The present study was designed to examine various determinant variables influencing public relations practitioners’ ethical practices. Six variables, consisting of idealism, relativism, age, gender, education, and awareness of ethics code existence, were utilized for this study. Results indicate that relativism and awareness of ethics code existence directly impact ethical practices, whereas age influenced ethical practices though relativism.

The media's language of the drug issue, 1984–1991: Considerations for the cultural definition of an issue over time

This study builds upon a new agenda‐setting paradigm proposed by Megwa and Brenner (1988) and the resulting broadened conceptualization of agenda‐setting research by Rogers et al. (1991) that considers the roles of new information and changing media interpretations of an issue over time. The study classifies more than 10,000 news reports about the drug issue from 1984 to 1991 into issue and event categories, examines the cycle of media coverage in relation to Downss issue‐attention cycle, and then examines the relationship between the issue/event content and the cycle of media coverage to determine how new information and the medias changing interpretations of the issue affected the development of the issue over time. The findings suggest three conclusions: (1) the medias is heavy focus on issues related to government control of users and dealers on dramatic, drug‐related events featuring prominent figures, and on politically driven efforts to control drug importation; (2) the total media coverage duri...