Department of Journalism and Creative Media

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Binging on Gilmore Girls: a parasocial exploration of fans' viewing behaviors
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Dyche, Caitlin Samantha; Billings, Andrew C.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Binge-watching has become increasingly popular with the rise of video-on-demand services and online streaming sites, but little has been done to evaluate the effects of this new viewing behavior on audiences. This study explores binge-watching as a possible mechanism in the formation of parasocial relationships with media personae as well as a motivator for the negative affects experienced when a persona is no longer included in new content, the phenomenon known as parasocial breakup. Other variables, such as the extent to which the media is watched alone or with others, were also explored. To test these relationships, two online surveys were completed by fans of the television show Gilmore Girls, one before the release of a new Gilmore Girls mini-series on Netflix and one after the release. A total of 387 fans participated in the surveys, which assessed their viewing behaviors of the mini-series and already-released episodes in the time leading up to the mini-series’ premiere. In the post-watching sample, it was found that binge-watching the mini-series was negatively related to parasocial relationship intensity. Furthermore, parasocial relationship intensity was positively related to parasocial breakup distress. Other predictors of parasocial relationship intensity include show affinity and age of viewer, while mini-series enjoyment was found to have a strong, negative correlation to parasocial breakup distress. Findings suggest further research regarding the relationship between binge-watching and parasocial relationships, as well as the influence that discussing the show with others has on breakup distress.
Cocaine powder screens and the gray lady: New York Times coverage of the war on drugs in Colombia, 1971 – 2001
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2019) Parra Mejia, Daniel Andres; Bragg, Dianne; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
There is a vast amount of literature about media coverage of the United States protracted war on drugs. Mainly, researchers have analyzed anti-drugs campaigns, its most frequent themes, frames, and narratives in network news coverage. However, little research has been done on United States newspapers coverage of the war on drugs, and there is almost none in reference to the United States’ war on drugs and its relationship with Colombia, the world’s top cocaine producers during the 1980s and 1990s. This paper will analyze how the New York Times covered the war on drugs in Colombia from the day Nixon first declared it on June 17, 1971, to the day Bush shifted the country’s focus away and announced the “War on Terror” on September 20, 2001.
Engaging rural media consumers in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Barnes, Kirsten Jemeki; Lowrey, Wilson Hugh; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
There is much discussion among media practitioners and scholars concerning the inclusion or exclusion of hyperlocal content in 21st century traditional newspapers and their websites. Thirty-four newspaper websites in rural Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi were studied using content analysis to determine the level of hyperlocal content used on the various traditional newspapers' website homepages. The analysis determined that approximately one-fifth of these newspapers' online space was devoted to hyperlocal content. The major findings from this analysis of the hyperlocal stories used on these homepages were the more heterogeneous the community in terms of geo-ethnicity, the less likely the newspaper's website will have comments, and the higher the education and income levels of the community, the higher the interactivity of the website. This study tested engagement and interactivity using reader comments, Facebook Likes, and interactivity tools offered. However, further testing is warranted in order to validate these conclusions, as the scope of this research did not include variables such as broadband availability, computer access, or computer literacy to determine how these phenomena, as they relate to engagement or interaction, affect the outcome.
Examining audience reactions to brand journalism
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Cole, James Thomas; Greer, Jennifer D.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
An experimental study was conducted to assess the audience's reaction to framing and attributed source cues in brand journalism, also referred to as custom content, custom publishing, or named for method of delivery (i.e. "customer magazines"). Given that establishing trust with customers, brand-building, and influencing purchase decisions are goals of brand journalism, this study examined the effect of commercial/branded or editorial/non-branded frames and use of corporate or peer customer sources on message credibility, attitude toward the brand, and purchase intent, with media savvy and involvement with the product as moderating factors. It was found that the editorial/non-branded frame had a positive effect on message credibility, while source cues alone had no direct effect on message credibility, attitude toward the brand, or purchase intent. However, involvement with the product emerged as a primary factor, having a greater effect on message credibility, attitude toward the brand, and purchase intent than frame or source cues as they were manipulated in this study. Further, involvement with the product exhibited significant interacting effects with source cues. Participants showing high involvement with the product were more likely to rate attitude toward the brand and purchase intent higher when information in brand journalism is attributed to a peer customer source, while participants showing low involvement with the product were more likely to rate attitude toward the brand and purchase intent higher when information in brand journalism is attributed to a corporate source.
How do sports organizations use social media to build relationships?: a content analysis of NBA clubs' Twitter use
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Wang, Yuan; Zhou, Shuhua; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Social media has been increasingly used by sports organizations to establish relationships with the public. This study explored the Twitter using practices of NBA clubs (N = 30) in the United States in building relationships with their publics during the 2013-14 season. Specifically, it focused on how these clubs used Twitter as a communication tool to build professional, personal, and community relationships through a content analysis of 5561 tweets on their official Twitter sites. The results demonstrated that sports organizations tended to use social media to develop professional relationships with fans via sharing information and promoting products. They utilized several types of communication tools such as retweets, public messages, hyperlinks, and hashtags, among which hashtags were used most frequently. Professional relationships could benefit more from hyperlinks while there could be greater benefit to personal relationships from public messages and retweets and to community relationships from hashtags and hyperlinks. Sports organizations should use these tools effectively to strengthen the professional, personal and community relationship with their publics.
In defense of democracy: exploring the process of identifying, monitoring, reporting, and narrating modern voting and election issues
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2020-12) Dugger, Hannah Katherine; Roberts, Mark C.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The 2018 midterm elections and the proper way to conduct elections during a national pandemic raise several questions about voting and election systems in this country. Advocates and politicians on the left claim republican politicians in multiple states made efforts to suppress votes during the 2018 midterm elections. Ballot purges in Georgia, ex-felon disenfranchisement in Florida, and the disenfranchisement of indigenous citizens in North Dakota are among the examples. Advocates and politicians on the right are concerned about the security and integrity of modern elections and voting issues, as these players raise concerns about identification laws, felon voting issues, and voter fraud. Journalists and journalism, acting as the watchdogs of democracy, play a unique role in reporting modern-day voting and election issues. Given its obscure nature, voting and election issues often go unnoticed until the press is alerted to its activity, thus adding more importance to the role of political journalists and agenda setters. Research suggests modern voter suppression and disenfranchisement is a device used by Republicans more than Democrats, which creates a challenge and a pathway for criticism for fair and unbiased journalism. Through a series of qualitative interviews, this study explores the process of identifying, reporting, and narrating voting and election issues in the United States and its relationship with the expectation of objective, advocacy, and fair journalism. It was revealed that while voting and election issues remain static as a generalized category, the details in covering, reporting, and narrating are dynamic. Using four journalists with varying backgrounds and a content analysis of their coverage solidified the demand for voting and election issues covered using conventional journalism or partisan-tinted coverage.
Individual, technological, socio-cultural factors affecting Facebook and Instagram use
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Kim, Bumsoo; Kim, Yonghwan; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This study explores the differences between Facebook and Instagram use by investigating the influence of technology attributes (visualizing elements, the friend recommendation algorithm, privacy settings, openness, perceived ease of use and usefulness), individual factors including innovativeness and motivations/gratifications (social interaction, entertainment, peeking, passing time, need for recognition) in using Facebook and Instagram, and socio-cultural factors (subjective norms, SNS culture) on the general use and use change of both sites. Whether and what kind of different characteristics of using the both platforms exist between younger and older generations were also examined. The findings of the current study indicate that individual, technological, and socio-cultural factors differently influenced individuals’ Facebook and Instagram use. Among the technology attributes, visualizing elements were positively related to Instagram use, and the friend recommendation algorithm was a positive predictor of using Facebook. In terms of the individual factors, while Facebook users were likely to utilize it to get a good reputation and to access it when they want to spend time alone, Instagram users tended to employ it for entertainment. SNS culture, which refers to using Facebook (or Instagram) because it is part of the culture of one’s generation, was the only socio-cultural factor that had a significant relationship with Facebook use. Generational differences of the proposed factors influencing Facebook and Instagram use were also found. More specifically, Instagram’s visualizing elements were the only significant predictor of use by younger generations; older people tend to use Facebook and Instagram for passing time and to fulfill their need for recognition. The findings of the current study expand the theoretical frameworks of the technology acceptance model (TAM), uses and gratifications (U&G), the theory of reasoned action (TRA), and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) by revealing how perceived ease of use and usefulness can differently activate the level and change of Facebook and Instagram use; which motivations/gratifications can significantly stimulate the two stages (general use and use change) of Facebook and Instagram use; and how subjective norms differently influenced level of using Facebook or Instagram. Further specific findings will be valuable assets for practical social media industries.
Is Facebook affecting your mood?: a study of personality and depression among college students
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Wang, Yujiao; Zhou, Shuhua; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This study examined whether the use of the social networking site, Facebook, is related to depressive moods among college students. The study used social comparison and SPAARS (Schematic, Propositional, Association, Analogical and Representation System) approach explaining the psychological processes that cause people to feel depressed. It aims to investigate the association between Facebook usage and depressive emotion due to different level of self-satisfaction and personalities among college students. A total of 213 college students completed an online questionnaire that assessed participants' levels of satisfaction, depressive emotions after Facebook use and their personality traits. Within the limitations of the study, results indicate that there is a moderate negative correlation between college students' levels of satisfaction and depressive emotions after Facebook use. For personality traits, neuroticism has a moderate and positive correlation with depressive emotion; conscientiousness and depressive emotions have moderate negative correlation and a weak negative correlation is found between extroversion, agreeableness, openness to new experiences and depressive emotion.
Lois Long, 1925-1939: playing Miss Jazz Age
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Qualls, Meredith Louise; Bunker, Matthew D.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This study demonstrate's how Lois Long's career at the New Yorker, which lasted 45 years, serves as evidence of Long's place in the annals of New Yorker history, past her initial success as a society writer. Her work, including the popular "Tables for Two" and "On and Off the Avenue" features, as well as her longevity with the magazine show Long was unique in that she outlasted many of the original New Yorker writers, eventually falling into a workhorse role rather than glorified writer. This paper uses Long's published work in the New Yorker and additional unpublished sources to provide depth to the story of Long's professional career and personal life, from 1925 to 1939. Going beyond her initial success as fashion critic and nightclub writer, it demonstrates how Long's career evolved as her own life and the society around her changed throughout the early twentieth century.
Mobile journalism and the professionalization of television news work
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Blankenship, Justin; Lowrey, Wilson Hugh; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This study examines the work habits of and news products produced by local television news journalists, specifically comparing the habits and products of collapsed-task "mobile journalists" and the non-collapsed task journalists who work within the traditional television news crew. The study used the case study format to make this comparison. Through direct observation, semi-structured in-depth interviews and an informal content analysis it applied the theoretical frameworks of professional control and organization structure to collapsed-task and non-collapsed task television news journalists. The variables under study and derived from that literature were expert knowledge, professional autonomy, routinization, technical quality and encroachment from outside professional groups. Findings suggest that the non-collapsed task journalists had a higher degree of expert knowledge and generated news products of higher technical quality. While the collapsed-task journalists believed they had a greater amount of professional control by personally performing more aspects of their occupation, routines and organizational limitations may remove much of that control. While a difference in encroachment could not be found in the news products themselves, observation suggests it may play a greater part in the origination of news products for collapsed-task journalists.
Narrative and frame in health communication: the influence of narrative transportation to promote detection behavior
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Hong, Yangsun; Zhou, Shuhua; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The purpose of thesis is to test two types of persuasive message strategies including narrative message type and message frame in health context and to investigate the potential interplay of those strategies when health message contain multiple persuasive strategies that combine various categories (e.g., gain-framed narrative message or loss-framed statistical evidence). In fact, the combination of strategies seems likely to intensify or diminish the effect of health message on persuasion. The results are congruent with the transportation theory. Narrative message produces higher transportation experience into the message than statistical evidence, and higher transportation yields positive attitude and intention toward skin cancer detection behaviors than low transportation. Moreover, the results also indicate that loss frame elicits no effect on attitude and intention toward skin cancer detection behaviors compared to gain frame. The findings support the meta-analyses of message frame literature, arguing that loss frame is only effective in promoting breast cancer detection behavior but not for other detection behaviors such as HIV test and blood test. This study is also designed to explore the possible moderating role of transportation in different message frame. It hypothesizes that for highly transported participants, loss frame will be more effective than gain frame in promoting positive attitude and intention to engage in detection behavior. The findings show that message frame has no effect for those who highly transported people.
Political persuasion on social media: A moderated moderation model of political discussion disagreement and civil reasoning
(Taylor & Francis, 2018) Gil de Zuniga, Homero; Barnidge, Matthew; Diehl, Trevor; University of Vienna; University Diego Portales; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; Central Michigan University
Social media and news use arguably contribute to the prevalence of contentious politics because individuals may express dissent through their social networks as they consume news. This study seeks to test whether individuals might be more open to political persuasion in this context, especially if they are exposed to political disagreement or discuss politics in a civil manner. Relying on survey data from the UK, results based on a moderated moderation model show that (a) social media news use predicts political persuasion on social media (direct effects) and, (b) discussion disagreement and civil reasoning moderate this relationship in two-way and three-way interactions.
Video games and violence: a content analysis of print advertisements and internet trailers
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Combs, Sarah Elizabeth; Zhou, Shuhua; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This study examined the level of violent content in video game advertisements and trailers. For the purposes of this study, violence was defined as an act intended to cause physical harm (Harris, 2004). Violent content was considered to fall into three different categories: weapons, violent actions, and violent words (Scharrer, 2004). The instances of each were coded, including the type of weapons and actions, and compiled to determine violent content along with race and gender of characters, as well as the genre and the rating and the content descriptors designated by the Electronic Software Ratings Board (ESRB). The print video game advertisements were selected from editions from two popular video game magazines published between 2007 and 2010. Each novel advertisement found in a magazine was included in the sample and the corresponding trailer for each game was downloaded from a website dedicated to video games. The resulting sample included 347 print advertisements and 260 trailers (n = 607). The data collected by this content analysis indicated that violence is prevalent in video games, 78.9% of the games included violent content. The genre and rating were each shown to have significant relationships with the number of violent words in the games; however the medium and the number of violent words were not related, indicating that game developers and advertisers rely heavily of exciting images to attract players when creating advertisements. The General Aggression Model, Social Learning Theory, and Cultivation Theory were used as a foundation for this study and indicated the dangers of a media diet that is heavy in violence. These three theories indicated that consuming media riddled with violence leads to an ominous worldview and to aggressive responses to social situation and hostile learned behaviors.

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