Star Search
The Rise of Fame: An Historical Content Analysis
Yalda Uhls & Patricia Greenfield
Cyberpsychology, June 2011
Abstract:
Recent proliferation of TV programming for the tween audience is supported on the Internet with advertising, fan clubs, and other online communities. These Internet tools expand TV's potential influence on human development. Yet little is known about the kinds of values these shows portray. To explore this issue, a new method for conducting content analysis was developed; it used personality indices to measure value priorities and desire for fame in TV programming. The goal was to document historical change in the values communicated to tween audiences, age 9-11, who are major media consumers and whose values are still being formed. We analyzed the top two tween TV shows in the U.S. once a decade over a time span of 50 years, from 1967 through 2007. Greenfield's (2009a) theory of social change and human development served as the theoretical framework; it views technology, as well as urban residence, formal education, and wealth, as promoting individualistic values while diminishing communitarian or familistic ones. Fame, an individualistic value, was judged the top value in the shows of 2007, up from number fifteen (out of sixteen) in most of the prior decades. In contrast, community feeling was eleventh in 2007, down from first or second place in all prior decades. According to the theory, a variety of sociodemographic shifts, manifest in census data, could be causing these changes; however, because social change in the U.S. between 1997 and 2007 centered on the expansion of communication technologies, we hypothesize that the sudden value shift in this period is technology driven.
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Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips
Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu & Daniel Wegner
Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger. No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want. We can "Google" the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue. The results of four studies suggest that when faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers and that when people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.
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A Face for Radio? How Viewers and Listeners Reacted Differently to the Third Leaders' Debate in 2010
Mark Shephard & Robert Johns
British Journal of Politics & International Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
Neil Kinnock expressed scepticism about Gordon Brown's likely showing in the 2010 election debates, suggesting that the Labour leader had a ‘radio face'. We report an experiment in which students were split randomly between audio and video conditions for the third debate. As Kinnock predicted, Gordon Brown was more often proclaimed the winner by listeners. Nick Clegg, not David Cameron, benefited most from television. These differences were statistically significant despite a small sample (n = 63). We test three explanations for Clegg's advantage: (i) that television boosts the salience of certain traits (notably attractiveness); (ii) that television boosts the importance of ‘style' over ‘substance'; (iii) that listeners form judgements based on performance throughout the debate, while viewers are disproportionately influenced by memorable incidents or remarks. There is evidence supporting all three explanations.
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Does the Effect of Exposure to TV Sex on Adolescent Sexual Behavior Vary by Genre?
Jeffrey Gottfried et al.
Communication Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using the Integrated Model of Behavioral Prediction, this study examines the effects of exposure to sexual content on television by genre, specifically looking at comedy, drama, cartoon, and reality programs, on adolescents' sex-related cognitions and behaviors. Additionally, we compared the amount and explicitness of sexual content as well as the frequency of risk and responsibility messages in these four genres. Findings show that overall exposure to sexual content on television was not related to teens' engagement in sexual intercourse the following year. When examined by genre, exposure to sexual content in comedies was positively associated while exposure to sexual content in dramas was negatively associated with attitudes regarding sex, perceived normative pressure, and ultimately engaging in sex 1 year later. Implications of adolescent exposure to various types of content and for using genre categories to examine exposure and effects are discussed.
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Jazz Consumption Among African Americans from 1982 to 2008
Roderick Graham
Journal of Black Studies, September 2011, Pages 993-1018
Abstract:
This study sought to answer two questions. First, who within the African American community is consuming jazz music? Second, are African American jazz consumers cultural snobs or cultural omnivores? Nationally representative data sets from the Cultural Policy and National Data Archives for the years 1982, 1992, 2002, and 2008 were used to answer these questions. Using classification and regression tree analysis and binary logistic regression, the author draws several conclusions. First, African American jazz consumers are educated and urban. Furthermore, since 1982, the level of education associated with the jazz consumer has increased. Second, African American jazz listeners are omnivores who reject rap. It is suggested that this particular consumption pattern reflects a form of segmented assimilation in which middle-class African Americans consume jazz in order to retain their racial heritage but reject rap in order to distance themselves from working- and lower-class African Americans.
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Gender and Race Portrayals on Spanish-Language Television
Rocío Rivadeneyra
Sex Roles, August 2011, Pages 208-222
Abstract:
Gender and racial stereotypes continue to permeate our society and one context in which these stereotypes are perpetuated are the media. Although we have a history of content analysis of gender and racial portrayals on English-language television aired in the U.S., few systematic analyses have been conducted on Spanish-language television that airs in the same country. Our team of coders analyzed 466 characters and 481 2-minute intervals on 19 episodes of Spanish-language soap operas or telenovelas that aired in the Los Angeles broadcast area of the U.S. in the summer of 2002. Telenovelas were the programming type selected as they make up the bulk of Spanish-language network television in the U.S. The programs were coded in terms of how gender and race are presented on these programs by first coding the characteristics of speaking characters (including their race and gender) and then coding what actions these characters displayed in 2-minute intervals. Although females and males were represented in equal numbers, gender stereotypes abound. Physical appearance and nurturing roles were more likely to be the focus for female characters while occupational roles were more likely to be the focus for male characters. In terms of race, the overwhelming majority of characters were light-skinned and characters with darker skin were portrayed in extremes and more sexualized. These representations replicate some of the same stereotypes found on English-language television with some notable differences in terms of number of women represented.
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Mariska Kleemans et al.
Communication Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study aimed at answering the question whether preferences for negative content and a tabloid production style in television news stories vary with different age groups and gender. An experiment with 288 participants was conducted. As expected, results showed that age and gender moderated the influence of negative content and tabloid packaging on the viewers' preferences. Compared with middle-aged and older viewers, young viewers had a stronger preference for negative content rather than neutral content. Preferences for tabloid packaging rather than standard packaging were stronger for men than for women.
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Guy Vitaglione
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
To assess the impact of televised, competitive, dangerous automobile racing (NASCAR) mass media on viewers' driving behaviors, all automobile accidents and injuries as a result of aggressive driving on file at the West Virginia Division of Highways for the years 2003 through 2006 were subjected to a regression analysis controlling for confounding variables, such as weather and road conditions. While the number of accidents declined on the day of the televised events, the number of accidents and injuries increased 5 days following the events. A priming theory of mass-media influence is discussed.
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Discoveries of fakes: Their impact on the art market
Fabian Bocart & Kim Oosterlinck
Economics Letters, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper shows that before (after) fakes' discoveries, artworks are less (more) likely to be sold through Sotheby's or Christie's. Prices only react negatively with a lag, suggesting that sellers try to postpone their sales as long as possible.
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Asja Maass et ak,
Journal of Media Psychology, Spring 2011, Pages 65-76
Abstract:
It has often been shown that the amount of media use is negatively related to cognitive outcomes. The more time spent on media the poorer cognitive performance is. This association has mainly been found for general-audience, violent, and action-loaded contents but not for educational contents. Typically, long-term-explanations like the time-displacement hypothesis are considered to account for this relation, although this cannot fully explain the association. Additionally short-term explanations should be considered, since it can be expected that media-induced stress can impair information processing. The present study compares short-term effects regarding memory performance and the ability to concentrate, using four different experimental conditions (high- vs. low-arousing films and video games). It was also examined if the experienced level of stress mediates group differences and if habitual media, habitual use of age-restricted contents or the trait sensation seeking moderate this mediation. Participants consisted of N = 117 university students. They were asked to learn written items before media use and to recall these after having used the media. Further, the ability to concentrate was measured. Experimental groups differed with regard to the cognitive outcome measures after media use. A significant univariate difference was found for high- vs. low-arousing contents in general (independent of type of media), the high-arousing content leading to poorer ability to concentrate after media use. The expected mediating and moderating effects are not supported. The study yields evidence that short-term mechanisms might play a role in explaining the negative correlations between media use and cognitive performance.
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Samy Alim, Jooyoung Lee & Lauren Mason Carris
Discourse & Society, July 2011, Pages 422-439
Abstract:
This article shows how participants in freestyle rap battles coproduce and contest hip hop as a black space. Through discourse analysis of long-term ethnographic fieldwork at an open mic venue in Los Angeles, we show how black normativity is co-constructed and sometimes challenged by non-black emcees and audience members. Specifically, we examine videotaped data of verbal artistic duels between a black and a Latino emcee, analyzing instances in which the black emcee draws on stereotypes of Mexicans to racialize the Latino emcee. We show how the Latino emcee sometimes participates in his own racialization, while, in other instances, he opposes this process with the support of the audience. This multiparty coproduction and contestation of black normativity highlights the fact that the normative status of particular social identities across sociocultural contexts cannot be seen as given, but rather, as constantly challenged and maintained by invested actors.