Coronel, Poulsen and Sweitzer have forthcoming paper in Human Communication Research

Shannon Poulsen

Jason Coronel

Matt Sweitzer

COPS faculty member Jason Coronel and COPS Ph.D. students Shannon Poulsen and Matt Sweitzer have a new paper forthcoming in Human Communication Research titled "Investigating the generation and spread of numerical misinformation: A combined eye movement monitoring and social transmission approach." Across two studies, they examined the role of schemas in the creation of numerical misinformation and how it can spread via person-to-person communication. They found that individuals misremember numerical information in a manner consistent with their schemas and person-to-person transmission can exacerbate these memory errors. These studies highlight the mechanisms supporting the generation and spread of numerical misinformation and demonstrate the utility of a multi-method approach in the study of misinformation. Congrats Jason, Shannon, and Matt!

Jacob Long on Two Award-Winning Conference Papers

COPS Ph.D. student Jacob Long had a very successful summer, with two papers winning awards at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in Toronto. His sole-authored paper won the Chaffee-McLeod Top Student Paper award in the Communication Theory and Methodology division.

Long, J. A. (2019, August). An approach for measuring partisan segregation in political media consumption. Paper presented at the 102nd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Mass Communication and Journalism, Toronto, ON.

And, a paper he co-authored was a Top 2 student paper in the Political Communication interest group (which has since been promoted to division status):

Jeong, M. S., Long, J. A., & Lavis, S. M. (2019, August). From political satire to political discussion: Satire talk as mediator and affinity for political humor as moderator. Paper presented at the 102nd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Mass Communication and Journalism, Toronto, ON.

These -- in conjunction with multiple 2018 and 2019 publications (Communication Research and Mass Communication & Society) and more on the way (in Journal of Communication) -- are a great way to start the academic job search year. Congrats Jacob!

Journal issue focuses on the "post-truth" era

If you're interested in misinformation, you may want to check out the December 2017 issue of the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.  Stephan Lewandowsky and colleagues wrote the lead article, "Beyond Misinformation", and invited several other scholars across a range of fields to comment on their work.  The result is a collection of 11 articles by 19 authors dealing with the question of how we "understand and cope with the 'post-truth' era". In my response, "The 'Echo Chamber' Distraction", I argue that we need to focus less on "echo chambers" and more on disinformation campaigns. Audiences aren't as fragmented as many people seem to think, but efforts to spread politically motivated falsehoods are evolving rapidly.

For the next 50 days, access to the article is free using this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1WD5w7spf36NAm

Neo article published in IJPOR

Congratulations to Rachel Neo on the (electronic) publication of her sole-authored article, "Favoritism or Animosity? Examining How SNS Network Homogeneity Influences Vote Choice via Affective Mechanisms" in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research. As the title suggests, the paper examines how online social network composition shapes citizens' feelings toward political candidates, and how this impacts vote choice.  Check it out here:

DOI: 10.1093/ijpor/edv035

Clementson paper accepted in Presidential Studies Quarterly

Congratulations to doctoral student David Clementson, who was recently notified that his paper "When does a Presidential Candidate seem Presidential and Trustworthy? Campaign Messages Through the Lens of Language Expectancy Theory" has been accepted for publication in Presidential Studies Quarterly. The manuscript is expected to appear in the March 2017 issue.

Song has Sole-Author Paper with Meta-Analayis of ERGM Results Accepted in Journal of Communication

Congratulations to Hyunjin Song, who recently had a sole-authored paper accepted for publication in Journal of Communication. The manuscript, "Uncovering the Structural Underpinnings of Political Discussion Networks: Evidence from an Exponential Random Graph Model," is one of the first such analyses published in communication, and almost certainly the first published that integrates 25 such analyses using meta-analysis techniques. Congrats Jin!

COPS at work

In a COPS session two years ago, Morgan Ellithorpe presented a project that she was working on with Lance Holbert and Angela Palmer-Wackerly.  An article based on that work has now been accepted for publication in Communication Studies in the fall.  Congratulations to all the authors!

Ellithorpe, M. E., Holbert, R. L., & Palmer-Wackerly, A. L. (2013). Procrastination and the shifting political media environment: An experimental study of media choice affecting a democratic outcome.Communication Studies, 64(5).

And for those of you still on the fence about presenting: this is just the most recent example of how COPS can help.  You can see more examples here.

Two new Journal of Communication papers

COPS is VERY well represented in the most recent issue of Journal of Communication (August 2013). The lead article, "Undermining the corrective effects of media-based political fact checking? The role of contextual cues and naive theory" is by Kelly Garrett, Erik Nisbet, and Emily Lynch (a doctoral student in OSU Political Science). Erik Nisbet, recent OSU Ph.D. Teresa Myers, OSU doctoral student Morgan Ellithorpe, and Sol Hart (from the unnamed university to the north) have another article, "Attitude change in competitive framing environments? Open-/closed-mindedness, framing effects, and climate change." Congrats -- way to fly the COPS flag!

OSU puts out news release about new COPS study in the Journal of Communication about Climate Change

The OSU Research Communications office put out a news release yesterday about a new study by current and former COPS members Erik Nisbet, Teresa Myers, and Morgan Ellithorpe (Sol Hart from University of Michigan is also a co-author). The study focuses upon competitive framing message environments, open-/closed-mindedness, and support for government intervention on climate change mitigation. The study is in press at Journal of Communication and is fully available online. The full release is available from the Research Communication website.

The citation and abstract appears below:

Nisbet, E.C., Hart, P.S., Myers, T., & Ellithorpe, M. (in press). Attitude change in competitive framing environments? Open/close-mindedness and framing effects about climate change. Journal of Communication.

Abstract: Framing scholarship on policy issues has primarily focused on how competitive message environments alter framing effects or how individual differences moderate the impact of frames. This study combines both of these focal areas by examining how individual open-/closed-mindedness moderates framing effects about climate change within competitive and noncompetitive framing contexts. Contrary to previous scholarship, our experimental study finds effects on attitudes in the competitive framing condition, but not the noncompetitive framing condition. The framing effects found in the competitive condition were contingent upon individual differences in open-/closed-mindedness. Analysis shows that individual open-/closed-mindedness influences framing effects in part by altering the effects of frame exposure on the perceived costs and benefits of government climate policies.

Harvard Journalism project highlights recent work by Weeks and Holbert

Today the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard profiled Brian and Lance's recent Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly article, "Predicting dissemination of news content in social media: A focus on reception, friending, and partisanship".  Each month the Journalism Lab publishes a summary of what its editors consider to be the most interesting new research about digital media.  Glad to see this work getting some well deserved attention!

Abstract:
Social media are an emerging news source, but questions remain regarding how citizens engage news content in this environment. This study focuses on social media news reception and friending a journalist/news organization as predictors of social media news dissemination. Secondary analysis of 2010 Pew data (N = 1,264) reveals reception and friending to be positive predictors of dissemination, and a reception-by-friending interaction is also evident. Partisanship moderates these relationships such that reception is a stronger predictor of dissemination among partisans, while the friending-dissemination link is evident for nonpartisans only. These results provide novel insights into citizens’ social media news experiences.

Forthcoming paper by COPS member

COPS member Jayeon "Janey" Lee and her fellow grad student Young-shin Lim just had a paper accepted at Mass Communication & Society.  Congratulations to both authors!

Lee, J. & Lim, Y. (in press). Who says what about whom? Young voters’ impression formation of political candidates on social-networking sites, Mass Communication & Society.

Recent peer-reviewed publications by COPS members

I asked COPS members to share with me what they've published recently.  The results are impressive: there are more than a dozen manuscripts, including five that will appear in flagship outlets. Congratulations to everyone for the great work.  (If I've missed something of yours, please let me know!).

Eveland, W. P., Jr. (in press; anticipated publication Sept. 2013). Linking social network analysis to the spiral of silence, coorientation, and political discussion: The intersection of political perceptions and political communication. In W. Donsbach, C. Salmon, & Y. Tsfati (Eds.), The spiral of silence: New perspectives on communication and public opinion. Routledge.

Eveland, W. P., Jr., & Garrett, R. K. (in press; anticipated publication 2013). Communication modalities and political knowledge. In K. Kenski & K. H. Jamieson (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of political communication.

Eveland, W. P., Jr., & Hutchens, M. J. (in press). The role of conversation in developing accurate political perceptions: A multilevel social network approach. Human Communication Research. (accepted April 2013)

Eveland, W. P., Jr., Hutchens, M. J., & Morey, A. C. (in press). Political network size: Micro and macro implications. Political Communication. (accepted April 2012)

Garrett, R. K., Carnahan, D., & Lynch, E. K. (2013). A turn toward avoidance?  Selective exposure to online political information, 2004-2008. Political Behavior, 35(1), 113-134. doi: 10.1007/s11109-011-9185-6

Garrett, R. K., Nisbet, E. C., & Lynch, E. K. (in press). Undermining the corrective effects of media-based political fact checking? The role of contextual cues and naïve theory. Journal of Communication. (accepted December 2012)

Garrett, R.K., & Weeks, B.E. (2013). The promise and peril of real-time corrections to political misperceptions. Proceedings of the ACM 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 1047-1058, New York: ACM.

Hayes, A. F., Matthes, J., & Eveland, W. P., Jr. (in press). Stimulating the quasi-statistical organ: Fear of social isolation motivates the quest for knowledge of the opinion climate. Communication Research. Available online 12/1/2011: DOI: 10.1177/0093650211428608.

Holbert, R.L., Weeks, B.E., & Esralew, S.E. (in press) Approaching the 2012 U.S. presidential election from a diversity of explanatory principles: Understanding, consistency, and hedonism. American Behavioral Scientist.

Knobloch-Westerwick, S. (2012). Selective exposure and reinforcement of attitudes and partisanship before a presidential election. Journal of Communication, 62, 628-642.

Knobloch-Westerwick, S. (in press). Selection, perception and processing of political messages. In C. Reinemann (Ed.), Political Communication (Vol. 18 of Handbook of Communication Sciences). Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin.

Knobloch-Westerwick, S., & Johnson, B. K. (in press). Selective exposure for better or worse: Its mediating role for online news’ impact on political participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. (accepted May 2012).

Lee, J. (2013). “You know how tough I am?” Discourse analysis of U. S. Midwestern Congresswomen's self-presentation, Discourse &Communication, 7(3)

Liu, Y. I., Shen, F., Eveland, W. P., Jr., & Dylko, I. (in press). The impact of news use and news content characteristics on political knowledge and participation. Mass Communication and Society. (accepted February 2013).

Pingree, R. J., Quenette, A. M., Tchernev, J. M. & Dickinson, T. (2013), Effects of media criticism on gatekeeping trust and implications for agenda setting. Journal of Communication, 63(2), 351–372. doi: 10.1111/jcom.12016

Weeks, B.E., & Holbert, R.L. (in press). Predicting dissemination of news content in social media: A focus on reception, friending, and partisanship. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.

Westerwick, A., Kleinman, S. B., & Knobloch-Westerwick, S. (in press). Turn a blind eye if you care: Impacts of attitude consistency, importance, and credibility on seeking of political information and implications for attitudes. Journal of Communication.

[Note that this list was amended on 4/10/13 and 4/15 to reflect several articles that I missed the first time.]

Recent publications by COPS members

Several COPS members have recently had manusripts accepted for publication.  Below are the citations and abstracts:

Eveland, W.P. & Kleinman, S. (in press). Comparing General and Political Discussion Networks Within Voluntary Organizations Using Social Network Analysis. Political Behavior

Abstract:
Political discussion networks are influenced by the opportunities for political interactions within our larger social environments and more general discussion networks. In this study we compare general and political discussion networks using full sociometric social network data from a probability sample of voluntary organizations –specifically, intact student activity groups from a large Midwest research university. We find that even within these “weak tie” voluntary associations, general discussion networks clearly constrain the characteristics of the political discussion networks. However, political discussion networks appear to be less dense and more likely to be broken up into disconnected components than the general discussion networks. But, general and political networks do not appear to differ in their structuring by perceptions of discussant knowledge.And, most interestingly, we find that on average neither general nor political discussionnetworks are characterized by political homogeneity.


Garrett, R. K., Carnahan, D., & Lynch, E. (In press). A turn toward avoidance?  Selective exposure to online political information, 2004-2008. Political Behavior

Abstract:Scholars warn that avoidance of attitude-discrepant political information is becoming increasingly common due in part to an ideologically fragmented online news environment that allows individuals to systematically eschew contact with ideas that differ from their own.  Data collected over a series of national RDD surveys conducted between 2004 and 2008 challenge this assertion, demonstrating that Americans’ use of attitude-consistent political sources is positively correlated with use of more attitudinally challenging sources.  This pattern holds over time and across different types of online outlets, and applies even among those most strongly committed to their political ideology, although the relationship is weaker for this group.  Implications for these findings are discussed.


Hayes, A. F., Matthes, J.,  & Eveland, W. P. (in press). Stimulating the quasi-statistical  organ: Fear of social isolation motivates the quest for knowledge of the  opinion climate. Communication Research

Abstract:
We tested an uninvestigated propositionfrom spiral of silence theory that fear of social isolation (FSI) prompts people to seek out information about the climate of public opinion. Taking atrait-based individual difference perspective, we develop and validate a measureof FSI that is less likely to produce the interpretational problems that plagueexisting measures.  Then, using data from 8 countries spread across four continents, we examine whether those who fear social isolation to a greater extent are more likely to attend to a particular source of information in the social environment about public opinion—mass media reports of public opinion polls.   Our results support spiral of silence theory’s prediction—FSI does appear to motivatepeople to ascertain what the public thinks. However, there may be some cultural boundaries to this process.  


Nisbet, E.C., Stoycheff, E., & Pearce, K. E., (in press). Demanding democracy online: a multi-level model of Internet use and citizen attitudes about democracy.  Journal of Communication.

Abstract:
A successful democracy requires citizens to prefer democratic governance over other political alternatives.  In this context, we examine role of the internet in promoting political change through socialization into pro-democracy attitudes.  Combining individual public opinion data from Africa and Asia with country-level indices, we test a multi-level model examining the relationship between internet penetration, individual internet use, and citizen demand for democracy across 28 countries.  We find internet use, but not national internet penetration, is associated with greater citizen commitment to democratic governance.  Furthermore, greater democratization and internet penetration moderates the relationship between internet use and demand for democracy.  Implications for understanding how ICT diffusion and internet use may be associated with citizen attitudes about democracy are discussed.

Highly cited works by COPS affiliates

Several COPS faculty and alumni are listed in Routledge Taylor & Francis's list of "Highly cited communication studies articles". The articles listed are among the top cited of all T&F journals, and the publisher is recognizing this accomplishment by providing free access to the works. Featured authors include Eveland, Hayes, Hoffman, and Hutchens. Congratulations!

The Quest for "Significance" in Social Science

Referred by a Monkey Cage post (prominent political science blog) I wanted to bring people's attention to a new article in the journal European Political Science critiquing how many social scientists search for and interpret "significance."

Determinants of Age in Europe: A Pooled Multilevel Nested Hierarchical Time-Series Cross-Sectional Model

Uchen Bezimenia, European Political Science (2011) 10, 86–91

Age is often found to be associated with a plenitude of socioeconomic, politico-administrative, biological and thanatological variables. Much less attention has been paid by scholars, however, to explaining ‘age’. In this paper we address this unfortunate scientific lacuna by developing a model of ‘age’ as a function of several factors suggested by (post)rational choice and social constructionist theories. Using state-of-the-art multilevel statistical techniques, our analysis allows the determinants of age to vary with the institutional characteristics of European countries. Our findings convincingly show that generalized trust in strangers, support for incumbent extremist political parties in provincial elections held in the month of January, and the percentage of overqualified women in the cafeterias of national parliaments are all statistically significant explanations of ‘age’. Our findings have obvious implications for conspiracy theorists, organizational advisors, spin doctors and ordinary charlatans.

Garrett published rumoring paper in Human Communication Research

Congrats to Kelly Garrett for his publication in the April 2011 issue of Human Communication Research entitled "Troubling Consequences of Online Political Rumoring." You can read the abstract here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2010.01401.x/abstract

ADDED BY KELLY:

Scientific American posted a short podcast on the study, too. Entertaining to hear the whole project distilled to 60-seconds.

New publications by COPS members

COPS members have several publications in print or in press this month. More details below:

Epstein, D., Nisbet, E. C. & Gillespie, T. (2011). Who's Responsible for the Digital Divide? Public Perceptions and Policy Implications. The Information Society: An International Journal, 27(2), 92-104. doi: 10.1080/01972243.2011.548695

Garrett, R. K. (2011), Troubling Consequences of Online Political Rumoring. Human Communication Research, 37: 255–274. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2010.01401.x

Holbert, L., Hmielowski, J., and Weeks, B. (in press). Clarifying Relations between Ideology and Ideologically-Oriented Cable TV News Use: A Case of Suppression. Communication Research.

Nisbet on anti-Mubarak protests in Egypt

Erik Nisbet and Teresa Myer’s recent publication in Political Communication (available here) prompted GWU professor of political science John Sides to reflect on Al Jazeera's role in the current situation in Egypt. The post on the Monkey Cage also includes a thoughtful response from Erik on this issue.

On a related note, Erik has also discussed Al Jazeera’s impact on the Egyptian protests in a post of his own on bigthink.com.

Knobloch-Westerwick and Kleinman work accepted at CR

Congratulations to COPS members Silivia Knobloch-Westerwick and Steve Kleinman for having their paper, “Pre-Election Selective Exposure: Confirmation Bias versus Informational Utility” accepted for publication at Communication Research. As many of you may remember, Steve and Silvia presented this work at COPS in April last year, and a provocative conversation followed.

Knobloch-Westerwick, S., & Kleinman, S. (in press). Pre-Election Selective Exposure: Confirmation Bias versus Informational Utility. Communication Research.

Nisbet and Myers Have Lead Article in the New Issue of Political Communication

Congratulations to Erik Nisbet and Teresa Myers for having their article as the lead paper in the new issue of Political Communication! For more details and access, see below:

Challenging the State: Transnational TV and Political Identity in the Middle East, Pages 347 - 366Authors: Erik C. Nisbet; Teresa A. MyersDOI: 10.1080/10584609.2010.516801Link: http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=1058-4609&volume=27&issue=4&spage=347&uno_jumptype=alert&uno_alerttype=new_issue_alert,email