{"title":"\"They Are Wallowing in Luxury, but Complain About the Struggles of Lockdown\": A Field Study of Audiences' Responses to Celebrity COVID-19 Posts","authors":"Gaëlle Ouvrein, H. Vandebosch, C. D. Backer","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000344","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Many people are fascinated by celebrities and like to follow them and leave positive comments online about the luxurious lives they lead. There are doubts and concerns, however, about whether celebrity posts regarding personal experiences and advice generate positive responses when their audience is in a situation of chronic stress, such as during a pandemic. On the basis of a field study of real celebrity COVID-19 Instagram posts, this study tested a model for exploring the role of both contextual (i.e., references to luxury in celebrity posts) and individual (i.e., upward social comparison orientation [SCO] and attitudes toward the celebrity) factors in explaining how audiences respond emotionally and behaviorally (i.e., commenting) to celebrity posts during a stressful period. The results indicated that the audience’s emotional and behavioral responses were more negative toward posts with more cues of luxury. SCO seems to moderate these effects, indicating that upward SCO based on these cues can motivate and support to a certain level, but switches to negative effects once the focus on luxury becomes too strong. The results regarding attitudes toward the celebrities behind the messages confirmed the powerful role of this variable during chronic stress, establishing a link between more positive attitudes and more positive emotional responses (amusement and inspiration). These results offer some first exploratory insights into the role of celebrity representations during a global period of stress, which could lay the basis for future experimental research on this topic.","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134098195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding Mechanisms of Media Use for the Social Sharing of Emotion: The Role of Media Affordances and Habitual Media Use","authors":"Mina Choi, Catalina L. Toma","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000301","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The social sharing of emotion is the process of communicating with others about one’s significant emotional experiences. Recent research has shown that interpersonal media such as texting, voice calling, and social network site posts are widely used for social sharing, yet it has not investigated how and why people use these media. This article takes on the task of investigating the mechanism responsible for media selection for the first instance of social sharing. A survey of undergraduates ( N = 227) shows that respondents’ media use for sharing positive and negative events was driven by their perceptions of media affordances and by their habitual media use with the target of their disclosure. For positive events, respondents articulated preferences for accessibility, while for negative events, they preferred bandwidth and privacy affordances. Habitual media use was the strongest predictor of media use for social sharing, but the perceived importance of these affordances predicted media use above and beyond media habits. These findings extend the social-sharing framework and the literature on media selection in social contexts.","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126529873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kelsey Prena, D. Molina, Vilesha Waller, Hu Cheng, Sharlene D. Newman
{"title":"Using Neuroimaging Techniques to Link Game Rewards to Memory Through Activity in the Hippocampus","authors":"Kelsey Prena, D. Molina, Vilesha Waller, Hu Cheng, Sharlene D. Newman","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000343","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The purpose of this study was to better understand effects of video game rewards on information processing using neuroimaging techniques. Excitation transfer theory, with the limited capacity model of motivated mediated messages, was used to predict that game rewards (administered through goal-directed spatial decision-making demands) will increase hippocampal activity. Activity will remain heightened in a subsequent declarative memory task. It was also predicted that heightened hippocampal activity during encoding will result in better recall after a 25-min delay. Both hypotheses were supported. Participants who played the goal-directed spatial decision-making game experienced greater hippocampal activation during the encoding phase of the memory task. And they demonstrated better recall for the encoded information after the delay. There was also a negative correlation between hippocampal activation and a primary inhibitory neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid. These results suggest that goal-directed spatial decision-making mechanics can be important for facilitating hippocampal activation and declarative memory. They stress the need for future research to consider how these mechanics could be implemented in games for learning or as a potential intervention technique for those with memory impairments.","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"184 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123179315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovating the Media Psychology of Interpretation, Identity, Interactivity, and Intersectionality","authors":"N. Bowman, Emily Bohaty","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000345","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128286728","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Riles, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz
{"title":"Theory Development and Evaluation Within a Critical Media Effects Framework: An Intersectional Identity Approach to Media Psychology","authors":"J. Riles, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000339","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000339","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Investigating the role of identity in mediated experiences involves a great deal of complexity. However, media psychologists all too often explore the antecedents and consequences of identity in ways that less than optimally grapple with this complexity. In this essay, we build on the critical media effects (CME) approach to offer innovative ways to theorize about intersectionality within media psychology scholarship. We apply and elaborate on an intersectional approach to identity within media psychology to advance our understanding of media experiences within three key areas: media selectivity, media use, and media effects. We provide recommendations and salient examples for using critical media effects theorizing to examine intersectionality and better realize the complex dynamism of social identity.","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132239423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Media Psychology of Boredom and Mobile Media Use: Theoretical and Methodological Innovations","authors":"K. Poels, K. Rudnicki, H. Vandebosch","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000340","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Boredom is a prevalent and relevant, yet understudied, negative emotion in the field of media psychology. This paper proposes novel theoretical foundations to study boredom as an emotion and its related regulation strategies in the context of mobile media. Due to their pervasive nature, mobile media allow for boredom regulation via passive and (inter)active exposure to a wide variety of media contents. It is still unclear how and through which processes mobile media provide successful boredom regulation. This paper first describes the existing scarce and mostly older literature on boredom from the field of media psychology and links this to recent insights from general psychology with as its core the meaning and attentional components (MAC) model ( Westgate & Wilson, 2018 ). It then integrates media psychology predictions for mobile media into the MAC model and identifies gaps and opportunities to be tackled in future media psychology studies, by also taking into account the broader boredom findings from within general psychology, for example, those focusing on the meaning component. Finally, the paper provides a summary of the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms giving rise to boredom and proposes methodological innovations for studying the research questions that are still left unanswered. The aim is to inspire future media psychology research on boredom as a highly relevant emotional state and how boredom regulation through mobile media use for can be both a challenge and an opportunity for individuals’ well-being.","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"224 13","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120980402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
N. Wong, Zachary B. Massey, Juliana L. Barbarti, E. Bessarabova, John Banas
{"title":"Theorizing Prejudice Reduction via Mediated Intergroup Contact: Extending the Intergroup Contact Theory to Media Contexts","authors":"N. Wong, Zachary B. Massey, Juliana L. Barbarti, E. Bessarabova, John Banas","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000338","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000338","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The current paper describes an effort to develop an integrated theory – integrated mediated intergroup contact (IMIC) model – to account for the two types of mediated intergroup contact (parasocial and vicarious) that have been shown to help with prejudice reduction. To this end, our model applies concepts from intergroup contact theory, parasocial and vicarious research, and narrative transportation theory. The present research expands our theoretical understanding of how entertainment media can function as a tool for reducing prejudice toward various outgroups. The IMIC model accounts for the effects of the two types of mediated contact – parasocial and vicarious – and delineates the process of prejudice reduction.","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114286602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Cognitive Processing Framework for Media Interpretation","authors":"D. Ewoldsen, Jennifer Hoewe, Sarah Grady","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000326","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000326","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The same media content can be interpreted by different people in radically different ways. We propose a framework that considers both the cognitive processes and the associated mental representations implicated in the interpretation of media content. The foundation of this argument stems from a constraint satisfaction approach to coherence, and it explains the dynamic relationship between media content and media consumers’ processing and interpreting of that content. By integrating parallel constraint satisfaction and coherence with reflective imaginative involvement, we present an explanation of how people interpret media stories and how they may engage with these stories in the future. We believe this framework has significant implications for media scholars interested in message processing and effects.","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117145008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do We Judge Fiction by the Author's Gender?","authors":"C. Ivanski, S. Humphries, K. Dalen-Oskam, R. Mar","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000319","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Female authors of fiction often perceive themselves to be undervalued in relation to their male counterparts. What is not clear is whether this preference for male authors comes from readers or publishers. Two pre-registered studies examined how university students evaluated book passages attributed to either male or female authors, and investigated whether negative evaluations of romance novels are based on their association with women. In Study 1, participants read identical passages attributed to either male or female authors and evaluated them. Study 2 extended this work by adding attributions of genre: either romance or literary fiction. Linear mixed-effects modeling and Bayesian analyses were employed to analyze these data. Study 1 demonstrated little preference for books attributed to males over females and Bayesian analyses confirmed support for the null in most cases. The results of Study 2 similarly suggested that author gender and genre attributions do not have a strong influence on evaluations.","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123951908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Enjoyable Story, a Persuasive Story: Exploring Narrative Enjoyment in Narrative Persuasion","authors":"Tae Kyoung Lee, H. Kim","doi":"10.1027/1864-1105/a000332","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000332","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Applying disposition theory to narrative persuasion, this study examined how audience members’ enjoyment of a narrative promotes persuasion differently than transportation and identification. In a 2 (affective disposition: liked vs. disliked story character) × 2 (framing: gain vs. loss framed story) between-subject experiment, participants ( N = 295) read a story in which a liked or disliked character has either a positive outcome (a gain frame) or a negative outcome (a loss frame) dependent on the story character’s engagement in sun protection behaviors. Consistent with disposition theory, participants enjoyed the story more when a liked character was in a gain-framed (vs. loss-framed) narrative; however, no framing effect was found for a disliked character. This interactive effect on enjoyment, in turn, mediated participants’ intentions to engage in sun protection behaviors. Affective disposition and framing independently influenced transportation and identification. Transportation mediated the effect of affective disposition on behavioral intention, but identification did not. This study demonstrates distinctive narrative conditions that prompt enjoyment, transportation, and identification in different ways and, in turn, lead to persuasive effects.","PeriodicalId":366104,"journal":{"name":"J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl.","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130374540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}