Nojin Kwak
Biographic Data
| ID | 126736 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nojin Kwak |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nojin |
| FAMILY NAME | Kwak |
| SIGNATURE | KWAK N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 599 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
A Repertoire Approach to Studying Inequalities in Political Social Media Use
How a peripheral ideology becomes mainstream: Strategic performance, audience reaction, and news media amplification in the case of QAnon Twitter accounts
Social media platforms have been used by various actors to bypass traditional media gatekeepers to share messages, draw attention, and accumulate influence. We study how actors from peripheral groups gain influence on social media and how their social media behaviors evolve over time. Integrating online strategic performance and hybrid media literature, we hypothesize that peripheral groups perform group identities to spur social media audience r…
The Impact of Social Endorsement Cues and Manipulability Concerns on Perceptions of News Credibility
Social endorsement cues (SEC) offer information about how online users have engaged and evaluated online content. Some view that SEC thus can serve as useful heuristics when users evaluate the credibility of news content on social media. At the same time, SEC can be manipulated by a variety of commercial and political actors on social media. This study examines whether SEC influence individuals' credibility judgments of political news on social m…
Implications of online incidental and selective exposure for political emotions: Affective polarization during elections
The Internet and social media create an environment in which individuals can selectively approach information supporting their political worldviews while also being incidentally exposed to socially shared information that challenges their beliefs. These competing information consumption patterns may help explain whether and how digital media contribute to affective polarization (i.e. affect-based division between political groups). This study exa…
Sharing and Commenting Facilitate Political Learning on Facebook: Evidence From a Two-Wave Panel Study
Social media, as sources of political news and sites of political discussion, may be novel environments for political learning. Many early reports, however, failed to find that social media use promotes gains in political knowledge. Prior research has not yet fully explored the possibility based on the communication mediation model that exposure to political information on social media facilitates political expression, which may subsequently enco…
Now We’re Talking? Understanding the Interplay Between Online Selective and Incidental Exposure and Their Influence on Online Cross-Cutting Political Discussion
This study examines how two distinct patterns of online political information exposure—pro-attitudinal selective exposure and counter-attitudinal incidental exposure—can work together to influence engagement in online cross-cutting political discussion. Using panel data from a two-wave national survey conducted in 2012, we test two competing theoretical accounts. Findings suggest that incidental exposure affects selective exposure’s contribution …
When Social Media Get Political: How Perceptions of Open-Mindedness Influence Political Expression on Facebook
The use of social media for developing and maintaining relationships can offer a gateway for users to open up and express their political views. Building on previous literature on the 'spillover effect' in which relational use of social media motivates political expression, this study examines the circumstances under which the 'spillover' effect is more likely to occur. To do so, we measured respondents' (a) dialogic openness and (b) perception o…
Perceptions of Social Media for Politics: Testing the Slacktivism Hypothesis
Americans' views of political activity on social media range from exuberant to exasperated. But do perceptions of social media actually influence citizens' online and offline political behaviors as suggested by the so-called "Slacktivism hypothesis?" In the present study, we undertake a more careful examination of this question by testing a theoretical model in which perceiving participation on social media as an easy or impactful means of engagi…
Incidental Exposure, Selective Exposure, and Political Information Sharing: Integrating Online Exposure Patterns and Expression on Social Media
Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage with news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Using two-wave panel survey data collected in the United States, we examine the relationship between incidental and selective exposure and their consequent links to political inform…
From Online Disagreement to Offline Action: How Diverse Motivations for Using Social Media Can Increase Political Information Sharing and Catalyze Offline Political Participation
Amid growing concerns over the contentious tenor of online political discourse, scholars have begun to recognize that the social contexts and affordances provided by social media may present indirect pathways from online political discussion to offline political participation. Less work has addressed how users' motivations for using social media might influence such dynamics. In this study, we use two-wave panel survey data collected in the Unite…
Mobile Communication and Civic Life
The Affect Effect of Political Satire: Sarcastic Humor, Negative Emotions, and Political Participation
Building on the Orientation-Stimulus-Orientation-Response (O-S-O-R) framework, the current study proposes a mediation model wherein negative emotions serve as a second O. An online experiment using a representative sample demonstrated that consuming sarcastic political humor can indirectly increase the likelihood of political participation by eliciting negative emotions toward a government policy. In addition, we introduced education as a first O…
Political Involvement in “Mobilized” Society: The Interactive Relationships Among Mobile Communication, Network Characteristics, and Political Participation
In recent years, mobile communication has emerged as a channel for political discourse among network ties. Although some celebrate new possibilities for political life, others are concerned that it can lead to network insularity and political detachment. This study examined how mobile-mediated discourse with strong ties interacts with characteristics of those ties to predict levels of political participation. Findings revealed that mobile-based d…
Mobile communication and strong network ties: Shrinking or expanding spheres of public discourse
This study tests theoretical propositions that intensive mobile communication in small networks of like-minded strong ties hinders open dialogue with others. Using multi-wave panel data from a representative sample of adults in the US, the study found that reported levels of open dialogue decreased slightly with mobile-mediated political discussion in small and like-minded strong-tie networks. Interestingly, a more pronounced positive effect was …
Mobile Communication and Civil Society: Linking Patterns and Places of Use to Engagement with Others in Public
Peer Reviewed
Mobile Communication and Civic Life: Linking Patterns of Use to Civic and Political Engagement
This study employed the uses and gratifications approach to investigate how patterns of mobile phone use are linked to civic and political involvement. Findings reveal that use of the technology for information exchange and recreation are positive predictors of participation in civic life, however associations are moderated by mobile communication competence. Notably, individuals who report higher levels of comfort with mobile telephony and use i…
Mobile communication and social capital: An analysis of geographically differentiated usage patterns
Drawing from a representative sample of adults in the USA, this study explored the links between mobile communication and select indicators of social capital, while also accounting for usage patterns regarding the proximity of mobile contact. Overall, the findings show that mobile phone use intersects with proximity in distinctive ways that are related to spending leisure time with others in a face-to-face context and being active in organized gr…
Honey, I Shrunk the World! The Relation Between Internet Use and International Engagement
Scholars have long been interested in the overlap between electronic communication systems and international affairs. New communication systems have brought an expectation for greater information flow and connection across geographical boundaries when compared to the systems that came before them. This study continued this longstanding scholarly interest by examining how the Internet facilitates a sense of connection to the international communit…
Information and Expression in a Digital Age: Modeling Internet Effects on Civic Participation
This article examines the role of the Internet as a source of political information and a sphere for public expression. Informational media use, whether traditional news sources or online public affairs content, is expected to foster interpersonal political discussion and online civic messaging, contributing to increased civic participation. Using two-wave national panel survey data, three types of synchronous structural equation models are teste…
Talking Politics and Engaging Politics: An Examination of the Interactive Relationships Between Structural Features of Political Talk and Discussion Engagement
This study takes a process-oriented approach to understand the current status of political discussion research and identifies discussion engagement—discussion attention and integrative discussion—as an unexplored but important facet of political discussion. As a block, these two variables of discussion engagement independently accounted for significant variance in two criterion variables of political engagement, political knowledge and political …
Understanding the Relationship Between Communication and Political Knowledge: A Model Comparison Approach Using Panel Data
The purpose of this study was to examine more closely the assumptions of causality in research on communication and political knowledge. Although most communication theory suggests that communication causes learning, some have argued for the reverse causal direction or reciprocal causality. Others have confounded these concepts—in conjunction with political interest—in measures of political "sophistication" or "expertise." We collected panel data…
Observations on Estimation of Communication Effects on Political Knowledge and a Test of Intracommunication Mediation
Additional informationNotes on contributorsWilliam P. EvelandWilliam P. Eveland, Jr. is Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State UniversityAndrew F. HayesAndrew F. Hayes is Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State UniversityDhavan V. ShahDhavan V. Shah is Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-MadisonNojin KwakNojin Kwak is Assistant Professor in …
The Interplay of News Frames on Cognitive Complexity
This research considers how distinct news frames work in combination to influence information processing. It extends framing research grounded in prospect theory (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981) and attribution theory (Iyengar, 1991) to study conditional framing effects on associative memory. Using a 2 × 3 experimental design embedded within a probability survey (N= 379), tests examined the effects of two different frame dimensions—loss-gain and indivi…
Connecting, Trusting, and Participating: The Direct and Interactive Effects of Social Associations
Connecting, Trusting, and Participating: The Direct and Interactive Effects of Social Associations
In recent years, research has come to recognize that nonpolitical associations have unintended but important consequences for citizens’ participation in public affairs. Scholars theorize that these associational activities—embedded within social networks and sustained by confidence in the motives of others—encourage and facilitate participation in civic life. This study tests and broadens these theses by (1) assessing the relative impact of diffe…
Connecting" and "Disconnecting" With Civic Life: Patterns of Internet Use and the Production of Social Capital
This article explores the relationship between Internet use and the individual-level production of social capital. To do so, the authors adopt a motivational perspective to distinguish among types of Internet use when examining the factors predicting civic engagement, interpersonal trust, and life contentment. The predictive power of new media use is then analyzed relative to key demographic, contextual, and traditional media use variables using …
Understanding the Relationship Between Communication and Political Knowledge: A Model Comparison Approach Using Panel Data
The purpose of this study was to examine more closely the assumptions of causality in research on communication and political knowledge. Although most communication theory suggests that communication causes learning, some have argued for the reverse causal direction or reciprocal causality. Others have confounded these concepts—in conjunction with political interest—in measures of political "sophistication" or "expertise." We collected panel data…
Incidental Exposure, Selective Exposure, and Political Information Sharing: Integrating Online Exposure Patterns and Expression on Social Media
Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage with news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Using two-wave panel survey data collected in the United States, we examine the relationship between incidental and selective exposure and their consequent links to political inform…
Connecting, Trusting, and Participating: The Direct and Interactive Effects of Social Associations
In recent years, research has come to recognize that nonpolitical associations have unintended but important consequences for citizens’ participation in public affairs. Scholars theorize that these associational activities—embedded within social networks and sustained by confidence in the motives of others—encourage and facilitate participation in civic life. This study tests and broadens these theses by (1) assessing the relative impact of diffe…
Mobile Communication and Civil Society: Linking Patterns and Places of Use to Engagement with Others in Public
Peer Reviewed
The Affect Effect of Political Satire: Sarcastic Humor, Negative Emotions, and Political Participation
Building on the Orientation-Stimulus-Orientation-Response (O-S-O-R) framework, the current study proposes a mediation model wherein negative emotions serve as a second O. An online experiment using a representative sample demonstrated that consuming sarcastic political humor can indirectly increase the likelihood of political participation by eliciting negative emotions toward a government policy. In addition, we introduced education as a first O…
Perceptions of Social Media for Politics: Testing the Slacktivism Hypothesis
Americans' views of political activity on social media range from exuberant to exasperated. But do perceptions of social media actually influence citizens' online and offline political behaviors as suggested by the so-called "Slacktivism hypothesis?" In the present study, we undertake a more careful examination of this question by testing a theoretical model in which perceiving participation on social media as an easy or impactful means of engagi…
Mobile communication and social capital: An analysis of geographically differentiated usage patterns
Drawing from a representative sample of adults in the USA, this study explored the links between mobile communication and select indicators of social capital, while also accounting for usage patterns regarding the proximity of mobile contact. Overall, the findings show that mobile phone use intersects with proximity in distinctive ways that are related to spending leisure time with others in a face-to-face context and being active in organized gr…
Mobile communication and strong network ties: Shrinking or expanding spheres of public discourse
This study tests theoretical propositions that intensive mobile communication in small networks of like-minded strong ties hinders open dialogue with others. Using multi-wave panel data from a representative sample of adults in the US, the study found that reported levels of open dialogue decreased slightly with mobile-mediated political discussion in small and like-minded strong-tie networks. Interestingly, a more pronounced positive effect was …
Implications of online incidental and selective exposure for political emotions: Affective polarization during elections
The Internet and social media create an environment in which individuals can selectively approach information supporting their political worldviews while also being incidentally exposed to socially shared information that challenges their beliefs. These competing information consumption patterns may help explain whether and how digital media contribute to affective polarization (i.e. affect-based division between political groups). This study exa…
Observations on Estimation of Communication Effects on Political Knowledge and a Test of Intracommunication Mediation
Additional informationNotes on contributorsWilliam P. EvelandWilliam P. Eveland, Jr. is Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State UniversityAndrew F. HayesAndrew F. Hayes is Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State UniversityDhavan V. ShahDhavan V. Shah is Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-MadisonNojin KwakNojin Kwak is Assistant Professor in …
Honey, I Shrunk the World! The Relation Between Internet Use and International Engagement
Scholars have long been interested in the overlap between electronic communication systems and international affairs. New communication systems have brought an expectation for greater information flow and connection across geographical boundaries when compared to the systems that came before them. This study continued this longstanding scholarly interest by examining how the Internet facilitates a sense of connection to the international communit…
Now We’re Talking? Understanding the Interplay Between Online Selective and Incidental Exposure and Their Influence on Online Cross-Cutting Political Discussion
This study examines how two distinct patterns of online political information exposure—pro-attitudinal selective exposure and counter-attitudinal incidental exposure—can work together to influence engagement in online cross-cutting political discussion. Using panel data from a two-wave national survey conducted in 2012, we test two competing theoretical accounts. Findings suggest that incidental exposure affects selective exposure’s contribution …
From Online Disagreement to Offline Action: How Diverse Motivations for Using Social Media Can Increase Political Information Sharing and Catalyze Offline Political Participation
Amid growing concerns over the contentious tenor of online political discourse, scholars have begun to recognize that the social contexts and affordances provided by social media may present indirect pathways from online political discussion to offline political participation. Less work has addressed how users' motivations for using social media might influence such dynamics. In this study, we use two-wave panel survey data collected in the Unite…
A Repertoire Approach to Studying Inequalities in Political Social Media Use
How a peripheral ideology becomes mainstream: Strategic performance, audience reaction, and news media amplification in the case of QAnon Twitter accounts
Social media platforms have been used by various actors to bypass traditional media gatekeepers to share messages, draw attention, and accumulate influence. We study how actors from peripheral groups gain influence on social media and how their social media behaviors evolve over time. Integrating online strategic performance and hybrid media literature, we hypothesize that peripheral groups perform group identities to spur social media audience r…
Connecting, Trusting, and Participating: The Direct and Interactive Effects of Social Associations
Revisiting the Knowledge Gap Hypothesis: Education, Motivation, and Media Use
The findings of this study support the significance of motivational variables and media use in modifying the relationship between education and knowledge acquisition. People's behavioral involvement in the 1992 presidential campaign influenced the knowledge gap between education groups such that the gap was significantly smaller among those with a higher level of involvement. Also, respondents' television news viewing during the campaign signific…
The Roles of the Media and Mediated Opinion Leadership in the Public Opinion Process: A Content Analysis of a Political Incident in Korea
This study analyzed the content of newspapers regarding a political incident in Korea in which the government, yielding to public demand, reversed its initial policy position. Proposing the significance of alternative media and societal opinion leaders in helping public opinion effect this policy reversal, this study compared the coverage of mainstream and alternative newspapers and assessed the potential influence of the societal opinion leaders…
Connecting" and "Disconnecting" With Civic Life: Patterns of Internet Use and the Production of Social Capital
This article explores the relationship between Internet use and the individual-level production of social capital. To do so, the authors adopt a motivational perspective to distinguish among types of Internet use when examining the factors predicting civic engagement, interpersonal trust, and life contentment. The predictive power of new media use is then analyzed relative to key demographic, contextual, and traditional media use variables using …
Assessing Causality in the Cognitive Mediation Model: A Panel Study of Motivations, Information Processing, and Learning During Campaign 2000
This two-wave national panel study was designed to test the causal claims of the “cognitive mediation model.” The data indicate strong support for the following causal relationships predicted by the model: (a) surveillance motivations influence information processing, (b) information processing influences knowledge, and (c) motivations influence knowledge only indirectly through information processing. However, additional analyses demonstrated th…
Environmental Concern, Patterns of Television Viewing, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Integrating Models of Media Consumption and Effects
This study merges insights from cultivation and uses and gratifications to examine the relationship between environmental concern, five forms of television viewing, and pro-environmental behaviors. This research considers both the direct effects of various forms of television viewing and their potential mediating roles in the relationship between environmental attitudes and behaviors. Analysis of 7999 and 2000 DDB Life Style Study data reveals th…
A Multilevel Approach to Civic Participation: Individual Length of Residence, Neighborhood Residential Stability, and Their Interactive Effects With Media Use
This study employed Sampson’s multilevel system model to investigate how individual-and neighborhood-level residential characteristics are related to individuals’ civic participation. Furthermore, this study examined whether the effects of communication variables on civic participation vary depending on these residence-related factors. The findings show the significant impacts of residential variables, individual length of residence and neighborh…
Political Implications of Prime-Time Drama and Sitcom Use: Genres of Representation and Opinions Concerning Women's Rights
Scholars studying the content of televised entertainment programming have long argued for a relationship between exposure to sexist media representations of women and opinions concerning women's status in society, yet research has rarely examined prime-time television audiences and their sociopolitical opinions concerning women's rights. To explore these relationships, we engaged in a secondary analysis of the 1997, 1998, and 1999 DDB Life Style …
The Interplay of News Frames on Cognitive Complexity
This research considers how distinct news frames work in combination to influence information processing. It extends framing research grounded in prospect theory (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981) and attribution theory (Iyengar, 1991) to study conditional framing effects on associative memory. Using a 2 × 3 experimental design embedded within a probability survey (N= 379), tests examined the effects of two different frame dimensions—loss-gain and indivi…
Connecting, Trusting, and Participating: The Direct and Interactive Effects of Social Associations
Connecting, Trusting, and Participating: The Direct and Interactive Effects of Social Associations
In recent years, research has come to recognize that nonpolitical associations have unintended but important consequences for citizens’ participation in public affairs. Scholars theorize that these associational activities—embedded within social networks and sustained by confidence in the motives of others—encourage and facilitate participation in civic life. This study tests and broadens these theses by (1) assessing the relative impact of diffe…
Information and Expression in a Digital Age: Modeling Internet Effects on Civic Participation
This article examines the role of the Internet as a source of political information and a sphere for public expression. Informational media use, whether traditional news sources or online public affairs content, is expected to foster interpersonal political discussion and online civic messaging, contributing to increased civic participation. Using two-wave national panel survey data, three types of synchronous structural equation models are teste…
Talking Politics and Engaging Politics: An Examination of the Interactive Relationships Between Structural Features of Political Talk and Discussion Engagement
This study takes a process-oriented approach to understand the current status of political discussion research and identifies discussion engagement—discussion attention and integrative discussion—as an unexplored but important facet of political discussion. As a block, these two variables of discussion engagement independently accounted for significant variance in two criterion variables of political engagement, political knowledge and political …
Understanding the Relationship Between Communication and Political Knowledge: A Model Comparison Approach Using Panel Data
The purpose of this study was to examine more closely the assumptions of causality in research on communication and political knowledge. Although most communication theory suggests that communication causes learning, some have argued for the reverse causal direction or reciprocal causality. Others have confounded these concepts—in conjunction with political interest—in measures of political "sophistication" or "expertise." We collected panel data…
Observations on Estimation of Communication Effects on Political Knowledge and a Test of Intracommunication Mediation
Additional informationNotes on contributorsWilliam P. EvelandWilliam P. Eveland, Jr. is Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State UniversityAndrew F. HayesAndrew F. Hayes is Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State UniversityDhavan V. ShahDhavan V. Shah is Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-MadisonNojin KwakNojin Kwak is Assistant Professor in …
Honey, I Shrunk the World! The Relation Between Internet Use and International Engagement
Scholars have long been interested in the overlap between electronic communication systems and international affairs. New communication systems have brought an expectation for greater information flow and connection across geographical boundaries when compared to the systems that came before them. This study continued this longstanding scholarly interest by examining how the Internet facilitates a sense of connection to the international communit…
Mobile Communication and Civic Life: Linking Patterns of Use to Civic and Political Engagement
This study employed the uses and gratifications approach to investigate how patterns of mobile phone use are linked to civic and political involvement. Findings reveal that use of the technology for information exchange and recreation are positive predictors of participation in civic life, however associations are moderated by mobile communication competence. Notably, individuals who report higher levels of comfort with mobile telephony and use i…
Mobile communication and social capital: An analysis of geographically differentiated usage patterns
Drawing from a representative sample of adults in the USA, this study explored the links between mobile communication and select indicators of social capital, while also accounting for usage patterns regarding the proximity of mobile contact. Overall, the findings show that mobile phone use intersects with proximity in distinctive ways that are related to spending leisure time with others in a face-to-face context and being active in organized gr…
Political Involvement in “Mobilized” Society: The Interactive Relationships Among Mobile Communication, Network Characteristics, and Political Participation
In recent years, mobile communication has emerged as a channel for political discourse among network ties. Although some celebrate new possibilities for political life, others are concerned that it can lead to network insularity and political detachment. This study examined how mobile-mediated discourse with strong ties interacts with characteristics of those ties to predict levels of political participation. Findings revealed that mobile-based d…
Mobile communication and strong network ties: Shrinking or expanding spheres of public discourse
This study tests theoretical propositions that intensive mobile communication in small networks of like-minded strong ties hinders open dialogue with others. Using multi-wave panel data from a representative sample of adults in the US, the study found that reported levels of open dialogue decreased slightly with mobile-mediated political discussion in small and like-minded strong-tie networks. Interestingly, a more pronounced positive effect was …
Mobile Communication and Civil Society: Linking Patterns and Places of Use to Engagement with Others in Public
Peer Reviewed
The Affect Effect of Political Satire: Sarcastic Humor, Negative Emotions, and Political Participation
Building on the Orientation-Stimulus-Orientation-Response (O-S-O-R) framework, the current study proposes a mediation model wherein negative emotions serve as a second O. An online experiment using a representative sample demonstrated that consuming sarcastic political humor can indirectly increase the likelihood of political participation by eliciting negative emotions toward a government policy. In addition, we introduced education as a first O…
Mobile Communication and Civic Life
Incidental Exposure, Selective Exposure, and Political Information Sharing: Integrating Online Exposure Patterns and Expression on Social Media
Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage with news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Using two-wave panel survey data collected in the United States, we examine the relationship between incidental and selective exposure and their consequent links to political inform…
From Online Disagreement to Offline Action: How Diverse Motivations for Using Social Media Can Increase Political Information Sharing and Catalyze Offline Political Participation
Amid growing concerns over the contentious tenor of online political discourse, scholars have begun to recognize that the social contexts and affordances provided by social media may present indirect pathways from online political discussion to offline political participation. Less work has addressed how users' motivations for using social media might influence such dynamics. In this study, we use two-wave panel survey data collected in the Unite…
Perceptions of Social Media for Politics: Testing the Slacktivism Hypothesis
Americans' views of political activity on social media range from exuberant to exasperated. But do perceptions of social media actually influence citizens' online and offline political behaviors as suggested by the so-called "Slacktivism hypothesis?" In the present study, we undertake a more careful examination of this question by testing a theoretical model in which perceiving participation on social media as an easy or impactful means of engagi…
Political science (29 works) · Social Media and Politics (28 works) · Psychology (24 works) · Politics (23 works) · Social Psychology (22 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Law (14 works) · Public relations (13 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works)