R L Holbert
Biographic Data
| ID | 807398 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R L Holbert |
| GIVEN NAMES | R L |
| FAMILY NAME | Holbert |
| SIGNATURE | HOLBERT R L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Temple University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8046-1058 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 64 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 907 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 64 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
From Punchlines to Punches: A Meta-Analysis of the Persuasive Effects of Horatian and Juvenalian Political Satires
A meta-analysis evaluated the persuasive effects of political satire and how such effects may differ between Horatian (light-hearted) and Juvenalian (acerbic) satire types. A synthesis of 33 studies ( N = 7,469) revealed that political satire is no more persuasive than serious news, but the data find several contingencies when distinguishing between satire types. Namely, satire type was found to interact with issue involvement and format, but not…
The Necessary Evolution of Mass Communication Research in a Fragmenting Media Landscape
With the ongoing evolution of media channels, debates over the concept of mass communication have been reignited. When we live in a society of filter bubbles and AI-generated content, the very notion of a large uniform audience has been undermined. Indeed, the process of mass communication looks different today than in the early days of the field, which naturally affects how to define and measure media effects. In this forum, leading communicatio…
A Tale of Two Debates: How Citizens Navigated a Particularly Stormy Period of a Turbulent Presidential Election
A Normative Assessment of Parental Political Socialization: The Case of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Debates
Adopting a normative democratic theory framework, this project assesses the degree to which parents and guardians maximized the political socialization opportunities afforded by the 2024 U.S. presidential debates. A three-step communication process involving debate exposure, intergenerational co-consumption, and intergenerational discussion is offered as a socialization ideal. Data collected during two waves of a national probability-based panel …
The Chaffee principle: The most likely effect of communication … is further communication
Steven Chaffee stated that 'the most likely "effect" of communication...is further communication' (p. 72). The present study asks to what extent this offering, referred to as 'The Chaffee Principle,' is realized in extant communication research. A manual content analysis of two top-tier communication journals (N = 2,040) offers an assessment of empirical attention to a variety of communicative acts in mass, interpersonal, and mediated-interperson…
Social Media News as a Predictor of Sports Gambling Salience, Attitudes, and Behaviors in the United States
Gambling has become a more prominent aspect of American sports culture after the 2018 United States Supreme Court decision offered in Murphy v National Collegiate Athletic Association that rendered the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) unconstitutional. A secondary analysis of 2022 PEW American Trends Panel (ATP) data ( N = 3900) explores social media news exposure and satisfaction as predictors of the salience of, attitudes …
Pulling the field out of a “One Variable, One Role” mindset: Maximizing the Theoretical Value of Interaction Terms in Communication’s Mediation Models
Recent analytical work reveals the need to assess mediated interactions (independent variable-by-mediator multiplicative terms) in mediation models to ensure the proper reporting of indirect effects. Besides their analytical value, mediated interactions can aid theory development. This study adds a theoretical support structure to this emergent analytical imperative and provides a theory-driven decision tree for incorporating mediated interaction…
Ushering in an age of scientific principles for communication research
Communication seeks internal coherence and external distinction as its research profile grows and diversifies. The present essay calls for the establishment of scientific principles to guide future communication research and solidify the field's unique scholarly identity within the marketplace of ideas. An argument is made that the field has achieved the necessary foundations to establish scientific principles but has yet to embrace this undertak…
Democracy amid Crises: Polarization, Pandemic, Protests, and Persuasion
Reflections on open scholarship in response to Bowman et al. (2022)
"Reflections on open scholarship in response to Bowman et al. (2022)." Annals of the International Communication Association, 46(4), pp. 305–306
“Balancing Field-General and Subfield-Specific Contributions When Addressing, Utilizing, or Assessing a Theory’s Explanatory Power”
Explanatory power is a key criterion for assessing the strength of a theory. This essay provides an expanded detailing of explanatory power’s three components: Plausibility, range, and postdiction. In addition, a case is made for how plausibility advancements signal field-general contributions, range-based works gravitate toward subfield-specific offerings, and postdiction assessments can be field-general or subfield-specific. This discussion is …
Political Para-Social Relationship as a Predictor of Voting Preferences in the Israeli 2019 Elections
The idea that the success of media personae in attracting audiences and maintaining their loyalty depends on the creation of a pseudo-friendship, known as para-social relationships, has been a mainstay of mass media research for more than half a century. Expanding the scope of para-social relationship research into the political realm, the notion that political support could be predicted based on the intensity of para-social relationships between…
Exploring the Role of Media Use Within an Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) Approach to Vote Likelihood
Political interest is a key predictor of likelihood to vote. We argue that the political interest-vote intention relationship can be explained by well-established theories that predict behavior across domains (e.g., theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior). Relying on the integrated behavioral model, we propose a core mediation model with vote likelihood (i.e., behavioral intention) as the dependent variable. Two types of media use …
Fact-Checking: A Meta-Analysis of What Works and for Whom
Despite its growing prominence in news coverage and public discourse, there is still considerable ambiguity regarding when and how fact-checking affects beliefs. Informed by theories of motivated reasoning and message design, a meta-analytic review was undertaken to examine the effectiveness of fact-checking in correcting political misinformation (k = 30,N = 20,963). Fact-checking has a significantly positive overall influence on political belief…
Conceptualizing, Organizing, and Positing Moderation in Communication Research
Meta-theoretical focus is given to how communication researchers are approaching and hypothesizing moderation. A moderation typology is offered and an evaluation of the field’s common practices for positing moderation reveals an inability to discern between three overarching classifications (Contributory, Contingent, Cleaved). A content analysis of eight communication journals reveals moderation hypotheses lacking a level of precision that can be…
Addressing a statistical power-alpha level blind spot in political- and health-related media research: Discontinuous criterion power analyses
A content analysis of 900 political- and health-related media articles published in 11 outlets from 2010 through 2015 reveals a complete disconnect between discussions of statistical power and alpha levels. This study proposes the use of discontinuous criterion power analyses to address this power-alpha blind spot. Additional analyses indicate a sizeable percentage (41.1%) of published works in these areas retaining sufficient statistical power (…
Increasing clarity where it is needed most: Articulating and evaluating theoretical contributions
Improved communication clarity is needed in the presentation and critical evaluation of proposed theory advancements in the field of communication. We encourage communication scholars to be more explicit in detailing the nature of their theoretical pursuits and to utilize with greater frequency established criteria for the assessment of theory. Engaging in these practices will foster more reasoned debate between scholars, produce better informed …
The Changing Nature of Political Debate Consumption: Social Media, Multitasking, and Knowledge Acquisition
This study examines the influence of debate viewing-social media multitasking on campaign knowledge during the 2012 presidential election. Results from three waves of a national cross-sectional survey of U.S. adults conducted during and after the 2012 presidential election suggest that social networking site (SNS) use overall correlates with increased knowledge of campaign issues and facts above and beyond the use of other sources of news media. …
A Normative Assessment of 2016 Political Convention Speech Exposure: Perceived Political Threats and Anticipated General Election Legitimacy
Political party conventions, rivaled only by general election debates, are media events that can affect democratic processes through their ability to reach a wide audience. Conventions hold a unique place in the American electoral system by serving as a pivot point between the nation's primary and general election phases. From a normative perspective, the current study focuses on the degree to which consuming major political party convention spee…
Measurement
There are four levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio. Whether a single item or a composite (index or scale), greater understanding of any measure often comes with an evaluation of four moments: mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis. The quality of a measure is judged using several criteria, the most important of which are reliability, validity, and generalizability. Communication researchers employ a wide range of mu…
Adopting an Integrated Behavioral Model Approach to the Study of News Media Exposure: A Focus on Experiential and Instrumental Attitudes Toward Politics
Stepping beyond traditional mass communication and political communication frameworks, this study utilizes the integrated behavioral model to predict traditional broadcast and print news media exposure. Specific focus is given to experiential (Is politics interesting?) and instrumental (Is politics important?) attitudes. A secondary analysis is performed on 2010–2014 World Values Survey data (N = 6,961) consisting of representative samples collec…
The political relevance of entertainment media
Strike While the Iron is Hot: Seizing on Recent Advancements to Propel Forward the Study of Political Entertainment Media
Additional informationNotes on contributorsR. Lance HolbertR. Lance Holbert (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2000) is Professor and Associate Director for Graduate Studies and Research in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina. His research interests include political communication, persuasion, and media effects
Successful Practices for the Strategic Use of Political Parody and Satire: Lessons From the P6 Symposium and the 2012 Election Campaign
On November 28 and 29, 2012, ten scholars of political parody and satire and six parody/viral video producers met at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania to share their expertise, discuss the democratic uses of parody, and develop a set of strategies to guide the successful use of political parody in generating positive democratic outcomes. The symposium, P6: Professors and Practitioners Pontificate on Political Pa…
Predicting Dissemination of News Content in Social Media: A Focus on Reception, Friending, and Partisanship
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 evid…
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 …
Fact-Checking: A Meta-Analysis of What Works and for Whom
Despite its growing prominence in news coverage and public discourse, there is still considerable ambiguity regarding when and how fact-checking affects beliefs. Informed by theories of motivated reasoning and message design, a meta-analytic review was undertaken to examine the effectiveness of fact-checking in correcting political misinformation (k = 30,N = 20,963). Fact-checking has a significantly positive overall influence on political belief…
A Typology for the Study of Entertainment Television and Politics
General questions concerning the role of entertainment media in politics permeated the 2004 election cycle. Political communication scholars are beginning to systematically analyze potential sociopolitical ramifications stemming from entertainment television viewing, but one difficulty with this emerging area of research is an inability to forge connections between seemingly disparate research agendas. Several distinct lines of research are summa…
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…
Structural Equation Modeling in the Communication Sciences, 1995?2000
Journal Article Structural Equation Modeling in the Communication Sciences, 1995–2000 Get access R. Lance Holbert, R. Lance Holbert 1University of Missouri-Columbia 3All correspondence should be addressed to the first author at 115 Switzler Hall, Columbia, MO 65211 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Michael T. Stephenson Michael T. Stephenson 2Texas A&M University Search for other works by this author on: Oxf…
Conceptualizing, Organizing, and Positing Moderation in Communication Research
Meta-theoretical focus is given to how communication researchers are approaching and hypothesizing moderation. A moderation typology is offered and an evaluation of the field’s common practices for positing moderation reveals an inability to discern between three overarching classifications (Contributory, Contingent, Cleaved). A content analysis of eight communication journals reveals moderation hypotheses lacking a level of precision that can be…
Predicting the Consumption of Political TV Satire: Affinity for Political Humor, The Daily Show , and The Colbert Report
Content analyses have focused on the messages offered in political TV satire, and the communication discipline is amassing solid empirical evidence concerning a range of effects derived from this style of programming. However, there is remarkably little understanding of who is tuning in to view political TV satire beyond the audience being dominated by a younger demographic. It is imperative to have a better understanding of the audience for thes…
The role of communication in the formation of an issue-based citizenry
Citizens can gain a better understanding of the important issues of a campaign and where candidates stand on those issues from three primary sources: direct candidate-to-citizen mass media messages (e.g., political advertisements, debates), news (e.g., newspapers, television news), or discussion with fellow citizens. The current study conducted a secondary analysis of 1996 American National Election Study (ANES) data to replicate Brians and Watte…
Beyond learning and persona: Extending the scope of presidential debate effects
Research on the effects of watching presidential debates tends to show that these messages can foster learning about the candidates' issue positions and influence voters' impressions of the candidates. This study uses a pretest/posttest design to assess more subtle effects of watching a 2000 presidential debate on attitudes and vote intention. Leadership and overall policy stance became more important factors in vote choice after watching the deb…
The Changing Nature of Political Debate Consumption: Social Media, Multitasking, and Knowledge Acquisition
This study examines the influence of debate viewing-social media multitasking on campaign knowledge during the 2012 presidential election. Results from three waves of a national cross-sectional survey of U.S. adults conducted during and after the 2012 presidential election suggest that social networking site (SNS) use overall correlates with increased knowledge of campaign issues and facts above and beyond the use of other sources of news media. …
Intramedia Mediation: The Cumulative and Complementary Effects of News Media Use
This study focuses on one often overlooked political communication-based media effect, intramedia mediation, and the indirect effects that stem from relationships that exist among various forms of media use. Data from a 2000 national Annenberg election panel survey are used to assess a series of relationships between television and newspaper public affairs use and how these forms of media consumption affect citizens' knowledge of presidential cam…
Structural Equation Modeling in the Communication Sciences, 1995-2000
Fahrenheit 9-11, Need for Closure and the Priming of Affective Ambivalence: An Assessment of Intra-affective Structures by Party Identification
Journal Article Fahrenheit 9-11, Need for Closure and the Priming of Affective Ambivalence: An Assessment of Intra-affective Structures by Party Identification Get access R. Lance Holbert, R. Lance Holbert 1Department of Communication, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 1Corresponding author: R. Lance Holbert; Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Glenn J. Hansen Glenn J. Hansen 2Department of Communicatio…
The West Wing and Depictions of the American Presidency: Expanding the Domains of Framing in Political Communication
This study uses framing to assess how the office of the President of the United States is depicted on NBC's The West Wing. This work represents a theoretical and empirical domain extension of framing in political communication, an area of study dominated by analyses of news content. Three distinct presidential depictions are analyzed: chief executive, political candidate, and private citizen. This quantitative content analysis of the 2001–2002 Th…
Empirical Intersections in Communication Research: Replication, Multiple Quantitative Methods, and Bridging the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide
This article concerns ways research can be related: intersections between studies. By “studies,” we do not necessarily mean two publications—although they could be published separately—but two distinct empirical investigations into human communication (we do not use “empirical” as synonymous with “quantitative” analysis and interpretation of texts—observations in qualitative and critical research are also forms of empirical inquiry). We assume th…
Increasing clarity where it is needed most: Articulating and evaluating theoretical contributions
Improved communication clarity is needed in the presentation and critical evaluation of proposed theory advancements in the field of communication. We encourage communication scholars to be more explicit in detailing the nature of their theoretical pursuits and to utilize with greater frequency established criteria for the assessment of theory. Engaging in these practices will foster more reasoned debate between scholars, produce better informed …
A Theory of Political Campaign Media Connectedness
The study of political mass communication information outlet effects has been dominated by two types of studies, those which focus on a single outlet and those which look at the comparative influence of multiple outlets. The current study seeks to advance a third study type by offering a theory of political campaign media connectedness. Three axioms are offered in this work. In addition, a series of hypotheses involving five political communicati…
Back to Basics: Revisiting, Resolving, and Expanding Some of the Fundamental Issues of Political Communication Research
The author would like to thank Editor David L. Paletz and the various authors of the other works contained in this issue of Political Communication for their continued willingness to engage in the process of knowledge building. Additional informationNotes on contributorsR. Lance Holbert R. Lance Holbert is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication University of Delaware
Adding Nuance to the Study of Political Humor Effects: Experimental Research on Juvenalian Satire Versus Horatian Satire
This study extends political humor effects research by focusing on two distinct types of satire, juvenalian and horatian. Theoretical arguments grounded in the elaboration likelihood model culminated in the positing of a series of interactions between message (juvenalian, horatian, traditional opinion-editorial) and recipient ability (high, low) relative to three outcome variables: perceived humor, counterarguing, and attitudes concerning Hillary…
Television Use and Social Capital: Testing Putnam's Time Displacement Hypothesis
Robert Putnam (1995a, 19956) charged that television is the driving force behind the decline in social capital in America. He argued that television viewing has privatized our leisure time, thus inhibiting participation outside the home. However, Putnam's time displacement hypothesis never has been tested. We empirically examined the extent to which television reduces social capital through time displacement. Analyses of data from a Midwestern ci…
The Effects of Party- and PAC-Sponsored Issue Advertising and the Potential of Inoculation to Combat its Impact on the Democratic Process
This study examined the effects of issue advertising on candidate preferences and the democratic process, comparing the impact of party-and PAC-sponsored advertising against candidate-sponsored positive and contrast ads. Results revealed that the influence of political advertising varies depending on party affiliation. For Republicans, candidate-sponsored contrast and party-sponsored ads are most influential, but with unaffiliated viewers, candid…
Presidential Campaigns and Democracy
Every 4 years presidential candidates devote months and hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning for the highest office in the land. Some question whether these presidential campaigns actually make a difference in election outcomes. In 2000, the Bush and Gore campaigns provided a golden opportunity to empirically assess campaign effects because both candidates focused their campaigns on a set of "battleground" states. Data from the 2000 Nation…
Pulling the field out of a “One Variable, One Role” mindset: Maximizing the Theoretical Value of Interaction Terms in Communication’s Mediation Models
Recent analytical work reveals the need to assess mediated interactions (independent variable-by-mediator multiplicative terms) in mediation models to ensure the proper reporting of indirect effects. Besides their analytical value, mediated interactions can aid theory development. This study adds a theoretical support structure to this emergent analytical imperative and provides a theory-driven decision tree for incorporating mediated interaction…
Ushering in an age of scientific principles for communication research
Communication seeks internal coherence and external distinction as its research profile grows and diversifies. The present essay calls for the establishment of scientific principles to guide future communication research and solidify the field's unique scholarly identity within the marketplace of ideas. An argument is made that the field has achieved the necessary foundations to establish scientific principles but has yet to embrace this undertak…
Adopting an Integrated Behavioral Model Approach to the Study of News Media Exposure: A Focus on Experiential and Instrumental Attitudes Toward Politics
Stepping beyond traditional mass communication and political communication frameworks, this study utilizes the integrated behavioral model to predict traditional broadcast and print news media exposure. Specific focus is given to experiential (Is politics interesting?) and instrumental (Is politics important?) attitudes. A secondary analysis is performed on 2010–2014 World Values Survey data (N = 6,961) consisting of representative samples collec…
Understanding Deliberation: The Effects of Discussion Networks on Participation in a Public Forum
Participation in a deliberative forum has received relatively little scrutiny as opposed to more traditional forms of participation. This study examines direct and indirect effects of discussion network characteristics on willingness to participate in a deliberative forum. Using data collected in a telephone survey of 416 respondents in Madison, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1997, the authors employ structural equation modeling techniques to explore …
Television Use and Social Capital: Testing Putnam's Time Displacement Hypothesis
Robert Putnam (1995a, 19956) charged that television is the driving force behind the decline in social capital in America. He argued that television viewing has privatized our leisure time, thus inhibiting participation outside the home. However, Putnam's time displacement hypothesis never has been tested. We empirically examined the extent to which television reduces social capital through time displacement. Analyses of data from a Midwestern ci…
Television Use and Social Capital: Testing Putnam's Time Displacement Hypothesis
Beyond learning and persona: Extending the scope of presidential debate effects
Research on the effects of watching presidential debates tends to show that these messages can foster learning about the candidates' issue positions and influence voters' impressions of the candidates. This study uses a pretest/posttest design to assess more subtle effects of watching a 2000 presidential debate on attitudes and vote intention. Leadership and overall policy stance became more important factors in vote choice after watching the deb…
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 …
The Effects of Party- and PAC-Sponsored Issue Advertising and the Potential of Inoculation to Combat its Impact on the Democratic Process
This study examined the effects of issue advertising on candidate preferences and the democratic process, comparing the impact of party-and PAC-sponsored advertising against candidate-sponsored positive and contrast ads. Results revealed that the influence of political advertising varies depending on party affiliation. For Republicans, candidate-sponsored contrast and party-sponsored ads are most influential, but with unaffiliated viewers, candid…
Issue-Advocacy versus Candidate Advertising: Effects on Candidate Preferences and Democratic Process
This study examined the influence of soft-money-sponsored issue-advocacy advertising in U.S. House and Senate campaigns, comparing its effects against candidate-sponsored positive advertising and contrast advertising on viewers' candidate preferences and on their attitudes that reflect democratic values. The results revealed no main effects for advertising approach on candidate preference. Instead, advertising approach exerted unique impacts base…
The role of communication in the formation of an issue-based citizenry
Citizens can gain a better understanding of the important issues of a campaign and where candidates stand on those issues from three primary sources: direct candidate-to-citizen mass media messages (e.g., political advertisements, debates), news (e.g., newspapers, television news), or discussion with fellow citizens. The current study conducted a secondary analysis of 1996 American National Election Study (ANES) data to replicate Brians and Watte…
Structural Equation Modeling in the Communication Sciences, 1995-2000
Structural Equation Modeling in the Communication Sciences, 1995?2000
Journal Article Structural Equation Modeling in the Communication Sciences, 1995–2000 Get access R. Lance Holbert, R. Lance Holbert 1University of Missouri-Columbia 3All correspondence should be addressed to the first author at 115 Switzler Hall, Columbia, MO 65211 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Michael T. Stephenson Michael T. Stephenson 2Texas A&M University Search for other works by this author on: Oxf…
A Monte Carlo Simulation of Observable Versus Latent Variable Structural Equation Modeling Techniques
In this study, three approaches commonly used by communication scientists to specify structural relationships using full-information maximum likelihood structural equation modeling are investigated. Specifically, a simulation study using Monte Carlo techniques was conducted to compare the structural paths generated by each of the three structural equation model types. Two of the three approaches utilized forms of latent variable modeling, and the…
The Importance of Indirect Effects in Media Effects Research: Testing for Mediation in Structural Equation Modeling
This essay addresses the need for media effects researchers to decompose their structural equation models. We highlight the importance of studying specific indirect effects within a conditional effects framework and discuss how the lack of analysis of this type of effect in structural equation modeling does not fit well with the discipline's theoretical foundations. We summarize several classes of mediation formulas and make recommendations for t…
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…
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 West Wing as Endorsement of the U.S. Presidency: Expanding the Bounds of Priming in Political Communication
This study uses priming as a theoretical basis from which to investigate potential effects of NBC's The West Wing on individual-level perceptions of the U.S. presidency. As a result, this work extends political communication-based priming research to entertainment television content. Josiah Bartlet, the fictional president portrayed on the show, is generally perceived more positively by viewers than either the Republican President George W. Bush …
An Embodied Approach to the Study of Media Forms: Introducing a Social Scientific Component to Medium Theory
This article develops a social scientific approach for the empirical testing of media as environment form effects. The theoretical origins of this work merges McLuhan’s thoughts on micro-level media form influence and recent advances in the study of embodied cognition. A social scientific assessment of medium theory is provided, followed by an overview of an embodied approach to the study of media forms. The major concepts of the theory are defin…
Presidential Campaigns and Democracy
Every 4 years presidential candidates devote months and hundreds of millions of dollars campaigning for the highest office in the land. Some question whether these presidential campaigns actually make a difference in election outcomes. In 2000, the Bush and Gore campaigns provided a golden opportunity to empirically assess campaign effects because both candidates focused their campaigns on a set of "battleground" states. Data from the 2000 Nation…
Political Talk Radio, Perceived Fairness, and the Establishment of President George W. Bush’s Political Legitimacy
This study analyzes the effects of political talk radio use on the perceived fairness of the 2000 U.S. presidential election. In particular, a process of influence is hypothesized leading from talk radio use to feelings toward the two major-party candidates (Bush and Gore). Citizens’ affective associations with the candidates are then argued to have competing effects on the perceived fairness of the 2000 election. The influence of perceived fairn…
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…
Debate Viewing as Mediator and Partisan Reinforcement in the Relationship Between News Use and Vote Choice
This study posits that debate viewing is a mediator between news use and vote choice, and that party identification is a moderator in the relationship between debate viewing and vote choice. A series of OLS regression equations, first tested using 2000 ANES data, revealed that debate viewing initially serves as a mediator between television news viewing and vote choice for the general voting population. However, party identification is a moderato…
Debate Viewing as Mediator and Partisan Reinforcement in the Relationship Between News Use and Vote Choice
This study posits that debate viewing is a mediator between news use and vote choice, and that party identification is a moderator in the relationship between debate viewing and vote choice. A series of OLS regression equations, first tested using 2000 ANES data, revealed that debate viewing initially serves as a mediator between television news viewing and vote choice for the general voting population. However, party identification is a moderato…
The West Wing and Depictions of the American Presidency: Expanding the Domains of Framing in Political Communication
This study uses framing to assess how the office of the President of the United States is depicted on NBC's The West Wing. This work represents a theoretical and empirical domain extension of framing in political communication, an area of study dominated by analyses of news content. Three distinct presidential depictions are analyzed: chief executive, political candidate, and private citizen. This quantitative content analysis of the 2001–2002 Th…
Back to Basics: Revisiting, Resolving, and Expanding Some of the Fundamental Issues of Political Communication Research
The author would like to thank Editor David L. Paletz and the various authors of the other works contained in this issue of Political Communication for their continued willingness to engage in the process of knowledge building. Additional informationNotes on contributorsR. Lance Holbert R. Lance Holbert is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication University of Delaware
Intramedia Mediation: The Cumulative and Complementary Effects of News Media Use
This study focuses on one often overlooked political communication-based media effect, intramedia mediation, and the indirect effects that stem from relationships that exist among various forms of media use. Data from a 2000 national Annenberg election panel survey are used to assess a series of relationships between television and newspaper public affairs use and how these forms of media consumption affect citizens' knowledge of presidential cam…
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