Effects Of Media Content Research Articles

Virtual reality and perceptions of destination presence

PurposeThis study aims to examine the underlying emotional process that explains how context-specific stimuli involved in virtual reality (VR) destinations translate into presence perceptions and behavioral intentions.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 403 potential tourists participated in a self-administered online survey after they watched a randomly assigned VR tour. The Lavaan package in R software was used to conduct structural equation analysis and examine the proposed theoretical framework.FindingsThe results reveal that media content consisting of informativeness, aesthetics and novelty was positively related to users’ sense of presence in a VR tour. The effect of media content on presence was partially mediated by emotional arousal.Practical implicationsManagers and VR designers can create an emotive virtual tour that contributes to the user’s sense of presence to promote attraction to the target destination. The VR content needs to be informative, aesthetic and novel, which can excite users during the VR tour, portray virtual destinations clearly and eventually influence potential tourists’ visit intentions.Originality/valueResearch on the emotional mechanism to generate presence is still in its infancy. This study integrates presence theory into a conceptual framework to explore how media content influences presence and decision-making through the emotional mechanism.

Persuadable perceptions: the effect of media content on beliefs about corruption

SUMMARYWe study the impact of news content on individuals’ perceptions about corruption. To this purpose, we combine individuals’ beliefs about the likelihood that corruption events may occur in everyday life, as obtained from questions introduced in a large household survey, with their as-good-as-random exposure to corruption-related news on the date of the interview. Results show that a 1 SD increase in the number of corruption news items raises corruption perceptions by 3.5%. Consistently with a mechanism of persuasion, perceptions respond mainly to news not related to specific corruption events rather than to those reporting on arrests, investigations or convictions.

Content and person effects in media research: Studying differences in cognitive, emotional, and arousal responses to media content

ABSTRACT Cognitive, emotional, and arousal responses to media content stem from two sources of variation: differences in content and differences between individuals. Although the first source of variation (content effects) has been well-studied, individual differences (person effects) in responses to media are investigated much less within communication science. To help build this comparatively thin area of scholarship, this study investigated how four theoretically relevant variables (need for cognition, affective empathy, sensation seeking, and sensory processing sensitivity) affected responses to positively and negatively valenced media entertainment. In a within-subjects design, 243 youth aged 7–15 years (49.4% female) responded to a positive and negative film clip using both self-reported and physiological measures (heart rate and skin conductance), while parents reported on individual differences. Multilevel analysis was used to distinguish between media content effects and individual differences in responses. Results showed that more variation in responses was due to differences between participants than to differences between stimuli. However, need for cognition, affective empathy, sensation seeking, and sensory processing sensitivity did not significantly explain this between-participant variation in responses. Several conceptual and methodological take-aways are offered to advance our understanding of the relationships between stable individual differences and state responses to media.

The interaction of contextual realism and fantasy tendency on aggressive behavior following violent video game play: An indirect test of violent content effects

The current study employed a novel experimental paradigm to test the effect of violent video game content on aggressive behavior. This was accomplished by leveraging player engagement with the game's content as opposed to direct manipulation of violent content. Participants reported on their dispositional tendency to engage in fantasy activities after playing either a realistic or fantasy version of the same game. A two-way interaction revealed that participants who regularly engage with fantasy were more likely to administer aversive noise “blasts” to another person after playing the fantasy game, compared to the realistic game. A mediated moderation test revealed that this increase in aggression was due in part to increased player engagement with the game's content. Specifically, participants predisposed to engage with the violent game tended to behave more aggressively following game play as a function of that engagement. The findings provide supporting evidence for violent content effects and detail a novel method for assessing violent and other media content effects.

Model selection in observational media effects research: a systematic review and validation of effects

ABSTRACTMedia effects research has produced mixed findings about the size and direction of the relationship between media consumption and public attitudes. We investigate the extent to which model choices contribute to these inconsistent findings. Taking a comparative approach, we first review the use of different models in contemporary studies and their main findings. In order to extend and validate this review, we consider the implications for national election studies attempting to measure media effects in election campaigns and recreate these models with the British Election Study 2005–2010 panel data. We compare the direction and size of effects of media content on attitude change across: between-subjects, within-elections models, in which the effects of individual-level variance in media exposure and content are assessed; within-subjects, within-elections models, which compare the effects of variance in media content for the same individual; and within-subjects, between-elections models that allow us to analyse the links between media content and exposure with attitude change over time. Our review shows some notable differences between models in terms of significance of effects (but not effect sizes). We corroborate this finding in the British campaign analysis. We conclude that to check the robustness of claims of media effects in observational data, where possible researchers should examine different model choices when evaluating media effects.

Do Sex and Violence Sell? A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effects of Sexual and Violent Media and Ad Content on Memory, Attitudes, and Buying Intentions.

It is commonly assumed that sex and violence sell. However, we predicted that sex and violence would have the opposite effect. We based our predictions on the evolution and emotional arousal theoretical framework, which states that people are evolutionarily predisposed to attend to emotionally arousing cues such as sex and violence. Thus, sexual and violent cues demand more cognitive resources than nonsexual and nonviolent cues. Using this framework, we meta-analyzed the effects of sexual media, violent media, sexual ads, and violent ads on the advertising outcomes of brand memory, brand attitudes, and buying intentions. The meta-analysis included 53 experiments involving 8,489 participants. Analyses found that brands advertised in violent media content were remembered less often, evaluated less favorably, and less likely to be purchased than brands advertised in nonviolent, nonsexual media. Brands advertised using sexual ads were evaluated less favorably than brands advertised using nonviolent, nonsexual ads. There were no significant effects of sexual media on memory or buying intentions. There were no significant effects of sexual or violent ads on memory or buying intentions. As intensity of sexual ad content increased, memory, attitudes, and buying intentions decreased. When media content and ad content were congruent (e.g., violent ad in a violent program), memory improved and buying intentions increased. Violence and sex never helped and often hurt ad effectiveness. These results support the evolution and emotional arousal framework. Thus, advertisers should consider the effects of media content, ad content, content intensity, and congruity to design and place more effective ads.

Teens, Dating Violence, and Media Use

Dating violence is highly prevalent among adolescents. Of importance, dating violence has been associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes for teens and high-risk behaviors such as unsafe sex practices. Although a growing body of research has examined the extent and nature of this problem, little research has considered aspects of the media that might be associated with risk for teen dating violence, such as time spent using media and effects of media content. This article provides an overview of the prevalence of teen dating violence, describes the potential for assessing media use as a risk factor, offers a conceptual model, and suggests ideas for future research.

Government Advertisements — Influence on Print Media Content: A Content Analysis of the Leading Newspapers of Pakistan

AbstractMost of the books on Journalism, Mass Communication and Media Studies discuss and elaborate the areas of process and the effects of mass communication. These books deal with the effects of media content on people and society but it is equally important to understand the influences that shape media content. Media, not only influence target audience, but themselves are influenced by a number of factors. It has been found by research that media content is influenced by the personal attitudes and orientations of media workers, professionalism, corporate policies, ownership patterns, the economic environment, advertisers, audiences, ideology and above all, the governments (Shoemaker & Reese, 2004:4). This study investigates the influence of Government on print media content in Pakistan based on its advertising power and being the largest advertiser of the country.

Perceptual Differences in Assessing the Harm of Patronizing Adult Entertainment Clubs

Prostitution is one of the most severe social problems in Taiwan and a long-term concern of numerous studies (Chiu, 1991). Although it is illegal, prostitution appears almost everywhere in hotels, night clubs, underworld brothels, massage parlors, teahouses, hair salons in business districts as well as residential areas. Among places of prostitution, adult entertainment clubs are the most widespread (Hwang & Bedford, 2003). According to a survey by the Taiwan Academia Sinica in 1994, 68 percent of the respondents perceived prostitution as a serious or very serious problem for Taiwanese society (Chang & Fu, 2002). In 2001, the percentage of Taiwanese who perceived prostitution as a serious or very serious social problem increased to 75 percent. Previous research on prostitution focused on assessing public attitudes toward prostitution and the sex industry (Chang, 1997; Chang & Liu, 2003; Yang, 2003). Other studies analyzed the problem from a legal and policy-making perspective to explore approaches to restrict adult entertainment establishments (Cheng, 2000; C. C. Hsu & Y. S. Chen, 2003; H. Y. Hsu & C. Y. Chen, 2003; Yang, Yi, & Chiu, 2003). None of the previous studies, however, examined the public’s perceptions of the harm of adult entertainment clubs, especially the perceptual discrepancy in assessing the vulnerability of self relative to others. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by exploring the perceived harm of visiting adult entertainment clubs and whether the perceived harm will influence the public’s support for restrictions on the sex trade. In the context of assessing the effect of media content, the third-person effect hypothesis proposes that people tend to perceive mass media as having a greater effect on others than on self (Davison, 1983). Numerous third-person effect studies suggest that people who tend to overestimate media effects on others are more likely to support restrictions on media content to protect the others (Gunther, 1991; Lo & Wei, 2002; Salwen, 1998). In the context of assessing vulnerability to risks such as contracting HIV/AIDS, the optimistic bias hypothesis holds that people tend to underestimate their probability of encountering negative life events (Weinstein, 1980). The hypothesis explains why people fail to take preventive action (Chapin, 2001). With a self–other comparative perspective, the present study has two goals: (1) it seeks to examine the self–other gap in perceiving the negative influence of sex clubs, with an emphasis on the role of personal experience in visiting these clubs as an influence on the perceptual discrepancy; (2) the study investigates the gender difference in self–other comparisons and in support for restrictions on sex clubs because the relationship between gender and perceptual bias regarding risks