Media psychology

The study examined how sensory appeal characteristics promoting fruits and vegetables capture attention, emotion, and memory formation, indicative of approach motivational processing. Grounded in biopsychological and communication science frameworks such as evolutionary theories, information-processing, LC4MP, and the dimensional emotion theory, two within-subjects experiments investigated how adolescents process pronutritional images appealing to the senses. Study 1 (N = 58, aged 12–18, 54% female) examined how sensory cues broke through the clutter of promotional media, attracting attentional selection, arousal and affect. Study 2 (N = 165, aged 12–18, 53% female) explored whether sensory appeal characteristics further directed the attention and mental resources toward processing the core healthy foods of fruits and vegetables. Eye-tracking provided an assessment of visual attentional focus and recognition memory indicated encoding efficiency. As hypothesized, core nutritious foods became noticeable, highly arousing, and memorable stimuli with adaptive significance to the organism when portrayed as enjoyable and ripe, through hedonic and palatability appeals. Sensory cues increased adolescents’ attentional selection and positive emotions to the pronutritional images, but also attracted visual focus and high memory formation of the fruits and vegetables. Health communication practice should take advantage of these results and promote core healthy foods through hedonic and visual food palatability appeals.

This study empirically investigates the effectiveness of using visual sexual appeals on the memory of men and women. It examines memory for the commercials activated by sexual versus nonsexual visual appeals. A mixed-factorial experiment was conducted. Visual recognition and free recall were recorded in 146 participants (males = 71 and females = 75). The results substantiate the evolutionary psychology claims. Support for the motivational information-processing and the distraction hypothesis was found in male viewers. The results indicate that sexual appeals enhance memory for the advertisements themselves, but they distract men from processing brand-related information. Male participants encoded and recalled less brand-related information from advertisements with sexual appeals. The study offers guidelines for advertisers and marketing producers while also providing insight into gender/sex differences in processing sexual stimuli. It also makes a key theoretical contribution to the field by parsing out the influence of sexual versus nonsexual visual content from the confounding impact of visual sexual versus verbal nonsexual memory.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, it tests how the Motivation Activation Measure [MAM; Lang, A., Bradley, S. D., Sparks Jr, J. V., & Lee, S. (2007). The motivation activation measure (MAM): How well does MAM predict individual differences in physiological indicators of appetitive and aversive activation? Communication Methods and Measures, 1(2), 113–136] applies in a non-American (i.e. Asian) context, in order to provide evidence for the universality asserted through its theoretical underpinnings as an indicator of biologically based motivation systems. It thus investigates cross-cultural variation in the MAM scores and the associations with established measures of theoretically related personality factors. Second, the paper examines how individual differences in motivational system responsiveness correlate with media use and interests in an Asian culture. Eight hundred sixty-five respondents completed MAM, personality measures and self-reported media preference in an online survey. Findings indicate that the MAM values recorded in the Asian sample associate with the measures of theoretically related human traits as expected, and had a similar pattern of scores with those found in American samples. Moreover, results suggest that audience interests in different types of media can be predicted through their variation in motivation systems activation.

This entry introduces response latency as a communication science research method. Using response latency in experimental studies advances our comprehension of the cognitive processes involved both during message processing and as part of contemplating messages during subsequent questioning; it enables researchers to understand how audience members process, store, focus on, access, and think about media messages. This entry presents a short introduction into the origins, categories, and basic characteristics of the response latency measure. It then discusses the theoretical foundations of the use of response latency in media psychology experiments, its procedural and methodological considerations, its feasibility, validity, reliability as well as other issues pertinent to the use of response time in communication research.

Purpose

This study investigates how media brand knowledge, defined as a structural feature of the message, influences emotional and attentional responses to, and memory of, news messages.
Design/methodology/approach

Self-reports, facial electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography were used as indices of emotional valence, arousal and attention in response to 42 news messages, which varied along the valence and involvement dimensions and were framed with different media brands varying along the familiarity and credibility dimensions.
Findings

Compared to the no-brand condition, news framed with brands elicited more attention. The memory tests indicated that strong media brands override the effect of involvement in information encoding, whereas details of news presented with Facebook were not well encoded. However, the headlines of news framed with Facebook were well retrieved. In addition, negative and high-involvement news elicited higher arousal ratings and corrugator EMG activity. News framed with familiar and high-credibility brands elicited higher arousal ratings.
Research limitations/implications

Relevant for both brand managers and audiences, the findings show that building credibility and familiarity both work as brand attributes to differentiate media brands and influence information processing.
Originality/value

The results highlight the importance of media brands in news reading: as a structural feature, the brand is used as a proxy to process the message content. The study contributes by investigating how the type of source influences the reception and encoding of the mediated information; by investigating the emotional effects of brands; and by confirming previous findings in media psychology literature.

Given the widespread adoption of social media for sharing and accessing news, as well as the possibility of news consumers' direct interactions with journalists through social media, this study analyzed the relationships among news access via social media (NASM), perceived news information overload (NIO), news consumption, and perceptions of journalistic norms and practices. The results indicated that NIO moderated the relationships between NASM and selective exposure and between NASM and willingness to pay for quality news. Regarding journalistic norms and practices, participants valued the speed of journalism when they frequently accessed news on social media more so than traditional journalistic norms. Finally, there were statistically significant interactions between NIO and two types of news
consumption behaviors (i.e., selective exposure and news avoidance) concerning participants' perceptions of news quality.

This white paper is a preliminary mapping of how stages of human development and the structures of consciousness that make up each stage are embedded in moving image-based artifacts such as movies, television, online and mobile video, video games, virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality mediums. These mappings are based on a meta-analysis of hundreds of moving image artifacts cross-referenced with research on stages of human development, structures of individual and collective human consciousness, human perception, creative expression, and cultural and social anthropology. This research suggests that human beings project their structures of consciousness into their creative works. This in turn appears to create similar composites of structures of consciousness embedded in these works. In a sense these embedded consciousness structures create a kind of cinematic consciousness that lives within the constructed cinematic reality of these moving images.

As an audience living in an age where content is available at the click of a button, it is important to understand the new sets of patterns of behaviour today’s audiences are engaging in. Still at a nascent stage, consumption of content through online video streaming platforms have gained popularity, especially so since the past decade. It thus becomes crucial to map out certain variables, such as who the audience is, what are they watching, where are they watching it, and most importantly so, why are they doing so. This research aims at understanding the internal and external motivations that make users engage in certain content viewing practices, as well as aims to find out whether these practices are resulting/ have resulted in the emergence of a culture centred around these viewing practices. Similarly, the paper also touches upon the possibility of there being a counter-culture along with the emergence of this culture. The study conducted focuses on millennial audiences in metropolitan cities in India, between the ages 18-34. The researcher studied a sample size of 110, and engaged in a process of sequential design to further interview 5 of those respondents in a semi-structured qualitative interview. A process of coding was done to the content transcribed and insights were found.

Many virtual and alternate reality projects create narrative experiences in the digital medium. These are Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN), a form of expression at the intersection of different artistic approaches, research fields (humanities, computer science), and emerging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, virtual reality, generative content), with a wide potential for different applications. A key element towards fulfilling this potential is the creation of a satisfying user experience. In this paper we present a toolbox for the evaluation of the user experience that connects which enables the systematic and quantitative study of IDN user experiences. This approach connects research in psychology based on Entertainment Theory with a humanities-based perspective. Specifically, we map Murray's influential theoretical framework to Roth's empirical dimensions and thus connect an analytical framework to empirical research.

Within scholarly communication, social media such as social networking sites or microblogging services like Twitter facilitates more divers and flexible forms of academic communication, community development, and networking. In light of ongoing discussions on the gender gap in science, the question arises if and how gender influences the academic use of social media. So far little is known about gender-related differences in the academic use of social media. In this paper we focus on the special use case of Twitter and investigated gender-related differences in the academic networking of computer scientists.
This study analyzed a sample of 850 Twitter accounts of professors and PhD students. Independent factors were the gender and the academic status of the account owner. The activity of the account was considered as control variable. Dependent variables were the number of researcher followers and the number of reciprocal researcher followers (i.e., number of followers that follow back in the sense of mutual following). Thereby, reciprocal (mutual) following was conceptualized as an indicator for a stronger community development motive. Furthermore, different subgroups of followers with respect to gender, academic status and reciprocity of the following behavior (e.g., reciprocal female professor followers) were considered for explorative analyses to gain deeper insights.
Overall, the two-way MANCOVA revealed no significant gender difference for the total number of researcher followers. However, for the number of reciprocal followers, we found that the accounts of females had significantly more reciprocal followers. Also the explorative analyses of the different subgroups of followers strengthen the finding that females establish more reciprocal following relations. In addition, the pattern of the findings for the subgroups of followers suggests a preference of females for following other females and a gender-related networking behavior across the academic hierarchy.
The presented findings provide evidence that female researchers establish more reciprocal relationships on Twitter than male researchers do. This implies a stronger community development motive among female academic Twitter users. It should be noted that our findings relate to computer science which is a male-dominated field and it would be interesting for future research to investigate gender-related differences in female-dominated or gender-balanced academic domains. Our findings provide first insights in the impact of gender on academic networking behavior in social media. Further research is needed to strengthen these findings and to clarify the underlying processes.

There is still an ongoing discussion about the academic use of Facebook and how students and their lecturers should interact with each other on such social private networks. In the presented empirical study we investigated not only how and why Facebook contacts between students and their lecturers (hereinafter referred to as SL-contacts) were developed, but also how students and lecturers with and without SL-contacts estimated the current situation.
We addressed our research questions by means of an online survey with 2849 participants (2550 students and 299 lecturers). Only 460 persons (333 students and 127 lecturers) reported about SL-contacts. The majority of 2389 participants (2217 students and 172 lecturers) had no SL-contacts.
The results of the participants with SL-contacts showed that reasons for sending a SL-contact request were mainly sympathy and the assumption that it was okay for the other one. Also the acceptance of a SL-contact request was mainly based on sympathy and the assumption that the acceptance of the request was the normal reaction. The denial of a SL-contact request was a very seldom exception and was mainly done in order to keep distance or because the SL-contact was seen as inappropriate. Remarkably, the development of SL-contacts was not connected with academic information on Facebook.
Asked for the status quo of having SL-contacts, the participants with SL-contacts reported that they had also a friendship outside the internet or that it did not matter if they have SL-contacts among their other Facebook contacts. The answers of participants without SL-contacts on the status quo (of not having SL-contacts) were partly mixed. On the one hand, they reported that they simply had never thought of having SL-contacts and that it was not due to lack of sympathy. On the other hand, they also felt that SL-contacts are somehow inappropriate. In relation to the latter finding it remains an open question if the feeling of inappropriateness was the reason or the consequence of having no SL-contacts.
Overall, our results suggest that SL-contacts are handled and perceived similar to normal Facebook contacts. Thereby, the existing own SL-contacts are seen rather positive and mainly based on interest and sympathy, but less on academic purposes. Accordingly, SL-contacts seemed to be more a private and less a work-related matter.

Partial results of the empirical study of characters’ images which influence socialization of personality are explaining in this article. Some correlations between expert evaluation of values and qualities of TV series characters are analyzed. Generalization of social messages that are embedded in children’s mind with the help of TV series is presented.

The article contains partial results of an empirical study of the influence of media on family life in general and family communication in particular. The features of family discussion of media content, which comes from various sources, are identified. It is concluded that kids support and become the representatives of the media-behavioral models which originate from the soap-operas and documentaries. Parents underestimate the impact of soap-operas on formation of primary school age children.

The book presents the results of research "Social and psychological aspects of interaction between informational and educational space of Ukraine", which carried out the laboratory of psychology of mass communication and media education during 2009-2013. Media psychology considered as a new industry developments that integrates psychology and social sciences in the communications and acts conceptual basis of media education. Emphasis is given to the most controversial problems of interaction between media and education: visual dogma of modern mediapraktyk, problems and medianasylstva mediazalezhnosti. Based on empirical research singles out three application areas of media psychology, age, educational and family. Peculiarities of socialization of the child under the influence of modern media age periodization proposed mediaryzykiv, individual psychological typology mediapraktyk seniors. Pedagogical media psychology as the basis of school and extracurricular media education models, generalized principles forming media culture of students and teachers. In media¬psyholohichnyh studies examined the interaction of various factors family of media space, particularly such as the image of the family in the Ukrainian TV news and the influence of popular TV series. The model family of media education. The book can be useful to researchers and practitioners relating to the media education of children and youth, school psychologists, students, students of pislyadyplom¬noyi Education, as well as parents and readers interested in understanding psychological phenomena of modern information space.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social cues in self-presentations and the congruence of other-generated comments with the self-presentation in people's evaluations of a profile owner. A 2 (level of social cues: high vs. low) · 2 (congruent vs. incongruent) · 2 (order) · 2 (multiple messages) mixed-subject experiment was conducted with 104 college students. The results showed that a profile owner was perceived less socially attractive when other-generated comments were incongruent with the profile owner's self-presentation. No matter how people package themselves with extravagant self-presentations, it cannot be very successful without validation from others. Interestingly, an interaction effect between congruence and the level of social cues suggested that perceived popularity was low in the incongruent condition regardless of level of social cue. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.