SELECT PUBLICATIONS
Please email me for a copy in case you cannot access the publications.
I have the following three areas of research:
EXPLAINING THE DIVERSITY DEFICIT:
VALUE-TRAIT CONSISTENCY IN NEWS MEDIA EXPOSURE AND DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP
2020, Communication Research
This study explores a disconnect between information values and practices to identify (1) whether citizens exemplify the diversity-seeking values endorsed in communication scholarship, (2) whether individuals who hold diversity-seeking values enact these values, and (3) whether diversity-seeking values and traits are emblematic of good democratic citizenship.
DIVERSITY POLICIES IN THE MEDIA MARKETPLACE:
A REVIEW OF STUDIES OF MINORITY OWNERSHIP, EMPLOYMENT AND CONTENT
2016, International Journal of Communication
Achieving diversity has long been a goal of U.S. communications policy. However, the diversity and minority preferences governing the Federal Communications Commission’s broadcast ownership policies have been challenged on the basis of doubts concerning the assumed nexus of minority ownership, a diverse workforce, and content: the triangle. This article reviews previous studies on the triangle and offers suggestions for future research to further inform the FCC’s policy design.
Unfriending and Muting During Elections:
The Antecedents and Consequences of
Selective Avoidance on Social Media
2021, Mass Communication and Society
Although selective avoidance, commonly practiced as unfriending and muting on social media, has been assumed to be at odds with the democratic ideal of deliberation, academic literature says little about its antecedents and consequences. Drawing from the framework of psychological needs for information processing, we examine whether need for cognition and need to evaluate interact to predict selective avoidance, which then facilitates political expression on social media. Analyses of a two-wave survey collected before and after the 2018 midterm election in the U.S. suggest that individuals with low need for cognition but high need to evaluate were relatively unlikely to engage in selective avoidance. However, the supposedly ideal type of citizens high on both needs tended to engage in selective avoidance intensively to further engage in political expression on social media.
FROM OBSERVATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA
TO OFFLINE POLITICAL PARTICIPATION:
THE SOCIAL MEDIA AFFORDANCES APPROACH
2021, New Media & Society
Building on prior studies suggesting that social media can facilitate offline political participation, this study seeks to clarify the mechanism behind this link. Social media may encourage social learning of political engagement due to their unique affordances such as visibility (i.e. once-invisible political activities by others are now visible on social media feeds). By analyzing a two-wave survey conducted before the 2016 presidential election in the United States, this study tests a theoretical model in which observation of others’ political activities on social media inspires users themselves to model similar political behaviors, which foster offline political participation. Autoregressive models show that the link between political observation and activities on social media is stronger among users surrounded with similar others and politically homogeneous networks. The results highlight the need to cultivate engaged citizenship norms for individuals’ political activities on social media to be carried over to participation beyond the realm of social media.
INCIDENTAL EXPOSURE, SELECTIVE EXPOSURE,
AND POLITICAL INFORMATION SHARING:
INTEGRATING ONLINE EXPOSURE PATTERNS
AND EXPRESSION ON SOCIAL MEDIA
2017, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Our results demonstrate that incidental exposure to counter-attitudinal information drives strong partisans to actively seek out like-minded political content, which subsequently encourages political information sharing. The results highlight the need to consider both types of political information exposure when modeling citizens’ political behavior online.
WHY DO PEOPLE SHARE POLITICAL INFORMATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
2021, Digital Journalism
This study investigates factors predicting political information sharing on social media in the election context. Specifically, the current study examines how users’ six motivations for political information sharing and exposure to political disagreement on social media predict their political information sharing behaviors. Analyses of national survey data collected before the 2018 U.S. midterm election suggest that criticism, informing, and socialization motivations, but not expression, awareness, and self-promotion motivations, positively predict political information sharing on social media. Individuals are more likely to share political information when they are exposed to information that is disagreeable. This relationship is stronger among individuals with higher epistemic political efficacy and lower political knowledge.
2021, International Journal on Media Management
Are Social Media Worth It for News Media?
Explaining News Engagement on Tumblr
and Digital Traffic of News Websites
News organizations, faced with financial challenges in transitioning to a digital era, have embraced social media to attract an audience. Little, however, is empirically known regarding which factors generate engagement on social media to drive traffic to dedicated news websites. To answer this question, digital traffic of top 50 news organizations and 230,375 posts made by 41 accounts of these organizations on a social media platform, Tumblr, were analyzed. The results suggest that both still and animated images in news posts can be helpful for engagement not just linearly but in a non-linear, exponential fashion while hashtags in news posts may also positively predict digital traffic to news websites. Nonetheless, having a link to news websites in posts does not increase engagement or digital traffic to news websites. The implications of results are discussed for news organizations’ digital strategies that not only engage but also inform audiences for better journalism.
BRAND EXTENSION STRATEGIES
IN THE FILM INDUSTRY:
FACTORS BEHIND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF ADAPTATIONS AND SEQUELS
In the film industry, which is notoriously high risk, sequels and adaptations stand out as successful films. Conceptualizing adaptations and sequels as extended brands, this paper takes an in-depth look at brand extension strategies in the film industry by analyzing films released from 2010 to 2013 in the U.S. This paper puts forward five adaptations types by their source materials (i.e., adaptations from video games; TV series; toy lines; comic books; and books), and examines which types of adaptations are successful at the worldwide box office. Specifically, two theatrical performance indicators are considered: gross and profit. In terms of worldwide box office gross, the results suggest that adaptations from comic books and toy lines are successful, and those produced as sequels are even more successful. However, when production budgets are additionally taken into account, in terms of worldwide box office profit, none of the five adaptations types appear more successful than original films. Still, adaptations from comic books and toy lines produced as sequels are highly profitable at the worldwide box office.
2019, International Journal on Media Management
WHAT TYPES OF FILMS
ARE SUCCESSFUL AT THE BOX OFFICE?
PREDICTING OPENING WEEKEND AND
NON-OPENING GROSS EARNINGS OF FILMS
Although the film industry is high risk, sequels and films adapted from novels or comic books can be financially successful because they can capitalise on the established brands of their parent work. Focusing on sequels and adaptations as extended lines and brands, this paper analysed 2,490 films released between 2010 and 2013 in the U.S. to examine what types of films were successful in terms of opening weekend gross and non-opening gross. During opening weekends, while sequels generated higher grosses than non-sequels, sequels adapted from existing work generated even higher grosses. Brand strategies involving stars and title novelty further helped adaptation sequels generate higher grosses mostly during opening weekends. Sequels and adaptations may work together to garner line and brand extension benefits upfront.