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This study examines the mediating role of negative emotions in the relationship between exposure to uncivil messages and participatory behaviors. Based on appraisal theory, we hypothesized that the effect of exposure to uncivil blog commentary on participatory behaviors would be mediated by negative emotions. We tested our hypotheses via an experiment drawing on a sample of adult readers of political blogs. Results showed that uncivil messages have an indirect effect on participatory behaviors through the arousal of negative emotions. That is, uncivil blog commentary has a strong initial effect on negative emotions. These negative emotions, in turn, influenced participatory behaviors. Our findings offer new insights on the role of media message tone within participatory democracy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media Perceptions are a fixture of modern electoral politics. . In this paper, we explore potential sources of these perceptions in the socialization of young people into citizenship during their adolescent years. To explore these issues, we rely on data collected from a national cross-section of 12-17 years olds and their parents. Our analysis examines how demographic, ideological, conversational, and informational variables shape judgments of news credibility among American youth, our future voters. Our results demonstrate that factors such as political interest, opinion leadership and "echo chamber" variables play a significant role. Unlike adults partisanship or partisan strengths do not have significant influences in the media perceptions of adolescents. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has addressed problems of incivility in traditional media setting as well as interpersonal communication. However, the growing readership of partisan-based political blogs and recent concerns about nasty blogs calls for research attention on how bloggers' tone of expressing disagreement influence readers' emotional reactions and their attitudes toward political disagreement. Accordingly, this study examines how readers react to uncivil blog commentary, as a function of whether or not they identify as a member of the party that the partisan blogger is critiquing. Results generally support scholars' concerns about detrimental effects of incivility especially when the blogger attacked views consistent with the participants' position. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how newspapers framed the coverage of U.S. troops in Iraq over a period of four years. Using framing analysis, the study employs a content analysis of 142 newspaper articles. Unlike previous studies, where content analysis found that the Iraq war has been positively portrayed, the findings of this study show that the newspapers interpreted the issue in negative terms. The results also show positive linkages between the orientation of the editorials regarding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and public perceptions of the issue. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newspapers worldwide produced different images of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and of hurricane Katrina in 2005, two natural disasters that have recently stunned audiences all over the globe. This study examines how newspapers in the United States Great Britain, and India framed the disasters and their aftermath by analyzing the content of all photographs they published during the first week after the calamities hit. The most salient frames used by the three papers are lives lost, lives saved, physical, emotional and political. Results show that the American newspapersÂ’ visual coverage of hurricane Katrina was more restrained compared to the way they depicted the tsunami that occurred in Asia. The British and Indian newspapers, however, covered the two disasters almost in a similar fashion, relying heavily on the physical damages and emotional frames. Examining the salient frames showed that perhaps local flavor and audience expectations influenced the selection of frames besides journalistic routines and ideology. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine the copyright law and its implementation in India using two case studies- New York based author Barbara Bradford Taylor’s copyright infringement case in India against Sahara Televisions network and Indian music composer Bappi Lahiri’s lawsuit in a district court in Los Angeles against Dr. Dre who is the producer of the song “Addictive” by “Truth Hurts”. The second case study is used to analyze the differences of the Indian copyright law to that of the US. The study highlights the loopholes in the copyright law in India, a country where piracy is in abundance causing the U.S. an estimated loss of 500 million dollars in 2004 alone. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, the number of dowry-related deaths has been increasing exponentially. This study explores newspaper coverage over a period of five years to examine media content. The study also includes interviews with editors of the papers to observe the factors that led to this coverage. Using the hoopla hypothesis, the study employs a content analysis of 3,358 newspaper articles and interviews with a convenience sample of 23 editors from the same newspapers. Across all four newspapers studied, there were discernable pre-hoopla, hoopla, and post-hoopla stages. The hoopla period, characterized by the most number of stories, was ushered in by identifiable triggering events. A comparison of the national and regional newspapers’ coverage showed that the coverage was more intense in the national newspapers that produced longer and in-depth articles. The results also show that regardless of the scope of coverage (national vs. regional), coverage intensity is related to the prevalence of dowry within a sub-national region and the “newsworthiness” of dowry cases—a characteristic that is reiterated in the editor’s responses. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]