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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 interactions into communication models. More broadly, mediated interactions are used as a basis to encourage the field to move beyond a "one variable, one role" approach to model building. Monte Carlo simulations reflecting common communication research practices were constructed and 1,920,000 datasets were analyzed to reveal the relative upsides and minimal risk incurred from assessing mediated interactions. In addition, the analyses elucidate the downsides incurred from not exploring these relationships when they are present in a population. The implications of these findings for future research and theory development are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 undertaking as a collective goal. This offering is intended as an initial foray into the process of identifying and evaluating scientific principles of communication by considering the value of these fundamental pillars for the field's maturation. It proposes evaluation criteria which are then applied in a rendering of two candidate principles. These observations aim to initiate a broader conversation and spark a collective effort toward elucidating scientific principles of communication that can help to guide and anchor the field in its next stage of knowledge generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends priming research in political communication by focusing on an alternative political information source (i.e., Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11), affect rather than cognitions, and the existence of intra-affective ambivalence. In addition, two moderator variables are analyzed: political party identification and need for closure. There is a statically significant three-way interaction between the viewing of F 9-11, political party identification, and need for closure relative to the dependent variable of affective ambivalence toward George W. Bush. High need for closure Republicans who viewed F 9-11 exhibited pronounced levels of Bush-affective ambivalence. In addition, high need for closure Independents who viewed F 9-11 exhibited far lower ambivalence toward Bush relative to their control group peers. The findings are discussed relative to the roles performed by emerging alternative political media and the expansion of the theory of priming within the context of political communication.

Uses priming as a theoretical basis to investigate potential effects of NBC's television program "The West Wing" on individual-level perceptions of the U.S. presidency among a group of undergraduate students. Finds the program primed more positive images of the U.S. Presidency that subsequently influenced individual-level perceptions. Extends political communication-based priming research to entertainment television content. Makes theoretical connections to previous work on role display and trust in democratic institutions. (SG)

Examines 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 attitude that reflect democratic values. Reveals no main effects for advertising approach on candidate preference. (SG)

Notes that structural equation modeling (SEM) is a viable multivariate tool used by communication researchers for the past quarter century. Summarizes the use of this technique from 1995-2000 in 37 communication-based academic journals. Identifies and critically assesses 3 unique methods for testing structural relationships via SEM in terms of the specification, estimation, and evaluation of their respective structural equation models. Provides general guidelines for the use of SEM. (SG)

Uses a pretest/posttest design to assess more subtle effects of watching a 2000 presidential debate on attitudes and vote intention among undergraduate students. Notes that leadership and overall policy stance became more important factors in vote choice after watching the debate. Demonstrates a variety of potentially important effects of watching presidential debates. (SG)

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 voters and political figures was demonstrated in a recent study. The current exploration tests the predictive power of Political Para-Social Relationship (PPSR) in the context of the April and September 2019 Israeli election campaigns. Findings from online panel data (n = 1,061) demonstrate that PPSR toward Netanyahu was a positive predictor of voting for Netanyahu's Likud party and a negative predictor of voting for opposition leader Benny Gantz's Blue and White party in both campaigns. The opposite was true for PPSR toward Benny Gantz. The PPSR constructs also predicted shifts in party support from the February to October (post-election) waves of the study, and loyalty toward the parties. In all models, the PPSR constructs were among the strongest predictors of political support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay offers a comprehensive framework for the investigation of presidential debate humor. Given the importance of presidential debates for educating and persuading voters and the ubiquity of humor in debate events, it stands to reason that communication research would benefit by a deepened scholarly understanding of humor in the debate context. In this essay, a typology is offered as a catalyst for systematic assessment of debate humor, undergirding an expanded conception of a debate event and its participants. Examples from the 2012 general election debates, along with pertinent humor scholarship, are highlighted within this project's effort to help advance the underdeveloped research domain of debate humor. Key Words: political humor, 2012 presidential debates, incongruity, superiority, relief, The study of political humor is on the rise with the growing attention by scholars to programs like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report (e.g., Amarasingam, [...]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01470.x Byline: R. Lance Holbert (1), R. Kelly Garrett (1), Laurel S. Gleason (1) Abstract: This article takes up Bennett and Iyengar's (2008) call for debate about the future of political communication effects research. We outline 4 key criticisms. First, Bennett and Iyengar are too quick to dismiss the importance of attitude reinforcement, long recognized as an important type of political media influence. Second, the authors take too narrow a view of the sources of political information, remaining fixated on news. Third, they offer an incomplete portrayal of selective exposure, exaggerating the extent to which individuals avoid attitude-discrepant information. Finally, they lean toward determinism when describing the role technologies play in shaping our political environment. In addition, we challenge Bennett and Iyengar's assertion that only brand new theory can serve to help researchers understand today's political communication landscape. We argue that existing tools, notably the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), retain much utility for examining political media effects. Contrary to Bennett and Iyengar's claims, the ELM suggests that the contemporary political information environment does not necessarily lead to minimal effects. Author Affiliation: (1)School of Communication, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA Article note: R. L. Holbert; e-mail: r.lance.holbert@gmail.com

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 tire political communication campaign information outlets (conservative political talk radio, FOX cable TV news, daily newspapers, national network TV news, debate viewing) are posited. This work emphasizes the need to understand how various information outlets function in coordination with one another to produce a potentially diverse set of direct and indirect political campaign media effects. Future lines of theoretical inquiry and empirical research are outlined. Keywords: Political Elections; Media Relationships; Campaign Effects; Debate Viewing; Theory Building

Elections should serve to reaffirm a citizenry's belief in the legitimacy of its political processes and outcomes. This study focuses on perceptions of vote count accuracy as a criterion variable. An argument is offered that voters' personal perceptions of post-election vote count accuracy are predicted by vote choice, with those citizens who did not vote for the winning candidate having to deal with the cognitive dissonance created by the election outcome. The model offered in this work focuses on an interaction between partisan strength and debate viewing as predictor of vote choice. In addition, an indirect effect of partisanship on vote choice through debate viewing is explored. Debate viewing is shown to promote partisan voting, and vote choice serves as a strong predictor of perceptions of vote count accuracy. A subset of the 2004 National Annenberg general election panel data (N = 5,660) was used for this secondary analysis. Keywords: U.S. presidential elections; cognitive dissonance; debate viewing; partisanship; vote accuracy

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.00404.x Byline: William L. Benoit (1), R. Lance Holbert (2) Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Communication, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211 (2)School of Communication, The Ohio State University, Columbus OH 43210 Article note: William L. Benoit; e-mail: benoitw@missouri.edu

This study extends priming research in political communication by focusing on an alternative political information source (i.e., Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11), affect rather than cognitions, and the existence of intra-affective ambivalence. In addition, two moderator variables are analyzed: political party identification and need for closure. There is a statically significant three-way interaction between the viewing of F 9-11, political party identification, and need for closure relative to the dependent variable of affective ambivalence toward George W. Bush. High need for closure Republicans who viewed F 9-11 exhibited pronounced levels of Bush-affective ambivalence. In addition, high need for closure Independents who viewed F 9-11 exhibited far lower ambivalence toward Bush relative to their control group peers. The findings are discussed relative to the roles performed by emerging alternative political media and the expansion of the theory of priming within the context of political communication.

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 summarized in this article and forged into a coherent whole through the lens of Zillmann's disposition theory and the broader study of media enjoyment. Extant works devoted to the study of entertainment television and politics are summarized, and a nine-part typology is introduced. This article closes with a discussion of how the typology can serve to advance the study of entertainment television and politics. Keywords: entertainment television; politics; disposition theory; media enjoyment

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 The West Wing television season addresses the frequency with which the fictional president performs these three roles and posits several hypotheses concerning the relative presentation of personality characteristics across contexts. All three roles are represented with substantive frequency, with the chief executive role dominating. Principled character traits are evident more often when the fictional President Bartlet is acting as chief executive than as a private citizen. Conversely, Bartlet presents more engaging personality traits when acting as a private citizen than as either chief executive or political candidate. Implications for these finding are outlined and future lines of research are detailed. Keywords: The West Wing; Framing; Depictions; Role display; Entertainment television; Politics

An analysis of campaigning debate viewing as a mediator between news use and vote choice for the general voting populations is presented. The analysis shows that debate viewing acts as partisan reinforcement for democratic and republican voters.

This paper evaluates the perception of the role of the U.S. President by people who watch NBC's 'The West Wing.'

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 third approach employed observed variables only. Of the three, the observed variable approach produced the most conservative structural path coefficients, whereas the hybrid latent variable approach generated the least attenuated coefficients. The appropriateness of each technique in modeling structural relationships is discussed and an argument is made for greater use of latent variable structural equation modeling in the field of communication. Keywords: structural equation model; latent variable; Monte Carlo; media effects; media exposure

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 Wattenberg's (1996) findings concerning the relative influence of political advertisements, television news use, and newspaper use on voter issue knowledge and salience in the 1992 United States presidential campaign. We also analyzed two additional communication information sources, general political discussion and debate viewing. The effects of political advertisement recall, television news viewing, and newspaper use replicated across election studies. General political discussion was found to affect both issue knowledge and salience, and when introduced into the regression analyses nullifies the predictive power of political advertisement recall for knowledge. Talk's influence on salience wanes in subsequent analyses. Viewing the first debate was a strong predictor of issue knowledge, but was not associated with issue salience. Advertisement recall maintained predictive power for issue salience even after taking into account the other four information sources, and watching the second debate also predicted salience. The combination of results presents evidence that candidate-to-citizen and citizen-to-citizen communication play unique roles in determining levels of issue knowledge and salience.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a viable multivariate tool used by communication researchers for the past quarter century. Building off Cappella (1975) as well as McPhee and Babrow (1987), this study summarizes the use of this technique from 1995-2000 in 37 communication-based academic journals. We identify and critically assess 3 unique methods for testing structural relationships via SEM in terms of the specification, estimation, and evaluation of their respective structural equation models. We provide general guidelines for the use of SEM and make recommendations concerning latent variable models, sample size, reporting parameter estimates, model fit statistics, cross-sectional data, univariate normality, cross-validation, nonrecursive modeling, and the decomposition of effects (direct, indirect, and total).

This article examines the influence of Internet usage on social capital, civic engagement, interpersonal trust and overall life-contentment; while the use of Internet, television and newspaper among Generation X, Baby Boom and Civic Generation are compared. The authors find that people who use the Internet for information have a positive relation with production of social capital, while people who use the Internet for recreation-social purposes have a low level of civic engagement.