Suchergebnisse

Public broadcast stations in the USA are often dependent on effective fundraising for their survival. Raising money from audiences has become an important avenue through which those non-profit broadcasting organizations build their budgets. Listener/viewer support of these stations has plateaued or declined in recent years. As a result, it may help to examine how psychology theories might be used to inform our understanding of public donation behaviour. This case study involving 983 US public broadcasting donors explored the potential for using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to model their donation intentions from three perspectives: ( a) public broadcasting donors in general, ( b) public radio donors, and ( c) public television donors. Additionally, an extended model of the TPB incorporating guilt was tested. Results suggested that not all factors of the traditional TPB contributed to the donation intentions for the different modes of public broadcasting. The addition of guilt to the model increased the explanatory power of the TPB model. Findings indicate the TPB could be a useful tool for understanding the behaviour of donors to non-profit or public broadcasting organizations and has the potential to inform campaign strategies and message development.

Broadcast media often provide forums for public expression, which may be useful for understanding public thought and emotion during times of public crisis. This exploratory study had two purposes. First, we examined broadcast content for support of Marx's notion that religion serves to reduce suffering during a time of public crisis. Given the important roles of affect and cognition in religious experience, the second goal was to examine how the public's affective and cognitive expressions in broadcasts differ in times of crisis. Public contributions to National Public Radio's (NPR) Talk of the Nation were examined for statements relating to religion, affect and cognition using linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC) software. This longitudinal analysis included three, week-long periods in the years before, during and after 9/11. No differences were observed for expressions of religion among the three time periods. However, differences in negative affect and cognitive processing were observed.

This study attempts to bring some clarity to the relationships among genre-related television (TV) exposure, body image perceptions and body dissatisfaction. Female undergraduates ( n = 417) completed measures of thin-ideal reality TV viewing, perceptions of social value of thinness, peer and parental attitudes towards thinness, as well as the internalization of the thin ideal and body dissatisfaction measures. First-order effects (perceptions of social reality) and second-order effects (personal attitudes) were examined. Additionally, media exposure was juxtaposed with social influences such as perceptions of peer and parent attitudes to form a model of TV use, body image attitudes and body dissatisfaction. Results suggest thin-ideal reality TV viewing and other social sources such as peer and parent attitudes are linked directly to perceptions of the social value of thinness (first-order effect). However, thin-ideal reality TV exposure was indirectly related to the internalization of the thin ideal (second-order effect) and body dissatisfaction. A model of body dissatisfaction including thin-ideal reality TV viewing as well as perceptions of peer and parent attitudes was supported.

The objective of this study is to understand the gratifications behind music downloading among college students, and examine how the gratifications along with music interest are associated with a variety of downloading-related activities.The results suggest that the process of downloading music files is an entertaining and convenient way to acquire music.The downloading motives were not linked significantly to filesharing (uploading as well as downloading music). However, entertainment/pass time, convenience/economic utility and information-seeking factors and experience were predictors of building a library of music on one's computer. Males reported having more songs stored in their computers than females and were more likely to burn compilation compact discs (CDs) with the music files they downloaded. Affinity for music was not associated significantly with any of the downloading activities examined, but was positively associated with CD purchasing.

This study used a nationally representative survey of U.S. residents ( N = 1,969) to examine whether attention to information about COVID-19 in traditional news media sources and on social media correlated with a higher perceived risk of personal and public harm. As anticipated, we found a positive association between attention to COVID-19 information in traditional news media sources and the perceived risks of COVID-19. We also found a positive association between attention to COVID-19 social media posts and perceived risks but only among Republicans. Other predictors of increased risk perception included age, being female and awareness of a local stay-at-home order.