Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This study examined the role of screen size in making inferences about the effects of television content on viewers’ attention, arousal, memory, and content evaluation. Both main and combined effects of two levels of screen size and three levels of content type on the four criterion variables were investigated via a 2x3 mixed factorial-experiment. A total of seventy-five participants were randomly assigned to one of the two screen size conditions (big or small). Those in each condition watched six 2 to 3-minute-long television segments representing three different content types (news, advertising, and entertainment). During the viewing, heart rate and skin conductance (SC) were measured as indicators of attention and arousal respectively. Heart rate data were later converted into beats per minutes (BPM). Skin conductance data were converted into skin conductance response (SCR) and skin conductance level (SCL). After watching, participants completed a questionnaire containing measures of psychological responses to the segments.
The results showed that, with few exceptions, content on the large screen resulted in better memory and was more attention-getting and arousing, as indicated by an cardiac deceleration and an increased SC responses. However, the predicted effect of screen size on participants’ subjective content evaluation did not materialize. Of most importance, viewers’ cardiac and SC responses were most prominent when entertainment content appeared on the big screen, which demonstrated content-specific effects for large screens.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study investigates the relationship between media and political knowledge and participation. Drawing on panel surveys and media content analyses the study provides a compelling link between exposure and attention to specific media contents and knowledge and participation. Our findings challenge conventional wisdom since we find the strongest learning and participation effects from exposure and attention to television news rather than newspapers. However, these effects are contingent upon the content of the news, so that only exposure to news programs that reported elaborately about politics had positive effects. The results are discussed in the light of research on media effects and political participation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Content analyses of cancer news coverage have found that certain content receives disproportionate attention; for example, new stories were more likely to focus on cancer treatment than on cancer prevention. A content analysis of cancer news articles from the top 44 circulating newspapers in the U.S. (N = 3,656) revealed that sources cited in cancer news articles?research institutions, medical journals, pharmaceutical companies?also receive disproportionate attention. Research institutions were the most frequently cited source in cancer news coverage, exerting significant influence over mentions of the cancer continuum. Clinical trial coverage was found to rely heavily on research institutions, medical journals, and pharmaceutical companies. Over half of all stories about clinical trials cited a research institution, and one in four cited medical journals or pharmaceutical companies. Most clinical trial stories were optimistic or neutral in tone, and tone was significantly related to citations of pharmaceutical companies and medical journals. Implications for news practices and effects of cancer coverage are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will seek to explore the possibilities of linking content analysis with discursive approaches, as applicable to research conducted in the field of International Relation (IR). The point of departure is the critique of content analysis stemming from discourse analytical approaches, and the tendency to couple content analysis with often only vague discussions of context. The paper will attempt to take a more pragmatic approach to this problem, based on the notion that although meaning is fluid, it can nonetheless be captured at a certain point in time. By engaging in a commensurable conversation between content and discourse analysis, the authors seek to tackle the hermeneutical circle following a Gadamerian approach. This conversation finally leads to a method in which the (idea) categories for studying the texts and
co-texts are developed inductively, while the analytical categories used to incorporate the context of text production and reception are established deductively. The result is what the authors choose to call "context-sensitive" content analysis. Relying on peer review as its source of validity, it will be argued that such an approach may lead to more constructive results for the type of texts (defined in a conventional sense) students and researchers in the field of IR engage with.

Publication Type: Research Report
Abstract: This study reports on changes in preservice teachers’ knowledge of content, pedagogy, and school cultures developed during field experiences in their mathematics courses. Analysis of data points to positive outcomes and reactions. This paper will address the motivating factors, design issues, and results of implementing field experiences for prospective K-8 teachers in the context of their mathematics coursework.