Business Views
User-generated Content, Social Media Bias, and Slant Regulation View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jun Hu
This paper examines the impact of government regulation in the media market. In a duopolistic market structure, the intervention of a state-owned media firm without bias will reduce the price of the print version of a newspaper but will increase its digital subscription fee. Moreover, the government regulation by introducing a third public media outlet without bias will not necessarily reduce the media slanting. The User-generated Content of a digital version of a newspaper, along with the media bias from both the supply-side and the demand-side, makes this kind of government regulation much less effective. However, other regulatory policies such as price regulation and tax can decrease the level of slanting, especially the tax policy, which leads to an average level of slanting even less than the socially optimal level.
The Entrepreneurial Journey in Vietnam’s Public Relations Industry: The Motivation, the Role, the Challenges View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tuong Minh Ly Le
With the increased importance of SMEs, especially in the Asia Pacific region, the demand for research in these topics continues to rise. This study focuses on the characteristics and motivations of the founders behind their decisions for a growing business in an emerging Asian market, Vietnam. The purpose of this study is to examine the different entrepreneurial factors that influence the growth stage of public relations companies in Vietnam. In particular, the study examines the traits or skills needed for a founder to control his company, how the founder’s role shifted during the growth stage, and the motivations behind the founder’s decision to retain or release his or her control in this stage. The study also compares the founder’s motivations to launch with the motivations to grow a company. This study applied the inductive, grounded theory approach, with a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the founders of Vietnamese public relations agencies in Vietnam. The data were analyzed and sorted into themes and concepts. This study contributes to the scholarship of entrepreneurship and SMEs, as well as to advise nascent entrepreneurs in Vietnam, especially those in the public relations sector. As founders in this industry are mostly public relations practitioners without a business management background or experience, understanding what lies ahead in the start-up venture will help them better prepare themselves and avoid failure early in their business.
Typefaces Used in Typographic Media Representing Dialogue in Global Print Advertisements : Perfumes and Association with Fragrances View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mathew Martin Poothullil, Juhi Shah
The power of connotation of words and strength of expression are enhanced with the appropriate use of typography in visual media literacy. It is hypothesized that typefaces are the communicative forms that creates psychological associations in the viewer’s mind upon visualization. The characteristics of fragrances influence the customer’s attitude through the emotional associations it evokes. This research study examines the associations between the usage of images of postscript typefaces, concerning language and visual space, and fragrances of the perfumes in global print advertisements of magazines as the typographic medium for media literacies. A 3 (typefaces: Serif, Sans Serif, Display) x 5 (fragrances: Floral, Oriental, Woods, Aromatic, Fresh) descriptive and inferential analysis was undertaken. The study relied on purposive and convenient sampling methods using a research tool designed and developed for the purpose of the study to gather the data from the respondents (N=175) who were surveyed and the content analysis of different magazine’s (N=3) perfume advertisements (N=20) was analyzed. The assumption that postscript typefaces in global print advertisements can have a positive effect on the customer’s cognitive perception of fragrances was put to test through correlations. Results demonstrated that the typefaces created a positive effect due to the congruence [0.129, 0.655] between the most associated typeface by the respondent and the typeface used to denote the name of the perfume in the global print advertisements of magazines and in turn promote the need for media literacy among advertisers.
An Exploration of the Match-up Hypothesis in Headphone Advertisements View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eric Langstedt
In advertisements, the match-up hypothesis suggests that models and spokespersons with certain attributes will be more successful at conveying the advertising message because of their perceived fit with the product or service they are promoting. Consumers may associate a product or service with a certain gender, race, or ethnicity, suggesting a model or spokesperson fitting that description may add credibility to the marketing message. While content analyses have traditionally found minorities to be underrepresented in advertisements, this study explored whether this was true for audio headphone advertisements. This product type was selected because match-up hypothesis has previously revealed a tendency for Asians to be associated with products of a technical nature, while African-Americans have been associated with music. While white males are represented disproportionately in advertisements more generally, it was believed that these associations may lead to Asian and African-Americans accounting for a disproportionate number of roles in this field of advertising. A content analysis of 62 advertisements from 14 prominent audio headphone manufacturers revealed that both African-American and Asian models and spokespersons were represented at statistically-significantly higher rates than their population rates, supporting the hypothesis.
Understanding Dynamics of Media and Organizational Culture Change View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mahboobeh Hajkazemi, Neda Mohammadesmaeili, Mohammad Abooyee Ardakan
The media affects the culture of society. Many studies have examined the power of the media over society and culture. However, the contribution of media to the transformation of organizational culture has been less considered. The present study aims to describe the dynamics of changing organizational culture with a focus on the media used by the organization. Many organizations have concerns about changing their organizational culture and consequently use different mechanisms and methods, such as changing processes and control systems, holding training workshops, etc. to achieve this goal. There are several agreed-upon points from previous studies regarding the use of such mechanisms to change the culture. The organizational requirements such as technology, demographic characteristics, strategies, etc., determine which strategies fit each organization better. Changing organizational culture requires the cooperation of all organizational members, and cultural change will be impossible with no proper communication channels. Hence, effective use of powerful media tools in the organization is one of the most important considerations in the employment of mechanisms to change organizational culture. The present study seeks to describe the complicated relationships among the power of different media in changing different levels of organizational culture by a review of the literature on organizational culture and media and communications. These dynamic relationships are examined through the layered approach to culture (cultural web model) and based on the theories of media richness and the social construction of reality.
How not to Regulate the New Forms of Media View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gergely Gosztonyi
"The Internet has now become one of the principal means by which individuals exercise their right to freedom to receive and impart information and ideas." (European Court of Human Rights, cited in Cengiz and Others v. Turkey). Are these rights merely window dressing for some countries? How is this connected to censorship? In many countries worldwide, regulating the Internet has become one of the top priorities on the political agenda, albeit with different solutions, from Australia through Germany and Canada to Poland and Hungary. The world has become acquainted with ‘fake news’, ‘deepfake’, ‘dis- and misinformation’ in recent years. Digital platforms providing services worldwide have so far not devoted significant resources – for the sake of their well-conceived business interest – to prevent these from spreading. Once again, quoting the ECtHR, we can state that “the expressive activities generated by users on the Internet are an unprecedented platform for exercising freedom of expression.” The Internet has been integrated so much in the political machinery that regulation is now seems to be an inevitability. The study examines the good and bad practice worldwide in recent years intending to understand how the States, in particular, are responding to the propagation of fake news, hate speech, content that promotes violence, and how to balance drastic measures with the need to ensure public safety and/or national security and freedom of expression. The paper – from a legal perspective – intends to show the ways States should not follow.
How to Tweet the Pandemic?: Linguistic Marks Indicators on COVID-19 News View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session María de los Angeles Miranda Bustamante
This quantitative research examines the news tweeted during the first months of pandemic COVID-19 by best ranked Chilean media. Using a discourse analysis, the study identified the linguistic marks indicators and the "seminality" of those tweets, in order to relate the narrative resources to the users' interaction. The results show the importance of the metatextual and incitator indicators in journalistic narratives to increase followers' engagement.
Journalistic Education and Resistance to Appeal of Conspiracy Theories about the COVID-19's Origin View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Xiao Liu
Based on previous related studies, the research proposes a process of building people's resistance to conspiracy theories concerning COVID-19's origin. The process demonstrates how nationalism and patriotism as personal proclivities could influence their critical judgment of the theories, and how taking journalism-related courses could help enhance people's news media literacy and critical thinking, through which people could resist the appeal of the theories and, to some degree, avoid adverse effects of the theories.
