Browsing by Author "Anderson, Ashley, committee member"
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Item Open Access Conflicting health-related scientific evidence in news reports: effects of presentation format and hedging on perceived issue uncertainty and source credibility(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Zhang, Hui, author; Long, Marilee, advisor; Anderson, Ashley, committee member; Gloeckner, Gene, committee member; Martey, Rosa Mikeal, committee member; Stallones, Lorann, committee memberThis study examined the effects of two journalistic practices in reporting conflicting health-related scientific evidence on journalists’ and scientists’ credibility and whether the effects were mediated by perceived issue uncertainty. The two practices examined were presentation format and hedging. When conflicting findings are reported, journalists can use either a one-article format, using one story to report the conflict, or a two-article format, using two stories with each story representing one side of the conflict. When conflicting findings are reported, journalists can use hedging (e.g., reporting the limitations of scientific studies) to present the conflicting information. An online experiment was conducted to examine the two journalistic practices’ effects. Results include the following: 1) the one-article format was beneficial to journalists’ competence, but detrimental to scientists’ competence, as compared with the two-article format; 2) journalists’ and scientists’ credibility in the hedged news conditions did not differ from those in the non-hedged news conditions; and 3) perceived issue uncertainty did not mediate presentation format’s or hedging’s effects on journalists’ or scientists’ credibility. An exploratory follow-up mediation analysis found that perceived message believability mediated presentation format’s effects on journalists’ and scientists’ credibility. Theoretical, practical, and methodological implications are discussed.Item Open Access Counter-attitudinal exemplars viewed through the social identity lens: a case of climate change and political partisans(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Morris, Jessica R., author; Christen, Cindy, advisor; Anderson, Ashley, committee member; Lacy, Michael, committee memberThis study examined the relationship between social identification theory and exemplification theory through the use of counter-attitudinal exemplars. Exemplification theory predicts that inferences from one single exemplar will be made for an entire group. Social identity theory states that members of groups act in accordance with the group's norms. Therefore, a combination of the two theories predicts that an exemplar from a group will cause the audience to project the exemplar characteristics on the larger group, thus causing in-group and out-group members to re-evaluate the group. Using Democrats and Republicans as the groups and climate change as the attitude issue, this study aimed to understand how people in social groups respond to exemplars that are counter-attitudinal to the group's traditional values. A 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design was created to manipulate the variables of political partisanship of the exemplar (Democrat or Republican), attitude expressed (pro- or anti-climate change), and political partisanship of the participant (Democrat or Republican). Three-hundred-and-twenty-five participants took both pre- and post-tests in order to gauge their identification with the exemplar and attitude change after viewing the stimulus material. Results showed that participants were willing to change attitude about the exemplar, but had no change in attitude toward climate change (regardless of political affiliation). Article slant had a main effect on participants' attitudes towards the exemplars in addition to an interaction effect between article slant and participant political party identification. The party of the exemplar did not have an effect on the participants' attitudes toward climate change. The researcher concluded that climate change attitudes are difficult to influence, regardless of participant stance and political identification. However, the statistically significant findings gave some new theoretical implications for social identity theory research. The interaction effect of political party and slant of the article suggested that social identity theory influenced participants' attitudes about the exemplar. When an exemplar from the participants' group negatively or positively exemplified the group's views on climate change, the participant had a greater attitude change about the exemplar than someone that was not part of the exemplar's political group. The main effect of article slant also had important implications—participants were willing to change attitude about an exemplar based on the exemplar's attitude about climate change. Therefore, political figures can significantly bolster or damage their reputation based on their attitudes about climate change. Finally, this study found some areas in social identity theory that need some additional research. The majority of the Republican participants in this study were pro-climate, and therefore were group deviants. Therefore, their responses reflected the attitudes of how deviant members evaluate members of their in-group. This study concluded that deviant members have higher evaluations of deviant exemplars. Upon searching, there was not significant research done in deviant group members' evaluations of other deviants. Future research should be conducted to better understand how deviant and marginalized group members rationalize group membership.Item Open Access Leadership, resilience, and sensemaking at Colorado State University during the COVID-19 pandemic(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Letteney, Juliet SooGin, author; Williams, Elizabeth, advisor; Burgchardt, Carl, committee member; Anderson, Ashley, committee memberThis study examines the crisis communication qualities of crisis leadership, communicative resilience, and enacted sensemaking in the case of Colorado State University's response to COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. The focus for university response is based in correspondence emailed from University President McConnell to the students. As groundwork for the study, I review crisis communication literature in general and focused studies in crisis leadership, Buzzanell's theory of constructed resilience, and Weick's enacted sensemaking. This foundation of literature informs a mixed method study comprising of a textual analysis of McConnell's correspondence and interviews with students enrolled at the time of the crisis. This methodology was used with the intention of addressing four research questions. RQ1: In what ways did President McConnell exhibit a leadership mindset in her response to the COVID-19 pandemic?, RQ2: In what ways did President McConnell's messages help construct a sense of resilience for CSU students?, RQ3A: In what ways did students make sense of the COVID-19 health crisis in the context of their student lives?, and RQ3B: What role did messages from President McConnell play in their sensemaking? These questions led to a wealth of insights about McConnell's communication in response to the pandemic and moving to virtual learning Spring 2020. Three major takeaways discussed are that the leadership role is particularly delicate in crisis situations, the practice of normalizing challenges in crisis should be paired with adjusting expectations, and that the reflex to strive for a business-as-usual approach should be cautiously balanced with an acceptance of the new normal a crisis requires.Item Open Access Science communication and coproduction: applying the theory of motivated information management to the science-policy interface(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Middleton, Lindsey, author; Champ, Joseph, advisor; Anderson, Ashley, committee member; Faw, Meara, committee memberScience communication scholarship claims that engagement, dialogue, and interaction are important communicative components. But there are relatively very few studies of dialogic science communication processes from a science communication perspective. This study bridges science communication, interpersonal communication, and science-policy interface research and practice to learn how an interpersonal theory models science-policy communication. When science informs policy and land management, myriad science and policy actors must work together to come to a shared understanding of how science will be used. However, there may be differences across the science-policy interface. How do scientists structure research goals, and how do policymakers and managers set research goals? How do timelines differ? How do communication styles, cultures, and values differ? Can they come to a shared understanding? This work studies the policy side of a particular science-policy interface (coproduction) and describes how science stakeholders, or "information seekers," evaluate the utility of working with information providers from organizations outside their own to inform their own science and policy. Information seekers were interviewed, and they provided insights into their perceptions of (1) the trustworthiness and credibility of information providers, (2) their ability to communicate across the interface, (3) the usefulness of the information provided, and more. Results inform future coproduction practice, but also, this study demonstrates a successful application of an interpersonal communication theory to a science-policy interface. Future work might make further use of the predictive and explanatory utility of this model in science communication with high-priority stakeholders, and interpersonal theories and models arguably stand to further inform the dialogic components of science communication.Item Open Access The role of master and counter-narratives in conceiving a carbon-neutral society a discourse analysis of a French podcast(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Carle Dorville, Coralie, author; Humphrey, Michael, advisor; Anderson, Ashley, committee member; Luna, Jessie, committee memberIn the context of the climate crisis, narratives that stimulate our imagination to create a desirable view of the future are tremendous for understanding and defining our society's goals. This study analyzed four scenarios designed by the French governmental ecological agency ADEME which present different alternatives for a carbon-neutral society in France in 2050. The podcast series "Tomorrow is Not Far Away," which was created in 2022 to introduce the four scenarios, was examined to capture the master and counter-narratives. The method centered around critical discourse analysis provided crucial insights into the dynamics of power and social relations that contribute to the futuristic master and counter-narratives. Futuristic master narratives are grounded in the narrative of human domination over nature. With narratives on eco-technological solutionism, unlimited economic growth, and personal freedom, the future is not bright for everyone, and the consequences of climate change are heavier on those who are the most vulnerable. The debate held by the experts unraveled each futuristic counter-narrative and demonstrated the complexity of creating a carbon-neutral society that does not leave anyone behind. The panelists brought back nature at the center of the conversation and discussed the delicate balance between sufficiency and technology. They also reminded us that climate justice needs to be organized and ensured by public policies.Item Open Access The working narrative: analysis of linguistic structures and styles in life storytelling on social media(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Humphrey, Michael, author; Plaisance, Patrick, advisor; Long, Marillee, committee member; Anderson, Ashley, committee member; Sloane, Sarah, committee member; Mason, Kate, committee memberThe stories we tell ourselves, and others, define us. What does that mean when we enter digital life and populate social media networks? In this dissertation, I examine the linguistic structures and styles of content created by people who are specifically prompted to tell a story from their lives. The study focuses on two distinct types of storytelling social media platforms: Cowbird is an self-mediatizing, open site that primes users with life story cues and prompts them to "Tell a story," while Humans of New York is a filtered, gated-mediatized platform run by one curator who posts pictures and short life narratives on Facebook, Tumblr, his own blog and several other social platforms. I sought to find distinct and/or common narrative structural and stylistic characteristics of the content. Using a combination of Quantitative Content Analysis and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (Pennebaker et al., 2007; Pennebaker et al., 2015), this project includes three related studies that begin with basic questions about narrative structures and concludes with two factor analyses of latent linguistic variables. On Cowbird, the latent variables internal vs. external focus created two styles of storytelling, regardless of the structure of the stories. Humans of New York, on the other hand, had its own style that complicated the role of singular first-person in the narratives. I suggest the overarching phenomenon in this data is what I've termed a working narrative, which is in flux, performative and filtering information in accordance with present goals, either to be encoded to long-term memory or forgotten. This suggests a model, the Digital Self Memory System, that combines insights from Autobiographical Memory (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000) and the Infosphere (Floridi, 2014). I conclude with a discussion about the philosophical implications of the working narrative in light of current and future technological affordances.Item Open Access You've only got your looks to lose: the effects of message framing and individual-level differences on selective exposure to health messages(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Grace, Jesse N., author; Long, Marilee, advisor; Anderson, Ashley, committee member; Graham, Dan, committee memberThis study investigated how individual differences, such as exercise and healthy nutrition involvement, attitudes, and motivations, affect selective exposure to variously framed health messages. The study starts to bridge a gap in the social marketing literature, which mainly focuses on message effectiveness. Yet, it is not possible for a message to successfully promote healthy behavior change if it is not selected in the first place. The study utilized a split-plot, quasi-experimental design. The participants were shown four article headlines per topic; the two topics were healthy nutrition and exercise. For each topic, the article headlines were manipulated in a 2 (motivation frame: appearance vs. health) x 2 (strategy frame: gain vs. loss) within-subjects design. Selective exposure was measured unobtrusively by noting the order in which participants chose articles to read and the amount of time participants spent reading each article they chose. The results show individual differences influence message selection, therefore providing evidence for the importance of individual differences with regard to message framing. The study contributes to selective exposure, strategic communication, and health communication literature, as well as contributing to our knowledge of message tailoring for social marketing of healthy behavior changes and maintenance.