Theory & Research

There are 9 posts filed in Theory & Research.

Framing, second-level agenda setting, and what am I thinking?!?

The debate on whether or not framing and second-level agenda setting are the same remains unresolved. I should not have been surprised therefore when it became one of the questions I was asked in my doctoral comprehensive exam. The following version comes from my first exam—one of the four questions I had to answer for […]

The backlash effect: Why black propaganda also hurts those behind it

It is a certainty that as we move closer to the election homestretch, many politicians in the Philippines will be resorting again to black propaganda, and this reminded me of an exam response I drafted for my media and politics class during my first semester here at the University of Missouri. In the following article, […]

The effects of media effects research

The comprehensive examination at the Missouri School of Journalism is a nerve-racking but fun process. For several weeks I had to read about 100 journal articles, book chapters, and books from five subject areas. These reading lists were developed in consultation with my dissertation committee members. Then, for five days spread in just two weeks, […]

Study comparing bloggers, journalists wins top faculty paper

Here is the abstract of one of my three papers to be presented at the International Communication Association conference in London in June. This paper, co-authored with Dr. Bruno Takahashi of the Michigan State University’s School of Journalism, won top faculty paper from the Environmental Communication Interest Group. THE CHANGING NATURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSE An […]

Why freedom of information can make people happy

The Philippines takes pride in having a free press, and yet the Freedom House Index (FHI), the most cited index of press freedom, rates the country as only “partly free.” Having a free press is important for democracy to flourish, and this is especially true for young democracies such as the Philippines. In a study […]

The theory that theory doesn’t work

One night I read a book about building theories. Nope, I did not build a new theory after reading it, but at least it made me write again. So how about discussing “theory” in a national paper? Here is how it looked, as published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/221605/the-theory-that-theory-doesn%E2%80%99t-work COLUMBIA, Missouri—For many industry people, […]

Breaking news or breaking the newspaper?

This is the abstract of a paper I presented in a conference in Peru, my second conference presentation as a doctoral student. In a survey of 110 newspaper and website reporters in the Philippines, this study found a manifestation of medium-based loyalties, consistent with previous studies that found differences between perceptions of journalists tied to […]

The spread of pseudo-events: Covering the Influenza A(H1N1) Pandemic

This was my first conference presentation as a doctoral student.  Boorstin sounded the alarm in 1961: Staged realities, or what he called pseudo-events, were flooding the American press. In a content analysis of 200 online news articles on the Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, this study sought to apply his concept to the coverage of a […]

Hating the news media?

This shorter piece is lifted from my final exam response for my Media and Politics (J9018) course. The news media enjoyed a positive image at the wake of the Watergate scandal in the 1970s (Gronke & Cook, 2007). That was the last time evaluations of the news media peaked. This year, a Gallup poll showed […]