Media effects

About the journal: Communication Today is a scientific journal from the mass media and marketing communication field. The journal contains professional scientific reflections on the media, media competence; it also offers academic discourses on the limits of reality, media thinking, new media, marketing and media relations, new trends in marketing including their types and specifics, psychology and sociology of marketing communication, as well as new knowledge about the structure of media contents, marketing strategies and communication sciences. The professional public is offered an interdisciplinary, focused, targeted discussion in these pages. Communication Today is indexed in citation databases as follows: Cabell’s Directories, CEJSH, EBSCO, CEEOL, ProQuest, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, Index Copernicus, ERIH PLUS, SCOPUS and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) – Web of Science Core Collection. Content of the issue: The Birth of American Advertising, Dáša Mendelová.............................................................................................4
On Cinderella Men and Peaceful Warriors: “Sportainment” in American Mainstream Cinema,
Jana Radošinská....................................................................................................................................................... 20
Maximizers and Satisficers in Consumer Culture Changes, Ondřej Roubal..................................................... 38
Social Media Tools for TV Programmes Promotion, Mariana Kitsa – Iryna Mudra ....................................... 56
RESEARCH STUDIES
Network Communities as an Expression of Inclusive Culture of Participation in Political Protests:
The Sunflower Movement Case Study, Grażyna Piechota.....................................................................................74
Influencer Marketing as a Modern Phenomenon Creating a New Frontier of Virtual Opportunities,
Zdenka Kádeková – Mária Holienčinová.............................................................................................................. 90
Data Envelopment Analysis – A Key to the Museums’ ‘Secret Chamber’ of Marketing?,
Michal Lukáč – Jaroslav Mihálik..........................................................................................................................106
ESSAY
Recursion and Equifinality in Relationship between Film and Theatre: Being John Malkovich, Peter Getlík....... 118
Phonetic and Syntactic Stylistic Means in Media Space: Manipulation or Emotional Commonplace?,
Halyna Stashko....................................................................................................................................................... 132
REVIEWS
Media, the State and Marginalisation: Tackling Challenges, Ján Višňovský................................................... 144
TODAY
Martin Slivka (1929 – 2002), Ladislav Volko..................................................................................................... 146
Milan Stano (1949), Ladislav Volko..................................................................................................................... 148

This study investigates the relationships between loneliness, anxiousness, alcohol, and marijuana use in the prediction of freshman college students' connections with others on the social network site Facebook as well as their emotional connectedness to Facebook. A survey of 229 respondents was conducted at a mid-sized public university to examine these relationships. Respondents were currently living in university dormitories and had an active Facebook account. The study examined the aforementioned predictor variables in relation to Facebook connections strategies and emotional connectedness to Facebook. Results showed that anxiousness, alcohol use, and marijuana use predicted emotional attachment to Facebook. Additionally, loneliness and anxiousness, but not alcohol or marijuana use, predicted individuals' connections with others using Facebook. The current study adds to the growing body of literature investigating predictors of why individuals become emotionally attached to Facebook and the precursors to connecting with others on Facebook.

Despite its long history in communication, scholars continue to debate whether humor enhances or undermines persuasive attempts. To better understand the contingencies of humor effects, we conducted a meta-analysis of 89 studies across the various fields in which humor has been researched over time. Overall, humor has a weak and significant effect on persuasion (r = .13). Further, results indicate that humor has a moderate-level influence on knowledge (r = .23) and only a weak impact on attitudes (r = .12) and behavioral intent (r = .09). The analysis supports the dual-processing nature of humorous messages, with related-humor being more effective for highly-involved individuals. Finally, while the analysis did not support the humor sleeper-effect prediction, the results revealed an inverted U-shaped effect of humor intensity on persuasion.

We hypothesize that generic frames influence what news people share on Facebook and Twitter through three different routes: emotions, motivations, and psychological engagement. Using a mixed-methods design, a content analysis of a representative sample of articles published in six Chilean outlets was combined with in-depth interviews with digital journalists. After controlling for issue, newsworthiness, informational utility, valence, and other confounds, results show that—across platforms—a morality frame increases news sharing, whereas a conflict frame decreases it. Emphasizing economic consequences also decreases sharing, but only on Facebook. Surprisingly, the human interest angle has no noticeable effects. These results show that news frames can have behavioral consequences, and confirm the existence of a gap between preferred frames of journalists and users.

The invaluable place of the youths in any given society cannot be overemphasised. As future generations of the society and leaders of tomorrow, what concerns the youths should be a matter of utmost concern to every well meaning citizen, and thus must be given adequate attention. This explains why many studies have tried to probe the negative effects of television and video films on viewers, especially the youths. In Nigeria, as in most developing and developed societies world over, apart from parental influence, television has become perhaps the most potent influence on the beliefs, values and behaviours of youths. In recent times, there are too many foreign and homemade violent programmes which are mixed bag of crime, sex, horror and violence. The video medium too is not excluded in this pervasion of vices and violence. The fact that the class of people mostly attracted to and influenced by these antisocial activities are the youths, calls for serious concern; more so, since violence has come to assume a serious global concern in today's world. In the light of the above, the study adopts the qualitative research approach and the interplay of the Cultivation Analysis and the Social Cognitive Theories to critically examine the negative effects of youths' exposure to violent television and video film contents and their ramifying implications on our socio-cultural wellbeing as a people, as well as proffer valuable recommendations geared towards possible solution to this worrisome trend. a graphic portrait of the overwhelming ubiquitous rhythm of violence that is prevalent in modern day television screens among other visual platforms all over the globe. As Hepburn posits: … the prevalence of violence in broadcasts is a serious concern. Television programming in the United States is considered the most violent in advanced industrialized nations. Violence is common in TV entertainment-the dramas that portray stories about crime, psychotic murderers, police cases, emergency services, international terrorism, and war. The dramas are played out in highly realistic scenes of violent attacks accompanied by music and other sounds that churn up emotions. As the realism and gore in the screen images of TV entertainment have intensified, local news cameras have also increasingly focused directly on the bloody violence done to individuals in drive-by shootings, gang attacks, and domestic beatings. Why must these visual details be presented in the news? Why does a typical television evening include so many beatings, shootings, stabbings, and rapes in dramas designed for "entertainment"? Hepburn, perhaps, in an attempt to, possibly justify the reality of this rhythm of violence contends that producers of programming ascertain that scenes of violent action with accompanying fear-striking music can be counted on to hold viewers' attention, keep them awake and watching, and make them less likely to switch channels. This is all in an attempt by the producers to gain and maintain a large number of viewers; since a programme has more commercial value if it can hold more viewers, and programmers attempt to ensure high viewer attention with these doses of violent action in the program. However, the sober and perhaps highly thought-provoking pertinent question which this study joins Hepburn to raise on a rather universal scale is: "How does all of this violence affect young people?"