Private Justice: Losing Our Day in Court

In the early days of the dispute resolution movement—the ‘80s and ‘90s—the concern was often expressed that we were developing a system of “second‐class justice” for those who couldn't afford the courts. The wealthy, of course, would continue to have access to the “first‐class justice” that the public courts provided.     

Communicator mood and the reluctance to transmit undesirable messages (the Mum effect)

In order to examine the effects of mood on the transmission of good and bad news 48 female Ss, recruited for an “aesthetics experiment,” overheard a message intended for another S containing either good or had news, and were subsequently put into a pleasant or unpleasant mood. The results indicated that when Ss were confronted with the person for whom the message was intended (1) their mood tended to shift in a direction that was consistent with the affective nature of the message (p<.01); (2) good news was communicated more fully/spontaneously than bad news (p <.01); and (3) Ss in an initially unpleasant mood tended to communicate more spontaneously than Ss in a pleasant mood (p <.05), especially when the news was good.     

Back to Basics: Legos and Me

Editor's Note: Master Mediator columnist Bob Creo has taken a break in the past two issues of Alternatives from his focus on neuroscience, psychological factors and cognitive biases that affect dispute resolution to revisit his past. He has returned to his earliest columns on mediation room techniques and practice issues—some nearly a decade old—and is reprising and updating them for a “Back to Basics” series. The articles are new to these pages, originally having appeared exclusively on the website of Alternatives' publisher, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution. Last month's column faced “ghostbusting” in mediation—that is, dealing with the specters of “persons with influence over the outcome, but who are not physically present at the mediation session.” The November column covered the concept of satisfactory compromise. This month's column looks at the building blocks of a mediation resolution, literally. Still to come is a back‐to‐basics examination of constructing settlements.     

When Good News Is Bad News: Explicating the Moderated Mediation Dynamic Behind the Reversed Mobilization Effect

This study investigates the mobilizing potential of positive news framing on opponents of a referendum proposal. On the basis of an experiment (N = 470), using bootstrapping as a method to assess conditional indirect effects, mediation analysis showed that positive news framing—endorsing a referendum proposal regarding European Union (EU) integration—was perceived as negative by opponents and mobilized those with higher levels of skepticism toward the EU to turn out and vote because of increased risk perception. This “reversed mobilization” effect was contingent upon existing levels of self‐efficacy, yielding evidence for a “double conditional indirect effect” of positive news framing on turnout intention via risk perception which was strongest among those showing greater levels of EU skepticism as well as stronger self‐efficacy beliefs.     

Is She “Man Enough”? Women Candidates,Executive Political Offices,and News Coverage

This study analyzes news coverage of 4 female political candidates—Elizabeth Dole, Claire McCaskill, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin—and their male competitors, as each competed in 2 elections between 1999 and 2008. Analysis focused on novelty labeling, and “feminine” and “masculine” political issues and character traits to determine whether the coverage of women and men differed in general, and across the offices of Senator, Governor, Vice President, or President. Overall, women received more news coverage, and the gendered gap in coverage was especially large for novelty, issue, and trait coverage when women sought the “executive” offices of Governor and in the White House. These findings provide insight into the evolving gender dynamics of women running within the masculinized domain of politics.     

Some Dared Call It Torture: Cultural Resonance,Abu Ghraib,and a Selectively Echoing Press

This study draws upon research on “indexing” and “cascading activation” to explore U.S. political and news discourse surrounding the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Specifically, we systematically analyze White House, military, congressional, and news messages. In so doing, we incorporate scholarship on social identity theory to suggest why news media challenge certain White House frames but uncritically echo others. Our data demonstrate that White House frames were consistently challenged by Democrats in the opposing party, but that these competing congressional messages were largely absent in news coverage. These results challenge previous research on news coverage of Abu Ghraib. We discuss how these patterns align with and expand Entman's cascading activation model of press‐state relations, and consider the implications for future scholarship.     

Chasing the Bad News: An Analysis of 2005 Iraq and Afghanistan War Coverage on NBC and Fox News Channel

This study analyzes all stories aired on NBC Nightly News and Fox News Channel's Special Report With Brit Hume during 2005 about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and compares that coverage with real‐world indicators to address an important question: Did the news media over‐report bad news from these conflicts, as claimed by the Bush administration and as one might expect given research into the press' negativity bias? This study finds that while both channels focused a fair amount on negative storylines, overall the news actually underplayed bad news from both countries. Fox News was much more sympathetic to the administration than NBC, suggesting that scholars should consider Fox as alternative, rather than mainstream, media.     

The Choice Gap: The Divergent Online News Preferences of Journalists and Consumers

This study examines 4 online news sites to compare stories that journalists display most prominently with stories consumers read most frequently. We find that journalists' chosen stories are “soft” with respect to subject matter but not story format, and that these choices diverge from consumers' choices, resulting in a choice gap. The study design makes important methodological contributions by using the story as the unit of analysis, operationalizing “soft news” in terms of subject matter as well as format, and considering the influence of journalists' and consumers' choices on each other. This article discusses the implications of the findings on such issues as the dynamics of agenda setting, the prospects for consumer‐authored content, and the watchdog function of the media.     

Framing the Egyptian Uprising in Arabic Language Newspapers and Social Media

This study examines the framing of Egypt's January 2011 uprising in the country's state‐run, independent and social media using a unique dataset of Arabic language content from newspapers and key social media posts collected during the peak of protests. Semiofficial (governmental) newspapers framed the event as “a conspiracy on the Egyptian state,” warning of economic consequence and attributing blame and responsibility for the chaos on others. Social media posts used a human interest frame defining protests as “a revolution for freedom and social justice” and independent newspapers used a combination of these frames. Findings point toward the potential roles that news media will play in shaping public opinion and demonstrate why social media have wide appeal in times of political crisis.     

Replacing the mediator orientation grids,again: Proposing a ‘new new grid system’

The mediation profession's standard for assessment is revised, updated and—maybe—finalized. Leonard L. Riskin, of Columbia, Mo., who debuted his “Mediator Orientation Grid” in these pages a decade ago, revisits his process tool, which has now grown into a “New New Grid System.”.     

A Denotative and Connotative Study in Communication

The purposes of this study were to investigate: (1) the definitions of communication preferred among 150 randomly selected members of the National Society for the Study of Communication; (2) the respondents' “ideal” referent or symbol when naming the dynamics of the interpersonal sending-receiving process. A questionnaire was sent to the above individuals, asking them to; (1) rank-order twelve definitions of communication (from most to least preferred)—this was the denotative phase of the study; (2) rate the concepts “Communication,”“Speech,” and “Persuasion” on three linear-graphic scales (of the Osgood, Suci, Tannenbaum type). The first scale measured the respondents' evaluative feelings of these three concepts (“Good to Bad” continuum). The second scale measured their feelings on the potency of the three concepts (“Strong to Weak” continuum). The third scale measured their orientation of the three concepts as to the complexity or simplicity of the terms when used to describe the process (“Complex to Simple” continuum)—this was the connotative phase of the study. Results were based on a 41% return (62 of 150); no follow-ups were made to contact the non-respondents. (1) Over-all rankings for the denotative phase of the study indicated that respondents preferred the communication definitions of: J. Ruesch and G. Bateson, first; W. Weaver, second; L. Thayer, third; S. Stevens, fourth; C. Hovland, fifth; C. Cherry, sixth; P. Tompkins, seventh; W. C. Redding, eighth; W. Schramm, ninth; T. Newcomb, tenth; E. Sapir, eleventh; and G. Miller, twelfth. Analysis of variance indicated the rankings to be significant at the .001 level. (2) The profile of mean scores in the connotative phase of the study indicated that respondents evaluated the concept “Communication” to be much better than the concepts “Speech” or “Persuasion.” The mean scores of the oriented activity scales indicated that “Communication” was perceived by the subjects to be “extremely complex,” whereas “Speech” and “Persuasion” were both viewed as being only “moderately complex.” Results from both the denotative and connotative phases of this study strongly suggested that there was much disparity among the respondents' rankings of communication definitions and ratings of concepts.     

Hospitability: The Communicative Architecture of Humanitarian Securitization at Europe's Borders

This paper explores the communicative architecture of reception at the peak of Europe's 2015–2016 “migration crisis.” Drawing on fieldwork at one of Europe's outer borders—the Greek island of Chios—the paper examines the border as a site where refugee and migrant reception takes place and where the parameters of Europe's ethico-political response to the “crisis” are set. The paper demonstrates that the continent's double requirement of security and care produces a new and highly ambivalent moral order, hospitability. Constituted through techno-symbolic networks of mediation, hospitability reaffirms dominant theorizations of the border as an order of power and exclusion but goes beyond these in highlighting micro-connections of solidarity that simultaneously coexist with and attempt to challenge this order.     

Status Conferral and Topic Scope

“Status conferral” is the notion that press coverage singles out and confers importance upon the person or group covered. If status conferral occurs, it has serious implications for traditional conceptions of how the press should function in a democracy. In two experiments, the author reported evidence supporting the existence of a status conferral effect. Status conferral was tested indirectly by varying the prestige of the news agency providing the coverage and observing differences in the perceived status of persons covered. However, there were ambiguities in previous results and the present experiment was intended to clarify them. Conferral differences appeared consistently on two of three indices in previous work—“Safety” and “Dynamism”—but not on the third, “Qualification.” In previous studies, the topics sources that were being recognized as qualified for discussion were always of broad, national application or scope. Thus if Qualification conferral were related to topic scope, no differences would have been observed because topic scope was constant. To test this, the present experiment varied both the news agency providing the coverage and the scope or application of the news topic. What the source said, substantively, remained the same. Scope was varied by having him say it about “US. cities” or the city in which the newspaper was published. In one of two replications of the design, the predicted topic scope difference was observed for Qualification but news agency conferral differences were also observed for Qualification. A fourth conferral index—“prominence”—was as sensitive as Qualification to news agency conferral differences.     

The digital public humanities: giving new arguments and new ways to argue

ABSTRACT

In response to the latest “crisis” in the humanities, advocates have marched, rallied, fundraised, and—especially—argued. This essay contends that communication scholars can support the growing “case for the humanities” by analyzing argumentative strategies, and more specifically, by offering ethical argumentative strategies that avoid replicating structures of domination. In particular, we look to Mari Lee Mifsud's theorization of rhetoric as gift, which follows Henry W. Johnstone in conceptualizing argument as something other than winning over an adversary. We place Mifsud's theorization of the gift in conversation with the methods of the digital public humanities (DPH), which acknowledge and offer abundant resources for meaning-making. Through the methods of DPH, we offer a response to the humanities “crisis” that activates the humanities’ already broad constituencies by giving resources for humanistic inquiry rather than seeking to capture adversaries. Our case study is Photogrammar, a DPH project for organizing, searching, and visualizing the New Deal and World War II era photographs funded by the U.S. federal government. The project forefronts visual, nonlinear, and interactive argumentation in order to engage publics in generative humanistic inquiry. By enlisting participants and sharing expertise, Photogrammar shows how humanities advocates can deepen attachments to the humanities and build broad constituencies of collaborators and allies.     

Quick Takes: Magic Moments

Editor's note: Alternatives columnist Bob Creo, a Pittsburgh arbitrator and mediator, has been revisiting his catalog of CPR Institute website columns, originated a decade ago, in a Back to Basics series that he has subtitled “Human Problems, Human Solutions.” These updated and expanded columns are in print for the first time, building on new concepts and knowledge. He has revisited a wide spectrum of mediation room behaviors and practices. This month's column combines two of those early efforts.     

Being a “Good Parent” in Parent–Teacher Conferences

This research advances our understanding of what constitutes a “good parent” in the course of actual social interaction. Examining video‐recorded naturally occurring parent–teacher conferences, this article shows that, while teachers deliver student‐praising utterances, parents may display that they are gaining knowledge; but when teachers' actions adumbrate student‐criticizing utterances, parents systematically display prior knowledge. This article elucidates the details of how teachers and parents tacitly collaborate to enable parents to express student‐troubles first, demonstrating that parents display competence—appropriate involvement with children's schooling—by asserting their prior knowledge of, and/or claiming/describing their efforts to remedy, student‐troubles. People (have to) display competence generically in interaction. By explicating how parents display competence, this article offers insights for several areas of communication research.     

Back To Basics: I Mediate,Therefore I Am?

Editor's note: Longtime Alternatives columnist Bob Creo, a veteran Pittsburgh neutral, is revisiting his classic CPR Institute website columns of a decade ago in a Back to Basics Series that he has subtitled “Human Problems, Human Solutions.” In his recent Master Mediators columns, Creo has focused on neuroscience, psychological factors and cognitive biases that affect dispute resolution. These updated Back to Basics columns, in print for the first time, began in November, revisiting mediation‐room techniques and practice issues. This month, the focus is on how the humanity and values of the mediator align with the process and the participants.     

A Brief Stroll on the Roundabout of Authenticity,Confidentiality & Impartiality

Editor's note: Alternatives columnist Bob Creo, a Pittsburgh arbitrator and mediator, has been revisiting his catalog of CPR Institute website columns, originated a decade ago, in a Back to Basics Alternatives series that he has subtitled “Human Problems, Human Solutions.” These updated and expanded columns are in print for the first time, building on new concepts and knowledge. He has revisited a wide spectrum of mediation room behaviors and practices.     

The Theory of Settlement,in Two Words … With a Little Hollywood Help

Editor's note: Alternatives columnist Bob Creo, a Pittsburgh arbitrator and mediator, has been revisiting his catalog of CPR Institute website columns, originated a decade ago, in a Back to Basics Alternatives series that he has subtitled “Human Problems, Human Solutions.” These updated and expanded columns are in print for the first time, building on new concepts and knowledge. He has revisited a wide spectrum of mediation room behaviors and practices.     

Getting Real: The Duration of Framing Effects

A growing number of studies test the effects of news framing on citizens' understanding of politics. By employing experimental designs, these studies report significant effects for a multitude of issues and frames. However, what happens to the framing effect after initial exposure? Based on a “classic” framing experiment (n = 625), this article traces framing effects across a number of delayed time points: after 1 day, 1 week, and 2 weeks. Our results show that framing effects are surprisingly persistent. The duration of framing effects depended on a person's level of political knowledge, with moderately knowledgeable individuals displaying most persistent framing effects. Effects on individuals with high or low levels of political knowledge dissipated much quicker.