Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap - Volume 41, Issue 4, 2013

Jaren geleden maakten Fokke en Sukke er al een grapje over: ‘Fokke en Sukke doen tentamen – Hoeveel communicatiewetenschappen zijn er?’ Hoewel het grapje toentertijd cynisch bedoeld was en een geringschattend oordeel uitsprak over een jonge academische discipline, bracht de enorme diversiteit aan onderwerpen in de aanmeldingen voor het Etmaal 2013 deze ‘tentamenvraag’ opnieuw in gedachte. In dit themanummer hebben we als gastredactie dan ook gepoogd een zo breed mogelijk antwoord op de tentamenvraag te formuleren in vijf bijdragen.

Credibility in E-WOM: how review perceptions impact their persuasiveness

Previous research illustrated the impact of (a) a review’s valence and (b) its perceived credibility on customers’ product attitudes. Though both might have independent effects on product attitudes, we propose they are interrelated. To test the different possible interrelations, we used a between subjects experimental design with two conditions (positive versus negative review). Valence predicted credibility, while credibility acted as a mediator between review valence and product attitudes. Adding to this the finding that valence moderates the relation between credibility and product attitudes, our study obtained evidence for a so called moderated mediation model.

The effect of personalization and age congruency in narrative communication on website satisfaction en recall of online health information.

The effect of personalization and age congruency on website satisfaction and recall of information was tested in a 2 (personalization: personalized vs. nonpersonalized video) × 2 (age congruency: congruent vs. incongruent) experimental design (n = 275). Personalization was found to be an effective communication tool to predict recall of information. Age congruency had an effect on satisfaction with the emotional support from the website. Narrative engagement predicted both website satisfaction and recall of information, but did not mediate the relationship between personalization and the outcomes. However, significant conditional mediation effects revealed that age congruency plays a moderating role in explaining the effects of personalization on website satisfaction and recall of online health information via narrative engagement. This study provides practical implications for developing online health messages for older adults.

Going global. Trends in pop music charts 1960-2010

This paper studies the cultural globalization of pop music by (a) describing trends in pop music single charts in nine countries in the period 1960-2010, and (b) explaining global success using a double comparative design in which multiple origin groups are observed in multiple destinations. Our explanatory analyses thus comprise country level data (degree of cultural centrality of music industry, cultural proximity, media systems, political context, GDP, population size) and artist level data (language, star power) which affect global flows of pop music. The results show that pop charts are increasingly globalizing, with the exception of the US. Centrality of production in the origin country is highly important, yet after 1990 many European countries also host more domestic music. In addition, we find clear effects of cultural proximity. Artists’ star power as well as the language they perform in also impacts global success.

More local news media, more of the same news

The aim of this study was to map the Dutch local media landscape. What defines this landscape? Are there regional differences? Is any change noticeable in the relationship between offline and online news media?Results show that residents of Dutch municipalities have access to an average of 29 news media. However, only 40 percent of those media carry original news. Especially online local news is often copied or linked to; only 8 out of 19 online news media contain original news. Aggregators are dominant within the field of online news channels.While traditional local news media (newspapers, radio, television) encountered declines in the past few years, the number of hyperlocal online media increased. However, our research shows that this drop of traditional news media is compensated by online initiatives. In fact, in municipalities with many traditional news media, there also more hyperlocals.

The ethics of ‘reality show’ production(s): Issues, dimensions, and discourses of program-makers and participants

In this article we elaborate the ethical issues of ‘intrusion’, ‘humiliation’, and ‘misrepresentation’ as related to the production of ‘reality shows’. Our focus is on dilemmas between moral and professional values or loyalties, and the (potentially) harmful treatments and responsibilities emerging from the power differential between program-makers and participants. The present study is grounded in insights drawn from the literature on documentary, media and image ethics, and cultural production studies. These are integrated with primary data obtained through semi-structured interviews with 12 television professionals and 25 participants of ‘reality shows’, (co-)produced in Flanders (and the Netherlands). We argue for a position that touches a middle ground between an ‘incident-centered ethics’ and an all-encompassing critique, pointing out structural factors, while allowing for measures of agency and differentiation. It is also concluded that ethical considerations need to be brought more squarely into the day-to-day calculations of ‘reality’-program-makers.

Karen Donders, Hilde Van Den Bulck (red.) (2012). De VRT in de 21ste eeuw. Overbodige luxe of maatschappelijke meerwaarde? Brussel: Academic & Scientific Publishers (ASP). [ISBN 9789070289263]

Piet Bakker & Peter L.M. VastermanWilders en de media