Exemplification in Communication: the influence of Case Reports on the Perception of Issues

by Zillmann,Dolf

• ISBN13: 9780805828115
• ISBN10: 0805828117
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This volume offers a new conceptual framework for exemplification, a coherent theoretical approach based on contemporary psychological models of information processing, and an exhaustive integration of the pertinent research demonstrations. Focus is on the news media, but the influence of fiction and quasi-fiction is also considered. The informational competition between concrete, verbal, or pictorial exemplification and abstract, mostly quantitative exposition is analyzed. Implications for issue perception, including delayed consequences are also examined. Exemplification is subjected to conceptual scrutiny and a new theoretical framework is offered. Contemporary psychological paradigms are applied to predict effects of various forms of exemplification. Perhaps most important, novel experimental research is presented to document the specific consequences of exemplifications featured in the news, even of those featured in fiction. Finally, recommendations for information providers and recipients are derived from the research demonstration in order to advance media literacy specific to exemplification. This unique volume: * provides a comprehensive account of the power of case-report selection in the manipulation of perceptions of social issues, * addresses exemplification in communication, i.e., the influence of case reports in the news media, primarily, on the perception of pertinent social issues, * offers an empirical assessment of the practice of issue exemplifying by the media, * gives an exhaustive account of representative research on exemplification effects on issue perception--primarily by the news media, but also by the entertainment media, and * includes a compilation of guidelines for information providers and recipients in efforts at creating media literacy with regard to exemplification.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Exemplification in Communication	1	(18)
Conceptual Considerations	3	(3)
Definition of the Exemplification Process	6	(6)
Exemplification of Known Event Populations	6	(5)
Exemplification of Unknown Event Populations	11	(1)
Exemplification in Different Domains of Communication	12	(3)
Exemplification in Personal Experience	15	(2)
The Interface Between Direct and Mediated Experience	17	(2)
Exemplification in Practice	19	(15)
American News	19	(4)
News Magazines	20	(1)
Television News	21	(1)
Media Comparison	22	(1)
Non-American News and Advertising	23	(8)
Television-News Magazines	23	(5)
Television Commercials	28	(1)
Magazine Advertisements	29	(1)
Comparison of Information Domains	30	(1)
De Facto Exemplification in Fiction and in Quasi-Fiction	31	(3)
Information Processing	34	(23)
The Function of Schemata	35	(4)
Heuristics and Their Influence	39	(8)
The Representativeness Heuristic	41	(2)
The Availability Heuristic	43	(1)
Vividness and Salience	43	(3)
Chronic Accessibility	46	(1)
Emotion as a Mediator	47	(5)
Empathic and Counterempathic Reactivity	49	(2)
Differently Diminishing Accessibilities	51	(1)
Contingency Processing	52	(5)
The Informative Function	53	(2)
Affect Enhancement	55	(1)
Model--Observer Affinity	56	(1)
Exemplification Effects of the News	57	(57)
Foci of Exploration	58	(3)
The Research Evidence	61	(53)
Exemplar--Counterexemplar Distributions	62	(22)
Base-Rate Influence	84	(2)
Citation as Exemplar Enhancement	86	(3)
Qualitatively Distorted Exemplification	89	(4)
Emotional Displays in Exemplars	93	(5)
Threatening Images in Exemplification	98	(8)
Effects of Innocuous Images	106	(4)
Incidental Pictorial Exemplification	110	(4)
Exemplification Effects of Fiction and Quasi-Fiction	114	(12)
Correlational Demonstrations	117	(3)
Experimental Demonstrations	120	(6)
Toward Exemplification Literacy	126	(9)
Exemplification Literacy for Information Providers	129	(2)
Exemplification Literacy for the Citizenry	131	(2)
Closing Remarks	133	(2)
References	135	(12)
Author Index	147	(6)
Subject Index	153