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Publication Three tests of compensation by mobile and social media: How change in social resources over time moderates the effect of use on well-being(2024-11-22) Hall, Jeffrey; Pennington, NatalieMobile and social media are often identified as a means of enhancing social connection for those who are struggling (i.e., social compensation, poor-get-richer). An alternative perspective suggests that those who are already socially connected benefit the most from mobile and social media use (i.e., social enhancement, rich-get-richer). Using three different data sets from three different time periods (i.e., six years, one year, one month) and across different contexts (i.e., older adults’ pandemic-era communication, college student communication with friends, daily diary study of social media), we test whether change in sociality moderates the association between frequency of mobile and social media use and well-being. We found no evidence of social compensation but found support for social enhancement. When experiencing declines in sociality, the use of mobile and social media was either unrelated to well-being or associated with a decline in well-being. These findings challenge long-held assumptions about relational maintenance through mobile media.Publication Connecting and Relating: Why Interpersonal Communication Matters(University of Kansas Libraries, 2024-08) Piercy, Cameron W.; Dennis, Michael Robert; Corder, MauraConnecting and Relating: Why Interpersonal Communication Matters helps readers examine their own one-on-one communicative interactions. This edited and remixed text incorporates the latest communication theory and research to help students navigate everyday interpersonal interactions. Chapters present key theories and concepts in interpersonal communication, including new chapters on information literacy and public speaking. The chapters in this book cover topics typically taught in an undergraduate interpersonal communication course: family interactions, language, listening, nonverbal communication, persuasion, and romantic relationships, while also presenting practical skills like information search and citation and public speaking.Publication Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy, 2nd edition(University of Kansas Libraries, 2024-08) Mapes, Meggie"Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy" is a contemporary, interdisciplinary public speaking textbook that fuses rhetoric, critical/cultural studies, and performance to offer an up-to-date resource for students. With a focus on advocacy, this textbook invites students to consider public speaking as a political, purposeful form of information-sharing.Publication Sexual Selection and Humor in Courtship(SAGE Publications, 2015-08-18) Hall, Jeffrey A.This investigation examines a sexual selection-based argument regarding humor’s role in courtship (i.e., humor production signals intelligence/creativity). Lens model (n =100) analyses suggest that humor production on Facebook profiles were self-reported and perceived to be associated with extroversion, not intelligence. Study 2 (n = 289) found that extroversion was associated humor production, but high school and college grade point average and American College Test (ACT) scores were not. In Study 3, pairs of opposite-sex strangers (n = 102) interacted for 10–12 min. Males’ humor production and females’ responsive laughter were both associated with females’ dating interest. Both partners’ dating interest was associated with simultaneous laughter. Without support for the sexual selection argument, three alternative explanations of humor’s role in courtship are discussed.Publication Boundary Work and Transactive Memory Systems in Teams: Moderating Effects of the Visibility Affordance(Sage, 2023-07-27) Yoon, Kay; Piercy, Cameron W.; Kim, Young Ji; Zhu, YaguangIndividuals in work teams frequently cross boundaries across teams, often by using information and communication technologies (ICTs). The current study investigates the effects of members’ boundary work and the visibility affordance of teams’ ICTs on Transactive Memory Systems (TMS) in teams. Survey data from 212 full-time employees whose work hours were divided between multiple teams reveals that boundary spanning enhances the focal team’s TMS credibility and specialization and negatively influences TMS coordination. Additionally, boundary reinforcement positively affects TMS credibility and coordination. The visibility affordance has a direct positive impact on all three dimensions of TMS and a moderating effect for boundary reinforcement such that higher visibility overrides the positive direct effect of boundary reinforcement on TMS. These findings suggest that different types of boundary work contribute to different dimensions of TMS and that teams might consider prioritizing the use of ICTs with high visibility to enhance their TMS.Publication “Posts are my own”: effects of social media disclaimers on perceptions of employees and their organizations from tweets and retweets(Emerald, 2023-05-16) Carr, Caleb T.; Hayes, Rebecca A.; Piercy, Cameron W.PURPOSE – This study empirically assesses the perceptions the public has of employees and their organization following a [re]tweet, and the additional potential ameliorating effect of a disclaimer distancing the organization from the individual employee’s social media presence. DESIGN/METHOD/APPROACH – A fully-crossed 2 (disclaimer v. no disclaimer) × 2 (positive v. negative valence post) × 2 (post v. retweet) experiment exposed participants (N = 173) to an employee’s personal tweet. Resultant perceptions of both the poster (i.e., goodwill) and the poster’s organization (i.e., organizational reputation) were analyzed using planned contrast analyses. FINDINGS – Findings reveal audiences form impressions of individuals based on both tweeted and retweeted content. Perceptions of both the poster’s goodwill and the poster’s organization were commensurate with the valence of the poster’s tweets, stronger when posts were original tweets rather than retweets, and there was a significant interaction effect between valence and [re]tweet. Disclaimers did not significantly affect perceptions, suggesting employers may be better-served by asking employees to omit reference to their employer on their personal social media accounts. ORIGINALITY/VALUE – This research contributes to understanding how employee and organizational reputations are affected by employees’ personal social media content. Results suggest even when a disclaimer explicitly seeks to distance the employee from the organization, audiences still see the employee as informal brand ambassadors of their organization.Publication A Test of the Mobile Phone Appropriation Model: A Comparison between Chinese and US Samples(Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies, 2023-08-30) Zhang, Xinyi (Ceciley); Piercy, Cameron W.; Lee, Sun KyongThe mobile phone appropriation (MPA; Wirth et al., 2007, 2008) model is an integrative model that seeks to explain attitudes and behaviors related to mobile phone usage from a communication perspective, proposing a dynamic loop of metacommunication, evaluations, and usage patterns. Following a previous study (Lee & Cioena, 2023), the current research tests the MPA model with a Chinese sample collected through an online survey (N = 510) and compares it with the U.S. sample (N = 501) collected by Lee and Cionea (2023) using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and multigroup structural equation modeling. Although the core structure of MPA model was shown to be tenable cross-culturally, the results of comparative analysis reveal some noticeable cultural differences in mobile phone appropriation and call for further model revisions. Noticeably, relational and social implications of mobile communication penetrate more aspects of mobile phone appropriation with greater strength in the Chinese sample, potentially due to the collectivistic Chinese culture, and the results demonstrate a paradox between perceived affordability and usage. The more Chinese participants evaluated the cost of mobile phone usage as a restrictive factor of MPA, corroborate the more they used it for relationship maintenance and daily schedule management. In addition, the results indicate some tensions between instrumental purposes and entertainment and symbolic usage unique to the Chinese context.Publication Interpersonal Media Among Americans’ Sympathy Groups: Theory of the Niche and Satisfying Social Needs(2023-11-16) Hall, Jeffrey A.; Miller, AnnieThis manuscript extends the theory of the niche by examining the frequency of interpersonal media use among participants’ personal network, and by reporting the degree to which individuals perceive three social needs are satisfied by nine forms of communication. From April 21 to May 3 of 2021, a quota sample of American adults (N = 1,869) completed four name generation tasks to identify up to 16 alters, leading to an average of four alters per person (n = 7,471). Participants indicated the frequency with which they communicated with each alter using eight interpersonal media as well as face-to-face communication in the past year. Participants’ relationship partner type (e.g., spouse, friend) was tied to media use, which suggests particular media are favored for distinct relationship types. Analyses of the social needs (i.e., causal conversation, meaningful talk, efficient exchange) suggested a clear hierarchy among interpersonal media and minimal niche overlap. The association between need satisfaction and frequency of use, however, demonstrated that as people perceive their social needs being met they more frequently use all interpersonal media. Taken together, the results suggest that although there are differences between interpersonal media in terms of perceived need fulfilment, increased experience with using interpersonal media with one’s personal network is tied to increased perceptions of the modality’s ability to meet social needs. The results are discussed in light of theory of the niche and channel expansion theory. This manuscript extends the theory of the niche by examining the frequency of interpersonal media use among participants’ personal network, and by reporting the degree to which individuals perceive three social needs are satisfied by nine forms of communication. From April 21 to May 3 of 2021, a quota sample of American adults (N = 1,869) completed four name generation tasks to identify up to 16 alters, leading to an average of four alters per person (n = 7,471). Participants indicated the frequency with which they communicated with each alter using eight interpersonal media as well as face-to-face communication in the past year. Participants’ relationship partner type (e.g., spouse, friend) was tied to media use, which suggests particular media are favored for distinct relationship types. Analyses of the social needs (i.e., causal conversation, meaningful talk, efficient exchange) suggested a clear hierarchy among interpersonal media and minimal niche overlap. The association between need satisfaction and frequency of use, however, demonstrated that as people perceive their social needs being met they more frequently use all interpersonal media. Taken together, the results suggest that although there are differences between interpersonal media in terms of perceived need fulfilment, increased experience with using interpersonal media with one’s personal network is tied to increased perceptions of the modality’s ability to meet social needs. The results are discussed in light of theory of the niche and channel expansion theory.Publication Reframing Aging: Intra- and Intergenerational Digital Conversational Agents to Support Older Adults(Oxford University Press, 2022-12-20) Han, Molly; Piercy, Cameron W.Digital conversational agents (DCAs) have become extraordinarily ubiquitous. Researchers envision the prospects of using DCAs to monitor health among older adults. However, older adults show hesitation to engage with DCAs. It is possible older adults prefer receiving human assistance rather than getting help from a machine. Another potential explanation is that communicative cues of DCAs such as voice need to be further optimized to invoke behavioral engagement. To understand how DCAs can better support older adults, we develop an experiment with three scenarios in which an agent (a human, an embodied DCA, a mixed presence of human and DCA) shares active aging information. We manipulate the agent’s voice in terms of age (older voice, younger voice). We investigate how the interplay of agent categories and intragenerational/intergenerational voice cues affect older adult participants’ evaluation of information and intention to adopt DCAs. Our study will contribute to DCAs design for older clients.Publication The Pain of Performative Professionalism: Emotionally Embodying Business as Usual(University of California Press, 2020-05-01) Gist-Mackey, Angela N.This essay is the personal and professional perspective of the National Communication Association Organizational Communication Division's awards chair during the 2019 convention. It explores issues of emotion, work, professionalism, silence, embodiment, symbolic violence, and intersectional precarity from the vantage point of an outsider within the academy and the discipline of communication studies.Publication Digital Stress as a Mediator of the Relationship between Mobile and Social Media Use and Psychological Functioning(2021-11) Hall, Jeffrey A.; Miller, Annie J.; Christofferson, Jen L.The present investigation uses Apple iPhone Screen Time to assess the association between mobile and social media use and psychological functioning with digital stress as a mediator in a sample of young adult (N = 267) and adolescent (N = 213) participants. The results of preregistered hypotheses suggest that as a five-factor composite (i.e., connection overload, approval anxiety, fear of missing out, availability stress, online vigilance) digital stress does not mediate the primary association. Connection overload, however, was a mediator of this relationship for all participants. Conditional process analyses revealed that for adolescents, FoMO and approval anxiety also mediated the primary association, but these digital stress subfactors were not mediators for young adult participants. Additionally, for young adults, mobile and social media use was associated with more positive peer relationships. The results suggest digital stress is closely tied to individuals’ social environment and peer-related sources of stress.Publication Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Public Land, and the Spaces of Whiteness(Frontiers Media, 2021-12-17) Smith, JoshuaIn this essay, I examine the 2016 takeover of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The principal instigators of this occupation, the Bundy family of Nevada, pointed to federally owned public lands as the primary reason for their takeover, citing the allegedly unconstitutional government ownership of these lands. I contend that the Bundys’ arguments about public lands exemplify rhetorical strategies that further one of the primary ends of settler colonialism; the remaking of land into property to better support white settlers’ claims to that land. I hold that the Bundys remake land by defining the land’s meanings following the logics of settler colonialism in three specific ways: privatization, racialization, and erasure. First, I examine the family’s arguments about the constitutionality of federal land ownership to show how the Bundys define public lands as rightfully private property. Second, I examine the ways that the Bundys racialize land ownership and how, in conjunction with arguments about property rights, the family articulates land as the domain of white settlers. Third, I discuss how the Bundys further colonial logics of Native erasure. That is, the family defines land in ways that portray Native Americans as having never been on the land, and as not currently using the land. I argue that these three processes render meanings of land––as private property, colonized, and terra nullius––that rhetorically further the operation of settler colonialism.Publication We Should Not Get Rid of Incivility Online(SAGE Publications, 2019-07-16) Chen, Gina Masullo; Muddiman, Ashley; Wilner, Tamar; Pariser, Eli; Stroud, Natalie JominiIncivility and toxicity have become concepts du jour in research about social media. The clear normative implication in much of this research is that incivility is bad and should be eliminated. Extensive research—including some that we’ve authored—has been dedicated to finding ways to reduce or eliminate incivility from online discussion spaces. In our work as part of the Civic Signals Initiative, we’ve been thinking carefully about what metrics should be adopted by social media platforms eager to create better spaces for their users. When we tell people about this project, removing incivility from the platforms frequently comes up as a suggested metric. In thinking about incivility, however, we’ve become less convinced that it is desirable, or even possible, for social media platforms to remove all uncivil content. In this short essay, we discuss research on incivility, our rationale for a more complicated normative stance regarding incivility, and what other orientations may be more useful. We conclude with a post mortem arguing that we should not abandon research on incivility altogether, but we should recognize the limitations of a concept that is difficult to universalize.Publication Humor production in long-term romantic relationships: What the lack of moderation by sex reveals about humor’s role in mating(De Gruyter, 2019-05-15) Hall, Jeffrey A.This manuscript explores whether the associations between partner humor production and relationship satisfaction and humor’s importance in romantic relationships are moderated by sex. Study 1 reports a meta-analysis (k = 10; N = 2,167) of the association between partner humor production (i.e., perceived; partner effects) and relationship satisfaction, and whether associations were moderated by participant sex. Contrary to predictions, partner humor production was more strongly associated to men’s relationship satisfaction than women’s satisfaction. Study 2 surveyed pairs of romantic partners (N = 246) regarding their production of humor, their appreciation of partner humor, and the importance of humor in their relationship. Results indicated no moderations by sex in the association between partner humor production and humor’s importance in the relationship.Publication Transactive Memory and the Job Search: Finding Expertise and Influence in Socio-technical Networks(Routledge, 2020-05-13) Piercy, Cameron W.; Zhu, YaguangStructural, communicative, and relational attributes of transactive memory (TM) affect the expertise and influence job seekers perceive in their job information networks. Using a sample of U.S. job seekers (N = 285), we found perceived expertise and influence varied across structural attributes (both source status and bridging ability) and relational attributes (emotional closeness) of job search sources. Communicative attributes (communication frequency) were associated with influence, but not expertise. In addition, we found a significant divergence in perceived influence across different sources. This study contributes to an understanding of job information networks, extends transactive memory to a socio-technical context, and adds influence as a meaningful outcome of transactive memory systems.Publication Employer reviews may say as much about the employee as they do the employer: Online disclosures, organizational attachments, and unethical behavior(SAGE Publications, 2020-09-02) Piercy, Cameron W.; Carr, Caleb T.Do reviews on organizational review websites (e.g., Indeed.com, GlassDoor.com) speak to the employer or the employee? This study tests the structural relationship between cognitive and affective organizational attachments and three outcomes: willingness to disclose one’s workplace online, unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), and workplace reviews. Using a national sample of U.S. workers (N = 304), we examine how organizational identification and commitment relate to publicly posting about one’s organization. Self-presentation and organizational attachment are used to hypothesize how individuals selectively self-present organizational identities online. Structural equation modeling shows identification and commitment both positively relate to review ratings. While identification positively predicts online disclosure and UPB, commitment is unrelated to disclosure and has a buffering effect whereby it negatively predicts UPB and interacts with UPB to predict organizational review ratings. Findings illustrate that online reviews and disclosures of one's workplace may say as much about the worker as the workplace itself.Publication Reconsidering ‘Ties’: The Sociotechnical Job Search Network(SAGE Publications, 2020-10-26) Piercy, Cameron W.; Lee, Sun Kyong (Sunny)This study explored how job seekers perceived human and technological sources in their sociotechnical ego-networks. United States residents (N = 285) who had sought jobs in the past 2 years responded to questions about their perceptions of sources used during the job search (n = 1297). Participants rated each source they used across a variety of perceived attributes. We measured tie strength using an amalgam of frequency of interaction and closeness, and strong tie sources included humans contacted online and in-person as well as websites. In contrast, the weakest tie sources were direct online application, employment agencies, and career events. Results showed a newly developed perceived bridging scale, social support, ease of access, and homophily were all positively related to tie strength. Influence was negatively related to tie strength. Information quality was not related to tie strength. We discuss implications for network and job search research, theory, and practice.Publication Expectations of technology use during meetings: An experimental test of manager policy, device use, and task-acknowledgment(SAGE Publications, 2020-06-07) Piercy, Cameron W.; Underhill, Greta R.In organizational meetings, mobile media are commonly used to hold multiple simultaneous conversations (i.e., multicommunication). This experiment uses video vignettes to test how manager policy (no policy, pro-technology, anti-technology), device use (notepad, laptop, cell phone) and task-acknowledgment (no task-acknowledgment, task-acknowledgment) affect perceptions of meeting multicommunication behavior. US workers (N = 243) who worked at least 30 hours per week and attended at least one weekly meeting rated relevant outcomes: expectancy violation, communicator evaluation, perceived competence, and meeting effectiveness. Results reveal manager policy and device use both affect multicommunication perceptions, with mobile phones generating the highest expectancy violation and lowest evaluation of the communicator and meeting effectiveness. Surprisingly, there was no effect for task-acknowledgment; however, a match between manager policy and task-acknowledgment affected evaluations. This paper unifies past evidence about multicommunication under the expectancy violations framework, extends theoretical understandings of mobile media use at work, and suggests practical implications for technology use in unfamiliar workplace situations.Publication The Structuration of Identification on Organizational Members’ Social Media(SAGE Publications, 2020-09-10) Piercy, Cameron W.; Carr, Caleb T.The structurational model of identification is applied to test structures that may lead to sharing organizational membership on social media and increased organizational identification. We propose and test how antecedents (e.g., social media use, organizational prestige) relate to acts of identification on social media and promote organizational identification. United States working adults (N = 303) responded to an online survey about hypothesized motivational structures, online disclosures of organizational affiliation, and organizational identification. Results show three specific structures significantly predicted one’s willingness to share her or his organizational affiliation across social media: personae overlap, social media use, and organizational prestige. Commitment and turnover intentions were, surprisingly, not direct predictors of organizational affiliation disclosure. Implications for individuals, organizations, and both organizational and computer-mediated theory are presented.Publication Ethnic Minorities’ Social Media Political Use: How Ingroup Identification, Selective Exposure, and Collective Efficacy Shape Social Media Political Expression(Oxford University Press, 2019-05-08) Velasquez, Alcides; Montgomery, Gretchen; Hall, Jeffrey A.Latinos represent a large ethnic minority group in the United States, but their political participation, including on social media, is low compared to other groups. Guided by social identity and social cognitive theories, this study examines the influence of two dimensions of ingroup identification (i.e., group self-definition, group self-investment) on Latinos(as)’ political expression about immigration and Latino culture on social media, the mediating role of pro-attitudinal selective exposure to media content related to these topics, and the moderating role of collective efficacy. Results suggest a positive and consistent association between group self-definition and social media political expression (SMPE) about both topics. Further, pro-attitudinal selective exposure was found to mediate the relationship between group self-definition and expression about both topics. Finally, collective efficacy moderated the relationship between group self-definition and SMPE about immigration.