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Background. Little is known about how the excessive drinking culture entrenched in college social life influences the fear of missing out (FOMO) on the binge drinking experience among college students and how such fear plays in the mechanisms linking various risk factors with binge drinking intentions. Objectives. The main objectives of this study were to 1) develop and validate a self-report measure of alcohol-related FOMO, and 2) assess the role of alcohol-related FOMO in increasing binge drinking intentions through mediating the effect of alcohol expectancies and enhancing susceptibility to peer norms. Method. A college student sample (N = 490; 66.3% female) completed a one-shot survey. Selfreport data was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modeling along with mediation and moderation analyses. Results. Factor analyses supported an 18-item multidimensional scale tapping the alcoholrelated FOMO (ALFOMO). The scale demonstrated good internal consistency, satisfied the validity requirements and was free of gender bias. Additionally, ALFOMO was a significant focal predictor of binge drinking intentions. It significantly mediated the effect of alcohol positive expectancies and mediated and moderated the positive effect of peer descriptive norms. Conclusions. This paper presents the development and initial validation of the alcohol-related FOMO scale. The present study also provides the first theoretical and empirical investigation of the alcohol-related FOMO in relation to alcohol expectancies, peer norms, and binge drinking intentions. Results confirm that the ALFOMO scale is a promising measure and provide evidence for its indispensability in future research and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the senior population has been increasingly engaged with reading on mobile technologies, research that specifically documents the impact of technologies on reading for this age group has still been lacking. The present study investigated how different reading media (screen versus paper) might result in different reading outcomes among older adults due to both cognitive and psychological factors. Using a laboratory experiment with eighty-one participants aged 57 to 85, our results supported past research and showed the influence of cognitive map formation on readers' feelings of fatigue. Our findings also suggested that individual levels of technophobia was an important barrier to older adults' effective use of mobile technologies for reading. In the post-hoc analyses, we further showed that technophobia was correlated with technology experience, certain personality traits, and age. The present study highlights the importance of providing tailored support that helps older adults overcome psychological obstacles in using technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was an effort to uncover 4 major facts: (a) the predictive power of the proposed integrated model, which posits the influence of attitudes (ATT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavior control (PBC), altruism, and two-types of self-construal on behavioral intentions to recycle paper materials; and (b) the moderating effects of individualism-collectivism (I-C) on the attitudes-intentions relationship and the subjective norms-intentions relationship. Conducted in 2 contrasting cultures, this cross-sectional research consisted of two phases: the TPB elicitation research and the main study. Participants were undergraduate students recruited from 2 major public universities in Thailand and the U.S. The sample size used in the main analysis comprised 417 respondents from Thailand (representing a collectivistic society) and 432 respondents from the U.S. (representing an individualistic society). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to investigate the predictability of the integrated model. Multigroup SEM was implemented to examine the moderating effects of I-C. The results yielded some significant findings enhancing our understanding of paper-recycling intentions of college students in the 2 countries. First, TPB determinants, especially PBC and SN, were potential predictors of paper recycling. Although ATT was not a successful antecedent of paper-recycling intentions in Thailand, it predicted intentions of U.S. participants. Second, altruism was a significant factor explaining ATT and PBC for both samples; it also directly influenced intentions. Finally, 2 types of self-construal significantly and distinctively affected ATT and SN. Findings can benefit communication campaigns targeting audiences in different cultural milieus. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that explores citizen's engagement with a particular foreign policy issue on social media. It mentions that neither the scholarship on ‘foreign policy-media-public opinion' nexus nor soft power and public diplomacy bodies of literature sufficiently explain public engagement with foreign policy on social media. It further explores how social media impact citizens' engagement with the issue of Great Britain's departure from the European Union.

The article offers information on the communication strategies of entrepreneurs within social media networks and its impact on their firm performance. Topics discussed include information on the social networks in communication management; and the discussions on the conceptualization the communication of startups in social networks within the framework of communication management theory.

This meta-analysis examines the overall effectiveness of Internet supplemented health campaigns on behavior change in the United States. Results show that Internet supplemented health campaigns have significant but relatively small effects (d = 0.23) on behavior change. Moreover, further meta-regression analysis shows that campaign effect size was moderated by campaign topic, presence of audience segmentation, target behavior, behavior type, presence of theoretical foundation, and delivery channel. Aligns with the findings of previous meta-analyses, theorygrounded health campaigns were more effective (d = 0.30) than campaigns with no theoretical foundation (d = 0.16). Campaigns targeting adoption of new behaviors (d = 0.26) were more effective than those targeting cessation of undesirable behaviors (d = 0.10), while campaigns targeting addictive behaviors (d = 0.13) were less effective than those targeting non-addictive ones (d = 0.27). More importantly, the results of the meta-regression analysis shows supplementing the Internet as a delivery channel improves health campaign effectiveness. The results show empirical evidences that Internet can be an effective and cost-effective tool for health communication campaigns, and should be considered as an important supplement for campaigns in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers insight to a study conducted for examining message content of Tweets on social network site, Twitter regarding the ongoing Flint water crisis. It informs on audience-centric crisis communication research, and plurality of voices represented within Tweets centered around Flint's water crisis. It also informs on recommendations for incorporating social media in professional crisis and risk communication practices.

This study examines how ethical vegan identity is communicatively conceptualized and impacted by human-animal relationship(s) with participants' companion animal(s) (i.e., "pets"). This study not only showcases a plurality of voices from ethical vegans whom are also companion animal guardians (i.e., "pet owners"), but it also seeks to expand our knowledge of the communicative constitution and function of human-animal relationships as related to individual identity/ies. Thirteen participants were interviewed and data were analyzed using iterative qualitative analysis. Data illuminated propositions of the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI). Identity enhancements were discovered for participants' personal-enacted identity regarding companion animal adoption and personal-enacted-relational identity regarding companion animal agency and shared, specialized space. An identity gap was also discovered pertaining to personal-enacted identity regarding spaying/neutering and companion animal diets that conflicted with ethical vegan values. However, these were communicatively negotiated via personalrelational identity. These findings illuminate the dynamic and fluid nature of identity for ethical vegans whom are also companion animal guardians. Ethical vegan identity was communicatively constructed as independent of, yet interdependent on, identification as a companion animal guardian in this context, thus, consistent with theoretical propositions of CTI. Findings also reveal how identities are communicatively negotiated among CTI's four intersecting frames. Implications of these findings are discussed as related to extant theory and research as well as ways that identity and human-animal relationships can be further researched and theorized within communication studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how playing "Papers, Please" (PP), a serious game that puts players in the role of an immigration officer, affects attitudes toward immigration after repeated exposure. The results are compared to a control group longitudinally playing "The Westport Independent" (WI), a game that puts players in the role of a newspaper editor. Though PP and WI players' attitudes showed no difference at baseline and after the first play session, PP players showed decreased attitudes toward migrants after the second play session compared with WI players. PP players also showed decreased perceived behavioral control in helping migrants relative to WI players after the first play session, but PP players' baseline and second session perceived behavioral control scores showed no differences. Additionally, perceived behavioral control for helping immigrants significantly decreased among PP players after the first and second play sessions relative to baseline scores, but the first and second PP play sessions showed no differences in perceived behavioral control scores. WI players' scores did not change over time. Overall, preliminary findings imply that playing PP reduced attitudes toward migrants relative to WI players. The results are linked to the cultivation hypothesis and vicarious reinforcement effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a longitudinal analysis of media substitution between personal computers (PCs) and mobile phones using Nielsen's PC-Mobile 2-Screen panel data. Topics include the interrelationship between mobile phones and personal computers (PCs), theoretical and methodological contributions to existing research on media substitution, and the time displacement effect on television caused by home computers.