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Based on the knowledge gap hypothesis as a theoretical framework, the present study examines (a) whether there is an education-based gap in misinformation acceptance, (b) whether the education-based gap could be explained by differences in issue knowledge, information processing, and media dependency, and (c) whether the education-based gap in misinformation acceptance widens as the level of exposure to misinformation increases. We conducted a survey of 821 Korean adults regarding their acceptance of misinformation related to COVID-19 vaccination. First, we found that there was an education-based gap in misinformation acceptance such that those with lower education were more likely to accept misinformation. Second, we found that the effect was mediated by low issue knowledge, less systematic processing, and dependency on social media. Third, the education-based gap in misinformation acceptance widened when misinformation exposure increased. These results are consistent with the knowledge gap hypothesis and the theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.

Based on the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model, the present study examines whether COVID-19 message fatigue leads to greater information avoidance and heuristic processing, and consequently greater acceptance of misinformation. We conducted a survey of 821 Korean adults regarding their information seeking and processing regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Results of SEM analyses showed that COVID-19 message fatigue was (a) negatively related to information insufficiency and (b) positively related to information avoidance and heuristic processing. Information avoidance and heuristic processing were subsequently related to greater levels of misinformation acceptance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This research examines (a) the negative impact of disinformation including a deepfake video and (b) the protective effect of media literacy education. We conducted an experiment using a two disinformation message type (deepfake video present vs. absent) by three media literacy education (general disinformation vs. deepfake-specific vs. no literacy) factorial design. In the general disinformation (vs. deepfake-specific) literacy condition, participants were informed about (a) the definition of disinformation (vs. deepfake), (b) some examples of disinformation (vs. deepfake), and (c) the social consequences of disinformation (vs. deepfake). Results showed that disinformation messages including a deepfake video resulted in greater vividness, persuasiveness, credibility, and intent to share the message. Media literacy education reduced the effects of disinformation messages.

The key characteristic of native advertising is that it simulates the format of the editorial content. The current study examines how format similarity—the extent to which the format of an advertisement is similar to the format of the editorial content—affects consumers9 responses to the advertisement and whether the effects differ by format novelty, the extent to which the format of the editorial content is novel or familiar to consumers. Results showed that format similarity increased perceived deceptiveness, and format novelty reduced advertising recognition and perceived irritation while inducing greater click intentions. Additionally, there was a significant interaction effect between format similarity and format novelty such that the negative impact of format similarity on perceived irritation was found when format novelty was low but not when format novelty was high. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The present study tests and extends the RISP model (a) by applying the model in the context of COVID-19 in South Korea and (b) by examining the impacts of information seeking and processing on misinformation exposure and acceptance. Based on a survey of 346 Korean adults, this study showed that information avoidance, but not information seeking, was a positive predictor of misinformation exposure. In addition, heuristic processing, but not systematic processing, moderated the relationship between misinformation exposure and misinformation acceptance, such that the relationship between misinformation exposure and misinformation acceptance was stronger among those who showed greater tendency for heuristic processing. In addition, information insufficiency was a negative predictor of both information avoidance and heuristic processing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

User control is a characteristic of a medium, which allows users to control the pace and sequence with which information is presented. This study examined the role of user control in recognition me...

Advertising literacy education can be developed based on three literacy components: content, grammar, and structure literacy. Content literacy refers to an understanding of the content of ads (e.g....

This study examines how brand placement in editorial content ( i.e. , whether a sponsoring brand is mentioned in editorial content) affects consumers9 responses to native advertising and whether the effect is moderated by either high or low quality of editorial content. Results of an experiment showed significant interaction effects between brand placement and content quality. Brand placement had negative effects on source credibility and message attitudes only when the quality of editorial content was low, not when the quality was high.

This study tests how the public’s responsibility judgments and their policy opinions could be affected by different types of attributions made by the media. Study 1 examined three types of attributions regarding smartphone addiction: (a) individualistic (e.g., lack of self-control), (b) societal (e.g., the media industry or government), and (c) none (i.e., control group). Results showed that individualistic attributions by the media did not affect perceived individual responsibility and support for smartphone-addicted children. On the other hand, societal attributions increased perceived industry responsibility, which subsequently increased punishment opinions for the smartphone industry. Study 2 examined three types of attributions regarding childhood obesity (child vs. parent vs. societal) by two types of exemplar formats (“interviews” vs. “user comments”). Consistent with Study 1, results showed that the societal attribution condition resulted in greater perceived industry responsibility and greater pu...

The extant empirical research examining the effectiveness of statistical and exemplar-based health information is largely inconsistent. Under the premise that the inconsistency may be due to an unacknowledged moderator (O'Keefe, 2002), this study examined a moderating role of outcome-relevant involvement (JohnsonEagly, 1989) in the effects of statistical and exemplified risk information on risk perception. Consistent with predictions based on elaboration likelihood model (PettyCacioppo, 1984), findings from an experiment (N = 237) concerning alcohol consumption risks showed that statistical risk information predicted risk perceptions of individuals with high, rather than low, involvement, while exemplified risk information predicted risk perceptions of those with low, rather than high, involvement. Moreover, statistical risk information contributed to negative attitude toward drinking via increased risk perception only for highly involved individuals, while exemplified risk information influenced the attitude through the same mechanism only for individuals with low involvement. Theoretical and practical implications for health risk communication are discussed.

Children's addiction to smartphones has become a serious issue, and parental mediation could help prevent children's problematic use of smartphones. This research examined the factors that predict and explain parents' intention to mediate children's behavior over smartphone use. Based on a survey of 460 parents of elementary school students, we found that parental mediation was predicted by (a) parent's own addiction to smartphones, (b) perceived severity of smartphone addiction, and (c) personality traits such as neuroticism, openness, and agreeableness. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the predictors of parental mediation regarding children's smartphone addiction, and the findings suggest some strategies to increase parental mediation.

Parental mediation is a type of behavior that could protect children against the negative uses and effects of smartphones. Based on protection motivation theory, this research (a) predicted parental mediation based on parents' threat and efficacy perceptions and (b) predicted threat and efficacy perceptions based on parenting styles and parents' addiction to smartphone use. An online survey of 448 parents of fourth to sixth graders was conducted. Results showed that both restrictive and active parental mediation were predicted by perceived severity, response efficacy, and self-efficacy. With regard to parenting styles, (a) authoritative parenting was positively related to perceived severity as well as response- and self-efficacy, whereas (b) permissive parenting was negatively related to self-efficacy. In addition, parents' addiction was a negative predictor of perceived severity, but a positive predictor of perceived susceptibility.

Although the inhibiting effects of multitasking can be explained by 2 components, capacity interference (CI) and structural interference (SI), studies that have specifically focused on SI are limited. Thus, the present study examined the effects of SI in persuasion using 2 experimental studies. Results of Study 1 showed that SI (not CI) reduced both comprehension and counterarguing. In addition, results of Study 2 showed that SI effects occur not only in single-channel multitasking but also in dual-channel multitasking, and that SI effects occur not only when content interference is high (language-based multitasking) but also when it is low (non–language-based multitasking). The role of SI in multitasking effects has important implications for research on audience behaviors and persuasive communication.

Although aviation accidents are due to various causes, the media may focus on particular causes, which is likely to contribute to the public's perceptions about aviation accidents. This research examines how the public's prevalence estimates of the causes of aviation accidents can vary when the media provides exemplars of internal causes (pilot error and mechanical failure) and on external causes (weather). The distribution of these exemplars varied between the two experimental messages: internal attribution message and external attribution message. Compared with the external attribution message, the internal attribution message resulted in higher prevalence estimates of internal causes. The internal attribution message had indirect effects on punitive opinions mediated by responsibility judgments. In addition, exemplification effects were observed two weeks after exposure, and the effects were greater among respondents who better recalled the exemplifying information. The results of this study suggest th...

This study examined the effects of multitasking on persuasion, including comprehension andcounterarguingofpersuasivemessages,whichwerepresentedinthreedifferentcontexts: (a) nonmultitasking with full attention paid to the message, (b) multitasking with primary attention paid to the message, and (c) multitasking with secondary attention paid to the message. Consistent with predictions, the results suggested that multitasking reduced the actual and perceived levels of comprehension and also reduced counterarguing. The implications for research on persuasion are further discussed.

This study examines the role of campaign conversation in the generation and diffusion of campaign effects. Based on Hornik’s social diffusion model of campaign influence, this study tests whether campaign conversation, along with campaign exposure, can be a process through which a campaign affects a person’s health perceptions using secondary analyses of the TruthSM campaign data. The results of a multilevel modeling of the Legacy Media Tracking Survey (LMTS) data ( n = 10,357) show that the effect of the TruthSM campaign activity in the media on individuals’ smoking-related beliefs was conveyed through campaign exposure and campaign conversation. Theoretical and practical implications for campaign planning and evaluation are discussed in this article.

We greatly appreciate Gaziano's invaluable comments1 on our meta-analysis. The comments gave us an opportunity to review our meta-analysis from a fresh perspective.2 In this note, we would like to address issues raised by Gaziano's critique. We first clarify how we tested the knowledge gap hypothesis in our meta-analysis, an issue that seems to have raised the greatest concern. Then, we move on to address additional issues one by one. Finally, we conclude with our perspectives on future knowledge gap research.

Young audiences frequently combine media use (e.g., television viewing) with other activities (e.g., homework); this is referred to as multitasking. This research uses longitudinal data to examine the moderating role of multitasking by examining the effects of exposure to sexual content in the media on adolescents' sexual behavior. Consistent with the predictions based on the limited capacity approach, there was a significant multitasking by exposure interaction suggesting that multitasking reduces the impact of media. More specifically, the effect of exposure to sexual content in the media on sexual behavior was significantly greater among light multitaskers than among heavy multitaskers.

This knowledge gap meta-analysis examines (a) average effect size of the gap, (b) impact of media publicity, and (c) moderators of the gap. Positive correlation between education and level of knowledge ( r = .28) was found, with no differences in the size of the gap (a) over time and (b) between issues of higher and lower publicity. However, gap magnitude was moderated by topic, setting, knowledge measure, and study design, but not by publication status, country, and sampling method. Relatively smaller gaps were found for (a) health-science topics compared to social-political topics and (b) local/personal issues compared to international issues.

The authors attempt here to address a dilemma faced in recent investigation of science and health communication effects: the difficulty of assessing exposure impact in situations beyond the laboratory. Based on social representation theory, we posit that TV news exposure, especially for stories framed as relevant to the everyday lives of individual audience members, can affect people’s beliefs about science and that such exposure also should interact with interpersonal conversation to jointly predict beliefs. To assess these relationships in a real world setting, we integrated market-level and individual-level data from a science TV news project funded by the National Science Foundation and employed multilevel modeling to predict beliefs about science. This move allowed us to combine information about TV Designated Market Areas with responses from a national Internet-based survey and permitted a model that included both market-level and individual-level variables. Results indicate both main effects and interaction effects. Presence of relevant science stories in a TV market, for example, positively predicted subsequent beliefs about the general accessibility of science among audience members in that market even after controlling for individual-level variables.

Local television news professionals face audience declines and a rapidly changing information environment. Faced with such circumstances, many have suggested that sensational and entertaining fare might offer a way to bolster viewership. Our data from a national survey of local TV news viewers in the United States (n = 2,728) suggest that view might be incomplete. Although a variety of beliefs about TV news, including those related to how exciting or entertaining the news is, predicted general attitude toward TV news viewing, the most important predictor of such attitude was the extent to which a person found programming to be informative. TV professionals might be wrong about the need to chase audiences with dramatic and entertaining fare, sacrificing substantive reporting in the process.

Harmful effects of the media have been documented in a range of domains, including violence (e.g., Paik & Comstock, 1994), sexual behavior (e.g., Allen, D’Alessio, & Brezgel, 1995; Hestroni, 2007), and body image (e.g., Holmstrom, 2004). Media literacy interventions refer to education programs designed to reduce harmful effects of the media by informing the audience about one or more aspects of the media, thereby influencing media-related beliefs and attitudes, and ultimately preventing risky behaviors. Several studies have reviewed the effects of media literacy interventions on topics such as violence (Cantor & Wilson, 2003), sexual behavior (Allen, D’Alessio, Emmers, & Gebhardt, 1996), and advertising (Livingstone & Helsper, 2006). A review by Bergsma and Carney (2008) examined the contexts and process of effective media literacy interventions focusing on health promotion. However, a comprehensive meta-analysis of media literacy interventions is not yet available. The present study assesses the average effect size of media literacy interventions and the conditions under which such interventions are more effective. We begin with a brief overview of the conceptual basis for media literacy interventions, followed by a review of outcomes and moderators of media literacy intervention effects.

This study examines (a) whether smokers engage in selective exposure to and selective perception of anti-tobacco campaigns and (b) whether the amount of campaign exposure influences selective perception processes. Using nationally representative survey data concerning youths' reception of several anti-tobacco campaigns in the United States, this study found a tendency of selective perception but not selective exposure. In other words, smokers were more likely to engage in campaign message disparagement than nonsmokers (selective perception), but smokers and nonsmokers did not differ in campaign exposure. In addition, the amount of campaign exposure affected the extent to which a person engages in selective perception. The difference in message disparagement between nonsmokers and smokers was larger among those who reported higher campaign exposure than among those who reported lower exposure. Implications of selective processes for campaign effects research are further discussed.

To the Editor: Scholars have routinely noted ways in which scientific inquiry is isolated from public life and popular attention and have bemoaned relatively low levels of scientific literacy among lay audiences (1–3). While public understanding of science in the United States and elsewhere undoubtedly is not at the level desired by most scientists, apparent interest and hunger to learn are high for certain issues. These issues represent public communication opportunities.