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This study (N = 199) examined the impact of a 360° news coverage of the Iraqi war on cognitive and emotional empathy, and the mechanisms through which an audience's empathic responses are enhanced, as well as the role of empathy in impacting perceptions of news credibility. We build on earlier studies on immersive journalism to provide a nuanced investigation on different dimensions of empathy and their impact on perceptions of news credibility. The findings demonstrated that, when compared to online news, 360° news led to greater spatial presence, cognitive and positive emotional empathy, as well as higher levels of perceived news credibility. Spatial presence mediated the relationship between news modality and empathy, while the impact of 360° news on empathy was contingent upon individual differences in dispositional empathy. The results are discussed in the context of immersive journalism theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, we describe modular production of television news, established at the University of Georgia, one of the leading journalism programs in the United States, in the scope of its experience-based learning efforts. The new method of producing television news assumes the innovative way of combining live and prerecorded segments of traditionally "all live" television newscasts to encourage proficient dissemination of the news content on multiple platforms and focus journalistic work more fully on the editorial process of news production. The findings are discussed in light of situational learning theories and Parkinson's Law of time management, as well as benefits for student learning.

This study examined the impact of news modality (print news vs. 360° journalism) on psychological mechanisms of information seeking intention, as well as individual differences that moderate the observed outcomes. The results of a two condition between-subjects experiment (N = 100) conducted on a community sample showed that news modality affected information seeking intentions, enjoyment of news story, and the feelings of spatial presence, but did not affect actual information seeking behavior and information recall. Exposure to 360° journalism led to the increase in spatial presence, which led to a linear increase in enjoyment, ultimately resulting in greater intentions to seek further information. Participants with a higher need for cognitive closure enjoyed consuming news more when the story was presented as 360° journalism than those with a lower need for cognitive closure. Results contribute to expanding the theories of information seeking and the role of affective responses and spatial presence on news consumption in journalism and communication scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the formation of trust judgments of information sources about COVID-19 and the role played by emotions in this information seeking process. Twenty-seven in-depth interviews with Americans revealed that both trust and affective responses were present in information seeking of health messages, thus discovering the applicability of Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model’s propositions during pandemics. Using qualitative methods to assess RISP variables in a new context (COVID-19), the study proposes modifications to the existing model. It also extends the sociopsychological traditions on which the RISP model was based, by finding that when evaluating information sources during pandemics, under conditions of high issue relevance, individuals’ peripheral evaluation of messages might precede systematic evaluation and might be used as a selection criteria for further elaboration. Finally, the assessments of source credibility as a peripheral cue in this study expand current theoretical understandings by including compassion as a possible new dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most protest paradigm studies examining news media's portrayals of protesters are based on an assumption that the way the paradigm operates within the U.S. media system is similar around the globe. To overcome these weaknesses, this content analysis (n = 1200) of protest-related news coverage in two Balkan and two Central American countries examines how media clientelism-manifested via ownership, concentration, and state advertising-influences media representations of protesters. Results highlight important regional differences in protest coverage, and confirm the role of government and elites in clientelist environments is more complex than hypothesized. We found that while clientelism contributes to the protest paradigm, delegitimizing coverage is not automatic, and varies by frame and media ownership, as political and economic interests differentially influence protest coverage depending not just on the outlets' ties to the state, but also the social contexts surrounding the protests themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited understanding about informational barriers that nurses face when assessing obstetric patients and the strategies they use to obtain and elicit disclosure of potentially sensitive health information. Using framework analysis and goals-plans-actions theory, this study qualitatively explores the perspectives of nurses, nurse practitioners, and midwives on these processes and strategies. This study utilizes framework analysis to analyze in-depth interviews with 22 nurses working in the field of obstetric and intrapartum care. Two overarching themes regarding barriers to disclosure and six themes regarding strategies to address these barriers emerged. Barriers included intentional self-concealment and unintentional omission of information. Strategies to overcome these barriers include education, rapport building, strategic questioning, creating a zone of privacy, seeking out information from other sources, and postnatal debriefing sessions. This study provides greater insight into the types of barriers that may prevent pregnant people from disclosing their health information, as well as communicative strategies on how to elicit sensitive health information. Nurses' responses highlight their reliance on patients, as well as on other sources of information when encountering patient reticence. Framework analysis points to four overarching strategic implications for communicative practices in health care settings: creating mutual understanding, creating rapport, creating privacy, and creating more empowered and informed patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study qualitatively examined how nurses, nurse practitioners, and nurse midwives construct the meaning of patient trust in their work caring for pregnant and laboring women. Twenty-two interviews were conducted with nurse participants employed at clinics, hospitals, and birth centers across Southeastern United States. Using a normative theoretical approach within the multiple goals framework, we identified five emergent themes that characterize trust as it shapes nurses' communicative goals: trust as the woman's acceptance of vulnerability and risk, the woman relinquishing control, the woman conceding to the nurse's expertise, the woman feeling heard, and the woman's disclosure of information. The results support previous studies, which conceptualized trust as vulnerability, risk, and disclosure whereas the remaining themes are original to this study. The results are interpreted both in light of existing links between trust and communication and the shifting and conflicting goals of nurses as they attempt to achieve their primary goal of optimal health outcomes. Passive constructions of trust that conflate it with women's acquiescent behaviors could have implications for the quality of communication between nurses and patients. In addition, trust, as understood by these participants, becomes situated as an instrumental means to achieving patient cooperation and desired health outcomes rather than a relational goal that supports women's agency throughout obstetric and intrapartum processes. This may be at odds with the modern movement toward patient-centered care and shared decision-making in U.S. maternity care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the motivations among journalism students in Serbia through a survey at four major journalism programs in the country. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations had a significant impact on willingness to work in journalism, with the moderating effect of work experience. The results are discussed in the context of the self-determination theory of motivations. The study contributes to the theoretical development of the motivational theory in journalism and expands it to a transitional region, in which professional journalists as well as journalism students are facing particular difficulties in fulfilling their duties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the perceptions of media roles among journalism students in Serbia and Croatia (N = 401). The results showed that the most important were citizen-oriented and watchdog roles and that they were positively predicted by hard news orientation, whereas consumer and loyal roles were least important. Consumer role was positively predicted by the soft news orientation, whereas the best predictor for the perceptions of the loyal media role was political orientation (right of the center). This is the first study that comparatively analyzed students' views in two countries of the former Yugoslavia using national samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employed international news flow theory to test the impact of the determinants of foreign news flow on the comprehensiveness of textual and multimedia coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis in the form of a live blog. The live blog is an online news format that allows journalists to inform their audiences about ongoing, most often breaking news events, with live, brief posts. The authors employed a content analysis to investigate the determinants of live blogging about the Syrian refugee crisis in five countries: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The analysis of 195 live blogs showed that deviance of the event was a predictor of the amount of textual coverage, while economic relevance was the best predictor of the comprehensiveness of multimedia live-blog coverage. Furthermore, the analyses supported previous findings that suggested geographic proximity is losing its power in predicting international news flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined the effects of framing in promotional health messages on intention to vaccinate against seasonal influenza virus. The findings of an experimental study (N = 86) indicated that exposure to both benefits and side effects of vaccination (gain-framed with risk disclosure message) led to lower intention to receive the flu vaccine. This relationship was mediated by both perceived vaccine efficacy and felt ambivalence in a serial order, revealing the underlying psychological mechanisms important for understanding health-related behaviors. Theoretical implications of constructing sub-framed messages are discussed and the concept of second-order framing is introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This 2 x 2 experimental study (N = 196) tested the effects of source expertise and opinion valence in readers' comments on the credibility of an online news story about genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Source expertise had a significant influence on perceptions of article credibility; articles were judged more credible when public comments embedded in the story were from expert sources (e.g., scientists) rather than nonexpert sources (e.g., Twitter users). Effects were larger on high-frequency news users, regardless of whether comments were for or against GMOs. Results suggest that Internet users mainly use the peripheral or heuristic route of information processing to evaluate online news credibility. The importance for online journalism of social heuristics via opinions of other people is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the influences of cultural and performance factors on trust in news media in Serbia by conducting a survey on a stratified random sample of the population (N = 544). The results show that both factors played a significant role, but that the performance explanation was slightly more powerful. The levels of trust in news media and generalized trust in Serbia remained low, while the perceptions of news media corruption reached extremely high levels. Before testing theories, the meanings of three main variables were explored by conducting 20 in-depth interviews with a separate sample of the Serbian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines individual differences in perceived news media corruption (PNMC), by conducting a face-to-face survey on a representative sample of the Serbian population (N = 544). Extremely high levels of PNMC were found, as well as significant differences in PNMC scores for gender, education level, socioeconomic status, political affiliation, and membership in majority ethnic and religious groups. Corruption perception persona types are created and results are discussed in terms of importance of societal integration for PNMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]