Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Submit your manuscript through SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Communication Research
This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (4)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Beaudoin, C. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Mass Media Use, Neighborliness, and Social Support

Assessing Causal Links With Panel Data

Christopher E. Beaudoin

Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

This study assesses pathways of causal influence between two mass media use measures (campaign exposure and news attention) and two indicators of social capital (neighborliness and social support). This assessment encompasses the evaluation of a health media campaign that targeted African Americans in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Analysis of panel survey data indicated a significant over-time increase in neighborliness but not social support. Among the three cross-lagged effect models of influence, the best fit was of the mass media use causes social capital model. Similarly, among the three synchronous effect models of influence, the best fit was of the mass media use causes social capital model. This analysis provides support for the media campaign's effectiveness and, more broadly, allows for the extension of recent research that has used panel data to strengthen inferences of causation in different mass communication scenarios.

Key Words: social capital • media e fects • health media campaign • campaign e fects • neighborliness • social support

References

  • Abramson, D., & Garfield, R. (2006). On the edge: Children and families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita face a looming medical and mental health crisis. New York: Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
  • Ahern, J., Galea, S., Resnick, H., Kilpatrick, D., Bucuvalas, M., Gold, J., et al. (2002). Television images and psychological symptoms after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Psychiatry, 65, 289-300.[Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Allen, K.M. (2006). Community-based disaster preparedness and climate adaptation: Local capacity-building in the Philippines. Disasters, 30, 81-101.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Almedon, A.M. (2005). Social capital and mental health: An interdisciplinary review of primary evidence. Social Science & Medicine, 61, 943-964.[CrossRef]
  • American Association for Public Opinion Research. (2004). Standard definitions: Final dispositions of case codes and outcome rates for surveys. Ann Arbor, MI: Author.
  • Aneshensel, C.S., & Frerichs, R.R. (1982). Stress, support and depression: A longitudinal causal model. Journal of Community Psychology, 10, 363-376.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Bandura, A. (2002). Social cognitive theory of mass communication. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media e fects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 121-154). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Beaudoin, C.E. (2007). News, social capital and health in the context of Katrina. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 18, 418-430.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Beaudoin, C.E. (in press). The impact of news use and social capital on youth wellbeing: An aggregate-level analysis. Journal of Community Psychology.
  • Beaudoin, C.E., Fernandez, C., Wall, J.L., & Farley, T.A. (2007). Promoting healthy eating and physical activity: Short-term effects of a mass media campaign. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32, 217-223.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Beaudoin, C.E., & Tao, C. C. (in press-a). Benefiting from social capital in online support groups: An empirical study of cancer patients. CyberPsychology & Behavior.
  • Beaudoin, C.E., & Tao, C.C. (in press-b). The impact of online cancer resources on the supporters of cancer patients. New Media & Society.
  • Beaudoin, C.E., & Thorson, E. (2004). Social capital in rural and urban communities: Testing differences in media effects and models. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 81, 378-399.[Web of Science]
  • Beaudoin, C.E., & Thorson, E. (2006). The social capital of Blacks and Whites: Differing effects of the mass media in the United States. Human Communication Research, 32, 157-177.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Beaudoin, C.E., & Thorson, E. (2007). Evaluating the effects of a youth health media campaign. Journal of Health Communication, 12(5), 439-454.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Beaudoin, C.E., Thorson, E., & Hong, T. (2006). Promoting youth health by social empowerment: A media campaign targeting social capital. Health Communication, 19, 175-182.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood.
  • Brehm, J., & Rahn, W. (1997). Individual-level evidence for the causes and consequences of social capital. American Journal of Political Science, 41, 999-1023.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Bucy, E.P. (2003). Emotion, presidential communication, and traumatic news: Processing the World Trade Center attacks. Press/Politics, 8(4), 76-96.
  • Byrne, B.M., Shavelson, R.J., & Muthen, B. (1989). Testing the equivalence of factor covariance and mean structures: The issue of partial measuremetn invariance. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 456-466.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Campbell, C., Williams, B., & Gilgen, D. (2002). Is social capital a useful conceptual tool for exploring community level influences on HIV infection? An exploratory case study from South Africa. AIDS Care, 14(1), 41-54.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Carey, J. (2002). Media use during a crisis. Prometheus, 20, 201-207.
  • Chaffee, S.H., & Schleuder, J. (1986). Measurement and effects of attention on media news. Human Communication Research, 13(1), 76-107.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Cohen, S., & Hoberman, H. (1983). Positive events and social supports as buffers of life change stress. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 13, 99-125.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Cohen, S., & Wills, T.A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 310-357.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Coleman, J.S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94(Suppl.), S95-S120.[CrossRef]
  • Cooper, H., Arber, S., Fee, L., & Ginn, J. (1999). The influence of social support and social capital on health: A review and analysis of British data. London: Health Education Authority.
  • Cowan, N. (1988). Evolving conceptions of memory storage, selective atttention, and their mutual constraints with in the human information-processing system. Psychological Bulletin, 104, 163-191.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • de Jong, P.F. (1999). Hierarchical regression analysis in structural equation modeling. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 198-211.
  • de Tocqueville, A. (1984). Democracy in America. New York: Penguin Books. (Original work published 1663)
  • Durkheim, E. (1997). The division of labor in society (W. D. Halls, Trans.). New York: The Free Press. (Original work published 1933)
  • Eveland, W.P., Jr., Hayes, A.F., Shah, D.V., & Kwak, N. (2005). Understanding the relationship between communication and political knowledge: A model comparison approach using panel data. Political Communication, 22, 423-446.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Finkel, S.E. (1995). Causal analysis with panel data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Friedland, L.A., & McLeod, J.M. (1999). Community integration and mass media: A reconsideration. In D. Demers & K. Vishwanath (Eds.), Mass media, social control, and social change: A macrosocial perspective (pp. 197-228). Ames: Iowa State University Press.
  • Hausman, J., Hall, B.H., & Griliches, Z. (1984). Econometric models for count data with an application to the patients—R& D relationship. Econometrica, 52, 909-939.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Hill, A.B. (1965). The environment and disease: Association or causation? Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 58, 295-300.[Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Hu, L.-T., & Bentler, P.M. (1995). Evaluating model fit. In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications (pp. 76-99). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
  • Hu, L.-T., & Bentler, P.M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternative. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1-55.
  • Janz, N.K., & Becker, M.H. (1994). The health belief model: A decade later. Health Education Quarterly, 11, 1-47.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Kawachi, I., & Berkman, L.F. (2000). Social cohesion, social capital, and health. In L. F. Berkman & I. Kawachi (Eds.), Social epidemiology (pp. 174-190). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  • Kenny, D. (1975). Cross-lagged panel correlation: A test of spuriousness. Psychological Bulletin, 82, 887-903.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Kessler, R.C., Galea, S., Jones, R.T., & Parker, H.A. (2006). Mental illness and suicidality after Hurricane Katrina. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84, 930-939.
  • Kline, R.B. (2004). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
  • Lee, B.A., Campbell, K.E., & Miller, O. (1991). Racial differences in urban neighboring. Sociological Forum, 6, 525-550.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Lin, N. ( 2001). Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Macmillan, N.A., & Creelman, C.D. (1990). Response bias: Characteristics of detection theory, threshold theory, and "nonparametric" indexes. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 401-413.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Mastin, T. (2000). Media use and civic participation in the African-American population: Exploring participation among professionals and nonprofessionals. Journalism Quarterly, 77(1), 115-127.
  • McLeod, J.M., Daily, K., Guo, Z., Eveland, W.P., Jr., Bayer, J., Yang, S., et al. (1996). Community integration, local media use and democratic processes. Communication Research, 23, 179-209.[Abstract]
  • McLeod, J.M., Scheufele, D.A., & Moy, P. (1999). Community, communication, and participation: The role of mass media and interpersonal discussion in local political participation. Political Communication, 16, 315-336.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • McLeod, J.M., Scheufele, D.A., Moy, P., Horowitz, E.M., Holbert, R.L., Zhang, W., et al. (1999). Understanding deliberation: The effects of discussion networks on participation in a public forum. Communication Research, 26, 743-774.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • Menard, S.W. (1991). Longitudinal research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
  • Moore, S., Daniel, M., Linnan, L., Campbell, M., Benedict, S., & Meier, A. (2004). After Hurricane Floyd passed: Investigating the social determinants of disaster preparedness and recovery. Family and Community Health, 27, 204-217.[Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Moy, P., Scheufele, D.A., & Holbert, L.R. (1999). Television use and social capital: Testing Putnam's time displacement hypothesis. Mass Communication and Society, 2(1/2), 27-45.
  • Musick, M.A., Wilson, J., & Bynum, W.B.J. (2000). Race and formal volunteering: The differential effects of class and religion. Social Forces, 78, 1539-1570.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Nakagawa, Y., & Shaw, R. (2004). Social capital: A missing link to disaster recovery. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 22(1), 5-34.
  • Newton, K. (1999). Mass media effects: Mobilization or media malaise? British Journal of Political Science, 29, 577-599.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Norris, P. (1996). Did television erode social capital? A reply to Putnam. PS: Political Science and Politics, 29, 474-480.[CrossRef]
  • Norris, P. (2000). The impact of television on civic malaise. In S. J. Pharr & R. D. Putnam (Eds.), Disa fected democracies: What's troubling the trilateral countries? (pp. 231-251). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • Pfefferbaum, B., Nixon, S.J., Tivis, R.D., Doughty, D.E., Pynoos, R.S., Gurwitch, R.H., et al. (2001). Television exposure in children after a terrorist incident. Psychiatry, 64, 202-211.[Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Putnam, R.D. (1993). Marking democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • Putnam, R.D. (1995a). Bowling alone: America's declining social capital. Journal of Democracy, 6(1), 65-78.[Web of Science]
  • Putnam, R.D. (1995b). Turning in, tuning out. The strange disappearance of social capital in America. PS: Political Science and Politics, 28, 664-683.[CrossRef]
  • Putnam, R.D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  • Rocha, J.L., & Christoplos, I. (2001). Disaster mitigation and preparedness on the Nicaraguan post-Mitch agenda. Disasters, 25, 240-250.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Rogosa, D. (1980). A critique of cross-lagged correlation. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 245-258.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Rogosa, D. (1987). Causal models do not support scientific conclusions: A comment in support of Freedman. Journal of Educational Statistics, 12, 185-195.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Saegert, S. (1989). Unlikely leaders, extreme circumstances: Older Black women building community households. American Journal of Community Psychology, 17, 295-316.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Shadish, W.R., Cook, T.D., & Campbell, D.T. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
  • Shah, D.V. (1998). Civic engagement, interpersonal trust, and television use: An individual level assessment of social capital. Political Psychology, 19, 469-496.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Shah, D.V., Cho, J., Eveland, W.P., Jr., & Kwak, N. (2005). Information and expression in a Digital Age: Modeling Internet effects on civic participation. Communication Research, 32, 531-565.[Abstract]
  • Shah, D.V., Kwak, N., & Holbert, R.L. (2001). "Connecting" and "disconnecting" with civic life: Patterns of Internet use and the production of social capital. Political Communication, 18, 141-162.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
  • Shah, D.V., McLeod, J.M., & Yoon, S.-H. (2001). Communication, context, and community: An exploration of print, broadcast, and Internet influences. Communication Research, 28, 464-506.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • Shah, D.V., Schmierbach, M., Hawkins, J., Espino, R., & Donavan, J. (2002). Nonrecursive models of Internet use and community engagement: Questioning whether time spent online erodes social capital. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79, 964-987.[Web of Science]
  • Slater, M.D., & Kelly, K., J. (2002). Testing alternative explanations for exposure effects in media campaigns: The case of a community-based, in-school media drug prevention project. Communication Research, 29, 367-389.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • Smedley, B.D., Stith, A.Y., & Nelson, A.R. (2003). Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
  • Smith, T.W. (2003). A review of methods to estimate the status of cases with unknown eligibility. In Report of the Standard Definitions Committee for the American Association for Public Opinion Research. Lenexa, KS: American Association for Public Opinion Research.
  • Stamm, K.R., Emig, A.G., & Hesse, M.B. (1997). The contribution of local media to community involvement. Journalism Quarterly, 74(1), 97-107.
  • Stamm, K.R., & Fortini-Campbell, L. (1983). The relationship of community ties to newspaper subscribing and use. Journalism Monographs (84).
  • Thorson, E., & Beaudoin, C.E. (2004). The impact of a health campaign on health social capital. Journal of Health Communication, 9, 167-194.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Tonnies, F. (1988). Community and society: Gemeinschaft and gesellschaft. New York: Harper & Row. (Original work published 1887)
  • Valente, T.W. (2001). Evaluating communication campaigns. In R. E. Rice & C. K. Atkin (Eds.), Public communication campaigns (3rd ed., pp. 105-124). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Verba, S., Schlozman, K.L., & Brady, H.E. (1995). Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Wallack, L. (2000). The role of mass media in creating social capital: A new direction for public health. In B. D. Smedley & S. L. Syme (Eds.), Promoting health: Intervention strategies from social and behavioral research (pp. 337-365). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
  • Zillmann, D., & Bryant, J. (1985). Selective exposure to communication. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Communication Research, Vol. 34, No. 6, 637-664 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0093650207307902
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Communication ResearchHome page
C. E. Beaudoin
Exploring the Association Between News Use and Social Capital: Evidence of Variance by Ethnicity and Medium
Communication Research, October 1, 2009; 36(5): 611 - 636.
[Abstract] [PDF]

This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (4)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Beaudoin, C. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?