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This experimental investigation of media credibility examined the combined, or synergistic, effects of on-air and online network news exposure, placing student and adult news consumers in broadcast news, online news, and telewebbing conditions. Results indicate that perceptions of network news credibility are affected by channel used. Perceptions of credibility were enhanced when the channel used was consistent with the news source being evaluated, suggesting a channel congruence effect. In addition, evidence is offered for the existence of a synergy effect between on-air and online news.

The relative costs and expertise associated with using the Internet, labeled technological and social access, have led to a concern about the rise of a “digital divide” between information haves and have-nots. To address whether and to what extent the Internet has become a medium of the masses and to identify the factors associated with social access to the Internet, I examine Internet use data from two statewide surveys, the Carolina Poll and the Indiana Poll, conducted during spring 1998. Multivariate analysis reveals that income, education, age, and family structure are important social determinants of on-line access and that Internet use is lowest among single mothers, members of lower socioeconomic groups, and older respondents. Although the online population is beginning to diversify, the Internet cannot yet claim a committed, nonelite mass audience. It is argued that the disparities in Internet use portend a looming information gap between those with access and those without.

This paper argues for enhanced consideration of third variables in interactivity research and proposes a "mediated moderation" model to bring increased sophistication to bear on the study of information technology effects. Interactivity, a central phenomenon in new media research, is an elusive concept that has enduringly intrigued and confused scholars. Extant conceptualizations have produced incomplete causal models and have generally ignored the effect of third variables. We conceptualize interactivity as technological attributes of mediated environments that enable reciprocal communication or information exchange, which afford interaction between communication technology and users, or between users through technology. Specifying roles for mediator and moderator variables, this paper proposes a model that incorporates interactive attributes, user perceptions (mediators such as perceived interactivity), individual differences (moderators such as Internet self-efficacy), and media effects measures to systematically examine the definition, process, and consequences of interactivity on users. Lastly, statistical procedures for testing mediated moderation are described.An enduring question and major inconsistency in interactivity research is how to best isolate the concept for systematic investigation. Various definitions and multi-dimensional models have been proposed but current approaches attempt to either mix structural characteristics of media systems, message exchanges, and user perceptions into a single multidimensional construct, or identify one of these factors as the central locus of interactivity (Sundar, 2004). Not surprisingly, the empirical research on interactivity has yielded scattered findings and has been unable to ascertain consistent patterns of effects on users. After three decades of analysis and investigation, we scarcely know what interactivity really is, let alone what MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY, 9,

This study manipulated the appropriateness of presidential reactions to images of compelling news events to investigate how a political leader's nonverbal behavior evokes emotional responses and trait attributions. A repeated-measures experiment examining the combined effects of valence and arousal on viewers' affective reactions and trait evaluations was conducted on two voting-age subject pools in different states. Participants were shown a series of four news story-presidential reaction message sequences and were asked to rate a series of felt emotions and communicative traits. Results indicate an evocative function for leader displays that nonperson-specific news images do not share, suggesting a critical role for appropriate nonverbal communication in politics. Inappropriate message sequences elicited negative emotions more intensely than positive emotions and produced uniformly lower trait evaluations, whereas appropriate sequences elicited positive emotions more intensely. Moreover, negative displays were evaluated as significantly more honest, credible, trustworthy, and appropriate than positive displays.

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This study updates and builds on Hallin’s landmark investigation of sound‐bite news by documenting the prevalence of candidate image bites, where candidates are shown but not heard (as opposed to being shown and heard), in general election news over 4 election cycles. A visual analysis of broadcast network (ABC, CBS, and NBC) news coverage of the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 U.S. presidential elections finds that image bites constituted a greater percentage of total campaign coverage than sound bites, with candidates appearing in image bites significantly more than sound bites. Even as candidate sound bites continue to shrink over time, image‐bite time is increasing in duration—and candidates are being presented in image bites almost twice as much as journalists. Sound bites are also found to be largely attack and issue focused. Based on these findings, we call for greater appreciation of visual processing, nonverbal communication, and voter learning from television news in the study of media and politics.