Over 15 million people participate in online fantasy sports. Applying a uses and gratifications framework, we use Q-methodology, a quantitative means for developing typologies of people, to examine types of online fantasy sports users and their motivations. Five types of players emerged, with casual players, skilled players, and isolationist thrill-seekers being the three most common types. Differences among types of users were primarily associated with two motivations-arousal and surveillance-while entertainment, escape, and social interaction motivations were judged to be less important. The minimal importance of social interaction to fantasy sports users in this study was unexpected, based on previous research, and implies that not all online communities build or maintain relationships.

Since its introduction in 1957, Noam Chomsky's theory of transformational grammar has been the subject of much psycholinguistic research. Through several metamorphoses, the theory has remained controversial as to whether it represents how the mind actually processes language. Psycholinguists have studied this area over several decades. Syntactic structure has been studied in terms of recall and effects on reaction time to secondary tasks, but little is known about syntactic structure and attitude formation. Advertising researchers have looked at the effects of many types of complexity (e.g., semantic and visual), but few have investigated the effects of syntactic complexity on attitude formation. This study used a within-subjects experiment to examine how surface-structure transformations affected readers' comprehension, recognition, recall, and attitudes toward slogans. As expected, syntactic complexity did not affect the comprehension of advertising slogans, but simple-syntax versions -especially the active voice -showed an advantage in recognition. Slogans with moderate syntactic complexity showed a significant positive effect on free morphemic

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of sentence‐level context, prior word knowledge, and need for cognition on responses to print ads for technical products. Words and phrases that help readers understand technical language in context increased the supportive arguments generated in response to ads, whereas prior word knowledge and need for cognition primarily influenced neutral thoughts. Only explanatory language facilitated the comprehension of product information. Explanatory language led to an increase in attitudes and purchase intent. Need for cognition had a positive influence on attitude formation when the context language was ambiguous, but decreased attitude formation when the context language was explanatory. Results are consistent with predictions guided by a comprehension elaboration model of persuasion.

This paper analyzes changes in media consumption patterns for trusted news sources over a three-year period among Qatari Nationals and expatriate residents living in Qatar, using data from the 2010, 2011, and 2012 Omnibus Surveys of Life in Qatar, administered by the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI). Results show that television remains the strong favorite for local news and international news for both Qatari Nationals and expatriate residents, but that reliance on television is declining, especially for international news. Consumption of daily newspapers as the preferred source of local news remained stable among Qataris, but declined among expatriates. Internet news sites as the preferred source for local news increased during the three-year period. Additional analyses suggest weak agenda-setting effects between trusted news sources and perceived most important issues, and positive correlations between use of Internet sites and interest in political news.

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