This study tested how source knowledge affects enjoyment of self-deprecating humor about a minority group. Participants made aware that the source of a message poking fun at people with disabilities was himself disabled had more positive evaluations of the cartoon and author than participants unaware of his disability. Participants initially given no source information judged the author more positively the second time when they were given follow-up source information. Finally, some effects were moderated by the disability status of the message receiver, such that having a disability or knowing someone who does predicted higher liking of the cartoons when the author is disabled but lower liking when he is not. The results suggest a role for self-deprecating humor in intergroup relations, and predict when such humor will be accepted by minority and non-minority group members.
The explanatory principles of understanding and consistency are used to detail the past, present, and future of individual-level political communication media effects research. It is argued that the field of political communication is at a crossroads, with preferences for a dominant explanatory principle shifting from understanding back to consistency. In addition to understanding and consistency, it is argued that political communication researchers need to begin introducing additional explanatory principles (e.g., hedonism) to the field for the generation of new lines of inquiry. A call for embracing a diversity of explanatory principles is offered, and the utility of such an approach is explored within the context of the 2012 U.S. presidential election.There is much debate at present over the future of empirical political communication research (see Bennett & Iyengar, 2008Holbert, Garrett, & Gleason, 2010). The rise of new technology, a substantial increase in access to a broad range of communication outlets, enhanced power placed in the hands of citizens to choose among these outlets, and a revisiting of what does and does not count as "political messages"
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