Theme 3: Research and theory

Journal of choice

The journal I chose was ”Journal of Computer-mediated communication”, which is a peer-reviewed journal which covers (as can be interpreted by the name), communication which is mediated through computers. It has an impact factor of 3.541 and was (during 2015) ranked 1/79 in communication and 3/83 in information sciences. The journal can be found on: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1083-6101

Research paper of choice

The paper I chose from the above journal was “News Recommendations from Social Media Opinion Leaders: Effects on Media Trust and Information Seeking” published in September 2015, volume 20, issue 5. The paper described how media outlets are having an increasingly difficult time having an audience trust them as a reputable source. The fact that major news outlets are losing subscribing customers on a next to daily basis due to inherent lack of trust in these outlets is examined. 

In order to look at this decrease in trust, the authors experimented by having participants see news articles from the above mentioned news outlets displayed on their social media walls, in this case Facebook. By using Facebook API's and creating posts and shares of specific news articles, an increased amount of trust of the source was gained when the articles appeared to be shared by a friend or a opinion leader. 

The authors examined the three following questions:

1. The relationship between exposure to news posted on social media and media trust
2. The relationship between exposure to news on social media and information-seeking intent
3. Whether either of these relationships are affected by the perceived opinion leadership of the person sharing the news on social media. 

And investigated the following hypotheses:

1. H1: A news story recommended by a friend on social media will increase trust in the news outlet, compared to receiving the same story directly from the traditional news outlet where it appears.
2. H2: There will be an interaction between a friend's news recommendation and perceptions of the friend as an opinion leader predicting trust in the news outlet.
3. H3: A news story recommendation from a friend on social media will increase intent to seek future information from the news outlet, compared to receiving the same story directly from the traditional news outlet where it appears.
4. H4: There will be an interaction between a friend's news recommendation and perceptions of the friend as an opinion leader predicting intent to seek information from the news outlet.

With a sample of 364 undergraduate students, they investigating these above questions and their results support all 4 of the hypotheses. I.e, people actually trust news outlets if their friends, especially opinion leaders, support these news and share them on social media.

This paper can be found on the following link, where both the hypotheses and questions are quoted from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcc4.12127/full

Briefly explain to a first year university student what theory is, and what theory is not.

Theories are empirically based models to explain any kind of a phenomenon or occurrence. It is a model to explain, and describe the world for an increased understanding. But more than that, theories are also a model which can be used to draw conclusions about the future based on previous occurrences of a specific phenomenon. According to Gregor, the taxonomy of a theory can be categorized into five different types:

1. Analysis – Not extended beyond analysis and description of a specific phenomenon.

2. Explanation – Explains a phenomenon, but does not continue to try to predict further outcomes.

3. Prediction – Has predictions and testable propositions. Does not support well-developed causal explanations.

4. Explanation and prediction – The mix of number 2 and 3. Provides a prediction which is supported by testable propositions and causal explanations.

5. Design and action – a phenomenon explained by explicit prescriptions to “construct and artifact”.

Sutton extends the above by describing what theory is not – his list of the 5 elements which are often thought to be theory, but are not are:

1. References.

2. Data.

3. List of variables and constructs.

4. Diagrams.

5. Hypotheses and predictions.

Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?

The theory which my paper sought to answer a question of how people interact with social media and how perception is changed of a source dependant on where the source is linked from (in this article, by whom it was shared on social media). Because of this theory, I would definitely categorize it as an analytical paper – an analysis. No predictions are made based on the data which is presented in the article, they only seek out to answer the hypotheses which they constructed. 

Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?

The positive aspect of an analytical paper is that you get an overview of the current situation – in this case regarding trust of reputable news outlets online, and how that trust is perceived differently dependant on who shares it. You get a clear description of the phenomenon which is at hand, and it can also be a good start for further explanation and predictions – but sadly this analytical paper did not reach all the way there. The clear downside and the limitation of this analytical paper is that we only get a snapshot of this phenomenon at this time, and it is hard to make predictions about what the future might hold – and since there are no testable proposition or causal explanations, the theory might be regarded as rather “weak”. But as I said, it can be used as a solid foundation for further research which might aim to find a more detailed explanation and prediction.