Great Expectations: The Association Between Media-Afforded Information Control and Desirable Social Outcomes

Abstract

Media-afforded information control pertains to individuals’ abilities to utilize the features of interpersonal communication channels such that they are able to express information or withhold information in a manner consistent with their needs. Building on the uses and gratifications perspective and an intersectional view of media affordances, the purpose of this article was to assess the connection between afforded information control and obtaining positive outcomes. The results of both the survey and diary studies in a 2-part empirical investigation showed a positive relationship between reports on the expressive dimension of the information control scale and indicators of positive outcomes. To the author's knowledge, the diary study conducted in the second part of this investigation was the first to test the association between a media affordance, measured during a preliminary questionnaire stage, and outcomes assessed in later diary-recorded interactions in non-laboratory settings.

Keywords:

• Communication Satisfaction
• Diary Methods
• Gratifications
• Mediated Interpersonal Communication

Notes

Notes: + indicates that the item was reverse-coded before the analysis. R indicates that the item was removed from the analysis due to insufficient loadings in either factor. A bolded loading indicates that the item met the requirements necessary to be included in a factor.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. †p < .10.

Note. The u _0j in the Level 2 Model 2 denotes that the random effects were left unsuppressed for the estimation of the Level-1 intercept, allowing the intercept to vary among respondents.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001. †p < .10.

In Studies 1 and 2, due to the strong majority of Caucasian respondents and low response rate from other ethnic backgrounds outside of African American, the ethnicity control variable was analyzed as a dichotomous variable labeled “Caucasian.” Coefficients on the Caucasian variables reported in Tables 2 and 4 should be interpreted as differences (standardized differences in the case of Study 1) in the outcome variables between those who reported Caucasian as their ethnicity relative to those who reported any other ethnicity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Christian Feaster

John Christian Feaster (Ph.D., Ohio State University, 2008) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Rowan University.