Chul Joo Lee

Previous studies on public attitudes toward emerging technologies have treated cognitive and affective influences on public opinion as distinct, with little attention to the possible interaction between the two. Directly addressing this issue, we argue that cognitive and affective factors not only have important separate effects on public attitudes but also work in tandem to produce effects. In particular, it may be that affective variables shape the impact of cognitions and vice versa. We use d

Scholars have paid close attention to the effects of the rapidly changing health information environment. The issue of how Internet use for health information affects the frequency of contact with health professionals, however, has not been examined. Directly addressing this issue, a two wave panel dataset is used with a U.S. national representative sample gathered in 2005 and 2006. Overall, the results show that Internet use at Wave 1 positively predicts health professional contact at Wave 2, c

Previous research suggests both cognitive and affective variables can impact how the public thinks about new scientific developments such as nanotechnology. Most studies have not explored the origins of these variables or their simultaneous, interactive influences on public opinion. Using national telephone survey data (N=706), we examine the pathways between different types of media use and attitudes toward nanotechnology, particularly potential mediating roles of nanotechnology knowledge and d

This study aims to explore how media use for health information and interpersonal health communication interact in the context of healthy lifestyle behaviors. This study hypothesizes that media use for health information and interpersonal health communication will serve as substitutes for one another. To test this hypothesis, this study uses a nationally representative survey of 2,107 civilian, noninstitutionalized adults in the United States. The results show that the associations between telev

The gap in cancer information seeking between high-socioeconomic-status (high-SES) cancer patients and low-SES cancer patients deserves serious attention, considering the importance of information and knowledge in cancer control. We thus explored the association of SES, as measured by education, with cancer patients' overall cancer information seeking, and with seeking from each source (i.e., the Internet, mass media, medical sources, and nonmedical interpersonal sources) and across two topic ca

The current research posits that education leads to differential levels of Internet engagement, which moderate the association between Internet use for health information and general health knowledge. Using a nationally representative survey that covers adults between the ages of 40 and 70 in the United States, it is found that education is positively related to Internet engagement. Also, Internet use has stronger associations with health knowledge for people exhibiting high Internet engagement

Cultivation theory and research has been criticized for its failure to consider variation in effects by genre, employ appropriate third-variable controls, and determine causal direction. Recent studies, controlling for a variety of demographic characteristics and media use variables, have found that exposure to local television (TV) newscasts is associated with a variety of problematic "real-world" beliefs. However, many of these studies have not adequately assessed causal direction. Redressing

Given the importance of public information environment in cancer control, it is theoretically and practically important to explore how people's media use to acquire health information influences their beliefs about cancer prevention. In the current research, we focus on the role of the Internet in shaping fatalistic beliefs about cancer prevention (cancer fatalism). To be more specific, we examine the effect of Internet use for health information on changes in cancer fatalism using a 2-wave nati

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health communication campaigns have been targeted at reducing viral transmission, specifically among populations most vulnerable to infection and death from the virus (e.g. older adults). However, other individuals who have not been defined as vulnerable populations may also suffer from a decrease in health because of the measures aimed at reducing viral transmission, such as social distancing. To illuminate this issue, we investigate the role of soci

This study combines insights from existing theories in mass communication and health communication, and builds an integrated model accounting for the mechanisms by which an individual's acquisition of mammogram-related media information becomes associated with intentions to obtain a mammogram. Our model was largely supported by a survey with a nationally representative sample of American females between the ages of 40 and 70 years. As expected, seeking and scanning mammogram-related information

To examine how communication scholars have incorporated the concept of social capital originating from other disciplines, we first analyzed citation patterns among social capital–related journal articles, book chapters, and books extracted from Communication Abstracts. Moreover, we investigated whether and how communication scholars have cited three pioneering scholars in this area, that is, Robert Putnam, Pierre Bourdieu, and James Coleman, to identify aspects of social capital that have either

Chul-joo Leea*, Robert Hornika & Michael Hennessyb a Annenberg School for Communication , University of Pennsylvania , b Annenberg Public Policy Center , University of Pennsylvania ,

Prior research found that Internet use for health information leads to more frequent physician visits. This study explores the conditions under which this effect works by examining whether trust in health information from health professionals plays a moderating role in the associations between Internet use and the frequency of physician visits. This study uses a two-wave panel dataset with a U.S. nationally representative sample gathered in 2005 and 2006. The results show that the effects of Int