Communication annotated Bibliography assignment

First source:
1. Complete bibliographic citation for the source in APA citation style.
May, A & Tenzek, K.E. (2011). Seeking Mrs. Right: Uncertainty reduction in online surrogacy ads.
Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 12 (1), 27-33

2. Summary of the research question or purpose of the article.

This research goes about that surrogate mothers use online advertisements to reduce the
uncertainty associated with the surrogacy journey. This research identifies five key desirability traits
used by surrogates in online advertisements. These are: idealism, logistics, moral boundaries,
willingness parameters and personal disclosure (May & Tenzek, 2011).

3. Summary of the method used.

In this research the researchers used a surrogate- friendly website for data collection. Surrogate
mothers online (SMO) has a classified section, hosting ads for interested parties. When women offer
their services as a surrogate to an unknown party, the resulting arrangement is known as commercial
surrogacy or contract pregnancy. The ads are used for the initial introduction to the surrogate and
offer a glimpse into the uncertainty associated with the surrogacy journey. The SMO posting
guidelines allow for advertisements to remain active for a 30-day period of time before it expires
(May & Tenzek, 2011).

4. Summary of the central findings or conclusions.

They aimed to identify perceived desirability traits and how they are communicated through online
ads. This research proposes a new area to be explored within the communication discipline. Very
little is known about the process of surrogacy and how mediated communication can aid in the
matching process. The results support the importance of assumptive messages that are created to
address similarities between IP’s and surrogate’s beliefs, values and behaviors. with the knowledge
and understanding of the themes and categories that are identified within the data, a starting point
has been established (May & Tenzek, 2011).

5. Summary of how the theory was used in the research & what you learned about the theory
as a result of reading the article.
102 advertisements posted by surrogates were analysed. The first thing was reading each ad under
the surrogate categories. The second step was open coding, they isolated general categories related
to the perceived desirability traits as defined by the advertising surrogate mother. To ensure the
intercoder reliability, the ads were read a second time by another coder and they compared notes
related to the main themes and categories. What I learnt about this theory in the article is that there
is not enough knowledge about the process of surrogacy and how mediated communication can aid
in the matching process (May & Tenzek, 2011).
Second source:
1. Complete bibliographic citation for the source in APA citation style.
Theiss, J. A., & Solomon, D (2008) Parsing the mechanisms that increase relational intimacy: The
effects of uncertainty amount, open communication about uncertainty, and the reduction of
uncertainty. Human Communication Research, 34(4), 625-634

2. Summary of the research question or purpose of the article.

This research examined the amount of uncertainty, openness of communication about uncertainty,
and the uncertainty reduction process as three competing mechanisms that account for increased
intimacy in romantic relationships (Theiss & Solomon, 2008).

3. Summary of the method used.

To test the hypotheses and the research question, the researchers conducted a longitudinal web
based survey that assessed participants level of relational uncertainty, degree of intimacy, and the
openness of communication about relational uncertainty. Students were given a small amount of
extra credit for their participation in a study in which they completed six weekly questionnaires
about a current romantic relationship (Theiss & Solomon, 2008).

4. Summary of the central findings or conclusions.

The goal of the research was to parse the effects of the amount of uncertainty, the openness of
communication about uncertainty and the magnitude of decreases in uncertainty to determine the
mechanism in the uncertainty reduction process that promotes intimacy. A decrease in relational
uncertainty is the only significant predictor of intimacy. These findings highlight the process of
uncertainty reduction as a force that has the potential to transform people’s perceptions of their
relationships. On another level, questions still remain about the specific uncertainty reduction
strategies that perceived as rewarding (Theiss & Solomon, 2008).

5. Summary of how the theory was used in the research & what you learned about the
theory as a result of reading the article
In this research was the amount of uncertainty and the openness of communication about
uncertainty as two possible mechanisms responsible for increased intimacy in a relationship. Some
scholars suggested that it is not low amounts of uncertainty in a relationship that contribute to more
intimacy, but rather it is the experience of reducing uncertainty that relationship partners perceive as
rewarding. When people have the goal to reduce uncertainty, they engage in various information
seeking strategies that take passive, active or interactive forms. Passive strategies involve indirect
and unobtrusive observation to gather information about another person. Active strategies entail
communicating with third parties or manipulating the environment to indirectly discern information
about a partner. Interaction approach involves communicating with a partner to obtain information.
(Theiss & Solomon, 2008).
 Third source:
1. Complete bibliographic citation for the source in APA citation style.
Wottrich, V. M., Verleg, P.W.J., & Smit, E. G. (2017) The role of customization, brand
trust, and privacy concern in advergaming. International Journal of Advertising, 36(1), 36-
81

2. Summary of the research question or purpose of the article.

This research investigates the effects of advergame, customization features and trust in the brand
advertised in the advergame on players’ brand attitude and personal information disclosure. So this
research examines to what extent players’ privacy concerns moderate those effects (Wottrich,
Verlegh & Smit, 2017).

3. Summary of the method used.

The population was 181 students between 18-31 years old. 76 % of the participants was female. 64 %
indicated never playing computer games. The experimental design was a 2 (customization: high vs
low) X 2 (brand trust: high vs low) between subjects’ factorial design. The participants were random
assigned to the following experimental conditions: high customization, low customization, high brand
and low brand (Wottrich, Verlegh & Smit, 2017).

4. Summary of the central findings or conclusions.

Consumer privacy concerns have negative main effects on brand attitude and personal information
disclosure. Privacy concerns leads to risk reducing behaviour and have detrimental effects on
persuasion outcomes. Players don’t adopt a more positive attitude toward the brand in the game
and they are not encouraged to share more personal information due to higher levels of
customization. The degree of consumer privacy concern affects the effectiveness of customization
features. Providing players with more autonomy in the game leads to positive effective outcomes.
And different levels of privacy concerns don’t affect players’ responses toward high trust brands, but
towards low trust brands. (Wottrich, Verlegh & Smit, 2017).

5. Summary of how the theory was used in the research & what you learned about the
theory as a result of reading the article
When strangers meet, individuals are primarily motivated to reduce uncertainty and to increase
predictability about the behavior of themselves and of the person they interact with. As the amount
of interaction between strangers’ increases, the level of uncertainty decreases. Moreover, as
uncertainty is further reduced, the amount of communication will increase. So when advergames
interact with players by asking them to share personal information with the brand the following will
occur: first, players will experience uncertainty, because they don’t know what is going to happen
with their date and they will feel the wish to reduce this uncertainty. Second, players will strive to
increase the predictability of the behavior of the people in charge of the brand doing the request
(Wottrich, Verlegh & Smit, 2017. What I have learned is that privacy concerns may provide a
boundary condition to the positive effects of advergames is the need to find possible ways to reduce
consumer privacy concerns, thereby enhancing advergame effectiveness (Wottrich, Verlegh & Smit,
2017).
Fourth source:

1. Complete bibliographic citation for the source in APA citation style.

(Gudykunst, W.B., & Nishida, T. (2003) Individual and cultural influences on uncertainty
reduction. Communication Monographs, 51(1), 14-23

2. Summary of the research question or purpose of the article.

This research is examined the influence of attitude similarity, cultural similarity and self-monitoring
on intent to self- disclosure, intent to display nonverbal affiliative expressiveness, attraction ad
attributional confidence (Gudykunst & Nishida, 2003).

3. Summary of the method used.

A three factor (culture x cultural similarity x attitude similarity was employed. 200 participants
participated (100 in USA & 100 in Japan). Each subject was assigned randomly to one of four
experimental conditions: cultural similarity - attitude similarity, cultural dissimilarity - attitude
similarity, cultural similarity – attitude dissimilarity and cultural dissimilarity – attitude dissimilarity.
Experimental conditions were constructed with the subject being introduced to a stranger of the
same sex by a friend at a social gathering. Cultural similarity was manipulated by asking the subjects
how they would behave when introduced to a stranger from the own culture or another. Cultural
dissimilarity involved interaction between a stranger from Japan for the US sample and a stranger
from the US for the Japanese sample. Attitude similarity was manipulated with the introduction by
the friend specifying the stranger’s attitudes were either very similar or very different from the
subject’s (Gudykunst & Nishida, 2003).

4. Summary of the central findings or conclusions.

Similarity and liking are positively related. The degree of cultural similarity between strangers
influenced the set of dependent variable in the multivariate test. Intent to interrogate, intent to self-
disclosure and nonverbal affiliative expressiveness revealed significant differences by cultural
similarity in the univariate analyses. There was a significant interaction effect between attitude and
cultural similarity for attraction. The mean attraction scores are approximately the same for three
conditions: attitude similarity – cultural similarity, attitude similarity – cultural dissimilarity and
attitude dissimilarity – cultural dissimilarity. The univariate analyses revealed significantly higher
means in the cultural dissimilarity condition than in the cultural similarity condition for intent to
interrogate, intent to self – disclosure and intent to display nonverbal affiliative expressiveness
(Gudykunst & Nishida, 2003).

5. Summary of how the theory was used in the research & what you learned about the theory
as a result of reading the article
This theory was used in this research by, when strangers meet, their primary concern is one of
uncertainty reduction or increasing predictability about the behaviour of both themselves and others
in the interaction. The research explicated the relationships among similarity, attraction, information
seeking, nonverbal affiliative expressiveness and uncertainty reduction. The researchers used three
strategies of this theory: passive, active and interactive. Similarity is one of the major variables in this
research. There is actually too little knowledge whether other types of similarity have differential
impacts upon uncertainty reduction in initial interactions. Uncertainty reduction theory is designed
to explain interpersonal communication in the United States, with the majority of research limited to
white, middle class, North American subjects. Drawing upon research on the similarity- attraction
hypothesis, attitude dissimilarity increases uncertainty because it enlarges the number of alternative
explanations for strangers’ behaviour, while attitude similarity reduces the need for large numbers of
alternative explanations for strangers’ behaviour (Gudykunst & Nishida, 2003). What I have
learned about the theory in this research is that similarities between persons reduce
uncertainty, while dissimilarities produce increases in uncertainty. And low self- monitoring
perceived formation situations as more informative and high self-monitoring saw informal
situations as more informational.

Fifth source:

1. Complete bibliographic citation for the source in APA citation style.

Vishwanath, A. (2007) Information search efficacy: A new measure and its initial tests.
Communication Research Reports, 24(3), 195-203

2. Summary of the research question or purpose of the article.

This research develops and tests a short, multi – item measure of information search
efficacy. The measure is developed over a series of scale- purification studies and tested
for its dimensionality, reliability and validly. The final five item, search efficacy measure is
unidimensional, internally consistent, and stable in different search contexts and across
different samples (Vishwanath, 2007).

3. Summary of the method used.

This research develops the information search efficacy measure over a series of three- scale
validation studies, each aimed as assessing and improving the overall reliability and validity of
the scale in the manner. Based on the definitions and prior efficacy scales fifteen candidate
items represented information search ability were generated. In addition to measuring
search efficacy, by using a 5 point Likert Scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree
(Vishwanath, 2007).

4. Summary of the central findings or conclusions.

This research is an initial attempt at creating a standardized measure of information
search efficacy, what is a predictor for information seeking behaviour. Research in
communication has been constrained by the shortage of high quality measures of
information seeking and its related constructs. This lack of standardization in
measurement coupled with a lack of predictive measures has made it difficult to
replicate and compare research results across studies and hampered the understanding
and development of information-seeking theory. This current research provides future
research the ability to better predict information seeking behaviour and aid in future
scale development (Vishwanath, 2007).

5. Summary of how the theory was used in the research & what you learned about the
theory as a result of reading the article
Because the current communication research is very limited in its measurement of
information seeking and related constructs, it was difficult to find in this article the use of
the uncertain reduction theory. The current measure provides future research the ability
to better predict information – seeking behaviour and aid in future scale development. It
might be possible that search efficacy mediates the process of uncertainty management,
with high levels of search efficacy contributing to strategic information seeking and
thereby better uncertainty management (Vishwanath, 2007).