The Importance of Indirect Effects in Media Effects Research: Testing for Mediation in Structural Equation Modeling

The Importance of Indirect Effects in Media Effects Research: Testing for Mediation in Structural Equation Modeling

This essay addresses the need for media effects researchers to decompose their structural equation models. We highlight the importance of studying specific indirect effects within a conditional effects framework and discuss how the lack of analysis of this type of effect in structural equation model...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of broadcasting & electronic media Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 556 - 572
Main Authors: Holbert, R. Lance, Stephenson, Michael T.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Philadelphia Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc 01-12-2003
Broadcast Education Association
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
Subjects:
Communication
Communications industry
Influence
Mass media
Media
Mediation
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This essay addresses the need for media effects researchers to decompose their structural equation models. We highlight the importance of studying specific indirect effects within a conditional effects framework and discuss how the lack of analysis of this type of effect in structural equation modeling does not fit well with the discipline's theoretical foundations. We summarize several classes of mediation formulas and make recommendations for the estimation and testing of mediating relationships. Finally, an argument is made that the study of mediation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for better understanding media influence.
ISSN:0883-8151
1550-6878
DOI:10.1207/s15506878jobem4704_5