About

Joe Bob Hester is an Associate Professor at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, where he teaches advertising. His research interests include advertising, interactive media, and media agenda setting. Before joining the UNC School of Media and Journalism in 2001, Hester taught at Texas Tech University, where he received several teaching awards, including the Ex-Students Association New Faculty Award. He is a co-author of a chapter in the textbook "Advertising & The Business of Brands" and has published research articles in journals such as Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Newspaper Research Journal, and Journalism and Mass Communication Educator.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Philosophy
• Social psychology
• Theology
• Gender studies
• History
• Media studies
• Religious studies
• Psychology
• Law

Selected publications

• Still Fighting the God-Vs.-Gays Battle: Twitter Reaction to Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg’s Identification as a Gay Member of the Christian Left

  UNC Libraries · 2025-04-03

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  A computational analysis of 2.6 million original tweets from March 2019 to March 2020 about presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, a self-identified gay man and member of the Christian left, showed more interest in his sexuality than his religion. Examination of the most shared tweets suggests that the Twitterverse did not explicitly portray Buttigieg’s dual identities as contradictory, a departure from the typical “God-vs.-gay” rhetoric associated with religion and sexuality. However, the most shared tweet in the data set, from evangelist Franklin Graham, negatively characterized both Buttigieg’s religious and sexual identities and questioned whether a gay man could be a true Christian.

  PublisherDOI

• Still Fighting the God-Vs.-Gays Battle: Twitter Reaction to Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg’s Identification as a Gay Member of the Christian Left

  Journal of Media and Religion · 2023 · 3 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  ABSTRACTA computational analysis of 2.6 million original tweets from March 2019 to March 2020 about presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, a self-identified gay man and member of the Christian left, showed more interest in his sexuality than his religion. Examination of the most shared tweets suggests that the Twitterverse did not explicitly portray Buttigieg's dual identities as contradictory, a departure from the typical "God-vs.-gay" rhetoric associated with religion and sexuality. However, the most shared tweet in the data set, from evangelist Franklin Graham, negatively characterized both Buttigieg's religious and sexual identities and questioned whether a gay man could be a true Christian. Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Tokens used to identify religion-focused tweets are 146 Stemmed Religious Tokens: almighti, almighty, amen, angel, angelic, angels, apostl, apostle, backslid, baptism, baptiz, baptize, believ, believer, bibl, bible, biblic, biblical, bless, cathedr, cathedral, christ, christian, church, churches, churchgo, clergi, clergy, command, commandment, communion, confess, confession, congreg, congregation, consecrat, coven, covenant, creator, creed, crusad, crusade, denomin, denomination, devot, devotion, devout, discipl, disciple, epistl, epistle, evil, faith, fellowship, fruit, fruits, genesi, genesis, god, gospel, grace, hallow, heaven, holi, holy, hymn, immort, immortal, jew, lamp, lord, martyr, miracl, miracle, mission, orthodox, parabl, parable, pastor, peacemak, peacemaker, penanc, penance, pieti, piety, piou, pious, pope, pray, priest, proph, prophe, proverb, psalm, pulpit, rabbi, reap, rebirth, reborn, redeem, redempt, redemption, religi, religio, religion, repent, restor, resurrect, reverend, sabbath, sacr, sacrament, sacred, saint, salvat, salvation, sanctifi, sanctify, sanctiti, sanctity, sanctuari, sanctuary, scriptur, sermon, servant, shrine, sin, sinned, sinner, sinners, sinning, sins, solemn, soul, sow, sowed, sown, sows, spirit, templ, temple, testament, theolog, triniti, trinity, worship.

  PublisherDOI

• Three Dimensions of Social Media Messaging Success by Environmental NGOs

  Environmental Communication · 2019-03-25 · 40 citations

  articleSenior author

  Studies show that NGOs persist in using social media to impart unidirectional messages rather than taking advantage of the participatory nature of networked media. Fear of a loss of message control may be at the heart of NGOs’ desire to keep social media messages on track. The current study examines the success of an environmental NGO in keeping its social media messages under control using quantitative content analysis of an NGO-promoted hashtag, #climatemarch, during a United Nations conference on climate change in 2015. Three dimensions of social media message success – volume, topic/valence, and participants – are proposed.

  PublisherDOI

• Public reactions to celebrity cancer disclosures via social media: Implications for campaign message design and strategy

  Health Education Journal · 2017-03-19 · 13 citations

  articleSenior author

  Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse social media users’ reactions to a celebrity’s cancer announcement in order to inform future cancer-related campaigns. Design: A content analysis of Facebook users’ written responses to the actor Hugh Jackman’s 2013 post announcing his skin cancer diagnosis. Setting: Facebook’s application programming interface (API) software was used to compile all 14,534 comments posted by Facebook users under Jackman’s Facebook post between 21 November 2013 and 6 January 2014. Method: The Facebook API captured number of post likes and gender of the poster, while two trained coders also analysed the posts for emotional reactions, emoticon use and mentions of cancer-related behaviours. Results: Hope was the most common text-based emotional expression, and happy emoticons were the most used visual emotional expression in user comments in response to Jackman’s diagnosis. Posts mentioning detection behaviours were more likely to receive likes than those that did not mention them. Additionally, female users were significantly more likely to mention detection behaviours related to skin cancer than were male users. Conclusion: Celebrity cancer announcements may serve as de facto cancer awareness campaigns as well as highlight how to effectively craft coordinating strategic campaigns launched after a celebrity cancer disclosure.

  PublisherDOI

• Twitter Diplomacy? A Content Analysis of Eight U.S. Embassies’ Twitter Feeds

  Social Media + Society · 2016-09-30 · 12 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  In recent years, the Twitter feeds of U.S. Embassies have sparked controversies, angering American political leaders as well as local leaders and citizens. This study explores how U.S. Embassies use Twitter, to try to assess whether Twitter use might be seen as furthering the mission of the U.S. Department of State or as a “barometer” of local tensions. By examining the tweet output from four embassies on the State Department official “watch list” and four not on the list, this study reveals inconsistencies among embassies in Twitter use and between Twitter content and the State Department mission, and suggests the possibility of viewing such Twitter activity as public diplomacy.

  Publisher

• The Agenda-Setting Function of National Versus Local Media: A Time-Series Analysis for the Issue of Same-Sex Marriage

  Mass Communication & Society · 2007-08-01 · 70 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This study compares the agenda-setting effects of national and local media on public salience in a market where an issue was both local and national with the effects in a market where it was primarily national. A new measure of public salience is also introduced. Results indicate that agenda-setting effects of local and national media are very different, with local media exerting a stronger agenda-setting influence when the issue is both local and national.

  PublisherDOI

• Consumer Responses to Gay-Themed Imagery in Advertising

  Advertising & Society Review · 2007-01-01 · 33 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Effects of Sources in Coverage of Same-Sex Marriage

  Newspaper Research Journal · 2007-03-01 · 8 citations

  articleSenior author

  This study tested whether perceived prestige of sources about a controversial issue could influence reader opinion. Reader opinions of same-sex marriage did not differ across three conditions.

  PublisherDOI

• The Relationship Between Tone of TV News Coverage and Public Opinion for a Controversial Issue

  Electronic News · 2007-05-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  More than 200 network news stories about the gays-in-the-military issue from 1992-1993 were examined for number and tone (in favor of gays in the military, against gays in the military, both, or neutral), and this coverage was compared with public opinion. Results indicate that news coverage was primarily in favor of gays in the military or neutral in tone. However, there was a significant relationship between news stories that were antigay in tone and public opinion about the issue, with negative tone significantly associated with a later decrease in overall support for allowing homosexuals to serve in the military. Additional effects were identified on the basis of race and political affiliation, although no such effects were found for gender. We suggest that today's news directors and reporters should consider these results when planning coverage of the same-sex marriage issue, which is likely to be prominent in the upcoming presidential election.

  PublisherDOI

• The Efficiency of Constructed Week Sampling for Content Analysis of Online News

  Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · 2007-12-01 · 196 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This article compares different sampling methods and sample sizes for content analyzing news on an online news aggregator. Consistent with previous research focusing on traditional media, constructed week sampling is more efficient than simple random sampling or consecutive day sampling. However, while a single constructed week allows reliable estimates of content in a population of six months of newspaper editions, at least two constructed weeks, and as many as five constructed weeks, are needed to accurately represent online news content gathered during the same period, depending on the type of variables being analyzed.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Rhonda Gibson

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  8 shared

• Stefan A. Jenzowsky

  6 shared

• Cynthia M. King

  4 shared

• Huiuk Yi

  4 shared

• Stephen D. Perry

  4 shared

• Jeanne Gartenschlaeger

  University of Alabama

  2 shared

• Roshni Susana Verghese

  Indiana University Bloomington

  1 shared

• Jessica Gall Myrick

  Pennsylvania State University

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Ex-Students Association New Faculty Award