Rights versus morality: online debate about decriminalization of gay sex in Singapore.

This article presents a quantitative content analysis of 10,473 comments from two opposing online petitions related to the legal status of a section of the penal code in Singapore used to ban sex between men. Results indicate numerous significant differences in how the two sides discussed the law and its significance. In particular, they used different types of arguments to support their views and expressed different kinds of concerns over the potential impact of changing or maintaining the law. The patterns of language use seem to reflect distinctly different approaches to the debate and suggest the difficulty of finding common ground amid this contentious social issue, but they also reveal similarities to how Western cultures have framed the debate.

Examining how presumed media influence affects social norms and adolescents' attitudes and drinking behavior intentions in rural Thailand.

This study uses the influence of presumed media influence model as the theoretical framework to examine how perceived social norms (i.e., descriptive, subjective, and injunctive norms) will mediate the influence of pro- and antidrinking media messages on adolescents' intention to consume alcohol in rural Thailand. Data collected from 1,028 high school students indicate that different mechanisms underlie drinking intentions between nondrinkers and those who have consumed alcohol or currently drink. Among nondrinkers, perceived peer attention to prodrinking messages indirectly influenced adolescents' prodrinking attitudes and intentions to consume alcohol through all three types of perceived social norms. Among drinkers, perceived peer attention to pro- and antidrinking messages indirectly influenced adolescents' prodrinking attitudes and intentions to drink alcohol through perceived subjective norm. The findings provide support for the extended influence of presumed media influence model and have practical implications for how antidrinking campaigns targeted at teenagers in Thailand might be designed.