Clarifying and Expanding the Use of Confirmatory Factor Analysis in Journalism and Mass Communication Research

Abstract

Journalism and mass communication research is underutilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) for the purposes of specifying, estimating, and evaluating measurement models. The analytical exercises undertaken for this essay reveal SEM-based confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to be a multifaceted tool that can aid researchers in generating greater understanding of the measurement elements of their research endeavors. Secondary analyses of 2014 World Values Survey (N = 9,901) data emphasize the following: testing competing models, model identification, proper evaluation of covaried error terms, absolute and incremental model fit statistics, the chi-square distributed test statistic, model equivalency, multiple-group models, and assessing equality constraints.