Minorities and Communication 2011 Abstracts
African-American Students’ Perceptions of Public Relations Education and Practice: Implications for Minority Recruitment • Kenon A. Brown, The University of Alabama; Candace White, University of Tennessee; Damion Waymer, Virginia Tech University • In-depth interviews were conducted with African-American public relations students to explore their perceptions of public relations and the role race may play in their career success. The motivations for pursuing public relations and perceptions of the field are not different than those of other groups of students found in previous studies. However, the findings provide insights that are helpful in recruiting African-American students, and also in retaining them in the major. Central themes that emerged from the data are that it is important to have African-American role models, and that students’ view race as a fact of life that can be both a barrier and an asset.
What Y’all Laughin’ At? Humor Theory in Tyler Perry’s Sitcoms • Teddy Champion, University of Alabama • This paper examines a sample of content from Tyler Perry’s two television shows, House of Payne and Meet the Browns, in order to scrutinize specific joke types from a creative voice that has dominated film and television for the past five years. Analysis incorporates both cultural and psychological aspects of the characters and of the audience using two major theories of humor: misattribution and superiority. References to other sitcoms give a context for Perry’s comedy, noting comparisons to other black and non-black artists or characters, with the goal of defining how Perry’s agenda may affect audiences.
Expanding the Parameters of Research on the News Media & the Other: The Faisal Shahzad Case Study and ‘Homegrown’ Terrorism • Angie Chuang, American University School of Communication; Robin Chin Roemer, American University Library • Research on news media representations of the Other has generally addressed racial minorities, immigrants, and Muslims as often-disparate areas of study with some similarities but few overlaps. In particular, since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the question of Muslim Americans as an identity group has at times been viewed through the scholarly lens of race and, more often, through assessments of coverage patterns of terrorism. This case study focuses on the Pakistani American perpetrator of the 2010 attempted Times Square bombing. It contextualizes newspaper coverage of Faisal Shahzad with existing research on Orientalism and Other identity, as well as on media representations of black, immigrant, and Muslim Americans. The findings include that in constructing Shahzad as a new kind of “homegrown terrorist,” newspapers deviated from historical representational patterns of immigrant Americans observed in previous scholarship on the general topic. The papers gave near equal emphasis to Shahzad’s “normal American” characteristics as they did to his alien, foreign, Other ones.
Sources of health information for American Indians in the Midwest United States • Mugur Geana, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Kansas; Allen Greiner, Department of Family Medicine, University of Kansas; Angelia Cully; Myrietta Talawyma, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health KUMC; Christine Makosky Daley, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health KUMC • American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) have significantly higher rates of tuberculosis, alcoholism, diabetes, death by traffic accidents and suicide compared to the general population; American Indians show poor results on other health outcomes and are near the top of the list for unhealthy behaviors, such as obesity and smoking. Providing target audiences with accurate and culturally tailored health information has been shown to influence health attitudes and behaviors. The present study explores sources of health information for American Indians from the Midwest United States, their preferences for information presentation, and their use of health information during the medical encounter. We conclude that campaigns targeting Natives should be narrow focused and be community driven or employing community resources. American Indians use a diversity of media sources to obtain health information, with Internet being an underutilized, but highly regarded source. Partnership with the IHS providers and pharmacists may offer the “expert” advice needed to enforce attitude or behavioral change.
“To Plead Our Own Cause”: How Citizen Journalism Served as a Vehicle for Racial Equality in Austin, Texas, Post 1968 • Dean Graber, University of Texas – Austin • Sociologist Anthony M. Orum (1987) has described the history of Austin, Texas, as a series of struggles between capitalism and democracy, and a set of conflicting visions over the city’s growth. Early in the 20th century, a core group of Austin leaders envisioned a metropolis built on industry, wealth, and private property. However, other Austinites—many concentrated in the East Side, home to large Black and Mexican American neighborhoods—imagined a city in which greater numbers of people share the benefits of growth and take part in defining the city’s future. Orum identifies Austin’s daily newspapers as key promoters of the capitalist vision. In contrast, this paper presents the trajectories of three East Austin publications produced outside traditional settings in 1968–1982, the period when the civil rights movement turned to focus on matters of desegregation. I use a comparative-historical method described by sociologist Mounira M. Charrad as “examining how long-term trajectories combine with short-term developments at critical historical moments to lead to different political outcomes.” The publications are presented as emerging at crucial moments in Austin’s history and combining with long-term legacies of inequality and discrimination. The resulting media demonstrated a varied mix of ideologies, objectives, and practices toward achieving equal citizenship. I argue that the small-scale newspapers form a history of citizen journalism that pre-dated the Internet by several decades, and that journalism discussions that emphasize Internet-based media as catalysts for “citizen media” should
Covering Immigration: Journalists’ Perceptions of Geo-Ethnic Storytelling • Josh Grimm, Texas Tech University • In 2006, millions of immigrants protested in cities around the nation against H.R. 4437, a new bill in Congress that threatened to treat undocumented immigrants as felons. I interviewed editors and reporters at California newspapers about the debate surrounding this bill to determine the presence and/or prevalence of geo-ethnic storytelling, which posits that racial and geographic location of a particular community creates a unique network for telling and understanding stories. These results suggest that editors acknowledge the importance of race and community, but that these factors do not influence news coverage of immigration issues.
Story-Chatterers Stirring Up Hate: Racist Discourse in Reader Comments on U.S. Newspaper Websites • Summer Harlow, University of Texas – Austin • This content analysis of online comments explores how readers discuss race in online newspaper forums, and provides insight for editors struggling to meet the Kerner Commission’s objectives. Results show that reader comments included racial terms, even when the article did not. Further, reader comments that mentioned race tended to reiterate stereotypes. This study suggests newspapers eliminate anonymous comments and “color-blind” policies that ignore race, and make a concerted effort to publish more race-related articles.
Tarred With the Same Brush? African-American Journalists and Memories of Janet Cooke and Jayson Blair • Mary Hill-Wagner, member at large (University of Southern California) • This study examines how African-American reporters view the workplace narratives of Janet Cooke and Jayson Blair. This analysis, based on interviews, employs the theory of narrative inquiry from the field of communications. In the study, African-American reporters believe the scandals created by two black reporters, Blair and Cooke, had an adverse impact on the careers of other African-American journalists.
The Little Smith Act: Application of the Smith Act to the Pro-Independence Movement in Puerto Rico • Myrna Lebron, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • This historical analysis compares use of the Smith Act by the Puerto Rican authorities to its application by the American legal system. Ley 53 trials are also examined, including Pueblo v. Pedro Albizu Campos (1951), the case against the leader of the PRNP. Specifically, the study contributes to the literature of First Amendment rights in the understudied context of Puerto Rico’s struggle for independence during the first half of the twentieth century.
Latino Youth as Information Leaders: Implications for Family Interaction and Civic Engagement in Immigrant Communities Mike McDevitt, University of Colorado; Mary Butler, University of Colorado • This study contemplates implications of Latino adolescents acting as information leaders in immigrant families. We highlight the heuristic value of thinking about the family as a venue for information exchanges that engender civic inclinations. This framework is refined by insights obtained from a survey and focus groups conducted in northern Colorado. We find that assimilation is both embraced and resisted in family communication, as parents and children work out tensions between Latino and Anglo values.
To Protest a Cause but Dismantle a Company: Newspaper Framing of the Montgomery Bus Boycott • Felicia McGhee-Hilt, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • The Montgomery Bus Boycott is seen as a catalyst in the Civil Rights Movement. The success of this 381-day boycott forced the city to integrate the Montgomery bus system. The purpose of this study is to show how the bus company, The Montgomery City Bus Lines, was framed during the course of the boycott thus becoming the voice “caught in the middle.” The method used was a content analysis of 311 articles from the Montgomery Advertiser to determine how the bus company was framed in the local newspaper, along with an analysis of the bus boycott trial transcript. Findings indicate that the bus company suffered a severe loss of revenue, and as a result the company was forced to discontinue routes, lay off employees, and double the cost of fares. This study is important because it demonstrates how the company suffered a financial quandary by no fault of its own. The company could not change the segregation laws, but nevertheless, was the focus of a widespread boycott. Also, for contemporary scholarship, the results of this study could be applicable in regards to current boycotts of businesses. Lastly, this analysis provides a deeper understanding of the historic boycott and its reach into the business community.
Differences in Editorial Coverage of Jeremiah Wright in the Minority and Mainstream Presses • Mia Moody, Baylor University; Amanda Sturgill, Elon University • This article looks at how the black and mainstream press’s editorials framed the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal during the 2008 presidential primaries. Findings indicate the two presses differed significantly in most areas, except sources. Regarding media frames, the presses were particularly different on religious issues, with the black press significantly more likely to include a frame of Wright’s comments being appropriate within the church with the idea that his quotes were taken out of context. This fits within Blinder’s (2006) idea of the black press representing a ‘separate public sphere,’ wherein the religious issues might be discussed as a part of the process of educating audiences. It also suggests that while both newspaper types remained true to their missions, black press was more steadfast in its aim to provide the black perspective for its readers.
Online Social Networking and Socialization Among Hispanic College Students • David Park; Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin; Oleg Mironchikov; Maria Cedeno • This study examines relationships between socialization and online social network (SNS) use among Hispanics. Respondents were placed in “high” and “low” groups based on the number of online friends within their SNS networks. Our results indicate that among Hispanics, the larger the SNS network, the more likely the user is to report having fewer “real” friends, the more likely he or she will be younger, and the more likely he or she will prefer to communicate through mediated methods rather than in person. In this context, our study confirms and adds to previous studies by indicating heightened participation with online social networking appears to hamper face-to-face socialization among Hispanic SNS users.
Pushed to the Periphery: Incivility in Online Newspaper Readers’ Comments • Arthur Santana, University of Oregon • Reader comment forums in online newspapers have been called spaces of public deliberation, but the forums are also widely seen as sites of pervasive incivility. Analyzing reader comments from three border state newspapers, this paper aims to quantify and contextualize anecdotal evidence from reporters around the country that Latinos are regularly debased, stereotyped and cast as subhuman in the forums by anonymous commenters, especially following immigration stories.
“What Are You Talking About?” Differences in Twitter Uses and Gratification Between Black and White Twitter Users • Christopher Saunders, University of Missouri, School; Saleem Alhabash, University of Missouri; Cynthia Frisby, University of Missouri • A survey of Black and White Americans (N = 223) explored the differences in their motivations to use Twitter and patterns of using this site. Results showed that compared to Whites, Black users significantly spend more time on Twitter, reported having more followers, higher intensity of use, and higher likelihood of using Twitter to communicate with their offline friends. When it comes to motivations of using Twitter, both Black and White participants were equally motivated to use Twitter to express themselves. However, White participants rated the motivation to us the site for information sharing higher than Black participants, who in turn reported higher levels of motivation to use the site for social interaction and entertainment motivations. Results are discussed in light of the uses and gratifications theory and other sociological approaches to racial and ethnic differences in media use.
African American Cartoon Characters: An Analysis of The Proud Family • Adrienne Smith, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • The purpose of this research is to examine the portrayals of the African American cartoon characters in the Disney Channel series The Proud Family (2001) and demonstrate the implications of those portrayals concerning race and representation. A textual analysis was used to address the following research question: How do the African American cartoon characters in The Proud Family television series relate to Stuart Hall’s three tropes of blackness (the slave, the native, the clown/entertainer)?
Charting the future of journalism education at HBCUs: Finding a place for convergence in the curriculum • Kim Smith, North Carolina A&T State University • A survey of 240 journalism educators and their department chairs at 51 Historically Black Colleges and Universities was taken to learn how they were coping with possible changes in their journalism curriculum as a result of the growing popularity of convergence journalism. Ninety seven percent of respondents agreed that all students in a journalism program should be required to take convergence courses. But they disagreed over who should take the lead for making curriculum changes. Other obstacles included (a) lack of faculty training in convergence (multimedia) techniques, and (b) lack of financial resources to buy and maintain the equipment needed to teach convergence. The study also compared obstacles HBCUs face in adding convergence to the curriculum to studies that examined the stumbling blocks predominately white colleges and universities (PWCUs) have faced in adding convergence to their journalism curriculum.
Reporting Health to Minority Populations: A Content Analysis of Localized News Reporting • Ye Wang, University of Missouri; Shelly Rodgers, University of Missouri • The purpose of this study is to examine localized news reporting in minority newspapers and compare localized news reporting in minority newspapers and local general readership newspapers. Localized news reporting is based on the news value of proximity and targeted messages, which can potentially improve health communication through media channels targeting minority populations. To inform health journalists about the practice of localized news reporting in health reporting targeting minority populations, a content analysis was conducted to examine local news, local sources, localized information, and localized statistics in health news sampled from Hispanic, Black, and general readership newspapers in five areas in California. The results showed that local sources were most frequently used while localized statistics was least used in health reporting. Hispanic newspapers were most likely to use localized information in health news reporting, and Black newspapers were least likely to report local health news. The results suggest that Hispanic newspapers better serve the health informational needs of the local Hispanic communities. The discussion suggests that which tactics of localized news reporting will be used in health reporting depends upon a number of factors including newsroom resources.
Mass Media and Perceived and Objective Environmental Risk: Race and Place of Residence • Brendan Watson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Lynsy Smithson-Stanley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Daniel Riffe, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Emily Ogilvie, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Framed in an environmental justice context, this study using statewide telephone survey data (N=406) shows that nonwhite residents of North Carolina perceive greater environmental risk where they live than do whites, but the hypothesized additional effect of rural residence was generally not supported. Perceptions, however, may not reflect objective health risks. Race (being nonwhite), residence (urban), and watching local and national TV news predicted overall environmental risk perceptions, but county-level health measures did not.
Headline Hawai`i: Racial Aloha in Kama`aina News • Cory Weaver, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University • The front page of Hawai`i’s largest-circulated newspaper – The Honolulu Star-Bulletin – was reviewed for a three-month period: March 1, 2008 – June 1, 2008, to examine representations of race in a media market where Caucasian individuals are the minority. Analysis of the data collected determined that there is an extremely large gap between quality of coverage for different ethnic groupings, with Caucasian individuals shown much more positively than people of color.
Quality of minority health communication: An analysis of Hispanic-targeted health websites • Emma Wertz, Kennesaw State University; Sora Kim, University of Florida • The Internet has become one of the most used forms of health communication media. Using the Health on the Net code of conduct, this study examined the quality of health information available on the Internet for one of the United State’s fastest growing minorities, Hispanics. When comparing Hispanic-targeted websites with those that target the majority population, this study found significant differences with respect to quality. Specifically, sites targeting Hispanics had a lower level of quality than those that targeted the majority population.
Americans Misbehaving: Anti and prosocial behaviors on minority vs. mainstream television networks • Sherri Williams, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Cory Weaver, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Lynessa Williams, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University • Researchers conducted a content analysis of prosocial and antisocial behavior on three networks: CBS, the number one mainstream television network; Black Entertainment Television, geared toward African-Americans and LOGO targeted toward gays. Results show antisocial behavior occurred most prevalently on CBS. BET had the most prosocial acts coded. Niche networks that showcase marginalized communities exhibited more prosocial behavior, which goes against traditional stereotypical television portrayals of socially maligned groups.
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