Civic Journalism 1999 Abstracts
Civic Journalism Interest Group
Civic Journalism And Community Policing: Potential For Partnership • Kathryn B. Campbell, Wisconsin-Madison • The reforms movements of civic journalism and community policing are intended to replace or substantially modify entrenched models of media practice and law enforcement. However, no academic research has been completed on the theoretical or empirical connections and interactions between community policing and civic journalism models. Civic journalism, despite its own liabilities, may provide a way for specific policing concerns about protecting individual rights and establishing community norms to be addressed.
Civic Journalism And Gender Diversity In News-Story Sourcing • Brian L. Massey Nanyang Technological University, Singapore • The proposition that civic journalism corrects for traditional journalism’s weaknesses was tested for the under-representation of women as sources in traditionally reported news. By comparison, women’s appearance in news stories as information sources increased under civic journalism, but only marginally and only in stories reported by female journalists. Men sources were still numerically dominant. The results of this case study raise questions about civic journalism’s long term success at reforming traditional newswork.
Constructing Meaning: The Role Of The Audience In News Writing • Jack Morris, Missouri • Writing theory and practice are shifting from a linear product paradigm that focuses on delivery of facts to an interactive process paradigm that focuses on construction of meaning. This shift is evident in composition, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, literary theory and psychology, and it is the root of the civic-traditional journalism debate. This paper traces the history of the construction of meaning movement and shows how it parallels the development of more interactive communication models.
Following Their First Steps: A Lesson In Launching Public Journalism • Rebecca A. Payne, Arizona • Public journalists experimenting with ways to improve daily coverage have a greater challenge than their contemporaries who focused on “project” reporting. This case study examines the public journalism efforts of one newspaper, The State, in Columbia, South Carolina, to reconnect with readers and improve coverage. Results emphasize the importance of choosing a topic and for including reporters in decision-making from the beginning. A poorly conceived project and one that has little support from newsroom staff may actually harm rather than heal connections with readers.
Media Coverage of Sports and Politics: An Examination of the Press’ Role in Campaigns for Professional Sports Stadium Construction • Robert Trumpbour, Pennsylvania State University • In recent years, a new “Super Bowl” has emerged for sports franchise owners, with the construction of a taxpayer subsidized stadium as the ultimate prize. This paper argues that civic journalism might offer a better coverage strategy than the traditional reporting methods when reporting on political attempts to publicly fund sports stadia. In many regards, the stakes of the stadium finance game are much more significant for the typical citizen and sports fan since the result has been franchise relocations and/or new taxes in order to subsidize stadium construction for professional sports franchises.
Visual Communication 1999 Abstracts
Visual Communication Division
Listening To The Subjects Of Routine News Photographs: A Grounded Moral Inquiry • Cindy Brown, Southern Mississippi • This study explores the relationship between photojournalists and subjects using a method of ethical inquiry known as grounded moral theory. Grounded moral theory consists of listening to people’s concerns, generating recommendations based on these concerns, and extrapolating to ethical theory. Interviews with subjects of news photographs revealed subjects’ were concerned about two types of understanding: (1) contextual understanding conveyed in their photograph/story, and (2) understanding photojournalists showed them.
Grounding the Teaching of Journalistic Design in Creativity Theory: 10 Steps to a More Creative Curriculum • Renita Coleman and Jan Colbert, Missouri • Creativity is an important ingredient in news design. Yet most Classes do little more than offer examples of others’ creative works; rarely do we teach students how to develop the cognitive skills they can use to tap into their own creativity. The purpose of this article is to propose a change in the way journalism design classes are taught, from using an anecdotal approach to creativity, to one that is grounded in theory developed through psychological research.
How Marc Riboud’s Photographic Report From Hanoi Argued The Vietnam War Was Unwinnable • Claude Cookman, Indiana University • While many combat photographs presented American involvement as morally wrong, Marc Riboud’s 1968 report on North Vietnam argued that the war could not be won by the U.S. and its South Vietnamese ally. His pictures show the saturation bombing failed at two primary objectives: to break the North’s will to resist and to interdict the flow of military sup-plies to the South. They also humanize the North Vietnamese people and their top leaders, who had been demonized by U.S. officials.
Typographic Design Considerations for the Elderly: An Analysis of AARP’s Bulletin • Catherine K. Craven and Birgit Wassmuth, Missouri • As baby boomers enter their elderly years, between 2010 and 2030, as many as one in five Americans will be 65 or older. That’s up to 80 million people. As people age, their vision changes. Designers and publishers must make changes now to keep up with the needs of this affluent audience. Hear the state of design guidelines for the aging. See if AARP pushes the “elder design” envelope in redesigning its Bulletin.
Cops Like Us: Camera Placement and Viewer Identification on Cops • Veronica Davison, Pennsylvania • Although reality-based crime programs are growing in popularity among communication scholars, a focus on camera movement has been virtually ignored. This study examines how camera perspective, camera angle, and shot structure create a sense of identification on the part of the viewer (as outlined in the theory of paraproxemics) and how each may or may not be altered depending on who is framed in the shot. While the analysis of camera angle and shot structure do not support the theory of paraproxemics, through the use of the involved-objective camera, camera perspective does appear to offer moderate support for Meyrowitz’s theory of paraproxemics.
Readability of Reverse Type in Computer Mediated Communication • Joel Geske, Iowa State University • This experimental design used 78 subjects to test readability of type on computer screens. Subjects read passages set in traditional high contrast black type on a white background; low contrast black type on a gray background; and reverse type (white type on a black background). Subjects were tested for speed of reading and recall of material. The study found significant differences and reversals of previous re-search based on print media.
Reading Between the Photographs: The Influence of Incidental Pictorial Information on Issue Perception • Rhonda Gibson, Texas Tech University and Dolf Zillmann, Alabama • An identical news report on an Appalachian tick disease was differently illustrated. It either contained no images, an image of ticks, or this tick image plus three child victims. The victims were ethnically balanced (two White, one Black) or not (either all White or all Black). The text did not make any reference to the victims’ ethnicity. Respondents assessed the risk of contracting the disease for children of different ethnicity.
The College Studio Critique: What Does it Mean to Students? • Deborah M. Gross, Florida • The primary investigator conducted three participant observations, one focus group and ten individual interviews. The study showed that students are not actually taught to critique-they are “thrown” into it and learn by experience. Results indicate students’ preferences for certain critique formats-what’s helpful and what’s not. Participants also discussed the role of peers and professors in the critique process, along with the effect of grades. Further implications of the college classroom critique are discussed.
Readers’ Perception of Digital Alteration and Truth-value in Documentary Photographs • Edgar Shaohua Huang, Indiana University • This is a baseline study on how readers of print news media accept digital imaging alterations and how much they trust digital documentary images. The purpose is to examine to what extent readers accept the postmodern ideas about truth and reality embedded in this new technology and to provide empirical basis for the making of guidelines and principles regarding the use of digitally altered photographs in documentary contexts. Survey and in-depth interviews were conducted to understand both patterns and rationales of readers’ attitudes.
The Visual Representation Of Individuals Of Different Genders, Ages And Ethnicity’s In The Photographs Of The Los Angeles Times • Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • The authors examine gender, age and ethnic stereotypes and portrayals in news photographs of the Los Angeles Times. The Times was chosen because of its status as one of the nation’s great newspapers and because it serves a diverse populace where Latinos are the majority, and the presence of African Americans and Latinos is very high. Although many stereotypes were still found to exist, changes were noticeable-some positive and some negative.
“Negro Stars” and the USIA’s Portrait of Democracy •- Melinda M. Schwenk, Pennsylvania • From 1952-1961, the U.S. Information Agency indirectly addressed the nation’s race problems with films about “Negro stars.” This paper analyzes how the USIA celebrated in films the lives of five famous African-Americans to provide evidence that American democracy fostered individual freedom.
A Comparative Study of Internet Page Legibility on WebTV and PC-TV Large-Screen Displays • Peter B. Seel, Colorado State University • This study compared the legibility of text in three Internet Web sites displayed on a large 32-inch television set using WebTV technology, with a similarly-sized, high-resolution PC-TV digital screen. The study found that the legibility of navigation and main body text on the WebTV system was superior to that of the PC-TV display at the longer distance, but the PC-TV display provided better overall text legibility at shorter distances. With the diffusion of television-based Internet access systems such as WebTV, these findings are important in assessing the relative legibility of Web site content in large-screen home viewing environments.
The Stereograph: The Rise And Decline Of Victorian Virtual Reality • James Staebler, Ohio University • This study examines the rise and decline in public popularity of the stereograph or more commonly known as the stereo view. This popular Victorian mode of entertainment was the precursor to the modern popularity of three dimensional games) pictures and posters seen in the mass media today. Many factors contributed to the decline of stereographs after the First World War. The popularity of new technology such as the automobile, motion pictures and radio helped erode this medium.
Claims And Visual Frames On The World Wide Web: An Approach To Framing Analysis Of Visual Content • Jean Trumbo, Wisconsin, Madison • A visual frame analysis model is developed and applied to a site on the World Wide Web with the assumption that site structure and visual elements encourage particular kinds of audience response and that elements are organized in a manner that asserts or advocates certain themes. Theories of framing as applied in communication and in visual design are synthesized. Framing devices developed in the model include five categories: syntactic, semantic, grammatical, thematic, and rhetorical structures.
Cuddly Bear and Vicious Ape: Soviets and Germans in editorial cartoons, 1933-1946 • Samuel P. Winch, Nanyang Technological University • During the 14-year period 1933 to 1946, relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union fluctuated wildly-from ally to enemy to ally to enemy. This study is an examination of the portrayal of Soviets in editorial cartoons printed in three American newspapers during this period. Although pubic opinion polls in the late 1930s and early 1940s showed that Americans disliked Soviets even more than Germans, editorial cartoons of the Soviets were often favorable during the period.
Visual Rhetoric: A Semiotic Evaluation of the Misrepresentation of a Subculture within the Myth of Lesbian Chic in Mainstream Advertising • Susan Zavoina, Tom Reichert, North Texas • Visual imagery dominates advertising messages. A visual rhetoric is established as the viewer’s perception of the advertising message is defined. Homoerotic images of women are appearing in mainstream consumer advertising giving credence to a phenomenon of “lesbian chic.” Through a semiotic analysis this paper suggests that the meanings embedded in these advertising images have little to do with “lesbianism” per se and are more closely aligned with mainstream heterosexual pornography of women engaged in “lesbian” sex.
Scholastic Journalism 1999 Abstracts
Scholastic Journalism Division
High School Student Newspapers in U.S. Youth Culture: From Gossip to Politics to Social Issues; From Vocational Education to PR Tool, to Forum for Expression and Back Again • Dane S. Claussen, Georgia • Scholastic journalism studies are almost entirely limited to students’ First Amendment rights; principals’ and teachers’ knowledge of, or attitudes toward, scholastic journalism (including why they think students should work on publications); publication content and design analyses; trends in female and minority staffers; publications’ finances; and newspapers’ use in teaching English or for school PR. Drawing on extensive existing literature, this is first known work focusing on why students have worked for and/or read student newspapers.
Students’ Use Of E-Mail In An Undergraduate Public Relations Course • Tom Kelleher and Julie E. Dodd, Florida • The study examined the use of e-mail between the students in an introductory public relations class and their instructor. E-mail use was parallel to the use of face-to-face communication, with students reporting that they used office time and e-mail primarily to ask questions about quizzes, tests and assignments. Older students and students further along in school were less likely to use e-mail to contact their parents but reported greater enjoyment of and learning from e-mail contact with the instructor.
Analysis of High School Newspaper Editorials: Before and After Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier • Carol S. Lomicky, Nebraska at Kearney • In the fall of 1997 the principal of a Midwestern public high school informed the student newspaper adviser that an article about a new and controversial class scheduling plan would have to be cut or changed before it could be published. In fact, journalism educators at this school report that for the past 10 years administrators routinely preview that student newspaper before the publication is taken to the local printer.
Radio-TV Journalism 1999 Abstracts
Radio-TV Journalism Division
Media Reliance And Political Knowledge: Have Researchers Underestimated The Effects Of Radio And Television News Because Of An Operationalization Artifact? • Raymond Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines how media exposure affects political knowledge. Unlike most studies, a person can be reliant on more than one medium. Respondents with multiple media reliances scored a mean of 3.3 on a knowledge scale, compared with 2.91 for respondents with single/no reliances (t = -2.32, df =382, p <.05). Total media time accounted for 1.6 percent of the variance in political knowledge.
Student And Professional Attitudes Regarding Advertising Influence On Broadcast News Content: A Comparative Study • Hubert Brown, Syracuse University • Students studying Broadcast Journalism or Advertising and professionals working in those fields were surveyed on their attitudes regarding advertising influence on broadcast news content. This study compares the attitudes of the students and practitioners in the respective professions. while students and professionals agreed on a majority of opinion statements, the areas where there was significant disagreement hold important implications for preparing students in both disciplines for the realities of the marketplace.
Winner By A Sound Byte: Fairness and balance in the 1998 Michigan Governor’s Race • Sue Carter, Michigan State University • Much of what voters learn about candidates for state office comes to them from local television news programs. Just how frequent and, more importantly, how fair and balanced coverage of these candidates is presents a fertile area for research. In this study, “Winner by a Sound Bite. Fairness and Balance in the 1998 Michigan Governor’s Race,” the researchers discovered that local television stations may claim fairness and balance in their overall coverage from Labor Day to the election, but that individual stories can be substantially out-of whack when it comes to structural and partisan balance.
The State, Market and TV Regulation in China: A Managerial Perspective of Decentralization and Depolicitization • Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota-Twin Cities • Within the managerial perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between the state and the market in TV regulation against the backdrop of the fast changing Chinese social structure and processes over the past two decades. Through a careful analysis of documentaries, the study looks at how the evolution of official conception of television in China has affected TV in the areas of entertainment, new technology, roles and functions, geographical boundary, and professionalism.
Sesame Street And Children Learning English In Hungary: Measuring Appeal • Rita Csapo-Sweet, Missouri • This paper reports on the appeal of ‘Sesame Street’ for 9 to 15 year old Hungarian students studying English as a Second Language (ESL), measured by three different methods. The students (N = 129) were tested with a twenty-question survey rating “high” to “low” appeal. Results from the measurements of attention parameters, agree with those from written comments by the children. The opinions of the children in their individually written comments to open-ended questions and observed responses to the program agreed with results from the twenty-question survey and also the attention measurements.
Public Broadcasting in Transition: News, Elections and the New Market Place • Claes de Vreese, Amsterdam • As public broadcasters in most European countries are challenged to operate in increasingly competitive environments, a shift in policy and approach towards elections can be observed. Based on newsroom observations, interviews, and content analytic indicators, the 1998-99 municipal, provincial, national, and European election campaign coverage of Dutch public broadcaster, NOS News, was investigated. Newsroom observations and interviews with reporters and news executives revealed an increasingly pro-active and selective editorial approach to elections.
Has The Salary Gap Closed? A Survey Of Men And Women Managers At U.S. Television Stations • Jennifer Greer, Nevada-Reno • A survey of 169 general managers, general sales managers, news directors, and program managers at the nation’s television stations found that while more women have reached the industry’s top ranks, they still report lower salaries, number of benefits, and feelings of authority than male managers. However, when personal (gender, education, and age) and job characteristics (including market size and job title) were entered into a regression analysis, gender was a significant predictor only for salary.
GI Jane Trapped In Stereotype: How Television Magazine Shows Bolster Gender Bias While Purporting To Fight It In Their Coverage Of Military Women • Christopher Hanson, North Carolina • This paper analyses TV magazine news shows that took up the cause of women who accused Sgt. Major Gene McKinney of sexual harassment, of Lt. Kelly Flinn, who faced prison on adultery charges, and of Navy fighter pilot Lt. Carey Lohrenz, who was grounded for alleged poor flying. Reports on 60 Minutes and Dateline argued sexism led to their unfair treatment. Yet these reports advanced other stereotypes woman as victim, woman as emotionally fragile-that inadvertently suggested these women did not belong in a tough environment.
Media Use, Knowledge of and Support for Megan’s Law • Michelle Johnson, Marist College • Media critics complain the news media provides an inaccurate picture of crime and punishment in the United States, while a number of media scholars suggest exposure to crime news, particularly on television, fosters punitive attitudes in news consumers. We explored these propositions in regard to Megan’s Law, one of the most heavily publicized criminal justice initiatives of the 1990s. We found media use to be unrelated to individuals’ usually poor knowledge of the law.
The Effects of Competition on Television Coverage of City Hall • Stephen Lacy, Charles St. Cyr Michigan State University and David Coulson, Nevada-Reno • A national sample of 303 television reporters found no correlation between the number of news organizations covering city hall and journalists’ perceptions of how competition affected their coverage. However, 40 percent or more of the journalists said television competition increased the number of city hall stories produced, made it more difficult to do in-depth city hall stories, and increased the coverage of stories that might have been missed otherwise. Newspaper competition was perceived as putting greater pressure on TV journalists to produce more stories and to cover news they otherwise might have overlooked.
A Comparative Study of Local and National Television News Coverage of a Natural Disaster • Aaron Quanbeck and Marwan Kraidy, North Dakota • The spring of 1997 is one that the community of Grand Forks, North Dakota will never forget. Exceeding all modern day records, the Red River of the North rose to over 54 feet, flooding nearly the entire community of Grand Forks, causing one of the largest evacuations in United States history as 50,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes. In the midst of the flood, a fire broke out in downtown Grand Forks, destroying nearly a dozen buildings before it was put out.
A Quarter Century of Television Network News: Fewer, Longer (?) and Softer News items • Daniel Riffe and Lori Spiczka Holm, Ohio University • This paper reports the results of a study of 27 years (1971-1997) of television network news. The nightly news programs of the so-called “Big Three” networks-ABC, CBS and NBC-have weathered changes over the years affecting their audiences and news packages. Consider, for example:-audience share. A 1998 Pew Center report warned: “As the public’s appetite for national and international news wanes, viewership of nightly network news continues its decline.”
Prime Time News: Effects Associated With The Rise Of The Television News Magazine Format • Jennie Rupertus, Texas-Austin• In the past few years, the television news magazine format has become increasingly pervasive in prime time programming. There been an increase in both the number of news magazine programs and how frequently those programs are aired. This paper examines the effects of such increases on news and its role in society, its content, and its audience. This essay also addresses the consequences of blurring the distinctions between news and entertainment.
Television Network Affiliation Changes in a Major Market and the Effect on News Viewing • Samuel Sauls, North Texas • In most studies of the reasons why viewers tune in to any given television program, the effects of program loyalty, channel loyalty, and network loyalty may be somewhat difficult to separate. Network affiliation changes will offer a naturally occurring opportunity to observe these effects. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine which of these concepts would determine news viewing in a major market after experiencing a network affiliation change.
The 1996 Presidential Nomination Contests: Network News Coverage • Karon Speckman, Truman State University • This study examined whether television network newscasts during the nomination period of 1996 focused on strategy and horse-race schemata rather than explanations of how nomination contests differed from state to state. Specifically, lead-ins, introductions, segments, kickers, video sequences, and graphics were studied. Results showed that strategy messages were more frequent than explanatory information on contest differences both in words and pictures. The opportunity to use full-screen graphics was not utilized for learning.
Editorial Rights Of Public Broadcasting Stations Vs. Access For Minor Political Candidates To TV Debates • Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State University • The U.S. Supreme Court in 1998 addressed whether a state-owned public television station, in conducting a debate among political candidates, creates a limited public forum open to all candidates. In the context of the Supreme Court’s decision, this paper examines the constitutional and statutory framework on the access for political candidates to television debates, the judicial interpretations of the political candidates’ claim for access to public television debates prior to 1998, and the U.S.
Qualitative Studies 1999 Abstracts
Qualitative Studies Division
The American Girl Dolls: Constructing American Girlhood Through Representation And Identity • Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Georgia • The American Girl dolls, books, and related products created manufactured, and marketed by Pleasant Company of Middleton, Wisconsin-is an enormously successful line of girls’ paraphernalia that, until recently, was sold only by mail-order catalog. Dolls, books and catalogs-seemingly innocent artifacts and texts-can be deeply ideological. They have the power to reinforce a common sense of sorts that, in reality, could be yet another dose of a dominant ideology that devalues and debases women.
Source Diversity After the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Media Oligarchs begin to Colonize Cyberspace • Jeffrey Layne Blevins,Ohio • Through integration of different types of media, corporate conglomerations can produce a preponderance of the information and entertainment that circulates through the media. While the Internet is often seen as being able to counteract this locus of control, this study shows that Cyberspace is the next destination for corporate colonies. By tracking corporate expansion into Cyberspace it seems that the Internet will mainly function as yet another outlet for mainstream media.
Reflecting the American Dream: Walker Evans on 1930’s Advertising • Bonnie Brennen, Virginia Commonwealth University • This paper focuses on the depression-era advertising images created by the quintessential American photographer Walker Evans. Walker’s photographs of printed and hand-made signs, billboards, and posters suggest the ironic presence of advertising in twentieth century industrial society, offering a critique of contemporary society, and illustrating a “structure of feeling” relating to the development of advertising in the United States.
Evaluating the New Marketplace of Ideas: An Examination of Cyberspace, the CDA & the Postmodern Condition • Justin Brown, Pennsylvania State University • The reasoning behind overturning the Communications Decency Act (CDA) recasts marketplace of ideas theory with an euphoric rhetoric of endless possibilities. While a new free trade of ideas may be upon us, the CDA also illustrates the difficulties applying current law to the Internet, a medium which creates its own virtual borders and standards. Despite the potential liberating features of cyberspace, questions remain as to how it will contribute and shape the public sphere.
The Bookstore Reading Group: Members, Support, and Benefits • Kelli Burns, Florida • In an era characterized by the use of television and computer technology, an unlikely cultural phenomenon is occurring. This phenomenon is the reading group, also called a book club or book group, and it has been gaining momentum among today’s readers. A case study of a women’s book club was used to understand how book clubs serve the needs of members and how bookstores support these needs for self-serving reasons.
Ethics and Politics in Qualitative Research • Clifford Christians, Illinois • In John Stuart Mill’s philosophy of social science, methods are amoral. Conceptions of the good life are outside the experimental domain. In Max Weber, the distinction between political judgments and scientific neutrality gains canonical status. The rational validation of utilitarian ethics is compatible with value free inquiry, and aids in generating the social science apparatus of university procedures, IRBs and codes of ethics. The epistemological crisis in this instrumental model can be resolved by feminist communitarian ethics of interpretive sufficiency.
Disabling or Enabling? Reading Bodies, Technologies, and the Borg of Star Trek • Mia Consalvo, Iowa • This paper examines one popular representation of cyborgs-the Borg of Star Trek-using cybertheory and disability theory to better understand current cultural beliefs about bodies and technologies. The paper argues that the Borg challenge many dualisms we have constructed. The Borg both challenge and reinforce the notion of a mind/body split. The Borg reflect many of our own myths about our bodies-that we can easily control them, and rework them to suit ourselves.
Ally McBeal vs. Hollywood’s Male Gaze-Round One • Brenda Cooper, Utah State • Through an explication of the female gazes underlying the narrative structure of the new Fox primetime hit, Ally McBeal, this study offers explanations for the wide appeal of the television series among women. Significantly, the program’s female gazes appropriate the dominant male gazes of mainstream Hollywood by using mockery as a narrative device to illustrate the sexism inherent in the male gaze and its hegemonic patriarchal constructions of female and male sexuality.
Red-baiting, Regulation and the Broadcast Industry: A Revisionist History of the “Blue Book” • Chad Dell, Monmouth University • The FCC’s only attempt to define the “public interest” responsibilities of broadcasters came in the 1940s policy known as the “Blue Book.” This paper refutes historian’s claims that the Blue Book was informally adopted by the industry. In fact, the broadcast industry launched an incendiary campaign to defeat the policy initiative, including a Communist witch hunt targeting its authors. This legacy remains visible in the practices of the broadcast industry that purports to serve us.
American Journalism Vs. The Poor, A Research Review And Analysis • Paula Reynolds, Washington • Critics argue American journalism misrepresents the poor as behaviorally-flawed people and fails to draw a connection between poverty and the political economic system. This has implications for public perception, behavior and policy toward the poor. A review and analysis of the available research shows that the misrepresentation has held true historically and contemporarily, though contradictions are also evident Much is missing from the available research, including appropriate connections to other areas of mass communication scholarship.
Packaging Culture: A Textual Analysis of Travel Journalism Or Television • Elfriede Fursich, Boston College • This paper presents a textual analysis of the Discovery-owned cable outlet Travel Channel and its programs Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, Travelers. I focus on the depictions of travel and tourism between modernity and postmodernity, on strategies of representing Others and on the impact of these shows as global media texts. I especially examine the limited potential of global commercial television to address the problematic issues of cross-cultural contact and mass tourism.
Spatial Concepts of TV as Place: Toward a Critical Phenomenology of Mediated Human Geography • Kim Golombisky, South Florida • Television viewing literature reveals six conceptualizations of TV as place: home theater, family hearth, imagined community, armchair tourism, fantasyland, and social worlds. The author observes space and place are largely missing from communication study, suggests communication technologies like television do alter the ways people organize and experience place and space, and recommends a critical phenomenology of media geographies to locate and displace our communication-dependent and evolving spatial concepts.
Textually Mapping Newspaper Discourse: A Report From The Field • Joseph Harry, Slippery Rock University and James H. Wittebols, Niagara University • A ‘textual mapping’ of two newspaper articles produced by competing newspapers, regarding a high-profile environmental conflict, was conducted to track a variety of comparative linguistic structures. These include rhetorical strategies, argumentative claims, ideological content and narrative schemas. The mapping process, based in critical discourse analysis, involves linking key words and synonyms in a way that reveals content decisions and the discursive, rhetorical logic of the newspaper as text.
Spooks, Spies, and Control Technologies in The X-Files • Kevin Howley, Northeastern University • At times the unprecedented success of and rabid fan loyalty for The X-Files borders on the paranormal. Not surprisingly, then, explanations of the program’s significance are as plentiful as The X-Files’ (in)famous conspiracy theories. Drawing on the work of James Beniger (1986), the author argues that The X-Files expresses fundamental concerns over social, political, and psychological control and articulates deep-seated cultural anxieties toward various forms of control technologies.
Inverted Pyramids Versus Hypertexts: A Qualitative Study of Readers’ Responses to Competing Narrative Forms • Robert Huesca, Brenda Dervin, John Burwell, Denise Drake, Ron Nirenburg, Robin Smith and Nicholas Yeager, Trinity University • The advent of new communication technologies has generated a robust and provocative research literature examining the implications of hypertext on the conventions of reporting and writing. This paper explores the viability of the hypertext form for journalism by asking readers to compare a conventional, online news article with a redesigned, hypertext version of it. The findings reinforce some traditional values and routines of the press, while suggesting reinvention and expansion of the roles, functions, and practices of journalists.
The Forgotten Americans: Issues Of Exclusion In Historic Newspaper Obituaries • Janice Hume, Kansas State University • Aristotle wrote of the constancy of virtues, that they do not follow changes of fortune, but should be accessories of man’s life as a whole. “Among these (virtuous) activities… it is the most honorable which are the most permanent,” he argued. “For that is apparently the reason why such activities are not likely to be forgotten.” A society, then, should tend to remember only the lasting virtues of its individual citizens, and their most honorable activities.
Constructing Childhood in a Corporate World A Cultural Pedagogy-Analysis of the Disney Web Site • Sumani Kasturi, Pennsylvania State University • This paper will present a textual analysis of the Disney web site. The analysis is grounded in a theoretical context provided by cultural pedagogy. Cultural pedagogy refers to the idea that education takes place in a variety of social sites including, but not limited to schooling. By providing a critical analysis of Disney’s latest media ‘text’, this paper extends existing critical scholarship on Disney. Further, it makes the argument that both the content and form of this media text convey specific pedagogical messages: especially pedagogies of representation and consumption.
Framing U.S. Cigarette Exports to Asia: How U.S. Daily Newspapers Covered Cigarette Deal • Kwangmi Ko Kim, Towson University • This study focuses on the U.S. media coverage of U.S. cigarette exports to Taiwan and Korea, and examines whether there was congruence between U.S. foreign policy objectives and the direction of the news coverage. This study revealed that most U.S. daily newspapers followed a U.S. “official” line in reporting the issue of exporting cigarettes to Asia. The issue of exporting U.S. cigarettes to Asia was packaged into a trade issue, not a health issue, by the U.S. press as well as by U.S. policy makers.
News, Myth and Social Order: The Myth of the Flood in The New York Times • Jack Lule, Lehigh University • Tales of great floods have been told in many societies. The purpose of this paper is to study news coverage of the 1998 Central American floods through the framework of myth. The paper first briefly discusses myth and archetypal stories. After touching upon the lone literature on news and myth, the paper takes up the archetypal story of the flood. It explores the ways that myth may provide insights into New York Times coverage of the Central American disaster.
Theorizing NPR: Public Broadcasting And The Public Sphere • Mike McCauley, Maine • The mission statements of America’s public broadcasting organizations lead one to believe that they are vehicles for truly democratic broadcasting. But this industry operates within a wider commercial ethos; hence, it often “behaves” in ways that seem contrary to stated missions. Using NPR as a case study, this paper situates public broadcasting within a three-tiered conception of media performance in the public interest. specifically, it shows public broadcasting’s theoretical affinity with Habermas’s public sphere.
Identity and Consumerism on Television in India • Divya C. McMillin, Washington-Tacoma • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
One Man’s Journey: Samuel Day, Jr., As A Test of Shoemaker’s Hierarchy of Influences • James McPherson, Peace College • This paper compares the journalism of Samuel Day, Jr., to Pamela Shoemaker’s Hierarchy of Influences to see if the hierarchy can explain the progressively more liberal work of Day or the content of the publications where he worked. The theory, while inadequate to explain the actions of individual content providers or publications, may be useful in determining whether publications will be successful perhaps an issue for those concerned with a marketplace of ideas.
Mediatized Politics: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the New York Times’ Editorials on the Clinton-Lewinsky Affair • Min Young, Texas-Austin • Analyzing the media discourse of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, the present study illuminates the ideological topography of American society and the ongoing struggles among different ideologies. The semantic, syntactic and pragmatic analysis of the New York Times’ editorials, published in a critical discourse moment, uncovered the sharp contradiction between the diagnostic discourse committed to monogamous moralism and legalism, and the prognostic discourse committed to political pragmatism.
The Virtual “Good Neighborhood”-Tracking The Role Of Communication In Residential Segregation • Eleanor Novek, Monmouth University • Decades after the passage of federal fair housing laws, racial segregation persists today in the U.S., with profound socioeconomic and political consequences for the nation. Communication behaviors, from the restrictive covenants of the past to subtler interpersonal and mediated practices like steering and target marketing, are central to this inequity. This paper explains the theoretical and historical relationship between communication and residential segregation and offers a research agenda for exploring and challenging this pervasive injustice.
Feminist Media Ethnography in the Third World: Exploring Power, Gender, and Culture in Fieldwork • Radhika E. Parameswaran, Indiana • Although feminist media scholars have produced several ethnographies of women’s consumption of popular culture, few have engaged in self-reflexivity about their fieldwork experiences. This paper which is anchored within interdisciplinary postmodern and feminist scholarship on ethnography is a self-reflexive account of one Third World feminist media ethnographer’s research among young middle-class women in urban India who read Western romance fiction. Urging feminist media scholars to pay attention to the politics of representation of audiences, the paper explores power imbalances in the field that arise due to social constructions of gender, ethnic, class, and sexual identities.
Explore Your World: The Strange and Familiar Worlds of Discovery Channel’s Nature Programming • David Pierson, Pennsylvania State University • This paper asserts that the Discovery Channel’s nature programs are structured by dialectical discourses of familiarity and strangeness. On the one hand, these programs invite viewers to evaluate animals through the human template of character and to impose the model of human social organization onto the natural world. On the other hand, because most animals are generally removed from the daily lives of most people, they can be appreciated as exotic, aesthetic object-subjects.
Lionizing Coke’s King: Media, Myth, Capitalism, And The Death Of Roberto Goizueta • Patricia Priest, Georgia • Coca-Cola’s press releases about CEO Roberto Goizeuta’s death are compared to the photographs and text of news articles and obituaries to tease out evidence of reporting that mythologizes not only Goizueta but more significantly what Weber (1958) calls “the spirit of capitalism,” an ethos in which connotations of morality are embedded in business success. We contend the reverential treatment serves to ennoble the increasingly monopolistic financial successes of owners in control of media empires.
A Communication-Based Perspective of the Construction of Social Reality of Women in Non-Tradition Occupations • Michele Rosen, Monmouth University • During the last decade, women have entered traditionally male dominated professions in unprecedented numbers Indeed, today few occupations are off-limits to women capable of undergoing the training and performing the functions of carpenters, electricians, plumbers and other formerly “male-only” trades. Within the professions, more women are choosing careers in engineering, the sciences, and business than in the previous quarter century. This research asks several questions: First, how do the dynamics of work-related communication strategies affect women’s constructs of reality?
Political Economy and Cultural Production: A Discussion of Neo-Colonialist Practices in the Motion Picture Industry, Korea and the U.S. • Elli Lester Roushanzamir, Georgia • Popular film is an influential cultural genre. It has been identified as an industry in which indigenous cultures and national industries have made their mark in breaking from the dominance of the Hollywood U.S. industry. However, this paper, citing as an example the relationships between Korea and the U.S. in this decade (1990s) particularly in the motion picture industry, suggests that colonial-imperialist discourses are rampant between the U.S. and other (particularly “Third World”) countries and that the global motion picture industry provides an exemplar of advanced imperialist practice.
The Zapatistas Online: Shifting the Discourse of a Nation • Adrienne Russell, Indiana University • This paper examines the complex and contradictory dynamic of localization and globalization, revealing technological aspects of the Internet that contribute to a broadening of the discourse regarding the Mexican government as well as dominant conceptions of the Mexican nation. These technological dimensions include the reconfiguration of notions of proximity on the Internet, a condition that influences the scope and nature of user alliances. In addition, the Internet’s lack of an organizational center promotes the dissemination of material that challenges mainstream and “official” accounts, as well as mobilizing information that promotes meetings, rallies and various other types of organized action.
News of Cuba • William Solomon, Rutgers University • This research studies whether business and humanitarian groups’ efforts toward ending the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba have influenced the news media’s coverage of Cuba. It uses a “news frame” model which studies metaphors and euphemisms, combined with selection, emphasis and omission. It examines The New York Times’s coverage of the 1994 exodus of the balseros, or boat people, and the Pope’s 1998 visit. It finds a modest shift in the news frame.
Critical Theories and Cultural Studies in Mass Communication • Les Switzer, John McNamara, Michael Ryan, Houston • This paper examines the role of critical theories and cultural studies in journalism and mass communication by (1) synthesizing two paradigms in contemporary cultural analysis that seek to explain the meaning of phenomena that make a culture, (2) explores some of the issues that are critical for teaching and research in mass communication, and (3) explores ways in which critical literature can be integrated into the teaching and research mission.
Struggle and Consent: African American press coverage of Gone with the Wind • James Tracy, Iowa • This essay uses a theory of hegemony to document change within African American press reception of the film Gone with the Wind. Analysis of five newspapers coverage show that negative reactions by journalists and readers resulted from segregation: blacks could not attend the initial screening in Atlanta. Eventual positive reader response evidenced in the black press complicates the black/white binary opposition approach to media and literary texts. Recognition of Hattie McDaniel’s performance confirmed progress of African Americans, leading to further Optimism.
Understanding the Conditions for Public Discourse: A Critique of Criteria for Letters-to-the-Editor • Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Stanford University • Using Habermas’ work on discourse ethics, this paper argues that the letters-to-the-editor newspaper section is rhetorically advanced as a forum for public debate, but fails to provide the conditions for such a forum. Its failure stems from the “‘rules” that guide the selection of letters: Simply put, letters should be brief, relevant, entertaining, and well-written. The paper discusses the nuances and implications of these rules, and the ways in which they subtly work against the democratic debate that Habermas envisions.
“More Barney Than Buddhist”: How the Media Framed the Story of the Little Lama • Melissa A. Wall, Washington • This study explores the framing of the story of a young American boy believed to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan lama, finding that coverage depicted this event through four frames: American pop culture ‘R us; There’s no place like home; A mother’s place is with her son; and Buddhism is for Buddhists. The most striking findings suggest that commercial symbols appear to be replacing nationalistic or patriotic ones to represent America.
Public Relations 1999 Abstracts
Public Relations Division
Research
Delineating (and Delimiting) the Boundary Spanning Role of the Medical Public Information Officer: A Survey of Editors and Cardiac Surgeons — Raymond N. Ankney and Patricia A. Curtin, North Carolina — Medical public information officers serve as boundary spanners between medical experts and journalists. Editors at every daily newspaper in Pennsylvania and cardiac surgeons in Pennsylvania were surveyed the role of medical PIOs. While the two groups expressed many similar opinions, editors generally were more open to medical PIOs as boundary spanners, whereas surgeons preferred to handle their own media relations.
Getting Past Platitudes: Factors Limiting Accommodation in Public Relations — Glen T. Cameron, Fritz Cropp and Bryan H. Reber, Missouri — We wanted to learn whether top corporate public relations executives at companies with revenues measured in billions of dollars had ever encountered situations that precluded taking an accommodative stance toward a public. Respondents offered instances when proscriptive factors did preclude accommodation on some occasions. Top practitioners strive for accommodation toward most publics, expressed in win-win platitudes. But the practice of two-way symmetrical communication was supplanted when “we got down to cases” that provide a rich understanding of the forces at play in conflict management.
The Cultural Competence Spiral: An Assessment and Profile of U.S Public Relations Practitioners’ Preparation for International Assignments — Alan R. Freitag, North Carolina-Charlotte — This applied research predicts, and finds support for, a spiral beginning with public relations practitioners’ preparation for international assignments, leading to assignment-seeking behavior, success and satisfaction in those assignments, consequently increased intercultural competence, followed by further assignment-seeking behavior, continuing the upward spiral. Results indicate that academic and professional preparation for international assignments among U.S. practitioners is limited, but that preparation correlates positively with success and satisfaction in international assignments.
Corporate Social Responsibility: Do People Really Hold Corporations Responsible For Their Actions? — Jessica Hicks, Hua-Hsin Wan and Michael Pfau, Wisconsin-Madison — Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a hot issue in public relations. Many corporate CEOs believe that CSR plays an instrumental role in consumer evaluations of a corporation. Surveys of consumers’ attitude and behaviors also indicate that they intend to reward corporations for being socially responsible and punish those who are not. In reality, however, there is a debate over whether consumers indeed do what they intend to do. fIn other words, researchers have argued that there is a discrepancy between consumers’ intention to act and their actual behavior. >
Measuring the Economic Value of Public Relations — Yungwook Kim, Florida — This study establishes a two-step model to measure the economic value of public relations by testing two relationships: 1) the impact of public relations expense on reputation as a goal of public relations, and 2) the economic impact of reputation on revenues as companies’ bottom lines. The proposed model showed an appropriate fitting and coefficients were statistically significant. All three hypotheses were supported. By integrating the results of the hypothesis tests, the proposed two-stage model for measuring the economic impact of public relations activities was supported.
Persuasion, Image, And Campaign Message Design: A Case Study Of University Image — Mary Anne Moffitt, Illinois State University — It is a bit ironic that research conducted into image has typically focused on the profit-oriented corporation and that many scholars exploring image have not paid much attention to the image processes of the one organization which Supports most of them-the university. Recent research into image, however, has begun to recognize the importance’ of studying university image processes (Bok, 1992; Gose, 1994; Immerwahr & Harvey, 1995; Phair, 1992; Theus, 1993).
Uncovering the Support Area/In-House Agency Paradox with Evaluative Research — Juan C. Molleda and Lynn M. Zoch, South Carolina — While conducting evaluative research for the corporate communications division of a large regional affiliate of a national insurance group, the researchers uncovered a paradox in the way the communication function is viewed by the division and its “internal customers.” The staff of the division see themselves as a support area of the organization, acting mainly in a technical function by following the directives of other areas, while the areas with which they work see corporate communications as an in-house agency and themselves as its “clients.”
Toward a Self-Regulated and an Ethics-Based Framework for Marketing Communications in Sub-Saharan Africa — Cornelius B. Pratt, University of Zambia and Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce-Southern Africa, Charles C. Okigbo, North Dakota State University and Louisa Ha, The Gallup Organization — Marketing communications, as a promotional strategy, are being used in public- and private-sector campaigns to stimulate the establishment and expansion of much-needed economic growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this paper argues that such a pivotal role be performed within an ethical framework, if the resources of the region and its potential are to be fully explored to attain such goals. The framework is anchored on the non-consequential, duty-based normative theory of deontology.
The Models of Public Relations in India — K. Sriramesh, Florida — As we approach the new millennium, we see a shrinking world in which people in the far corners of the world are increasingly influencing each other in many ways. The decade of the 90’s has been the harbinger of cross-nation exchanges of goods and services. The formation of trading blocks such as NAFTA, EC, ASEAN and APEC has resulted in increased trade among different countries. Further, the explosion of communication technology such as satellite communication and the Internet has contributed to the development of markets around the globe.
A Content Analysis of the Web Pages of Large U.S. Corporations: What is the Role of Public Relations and Marketing? — Suchitra Vattyam and Charles A. Lubbers, Kansas State University — American businesses have expended a great deal of effort on World Wide Web activities, often with limited success. A content analysis of homepage features for 83 of the Fortune 100 companies was performed. The percentages of pages with each feature is provided and then the features are classified according to the business function each attempts to fulfill. The results indicate that many activities found on these homepages are traditionally associated with public relations.
An Innovative Look at Gender in Public Relations: Examining Relationships between Gender and Source Credibility in Employee Communication Messages and Media — Donald K. Wright and Jill R. Haynes, South Alabama — Gender differences between women and men have served as the focal point for much public relations research within the past two decades. However, the public relations body of knowledge lacks any studies that examine gender in terms of how women and men react differently to public relations communication messages and the communication media delivering them. This study examines the impact of gender differences on the receivers of an organization’s internal public relations communication messages.
Teaching
An Exploratory Look at Graduate Public Relations Curricula — Linda Aldoory and Elizabeth L. Toth, Syracuse University — This was an exploratory content analysis of master’s degree programs in public relations that described the status of public relations graduate curricula. Using recommendations of the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education as a benchmark, general requirements, core public relations courses, optional public relations courses and other optional courses were examined. Findings indicated a lack of adherence to the Foundation’s recommendations and a lack of consistency across programs as to number and type of courses required or offered.
A National Study of a Three-Weekend Accelerated Class Format Within the Public Relations Curriculum — Lisa T. Fall, Michigan State University — The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of Public Relations Management courses offered over a six-month period in a three-weekend accelerated curriculum format. The theoretical framework from which this study was designed is derived from Malcolm Knowles’ andragogy theory of adult learning. This study addresses the following three research questions: RQ1: How do students who are enrolled in this class format rate its effectiveness in relation to the assumptions of the andragogy theory?
Helping Students Succeed in the Introduction to Public Relations Course: The Influence of Student Study Manuals and Cablecast Review Sessions on Classroom Performance — Charles A. Lubbers, Kansas State University — This research assessed the value of two distance learning tools as supplements for the traditional introduction to public relations course. The point totals from four exams taken by 506 students were regressed with students’ reported usage of a study manual, usage of televised review sessions, year in school and major status. The results indicate that all four variables are significantly correlated with class performance, but that the study manual explains the most variance.
The Internet, Online Resources and Public Relations Practitioners: What They Use and What They Recommend for Students — Michael Ryan, Houston — This paper reports the results of a nationwide survey of 150 public relations practitioners who were to indicate the extent to which they use the World Wide Web and online resources; when they began using computers for non-word processing purposes; what computer skills are needed in their offices; what skills they seek in new hires; the extent to which they were involved in creating Web sites; and how much importance they attach to Web pages.
Student
Do Corporate Annual Reports and Web Sites Support a Commitment to Social Responsibility? — Kimberly Gill, Florida — This pilot study employed content analysis to examine the extent to which the corporate annual reports and web sites of six corporations demonstrated social responsibility. Social responsibility was framed through the literature review using definitions of social responsibility, philanthropy and public relations. Literature indicated that investors are concerned about the corporate citizenship of companies in which they invest. Contrary to what the literature suggested, companies lacked complete social responsibility disclosure in annual reports and web sites.
Making the Web Work for Non-Profits: Recommendations for the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas — Amy Henika, Trinity University — This paper discusses making Web sites effective for non-profit organizations. It reviews Web sites in general: what they are, why they have proliferated, how they function as part of marketing communications, and what makes them effective. It compares an effective commercial site, Gap, with two lion-profit sites: Bryan’s House and Ronald McDonald House of Dallas. Based on that analysis, the paper recommends improvements for the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas site.
Tactics in Labor Disputes Viewed as Public Relations Activities: Two Strikes in Milwaukee, 1934-1935 — Darlene Jirikowic, Wisconsin-Milwaukee — The mid-1930s were rich in union organizing and the period lends itself to a review of public relations functions as they were used in an arena not usually associated with such activities. This paper focuses on the strategies designed to influence a public or publics in two high-profile strikes in Milwaukee, the Electric Railway and Light Company and the Lindemann-Hoverson Stove Works. In particular, this paper concentrates on the tactics centering on the unions’ most important external public, the employer.
What Dimensions Constitute A Good Corporate Image In the Eyes of Chinese Educated Public in Hong Kong — Lee Kaman Betty, Hong Kong Baptist University — The present study is to examine what dimensions constitute a good corporate image in the eyes of Chinese educated public in Hong Kong. Two hundred and fifty-four (54 males and 200 females) undergraduate students in Hong Kong participated in the present study. An empirical measure called Corporate Image Scale was developed and used. Varimax factor analysis revealed seven meaningful factors. Moreover, the predictability of each factor was examined. Implications of findings are discussed.
Standardizing International Crisis Communication In The United States: The Effects Of Spokesperson Ethnicity On Credibility And Image Ratings Of Multinational Organizations — Laura Arpan Ralstin, Alabama — An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of using American versus non-American spokespersons for multinational organizations in a crisis situation. The experiment varied the home country of the organization (United States, Mexico, Japan, and Germany) as well as whether the company used a spokesperson from its home country or an American spokesperson. Path analyses found company image to be predicted by spokesperson credibility ratings. Additionally, the degree of participants’ ethnic identities affected spokesperson similarity ratings, which in turn predicted spokesperson credibility ratings.
Responding to Crisis: The Communications Aftermath of the Thurston High School Shootings — Andi Stein, Oregon — This paper is a case-study of the crisis communications response that took place following the Thurston High School shootings in Springfield, Oregon, in May 1998. It addresses the challenges faced by the public information officers in the Springfield/Eugene, Oregon, area who dealt with the communications aftermath of the Thurston shootings and evaluates the public relations activities implemented by these individuals while responding to this crisis.
There’s Something About PR: Influence Of Positive And Normative Models Of Public Relations On Job Satisfaction Among Bulgarian Practitioners — Christopher Varadon, Florida — This study explores job satisfaction among Bulgarian public relations practitioners in the light of the four models of public relations-press agentry/publicity, public information, two-way asymmetrical and two-way symmetrical in positive (real–life) and normative (ideal) settings. In addition, this study tests integral models of craft vs. professional public relations. Findings suggest that Bulgarian practitioners are dealing with both craft and professional models in their daily business, but aspire to revert only to the professional model.
Newspaper 1999 Abstracts
Newspaper Division
Bombing Bagdad: Comparing The Influence of Foreign Policy and Propaganda Tools in British and American Newspapers During a Joint Military Action December 17-21, 1998 • Abhinav Aima, Ohio University • This study compared the coverage of air strikes against Iraq in four American and four British newspapers in the period December 17-21, 1998. A content analysis of 293 news stories collected from the Lexis-Nexis databank for these five days showed a similar trend in newspapers of both countries that lent support to the propaganda model theory. Both countries’ newspapers over-represented the sources that were favorable to the respective foreign policies or largely kept their opinions within the confines of the foreign policy debate.
Enterprise and Investigative Reporting at Ohio Metropolitan Newspapers in 1980 and in 1995 • Joseph Bernt and Marilyn Greenwald, Ohio University • Underwood and McManus argue maximizing profit is incompatible with covering an establishment that includes media executives and celebrity reporters. Hamill thinks a cozy relationship between corporate ownership and market-oriented newsrooms endangers investigative reporting. Demers argues the managerial revolution has improved newspapers. rather than eroding their quality. Authors’ earlier study found a decline in investigative and rise in feature reporting in three major dailies from 1980 to 1995. This content analysis of six Ohio dailies found less shift from investigative reporting, noting some smaller papers expanded both forms.
News Media, Heal Thyselves: Sourcing Patterns In News Stories About News Media Performance • Ronald Bishop, Drexel University • The last decade has seen a marked increase in the amount of coverage afforded the “media angle” in major news stories. But where do journalists turn to find support for stories they write about themselves? This content analysis applies and extends past research on source selection patterns to these “media stories.” It is hypothesized that certain sources do recur in stories about news media performance. A series of Lexis-Nexis searches was performed between April and October 1998 for news stories and broadcast news transcripts from 1990 to the present which focused either on exploration of news media coverage or the practice of journalism.
The Great Home Run Race Of 1998 In Black And White • Mike Bush, North Carolina • In covering the race, most newspapers focused on Mark McGwire, ignoring Sammy Sosa, a black Dominican. But the contest may have been for second place; Negro Leaguer Josh Gibson once walloped 84 homers. Another issue was McGwire’ 5 use of a steroid, legal in baseball but banned by other sports. Once the biased coverage was noted, many writers gave Sosa due credit. Black papers ignored the unequal coverage story.
Job Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction of Texas Newspaper Reporters • Li-jing Arthur Chang, Nanyang Technological University and George Sylvie, Texas-Austin • This study surveyed 365 Texas daily newspaper reporters in spring 1998 to explore the conceptual distinction between job satisfaction and dissatisfaction as well as factors behind job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Results indicated the reporters’ job satisfaction and dissatisfaction were different concepts. Path analysis showed the predictors of their job satisfaction include sense of achievement, personal growth, newsroom policy, impact on community, and autonomy. The analysis also showed the predictors of their dissatisfaction include pay and work conditions.
Are Young People Reading the Newspaper? A 25-Year Cohort Analysis • Nancy Cheever and Tony Rimmer, California State University-Fullerton • The newspaper industry has long been concerned that it is losing the young reader. The research informing this concern is derived largely from cross-sectional studies. We argue that younger people become older, stable, newspaper readers and that a cohort analysis approach is needed to understand this phenomenon. We look at newspaper readership and its predictors both cross-sectionally and through cohort analysis in the 25-year cumulation (1972-1996) of the General Social Survey.
Numbers in Newsrooms: A Qualitative Case Study of How Journalists View Math on the Job • Patricia A. Curtin and Scott Maier, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • To explore how journalists perceive their use of numbers in the news and to lay the groundwork for developing training curriculum to help journalists work with numbers with greater competence and confidence, focus groups were conducted with reporters, copy editors, and top management of a 150,000-circulation, chain-owned daily newspaper. The results suggest different approaches to math training are necessary based on subjects’ comfort levels with math. Implications for journalism educators and newsroom managers are given.
Measuring the Marketplace: Diversity and Editorial Page Content • Michael Drager, Illinois State University • In this study of editorial page content, 105 newspapers were content analyzed to determine their diversity. An economic measure, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, was used to develop a composite index of diversity for each newspaper. Results found that while some aspects of editorial content were somewhat diverse in nature, overall diversity of content for the sample was lacking.
Newsroom Teams: A Baseline Study Of Prevalence, Organization And Effectiveness • Fred F. Endres, Ann B. Schierhorn and Carl Schierhorn, Kent State University • Although the concept of teamwork as an organizational model has been promoted in the busi-ness world for the past 25 years, only recently have some newsrooms begun to adopt the team model. This baseline study of U.S. newspaper managing editors found that 37 percent reported they had a full or partial permanent team system in place. Most of those teams were organized by news topic or as an ad hoc group of reporters, editors and designers who planned and executed specific stories or pack-ages.
You Had to Be There (And They Weren’t): The Problem with Reporter Reconstructions • Russell Frank, Pennsylvania State University • Newspaper stories that rely on the reconstruction of events from police reports, court records and the recollections of witnesses often sacrifice attribution for the sake of immediacy. Such stories make compelling reading but they mislead readers by erasing the line between information obtained via observation and information obtained from human or documentary sources. This paper argues that the lack of attribution is more distracting than its presence-because the reader wonders how the reporter knows what he knows-and calls on reporters to make clear when they have left the realm of observation and entered the realm of reconstruction.
Journalists’ Perceptions Of Online Information-Gathering Problems • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This paper reports a study of the leading problems identified in using the World Wide Web for newsgathering. Respondents to 1997 and 1998 national censuses listed their perceptions of flaws in the Web as a newsgathering source. Data from similar national censuses conducted in 1994, 1995, and 1996 are also reported. The study found growing use of the Web and commercial services during all five years. Among the leading problems were verification, unreliable information, badly sourced information, and lack of site credibility.
Diversity Efforts in the Newsroom: Doin’ the Right Thing or Just A Case of Show Me the Money? • Richard Gross and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri and Patricia A. Curtin, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Researchers analyzed 76 interviews with reporters and editors at a respected western U.S. newspaper involved in enhancing diversity of its newspaper content and newsroom staffing. Researchers sought to determine if market-driven considerations and “quality” journalism were perceived by respondents as mutually exclusive. The study confirms previous findings that journalists consider knowledge about the business of their newspaper to be empowering, not necessarily in conflict with the editorial mission.
Framing Jasper: A Statement Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of the John William King Murder Trial • L. Paul Husselbee, Mary Alice Baker, O’Brien Stanley and Ashley Salter, Lamar University • Journalists frame issues by choosing to emphasize some issues over others, affecting news consumers’ awareness and perception of public problems and concerns. Journalistic credibility suffers from public perception that reporters do not show respect for communities they cover and that they chase “sensational” stories because they sell newspapers. This study analyzes newspaper coverage of a “sensational” story to determine how journalists framed the community of Jasper, Texas, and its citizens during the trial of white supremacist John William King.
Extra! Extra! Read all About It: The American Press and Crime News • Cathy M. Jackson, Norfolk State University • The centuries-old relationship between the press and crime coverage is explored in this descriptive paper. Yet, despite its longevity, crime news and its ability to historically highlight social conditions have not been fully explored by researchers. Crime news also is worthy of study because it has been a factor in the development of several journalistic techniques. Situated in its sociohistorical setting, the press and its coverage of crime news reveals a journalistic form that mirrored the American citizens’ quest for a place in the universe.
Local Views on Local News • Patricia M. Kennedy, Syracuse University • Expanding on research studying the relationship between community ties and media preferences, this study, based on a 1998 telephone survey in which half of the respondents use the internet at home, finds those with strong ties to the local political process (through voter registration, planning to vote and higher levels of political activity), and those who anticipated continued residency in the community, identified newspapers as the preferred medium for information about local public affairs.
Hispanics & the Media: A Case Study of Coverage in The Dallas Morning News • Camille R. Kraeplin, Southern Methodist University and Federico Subervi, Texas-Austin • This study examined coverage of Latinos by a large Southwestern daily, as well as their attitudes toward that coverage. Using focus groups, a survey and a content analysis, researchers found that although the quantity of coverage was low, the quality was generally positive. However, it was not as broad-based as it should be. Most Hispanic readers would like to see some Spanish-language content in the newspaper. And most expressed a high level of interest in “Hispanic” content.
The Recency and Frequency Effects in the Agenda-setting Process • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This study content analyzes the coverage of four issues by the New York Times in a 20-week long period. It finds that there are two types of effects in the agenda-setting process: a recency effect and a frequency effect. It suggests that there might not be such a thing called an optimal time lag. It also finds that it is on the obtrusive issues that the media have a stronger agenda-setting effect.
The New York Times and The London Times Cover War in Bosnia and Croatia, 1991 to 1995: Press Nationalism and U.S.-British Hegemony Over Bosnian Policy • Lawrence A. Luther, Ohio University • A content analysis of news articles in The New York Times and The London Times divided Bosnian war coverage into three periods between 1991 and 1995. Coded were datelines, sources (including U.S. and British officials), story topic, and U.S.-British policy rifts. Results demonstrated the increasing U.S. role over the West’s Bosnian policy, while Britain’s role declined. This supported Press Nationalism as a relationship between press attention and the U.S. role. It supported the premise of U.S.-British hegemony, with the U.S. role dominant.
Getting It Right: Newsmaker Perceptions of Accuracy and Credibility • Scott R. Maier, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • In a survey of news sources cited in a metropolitan daily newspaper, 58.1 percent of local news stories examined were reported in error. Factual errors were most common but ‘errors of judgment” were considered most egregious. News sources were forgiving of error, rating most inaccuracies minor and almost never seeking corrections. Inaccuracies were found to affect source perceptions of story credibility, but errors from any one story had no significant influence on overall newspaper credibility’.
Agency Concerns Over Newspaper Advertising • Ann Maxwell, Oregon and Wayne Wanta, Florida • A random survey of U.S. advertising agencies examined concerns about newspaper advertising. The results suggest that agencies still view newspapers positively. They also do not view online communications as a replacement for newspapers. However, agencies also appear to have concerns about the audiences they will reach through newspaper advertisements. In other words, the newspaper product is still attractive to advertising agencies, but the audiences they provide are key concerns.
Analytical Journalism: Credibility of Computer-Assisted Reporting • Justin Mayo, Missouri • An experiment tested readers’ perceptions of newspaper stories that used one of three different types of evidence to support the reporter’s claims in the stories: data the reporter independently gathered and analyzed via databases (computer-assisted reporting), data from official or expert sources, and anecdotal evidence. Participants read three news stories on different topics with one of the three types of evidence in each story. After reading each story, participants rated the story’s credibility, newsworthiness, liking, quality, understanding, and readability.
The Quest for Newspaper Credibility Through the Public Dialogue in Correction Boxes, Letters to the Editor and Columns Written by Newspaper Ombudsmen • Neil Nemeth, Purdue University-Calumet and Craig Sanders, John Carroll University • We examined how newspapers published in cities with competitive daily newspapers used correction boxes, letters to the editor and an ombudsman’s column in their public dialogue with their readers about the paper’s behavior. News content dominated the correction boxes and ombudsman’s columns. Reaction to the opinion of columnists or other letters to the editor writers dominated the letters to the editor. These findings raise questions about the effectiveness of these mechanisms to adequately address the credibility gap between newspapers and their readers.
Agenda Setting and the Presidency: A Longitudinal Analysis of the State of the Union Address and Newspaper Coverage • Ashby W. Pettigrew and William R. Davie, Southwestern Louisiana • Agenda-setting studies have suggested the president’s State of the Union address is subject to a re-ordering of priorities by the press. To test that assumption, ten State of the Union speeches and their coverage by The New York Times and The Washington Post were content analyzed and compared over a 47-year period. The results showed a remarkable degree of shared emphasis on agenda topics set forth by the president in this speech.
Journalists and Gender: An Analysis of The New York Times Coverage of the 1996 U.S. Presidential Election • Kimmerly S. Piper-Aiken, Indiana University • Content analysis of 339 election stories from The New York Times found striking similarities between stories written by women and men. This study examined whether or not women reporters were more likely to use gender-relevant frames, refer to the “women’s vote,” report on typical women’s themes, and include female sources more often than men. Regardless of gender, journalists avoided using simple sex stereotypes and women continued to be underrepresented as news sources and reporters.
The Framing of Crime and Violence Print News in the Los Angeles Times • Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • The authors examine how crime and violence reporting is framed by the Los Angeles Times. Using a public health perspective, we examine whether causal factors and societal impact of crimes are present in news stories. Surprisingly, we find that the classic stereotyping of crime and violence framing is strongly present in the Times. We discuss what changes would be useful to provide news consumers with a more accurate picture of crime in their community.
The Downing of Pierre Salinger: Friendly Fire or Self-Destruction? • Thomas E. Ruggiero, Bowling Green State University and Samuel P. Winch, Nanyang University, Singapore • Journalists are now using interactive electronic forums to engage in informal self-regulation. By critiquing coverage of news stories online, journalists seek to enhance professionalism and objective news practices. In the past this role was served much less frequently and primarily by social-science scholars, the trade press and professional conventions. Emphasizing a social-constructionist perspective, this study employed rhetorical analysis to locate supporting and contrasting elements and arguments from two primary sources.
Improving Newspaper Delivery: A Factor Analysis of Route Demographic Variables and Reliability Measures • Marc Seamon, West Virginia University • Reliability of newspaper delivery is a serious concern for circulation managers, but media researchers have done little to help them address the issue. This quantitative examination assesses reliability and satisfaction variables for lateness, damage and non-delivery and then correlates those indices with route demographic variables such as carrier age, carrier experience, route length, route density and length of time required for delivery. The results indicate that current industry trends to replace juvenile carriers with “more reliable” adults may be misguided.
The Shrinking Sphere of Privacy: Candidate Coverage in Presidential Politics, 1980 to 1996 • Elizabeth A. Skewes, Syracuse University • Politicians bemoan the personal nature of campaign coverage, saying it distracts voters and keeps good people from running for office. Others argue that a candidate’s handling of media scrutiny prepares him or her for the limelight of office. This study finds that campaign coverage is more personal than in 1980, although it is not more negative. It also finds that while most personal coverage is about Democrats, personal coverage of Republican candidates is more negative.
The Metro Wide Web: How Newspapers’ Gatekeeping Role Is Changing Online • Jane B. Singer, Colorado State University • Newspapers traditionally have about the world to local readers’ doorsteps. But as papers go online, their editors face new decisions relating to that gatekeeping role. This study examines the print and online versions of six Colorado newspapers, comparing the amount of local and non-local news, sports and business content in each. The findings indicate the online products have a much stronger local orientation than the print ones, suggesting that online papers may be moving toward abandonment of the role of connecting readers to a world that extends beyond their horizons.
The New York Times Coverage Of Somalia 1992-94: A Content Analysis • Mustafa Taha, Ohio University • This paper content analyzes 200 articles that dealt with the situation in Somalia during 1992-1994. The study contributes to the tradition of research in two areas: Information flow, and press-government relations. The results show that more than 55 percent of The New York Times sources were U.S. officials. The Times contribution to agenda setting regarding U.S. policy in Somalia was minimal. The study suggests that the closer the reporter’s location to policy makers, the less critical the reporter will be.
Baseball Box Scores in the Newspaper: Helpful Statistics or Sports Hieroglyphics? • C. A. Tuggle and Don Sneed, Florida International University • A survey of fans in attendance at two Major League baseball games reveals that many fans experience difficulty when trying to decipher box scores in the newspaper. Several factors affected the ability to read box scores, including having played sports in high school, the sex of the respondent, and whether English was the person’s native language. The authors suggest that publications include a legend on the agate page that explains the meanings of the abbreviations.
Local News Coverage Strategies in a Three-Way Daily Newspaper Competitive Market • Patsy G. Watkins, Arkansas • An exploratory study examines local news coverage strategies in the first months of an unusual competitive market situation involving three daily newspapers. The market is a two-county area including four main medium-sized cities and a few dozen small towns. Content analysis was used to determine the amount and topics of local news coverage allocated to the various municipalities in the market to find out if the papers were substitutes for each other.
Minorities and Communication 1999 Abstracts
Minorities and Communication Division
Faculty Papers
Black, White, Hispanic, And Asian-American Adolescents’ Responses To Culturally Embedded Ads • Osei Appiah, Iowa State University • Researchers digitally manipulated the race of characters in ads and the number of race specific cultural cues in the ads while maintaining all other visual features of these ads. Three hundred forty-nine black, white, Hispanic, and Asian-American adolescents evaluated black character or white character ads based on their: 1) perceived similarity to the characters in the ads; 2) identification with the characters in the ads; 3) belief that the ads were intended for them; 4) overall like/dislike of the ads.
An Analysis of Role Portrayal in U.S. Spanish-Language Television Promotional Announcements • Jami J. Armstrong, Oklahoma State University and Alice Kendrick, Southern Methodist University • This study, the first to profile television promotional announcements on Spanish-language television, revealed an emphasis on sexual content and contact, suggestive dress and a high degree of sex role stereotyping. The images a viewer of Spanish language television receives via promotional announcements is that programming will feature an abundance of scantily clad, young, attractive women. The findings call into question whether the station promotional announcements, as well as programming they represent, are m keeping with the Hispanic cultural values as expressed in the marketing and communication literature.
Third-Person Perception and Optimistic Bias Among Urban Minority “At-Risk” Youth • John Chapin, Rutgers University • Recent third-person perception articles suggest that optimistic bias is the mechanism underlying the perceptual bias, but fail to empirically test the assumption. Minority “at-risk” youth are neglected in both literatures, despite the fact that they are frequently the target audience for the resulting campaigns. This study sought to bridge a gap between communication and psychology by determining to what extent third-person perception and optimistic bias co-vary in a sample of urban, minority “at-risk” youth.
Exclusion, Denial, and Resignation: How African American Girls Read Mainstream Teen Magazines • Lisa Duke, Florida • ‘Teen, Seventeen, and YM; the best-selling teen magazines, are arguably culturally specific in their execution of major themes, yet enjoy a substantial African American audience This is a qualitative study of how 26 Black and White readers of teen magazines understand and negotiate African American girls’ relative absence from these texts. Black participants’ interpretations of teen magazines change with age, but also with girls’ growing racial awareness and identification, demonstrating the pertinence of Helms’s (1995) model of racial-identity development to the data.
“Beyond the Looking Glass:” Thoughts and Feelings of African American Images in Advertisements by Caucasian Consumers • Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri-Columbia • Advertisements with “all-black” actors are often placed in “black media” to reach African American markets. The main purpose of this study is to determine if certain African American images could be used to reach other target markets in mainstream media (i.e. Caucasians). Seventy-six Caucasian female and male undergraduates were asked to list any and all thoughts concerning Caucasian and African-American female images. Content analysis of the thoughts revealed that when considering Caucasian images, comments focused primarily on the model’s beauty and physical image.
Trust, Efficacy And Political Information Seeking Among Latinos • Jose R. Gaztambide-Geigel, Institute for Puerto Rican and Latino Studies and Connecticut, Storrs • This paper seeks to understand political information-seeking behaviors by Latinos and to clarify the relationship between these behaviors and political trust and efficacy. It also looks at whether there are differences in this relationship for three groups of Latinos: those born in Puerto Rico, those from Latin America, and those born in the United States. Analysis of survey data @4=502) from Connecticut suggests that efficacy predicts paying attention to political commercials, but not attention to news on media.
Looks Like Me? Body Image In U.S. Hispanic Women’s Magazines • Melissa Johnson, North Carolina State University • This study coded 1,749 non-advertising images of women for body size and muscle tone in 51 issues of 13 magazines targeted to Latinas in the United States. Body size differed significantly by origin of publication and magazine format, with thinnest images originating from non-U.S. magazines and from fashion magazines. Latina magazines’ female images were no haven from unrealistically thin women in general market media. Hispanic magazines had pluralistic and assimilationist functions in their female depictions.
The Indianapolis Recorder: A Midwestern Black Newspaper Passes Century Mark By Finding Formula For Survival • Tendayi S. Kumbula, Ball State University • The Indianapolis Recorder is one of a handful of African American newspapers to have been published continuously and to have survived for more than 100 years in the United States. Through a combination of grit, determination, good management and understanding of what its readers and advertisers want, the newspaper, published in Indiana’s capital, has outlived its competition and continued to thrive. This has happened at a time when even some mainstream papers have faced hard economic times, which have resulted in cutbacks, downsizing and even the shutdown of some media outlets.
A Critical Analysis of the Newspaper Coverage of Native Americans by The Oklahoman newspaper for 1998: A study focusing on Indians stereotypes, types and kinds of stories about Native Americans • Dianne Lamb, Georgia Southern University • This study reviewed 309 articles about Native Americans in The Oklahoman for 1998 to determine the presence of stereotypes, if any, and the kinds and types of articles written about American Indians. The results showed that 31.4 percent of the coverage or 98 articles were about American Indians engaged in traditional artistic pursuits. The Indian of the past was the most common image of the Native American presented to the readers of The Oklahoman in 1998.
Hate Speech and the Third-Person Effect: Susceptibility, Severity, and the Willingness to Censor • Jennifer L. Lambe and Dhavan V. Shah, Minnesota • The concern that hate speech may provoke actual violence shares a commonality with the third-person effect hypothesis, which predicts that as people perceive “harmful” messages to have a greater effect on others than on themselves, they will be more likely to support censoring those messages. In a randomized telephone survey of 407 adults in a major midwestern metropolitan area, this study finds support for both the perceptual and behavioral components of the third-person effect in the context of hate speech.
Issue(s) African Americans Would Like to See Receive More Coverage In The Media • Teresa Mastin, Middle Tennessee State University • This study was conducted to provide African American community members with an opportunity to voice their thoughts about media programming. Participants were asked “What Issue(s) Would You Like to See Receive More Coverage in Media Programming?” The 235 responses were divided into two categories: issue related and “media do a good job”. The issue-related category was divided into three topical areas: community related; health, education, and welfare related; and civil rights related.
Racism In (and Out of) the News • Peter Parisi, Hunter College • This paper explores the textual strategies through which the U.S. press (1) rejects racism in principle then (2) declines to consider it as a structural or pervasive feature of contemporary U.S. society. The paper first examines a small sample of New York Times headlines employing the term “racism.” Second, if offers a textual analysis of coverage by the New York City press, particularly the Times, of a racist float in a Queens Labor Day parade.
The Press and Lynchings of African Americans • Richard M. Perloff, Cleveland State University • From 1889 to 1918, over 2,500 Black persons were lynched by White vigilantes, often with unspeakable cruelty. Shamefully, virtually no research has explored the ways that the press discussed this peculiarly American crime. This paper seeks to redress the imbalance in the literature. It is concluded that mainstream newspapers frequently provided racist descriptions of Black lynchings during this period, but press coverage slowly improved over the course of the twentieth century. Directions for future research are outlined.
It’s Time To Force A Change: The African American Press’ Campaign For A True Democracy During World War II • Earnest L. Perry Jr., Texas Christian University • For the African American press, proclaiming that there would be no “Close Ranks” during the Second World War was not enough. As the messenger for African Americans, the press was expected to be a leader not just in the fight for inclusion, but for justice emanating from a war against the evil and aggression that accompanies a theory of white supremacy. This study looks at how the African American press in conjunction with other civil rights organizations used the dual victory campaigns to pressure the government to change its exclusionary policies.
Health Communication Research and African Americans: A Conceptual Framework • Carolyn Stroman, Howard • Enormous amounts of money and efforts have been exerted to improve the health status of Americans. As a result, the overall health status of Americans has steadily improved throughout the 20th century. A number of medical and non-medical factors have been associated with the overall improved health status of Americans. Increasingly, though, the general public, as have health professionals, has come to the realization that issues of personal behavior play a key role in health and illness.
A Minority Voice In The Wilderness: Julius F. Taylor And The ‘Broad Ax’ Of Salt Lake City • Michael S. Sweeney, Utah State University • In 1895, the liberal, Democratic, African-American and non-Mormon journalist Julius Taylor founded a Salt Lake City newspaper, the Broad Ax. intending to promote the Free Silver wing of the Democratic Party and convert blacks from the GOP. Although he championed racial and religious equality, he could not overcome political, cultural and financial pressures. This paper examines the dominant themes in the Broad Ax’s four years in Utah, and the forces that helped drive Taylor and his paper to Chicago.
Multicultural Media Pedagogy: An Alternative View • Jocelyn A. Geliga Vargas, Lehman College/CUNY and Suzanne LaGrande, Baruch College/CUNY • Based on a ten week video literacy workshop for Latina teen mothers conducted in Holyoke, Massachusetts, we reflect upon the tenets and contributions of media literacy, critical pedagogy and multiculturalism. We then develop a vision for engaged and collaborative community media education. The central contribution of the model we sketch is the proposition that culture and cultural difference arise as the guiding principles for any pedagogical intervention.
Student Competition
Out of Their Hands: Framing and Its Impact on New York Times and Television Coverage of Indians and Indian Activism, 1968-79 • Jennifer M. Bowie, Ohio University • This content analysis of 243 stories identified and described a media frame used by the New York Times and television network news programs to marginalize Indians and Indian activists from 1968-79. Activist events set a large portion of the media’s agenda. Indians were framed as a violent, militant, and divided out-group. Based on this deviant and illegitimate frame-and on limited survey data-this study concluded that this coverage had a negative impact on public opinion.
Model Minority Discourse in the News Media: A Comparison of Asian American and Mormon Cases • Chiung Hwang Chen, Iowa • This paper examines the power relationships between the majority and minority groups through a comparison of media’s Asian American and Mormon “success” stories. The media cover Asian Americans and Mormons in a remarkably similar manner, utilizing a “model minority discourse.” I discuss how the media have constructed Asian Americans and Mormons as “models,” how this “success” image can slide into a minority “threat,” and how the discourse marginalizes both groups by keeping them “placed” as minority.
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield: Race and Biraciality in Star Trek • Michele S. Foss, Florida • The television show Star Trek made a distinct and direct comment on the issue of race with the episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.” Through an analysis of the images and dialogue in this episode, and relying on Leah R. Vande Berg’s theory of species-as-race (1996), this paper illustrates how Star Trek defined race within a science fictional setting, and how that definition depended on the contemporary environment in which it was written.
Japanese-American Internment Redress and Reparations: A Pilot Study of Media Coverage by the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post-1986-1999 • Joy Y. Nishie, Nevada-Las Vegas • This pilot study examines media coverage in the period prior to, during, and after the passage of the Japanese-American World War II internee reparations bill in 1988. An archival search of the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post from 1986 to 1999 was used. Findings showed that both newspapers, despite their differences in the amount of articles printed, tended to be positive toward the redress and reparations bill.
KVUE-TV’s ‘Crime Guidelines’ and Unconscious Racism: A Case Study • Bob Pondillo, Wisconsin-Madison • This is a case study of KVUE-TV, Austin, Texas, during its first year employing written guidelines to determine whether or not a crime event is news. The paper hypothesizes that because newsrooms frame events in the narrative of the dominant ideology (and are systemically, unconsciously racist without using guidelines), a crime guideline routine would work to structure unconscious racism, exacerbate the problem of racialized news coverage, and reveal the subjective quality of deciding what is news.
(Under)exposed! Images of Asians and Asian Americans in News Photographs • Shelly Rodgers and Doyle Yoon, Missouri-Columbia • The authors examine stereotypes and portrayals of Asians and Asian Americans in newspaper photographs. Both subgroups are outnumbered by all other ethnicities, and are stereotyped in nearly half of the photos examined. Asians appear most frequently as tragic victims, and Asian Americans are seen most often as submissive. Implications suggest that the extent to which stereotypes are reflected in the news media, biased and inaccurate expectations may be formed by members outside the subgroup, resulting in harmful and negative consequences for the member group.
Newspaper Coverage of Immigrant Issues in Changing Communities: A Content Analysis • Mahen Saverimuttu, Michigan State University • The paper examines three extra media factors, community pluralism, economic conditions and socio-economics to understand how immigrant groups are represented in the newspapers. The study reveals that (a) existing measures of community pluralism need greater examination (b) newspapers appear to reflect the community in their representation of immigrant issues (c) Coverage of immigration in communities with greater unemployment has a decisively economic orientation and (d) Immigrants from countries of lower socio-economic status are more frequently the focus of immigration coverage.
Sources of Influence in the Framing of Community Conflict • Mahen Saverimuttu, Michigan State University • This study utilizes an integrated framework of community structure and media frames to examine the manner in which four Californian newspapers covered the highly divisive issue that was California’s Proposition 187. The frames utilized by the newspapers and the many groups seeking to air their perspective, within the structure of a pluralistic community, revealed that (a) groups with less power within the communities garnered substantial coverage through collective action, (b) there was significant congruence between the groups’ frames and newspapers’ frames.
The Media, Susan Smith, and the Mythical Black, Kidnapper: Why Don’t I Trust My Black/White Neighbor? • Jennifer L. Bailey Woodard, Indiana University • As an example of how the media works as a legitimator of dominate culture, this paper takes a critical look at the 1994 case of Susan Smith and the media’s coverage of the alleged kidnapping of her children by a black male. The common sense, naturalized images and myths about blacks espoused by media rhetoric in these stories are symbolic of the distrust it perpetuates; a distrust that whites and blacks must try to overcome.
Media Management and Economics 1999 Abstracts
Media Management and Economics Division
The Effect On Ratings Linked To Moving Programs Within The Prime Time Broadcast Schedule • William Jenson Adams, Kansas State • This study looked at the relationship between moving programs and the ratings. While moving an established series once during the main broadcast year improved the chances of a significant rating increase for both the series and the network, moving an established series during the summer resulted in significant rating decreases. Whether or not a move benefited a new program depended on how the new program was doing in its original slot. Neither new nor established series survived more than one move in any given year.
Circulation Performance, Perceived Environmental Uncertainty and the Market Orientation of U.S. Daily Newspapers • Randal A. Beam, Indiana University • This paper explores the relationships among perceived environmental uncertainty, a market-oriented editorial strategy and circulation performance at 183 U.S. daily newspapers. The research uses a multidimensional approach to measuring strength of market orientation and perceived environmental uncertainty. The research finds that a strong market orientation is positively associated with lower levels of perceived environmental uncertainty and that a strong market orientation is positively associated with better circulation performance for small dailies but not for medium-sized and large dailies.
From On-Air to Online World: Examining the Functions and Structures of Broadcast TV Stations’ Web Sites • Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted and Jung Suk Park, Florida • This paper explored the content, functions, and designs provided by TV station Web sites. The authors also investigated the relationships between a station’s market characteristics such as affiliation, marketing size, marketing ranking, and ownership and its Web content and designs. The results revealed the importance of news-related content and the need for broadcasters to focus their online efforts on improving the areas of local information, interactive communication, e-commerce, web user data collection, personalization, and online advertising.
Opening the Umbrella: An Economic Analysis of Online Newspaper Geography • Hsiang Iris Chyi and George Sylvie, Texas-Austin • This study examines how the print newspaper’s local nature and the Internet’s boundary-transcending capacity define an online newspaper’s geographic market. An original theory of online newspaper geography is developed, and an illustrative model proposed, from which inquiries about the nature of the new medium are made. An email survey of online newspapers was conducted to test the hypotheses and to provide valuable information about online newspaper geography.
The Myths and Realities of Newspaper Acquisition Costs: Fiduciary Responsibilities, Fungibility of Assets, Winners’ Penalties & Excess Cash “Problems” • Dane S. Claussen, Georgia • Dertouzos and Thorpe (1985) completed the latest publicly available aggregate analysis of newspaper acquisition prices, and derived two price formulas. But they assumed acquiring firms never over- or underpaid; acquisition costs they couldn’t account for were attributed entirely to tax benefits. Claussen’s formula (1986) omitted tax considerations, but did not assume “correct” acquisition prices. This paper proposes a new formula and, explores the question of why newspaper groups often pay “too much.”
Managing Change: Newspaper Editors’ Attitudes Toward Integrating Marketing and Journalism • Peter Gade, Oklahoma • Three types of managers emerged from this 1998 Q study of top newsroom editors at 18 newspapers associated with the American Society of Newspaper Editors Change Committee. One of the types believes that newspapers can, and must, synthesize an increased marketing awareness and traditional journalism values. Two of the types, however, are not so optimistic about the changes they are expected to lead an manage. These two types see marketing as a threat to journalism values and believe newspapers should preserve the “wall” of separation between the news and business sides of the organization.
The Economics of American Movie Exports: An Empirical Analysis • Krishna P. Jayakar and David Waterman, Indiana University • Based on an economic model of international trade in media products, we present descriptive and cross-sectional econometric data which show that countries having relatively high movie consumption, including the U.S., account for disproportionately large shares of total world movie exports. We then test the hypothesis that the American share of box-office revenues throughout much of the world has risen to very high levels since the 1970s because the U.S. has developed its domestic media for movie exhibition (notably pay TV and videocassette distribution), at a more rapid rate than have other countries.
Supplier-Buyer Relationship in the Global News Value-Chain in the Internet Age • Yong-Chan Kim, Southern California • The present study examined whether the Internet affects the relationship between global news suppliers and local news organizations in Asia. This research critically reviewed the Malone’s “electronic market hypothesis”: the network technology will reduce transaction cost for interorganizational relations and the cost reduction will transform the hierarchically structured relations to market-type one. According to the interviews with 15 Asian journalists, the Internet is more likely to reinforce the current hierarchical relationship between the major Western news agencies and local news media in Asia.
The Bottom of the Net: The Market-Driven Collegiate Men’s Basketball Sport • Nojin Kwak , Wisconsin-Madison and Kuang-Kuo Chang, Michigan State • Finding of this study supported several expectations that are based on theory of the market-driven economy in the context of men’s college basketball. Findings demonstrated (1) the existence of inequality between schools and between conferences in terms of the number of games to be televised; (2) the importance of market value of schools in getting television coverage of their games; and (3) the relative importance of the marketability of a school over fan popularity in predicting the number of games to be televised for the school.
Who are the Mobile Phone Have-Nots? Influences and Consequences • Louis Leung and Ran Wei, Chinese University of Hong Kong • Grounded in the diffusion of innovations theoretical framework, this study focuses on examining who the mobile telephone have-nots are and what are the factors at work. Results of a telephone survey with a probability sample of 834 respondents show that the have-nots tended to be older females with lower household income and education attainment. They had pagers as an alternative and subscribed to no caller ID display service at home. This study also found a polarizing phenomenon in owning new telecommunications technologies.
Viewing Motivations And Implications In The New Media Environment: Postulation of a Model of Media Orientations • Jack C. C. Li, Florida • This paper postulated a model, which integrates the conceptualization of uses and gratifications with the two-step process of TV viewing, in the examination of the relationship between viewing motivations and selection of program types. Moderate correlations were found. This study also found that gender differed in program selections and viewing gratifications. Furthermore, the selections of various program types were highly correlated. This implies that they may be competing with one another for audience attention.
Market Competition And Media Performance: An Examination Of Popular Music Industry In Taiwan • Shu-Chu Sarrina Li and Peng Hua Wang, National Chiao Tung University • Two research questions were investigated in this study, one was to examine the relationship between market competition and music diversity, the other the organizational strategies adopted by the major record companies in Taiwan. Content analysis and intensive interviews were used to explore the two research questions. A negative relationship between market competition and music diversity was only partially supported by the findings of the study. Furthermore, this study also found that the open system adopted in the U.S. was very much employed by the major record companies in Taiwan.
Children’s Television Liaisons: Perspectives of Core Programming and Compliance • Denise Matthews, Oregon and Kyang-Kuo Chang, Michigan State • After decades of debate about broadcasters’ public interest responsibility to child audiences, federal legislators passed the Children’s Television Act of 1990 (CTA). The explicit intent of the CTA was to improve commercial broadcasters’ performance in meeting their public interest obligation to the nation’s children. Child advocates, legislators and parents were hopeful that the CTA would catalyze an improvement both in the quality and quantity of educational informational programming for children.
Employing Brand Equity Theory to Explain Variances in Ratings Inheritance Effects on 11:00 PM Newscasts • Waiter McDowell, Southern Illinois University and John Sutherland, Florida • Recognizing the potent influence of lead-in programming or inheritance effects on the ratings performance of television programs, the purpose of this study was to explore the plausibility of applying conventional brand equity theory to electronic media and to offer a tentative explanation of the considerable variances found in inheritance effects research. Adapting the essential components of an established brand equity model, the researchers propose that program brand equity is revealed in the differential ratings response of a program to its direct competitors and to its lead-in programming.
History of a Business Decision: Ralph Ingersoll II Decides to Create the St. Louis Sun • James E. Mueller, Pittsburg State University • This paper analyzes the decision by Ralph Ingersoll II to launch the St. Louis Sun in 1989. The paper, which is based on personal interviews, Sun documents, and other sources, shows that the new daily was created as a defensive measure to protect Ingersoll’s chain of suburban St. Louis weeklies from domination by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Sun lasted only seven months, and analysis of its failure could help newspaper managers avoid similar mistakes.
Determinants Of Off-Network Syndication Revenues Of Network Primetime Series • Sora K. Park, Korea Press Foundation • This study analyzes factors that determine off-network syndication revenues of television programs that were first aired on the broadcast networks. The analysis of off-network broadcast and cable programs show that the performance during the network runs are the most important factor that contributes to the license fees of programs when the shows are syndicated. The most significant factor that influences the license fees for off-network syndicated shows is the performance during network airing reflected in ratings.
Communication Technique: How Does a U.S. Record Company Identify, Target and Reach Its Audience in an Ever-Competitive Marketplace? • Lisa L. Rollins, Middle Tennessee State University • This is a case study of the methods and strategies employed by a U.S. record company, Arista/Austin, to introduce its prerecorded music products and artists to a target segment. Findings indicate that the media company’s concentrated marketing focus upon a particular demographic is resulting in the exclusion of other potential consumers. Because of the eclectic nature of rock ‘n’ roll, many characteristics should be considered before a marketing campaign is created and then implemented for a target audience.
The Impact Of Radio Ownership Consolidation – Has The 1996 Telecommunications Act Adversely Impacted U.S. Radio Station Format And Ownership Diversity? • J.L. Rush, Jr., William M. Payton and Sarah Elizabeth Leeper, Brigham Young University • In February, 1996, the U.S. Congress and the F.C.C. initiated legislation and regulation substantially altering the national and local market structure of radio broadcasting. Using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, this paper studies whether radio format diversity is adversely affected by successive mergers and consolidations under the new law. It looks at political economic and anti-trust implications of increased ownership concentration. It concludes that no public interest harm is clearly evident despite the obvious potential for it.
Black Newspapers: In Search Of An Advertising Strategy • George Sylvie and Lucy Brown-Hutton, Texas-Austin • This study explores African-American newspaper advertising in a major state-the total advertising and respective ad categories by content analysis and by a survey examining internal staffing and overall strategy views of publishers. Results indicate much of the problem still may be staffing-related. Advertising space in African-American newspapers still lags behind mainstream weekly averages, suggesting publishers focus on specific types of ads or evaluate targeting strategies for soundness of a plan heavily weighted on public-sector advertising.
New Entrant, Competitive Strategy, and Consumer Welfare in the Cable Television Industry • Kuo-Feng Tseng, Michigan State University • This study analyzes the characteristics and strategic behaviors of the competing versus monopoly cable TV systems. It finds that competitions result in better consumer welfare, such as lower monthly prices and more programming channels. The intensity of competition will decline as the duopolistic cable systems operate in a longer time, and the entrant usually provides more basic cable TV channels, instead of very lower prices to compete with the incumbent.
Audience Segmentation in Network Broadcasting: An Empirical Analysis • Michael Zhaoxu Yan, Indiana University • This study tests the notion that with heightened competition in the broadcasting industry, broadcast networks are increasingly using audience targeting to differentiate themselves from each other. Using a sample of 141 regularly-scheduled prime time programs aired on ABC, CBS and NBC in 1979, 1984, 1992 and 1997 and constructing a between-network audience segmentation similarity index, the study confirms the hypothesis that the three major networks were more differentiated from each other in their audience positioning in 92/97 than in 79/84.
Mass Communication and Society 1999 Abstracts
Mass Communication and Society Division
Drudging Up the News: The Drudge Report and Its Use of Sources • Scott Abel, Missouri • The media are undergoing a re-evaluation of their standards and practices in the wake of the Clinton scandal. One concern of traditional journalists is the impact of Internet sites, such as The Drudge Report, on their profession. Many point to Drudge as a major player in the erosion of media standards of not using anonymous sources. This study examines the types of stories posted on Drudge’s site and the sources used early in the scandal. It shows Drudge’s reliance on unnamed sources in stories he designated as exclusives.
Online Love: Have Chatrooms Changed How People Make Friends and Date People? • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Fifteen people who use online chatrooms to make friends and to date people were interviewed about their social interactions. Some of the major themes include the following: 1. the limitations of chatrooms-not being able to see facial expressions or to hear voice tones-leads to misunderstandings; 2. some people become so addicted to being in chatrooms that it has negative effects on their personal lives; 3. some women are victimized by men online.
Exploring ‘Drench’ Effects of Dramatic Media: A Test of Volcanic Disaster Portrayals • C. Mo Bahk and Kurt Neuwirth, Cincinnati • Drawing upon the notion of drench hypothesis proposed by Greenberg (1988), this study explores the role of viewing involvement, perceived realism, and role attractiveness as factors generating drench effects of dramatic media. One hundred fifty-eight undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Participants in the experimental conditions were exposed to one of the four video clips: 1) the movie Volcano-a portrayal of a volcanic disaster taking place in the city of Los Angeles, 2) the documentary National Geographic Volcano, 3) an instructional video on gardening, and 4) the comedy Mr. Bean.
Gender Stereotyping and Intended Audience Age: An Analysis of Children’s Educational Informational TV Programming • Mark R. Barner, Niagara University • This study examined sex-role stereotyping within FCC-mandated children’s educational programming. A content analysis compared stereotyping across program age ranges and revealed that programs intended for young children present a more traditional view of sex roles than programs intended for teens. Male characters in old programs were stereotyped to a lesser extent than their young program counterparts. These results suggest that children are being exposed to consistently gender stereotyped television role models at precisely the age when they are forming their own sex role identities.
Differential Employment Rates in the Journalism and Mass Communication Labor Force Based on Gender, Race and Ethnicity: Exploring the Impact of Affirmative Action • Lee Becker, Edmund Lauf and Wilson Lowrey, Georgia • This paper examines whether gender and race and ethnicity are associated with employment in the journalism and mass communication labor market and-if discrepancies in employment exist-what explanations might be offered for them. The data show strong evidence that race and ethnicity are associated with lower level of employment among journalism and mass communication graduates. These discrepancies in success in the job market are not explainable by factors normally associated with hiring, such type of training, type of institution offering the training, or qualifications such as internships experience and level of performance in the classroom.
Whither Now?: Six Years of Internet Research in Mass Communications, 1993-1998 • Joel M. Benson and Thomas Gould, Kansas state University • This paper proposes to outline six years of research in mass communications targeting the Internet. This is an initial study focusing narrowly on the Internet, and as such, will be expanded in the future to include such subsets as the online journalism, interactive advertising, etc. Initially, however, the focus is just on the Internet and World Wide Web and limited to the years 1993 to 1998, inclusive.
New Media, Old Values: What Online Journalists say is Important to Them • Ann M. Brill, Missouri • This study seeks to advance the knowledge and understanding of the roles and values of online journalists. Using Weaver and WIhoit’s analysis of the functions that journalists in other media have rated as very important, the study examines the similarities and differences between the online and traditional environments and the journalists working within them. Findings led to the creation of an additional function-”marketing”-that seems to be embraced by online journalists.
Florida’s Public Records Law Put to the Test: Gaining Access to Crime Statistics • Michele Bush, Florida • One of the greatest checks of government’s inefficiency or corruption is the public’s right to access government information. However, it is not sufficient to accept that because there are legal provisions granting the public access to information, the public is actually receiving that access. To fully evaluate the openness of government, the practical application of access laws must be tested. Only then can scholars know whether citizens have access to government information.
Mass Media, the New Environmental Paradigm, and Environmental Activism: A Change in Focus • Jessica Staples Butler and James Shanahan, Cornell University • This analysis examined the association between media use, adherence to the “new environmental paradigm,” and environmental activism. There was a strong negative relation between television viewing and environmental activism. This correlation retained statistical significance under simultaneous control for age, gender, education level, and political affiliation. Regression analysis shows that television is the second largest predictor of behavior, independent of other factors. There was no relation between television viewing and all three NEP factors.
The Logic of the Link: The Associative Paradigm in Communication Criticism • Dennis Cali, East Carolina University • The metaphor of hypertext or “link” shapes the way we think about and process contemporary informational forms, overtaking the Traditionalist paradigm for constructing and critically analyzing texts. This essay examines the features of the newly-emerging Associative paradigm accompanying hypertext vis-a-vis the Traditionalist paradigm underlying print documents. The implications to communication criticism (practice and pedagogy)-and thus to culture and society-are considered.
The Impacts of News Frames and Ad Types on Candidate Perception and Political Cynicism during the 1998 Taipei Mayoral Election in Taiwan • Chingching Chang, National Cheng-chi University • The aim of this study is twofold. First, examining how commonly strategy-framed stories were used in the newspaper coverage of the 1998 Taipei mayoral election and how prevalently negative political ads were employed in this election. Second, employing a field experiment to explore whether exposure to campaign news with different frames and campaign ads of different valence had an impact on political cynicism and candidate evaluations.
Foreign Policy, Ideological Exclusion and the Media: How the American Press Shifts its News Coverage of Gerry Adams • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Michigan State • The present study examines the interplay among foreign policy, ideological exclusion, the U.S. president and the American press. The research proposed and found support for the hypotheses that the U.S. press has shifted its news editorial policy toward Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, across different presidencies. More specifically, the press was shown to be more favorable and accessible to Adams under the Clinton than the Reagan/Bush regime.
Interactivity and the ‘Cyber-Fan’: Audience Involvement Within the Electronic Fan Culture of the Internet • Vic Costello, Gardner-Webb University • Television viewing involvement and interpersonal communication activity were observed within the electronic fan culture of the Internet. A web-based survey was administered to a sample population (N=3,041) of cyber-fans-individuals who use the Internet to keep up with their favorite television program and to connect with other fans. Variables included favorite program affinity, parasocial interaction, post-viewing cognition, Internet affinity, interactivity, and interpersonal communication satisfaction. Six hypotheses received support from the data analysis.
The Portrayal of Race and Crime on Network News: An exploratory Study • Travis L. Dixon, Michigan • A content analysis of a random sample of network news programming was conducted in order to assess the portrayal of race and criminal behavior. It revealed that Whites are accorded prominent roles as perpetrators, victims and reporters on network news. Latinos are largely portrayed as victims while Blacks are more likely to appear in the role of perpetrator than victim or reporter. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the structural limitations of network news and an ethnic blame discourse. We argue for further investigation of race and crime on network television news.
Subservient Baby Sitters and their Symbiotic Relationships with the Press: The Congressional Press Secretaries’ Interactions with the Media and the Member of Congress • Edward J. Downes, Boston University • This paper examines the Congressional press secretaries’ relationships with the Members for whom they work and the media they serve. It is based on three data sets: a focus group, interviews, and a survey. Its findings suggest the press secretaries enjoy their work; serve the Member with deference; and have a relationship with the media based on guarded honesty. Alphas examining these relationships were developed and are available for future research.
Public Life, Community Integration and the Mass Media: The Empirical Turn • Lewis A. Friedland, Naewon Kang, Kathryn B. Campbell and Bob Pondillo, Wisconsin • In this paper, we first have attempted to lay out a revised theoretical framework for the study of the public sphere, reconceptionalizing it as a series of network relationships. Second, we have reported on a series of small studies designed to show how this reconceptualization might look within the framework of community integration. Our interviews found that all of the groups shared a distrust of the media. Our framing analysis has confirmed that these publics with some variations were reflected in the coverage of both newspapers.
When Bad Things Happen to Bad People: Motivations for Viewing TV Talk Shows • Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri • Why are millions of people attracted to, what some term, “trash TV” talk shows? Self-enhancement, or feeling better about oneself and one’s life, may be one of the primary reasons people watch what some consider to be “trashy” television talk programs. An experimental factorial design was used to evaluate predictions made from social comparison theory. Data obtained suggest that high self-esteem people felt better and experienced greater benefits after exposure to inferior, incompetent guests.
Journalists And Their Computers: An Inseparable Link For The Future? • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This study analyzes the role of computers in newsgathering. Drawing on daily newspaper data collected in annual national censuses between 1994 and 1998, the study reviews use of computers in newsrooms, needs for new computer skills, the most-sought computer tools, leading subjects for news stories and projects, and journalists’ perceptions of advantages and disadvantages that accompany computer use. The study found computer use has steadily grown during 1994-98 and that newsrooms seem to be making a serious commitment to use of computers in gathering news.
The Body Electric: Thin-Ideal Media and Eating Disorders in Adolescents • Kristen Harrison, Michigan • An instrumental replication of survey research demonstrating the link between thin-ideal media exposure and eating disorders was conducted with a sample of 366 6th, 9th, and 12th graders. Measures included interest in thin-ideal media content, exposure to thin-ideal television and magazines, and eating disorder symptomatology. Thin-ideal media exposure positively predicted eating disorder variables most frequently for older adolescents and girls. Relationships remained robust even when selective exposure based on interest in thinness-oriented media content was controlled.
Balancing Acts: Work/Family Issues on Prime-Time TV • Katharine E. Heintz-Knowles, Kristen Engstrand, Hilary Karasz and Meredith LiVollmer, Washington • A content analysis of two weeks of network-originated prime time television entertainment discovered that most TV adults were shown in either work or domestic situations, with little overlap between these two worlds. TV adults were infrequently shown attending to child care or elder care obligations, which were rarely presented as problematic The authors conclude that television is out of sync with real families who find balancing family and work a major issue in their lives.
Agenda Setting And The Y2K Bug: Paths Of Influence On Behaviors And Issue Salience • Emily Erickson Hoff, Laura Arpan Ralstin, Francesca Dillman, Alison Bryant, Alabama • This study seeks to build upon the agenda-setting models developed by Wanta (Wanta & Hu, 1994; Wanta, 1997) to examine individual-level variables by adding a new element to the process. Taking advantage of a unique issue that is currently growing on the media and public agenda – the Y2K bug – we examined three dependent variables: level of concern/involvement, planned behavior regarding Y2K computer compliance, and planned behavior regarding general Y2K preparation.
Absence of Dissent: A Linkage Analysts of Voting Records in National News Council Decisions, 1973-84 • L. Paul Husselbee, Lamar University • Previous research on the National News Council has suggested the need to analyze individual and collective voting behaviors of News Council members. This study addresses that need by using linkage analysis, a method similar to factor analysis, to examine News Council members’ voting records. The analysis seeks to identify the presence or absence of factions within the News Council, which was divided unevenly between “public” and “media” members.
Television News Impact on Images and Attitudes towards the United States • Yasuhiro Inoue, Michigan State University • With reference to cultivation theory, the present study hypothesized that an image of a dangerous America would be partly attributed to Japanese television news programs that portray the U.S. in violent terms. The data suggest that heavy news watchers held less positive attitudes towards the U.S. than light watchers did. On the other hand, heavy news watchers estimated lower murder rates in the U.S. compared to murders in Japan. This finding indicates a reverse cultivation.
Migrant workers: Myth or Reality? A Case Study of new Narratives in Thailand’s English-Language Newspapers • Suda Ishida, Iowa • The paper examines news coverage of migrant workers from Indochina and Burma that appeared in two Thailand’s English-language dailies-The Nation and the Bangkok Post-during the 1997 Asian economic crisis. The Thai media’s use of news patterns reflects bias against migrant workers. The narrative patterns, the author argues, can be traced to the pro-nationalist history of Thailand written in the 1930s, and may be seen as perpetuating stereotypes about Thailand’s neighboring countries.
Using is Believing: The Influence of Reliance on the Credibility of Online Political Information • Thomas Johnson, Southern Illinois University and Barbara K. Kaye, Valdosta State University • This study surveyed politically interested Web users online to investigate the degree to which reliance on traditional and online sources predicts credibility of online newspapers, television news, newsmagazines, candidate literature and political issue-oriented sites after controlling for demographic and political factors. Reliance on online and traditional media was the strongest predictor of credibility of online sources. Reliance on traditional media tended to be a stronger predictor of credibility of its online counterpart than reliance on the Web in general.
Public Trust or Mistrust?: Perceptions of Media Credibility in the Information Age • Spiro Kiousis, Texas • This paper explores perceptions of news credibility for television, newspapers, and online news. A survey was administered to a randomly selected sample of residents in Austin, Texas, to assess people’s attitudes toward these three media channels. Contingent factors that might influence news credibility perceptions, such as media use and interpersonal discussion of news, were also incorporated into the analysis. Findings suggest that people are generally skeptical of news emanating from all three media channels but do rate newspapers with the highest credibility, followed by online news, and television news respectively.
Evidence of Gender Disparity in Children’s Computer Use and Activities • M.J. Land, Georgia College & State University • This multi-method study examines the differences in male and female computer use in the home of children ages 9-14. Long interviews, observations, and surveys with children show males spend more time on the computer, but not on-line than females. Males and females engage in different computer activities. They play computer games about the same amount of time, but females spend more time on the computer to do word processing and desk-top publishing activities.
MPAA Film Ratings: Are they a Disservice to Parents? • Ron Leone, Syracuse University • The MPAA claims that film ratings are a guide for parents when deciding what movies their children can see. One criticism of the MPAA is that-despite evidence suggesting that violent content is more harmful to children than sexual content-they “target” sex. Here, it is hypothesized that parents of minors will have different opinions about children and sexual or violent film content than other adults. A telephone survey of 368 adults in Onandaga County, NY was conducted and used to test the hypotheses, which received limited support.
Setting the Media Agenda: The President and His Honeymoon with the Media • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This study addresses the question of who sets the media agenda by correlating the issue agenda of President Clinton with that of the major newspapers and television networks. It finds that the president has strong influence on the media agenda during his first year in office, i.e., the honeymoon period. It also indicates that there is a two-way flow of influence between the president and the media on certain issues.
The Big Scare: A Longitudinal Analysis of Network TV Crime Reporting, Public Perceptions of Crime and FBI Crime Statistics • Dennis T. Lowry and Josephine T.C. Nio, Southern Illinois University • Public perceptions of crime as the most important problem facing the country jumped tenfold, from 5% in March of 1992 to an unprecedented 52% in August of 1994. This paper analyzed the effects of three network television news predictor variables and two FBI predictor variables to determine what caused this “big scare.” Based upon data from 1982 through 1997, results indicated that the 1994 “big scare” was more a network TV news scare than a scare based upon the real world of crime.
Academic Letters of Recommendation: Perceived Ethical Implications and Harmful Effects of Exaggeration • David L. Martinson, Florida International University and Michael Ryan, Houston • This national survey of 150 assistant professors, associate professors and professors in schools and departments of journalism and mass communication focuses on the extent to which faculty members exaggerate recommendation letters, perceive that letters written by their colleagues are exaggerated, and believe that exaggeration is harmful and/or unethical. Results suggest that letters written in behalf of students and faculty colleagues are exaggerated, but perhaps not as much as some might imagine.
Pacing in Children’s Television Programming • James F. McCollum Jr., Lipscomb University and Jennings Bryant, Alabama • Following a content analysis, 85 children’s television programs were assigned a pacing index derived from the following criteria: (a) frequency of camera cuts, (b) frequency of related scene changes, (c) frequency of unrelated scene changes, (d) frequency of auditory changes, (e) percentage of active motion, (f) percentage of active talking, and (g) percentage of active music. ANOVA procedures reveal significant differences in networks’ pacing overall and in the individual criteria.
Do You Admit Or Deny? An Experiment In Public Perceptions Of Politicians Accused Of Scandal • Patrick Meirick and Zixue Tai, Minnesota • Scandal news has assumed an increasingly significant role in politics in recent years. Adapting the expectancy-value model to a new arena, this study examines the effects of three factors on politician evaluation: level of evidence, severity of the scandal, and the politician’s response. All three have a significant effect. It appears that denial is the best policy at least in the short run. A predicted interaction between evidence and response was not significant.
How Close is Our Relationship with Television Characters?: The Semantic Difference among Self, Best Friend, Closest Family Member, Closest Acquaintance, and Favorite Television Character • Woong Ki Park, Temple University • This study was an attempt to examine the effect of mass mediated communication on the processes of interpersonal relationship by using Horton and Wohl’s (1956) parasocial phenomenon concept. A series of bipolar semantic differential scales were administered to undergraduate and graduate students (n = 217) who were regular television viewers to see the semantic differences in relationship among viewers themselves and a number of items. The scales measured distance in semantic space among the viewers, best friend, closest family member, closest acquaintance, and favorite television character.
Deliberation And Democracy: Toward An Understanding Of Deliberative Processes • Dietram A. Scheufele and Lewis Friedland, Wisconsin and Patricia Moy, Washington • This paper addresses the discrepancy between normative ideals and empirical realities of a deliberative democracy. Based on a review of previous attempts to increase participation in deliberative processes, we develop a conceptual overview of deliberative democracy, defining the construct with respect to both inputs and outcomes. which factors make citizens more or less likely to participate in deliberative processes? How do actual outcomes of deliberation measure up to normative ideals put forth by deliberative theorists?
Does Tabloidization Really Make Newspapers Successful? A Summary of an Explorative Study • Klaus Schoenbach, Amsterdam • Concerned observers all over the world agree: Newspapers do not only follow a trend toward less serious, more emotional reporting and toward colorful, fuzzy layouts with many visual elements. The audience presumably also appreciates these developments. If tabloidization really sells was one of the questions of a tracking study of 350 local daily (workday) newspapers in Germany. Their efforts to attract readers in the first half of the 1 990s were systematically evaluated.
Autonomy in Journalism: How It Is Related to Attitudes and Behavior of Media Professionals • Armin Scholl and Siegfried Weischenberg, Muenster • Autonomy is a main characteristic of professions. Social system theory suggests observing journalism in terms of self-referentiality and external referentiality. In our study “Journalism in Germany”, we could identify a particular self-referential group of journalists1 which differed from the rest of the sample regarding role perception, unusual reporting practices and assessment of press-releases. Data provided further evidence for a more. complex and adequate perspective on journalists’ attitudes and behavior.
Expanding the ‘Virtuous Circle’ of Social Capital: Civic Engagement, Contentment, and Interpersonal Trust • Dhavan V. Shah, R. Lance Holbert and Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin • This research clarifies the mechanisms underlying the formation and sustenance of social capital on the individual level. First, it expands the conception of social capital by including life contentment in the “virtuous circle” of civic engagement and interpersonal trust. Second, it tests a structural model composed of these three endogenous variables. This analysis permits an examination of (a) the strength and direction of the causal relationships comprising the “virtuous circle’ of engagement, contentment, and trust; (b) the demographic, situational/contextual, personality, and attitudinal factors that are exogenous to these latent variables.
Changes in Female Roles in Taiwanese Women’s Magazines, 1971-1992 • Ping Shaw, National Sun Yat-sen University • A thematic content analysis performed on a sample of articles published in Woman and New Woman magazines over the period of 1971 to 1992 revealed a decline in the number having themes of women as wives, mothers, and homemakers and an increase in articles with political, social and economic themes. Traditional sex role models, however, still dominate the pages of most women’s magazines.
A Reassessment of the Relationship Between Public Affairs Media Use and Political Orientations • Kim A. Smith, Iowa State University • This study examined the influence of public affairs media on changes in diffuse and specific political orientations between the 1990 and 1992 general election campaigns, utilizing a two-wave panel of respondents. The results indicated that use of public affairs media was related to changes in the specific orientations of campaign interest, political discussion and attention to the campaign in the media in 1992. While public affairs media use did not influence the diffuse orientations of perceived political efficacy and political trust in 1992, it did predict changes in 1992 strength of partisanship.
Media Use and Perceptions of Welfare • Mira Sotirovic, Illinois • This paper examines public perceptions of the extent of governmental spending on welfare and the characteristics of a typical welfare recipient. It analyzes how these perceptions reflect differences in individuals’ media use, and how they affect individual’s support for welfare programs. The evidence shows that media use has an important influence on perceptions of welfare after accounting for demographic, ideological and interpersonal-contextual influences. Watching television entertainment, and cable news channel viewing work in the direction of introducing typical biases in welfare perceptions: overestimation of the percent of federal budget spent on welfare, perception of welfare recipients as being non-white, and of younger age.
Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Negotiating the Influences of Media, family, Friends and School • Jeanne Rogge Steele, Ohio University • How do mass media images and messages about love, sex and relationships interact with what teens learn about sexuality at home, in school and from their friends? Data generated in this multi-method, qualitative study suggest that Identity, tempered by ethnicity, gender, class status and developmental phase, plays an important role in media practice. The Adolescents’ Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995) is refined to include Resistance as a form of Application.
Social Structure, Media System and Audiences in China: Testing the Uses and Dependency Model • Tao Sun and Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota: Yu Guoming, Chinese People’s University • Much has been written about the structure and processes of China’s mass media changes before and after the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping initiated the economic reform and open-door policies in the late 1970s. Many of them focused on the commercialization, de-politicalization and internationalization of Chinese media as a result of the market economy and external openness. Little known, however, is how the audiences get caught up in the interplay between the fast changing social structure and the evolving media system in China.
Screen Sex, ‘Zine Sex and Teen Sex: Do Television and Magazines Cultivate Adolescent Females’ Sexual Attitudes? • Michael J. Sutton and Jane D. Brown, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Karen M. Wilson and Jonathan D. Klein, Rochester • A cultivation analysis of a national sample of 1,921 high school girls shows that magazines may mitigate attitudes toward the frequently risky sexual behaviors shown on television. Girls who said they learned about birth control, contraception, and preventing pregnancy from both magazines and television were more likely than girls who learned about contraception from television but not magazines to say they would be upset if they became pregnant at their current age.
Electronic Politics: The Internet As A Tool Of Political Communication • Mustafa Taha, Ohio University • This paper examines the uses of the Internet as a tool of political communication in U.S. It explores how the Internet is leveling the field for political activists who do not have access to traditional media outlets. The paper shows how the Internet’s interactivity enhances political discourse, and how the Web Wide Web can be used during political campaigns. It demonstrates how politicians relied on the Internet to raise funds and get the vote out, during the 1998 mid-term senatorial and gubernatorial elections.
Media Consumption and Social Capital Patterns in Urban African Americans and Whites • Esther Thorson and Ken Fleming, Missouri and Michael Antecol, Stanford • The survey research reported here was examined for links between exposure and attention to newspapers, local television news, and entertainment television and patterns of social capital exhibited by African Americans and Whites in a large Midwest city. The news media of the city included a daily newspaper that has been committed to public journalistic approaches for approximately three years. Part of the public journalism effort has involved increased efforts to communicate meaningfully with the large African American population in the city.
Is the Web Sexist? A Content Analysis of Children’s Web Sites • Linda Ver Steeg, Robert LaRose and Lynn Rampoldi-Hnilo, Michigan State University • A sample of twenty children’s Web sites (n=200 pages) was analyzed at the site, page, and character levels for sex role stereotypes. The characters (n=164) were 51% male. Results showed discrepancies between male and female characters for age, occupational portrayals, dress, and physical attractiveness. However, no gender differences were found for the types of activities characters engaged in (e.g., passive, active) or for the settings in which they were portrayed (e.g., home, outdoors).
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