Scholastic Journalism 2001 Abstracts

Scholastic Journalism Division

Confidence and Competence in Grammar: College Media Writing Students’ Self-Efficacy and Performance in Grammar • Kimberly L. Bissell, University of Alabama and Steve Collins, University of Texas-Arlington • Proper grammar is crucial for effective communication. Two surveys of students in an introductory writing course sought to identify variables that predicted grammar ability. Students demonstrated a limited grasp of the language, struggling with such issues as the distinction between it’s and its. Women performed better than men at the beginning of the semester, but the gap later narrowed. Self-efficacy and high school grade point average predicted grammar ability at the end of the semester. However, there were no significant differences between students with and without high school journalism experience.

JOB SATISFACTION OF HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM EDUCATORS • Jack Dvorak, Indiana University and Kay Phillips, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill • Four research questions are posed to the job satisfaction of high school journalism educators. A national random sample of 669 respondents shows that journalism educators are generally satisfied with their jobs • more so than teachers in other disciplines. Multiple regression analysis using Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory as a foundation reveals that a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic satisfiers are best predictors of teacher job satisfaction. The leading predictor is morale of the faculty.

QUEST FOR FREEDOM: STUDENT PRESS RIGHTS UNDER THE FIRST AMENDMENT • Laurie Ann Lattimore, University of Alabama • no abstract

ARE HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS REALLY DIFFERENT? A LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THEIR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS IN THE WAKE OF KINCAID V. GIBSON (6th CIR. 2001) • Gregory C. Lisby, Georgia State University • no abstract

Journalism and Mass Communication Educators’ Career Choices: When and Why They Entered College Teaching • Lyle Olsen, South Dakota State University • This study found that 55 percent of journalism and mass communication educators first considered college teaching while in college or within five years afterwards, while 40 percent did not until more than five years after college. Two important factors in their career decisions included a personal influence (i.e., a mentor) and media experience, particularly student publications. The findings fit Holland’s theory of career development and other literature. Open-ended responses resulted in rich and heartfelt comments about JMC teaching careers.

Don Sneed, Florida International University • This paper shows how journalism educators use their research findings to teach high school journalism students about the way newspapers use and misuse racial stereotypes, thus introducing the high school journalists to an important concept and to Walter Lippmann and his book on Public Opinion. The “Oreo” stereotype is examined after it appeared in several Florida newspaper stories. The term was used by a former University of Florida president in remarks he made about his boss, the former black chancellor of the state university system.

PROTECTING STUDENT PRESS FREEDOMS: AN ANALYSIS OF STATUTORY PROTECTION FOR STUDENT PUBLICATIONS IN THE POST-HAZELWOOD YEARS • Cyndi Verell Soter, The University of North Carolina -Chapel Hill • no abstract

Reaching All Students: Journalism Education and Gender Bias • Kimberly Wilmot-Weidman, University of Wisconsin-Stout • no abstract

THE EFFECTS OF MOTIVATION AND ANXIETY ON STUDENTS’ USE OF INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS • Eric M. Wiltse, University of Wyoming • no abstract.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Radio-TV Journalism 2001 Abstracts

Radio-TV Journalism Division

Hype Versus Substance in the Final Weeks of the Broadcast Television Networks’ 2000 Presidential Election Campaign Coverage • Julia Fox and James Angelini, Indiana University • An analysis of the broadcast television networks’ coverage of the final two weeks of the 2000 presidential election campaign found significantly more hype than substance in both the audio and video messages of presidential election campaign stories. Furthermore, even when audio messages contained substantive coverage, accompanying visuals often emphasized hype rather than substance. The importance of these results is discussed in the context of recent research findings about how viewers process audio and video messages.

Identifying Juvenile Crime Suspects: A Survey of Ohio Television Stations and Newspapers • Gary Hanson, Kent State University • Journalists traditionally have not reported the names of juveniles who are accused of committing crimes. Since the mid-1980s, this paternalistic approach has been challenged by the changes in the frequency and seriousness of juvenile crimes. As a result, news directors and editors in Ohio have begun to rethink their policies regarding the identification of juvenile suspects. This survey compares the way in which television stations and newspapers approach the issue.

Gatekeeping International News: An Attitudinal Profile of U.S. Television Journalists • Hun Shik Kim, University of Missouri-Columbia • This study explores the attitudes of U.S. television journalists toward international news and examines their selection criteria. Q factor analysis of 31 journalists from major national networks and local TV stations yielded three factors: Pragmatic Idealists, Global Diplomats, and Bottom-line Realists. The network journalists support a global view, selecting international news with diverse themes while the local journalists take a more pragmatic stance due to business pressures and audience demands, choosing international news with a local angle. All the journalists give priority to international news with U.S. involvement and are strongly opposed to governmental and advertiser influences.

Change Frames on CSPAN Call-in Shows: The framing of citizen comments • David D. Kurpius, Louisiana State University and Andrew Mendelson, Temple University • A content analysis of C-SPAN call-in shows was conducted to examine how citizen-callers frame the political ideas they present The main issue of concern was do people rely on the same frames the mainstream news media rely on, focusing on image, strategies and conflict or do they rely on an issue frame? A secondary issue was how the guests and hosts of these calI4n shows react to the different frames. Results show that callers were more likely to rely on issue frames in discussing political issues, though there was no difference in length of time spent by the callers on the different frames. The hosts/guests responded for a much longer time when callers used a conflict frame. However, when we examined the format of the response by the host and guest, we saw that they were much more likely to ask a question or elaborating on something said when a caller used an issue frame.

The Credibility of Women Sportscasters • Michael A. Mitrook and Noelle Haner Dorr, University of Central Florida • This work used an experimental design to explore the impact of a radio sports broadcaster’s gender on their perceived credibility by listeners. Results indicate that female sportscasters are not perceived to be as credible as their male counterparts. Furthermore, the results also exhibited a tendency for both male and female respondents to rate the male broadcaster higher than the female, but the male respondents provided much lower ratings for the female broadcaster than the female respondents.

Network Television Coverage of the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Boycotts: A Content Analysis of the Evening News on ABC, CBS and NBC • Anthony Moretti, Ohio University • The United States and the Soviet Union led boycotts tarnishing the 1980 and 1984 summer Olympics. This study examined how the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news programs covered the boycotts. The press nationalism model holds that media follow the “official” government line in reporting international affairs. Based on abstracts from the Vanderbilt University television archives, this content analysis found evidence to support the hypothesis that press nationalism influenced coverage of the boycotts.

Commercial Quality Influence on Perceptions of Television News • Stephen Perry, Dana Trunnell, Chris Morse, and Cori Ellis, Illinois State University • The impact of high and low-quality commercials upon high and low quality television newscasts were examined using Elaboration Likelihood Model and contrast effects research. This study showed some support for contrast effects. Results also suggest an interaction between news quality and the presence of commercials within newscasts in producing an emotional response. Additionally, we found that when commercials were present within the news program, participants were able to recall fewer of the news stories.

Non-Users of Internet News: Who are They and Why Do They Avoid TV News and Newspaper Web Sites? • Paula Poindexter and Don Heider, University of Texas-Austin • Who are non-users of Internet news and why do they avoid online news that is produced by TV, cable, newspapers, newsmagazines, and radio? To answer this question, randomly selected adults with Internet access in a southwestern metropolitan area were asked why they did not read news on the Internet. Survey respondents who ignored news online represented 42 percent of all Internet users. Both an age gap and a gender gap distinguished non-users and users of news on the Internet. Non-users of Internet news were significantly more likely to be younger and older. Non-Internet news users were also significantly more likely to be female than male. The primary reason for avoiding news on the Internet is lack of interest. Slightly more than one-quarter of non-users of Internet news said they ignored online news because they weren’t interested. Almost one-fifth indicated that they didn’t read news online because they had already read newspapers and 18 percent said they avoided online news because they didn’t have time. Seven percent said online news was too time consuming and four percent indicated that they avoided online news because they preferred TV news. The age distinction and reasons for avoiding news on the Internet are similar to what is known about nonviewers of network and local TV news and nonreaders of newspapers.

To Be On TV or To Be a TV Journalist: Students’ and Professionals’ Perceptions of the Role of Journalism in Society • Ron F. Smith and George Bagley, University of Central Florida • The Jane Pauley Task Force found that news professionals were dissatisfied with the ethical and journalistic attitudes of new graduates. This study compares news directors’ perceptions with those of broadcast majors and finds several significant differences between them. The higher percentage of students placed great importance in providing entertainment. Professionals are more likely to see their role as investigating government claims. Also, students and professionals differed on half the ethical issues presented to them.

A Content Analysis of TV News Magazines: Commodification, Conglomeration, and Public Interest • Kuo-Feng Tseng, Michigan State University • This study conducts a content analysis of television news magazines to find out the impacts of media commodification and conglomeration on public interest. It finds that news story topics and presentation styles become more tabloidism than prior researches did, especially for 48 Hours, 20/20 and Dateline. Crime stories and sexy images were the popular strategies to attract audiences. News story topics have associated relationship with advertising and news sources. News magazines prefer to stories and sources from their conglomerate or partnership.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Public Relations 2001 Abstracts

Public Relations Division

Gender Discrepancies in a Gendered Profession: A Developing Theory for Public Relations • Linda Aldoory, University of Maryland and Elizabeth Toth, Syracuse University • This paper illustrates through literature and original research a beginning theory that explains the enduring gender discrepancies in what has become a gendered field, that of public relations. A survey of public relations practitioners reveals statistically significant gender differences in hiring perceptions, salary and salary perceptions, and promotions. These data support several previous studies that have shown over time gender discrepancies in hiring, salaries and promotions. Using theory drawn from other fields as well as original data from a series of focus groups, authors construct concepts and theoretical propositions to help explain why there are still gender differences in a field that is predominantly women.

Student Preferences for University Recruiting Brochure Designs • Ann Befort, and Roger C. Saathoff, Texas Tech University • Researchers tested five aspects of college viewbook design- percentage of text per page, number of pictures per page, color versus black and white photographs, campus scenes versus pictures of people, and page orientation. Respondents were high school students. Results showed students’ interest in a college was significantly greater in regard to two of the elements analyzed- multiple pictures on the viewbook page rather than just one, and pictures of people rather than photos of buildings.

CO-ACCULTURATION IN A KOREAN MANUFACTURING PLANT IN MEXICO • Glen M. Broom and Suman Lee, San Diego State University, and Woo-Hyun Won, Korea University • This paper addresses intercultural manager-worker communication relationships in a large Korean manufacturing plant in Mexico. The research questions include: 1. How do managers and workers with different cultural backgrounds perceive each other’s cultural attitudes, values and behaviors? 2. To what extent do managers and workers recognize each other’s cultural values? 3. How do manager-worker relationships adjust over time to cultural differences? The researchers explicate a theoretical process of “co-acculturation” and employ a coorientational measurement model.

Company Affiliation and Communicative Ability: How Perceived Organizational Ties Influence Source Persuasiveness in a Company-Negative News Environment • Coy Callison, Texas Tech University and Dolf Zillmann, University of Alabama • The influence of attributing corrective information to different spokespersons in the wake of company-negative accusations was investigated experimentally. In particular, the research pitted a company’s own public relations sources against sources working for a firm hired by the maligned organization and sources employed by agencies investigating negative claims independently. Results suggest that PR sources are less credible than outside sources. Over time, however, PR sources are judged as equally credible as hired and independent sources.

How Prepared Are Companies in Singapore and Hong Kong for Crises? – A Comparative Study • Shiyan Dai and Wei Wu, National University of Singapore • Based on personal interviews with over 400 business executives in Singapore and Hong Kong in two surveys, this paper aims to compare and contrast the two regions in terms of crisis management (CM) planning among the companies. We intend to find out: What is the current situation of CM planning? Are there any common and consistent “Asian” attitudes toward crises and CM there? And what are the major factors influencing the CM planning there?

The Effect of the World Wide Web on Relationship Building • Samsup Jo, University of Florida, Yungwook Kim, Ewha Womans University and Jaemin Jung, University of Florida • The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Web characteristics and perceptions toward relational components. A 2 (low interactivity and high interactivity) x 2 (text-oriented and multimedia-oriented) experiment was designed with 197 participants to test this purpose. The outcomes showed that interactivity has significant effects on relationship building. However, the interaction effects between interactivity and medium composition suggest that nonessential arrangement of interactivity and multimedia did not enhance positive perceptions of relationships with the organizations. Interactivity showed the main effect, however multimedia orientation did not. The application of interactivity on the Web was discussed for better relationship building.

If We Build It, Will They Come?: Testing the Theory of Planned Behavior as a Predictive Model For Use in Determining How Career Counseling Centers Can Better Promote Their Facilities and Services • Carolyn Ringer Lepre, California State University-Chico • Many students resist planning for the futures, and university career counseling centers sit underutilized across the country. It is proposed that it is in part up to educators, career counselors and the public relations practitioners who work for university career counseling centers to convince and encourage students to seek career counseling help when they need it. The question is, however, how can this most effectively be done? This study tested the usefulness of the Theory of Planned Behavior as a predictive model clarifying what factors impact a student’s decision to seek career counseling.

Intangible Outcomes of Corporate Strategic Philanthropy: A Public Relations Perspective • Joon-Soo Lim, University of Florida • Corporate philanthropy contributes to the long-term bottom4ine by building an intangible but valuable asset – reputation. This study tested the linkage between Fortune reputation index and the firms’ philanthropy. Results showed that a firm’s contributions were positively associated with CSR attribute. Findings here imply that the relationship between corporate philanthropy and its outcomes may be better understood by considering the firms’ social investment as obtaining good reputation by building desirable relationships with key publics.

Classifications of Corporate Web Pages by Relationship Contents and Functions • Joon-Soo Lim, University of Florida and Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Missouri-Columbia • Building better relationships with key publics could help firms develop intangible and valuable assets. This study examined the Fortune 100 companies’ web pages according to the different contents and functions that are devised to build public relationships. Results show that how each relationship function is associated with diverse relationship contents. This study will give a managerial implication on how the corporate Web pages can be devised to build a relationship with various publics.

Media Coverage of Risk Events: A Framing Comparison of Two Fatal Manufacturing Accidents • Michael J. Palenchar, University of Florida • This study extends analysis of the meaning contained in risk discourse as part of a community infrastructural approach to risk communication studies. The author deconstructed media narratives through a systematic, longitudinal content analysis of a major metropolitan newspaper’s coverage (n=92) of two manufacturing crises. Some findings include: increased use of risk bearers and a decreased use in risk generators as sources, increased focus on risk generators, and increased use of medical and legal sources. The implication of such analysis is that wise public relations personnel should understand how journalists use sources and narrative elements to frame risk coverage.

Framing Effects of Genetically Engineered Food Labels On the Public’s Attitudes toward enetically Engineered Foods: Implications to Public Relations Campaigns • Hyun Soon Park and Sunyoung Lee, Michigan State University • Since 1999, the debate over genetically engineered foods has exploded and become a worldwide public relations disaster for the biotechnology industry. One of the hot issues surrounding genetically engineered foods is a concern about mandatory food labeling. Either mandatory or voluntary labeling, whichever is to be required in the near future, has raised imminent and critical questions to public relations practitioners, risk communicators, policy makers, and marketing planners. This study aims to investigate framing effects of genetically engineered food labeling on the public’s perceptions of and attitudes toward genetically engineered food products. According to the results of this study, participants perceived differently four types of food labels (e.g., bioengineering, genetic engineering, biotechnology, and genetic modification). The framing effects of four types of labels indicated that participants exposed to “bioengineering” or “genetic engineering” labels showed higher perceived benefits, lower perceived risks, more positive attitudes, and higher purchase intentions than those who are exposed to “biotechnology” and “genetic modification” labels. As we can see in these results, framing of food labels plays a crucial role in shaping consumers’ perceptions of and attitudes toward genetically engineered food products. This gives an important practical implication to public relations practitioners, risk communicators, public policy makers, and marketing planners as well.

Hong Bo and PR in the Korean Newspapers • Jongmin Park, Pusan National University • This study analyzed the meaning of Hong Bo and PR as the terms appeared in three main Korean newspapers, on the basis of Spicer’s seven themes. A total of 1548 mentions of the term Hong Bo and PR were analyzed as follows: First, Korean newspapers, like newspapers in the United States, tend to view Hong Bo and PR as publicity or merely PR. Thus, overall Korean newspaper reporters have a negative attitude toward the meanings of Hong Bo and PR and the reporters’ viewpoint was supported by this study. Second, the uses of PR and Hong Bo were categorized as challenge, distraction, disaster, hype and merely PR. While Hong Bo was categorized more of terms as challenge, distraction and disaster than PR was, PR was categorized more of terms as hype and merely PR than Hong Bo was. This also indicates that while the meanings of Hong Bo were more negative or positive than those of PR, the meanings of PR have been used as more neutral than those of Hong Bo. The study suggests that Korean public relations practitioners and relatives have to try to lead the public to a positive attitude toward the term Hong Bo, which has been used more frequently than the term PR.

Investigating Corporate Social Responsibility: A Content Analysis of Top Chinese Corporate Web Pages • Shu Peng, University of Louisiana-Lafayette • The study investigated the current status of Web usage by large Chinese firms, especially the way they use their Web pages to support corporate social responsibility. The most frequently addressed social responsibility’ areas were environment protection, education, quality of work life, and community involvement. Market value was related to corporate social responsibility areas for non-manufacturing firms. Manufacturing firms had more corporate social responsibility areas on their Web pages.

From Aardvark to Zebra: A New Millennium Analysis of Theory Development in Public Relations Academic Journals • Lynne M. Sallot, University of Georgia, Lisa J. Lyon, Kennesaw State University, Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, University of Georgia and Karyn Ogata Jones, University of Georgia • In a replication and extension of a 1984 study by Ferguson to investigate the status of theory building by public relations scholars, 747 abstracts and/or articles published in Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research and its predecessor Public Relations Research Annual, since their inceptions through the year 2000, were subjected to content analysis. Nearly 20 percent of articles analyzed were found to have contributed to theory development in public relations compared to only 4 percent in Ferguson’s study. Theory was most prevalent in articles about excellence/symmetry, public relationships, ethics and social responsibility, crisis response, critical-cultural, Feminism/diversity and international topics. These and interdisciplinary influences are expected to continue to contribute to ever more theory building in public relations.

INSTITUTIONAL ADVERTISING AS CONTEMPORARY PUBLIC RELATIONS: PHILIP MORRIS, A CASE STUDY IN RHETORICAL FRAMING • Valerie Terry, Oklahoma State University • This paper explores how institutional advertising functions as a public relations tool. More specifically, the analysis explores how rhetorical framing of mass mediated messages can counter the indirect informational subsidy typically open to PR pros when that approach has been closed to practitioners because of a particularly hostile media environment and negative public opinion. Philip Morris’s institutional ads, aired in the wake of the 1998 tobacco settlement agreement, form the basis for this case analysis.

Public Relations Excellence in Alliances and Coalitions: An International Perspective • Mark A. Van Dyke, University of Maryland • This exploratory paper examines how excellence theory applies to public relations practices in international alliances and coalitions. Data from interviews with 6 alliance and coalition public relations practitioners were categorized and compared to 17 characteristics of excellence theory. Results revealed a close association with excellence theory. The study also suggested that a mixed-motive, mixed-worldview approach to public relations employed by these organizations might have important implications for a theory of global public relations.

Public Relations Worldview and Conflict Levels in the Client-Agency Relationship • Youngmin Yoon, Syracuse University • This study examines to what extent different worldviews of public relations are related to the agency-client relationship. A survey was conducted of eight public relations agencies and their clients in Korea, obtaining worldview measures and tension levels of 15 agency-client pairs. The findings show that overall, as the gap between the agency and client’s public relations worldviews widens, more conflict occurs between them. The findings also demonstrate that a considerable gap exists between the agencies and clients in Korea in terms of their worldviews of public relations and that agencies have more symmetrical worldviews than do clients.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Newspaper 2001 Abstracts

Newspaper Division

Who Brought US These Grapes of Wrath? New York Times and Washington Post Coverage of the 1996 Israeli-Hezbollah Conflict • Abhinav Aima, Ohio University • This study examined the coverage of the 1996 Israeli attack on the Hezbollah in Lebanon. A content analysis of 92 news stories collected from the Lexis-Nexis databank for the month of April 1996 yielded 1090 sources. An examination of the sources and their comments lent support to the propaganda model theory: Both newspapers over-represented the sources that were favorable to the foreign policy of the U.S., or largely kept their opinions within the confines of the foreign policy debate.

Convenient Excuses? Jobs, Classes, And Misconceptions Limit JMC Students’ Involvement In Major • Betsy Alderman, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and Fred Fedler, University of Central Florida • College students say they have literally run out of time. Ninety-two percent are enrolled full-time, and 79.3 percent work at least part-time. Although their intentions are good, 81.5 percent have not completed an internship and 78.4 percent have not worked for any campus media. Moreover, many students are mistaken about employers’ priorities. When given a list of 13 possible priorities, students ranked good writing skills fourth, internships seventh, and work for campus media twelfth.

Creating new value for copy editing instruction in the curriculum and the university • Ann E. Auman, University of Hawaii, Frank E. Fee Jr, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and John T. Russial, University of Oregon • Traditionally, copy editors have taken a back seat to reporters in newsrooms, and journalism schools have reflected this. This study, a survey of 69 editing instructors on the value of copy editing in journalism curricula, shows that copy editing does not have equal status with reporting/news writing classes but that it is valued. Instructors should emphasize that editing is the “glue”; it teaches the big picture view and critical thinking skills, which are valued throughout the university.

Exploring the Market Relationship Between Online and Print Newspapers • Hsiang Iris Chyi, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Dominic L. Lasorsa, University of Texas at Austin • A random-sample telephone survey was conducted in a typical one-newspaper city to investigate the public’s response to local, regional, and national newspapers’ print and online editions. Results identified a substantial overlap of online and print readerships for the local daily —suggesting the potential of a complementary product relationship. Cannibalization — the negative impact of launching a free Web edition on print circulation—was insignificant because print readership was strongest among readers of that same newspaper’s online edition. The print format was preferred—even among Web users—when compared with the online edition on an “other things being equal” basis.

Social Construction of Depression in Newspaper Frames • Cindy Coleman-Sillars, Portland State University and Jessica A. Corbitt • The authors examine factors that are brought to bear on the social construction of depression in newspaper coverage. In a 14-month period, the authors explore news frames that reveal stigma, and examine how solution, disease and war frames shape coverage. They conclude that, while coverage is not overtly biased, the structure of coverage, news routines and influences of exogenous variables, combined with use of specific metaphors, help shape depression in an unfavorable light.

Mapping the Public Journalism Continuum: Do Newspaper Educators and Editors Agree on the Outcomes and Goals of Public Journalism? • Tom Dickson, Wanda Brandon and Elizabeth Topping, Southwest Missouri State University • Following suggestions of previous research that there was not one public journalism but several, the authors surveyed editors of daily newspapers and members of the AEJMC Newspaper Division to determine whether they agreed on the outcomes and goals of public journalism. The authors concluded that the two groups did not differ in their opinions about the outcomes or the goals of public journalism; however, editors rated the importance of each of the six goals significantly higher than did educators. The authors also found that institutional variables studied were more important to both editors’ and educators’ responses concerning outcomes of public journalism and the less-activist goals of public journalism but that individual variables were more important concerning the more-activist goals of public journalism.

Back to the Future? Teaching Copy Editing Skills in Changing Times • Frank E. Fee, Jr., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; John Russial, University of Oregon and Ann Auman, University of Hawaii • A survey of editing professors at ACEJMC-accredited programs indicates that traditional skills of text editing, headline-writing and design remain fundamental but that new skills involving technological and organizational competencies have become quite important too. The study also compares the responses of professors with those of copy editing professionals in a previous national survey. It shows that professors and professionals are largely in agreement about which skills are crucial for copy editors to have but that professors feel their students need a wider variety of skills. Neither group currently places much emphasis on multimedia skill. The views of professors were closer to those of professionals at small to mid-size papers, papers that are more likely to hire students out of college.

Connecting With the News Culture: Trade-Press Readership Among Copy Editors and Their Supervisors • Frank E. Fee Jr., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This research examines external factors in the training and professionalization of journalists, asking whether a key group of news workers, copy editors, attend professional trade press and journals and benefit from potential training and professionalism they offer. It finds that copy editors and the people who hire, supervise and evaluate them report low levels of professional journal and trade press readership. Implications for journalism education and practice are discussed and newsroom training opportunities are identified.

“Still Shocking, But No Longer Surprising”: The Anomaly Paradox in Newspaper Coverage of the 1997-1998 School Shootings • Russell Frank, Pennsylvania State University • This paper brings together Tuchman’s “what-a-story,” Fishman’s “crime wave dynamic” and Gans’ identification of small-town pastoralism and social order as “enduring values in the news” in accounting for similarities among newspaper stories about five school shootings that occurred in 1997-98. The juxtaposition of Tuchman and Fishman sheds further light on one of the fundamental paradoxes of journalism: A series of similarly anomalous events is considered more anomalous than a single anomalous event.

Turbulent Times: Organizational Change and Development in the Newspaper Industry • Peter Gade, University of Oklahoma • In the late 1990s, the newspaper industry embarked on broad-based change initiatives in an attempt to ensure the long-term viability of the industry in a dynamic media marketplace. Newsrooms were restructured, news values revised, job descriptions and necessary skills redefined. This mail survey of 457 rank-and-file journalists (56.6 percent response rate) from a purposive sample of 17 newspapers leading industry change draws on the commonality of the journalists’ experiences with change, attempting to provide benchmarks for understanding industry change that are (a) practical to newsroom managers and (b) theoretical. Respondents perceive themselves as open-minded toward change, but think change initiatives have not been planned, implemented or monitored in accordance with organizational theory. Journalists report they do not think team-based newsrooms provide more autonomy or improve the content of newspapers. They perceive change as primarily market- and profit-driven. Organizational development initiatives, newsroom structure and news values are significant predictors of morale, which is low.

The Aesthetics of Work: How Faculty Editors and Student Reporters Negotiate Good Work in the Newsroom • Beverly Horvit, Winthrop University • This qualitative study examines the aesthetics work in a university newsroom. The analysis, based on observation and interviews, shows how student reporters and faculty editors negotiate what will be considered good journalism, good academic performance and good teaching. Both parties are shown to juggle different responsibilities and make compromises in the production of the newspaper. Both have to manage time and space in deciding how to do good work and determining what good work is.

A Comparative Analysis of On-line versus Print Media: Readability and Content Differentiation of Business News • Jaemin Jung and Samsup Jo, University of Florida • The purpose of this study was to examine the readability and content differentiation of business news. Specifically, three newspapers and three Internet sites were content analyzed to see differences based on the media type. The findings suggest that the Internet business news showed more difficult readability with longer sentences, lower reading ease scores and more complex business terminology. The other results showed differences in the topics and visual usages between newspapers and Internet sites.

Diffusion in the Heartland: Internet Use at Small Dailies and Weeklies in Oklahoma • Stan Ketterer, Oklahoma State University • This paper looks at how reporters in Oklahoma use the Internet. All dailies and most weeklies in the study bad Internet access. It was too costly and unavailable for some weeklies. Further, all dailies and most weeklies used the Internet for reporting. Journalists at some weeklies thought it was not useful for local news. Overall, these journalists sought similar information, although dailies had higher usage. All newspapers relied mostly on primary and secondary sources, and most included Internet information in their stories.

THE FEDS. THE FAMILY, THE FATHER: THE FRAMING OF ELIAN • Kimberly Lauffer, Towson University, Alyse Gotthoffer Lancaster, and Sandra Florentin, University of Miami • Six-year-old Elian Gonzalez made these and other headlines nationwide when he was returned to his father by the Immigration and Naturalization Service on April 23, 2000. This study examines newspaper coverage from the day after the federal agents removed the boy from Miami and reunited him with his father, who was waiting in the Washington, D.C. area. Seventy articles in three South Florida newspapers were analyzed qualitatively to elicit the framing techniques used by the newspapers. Frames included insider/outsider, proactive/reactive, freedom/repression, civilized/uncivilized, and religious/sacrilegious, advanced by the assignation of blame, personalization, use of loaded language, use of figurative language, use of comparisons and contrasts, and use of sources.

Impact of Web Design Approach on News Retrieval Efficiency • Xigen Li, Louisiana State University • A computer lab experiment of news retrieval process of three U.S Internet newspapers found that Web design approach has a significant impact on news retrieval efficiency. This study identified several factors that affect obtained gratification of users when they retrieved news information from Internet newspapers. The site balanced with graphics and text achieved the highest retrieval efficiency among the three Internet newspapers. Besides media content, this study demonstrated that the means that facilitates users to get information is also important in predicting value associated with the medium. The Internet newspapers with different designs are functional alternatives available to audience in all markets and are likely to compete for audience in their selection of communication channels within the medium.

Official sources, embedded perspective and news frameworks: How two Korean newspapers covered a public health crisis • Robert A. Logan, Jaeyung Park and Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Missouri-Columbia • A content analysis of the coverage of a public health crisis in Korea from September 1999 to December 2000 explored 13 hypothesis about news reporting and selection that were derived from qualitatively based international literature. The findings suggest a tendency to: overemphasize official sources, underemphasize other news sources and avoid extensive in-depth reporting. However, the newspapers surveyed diversified their reportorial and news selection range as events occurred.

Framing Youth Violence • John McManus and Lori Dorfrnan, Berkeley Media Studies Group • Have quality newspapers incorporated what we’ve learned over the last quarter century about making news more useful as a resource for civic participation? A yearlong analysis of reporting about youth violence provides a schizophrenic conclusion: After the Columbine massacre, newspapers provided rich context, a wide range of sources and many frames offering causes and solutions. But coverage of the more common violence that most threatens society was typically frameless , minimally contextualized, and police-sourced.

Numbers in the News: A Mathematics Audit of a Daily Newspaper • Scott R. Maier, University of Oregon • To establish baseline information about journalistic use and misuse of numbers, 1,500 local news stories were examined in a mathematics audit of a daily metropolitan newspaper. Nearly half of local stores were found to involve mathematical calculation. Eleven categories of numerical inaccuracy were identified. Most errors were self-evident and involved elementary mathematics. Results suggest that journalists fail to apply the attention and skepticism to numbers that they routinely apply to other aspects of their work.

Newsroom Numeracy: A Case Study of Mathematical Competence and Confidence • Scott R. Maier, University of Oregon • By testing the ability of reporters and editors to perform math tasks commonly encountered in their work, this case study of a metropolitan daily newspaper provides a baseline assessment of numeracy in the newsroom. The study also examines mathematical confidence of journalists, with strong performers in math outnumbering weak performers, the results challenge the view that most journalists cannot handle even elementary mathematics. However, testing revealed high math anxiety even among strong math performers.

The Scope and Nature of Newspaper in Education programs: A National Survey • Patrick C. Meirick and Daniel J. Sullivan, University of Minnesota • Even though there are fewer Participating newspapers than in 1992, ME programs now reach an estimated 14.4 million students, up 33 percent. More than twice as many newspapers provide school copies free of charge, thanks to the growing role of sponsors. An increasing emphasis on circulation is apparent: Circulation departments are now primarily responsible for 69 percent of ME programs, and newspapers were much more likely to rate “immediate circulation gains” as an extremely important reason for the program.

At Play in the Field of the Word: A content analysis of the coverage of women’s sports in selected San Francisco Bay Area newspapers • Greg Mellen and Patricia Coleman, University of Missouri • This study extends previous research on inequities in media coverage of women’s sports in newspapers. A content analysis was conducted on sports sections from large, medium and small newspapers from the San Francisco Bay Area. 4,152 stories and 66,000 inches of text were coded. The study hypothesized that men’s stories receive the majority of coverage and that smaller papers provide more equitable coverage of women’s sports. Chi squares and descriptive data supported both hypotheses.

Campaign Advertising Coverage in the 1990s Elections: A Content Analysis • Young Min, University of Texas-Austin • This paper explores the discursive patterns and styles of campaign advertising coverage. Specifically, it examines how the news sets contextual frames for political ads, attending to how two prestigious newspapers—the New York Times and the Washington Post—covered the 1992, 1996, and 2000 general-election advertising campaigns. An analysis of 118 ad stories indicates that ad coverage in the 1 990s has paid more attention to challengers than incumbents, to presidential than state or local races, and to negative than positive ads. While employing an investigative and research driven style of reporting, the press has applied a “double-standard” to the assessment of political ads; it has tended to deflate the authenticity of campaign ads, but more often than not it has reinforced the causes of the campaigners concerning the political effectiveness of those ads. Most importantly, the press has exhibited a Republican bias in coverage and a Democratic bias in tone in reporting on advertising campaigns. Overall, the campaign ad coverage in the 1990s has shifted its attention from the effectiveness of the charges and countercharges to their accuracy, focusing more on the substance of candidates’ issue positions. This shift may encourage candidates to engage each other with the matters that are more essential and relevant to governance.

Newspapers in the Age of the Internet : Adding Interactivity to Objectivity • John L. Morris, Adams State College • Four recent books on public journalism make clear this ideological movement has drawn attention to the interactive processes of journalism over its static products. This emphasis on process has led many critics to connect public journalism with activism and, consequently, a loss of objectivity. Scholars of the writing process and social psychology maintain that all human communication is interactive, however, and some theorists argue the more interactive the communication, the more effective it is.

Gatekeeping and the Editorial Cartoon: A Case Study of the 2000 Presidential Campaign Cartoons • Jennifer M. Proffitt, University of Wyoming • This study explores gatekeeping studies and the political editorial cartoon, comparing the experiences of editorial cartoonists with gatekeeping research findings and examining how standardization and conservative news policies appear to apply to editorial cartoons pertaining to the 2000 presidential campaign published in The Denver Post. Sixty-nine cartoons were analyzed and compared to the 155 select articles concerning the 2000 presidential campaign. The study also discusses The Post’s endorsement of Vice President Gore and its possible effect on choice and content of cartoons.

COPY FLOW AT SMALL NEWSPAPERS: LESSONS FOR METROS SEEKING CHANGE? • Judy Gibbs Robinson, University of Oklahoma • Some newspapers are eliminating their copy desks in a move to flatten hierarchies and return to more generalist workers. There is much less role specialization and hierarchy at small newspapers because of staff sizes, therefore they might be models for this large-newspaper trend. A mail survey confirmed that small newspapers (<25,000 circulation) have flattened hierarchies and generalist workers. It also identified three general patterns of copy flow at small newspapers that have no copy desk.

Local Advertisers and Online Newspapers: Will Print Revenue Streams Reproduce on the Web? • Dan Shaver, Michigan State University • Many newspaper publishers launched online newspapers as companions or supplements to their print publications for strategic reasons, without a well-developed plan for achieving profitability. Once online, however, economic imperatives have quickly emerged. A great deal of attention has been focused on the impact of online publications on content and readers, and a good deal of research about web-based advertising has been conducted, but little notice has been given to local advertisers and online newspapers. This study addresses the question of whether local advertisers, the backbone of support for print newspapers, are likely to become dependable supporters of electronic news products. It finds that local advertisers have a commitment to a future online presence despite generally negative past experiences, that whether online newspapers or other web-based vehicles capture this business is an open question, and that newspapers are likely to suffer less than broadcast and cable television as advertising budgets are adjusted to pay for online services.

Journalistic voice in public affairs & public confidence in the press • Hoon Shim, University of Texas-Austin • The primary purpose of this study was to explore if biased reportage in public news accounts is linked to the public distrust toward the media. It was predicted that three chief factors are contributing to the decline in press performance ratings: (1) an increase in the number of descriptively biased reports (2) an increase in the number of points of view (3) an increase in the number of thematic frames. Data support the first and third propositions.

All The Surveys That Are Fit to Print: The Romanian Case • Razvan Sibii and Brad Thompson, American University in Bulgaria • Against the background of a theoretical discussion of the legitimacy of public opinion polling, this paper looks at the way three Romanian newspapers treated survey stories in the five months before the Romanian parliamentary and presidential elections in fall 2000. The survey stories examined were found to violate numerous standards of poll reporting as established by the Associated Press. This raises questions about media practices and professionalism in Romania and throughout Central and Eastern Europe.

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS: Online Newspapers Go Beyond Shovelware in Covering Election 2000 • Jane Singer, University of Iowa • As newspapers move online, they encounter opportunities to contribute to campaign coverage, a staple of American journalism, in new ways. This study, based on a survey of online editors at sites affiliated with leading U.S. papers, indicates that editors gave primary emphasis to the medium’s ability to provide Election 2000 information faster and in more detail. Though options for enhancing political discourse were appreciated by some, both interactivity and multimedia presentations were less widely cited among editors’ key goals and perceived successes.

Gender Politics: News Framing of the Candidates’ Wives in Campaign 2000 • Betty Houchin Winfield and Barbara Friedman, University of Missouri • News coverage of the first lady has historically covered her during the White House years in four frames: as an escort to her husband; as a style setter; in a noblesse oblige role; and as a policy advisor. This qualitative study examines coverage in three newspapers of the presidential and vice presidential candidates’ wives during the 2000 election. What frames are present as these women are introduced to the American public? How journalists, after the sweeping changes in American women’s lives and in the wake of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s unprecedented tenure, cover these figures, may tell us something about how the first lady’s and second lady’s roles are still evolving.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Minorities and Communication 2001 Abstracts

Minorities and Communication Division

Factors Constraining Encoding of African-American Life in the News: Mainstream Media Representations of African-American Life as Manifestation of Interethnic or Interacial Communication Behavior • Linus Abraham, Iowa State University • Adopting a critical structural approach, the paper moves the discussion of racial representation beyond manifest content to include contextual factors that empower it. It explores mainstream white-media’s representations of Blacks as a form of inter-ethnic communication behavior, and in the process provides a theoretical foundation for understanding the persistence of predominantly negative representations. In doing so, it also provides a theoretical mechanism for systematically analyzing the media representations, and makes it possible to conduct systematic longitudinal studies of representations of Blacks.

Differences in Media Buying by Online Businesses in Black- and White-Targeted Magazines: The Potential Impact of the Digital Divide on Ad Placement • Osei Appiah and Matthew Wagner, Iowa State University • This study examined differences in ad placement by online companies based on whether the publication targets the general market or the black population. Seventy-two magazines from three different categories were analyzed to ascertain the number of online company ads in each magazine. It was predicted that online businesses would place more ads in general market magazines than they would in magazines targeted to black audiences. The findings clearly support the overall hypothesis. The impact of the digital divide on ad placement is discussed.

The Uses and Gratifications of the Internet among African American College Students • Mahmoud A.M. Braima, Southern University and A&M College • This study developed and empirically tested a model of the uses and gratifications of the Internet among African American college students. The study used structural equations to simultaneously test three gratification needs. Data from a survey of 404 African American college students in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana provided support for the hypothesis that surveillance, entertainment and personal utility are significant gratification dimensions among African American college student users of the Internet.

Time, Media and Acculturation: The Experience of a Southern California Vietnamese American Community • Jeff Brody, Tony Rimmer and Edgar P. Trotter, California State-Fullerton • This study of recent immigrants – the Vietnamese American community in Southern California – examines how media use, namely the decision to read English-language and/or Vietnamese-language newspapers, might play a part in measuring acculturation. Further, the study explores how age at arrival and time in the United States might affect media use and acculturation. Immigrant groups have typically been studied in terms of the differences of assimilation among generations (first, second, third). Vietnamese Americans have lived in this country for at most 25 years, which is about the equivalent of one generation. A problem for this study, then, is whether the assimilation process can be detected within one generation. The analysis draws on data from a 1999 telephone survey in the Orange County, California, Vietnamese American community. The study’s findings indicate that assimilation differences among first generation immigrants – including newspaper language selection – can be delineated by age at arrival, length of residence in the United States, and the proportion of life spent in the United States.

Not like Me: How Minority Youth Distance Themselves From Risk • John R. Chapin, Penn State University • The third-person perceptions hypothesis posits that people believe others are more influenced by media messages than they are. The existing literature consistently documents that individuals make self vs. other distinctions when assessing media effects, but not how such distinctions are made. The current study sought to document the self/other distinction in third-person perception and to assess differences in how minority youth separate their own personal risk from that of others.

Translating ownership into action: A comparison of owner involvement and values at minority- and non-minority-owned broadcast stations • Stephanie Craft, University of Missouri • Research demonstrating that minority ownership of broadcast stations and programming diversity are linked also includes the counter-intuitive finding that owner involvement in station activities is not related to that link. This paper examines two ways owners may affect programming: through staff perceptions of shared values with the owner and through hiring. Results of a survey of minority- and non-minority-owned stations suggest that owner involvement is a significant predictor of perceived similarity, but not hiring.

Effects of Advertising Messages for Breast Cancer on African-American Women 5 Attitudes Toward Early Prevention • Cynthia M. Frisby, University of Missouri-Columbia • The present research examines and analyzes how African American women think and feel about specific communication strategies concerning breast cancer. Using a 2 x 2 experiment, advertising appeal and involvement, results indicated an interaction between involvement and appeal used in the ad. Ads using endorsers and survivors were found to be most effective in changing attitude toward breast cancer prevention for black women who expressed little interest in breast cancer prevention and early detection.

African Americans in the Brownsville (TN) States-Graphic: The Invisible Majority • Cynthia A. Bond Hopson, University of Memphis • During l960-l961, in Haywood County, Tennessee, African Americans got married, worked hard, took care of their children and did many of the same things that Whites did, however, most of their activities were never reported in the Brownsville States-Graphic, the local weekly newspaper. When there was news about African Americans, it was usually about crimes or catastrophe. This content analysis examined news items about African Americans in this small rural newspaper.

WELCOMING A VISITING IN-LAW: RACIAL SOLIDARITY AND PRESIDENT CLINTON’S IMAGE IN THE NIGERIAN PRESS • Minabere Ibelema, University of Alabama-Birmingham • This paper examines President Clinton’s image in the Nigerian press and relates it to the political philosophy of Pan-Africanism. The study draws especially from Nigerian press coverage of President Clinton’s visit to Nigeria in August 2000. The study employs the metaphor of the extended African family to illuminate the dynamics of the visit. The paper concludes that President Clinton’s positive image in the Nigerian press derived from the perception that Clinton was a friend of African Americans.

Racial Stereotyping and Mass Mediated Contact: A Comparative Analysis of African, Anglo, Asian and Latino Americans • Carol M. Liebler, Syracuse University and Richard D. Waters, University of Georgia • This study examines in-group bias, and the extremity-complexity and contact hypotheses in relation to media exposure, and crime and success stereotyping. A cross-sectional survey of African, Anglo, Asian and Latino Americans (n=491) illustrated that not only did stereotyping vary by group, but that interpersonal and mediated communication are both important factors to consider when conceptualizing and operationalizing contact, as is the type of media contact.

When Identities Collide: The African American struggle with dominant culture ideology during World War I and II • Earnest L. Perry, Texas Christian University • In the years leading up to America’s involvement in the war, African Americans had been denied jobs in the defense industry, turned away while attempting to volunteer for military service and when accepted forced to train at camps in the segregated South. During the war they could serve in support service units, such as construction, mechanical and mess duty. However, they were expected to remain loyal to American democracy. This study looks at the conflict between the role the dominant culture wanted African Americans to play during World War I and II, and the resentment it caused. During both wars, the African American press helped the community renegotiate its position within American society, reject the negative aspects of the dominant culture and re-establish relationships with those who supported democracy based on equality for all. This study, using double-consciousness as a theoretical approach and the narrative of African American hesitancy to support the dominant culture during two world wars, attempts to fill the gaps in this neglected area of historical study.

Student Research Papers

Commercials and Race: A Comparative Study of Blacks in Prime Time Advertising in Denmark and the United States • Tiffany Nicole Avery, Elon College. • While scholars in our country have investigated and discussed the impact of American racial stereotyping in the media, little is known about racial stereotyping in other countries. This comparative study examines prime-time television advertising in the United States and Denmark; and the presence of stereotyped images of people with dark skin. Comparing data collected during a study by Entman & Book (2000) with a similar assessment in Denmark, each advertisement was coded and examined.

Between Silence and Condemnation: A Discourse Analysis of Booker T. Washington’s Editorials and Private Writings on Lynching • Wanda Goins Brockington, Howard University • This paper examines the implications and motivation behind the rhetoric of Booker T. Washington and his public and private stance on lynching. Positioned as he was as a chosen leader, he became, in effect, a buffer between the injustices perpetrated against his people and the oppressors themselves. Understanding what is left unsaid is sometimes more revealing than what is actually said. Through the application of critical discourse analysis and employing the framework of strategic silence and cultural studies, the study found there was a marked difference in the public and private rhetoric Booker T. Washington used to discuss lynching.

The Relationship Between Television Exposure and Body Satisfaction Among Black College Women • Rockell A. Brown, Wayne State University • One image that the media exploit with great success is what constitutes beauty or attractiveness in women. By focusing on the relationship of Black women to this phenomenon, the study explores the extent of the relationship that exists between the amount of television exposure and body image among Black college females. Additionally, this investigation attempts to determine to what extent subjects are satisfied with their individual physical appearances, as well as whether subjects perceive Black female television personalities as exemplifying an idealized body image/type, and whether or not Black college students assess their physical appearance in terms of females that appear on television. The framework and research questions for this investigation are based on the social learning and social comparison theory. The design of the study involves survey research with participants being female students at a predominantly African American university.

Hispanic and Asian Presence and Portrayal in Minority Magazine Advertising From 1960s to 1980s • Hwi-Man Chung, North Carolina • This study first attempted to see how other minorities appeared and were portrayed in minority magazine ads, with an emphasis on black-oriented magazines. Previous historical observations and empirical studies about minorities in mass media have found that minorities in ads were less represented and were usually portrayed as less skilled than white models. This study also confirms the results of previous studies. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the frequency of black models in black-oriented magazine ads outnumbered the frequency of white models in main stream magazine ads. However, the blacks were still portrayed stereotypically in terms of occupations. That is, black models are most likely to portrayed as –entertainment-or Ôsports/athletic- figures in the ads. Furthermore, African Americans are usually targeted for alcohol and cigarette products. In terms of other minorities, Hispanics and Asians, both ethnic groups were less represented in black-oriented magazine ads. They were most often used in military recruiting ads and they were never portrayed as consumers in the ads. Instead, they were most often portrayed as below-skilled personnel in the ads, and usually depicted in service positions. Even though the government tried to include minorities in its ads, their occupations are highly skewed to certain types of categories such as mechanic, driver, or maintenance worker.

Terror Masked in Silence: Black Press Coverage of the Reconstruction-Era Ku Klux Klan • Mike Conway, University of Texas at Austin • The 1800-era Black press didnÕt back away from the most volatile issues of the time including slavery, emigration and lynching. But on the subject of the Ku Klux Klan, the editors were mostly silent. This paper strips away the years of revisionist history and looks at African-American owned newspapers’coverage of the original Klan. The paper explores the reasons why the Black press stayed away from coverage of the terrorist group and rarely mentioned it by name.

The Production of Latino As a Social Imaginary in La Raza (1972-1979) • Mirerza Gonazales-Velez • This paper presents the preliminary findings of a case study on La Raza newspaper (1973-1979). Newspapers, as archives of meanings, serve for the mediation, diffusion and re-articulation of discourses that enable people to familiarize with a community unlike their own. This is possible through the emergence of a “social imaginary,” a taken-for-granted truth that gives unity and order to people’s lives and facilitates the continuity of a collective that in Latino’s case is fragmented.

The Effects of Hispanic Model Ethnicity on White Viewers: An Exploratory Study • W. Buzz Hoon, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • The purpose of this research was to explore the influences of models’ race on white viewers’ attitudes and purchase intentions. Previous research has offered mixed results in white subjects’ evaluations of ads with black models. This experiment manipulated Hispanic and white models in advertisements. Participants evaluated attitude toward the model, attitude toward the ad and purchase intention. Results indicate the use of Hispanics as advertising stimuli is relatively positive for white respondents.

Reaching Multicultural News Coverage Through Neutrality: An Examination of Newspaper Editorial Content on the Elian Gonzalez Custody Case in Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Communities • W. Buzz Hoon and Andy Lynch, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • The purpose of this research was to examine editorial content on the custody case of Elian Gonzalez in newspapers located in Hispanic and non-Hispanic U. S. communities. Researchers analyzed the positions of 165 editorials on the case. Editorials in non-Hispanic communities’ newspapers were more often in favor of returning Gonzalez to Cuba (68%), while Hispanic newspapers were more neutral (43%). The data suggest that Hispanic newspapers did not present partisan content on the case.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Media Management and Economics 2001 Abstracts

Media Management and Economics Division

Megamedia: A Research Note Examining Communication Industry Concentration • Alan B. Albarran, University of North Texas • Concentration ratios within and across nine different segments of the communication industries were assessed by analyzing data over a five-year time frame. The data indicates most media industry segments are highly concentrated. Cross-industry concentration is also increasing, fueled by a number of mergers and acquisitions involving high-ranking firms. Implications of these findings are reviewed and discussed in the concluding section of the paper.

Market Structure and the Rise of Chains in the United States: A Case Study of the E. W. Scripps Company, 1878-1911 • Gerald J. Baldasty, University of Washington • This paper argues that the market structure of the newspaper industry circa 1900 propelled the emergence of newspaper chains. Only chains could compete against entrenched incumbent publishers. This paper focuses on three key areas: First, the modern industrial firm circa 1900; second, the newspaper industry market structure at that time and, third, the E. W. Scripps Company – the first U.S. newspaper chain-and its competition with older, family-based firms.

Content Differences between Daily Newspapers with Strong and Weak Market Orientations • Randal A. Beam, Indiana University • This paper reports on results of a content analysis of 10 daily newspapers, five that have a relatively strong market orientation and five that have a relatively weak market orientation. The results offer support for both critics and supporters of market-driven journalism. The findings suggest that information about government and public life dominates the content published on the main display pages of all papers. But the findings also suggest that market-driven newspapers publish fewer items about public life and more about so-called lifestyle issues.

Losing Local Owners in Small Markets • Todd Chambers, Texas Tech University • The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 represented the culmination of the theoretical shift in the philosophy of broadcast ownership regulation. After decades of government regulations maintaining the structure of local broadcast markets, policies of deregulation slowly began to restructure local media markets under a marketplace approach to broadcast regulation. This study explored the consequences of shifting from a managed structure of regulation to an open market structure of deregulation in small media markets. Overall, the statistical analysis suggested that there was a limited impact on the number of local owners when considering the gradual change from regulation to deregulation. However, the data analysis suggested that there has been a negative impact on ownership diversity since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in the small markets.

Public Ownership and Market Competition Effects on Newspaper CorporationsÕ Financial Performance: A Replication and Challenge • Kuang-Kuo Chang and Geri M. Alumit, Michigan State University • This study confirms conclusions made by Blakenburg and Ozanich in 1993 and Lacy, Shaver and St. Cyr in 1996 that the level of public ownership affects newspaper corporations’ financial performance. High levels of public ownership increased stock returns. This study however, disagrees with Lacy et al.’s finding that market competition affects newspaper corporations’ financial performance. The intensification of mergers, acquisitions and newspaper ownership clustering post-1996 may explain the contrasting results.

Motivating a More Diverse Newsroom: Exploring Different Needs of Women, Older and Married Reporters • Li-Jing Arthur Chang, Nanyang Technological University • This study explores the roles of demographic influences (age, gender, and marital status) in the way intrinsic needs (such as autonomy and sense of achievement), extrinsic needs (such as pay and promotion opportunities), and a neutral factor (i.e., both an intrinsic and extrinsic need) affect newspaper reporters’ job feelings. A total of 365 Texas newspaper reporters are surveyed for the study. Findings showed that special attention is needed to motivate women, older, and married employees.

The Globalization of Telecommunications Services: Alliances, Market Development, and Product Convergence • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • This study examines the market and product expansion strategies that telecommunications companies have adopted to compete in the growingly integrated global market. Using a database of market activities, the author found that there have been widespread practices of within-industry expansions both domestically and internationally. Strategic alliances, especially mergers and acquisitions, seem to be the prevalent approach for market growth. The European telecom firms have been more interested in finding international allies for geographical market development than their U.S. counterparts. There has been more core business-related expansion as the wire-line telecom companies enter the wireless and Internet product markets. In regard to environmental factors that might impact a telecom firm’s strategic choice, this study found that the external factors of relative health of the economy, legal structure maturity, technological development, more established telecom/information infrastructure, and a slowing growth of demand for traditional wire-line telecom products set the stage for product convergence (i.e., inter-industry expansion). As for the environmental factors for the target company, logically, the degree of economic freedom, in addition to the similar external conditions listed earlier, were found to be significant.

Managing Internet-Delivered Radio: New Markets, New Revenue, New Operations Issues • Cheryl L. Evans, Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Steven K. Smethers, Oklahoma State University • Recent Arbitron studies show that the audience for Internet-delivered radio stations is reaching nearly one-fourth of the nation’s population. Webcasting has already added a visual component to radio, and promises to develop new markets and revenue streams. This study employs Delphi methodology to survey 50 expert panelists in an effort to ascertain the top operational challenges promulgated by this technology, and offers some recommendations for entrepreneurs seeking to launch Cyber radio enterprises.

The Sony Corporation: A Case Study in Transnational Media Management • Richard A. Gershon, Western Michigan University and Tsutomu Kanayama, Sophia University • The transnational corporation is a nationally based company with overseas operations in two or more countries. What distinguishes the transnational media corporation (TNMC) from other types of TNCs, is that the principle product being sold is information and entertainment. The following paper is a case study analysis of the SONY corporation; a leading TNMC in the production and sale of consumer electronics, music and film entertainment and videogame technology. Part I. of this paper examines the history and development of the Sony corporation. This paper argues that the business strategies and corporate culture of a TNMC are often a direct reflection of the person (or persons) who were responsible for developing the organization and its business mission. Part II. of this paper examines the Sony corporation as a transnational media corporation. Special attention is given to the subject of business strategy. A second argument of this paper is that while Sony is a transnational media corporation, the organization is decidedly Japanese in its business values. The significance of this research lies in its revelations concerning the complex changes facing a company that was once historically Japanese in its origins but is becoming increasingly transnational in scope and operations.

Different Voices, Same Script: How Newsmagazines Cover Media Consolidation Issues • Bryan Greenberg, Syracuse University • The increase in media consolidation over the past 20 years has led to a growing debate over the impact of ever-widening media conglomerates. An important and growing part of this debate revolves around how the media cover themselves. Through a content analysis of three newsmagazines, this study demonstrates that while editorial choices may differ as to story mix, coverage of consolidation is strikingly similar, framed as a battle of personalities, and not a matter of public interest.

B2B Electronic Exchanges in the Advertising Industry: Early Evidence of Impact on Media Buying • Anne M. Hoag, Penn State University • Thousands of electronic marketplaces have launched recently, serving business-to-business (B2B) trade in every industry including advertising. The value proposition is supply chain optimization – eliminating inefficiencies between sellers and buyers. Established practices in media buying are inefficient leading to higher costs. This represents opportunity for B2B exchanges. But is it? Or is it a passing fad? This paper examines the recent profusion of B2B advertising exchanges. Findings imply that while the incentives to eliminate inefficiencies in media buying are great, embeddedness, that is, firmly established social and cultural processes, present barriers to B2B exchange success in the short run. Competitive pressures outside the insular advertising agency sector, however, should prevail in the long run.

Managing in a Converged Environment: Threading Camels through Newly Minted Needles • Kenneth C. Killebrew, University of South Florida • This research examines the complexities of managing journalists ill a new media or converged environment. The article examines traditional management, social psychology and persuasion literature in a discussion of the problems facing convergence managers. It uses recent examples of convergence problems with WFLA-TV, The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com in Tampa, Florida. The paper concludes with actions that should be taken by media managers to ensure their convergence endeavors are successful

The Impact of Competition on Weekly Newspaper Advertising Rates • Stephen Lacy, Michigan State University, David C. Coulson, University of Nevada-Reno, and Hiromi Cho, Ibaraki Christian University • This national study of 432 weekly newspapers found that competition from other weeklies in a county was correlated with a lower cost-per-thousand ad rate. However, when a subsample of 236 weeklies with intense competition was analyzed, this relationship with cost per thousand disappeared. Instead, the data showed that as competition became more intense, a weekly’s open-column-inch ad rates decreased. Also, when market size was control for, ad rates for paid weeklies did not different from free weeklies’ ad rates.

Impact of Context Effects on Evaluation of New Shows in Lead-In/Lead-Out Context • Jack C.C. Li and Jaemin Jung, University of Florida • This study conducted an experiment to explore the impact of context effect on the evaluation of a new show, incorporating lead-in and lead-out scheduling techniques. Results show that contrast effect or assimilation effect occurs, depending on whether the surrounding program is of the same or a different genre. The same context effects occurred regardless whether the target show was viewed first (i.e., lead-out) or after the context show (i.e., lead-in). It was also found that the assimilation effect tended to be the largest in the lead-out/different-genre condition, and contrast effect was the highest in the lead-in/same-genre condition of all experimental conditions. Implications about scheduling strategies in the introduction of new series were discussed.

Remembering the DuMont Network: A Case Study Approach • Walter S. McDowell, Southern Illinois University • The brief ill fated history of the DuMont TV network serves as a useful case study for understanding the interactive effects of untried technology, frustrating regulation and ruthless economics on a new media venture. Unlike prior studies that took a more historical point of view, this paper embraces a business case study approach to demonstrate how contemporary media management lessons still can be learned from studying the fateful decisions surrounding the demise of America’s original fourth TV network

Horizontal Integration in the Cable Television Industry: History and Context • Patrick R. Parsons, Penn State University • This paper offers an historical review and analysis of horizontal integration in the cable television industry. It traces ownership patterns from the inception of the earliest MSOs to the formation of today’s industry behemoths. It is a business history that provides a panoramic view of the slow but steady concentration of holdings in the industry and looks at the contemporaneous forces that either accelerated or retarded such formation at given points in its development.

When Ideas and Reality Collide: A Four-Year Case Study of Editor Cole Campbell’s Organizational Change Initiatives at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Earnest Perry, Texas Christian University and Peter Gade, University of Oklahoma • After a tumultuous three-and-a-half years at the helm of the newspaper rich in Pulitzer tradition, Cole C. Campbell resigned as editor in April 2000. Campbell’s tenure had been marked by an ambitious attempt to change the culture of the news organization. This study includes surveys of newsroom employees in 1996 (the week before Campbell began as editor), 1997, 1998 and 2000 (after he resigned). Results show Campbell had some success at changing news values, but reorganization to a team system of reporting has not worked well, the staff did not see a connection between change and better journalism, and morale was low at the time Campbell resigned. organizational theory can be used to help explain the staff’s perceptions about why change initiatives failed.

Audience Economics of European Union Public Service Broadcasters: Assessing the Performance in Competitive Markets • Robert G. Picard, Turku School of Economics and Business Administration • This paper explores the economics of audiences and applies the approaches to public service broadcasters in the European Union. It suggests and applies a method for analyzing the contemporary performance of public broadcasters using market shares. The study funds that, as a whole, public service broadcasters are performing better than statistically expectations, that public service broadcasting is generally maintaining market leadership, and that higher market share performance is associated with less government funding.

RATE-SETTING PROCEDURES FOR PREPRINT ADVERTISING AT NONDAILY NEWSPAPERS • Ken Smith, University of Wyoming • This study examines the procedures used by nondaily publishers in setting their preprint rates and compares them to ROP rate-setting procedures. The findings indicate that target-profit pricing is the main procedure used for setting both preprint and ROP rates but with one important difference. Preprint target pricing includes the cost of distributing the preprints only. ROP target pricing considers all costs in running a newspaper, including the cost of producing news.

Market Structure and Local Signal Carriage Decisions in the Cable Television Industry • Michael Zhaoxu Yan, University of Michigan • Using historical data collected by the General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1990, a time when must-carry rules were not in effect, the paper empirically tested the effects of horizontal concentration, vertical integration and other system-specific variables on cable operators’ carriage decisions regarding local broadcast stations. The results from the Zero-inflated Negative Binomial model (a count model) indicated that horizontal concentration or firm size had negative effect on the carriage of local broadcast stations on cable systems, holding other factors constant. The study, however, did not find any significant effect for vertical integration.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Media Ethics 2001 Abstracts

Media Ethics Division

Social Dimensions of Ethics Decisions in Newswork: A Comparison Across Ethical Situations • Dan Berkowitz, University of Iowa and Yehiel Limor, Tel-Aviv University • This paper studied decisions about ethical problems in newsgathering through five social dimensions: individual, small group, organizational, professional, and societal. Data were gathered through a mail survey of reporters in one Midwest state. Results found two broad response patterns, one basing decisions chiefly on professional autonomy and public interest, and another pattern that considered all five social dimensions more broadly. These patterns were most clearly distinguished by a reporter’s degree of professional experience.

The Ethics Agenda of the Mass Communication Professoriate • Jay Black, University of South Florida, Bruce Garrison, University of Miami, Fred Fedler, University of Central Florida, and Doug White, University of South Florida • This study reviews a growing body of faculty ethics literature and surveys one-third of the AEJMC membership about its attitudes toward 65 different issues. Forty-eight percent of the 775 people who received the mail questionnaire in late 2000 provided usable responses. They indicated that in many respects journalism and mass communications faculty are very similar to colleagues from other disciplines, but on many items, are far more sensitive to the welfare of students.

History, Hate and Hegemony: What’s a Journalist To Do? • Bonnie Brennen and Lee Wilkins, University of Missouri • This paper focuses on the distribution of a KKK flier in Columbia, Missouri, as a case study through which to explore the responsibility of journalists confronting the issue of hate speech. It draws on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, which is contrasted with an ethically-based discussion of the societal impact of hate speech. In an effort to help journalists cover hate without furthering its ends, this paper concludes with some practical advice for journalists that is grounded in communitarian theory and the notion of journalism as a transformational activity.

The Role of Questions in TV News Coverage of the Ethics of Cloning • David A. Craig and Vladan Pantic, University of Oklahoma • This study is a qualitative analysis of how the ethics of cloning was portrayed in 36 network TV news pieces after the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997. It focuses on ethical questions, a prominent feature of most of the stories. All but a few questions pointed to issues of ethical duty or consequences, though often only in general terms. Responsible uses of questions are discussed, along with uses that distorted or sensationalized.

Characterizing Plagiarism: An Interdisciplinary Critical Analysis • Victoria Smith Ekstrand, University of North Carolina • This paper presents an interdisciplinary analysis of the literature on plagiarism in an effort to inform the discussion on plagiarism in journalism. It argues that characterizations of journalistic plagiarism as a recent trend work against solving the problem. It identifies three characterizations of plagiarism the behavioral, empirical and structuralist approaches – and argues that industry observers tend to see journalistic plagiarism through the behavioral lens and would benefit from a more comprehensive view.

The Fairness Factor: Exploring the Perception Gap Between Journalists and the Public • Deborah Gump, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Few moral frameworks as formed as early in life as fairness, and few are more difficult to define. While journalists focus on professional values of even-handed and dispassionate reporting as the basis of fairness, readers often include social values of compassion and respect. This paper offers a definition of fairness within the contexts of procedural and distributive justice and uses two surveys to find that journalists and the public hold different values for three of four selected elements of fairness: accuracy, balance, respect, and reporting expertise in a subject area. Journalists and the public are also found to be poor judges of how the other values the four elements.

WHAT WOULD THE EDITOR DO? A THREE-YEAR STUDY OF STUDENT- JOURNALISTS AND THE NAMING OF RAPE VICTIMS IN THE PRESS • Kim E. Karloff, California State University-Northridge • According to recent surveys, 80 percent of Americans say the news media “often invade people’s privacy,” 52 percent say they think the news media abuse the First Amendment, and 82 percent think reporters are insensitive to people’s pain. In the case of whether or not those in the press should name or not name the survivors of rape, journalism students – those who will be making these decisions in the future – have offered even more opinions, newsroom policy suggestions, and optimism. The purpose of this three-year, 140-student study was to examine how these future journalists might write/rewrite newsroom policy on naming names. Their responses include: a call to publish names, but only if the victim asks for or consents to identification; a charge to lessen the impact of the social stigma attached to the crime; and a request for the ethical treatment of rape victims and survivors.

Applying Sociological Theory to Statements on News Principles: Functionalist, Monopolist, and Public Service/Status Claims in Four Recent Journalism Ethics Codes • Susan Keith, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examined four recently written or rewritten journalism ethics codes in light of functionalist, monopolist, and public service/status views of professional ethics described in the sociological literature. All three types of theoretical elements were present in the Gannett newspapers, Radio-Television News Directors Association, and Tampa Tribune codes. However, the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors code featured only monopolist elements. As predicted in Andrew Abbott’s work on professional ethics, the elements present in the codes corresponded roughly to the external pressures on the organizations that wrote them.

Impartial Spectator in the Marketplace of Ideas: The Principles of Adam Smith as an Ethical Basis for Regulation of Corporate Speech • Robert L. Kerr, The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This integrative essay offers an ethical basis justifying regulation of corporate speech, based on the neglected moral and political theories of Adam Smith. His essential tenets on free markets are applied to the First Amendment marketplace of ideas concept that has been prominent in developing corporate free-speech rights. It is argued that regulation of corporate speech cam actually enable more ideas to flourish in the political marketplace – advancing utilitarian ideals of the common good.

Privacy and the pack: Ethical considerations faced by local papers covering the JFK Jr. plane crash • Mark W. Mulcahy, University of Missouri-Columbia • Local journalists covering the deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Kennedy and Lauren Bessette primarily dealt with three ethical dilemmas. The first issue was the invasion of the Kennedys’ privacy through photographs. Second, reporters had to consider privacy, accuracy and credibility in their use of unnamed sources. The third issue was how increased competition affected the journalists’ ethical decision-making. This case study examines the link between those dilemmas and local journalists’ behavior.

Leaks: How Do Codes of Ethics Address Them? • Taegyu Son, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper is to analyze how journalistic codes of ethics wrestle with the matter of leaks. Leaks are an important means for the government to control the media. In order to maintain their competitiveness, journalists become the government’s managerial tool, often ignoring fundamental precepts of journalism ethics – independence and the fourth estate function. Codes of ethics have been the most widely used mechanism for journalistic accountability. None of the 41 codes analyzed explicitly mentions leaks.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society 2001 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society Division

Marginalized Groups in Society: The “Coolie” Barrister: Mahatma Gandhi as a Leader of Racially and Socially Marginalized Groups in South Africa (1888-1914) • Debashis “Deb” Aikat, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) had an eventful career as a lawyer-turned politician-journalist working for racially and socially marginalized groups in South Africa By identifying the problems of socially marginalized groups, Gandhi fought against systematic oppression, reductions in social services for the needy, and other inequitable social trends. This paper documents the evolution of Gandhi as a journalist in South Africa and his early experience with the press from 1888 to 1914. While exploring the early journalistic career of Gandhi, this historical study focuses upon Gandhi’s introduction to newspapers and earliest writings; the political background of his entry into journalism, especially his struggle against racism m South Africa; his contributions as the guiding spirit of the Indian Opinion, the weekly newspaper he helped launch in South Africa in 1903; and the ethical issues raised by him, the very issues that were to become his primary concerns as an international leader of non-violence and socially marginalized groups.

Believability and Satisfaction: Media Credibility in a Midwestern Community • Christopher E. Beaudoin, Esther Thorson and George Kennedy, University of Missouri-Columbia • The current study explores media credibility in light of declines being experienced by both daily newspapers and television news programs. Credibility is operationalized in terms of media believability and satisfaction. Mass media use is measured, via 27 items, for the four main news media: newspapers, television, Internet, and radio. Contrary to previous research, the study finds few demographic antecedents to media believability and satisfaction. The study does, however, second prior studies by finding strong associations between mass media use and both believability and satisfaction. The study demonstrates that Internet news satisfaction levels are higher than the other media—but lower when it comes to believability. The findings rise from a telephone survey of adults in a Midwestern community.

Ugly for Life: Exposure to Sports Coverage of the Olympic Games, Sports Participation and Body Image Distortion in Women 18-75 • Kimberly L. Bissell, University of Alabama • Many studies offer clear evidence that exposure to TDP (thinness depicting and promoting) media leads to distorted body image perceptions in school-age females and college women. This study examined the relationship between sports media exposure during the Olympic Games and sports participation to body image attitudes in women between 18-75. Women in this age group were used in this study because most studies of this nature typically look at effects on college women or young girls. Age was directly related to sports participation and sports exposure, and more importantly, it was found that many older women were as unhappy with their body shape as younger women. Both sports media exposure and sports participation were predictors of body image attitudes, with exposure and participation in lean sports leading to more negative attitudes.

Web and Traditional Media Use in the 2000 Presidential Election • Thomas P. Boyle, Susquehanna University • This study focuses on the web and traditional media sources during the 2000 presidential campaign. A random telephone survey of Pennsylvania state residents (N=392) in the month before the general election indicated the televised debates and a visit to a candidate web site lead to greater knowledge about candidate issue positions. Visiting candidate web sites and attention to traditional sources were predictors of campaign interest while attention to radio increased likelihood to vote.

Media Participation: A Legitimizing Mechanism of Mass Democracy • Erik P. Bucy and Kimberly S. Gregson, Indiana University-Bloomington • This paper reconsiders civic involvement and citizen empowerment in light of interactive media and elaborates the concept of media participation. Departing from conventional notions of political activity that downplay the participatory opportunities inherent in communication media, we argue that new media/formats have, since 1992, made accessible to citizens a political system that had become highly orchestrated, professionalized, and exclusionary. A typology of active, passive, and inactive political involvement is presented to accurately distinguish civic involvement from political disengagement and to categorize the types of empowerment and rewards—both material and symbolic—that different modes of civic activity afford. Even if only symbolically empowering, civic engagement through new media serves as an important legitimizing mechanism of mass democracy.

Bridging the Gap Between Perception and Behavior: Psychological Distance in First-Person Perception • John Chapin, Penn State University • The third-person perception hypothesis posits that people believe others are more influenced by media messages than they are. The existing literature consistently documents that individuals make self vs. other distinctions when assessing media effects, but not how such distinctions are made. The current study sought to document the self/other distinction in third-person perception and to assess differences in how individuals separate their own personal risk from that of others. Findings of a survey of 180 urban minority youth conform the presence of third-person perception and significant self/other distinctions in media effects. A clear split between cognitive and social predictors emerged when assessing differences in self/other distinctions. Participants relied on cognitive factors when assessing their own risk, while relying more heavily on self-esteem when assessing the relative risk of others. Liking and trust of the media was the only shared correlate of self/other distinctions in third-person perception.

A Structural Analysis of the Mediated Civic Participation on Human Rights Issues: Comparing the Mainstream with the Alternative Newspapers in Korea • Bum Soo Chon, State University of New York at Buffalo, Yun Sook Song, Korean Press Foundation and Won Yong Jang, State University of New York at Buffalo • Using the network analysis, this paper examines how two newspapers, the mainstream and alternative, have represented interactions between civic organizations and various under-represented issues such as human rights in the news coverage. The results suggest that although most human rights issues and organizations were clustered at peripheral positions for the mainstream newspaper, they formed a dense cluster for the alternative newspaper. Simply, the alternative newspaper’s coverage of civic participation oil human rights issues represents the various discourses of civil society in a more connected way, while the mainstream newspaper tended to cover them separately.

Sports Exposure, Identification and Viewer Aggression • Steve Collins, University of Texas-Arlington • Survey data (n=624) were used to test the relationship between exposure to televised sports and viewer aggression. The results indicate there is a correlation between exposure to certain sports and viewer aggression. For example, professional wrestling exposure correlated with physical aggression for the entire sample and predicted verbal aggression among men. Consistent with social cognitive theory, one’s level of identification with athletes on television is among the strongest predictors of physical and verbal aggression.

Misrepresentations of the Race of Juvenile Criminals on Local Television News • Travis L. Dixon and Cristina Azocar, University of Michigan • A content analysis of a random sample of local television news programming in Los Angeles and Orange counties was conducted to assess representations of Black, Latino and White juvenile law-breakers. “Intergroup” comparisons of perpetrators (Black and Latino vs. white) revealed that Black and Latino juveniles are significantly more likely than White juveniles to be portrayed as law-breakers on television news. “Inter-reality” comparisons of law breakers (television news vs. crime reports from the California Department of Justice) revealed that Black juveniles are overrepresented, Latino juveniles are underrepresented and White juveniles were neither over- nor underrepresented as perpetrators on television news. Society’s understanding of public issues changes over time. Here, we use media indexes to systematically and reliably account for such change and to measure social context. We systematically represent the classification systems and subject headings the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature uses to archive media coverage of poverty from 1929 – 1998 and test whether these representations replicate the findings of social historians regarding the development of American poverty policy and discourse. We believe this measure has value for scholars interested in agenda-setting, framing, the dynamics of public and media discourse, and public opinion.

In Search of the Zeitgeist: A Systematic Approach to Measuring Social Context• Jill A. Edy, Middle Tennessee State University, and Regina G. Lawrence, Portland State University • Society’s understanding of public issues changes over time. Here, we use media indexes to systematically and reliably account for such change and to measure social context. We systematically represent the classificiation systems and subject headings the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature uses to archive media coverage of poverty from 1929 to 1998 and test whether these representations replicate the findings of social historians regarding the development of American poverty policy and discourse. We believe this measure has value for scholars interested in agenda-setting, framing, the dynamics of public and media discourse, and public opinion.

Assessing Causality: A Panel Study of Motivations, Information Processing and Learning During Campaign 2000 • William P. Eveland, Jr., Ohio State University, Dhavan V. Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Nojin Kwak, University of Michigan • This two-wave panel study was designed to test the causal claims of the cognitive mediation model. The data indicate strong support for these claims. Motivations influenced information processing, information processing influenced knowledge, and motivations influenced knowledge only indirectly through information processing. Additional analyses demonstrated that our theoretical variables are not related in a simple unidirectional causal pattern. Future research should consider the reciprocal nature of relationships between information processing and knowledge.

Learning from the News in Campaign 2000: An Experimental Comparison of TV News, Newspapers, and Online News • William P. Eveland, Jr., Mihye Seo and Krisztina Marton, Ohio State University • This study contributes to research on learning differences across media by extending television news versus newspaper comparisons to include online news and seeking to produce a more ecologically valid result from experimental findings. Results suggest that medium has only a limited direct impact on the amount of learning. Attention, however, is significantly influenced by characteristics of the medium and the experimental stimulus, and this in turn influences learning.

Media Ownership and ‘Bias:’ A Case Study of News Magazine Coverage of the 2000 Presidential Election Campaign • Craig Flournoy, Danielle Sarver and Nicole Smith, Louisiana State University • The hypothesis of this paper is that a publicly held media property-such as Newsweek or Time-will be more likely to display objectivity in its news coverage than a privately held media company such as U.S. News and World Report. To test this, the authors conducted a content analysis of the three major news magazines’ coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign. The results of the content analysis of the three magazines support the hypothesis.

Violence vs. Sex: Differences in Rap Lyrics by Male and Female Artists • Rhonda Gibson and Joe Bob Hester, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Popular rap songs were coded for artist gender, genre, female images, and violent themes. Female artists were more likely to perform “booty” rap, while male artists primarily performed “gangsta” rap. Lyrics often contained references to women as sex objects; however, female artists were more likely to refer to women as strong. Female artists were less likely to use violent themes. Gangsta rap was more likely than booty rap to contain violent themes. The authors argue that it is unwise to lump all rap artists together when criticizing lyrics for violent, sexual, and misogynous themes.

Mobilizing Information in Newspaper Editorial Pages: An Endangered Species? • Gary Gray and William F. Griswold, The University of Georgia • This study analyzes newspaper editorial pages from three newspapers in 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989 and 1999 to determine how much mobilizing information was offered to readers of these pages at different times. Results indicate that the level of mobilizing information in these pages, after rising from 1959 to 1969, has declined steadily since then. The authors suggest that this trend may be one factor contributing to a decline in civic participation in the United States.

Video Games and the Elusive Search for their Effects on Children: An Assessment of Twenty Years of Research • James D. Ivory, University of Wyoming • This paper assesses 20 years of research into the effects of video games on children. Studies reveal dispute over effects, with findings of negative effects disputed by other research. Further complicating the issue is the fact that the medium has rapidly evolved technologically, making problematic any comparisons of video game studies over time. The author concludes that a workable or precise model of video game effects on children seems unlikely in the near future.

DO NEWSPAPERS KEEP AUTONOMY IN TIMES OF NATIONAL CRISIS? : A CASE STUDY OF THE IMF CRISIS IN KOREA 1997-1999 • Irkwon Jeong, Ohio State University • This study investigated whether newspapers keep autonomy in times of national crises based on content analysis. Toward this, it examined the editorials concerning the IMF crisis in Korea that lasted from Nov. 1997 to Oct. 1999 in two Korean newspapers with different ideological positions. The content difference between the newspapers in the editorials relevant to the IMF crisis was in accordance with their ideological stance, which infers that newspapers keep autonomy in times of national crises.

Redefining homelessness: How Tucson recyclers resist the media’s stereotyping • Deborah Kaplan, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper is an ethnographic case study of how five homeless recyclers in Tucson experience, and possibly challenge or resist, the dominant discourse on homelessness. The study found that the informants struggled daily, both in their discourse and dumpster-diving routines, to redefine the terms that stigmatize them as the market’s “failures.” They redefined themselves in the process as self-sufficient, self-determining workers. As “survivors,” in a word.

A Web for All Reasons: Uses and Gratifications of Internet Resources for Political Information • Barbara K. Kaye, University of Tennessee and Thomas J. Johnson, Southern Illinois University • This study surveyed politically interested Internet users online during the 2000 presidential election to examine their motives for using Web, bulletin boards/electronic mailing lists and chat forums for political information and to determine whether political attitudes, Internet experience and personal characteristics predict Internet use motivations. The findings indicate that each Internet resource satisfies slightly different needs, which can be predicted by certain variables. Additionally, results from this study are compared to findings from an earlier study of politically interested Web users during the 1996 presidential election.

Internet Technology Empowers Marginalized Labor Movements in South Korea: A Case Study • Tae-hyun Kim, Washington State University • This study employed Resource Mobilization (RM) theory to study how the Internet provided a marginalized South Korean social movement organization (SMO) with a means to mobilize resources. The study found that unique transmission properties of the Internet, particularly with the World Wide Web feature, allowed an SMO to publish, contact, and interact with external audience at a reduced cost. In-depth interviews were conducted to provide accounts about how an SMO actually used the Internet to carry out strike activities and mobilize support from sympathetic international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Better Informed, No Say: Internet News Use and Political Efficacy • Young Mie Kim, University of Illinois-Urbana, Champaign • At the apogee of the democracy, the decline of political efficacy is regarded as one of the most prominent problems. Given that the essence of democracy is citizens’ autonomous control over political decision making and trust in representative government, restoration of political efficacy is an urgent concern to both policymakers and academic researchers. Embracing normative concern, many scholars pay attention to the Internet as a new form of news media, expecting the Internet news use to play a role in restoring political efficacy. Yet, few studies have tapped the relationship between Internet use and political efficacy with earnest theory and method. By differentiating the sub-concepts of political efficacy, that is, internal and external political efficacy, and by looking at the distinctive features of the Internet as a new form of news media, the present paper explored the relationship between Internet news use and political efficacy. Using a survey data, the present study examined whether the Internet news use enhanced the internal and the external political efficacy. The study found that Internet news use uniquely contributed to increase of internal political efficacy, even after controlling for basic possible explanatory variables including tradition news media use. However, Internet use did not make a contribution to increase of external political efficacy. Implications of the results were discussed.

Agenda Setting & Attitudes: An Exploration of Political Figures During the 1996 Presidential Election • Spiro Kiousis, Iowa State University • The purpose of this study is to examine the attitudinal consequences of agenda setting on political figures during the 1996 presidential election. In particular, the analysis probes the relationships among media coverage, public salience, and the strength of public attitudes towards a set of 11 political figures. Using literature from agenda setting, attitude strength, and the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, we explore such relationships. Findings indicate that increased media attention to political figures is correlated with higher levels of public salience and attitude strength. Further, the data suggest that these linkages vary according to levels of audience motivation. Finally, the implications of the results are discussed.

Media and Democracy: News Media’s Political Alienation Effect in Both Election and Non-Election Settings • Tien-tsung Lee, Washington State University • Many studies about news media’s alienation effects are limited to an election framework. One may wonder whether the news media politically alienate the general public during non-election times. Also, most political alienation studies rely on a relatively small local sample. In order to go beyond the limited paradigm of elections, as well as to provide a more representative sample, this study analyzes both a national political survey and a national consumer research data set. Contrary to what many other studies have suggested, our findings suggest that the news media do not lead to political alienation in either settings.

Exploring the Digital Divide: Internet Connectedness and Age • William E. Loges and Joo-Young Jung, University of Southern California • “Digital divide” is usually defined as access or lack of access to the Internet. This study demonstrates differences in Internet connectedness, a multi-dimensional concept that includes the scope and intensity of people’s Internet use. Age is shown to be significantly associated not just with access, but with a narrower range of personal goals and a smaller range of places for connecting to the Internet. Nonetheless, older respondents evaluate the Internet to be as central to their lives as younger people do.

Word People vs. Picture People: Normative Differences and Strategies for Control Over Work among Newsroom Subgroups • Wilson Lowrey, Mississippi State University • Tensions between “word journalists” and “picture journalists” support the notion that journalism is not a singular, monolithic occupation, but instead is subdivided into occupational subgroups, representing different areas of expertise. This study asks a number of questions: Which norms do members of occupational subgroups involved with news presentation observe and to what degree? By what strategies do subgroups attempt to gain greater legitimacy and control over their work? Interview findings suggest news workers follow three sets of norms in news presentation work: integrative norms, which represent the values of internal consistency and efficiency, journalistic norms and artistic norms.

Setting the Stage for the Hutchins Commission: Pre-1947 Government Restrictions on Free Expression • Jane S. McConnell, University of Oklahoma • This paper examines press criticism and First Amendment law in the first half of the twentieth century as significant parts of the cultural backdrop for the Hutchins Commission’s conclusion in 1947 that government control might be necessary to ensure press responsibility. It also demonstrates that government restrictions on free expression may have been an important influence on the way Americans – and the commission members in particular -viewed journalistic autonomy in a democracy.

The Effects of Campaign Advertising Coverage on Candidate Evaluation, Candidate Preference, and the Likelihood of Voting An Experimental Analysis • Young Min, University of Texas-Austin • Attending to the increase in campaign ad coverage, the present experimental study examines the joint effects of advertising and campaign news. More specifically, this study investigates the impacts of the tone of the ad under review and the tone of the news analysis of the ad in ad-watch reports on individuals’ candidate evaluations, their candidate preferences, and their likelihood of turning out to vote. Findings indicate that both advertising tone and news-analysis tone have significant effects on individuals’ evaluations of candidate credibility; the subjects exposed to a negative ad or a deflating tone of news analysis perceived the candidate sponsoring the ad as less honest and less believable than did those exposed to a positive ad or a reinforcing tone of news analysis. More importantly, the tone of the news analysis did significantly swing individuals’ likelihood of voting for the sponsoring candidate; a deflating tone of journalistic comments on a campaign ad substantially decreased the audiences’ preferences toward the sponsor. Furthermore, the data do not support an across-the-board “negativity-demobilizing” hypothesis; neither negative advertising nor deflating news analyses significantly depressed individuals’ participatory intentions.

Perception vs. Reality: Comparing actual newspaper coverage of lesbian and gay issues with readers’ impressions • Sheila T. Murphy and Leroy Aarons, University of Southern California • The present research used both surveys and focus groups to assess readers’ perceptions of the coverage of gay and lesbian-related issues by four major newspapers – The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, The Saint Louis Post Dispatch, and The New York Times. In general, both gay and straight readers felt that coverage of gays and lesbians was extremely sparse, event-driven, conflictual in nature, did not provide a sufficient local context and, consequently, did not reflect their own lives. These reader perceptions were then contrasted against the results of a month-long content analysis of these same newspapers.

Newspapers & the Internet: A Comparative Assessment of News Credibility • Gregg A. Payne, David M. Dozier and Afsheen J. Nomai, San Diego State University • An experiment examined differences in credibility assigned to news stories read in paper form and an identical story read on a web site. Randomly assigned control and test groups exposed to six identical news stories assessed the credibility of the articles they using an established, reliable credibility index. News appearing on a web site was evaluated as less credible for all three categories of news, when compared to paper distribution. However, only two were statistically significant. Credibility judgments differed as a function of news topics.

Can Using Qualifiers Initiate Active Processing of Exemplars? • Stephen D. Perry, John Beesley, Dave Jorgensen, Dave Novak and Kari Catuara, Illinois State University • Studies of exemplification effects have regularly found that the distribution of exemplars can alter perceptions of opinion in news coverage. This study attempts to negate the impact of exemplars through using qualifying statements that suggest that either exemplars are non-representative, or that they represent things that are happening more and more. Results indicate that the impact of the distribution of exemplars is too strong to be overcome by using such statements.

From Wall Street to Main Street: An Analysis of Stock Market Recommendations on TV Business News Programs • Bruce L. Plopper and Anne F. Conaway, University of Arkansas-Little Rock • Mass media business news coverage grew significantly in the last 20 years, American stock ownership proliferated in the 1990s, and stock analysts’ recommendations in 2000 were overwhelmingly positive. Based on these facts, this study analyzed experts’ stock recommendations as presented on four highly popular and easily accessible TV business news programs during the last quarter of 2000. Although results showed differences among programs, an overall positive bias existed when programs were viewed as a whole.

The Importance of Receiver Interpretation Variables In Media Effects Experiments • W. James Potter and Tami K. Tomasello, Florida State University • In this study, we argue that conventional media effects experiments exhibit a major limitation that prevents their findings from being more useful. This limitation involves the disregard of receiver interpretation variables. We hypothesize that viewer judgments about violent program content will be explained less by the treatment condition and receiver attribute variables than by individual interpretations of the contextual factors in the presentations. Results from an experiment designed to include receiver interpretation variables support this hypothesis.

Raising another voice: Framing the civil rights movement through ads in The New York Times • Susan D. Ross, Washington State University • Framing and social movement theories and research find that news coverage critical to movement success tends to ignore, marginalize, or undermine social movements. This study examines twenty-six ads sponsored by civil rights groups in The New York Times between 1954 and 1970 to analyze advertising as a means of positive self-framing by the movement. Findings suggest the benefits of advertising framing may be limited by factionalism within the movement or deceptive advertising by movement opponents.

When no news is not good news, ignorance is not bliss, and your mama may not have told you: Female adolescent information holding and seeking about sexually transmitted diseases • Donna Rouner and Rebecca Lindsey, Colorado State University • Health researchers acknowledge a limited understanding of the social context of adolescents regarding their decision-making behaviors about serious health issues, such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and pregnancy prevention, as well as other concerns. Communication research suggests inadequate knowledge about interpersonal and mediated communication patterns of adolescents, particularly on matters related to sexual decision making. This study looks at one adolescent subgroup, 18-year-old females, and explores their perceptions of themselves regarding their ability to make sound health decisions, their information holding and use about STDs, media and interpersonal communication channel use, their knowledge and perceived knowledge levels. Fifteen first-year college students from a Western university engaged in depth interviews. Findings suggested strong confidence, but weakly developed self-concepts relative to this subject area; low amounts and inaccurate information holding, difficulty finding information from mediated sources and limited interpersonal communication. Suggestions for pursuing this line of research are included.

“A Tale of Two Presidents”: Media Effects and Divergent Trends in Mass Evaluations of Clinton • Dhavan V. Shah, University of Wisconsin-Madison, David Domke, University of Washington and David P. Fan, University of Minnesota • Public opinion about Bill Clinton as President, particularly during his second term in office, was notable for two markedly divergent time trends: (a) remarkably high approval of his job performance, and (b) remarkably low evaluations of his honesty and trustworthiness. With these differing public opinion trends in mind, several pollsters, pundits, and scholars have argued that news coverage of the President must have been largely irrelevant, or influential in ways that are incongruent with traditional political communication models. We disagree. Specifically, we advance a theory that argues that citizens’ political preferences are influenced substantially by heuristics, particularly “cues” and “frames” provided by news media. To test our ideas, we draw upon two types of data: (a) a longitudinal content analysis of major news media January 1993 to January 2001, and (b) corresponding time-trends of opinion polls on the President’s job approval and his honesty. Analyses reveal that over-time news media emphasis upon and framing of certain issue domains coverage of the economy, presidential character, and the Monica Lewinsky scandal can explain changes in mass evaluations of Clinton’s approval and honesty throughout his presidency, including the marked divergence in these trends during the “Lewinsky period.”

The Effects of Warning Labels on Cellular Phones in Korea • Sung Wook Shim, University of Florida, and Jongmin Park, Pusan National University • The present study sought to determine the effectiveness of warning labels about cellular phones in different conditions. This study found a difference between high-credibility source and low-credibility source of the warning label. However, there were no significant differences between high-fear appeal and low-fear appeal and use time (low, medium, high). Even though there is no significant difference between high fear appeal and low fear appeal, high fear appeal might have an impact on the perception of subjects about warning labels in terms of mean score. Finally, source might be an important factor to make warning labels on the cellular phones in Korea. Also, using high credible source might have a positive impact on warning labels.

A Two-Way Interaction Channel with Voters or A New Political Marketing Tool?-The Role of Candidates’ Campaigning Websites in Taiwan’s 2000 Presidential Election • Tai-Li Wang, Shih-Hsin University • This study intended to understand how the presidential candidates used their campaign websites to communicate with their voters in Taiwan’s 2000 presidential election. An eight-week content analysis of the candidates’ websites, a series of in-depth interviews with the campaign managers, and an e-mail survey of the campaign website users, all together, helped to understand whether or not two-way interactive campaigns were undertook in this historical election. Results showed that the “interactivity” between presidential candidates and voters was more of an illusion in Taiwan’s 2000 campaign than a reality. Both the candidates and the voters seemed not ready for an “interactive communication model” promoted by advocates of “electronic democracy”. Discussions are offered to explain the findings, and suggestions are made for future studies.

Modern Gladiators: A Content Analysis of Televised Wrestling • Hyung-Jin Woo and Yeora Kim, University of Georgia • The purpose of this study is to explore how antisocial factors on televised wrestling are represented in match/non-match time and in the three different television time zones such as prime time, after midnight time, and weekend morning time. Based on previous violence studies, the antisocial factors (aggressive acts, desensitization of violated rules, and glamorization of violence) that need to evaluate televised wrestling are selected. The results indicate that the major and popular televised wrestling programs (WWF, WCW, and ECW) are more frequently showing antisocial factors than local-oriented ones (NWA & IWU). The antisocial factors are also frequently represented in non-match time as well as match times. There is no significant difference of frequency of antisocial representation among prime time, after midnight time, and weekend morning time zones so that this study infers that children might be exposed the similar amount of antisocial behaviors regardless of different time zones.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Magazine 2001 Abstracts

Magazine Division

UNION MAGAZINES’ COVERAGE OF THE NAFTA CONTROVERSY BEFORE CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL • Eric Freedman, Michigan State University • The 1993 congressional consideration of NAFTA drew intense labor lobbying. Simultaneously, union magazines served as advocacy tools, attacking the pact and urging members to take political action. Coverage focused on job-related critiques, especially predictions of a job drain to Mexico and potentially lower wages for U.S. workers. Much less attention went to environmental and other perceived flaws of NAFTA. Language in those articles was frequently more heated, even inflammatory, than in the mainstream media.

Mirroring Mediated Images of Women: The Influence of Media Images of Thin Women on Their Eating Disorder-Related Behaviors and Body Image • J. Robyn Goodman, University of Florida • This paper used an experiment to investigate whether images of excessively thin women in the media have negative effects on women. It was hypothesized that varying amounts of thin and “plus-size” models in women’s magazines might influence body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and difference between perceived and actual body size. The experiment revealed a significant main effect and significant group differences for drive for thinness only. The mostly thin model group had the lowest drive for thinness followed by the all thin model group and the few thin model group.

Hot Flashes, Mood Swings, and Miracle Babies: Magazine Framing of Menopause • Stacy J.T. Hust and Julie L. Andsager, Washington State University • Women over the age of 40 are largely absent from media imagery This study examined how magazines have framed menopause over the past two decades, as an increasing number of women have entered the phase. Using two content-analysis methods, we analyzed author and source gender, topics, frames, and photographs in menopause articles in seven news and women’s magazines. Women’s magazines provided a broad range of topics, focusing on helping women prepare and cope; news magazines reported scientific developments, particularly in fertility. More frames, including more graphic descriptions of symptoms and effects, occurred in women’s magazines. Female authors included menopausal women as sources, males did not. White women were pictured as subjects in photos, but photos of menopausal women appeared in a small portion of articles. Though some findings of this study are consistent with coverage of other women’s issues, menopause appears to differ somewhat, perhaps due to stereotypes of menopause.

Getting Personal: A Framing Analysis of Microcomputers in Magazines, 1969-1981 • Jean P. Kelly, Ohio University • Using both framing and diffusion theory, this study considers at how magazines defined the characteristics of microcomputers that aided the technology’s diffusion soon after its introduction, from 1969 to 1981. Among the findings was that a once-threatening war-time technology was reframed into a “personal” medium of expression and social autonomy. Later a “computer literacy” frame prompted parents to buy computers for children. No longer were computers threatening when controlling the machine and controlling one’s life became entwined.

U.S. Magazine Coverage of Forest Conservation, 1901-1909 • Jan Knight, Ohio University • This study explores how popular magazines covered forest conservation during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. Roosevelt appreciated forests for their aesthetic as well as economic values, but his administration – which included Gifford Pinchot, the “father of U.S. forestry” – took a solidly utilitarian approach to forest resources. This study shows that magazines largely parroted the federal line, but they also struggled with the topic, presenting forests as places where individuals could find solace as well as places where the United States could demonstrate its technological prowess. It concludes that magazines sometimes blurred the lines between the preservation and conservation philosophies that emerged before and during the Progressive era, perhaps as a result of Roosevelt’s own waffling on the topic as well as a result of the nation reflecting with shock and perhaps some sadness at the rampant use and destruction of U.S. forest resources during the 1800s.

Racial Cover-up 1996-2000: Who Is the Face on Today’s Fashion Magazine? • Lindsey Kressin, Trinity University • The covers of three popular fashion magazines were examined to determine whether strides have been made in eradicating racial stereotypes of the past. Every issue of Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Vogue from 1996 through 2000 was studied to determine the ethnicity of women depicted on the cover. Of 180 magazine covers studied, 87.5% of the covers featured one white model. Hispanics were featured on 6.6% of the covers, blacks 3.6%, and the racial identity of the model was unidentifiable 2.4% of the time. No Asians were featured on the covers studied.

The Heroic Leader and The Hapless Counselor: Were Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and William Rogers Really the Men News Magazines Reported Them to Be? • Carolyn Ringer Lepre, California State University-Chico • During Richard Nixon’s term of office, he had two very different men as his primary advisers on foreign policy. In this study, news magazine articles covering Rogers and Kissinger were examined, in an effort to determine whether an inequality of coverage may exist, what effect this has on current day perceptions of these two men, and how we can learn from the past to be critical media consumers regarding press coverage of current and future politicians.

The Visual Representation of Quantitative Data In Two U.S. News Magazines • Matthew M. Reavy, University of Scranton • This paper examines the use of graphics in two major U.S. news magazines. Two research questions, drawn from literature in the field, are addressed: 1) are graphical errors widespread in the nation’s two largest news magazines; and 2) if errors exist, do they tend to exaggerate rather than minimize differences in the data. The study found that errors were indeed pervasive in both Time and Newsweek. However, many of the errors fell into the study’s two most controversial categories. With regard to the question of whether or not magazine graphics tended to exaggerate differences, the results were mixed.

Art, Ideology and Americanization in post-war Dutch Journalism •Hans Renders, University of Groningen, Netherlands • In post-war Netherlands the aim was to restore politics in art criticism. The authoritative US publication The New Yorker functioned as a fig leaf. I intend to test whether this aim was achieved by embarking on a case study of Mandril, an opinion-shaping monthly magazine that was edited from the Netherlands between 1948 and 1953. It also projected a modern transparency in its political commentary. At the same time, however, the editors seemed to reject artistic renewal.

Reporter at Large: Morris Markey’s Literary Journalism in The New Yorker • Les Sillars, University of Texas-Austin • Although frequently mentioned in histories of The New Yorker, Morris Markey (1899-1950) has not received due credit for his work in maintaining a tradition of literary journalism in the U.S. in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Markey, who started at The New Yorker a few months after its 1925 founding, foreshadowed the New Journalism of the 1960s with his literary techniques, his tone, voice, and choice of topics.

Sixty-Four Years of Life: What did its 2,128 Covers cover? • David Sumner, Ball State University • The purpose of this research is to analyze the 2,128 cover images of Life between its first Nov. 23, 1936, issue and its last May 2000 issue to determine whether the magazine’s editors viewed its cover as a “cultural artifact” or a “marketing tool.” The cultural artifact model, which looks at magazines as a reflection of cultural demography, measures how accurately they reflect gender, racial and other social norms. The marketing tool model assumes that covers are simply a marketing decision and are chosen on the basis of what editors believe will sell the most copies. Cover content was analyzed according to type and theme of image. Seven hypotheses related to cover type and theme were tested to determine whether Life followed the cultural artifact or marketing tool model. The study concludes that Life covers reflected the marketing tool model during its early years between 1936 and 1959. After 1960, they were more likely to mirror cultural norms than before, but these results were mixed. The most surprising finding was that Life had more covers with women than men on them prior to 1960, but more covers with men on them after 1960. Covers with African-Americans on them were rare except during the 1960s.

The Very Fabric of Modern Life: Social and Political Issues in Scientific American in the 1960s • Mary Carol Zuegner, Creighton University • The publisher and editor of Scientific American ventured into social science to publish what they called socio-political articles in the 1960s because of their belief that science was “the very fabric of modern life.” Using science and the authority of science to explain non-scientific problems or to offer an analysis of a political problem with its roots in science enabled them to add credibility and scientific resonance to essential issues. An examination of each monthly issue of Scientific American in the 1960s and oral histories with publisher Gerard Piel and editor Dennis Flanagan reveal a wide scope with stories on race, poverty, LSD, war and environmental issues.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Law 2001 Abstracts

Law Division

To Rate or Not to Rate? A Comparison of Internet Rating Systems with the Television Industry’s Ratings • Chantal Francois Bailliet, Loyola University • The Internet industry created ratings for its content despite a Supreme Court ruling stating the medium merits the same level of First Amendment protection as print. The Internet is looking to regulate itself much like the television industry did when it adopted its ratings. The difficulty lies in that the Internet is very different from television and accordingly, rating its content brings different problems. In the end, there are more effective solutions than ratings.

New Protection for Speech Rights: Media Use of State Anti-SLAPP Legislation • Matthew D. Bunker, University of Alabama, and Paul H. Gates, Jr., Appalachian State University • “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation” (“SLAPPs”) have been defined as meritless lawsuits brought to silence opponents through intimidation rather than to vindicate genuine legal rights. As a number of states have created statutory means of countering such lawsuits, called anti-SLAPP statutes, it has become clear that at least some of these statutes can also be used by media defendants to defeat libel and related tort claims. This paper explores this new legal weapon and its use by the press.

The Effects of Desnick V. ABC: Setting Boundaries for Surreptitious Newsgathering • James V. D’Aleo, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The 1994 decision in Desnick v. American Broadcasting Companies by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals was a shift from the way courts previously decided newsgathering cases. While literally adhering to the rule that the media must follow all generally applicable laws, the Desnick court protected ABC by using the limitations of the torts involved. This paper examines Desnick ‘s effect on newsgathering cases by investigating how later cases used the reasoning found in this case.

Drawing Swords After Feist: Efforts to Legislate the Database Pirate • Victoria Smith Ekstrand, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines the debate over database piracy after the Supreme Court case, Feist V. Rural Publications, Inc. It concludes that since Feist, appellate courts have struggled to define the constitutional requirement of originality to protect databases as compilations under copyright law and suggests that the adoption of the Altal abstraction test for software programs may offer some guidance to courts required to sort unprotectable ideas and facts of a database from protectable expression.

What Gives You the Right(s)?: Tasini V. New York Times Co. • Cindy J. Elmore, The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • There have been only three federal court rulings to interpret -01(c) of the 1976 Copyright Act as it applies to freelancers working for the publishers of collective works. Yet, the most recent decision did not fully address all of the arguments made in the two earlier opinions. This article examines the three opinions and the legal rules established by them, points out questions, omissions and inconsistencies left unresolved, and provides some guidelines for freelancers.

Updating SPJ’s Report on the Journalist’s Privilege: Three Years Later, Is the Privilege Truly Eroding? • Anthony L. Fargo, University of Rhode Island • The Society of Professional Journalists issued a report in 1997 called “The Erosion of the Reporter’s Privilege.” The report said that judicial support for the journalist’s privilege appeared to be wavering, citing recent cases and expert commentary. This study found that appeals and legislation had reversed the effects of many of the decisions cited. However, the report’s finding that the judiciary was becoming more hostile to journalists was supported by judges’ comments in recent cases.

The Journalist’s Privilege for Nonconfidential Information in States Without Shield Laws • Anthony L. Fargo, University of Rhode Island • Figures compiled by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press show that most news media subpoenas seek nonconfidential information. Journalists argue that all subpoenas infringe important First Amendment rights to a free flow of information and an independent press. While courts in most of the nineteen states without shield laws protect confidential sources, however, courts in only two states extend the privilege to nonconfidential information in both civil and criminal proceedings, this study found.

The Public Interest Be Damned: Lower Court Treatment of The Reporters Committee “Central Purpose” Reformulation • Martin E. Halstuk, Penn State University and Charles N. Davis, University of Missouri • This article addresses the U.S. Supreme Court’s “central purpose” formulation in Reporters Committee V. Department of Justice under the federal Freedom of Information Act. By examining all lower federal court opinions interpreting Reporters Committee and by analyzing the effects of the Court’s opinion on the implementation of the EFOIA, the paper finds that the Court’s opinion has greatly narrowed the scope of the FOIA and limited the power of EFOIA to democratize electronic information.

Sex, Professors, and the Internet: First Amendment Problems with the Fourth Circuit’s Ruling in Uroftskv V. Gilmore • Susan Keith, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit erred in several ways when it upheld a Virginia law that said state employees, including professors doing legitimate research, had to have agency approval before accessing sexually explicit material online with state-owned computers. The ruling in Urofskv V. Gilmore was based on faulty interpretations of Pickering and its progeny and neglected to seriously consider cases in which the U.S. Supreme Court recognized individual academic freedom.

Hyperlinks and the First Amendment: Toward a Hierarchy of Protection • Susan Keith, University of North Carolina • This paper seeks to determine whether hyperlinks have been viewed by courts as protected speech and outlines a proposed hierarchy of First Amendment protection for hyperlinks. It argues that courts have explicitly and implicitly recognized that hyperlinks deserve some First Amendment protection, though insufficient protection has been accorded to certain types of hyperlinks. The paper further suggests a four-level model that would give broad protection to unauthorized surface links to non-infringing content, unauthorized deep links, and links to infringing content but award less protection to some third-party hyperlinks, unauthorized inline links, and unauthorized framing hyperlinks.

In Pursuit of Undue Influence: Government Efforts to Justify Regulation of Corporate Political Speech Since Bellotti • Robert L. Kerr, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study examines government efforts to establish compelling justification for regulating corporate political speech, which received constitutional protection in the 1978 First National Bank of Boston V. Bellotti decision. Courts have since rejected many government efforts to regulate corporate political speech, but have accepted narrowly drawn efforts to prevent quid pro quo corruption and to ensure that wealth amassed through the corporate form in the economic marketplace not be used to unfairly influence the political marketplace.

An “Unholy Alliance”: The Law of Media Ride-Alongs • Karen M. Markin, University of Rhode Island • This paper describes and analyzes legal claims arising from the increasingly common journalistic practice of the media accompanying authorized individuals who are performing official duties. Courts were generally sympathetic to plaintiffs when the media accompanied officials into a home or other traditionally private space. The author concludes that legal support for the ride-along is weak and that the practice is not supported by either the libertarian or social responsibility theories of the press.

Is the Public Interest Meaningless?: Levels of Meaning and Ambiguity in the Public Interest Standard • Philip M. Napoli, Fordham University • In light of recent statements by new FCC Chairman Michael Powell that the public interest standard in communications regulation is essentially meaningless, this paper revisits the long-running debate over the meaning – or lack thereof• of the public interest standard. This paper argues that the question of the meaning of the public interest standard actually contains three separate tiers of the analysis, as the public interest concept can be broken down into three separate levels of meaning: (a) the conceptual level; (b) the operational level; and (c) the applicational level. This paper illustrates that much of the ambiguity and inconsistency associated with the public interest standard resides within the operational and applicational levels. This paper then pinpoints the specific sources of ambiguity and inconsistency and suggests means by which greater definitional specificity and consistency can be brought to the public interest standard.

Copyright or Copy Wrong: An Analysis of University Claims to Faculty Work • Ashley Packard, University of Houston-Clear Lake • Most universities claim to own at least some faculty-created works. This paper explores ownership of faculty-created intellectual property by examining copyright cases that have touched on faculty ownership of their work, the teacher exception to the work for hire doctrine and its relationship to academic freedom, and university copyright policies. It concludes that faculty have little protection for their work other than university copyright policies that may not alter the traditional work for hire arrangement set up by the Copyright Act.

“Burning” News Sources and Media Liability: Cohen V. Cowles Media Co. Ten Years After • Joseph A. Russomanno and Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State University • Identifying a news source who has been promised anonymity has been typically regarded as improper journalism ethically. Exactly 10 years ago, in Cohen v. Cowles Media Co., the U.S. Supreme Court largely invalidated the practice legally. But what has been the impact of the decision over the past decade? This paper takes a two-pronged approach, examining Cohen’s influence in American courts and newsrooms. The results: while news organizations are being more careful, courts are more accommodating to free press interests.

IS INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER IMMUNITY GROWING?: AN EXAMINATION OF IMMUNITY UNDER – 230 OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT AFTER ZERAN • Elizabeth Spainhour, The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • In 1997, the 4th Circuit decided Zeran V. AOL, the first test of Internet Service Provider (ISP) immunity offered by – 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Under – 230, ISPs are not liable for third-party content. This paper examines the 17 cases reported since Zeran that cited – 230 to determine how immunity for ISPs has grown. The paper also addresses the circumstances under which nontraditional ISPs could receive – 230 immunity.

SCHOOL VIOLENCE: GETTING THE RECORDS • Carol Wilcox Stiff, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • When violence involving students erupts at school, journalists generally are faced with obtaining important records to substantiate their stories. To do that, they must cope with privacy laws that protect student records from abuse, state laws that prohibit the release of information about juveniles involved in crime, and the sensitive nature of the records themselves. This research focuses on what scholars have said about the broad area of school violence and three cases in which students were the victims, in California, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. In all these cases, the press was forced to go to court to obtain records and to cope with accompanying delays.

THE CASE AS ARTIFACT: A (RE)READING OF HAZELWOOD V. KUHLMEIER • Andrew H. Utterback, Northern Arizona University • The purpose of the essay is to illustrate the potential critical power of treating case law as “text” or “cultural artifact.” Using Hazelwood V. Kuhlmeier, the paper presents a Critical Legal Studies reading of the case from a methodological perspective stemming from Cultural Studies. The thesis of the essay is that Hazelwood V. Kuhlmeier (1) defines Constitutional freedom outside the bounds of the legal and problematizes American identity in the process, (2) illustrates the ideological conflicts inherent between an everyday life of practice and an identity-laden perception of a Constitutional ideal, (3) allows the State to deny the semiotic process and to actively define and produce what is acceptable, and (4) points out a uniquely late twentieth-century tension between individual and social rights which may define a future theoretical direction in free speech theory and practice.

<< 2001 Abstracts