Archives for January 2012

Small Programs Interest Group

Reflective Practice in Journalism Education • Rod Allen, City University, London, Nod Miller, University of East London • The authors suggest that explicit structured reflection as identified in the literature on experiential learning can be valuable in the context of practically-based journalism education. In response to pressures on journalism education to develop more critical practitioners and to address rapid technological change, explicit structured reflection can be harnessed to address learners’ ability to think critically about their professional practice and to deal with issues of technology in a clear and uncluttered manner.

Perceptions of the Advisor/Student Relationship at a Small University • Carla P. Bennett, Pamela Cope, Midwestern State University • One of the most apparent and viable student/faculty interactions occurs in the academic advising relationship. This relationship has the potential for enhancing the personal growth of students as well as their satisfaction with their educational experience. Small colleges and universities, in particular, acquire distinction because students perceive that they are known as individuals, not numbers. On the whole, most campuses feel that advising is important, but current practices simply do not live up to expectations. This paper examines the perceptions of faculty and students in regard to academic advising at a small university.

Bloom’s Taxonomy and Journalism Conjoin to Improve Students’ Questioning Practices • Janet Blank-Libra, Augustana College • This paper investigates the need for the infusion of critical thinking instruction into the teaching of the journalistic practice of questioning. Given research done in the area of questioning, it seems probable that critical thinking instruction could enable students to employ self-directed thinking skills that would allow them to ask better questions. This paper offers a description of Bloom’s Taxonomy and how it might be used to facilitate better development of students’ questioning abilities.

New Models for Teaching Assistants: The Research Mentor Project • Hilary Karasz, Paula Reynolds, Melissa Wall, University of Washington • This paper describes the University of Washington School of Communication’s project to redesign the graduate student teaching assistant position into a new «research mentor» role. This new position emphasizes undergraduate acquisition of research skills where students are guided through the research process by graduate students who serve as role models and instructors. The conceptualization and evolution of the role is detailed, and implementation guidelines are provided for departments that wish to initiate similar projects.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Science Communication Interest Group

An Elite Scientist at the Boundary: The Power of Evidence and the Evidence of Power in Media Coverage of Science • Linda Billings, Indiana University • The media are likely to dismiss a scientist who questions the standard scientific worldview. But how do the media respond when an elite scientist questions the reductionist paradigm? In describing his research into the alien-abduction phenomenon, Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John Mack has suggested that the conventional paradigm may be inadequate. Press accounts of Mack’s work with abductees reveal how journalists and scientists have attempted to protect the boundaries of the black box of science.

Leading and Following: Medical System Influence on Media Coverage of Breast Cancer, 1960-95 • Julia B. Corbett, Motomi Mori, University of Utah • This research investigated whether medical system influence on media coverage of breast cancer supported a guard dog perspective of mass media. There was support for the medical community both leading and following media attention to breast cancer. There were extremely high, significant correlations between medical journal articles and newspapers, magazines and TV coverage. Time-series analysis revealed a two-way, concurrent relationship between the amount of breast cancer funding and all media. Public events (primarily prominent women publicly acknowledging their breast cancer) and breast cancer incidence rates significantly affected print coverage; there was a two-way relationship between incidence and TV coverage.

Newspaper Economic Coverage of Motor Vehicle Emissions Standards • David C. Coulson, University of Nevada, Stephen Lacy, Michigan State University • This study analyzed six large newspaper’s economic coverage of federal regulations intended to reduce motor vehicle emissions under the Clean Air Act. Examination of this topic involved evaluating costs and benefits of government controls. All but one paper explicitly referred to formal cost-benefit analysis as a method to evaluate the standards. They all included specific economic costs and benefits associated with regulating motor vehicle emissions. However, the reporting on costs was far more extensive than on benefits in five of the papers.

Community Structure and Mass Media Accounts of Risk • Sharon Dunwoody, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Robert J. Griffin Marquette University • Studies of media coverage of risk typically rely on characteristics of individual reporters or on attributes of media organizations to predict story content and quality. While such emphases have historically been productive, they ignore the potentially profound influence of social structure on both journalists and their media organizations. In this paper, we review a literature that examines the impact of community structure on media coverage of local environmental risks. These studies conceptualize community structure as a surrogate for the distribution of power in communities, consonant with Tichenor, Donohue and Olien.

Getting an Advance Look: Controversies Over Embargoes in Science Journalism • Vincent Kiernan, University of Maryland • A key feature of modern science reporting is the embargo that controls the timing of reporting of findings from many journals and conferences. Using primary source material, this paper traces the evolution of science journalists’ views on this controversial practice from the 1920s to the present. Despite complaints by journalists that the embargo gives scientists a high degree of control over journalists, the embargo system developed at the active instigation of journalists and persists because of the continuing support of journalists.

How Distant the Forest? Proximity, Environmental Controversy and Source Status Conferral • Carol M. Liebler, Jacob Bendix, Syracuse University • This study examined newspaper coverage of the old-growth forest/spotted owl controversy over a five-year period, with an emphasis on news sources. Specific foci are whom the media conferred expert status upon, and the extent to which source usage and status varied with physical and cultural proximity. Findings show that physical and cultural proximity do not affect diversity of sources, but they do have implications for the manner in which sources are portrayed.

Does Media Framing Keep Population off the Public Agenda? • T. Michael Maher • Scientists are deeply concerned over human population growth, but the American public is not. This paper shows that media framing, which typically omits mention of population growth as a cause of environmental problems, may influence Americans’ indifference to population. Using doctored newspaper clippings, this experimental research shows that if media framing connected population growth to environmental problems, population would have greater salience among readers.

Local Attitudes Toward Local Newspaper Coverage of a LULU (Locally Unwanted Land Use) • Katherine A. McComas, Clifford W. Scherer, and Cynthia Heffelfinger, Cornell University • This study examines attitudes toward local newspaper coverage during a proposed landfill siting. Residents one mile from the proposed site received mailed questionnaires measuring attitudes about the landfill, perceptions of bias in newspaper coverage, and interpersonal communication. Responses (n=267) were analyzed and compared to a content analysis of local newspaper articles. The conclusions suggest perceptions of bias in newspaper coverage were insufficient motivation to alter media consumption behaviors.

Safe Farm: The Impact of a Risk Communication Campaign • Lulu Rodriguez, Jane Peterson, Laura Miller, Charles Schwab, Iowa State University • In 1991, Iowa State University launched an information campaign aimed at reducing the incidence of accidents in the rural areas due to the dangers associated with farming. Radio public service ads and weekly newspapers articles with farm safety messages were reinforced by educational resources within ISU’s extension network. This study evaluates the impact of this campaign on its target audience: the farm operators. The data set for this study consisted of the combined responses for two surveys of 460 Iowa farm operators conducted in 1991-92 and 1993. Results of pre- and post-test measures indicated significant improvements in safety attitudes and behaviors between 1991 and 1992 among farmers with more than 40 acres, but that these changes could not be attributed to the campaign.

Connecting Theory and Practice: Are Counterstereotypes Effective in Changing Girls’ Perceptions of Science and Scientists? • Jocelyn Steinke, Western Michigan University • Researchers, educators, and policy makers have emphasized the need for science intervention programs for girls and young women to change their perceptions of science and scientists. A common technique used by many of these programs, including many media programs, is the use of counterstereotypes of women scientists. Little research, however, examines why the use of roles models would be effective or which characteristics of role models are most persuasive in changing perceptions of science. This paper connects theory and practice by drawing on Bem’s gender schema theory (Bem 1981, l983) to develop a framework for examining the influence of women scientist role models on girls’ perceptions of science and scientists. The purpose of this paper is l) to describe the usefulness of Bem’s gender schema theory as a framework for future research, 2) to explore how the key variables identified in Bem’s gender schema theory relate to the cognitive processing that defines girls’ and young women’s perceptions of science and scientists, and 3) to identify some of the key criteria for effective role models for media intervention programs.

Humor as a Resource in Constructing Scientific Knowledge and Ignorance • S. Holly Stocking, Indiana University • One of the basic tenets of the sociology of scientific knowledge (or SSK) is that scientists engage in considerable labor to construct their research results as knowledge (cf., Pinch, 1990). Indeed, the construction of knowledge is believed to require many things, including material resources, allies, and the application of accepted and persuasive conventions of method and discourse. In a recent symmetrical move, scholars interested in developing in a sociology of scientific ignorance or SSI (cf, Smithson, 1989; Stocking and Holstein, 1993) have argued that it is not just scientific knowledge that scientists labor to construct; they also labor to construct scientific ignorance. This paper builds on the few existing sociological studies of humor in science, reinterpreting some of that evidence and adding some new evidence to argue that scientists sometimes use humor as a rhetorical resource to accomplish the constructions of both knowledge and ignorance. In addition, the paper argues that scientists sometimes use humor as a rhetorical resource to accomplish the constructions of both competence and incompetence in science.

Heuristic-Systematic Information Processing and Judgment of Environmental Risk • Craig Trumbo, Cornell University • This project investigates how individuals judge environmental health risks. Analysis of case study survey data indicates that mediated information, anxiety, and past hazard experience all influence the primary factors that subsequently predict how individuals process information. These primary factors—motivation to seek information, feeling that information needs are not being met, and perceived self-efficacy for making a judgment—together predict how strongly individuals utilize either systematic or heuristic information processing strategies for making a judgment.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Media and Disability Interest Group

The Americans with Disabilities Act: Defining Deaf People and Their Rights • Mark Heil Borchert, University of Colorado • While safeguarding the rights of the deaf and other groups of persons with disabilities, the policies of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also provide a particular interpretation of these groups and their rights. Based on analysis of the ADA and the discourse surrounding it, as well as interviews with leaders of organizations serving deaf and hearing-impaired persons, this paper explores the definitions of the deaf and their rights implicit in this law. It suggests that the law addresses deafness as an inability and the rights of the deaf in terms of their integration into mainstream American society. These definitions, however, are problematic for some deaf leaders who argue that the deaf community is a cultural and linguistic minority and that policies of integration can be threatening to this subculture.

Images of Mental Retardation in American Film: Narratives, Semiotics, and Historical Perspectives • Patrick Devlieger, Tal Baz and Carlos Drazen, Illinois-Chicago • This paper reviews ten American films in which persons with mental retardation are depicted. Using interpretation and comparison, two essential questions drive the analysis in this paper: What is mental retardation, and what is rehabilitation in the context of these films. Using narrative analysis, semiotics, and historical comparison, mental retardation is at times tragedy, a burden, or a dimension that helps to understand the essentials in life. Rehabilitation is radical exclusion, a phantasy, truth, interconnection.

Are You Letting Your Mental Health Problems Hurt Him?: Advice to Women About Mental Health and Illness in Women’s Magazines, 1960-1990 • Carol Brooks Gardner, Indiana University • A thematic analysis of more than 15 women’s magazines directed to women from 1960 to 1990 yielded several themes: the trivialization of potentially important and serious mental symptoms; the subordination of women’s health problems, both major and minor, to those of others around them, especially their boyfriends or husbands; and the same emphasis on a cure rather than on normalization of a disability that is found in the rehabilitative model of understanding physical disabilities. In this paper, I place this topic in the existing literature on media and disability. I also suggest the use of sociologists Ibarra and Kitsuse’s (1990, 1991) framework of rhetorics applied to social problems as especially helpful when analyzing mental disabilities and gender. I term the overriding rhetoric reflected in the popular magazine articles as, by and large, a rhetoric of gendered incompetence.

Community Structural Pluralism and Local Newspaper Coverage of Ethnic Minority Groups and Americans With Disabilities • Douglas Blanks Hindman, North Dakota State University, Ann Preston, Quincy University, Robert Littlefield, North Dakota State University, Dennis Neumann, North Dakota State University • This study examines how editors’ perspectives on coverage of ethnic minorities and Americans with disabilities are shaped by the nature of their communities. Findings indicate that editors from more pluralistic communities place higher value on news about ethnic and other minorities, and a lower value on stories about Americans with Disabilities. Local newspapers appear to be more responsive to the majority groups’ interests than those of the excluded groups.

From Pity to Pride: People with Disabilities, The Media, and an Emerging Disability Culture • Miho Iwakuma, University of Oklahoma • In recent years, the media coverage of people with disabilities has changed from seeing them as objects of pity to people with equal rights like others. This paper examines several turning points in the past, which had significant impacts on people with disabilities in the media. These incidents mentioned in the paper are: the disability rights movement, the protest of the Gallaudet University students, and regulating the Americans with Disability Act. The studies done by Clogston and Haller also suggest that the media depiction of people with disabilities has changed from the traditional models to the progressive models, especially since the Gallaudet University student protest. In addition, the paper talks about a relationship between the media and the disability culture • the common sentiment held among people with disabilities. Finally, the study mentions how other countries, such as Japan, are interrelated with the U.S. media through global networks, and how the Japanese media has changed portrayals of people with disabilities.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and His Disability: The Chicago Tribune and the 1936 Election • Darlene Jirikowic, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee • President Franklin Roosevelt, with the help of the Washington press corps, successfully shrouded his disability by managing the visual images that were transmitted to the nation. The President, however, had much less control over print stories. My research investigated whether the conservative slant of a newspaper revealed itself in negative, verbal references about Roosevelt’s paralysis. Methodology focused on a comparative content analysis of campaign stories in both The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune for one month preceding the 1936 election. Neither paper alluded to FDR’s handicap, though, apparently, for different reasons.

A Search for Indications of Disability Culture in Magazines Marketed to the Disability Community • Jeffrey Alan John, Wright State University • The purpose of this paper is to report results of a study that sought to identify subjects or subject matter that could be construed as indicators of a specific or unique disability culture. As its methodology the study employed a preliminary content analysis of publications that seek as their readership people with disabilities. Results provide at least some evidence of generally accepted prerequisites of culture, such as tools and technology, a largely shared value system in support of the individual with a disability, and a prioritization of events and information that promote interaction within the disability community.

Containment of Image: Critical Theory and Perspectives on Disability in the Media • Robert K. Kalwinsky, University of Iowa • Using critical theory to ground examination, this paper represents a first step toward exploring the macro level concerns informing media accounts of the disabled. It approaches the stereotypical formations and shallow descriptions of most portrayals through examination of ideological factors that intercalate with cultural forms. The results are then analyzed in terms of the potential for emancipatory media depictions and the concomitant political/economic formations that are entailed in constructing this potential.

Hand-Ling Media Research on Disability: Toward including a Feminist Exile Perspective on Theory and Practice • Catherine L. Marston, University of Iowa • In this paper, I will emphasize the relevance of a disability perspective to feminist theory and feminist media research. I detail the incompleteness of feminist theory without a disability perspective. I then discuss the space in feminist media studies for this perspective. Lastly, I suggest a preliminary program of research Ñ exploring the areas of representations of disability in the mainstream and alternative media, as well as disability in the journalistic and academic workplaces.

Coverage of Presidential Illness and Disability • Ann E. Preston, Quincy University • A peculiarly unhealthy group, most U. S. presidents have failed to reach their life expectancies. Of the last 19 presidents, 14 have experienced illness or disability while in the White House. Journalistic folklore and scholars blame media for complicity in concealing presidential infirmity, while popular writers state that presidential health is coming under ever closer scrutiny. Little evidence exists to support either perspective. To address the lack of evidence, this research examined Time magazine coverage of presidential illness and disability for presidents Roosevelt through Bush. Surprisingly, media interest in presidential health has waned rather than waxed as time progressed, but the information being provided may be more explicit than it was earlier in this century. Coverage reassures the nation of the president’s health more than it reveals uncertainty about prognoses, especially for those presidents who underwent major health risks while in office. Journalists are remarkably unsuspicious of presidents’ physiological fitness to serve.

Disability Publication Demographics and Coverage Models • Lillie S. Ransom, University of Maryland • This paper is a summary of two aspects of a larger study that analyzes how disability publications may help forge group identity for people with disabilities. It reports the circulation, target audience, editor demographics, and distribution information for fifty-six (56) disability publications. It also describes the editors’ perceptions of coverage of disability issues. Methodology: A mail survey was used to ascertain 56 editors’ perceptions about their disability publications. In addition, a random subset of 12 editors were interviewed about disability related concepts and coverage issues. Conclusions: 131 disability publications identified disability publications fit into Clogston’s (1990) progressive/civil rights model of disability coverage, three models of coverage were discerned: activist/ political; assimilationist/mainstreaming; and special interest publications.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Lesbian, Gay and Family Diversity Interest Group

Como Se Dice HIV? Adapting Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevention Messages to Reach Homosexual and Bisexual Hispanic Men the Importance of Hispanic Cultural and Health Beliefs • Matthew A. Bowdy, University of Kentucky • HIV/AIDS prevention messages catered to Anglo homosexual/bisexual men are not effective in teaching preventative behaviors to Hispanic homosexual/bisexual men. Hispanic sociocultural traits associated with homosexuality and bisexuality prevent effectiveness. The Hispanic family is also extremely important in influencing behaviors. Successful HIV prevention messages geared towards Hispanic homosexual/bisexual men need to include the following: the importance of the Hispanic family, Hispanic cultural beliefs about homosexuality and bisexuality, and the cultural beliefs.

The Case of POZ Magazine: Putting Uses and Gratifications to the Test • Gary R. Hicks, Texas • The tradition of media inquiry known as uses and gratifications assumes an active audience that looks to the media to solve problems and meet needs. McQuail (1983) lists the key areas of learning and information, self-insight and personal identity, social contact, diversion, entertainment and time-filling. Traditional media seek to provide one, usually more, of these benefits to its users. But what happens when a single media outlet tries to be everything to its readers? My research interest is in examining just how successful POZ, a slick magazine written for the HIV-positive community, is fulfilling its mission to be just that.

Freedom for My Speech, But Not for Yours: The Persistence of Stigma and the Urge to Censor in the 1970s • Elizabeth M. Koehler, Univ. of North Carolina • The First Amendment confers upon the oppressed the means to ensure their rights will no longer by trampled by an uninformed or unaccepting majority. The curious scene of the 1970s involved gay men and lesbians —dissenters who rely on the First Amendment to help them get their message out — attempting to censor mainstream media messages that subverted their cause. This paper examines this paradox to explore the role of censorship in moving the marginalized toward acceptance.

Healy v. James and Campus Gay Organizations: Progress of a Movement, 1967 – 1977 • Elizabeth M. Koehler, Univ. of North Carolina • The freedom of association has become increasingly important in shaping the texture of political discussion in America. In Healy v. James in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court said the associational rights of Students for a Democratic Society were abridged when it was denied official campus recognition. After Healy, gay campus organizations found themselves granted the same associational protections by the courts. This paper explores the apparent connection between Healy v. James and the recognition of gay liberation groups on U.S. campuses.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Internship and Careers Interest Group

Inside the Advertising and Public Relations Internship • Fred Beard, University of Oklahoma • The importance of internships in the education and future careers of advertising and PR students is well established. Although previous research confirms the benefits and characteristics of internships, this study investigated the proposition that certain patterns of assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors are characteristic of successful internships. To examine this proposition, the author conducted interviews with interns and their supervisors, and analyzed the data qualitatively, seeking descriptive categories. The patterns emerging from the data provide insights into how the participants work together to accomplish a successful internship.

Criteria for Hiring Public Relations Graduates: Employers’ Perspective • Carol Ann Hackley, Quingwen Dong, Clark Robins, University of the Pacific • A longitudinal survey of Public Relations employers shows that there are five categories which should be emphasized for public relations students. These are 1) educational focus, 2) communication skills, 3) analytical ability, 4) professional orientation, and 5) personal. The survey shows that major changes in public relations employers’ hiring criteria over time focus on public relations and organizational emphasis, research capability, person achievements and professional orientation.

Does Money Still Buy Happiness? Effects of Journalism Internships on Job Satisfaction • Edward M. Horowitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Survey data of journalism school graduates was used to examine the impact of media-related college internships on graduatesÕ job satisfaction. By assessing the media industry through internships prior to graduation and the job market, graduates can make career and employment choices that are best suited to their particular career goals. Findings indicate that it is the quality of internship(s) that predicts to job satisfaction, not quantity of internships. Although higher salaries do predict to high job satisfaction, those respondents doing what they want to do are the most satisfied.

Digital Imaging Skills and the Hiring and Training of Photojournalists • John Russial, Wayne Wanta, Oregon • This paper, based on a national survey of newspaper photo editors, details the degree of technological change in newspaper photography. It looks at the importance placed on digital imaging and photography competencies, and it examines the implications for the training and hiring of journalists. It concludes that the shift from chemical to digital processing has led to a relative lack of concern among photo editors about the need for chemical darkroom skills. Many journalism programs, however, continue to focus on those skills. It finds that new technical skills, such as the use of digital cameras and the web, are growing in importance. Skills that reflect convergence of photo jobs with others within the newsroom, such as design and graphics, are growing in importance. But photo editors say the key skill that reflects cross-media convergence • video • is unimportant now and only slightly more important for the near future.

<< 1997 Abstracts