Archives for January 2012

Visual Communication Division

Listening To The Subjects Of Routine News Photographs: A Grounded Moral Inquiry • Cindy Brown, Southern Mississippi • This study explores the relationship between photojournalists and subjects using a method of ethical inquiry known as grounded moral theory. Grounded moral theory consists of listening to people’s concerns, generating recommendations based on these concerns, and extrapolating to ethical theory. Interviews with subjects of news photographs revealed subjects’ were concerned about two types of understanding: (1) contextual understanding conveyed in their photograph/story, and (2) understanding photojournalists showed them.

Grounding the Teaching of Journalistic Design in Creativity Theory: 10 Steps to a More Creative Curriculum • Renita Coleman and Jan Colbert, Missouri • Creativity is an important ingredient in news design. Yet most Classes do little more than offer examples of others’ creative works; rarely do we teach students how to develop the cognitive skills they can use to tap into their own creativity. The purpose of this article is to propose a change in the way journalism design classes are taught, from using an anecdotal approach to creativity, to one that is grounded in theory developed through psychological research.

How Marc Riboud’s Photographic Report From Hanoi Argued The Vietnam War Was Unwinnable • Claude Cookman, Indiana University • While many combat photographs presented American involvement as morally wrong, Marc Riboud’s 1968 report on North Vietnam argued that the war could not be won by the U.S. and its South Vietnamese ally. His pictures show the saturation bombing failed at two primary objectives: to break the North’s will to resist and to interdict the flow of military sup-plies to the South. They also humanize the North Vietnamese people and their top leaders, who had been demonized by U.S. officials.

Typographic Design Considerations for the Elderly: An Analysis of AARP’s Bulletin • Catherine K. Craven and Birgit Wassmuth, Missouri • As baby boomers enter their elderly years, between 2010 and 2030, as many as one in five Americans will be 65 or older. That’s up to 80 million people. As people age, their vision changes. Designers and publishers must make changes now to keep up with the needs of this affluent audience. Hear the state of design guidelines for the aging. See if AARP pushes the “elder design” envelope in redesigning its Bulletin.

Cops Like Us: Camera Placement and Viewer Identification on Cops • Veronica Davison, Pennsylvania • Although reality-based crime programs are growing in popularity among communication scholars, a focus on camera movement has been virtually ignored. This study examines how camera perspective, camera angle, and shot structure create a sense of identification on the part of the viewer (as outlined in the theory of paraproxemics) and how each may or may not be altered depending on who is framed in the shot. While the analysis of camera angle and shot structure do not support the theory of paraproxemics, through the use of the involved-objective camera, camera perspective does appear to offer moderate support for Meyrowitz’s theory of paraproxemics.

Readability of Reverse Type in Computer Mediated Communication • Joel Geske, Iowa State University • This experimental design used 78 subjects to test readability of type on computer screens. Subjects read passages set in traditional high contrast black type on a white background; low contrast black type on a gray background; and reverse type (white type on a black background). Subjects were tested for speed of reading and recall of material. The study found significant differences and reversals of previous re-search based on print media.

Reading Between the Photographs: The Influence of Incidental Pictorial Information on Issue Perception • Rhonda Gibson, Texas Tech University and Dolf Zillmann, Alabama • An identical news report on an Appalachian tick disease was differently illustrated. It either contained no images, an image of ticks, or this tick image plus three child victims. The victims were ethnically balanced (two White, one Black) or not (either all White or all Black). The text did not make any reference to the victims’ ethnicity. Respondents assessed the risk of contracting the disease for children of different ethnicity.

The College Studio Critique: What Does it Mean to Students? • Deborah M. Gross, Florida • The primary investigator conducted three participant observations, one focus group and ten individual interviews. The study showed that students are not actually taught to critique-they are “thrown” into it and learn by experience. Results indicate students’ preferences for certain critique formats-what’s helpful and what’s not. Participants also discussed the role of peers and professors in the critique process, along with the effect of grades. Further implications of the college classroom critique are discussed.

Readers’ Perception of Digital Alteration and Truth-value in Documentary Photographs • Edgar Shaohua Huang, Indiana University • This is a baseline study on how readers of print news media accept digital imaging alterations and how much they trust digital documentary images. The purpose is to examine to what extent readers accept the postmodern ideas about truth and reality embedded in this new technology and to provide empirical basis for the making of guidelines and principles regarding the use of digitally altered photographs in documentary contexts. Survey and in-depth interviews were conducted to understand both patterns and rationales of readers’ attitudes.

The Visual Representation Of Individuals Of Different Genders, Ages And Ethnicity’s In The Photographs Of The Los Angeles Times • Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • The authors examine gender, age and ethnic stereotypes and portrayals in news photographs of the Los Angeles Times. The Times was chosen because of its status as one of the nation’s great newspapers and because it serves a diverse populace where Latinos are the majority, and the presence of African Americans and Latinos is very high. Although many stereotypes were still found to exist, changes were noticeable-some positive and some negative.

“Negro Stars” and the USIA’s Portrait of Democracy •- Melinda M. Schwenk, Pennsylvania • From 1952-1961, the U.S. Information Agency indirectly addressed the nation’s race problems with films about “Negro stars.” This paper analyzes how the USIA celebrated in films the lives of five famous African-Americans to provide evidence that American democracy fostered individual freedom.

A Comparative Study of Internet Page Legibility on WebTV and PC-TV Large-Screen Displays • Peter B. Seel, Colorado State University • This study compared the legibility of text in three Internet Web sites displayed on a large 32-inch television set using WebTV technology, with a similarly-sized, high-resolution PC-TV digital screen. The study found that the legibility of navigation and main body text on the WebTV system was superior to that of the PC-TV display at the longer distance, but the PC-TV display provided better overall text legibility at shorter distances. With the diffusion of television-based Internet access systems such as WebTV, these findings are important in assessing the relative legibility of Web site content in large-screen home viewing environments.

The Stereograph: The Rise And Decline Of Victorian Virtual Reality • James Staebler, Ohio University • This study examines the rise and decline in public popularity of the stereograph or more commonly known as the stereo view. This popular Victorian mode of entertainment was the precursor to the modern popularity of three dimensional games) pictures and posters seen in the mass media today. Many factors contributed to the decline of stereographs after the First World War. The popularity of new technology such as the automobile, motion pictures and radio helped erode this medium.

Claims And Visual Frames On The World Wide Web: An Approach To Framing Analysis Of Visual Content • Jean Trumbo, Wisconsin, Madison • A visual frame analysis model is developed and applied to a site on the World Wide Web with the assumption that site structure and visual elements encourage particular kinds of audience response and that elements are organized in a manner that asserts or advocates certain themes. Theories of framing as applied in communication and in visual design are synthesized. Framing devices developed in the model include five categories: syntactic, semantic, grammatical, thematic, and rhetorical structures.

Cuddly Bear and Vicious Ape: Soviets and Germans in editorial cartoons, 1933-1946 • Samuel P. Winch, Nanyang Technological University • During the 14-year period 1933 to 1946, relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union fluctuated wildly-from ally to enemy to ally to enemy. This study is an examination of the portrayal of Soviets in editorial cartoons printed in three American newspapers during this period. Although pubic opinion polls in the late 1930s and early 1940s showed that Americans disliked Soviets even more than Germans, editorial cartoons of the Soviets were often favorable during the period.

Visual Rhetoric: A Semiotic Evaluation of the Misrepresentation of a Subculture within the Myth of Lesbian Chic in Mainstream Advertising • Susan Zavoina, Tom Reichert, North Texas • Visual imagery dominates advertising messages. A visual rhetoric is established as the viewer’s perception of the advertising message is defined. Homoerotic images of women are appearing in mainstream consumer advertising giving credence to a phenomenon of “lesbian chic.” Through a semiotic analysis this paper suggests that the meanings embedded in these advertising images have little to do with “lesbianism” per se and are more closely aligned with mainstream heterosexual pornography of women engaged in “lesbian” sex.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Scholastic Journalism Division

High School Student Newspapers in U.S. Youth Culture: From Gossip to Politics to Social Issues; From Vocational Education to PR Tool, to Forum for Expression and Back Again • Dane S. Claussen, Georgia • Scholastic journalism studies are almost entirely limited to students’ First Amendment rights; principals’ and teachers’ knowledge of, or attitudes toward, scholastic journalism (including why they think students should work on publications); publication content and design analyses; trends in female and minority staffers; publications’ finances; and newspapers’ use in teaching English or for school PR. Drawing on extensive existing literature, this is first known work focusing on why students have worked for and/or read student newspapers.

Students’ Use Of E-Mail In An Undergraduate Public Relations Course • Tom Kelleher and Julie E. Dodd, Florida • The study examined the use of e-mail between the students in an introductory public relations class and their instructor. E-mail use was parallel to the use of face-to-face communication, with students reporting that they used office time and e-mail primarily to ask questions about quizzes, tests and assignments. Older students and students further along in school were less likely to use e-mail to contact their parents but reported greater enjoyment of and learning from e-mail contact with the instructor.

Analysis of High School Newspaper Editorials: Before and After Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier • Carol S. Lomicky, Nebraska at Kearney • In the fall of 1997 the principal of a Midwestern public high school informed the student newspaper adviser that an article about a new and controversial class scheduling plan would have to be cut or changed before it could be published. In fact, journalism educators at this school report that for the past 10 years administrators routinely preview that student newspaper before the publication is taken to the local printer.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Radio-TV Journalism Division

Media Reliance And Political Knowledge: Have Researchers Underestimated The Effects Of Radio And Television News Because Of An Operationalization Artifact? • Raymond Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines how media exposure affects political knowledge. Unlike most studies, a person can be reliant on more than one medium. Respondents with multiple media reliances scored a mean of 3.3 on a knowledge scale, compared with 2.91 for respondents with single/no reliances (t = -2.32, df =382, p <.05). Total media time accounted for 1.6 percent of the variance in political knowledge.

Student And Professional Attitudes Regarding Advertising Influence On Broadcast News Content: A Comparative Study • Hubert Brown, Syracuse University • Students studying Broadcast Journalism or Advertising and professionals working in those fields were surveyed on their attitudes regarding advertising influence on broadcast news content. This study compares the attitudes of the students and practitioners in the respective professions. while students and professionals agreed on a majority of opinion statements, the areas where there was significant disagreement hold important implications for preparing students in both disciplines for the realities of the marketplace.

Winner By A Sound Byte: Fairness and balance in the 1998 Michigan Governor’s Race • Sue Carter, Michigan State University • Much of what voters learn about candidates for state office comes to them from local television news programs. Just how frequent and, more importantly, how fair and balanced coverage of these candidates is presents a fertile area for research. In this study, “Winner by a Sound Bite. Fairness and Balance in the 1998 Michigan Governor’s Race,” the researchers discovered that local television stations may claim fairness and balance in their overall coverage from Labor Day to the election, but that individual stories can be substantially out-of whack when it comes to structural and partisan balance.

The State, Market and TV Regulation in China: A Managerial Perspective of Decentralization and Depolicitization • Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota-Twin Cities • Within the managerial perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between the state and the market in TV regulation against the backdrop of the fast changing Chinese social structure and processes over the past two decades. Through a careful analysis of documentaries, the study looks at how the evolution of official conception of television in China has affected TV in the areas of entertainment, new technology, roles and functions, geographical boundary, and professionalism.

Sesame Street And Children Learning English In Hungary: Measuring Appeal • Rita Csapo-Sweet, Missouri • This paper reports on the appeal of ‘Sesame Street’ for 9 to 15 year old Hungarian students studying English as a Second Language (ESL), measured by three different methods. The students (N = 129) were tested with a twenty-question survey rating “high” to “low” appeal. Results from the measurements of attention parameters, agree with those from written comments by the children. The opinions of the children in their individually written comments to open-ended questions and observed responses to the program agreed with results from the twenty-question survey and also the attention measurements.

Public Broadcasting in Transition: News, Elections and the New Market Place • Claes de Vreese, Amsterdam • As public broadcasters in most European countries are challenged to operate in increasingly competitive environments, a shift in policy and approach towards elections can be observed. Based on newsroom observations, interviews, and content analytic indicators, the 1998-99 municipal, provincial, national, and European election campaign coverage of Dutch public broadcaster, NOS News, was investigated. Newsroom observations and interviews with reporters and news executives revealed an increasingly pro-active and selective editorial approach to elections.

Has The Salary Gap Closed? A Survey Of Men And Women Managers At U.S. Television Stations • Jennifer Greer, Nevada-Reno • A survey of 169 general managers, general sales managers, news directors, and program managers at the nation’s television stations found that while more women have reached the industry’s top ranks, they still report lower salaries, number of benefits, and feelings of authority than male managers. However, when personal (gender, education, and age) and job characteristics (including market size and job title) were entered into a regression analysis, gender was a significant predictor only for salary.

GI Jane Trapped In Stereotype: How Television Magazine Shows Bolster Gender Bias While Purporting To Fight It In Their Coverage Of Military Women • Christopher Hanson, North Carolina • This paper analyses TV magazine news shows that took up the cause of women who accused Sgt. Major Gene McKinney of sexual harassment, of Lt. Kelly Flinn, who faced prison on adultery charges, and of Navy fighter pilot Lt. Carey Lohrenz, who was grounded for alleged poor flying. Reports on 60 Minutes and Dateline argued sexism led to their unfair treatment. Yet these reports advanced other stereotypes woman as victim, woman as emotionally fragile-that inadvertently suggested these women did not belong in a tough environment.

Media Use, Knowledge of and Support for Megan’s Law • Michelle Johnson, Marist College • Media critics complain the news media provides an inaccurate picture of crime and punishment in the United States, while a number of media scholars suggest exposure to crime news, particularly on television, fosters punitive attitudes in news consumers. We explored these propositions in regard to Megan’s Law, one of the most heavily publicized criminal justice initiatives of the 1990s. We found media use to be unrelated to individuals’ usually poor knowledge of the law.

The Effects of Competition on Television Coverage of City Hall • Stephen Lacy, Charles St. Cyr Michigan State University and David Coulson, Nevada-Reno • A national sample of 303 television reporters found no correlation between the number of news organizations covering city hall and journalists’ perceptions of how competition affected their coverage. However, 40 percent or more of the journalists said television competition increased the number of city hall stories produced, made it more difficult to do in-depth city hall stories, and increased the coverage of stories that might have been missed otherwise. Newspaper competition was perceived as putting greater pressure on TV journalists to produce more stories and to cover news they otherwise might have overlooked.

A Comparative Study of Local and National Television News Coverage of a Natural Disaster • Aaron Quanbeck and Marwan Kraidy, North Dakota • The spring of 1997 is one that the community of Grand Forks, North Dakota will never forget. Exceeding all modern day records, the Red River of the North rose to over 54 feet, flooding nearly the entire community of Grand Forks, causing one of the largest evacuations in United States history as 50,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes. In the midst of the flood, a fire broke out in downtown Grand Forks, destroying nearly a dozen buildings before it was put out.

A Quarter Century of Television Network News: Fewer, Longer (?) and Softer News items • Daniel Riffe and Lori Spiczka Holm, Ohio University • This paper reports the results of a study of 27 years (1971-1997) of television network news. The nightly news programs of the so-called “Big Three” networks-ABC, CBS and NBC-have weathered changes over the years affecting their audiences and news packages. Consider, for example:-audience share. A 1998 Pew Center report warned: “As the public’s appetite for national and international news wanes, viewership of nightly network news continues its decline.”

Prime Time News: Effects Associated With The Rise Of The Television News Magazine Format • Jennie Rupertus, Texas-Austin• In the past few years, the television news magazine format has become increasingly pervasive in prime time programming. There been an increase in both the number of news magazine programs and how frequently those programs are aired. This paper examines the effects of such increases on news and its role in society, its content, and its audience. This essay also addresses the consequences of blurring the distinctions between news and entertainment.

Television Network Affiliation Changes in a Major Market and the Effect on News Viewing • Samuel Sauls, North Texas • In most studies of the reasons why viewers tune in to any given television program, the effects of program loyalty, channel loyalty, and network loyalty may be somewhat difficult to separate. Network affiliation changes will offer a naturally occurring opportunity to observe these effects. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine which of these concepts would determine news viewing in a major market after experiencing a network affiliation change.

The 1996 Presidential Nomination Contests: Network News Coverage • Karon Speckman, Truman State University • This study examined whether television network newscasts during the nomination period of 1996 focused on strategy and horse-race schemata rather than explanations of how nomination contests differed from state to state. Specifically, lead-ins, introductions, segments, kickers, video sequences, and graphics were studied. Results showed that strategy messages were more frequent than explanatory information on contest differences both in words and pictures. The opportunity to use full-screen graphics was not utilized for learning.

Editorial Rights Of Public Broadcasting Stations Vs. Access For Minor Political Candidates To TV Debates • Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State University • The U.S. Supreme Court in 1998 addressed whether a state-owned public television station, in conducting a debate among political candidates, creates a limited public forum open to all candidates. In the context of the Supreme Court’s decision, this paper examines the constitutional and statutory framework on the access for political candidates to television debates, the judicial interpretations of the political candidates’ claim for access to public television debates prior to 1998, and the U.S.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Qualitative Studies Division

The American Girl Dolls: Constructing American Girlhood Through Representation And Identity • Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, Georgia • The American Girl dolls, books, and related products created manufactured, and marketed by Pleasant Company of Middleton, Wisconsin-is an enormously successful line of girls’ paraphernalia that, until recently, was sold only by mail-order catalog. Dolls, books and catalogs-seemingly innocent artifacts and texts-can be deeply ideological. They have the power to reinforce a common sense of sorts that, in reality, could be yet another dose of a dominant ideology that devalues and debases women.

Source Diversity After the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Media Oligarchs begin to Colonize Cyberspace • Jeffrey Layne Blevins,Ohio • Through integration of different types of media, corporate conglomerations can produce a preponderance of the information and entertainment that circulates through the media. While the Internet is often seen as being able to counteract this locus of control, this study shows that Cyberspace is the next destination for corporate colonies. By tracking corporate expansion into Cyberspace it seems that the Internet will mainly function as yet another outlet for mainstream media.

Reflecting the American Dream: Walker Evans on 1930’s Advertising • Bonnie Brennen, Virginia Commonwealth University • This paper focuses on the depression-era advertising images created by the quintessential American photographer Walker Evans. Walker’s photographs of printed and hand-made signs, billboards, and posters suggest the ironic presence of advertising in twentieth century industrial society, offering a critique of contemporary society, and illustrating a “structure of feeling” relating to the development of advertising in the United States.

Evaluating the New Marketplace of Ideas: An Examination of Cyberspace, the CDA & the Postmodern Condition • Justin Brown, Pennsylvania State University • The reasoning behind overturning the Communications Decency Act (CDA) recasts marketplace of ideas theory with an euphoric rhetoric of endless possibilities. While a new free trade of ideas may be upon us, the CDA also illustrates the difficulties applying current law to the Internet, a medium which creates its own virtual borders and standards. Despite the potential liberating features of cyberspace, questions remain as to how it will contribute and shape the public sphere.

The Bookstore Reading Group: Members, Support, and Benefits • Kelli Burns, Florida • In an era characterized by the use of television and computer technology, an unlikely cultural phenomenon is occurring. This phenomenon is the reading group, also called a book club or book group, and it has been gaining momentum among today’s readers. A case study of a women’s book club was used to understand how book clubs serve the needs of members and how bookstores support these needs for self-serving reasons.

Ethics and Politics in Qualitative Research • Clifford Christians, Illinois • In John Stuart Mill’s philosophy of social science, methods are amoral. Conceptions of the good life are outside the experimental domain. In Max Weber, the distinction between political judgments and scientific neutrality gains canonical status. The rational validation of utilitarian ethics is compatible with value free inquiry, and aids in generating the social science apparatus of university procedures, IRBs and codes of ethics. The epistemological crisis in this instrumental model can be resolved by feminist communitarian ethics of interpretive sufficiency.

Disabling or Enabling? Reading Bodies, Technologies, and the Borg of Star Trek • Mia Consalvo, Iowa • This paper examines one popular representation of cyborgs-the Borg of Star Trek-using cybertheory and disability theory to better understand current cultural beliefs about bodies and technologies. The paper argues that the Borg challenge many dualisms we have constructed. The Borg both challenge and reinforce the notion of a mind/body split. The Borg reflect many of our own myths about our bodies-that we can easily control them, and rework them to suit ourselves.

Ally McBeal vs. Hollywood’s Male Gaze-Round One • Brenda Cooper, Utah State • Through an explication of the female gazes underlying the narrative structure of the new Fox primetime hit, Ally McBeal, this study offers explanations for the wide appeal of the television series among women. Significantly, the program’s female gazes appropriate the dominant male gazes of mainstream Hollywood by using mockery as a narrative device to illustrate the sexism inherent in the male gaze and its hegemonic patriarchal constructions of female and male sexuality.

Red-baiting, Regulation and the Broadcast Industry: A Revisionist History of the “Blue Book” • Chad Dell, Monmouth University • The FCC’s only attempt to define the “public interest” responsibilities of broadcasters came in the 1940s policy known as the “Blue Book.” This paper refutes historian’s claims that the Blue Book was informally adopted by the industry. In fact, the broadcast industry launched an incendiary campaign to defeat the policy initiative, including a Communist witch hunt targeting its authors. This legacy remains visible in the practices of the broadcast industry that purports to serve us.

American Journalism Vs. The Poor, A Research Review And Analysis • Paula Reynolds, Washington • Critics argue American journalism misrepresents the poor as behaviorally-flawed people and fails to draw a connection between poverty and the political economic system. This has implications for public perception, behavior and policy toward the poor. A review and analysis of the available research shows that the misrepresentation has held true historically and contemporarily, though contradictions are also evident Much is missing from the available research, including appropriate connections to other areas of mass communication scholarship.

Packaging Culture: A Textual Analysis of Travel Journalism Or Television • Elfriede Fursich, Boston College • This paper presents a textual analysis of the Discovery-owned cable outlet Travel Channel and its programs Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, Travelers. I focus on the depictions of travel and tourism between modernity and postmodernity, on strategies of representing Others and on the impact of these shows as global media texts. I especially examine the limited potential of global commercial television to address the problematic issues of cross-cultural contact and mass tourism.

Spatial Concepts of TV as Place: Toward a Critical Phenomenology of Mediated Human Geography • Kim Golombisky, South Florida • Television viewing literature reveals six conceptualizations of TV as place: home theater, family hearth, imagined community, armchair tourism, fantasyland, and social worlds. The author observes space and place are largely missing from communication study, suggests communication technologies like television do alter the ways people organize and experience place and space, and recommends a critical phenomenology of media geographies to locate and displace our communication-dependent and evolving spatial concepts.

Textually Mapping Newspaper Discourse: A Report From The Field • Joseph Harry, Slippery Rock University and James H. Wittebols, Niagara University • A ‘textual mapping’ of two newspaper articles produced by competing newspapers, regarding a high-profile environmental conflict, was conducted to track a variety of comparative linguistic structures. These include rhetorical strategies, argumentative claims, ideological content and narrative schemas. The mapping process, based in critical discourse analysis, involves linking key words and synonyms in a way that reveals content decisions and the discursive, rhetorical logic of the newspaper as text.

Spooks, Spies, and Control Technologies in The X-Files • Kevin Howley, Northeastern University • At times the unprecedented success of and rabid fan loyalty for The X-Files borders on the paranormal. Not surprisingly, then, explanations of the program’s significance are as plentiful as The X-Files’ (in)famous conspiracy theories. Drawing on the work of James Beniger (1986), the author argues that The X-Files expresses fundamental concerns over social, political, and psychological control and articulates deep-seated cultural anxieties toward various forms of control technologies.

Inverted Pyramids Versus Hypertexts: A Qualitative Study of Readers’ Responses to Competing Narrative Forms • Robert Huesca, Brenda Dervin, John Burwell, Denise Drake, Ron Nirenburg, Robin Smith and Nicholas Yeager, Trinity University • The advent of new communication technologies has generated a robust and provocative research literature examining the implications of hypertext on the conventions of reporting and writing. This paper explores the viability of the hypertext form for journalism by asking readers to compare a conventional, online news article with a redesigned, hypertext version of it. The findings reinforce some traditional values and routines of the press, while suggesting reinvention and expansion of the roles, functions, and practices of journalists.

The Forgotten Americans: Issues Of Exclusion In Historic Newspaper Obituaries • Janice Hume, Kansas State University • Aristotle wrote of the constancy of virtues, that they do not follow changes of fortune, but should be accessories of man’s life as a whole. “Among these (virtuous) activities… it is the most honorable which are the most permanent,” he argued. “For that is apparently the reason why such activities are not likely to be forgotten.” A society, then, should tend to remember only the lasting virtues of its individual citizens, and their most honorable activities.

Constructing Childhood in a Corporate World A Cultural Pedagogy-Analysis of the Disney Web Site • Sumani Kasturi, Pennsylvania State University • This paper will present a textual analysis of the Disney web site. The analysis is grounded in a theoretical context provided by cultural pedagogy. Cultural pedagogy refers to the idea that education takes place in a variety of social sites including, but not limited to schooling. By providing a critical analysis of Disney’s latest media ‘text’, this paper extends existing critical scholarship on Disney. Further, it makes the argument that both the content and form of this media text convey specific pedagogical messages: especially pedagogies of representation and consumption.

Framing U.S. Cigarette Exports to Asia: How U.S. Daily Newspapers Covered Cigarette Deal • Kwangmi Ko Kim, Towson University • This study focuses on the U.S. media coverage of U.S. cigarette exports to Taiwan and Korea, and examines whether there was congruence between U.S. foreign policy objectives and the direction of the news coverage. This study revealed that most U.S. daily newspapers followed a U.S. “official” line in reporting the issue of exporting cigarettes to Asia. The issue of exporting U.S. cigarettes to Asia was packaged into a trade issue, not a health issue, by the U.S. press as well as by U.S. policy makers.

News, Myth and Social Order: The Myth of the Flood in The New York Times • Jack Lule, Lehigh University • Tales of great floods have been told in many societies. The purpose of this paper is to study news coverage of the 1998 Central American floods through the framework of myth. The paper first briefly discusses myth and archetypal stories. After touching upon the lone literature on news and myth, the paper takes up the archetypal story of the flood. It explores the ways that myth may provide insights into New York Times coverage of the Central American disaster.

Theorizing NPR: Public Broadcasting And The Public Sphere • Mike McCauley, Maine • The mission statements of America’s public broadcasting organizations lead one to believe that they are vehicles for truly democratic broadcasting. But this industry operates within a wider commercial ethos; hence, it often “behaves” in ways that seem contrary to stated missions. Using NPR as a case study, this paper situates public broadcasting within a three-tiered conception of media performance in the public interest. specifically, it shows public broadcasting’s theoretical affinity with Habermas’s public sphere.

Identity and Consumerism on Television in India • Divya C. McMillin, Washington-Tacoma • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

One Man’s Journey: Samuel Day, Jr., As A Test of Shoemaker’s Hierarchy of Influences • James McPherson, Peace College • This paper compares the journalism of Samuel Day, Jr., to Pamela Shoemaker’s Hierarchy of Influences to see if the hierarchy can explain the progressively more liberal work of Day or the content of the publications where he worked. The theory, while inadequate to explain the actions of individual content providers or publications, may be useful in determining whether publications will be successful perhaps an issue for those concerned with a marketplace of ideas.

Mediatized Politics: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the New York Times’ Editorials on the Clinton-Lewinsky Affair • Min Young, Texas-Austin • Analyzing the media discourse of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, the present study illuminates the ideological topography of American society and the ongoing struggles among different ideologies. The semantic, syntactic and pragmatic analysis of the New York Times’ editorials, published in a critical discourse moment, uncovered the sharp contradiction between the diagnostic discourse committed to monogamous moralism and legalism, and the prognostic discourse committed to political pragmatism.

The Virtual “Good Neighborhood”-Tracking The Role Of Communication In Residential Segregation • Eleanor Novek, Monmouth University • Decades after the passage of federal fair housing laws, racial segregation persists today in the U.S., with profound socioeconomic and political consequences for the nation. Communication behaviors, from the restrictive covenants of the past to subtler interpersonal and mediated practices like steering and target marketing, are central to this inequity. This paper explains the theoretical and historical relationship between communication and residential segregation and offers a research agenda for exploring and challenging this pervasive injustice.

Feminist Media Ethnography in the Third World: Exploring Power, Gender, and Culture in Fieldwork • Radhika E. Parameswaran, Indiana • Although feminist media scholars have produced several ethnographies of women’s consumption of popular culture, few have engaged in self-reflexivity about their fieldwork experiences. This paper which is anchored within interdisciplinary postmodern and feminist scholarship on ethnography is a self-reflexive account of one Third World feminist media ethnographer’s research among young middle-class women in urban India who read Western romance fiction. Urging feminist media scholars to pay attention to the politics of representation of audiences, the paper explores power imbalances in the field that arise due to social constructions of gender, ethnic, class, and sexual identities.

Explore Your World: The Strange and Familiar Worlds of Discovery Channel’s Nature Programming • David Pierson, Pennsylvania State University • This paper asserts that the Discovery Channel’s nature programs are structured by dialectical discourses of familiarity and strangeness. On the one hand, these programs invite viewers to evaluate animals through the human template of character and to impose the model of human social organization onto the natural world. On the other hand, because most animals are generally removed from the daily lives of most people, they can be appreciated as exotic, aesthetic object-subjects.

Lionizing Coke’s King: Media, Myth, Capitalism, And The Death Of Roberto Goizueta • Patricia Priest, Georgia • Coca-Cola’s press releases about CEO Roberto Goizeuta’s death are compared to the photographs and text of news articles and obituaries to tease out evidence of reporting that mythologizes not only Goizueta but more significantly what Weber (1958) calls “the spirit of capitalism,” an ethos in which connotations of morality are embedded in business success. We contend the reverential treatment serves to ennoble the increasingly monopolistic financial successes of owners in control of media empires.

A Communication-Based Perspective of the Construction of Social Reality of Women in Non-Tradition Occupations • Michele Rosen, Monmouth University • During the last decade, women have entered traditionally male dominated professions in unprecedented numbers Indeed, today few occupations are off-limits to women capable of undergoing the training and performing the functions of carpenters, electricians, plumbers and other formerly “male-only” trades. Within the professions, more women are choosing careers in engineering, the sciences, and business than in the previous quarter century. This research asks several questions: First, how do the dynamics of work-related communication strategies affect women’s constructs of reality?

Political Economy and Cultural Production: A Discussion of Neo-Colonialist Practices in the Motion Picture Industry, Korea and the U.S. • Elli Lester Roushanzamir, Georgia • Popular film is an influential cultural genre. It has been identified as an industry in which indigenous cultures and national industries have made their mark in breaking from the dominance of the Hollywood U.S. industry. However, this paper, citing as an example the relationships between Korea and the U.S. in this decade (1990s) particularly in the motion picture industry, suggests that colonial-imperialist discourses are rampant between the U.S. and other (particularly “Third World”) countries and that the global motion picture industry provides an exemplar of advanced imperialist practice.

The Zapatistas Online: Shifting the Discourse of a Nation • Adrienne Russell, Indiana University • This paper examines the complex and contradictory dynamic of localization and globalization, revealing technological aspects of the Internet that contribute to a broadening of the discourse regarding the Mexican government as well as dominant conceptions of the Mexican nation. These technological dimensions include the reconfiguration of notions of proximity on the Internet, a condition that influences the scope and nature of user alliances. In addition, the Internet’s lack of an organizational center promotes the dissemination of material that challenges mainstream and “official” accounts, as well as mobilizing information that promotes meetings, rallies and various other types of organized action.

News of Cuba • William Solomon, Rutgers University • This research studies whether business and humanitarian groups’ efforts toward ending the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba have influenced the news media’s coverage of Cuba. It uses a “news frame” model which studies metaphors and euphemisms, combined with selection, emphasis and omission. It examines The New York Times’s coverage of the 1994 exodus of the balseros, or boat people, and the Pope’s 1998 visit. It finds a modest shift in the news frame.

Critical Theories and Cultural Studies in Mass Communication • Les Switzer, John McNamara, Michael Ryan, Houston • This paper examines the role of critical theories and cultural studies in journalism and mass communication by (1) synthesizing two paradigms in contemporary cultural analysis that seek to explain the meaning of phenomena that make a culture, (2) explores some of the issues that are critical for teaching and research in mass communication, and (3) explores ways in which critical literature can be integrated into the teaching and research mission.

Struggle and Consent: African American press coverage of Gone with the Wind • James Tracy, Iowa • This essay uses a theory of hegemony to document change within African American press reception of the film Gone with the Wind. Analysis of five newspapers coverage show that negative reactions by journalists and readers resulted from segregation: blacks could not attend the initial screening in Atlanta. Eventual positive reader response evidenced in the black press complicates the black/white binary opposition approach to media and literary texts. Recognition of Hattie McDaniel’s performance confirmed progress of African Americans, leading to further Optimism.

Understanding the Conditions for Public Discourse: A Critique of Criteria for Letters-to-the-Editor • Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Stanford University • Using Habermas’ work on discourse ethics, this paper argues that the letters-to-the-editor newspaper section is rhetorically advanced as a forum for public debate, but fails to provide the conditions for such a forum. Its failure stems from the “‘rules” that guide the selection of letters: Simply put, letters should be brief, relevant, entertaining, and well-written. The paper discusses the nuances and implications of these rules, and the ways in which they subtly work against the democratic debate that Habermas envisions.

“More Barney Than Buddhist”: How the Media Framed the Story of the Little Lama • Melissa A. Wall, Washington • This study explores the framing of the story of a young American boy believed to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan lama, finding that coverage depicted this event through four frames: American pop culture ‘R us; There’s no place like home; A mother’s place is with her son; and Buddhism is for Buddhists. The most striking findings suggest that commercial symbols appear to be replacing nationalistic or patriotic ones to represent America.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Public Relations Division

Research
Delineating (and Delimiting) the Boundary Spanning Role of the Medical Public Information Officer: A Survey of Editors and Cardiac Surgeons — Raymond N. Ankney and Patricia A. Curtin, North Carolina — Medical public information officers serve as boundary spanners between medical experts and journalists. Editors at every daily newspaper in Pennsylvania and cardiac surgeons in Pennsylvania were surveyed the role of medical PIOs. While the two groups expressed many similar opinions, editors generally were more open to medical PIOs as boundary spanners, whereas surgeons preferred to handle their own media relations.

Getting Past Platitudes: Factors Limiting Accommodation in Public Relations — Glen T. Cameron, Fritz Cropp and Bryan H. Reber, Missouri — We wanted to learn whether top corporate public relations executives at companies with revenues measured in billions of dollars had ever encountered situations that precluded taking an accommodative stance toward a public. Respondents offered instances when proscriptive factors did preclude accommodation on some occasions. Top practitioners strive for accommodation toward most publics, expressed in win-win platitudes. But the practice of two-way symmetrical communication was supplanted when “we got down to cases” that provide a rich understanding of the forces at play in conflict management.

The Cultural Competence Spiral: An Assessment and Profile of U.S Public Relations Practitioners’ Preparation for International Assignments — Alan R. Freitag, North Carolina-Charlotte — This applied research predicts, and finds support for, a spiral beginning with public relations practitioners’ preparation for international assignments, leading to assignment-seeking behavior, success and satisfaction in those assignments, consequently increased intercultural competence, followed by further assignment-seeking behavior, continuing the upward spiral. Results indicate that academic and professional preparation for international assignments among U.S. practitioners is limited, but that preparation correlates positively with success and satisfaction in international assignments.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Do People Really Hold Corporations Responsible For Their Actions? — Jessica Hicks, Hua-Hsin Wan and Michael Pfau, Wisconsin-Madison — Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a hot issue in public relations. Many corporate CEOs believe that CSR plays an instrumental role in consumer evaluations of a corporation. Surveys of consumers’ attitude and behaviors also indicate that they intend to reward corporations for being socially responsible and punish those who are not. In reality, however, there is a debate over whether consumers indeed do what they intend to do. fIn other words, researchers have argued that there is a discrepancy between consumers’ intention to act and their actual behavior. >

Measuring the Economic Value of Public Relations — Yungwook Kim, Florida — This study establishes a two-step model to measure the economic value of public relations by testing two relationships: 1) the impact of public relations expense on reputation as a goal of public relations, and 2) the economic impact of reputation on revenues as companies’ bottom lines. The proposed model showed an appropriate fitting and coefficients were statistically significant. All three hypotheses were supported. By integrating the results of the hypothesis tests, the proposed two-stage model for measuring the economic impact of public relations activities was supported.

Persuasion, Image, And Campaign Message Design: A Case Study Of University Image — Mary Anne Moffitt, Illinois State University — It is a bit ironic that research conducted into image has typically focused on the profit-oriented corporation and that many scholars exploring image have not paid much attention to the image processes of the one organization which Supports most of them-the university. Recent research into image, however, has begun to recognize the importance’ of studying university image processes (Bok, 1992; Gose, 1994; Immerwahr & Harvey, 1995; Phair, 1992; Theus, 1993).

Uncovering the Support Area/In-House Agency Paradox with Evaluative Research — Juan C. Molleda and Lynn M. Zoch, South Carolina — While conducting evaluative research for the corporate communications division of a large regional affiliate of a national insurance group, the researchers uncovered a paradox in the way the communication function is viewed by the division and its “internal customers.” The staff of the division see themselves as a support area of the organization, acting mainly in a technical function by following the directives of other areas, while the areas with which they work see corporate communications as an in-house agency and themselves as its “clients.”

Toward a Self-Regulated and an Ethics-Based Framework for Marketing Communications in Sub-Saharan Africa — Cornelius B. Pratt, University of Zambia and Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce-Southern Africa, Charles C. Okigbo, North Dakota State University and Louisa Ha, The Gallup Organization — Marketing communications, as a promotional strategy, are being used in public- and private-sector campaigns to stimulate the establishment and expansion of much-needed economic growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this paper argues that such a pivotal role be performed within an ethical framework, if the resources of the region and its potential are to be fully explored to attain such goals. The framework is anchored on the non-consequential, duty-based normative theory of deontology.

The Models of Public Relations in India — K. Sriramesh, Florida — As we approach the new millennium, we see a shrinking world in which people in the far corners of the world are increasingly influencing each other in many ways. The decade of the 90’s has been the harbinger of cross-nation exchanges of goods and services. The formation of trading blocks such as NAFTA, EC, ASEAN and APEC has resulted in increased trade among different countries. Further, the explosion of communication technology such as satellite communication and the Internet has contributed to the development of markets around the globe.

A Content Analysis of the Web Pages of Large U.S. Corporations: What is the Role of Public Relations and Marketing? — Suchitra Vattyam and Charles A. Lubbers, Kansas State University — American businesses have expended a great deal of effort on World Wide Web activities, often with limited success. A content analysis of homepage features for 83 of the Fortune 100 companies was performed. The percentages of pages with each feature is provided and then the features are classified according to the business function each attempts to fulfill. The results indicate that many activities found on these homepages are traditionally associated with public relations.

An Innovative Look at Gender in Public Relations: Examining Relationships between Gender and Source Credibility in Employee Communication Messages and Media — Donald K. Wright and Jill R. Haynes, South Alabama — Gender differences between women and men have served as the focal point for much public relations research within the past two decades. However, the public relations body of knowledge lacks any studies that examine gender in terms of how women and men react differently to public relations communication messages and the communication media delivering them. This study examines the impact of gender differences on the receivers of an organization’s internal public relations communication messages.

Teaching
An Exploratory Look at Graduate Public Relations Curricula — Linda Aldoory and Elizabeth L. Toth, Syracuse University — This was an exploratory content analysis of master’s degree programs in public relations that described the status of public relations graduate curricula. Using recommendations of the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education as a benchmark, general requirements, core public relations courses, optional public relations courses and other optional courses were examined. Findings indicated a lack of adherence to the Foundation’s recommendations and a lack of consistency across programs as to number and type of courses required or offered.

A National Study of a Three-Weekend Accelerated Class Format Within the Public Relations Curriculum — Lisa T. Fall, Michigan State University — The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of Public Relations Management courses offered over a six-month period in a three-weekend accelerated curriculum format. The theoretical framework from which this study was designed is derived from Malcolm Knowles’ andragogy theory of adult learning. This study addresses the following three research questions: RQ1: How do students who are enrolled in this class format rate its effectiveness in relation to the assumptions of the andragogy theory?

Helping Students Succeed in the Introduction to Public Relations Course: The Influence of Student Study Manuals and Cablecast Review Sessions on Classroom Performance — Charles A. Lubbers, Kansas State University — This research assessed the value of two distance learning tools as supplements for the traditional introduction to public relations course. The point totals from four exams taken by 506 students were regressed with students’ reported usage of a study manual, usage of televised review sessions, year in school and major status. The results indicate that all four variables are significantly correlated with class performance, but that the study manual explains the most variance.

The Internet, Online Resources and Public Relations Practitioners: What They Use and What They Recommend for Students — Michael Ryan, Houston — This paper reports the results of a nationwide survey of 150 public relations practitioners who were to indicate the extent to which they use the World Wide Web and online resources; when they began using computers for non-word processing purposes; what computer skills are needed in their offices; what skills they seek in new hires; the extent to which they were involved in creating Web sites; and how much importance they attach to Web pages.

Student
Do Corporate Annual Reports and Web Sites Support a Commitment to Social Responsibility? — Kimberly Gill, Florida — This pilot study employed content analysis to examine the extent to which the corporate annual reports and web sites of six corporations demonstrated social responsibility. Social responsibility was framed through the literature review using definitions of social responsibility, philanthropy and public relations. Literature indicated that investors are concerned about the corporate citizenship of companies in which they invest. Contrary to what the literature suggested, companies lacked complete social responsibility disclosure in annual reports and web sites.

Making the Web Work for Non-Profits: Recommendations for the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas — Amy Henika, Trinity University — This paper discusses making Web sites effective for non-profit organizations. It reviews Web sites in general: what they are, why they have proliferated, how they function as part of marketing communications, and what makes them effective. It compares an effective commercial site, Gap, with two lion-profit sites: Bryan’s House and Ronald McDonald House of Dallas. Based on that analysis, the paper recommends improvements for the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas site.

Tactics in Labor Disputes Viewed as Public Relations Activities: Two Strikes in Milwaukee, 1934-1935 — Darlene Jirikowic, Wisconsin-Milwaukee — The mid-1930s were rich in union organizing and the period lends itself to a review of public relations functions as they were used in an arena not usually associated with such activities. This paper focuses on the strategies designed to influence a public or publics in two high-profile strikes in Milwaukee, the Electric Railway and Light Company and the Lindemann-Hoverson Stove Works. In particular, this paper concentrates on the tactics centering on the unions’ most important external public, the employer.

What Dimensions Constitute A Good Corporate Image In the Eyes of Chinese Educated Public in Hong Kong — Lee Kaman Betty, Hong Kong Baptist University — The present study is to examine what dimensions constitute a good corporate image in the eyes of Chinese educated public in Hong Kong. Two hundred and fifty-four (54 males and 200 females) undergraduate students in Hong Kong participated in the present study. An empirical measure called Corporate Image Scale was developed and used. Varimax factor analysis revealed seven meaningful factors. Moreover, the predictability of each factor was examined. Implications of findings are discussed.

Standardizing International Crisis Communication In The United States: The Effects Of Spokesperson Ethnicity On Credibility And Image Ratings Of Multinational Organizations — Laura Arpan Ralstin, Alabama — An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of using American versus non-American spokespersons for multinational organizations in a crisis situation. The experiment varied the home country of the organization (United States, Mexico, Japan, and Germany) as well as whether the company used a spokesperson from its home country or an American spokesperson. Path analyses found company image to be predicted by spokesperson credibility ratings. Additionally, the degree of participants’ ethnic identities affected spokesperson similarity ratings, which in turn predicted spokesperson credibility ratings.

Responding to Crisis: The Communications Aftermath of the Thurston High School Shootings — Andi Stein, Oregon — This paper is a case-study of the crisis communications response that took place following the Thurston High School shootings in Springfield, Oregon, in May 1998. It addresses the challenges faced by the public information officers in the Springfield/Eugene, Oregon, area who dealt with the communications aftermath of the Thurston shootings and evaluates the public relations activities implemented by these individuals while responding to this crisis.

There’s Something About PR: Influence Of Positive And Normative Models Of Public Relations On Job Satisfaction Among Bulgarian Practitioners — Christopher Varadon, Florida — This study explores job satisfaction among Bulgarian public relations practitioners in the light of the four models of public relations-press agentry/publicity, public information, two-way asymmetrical and two-way symmetrical in positive (real–life) and normative (ideal) settings. In addition, this study tests integral models of craft vs. professional public relations. Findings suggest that Bulgarian practitioners are dealing with both craft and professional models in their daily business, but aspire to revert only to the professional model.

<< 1999 Abstracts