Archives for January 2012

Newspaper Division

Bombing Bagdad: Comparing The Influence of Foreign Policy and Propaganda Tools in British and American Newspapers During a Joint Military Action December 17-21, 1998 • Abhinav Aima, Ohio University • This study compared the coverage of air strikes against Iraq in four American and four British newspapers in the period December 17-21, 1998. A content analysis of 293 news stories collected from the Lexis-Nexis databank for these five days showed a similar trend in newspapers of both countries that lent support to the propaganda model theory. Both countries’ newspapers over-represented the sources that were favorable to the respective foreign policies or largely kept their opinions within the confines of the foreign policy debate.

Enterprise and Investigative Reporting at Ohio Metropolitan Newspapers in 1980 and in 1995 • Joseph Bernt and Marilyn Greenwald, Ohio University • Underwood and McManus argue maximizing profit is incompatible with covering an establishment that includes media executives and celebrity reporters. Hamill thinks a cozy relationship between corporate ownership and market-oriented newsrooms endangers investigative reporting. Demers argues the managerial revolution has improved newspapers. rather than eroding their quality. Authors’ earlier study found a decline in investigative and rise in feature reporting in three major dailies from 1980 to 1995. This content analysis of six Ohio dailies found less shift from investigative reporting, noting some smaller papers expanded both forms.

News Media, Heal Thyselves: Sourcing Patterns In News Stories About News Media Performance • Ronald Bishop, Drexel University • The last decade has seen a marked increase in the amount of coverage afforded the “media angle” in major news stories. But where do journalists turn to find support for stories they write about themselves? This content analysis applies and extends past research on source selection patterns to these “media stories.” It is hypothesized that certain sources do recur in stories about news media performance. A series of Lexis-Nexis searches was performed between April and October 1998 for news stories and broadcast news transcripts from 1990 to the present which focused either on exploration of news media coverage or the practice of journalism.

The Great Home Run Race Of 1998 In Black And White • Mike Bush, North Carolina • In covering the race, most newspapers focused on Mark McGwire, ignoring Sammy Sosa, a black Dominican. But the contest may have been for second place; Negro Leaguer Josh Gibson once walloped 84 homers. Another issue was McGwire’ 5 use of a steroid, legal in baseball but banned by other sports. Once the biased coverage was noted, many writers gave Sosa due credit. Black papers ignored the unequal coverage story.

Job Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction of Texas Newspaper Reporters • Li-jing Arthur Chang, Nanyang Technological University and George Sylvie, Texas-Austin • This study surveyed 365 Texas daily newspaper reporters in spring 1998 to explore the conceptual distinction between job satisfaction and dissatisfaction as well as factors behind job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Results indicated the reporters’ job satisfaction and dissatisfaction were different concepts. Path analysis showed the predictors of their job satisfaction include sense of achievement, personal growth, newsroom policy, impact on community, and autonomy. The analysis also showed the predictors of their dissatisfaction include pay and work conditions.

Are Young People Reading the Newspaper? A 25-Year Cohort Analysis • Nancy Cheever and Tony Rimmer, California State University-Fullerton • The newspaper industry has long been concerned that it is losing the young reader. The research informing this concern is derived largely from cross-sectional studies. We argue that younger people become older, stable, newspaper readers and that a cohort analysis approach is needed to understand this phenomenon. We look at newspaper readership and its predictors both cross-sectionally and through cohort analysis in the 25-year cumulation (1972-1996) of the General Social Survey.

Numbers in Newsrooms: A Qualitative Case Study of How Journalists View Math on the Job • Patricia A. Curtin and Scott Maier, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • To explore how journalists perceive their use of numbers in the news and to lay the groundwork for developing training curriculum to help journalists work with numbers with greater competence and confidence, focus groups were conducted with reporters, copy editors, and top management of a 150,000-circulation, chain-owned daily newspaper. The results suggest different approaches to math training are necessary based on subjects’ comfort levels with math. Implications for journalism educators and newsroom managers are given.

Measuring the Marketplace: Diversity and Editorial Page Content • Michael Drager, Illinois State University • In this study of editorial page content, 105 newspapers were content analyzed to determine their diversity. An economic measure, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, was used to develop a composite index of diversity for each newspaper. Results found that while some aspects of editorial content were somewhat diverse in nature, overall diversity of content for the sample was lacking.

Newsroom Teams: A Baseline Study Of Prevalence, Organization And Effectiveness • Fred F. Endres, Ann B. Schierhorn and Carl Schierhorn, Kent State University • Although the concept of teamwork as an organizational model has been promoted in the busi-ness world for the past 25 years, only recently have some newsrooms begun to adopt the team model. This baseline study of U.S. newspaper managing editors found that 37 percent reported they had a full or partial permanent team system in place. Most of those teams were organized by news topic or as an ad hoc group of reporters, editors and designers who planned and executed specific stories or pack-ages.

You Had to Be There (And They Weren’t): The Problem with Reporter Reconstructions • Russell Frank, Pennsylvania State University • Newspaper stories that rely on the reconstruction of events from police reports, court records and the recollections of witnesses often sacrifice attribution for the sake of immediacy. Such stories make compelling reading but they mislead readers by erasing the line between information obtained via observation and information obtained from human or documentary sources. This paper argues that the lack of attribution is more distracting than its presence-because the reader wonders how the reporter knows what he knows-and calls on reporters to make clear when they have left the realm of observation and entered the realm of reconstruction.

Journalists’ Perceptions Of Online Information-Gathering Problems • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This paper reports a study of the leading problems identified in using the World Wide Web for newsgathering. Respondents to 1997 and 1998 national censuses listed their perceptions of flaws in the Web as a newsgathering source. Data from similar national censuses conducted in 1994, 1995, and 1996 are also reported. The study found growing use of the Web and commercial services during all five years. Among the leading problems were verification, unreliable information, badly sourced information, and lack of site credibility.

Diversity Efforts in the Newsroom: Doin’ the Right Thing or Just A Case of Show Me the Money? • Richard Gross and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri and Patricia A. Curtin, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Researchers analyzed 76 interviews with reporters and editors at a respected western U.S. newspaper involved in enhancing diversity of its newspaper content and newsroom staffing. Researchers sought to determine if market-driven considerations and “quality” journalism were perceived by respondents as mutually exclusive. The study confirms previous findings that journalists consider knowledge about the business of their newspaper to be empowering, not necessarily in conflict with the editorial mission.

Framing Jasper: A Statement Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of the John William King Murder Trial • L. Paul Husselbee, Mary Alice Baker, O’Brien Stanley and Ashley Salter, Lamar University • Journalists frame issues by choosing to emphasize some issues over others, affecting news consumers’ awareness and perception of public problems and concerns. Journalistic credibility suffers from public perception that reporters do not show respect for communities they cover and that they chase “sensational” stories because they sell newspapers. This study analyzes newspaper coverage of a “sensational” story to determine how journalists framed the community of Jasper, Texas, and its citizens during the trial of white supremacist John William King.

Extra! Extra! Read all About It: The American Press and Crime News • Cathy M. Jackson, Norfolk State University • The centuries-old relationship between the press and crime coverage is explored in this descriptive paper. Yet, despite its longevity, crime news and its ability to historically highlight social conditions have not been fully explored by researchers. Crime news also is worthy of study because it has been a factor in the development of several journalistic techniques. Situated in its sociohistorical setting, the press and its coverage of crime news reveals a journalistic form that mirrored the American citizens’ quest for a place in the universe.

Local Views on Local News • Patricia M. Kennedy, Syracuse University • Expanding on research studying the relationship between community ties and media preferences, this study, based on a 1998 telephone survey in which half of the respondents use the internet at home, finds those with strong ties to the local political process (through voter registration, planning to vote and higher levels of political activity), and those who anticipated continued residency in the community, identified newspapers as the preferred medium for information about local public affairs.

Hispanics & the Media: A Case Study of Coverage in The Dallas Morning News • Camille R. Kraeplin, Southern Methodist University and Federico Subervi, Texas-Austin • This study examined coverage of Latinos by a large Southwestern daily, as well as their attitudes toward that coverage. Using focus groups, a survey and a content analysis, researchers found that although the quantity of coverage was low, the quality was generally positive. However, it was not as broad-based as it should be. Most Hispanic readers would like to see some Spanish-language content in the newspaper. And most expressed a high level of interest in “Hispanic” content.

The Recency and Frequency Effects in the Agenda-setting Process • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This study content analyzes the coverage of four issues by the New York Times in a 20-week long period. It finds that there are two types of effects in the agenda-setting process: a recency effect and a frequency effect. It suggests that there might not be such a thing called an optimal time lag. It also finds that it is on the obtrusive issues that the media have a stronger agenda-setting effect.

The New York Times and The London Times Cover War in Bosnia and Croatia, 1991 to 1995: Press Nationalism and U.S.-British Hegemony Over Bosnian Policy • Lawrence A. Luther, Ohio University • A content analysis of news articles in The New York Times and The London Times divided Bosnian war coverage into three periods between 1991 and 1995. Coded were datelines, sources (including U.S. and British officials), story topic, and U.S.-British policy rifts. Results demonstrated the increasing U.S. role over the West’s Bosnian policy, while Britain’s role declined. This supported Press Nationalism as a relationship between press attention and the U.S. role. It supported the premise of U.S.-British hegemony, with the U.S. role dominant.

Getting It Right: Newsmaker Perceptions of Accuracy and Credibility • Scott R. Maier, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • In a survey of news sources cited in a metropolitan daily newspaper, 58.1 percent of local news stories examined were reported in error. Factual errors were most common but ‘errors of judgment” were considered most egregious. News sources were forgiving of error, rating most inaccuracies minor and almost never seeking corrections. Inaccuracies were found to affect source perceptions of story credibility, but errors from any one story had no significant influence on overall newspaper credibility’.

Agency Concerns Over Newspaper Advertising • Ann Maxwell, Oregon and Wayne Wanta, Florida • A random survey of U.S. advertising agencies examined concerns about newspaper advertising. The results suggest that agencies still view newspapers positively. They also do not view online communications as a replacement for newspapers. However, agencies also appear to have concerns about the audiences they will reach through newspaper advertisements. In other words, the newspaper product is still attractive to advertising agencies, but the audiences they provide are key concerns.

Analytical Journalism: Credibility of Computer-Assisted Reporting • Justin Mayo, Missouri • An experiment tested readers’ perceptions of newspaper stories that used one of three different types of evidence to support the reporter’s claims in the stories: data the reporter independently gathered and analyzed via databases (computer-assisted reporting), data from official or expert sources, and anecdotal evidence. Participants read three news stories on different topics with one of the three types of evidence in each story. After reading each story, participants rated the story’s credibility, newsworthiness, liking, quality, understanding, and readability.

The Quest for Newspaper Credibility Through the Public Dialogue in Correction Boxes, Letters to the Editor and Columns Written by Newspaper Ombudsmen • Neil Nemeth, Purdue University-Calumet and Craig Sanders, John Carroll University • We examined how newspapers published in cities with competitive daily newspapers used correction boxes, letters to the editor and an ombudsman’s column in their public dialogue with their readers about the paper’s behavior. News content dominated the correction boxes and ombudsman’s columns. Reaction to the opinion of columnists or other letters to the editor writers dominated the letters to the editor. These findings raise questions about the effectiveness of these mechanisms to adequately address the credibility gap between newspapers and their readers.

Agenda Setting and the Presidency: A Longitudinal Analysis of the State of the Union Address and Newspaper Coverage • Ashby W. Pettigrew and William R. Davie, Southwestern Louisiana • Agenda-setting studies have suggested the president’s State of the Union address is subject to a re-ordering of priorities by the press. To test that assumption, ten State of the Union speeches and their coverage by The New York Times and The Washington Post were content analyzed and compared over a 47-year period. The results showed a remarkable degree of shared emphasis on agenda topics set forth by the president in this speech.

Journalists and Gender: An Analysis of The New York Times Coverage of the 1996 U.S. Presidential Election • Kimmerly S. Piper-Aiken, Indiana University • Content analysis of 339 election stories from The New York Times found striking similarities between stories written by women and men. This study examined whether or not women reporters were more likely to use gender-relevant frames, refer to the “women’s vote,” report on typical women’s themes, and include female sources more often than men. Regardless of gender, journalists avoided using simple sex stereotypes and women continued to be underrepresented as news sources and reporters.

The Framing of Crime and Violence Print News in the Los Angeles Times • Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • The authors examine how crime and violence reporting is framed by the Los Angeles Times. Using a public health perspective, we examine whether causal factors and societal impact of crimes are present in news stories. Surprisingly, we find that the classic stereotyping of crime and violence framing is strongly present in the Times. We discuss what changes would be useful to provide news consumers with a more accurate picture of crime in their community.

The Downing of Pierre Salinger: Friendly Fire or Self-Destruction? • Thomas E. Ruggiero, Bowling Green State University and Samuel P. Winch, Nanyang University, Singapore • Journalists are now using interactive electronic forums to engage in informal self-regulation. By critiquing coverage of news stories online, journalists seek to enhance professionalism and objective news practices. In the past this role was served much less frequently and primarily by social-science scholars, the trade press and professional conventions. Emphasizing a social-constructionist perspective, this study employed rhetorical analysis to locate supporting and contrasting elements and arguments from two primary sources.

Improving Newspaper Delivery: A Factor Analysis of Route Demographic Variables and Reliability Measures • Marc Seamon, West Virginia University • Reliability of newspaper delivery is a serious concern for circulation managers, but media researchers have done little to help them address the issue. This quantitative examination assesses reliability and satisfaction variables for lateness, damage and non-delivery and then correlates those indices with route demographic variables such as carrier age, carrier experience, route length, route density and length of time required for delivery. The results indicate that current industry trends to replace juvenile carriers with “more reliable” adults may be misguided.

The Shrinking Sphere of Privacy: Candidate Coverage in Presidential Politics, 1980 to 1996 • Elizabeth A. Skewes, Syracuse University • Politicians bemoan the personal nature of campaign coverage, saying it distracts voters and keeps good people from running for office. Others argue that a candidate’s handling of media scrutiny prepares him or her for the limelight of office. This study finds that campaign coverage is more personal than in 1980, although it is not more negative. It also finds that while most personal coverage is about Democrats, personal coverage of Republican candidates is more negative.

The Metro Wide Web: How Newspapers’ Gatekeeping Role Is Changing Online • Jane B. Singer, Colorado State University • Newspapers traditionally have about the world to local readers’ doorsteps. But as papers go online, their editors face new decisions relating to that gatekeeping role. This study examines the print and online versions of six Colorado newspapers, comparing the amount of local and non-local news, sports and business content in each. The findings indicate the online products have a much stronger local orientation than the print ones, suggesting that online papers may be moving toward abandonment of the role of connecting readers to a world that extends beyond their horizons.

The New York Times Coverage Of Somalia 1992-94: A Content Analysis • Mustafa Taha, Ohio University • This paper content analyzes 200 articles that dealt with the situation in Somalia during 1992-1994. The study contributes to the tradition of research in two areas: Information flow, and press-government relations. The results show that more than 55 percent of The New York Times sources were U.S. officials. The Times contribution to agenda setting regarding U.S. policy in Somalia was minimal. The study suggests that the closer the reporter’s location to policy makers, the less critical the reporter will be.

Baseball Box Scores in the Newspaper: Helpful Statistics or Sports Hieroglyphics? • C. A. Tuggle and Don Sneed, Florida International University • A survey of fans in attendance at two Major League baseball games reveals that many fans experience difficulty when trying to decipher box scores in the newspaper. Several factors affected the ability to read box scores, including having played sports in high school, the sex of the respondent, and whether English was the person’s native language. The authors suggest that publications include a legend on the agate page that explains the meanings of the abbreviations.

Local News Coverage Strategies in a Three-Way Daily Newspaper Competitive Market • Patsy G. Watkins, Arkansas • An exploratory study examines local news coverage strategies in the first months of an unusual competitive market situation involving three daily newspapers. The market is a two-county area including four main medium-sized cities and a few dozen small towns. Content analysis was used to determine the amount and topics of local news coverage allocated to the various municipalities in the market to find out if the papers were substitutes for each other.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Minorities and Communication Division

Faculty Papers
Black, White, Hispanic, And Asian-American Adolescents’ Responses To Culturally Embedded Ads • Osei Appiah, Iowa State University • Researchers digitally manipulated the race of characters in ads and the number of race specific cultural cues in the ads while maintaining all other visual features of these ads. Three hundred forty-nine black, white, Hispanic, and Asian-American adolescents evaluated black character or white character ads based on their: 1) perceived similarity to the characters in the ads; 2) identification with the characters in the ads; 3) belief that the ads were intended for them; 4) overall like/dislike of the ads.

An Analysis of Role Portrayal in U.S. Spanish-Language Television Promotional Announcements • Jami J. Armstrong, Oklahoma State University and Alice Kendrick, Southern Methodist University • This study, the first to profile television promotional announcements on Spanish-language television, revealed an emphasis on sexual content and contact, suggestive dress and a high degree of sex role stereotyping. The images a viewer of Spanish language television receives via promotional announcements is that programming will feature an abundance of scantily clad, young, attractive women. The findings call into question whether the station promotional announcements, as well as programming they represent, are m keeping with the Hispanic cultural values as expressed in the marketing and communication literature.

Third-Person Perception and Optimistic Bias Among Urban Minority “At-Risk” Youth • John Chapin, Rutgers University • Recent third-person perception articles suggest that optimistic bias is the mechanism underlying the perceptual bias, but fail to empirically test the assumption. Minority “at-risk” youth are neglected in both literatures, despite the fact that they are frequently the target audience for the resulting campaigns. This study sought to bridge a gap between communication and psychology by determining to what extent third-person perception and optimistic bias co-vary in a sample of urban, minority “at-risk” youth.

Exclusion, Denial, and Resignation: How African American Girls Read Mainstream Teen Magazines • Lisa Duke, Florida • ‘Teen, Seventeen, and YM; the best-selling teen magazines, are arguably culturally specific in their execution of major themes, yet enjoy a substantial African American audience This is a qualitative study of how 26 Black and White readers of teen magazines understand and negotiate African American girls’ relative absence from these texts. Black participants’ interpretations of teen magazines change with age, but also with girls’ growing racial awareness and identification, demonstrating the pertinence of Helms’s (1995) model of racial-identity development to the data.

“Beyond the Looking Glass:” Thoughts and Feelings of African American Images in Advertisements by Caucasian Consumers • Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri-Columbia • Advertisements with “all-black” actors are often placed in “black media” to reach African American markets. The main purpose of this study is to determine if certain African American images could be used to reach other target markets in mainstream media (i.e. Caucasians). Seventy-six Caucasian female and male undergraduates were asked to list any and all thoughts concerning Caucasian and African-American female images. Content analysis of the thoughts revealed that when considering Caucasian images, comments focused primarily on the model’s beauty and physical image.

Trust, Efficacy And Political Information Seeking Among Latinos • Jose R. Gaztambide-Geigel, Institute for Puerto Rican and Latino Studies and Connecticut, Storrs • This paper seeks to understand political information-seeking behaviors by Latinos and to clarify the relationship between these behaviors and political trust and efficacy. It also looks at whether there are differences in this relationship for three groups of Latinos: those born in Puerto Rico, those from Latin America, and those born in the United States. Analysis of survey data @4=502) from Connecticut suggests that efficacy predicts paying attention to political commercials, but not attention to news on media.

Looks Like Me? Body Image In U.S. Hispanic Women’s Magazines • Melissa Johnson, North Carolina State University • This study coded 1,749 non-advertising images of women for body size and muscle tone in 51 issues of 13 magazines targeted to Latinas in the United States. Body size differed significantly by origin of publication and magazine format, with thinnest images originating from non-U.S. magazines and from fashion magazines. Latina magazines’ female images were no haven from unrealistically thin women in general market media. Hispanic magazines had pluralistic and assimilationist functions in their female depictions.

The Indianapolis Recorder: A Midwestern Black Newspaper Passes Century Mark By Finding Formula For Survival • Tendayi S. Kumbula, Ball State University • The Indianapolis Recorder is one of a handful of African American newspapers to have been published continuously and to have survived for more than 100 years in the United States. Through a combination of grit, determination, good management and understanding of what its readers and advertisers want, the newspaper, published in Indiana’s capital, has outlived its competition and continued to thrive. This has happened at a time when even some mainstream papers have faced hard economic times, which have resulted in cutbacks, downsizing and even the shutdown of some media outlets.

A Critical Analysis of the Newspaper Coverage of Native Americans by The Oklahoman newspaper for 1998: A study focusing on Indians stereotypes, types and kinds of stories about Native Americans • Dianne Lamb, Georgia Southern University • This study reviewed 309 articles about Native Americans in The Oklahoman for 1998 to determine the presence of stereotypes, if any, and the kinds and types of articles written about American Indians. The results showed that 31.4 percent of the coverage or 98 articles were about American Indians engaged in traditional artistic pursuits. The Indian of the past was the most common image of the Native American presented to the readers of The Oklahoman in 1998.

Hate Speech and the Third-Person Effect: Susceptibility, Severity, and the Willingness to Censor • Jennifer L. Lambe and Dhavan V. Shah, Minnesota • The concern that hate speech may provoke actual violence shares a commonality with the third-person effect hypothesis, which predicts that as people perceive “harmful” messages to have a greater effect on others than on themselves, they will be more likely to support censoring those messages. In a randomized telephone survey of 407 adults in a major midwestern metropolitan area, this study finds support for both the perceptual and behavioral components of the third-person effect in the context of hate speech.

Issue(s) African Americans Would Like to See Receive More Coverage In The Media • Teresa Mastin, Middle Tennessee State University • This study was conducted to provide African American community members with an opportunity to voice their thoughts about media programming. Participants were asked “What Issue(s) Would You Like to See Receive More Coverage in Media Programming?” The 235 responses were divided into two categories: issue related and “media do a good job”. The issue-related category was divided into three topical areas: community related; health, education, and welfare related; and civil rights related.

Racism In (and Out of) the News • Peter Parisi, Hunter College • This paper explores the textual strategies through which the U.S. press (1) rejects racism in principle then (2) declines to consider it as a structural or pervasive feature of contemporary U.S. society. The paper first examines a small sample of New York Times headlines employing the term “racism.” Second, if offers a textual analysis of coverage by the New York City press, particularly the Times, of a racist float in a Queens Labor Day parade.

The Press and Lynchings of African Americans • Richard M. Perloff, Cleveland State University • From 1889 to 1918, over 2,500 Black persons were lynched by White vigilantes, often with unspeakable cruelty. Shamefully, virtually no research has explored the ways that the press discussed this peculiarly American crime. This paper seeks to redress the imbalance in the literature. It is concluded that mainstream newspapers frequently provided racist descriptions of Black lynchings during this period, but press coverage slowly improved over the course of the twentieth century. Directions for future research are outlined.

It’s Time To Force A Change: The African American Press’ Campaign For A True Democracy During World War II • Earnest L. Perry Jr., Texas Christian University • For the African American press, proclaiming that there would be no “Close Ranks” during the Second World War was not enough. As the messenger for African Americans, the press was expected to be a leader not just in the fight for inclusion, but for justice emanating from a war against the evil and aggression that accompanies a theory of white supremacy. This study looks at how the African American press in conjunction with other civil rights organizations used the dual victory campaigns to pressure the government to change its exclusionary policies.

Health Communication Research and African Americans: A Conceptual Framework • Carolyn Stroman, Howard • Enormous amounts of money and efforts have been exerted to improve the health status of Americans. As a result, the overall health status of Americans has steadily improved throughout the 20th century. A number of medical and non-medical factors have been associated with the overall improved health status of Americans. Increasingly, though, the general public, as have health professionals, has come to the realization that issues of personal behavior play a key role in health and illness.

A Minority Voice In The Wilderness: Julius F. Taylor And The ‘Broad Ax’ Of Salt Lake City • Michael S. Sweeney, Utah State University • In 1895, the liberal, Democratic, African-American and non-Mormon journalist Julius Taylor founded a Salt Lake City newspaper, the Broad Ax. intending to promote the Free Silver wing of the Democratic Party and convert blacks from the GOP. Although he championed racial and religious equality, he could not overcome political, cultural and financial pressures. This paper examines the dominant themes in the Broad Ax’s four years in Utah, and the forces that helped drive Taylor and his paper to Chicago.

Multicultural Media Pedagogy: An Alternative View • Jocelyn A. Geliga Vargas, Lehman College/CUNY and Suzanne LaGrande, Baruch College/CUNY • Based on a ten week video literacy workshop for Latina teen mothers conducted in Holyoke, Massachusetts, we reflect upon the tenets and contributions of media literacy, critical pedagogy and multiculturalism. We then develop a vision for engaged and collaborative community media education. The central contribution of the model we sketch is the proposition that culture and cultural difference arise as the guiding principles for any pedagogical intervention.

Student Competition
Out of Their Hands: Framing and Its Impact on New York Times and Television Coverage of Indians and Indian Activism, 1968-79 • Jennifer M. Bowie, Ohio University • This content analysis of 243 stories identified and described a media frame used by the New York Times and television network news programs to marginalize Indians and Indian activists from 1968-79. Activist events set a large portion of the media’s agenda. Indians were framed as a violent, militant, and divided out-group. Based on this deviant and illegitimate frame-and on limited survey data-this study concluded that this coverage had a negative impact on public opinion.

Model Minority Discourse in the News Media: A Comparison of Asian American and Mormon Cases • Chiung Hwang Chen, Iowa • This paper examines the power relationships between the majority and minority groups through a comparison of media’s Asian American and Mormon “success” stories. The media cover Asian Americans and Mormons in a remarkably similar manner, utilizing a “model minority discourse.” I discuss how the media have constructed Asian Americans and Mormons as “models,” how this “success” image can slide into a minority “threat,” and how the discourse marginalizes both groups by keeping them “placed” as minority.

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield: Race and Biraciality in Star Trek • Michele S. Foss, Florida • The television show Star Trek made a distinct and direct comment on the issue of race with the episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.” Through an analysis of the images and dialogue in this episode, and relying on Leah R. Vande Berg’s theory of species-as-race (1996), this paper illustrates how Star Trek defined race within a science fictional setting, and how that definition depended on the contemporary environment in which it was written.

Japanese-American Internment Redress and Reparations: A Pilot Study of Media Coverage by the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post-1986-1999 • Joy Y. Nishie, Nevada-Las Vegas • This pilot study examines media coverage in the period prior to, during, and after the passage of the Japanese-American World War II internee reparations bill in 1988. An archival search of the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post from 1986 to 1999 was used. Findings showed that both newspapers, despite their differences in the amount of articles printed, tended to be positive toward the redress and reparations bill.

KVUE-TV’s ‘Crime Guidelines’ and Unconscious Racism: A Case Study • Bob Pondillo, Wisconsin-Madison • This is a case study of KVUE-TV, Austin, Texas, during its first year employing written guidelines to determine whether or not a crime event is news. The paper hypothesizes that because newsrooms frame events in the narrative of the dominant ideology (and are systemically, unconsciously racist without using guidelines), a crime guideline routine would work to structure unconscious racism, exacerbate the problem of racialized news coverage, and reveal the subjective quality of deciding what is news.

(Under)exposed! Images of Asians and Asian Americans in News Photographs • Shelly Rodgers and Doyle Yoon, Missouri-Columbia • The authors examine stereotypes and portrayals of Asians and Asian Americans in newspaper photographs. Both subgroups are outnumbered by all other ethnicities, and are stereotyped in nearly half of the photos examined. Asians appear most frequently as tragic victims, and Asian Americans are seen most often as submissive. Implications suggest that the extent to which stereotypes are reflected in the news media, biased and inaccurate expectations may be formed by members outside the subgroup, resulting in harmful and negative consequences for the member group.

Newspaper Coverage of Immigrant Issues in Changing Communities: A Content Analysis • Mahen Saverimuttu, Michigan State University • The paper examines three extra media factors, community pluralism, economic conditions and socio-economics to understand how immigrant groups are represented in the newspapers. The study reveals that (a) existing measures of community pluralism need greater examination (b) newspapers appear to reflect the community in their representation of immigrant issues (c) Coverage of immigration in communities with greater unemployment has a decisively economic orientation and (d) Immigrants from countries of lower socio-economic status are more frequently the focus of immigration coverage.

Sources of Influence in the Framing of Community Conflict • Mahen Saverimuttu, Michigan State University • This study utilizes an integrated framework of community structure and media frames to examine the manner in which four Californian newspapers covered the highly divisive issue that was California’s Proposition 187. The frames utilized by the newspapers and the many groups seeking to air their perspective, within the structure of a pluralistic community, revealed that (a) groups with less power within the communities garnered substantial coverage through collective action, (b) there was significant congruence between the groups’ frames and newspapers’ frames.

The Media, Susan Smith, and the Mythical Black, Kidnapper: Why Don’t I Trust My Black/White Neighbor? • Jennifer L. Bailey Woodard, Indiana University • As an example of how the media works as a legitimator of dominate culture, this paper takes a critical look at the 1994 case of Susan Smith and the media’s coverage of the alleged kidnapping of her children by a black male. The common sense, naturalized images and myths about blacks espoused by media rhetoric in these stories are symbolic of the distrust it perpetuates; a distrust that whites and blacks must try to overcome.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Media Management and Economics Division

The Effect On Ratings Linked To Moving Programs Within The Prime Time Broadcast Schedule • William Jenson Adams, Kansas State • This study looked at the relationship between moving programs and the ratings. While moving an established series once during the main broadcast year improved the chances of a significant rating increase for both the series and the network, moving an established series during the summer resulted in significant rating decreases. Whether or not a move benefited a new program depended on how the new program was doing in its original slot. Neither new nor established series survived more than one move in any given year.

Circulation Performance, Perceived Environmental Uncertainty and the Market Orientation of U.S. Daily Newspapers • Randal A. Beam, Indiana University • This paper explores the relationships among perceived environmental uncertainty, a market-oriented editorial strategy and circulation performance at 183 U.S. daily newspapers. The research uses a multidimensional approach to measuring strength of market orientation and perceived environmental uncertainty. The research finds that a strong market orientation is positively associated with lower levels of perceived environmental uncertainty and that a strong market orientation is positively associated with better circulation performance for small dailies but not for medium-sized and large dailies.

From On-Air to Online World: Examining the Functions and Structures of Broadcast TV Stations’ Web Sites • Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted and Jung Suk Park, Florida • This paper explored the content, functions, and designs provided by TV station Web sites. The authors also investigated the relationships between a station’s market characteristics such as affiliation, marketing size, marketing ranking, and ownership and its Web content and designs. The results revealed the importance of news-related content and the need for broadcasters to focus their online efforts on improving the areas of local information, interactive communication, e-commerce, web user data collection, personalization, and online advertising.

Opening the Umbrella: An Economic Analysis of Online Newspaper Geography • Hsiang Iris Chyi and George Sylvie, Texas-Austin • This study examines how the print newspaper’s local nature and the Internet’s boundary-transcending capacity define an online newspaper’s geographic market. An original theory of online newspaper geography is developed, and an illustrative model proposed, from which inquiries about the nature of the new medium are made. An email survey of online newspapers was conducted to test the hypotheses and to provide valuable information about online newspaper geography.

The Myths and Realities of Newspaper Acquisition Costs: Fiduciary Responsibilities, Fungibility of Assets, Winners’ Penalties & Excess Cash “Problems” • Dane S. Claussen, Georgia • Dertouzos and Thorpe (1985) completed the latest publicly available aggregate analysis of newspaper acquisition prices, and derived two price formulas. But they assumed acquiring firms never over- or underpaid; acquisition costs they couldn’t account for were attributed entirely to tax benefits. Claussen’s formula (1986) omitted tax considerations, but did not assume “correct” acquisition prices. This paper proposes a new formula and, explores the question of why newspaper groups often pay “too much.”

Managing Change: Newspaper Editors’ Attitudes Toward Integrating Marketing and Journalism • Peter Gade, Oklahoma • Three types of managers emerged from this 1998 Q study of top newsroom editors at 18 newspapers associated with the American Society of Newspaper Editors Change Committee. One of the types believes that newspapers can, and must, synthesize an increased marketing awareness and traditional journalism values. Two of the types, however, are not so optimistic about the changes they are expected to lead an manage. These two types see marketing as a threat to journalism values and believe newspapers should preserve the “wall” of separation between the news and business sides of the organization.

The Economics of American Movie Exports: An Empirical Analysis • Krishna P. Jayakar and David Waterman, Indiana University • Based on an economic model of international trade in media products, we present descriptive and cross-sectional econometric data which show that countries having relatively high movie consumption, including the U.S., account for disproportionately large shares of total world movie exports. We then test the hypothesis that the American share of box-office revenues throughout much of the world has risen to very high levels since the 1970s because the U.S. has developed its domestic media for movie exhibition (notably pay TV and videocassette distribution), at a more rapid rate than have other countries.

Supplier-Buyer Relationship in the Global News Value-Chain in the Internet Age • Yong-Chan Kim, Southern California • The present study examined whether the Internet affects the relationship between global news suppliers and local news organizations in Asia. This research critically reviewed the Malone’s “electronic market hypothesis”: the network technology will reduce transaction cost for interorganizational relations and the cost reduction will transform the hierarchically structured relations to market-type one. According to the interviews with 15 Asian journalists, the Internet is more likely to reinforce the current hierarchical relationship between the major Western news agencies and local news media in Asia.

The Bottom of the Net: The Market-Driven Collegiate Men’s Basketball Sport • Nojin Kwak , Wisconsin-Madison and Kuang-Kuo Chang, Michigan State • Finding of this study supported several expectations that are based on theory of the market-driven economy in the context of men’s college basketball. Findings demonstrated (1) the existence of inequality between schools and between conferences in terms of the number of games to be televised; (2) the importance of market value of schools in getting television coverage of their games; and (3) the relative importance of the marketability of a school over fan popularity in predicting the number of games to be televised for the school.

Who are the Mobile Phone Have-Nots? Influences and Consequences • Louis Leung and Ran Wei, Chinese University of Hong Kong • Grounded in the diffusion of innovations theoretical framework, this study focuses on examining who the mobile telephone have-nots are and what are the factors at work. Results of a telephone survey with a probability sample of 834 respondents show that the have-nots tended to be older females with lower household income and education attainment. They had pagers as an alternative and subscribed to no caller ID display service at home. This study also found a polarizing phenomenon in owning new telecommunications technologies.

Viewing Motivations And Implications In The New Media Environment: Postulation of a Model of Media Orientations • Jack C. C. Li, Florida • This paper postulated a model, which integrates the conceptualization of uses and gratifications with the two-step process of TV viewing, in the examination of the relationship between viewing motivations and selection of program types. Moderate correlations were found. This study also found that gender differed in program selections and viewing gratifications. Furthermore, the selections of various program types were highly correlated. This implies that they may be competing with one another for audience attention.

Market Competition And Media Performance: An Examination Of Popular Music Industry In Taiwan • Shu-Chu Sarrina Li and Peng Hua Wang, National Chiao Tung University • Two research questions were investigated in this study, one was to examine the relationship between market competition and music diversity, the other the organizational strategies adopted by the major record companies in Taiwan. Content analysis and intensive interviews were used to explore the two research questions. A negative relationship between market competition and music diversity was only partially supported by the findings of the study. Furthermore, this study also found that the open system adopted in the U.S. was very much employed by the major record companies in Taiwan.

Children’s Television Liaisons: Perspectives of Core Programming and Compliance • Denise Matthews, Oregon and Kyang-Kuo Chang, Michigan State • After decades of debate about broadcasters’ public interest responsibility to child audiences, federal legislators passed the Children’s Television Act of 1990 (CTA). The explicit intent of the CTA was to improve commercial broadcasters’ performance in meeting their public interest obligation to the nation’s children. Child advocates, legislators and parents were hopeful that the CTA would catalyze an improvement both in the quality and quantity of educational informational programming for children.

Employing Brand Equity Theory to Explain Variances in Ratings Inheritance Effects on 11:00 PM Newscasts • Waiter McDowell, Southern Illinois University and John Sutherland, Florida • Recognizing the potent influence of lead-in programming or inheritance effects on the ratings performance of television programs, the purpose of this study was to explore the plausibility of applying conventional brand equity theory to electronic media and to offer a tentative explanation of the considerable variances found in inheritance effects research. Adapting the essential components of an established brand equity model, the researchers propose that program brand equity is revealed in the differential ratings response of a program to its direct competitors and to its lead-in programming.

History of a Business Decision: Ralph Ingersoll II Decides to Create the St. Louis Sun • James E. Mueller, Pittsburg State University • This paper analyzes the decision by Ralph Ingersoll II to launch the St. Louis Sun in 1989. The paper, which is based on personal interviews, Sun documents, and other sources, shows that the new daily was created as a defensive measure to protect Ingersoll’s chain of suburban St. Louis weeklies from domination by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Sun lasted only seven months, and analysis of its failure could help newspaper managers avoid similar mistakes.

Determinants Of Off-Network Syndication Revenues Of Network Primetime Series • Sora K. Park, Korea Press Foundation • This study analyzes factors that determine off-network syndication revenues of television programs that were first aired on the broadcast networks. The analysis of off-network broadcast and cable programs show that the performance during the network runs are the most important factor that contributes to the license fees of programs when the shows are syndicated. The most significant factor that influences the license fees for off-network syndicated shows is the performance during network airing reflected in ratings.

Communication Technique: How Does a U.S. Record Company Identify, Target and Reach Its Audience in an Ever-Competitive Marketplace? • Lisa L. Rollins, Middle Tennessee State University • This is a case study of the methods and strategies employed by a U.S. record company, Arista/Austin, to introduce its prerecorded music products and artists to a target segment. Findings indicate that the media company’s concentrated marketing focus upon a particular demographic is resulting in the exclusion of other potential consumers. Because of the eclectic nature of rock ‘n’ roll, many characteristics should be considered before a marketing campaign is created and then implemented for a target audience.

The Impact Of Radio Ownership Consolidation – Has The 1996 Telecommunications Act Adversely Impacted U.S. Radio Station Format And Ownership Diversity? • J.L. Rush, Jr., William M. Payton and Sarah Elizabeth Leeper, Brigham Young University • In February, 1996, the U.S. Congress and the F.C.C. initiated legislation and regulation substantially altering the national and local market structure of radio broadcasting. Using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, this paper studies whether radio format diversity is adversely affected by successive mergers and consolidations under the new law. It looks at political economic and anti-trust implications of increased ownership concentration. It concludes that no public interest harm is clearly evident despite the obvious potential for it.

Black Newspapers: In Search Of An Advertising Strategy • George Sylvie and Lucy Brown-Hutton, Texas-Austin • This study explores African-American newspaper advertising in a major state-the total advertising and respective ad categories by content analysis and by a survey examining internal staffing and overall strategy views of publishers. Results indicate much of the problem still may be staffing-related. Advertising space in African-American newspapers still lags behind mainstream weekly averages, suggesting publishers focus on specific types of ads or evaluate targeting strategies for soundness of a plan heavily weighted on public-sector advertising.

New Entrant, Competitive Strategy, and Consumer Welfare in the Cable Television Industry • Kuo-Feng Tseng, Michigan State University • This study analyzes the characteristics and strategic behaviors of the competing versus monopoly cable TV systems. It finds that competitions result in better consumer welfare, such as lower monthly prices and more programming channels. The intensity of competition will decline as the duopolistic cable systems operate in a longer time, and the entrant usually provides more basic cable TV channels, instead of very lower prices to compete with the incumbent.

Audience Segmentation in Network Broadcasting: An Empirical Analysis • Michael Zhaoxu Yan, Indiana University • This study tests the notion that with heightened competition in the broadcasting industry, broadcast networks are increasingly using audience targeting to differentiate themselves from each other. Using a sample of 141 regularly-scheduled prime time programs aired on ABC, CBS and NBC in 1979, 1984, 1992 and 1997 and constructing a between-network audience segmentation similarity index, the study confirms the hypothesis that the three major networks were more differentiated from each other in their audience positioning in 92/97 than in 79/84.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society Division

Drudging Up the News: The Drudge Report and Its Use of Sources • Scott Abel, Missouri • The media are undergoing a re-evaluation of their standards and practices in the wake of the Clinton scandal. One concern of traditional journalists is the impact of Internet sites, such as The Drudge Report, on their profession. Many point to Drudge as a major player in the erosion of media standards of not using anonymous sources. This study examines the types of stories posted on Drudge’s site and the sources used early in the scandal. It shows Drudge’s reliance on unnamed sources in stories he designated as exclusives.

Online Love: Have Chatrooms Changed How People Make Friends and Date People? • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Fifteen people who use online chatrooms to make friends and to date people were interviewed about their social interactions. Some of the major themes include the following: 1. the limitations of chatrooms-not being able to see facial expressions or to hear voice tones-leads to misunderstandings; 2. some people become so addicted to being in chatrooms that it has negative effects on their personal lives; 3. some women are victimized by men online.

Exploring ‘Drench’ Effects of Dramatic Media: A Test of Volcanic Disaster Portrayals • C. Mo Bahk and Kurt Neuwirth, Cincinnati • Drawing upon the notion of drench hypothesis proposed by Greenberg (1988), this study explores the role of viewing involvement, perceived realism, and role attractiveness as factors generating drench effects of dramatic media. One hundred fifty-eight undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Participants in the experimental conditions were exposed to one of the four video clips: 1) the movie Volcano-a portrayal of a volcanic disaster taking place in the city of Los Angeles, 2) the documentary National Geographic Volcano, 3) an instructional video on gardening, and 4) the comedy Mr. Bean.

Gender Stereotyping and Intended Audience Age: An Analysis of Children’s Educational Informational TV Programming • Mark R. Barner, Niagara University • This study examined sex-role stereotyping within FCC-mandated children’s educational programming. A content analysis compared stereotyping across program age ranges and revealed that programs intended for young children present a more traditional view of sex roles than programs intended for teens. Male characters in old programs were stereotyped to a lesser extent than their young program counterparts. These results suggest that children are being exposed to consistently gender stereotyped television role models at precisely the age when they are forming their own sex role identities.

Differential Employment Rates in the Journalism and Mass Communication Labor Force Based on Gender, Race and Ethnicity: Exploring the Impact of Affirmative Action • Lee Becker, Edmund Lauf and Wilson Lowrey, Georgia • This paper examines whether gender and race and ethnicity are associated with employment in the journalism and mass communication labor market and-if discrepancies in employment exist-what explanations might be offered for them. The data show strong evidence that race and ethnicity are associated with lower level of employment among journalism and mass communication graduates. These discrepancies in success in the job market are not explainable by factors normally associated with hiring, such type of training, type of institution offering the training, or qualifications such as internships experience and level of performance in the classroom.

Whither Now?: Six Years of Internet Research in Mass Communications, 1993-1998 • Joel M. Benson and Thomas Gould, Kansas state University • This paper proposes to outline six years of research in mass communications targeting the Internet. This is an initial study focusing narrowly on the Internet, and as such, will be expanded in the future to include such subsets as the online journalism, interactive advertising, etc. Initially, however, the focus is just on the Internet and World Wide Web and limited to the years 1993 to 1998, inclusive.

New Media, Old Values: What Online Journalists say is Important to Them • Ann M. Brill, Missouri • This study seeks to advance the knowledge and understanding of the roles and values of online journalists. Using Weaver and WIhoit’s analysis of the functions that journalists in other media have rated as very important, the study examines the similarities and differences between the online and traditional environments and the journalists working within them. Findings led to the creation of an additional function-”marketing”-that seems to be embraced by online journalists.

Florida’s Public Records Law Put to the Test: Gaining Access to Crime Statistics • Michele Bush, Florida • One of the greatest checks of government’s inefficiency or corruption is the public’s right to access government information. However, it is not sufficient to accept that because there are legal provisions granting the public access to information, the public is actually receiving that access. To fully evaluate the openness of government, the practical application of access laws must be tested. Only then can scholars know whether citizens have access to government information.

Mass Media, the New Environmental Paradigm, and Environmental Activism: A Change in Focus • Jessica Staples Butler and James Shanahan, Cornell University • This analysis examined the association between media use, adherence to the “new environmental paradigm,” and environmental activism. There was a strong negative relation between television viewing and environmental activism. This correlation retained statistical significance under simultaneous control for age, gender, education level, and political affiliation. Regression analysis shows that television is the second largest predictor of behavior, independent of other factors. There was no relation between television viewing and all three NEP factors.

The Logic of the Link: The Associative Paradigm in Communication Criticism • Dennis Cali, East Carolina University • The metaphor of hypertext or “link” shapes the way we think about and process contemporary informational forms, overtaking the Traditionalist paradigm for constructing and critically analyzing texts. This essay examines the features of the newly-emerging Associative paradigm accompanying hypertext vis-a-vis the Traditionalist paradigm underlying print documents. The implications to communication criticism (practice and pedagogy)-and thus to culture and society-are considered.

The Impacts of News Frames and Ad Types on Candidate Perception and Political Cynicism during the 1998 Taipei Mayoral Election in Taiwan • Chingching Chang, National Cheng-chi University • The aim of this study is twofold. First, examining how commonly strategy-framed stories were used in the newspaper coverage of the 1998 Taipei mayoral election and how prevalently negative political ads were employed in this election. Second, employing a field experiment to explore whether exposure to campaign news with different frames and campaign ads of different valence had an impact on political cynicism and candidate evaluations.

Foreign Policy, Ideological Exclusion and the Media: How the American Press Shifts its News Coverage of Gerry Adams • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Michigan State • The present study examines the interplay among foreign policy, ideological exclusion, the U.S. president and the American press. The research proposed and found support for the hypotheses that the U.S. press has shifted its news editorial policy toward Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, across different presidencies. More specifically, the press was shown to be more favorable and accessible to Adams under the Clinton than the Reagan/Bush regime.

Interactivity and the ‘Cyber-Fan’: Audience Involvement Within the Electronic Fan Culture of the Internet • Vic Costello, Gardner-Webb University • Television viewing involvement and interpersonal communication activity were observed within the electronic fan culture of the Internet. A web-based survey was administered to a sample population (N=3,041) of cyber-fans-individuals who use the Internet to keep up with their favorite television program and to connect with other fans. Variables included favorite program affinity, parasocial interaction, post-viewing cognition, Internet affinity, interactivity, and interpersonal communication satisfaction. Six hypotheses received support from the data analysis.

The Portrayal of Race and Crime on Network News: An exploratory Study • Travis L. Dixon, Michigan • A content analysis of a random sample of network news programming was conducted in order to assess the portrayal of race and criminal behavior. It revealed that Whites are accorded prominent roles as perpetrators, victims and reporters on network news. Latinos are largely portrayed as victims while Blacks are more likely to appear in the role of perpetrator than victim or reporter. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the structural limitations of network news and an ethnic blame discourse. We argue for further investigation of race and crime on network television news.

Subservient Baby Sitters and their Symbiotic Relationships with the Press: The Congressional Press Secretaries’ Interactions with the Media and the Member of Congress • Edward J. Downes, Boston University • This paper examines the Congressional press secretaries’ relationships with the Members for whom they work and the media they serve. It is based on three data sets: a focus group, interviews, and a survey. Its findings suggest the press secretaries enjoy their work; serve the Member with deference; and have a relationship with the media based on guarded honesty. Alphas examining these relationships were developed and are available for future research.

Public Life, Community Integration and the Mass Media: The Empirical Turn • Lewis A. Friedland, Naewon Kang, Kathryn B. Campbell and Bob Pondillo, Wisconsin • In this paper, we first have attempted to lay out a revised theoretical framework for the study of the public sphere, reconceptionalizing it as a series of network relationships. Second, we have reported on a series of small studies designed to show how this reconceptualization might look within the framework of community integration. Our interviews found that all of the groups shared a distrust of the media. Our framing analysis has confirmed that these publics with some variations were reflected in the coverage of both newspapers.

When Bad Things Happen to Bad People: Motivations for Viewing TV Talk Shows • Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri • Why are millions of people attracted to, what some term, “trash TV” talk shows? Self-enhancement, or feeling better about oneself and one’s life, may be one of the primary reasons people watch what some consider to be “trashy” television talk programs. An experimental factorial design was used to evaluate predictions made from social comparison theory. Data obtained suggest that high self-esteem people felt better and experienced greater benefits after exposure to inferior, incompetent guests.

Journalists And Their Computers: An Inseparable Link For The Future? • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This study analyzes the role of computers in newsgathering. Drawing on daily newspaper data collected in annual national censuses between 1994 and 1998, the study reviews use of computers in newsrooms, needs for new computer skills, the most-sought computer tools, leading subjects for news stories and projects, and journalists’ perceptions of advantages and disadvantages that accompany computer use. The study found computer use has steadily grown during 1994-98 and that newsrooms seem to be making a serious commitment to use of computers in gathering news.

The Body Electric: Thin-Ideal Media and Eating Disorders in Adolescents • Kristen Harrison, Michigan • An instrumental replication of survey research demonstrating the link between thin-ideal media exposure and eating disorders was conducted with a sample of 366 6th, 9th, and 12th graders. Measures included interest in thin-ideal media content, exposure to thin-ideal television and magazines, and eating disorder symptomatology. Thin-ideal media exposure positively predicted eating disorder variables most frequently for older adolescents and girls. Relationships remained robust even when selective exposure based on interest in thinness-oriented media content was controlled.

Balancing Acts: Work/Family Issues on Prime-Time TV • Katharine E. Heintz-Knowles, Kristen Engstrand, Hilary Karasz and Meredith LiVollmer, Washington • A content analysis of two weeks of network-originated prime time television entertainment discovered that most TV adults were shown in either work or domestic situations, with little overlap between these two worlds. TV adults were infrequently shown attending to child care or elder care obligations, which were rarely presented as problematic The authors conclude that television is out of sync with real families who find balancing family and work a major issue in their lives.

Agenda Setting And The Y2K Bug: Paths Of Influence On Behaviors And Issue Salience • Emily Erickson Hoff, Laura Arpan Ralstin, Francesca Dillman, Alison Bryant, Alabama • This study seeks to build upon the agenda-setting models developed by Wanta (Wanta & Hu, 1994; Wanta, 1997) to examine individual-level variables by adding a new element to the process. Taking advantage of a unique issue that is currently growing on the media and public agenda – the Y2K bug – we examined three dependent variables: level of concern/involvement, planned behavior regarding Y2K computer compliance, and planned behavior regarding general Y2K preparation.

Absence of Dissent: A Linkage Analysts of Voting Records in National News Council Decisions, 1973-84 • L. Paul Husselbee, Lamar University • Previous research on the National News Council has suggested the need to analyze individual and collective voting behaviors of News Council members. This study addresses that need by using linkage analysis, a method similar to factor analysis, to examine News Council members’ voting records. The analysis seeks to identify the presence or absence of factions within the News Council, which was divided unevenly between “public” and “media” members.

Television News Impact on Images and Attitudes towards the United States • Yasuhiro Inoue, Michigan State University • With reference to cultivation theory, the present study hypothesized that an image of a dangerous America would be partly attributed to Japanese television news programs that portray the U.S. in violent terms. The data suggest that heavy news watchers held less positive attitudes towards the U.S. than light watchers did. On the other hand, heavy news watchers estimated lower murder rates in the U.S. compared to murders in Japan. This finding indicates a reverse cultivation.

Migrant workers: Myth or Reality? A Case Study of new Narratives in Thailand’s English-Language Newspapers • Suda Ishida, Iowa • The paper examines news coverage of migrant workers from Indochina and Burma that appeared in two Thailand’s English-language dailies-The Nation and the Bangkok Post-during the 1997 Asian economic crisis. The Thai media’s use of news patterns reflects bias against migrant workers. The narrative patterns, the author argues, can be traced to the pro-nationalist history of Thailand written in the 1930s, and may be seen as perpetuating stereotypes about Thailand’s neighboring countries.

Using is Believing: The Influence of Reliance on the Credibility of Online Political Information • Thomas Johnson, Southern Illinois University and Barbara K. Kaye, Valdosta State University • This study surveyed politically interested Web users online to investigate the degree to which reliance on traditional and online sources predicts credibility of online newspapers, television news, newsmagazines, candidate literature and political issue-oriented sites after controlling for demographic and political factors. Reliance on online and traditional media was the strongest predictor of credibility of online sources. Reliance on traditional media tended to be a stronger predictor of credibility of its online counterpart than reliance on the Web in general.

Public Trust or Mistrust?: Perceptions of Media Credibility in the Information Age • Spiro Kiousis, Texas • This paper explores perceptions of news credibility for television, newspapers, and online news. A survey was administered to a randomly selected sample of residents in Austin, Texas, to assess people’s attitudes toward these three media channels. Contingent factors that might influence news credibility perceptions, such as media use and interpersonal discussion of news, were also incorporated into the analysis. Findings suggest that people are generally skeptical of news emanating from all three media channels but do rate newspapers with the highest credibility, followed by online news, and television news respectively.

Evidence of Gender Disparity in Children’s Computer Use and Activities • M.J. Land, Georgia College & State University • This multi-method study examines the differences in male and female computer use in the home of children ages 9-14. Long interviews, observations, and surveys with children show males spend more time on the computer, but not on-line than females. Males and females engage in different computer activities. They play computer games about the same amount of time, but females spend more time on the computer to do word processing and desk-top publishing activities.

MPAA Film Ratings: Are they a Disservice to Parents? • Ron Leone, Syracuse University • The MPAA claims that film ratings are a guide for parents when deciding what movies their children can see. One criticism of the MPAA is that-despite evidence suggesting that violent content is more harmful to children than sexual content-they “target” sex. Here, it is hypothesized that parents of minors will have different opinions about children and sexual or violent film content than other adults. A telephone survey of 368 adults in Onandaga County, NY was conducted and used to test the hypotheses, which received limited support.

Setting the Media Agenda: The President and His Honeymoon with the Media • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This study addresses the question of who sets the media agenda by correlating the issue agenda of President Clinton with that of the major newspapers and television networks. It finds that the president has strong influence on the media agenda during his first year in office, i.e., the honeymoon period. It also indicates that there is a two-way flow of influence between the president and the media on certain issues.

The Big Scare: A Longitudinal Analysis of Network TV Crime Reporting, Public Perceptions of Crime and FBI Crime Statistics • Dennis T. Lowry and Josephine T.C. Nio, Southern Illinois University • Public perceptions of crime as the most important problem facing the country jumped tenfold, from 5% in March of 1992 to an unprecedented 52% in August of 1994. This paper analyzed the effects of three network television news predictor variables and two FBI predictor variables to determine what caused this “big scare.” Based upon data from 1982 through 1997, results indicated that the 1994 “big scare” was more a network TV news scare than a scare based upon the real world of crime.

Academic Letters of Recommendation: Perceived Ethical Implications and Harmful Effects of Exaggeration • David L. Martinson, Florida International University and Michael Ryan, Houston • This national survey of 150 assistant professors, associate professors and professors in schools and departments of journalism and mass communication focuses on the extent to which faculty members exaggerate recommendation letters, perceive that letters written by their colleagues are exaggerated, and believe that exaggeration is harmful and/or unethical. Results suggest that letters written in behalf of students and faculty colleagues are exaggerated, but perhaps not as much as some might imagine.

Pacing in Children’s Television Programming • James F. McCollum Jr., Lipscomb University and Jennings Bryant, Alabama • Following a content analysis, 85 children’s television programs were assigned a pacing index derived from the following criteria: (a) frequency of camera cuts, (b) frequency of related scene changes, (c) frequency of unrelated scene changes, (d) frequency of auditory changes, (e) percentage of active motion, (f) percentage of active talking, and (g) percentage of active music. ANOVA procedures reveal significant differences in networks’ pacing overall and in the individual criteria.

Do You Admit Or Deny? An Experiment In Public Perceptions Of Politicians Accused Of Scandal • Patrick Meirick and Zixue Tai, Minnesota • Scandal news has assumed an increasingly significant role in politics in recent years. Adapting the expectancy-value model to a new arena, this study examines the effects of three factors on politician evaluation: level of evidence, severity of the scandal, and the politician’s response. All three have a significant effect. It appears that denial is the best policy at least in the short run. A predicted interaction between evidence and response was not significant.

How Close is Our Relationship with Television Characters?: The Semantic Difference among Self, Best Friend, Closest Family Member, Closest Acquaintance, and Favorite Television Character • Woong Ki Park, Temple University • This study was an attempt to examine the effect of mass mediated communication on the processes of interpersonal relationship by using Horton and Wohl’s (1956) parasocial phenomenon concept. A series of bipolar semantic differential scales were administered to undergraduate and graduate students (n = 217) who were regular television viewers to see the semantic differences in relationship among viewers themselves and a number of items. The scales measured distance in semantic space among the viewers, best friend, closest family member, closest acquaintance, and favorite television character.

Deliberation And Democracy: Toward An Understanding Of Deliberative Processes • Dietram A. Scheufele and Lewis Friedland, Wisconsin and Patricia Moy, Washington • This paper addresses the discrepancy between normative ideals and empirical realities of a deliberative democracy. Based on a review of previous attempts to increase participation in deliberative processes, we develop a conceptual overview of deliberative democracy, defining the construct with respect to both inputs and outcomes. which factors make citizens more or less likely to participate in deliberative processes? How do actual outcomes of deliberation measure up to normative ideals put forth by deliberative theorists?

Does Tabloidization Really Make Newspapers Successful? A Summary of an Explorative Study • Klaus Schoenbach, Amsterdam • Concerned observers all over the world agree: Newspapers do not only follow a trend toward less serious, more emotional reporting and toward colorful, fuzzy layouts with many visual elements. The audience presumably also appreciates these developments. If tabloidization really sells was one of the questions of a tracking study of 350 local daily (workday) newspapers in Germany. Their efforts to attract readers in the first half of the 1 990s were systematically evaluated.

Autonomy in Journalism: How It Is Related to Attitudes and Behavior of Media Professionals • Armin Scholl and Siegfried Weischenberg, Muenster • Autonomy is a main characteristic of professions. Social system theory suggests observing journalism in terms of self-referentiality and external referentiality. In our study “Journalism in Germany”, we could identify a particular self-referential group of journalists1 which differed from the rest of the sample regarding role perception, unusual reporting practices and assessment of press-releases. Data provided further evidence for a more. complex and adequate perspective on journalists’ attitudes and behavior.

Expanding the ‘Virtuous Circle’ of Social Capital: Civic Engagement, Contentment, and Interpersonal Trust • Dhavan V. Shah, R. Lance Holbert and Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin • This research clarifies the mechanisms underlying the formation and sustenance of social capital on the individual level. First, it expands the conception of social capital by including life contentment in the “virtuous circle” of civic engagement and interpersonal trust. Second, it tests a structural model composed of these three endogenous variables. This analysis permits an examination of (a) the strength and direction of the causal relationships comprising the “virtuous circle’ of engagement, contentment, and trust; (b) the demographic, situational/contextual, personality, and attitudinal factors that are exogenous to these latent variables.

Changes in Female Roles in Taiwanese Women’s Magazines, 1971-1992 • Ping Shaw, National Sun Yat-sen University • A thematic content analysis performed on a sample of articles published in Woman and New Woman magazines over the period of 1971 to 1992 revealed a decline in the number having themes of women as wives, mothers, and homemakers and an increase in articles with political, social and economic themes. Traditional sex role models, however, still dominate the pages of most women’s magazines.

A Reassessment of the Relationship Between Public Affairs Media Use and Political Orientations • Kim A. Smith, Iowa State University • This study examined the influence of public affairs media on changes in diffuse and specific political orientations between the 1990 and 1992 general election campaigns, utilizing a two-wave panel of respondents. The results indicated that use of public affairs media was related to changes in the specific orientations of campaign interest, political discussion and attention to the campaign in the media in 1992. While public affairs media use did not influence the diffuse orientations of perceived political efficacy and political trust in 1992, it did predict changes in 1992 strength of partisanship.

Media Use and Perceptions of Welfare • Mira Sotirovic, Illinois • This paper examines public perceptions of the extent of governmental spending on welfare and the characteristics of a typical welfare recipient. It analyzes how these perceptions reflect differences in individuals’ media use, and how they affect individual’s support for welfare programs. The evidence shows that media use has an important influence on perceptions of welfare after accounting for demographic, ideological and interpersonal-contextual influences. Watching television entertainment, and cable news channel viewing work in the direction of introducing typical biases in welfare perceptions: overestimation of the percent of federal budget spent on welfare, perception of welfare recipients as being non-white, and of younger age.

Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Negotiating the Influences of Media, family, Friends and School • Jeanne Rogge Steele, Ohio University • How do mass media images and messages about love, sex and relationships interact with what teens learn about sexuality at home, in school and from their friends? Data generated in this multi-method, qualitative study suggest that Identity, tempered by ethnicity, gender, class status and developmental phase, plays an important role in media practice. The Adolescents’ Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995) is refined to include Resistance as a form of Application.

Social Structure, Media System and Audiences in China: Testing the Uses and Dependency Model • Tao Sun and Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota: Yu Guoming, Chinese People’s University • Much has been written about the structure and processes of China’s mass media changes before and after the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping initiated the economic reform and open-door policies in the late 1970s. Many of them focused on the commercialization, de-politicalization and internationalization of Chinese media as a result of the market economy and external openness. Little known, however, is how the audiences get caught up in the interplay between the fast changing social structure and the evolving media system in China.

Screen Sex, ‘Zine Sex and Teen Sex: Do Television and Magazines Cultivate Adolescent Females’ Sexual Attitudes? • Michael J. Sutton and Jane D. Brown, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Karen M. Wilson and Jonathan D. Klein, Rochester • A cultivation analysis of a national sample of 1,921 high school girls shows that magazines may mitigate attitudes toward the frequently risky sexual behaviors shown on television. Girls who said they learned about birth control, contraception, and preventing pregnancy from both magazines and television were more likely than girls who learned about contraception from television but not magazines to say they would be upset if they became pregnant at their current age.

Electronic Politics: The Internet As A Tool Of Political Communication • Mustafa Taha, Ohio University • This paper examines the uses of the Internet as a tool of political communication in U.S. It explores how the Internet is leveling the field for political activists who do not have access to traditional media outlets. The paper shows how the Internet’s interactivity enhances political discourse, and how the Web Wide Web can be used during political campaigns. It demonstrates how politicians relied on the Internet to raise funds and get the vote out, during the 1998 mid-term senatorial and gubernatorial elections.

Media Consumption and Social Capital Patterns in Urban African Americans and Whites • Esther Thorson and Ken Fleming, Missouri and Michael Antecol, Stanford • The survey research reported here was examined for links between exposure and attention to newspapers, local television news, and entertainment television and patterns of social capital exhibited by African Americans and Whites in a large Midwest city. The news media of the city included a daily newspaper that has been committed to public journalistic approaches for approximately three years. Part of the public journalism effort has involved increased efforts to communicate meaningfully with the large African American population in the city.

Is the Web Sexist? A Content Analysis of Children’s Web Sites • Linda Ver Steeg, Robert LaRose and Lynn Rampoldi-Hnilo, Michigan State University • A sample of twenty children’s Web sites (n=200 pages) was analyzed at the site, page, and character levels for sex role stereotypes. The characters (n=164) were 51% male. Results showed discrepancies between male and female characters for age, occupational portrayals, dress, and physical attractiveness. However, no gender differences were found for the types of activities characters engaged in (e.g., passive, active) or for the settings in which they were portrayed (e.g., home, outdoors).

<< 1999 Abstracts

Magazine Division

The Framing of Saddam Hussein: U.S. Foreign Policy and Coverage of Iraq in Time Magazine, 1979-1998 • Abhinav Aima, Ohio University • This study examined Time magazine’s coverage of Saddam Hussein for the last twenty years. The content analysis checked for the viability of the propaganda model within the framework of a statistically significant change in the nature of framing of Saddam along a corresponding change in U.S. foreign policy. It was found that the propaganda model was viable, with the number of mentions of Saddam increasing dramatically over time, a sharp decrease in the number of references praising him.

Environmental Issue Salience and Advertising: A Content Analysis of Business Week from 1988 to 1992 • Soontae An & Hyun Seung Jin, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study attempts to measure the relation between the public’s concern over the environment and the presence of environmental advertising. Public concern over environmental issues was measured by compiling the results of monthly national polls, in which similar versions of the question “What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?” were asked. Business Week from 1988 to 1992 was content analyzed to represent the frequency of environmental advertising.

False Hope: A Historical Review of Magazine Coverage of the First Artificial Heart Transplant • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper evaluates how magazines framed coverage of the first artificial heart transplant. Articles published in the first month after the transplant framed it as a tremendous success. Articles published during the next three months framed the operation as an unsuccessful, costly medical experiment. Finally, when Clark died after 112 days with the artificial heart, an interesting framing shift occurred. The articles were highly positive and similar to the articles published immediately after the transplant.

The Pursuit of Perfection: A Narrative Analysis of How Women’s Magazines Cover Eating Disorders • Ronald Bishop, Drexel University • Editors at the nation’s top women’s magazines devote only moderate coverage to eating disorders. This paper uses narrative analysis to explore the dominant themes in the 42 feature articles on eating disorders appearing in women’s magazines since 1980, when eating disorders found a recurring spot on the public’s agenda. One of the reasons for the sporadic coverage is the fact that publishers are reluctant to show readers the end-result of overzealous dieting.

Out of Their Hands: Framing and its Impact on Newsmagazine Coverage of Indians and Indian Activism, 1968-79 • Jennifer Bowie, Ohio University • This content analysis identified and described a media frame used by Time, Newsweek and US News & World Report to marginalize Indians and Indian activists from 1968-79. All seventy-eight stories that appeared during this period were analyzed. Activist events set a large portion of the magazines’ agenda. Indians were framed as a violent, militant, and divided out-group. Based on this deviant and illegitimate frame-and on limited survey data.

Education For The Bodybuilder Or Alibi For The Publisher? Sexual Mores In The Weider Muscle Building Course Of The 1950s • Bryan E. Denham, Clemson University • Joe Weider has been involved with bodybuilding since the late 1930s, and today he operates a health and fitness empire in Woodland Hills, California. His organization produces exercise equipment, nutrition supplements, books, and magazines, such as Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Shape and Men’s Fitness. This essay looks back to the 1950s and examines the sexual mores he advanced in a mail-order course designed for young men interested in weightlifting.

The Impact of Larry Flynt: An Overview of One Publisher’s Legal Battles • Amy M. Drittler, Ohio University • This study examines the long and colorful legal history of Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine. The paper focuses on four lawsuits, all appealed to the Supreme Court, involving the publication. Each case set an important precedent, but not every precedent was favorable from a media standpoint. The paper also examines Flynt’s personal influence upon the content in Hustler, and critiques his transformation from self-proclaimed porn king to self-proclaimed civil liberties activist.

Black in a Blonde World: Race and Girls’ Interpretations of the Feminine Ideal in Teen Magazines • Lisa Duke, Florida • Middle-class African American and European American female readers of teen magazines were interviewed for their interpretations of the feminine ideal presented by the texts. Black girls were uninterested in models because their culture values a heavier physique. Grooming advice was similarly seen as specific to White girls, who consequently invest more authority in the magazines’ counsel and images. The magazines are a one-way mirror through which Black girls observe White beauty culture.

The Women’s Liberation Movement, 1969-1972: Did the Graphics and illustrations in Ms. Magazine During the First Year of Publication Reflect or Contradict the Themes of the Movement? • Deborah M. Gross, Florida • During the late 1960s and early 1970s, feminist periodicals were founded to reflect and impact the women’s liberation movement. Ms. magazine, founded by Gloria Steinem, officially began publication in July 1972 and was one of the few feminist magazines that continued to flourish after its debut. This paper explores how the second wave of feminism influenced the portrayals of women in Ms. magazine editorial illustrations and graphics during the first year of publication.

Charles Moore’s Life Magazine Coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, 1958-1965 • John Kaplan, Florida • On September 3, 1958, photographer Charles Moore witnessed an argument between the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and two policemen on the steps of the Montgomery, Alabama courthouse. His picture of the local minister’s subsequent arrest was the first of Moore’s celebrated civil rights pictures to be published in Life Magazine. By 1965, Life had published Moore’s coverage of many of the significant events of the era including the fighting surrounding James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi, the dogs attacking protesters in Birmingham and the savagery of the Selma March.

Brand Extensions Within The Magazine Industry: A Study Of Brand Extensions Of “Shelter” Magazines • Patricia Kinneer, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This exploratory study examines brand extension strategies within home and garden magazines. Findings from a mail survey to the top thirty-three circulation magazines shows that publications extend in order to attain additional revenue by attempting to increase readership and create new avenues for advertisers. Corporate mandates are also a key factor for extensions. Consumer research and new product promotion are key predictors of a brand extension’s success, while extensions fail for a variety of reasons.

Coverage of Major Diseases in Popular African Magazines and Scholarly Medical Journals, as Public-Health Priorities • Cornelius B. Pratt, Zambia and Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce-Southern Africa • This study investigates the frequency and the format of health-related messages and their associated words, metaphors and phrases in four publications distributed widely in sub-Saharan Africa. The coverage of Africa’s five major diseases during a l7-year period (1981-1997) indicated the dominance of HIV/AIDS items, from the early to the mid-1990s; however, its coverage was minuscule in the early 1980s. In aggregate terms, malaria had the second-highest coverage, followed by tuberculosis.

Magazines In The ‘90s: Are They Really Turning Boys Into Girls? • Cheryl Rainford, Drake University • Several authors have recently argued that men’s magazines are becoming more like women’s. This study uses magazine covers and cover blurbs to examine GQ, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue from the 1980s and 1990s to note changes. No trends toward increasing similarity over time were noted. In fact, men’s magazines broadened their range of editorial focus, while women’s narrowed.

Exploring Patterns In Coverage of the Internet by Three U.S. News Magazines • Matthew M. Reavy, Scranton • This study examines coverage of the Internet by three U.S. news magazines, uncovering evidence of a Positive-Negative-Neutral in reporting of the emerging phenomenon. During the initial year of coverage, the magazines devoted more space to overly positive coverage than to overly negative. The percentage of negative coverage rose significantly during the second year. Negative coverage, as a percentage, dropped during the third year, as reporting became more objective.

The Rise of “Good Reading” over “Good Writing”: How and Why Women’s Magazine Fiction Changed in the 1950s and 1960s • Alison M. Rice, Northwestern University • This paper examines the shift from literary to “reader identified” fiction in the women’s magazines of the 1950s and l960s. Rather than analyzing the content as previous scholars have done, however, it seeks to provide the institutional context for these changes in fiction. It does this by drawing upon more than 800 pages of magazine business correspondence written by Wade H. Nichols, Jr., editor-in-chief of Redbook and Good Housekeeping during this time period.

Have Female Stereotypes Changed over Time?: A Longitudinal Analysis of Women in Magazine Photos • Shelly Rodgers, Missouri-Columbia • This study uses a longitudinal approach to measure changes in female stereotypes in newsmagazine photographs. The results indicate a slow but steady increase in the number of females represented in news photos between the 1970s and the 1990s. Likewise, the male-to-female ratio shows a decreasing trend. Improvements in stereotypes were also noted. More females appeared in nonstereotyped than stereotyped roles. And, although more females were stereotyped in terms of the photo topic, females did appear in a wider variety of topics overall.

It Was A Tough Year For The Babe… And Even Tougher For Roger Mans: Combining Interviewing And Content Analysis To Explain Coverage • John P. Smith, Drake University • This paper is an attempt to capture the coverage and characterization in the magazine press of the man Roger Mans, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa were chasing in the 1998 baseball season. How did the newsmagazines cover Roger Mans in 1961, and why did the contemporary record-breaking hitters react so differently to press scrutiny than Mans had? Coverage from both baseball eras is examined in Time, Newsweek and US News & World Report.

Baking a Bigger Pie: How Television Helped Magazines, 1950 to 1970 • David K. Sumner, Ball State University • This article argues that television helped the magazine industry grow. It presents quantitative data showing that both circulation and advertising revenue grew steadily between 1950-1970. It also presents data showing that ad expenditures for all media grew more rapidly the economy, thus creating a larger “advertising pie.” The reason that television helped magazines is because magazines exist only to satisfy various interests. Television exposed people to more ideas, new places and hobbies to be interested in.

<< 1999 Abstracts