Archives for January 2012

Media Management and Economics Division

The Rise of Corporate Journalism: Providing the Basis for a Hostile Takeover and the Split of the Scripps Newspaper Empire • Edward E. Adams, Brigham Young • E.W. Scripps was among the early adopters of establishing corporate ownership for newspapers. It helped him to develop a chain, and provide incentives to editors and business managers who could own stock in the individual newspapers. The corporate structure also helped create the first corporate split in a newspaper company. This paper examines the corporate structure created by Scripps and the events that led up to the split. It also reviews how a separation was possible and the subsequent consolidation of the remaining Scripps papers.

Syndicated Service Dependence and a Lack of Commitment to Localism: Scripps Newspapers and Market Subordination • Edward E. Adams, Brigham Young • With the exception of only two markets • Cincinnati and Cleveland • all of the Scripps papers maintained a subordinated position. This paper suggests that Scripps papers held a subordinate market position due to heavy dependence on syndicated services and smaller amount of local copy when compared to competitors. Scripps papers maintained skeleton staffs and the newspaper content was heavily dependent on articles from other papers through the UP and NEA services.

The Television Joint Venture and News Content Diversity • Todd Chambers, Texas Tech; Dennis Harp; Jimmie Reeves, Texas Tech; Jeff Klotzman; Opal Lertutai; Joanna Miller and Ann Befort • The recent ownership rules changes for the local television industry have created new management opportunities and problems related to the provision of news programming. Shared service agreements that allow one company to manage the news and/or sales departments of another local television station have raised questions about the diversity of local news programming. This content analysis sought to explore the link between ownership structure and the diversity of television news content within a local market.

Strategic Competition in the Multichannel Video Programming Market: An Intra-Industry Strategic Group Analysis • Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted and Jack C. C. Li, Florida • This paper applied a multichannel strategic group competition theory to assess the strategic patterns of the multichannel video programmers and the relationship between group membership and performance. Seven strategic groups were identified by a cluster analysis, including broadcasters’ cable niche group and cable-casters’ broadcast tier. There appears to be a relationship between strategic group membership and financial performance. Contrary to general industry belief, neither size nor vertical integration has played an important role in elevating the programmers’ financial performance.

The PBS Brand versus Cable Brands: Assessing the Brand Equity of Public Television in a Multichannel Environment • Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, Florida and Yungwook Kim, Illinois State • This paper assesses the brand equity of public television in a multichannel media environment by examining the brand image of public television and PBS in comparison to comparable cable networks. The authors found that public television continues to enjoy a very positive brand image among its viewers. The popularity of cable networks such as A&E, Discovery, and Nickelodeon did not dilute the positive brand perception of public television, nor did it change significantly the perceived importance of public television and the audience’s viewing behavior.

Who Owns Cable Television? Media Ownership Concentration in Taiwan • Ping-Hung Chen, National Taiwan Normal University • This study examines ownership concentration in Taiwan’s cable television industry by using concentration ratios (CR4 and CR8) and found that Taiwan’s cable systems and channels were highly concentrated in the hands of few media conglomerates, meaning that the cable industry has become more oligopolistic. Communications researchers in Taiwan should pay more attention to media ownership concentration across various communications industries or conduct further studies on cross-industry concentration in the communications sector.

Weekly Newspaper Industry: A Baseline Study • David Coulson, Nevada-Reno and Stephen Lacy, Michigan State and Jonathan Wilson, Nevada-Reno • This is the first study to examine important elements of the weekly newspaper industry. It will serve as a baseline for analyzing long-term changes in the business. A stratified random sample of 1,027 weekly newspapers was used. The industry was found to exhibit a great deal of variation in type of ownership, type of circulation, geographic location and day of publication. These variations affect advertising rates, advertising cost per thousand and circulation.

The Relationship Between What Managers Do and How Newsroom Workers Respond in Times of Change • George Daniels, Georgia • A key concern of many newsroom managers is successfully implementing change. Based on a survey of workers at CNN Headline News, where six major changes occurred simultaneously in 1998, information about how change relates to long-term goals was, by far, the most valuable predictor of how newsroom workers might respond to change. There was no relationship between an employee’s perceived level of communication and how likely an employee is to quit in a time of change.

The Influence of Timing of Market Entry on Competition in Local Cellular Telephone Markets • Hugh S. Fullerton, Sam Houston State • The American cellular telephone industry from its inception until the early l990s furnished a classic example of duopoly market structure at the local level. Earlier studies showed that firms in some markets exhibited substantial competitive behavior, while in other markets, firms were comparatively noncompetitive. In an effort to determine the roots of competitive behavior, this paper examines the influence of the timing of entry of the second firm into each market.

The Cultural Transformation of U.S. Newspapers: A Comparison of Management and Rank-and-File Attitudes Toward a Conceptual Model of Organizational Development • Peter Gade, Oklahoma • This study refines previous models of organizational development and in an attempt to build a stronger theoretical framework for understanding the process of change in the newspaper industry. A purposive sample of 18 newspapers affiliated with the American Society of Newspaper Editors Change Committee was used to survey a census of top newsroom managers and a random sample of rank-and-file most experienced with industry-wide change initiatives. The results indicate that management and rank-and file view the change process very differently.

How Magazines Covered Media Companies’ Merger: A Case of the Evolution of Time Inc. • Jaemin Jung, Florida • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Predicting Digital Cable Adoption: Who Will Be Upgrading to Digital Cable, and How Soon? • Myung-Hyun Kang, Michigan State • Digital cable is a technological innovation in the area of cable telecommunications, featuring more channels, more convenience, and more interactivity. The present study investigates the factors that influence the adoption of digital cable in terms of demographics, media use, technology ownership, their innovative attitudes, and their satisfaction with their cable company. Results of this study indicate that the earlier adoption of digital cable is more likely among those who watch television heavily, are satisfied with current cable service, and see themselves as well as their cable operator as technically progressive.

Looking for the Right Partners in the Information Era: A Longitudinal Study of Acquisition Strategies by the Communications Industries • Jack C.C. Li, Florida • The present paper uses the new industrial classification system (NAICS) to examine the acquisition patterns of the communications industries (TV, radio, cable, and telephony) from 1980 through 1999. Attention is focused on diversification strategies of entering the information industry. It is found that the 1996 Telecommunications Act has significant impact on the M&A patterns. The industries’ diversification strategies are also found to be influenced by the characteristics and historical background of the existing industries.

Great Expectations: Revealing a Placebo Effect in Brand Equity Evaluations of Network News Reporting • Walter S. McDowell and Steven J. Dick, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • The purpose of this study was first to explore the theoretical common ground shared by the concepts of placebo effects and brand equity and then to introduce the notion of media brand placebo effects within the context of audience evaluations of television program content. A controlled experiment, focusing on the perceived credibility of a network news report, provided support for two out of three hypotheses derived from this proposed branding construct.

Using Audience Turnover to Reveal the “Double Jeopardy” Effect In Television Daypart Ratings Performance • Walter S. McDowell and Steven J. Dick, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • Scores of conventional consumer goods studies have revealed that successful brands exhibit disproportionately greater consumer loyalty in terms of repeat purchases than less successful brands do. This phenomenon places struggling brands in a kind of “double jeopardy” posture, where they attract not only fewer customers, but also fewer loyalists. Studies of prime time television audience behavior in the 1980s found a similar double jeopardy effect.

Thriving on Chaos: A Case Study of Newspaper Cultural Change • Richard Somerville, Missouri • Newspaper managers are finding that major economic, social and technological shifts have thrown into the air all the revered assumptions about people and management practices. But accepting a need to adapt is not enough. The process of change has proved difficult to achieve even at modest levels. Massive paradigm shifts also are shaking up the field of organizational studies, with some theorists looking to chaos theory as a model for the 21st century business.

News Hole Sizing Polices At Nondaily Newspapers • Ken Smith, Wyoming • This study examined the methods used by nondaily newspapers to determine the sizes of their news holes. The results indicate that a large majority of nondailies (77.8%) base their news holes on a percentage of their advertising inches. In most cases, the type of advertising used to determine the sizes of the news holes was ROP advertising. Most nondailies did not take preprint advertising into account in sizing their news holes.

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Media Ethics Division

Searching for the Journalist Phrenemos: An Exploratory Study of the Ethical Development of News Workers • Renita Coleman and Lee Wilkins, Missouri • More than 2,500 years ago Aristotle defined the ethical person as a phrenemos. More contemporary research has focused on moral development. Almost every type of profession that must grapple with ethical issues has been studied in the context of moral reasoning, except journalists. This research proposes to measure journalists’ moral development in order to compare them with other professionals, and to discover which variables are the most significant predictors of higher moral reasoning in journalists — that is, to model the journalist phrenemos.

Covering the Ethics of Death: An Exploration of Three Model Approaches • David A. Craig, Oklahoma • Through an in-depth textual analysis, this paper examines portrayal of the ethics of assisted suicide and euthanasia in three 1998 newspaper pieces that are exemplary in the depth of their of their treatment of ethics — and therefore, it is argued, ethically responsible in their coverage. Presentation of deontological and consequentialist issues and of ethical questions and themes is examined in these pieces, and implications for ethics coverage are discussed.

Of Joint Ventures, Sock Puppets and New Media Synergy: Ethical Codes and the Emergence of Institutional Conflicts of Interest • Charles N. Davis & Stephanie Craft, Missouri • The trend toward cross-ownership raises ethical concerns about entanglements created in the name of synergy. Ethics scholarship routinely defines conflict of interest as an individual act, which ignores the rise of the media conglomerate. This paper introduces the institutional conflict of interest. The paper outlines how media consolidation creates new conflicts of interest by outlining the term’s definitions in various professions and providing a revised definition that encompasses institutional conflicts of interest.

Ethics for Editors: What 11 Editing Textbooks Teach • Susan Keith, North Carolina • Newspaper copy editors have a vital, though often unheralded, role to play in the production of ethical journalism. As the last people to see newspaper stories before publication, they have the opportunity to raise questions that can save newspapers from unnecessarily harming readers or sources or hurting their own credibility. Copy editors can do this, however, only if they develop a good sense of how ethical principles apply to their jobs. One source for such information is the editing textbook.

Contractualist Morality in News Reporting: What Journalists Owe to Story Subjects, News Sources and The Public • Kathleen L. Mason, Syracuse • Tim Scanlon’s “What we owe to each other” is the most recent substantive addition to ethical theory, and his contractualist theory is the topic of heated philosophical debate. His central notion, that right and wrong “are judgments about what would be permitted by principles that could not reasonably be rejected,” is presented in application to situations faced in daily life. This paper examines how Scanlon’s theory might be used by journalists as they seek to balance their duty to the public against their duties to the subjects and sources.

Beyond Kant Lite: Journalists and the Categorical Imperative • Lee Anne Peck, Ohio • The misunderstanding of Kant’s ethical theory by journalists comes in many forms. According to John Merrill, journalists may thing that if they apply the Categorical Imperative (CI), they are nothing more than “moral robots.” The CI, however, does not tell a person what to do; thus, this paper explores what the CI really entails and what journalists can take from it.

Philosophy in the Trenches: How Newspaper Editors Approach Ethical Questions • Patrick Lee Plaisance, Syracuse • This study sought to identify the various strains of philosophical principles brought to bear on ethical dilemmas by working journalists. A nationwide survey of newspaper managing editors and news editors solicited actual ethical dilemmas and examined how respondents assessed statements that corresponded to various philosophical principles. The study suggested that journalists tend to favor specific philosophical approaches when they are confronted with certain types of ethical questions, affirming calls by some media ethicists for a “pluralistic” approach in newsrooms.

The Concept of Media Accountability Reconsidered • Patrick Lee Plaisance, Syracuse • The concept of media accountability is widely used but remains inadequately defined in the literature and often is restricted to a one-dimensional interpretation. This study explores perceptions of accountability as manifestations of claims to responsibility, based on philosophical conceptions of the two terms, and suggests media accountability to be more broadly understood as a dynamic of interaction between a given medium and the value sets of individuals or groups receiving messages. The shape-shifting nature of the concept contributes to the volatility of debate surrounding conflicting notions of press freedom and responsibility.

Electronic Discussion Groups: An Effective Journalistic Ethical Forum? • Thomas E. Ruggiero, Texas-El Paso • Mass communication literature suggests a perceived ineffectuality of past and current journalistic ethical forums, such as news councils, ombudsmen, ethical codes, academic analysis and journalism reviews, by American journalists. This study investigates the ramifications of the recent introduction of electronic discussion groups, such as “LISTSERVs” and “electronic mailing lists,” as a mode of journalistic ethical discussion. Results of an e-mail questionnaire to 139 working journalists at 69 daily general-interest U.S. newspapers suggest that, while American journalists are overwhelmingly using e-mail to conduct both professional and personal business, it is unlikely, at least at this time, that very many are logging on to electronic discussion groups to discuss ethical issues.

Reporting on Private Affairs Of Public People: A Longitudinal Study of Newspaper Ethical Practices and Concerns, 1993-1999 • Sigman Splichal and Bruce Garrison, Miami • In 1987, after the Miami Herald reported that Democratic presidential hopeful Gary Hart had spent a night in a Washington D.C. townhouse with a young model, a national debate ensued over the proper bounds of reporting about the private lives of public officials. As that debate matured, the Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee summed it up: “ . . . the rules have certainly changed.” The New Republic also weighed in on the issue: The Herald had “opened a sluice gate that will not be easily closed.”

The Moral Authority of the Minnesota News Council: Statements of Principle and Uses of Precedent • Erik Forde Ugland and Jack Breslin, Minnesota • This study addresses the Minnesota News Council’s moral authority — that is, its ability to serve as a referent for the moral choices of others — and how its authority is affected by perceptions of its legitimacy. After analyzing all of the Council’s 125 written determinations, the authors argue that the Council’s legitimacy and authority could be enlarged by clearer statements of ethical principles, explicit expressions of standards of conduct, and more consistent references to precedent.

Testing A Theoretical Model of Journalistic Invasion of Privacy Using Structural Equation Modeling • Samuel P. Winch and L. Kim Tan, Nanyang Tech • Data on invasion of privacy — such as stories identifying crime victims, photographs of grieving people and stories about people’s financial status — obtained through a content analysis of newspapers over 30 years were analyzed with social/structural data such as literacy rate, crime rate and urbanization to validate a theoretical model of privacy using structural equation modeling. Tentatively, urbanization and industrialization seem to predict a decreased incidence in certain types of journalistic invasion of privacy.

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Mass Communication and Society Division

An E-Community of Ideas and Information: Media Content Characteristics of Children’s Web Sites • Debashis Aikat, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The research for this study was based on concepts related to cultural studies and discourse analyses of top four mainstream children’s web sites based in the United States — Children’s Television Workshop (http://www.ctw.org/), Disney Online (http://www.disney.com/), Nickelodeon Online (http://www.nick.com/), and PBS Online (http://www.pbs.org). Using discourse analyses methods, this study examined media content characteristics of children’s web sites based on five specific construct categories: (a) Information, (b) Entertainment, (c) Education, (d) Commerce, and (e) Interactivity.

Quality Standards in Children’s Programming: An Empirical Analysis of Industry Claims • Alison Alexander, Louise Benjamin and Seok Kang, Georgia and Keisha Hoerrner, Louisiana • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Professional Autonomy and the American Journalist • Randal A. Beam, Indiana-Bloomington • This paper uses data from two national surveys of American journalists to examine the relationship between professional autonomy and the professional roles or functions that journalists embrace; the factors that journalists say influence their notion of what’s newsworthy; and the hypothetical judgments that journalists make about ethically questionable reporting practices. The purpose is to examine the ways in which reporters who have the freedom to pursue the stories that they want in the way that they want differ from reporters – apparently increasing in numbers – who face constraints in their work.

Mass Mediating Social Capital • Christopher E. Beaudoin and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • This study examines social capital in terms of its connections with news media use via a telephone survey. Positive links were found between social capital — defined in terms of group membership, voting behavior, and community trust — and exposure to news media, especially newspapers. The study suggests the importance age and ethnicity play in social capital — both as mediating factors and as predictors. The study, via structural equation modeling, suggests that causation flows in both directions between social capital and media exposure.

Access Denied: Records Custodians as Resistant Gatekeepers to Government Information • Michele Bush, Florida • Access to government information is a safeguard against government corruption by allowing the citizenry to keep watch over its leaders. Records custodians across the country are denying the citizenry this right. This paper shows the proliferation of records custodians unlawfully denying access to public information. It also shows that there is a lack of statutory guidance for records custodians across the country. This paper reports the problems and provides solutions for improving access to government information.

Television Viewing and Perceptions of Race, Socioeconomic Success, and Reasons For Lack Of Success • Rick W. Busselle and Heather Crandall, Washington State • This survey (N=139) investigates the relationships between television viewing and perceptions about socioeconomic success and failure among African-Americans Results extend previous research by indicating l) drama viewing was related to perceptions of greater educational disparity between blacks and whites and to perceptions that discrimination is a problem for blacks. 2) Sitcom viewing was related to perceptions of less educational disparity and higher estimates of blacks’ income. 3) News viewing was related to perceptions that relative lack of success is due to lack of motivation and not limited job opportunities.

Treating the Y2K Bug: Knowledge Gap Factors that Shaped the Outcome of a Public Issue • Francesca Dillman Carpentier, Alabama • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Whatever Works: A Test of the “Division of Labor Component of Uses and Gratifications Theory • John Carvalho, Campbell • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Rebels with a Cause: Teenagers on Daytime Dramas • Naeemah Clark, Florida • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

The Effects of News Stories That Put Crime and Violence Into Context: Testing the Public Health Model of Reporting • Renita Coleman and Esther Thorson, Missouri • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Retreads: Recycling American Prime Time Television for Fun and Profit • Chad Dell, Monmouth • In the 1990s, a new television programming strategy seemed to emerge: “retreads,” the movement of prime time programs from one network to another. In 1995 alone, five cancelled programs found homes on another network’s schedule. This essay accounts for the use of retreads over a fifty-year period, including its resurgence in the 1990s. The essay argues that as one of many program recycling methods, retreads contribute to the alienation of television audiences.

Married sex in the movies: The last taboo? • J.M. Dempsey and Tom Reichert, North Texas • While other studies have incidentally addressed the portrayal of sex between married partners, this study specifically analyzes how sexuality between married couples is depicted in mainstream movies, as represented by the top movie video rentals of 1998 In the 25 motion pictures, married partners were portrayed in sexual behavior 16 times, or in 15% of the 105 codable sexual encounters. The most common sexual behavior portrayed among husbands and wives was passionate kissing.

Newspaper Letters and Phone-Mail to the Editor: A Comparison of Reader Input • Michael E. Dupre, Saint Anselm College and David A. Mackey, Framingham State College • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Partisan and Structural Balance of Election Stories on the 1998 Governor’s Race in Michigan • Frederick Fico and William Cote, Michigan State • The partisan and structural balance of newspaper stories covering the 1998 governor’s race in Michigan was assessed and compared to the newspaper coverage of three earlier elections. The 1998 election coverage favored the Democratic challenger in terms of space and prominence given his campaign’s assertions. A detailed issue analysis, however, suggests that the Republican incumbent was able to dominate the substantive issue agenda, while the Democratic challenger became himself the issue because of his insulting campaign comments.

Journalists’ Newsroom Roles and Their World Wide Web Search Habits • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This paper reports an analysis of how newsroom staff members search for information on the World Wide Web. Daily newspaper data collected in 1998 and 1999 were analyzed to determine if computer-assisted reporting supervisors, news researchers, general assignment and beat reporters, news editors, and newsroom technical specialists differed in how they searched for information on the Web. Findings indicated that there are clear differences in how the group members search.

World Wide Web Use In Newsrooms, 1997-99 • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This study focuses on the use of the Internet and World Wide Web in daily newspaper newsrooms during a three-year period covering 1997-99. The study focused on how these news organizations used the Web to find information, the Web sites most often used for newsgathering, what journalists perceived as the strengths and weaknesses of information found, the Web-based interactive technologies most often used, and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of Web reporting.

Effects of Media Coverage on Illicit Drug Trial Among College Students: What Does Curiosity Really do to the Cat? • Alyse R. Gotthoffer, Miami • This study examines the effects of media coverage on college students’ intentions to try illicit drugs. An experiment was performed with 172 undergraduate students to determine whether awareness, interest, and product curiosity affected intention to try a fictitious drug, MCA. Students were asked to listen to one of six radio segments with drug messages embedded in them. The results suggest that among students predisposed to try illicit drugs, repeated exposure to drug messages heightens awareness, interest, and curiosity about drugs, which, in turn, leads to an intention to try new drugs.

Morality and the Maintenance of Order: The Instructional Potential of “The Jerry Springer Show” • Mary Elizabeth Grabe, Indiana • The prevalence of verbal and physical aggression on daytime television talk shows has earned this genre the designation of “confrontainment.” In recent times politicians, clergy, and media critics have drawn attention by making castigating remarks about the content of particularly “The Jerry Springer Show.” Media scholars have gathered on the sideline of this scuffle to express opinions and offer research evidence to either defend talk shows as democratizing or expel them from the menu of morally just television fare.

The Incidence and Nature of Altruism in Primetime Television Programming • James K. Hertog and Mike Farrell, Kentucky • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Entertainment Media Use and Attitudes Concerning Women’s Rights: Merging Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches to Better Understand a Process of Media Effects • R. Lance Holbert, Dhavan V. Shah and Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin-Madison • Critical feminist scholars have long argued that the consumption of televised entertainment programming, because it is a site of gender role construction and contestation, plays an important role in shaping attitudes toward women and their place in society. Merging these insights with research on media uses and gratifications, we posit that individual-level differences in basic demographic characteristics, value-preferences, and social orientations motivate in the use of various types of recreational and informational media content.

Community Controversy and the News Media: A Network Structure of Community Actors’ Co-Coverage in the Local Newspapers • Naewon Kang, Wisconsin-Madison • This study uses network analysis to investigate how the community actors were covered together in news articles of the two local newspapers over a controversial school pairing policy in Madison, Wisconsin. By examining the co-coverage pattern, the author analyzes a symmetrical matrix of 133 community actors appearing in 132 news articles published during 1992 to 1995. Bonacich centrality and multidimensional analysis demonstrate that individuals who are involved in institutional organizations occupy central positions in the co-coverage network.

A Multilevel Approach to Civic Participation: Individual Length of Residence, Neighborhood Residential Stability, and their Interactive Effects with Media Use • Naewon Kang and Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin-Madison • Adopting the Sampson’s (1991) multilevel system model, this study attempts to investigate the role of residential variables both at the individual and at the neighborhood levels and communication factors in individuals’ civic participation. Findings in this study show the significant impact of both residential variables, individual length of residence and neighborhood residential stability, and support past evidences on the influence of communication behaviors on civic participation.

From Here to Obscurity: Media Substitution Theory and the Internet • Barbara K. Kaye, Valdosta State and Thomas J. Johnson, Southern Illinois • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Internet Uses and Gratifications: Understanding Motivations for Using the Internet • Hanjun Ko, Florida • In this study, the uses and gratifications theory was applied to investigate the Internet users’ motivations and their relationship with attitudes toward the Internet as well as types of Web site visited by users. Four motivations and five types of Web sites were discovered via factor analysis. Differences among heavy, medium, and light users of the Internet were also analyzed in terms of their motivations, types of Web sites frequently visited, and attitudes toward the Internet.

A Framing Analysis: How Did Three U.S. News Magazines Frame About Mergers or Acquisitions? • Sang Hee Kweon, Southern Illinois • The study examined news coverage of the mergers based on the types of mergers, government policy, and news focus of the three U.S. news magazines. This study found that all three magazines covered mergers or acquisitions favorably, particularly media mergers, and mergers news coverage was 35.3% (183) episodic and 64.5% (335) thematic. Fortune, a business-focused magazine, covered non-media mergers more favorably, whereas Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report covered media mergers more favorably than non-media mergers.

Pleasure, Reality, and Hegemony: A Television Drama and Women in a Korean Confucian Patriarchal Family Structure • Oh-Hyeon Lee, Massachusetts • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Political Talk, Not All “Hot Air” A Path Model Predicting Knowledge, Cynicism & Vote in an Issue Campaign • Glenn Leshner and Maria E. Len-Rios, Missouri • This study used regional telephone survey data collected after a 1999 off-season issue election to examine how campaign media and interpersonal political discussion predict how much voters learned about the issue, how they voted, and how politically cynical they were. Three distinct types of voters were identified: those who thought the issue was important, those who reported being involved in the campaign, and those who relied on endorsements to decide how to vote.

The Role of Response Efficacy in Health Threat Messages • Yulian Li, Minnesota • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

City Characteristics of Newspaper Coverage of Social Security Reform: A Community Structure Approach • John C. Pollock, Tiffany Tanner and Mike Delbene, College of New Jersey • Utilizing the community structure approach developed by Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien (1973, 1980) and elaborated by Pollock and others (1977, 1978, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999), a set of hypotheses were tested to discover the relationship between city characteristics and newspaper reporting on Social Security reform. This approach suggests that certain demographics within a community are systematically linked to newspaper reporting on critical issues.

Thinking About Health: The Relationship of Mass Media and Cognition to Perceptions of Children’s Health • Bryan H. Reber, Missouri • How media use and cognitive work contribute to perceptions of children’s health and quality of life issues was tested in a survey of 1,238 adults. Demographics were predictors of cognitive work and media use on children’s health issues. High cognitive work on children’s health issues was significantly related to pessimistic perceptions about the status of children’s health. High television exposure and attention were related to optimistic perceptions. Cognitive work led to more accurate assessments of the health situation.

Perceptions of Media Fairness: Implications for The Nixon And Clinton Legacies • Marilyn S. Roberts, Florida and Thomas J. Johnson, Southern Illinois • The study examines perceptions of the Watergate and Lewinsky scandals. Survey data (n=450) was collected after the Senate rejected articles of impeachment against President Clinton. Three questions asked about the scandals: whether their actions were serious enough to warrant being forced out of office; perceptions of corruptness; and whether the media were out to get them. Included are measures of demographic and political variables to determine significant associations and implications for the two Presidential legacies.

Telemedicine versus Telelaw: A Legal Comparison Between Offering the Services of Doctors and Lawyers over the Internet • Johanna M. Roodenburg, Florida • This paper compares the movement of the services of doctors and lawyers onto the Internet. It finds that doctors are moving online at a more rapid pace than lawyers. The paper examines the policy rationale for the different telemovement pace between the two professions.

Co-use and Co-processing of News Media in the Family: An Explication and Empirical Validation • Christian Sandvig and Melissa Nichols Saphir, Stanford and Steven Chaffee, California • This study considers the sharing of media in the family by developing two concepts similar to co-viewing and mediation but that apply to communication media other than television. Termed co-use and co-processing, this paper first explicates these concepts, then presents preliminary empirical evidence that these concepts exist from a survey of parent-adolescent pairs. We find that families widely co-use media other than television, mutually co-process content from these media, and that adolescents often initiate co-processing.

An ‘Improbable Leap’: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of Hillary Clinton’s Transition from First Lady to Senate Candidate • Erica Scharrer, Massachusetts-Amherst • This study is primarily a quantitative content analysis of newspaper coverage of Hillary Clinton as she makes an unprecedented transition from first lady to senate candidate. 342 newspaper stories are analyzed to determine whether the press has responded to her adoption of non-traditional roles with a negative tone. 96 stories about Giuliani are used for comparison, and a qualitative analysis of negative statements appearing in news stories adds depth and dimension to the discussion of critical tone.

Media Cue-Taking and Trends in Mass Opinion: Explaining Evaluations of ClintonÕs Competency and Integrity • Dhavan V. Shahm Wisconsin-Madison; David Domke, Washington; Mark D. Watts, Abacus Associates and David P. Fan, Minnesota • Contrary to what might be expected according to many models of media effects and public opinion, President Clinton’s job approval ratings remained high – and even slightly rose – during the period of critical coverage surrounding the Monica Lewinsky debacle. At the same time, although it received much less attention, public evaluations of the President’s integrity plummeted. With these public opinion divergences in mind, several pollsters, pundits, and scholars have argued that news media must have been largely irrelevant.

The Impact of Political Advertising: Differences Between Positive Ads and Issue, Image and Mixed Attacks • Sung Wook Shim, Florida • The purpose of this study is to identify the impact on the attacking candidate when he/she attacks the attacked candidate with four types of ads: issue, image attacks, both issue and image combined attacks and positive. The study results show that image attack produced a greater negative change than issue attack for evaluation of attacking candidate. The decline was significant between likelihood of voting for attacking candidate in the pretest and likelihood of voting for attacking candidate in the posttest.

Media Bias, Campaign Coverage, and Public Opinion: The 2000 New York Senate Race • Young Jun Son and Deborah Soun Chung, Indiana • This study examines the linkage between candidate treatment and public opinion during the ongoing 2000 New York Senate race and tests T. Patterson’s media candidate portrayal models. With evidence of political bias, our findings demonstrate the New York Times and the Washington Times were respectively favorable to Mrs. Clinton, the Democrat, and to Rudolph Giuliani, the Republican. In the visual part, we did not find specific media bias. We could not support Patterson’s models both in the written and the visual part.

Exploration of TV-Free Life Style • Toward a Media Exchange Model • Tao Sun and Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Influence of Spouse Communication and Informational Media on Risk Perception • Eun-Ho Yeo and Clifford W. Scherer, Cornell • This study used a path model to examine the influence of two communication behaviors on risk perception. Spouse communication, talking about health issues, and mass communication, use of informational media, particularly print, was used to predict husband and wife personal risk perception and societal risk perception. The focus of the paper is to examine the possibility that the impact of informational mass media on risk perception is mediated by family interaction, particularly husband-wife communication.

Economic Literacy and News Interest • Lowndes F. Stephens, South Carolina • The National Council on Economic Education, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Department of Education (Goals 2000 Educate American Act) and other organizations are promoting economic literacy. In this investigation the author tests, and finds support for, two hypotheses (using a random telephone survey sample of 369 residents in a Southern metropolitan area) – that interest in economic, business, and personal finance news is strongly and positively correlated with economic literacy, and with estimated financial net worth.

Exporting the First Amendment a Case of the Fair Report Privilege • Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State • Under the fair report privilege doctrine of American libel law, “[t]he publication of defamatory matter concerning another in a report of an official action or proceeding or of a meeting open to the public that deals with a matter of public concern is privileged if the report is accurate and complete or a fair abridgment of the occurrence reported.” Regardless of how it is formulated, the answer to the question of whether reports of the proceedings of foreign courts and other agencies fall within the fair report privilege in U.S. law carries profound implications for American news media in global communication.

An Interdisciplinary Synthesis of Framing • Weiwu Zhang, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper provides a multidisciplinary treatment of the framing analysis and pays close attention to the framing processes linking its antecedents, contents, and consequences. The antecedents of framing addresses the issue of how frames are constructed in the first place and how these influences interact with news media routines to influence actual media content frames. The consequences of media content frames deal with the extent to which media frames are adopted by audience members.

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Magazine Division

The Portrayal of Black Women’s Facial Features in Mainstream Fashion Magazines: 1989-1998 • Oluwatosin Adegbola, Howard • The method of content analysis was applied to three mainstream fashion magazines (Vogue, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan; randomly sampled from 1989-1998), to investigate claims of stereotypical portrayals. The women were coded on complexion, lip size, nose width, and hairstyle with attainable scores in categories ranging from very Caucasian to very Negroid. Results showed that there was a pattern whereby majority of the Black women in the magazines possessed Caucasian features.

Cosmetic Ads in Cosmopolitan and New Woman: Do Advertisers get Special Treatment in Editorial? • Elizabeth Althoff, Drake • Advertisers seek increasingly large concessions from magazines they advertise, as evidenced by recent RFPs from agencies. In this study, cosmetic ads are compared with editorial treatment of the advertiser’s brand in two women’s magazines, Cosmopolitan and New Woman, 1997 to 1999. While Cosmo mentioned only 21 brands in editorial, 19% of these were also advertisers in the same issue. New Woman mentioned 37 brands, but only 8% of these were advertisers.

Setting the Agenda and Framing in Beauty Magazines: A Content Analysis of the Coverage of Breasts • Julie L. Andsager, Washington State and Angela Powers and Rachael McKinness, Northern Illinois • This study uses two content analysis methods to examine how four women’s beauty magazines framed information concerning the health and beauty of breasts during the 1990s. Breast cancer prevention and risk was the most prominent theme, while implants received little attention. Cancer was associated with fear and danger. Breast size was a recurring frame, linking breasts to sexual attractiveness. Medical doctors were the most frequent sources used. Magazines varied in how they framed breast issues.

‘Pearl Harbor of the Cold War:’ Coverage of Post-Sputnik Science Reforms In Four National Magazines • Timothy E. Bajkiewicz, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Sputnik was a rallying cry for American science education. This study found eighty-six articles on this topic in four national magazines: Popular Science, Scientific American, Life, and the Saturday Evening Post, from October, 1957 to September, 1958. All called for immediate changes. The articles used examples of students and teachers, expert opinion, and scientific studies regarding attitudes and the state of science education in both the United States and the Soviet Union.

Farm Magazine Advertisers Turn Up the Heat: An Analysis of Ethical Pressures Faced by Farm Magazine Writers • Stephen A. Banning, Texas A&M • The traditionally small advertising base for farm magazine publications has continued to shrink. This study looks at kinds of pressures farm magazine writers may be feeling as they become dependent on fewer and fewer advertisers. Results of this nationwide survey indicate farm magazine writers feel advertisers are applying a great deal of pressure in areas of ethical concern. When compared with the same instrument given to a similar sample pool a decade before, the study indicates a general feeling that the amount of pressure from advertisers has increased.

Twenty-Five Years of Newsweek’s Coverage of Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet: A-Content Analysis • Matthew M. Bifano, Ohio • Through a longitudinal study using a content analysis, the researcher demonstrated that Newsweek’s coverage during the 1970 election of Salvador Allende, his presidency, the military coup in 1973, and Augusto Pinochet’s presidency tended to follow the U.S. government’s foreign policy. Newsweek’s dependence on official news sources and its failure to use human rights groups as sources made its coverage hegemonic rather than independent from the various U.S. administrations’ policies toward Chile.

Yosemite’s Transition from Space to Place: An Historical Investigation in Media’s Role in the Place-Making Process • Nickieann Fleener and Edward Ruddell, Utah • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

AOL-Time Warner’s Magazine and Music Interests: Good Business Makes Poor Journalism • Geoffrey P. Hull, Middle Tennessee State • This study examines two publications of AOL-Time Warner, Time and People Weekly, to determine whether they give more coverage or more favorable coverage to products and artists of Time Warner’s music division. One year of issues of each publication was examined. Time and People do devote more total coverage to Time Warner distributed recordings and artists than to those of their competitors Qualitative measures of the coverage found no significant differences.

Women’s Political Voices: A Content Analysis of The Political Coverage in Women’s Magazines • Stacey J.T. Hust, Washington State • Political coverage in women’s magazines has seldom been studied, but as an integral component of women’s media consumerism, it is important to discern how they cover important issues. Research reports that women do not have access to political information and are not conditioned to be involved in the political process. A content analysis is used to analyze the political coverage of nine magazines over a five-year period.

‘A Death in the American Family’: National Values and Memory in the Magazine Mourning of John F. Kennedy Jr. • Carolyn Kitch, Temple • The 1999 death of John F. Kennedy Jr. provided an opportunity for news media to tell a life story as a way of assessing the American character, defining it in terms of family and generation and in terms of sacrifice and redemption. Focusing on magazines a medium that played a leading role in the public mourning of JFK Jr. • this paper analyzes the narrative and ritual aspects of the coverage in order to understand journalism’s role in affirming national values and creating collective memory.

The National Geographic Magazine and Environmental Coverage, 1970-1980 • Jan Knight, Ohio • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

A Comparison of Magazine Summer Olympic Coverage by Gender and Race: A Content Analysis of Sports Illustrated • Jim Mack, Ohio • This study content analyzed 212 Summer Olympic articles in Sports Illustrated, seeking to find if the magazine provided representative coverage of women and minority U.S. athletes. The total U.S. medal winners for race and gender divisions was compared to the number of pictures and print references to U.S. athletes in Olympic articles from 1960 to 1996. This study found that, quantitatively, Sports Illustrated did provide representative coverage of female and minority athletes for the Summer Olympics.

Framing a War: Photographic Coverage of the Kosovo War in Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report • Nikolina Sajn, Kwangju Heo and Sarah Merritt, North Carolina • This paper studies framing of the photographic coverage of the Kosovo War in three U.S. newsmagazines. The quantitative content analysis of the photographs showed that the coverage concentrated on the U.S. leaders, troops and arsenal. The photographs of civilians showed almost exclusively just the Albanian side. The magazines failed to inform the public about all aspects of the war, and the traditional “good vs. evil” paradigm applies in the coverage of this confrontation.

American Magazines Prosper-At Whose Expense • David Sumner, Ball State • Conflicting evidence exists regarding whether consumers or advertisers pay most of the costs of magazine publishing for the industry as a whole. The purpose of this study is to look at the evidence by analyzing rates charged for both circulation and advertising, focusing on data from 1980 to 1998. It compares subscription prices, single copy prices, and advertising per-page rates for 96 major magazines monitored by the Audit Bureau of Circulations that were published continuously between 1980 and 1998.

Lillian Ross: Pioneer of Literary Journalism • James W. Tankard, Jr., Texas • Lillian Ross has reported for The New Yorker for more than 50 years. This paper argues that Ross has not been given sufficient credit for her contributions to the style known as literary journalism. Ross used dialogue and the technique of writing articles made up mostly of scenes to write such articles as her classic “Portrait of Hemingway.” She also pioneered the non-fiction novel form in her book Picture • years before Capote’s In Cold Blood.

The Relationship Between Health and Fitness Magazine Reading and Eating-Disordered Weight-Loss Methods Among High School Girls • Steven R. Thomsen, Michelle M. Weber and Lora Beth Brown, Brigham Young • The study examined the relationship between reading women’s health and fitness magazines and the use of eating-disordered diet methods (laxatives, appetite suppressants/diet pills, skipping two meals a day, intentional vomiting, excessive exercising, and restricting calories to 1,200 a day or less) among a group of 498 high school girls. The authors found moderate, positive associations between reading frequency and these unhealthful behaviors, which are often the first steps toward the development of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.

The Amazing Magazines of Hugo Gernsback • Jonathan Thornton, Trinity • In 1908, Hugo Gernsback foresaw the future of science fiction, helping to define it as an influential and popular genre through his magazine Amazing Stories. Throughout his life, Gernsback was a dreamer who would strongly influence the genre of science fiction magazines, from serializing “Ralph 124C41+” in Modern Electrics, to his peak of launching and editing the first all-science fiction magazine, to the post-Amazing Stories era of his life when he published several science fiction magazines.

Hidden Under a Bushel: A Study of the Thriving World of Religious Magazine • Ken Waters, Pepperdine • Religious publications have a long and varied history in the United States. The publications are among the first magazines to appear in the U.S. and their content helped shape the early Republic’s literacy, morals and political events. But during the past 150 years, their influence has lessened. Although some 3,000 religious publications exist today, most report small circulation levels. Critics contend that many religious magazines are more focused on doctrinal battles than presenting news and information for the general public.

<< 2000 Abstracts

Law Division

Determining Fame under the Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 • Sue Westcott Alessandri, North Carolina • Because of the law’s newness, the true effect of the Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 has yet to be seen. The small body of precedents, however, may serve to guide corporations required to provide evidence on the “fame” of their trademarks in FTDA cases. An analysis of the five reported cases heard thus far by the U.S. Courts of Appeals – and specifically two circuits’ decisions in determining the fame of a trademark – shows that advertising history, expenditures and market research may be the best evidence corporations can present.

Broadening the Scope of the Newsgathering Privilege to Protect Nontraditional Journalists: A Definitional Dilemma • Laurence B. Alexander, Florida • This paper explores the statutory and common law development of the journalist’s privilege, giving special attention to the parameters drawn to limit protection only to those who work in traditional roles in traditional news organizations. It also examines the widely accepted “checking value” theory of Vincent Blasi on the role that news-source confidentiality plays in serving as an additional check on abuses of government power. This underlying theory is considered in determining whether the journalist’s privilege should be expanded beyond its current scope.

The First Amendment & Postmodern Tendencies in Cyberspace • Justin Brown, Penn State • To address the possibilities and difficulties of expression on the Internet, legal scholars and courts have been articulating jurisprudence. While many have been boastful of a robust marketplace of ideas, missing from the discourse has been an examination of the postmodern tendencies of cyberspace. This paper reviews developing jurisprudence and offers a unique perspective of how the First Amendment may protect expression in the cultural environments of converging and evolving media.

The “Enticing Images” Doctrine: An Emerging Principle in First Amendment Jurisprudence? • Clay Calvert, Penn State • The split of authority among the federal appellate courts that emerged in 1999 concerning the Child Pornography Prevention Act’s prohibition of “virtual” child pornography presents a propitious opportunity to examine the emergence of a nascent principle in First Amendment jurisprudence • the enticing images doctrine. Under this doctrine, otherwise lawful images of fictional content can be prohibited because they “entice” or “seduce” minors to engage in illegal conduct. The roots of the doctrine take hold in more than just the CPPA.

Silencing Foreign Voices: Restrictions on Alien Ownership of Broadcast Stations • James V. D’Aleo • North Carolina • Broadcast ownership provisions have been present in American society in some form or another since 1912. The time has come for these restrictions to be lifted. The current provisions have been in place, with little variation, since the Communications Act of 1934. This paper argues that the original reasoning for these provisions no longer hold true in today’s society, indicating that foreign ownership restrictions should be lifted or relaxed.

First Amendment Rights of Non-Citizens In Light of Reno v. Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee • Irina Dmitrieva, Florida • The article argues that in a recent case, Reno v. Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the U.S. Supreme Court de facto denied the First Amendment rights to non-citizens in the immigration context. The article argues that denial of free speech rights to aliens robs this country of the valuable source of new ideas and beliefs, and impedes the process of cultural exchange among U.S. citizens and immigrants.

State Protection of Copyright Interest In Primary Law Materials • Irina Dmitrieva, Florida • The article demonstrates that at least half of 50 states claim copyright interest in their primary law materials, such as state statutes, court reports, and administrative regulations. At the same time, state control over primary law materials may restrict public access to legal documents of vital importance. The author suggests changes in the United States copyright law that would deny copyright protection to the texts of state statutes and judicial opinions.

Contracting the News: A Study of Online News User Agreements • Victoria Smith Ekstrand, North Carolina • The terms of user agreements on news Web sites represent a new paradigm in the sale of news. Rather than selling the news, today’s online publishers provide content in exchange for agreement to the conditions of user agreements. This study examines the provisions in online news user agreements. It finds that such agreements duplicate or exceed protections provided by existing law and will be strengthened by new Uniform Commercial Code legislation.

The Lochner Monster Redux: Buckley and The Path of Legal Realism in Today’s Campaign Finance Jurisprudence • Emily Erickson, Syracuse • This paper examines the parallel often drawn between Buckley v. Valeo and Lochner v. New York, exploring the progressive legal realist agenda that helped end the Lochner era and recent attempts by the Supreme Court to both escape and hide within the bowels of its own “Lochner monster,” Buckley. It then looks at the most recent campaign finance precedents, including January’s Nixon v. Shrink decision, to discern whether today’s Court seems able and willing to slay Buckley.

Reconsidering the Federal Journalist’s Privilege for Nonconfidential Information: Gonzalez v. NBC • Anthony L. Fargo, Rhode Island • In 1998, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Gonzalez v. NBC ruled that there was no federal journalist’s privilege for nonconfidential information. The case appeared to go against precedent in the Second Circuit and appeared to be a serious blow to journalists’ efforts to expand the privilege to other circuits. However, a year later, the Second Circuit reconsidered Gonzalez and held that there was a privilege for nonconfidential information.

The Supreme Court’s Heavy Hand: The Reversal of Libel Decisions • Mike Farrell, Kentucky • The Supreme Court has near-total control of its docket, each year considering less than 100 of the seven thousand appeals it receives. When the Court grants certiorari, it is a signal the justices are more likely to reverse the decision of the lower federal court or the state court. An earlier study found the Supreme Court reversed the lower court in more than 60 percent of the cases it decided between 1953-90.

The Malice Muddle: The Changing Definition of Malice And Its Threat To The Fair Report Privilege • Deborah Gump, North Carolina • Suppose a mayor accused a councilmember at a town meeting of selling drugs. Next, suppose the reporter from the Daily Banner was told by his editor to forget about the accusation because the mayor’s libel suit would bankrupt the paper. Wouldn’t happen, you say? Under new court interpretations of the fair report privilege, it might. The privilege protects reporters from libel suits if they cover official proceedings accurately, fairly, and without common law malice.

Policy of Secrecy, Pattern of Deception: How the Government Tried to Undermine Press Freedom and the Right to Know During the Federalist Period • Martin E. Halstuk, Nevada-Las Vegas • The Supreme Court has consistently rejected arguments that the First Amendment provides the press with any rights not also afforded to the general public. The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of whether there is an historical basis to argue for constitutionally protected newsgathering privileges for the press. To illuminate this issue, this examination focuses on several events that took place between 1787 and 1798.

Circumventing Copyright with Controlling Technology • Matt Jackson, Penn State • The Digital Millennium Copyright Act added a new chapter to Copyright Act that protects the anti-circumvention technology used by copyright owners to restrict access to their content. In Universal City Studios v. Reimerdes, the first case involving these new provisions, the district court held that traditional defenses to copyright infringement did not apply to some violations of the anti-circumvention provisions. The DMCA and the Reimerdes case is evidence of a paradigm shift in copyright from a legal concept to a technological concept.

Libel in 48 Points: How Courts Have Ruled since Sullivan on Allegedly False and Defamatory Headlines Atop Accurate Stories • Susan Keith, North Carolina • The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in late 1999 that a headline could be actionable for libel on its own, even when the story to which it referred was substantially accurate. This no doubt pleased the plaintiff in the case, actor Brian “Kato” Kaelin, who had sued the National Examiner, a supermarket tabloid, over the headline “Cops Think Kato Did It.” However, the ruling also brought to the forefront the fact that some courts consider allegedly libelous headlines in context of the accompanying stories while others do not.

Web Site Framing: Copyright Infringement Through the Creation of an Unauthorized Derivative Work • Greg Lisby, Georgia State • The technological explosion and convergence that are the Internet and the World Wide Web • increasing amounts of information from a variety of sources, coupled with the accelerating change in the form of that information, from discrete media into one constant barrage of digitized bits • have posed new problems for copyright that promise to shake the law to its 300-year-old print media foundations. Take framing, as an example.

Hands in the “Cookie” Jar: Disclosure of Internet Transaction Generated Information under State Public Records Law • Harlen Makemson, North Carolina • This paper analyzed whether Internet transaction generated information such as cookie files are subject to disclosure under state freedom of information statutes and whether such information could fall under trade secret exemptions. For states that define public records as those made in connection with public business, disclosing cookies makes intuitive sense and is consistent with the legislative intent of broad access. Current laws leave courts ill-equipped to rule on the disclosure of cookie files.

Journalists on Journalistic Conduct in the Law of Libel • Tracie L. Mauriello and Thomas A. Schwartz, Ohio State • The U.S. Supreme Court’s requirement that libel plaintiffs show fault on the part of defendants has generated a body of law that examines journalistic conduct. Some see this as a threat to press freedom. After analyzing the responses of journalists to two libel case scenarios, this paper finds that journalists have higher standards for the practice of journalism than those of the Court and that they expect to be held legally accountable for journalistic malpractice but that they are unable to articulate a sense of proper journalistic conduct.

A Safeguard for National Security or a Wall of Secrecy Protecting Government Agencies? • Nelson Mumma Jr., North Carolina • The Freedom of Information Act was created to ensure that ordinary American citizens have access to government agency documents. This is important because it theoretically keeps the government accountable and allows individuals to access information they might need to knowledgeably vote and participate in the democratic process. However, Congress created nine exemptions to the FOIA, which allow government agencies to withhold information under certain conditions. Exemption 1 allows agencies to withhold documents if the release of these documents could harm national security or foreign relations.

Violence against the Press in Latin America: Protections and Remedies in International Law • Michael Perkins, Brigham Young • This paper analyzes recent cases decided by international human-rights tribunals that found attacks against journalists to be violations of the free-expression guarantees of the American Convention on Human Rights, the western hemisphere’s leading human-rights treaty. This study argues that the American Convention’s guarantees are being interpreted as demanding strict accountability from governments for investigating complaints of violence against the press, punishing journalists’ assailants, and indemnifying their survivors.

William Lloyd Garrison, Bejamin Lundy & Seditious Libel • Amy Reynolds, Oklahoma • This paper explores early attempts to suppress abolitionist speech and discusses how those attempts helped shape the views of two leading abolitionist figures. In response to efforts to suppress their speech and presses, Garrison and Lundy began to raise questions about what free speech and free press meant and brought public attention to issues of free expression. They also illustrated the power the press had to illuminate these issues.

Counter Speech 2000: A New Look at the Old Remedy for “Bad” Speech • Robert Richards and Clay Calvert, Penn State • The doctrine of counter speech was firmly implanted in First Amendment jurisprudence by Justice Brandeis nearly three-quarters of a century ago. This article revisits this well-worn doctrine. In particular, it analyzes its strengths and weaknesses through the prism of an eclectic collection of five very recent controversies in which counter speech has been employed as an antidote to “bad” speech. The medium and the message in each case is different, stretching from messages of tolerance on billboards to counteract the effects of hate speech to videos available on the World Wide Web to ward off the effects of an allegedly negative television program.

Reno v. Condon: Regulating State Public Records as Commodities in an Information Marketplace • Joey Senat, Oklahoma State • In upholding the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, the Supreme Court granted Congress the constitutional authority under the Commerce Clause to override state FOI laws in order to restrict disclosure of drivers’ license data. The Court treated states as database owners and public records as commodities in interstate commerce. This paper argues that the Court should have adopted the reasoning of those lower courts that struck down the statute as a federal infringement upon states’ rights.

Defining the Concept of “Harmful to Minors “ in the Age of the Internet • Barbara Smith, Florida • For over 150 years, the United States government has emphasized the importance of protecting children from harm, especially in the area of sexually explicit material. However, society’s definition of pornography and determinants of harm have changed over time. Moreover, the emergence of the Internet has posed a challenge for government regulators. This paper proposes solutions to ensure that the government’s interest in protecting minors from Internet content is carried out in the least restrictive manner.

Freedom of the Private-University Student Press: A Constitutional Proposal • Brian J. Steffen, Simpson College • While the First Amendment protects public-university student journalists from censorship by the state, students at private universities are without constitutional protection from censorship. Courts usually have been unwilling to recognize First Amendment rights on the private campus, partly because most advocates of free-press rights have argued that the Constitution should apply with equal force on public and private campuses. This paper calls for a balancing of the First Amendment interests of the students against the pedagogical and philosophical interests of the private institution.

Tainted Sources, Matters of Public Concern: Applying the Wiretapping Laws to Media Disclosures • Josie Tullos, SUNY-Brockport • The ease of electronic eavesdropping has again raised the troublesome problem of balancing the tension between the First Amendment and personal privacy. That tension seemed overwhelming in two recent cases involving disclosure penalties in wiretapping statutes. The cases left Circuits divided and indicate that closer attention needs to be paid to the privacy concerns underlying the statutes. This paper suggests that a better approach is to look at privacy law as an aspect of community.

Pleading the Fifth: Media Economics, Free Air Time, & the Fifth Amendment • Glenda C. Williams, Alabama • Campaign finance reformers often use the concept of “free air time” as an incentive for voluntary compliance (compelling television stations to provide free advertising time for federal candidates). This paper outlines arguments from both proponents and opponents of free air time, with special emphasis on the two interpretations of “public interest.” Media economic theory is then used to support the argument that free air time would indeed take the property created by broadcasters: their audience.

<< 2000 Abstracts