Archives for January 2012

Graduate Education Interest Group

Leader of the PACK: An Analysis of Music Listeners’ Motivations Using the PACK Taxonomy • John R. Chapin, Rutgers University • The PACK Taxonomy of motives is used through a Uses and Gratifications perspective to test ten related hypotheses concerning adolescents’ motivations for listening to specific forms of popular music. For this pilot study, 63 structured interviews were conducted with students at a rural community college, to assess students’ motivations for listening to specific songs and specific forms of popular music and motivations for their current personal projects. The content of songs identified as favorites is also examined. As expected, adolescents’ personal projects are found to be contingent on age, and themes of favorite songs are found to be contingent on adolescents’ purposes for listening to them. Expected differences in PACK motives between specific popular music forms are not found.

Women and All the News That’s Fit to Print? • Mike Dorsher, University of Maryland • Content analysis is performed on a random sample of 224 New York Times editions, from 1966 to 1994, to see if the increasing number of women in the newsroom correlates with increased coverage of women on Times’ pages. The data show a significant increase (at alpha level of .05) in women’s bylines, pictures and references, but not obituaries, letters to the editor or op-ed pieces. There also is significant evidence that women write about women more than men do, but that men increasingly write about women when more of their newsroom colleagues are women.

Setting the Media Agenda: A Case Study • Kyle Huckins, University of Texas at Austin • Attempting to add to the growing literature on agenda building, the study uses agenda-setting theory as a model for testing the correlation between the agenda of the Christian Coalition and major U.S. newspapers. Highly significant relationships were found in cross-lagged correlations between the agenda of the group’s official newspaper and the media agenda, and statistically significant secondary effects were also noted. Less clear were measures designed to analyze contributing factors helping the Coalition set the media agenda.

From Wise to Foolish: The Changing Portrayal of the Sitcom Father from the 1950s to the 1990s • Erica Scharrer, Syracuse University • This content analysis of 72 episodes of sitcoms categorized by decade in which they were originally aired shows modern television fathers are more likely to be shown foolishly than in the past. The study shows that with the increased presence of women in the American workforce over time, sitcom fathers have gone from knowing best to knowing little. The portrayals are shown to have changed over time and to correlate with these extra media variables.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Civic Journalism Interest Group

The Treatment of Public Journalism in Three Media Review Journals • Renita Coleman, University of Missouri-Columbia • Between 1993 and 1996, the three major journalism reviews published 45 articles of various types that focused on some aspect of public journalism. Analysis provides comparisons among these journals by examining the role each played in the debate, assessing the quality of criticism, and analyzing the evolution of thinking about the subject. This study provides evidence that the quality in evaluations of the debate has matured even while public journalism itself remains highly controversial.

The Language of Public Journalism: An Analysis of the Movement’s Appropriation of the Terms Public, Civic, Deliberative Dialogue, and Consensus • James Engelhardt, University of Oregon • This essay applies Stephen Lukes’ multidimensional conception of power to the public journalism movement. Particularly, it is concerned with how the language and/or vocabulary of public journalism reveals a particular power dynamic – a dynamic both synonymous and discordant with traditional journalistic practice. This article relies on the work of scholars who have confronted the interrelation between language and power such as V.N. Volosinov, Michel Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, Roger Fowler, and Trinh Minh-ha. The new journalistic movement’s use of four terms – public, civic, deliberative dialogue, and consensus – will be addressed, exposing the distinctions between public, civic, and traditional journalism and exemplifying that public journalism consists of more than just good journalism.

Civic Journalism: The Practitioner’s Perspective • Peter Gade, Scott Abel, Michael Antecol, Hsiao-Yin Hsueh, Janice Hume, Jack Morris, Ashley Packard, Susan Willey, Nancy Fraser Wilson and Keith Sanders, University of Missouri • The debate about the practice and theory of civic journalism has grown as more media have experimented in the 1990s with civic journalism projects of varying sizes and goals. Critics and theorists have voiced their thoughts on the movement, but very little is known about what journalists think about civic journalism. This paper attempts to address this issue by asking journalists at two similarly sized newspapers, Mobile (Ala.) Register and the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, to react to a series of statements about the role of the media in society and civic journalism. Of the four types emerging from this Q-Methodology study, Neutral Observers and Civic Journalists factor themselves toward the philosophical poles of libertarianism and social responsibility, with Responsible Liberals and Concerned Traditionalists taking more centrist positions.

Newspapers and Citizen-Based Journalism in the 1996 Elections: a Cross-Market Comparison • Philip Meyer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Deborah Potter, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies • Efforts to do citizen-based journalism and effects of those efforts were compared in 20 markets through content analysis and before-and-after surveys of media practitioners and citizens. Media intent had a strong effect on certain content categories, but content had weak or no effect on citizen attitudes and behavior. However, media intent did predict citizen knowledge and trust in media. The outcome suggests that previous commitments to citizen-based journalism in certain markets left an ongoing effect.

Issues and Agendas: The Case of Wichita, Kansas Revisited • Christina Newby • This study examines the agenda-setting function of local and national media on citizens of Sedgewick County, Kansas. The purpose of this research is to examine the agenda-setting effect with regard to citizens’ concerns and look at the way in which agenda-setting is viewed by individuals who have experience with public journalism. The research replicates a study that expands a traditional agenda-setting research content analysis and introduces a correlation with in-depth interviews.

The 1996 Presidential Campaign, Civic Journalism and Local TV News: Does Doing Civic Journalism Make Any Difference? •Amy Reynolds, University of Texas-Austin • This content analysis compares the local television news coverage of the 1996 presidential election by two stations, one that supports the civic journalism philosophy and one that supports traditional journalism. The civic journalism station successfully eliminated opinion polls/horserace from its coverage and focused on voting efforts and issues, but, while the station clearly showed civic journalism leanings and provided some notable differences in coverage, it still didn’t fully achieve the goals of civic journalism.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Visual Communication Division

The Development of Self Efficacy in Young Women in Relation to the Perception of Attention to Sexuality as Power in Advertising Images • Cecelia Baldwin, San Jose State University • This empirical study examines the hypothesis that attention to sexuality, in advertising, is perceived as self efficacy, or a personal power enabling one to control one’s own life. Semiotic theory provides it’s framework. The subject population consisted of two groups of young women, average high school students and advanced placement high school students. The hypothesis was upheld in independent t-tests. Additionally, ANOVA analysis revealed significant differences that may help young women to refute this perception.

Coverage of Gandhi’s Funeral Brings Competing Philosophies and Camera Technologies into Focus • Claude Cookman, Indiana University • A comparison of the photographic coverage of the funeral of Mohandas Gandhi by Margaret Bourke-White and Henri Cartier-Bresson reveals why and how their different philosophical and technical approaches produced very different results. It also details Cartier-Bresson’s method- for producing a news reportage, and demonstrates that despite his current denial of photojournalism, he was compelled to witness important events and communicate what he photographed to the audiences of mass-circulation, illustrated magazines.

A Time Out of Mind: When the Chicago Tribune Rescued Trapped Suburban Women • Alan Fried, University of South Carolina • A Chicago Tribune self-promotion advertising campaign from the 1950s was analyzed using ethnographic content analysis and proxemic analysis of photographs. The campaign stands out for the way it depicted its audience, its voice, and for its advertising appeals. Although the appeals hearken back to the Social Ethos described by William H. Whyte, Jr. in The Organization Man and David Reisman’s The Lonely Crowd, the ad campaign fits within Media System Dependency Theory.

Readability of Body Text in Computer Mediated Communication: Effects of Type Family, Size and Face • Joel Geske, Iowa State University • This experimental design used 78 subjects to test readability of different type sizes and type faces in both a serif and sans serif type family. The study found there are few significant differences for speed of reading between type sizes of fourteen, twelve and ten point type. Twelve point type had the highest rankings for both speed of reading and recall of material. Bold type did not increase readability and hurt recall in most cases. Little difference was found between serif and sans serif type except in ten point type where speed and recall were poorer with the serif type face.

Cameras in Courtrooms: Dimensions of Attitudes of State Supreme Court Justices • Dennis Hale, Bowling Green State University • This study attempted to extrapolate the future development of state supreme court policies concerning cameras and broadcast equipment in courtrooms by interviewing recently retired members of the courts. Support for cameras in courtrooms was contrasted with judicial support for eight other mass media rights. Courtroom cameras received the weakest support of the media rights. The justices predicted a weakening of the right during the next five years.

Learning News Through the Mind’s Eye: The Impact of Supporting Graphics on Television News • Stefan A. Jenzowsky, Thomas Knieper, Klaus B. Reginek, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universtitat Munchen • The purpose of this paper is to investigate how we process supporting graphical inserts in television news and which learning processes are involved in watching everyday news programs. Data is presented from a laboratory experiment in which two independent variables were manipulated: (a) the graphic visualization of news presentations, and (b) the graphic representation in recognition tasks. Results suggest a high acceptance of supporting graphics and a picture superiority effect for any condition of retrieval, while no encoding specificity effect was found for most conditions.

Political Endorsements In Daily Newspapers and Photographic Coverage of Candidates in the 1995 Louisiana Gubernatorial Campaign • John Mark King, Louisiana State University • Daily newspaper endorsements in the 1995 Louisiana gubernatorial campaign and photographs of candidates were examined. Independent variables were endorsement in the primary election and the runoff election. Dependent variables were photo size, color/black and white, fold location, placement and depiction of the candidate. Results from 10 hypotheses showed that endorsed candidates were more likely to have photos published on front pages and more likely to have favorable photos published than candidates not endorsed by newspapers.

The Flapper in the Art of John Held, Jr.: Modernity, Post-Feminism, and the Meaning of Women’s Bodies in 1920s Magazine Cover Illustration • Carolyn L. Kitch, Temple University • In the 1920s, the flapper • a symbol, then and now, of the Jazz Age • was closely associated with the magazine illustration of John Held, Jr. An examination of this imagery considers women’s representation as a primary site for the intersection of early-twentieth-century feminism, modernism, and consumerism. It suggests that, during a pivotal decade in both women’s history and mass-media history, the progressive cultural construct of the New Woman became commodified and contained in the flapper.

Motivating Incentives, Self-Efficacy and Their Consequences for Web Authoring • Ghee-Young Noh, Michigan State University • This study was undertaken to identify relationship between determinants derived from social cognitive theory and Web authoring. Web authoring behavior was considerably explained by motivating incentives, self-efficacy, programming competence, and accessibility. However, motivating incentives and the perceived self-efficacy were more important factors than accessibility and computer programming to predict the degree of Web authoring. This study suggests that social cognitive theory could provide additional explanatory power for the mechanism of implementation of Web authoring.

Teaching the Use of Color: A Survey of Visual Communication Division Members • Lyle D. Olson, Roxanne Lucchesi, South Dakota State University • This paper presents the results of a survey to determine the extent to which journalism and mass communication educators are teaching the use of color and how they are doing it. It includes lists of the most used and top ranked resources for teaching the use of color. The respondents also indicated that students in their programs do not receive enough training in the use of color and that computer hardware and software resources at their schools to teach color are lacking.

Staged, Faked and Mostly Naked: Photographic Innovation at the Evening Graphic (1924-1932) • Bob Stepno, University of North Carolina • The New York Evening Graphic is remembered for its sensational fake composite photos, not for its other photo-illustration innovations. This paper describes a variety of techniques the Graphic used, including composographs and studio re-enactment of news events, and the media reaction at the time, particularly through Editor and Publisher. The paper finds there was little debate of the ethics of altering images, but the technique became linked to controversies over particular sex stories and images.

Moles and Clowns: How Editorial Cartoons Portrayed Aldrich Ames, Harold Nicholson and the CIA • John W. Williams, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale • No Abstract available.

Visual Communication • CREATIVE PROJECTS

Protest 96: Revolution in Cyberspace, a Paradigm Shift in Global Communication • Rita Csapo-Sweet, University of Missouri-St. Louis • This presentation documents an interactive exhibition in St. Louis that monitored and participated with the massive pro-democracy protest demonstrations that took place in Belgrade, Serbia, from mid-December 1996 to mid-February 1997. When the Milosevic government tried to silence the election results that the independent media were broadcasting, university students in Belgrade created a website and began disseminating their messages over the Internet. Suddenly their struggle became global and communication history was made.

If the Genie is Out of the Bottle: How Do We Teach the Ethical Decision-Making of Digital Imaging Manipulation in the Post-OJ Era of Photojournalism (Without Sounding Like a Luddite?) • Jock Lauterer, Penn State University • When photojournalists or picture editors use digital imaging manipulation to fundamentally alter the content of photos for whatever reason, they strike a death blow at the heart of what makes authentic photojournalism so valuable. This slide lecture is designed to introduce visual communications students to the historical abuses of photography, to alert them to the seductive and yet wonderful powers of the digital age, and to provide them with a journalist’s moral compass.

Structuring Text for On-line Delivery, or Life Beyond Repurposing • Stephen Masiclat, Syracuse University • The rush to publish online newspapers has made the World Wide Web the premiere venue for online journalism. But the vast majority of online newspapers are simply print articles re-purposed for the web. Articles constructed for printed pages are placed in an environment with new capabilities and severe limitations. This presentation is a demonstration of a different way to present information that is mindful of the online environment’s characteristics and its users.

Gone West: The American West in the ‘90s, a Photographic Essay by Alan Berner • David Rees, University of Missouri • ‘Gone West’ is a CD-ROM presentation of a photo essay by Alan Berner. It includes comments by the photographer about his own work and visual reference to Arthur Rothstein’s pictures which inspired Berner. This is a prototype of new technology applied to journalistic presentation and has educational benefits for students because they can view a complete body of work and hear the photographer’s own perspective about that work in a classroom or individual setting.

Creativity Workbook and Self-Promotion Web Site for Advertising Art Direction • Jean Trumbo, Cornell University • A creativity resource workbook was developed for students enrolled in an Advertising Art Direction course. The workbook includes idea generation exercises designed by the instructor to prompt innovation in the creation of student portfolios. The final objective of the course was to develop a professional quality portfolio and to augment that through a self-promotional web site. Work from each student was included on the web site. The materials in this workbook include creativity exercises and page templates that were used to build the student portfolio web site.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Scholastic Journalism Division

Disability Legislation as Hands-On News Writing Tool • Beth Haller, Towson University • Using material related to the Americans with Disabilities Act in news writing assignments teaches journalism students a number of crucial points: how and why federal legislation is implemented, how institutions do or do not comply, what attitudes about disability are and how they affect the law, and how to localize a national story to their own campus. This paper is a case study to illustrate the use the ADA as a writing assignment in the journalism classroom and how it provides a multi-level learning experience for students. Disability-related legislation provides a unique opportunity for understanding the implementation of a new form of civil rights in the United States, and students can assess whether changes are taking place in society.

Today’s Youth Sections: Crossing the Boundary of Language and Taste? • Mary Arnold Hemlinger, Newspaper Association of America Foundation • As newspapers rush to cope with declining readership, some appeal to the youth market and create teen sections. Many are partially written by teenagers. Critics say these sections are dumbed down in language and content. Journalism educators can take a leadership role in establishing guidelines in both areas. A January 1997 mail survey provides a profile of sections with teenage staffers. This is a first step for developing teaching materials for youth editors and teenaged staffers.

The Great Divide: High School Newspapers and Advisers in Chicago and the Metropolitan Area • Linda Jones, Roosevelt University • This paper draws on a telephone survey of Chicago high school newspaper advisers and a mail survey of high school newspapers in Chicago suburbs to compare adviser experience, newspaper and Journalism program profiles, media support for papers, limits to student expression and paper’s relative viability Distinct differences emerge between the city and suburbs

Captive Voices and Death by Cheeseburger on the Bayou: Assessing First Amendment Knowledge of Leading High School Journalism Students in Southern Louisiana • Joseph A. Mirando, Southeastern Louisiana University • Over the past quarter century, a series of commissions has consistently recommended that the nation’s secondary schools must devote more attention to First Amendment issues and to the overall improvement of scholastic journalism. The purpose of this paper was to investigate this recommendation by observing a knowledge assessment test given to a group of outstanding high school journalism students from Southern Louisiana. The students’ scores revealed a clear need for better First Amendment education.

Implementation and Effects of the Arkansas Student Publications Act • Bruce L. Plopper, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, William D. Downs, Jr., Ouachita Baptist University • A survey of Arkansas journalism advisers indicated some adviser ignorance about the Arkansas Student Publications Act and its requirements, as well as violations of the law by school officials. Results also showed the law had increased the number of existing written student publications policies; that 40% of the policies analyzed gave control of student publications to students, advisers, or a mix of students, advisers, and principals; and that most policies didn’t specify reasonable distribution guidelines.

Choosing a Media Career: Factors Influencing the College Student’s Decision-Making Process • Carolyn H. Ringer, Julie E. Dodd, University of Florida • The major motivations for career selection varied among the majors, based on a survey of students in a university introductory media writing course. Journalism majors selected opportunity to write as the top reason for their major. Advertising and public relations majors selected excitement of job as the top reason for the selection of major and rated opportunity to write as the least desirable aspect of media work. Factors affecting students’ perceptions of majors and careers included high school journalism experience and parents’ influence.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Radio-TV Journalism Division

Getting the Story Home: Reporting World War II for the Local Audience • Chris W. Allen, University of Nebraska at Omaha • Three distinctive reporting styles can be found in examining the stories that WHO Radio correspondent Jack Shelley wrote from the European Theater during the Battle of Bulge of World War II. The first is the extensive use of names of soldiers from the Middle West, communicating messages to families at home and telling a little about the soldiers’ experiences. The second style takes a longer view of the war, especially as the Western Front is disrupted by the German Advance. The third reporting style is commentary. The paper also takes a look at the audience’s reaction to the reports, and, as far as possible, the military’s view of such reporting.

Laws and Ethics Behind the Hidden and Intrusive Camera • Geri Alumit, Michigan • Network news stations and newsmagazines use the hidden and intrusive camera to uncover mayhem not able to be uncovered without the use of these clandestine techniques. The courts have heard lawsuits against the media that claim these techniques intrude on or invade privacy. Two lawsuits brought against television newsmagazines, one involving the hidden camera, the other the intrusive, will explore the rights of the media and the rights of the individuals captured on tape. This paper will also examine and suggest guidelines for the use of these stealthy techniques to gather the news.

Local Television and Radio News Congruence: Ownership Effects vs. Medium Effects • Douglas A. Barthlow, Suyong Choi, and Andrea Thomas, Georgia State • No Abstract available.

The Priming of the People: Television’s Influence on Public Perceptions of Presidential Candidates • Kim Bissell, Syracuse University • Since the 1960s, campaigning for President has taken on a new identity. The way Presidential candidates are presented on television has a lot to do with how the public subsequently formulates perceptions and opinions about that candidate. A telephone survey was conducted to asses public opinion about the influence of television. The results from this survey indicate there is a strong relationship between watching television news and being more candidate-centered than issue-oriented.

The Effect of Redundant Actualities on Recall of Radio News • Larry G. Burkum, University of Evansville • Research indicates broadcast news is quickly forgotten, suggesting presentation techniques might affect information recall. A mixed model 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design tested the effects of redundant auditory information, actualities, and a distracting secondary task on radio news recall and story appeal. The results indicate redundant auditory information improves recall but not news story appeal, actualities have no effect on recall or news story appeal, and a distracting secondary task decreases recall, and news story appeal.

Still Knowing Their Place: African Americans in Southeast TV Newscasts • Kenneth Campbell, Sonya Forte Duhe, Ernest Wiggins, South Carolina • The 1968 Kerner Commission report chastised the news media for inaccurate and misleading portrayals of African Americans, saying the media reported on them as if they were not a part of the viewing audience. The present study examines the portrayal of African Americans in Southern TV newscasts to assess to what degree progress has been made. The study concludes that while the Southern newscasts no longer ignore African Americans, there is an over-representation of blacks as criminal and whites as law enforcement officers, which perpetuates one of the most negative images of African Americans Ñ as criminals.

The Effects of Lead Story Positioning in Television Newscasts on Perception of Importance, Interest and Recall • Michael E. Cremedas, Dona Hayes, Syracuse University • This experiment focused on ways in which the placement of a story in the first (lead) position of a television newscast influenced three dependent variables: perception of story importance, level of interest in the story and ability to recall details of the story. Lead position accounted for significantly higher scores in all three of the dependent measures. The data demonstrate an agenda-setting effect for «spot» news stories. Furthermore, the findings suggest that TV news producers have primed viewers to readily accept the lead story as the most significant news of the day regardless of inherent news value.

Seven Dirty Words: Did They Help Define Indecency? • Jeff Demas, Ohio • This study explores the salience of FCC v. Pacifica Foundation et. al., also known as the «seven dirty words» case. The study attempts to answer the questions (1) Why was this case reviewed by the Supreme Court and (2) Did the decision really help define indecency? Interviews with the chief legal counsels of both parties, and research into publications of the time lend new insight to the breadth of the decision. The study also looks at the agenda of parties involved in taking this case to the Supreme Court.

Television Newsroom Training for the 21st Century • Sandra L. Ellis, Tennessee, Ann S. Jabro, Pennsylvania • This study attempts to clarify the status of continuing education in television newsrooms across the United States. A national survey of television news directors examined the ability of their employees to develop stories, the types of training available and areas of training in which news directors have interest The results suggest that television stations have relied too heavily on higher education to provide all the knowledge and skills TV journalists need to function in the profession.

Television News and Memory Distortion: Confidence in False Memories for Television News Stories • Julia R. Fox, Northern Illinois University • While recognition memory judgments about information presented in television news stories were more accurate than inaccurate, there was substantial evidence of memory distortions, and confidence in those false memories was quite high. Results are discussed in terms of memories as reconstructive decisions, based in part on judgments about how likely a memory is, and how willing people are to say they recognize information. Possible influences of distorted television news memories on personal and social decisions are also considered.

Hype Versus Substance in Campaign Coverage: Are the Television Networks Cleaning Up Their Act? • Julia R. Fox, Chris Goble, Northern Illinois University • A content analysis of the television networks’ weekday nightly newscasts during the final two weeks of the presidential election campaigns in 1988 and 1996 found a significant decrease in the amount of horse race coverage and a significant increase in the amount of issue coverage per campaign story from 1988 to 1996. However, there was less total campaign coverage during the final two weeks of the presidential election campaign in 1996 than in 1988.

The News of Your Choice Experiment in the Twin Cities: What Kind of Choice Did Viewers Get? • Kathleen A. Hansen, University of Minnesota, Joan Conners, Regis University • News of Your Choice was a collaboration between CBS-owned WCCO-TV/4 and KLGT-TV/23, a then-independent UHF station. This paper examines the «News of Your Choice» experiment and asks what the Channel 23 newscast added to the local television news market, and how Channel 4 designed its newscasts to take advantage of the innovation of «choice» and «interactivity». The study uses a content analysis of news broadcasts and an interview with WCCO’s then-general manager, and reports on content, story treatment, source use and overall newscast characteristics. The study finds that the extra time provided by the Channel 23 newscast was primarily filled with material from network SNG sources and human interest stories from outside the local geographic area.

Is it Really News? An Analysis of Video News Releases • Anthony Hunt, St. Cloud State University • Two pilot studies critically analyzed use of Video News Releases within television news in the Twin Cities market. While news bureaus denied using VNRs, the analysis of one week of news showed otherwise. It was very difficult to determine absolute use of VNRs, as open acknowledgment might affect station credibility. The author demonstrates the need for correct source recognition to encourage proper operation within the democratic process.

The Effects of Audience’s gender-based Expectations about Newscasters On News Viewing Satisfaction in A Collective Culture: South Korea • U-Ryong Kim, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, In-Suk Chung, Chungnam Sanup University, Hongsung-Up, Hongsung-Gun, Chungnam, Korea, Cheong-Yi Park, Michigan State University • This study focused on the effects of audienceÕs gender-based expectations about newscasters on news viewing satisfaction. It was theoretically supported by the integrated framework of the gratification and expectancy-value model, and the literature of collective culture; empirically tested by a nationwide survey in South Korea. This study concluded that, in relation to news viewing satisfaction, audiences expected that female newscasters would be both journalists and entertainers whereas they believed that male newscaster would be journalists rather than entertainers.

Political Candidate Sound Bites vs. Video Bites in Network TV News: Is How They Look More Important Than What They Say? • Dennis T. Lowry, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • Stimulate materials for this study came from network TV newscasts of Campaign Ô92. Forty different bites from Bush, Quayle, Clinton, and Gore were presented in three different forms: audio only (no video), video only (no audio), and normal audio-video. The design was a totally randomized, totally counter-balanced, repeated measures design. After each bite, subjects filled out Ohanian’s 15-item celebrity endorsers instrument to measure perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Results indicated that «the eyes had it» Ñ i.e., how candidates looked was indeed more important than what they said.

Television Web Site Interactivity • Television Station Web Sites: Interactivity in News Stories • Ray Niekamp, Pennsylvania State University • A sample of 108 television stations were surveyed to learn the effect of interactive elements within news stories on television stations’ World Wide Web sites. Regression analysis was used to determine what interactive elements best predicted the amount of use of a site. Hot links within news stories which lead the news consumer to related information were the only interactive element having a significant effect on Web site use.

How Objective Were the Broadcast Networks and CNN During the Persian Gulf Crisis? • Robert A. Pyle, Winthrop University • During the Persian Gulf War media critics questioned the objectivity of some television journalists. Objectivity is a canon of journalistic practice, a view that the journalist should be an impartial observer of news events. The crisis in the Persian Gulf provided an ideal opportunity to observe simultaneous news coverage by ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN in gauging how fair and impartial the networks were in their coverage of the War. For the first time all four networks competed directly in their coverage on a round-the-clock basis. A content analysis analyzing anchor, reporter and analyst language reveal, for the most part, that all four networks presented war news in a fair and objective fashion.

Broadcasting World Wide Web Sites: Public Service or Self Service? • James W. Redmond, University of Memphis • Despite optimistic views of the promise of the Internet an overwhelming majority of broadcasters use the technology primarily for self-promotion. Nearly 1,500 radio and television World Wide Web sites were examined in this content analysis. A small percentage of stations were providing significant market area news or public information at the time of field data collection in June 1996. The results of this study indicate broadcasters consider the Internet, fundamentally, to be a promotional tool.

New Managers and Local TV New: A Case Study • Jim Upshaw, University of Oregon • New leaders usually take over TV news operations to increase viewership, but with what near-term effects on newscasts? Do new managers quickly reach goals matching their personal news priorities? A case study of one leadership team’s first year found increased emphasis on what people are talking about, greater anchor prominence, more features, continuing substantive news, and audience growth. Further research into new-manager values and strategies, organizational inertia and content change is proposed.

<< 1997 Abstracts