Archives for January 2012

Radio-TV Journalism Division

Hype Versus Substance in the Final Weeks of the Broadcast Television Networks’ 2000 Presidential Election Campaign Coverage • Julia Fox and James Angelini, Indiana University • An analysis of the broadcast television networks’ coverage of the final two weeks of the 2000 presidential election campaign found significantly more hype than substance in both the audio and video messages of presidential election campaign stories. Furthermore, even when audio messages contained substantive coverage, accompanying visuals often emphasized hype rather than substance. The importance of these results is discussed in the context of recent research findings about how viewers process audio and video messages.

Identifying Juvenile Crime Suspects: A Survey of Ohio Television Stations and Newspapers • Gary Hanson, Kent State University • Journalists traditionally have not reported the names of juveniles who are accused of committing crimes. Since the mid-1980s, this paternalistic approach has been challenged by the changes in the frequency and seriousness of juvenile crimes. As a result, news directors and editors in Ohio have begun to rethink their policies regarding the identification of juvenile suspects. This survey compares the way in which television stations and newspapers approach the issue.

Gatekeeping International News: An Attitudinal Profile of U.S. Television Journalists • Hun Shik Kim, University of Missouri-Columbia • This study explores the attitudes of U.S. television journalists toward international news and examines their selection criteria. Q factor analysis of 31 journalists from major national networks and local TV stations yielded three factors: Pragmatic Idealists, Global Diplomats, and Bottom-line Realists. The network journalists support a global view, selecting international news with diverse themes while the local journalists take a more pragmatic stance due to business pressures and audience demands, choosing international news with a local angle. All the journalists give priority to international news with U.S. involvement and are strongly opposed to governmental and advertiser influences.

Change Frames on CSPAN Call-in Shows: The framing of citizen comments • David D. Kurpius, Louisiana State University and Andrew Mendelson, Temple University • A content analysis of C-SPAN call-in shows was conducted to examine how citizen-callers frame the political ideas they present The main issue of concern was do people rely on the same frames the mainstream news media rely on, focusing on image, strategies and conflict or do they rely on an issue frame? A secondary issue was how the guests and hosts of these calI4n shows react to the different frames. Results show that callers were more likely to rely on issue frames in discussing political issues, though there was no difference in length of time spent by the callers on the different frames. The hosts/guests responded for a much longer time when callers used a conflict frame. However, when we examined the format of the response by the host and guest, we saw that they were much more likely to ask a question or elaborating on something said when a caller used an issue frame.

The Credibility of Women Sportscasters • Michael A. Mitrook and Noelle Haner Dorr, University of Central Florida • This work used an experimental design to explore the impact of a radio sports broadcaster’s gender on their perceived credibility by listeners. Results indicate that female sportscasters are not perceived to be as credible as their male counterparts. Furthermore, the results also exhibited a tendency for both male and female respondents to rate the male broadcaster higher than the female, but the male respondents provided much lower ratings for the female broadcaster than the female respondents.

Network Television Coverage of the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Boycotts: A Content Analysis of the Evening News on ABC, CBS and NBC • Anthony Moretti, Ohio University • The United States and the Soviet Union led boycotts tarnishing the 1980 and 1984 summer Olympics. This study examined how the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news programs covered the boycotts. The press nationalism model holds that media follow the “official” government line in reporting international affairs. Based on abstracts from the Vanderbilt University television archives, this content analysis found evidence to support the hypothesis that press nationalism influenced coverage of the boycotts.

Commercial Quality Influence on Perceptions of Television News • Stephen Perry, Dana Trunnell, Chris Morse, and Cori Ellis, Illinois State University • The impact of high and low-quality commercials upon high and low quality television newscasts were examined using Elaboration Likelihood Model and contrast effects research. This study showed some support for contrast effects. Results also suggest an interaction between news quality and the presence of commercials within newscasts in producing an emotional response. Additionally, we found that when commercials were present within the news program, participants were able to recall fewer of the news stories.

Non-Users of Internet News: Who are They and Why Do They Avoid TV News and Newspaper Web Sites? • Paula Poindexter and Don Heider, University of Texas-Austin • Who are non-users of Internet news and why do they avoid online news that is produced by TV, cable, newspapers, newsmagazines, and radio? To answer this question, randomly selected adults with Internet access in a southwestern metropolitan area were asked why they did not read news on the Internet. Survey respondents who ignored news online represented 42 percent of all Internet users. Both an age gap and a gender gap distinguished non-users and users of news on the Internet. Non-users of Internet news were significantly more likely to be younger and older. Non-Internet news users were also significantly more likely to be female than male. The primary reason for avoiding news on the Internet is lack of interest. Slightly more than one-quarter of non-users of Internet news said they ignored online news because they weren’t interested. Almost one-fifth indicated that they didn’t read news online because they had already read newspapers and 18 percent said they avoided online news because they didn’t have time. Seven percent said online news was too time consuming and four percent indicated that they avoided online news because they preferred TV news. The age distinction and reasons for avoiding news on the Internet are similar to what is known about nonviewers of network and local TV news and nonreaders of newspapers.

To Be On TV or To Be a TV Journalist: Students’ and Professionals’ Perceptions of the Role of Journalism in Society • Ron F. Smith and George Bagley, University of Central Florida • The Jane Pauley Task Force found that news professionals were dissatisfied with the ethical and journalistic attitudes of new graduates. This study compares news directors’ perceptions with those of broadcast majors and finds several significant differences between them. The higher percentage of students placed great importance in providing entertainment. Professionals are more likely to see their role as investigating government claims. Also, students and professionals differed on half the ethical issues presented to them.

A Content Analysis of TV News Magazines: Commodification, Conglomeration, and Public Interest • Kuo-Feng Tseng, Michigan State University • This study conducts a content analysis of television news magazines to find out the impacts of media commodification and conglomeration on public interest. It finds that news story topics and presentation styles become more tabloidism than prior researches did, especially for 48 Hours, 20/20 and Dateline. Crime stories and sexy images were the popular strategies to attract audiences. News story topics have associated relationship with advertising and news sources. News magazines prefer to stories and sources from their conglomerate or partnership.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Public Relations Division

Gender Discrepancies in a Gendered Profession: A Developing Theory for Public Relations • Linda Aldoory, University of Maryland and Elizabeth Toth, Syracuse University • This paper illustrates through literature and original research a beginning theory that explains the enduring gender discrepancies in what has become a gendered field, that of public relations. A survey of public relations practitioners reveals statistically significant gender differences in hiring perceptions, salary and salary perceptions, and promotions. These data support several previous studies that have shown over time gender discrepancies in hiring, salaries and promotions. Using theory drawn from other fields as well as original data from a series of focus groups, authors construct concepts and theoretical propositions to help explain why there are still gender differences in a field that is predominantly women.

Student Preferences for University Recruiting Brochure Designs • Ann Befort, and Roger C. Saathoff, Texas Tech University • Researchers tested five aspects of college viewbook design- percentage of text per page, number of pictures per page, color versus black and white photographs, campus scenes versus pictures of people, and page orientation. Respondents were high school students. Results showed students’ interest in a college was significantly greater in regard to two of the elements analyzed- multiple pictures on the viewbook page rather than just one, and pictures of people rather than photos of buildings.

CO-ACCULTURATION IN A KOREAN MANUFACTURING PLANT IN MEXICO • Glen M. Broom and Suman Lee, San Diego State University, and Woo-Hyun Won, Korea University • This paper addresses intercultural manager-worker communication relationships in a large Korean manufacturing plant in Mexico. The research questions include: 1. How do managers and workers with different cultural backgrounds perceive each other’s cultural attitudes, values and behaviors? 2. To what extent do managers and workers recognize each other’s cultural values? 3. How do manager-worker relationships adjust over time to cultural differences? The researchers explicate a theoretical process of “co-acculturation” and employ a coorientational measurement model.

Company Affiliation and Communicative Ability: How Perceived Organizational Ties Influence Source Persuasiveness in a Company-Negative News Environment • Coy Callison, Texas Tech University and Dolf Zillmann, University of Alabama • The influence of attributing corrective information to different spokespersons in the wake of company-negative accusations was investigated experimentally. In particular, the research pitted a company’s own public relations sources against sources working for a firm hired by the maligned organization and sources employed by agencies investigating negative claims independently. Results suggest that PR sources are less credible than outside sources. Over time, however, PR sources are judged as equally credible as hired and independent sources.

How Prepared Are Companies in Singapore and Hong Kong for Crises? – A Comparative Study • Shiyan Dai and Wei Wu, National University of Singapore • Based on personal interviews with over 400 business executives in Singapore and Hong Kong in two surveys, this paper aims to compare and contrast the two regions in terms of crisis management (CM) planning among the companies. We intend to find out: What is the current situation of CM planning? Are there any common and consistent “Asian” attitudes toward crises and CM there? And what are the major factors influencing the CM planning there?

The Effect of the World Wide Web on Relationship Building • Samsup Jo, University of Florida, Yungwook Kim, Ewha Womans University and Jaemin Jung, University of Florida • The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Web characteristics and perceptions toward relational components. A 2 (low interactivity and high interactivity) x 2 (text-oriented and multimedia-oriented) experiment was designed with 197 participants to test this purpose. The outcomes showed that interactivity has significant effects on relationship building. However, the interaction effects between interactivity and medium composition suggest that nonessential arrangement of interactivity and multimedia did not enhance positive perceptions of relationships with the organizations. Interactivity showed the main effect, however multimedia orientation did not. The application of interactivity on the Web was discussed for better relationship building.

If We Build It, Will They Come?: Testing the Theory of Planned Behavior as a Predictive Model For Use in Determining How Career Counseling Centers Can Better Promote Their Facilities and Services • Carolyn Ringer Lepre, California State University-Chico • Many students resist planning for the futures, and university career counseling centers sit underutilized across the country. It is proposed that it is in part up to educators, career counselors and the public relations practitioners who work for university career counseling centers to convince and encourage students to seek career counseling help when they need it. The question is, however, how can this most effectively be done? This study tested the usefulness of the Theory of Planned Behavior as a predictive model clarifying what factors impact a student’s decision to seek career counseling.

Intangible Outcomes of Corporate Strategic Philanthropy: A Public Relations Perspective • Joon-Soo Lim, University of Florida • Corporate philanthropy contributes to the long-term bottom4ine by building an intangible but valuable asset – reputation. This study tested the linkage between Fortune reputation index and the firms’ philanthropy. Results showed that a firm’s contributions were positively associated with CSR attribute. Findings here imply that the relationship between corporate philanthropy and its outcomes may be better understood by considering the firms’ social investment as obtaining good reputation by building desirable relationships with key publics.

Classifications of Corporate Web Pages by Relationship Contents and Functions • Joon-Soo Lim, University of Florida and Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Missouri-Columbia • Building better relationships with key publics could help firms develop intangible and valuable assets. This study examined the Fortune 100 companies’ web pages according to the different contents and functions that are devised to build public relationships. Results show that how each relationship function is associated with diverse relationship contents. This study will give a managerial implication on how the corporate Web pages can be devised to build a relationship with various publics.

Media Coverage of Risk Events: A Framing Comparison of Two Fatal Manufacturing Accidents • Michael J. Palenchar, University of Florida • This study extends analysis of the meaning contained in risk discourse as part of a community infrastructural approach to risk communication studies. The author deconstructed media narratives through a systematic, longitudinal content analysis of a major metropolitan newspaper’s coverage (n=92) of two manufacturing crises. Some findings include: increased use of risk bearers and a decreased use in risk generators as sources, increased focus on risk generators, and increased use of medical and legal sources. The implication of such analysis is that wise public relations personnel should understand how journalists use sources and narrative elements to frame risk coverage.

Framing Effects of Genetically Engineered Food Labels On the Public’s Attitudes toward enetically Engineered Foods: Implications to Public Relations Campaigns • Hyun Soon Park and Sunyoung Lee, Michigan State University • Since 1999, the debate over genetically engineered foods has exploded and become a worldwide public relations disaster for the biotechnology industry. One of the hot issues surrounding genetically engineered foods is a concern about mandatory food labeling. Either mandatory or voluntary labeling, whichever is to be required in the near future, has raised imminent and critical questions to public relations practitioners, risk communicators, policy makers, and marketing planners. This study aims to investigate framing effects of genetically engineered food labeling on the public’s perceptions of and attitudes toward genetically engineered food products. According to the results of this study, participants perceived differently four types of food labels (e.g., bioengineering, genetic engineering, biotechnology, and genetic modification). The framing effects of four types of labels indicated that participants exposed to “bioengineering” or “genetic engineering” labels showed higher perceived benefits, lower perceived risks, more positive attitudes, and higher purchase intentions than those who are exposed to “biotechnology” and “genetic modification” labels. As we can see in these results, framing of food labels plays a crucial role in shaping consumers’ perceptions of and attitudes toward genetically engineered food products. This gives an important practical implication to public relations practitioners, risk communicators, public policy makers, and marketing planners as well.

Hong Bo and PR in the Korean Newspapers • Jongmin Park, Pusan National University • This study analyzed the meaning of Hong Bo and PR as the terms appeared in three main Korean newspapers, on the basis of Spicer’s seven themes. A total of 1548 mentions of the term Hong Bo and PR were analyzed as follows: First, Korean newspapers, like newspapers in the United States, tend to view Hong Bo and PR as publicity or merely PR. Thus, overall Korean newspaper reporters have a negative attitude toward the meanings of Hong Bo and PR and the reporters’ viewpoint was supported by this study. Second, the uses of PR and Hong Bo were categorized as challenge, distraction, disaster, hype and merely PR. While Hong Bo was categorized more of terms as challenge, distraction and disaster than PR was, PR was categorized more of terms as hype and merely PR than Hong Bo was. This also indicates that while the meanings of Hong Bo were more negative or positive than those of PR, the meanings of PR have been used as more neutral than those of Hong Bo. The study suggests that Korean public relations practitioners and relatives have to try to lead the public to a positive attitude toward the term Hong Bo, which has been used more frequently than the term PR.

Investigating Corporate Social Responsibility: A Content Analysis of Top Chinese Corporate Web Pages • Shu Peng, University of Louisiana-Lafayette • The study investigated the current status of Web usage by large Chinese firms, especially the way they use their Web pages to support corporate social responsibility. The most frequently addressed social responsibility’ areas were environment protection, education, quality of work life, and community involvement. Market value was related to corporate social responsibility areas for non-manufacturing firms. Manufacturing firms had more corporate social responsibility areas on their Web pages.

From Aardvark to Zebra: A New Millennium Analysis of Theory Development in Public Relations Academic Journals • Lynne M. Sallot, University of Georgia, Lisa J. Lyon, Kennesaw State University, Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, University of Georgia and Karyn Ogata Jones, University of Georgia • In a replication and extension of a 1984 study by Ferguson to investigate the status of theory building by public relations scholars, 747 abstracts and/or articles published in Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research and its predecessor Public Relations Research Annual, since their inceptions through the year 2000, were subjected to content analysis. Nearly 20 percent of articles analyzed were found to have contributed to theory development in public relations compared to only 4 percent in Ferguson’s study. Theory was most prevalent in articles about excellence/symmetry, public relationships, ethics and social responsibility, crisis response, critical-cultural, Feminism/diversity and international topics. These and interdisciplinary influences are expected to continue to contribute to ever more theory building in public relations.

INSTITUTIONAL ADVERTISING AS CONTEMPORARY PUBLIC RELATIONS: PHILIP MORRIS, A CASE STUDY IN RHETORICAL FRAMING • Valerie Terry, Oklahoma State University • This paper explores how institutional advertising functions as a public relations tool. More specifically, the analysis explores how rhetorical framing of mass mediated messages can counter the indirect informational subsidy typically open to PR pros when that approach has been closed to practitioners because of a particularly hostile media environment and negative public opinion. Philip Morris’s institutional ads, aired in the wake of the 1998 tobacco settlement agreement, form the basis for this case analysis.

Public Relations Excellence in Alliances and Coalitions: An International Perspective • Mark A. Van Dyke, University of Maryland • This exploratory paper examines how excellence theory applies to public relations practices in international alliances and coalitions. Data from interviews with 6 alliance and coalition public relations practitioners were categorized and compared to 17 characteristics of excellence theory. Results revealed a close association with excellence theory. The study also suggested that a mixed-motive, mixed-worldview approach to public relations employed by these organizations might have important implications for a theory of global public relations.

Public Relations Worldview and Conflict Levels in the Client-Agency Relationship • Youngmin Yoon, Syracuse University • This study examines to what extent different worldviews of public relations are related to the agency-client relationship. A survey was conducted of eight public relations agencies and their clients in Korea, obtaining worldview measures and tension levels of 15 agency-client pairs. The findings show that overall, as the gap between the agency and client’s public relations worldviews widens, more conflict occurs between them. The findings also demonstrate that a considerable gap exists between the agencies and clients in Korea in terms of their worldviews of public relations and that agencies have more symmetrical worldviews than do clients.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Newspaper Division

Who Brought US These Grapes of Wrath? New York Times and Washington Post Coverage of the 1996 Israeli-Hezbollah Conflict • Abhinav Aima, Ohio University • This study examined the coverage of the 1996 Israeli attack on the Hezbollah in Lebanon. A content analysis of 92 news stories collected from the Lexis-Nexis databank for the month of April 1996 yielded 1090 sources. An examination of the sources and their comments lent support to the propaganda model theory: Both newspapers over-represented the sources that were favorable to the foreign policy of the U.S., or largely kept their opinions within the confines of the foreign policy debate.

Convenient Excuses? Jobs, Classes, And Misconceptions Limit JMC Students’ Involvement In Major • Betsy Alderman, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and Fred Fedler, University of Central Florida • College students say they have literally run out of time. Ninety-two percent are enrolled full-time, and 79.3 percent work at least part-time. Although their intentions are good, 81.5 percent have not completed an internship and 78.4 percent have not worked for any campus media. Moreover, many students are mistaken about employers’ priorities. When given a list of 13 possible priorities, students ranked good writing skills fourth, internships seventh, and work for campus media twelfth.

Creating new value for copy editing instruction in the curriculum and the university • Ann E. Auman, University of Hawaii, Frank E. Fee Jr, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and John T. Russial, University of Oregon • Traditionally, copy editors have taken a back seat to reporters in newsrooms, and journalism schools have reflected this. This study, a survey of 69 editing instructors on the value of copy editing in journalism curricula, shows that copy editing does not have equal status with reporting/news writing classes but that it is valued. Instructors should emphasize that editing is the “glue”; it teaches the big picture view and critical thinking skills, which are valued throughout the university.

Exploring the Market Relationship Between Online and Print Newspapers • Hsiang Iris Chyi, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Dominic L. Lasorsa, University of Texas at Austin • A random-sample telephone survey was conducted in a typical one-newspaper city to investigate the public’s response to local, regional, and national newspapers’ print and online editions. Results identified a substantial overlap of online and print readerships for the local daily —suggesting the potential of a complementary product relationship. Cannibalization — the negative impact of launching a free Web edition on print circulation—was insignificant because print readership was strongest among readers of that same newspaper’s online edition. The print format was preferred—even among Web users—when compared with the online edition on an “other things being equal” basis.

Social Construction of Depression in Newspaper Frames • Cindy Coleman-Sillars, Portland State University and Jessica A. Corbitt • The authors examine factors that are brought to bear on the social construction of depression in newspaper coverage. In a 14-month period, the authors explore news frames that reveal stigma, and examine how solution, disease and war frames shape coverage. They conclude that, while coverage is not overtly biased, the structure of coverage, news routines and influences of exogenous variables, combined with use of specific metaphors, help shape depression in an unfavorable light.

Mapping the Public Journalism Continuum: Do Newspaper Educators and Editors Agree on the Outcomes and Goals of Public Journalism? • Tom Dickson, Wanda Brandon and Elizabeth Topping, Southwest Missouri State University • Following suggestions of previous research that there was not one public journalism but several, the authors surveyed editors of daily newspapers and members of the AEJMC Newspaper Division to determine whether they agreed on the outcomes and goals of public journalism. The authors concluded that the two groups did not differ in their opinions about the outcomes or the goals of public journalism; however, editors rated the importance of each of the six goals significantly higher than did educators. The authors also found that institutional variables studied were more important to both editors’ and educators’ responses concerning outcomes of public journalism and the less-activist goals of public journalism but that individual variables were more important concerning the more-activist goals of public journalism.

Back to the Future? Teaching Copy Editing Skills in Changing Times • Frank E. Fee, Jr., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; John Russial, University of Oregon and Ann Auman, University of Hawaii • A survey of editing professors at ACEJMC-accredited programs indicates that traditional skills of text editing, headline-writing and design remain fundamental but that new skills involving technological and organizational competencies have become quite important too. The study also compares the responses of professors with those of copy editing professionals in a previous national survey. It shows that professors and professionals are largely in agreement about which skills are crucial for copy editors to have but that professors feel their students need a wider variety of skills. Neither group currently places much emphasis on multimedia skill. The views of professors were closer to those of professionals at small to mid-size papers, papers that are more likely to hire students out of college.

Connecting With the News Culture: Trade-Press Readership Among Copy Editors and Their Supervisors • Frank E. Fee Jr., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This research examines external factors in the training and professionalization of journalists, asking whether a key group of news workers, copy editors, attend professional trade press and journals and benefit from potential training and professionalism they offer. It finds that copy editors and the people who hire, supervise and evaluate them report low levels of professional journal and trade press readership. Implications for journalism education and practice are discussed and newsroom training opportunities are identified.

“Still Shocking, But No Longer Surprising”: The Anomaly Paradox in Newspaper Coverage of the 1997-1998 School Shootings • Russell Frank, Pennsylvania State University • This paper brings together Tuchman’s “what-a-story,” Fishman’s “crime wave dynamic” and Gans’ identification of small-town pastoralism and social order as “enduring values in the news” in accounting for similarities among newspaper stories about five school shootings that occurred in 1997-98. The juxtaposition of Tuchman and Fishman sheds further light on one of the fundamental paradoxes of journalism: A series of similarly anomalous events is considered more anomalous than a single anomalous event.

Turbulent Times: Organizational Change and Development in the Newspaper Industry • Peter Gade, University of Oklahoma • In the late 1990s, the newspaper industry embarked on broad-based change initiatives in an attempt to ensure the long-term viability of the industry in a dynamic media marketplace. Newsrooms were restructured, news values revised, job descriptions and necessary skills redefined. This mail survey of 457 rank-and-file journalists (56.6 percent response rate) from a purposive sample of 17 newspapers leading industry change draws on the commonality of the journalists’ experiences with change, attempting to provide benchmarks for understanding industry change that are (a) practical to newsroom managers and (b) theoretical. Respondents perceive themselves as open-minded toward change, but think change initiatives have not been planned, implemented or monitored in accordance with organizational theory. Journalists report they do not think team-based newsrooms provide more autonomy or improve the content of newspapers. They perceive change as primarily market- and profit-driven. Organizational development initiatives, newsroom structure and news values are significant predictors of morale, which is low.

The Aesthetics of Work: How Faculty Editors and Student Reporters Negotiate Good Work in the Newsroom • Beverly Horvit, Winthrop University • This qualitative study examines the aesthetics work in a university newsroom. The analysis, based on observation and interviews, shows how student reporters and faculty editors negotiate what will be considered good journalism, good academic performance and good teaching. Both parties are shown to juggle different responsibilities and make compromises in the production of the newspaper. Both have to manage time and space in deciding how to do good work and determining what good work is.

A Comparative Analysis of On-line versus Print Media: Readability and Content Differentiation of Business News • Jaemin Jung and Samsup Jo, University of Florida • The purpose of this study was to examine the readability and content differentiation of business news. Specifically, three newspapers and three Internet sites were content analyzed to see differences based on the media type. The findings suggest that the Internet business news showed more difficult readability with longer sentences, lower reading ease scores and more complex business terminology. The other results showed differences in the topics and visual usages between newspapers and Internet sites.

Diffusion in the Heartland: Internet Use at Small Dailies and Weeklies in Oklahoma • Stan Ketterer, Oklahoma State University • This paper looks at how reporters in Oklahoma use the Internet. All dailies and most weeklies in the study bad Internet access. It was too costly and unavailable for some weeklies. Further, all dailies and most weeklies used the Internet for reporting. Journalists at some weeklies thought it was not useful for local news. Overall, these journalists sought similar information, although dailies had higher usage. All newspapers relied mostly on primary and secondary sources, and most included Internet information in their stories.

THE FEDS. THE FAMILY, THE FATHER: THE FRAMING OF ELIAN • Kimberly Lauffer, Towson University, Alyse Gotthoffer Lancaster, and Sandra Florentin, University of Miami • Six-year-old Elian Gonzalez made these and other headlines nationwide when he was returned to his father by the Immigration and Naturalization Service on April 23, 2000. This study examines newspaper coverage from the day after the federal agents removed the boy from Miami and reunited him with his father, who was waiting in the Washington, D.C. area. Seventy articles in three South Florida newspapers were analyzed qualitatively to elicit the framing techniques used by the newspapers. Frames included insider/outsider, proactive/reactive, freedom/repression, civilized/uncivilized, and religious/sacrilegious, advanced by the assignation of blame, personalization, use of loaded language, use of figurative language, use of comparisons and contrasts, and use of sources.

Impact of Web Design Approach on News Retrieval Efficiency • Xigen Li, Louisiana State University • A computer lab experiment of news retrieval process of three U.S Internet newspapers found that Web design approach has a significant impact on news retrieval efficiency. This study identified several factors that affect obtained gratification of users when they retrieved news information from Internet newspapers. The site balanced with graphics and text achieved the highest retrieval efficiency among the three Internet newspapers. Besides media content, this study demonstrated that the means that facilitates users to get information is also important in predicting value associated with the medium. The Internet newspapers with different designs are functional alternatives available to audience in all markets and are likely to compete for audience in their selection of communication channels within the medium.

Official sources, embedded perspective and news frameworks: How two Korean newspapers covered a public health crisis • Robert A. Logan, Jaeyung Park and Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Missouri-Columbia • A content analysis of the coverage of a public health crisis in Korea from September 1999 to December 2000 explored 13 hypothesis about news reporting and selection that were derived from qualitatively based international literature. The findings suggest a tendency to: overemphasize official sources, underemphasize other news sources and avoid extensive in-depth reporting. However, the newspapers surveyed diversified their reportorial and news selection range as events occurred.

Framing Youth Violence • John McManus and Lori Dorfrnan, Berkeley Media Studies Group • Have quality newspapers incorporated what we’ve learned over the last quarter century about making news more useful as a resource for civic participation? A yearlong analysis of reporting about youth violence provides a schizophrenic conclusion: After the Columbine massacre, newspapers provided rich context, a wide range of sources and many frames offering causes and solutions. But coverage of the more common violence that most threatens society was typically frameless , minimally contextualized, and police-sourced.

Numbers in the News: A Mathematics Audit of a Daily Newspaper • Scott R. Maier, University of Oregon • To establish baseline information about journalistic use and misuse of numbers, 1,500 local news stories were examined in a mathematics audit of a daily metropolitan newspaper. Nearly half of local stores were found to involve mathematical calculation. Eleven categories of numerical inaccuracy were identified. Most errors were self-evident and involved elementary mathematics. Results suggest that journalists fail to apply the attention and skepticism to numbers that they routinely apply to other aspects of their work.

Newsroom Numeracy: A Case Study of Mathematical Competence and Confidence • Scott R. Maier, University of Oregon • By testing the ability of reporters and editors to perform math tasks commonly encountered in their work, this case study of a metropolitan daily newspaper provides a baseline assessment of numeracy in the newsroom. The study also examines mathematical confidence of journalists, with strong performers in math outnumbering weak performers, the results challenge the view that most journalists cannot handle even elementary mathematics. However, testing revealed high math anxiety even among strong math performers.

The Scope and Nature of Newspaper in Education programs: A National Survey • Patrick C. Meirick and Daniel J. Sullivan, University of Minnesota • Even though there are fewer Participating newspapers than in 1992, ME programs now reach an estimated 14.4 million students, up 33 percent. More than twice as many newspapers provide school copies free of charge, thanks to the growing role of sponsors. An increasing emphasis on circulation is apparent: Circulation departments are now primarily responsible for 69 percent of ME programs, and newspapers were much more likely to rate “immediate circulation gains” as an extremely important reason for the program.

At Play in the Field of the Word: A content analysis of the coverage of women’s sports in selected San Francisco Bay Area newspapers • Greg Mellen and Patricia Coleman, University of Missouri • This study extends previous research on inequities in media coverage of women’s sports in newspapers. A content analysis was conducted on sports sections from large, medium and small newspapers from the San Francisco Bay Area. 4,152 stories and 66,000 inches of text were coded. The study hypothesized that men’s stories receive the majority of coverage and that smaller papers provide more equitable coverage of women’s sports. Chi squares and descriptive data supported both hypotheses.

Campaign Advertising Coverage in the 1990s Elections: A Content Analysis • Young Min, University of Texas-Austin • This paper explores the discursive patterns and styles of campaign advertising coverage. Specifically, it examines how the news sets contextual frames for political ads, attending to how two prestigious newspapers—the New York Times and the Washington Post—covered the 1992, 1996, and 2000 general-election advertising campaigns. An analysis of 118 ad stories indicates that ad coverage in the 1 990s has paid more attention to challengers than incumbents, to presidential than state or local races, and to negative than positive ads. While employing an investigative and research driven style of reporting, the press has applied a “double-standard” to the assessment of political ads; it has tended to deflate the authenticity of campaign ads, but more often than not it has reinforced the causes of the campaigners concerning the political effectiveness of those ads. Most importantly, the press has exhibited a Republican bias in coverage and a Democratic bias in tone in reporting on advertising campaigns. Overall, the campaign ad coverage in the 1990s has shifted its attention from the effectiveness of the charges and countercharges to their accuracy, focusing more on the substance of candidates’ issue positions. This shift may encourage candidates to engage each other with the matters that are more essential and relevant to governance.

Newspapers in the Age of the Internet : Adding Interactivity to Objectivity • John L. Morris, Adams State College • Four recent books on public journalism make clear this ideological movement has drawn attention to the interactive processes of journalism over its static products. This emphasis on process has led many critics to connect public journalism with activism and, consequently, a loss of objectivity. Scholars of the writing process and social psychology maintain that all human communication is interactive, however, and some theorists argue the more interactive the communication, the more effective it is.

Gatekeeping and the Editorial Cartoon: A Case Study of the 2000 Presidential Campaign Cartoons • Jennifer M. Proffitt, University of Wyoming • This study explores gatekeeping studies and the political editorial cartoon, comparing the experiences of editorial cartoonists with gatekeeping research findings and examining how standardization and conservative news policies appear to apply to editorial cartoons pertaining to the 2000 presidential campaign published in The Denver Post. Sixty-nine cartoons were analyzed and compared to the 155 select articles concerning the 2000 presidential campaign. The study also discusses The Post’s endorsement of Vice President Gore and its possible effect on choice and content of cartoons.

COPY FLOW AT SMALL NEWSPAPERS: LESSONS FOR METROS SEEKING CHANGE? • Judy Gibbs Robinson, University of Oklahoma • Some newspapers are eliminating their copy desks in a move to flatten hierarchies and return to more generalist workers. There is much less role specialization and hierarchy at small newspapers because of staff sizes, therefore they might be models for this large-newspaper trend. A mail survey confirmed that small newspapers (<25,000 circulation) have flattened hierarchies and generalist workers. It also identified three general patterns of copy flow at small newspapers that have no copy desk.

Local Advertisers and Online Newspapers: Will Print Revenue Streams Reproduce on the Web? • Dan Shaver, Michigan State University • Many newspaper publishers launched online newspapers as companions or supplements to their print publications for strategic reasons, without a well-developed plan for achieving profitability. Once online, however, economic imperatives have quickly emerged. A great deal of attention has been focused on the impact of online publications on content and readers, and a good deal of research about web-based advertising has been conducted, but little notice has been given to local advertisers and online newspapers. This study addresses the question of whether local advertisers, the backbone of support for print newspapers, are likely to become dependable supporters of electronic news products. It finds that local advertisers have a commitment to a future online presence despite generally negative past experiences, that whether online newspapers or other web-based vehicles capture this business is an open question, and that newspapers are likely to suffer less than broadcast and cable television as advertising budgets are adjusted to pay for online services.

Journalistic voice in public affairs & public confidence in the press • Hoon Shim, University of Texas-Austin • The primary purpose of this study was to explore if biased reportage in public news accounts is linked to the public distrust toward the media. It was predicted that three chief factors are contributing to the decline in press performance ratings: (1) an increase in the number of descriptively biased reports (2) an increase in the number of points of view (3) an increase in the number of thematic frames. Data support the first and third propositions.

All The Surveys That Are Fit to Print: The Romanian Case • Razvan Sibii and Brad Thompson, American University in Bulgaria • Against the background of a theoretical discussion of the legitimacy of public opinion polling, this paper looks at the way three Romanian newspapers treated survey stories in the five months before the Romanian parliamentary and presidential elections in fall 2000. The survey stories examined were found to violate numerous standards of poll reporting as established by the Associated Press. This raises questions about media practices and professionalism in Romania and throughout Central and Eastern Europe.

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS: Online Newspapers Go Beyond Shovelware in Covering Election 2000 • Jane Singer, University of Iowa • As newspapers move online, they encounter opportunities to contribute to campaign coverage, a staple of American journalism, in new ways. This study, based on a survey of online editors at sites affiliated with leading U.S. papers, indicates that editors gave primary emphasis to the medium’s ability to provide Election 2000 information faster and in more detail. Though options for enhancing political discourse were appreciated by some, both interactivity and multimedia presentations were less widely cited among editors’ key goals and perceived successes.

Gender Politics: News Framing of the Candidates’ Wives in Campaign 2000 • Betty Houchin Winfield and Barbara Friedman, University of Missouri • News coverage of the first lady has historically covered her during the White House years in four frames: as an escort to her husband; as a style setter; in a noblesse oblige role; and as a policy advisor. This qualitative study examines coverage in three newspapers of the presidential and vice presidential candidates’ wives during the 2000 election. What frames are present as these women are introduced to the American public? How journalists, after the sweeping changes in American women’s lives and in the wake of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s unprecedented tenure, cover these figures, may tell us something about how the first lady’s and second lady’s roles are still evolving.

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Minorities and Communication Division

Factors Constraining Encoding of African-American Life in the News: Mainstream Media Representations of African-American Life as Manifestation of Interethnic or Interacial Communication Behavior • Linus Abraham, Iowa State University • Adopting a critical structural approach, the paper moves the discussion of racial representation beyond manifest content to include contextual factors that empower it. It explores mainstream white-media’s representations of Blacks as a form of inter-ethnic communication behavior, and in the process provides a theoretical foundation for understanding the persistence of predominantly negative representations. In doing so, it also provides a theoretical mechanism for systematically analyzing the media representations, and makes it possible to conduct systematic longitudinal studies of representations of Blacks.

Differences in Media Buying by Online Businesses in Black- and White-Targeted Magazines: The Potential Impact of the Digital Divide on Ad Placement • Osei Appiah and Matthew Wagner, Iowa State University • This study examined differences in ad placement by online companies based on whether the publication targets the general market or the black population. Seventy-two magazines from three different categories were analyzed to ascertain the number of online company ads in each magazine. It was predicted that online businesses would place more ads in general market magazines than they would in magazines targeted to black audiences. The findings clearly support the overall hypothesis. The impact of the digital divide on ad placement is discussed.

The Uses and Gratifications of the Internet among African American College Students • Mahmoud A.M. Braima, Southern University and A&M College • This study developed and empirically tested a model of the uses and gratifications of the Internet among African American college students. The study used structural equations to simultaneously test three gratification needs. Data from a survey of 404 African American college students in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana provided support for the hypothesis that surveillance, entertainment and personal utility are significant gratification dimensions among African American college student users of the Internet.

Time, Media and Acculturation: The Experience of a Southern California Vietnamese American Community • Jeff Brody, Tony Rimmer and Edgar P. Trotter, California State-Fullerton • This study of recent immigrants – the Vietnamese American community in Southern California – examines how media use, namely the decision to read English-language and/or Vietnamese-language newspapers, might play a part in measuring acculturation. Further, the study explores how age at arrival and time in the United States might affect media use and acculturation. Immigrant groups have typically been studied in terms of the differences of assimilation among generations (first, second, third). Vietnamese Americans have lived in this country for at most 25 years, which is about the equivalent of one generation. A problem for this study, then, is whether the assimilation process can be detected within one generation. The analysis draws on data from a 1999 telephone survey in the Orange County, California, Vietnamese American community. The study’s findings indicate that assimilation differences among first generation immigrants – including newspaper language selection – can be delineated by age at arrival, length of residence in the United States, and the proportion of life spent in the United States.

Not like Me: How Minority Youth Distance Themselves From Risk • John R. Chapin, Penn State University • The third-person perceptions hypothesis posits that people believe others are more influenced by media messages than they are. The existing literature consistently documents that individuals make self vs. other distinctions when assessing media effects, but not how such distinctions are made. The current study sought to document the self/other distinction in third-person perception and to assess differences in how minority youth separate their own personal risk from that of others.

Translating ownership into action: A comparison of owner involvement and values at minority- and non-minority-owned broadcast stations • Stephanie Craft, University of Missouri • Research demonstrating that minority ownership of broadcast stations and programming diversity are linked also includes the counter-intuitive finding that owner involvement in station activities is not related to that link. This paper examines two ways owners may affect programming: through staff perceptions of shared values with the owner and through hiring. Results of a survey of minority- and non-minority-owned stations suggest that owner involvement is a significant predictor of perceived similarity, but not hiring.

Effects of Advertising Messages for Breast Cancer on African-American Women 5 Attitudes Toward Early Prevention • Cynthia M. Frisby, University of Missouri-Columbia • The present research examines and analyzes how African American women think and feel about specific communication strategies concerning breast cancer. Using a 2 x 2 experiment, advertising appeal and involvement, results indicated an interaction between involvement and appeal used in the ad. Ads using endorsers and survivors were found to be most effective in changing attitude toward breast cancer prevention for black women who expressed little interest in breast cancer prevention and early detection.

African Americans in the Brownsville (TN) States-Graphic: The Invisible Majority • Cynthia A. Bond Hopson, University of Memphis • During l960-l961, in Haywood County, Tennessee, African Americans got married, worked hard, took care of their children and did many of the same things that Whites did, however, most of their activities were never reported in the Brownsville States-Graphic, the local weekly newspaper. When there was news about African Americans, it was usually about crimes or catastrophe. This content analysis examined news items about African Americans in this small rural newspaper.

WELCOMING A VISITING IN-LAW: RACIAL SOLIDARITY AND PRESIDENT CLINTON’S IMAGE IN THE NIGERIAN PRESS • Minabere Ibelema, University of Alabama-Birmingham • This paper examines President Clinton’s image in the Nigerian press and relates it to the political philosophy of Pan-Africanism. The study draws especially from Nigerian press coverage of President Clinton’s visit to Nigeria in August 2000. The study employs the metaphor of the extended African family to illuminate the dynamics of the visit. The paper concludes that President Clinton’s positive image in the Nigerian press derived from the perception that Clinton was a friend of African Americans.

Racial Stereotyping and Mass Mediated Contact: A Comparative Analysis of African, Anglo, Asian and Latino Americans • Carol M. Liebler, Syracuse University and Richard D. Waters, University of Georgia • This study examines in-group bias, and the extremity-complexity and contact hypotheses in relation to media exposure, and crime and success stereotyping. A cross-sectional survey of African, Anglo, Asian and Latino Americans (n=491) illustrated that not only did stereotyping vary by group, but that interpersonal and mediated communication are both important factors to consider when conceptualizing and operationalizing contact, as is the type of media contact.

When Identities Collide: The African American struggle with dominant culture ideology during World War I and II • Earnest L. Perry, Texas Christian University • In the years leading up to America’s involvement in the war, African Americans had been denied jobs in the defense industry, turned away while attempting to volunteer for military service and when accepted forced to train at camps in the segregated South. During the war they could serve in support service units, such as construction, mechanical and mess duty. However, they were expected to remain loyal to American democracy. This study looks at the conflict between the role the dominant culture wanted African Americans to play during World War I and II, and the resentment it caused. During both wars, the African American press helped the community renegotiate its position within American society, reject the negative aspects of the dominant culture and re-establish relationships with those who supported democracy based on equality for all. This study, using double-consciousness as a theoretical approach and the narrative of African American hesitancy to support the dominant culture during two world wars, attempts to fill the gaps in this neglected area of historical study.

Student Research Papers

Commercials and Race: A Comparative Study of Blacks in Prime Time Advertising in Denmark and the United States • Tiffany Nicole Avery, Elon College. • While scholars in our country have investigated and discussed the impact of American racial stereotyping in the media, little is known about racial stereotyping in other countries. This comparative study examines prime-time television advertising in the United States and Denmark; and the presence of stereotyped images of people with dark skin. Comparing data collected during a study by Entman & Book (2000) with a similar assessment in Denmark, each advertisement was coded and examined.

Between Silence and Condemnation: A Discourse Analysis of Booker T. Washington’s Editorials and Private Writings on Lynching • Wanda Goins Brockington, Howard University • This paper examines the implications and motivation behind the rhetoric of Booker T. Washington and his public and private stance on lynching. Positioned as he was as a chosen leader, he became, in effect, a buffer between the injustices perpetrated against his people and the oppressors themselves. Understanding what is left unsaid is sometimes more revealing than what is actually said. Through the application of critical discourse analysis and employing the framework of strategic silence and cultural studies, the study found there was a marked difference in the public and private rhetoric Booker T. Washington used to discuss lynching.

The Relationship Between Television Exposure and Body Satisfaction Among Black College Women • Rockell A. Brown, Wayne State University • One image that the media exploit with great success is what constitutes beauty or attractiveness in women. By focusing on the relationship of Black women to this phenomenon, the study explores the extent of the relationship that exists between the amount of television exposure and body image among Black college females. Additionally, this investigation attempts to determine to what extent subjects are satisfied with their individual physical appearances, as well as whether subjects perceive Black female television personalities as exemplifying an idealized body image/type, and whether or not Black college students assess their physical appearance in terms of females that appear on television. The framework and research questions for this investigation are based on the social learning and social comparison theory. The design of the study involves survey research with participants being female students at a predominantly African American university.

Hispanic and Asian Presence and Portrayal in Minority Magazine Advertising From 1960s to 1980s • Hwi-Man Chung, North Carolina • This study first attempted to see how other minorities appeared and were portrayed in minority magazine ads, with an emphasis on black-oriented magazines. Previous historical observations and empirical studies about minorities in mass media have found that minorities in ads were less represented and were usually portrayed as less skilled than white models. This study also confirms the results of previous studies. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the frequency of black models in black-oriented magazine ads outnumbered the frequency of white models in main stream magazine ads. However, the blacks were still portrayed stereotypically in terms of occupations. That is, black models are most likely to portrayed as –entertainment-or Ôsports/athletic- figures in the ads. Furthermore, African Americans are usually targeted for alcohol and cigarette products. In terms of other minorities, Hispanics and Asians, both ethnic groups were less represented in black-oriented magazine ads. They were most often used in military recruiting ads and they were never portrayed as consumers in the ads. Instead, they were most often portrayed as below-skilled personnel in the ads, and usually depicted in service positions. Even though the government tried to include minorities in its ads, their occupations are highly skewed to certain types of categories such as mechanic, driver, or maintenance worker.

Terror Masked in Silence: Black Press Coverage of the Reconstruction-Era Ku Klux Klan • Mike Conway, University of Texas at Austin • The 1800-era Black press didnÕt back away from the most volatile issues of the time including slavery, emigration and lynching. But on the subject of the Ku Klux Klan, the editors were mostly silent. This paper strips away the years of revisionist history and looks at African-American owned newspapers’coverage of the original Klan. The paper explores the reasons why the Black press stayed away from coverage of the terrorist group and rarely mentioned it by name.

The Production of Latino As a Social Imaginary in La Raza (1972-1979) • Mirerza Gonazales-Velez • This paper presents the preliminary findings of a case study on La Raza newspaper (1973-1979). Newspapers, as archives of meanings, serve for the mediation, diffusion and re-articulation of discourses that enable people to familiarize with a community unlike their own. This is possible through the emergence of a “social imaginary,” a taken-for-granted truth that gives unity and order to people’s lives and facilitates the continuity of a collective that in Latino’s case is fragmented.

The Effects of Hispanic Model Ethnicity on White Viewers: An Exploratory Study • W. Buzz Hoon, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • The purpose of this research was to explore the influences of models’ race on white viewers’ attitudes and purchase intentions. Previous research has offered mixed results in white subjects’ evaluations of ads with black models. This experiment manipulated Hispanic and white models in advertisements. Participants evaluated attitude toward the model, attitude toward the ad and purchase intention. Results indicate the use of Hispanics as advertising stimuli is relatively positive for white respondents.

Reaching Multicultural News Coverage Through Neutrality: An Examination of Newspaper Editorial Content on the Elian Gonzalez Custody Case in Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Communities • W. Buzz Hoon and Andy Lynch, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • The purpose of this research was to examine editorial content on the custody case of Elian Gonzalez in newspapers located in Hispanic and non-Hispanic U. S. communities. Researchers analyzed the positions of 165 editorials on the case. Editorials in non-Hispanic communities’ newspapers were more often in favor of returning Gonzalez to Cuba (68%), while Hispanic newspapers were more neutral (43%). The data suggest that Hispanic newspapers did not present partisan content on the case.

<< 2001 Abstracts

Media Management and Economics Division

Megamedia: A Research Note Examining Communication Industry Concentration • Alan B. Albarran, University of North Texas • Concentration ratios within and across nine different segments of the communication industries were assessed by analyzing data over a five-year time frame. The data indicates most media industry segments are highly concentrated. Cross-industry concentration is also increasing, fueled by a number of mergers and acquisitions involving high-ranking firms. Implications of these findings are reviewed and discussed in the concluding section of the paper.

Market Structure and the Rise of Chains in the United States: A Case Study of the E. W. Scripps Company, 1878-1911 • Gerald J. Baldasty, University of Washington • This paper argues that the market structure of the newspaper industry circa 1900 propelled the emergence of newspaper chains. Only chains could compete against entrenched incumbent publishers. This paper focuses on three key areas: First, the modern industrial firm circa 1900; second, the newspaper industry market structure at that time and, third, the E. W. Scripps Company – the first U.S. newspaper chain-and its competition with older, family-based firms.

Content Differences between Daily Newspapers with Strong and Weak Market Orientations • Randal A. Beam, Indiana University • This paper reports on results of a content analysis of 10 daily newspapers, five that have a relatively strong market orientation and five that have a relatively weak market orientation. The results offer support for both critics and supporters of market-driven journalism. The findings suggest that information about government and public life dominates the content published on the main display pages of all papers. But the findings also suggest that market-driven newspapers publish fewer items about public life and more about so-called lifestyle issues.

Losing Local Owners in Small Markets • Todd Chambers, Texas Tech University • The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 represented the culmination of the theoretical shift in the philosophy of broadcast ownership regulation. After decades of government regulations maintaining the structure of local broadcast markets, policies of deregulation slowly began to restructure local media markets under a marketplace approach to broadcast regulation. This study explored the consequences of shifting from a managed structure of regulation to an open market structure of deregulation in small media markets. Overall, the statistical analysis suggested that there was a limited impact on the number of local owners when considering the gradual change from regulation to deregulation. However, the data analysis suggested that there has been a negative impact on ownership diversity since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in the small markets.

Public Ownership and Market Competition Effects on Newspaper CorporationsÕ Financial Performance: A Replication and Challenge • Kuang-Kuo Chang and Geri M. Alumit, Michigan State University • This study confirms conclusions made by Blakenburg and Ozanich in 1993 and Lacy, Shaver and St. Cyr in 1996 that the level of public ownership affects newspaper corporations’ financial performance. High levels of public ownership increased stock returns. This study however, disagrees with Lacy et al.’s finding that market competition affects newspaper corporations’ financial performance. The intensification of mergers, acquisitions and newspaper ownership clustering post-1996 may explain the contrasting results.

Motivating a More Diverse Newsroom: Exploring Different Needs of Women, Older and Married Reporters • Li-Jing Arthur Chang, Nanyang Technological University • This study explores the roles of demographic influences (age, gender, and marital status) in the way intrinsic needs (such as autonomy and sense of achievement), extrinsic needs (such as pay and promotion opportunities), and a neutral factor (i.e., both an intrinsic and extrinsic need) affect newspaper reporters’ job feelings. A total of 365 Texas newspaper reporters are surveyed for the study. Findings showed that special attention is needed to motivate women, older, and married employees.

The Globalization of Telecommunications Services: Alliances, Market Development, and Product Convergence • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • This study examines the market and product expansion strategies that telecommunications companies have adopted to compete in the growingly integrated global market. Using a database of market activities, the author found that there have been widespread practices of within-industry expansions both domestically and internationally. Strategic alliances, especially mergers and acquisitions, seem to be the prevalent approach for market growth. The European telecom firms have been more interested in finding international allies for geographical market development than their U.S. counterparts. There has been more core business-related expansion as the wire-line telecom companies enter the wireless and Internet product markets. In regard to environmental factors that might impact a telecom firm’s strategic choice, this study found that the external factors of relative health of the economy, legal structure maturity, technological development, more established telecom/information infrastructure, and a slowing growth of demand for traditional wire-line telecom products set the stage for product convergence (i.e., inter-industry expansion). As for the environmental factors for the target company, logically, the degree of economic freedom, in addition to the similar external conditions listed earlier, were found to be significant.

Managing Internet-Delivered Radio: New Markets, New Revenue, New Operations Issues • Cheryl L. Evans, Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Steven K. Smethers, Oklahoma State University • Recent Arbitron studies show that the audience for Internet-delivered radio stations is reaching nearly one-fourth of the nation’s population. Webcasting has already added a visual component to radio, and promises to develop new markets and revenue streams. This study employs Delphi methodology to survey 50 expert panelists in an effort to ascertain the top operational challenges promulgated by this technology, and offers some recommendations for entrepreneurs seeking to launch Cyber radio enterprises.

The Sony Corporation: A Case Study in Transnational Media Management • Richard A. Gershon, Western Michigan University and Tsutomu Kanayama, Sophia University • The transnational corporation is a nationally based company with overseas operations in two or more countries. What distinguishes the transnational media corporation (TNMC) from other types of TNCs, is that the principle product being sold is information and entertainment. The following paper is a case study analysis of the SONY corporation; a leading TNMC in the production and sale of consumer electronics, music and film entertainment and videogame technology. Part I. of this paper examines the history and development of the Sony corporation. This paper argues that the business strategies and corporate culture of a TNMC are often a direct reflection of the person (or persons) who were responsible for developing the organization and its business mission. Part II. of this paper examines the Sony corporation as a transnational media corporation. Special attention is given to the subject of business strategy. A second argument of this paper is that while Sony is a transnational media corporation, the organization is decidedly Japanese in its business values. The significance of this research lies in its revelations concerning the complex changes facing a company that was once historically Japanese in its origins but is becoming increasingly transnational in scope and operations.

Different Voices, Same Script: How Newsmagazines Cover Media Consolidation Issues • Bryan Greenberg, Syracuse University • The increase in media consolidation over the past 20 years has led to a growing debate over the impact of ever-widening media conglomerates. An important and growing part of this debate revolves around how the media cover themselves. Through a content analysis of three newsmagazines, this study demonstrates that while editorial choices may differ as to story mix, coverage of consolidation is strikingly similar, framed as a battle of personalities, and not a matter of public interest.

B2B Electronic Exchanges in the Advertising Industry: Early Evidence of Impact on Media Buying • Anne M. Hoag, Penn State University • Thousands of electronic marketplaces have launched recently, serving business-to-business (B2B) trade in every industry including advertising. The value proposition is supply chain optimization – eliminating inefficiencies between sellers and buyers. Established practices in media buying are inefficient leading to higher costs. This represents opportunity for B2B exchanges. But is it? Or is it a passing fad? This paper examines the recent profusion of B2B advertising exchanges. Findings imply that while the incentives to eliminate inefficiencies in media buying are great, embeddedness, that is, firmly established social and cultural processes, present barriers to B2B exchange success in the short run. Competitive pressures outside the insular advertising agency sector, however, should prevail in the long run.

Managing in a Converged Environment: Threading Camels through Newly Minted Needles • Kenneth C. Killebrew, University of South Florida • This research examines the complexities of managing journalists ill a new media or converged environment. The article examines traditional management, social psychology and persuasion literature in a discussion of the problems facing convergence managers. It uses recent examples of convergence problems with WFLA-TV, The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com in Tampa, Florida. The paper concludes with actions that should be taken by media managers to ensure their convergence endeavors are successful

The Impact of Competition on Weekly Newspaper Advertising Rates • Stephen Lacy, Michigan State University, David C. Coulson, University of Nevada-Reno, and Hiromi Cho, Ibaraki Christian University • This national study of 432 weekly newspapers found that competition from other weeklies in a county was correlated with a lower cost-per-thousand ad rate. However, when a subsample of 236 weeklies with intense competition was analyzed, this relationship with cost per thousand disappeared. Instead, the data showed that as competition became more intense, a weekly’s open-column-inch ad rates decreased. Also, when market size was control for, ad rates for paid weeklies did not different from free weeklies’ ad rates.

Impact of Context Effects on Evaluation of New Shows in Lead-In/Lead-Out Context • Jack C.C. Li and Jaemin Jung, University of Florida • This study conducted an experiment to explore the impact of context effect on the evaluation of a new show, incorporating lead-in and lead-out scheduling techniques. Results show that contrast effect or assimilation effect occurs, depending on whether the surrounding program is of the same or a different genre. The same context effects occurred regardless whether the target show was viewed first (i.e., lead-out) or after the context show (i.e., lead-in). It was also found that the assimilation effect tended to be the largest in the lead-out/different-genre condition, and contrast effect was the highest in the lead-in/same-genre condition of all experimental conditions. Implications about scheduling strategies in the introduction of new series were discussed.

Remembering the DuMont Network: A Case Study Approach • Walter S. McDowell, Southern Illinois University • The brief ill fated history of the DuMont TV network serves as a useful case study for understanding the interactive effects of untried technology, frustrating regulation and ruthless economics on a new media venture. Unlike prior studies that took a more historical point of view, this paper embraces a business case study approach to demonstrate how contemporary media management lessons still can be learned from studying the fateful decisions surrounding the demise of America’s original fourth TV network

Horizontal Integration in the Cable Television Industry: History and Context • Patrick R. Parsons, Penn State University • This paper offers an historical review and analysis of horizontal integration in the cable television industry. It traces ownership patterns from the inception of the earliest MSOs to the formation of today’s industry behemoths. It is a business history that provides a panoramic view of the slow but steady concentration of holdings in the industry and looks at the contemporaneous forces that either accelerated or retarded such formation at given points in its development.

When Ideas and Reality Collide: A Four-Year Case Study of Editor Cole Campbell’s Organizational Change Initiatives at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Earnest Perry, Texas Christian University and Peter Gade, University of Oklahoma • After a tumultuous three-and-a-half years at the helm of the newspaper rich in Pulitzer tradition, Cole C. Campbell resigned as editor in April 2000. Campbell’s tenure had been marked by an ambitious attempt to change the culture of the news organization. This study includes surveys of newsroom employees in 1996 (the week before Campbell began as editor), 1997, 1998 and 2000 (after he resigned). Results show Campbell had some success at changing news values, but reorganization to a team system of reporting has not worked well, the staff did not see a connection between change and better journalism, and morale was low at the time Campbell resigned. organizational theory can be used to help explain the staff’s perceptions about why change initiatives failed.

Audience Economics of European Union Public Service Broadcasters: Assessing the Performance in Competitive Markets • Robert G. Picard, Turku School of Economics and Business Administration • This paper explores the economics of audiences and applies the approaches to public service broadcasters in the European Union. It suggests and applies a method for analyzing the contemporary performance of public broadcasters using market shares. The study funds that, as a whole, public service broadcasters are performing better than statistically expectations, that public service broadcasting is generally maintaining market leadership, and that higher market share performance is associated with less government funding.

RATE-SETTING PROCEDURES FOR PREPRINT ADVERTISING AT NONDAILY NEWSPAPERS • Ken Smith, University of Wyoming • This study examines the procedures used by nondaily publishers in setting their preprint rates and compares them to ROP rate-setting procedures. The findings indicate that target-profit pricing is the main procedure used for setting both preprint and ROP rates but with one important difference. Preprint target pricing includes the cost of distributing the preprints only. ROP target pricing considers all costs in running a newspaper, including the cost of producing news.

Market Structure and Local Signal Carriage Decisions in the Cable Television Industry • Michael Zhaoxu Yan, University of Michigan • Using historical data collected by the General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1990, a time when must-carry rules were not in effect, the paper empirically tested the effects of horizontal concentration, vertical integration and other system-specific variables on cable operators’ carriage decisions regarding local broadcast stations. The results from the Zero-inflated Negative Binomial model (a count model) indicated that horizontal concentration or firm size had negative effect on the carriage of local broadcast stations on cable systems, holding other factors constant. The study, however, did not find any significant effect for vertical integration.

<< 2001 Abstracts