Archives for January 2012

Media Ethics Division

Moral Language in Newspaper Commentary: A Kohlbergian Analysis • Wendy Barger, Oregon • This study begins with the question of whether the news media are conveying messages that help us as individuals grow morally. Using a Kohlbergian model, the study begins to explore the question by analyzing the moral language in commentaries and letters to the editor within three Oregon newspapers. The study’s content analysis reveals that most arguments presented in the opinion section of the three papers are done so at either Kohlberg’s pre-conventional or conventional levels.

Ethics as a Cross-Cultural and Cross-Boundary Bridge: American and Israeli Journalists’ Views of Ethical Issues • Dan Berkowitz, Iowa; Yehiel Limor, Tel-Aviv University and Jane Singer, Iowa • This study explores how social dimensions of a reporter’s world shape ethical decisions through a survey of reporters in Israel and one state in the Midwestern U. S. We found that personal backgrounds and journalistic socialization were not closely related to ethical decisions, but the broader cultural dimension stood out. The context of specific ethical situations was also important, as was a reporter’s ethical orientation toward the public interest.

The Effects of Visuals on Ethical Reasoning: What’s a Photograph Worth to Journalists Making Moral Decisions? • Renita Coleman, Louisiana State University • Two experiments are used to explore the effects of photographs on ethical decision making in the journalism domain. Both studies found that photographs did have the ability to change participants’ ethical reasoning for the better. Also, both identified mental elaboration as significant in that process; thinking about the people affected by an ethical situation helped improve ethical reasoning. Involvement was also important; when participants were not very involved with the dilemmas, having photographs significantly improved their ethical reasoning.

The Promise and Peril of Anecdotes in News Coverage: An Ethical Analysis • David A. Craig, Oklahoma • This analytical essay assesses the use of anecdotes in news coverage on ethical grounds, pointing both to their promise and to their potential dangers. The argument draws on Craig’s framework for analyzing news coverage of ethics, on Christians et al.’s communitarian ethic, and on Gilligan’s relationship-oriented ethic. Examples from news stories illustrate the ethical complexity of anecdotes. The essay also suggests how journalists can choose anecdotes more critically and points to an adaptation of the anecdotal form that is ethically more supportable.

Covering Kids: Are Journalists Guilty of Exploiting Children? • Romayne Smith Fullerton, Western Ontario, Canada • Social researchers have a well-established body of literature and clear protocols that assist them in their interactions with children. Journalists do not. This paper applies some of the ethical considerations from social research to press practice. Using several recent Canadian cases involving coverage of children, I explore a wide range of ethical concerns that may confront a journalist interacting with and writing about minors. While the examples are drawn from the Canadian media scene, the observations are valid across North American newsrooms and the implications for this discussion are universal.

Ethics and Eloquence in Journalism: A Study of the Demands of Press Accountability • Theodore L. Glasser, Stanford University and James S. Ettema, Northwestern University • This study of ethics in journalism equates ethics with accountability. It argues that the problem of ethics in journalism is not the inability of journalists to know right from wrong but their inability to talk, reflexively and articulately, about it. Our “being ethical-means-being-accountable” theme draws from, but is not entirely wedded to, the model of discourse ethics developed in recent years by Jurgen Habermas.

A Masochist’s Teapot: Where to Put the Handle in Media Ethics • Thomas W. Hickey, South Florida • The task of defining ethics in mass communications can be aided by an interface with religion. The four guiding principles of the Society of Professional Journalists express ethical tension that can be viewed as a conflict between the metaphysical concepts of the one and the many. The doctrine of the Trinity resolves this conflict by uniting both concepts instead of pitting them as opposites. Following this model, a grid can be developed for plotting ethical journalism.

Stalker-razzi and Sump-pump Hoses: The Role of the Media in the Death of Princess Diana • Elizabeth Blanks Hindman, North Dakota State University • This case study examines mainstream newspaper editorials’ discussion of the role, responsibility and ethics of the media in the death of the Princess of Wales. Using attribution theory, it concludes that the newspapers dealt with criticism of the media in the case in several ways. First, they distanced themselves from the photographers who chased her car before it crashed; second, they blamed those outside the media, including Diana herself; and third, they acknowledged some responsibility.

Rwanda, News Media, And Genocide: Toward a Research Agenda for Reviewing the Ethics and Professional Standards of Journalists Covering Conflict • Kevin R. Kemper and Michael Jonathan Grinfeld, Missouri-Columbia • The ongoing United Nations war crimes tribunals for journalists accused of inciting genocide in Rwanda provide the backdrop for a discussion about reviewing the ethics and professional standards of journalists covering conflict. The authors argue that journalists and ethicists – regardless of epistemologies or methodologies – need to frame an ethical paradigm for journalists covering conflict. Possible concepts for study may include autonomy, objectivity, conflict theory, nationalism, intergenerational racism and ethnic hatred and technology, among others.

Generation Y’s Ethical Judgments of Sexual and Fear Appeals in Print Advertising • Jeffrey J. Maciejewski, Creighton University • This study reports the results of an empirical investigation into the ethical beliefs of Generation Y, in particular their moral assessments of sexual and fear appeals in print advertising. The study offers empirical support for the measuring of ethical ideologies, but found that such measures may have limited value in assessing levels of Machiavellianism among individuals. More importantly, the results from this study strongly suggest that the moral appraisals of Gen Y may be significantly differently than other individuals.

Radical Leadership and Debate in the Ethics of Naming Rape Victims • Richard J. Riski, Memphis • The status quo for a majority of newspapers is to not publish a rape victim’s name. Only a handful of publications defy this rule. Since the legal right to publish is established, the question for the media is how to create an ethical policy, or consistent practice, of deciding when — if at all — to name rape victims. This paper explores the ethical reasoning behind the six points of significant debate that separate those who do — and those who do not — publish victims’ names.

Entertaining Media Entertainment Ethics: Prospects for Development • Lawrence A. Wenner, Loyola Marymount University • This paper seeks to answer foundational questions about media entertainment ethics as distinguishable from the broader field of media ethics. The analysis explores the developmental predispositions of a journalism-centered media ethics. Reasons for the limited consideration of media entertainment in the context of media ethics are assessed. A review and critique of three significant works centered in media entertainment ethics aims to inform developmental foundations for a research agenda.

Nelson Mandela and South African Apartheid: The Media as Deconstructive Agent • Alisa White, Texas at Arlington and Vardaman White, Birmingham • The purpose of this paper is to describe deconstruction according to the goals and strategies of Jacques Derrida, examine his essay, “The Laws of Reflection: Nelson Mandela, in Admiration,” and examine the media’s role in the deconstruction process. Derrida seeks to separate the sign from the signified. For him, there is no inherent meaning within the language, rather, meaning emerges through the play of the words.

<< 2002 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society Division

FACULTY
The Credibility of Newspapers, Television News, and Online News • Rasha A. Abdulla, Bruce Garrison, Michael Salwen, Paul Driscoll, and Denise Casey, Miami • This exploratory study analyzes the components of credibility of news from newspapers, television, and online news. A national telephone survey of 536 adults was conducted in February 2002. Respondents evaluated the credibility of newspapers, television news, and online news using a variation of Gaziano and McGrath’s 12-item Likert-type news credibility scale. While there were similarities in how each medium was perceived, the study also revealed some fundamental differences. Respondents evaluated newspaper and television news credibility more similarly than they did online news credibility.

Looking for an Agenda: Meta Analytic Review of the Literature on Political Advertising and Issue Learning • Soontae An and Hyun Seung Jin, Kansas State University • Meta analytic review of the literature on political advertising and issue learning reveals why the effect of political advertising appears to be inconsistent and why care is needed in generalizing from different types of studies. The research method (experimental vs. survey), the level of election (presidential election vs. lower-level election), and advertising measurement (recall measure vs. attention or exposure measure) were the factors causing seemingly inconsistent results.

Modeling the Development of International Knowledge and Attitudes • Christopher E. Beaudoin, Indiana-Bloomington • Via a national telephone survey of 467 adults, the current study attempts to model the development of knowledge and attitudes about China and Great Britain. Two well-fitting structural equation models indicate that international general knowledge appears to be predicted by individual (education and international interest), societal (attitudes toward new immigrants), and mediated (international news use) influences. In contrast, international episodic knowledge is predicted by only individual (education and international interest) and mediated (international news use) influences.

Talking the Talk & Walking the Walk: The Mass Media and Social Capital in Towns and Cities • Christopher E. Beaudoin, Indiana-Bloomington • The current study defines social capital in terms of four attitudinal and four behavioral measures. It then asks whether these measures differ in towns (population less than 20,000) and cities (population around 2 million). A telephone survey of adults in two towns and two cities in one Midwestern state allows for the testing of 1) patterns and levels of social capital, and 2) relationships with news and entertainment media use. Contrary to expectation, social capital levels were higher in cities than towns.

Must See TV or ESPN: Entertainment and Sports Media Exposure and Body Image Distortion in College Women • Kimberly L. Bissell and Peiqin Zhou, Alabama • Many studies offer clear evidence that exposure to TDP (thinness depicting and promoting) media leads to distorted body image perceptions in school-age females and college women. Only recently have researchers broadened the TDP media definition to include sports media. This study compared women’s exposure to two types of media entertainment and sports mediaÑand looked for possible associations with body image distortions and eating disorders. Exposure to “thin-ideal” television was a significant predictor of four dimensions of disordered eating for women of all races.

A Content Analysis of Farm Safety Health Messages: Challenging Assumptions of Current Health Communication Theory on the Use of Fear and Empathy Appeals in the Mass Media • Rose G. Campbell, Butler University • This content analysis of farm safety messages assesses the extent to which fear appeals (based on the Extended Parallel Process Model [EPPM]; Witte, (1992) also contain elements that facilitate empathic arousal (1997, 1999, 2000). Twenty-five percent of health messages containing all four EPPM elements also contain all five Empathy elements. These findings raise questions about the spuriousness of both EPPM and empathy studies that fail to assess other elements that may be responsible for risk judgments and behavioral effects.

Third Person Perception and School Violence • John Chapin, Penn State University and Grace Coleman, Crisis Center North • The study is the first of its kind to study third-person perception within the context of school violence. Linkages to the health psychology literature (optimistic bias) provide the basis for further understanding of adolescents’ perceptions of school violence and the influence of media violence in their lives. Results from a survey of 1,500 middle school and high school students suggest third-person perception regarding media violence decreases with age, and is influenced by perceived reality of media violence, optimistic bias, and knowledge of real world youth violence.

Preventive or Punitive? A Case Study on the Third-Person Effects and SupportfFor Media Censorship • Stella Chih-Yun Chia, Kerr-hsin Lu and Douglas M. McLeod, Wisconsin-Madison • This study investigates the third-person perception and individualsÕ support for media censorship with both preventive and punitive explanations in the context of a controversial sexual VCD that infringed on a public figure’s privacy. The preventive explanation views individuals’ support for censorship as a preventive action to protect others from threatening media effects; the punitive explanation argues that individualsÕ favorable attitudes toward media censorship show their intention to penalize the media for the harm they have done to the subject of the negative communication.

Black and White Perpetrators and Victims on TV News Psychological Reactions to the Race of Victims and Criminals Portrayed on Television News • Travis L. Dixon, Michigan • The current study assessed television news viewers’ psychological reactions after exposure to a crime story in which a Black, White or race unidentified criminal is suspected of killing a White, Black or race unidentified victim. Participants were exposed to a crime story embedded in a newscast in a 3 (Victim Race – Black, White, or Race Unidentified) X 3 (Perpetrator Race – Black, White, or Race Unidentified) X 2 (Racism – High, Low) X 2 (News Viewing – Heavy, Light) factorial design.

Alcohol Advertising Exposure and Perceptions: Links with Alcohol Expectancies and Drinking or Intention to Drink in Teens and Young Adults • Kenneth Fleming and Esther Thorson, Missouri and Charles Atkins, Michigan State University • This study tests a mediation model of alcohol advertising effects that argues drinking or intention to drink is related to amount and type of alcohol advertising one is exposed to, as mediated by perceptual responses to the advertising and expectancies about alcohol. The model was tested using survey data of two important age cohorts, teenagers aged 12 to 20 and young adults 21 to 29. The findings show there was a good fit between the data and a model that suggests the impact of alcohol advertising exposure on drinking is mediated by alcohol advertising attitudes and positive alcohol expectancies.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Newspapers Nationwide: A Community Structure Analysis • Daniella Gratale, Christina Steer, John C. Pollock, Ph.D., Megan Deacon, Katie Huber and Bill Hults, The College of New Jersey • This study uses a “community structure approach” to explore the connection between city characteristics and nationwide newspaper coverage of embryonic stem cell research. A sample of 350 articles, chosen from 21 newspapers across the nation, were coded for “prominence” and article “direction” (favorable, unfavorable, or neutral). The results were combined to calculate a single-score “Media Vector” for each newspaper. Pearson and regression analysis revealed that three variables accounted for 85% of the variance: “health care access” (number of physicians per 100,000 residents); “stakeholders” (% Catholic and % Republican), and “media access” (% cable-subscribers).

Evaluating the Credibility of Online Information: A test of source and advertising influence • Jennifer Greer, Jane Baughman, Patricia Cunningham-Wong, Ethnie Groves Catherine McCarthy, Megan Myers, and Cindy Petterson, Nevada-Reno • An experimental design examined whether source or advertising credibility influence perceived credibility of an online news story. It was hypothesized that, in the absence of a brand-name news source, subjects would look to advertising as a secondary cue. While source credibility was significantly tied to their ratings of the story, advertising credibility was not. Further, subjects paid little attention to the ads, even though the comprised at least a third of the page.

Achieving the Men’s Health Look: College Males’ Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding the Lean and Toned Body Ideal • Magdala Peixoto and Kim Walsh-Childers, Florida • Studies suggest two trends: the male body ideal disseminated in the media is becoming more muscular, and body dissatisfaction and weight control and muscle building behaviors are increasing among young men. This study explored the possible relationship between these trends through focus groups with college males. Results suggest young men are aware of the lean and toned mediated ideal and are engaging in weight control and/or muscle building behaviors in an effort to approximate it.

An Ideological Race between Journalistic Values and Corporate Interests on the Information Superhighway: NBC News’ Web Coverage of a GE-related Incident • Tien-tsung Lee, Ph.D. Washington State University and Kuang-Kuo Chang Michigan State University • The impact of media mergers, or the concentration of media ownership, has been a popular subject in mass communication research. Some observers argue that one of the implications of the increase of corporate ownership is that news organizations may lose their autonomy and objectivity while covering their parent corporations. The present research theorizes that journalistic professionalism may be able to overcome such pressure. The coverage of an accident involving GE — which owns NBC — on the websites of eight major U.S. news organizations, was analyzed.

Motivating Turnout Counter-Endorsement Third-Person Effects, Campaign Negativity, and Voting • Glenn Leshner, Lance Holbert, and Tae-Il Yoon; Missouri-Columbia • This study analyzed the respective behavioral effects of campaign negativity and third-person perceptions fostered by counter-attitudinal issue endorsements on voting. The context for this study involved a survey during an off-off-year statewide ballot initiative, which would have granted individuals the right to carry a concealed weapon. We found that endorsements that run counter to voters’ stated positions on this issue created third-person perceptions, and that these perceptions had a positive influence on actual voting.

Bypassing The Middleman: The Impact Of Web Use On The Public Perception Of Physicians • Wilson Lowery, Mississippi State University and William B. Anderson, Louisiana State University • This study asks if today’s physicians are losing some of their authority when faced with clients who are empowered with online knowledge. Findings suggest that heavy Web users are less likely to see physicians as exclusive holders of health information. The study also explores the degree of use of online health information and predictors of this use. Finding show substantial use of the Web for health information and that age, education level, employment and income level are the dominant predictors.

Peer and Social Influence on Opinion Expression: Combining the Theories of Planned Behavior and the Spiral of Silence • Kurt Neuwirth, Cincinnati, Edward Fredrick, Southern Mississippi, Jocye M Wolburg, Marquette University • This study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior and Spiral of Silence to explore the role of peer and social influence on communicative acts related to drinking behavior. Results of the study suggest that a person’s own attitude and sense of self-efficacy are important influences on willingness to communicate about drinking. The study also found that peers, and to a lessor extent perceptions of majority attitudes, were associated with willingness to voice an opinion.

Less Influenced Than Who, Exactly? The Role Of Stereotyping In Third-Person Perception Of Effects Of Media Violence • Erica Scharrer, University of Massachusetts • The third-person perception as it relates to the issue of television violence is examined via survey responses of 624 adults from three regions in the United States. Respondents are asked to specify which social groups they deem most susceptible to negative media influence. Results suggest that unfavorable stereotypes of certain marginalized social groups (e.g., people of color, urban residents) may help shape perceptions of who is perceived to be more negatively influenced by media violence than others.

The Influence of News Coverage On Gulf War Syndrome • Robert L. Stevenson, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper considers whether news coverage of Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) had any influence on calls made to a Department of Defense hotline from the time the hotline was introduced in early 1994 until 1999. News coverage is measured by the total number of words published in two major national newspaper, the Washington Post and USA Today, and the word equivalents presented on the evening newscasts of the three commercial networks and CNN Headline News during the same five-year period. Granger Causality regression is used, among other techniques, to test the assertion that media coverage was a factor in the proliferation of a strange illness that medical authorities could not define or find a cause of.

Cancer Information on the Web: Gross Characteristics and Readability • Craig W. Trumbo, Missouri • This project is an exploratory investigation of the WebÕs content on cancer. This paper reports the results of the first of two components of this study: the overall characteristics of this public resource, including an examination of the contentÕs readability.

Disruptive and Cooperative Interruptions in Prime Time Television Fiction: The Role of Gender, Status, and Topic • Xiaoquan Zhao, Pennsylvania and Walter Gantz, Indiana University • Speech characteristics of male and female characters in fictional television have received only scant attention in media content research. A content analysis of prime time television revealed that male characters were more likely to initiate disruptive interruptions than female characters while female characters were more likely to use cooperative interruptions than male characters. Such differences, however, were moderated by status differential between interactants and topic of conversation.

STUDENTS
Soliciting and Expressing Social Support Over the Internet: An Investigation of On-line Eating Disorder Support Groups • Kristen L. Campbell, Miami • Using a longitudinal and systematic sample of 490 postings, this study analyzed the themes, the type of social support, and the strategies used to solicit social support provided on the top five Yahoo! eating disorder discussion boards. Optimal matching theory, the notion that it is possible to attribute stressful events to social supportive behavior in order to find the most favorable match, led to the formulation of two hypothesis. Both were supported.

“American Taliban:” A Framing Content Analysis of the U.S. Press Coverage of John Walker Lindh • Shao-Chun Cheng, Ohio University • Employing quantitative framing content analysis, this study examined the U. S. news media’s coverage of John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban.” During the three-month sampling period, 95 articles were taken from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Time and Newsweek were content analyzed. The results found that the U. S. news media primarily framed John Walker Lindh’s story as a political/legal incident, and the most often used frame was “political/legal negative” frame.

Third-Person and First-Person Perceptions Of Smokers And Non-Smokers: Effects Of Attitudes Toward Smoking And Involvement In Smoking On Perceived Influences Of Anti-Smoking Public Service Announcements • Youjin Choi, Missouri and Mijong Chae, Florida • This study examined effects of attitudes toward smoking and involvement in smoking on perceived influences of anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs). The hypotheses were that people who have negative attitudes toward smoking perceive a larger influence of the PSAs on themselves than others, and those who have positive attitudes toward smoking perceive a smaller influence of the PSAs on themselves than others.

Communicating in the Aftermath of a Crisis: Lessons Learned from 9/11 • Terence (Terry) Flynn, Syracuse University • The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001 were devastating examples of how a crisis can strike at the heart and soul of an organization. Crisis management literature provides the basis for understanding the steps that organizations should take but provides limited empirical evidence of what organizational variables contribute to the successful management of a crisis event. This study uses, for the first time, three indexes to measure organizational leadership, preparedness and demand during crises.

Political Elites, News Media, and the Rhetoric of U.S. National Identity Since September 11 • John Hutcheson, David Domke, Andre Billeaudeaux, and Philip Garland, Washington • Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 it has been common for U.S. leaders to publicly articulate themes of American national identity. We argue that this national identity rhetoric has been at the heart of the governmentÕs mobilization campaign to unite the American public in support of the war on terrorism. Using content analysis of Time magazine, this study examines specific communication strategies employed by government leaders to galvanize public sentiment and promote national unity.

“Laugh Away Your Mistrust”: Revisiting the Relationship between Friendship Sitcom Viewing and Social Trust • Jong-Eun Roselyn Lee, Pennsylvania • While television entertainment is blamed for decline in social capital, a series of recent studies have produced consistent findings that suggest friendship sitcoms have positive effects on social trust. This research re-examines and elaborates the association by testing possible interaction effects between sitcom viewing and demographic characteristics on social trust. The analyses find income and race have significant interaction effects with sitcom viewing, illustrating that the relationship between sitcom viewing and social trust may vary across different demographic segments.

Media Coverage of Mexican Immigration into the United States: A Community Structure Approach • Guinevere Lehman, Daniella Gratale, Nicholas Stine and Patrick Snyder, The College of New Jersey • This study uses a “community structure approach” to examine the relationship between specific city demographics and newspaper coverage of immigration into the United States. A sample of 280 newspaper articles, published between 10/29/93 and 9/11/01, and chosen from 14 newspapers across the nation, were coded for “prominence” and article direction (favorable, unfavorable, or neutral). The results were combined to calculate a single-score “Media Vector” for each newspaper.

Stimulus or Outcome: An Operant Conditioning Explanation of Threat Messages’ Effectiveness • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This experimental study investigates the effects of outcome and threat on attitudes and behavioral intention. Applying the cardinal rule of operant conditioning that human behaviors are largely controlled by outcomes, this study finds that the high or pleasant outcome is consistently more effective than the low or unpleasant outcome in increasing subjectsÕ attitude toward object, attitude toward behavior and behavioral intention. Threat is found to have little impact.

Effects of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack on U.S. Press Coverage • Jensen Moore, Samantha Kemming and Betsy Neibergall and David P. Fan, Minnesota • This study investigated effects of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on U.S. press coverage before and after the event. Analysis focused on two of the terrorists’ goals – peace in Palestine and respect for the Muslim faith – as articulated in Osama bin Laden’s October 7, 2001 statement. Coverage was assessed using a computer-based content analysis program that categorized/evaluated text. Findings indicated that terrorists did change U.S. print media.

The Internet Comes to Radiotown: Media Use 40 Years After Schramm • Jay Newell, Michigan State University • Forty years ago Wilbur Schramm collected data on the media use habits of children in what may have been the last town in North America not to have television. This present research returns to Schramm’s “Radiotown” to explore the current media use habits of the now adult subjects of Schramm’s study. Televisions, radios and computers are ubiquitous among Schramm’s former subjects, and the use of the devices is nearly constant. Findings are compared with key aspects of three theories: uses and gratifications, diffusion of innovation and social cognitive theory.

Intensity and Goal Dimensions of Internet Dependency Relations: A Media System Dependency Theory Perspective • Padmini Patwardhan and Jin Yang, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • Using a cross sectional email survey of 166 respondents randomly drawn from the faculty, staff and student population at a large mid-western university in the United States, this study examined individual-media relations in the online environment. Intensity and goal dimensions of individual Internet relations were explored from a micro-level Media System Dependency theory perspective. Some demographic antecedents of Internet Dependency Relations were also investigated.

Framing Mental Illness: The Trial of Andrew Goldstein • Elaine Sieff, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Portrayals of mental illness in the mass media have been historically negative and inaccurate. Using framing analysis, this research attempts to understand the portrayal of schizophrenia in reports of a particular event involving an individual diagnosed with schizophrenia. Differences in the coverage between three newspapers, and the frames used were observed. Although efforts to promote more understanding of mental illness were observed; the coverage is often negative and stereotypical in nature.

Privacy In A State Of War: The Effect Of The Events Of September 11 On Media Privacy Framing • J. Richard Stevens, Texas at Austin • Privacy can be expressed in the mass media in different ways. An analysis of the use of privacy frames in the New York Times in the 16-week period surrounding the events of September 11 attempted to measure their impact on the framing of privacy. The study found a dramatic increase in the number of frames advocating increased access to individuals following Sept. 11, while the number of frames advocating less access remained relatively unchanged.

The Enactment of JournalistsÕ Role Conceptions • Tim P. Vos, Syracuse • This study tests the assumption that journalistsÕ role conceptions are reflected in how journalists write news stories. A survey of journalists was conducted to establish individual role conceptions. The findings are compared to a content analysis of those same journalists’ news content. The results indicate that role conceptions are not a reliable predictor of how news stories are written.

Framing Social Responsibility: Media Coverage of Nike Sweatshops from 1996 to 1998 • Ning Wang, Syracuse University • This paper tried to detect media frames in the coverage of Nike sweatshop issue during 1996 to 1998. Content analysis was done with 116 articles extracted from Lexis-Nexis database. The results revealed a clear trace of framing as: the workers in distant Asian countries were almost unheard of, this issue has not much government involvement, there were not many ordinary people concerned, the whole issue is primarily the charge and counter-charge between Nike and non-governmental organizations, and Nike’s promise to change was welcomed and credited.

<< 2002 Abstracts

Magazine Division

Truth Beyond Fact: An Analysis of the Gonzo Journalism of Hunter S. Thompson • Jamie Kopf, Texas at Austin • Hunter S. Thompson, who patented the aggressive, subjective first-person form of journalism known as Gonzo, has generated considerable debate among scholars of literary journalism, some of whom argue that his trademark fictionalization renders his work satire, not journalism. In arguing for Thompson’s classification as a literary journalist, this paper examines his work in the context of New Journalism, addresses the defining characteristics of the Gonzo approach, and hypothesizes the potential agenda underlying Thompson’s political writing.

Seeing Red: The Reader’s Digest during the McCarthy Era • Marianne Russ, Ohio University • A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Reader’s Digest from 1950 to 1954 finds that the popular magazine’s fanatically anti-Communist tone was often emphasized through articles that originated at the Digest, rather than condensed reprints from other periodicals. Articles dealing with the threat of Communism in the U.S., justification for intervention in Communist countries, conditions behind the Iron Curtain, and military preparation are featured. Current events make historical research on such propaganda relevant.

Newsmagazine Coverage of AIDS, 1995-1996: Progress and Hope or Hype? • William P. Cassidy, Oregon • This study analyzes AIDS coverage in Newsweek, Time and U.S. News & World Report in 1995 and 1996 to assess if the tone of coverage changed following the early 1996 introduction of protease inhibitor drugs, Critics allege that following the introduction of these successful drug therapies, coverage became overly optimistic. Results show that the overall mean tone score of coverage was 1.17 (on a scale of 0-2) and that coverage became slightly more negative in 1996.

Counting Coup: A 1987-2000 Circulation History of Native Peoples, the First National Consumer Magazine about America’s First Peoples • Marcelyn M. Kropp, Ohio University • Since 1826, over two thousand newspapers and periodicals have been published in the United States about American Indians and Alaska Natives. This paper “counts coup” or tells the story of how one of those periodicals, Native Peoples, became the most widely circulated, national consumer magazine about contemporary American Indians ever published by chronicling its 1987-2000 circulation. Circulation reached an all-time high in 1993-1999 due to a partnership with the National Museum of the American Indians.

A Content Analysis of Advertising Visuals in the Magazine Advertisements: The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression • Daechun An, South Carolina • This content analysis of a sample of advertising from Time, New Yorker, and Saturday Evening Post during the 1920s and 1930s examined the impact of the national economic conditions on advertising and its visuals. This study suggests that the impact of national economic conditions in the 1920s and 1930s on the use of ad visuals in the mainstream magazine advertisements seemed visible. Photographs were more prevalent in the 1930s. Also, the use of literal visuals was dominant in the 1930s.

“The Best-Read Page Of ÔPure Reading Matter”Ô: Eleanor Roosevelt’s “If You Ask Me” And Mid-Century Feminism • Michael T. McGill, Bowling Green State University • Overlooked by journalism historians, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s Ladies’ Home Journal column — “If You Ask Me” — represents a blueprint of the women’s movement of the 1940s. Herself a feminist, Roosevelt used the Journal page as a public forum to discuss problems and obstacles confronting women’s roles in society, focusing particularly on the role of women in American politics, the equality of the sexes, the role of women during World War II, and the role of women in the workplace.

A Mediational Model of the Impact of Health and Beauty Magazine Reading on Body Shape Concerns Among A Group Of College-Age Women • Steven Thomsen, Brigham Young University • In the present study, data from a survey of 355 college-age women were used to test a structural equation model that examined three potential factors — hope, beliefs about men’s expectations for female thinness, and expected weight gain or loss in five years — that might mediate the relationship between reading health and fitness and beauty and fashion magazines and body shape and size concerns. The study found that health and fitness and beauty and fashion magazine reading are differentially related to body image concerns.

The Coverage of Prostate Cancer and Impotence in Four Magazines: 1991 -2000 • W. Buzz Hoon, Western Illinois University • The purpose of this study was to explore press coverage of two men’s health issues, prostate cancer and impotence, in magazines with large male readerships. Examined were issues of Gentleman’s Quarterly, Esquire, Men’s Health and Ebony published between 1991 and 2000. Results show magazines ran more articles on the issues after 1995; coverage was usually presented in an informational manner; content provided information on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the diseases; and men wrote most of the stories.

How Those Diamond Girls Did Shine: The Influence of Publicity and Promotion on Magazine Coverage Of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League • Andi Stein, California State-Fullerton • This is an examination of the role publicity and promotion played in the establishment of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and exploration of the link between these promotional efforts and magazine coverage that resulted from them. This link is analyzed by reviewing various promotional strategies used as part of the publicity efforts of the MGPBL and assessing how these strategies were reflected in magazine articles written about the League between 1943-1954.

Do They ÔPlay Like Girls”? A Look At Advertising Photographs In Four Women’s Sport Magazines • Marie Hardin, West Georgia, Susan Lynn, Florida State University and Kristie Walsdorf, Florida State • This study examines advertising photographs in four women’s sports and fitness magazines, to ascertain the presence of sexual difference and to differentiate between advertising messages in the magazines. Researchers found strong support for sexual difference Shape advertisements, and, at the other end of the spectrum, rejection of sexual difference in Real Sports. The now-defunct Women’s Sports and Fitness, and Sports Illustrated for Women provided some support for sexual difference in their advertisements.

A Longitudinal Quantitative Study of Gender and Related Determinants in U.S. Consumer Magazines • David Abrahamson, Rebecca Lynn Bowman, Mark R. Greer and William Brian Yeado, Northwestern University • In an effort to examine a-number of fundamental questions about the U.S. consumer magazine publishing industry in a historical context, the research of a baseline 1991 quantitative study was duplicated exactly 10 years later employing the same research methodology. It is evident that gender-specificity continues-to be an important determinant in the shape of the U.S. consumer magazine industry: Significantly more publications are aimed at male readers, and they tend to be smaller in circulation than women’s magazines, but this difference in circulation size is clearly narrowing.

Black Women’s Portrayals in Essence, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Working Woman on the Brink of the 21st Century • Teresa Mastin, Alison Coe, Sheri Hamilton and Sheila Tarr, Middle Tennessee State University • This study attempted to determine whether a pattern of racial separation and hierarchy found in a study that examined Black’s portrayals in television commercials would emerge in a print medium. In particular, the study examined Black women’s portrayals in three women’s magazine advertisements during the last decade of the 20th, century. Results indicate that women’s magazine advertisements that include Black women more often present images reinforcing racial division than images promoting racial acceptance and equality.

Helping Women Save Their Marriages: A Content Analysis of the Marriage Advice Given In Ladies’ Home Journal Articles from the 1950s and 1950s • Renee Martin Kratzer, Missouri • Ladies’ Home Journal dispenses marital advice in the department called “Can This Marriage Be Saved.” This popular department, which debuted in 1953, presents case files from various counselors. The articles reveal people’s marital problems and the counselor’s solutions for saving the marriage. A content analysis of articles from the 1950s and the 1950s reveals that the advice given to the spouses changed over time, and that this department serves to reinforce social norms of marriage.

Marriage, Magazines and Makeup Tips: A Comparative Content Analysis of Brides Magazine and Glamour Magazine • Vincent F. Filak, Missouri • Researchers have often argued that women’s magazines present a shallow and narrow view of what women want to know. Articles and advertisements are geared mostly toward beauty and fashion, ignoring deeper needs and non-consumer-driven issues. This paper argues that bridal magazines follow the same pattern in terms of advertising and content while receiving little criticism from the academic press.

<< 2002 Abstracts

Law Division

International Cyber Jurisdiction: Toward The Formulation Of Common Laws? • Dharma Adhikari, Missouri-Columbia • This paper briefly overviews the existing key debates on international Internet jurisdiction, discusses how the U.S., and the European Union — the dominant users of the World Wide Web — are treating this subject, analyses key international treaties legislating the web, and reviews some relevant jurisdictional cases. It is argued that despite cultural, political, historical and legal differences, countries are gradually coming together to formulate common laws to address the jurisdictional issues posed by the Internet. Greater representation of the global community in future cyber regulation efforts is called for.

“More Speech, Not Enforced Silence:” Online Hate Speech, Brandeisian Ideals and Social Marketing • Genelle Belmas, Cal State-Long Beach • Online hate speech is not a new nor small phenomenon, and it poses some of the most difficult and painful questions this medium faces today. This paper examines current case law and provides a social marketing alternative to hate speech legislation to address concerns about the impact of online hate. A new organization is proposed that would have as a mandate the goal of providing “more speech” to combat the potential effects of hateful communication.

Protecting a Delicate Balance: Facts, Ideas, and Expression in Compilation Copyright Cases • Matthew D. Bunker, Reese Phifer and Bethany White, Alabama • The fact/expression and idea/expression dichotomies are two of copyright law’s most important doctrines for preserving a vibrant public domain and protecting free expression interests. Recently, those doctrines have been interpreted narrowly in important federal court decisions dealing with the protection of compilations of information. This paper analyzes these cases and suggests changes in the interpretation of the law.

A Short-Sighted Victory: Why Declaring Richard Jewell a Public Figure is Wrong and Harms Journalism • Clay Calvert and Robert D. Richards, Penn State • A Georgia appellate court ruled in 2001 that Richard Jewell, the one-time suspect in the 1996 bombing in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, was a public figure for purposes of his libel suit against the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. While journalists celebrated the court’s classification, this paper argues that such jubilation is misguided because, in the long term, it may mean that sources will be unwilling to speak to the news media for fear of losing private-figure status.

Reporters’ Sources As Trade Secrets: Whose Source Is It Anyway? • Clay Calvery and Robert D. Richards, Penn State • Should a news organization be able to possess sources used by its reporters as exclusive trade secrets, thereby depriving other news organizations of the opportunity to contact them? This novel issue, carrying profound First Amendment affects for newsgathering and free flow of information, is raised in the case of Paperloop.com v. Gow now wending its way through the state court system in California. That case and the questions its raises are explored in this paper.

Public Access to GIS Information: Legal Issues Concerning the Technology • Rene Que Chen and Charles Davis, Missouri-Columbia • GIS technology is being widely applied by governments and governmental agencies in land use, urban planning, environmental protection, real estate, taxation, census and many other areas in government administration. A large amount of public information is stored and processed, or starts to be stored and processed in GIS. As a technology that has the ability to handle enormously large amount of information, compile information from different datasets and present the final results in graphics, GIS changes the balance among different social interests that the courts have been striking for in their decisions on journalistic and public access to public records.

Unmasking Jane and John Doe: Online Anonymity and the First Amendment • Victoria Smith Ekstrand, North Carolina • Online anonymity is not a new problem, but its introduction to the courts is still relatively recent. This paper examines seven recent court decisions in which plaintiffs have attempted to unmask online Jane and John Does. Although this study does not provide generalizable conclusions, it does reveal that the guidelines courts are establishing for revealing anonymous online users are loosely borrowed from the law on reporter’s privilege.

Shielding Private Lives From Prying Eyes: How the Supreme Court Has Crafted a Constitutional Right to Privacy That Can Trump Public Access to Government Information • Martin E. Halstuk, Penn State • The Supreme Court in Bartnicki v. Vopper held in 2001 that a Pennsylvania radio station was not liable for broadcasting a secretly taped cell-phone conversation between two public figures. Although the Court ruled in favor of the broadcaster, the Court also recognized that the First Amendment may protect nondisclosure of private facts. Although Bartnicki represents a free press victory, it also threatens public access to government information in the future because constitutional information privacy can be raised as a bar to block disclosure under state open-records laws and the Freedom of Information Act.

Personally-identifiable Information in Federal Agency Databases: The Derivative Use Analysis in FOIA Privacy Exemption Cases • Michael Hoefges, Tennessee, Martin E. Halstuk, Penn State, and Bill F. Chamberlin, Florida • The U.S. government maintains a tremendous amount of personally-identifiable information, much in electronic databases. Requestors like journalists and marketers seek this information for things like investigative reporting and targeted solicitations – called “derivative uses.” Derivative uses of personally-identifiable information implicate privacy concerns although limits on access to public records can have negative public policy implications. This paper explores the escalating conflict between personal privacy and derivative uses of personally-identifiable information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Virtual Children: Is the First Amendment Slip-Sliding Away? • Sharron M. Hope, Purdue • Two bedrock American values, the First Amendment and protecting children, directly conflict in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. This case challenges the Child Pornography Protection Act of 1996, in which images that appear to be minors engaged in sexual conduct, including those created exclusively by computer, are considered child porn and thus illegal. The author argues that this definition criminalizes thoughts that, though repugnant, should be protected by the First Amendment.

A Long Journey Toward Intellectual Property Protection: A Study of Taiwan’s Copyright Law Reform • Hsiao-Yin Josephine Hsueh, Missouri-Columbia • In the 1980s and 1990s, Taiwan went through a series of reform to improve its protection for copyright. The findings of this study show that although the modern copyright statute dates back to as early as the late Qing Dynasty (in 1910), the concept of copyright did not exist in the minds of the general public until recently. After more than a decade of efforts, Taiwan’s copyright protection has made improvements. Currently, the level of copyright protection in Taiwan almost meets the standard of such international copyright treaties as the Berne Convention.

Law Enforcement Records Custodians’ Decision-Making Behaviors in Response to Florida’s Public Records Law • Michele Bush Kimball, South Alabama • Access to government information is being thwarted in law enforcement agencies across the country. This study explores the decision-making behaviors of law enforcement records custodians in Florida using qualitative and legal research methodologies. The data was also used to develop a grounded theory that can be used to predict and explain records custodians’ use of subjective behaviors when responding to requests for information.

Redefining Internet Service Providers: Toward a New Legal Framework for Internet Regulation • Seung Eun Lee, Florida • This paper explores the legal status of ISPs with the question of whether we have one legal definition, agreed to by the FCC, the courts, and Congress, that is consistent with what ISPs do today. This study found out that the courts’ interpretation of section 230 of the Communication Decency Act are consistent. In reviewing the recent cases, the study found out that the section 230 immunity for liability in third party posting now expands, generally covering all civil liability claims originating from third-party content.

Exit Polls and Other Bad Habits: An Analysis of First Amendment Considerations Concerning Policy Recommendations to Control or Prohibit Media Election Forecasts • Niels Marslev, Arizona State • Following the media debacle on Election Night 2000, the National Commission on Federal Election Reform recommended that exit polling and early projections be discouraged or restricted. Existing jurisprudence, however, is rather unclear. This paper analyzes the cautious recommendations of the Commission primarily in light of First Amendment considerations. The author agrees with the recommendations, but also concludes that new restrictions, if challenged, would present the Supreme Court with a welcome opportunity to clarify ambiguous areas of media law.

Trademarks and the First Amendment: The Anatomy of a Conflict • Retha J. Martin, Tennessee • In our commercialized culture, trademarks have become a key element of public discourse and communications. They are also the lifeblood of the powerful corporations that own them. This paper asserts that developments in trademark protection (in particular, the enactment of the Trademark Dilution Act of 1995) have created a legal environment in which the rights of trademark owners are valued over First Amendment rights of free speech.

Localism Reconsidered: The Lessons of Docket 80-90 and the Future of Low Power FM • Gregory D. Newton, Ohio • Maximizing the diversity of available programming serves the public interest and the First Amendment interest in a robust marketplace of ideas. Although local content is only one aspect of diversity, it is of special concern because of its connection to the political structure and the public dialogue essential to democratic process. This paper compares the results of Docket 80-90 to the recent LPFM rulemaking, to assess the potential localism value of those stations.

Copyright Term Extensions, the Public Domain and Intertextuality Intertwined • Ashley Packard, Houston-Clear Lake • This fall, the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of the Copyright Term Extension Act’s twenty-year prospective and retrospective term extensions. This paper considers whether the petitioners have raised a legitimate First Amendment issue, and if so, what a First Amendment argument for protecting the public domain might be. It describes the CTEA, considers whether First Amendment analysis is warranted, sketches the public domain, and examines the public domain’s intertextual relationship to freedom of expression.

Operationalizing the Law of Jurisdiction: Where in the World Can I Be Sued for Operating a World Wide Web Page? • Amanda Reid, Florida • A court may decide the rights of a person, known as “personal jurisdiction,” when a defendant engages in deliberate activities thereby creating a substantial connection with another state. This notion is explained, examined, and discussed by looking at federal courts of appeals cases where the defendant had Internet- based contacts with another state. Suggestions are made for how the well-respected test of “purposeful availment” for personal jurisdiction could be operationalized for Web based contacts.

Theories Rejected: The Framing of the Freedom of Expression Section of the South African Constitution • Thomas A. Schwartz, Ohio State • This paper analyzes the political birth of the freedom of expression section of the South African Constitution by comparing the freedom of expression platforms of the seven political parties that participated in the 1994 Constitutional Assembly with each other and with the freedom of expression section of the ultimate Constitution. The paper finds that the section, as a compromise of the rivaling ideologies, reflects little about the special experience of South Africa.

Individual Privacy Versus Public Access: An Analysis of the Six Factors Courts Use to Balance These Two Competing Social Interests • Joey Senat, Oklahoma State University • This research identified and examined six factors that federal and state courts use to balance personal privacy against public access to government-held information. It also identified a number of problems with the way courts resolve this conflict and makes a number of recommendations that, if accepted by legislators and courts, would better protect informational privacy while emphasizing the fullest responsible disclosure of government information.

Online-Privacy: A Comparative Study of Privacy Practices on European and American Web Sites • Bastiaan Vanacker, Minnesota • This paper presents a background, comparison and discussion of the legal frameworks that have been adopted in the United States and in Europe regarding informational privacy in general and on line data protection in particular. The paper also contains a research component in which privacy policies of American and European Web sites are compared in order to answer the question whether or not different legal frameworks have given way to different on line privacy practices.

“An Evil Act”: The Battle to Define Communication in Texas v. Johnson • David J. Vergobbi, Utah • This essay analyzed U.S. Senate debate over the proposed Flag Protection Amendment to reveal how political opponents legally and morally defined “speech” based on the Texas v. Johnson case. It found that by altering our legal definition of communication to favor the community over the individual, the amendment would remove not only First Amendment protection for symbolic expression, but also remove the individual citizen’s legal ability to discern for him/herself whether communication even occurred.

Legal Considerations When Consumer Opinion Websites Parody Companies or Brands • Tae-Li Yoon, Missouri-Columbia • As the Internet has become a “modern symbol of the classical market of ideas,” consumer opinion sites that parody companies or brands become popular in the cyberspace. This article examines various legal issues and law cases that might be applicable to parody sites in the light of copyright laws, trademark laws, libel laws, and service provider liability. Looking at a possibility that parody sites can lie in the tension between free speech rights, intellectual property interests, and libel issues, this article discusses how parody sites can enjoy First Amendment freedoms by avoiding legal pitfalls.

<< 2002 Abstracts

International Communication Division

MARKHAM/OPEN COMPETITION
The Tower of Digital Babble: Excursions in the Discourse of Digital Division • Toby J. Arquette, Purdue University • This study addresses “digital division” across 172 nations. From a meta-analysis of the different discursive frameworks, a synthesized analytic framework, the Information Intelligence Quotient (IIQ2), is proposed to as a tool for assessing the state of a target community’s information and communication system development. Descriptive statistical analyses comparing the effects of the composite and disaggregated indices are reported. The results provide descriptive evidence that regardless of discursive framework, there is a digital divide.

The Image Of International Trade Relations: A Content Analysts Of Japanese, Us, And Dutch Economic Print News • Florann A. Arts, Amsterdam • Content analysis data from the US, Netherlands, and Japan show that Japanese international trade coverage has a stronger tendency to negativity than US and Dutch coverage. The US coverage was found to be most harmony oriented of the three countries. The results also suggest that elite country involvement and ethnocentricity are more important than conflict as predictors of the amount of attention dedicated to a trade relation.

Pop Culture’s Invasion of the Middle East (1999-2002) • Megan Louise Beall, Georgia State University • How does the United States package and export popular culture to the Middle East? What are the lasting effects of this exported “culture” phenomenon? Is pop culture changing the fundamental fabric of everyday life in the Middle East? The impact of popular culture on the Middle East is unfolding changing the way business are run and effecting the economy, but in the end pop culture has not changed the fundamental values of the Islamic society.

Attitudes toward Foreign Leaders, Nations, and Terrorism: As Predicted by Media Use and Perceived Threat • Christopher E. Beaudoin, Indiana University-Bloomington • The current study explores the role that the mass media play in predicting attitudes toward foreign toward foreign nations and leaders and toward more specific attitudes toward the combat of international terrorism. Two models are tested: 1) a direct effects model; and 2) a model based upon the health belief model that posits that perceived threat of terrorism will play a mediating role between mass media use and attitudes toward Middle East nations and leaders and toward the combat of international terrorism.

A Sober New Political Identity In Europe: Media Constructions Of Scotland Though The Prism Of The Scottish Parliament • Dougie Bicket, SUNY Geneseo • This paper analyzes emerging conceptions of Scottish external relations through the mediated prism of the election campaign for the new Scottish parliament in 1999. The study identifies four dominant media packages that frame press coverage. All but one of these packages is heavily linked to the UR Labour Party, which dominated the media campaign and emphasized OR dominance over Scotland.

Remnants Of The Cold War: U. S. Policy Influences On New York Times’ Coverage Of Nicaragua’s Elections In 1990, 1996, And 2001 • Greg Bikowski, Ohio University • This research examined articles in the New York Times that covered Nicaragua’s last three elections to determine if U. S. policy was reflected. A content analysis examined articles for the source of the story, angle, and labeling. Overall, this research found a tendency for the Times to use U. S. officials as the main source of the story, a story angle central to U. S. interests, and labels that linked Ortega to revolution and communism.

Analysis of the Cold War Propaganda Techniques in a Post Cold War Documentary “Red Files: Russian Propaganda Machine” • Ramune Braziunaite, Bowling Green State University • The paper analyzes one post-Cold War documentary video, “Red Files: Soviet Propaganda Machine,” produced and directed by Elizabeth Dobson in 1999 and argues that through various manipulative communication techniques this documentary continues the tradition of dichotomizing the world using the Cold War frames almost ten years after the fall of Communism. The analysis focuses on fallacies, omissions, distortions, and suggestions as the major characteristics of this video as an example of propaganda.

The Role of Journalism in 19th Century National Movements in Estonia and Finland • Janis Cakars, Indiana University • This paper examines the role of the press in the formation of national identity in 19th century Estonia and Finland. It illuminates not only the similarities and differences between these two cases, but addresses the interaction between them. The study employs a comparative approach that is meant to test and inform theories of national identity development. It finds the comparison of these little-known cases useful for enriching such theory, but calls for further research “from below” in order to more fully understand the complex relationship between media and changing identities.

Public Broadcasting Systems Demise Within the Dominant Private System Model: The Netherlands Case • Tony R. DeMars, Sam Houston State • In many countries, the electronic media in the 1990s were being reinvented, not because of a desire within established systems to change or decline, but because of challenges made by new technologies. This paper demonstrates that even a country like The Netherlands with a firmly established public system can have its system challenged and perhaps lost when confronted with broadcasting based on advertising, competition and ratings.

Exploring International Public Communication Strategies: A Cross-Cultural Case Study of Anti-tobacco Efforts in Six Countries • Sameer Deshpande, Michelle R. Nelson, Narayan Devanathan, Ronald Yaros, Hye-Jin Pack, Ratanasuda Punnahitanond, Susan E. Stein and Alexandra M. Vilela, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper reports results of a cross-cultural case study of communication strategies employed by governments and other organizations in 2000-01 to reduce tobacco consumption in six countries. An analysis of the prevalence of tobacco consumption, anti-tobacco regulations and communication campaigns revealed that there are currently more differences than similarities across national cultures. Findings are discussed according to the viability for a standardized or localized strategy to global communications efforts.

Post-Communist Broadcast Media: A Case Study Of Estonia’s 1994 Broadcast Law • Max V. Grubb, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • The collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of communism in Eastern Europe initiated a third wave of democratization. One challenge confronting these countries was the development and enactment of legislation that would create independent democratic broadcast systems. This study examines the development and enactment of broadcast legislation in post-communist Estonia. The law enacted exacerbated tensions between public and private broadcasters, and inhibited the development and growth of private broadcasting in Estonia.

Newspaper Framing of the “Attacks on America”: An International Comparison • Alexander Halavais, Julia Usu, Kara Kerwin, Diana Pletz, Jennifer Diaz and Shirley Xavier, State University of New York at Buffalo • This study provides an interpretation of how cultural contexts affected news reports of the attacks of September of 2001. Examining articles from six newspapers in four countries during the two weeks following the events, we found four axes along which coverage was framed. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to content analysis, we are able to both indicate evidence of such differences in content and describe how this affected the character of coverage.

Bridging Latin America’s Digital Divide: Government Policies and Internet Access • Eliza Tanner Hawkins with Kirk A. Hawkins, Brigham Young University • Latin American governments have sought to increase access to information technologies in a variety of ways. This cross-sectional time-series analysis of nineteen countries between 1990 and 2000 examines government policies and Internet usage. It finds that Internet use is strongly associated with a country’s wealth and the telecommunications infrastructure. The government policies with the strongest influence on increasing access are changes to the tariff structure, such as creating flat-price dialing schemes, and full market liberalization.

Patterns of Cultural Orientations and Conflict Resolution in Three Cultural Groups • Zhou He and Jonathon J.H. Zhu, City University of Hong Kong; Shiyong Peng, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman and Xueyi Chen, Syracuse University • This study examined the relationship between cultural orientations and conflict resolution at the individual level through a probability survey of 524 managerial subjects in cross-cultural settings in China, including a group of American and a group of French, in Sino-American, Sino-French and solely Chinese enterprises in China. Based on the assumption that differences in cultural orientations lead to differences in conflict resolution styles, this study explores and compares the patterns in the relationship between cultural orientations and conflict resolution styles in culturally different groups.

Perceptions of Brazilian Journalists About Media Roles and Foreign Influences • Heloiza G. Herscovitz, Florida International University • This paper is based on a self-administered survey with 402 journalists working for 13 leading news organizations and personal interviews with renowned journalists of Sao Paulo- Brazil’s main media hub. Findings indicate that respondents hold a pluralistic view regarding media roles. They also believe they are influenced by the American model of journalism and dismissed the traditional French influence that pervaded Brazilian journalism in the past.

Press Freedom In Hong Kong: A Post- 1997 Perspective • Tianbo Huang, Juyan Zhang and Yi Lu, Missouri • Through a content analysis with an interrupted series design, three newspapers in Hong Kong, Ming Pao, Sing Tao Jih Pao and Hong Kong Economic Journal, were found to have become more favorable to the Chinese government immediately before the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997. However, some newspapers appeared to have resumed their critical stances toward China several years after the hand-over.

From The Inside Out: How Institutional Entrepreneurs Transformed Mexico’s Newsrooms • Sallie Hughes, Miami • This paper examines the transformation of Mexican newsroom culture that drove the transformation of images of subjects and rulers into citizens and politicians. It explains the emergence and dispersion of a new style of journalism in Mexico based on a civic orientation that encouraged citizen knowledge and participation in politics during MexicoÕs gradual transition to an electoral democracy. It argues that oppositional values and alternative ideas about journalism changed the identities of institutional entrepreneurs in the Mexican press.

Individual Perceptions of International Correspondents in the Middle East: An Obstacle to Fair News? • Dina Ibrahim, Texas at Austin • This paper examines the issues foreign correspondents have cited in various surveys and interviews as obstacles to fair reporting in the Middle East over the past 30 years. It is a historical reflective analysis of the individual influences of journalists perceptions on media content, and how these perceptions may affect stories filed from the Middle East. The author also briefly assesses how organizational pressures of the news production process can impact news from the Middle East.

Glocalizing a Dam Conflict: Thai Rath, Matichon and Pak Mun Dam • Suda Ishida, Iowa • This research places Thai media into the center of glocalization process. It examines how two Thai-language daily newspapers reported about a 12-year environmental conflict over a World Bank-sponsored hydropower dam project in northeast Thailand. Through comparative critical discourse analysis of the Pak Mun dam coverage, the research addresses four primary areas: 1) the media attention to the conflict, 2) the source dependency, 3) the dominant news frames, and 4) the press’ role in localizing and globalizing this environmental conflict.

Media Use and Credibility of International News in Kazakhstan: Perceptions of the Attacks in the U.S., the Attacks in Afghanistan and the Raising of the Kursk • Stan Ketterer and Maureen Nemecek, Oklahoma State University • Historically, citizens of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, are highly interested in international news. Journalism students rely most on television news and find it most credible, but it depends on the story and its source. They relied most on Russian TV regarding the attacks in the U.S. and Afghanistan. Conversely, they relied most on radio, likely BBC, for coverage of the Kursk. Cable television, CNN for the attacks and BBC for the Kursk, was second.

Cultural Differences in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Use: A Comparison of Korea and the United States • Heeman Kim, Temple University • This paper investigates the influence of cultural factors on the use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). It first examines whether traditional communication predisposition, such as independent and interdependent self-construal, is extended to online interaction. It then addresses whether different CMC preferences relating to communication predisposition in Korea and the U.S. can be identified. It concludes that while Korean respondents showed a significant interdependent self-construal online, American respondents did not show a significant independent self-construal.

Assessing the Hierarchy of Influences Theory of Content: Coverage of the Cultural Revolution in China by Time and Newsweek, 1966-69 • Guoli Li and Anne Cooper-Chen, Ohio University • This paper examines press performance under atypical conditions to assess the generalizability of the Shoemaker and Reese (1996) Hierarchy of Influences theory of media content. It studied the two leading U.S. weekly news magazines’ reporting of a culturally, politically, geographically, and ideologically distant story. The overarching first level ideology, was assumed to operate, while the influence of the other four levels (extramedia, organizational, media routines and individual) was documented; the model was found to be robust but somewhat culture bound.

Spy or Scapegoat: A News Framing Study of the New York TimesÕ Coverage of the Wen Ho Lee Case • Jia Lin and Junhao Hong, State University of New York at Buffalo • Through both traditional and computer-based content analysis of the New York Times’ coverage of the Wen Ho Lee case, this article explores how the U.S. mainstream media frame their coverage of news events, especially foreign news events. Based on the findings, this study suggests that a dominant ideology is often behind the news coverage. In addition, the research also finds that U.S. media’s biased coverage of the Wen Ho Lee case is more toward China than to Wen Ho Lee.

European vs. U.S. Newspaper Framing of the Middle Eastern Conflict Pre and Post Sept. 11: A Case Study • Mia Moody-Hall, Texas at Austin • This study looked at how European and U.S. newspapers framed the Middle Eastern conflict pre- and post- Sept. 11. Common themes included, “taking sides” and “foreign policy gone wrong. “Negative adjectives were used more frequently to describe Arabs/Palestinians than Israelis; however the adjectives used to describe killings by the groups were similar. Further, Sept. 11 did not appear to influence either county’s coverage, and there were no significant differences in how the countries framed the conflict.

Culture or Ignorance? Communication For HIV/AIDS Prevention in Kenya • Nancy Muturi, Iowa • This study addresses the discrepancy between awareness and behavior change in reproductive health from a communications perspectives, drawing its theoretical framework from Grunig’s model of Excellence in Communication that emphasizes strategic communication through two-way symmetrical communication. The study examines social-cultural factors that influence people’s decision-making in the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in Africa. Data were gathered qualitatively using focus groups and in-depth interviews among rural men and women in Kenya.

A Case for a Paradigm Shift and a New Theory in Development Communication Scholarship • Samuel Chege Mwangi, South Carolina • This paper argues that theories currently driving development communication scholarship do not reflect issues and concerns in developing countries and calls for a paradigm shift and a new theory to guide the field.

A Profile of Ugandan Journalists of Ugandan Journalists in the New Millennium • Peter G. Mwesige, Indiana University • Based on a survey of 101 journalists, this study provides the first comprehensive attitudinal portrait of Ugandan news workers at an exciting time in Uganda’s democratization process. The study examines the demographics, background, job conditions, and education of news people in Uganda; their role perceptions; professional attitudes, beliefs and values; and the major constraints to journalistic freedoms in Uganda.

The Media and Foreign Policy: A Comparative Analysis of The New York Times’ Coverage of Zaire • Peter G. Mwesige, Indiana University • Several studies have concluded that American media coverage of foreign countries and international events is congruent with prevailing U.S. government foreign policy. This study analyzes The New York Times coverage of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in two different periods in order to establish whether trends in the paperÕs coverage were related to shifts in U.S. foreign policy toward this African country.

The End of Ideology and the Redefinition of Public Service Broadcasting in Italy: RAI, 1990-2001 • Cinzia Padovani, Colorado at Boulder • In my paper I analyze the recent history of the Italian public service broadcaster, RAI. Based on a review of primary sources (various documents and interviews), I claim that the end of party affiliation, that has characterized the last ten years of the broadcaster’s history, has coincided with the loss of RAI’s identity as a public service. As a result, programs on RAI have become increasingly similar to the ones on commercial television.

Internet Power and Social Context: A World System Approach to Web Privacy Concerns • Rivka Ribak, University of Haifa, Israel and Joseph Turow, Pennsylvania • This paper argues that contemporary perspectives on the Internet and the family fail to recognize the multi-leveled negotiations about the web’s meaning that take place in many societies and cause the web to be defined simultaneously in terms of local cultures and world markets. It proposes that a “world system” perspective can disentangle these cross-pressures by situating a societyÕs cultural and technological practices within broad political and economic parameters.

Nicaragua 2001: Media Struggles in Partisanship, Polarization and Politics • Rick Rockwell, American University and Noreene Janus, Academy for Educational Development • This paper reviews the evolution of the media in Nicaragua during 2001, an election year. The focus here is on La Prensa, the top circulation newspaper, and Canal 2, the leading television network. Both outlets attempted a change from partisanship in this election. The paper outlines the commonalities between the media outlets as a way of further discussing media systems in transition from post-Communist or authoritarian systems toward a democratic ideal.

International News Flow and the U.S. News Media: A Model Proposed from a Critical Review of the Literature • Takuya Sakurai, Akron • This paper reviews international news flow and coverage studies with two aims: (1) to synthesize various factors influencing international news flow; and (2) to characterize the process of selecting international news in the U.S. news media. Dividing those factors into two patterns, deviance-oriented and relevance-oriented perspectives, this review of the literature proposes a model of international news selection by the U.S. news media.

Covering the Dead: U.S. and Chinese Magazine Reportage of the Crackdown on the Tiananmen Square Movement • Yu Shi, Iowa • Based within the historical context of the Tiananmen Square movement in Beijing 1989, the study first attempts to delineate journalists’ narratives of the crackdown on the movement, and then to explain why they interpreted the event the way they did by putting the narratives into the different discursive contexts of what it means to be a journalist, which are constructed differently by U.S. and Chinese journalists as members of different interpretive communities.

Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in Political Transition • Jae C. Shim, Missouri, Charles T. Salmon, Michigan State University and Kyung S. Lee, Korea University • This study examines a typical case of investigative reporting in South Korea and analyzes how it is linked with the agenda-building process for the nationÕs democratization. By integrating theoretical frameworks from agenda-building and investigative reporting, we will describe how the coverage of police brutality became a national issue in South Korea and led to the peopleÕs uprising for national democratic reform in 1987, just one year before the Seoul Olympic Games.

The Possibility of Adoption of the Actual Malice Rule in Foreign Countries: From the Fourth Estate Perspective • Taegyu Son, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In Sullivan, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that there is a right to criticize public officials guaranteed by the First Amendment by establishing the actual malice standard. Many in Australia, Canada, and England have argued that the malice standard should be applied to defamation cases in their respective countries. The courts have rejected adoption of it.

Toward a Critical Genealogy of Communication, Development, and Social Change • Sujatha Sosale, Georgia State University • This paper attempts to step outside the frameworks within which “communication and development” has been debated for the better part of the last five decades or so and understand how this concept has been produced and elevated to the status of a “master signifier.” I suggest an alternative framework located at the intersection of critical cultural studies and poststructuralism that will help trace the historical trajectory of communication and development for social change as a discourse.

Democracy or Farce: Discourse about the 2000 US Presidential Election In Chinese Newspaper Commentaries and Internet Forum Comments • Weiqun Su, Minnesota • The purpose of research was to identify media discourses about the US 2000 presidential election in Chinese newspapers and the Internet forum. Three discourses were identified in newspaper commentaries and Internet forum comments: Election as news; Hopelessly flawed democracy; and democracy as a model system. Findings show that while the Chinese print media strictly convey Party ideology, the Internet allows some degree of departures from the Party line and seems to be nourishing dissident views.

Upholding Haitian Democracy or Vying for Public Support: The Framing of U.S. Intervention in Haiti, 1994 • Mustafa Taha, United Arab Emirates • This paper examines the framing of US. intervention in Haiti in 1994. It uses the framing theory to analyze the Clinton administration’s justification for the intervention. To put the White House frames in perspective, the paper juxtaposes of official frames against opposing frames that Republican Congressional leaders and media provided. To achieve this task, the paper relies on the Cable News Network (CNN) and the New York Times as representatives of media organizations.

Globalization and Communication: A Media-centric Framework • Brad Thompson, Pennsylvania State • This paper will explore the historical developments and transformations in communications methods and technologies to understand their role and effects in shaping the basic elements of societies.

Global Internet Diffusion: A Cross-National Study • Arun Vishwanath, Indiana University Bloomington • Extant research linking diffusion and culture is limited. This empirical study builds on propositions presented by Miatland (1998) and examines five hypotheses linking Hofstede’s (1980, 1991) cultural variables to the rate of diffusion of the Internet globally. The study found significant support for three hypotheses linking higher levels of individuality or individualistic behavior, lower power distance or decentralized societal structures and higher tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty to the rate of diffusion of the Internet.

“They Killed the Messenger”- An Analysis of Media and Framing of News in Mozambique • Muriel Visser, Florida State University • This paper examines whether and how media ownership influences news framing. A combined case study approach and content analysis is used to examine the profile of four newspapers in Mozambique and the manner in which the murder of a renowned Mozambican journalist, Carlos Cardoso, is portrayed in the Mozambican press. The discussion on framing is conducted in the light of current thinking about globalization and the role of local media.

Financial Journalism In Market Economies And Globalization: Implications For Journalism Education • Nailene Chou Wiest, University of Hong Kong • Financial Journalism, once practiced in the backwater of the newsrooms, has grown rapidly over the past 20 years, thanks to economic liberalization in many countries and globalization of the international capital. It has played a crucial mediating role in transmitting abstract economic and financial messages to the public. This paper will discuss the “market-enhancing” function of financial journalism in developing countries, the proposed regulation of financial journalists and the education of the practitioners.

U.S. Foreign Correspondents in the 21st Century: Issues and Implications • H. Denis Wu and John Maxwell Hamilton, Louisiana State University • This paper reports the findings yielded from a survey of U.S. foreign correspondents conducted in 2001. More foreign nationals are found to work for U.S. media. Europe remains to be the most common base for foreign correspondents. Most foreign correspondents can speak three languages: French, Spanish, and German. The impact of the Internet has also been observed: reporters have to file and update more often. Issues and implications of the changed demographics and work condition are discussed.

Is the Web a Cross-Cultural Medium? A Cross-Cultural Study of Web Portal Motivation in the United States and South Korea • Doyle Yoon, Fritz Cropp and Glen Cameron, Missouri • Attempts were made in this study to find motivation in using Web portals in the United States and South Korea. The analysis revealed five factors or motivation in using Web portals: familiarity, communicating / socialization, personalization, purchasing, and searching. Differences between five factors were examined in terms of Internet use in two countries. This paper addresses the implications by examining differences between data collected in the United States and South Korea.

Girls versus Women: Body Image Processing Among Korean Females • Tae-II Yoon and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia and Myoung-chun Lee, Chung Ang University, Seoul, Korea • Research on body image has neglected a number of factors that seem likely to influence individuals’ eating disorders. This study simultaneously examines the links among age, cultural factors, individuals’ intrinsic factors, media exposure, body image processing, and indicators of eating orders. Survey results from a sample of Korean middle school girls and college women confirmed the mediating role of body image processing on eating disorder indicators.

Framing Environmental Destruction on U.S. Army Camps in South Korea • Haejin Yun, Michigan State University • This study aims at examining the South Korean news media agenda on the U.S. army-related environmental destruction issue over the last 12 years, and the “us vs. them” meta-frame which the South Korean news media employed in reporting this bilateral conflict. Two U.S. army-related environmental incidents were found to be trigger events that related the U.S. army-related environmental destruction issue to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) revision issue.

Propaganda vs. the Market Economy: A Study of the Conglomeration of China’s Newspaper Industry • Ernest Y. Zhang and Brian S. Brooks, Missouri-Columbia • The conglomeration of China’s newspaper industry started in January 1996 with the establishment of the Guangzbou Daily Press Group (GDPG), China’s first newspaper conglomerate. Before that, almost none of the 2,180 Chinese newspapers were run in the style of Western newspaper conglomerates or chains. Because of when it was published, the famous book Four Theories of the Press by Fred Siebert et al. could not accurately define today’s Chinese press system.

From Human to Technology; From Political Propaganda to Image Management: An Ellulian Perspective on Paradigmatic Transition of China’s Propaganda Since Latter 1990s • Juyan Zhang and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri • In this study, Ellul Jacques’ theories of propaganda an technological society are applied to the ongoing media conglomeratization, booming media technology and the growing sociological propaganda in China. Results show that China’s propaganda is under a paradigmatic shift from depending on human organization to the dominance of media technology. Furthermore, the expanding sociological propaganda has complemented political propaganda to integrate the various propaganda dimensions. The study also demonstrates that international image management by the state has become a new dimension of China’s propaganda.

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