Archives for January 2012

Graduate Education Interest Group

Magazines’ Frames of “Sesame Street” and the Surrounding Debate, 1968-1994: A content analysis • Stephanie Hay, Ohio University • This research explores using content analysis how magazines framed “Sesame Street,” a non-commercial television program aimed at teaching disadvantaged children their “A-B-C’s” and “1-2-3’s,” and the debate surrounding its merits as an educational tool. This study analyzes popular consumer magazine articles for salient praises and criticisms of “Sesame Street,” and explores what trends existed in magazines’ framing of the debate surrounding the program.

A functional analysis of the 2000 GOP presidential primary debate in Manchester, NH • Zhang Juyan and Jae-Hwa Shin, Missouri-Columbia • No abstract available.

Future Journalists’ Online Use For Information Gathering: The Internet As A Secondary Route For Newsgathering • Gunho Lee, Texas-Austin • No abstract available.

<< 2003 Abstracts

Entertainment Studies Interest Group

Rise and Fall of News and Entertainment: The Impact of 9/11 Terrorist Attacks on Uses and Gratifications of Web Searchers • Debashis “Deb” Aikat and Cary Roberts Frith, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examined the impact of 9/11 terrorist attacks on uses and gratifications of Web searchers. Grounded on uses and gratifications (U&G) theories, this paper analyzed Web search trends before and after 9/11 to explore how the information-seeking behavior of Web users’ changed as a result of the terrorist attacks. This study analyzed actual search terms and keywords entered by users of the Internet’s leading search engine Google <http://www.google.com/> in August September and October 2001.

Big Brother And The T-Group: How We Might Learn From Reality Television • Rod Allen, City University-London, and Nod Miller, University of East London-UK • In this paper the authors draw out the considerable parallels between the Big Brother television format, and those like it, and the Mini-Society and Mini-Economy experiments which developed from Kurt Lewin’s T-group methodology of the 1940s and which were used by academics to study social psychology and group dynamics. It is doubted that the originators of the Big Brother format were aware of these experiments, but ways of learning both from the academic processes and from Big Brother-style television programs are suggested in the paper.

Queer as Folk Audience Study: Gay Males, Social Support and Para-social Involvement in Identity Construction or Reinforcement • Laetitia J. Baehr, Hawaii Pacific • This paper investigated how the gay males audience, watch Queer as Folk, was actively involved in this drama, and was likely to engaged in Para-social interactions and self-identifications with television characters, which in turn would help them to construct a positive gay identity. This study extended the findings on psychological origins of media uses in the tradition of uses and gratifications, particularly in terms of how the audience developed or reinforced self-identity, while using media contents.

Humor in Pulitzer Award Editorial Cartoons 1922-1997 • Yun Jung Choi, Missouri • This study examined how humor was used in editorial cartoons that depicted international issues in terms of functions, objects of ridicules, and ways of expression: Function investigated whether humor in cartoons brought social cohesion or conflict to American readers; The objects of ridicules were divided into U.S. and foreign countries; and the way humor was expressed examined whether the humor was used directly or indirectly.

Learning to Cook: Applying Constructivist Learning Theory to Television and Online Programming • Michele Costanza and Ann Brill, Kansas • This paper examines how an audience for TV Food Network interacts with its Web counterpart, FoodTV.com, and assesses how and what learning occurs. The study’s hypotheses were developed using constructivist learning theory, examining how adults learn from using the Web. Studies show that compared to other media, the Web provides a broader experience for self-directed learners. A constructivist curriculum model is applied in three phases to the TV Food Network and FoodTV.com as an example of how audiences construct knowledge.

Sexual Content in Promotional Ads: Contributions of Visual Aspects to Exposure • John Davies, Alabama • Promotional advertisements from the February 2003 sweeps were content analyzed for verbal and visual elements of sexual content. Nearly forty percent of the promos contained some aspect of sexuality, which represents an increase over previous years. Duration of the visual aspects of the promos did not predict exposure to the programs advertised as measured by Nielsen ratings. However, visual intensity of the sexual content significantly predicted exposure to programs.

Hegemony and Counterhegemony in Bravo’s Gay Weddings • Erika Engstrom, Nevada • Gay Weddings, a new reality series on the cable channel Bravo, follows four gay and lesbian couples as they plan and subsequently participate in their weddings, or commitment ceremonies. While these couples challenge the heterosexuality inherent in the wedding ceremony, they simultaneously also follow wedding traditions. In this paper, the author examines how the program evidences both a counterhegemony and hegemony within the context of how mass media portray the wedding in contemporary society.

Media Tools in Adolescents’ Bedrooms • Stacey J.T. Hust, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Much research has focused on the media’s presence in the home, but rarely have scholars considered the presence of media in adolescents’ private spaces such as their bedrooms. The few studies that have looked at adolescents’ private ownership of media have not fully analyzed the differences in ownership by demographic factors. This study reveals differences in media ownership in the bedrooms of a large sample of early adolescents by race, gender, and economic status.

Television Viewing And Attitude Toward Marriage: Does Program Genre Make A Difference? • Sara Baker Netzley, Southern Illinois • This study examined the relationship between attitude toward marriage and television program genres. Statistical analysis found no relationship between nine program genres and attitude toward marriage and no relationship between nine demographic variables and attitude toward marriage. However, post hoc analyses found that as sitcom viewing increases. attitude toward marriage decreases, and that children of married or widowed parents were more positive about marriage than children of divorced or never-married parents.

Judging a Movie by its Cover: a Content Analysis of Sexual Portrayals on Video Jacket Rentals • Mary Beth Oliver, Omatayo Banjo and Jinhee Kim, Penn State • A content analysis of video rental jackets was conducted to examine the prevalence and nature of sexual portrayals. The most common types of sexuality observed were attractive characters and characters in sexy clothing and with skin exposed. Female characters on the jackets were more likely than male characters to be portrayed in sexual ways, and films for violent genres were particularly likely to feature sexual portrayals.

The Elements of “Weekend Update”: Informing and Influencing Through Late-Night Comedy • Aaron Reincheld, Ohio • During the first five years of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” 1975- 1980, the news parody “Weekend Update” reached 30 million viewers each Saturday, disseminating alternative viewpoints on the noteworthy or absurd week’s events. “SNL” founders, such as creator and producer Lorne Michaels, saw their parody as more than entertainment, considering it as important as any newspaper, magazine, or television show. “Weekend Update” not only became a news outlet, but influenced politics and loosened censors’ restrictions.

Beyond Modem Racism: Backlash and Brutality on “The Shield” • John D. Richardson, Michigan State • This paper examines representations of race in popular U.S. culture through a textual analysis of the cable television series, The Shield. Significations of modem racism and hegemonic racial ideology are examined. Focusing on the construction of white, black and Latino identities, and relationships among them, ways in which The Shield promotes overt racism, including backlash and police brutality against racial minorities, are also considered. Theoretical implications for popular conceptions concerning race and crime are discussed.

Narrative Structure in Sex and the City. “I Couldn’t Help But Wonder…” • Cindy Royal, Texas • Sex and the City uses a unique narrative structure to portray the complex issues faced by single women. Each episode, the central theme is posed by the main character as she ponders a topic for her weekly column. This device performs several functions that aid in illustrating the meaning of the single woman and creating identification with the audience: voiceover narration and the development of spectatorship, construction of multiple meanings, and women’s relationship with technology.

Making it Personal: How Personality Affects Identification and Enjoyment of Heroes, Villains and Ambiguously Valenced Characters • Meghan S. Sanders, Penn State • While communication researchers recognize that the relationship between views and media characters is a large part of involvement with the media, there has not been a systematic examination of the direct and combined effects of personality and type of character (hero, villain, etc.) upon identification and enjoyment. Is it something within ourselves that makes characters more or less attractive and appealing?

Rated “R” For Reactance: The Application of Psychological Reactance Theory to the Likelihood of College Students for Viewing Films Based on Motion Picture Association of America Ratings • Aaron J. Siskow, Iowa State • This study searched for evidence of psychological reactance outlined by Brehm (1966) as it pertains to college students’ likelihoods to view films based on their Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating. Reactance theory would suggest that college students are most likely to view NC-17 films, followed by R films, PG-13, PG, and G. Results failed to display this but suggested that year in school, gender, and personal value characteristics all affect likelihood to view.

Crime, Romance and Sex: Washington Women Journalists in Recent Popular Fiction • Stacey L. Spaulding, Columbia Union College and Maurine Beasley, Maryland • This study of thirteen novels portraying Washington women journalists finds their portrayals have improved since 1990 when one authority concluded that most novels showed women as “unfulfilled unfortunates.” The fictional women in this study, featured most prominently in detective stories, are eager to expose male corruption to further their careers but make little effort to change underlying social causes. These women are searching for relationships, but their careers still take precedent.

Violence in Televised Professional Wrestling: A Legitimate Cause for Concern? • Ron Tamborini, Paul Skalski, David Westerman and Kenneth Lachlan, Michigan State • We investigate physical violence in professional wrestling by applying the NTVS coding scheme (Wilson et al., 1997) to a sample of televised professional wrestling. Prevalence and context of wrestling violence was coded using NTVS categories on the nature of perpetrators/targets, types of acts, rewards and punishments, and consequences of violence. Comparisons were drawn between wrestling and NTVS’s broad sample of television.

Partisan Politics in Popular American Political Movies: An Analysis of the Framing of Republican Villains in Dave, The American President and The Contender • Juile Yiotas, Texas • Politician-as-villain is a common representation in American film. However, in this classic theme, the politician is often set in opposition to the average citizen. When the heroes and villains are all politicians, which characters are heroes and which are villains? This paper examines three movies in which the heroes and the villains are all politicians. It explores how movies construct villains and partisanship finding in all three cases that the villains are Republican.

<< 2003 Abstracts

Civic Journalism Interest Group

A Public Journalism Model for the Middle East and North Africa: Effectiveness of Media-NGO Relationships in Partial Autocracies • David C. Coulson, Nevada-Reno and Leonard, R. Teel, Georgia State • This study examines how the media and non-governmental organizations might work together with each other to develop a model of public journalism in partial autocracies in the Middle East and North Africa. We found that a form of public journalism can be practiced in the region. It appears that despite working in partial autocracies where media are generally owned or controlled by government, journalists cooperating with NGOs can represent the needs and concerns of civil society.

Exploring Radio Public Service as Civic Journalism • Tony R. DeMars, Sam Houston State • This paper seeks to begin a discussion of radio public affairs programming as an outlet for topics within a civic journalism model. Dominant music-format radio stations in a major radio market were surveyed to determine their scheduling of and attitude toward programming public affairs on the station. Simultaneously, a sample of potential radio listeners was surveyed to measure uses of radio and attitudes toward public affairs type programming.

Narrative Definers? Storytelling as a channel to public discussion • Risto Kunelius, and Mika Renvall University of Tampere-Finland • News journalism’s reality constructions are structurally dependent on institutionalized, power routine sources, the “primary definers”. The paper illustrates (by means of an analysis of a case study from Finland), how this constant fact of journalism research can partly be challenged by use of “narrative definers”, by opening the journalistic public sphere to ordinary people’s storytelling about their experiences concerning common problems.

Tracing the Effects of Public Journalism on Civil Society: 1994 –2002 • Sandy Nichols, Lewis A. Friedland, Jaeho Cho, Hernando Rojas and Dhavan Shah, Wisconsin-Madison • This study examines 561 cases of public journalism, published between 1994-2002, to address previously identified methodological shortcomings in the existing public journalism research literature. Using hierarchical multiple regression analyses, the study traces the effects of organizational features, particular projects, story frames and roles played by citizens on improvements in citizenship, political processes and volunteerism. Specific effects on civil society are discussed, study limitations are addressed, and insights for future research and practice are offered.

Civic Journalism and Objectivity: A Philosophical Resuscitation •Henry Overduin, McNeese State • The purpose of this paper is to show that civic journalism – however much it rejects the traditional views of objectivity – still requires the concepts of ontological and epistemic objectivity because those ideas are essential for the possibility of communication and truth in journalism. Building on arguments from Nicholas Rescher, this paper restates the case for objectivity and replies to its critics.

When Schools Fail to Act Ethically: The Vital Role of Civic Journalism • Janis, T. Page, Missouri-Columbia • In summer 2001, a small town in Illinois experienced an incomprehensible series of traumas, thrust into the center of a national crisis involving toxic mold contamination, an infected school, and an intractable school board. Assertive coverage by the local press not only provided substantial investigative reporting, but gave voice to an oppressed public. Written from personal experience, this auto-ethnography documents the vital role of civic journalism in promoting good citizenship when public servants fail.

Elite And Non-Elite Sourceing In Civic And Traditional Journalism News Projects • Jennifer Roush, West Virginia • This project was broken into two studies to analyze the use of “elite,” media-savvy, and “non-elite,” non-media savvy, sources in civic and traditional journalism. In the first study, four newspaper series about mining and aging were used to show the use of sources in the practice of civic journalism. The Charleston Gazette’s “Mining the Mountains” traditional journalism series, and The Herald-Dispatch’s “West Virginia After Coal” civic journalism series, both with six stories each, were chosen to explore the idea of whether civic journalism uses more non-elites as sources.

<< 2003 Abstracts

Visual Communication Division

TV Literacy and Academic/Artistic Giftedness: Understanding Time Leaps and Time Lags • Robert Abelman, Cleveland State • This investigation reinforces the conceptualization of television viewing as a learned activity by highlighting the interrelatedness of children’s linguistic, cognitive, and perceptual skills for accurate comprehension of television’s most basic narrative device-temporal sequencing. It also explores the impact of highly divergent skills and abilities by sampling children school-labeled as academically gifted and artistically gifted.

Eye for Beauty: Male College Students’ Exposure to Still Images and Evaluations of Thinness and Beauty in Women • Kimberly L. Bissell and Peiqin Zhou, Alabama• Although researchers have much to learn about the factors that increase the risk of disordered eating in women, what researchers have suggested is that many women internalize what they perceive to be others’ view of their own bodies. More specifically, it is suggested that part of the sexual objectification of women in this culture comes from men.

Screen Size, Source Credibility, and Presence: Audience Reactions to Televised Presidential Debates • Cheryl Campanella Bracken, Kimberly A. Neuendorf, and Leo W. Jeffres, Cleveland State • An experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of both television screen size and presence on audiences’ perceived source credibility of presidential candidates. Fifty-five participants rated source credibility of both 2000 Presidential candidates, Gore and Bush, after viewing segments from the presidential debates prior to the election. The results demonstrate that screen size has some effect on perceptions of source credibility. The findings are consistent with previous presence research demonstrating larger images increase viewer sensations of presence.

More Than Words Alone: Broadcasters’ Nonverbal Communication In the First 24 Hours of the September 11th Terrorist Attacks • Renita Coleman and Denis Wu, Louisiana State • A content analysis the first 24 hours of 9-11 shows that TV new journalists were not objective in their nonverbal behavior. They showed significantly more positive and negative expressions than neutral expressions despite a journalistic commitment to objectivity. The time of day mattered, with broadcasters showing more negative expressions during the second 8-hours of coverage, as did length of shot with broadcasters who were on camera for longer consecutive periods showing more positive and negative expressions through nonverbal channels.

Female Newspaper Photographers’ Perception of Women Photojournalists • Ken Heinen and Mark Popovich, Ball State • Sixteen female newspaper photojournalists completed Q sorts containing 57 statements about the current role of women photojournalists at their own newspaper. The women sorted themselves into two factors that were labeled: Egalitarians and Feminists. The Egalitarians believed that women were equal to men in all facets of photojournalism, but they had some doubts about the commitment of women to the profession.

Analyzing Sequential Art: Visual Narrative Techniques in Calvin and Hobbes • Sharon M. Hope, Purdue • Comics and comic strips are two examples of a unique art form best described as “sequential art,” a rarely studied but important cultural phenomenon whose usefulness as a communication tool is underestimated. As a means to better appreciate and apply this art form, this paper examines the history of newspaper comics, then uses several Sunday Calvin and Hobbes comic strips to identify four visual elements that contribute to an effective sequential art narrative.

News Images of the Terrorist Attacks: Framing September 11th and its Aftermath Thru the Pictures of the Year International Competition • Yung-Soo Kim and C. Zoe Smith, Missouri • This study examines the visual coverage of the 2001 terrorist attacks by analyzing the 382 images submitted to the special September 11th news category of the 2002 POYi competition, allowing us not only to examine how photojournalists covered this unprecedented story, but to explore what they thought was their best work from this very stressful news event. Submissions fell into three main themes: events, aftermath, and firefighters and accounted for 93% of the entries.

An Ideological Critique of the American Frontier Myth in the Photography of Arthur Rothstein and Alan Berner • Brian W. Kratzer, Missouri • This research project compares photographs of the American frontier by Arthur Rothstem during the Depression and Alan Berner during the 1990s using the method of ideological critique The photographs, or cultural products, are framed by the frontier myth This framing. allows comparison of the myth in these photographs that are connected by subject matter. The goal is to interpret how the photographers perceived the West during their era in relation to the goals of their individual photography projects.

Blind or Annoyed? Research Implications of Banner Blindness • Sang Yeal Lee, Pennsylvania State • It has been widely observed that the advertising effectiveness on the World Wide Web has been continually declining since its launch in 1994. One contributing factor to this decline is users’ inattention to banner ads, which some researchers call “banner blindness.” Drawing on visual cognition and information processing perspectives, this paper explores how Web users may develop skills to ignore or avoid banners.

Engaging the News: Visual Journalism and Innovation • Paul Martin Lester, California State, Fullerton • New media journalism presentations are largely extensions of a familiar model from newspaper traditions. Social constructivism theory helps establishes the need while diffusion of innovations research helps establish the categories for identifying types of news consumers. The paper identifies technological innovations that each type of user might respond to and shows how producers and users can work together to formulate ways of story telling as taught by visual journalism instructors that help promote excellence and engagement.

Personal Impact Assessment of Advertising Culture of “Whiteness”: Facial Skin Color Preferences Among Urban Chinese Women • Angela K.Y. Mak, Oregon • This paper examines a key determinant of female beauty among urban Chinese women: the preferred whiter facial skin tone color. By using Williams’ (2000a) Personal Impact Assessment, it investigates how the use of vivid images on recent whitening skin care product television advertising helps shape both the individual and social values among urban Chinese women in relation to the Chinese proverb, “One whiteness can substitute for three physical unattractivenesses.”

Visual Symbols on the Web and Their Meaning: Comparing Social Movement Groups in the United States and South Korea • Michael McCluskey and Seungahn Nah, Wisconsin-Madison • Many social movement organizations use Web sites to communicate with members and the public. Visual images that communicate a cultural meaning – collective identity, emotional appeals or moral appeals – may be an important element of these sites and further movement goals. Visual images from four types of movement-group Web sites, in the U.S. and Korea, were analyzed. Collective identity was more common on Korean sites, while moral and emotional appeals were most common among white power groups.

Slice-of-Life Moments as Visual “Truth”: Normal Rockwell, Feature Photography, and American Values in Pictorial Journalism • Andrew Mendelson and Carolyn Kitch, Temple • To photojournalists, the purpose of feature photographs is to reveal something enduring or timeless in the human spirit. Such images require their creators to find deeper meaning in the everyday. Before (and alongside) the emergence of feature photography, such work was also the province of the artists whose illustrations filled the pages of popular magazines.

A Critical Vision of Gender in 2002 Campaign Ads • Janis Teruggi Page, Missouri • This qualitative study explores how repetitive visual images in political candidates’ ads reflect gender traits and issues, and analyzes how visuals reinforce stereotypes, break through them, or convey gender balance. Using 2002 Illinois campaign spots as texts, the author employs film theorists’ mise-en-scene framework and rhetorical depiction theory to construct a coding framework for visual rhetorical analysis. Results reveal gender cross-over and balance, and suggest how visuals establish authenticity or deceit.

The Big Story: September 12, 2001 Front Page Design, News and Picture Selection A Study of Reader Preferences • Thomas Ansel Price, II and Jenny Lesselbaum, Ball State • We watched in horror as the World Trade Center towers crashed to the ground again and again on television screens across the country. What responsibility did newspapers have to their readers in providing a second day look at the attacks? This study of readers’ feelings found that readers are attracted to design, but expect more of the human aspect of the story, the causes and the results than they get from television and most newspapers.

A Semiotic Exegesis of World Wide Web Advertising: The Search For a Contextual Understanding of Digital Design • William Pritchard, Shippensburg • Via a semiotic reading of 100 Web advertisements, this study composes a culturally astute understanding of on-line advertising. Web advertisements are analyzed within, and against, the larger cultures of digital and traditional representation. Findings point to the inherent limitations of on-line design in compari-son to traditional print design, arid present the workings of a new culture of advertising defined by a universal equity among large and small advertisers and a palatable straying from traditional professional advertising codes.

Immersive 360-Degree Panoramic Video Environments: Research on “User-Directed News” Applications • Larry Pryor, Susanna Gardner, Albert A. Rizzo, and Kambiz Ghahremani, Southern California • Advanced Panoramic Video (PV) camera systems serve as useful tools for creating virtual news scenarios. The development of PV content for journalism will require an understanding of how users observe, interact with, enjoy and benefit from this technology. The paper, based on our research using a 360-degree camera, includes a discussion of virtual environments in journalism, problems of “realism” and accuracy, the role of the journalist in virtual spaces and user-control of the video perspective.

<< 2003 Abstracts

Scholastic Journalism Division

I’m a Good Writer…Aren’t I?: Predictors of Student Self-Efficacy and Writing Performance in a Mass Communication Writing Course • Kimberly L. Bissell, Alabama, and Steve J. Collins, Central Florida • This study sought to identify variables that predicted writing performance and/or self-efficacy (confidence in one’s ability) near the end of the semester in a basic media writing course at a public university in the South. Surprisingly, just one variable predicted success on the writing test: high school grade point average. Students appear not to be very good judges of their own ability, as both a general self-efficacy scale and a more specific task confidence scale were both unrelated to writing performance.

Convergence and Writing Instruction • David W. Bulla and Julie B. Dodd, Florida • College media writing instructors are dealing with a recent phenomenon in the media world: convergence. The researchers interviewed instructors from universities and colleges from across the United States to determine how they are dealing with convergence in their media writing classes. The researchers discovered two camps: (1) innovators and (2) resisters. The former work in programs that tend to embrace writing in a converged media environment; the latter work in programs that have adopted a go-slow policy.

Characteristics of Journalism Educators and Journalism Educators in Inner-City High Schools • Jack Dvorak, Indiana and Candace Perkins Bowen, Kent State • This national study of 2,089 U.S. high schools compares journalistic activities in nearly 300 inner-city schools with suburban and rural/small-town schools. Specifically, it examines the prevalence of newspapers, news magazines, radio, television, online publications and yearbooks in the three major classifications of schools. Also, it compares various demographic and psychographic characteristics of the journalism educators within inner-city schools and compares those traits with teachers in schools generally.

The Theft (and Censorship) of Student Newspapers • Mark Paxton, Southwest Missouri State • More than 30 years of court decisions have barred administrators at publicly funded college and university campuses from directly censoring the student press. But over the past 10 year, students have begun censoring the campus press by stealing part or all of a day’s edition. This paper argues that administrators who refuse to take disciplinary action against the paper thieves are engaging in a new form of censorship.

September 11, 2001: How Yearbook Journalists Covered a National Tragedy • Melanie Wilderman and Laura Schaub, Oklahoma • This paper presents a review of the methods used by twenty-two junior high, middle school and high school yearbook staffs in their yearbook coverage of the terrorists’ attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. It also contains a content analysis of the types of stories, secondary packages and photos included and the total percent of coverage in 107 junior high, middle school and high school yearbooks.

<< 2003 Abstracts