Archives for January 2012

Commission on the Status of Women

Gender during the presidential honeymoon: An analysis of news coverage and its effects • Ingrid Bachmann, University of Texas at Austin • Women are not only running for president in many countries — they are winning. Yet, little is know about how the news media portray the first months in office when the president is a woman. That is the focus of this study, a content analysis of newspaper coverage of the honeymoon period of the new female president of Chile. The results suggest gender-biased news coverage of the president and her suitability to do the job.

Malingering Images of Women: Feminine Stereotypes in Television Advertising • Stephen Banning and Vaishali Shrikande, Bradley University • This study examined the portrayal of women in television commercials and documented the stereotypes associated with women in today’s television commercials. Advertisements were recorded from the networks ABC, CBS and NBC. Each advertisement was initially coded as to whether the central figure was a male or a female. In addition, each central figure in the advertisement was coded according to age, product use, occupation, voiceover, product representative, stance, and product types.

Good sports? A feminist framing analysis of public relations strategies in the Duke University lacrosse crisis • Barbara Barnett, Kansas University • In Spring 2006, three white Duke University lacrosse players were charged with raping a black female student from nearby North Carolina Central University, prompting a massive public relations campaign by Duke to repair and restore its image. In responding to the crisis, the university framed itself as a voice of reason, suffering because of attacks on its reputation. Although the crisis dealt with rape charges, Duke officials spent little time actually discussing rape.

Women’s Lib, Women Reporters, and Presidents’ Wives • Lisa Burns, Quinnipiac University • This essay examines how feminist ideals influenced the framing of first lady press coverage from 1964 – 1980, arguing that this coverage served as a site where questions about women’s changing roles could be raised and the tenets of the women’s liberation movement could be presented and promoted by women reporters. The result was the positioning of Johnson, Ford, and Carter as “liberated women,” while Nixon embodied the “feminine mystique” that the movement was rallying against.

Women’s Participation in Media Leadership in the Changing Media Environment in China • Chunying Cai, University of Maryland • Starting from a 1994 UNESCO survey of women journalists in China, which reported that women had difficulties in entering high-level decision-making positions in the media, the paper investigates whether the transformation of the Chinese media industry over the decade has changed the situation of women’s participation in leadership in the media.

Gender and the Attributes for Career Success in the Media Professions • Roger Cooper, Ohio University • This study, developed through established theoretical foundations in psychology and vocational choice, explores the role of gender in assessments of which attributes are most important for career success in the media industries. Forty-two attributes were assessed by current media professionals (N=1,122). t tests revealed significant differences between women and men on 17 of the 42 attributes measured.

Pioneer for Women Journalists: Katherine Conway and the Boston Pilot, 1883-1908 • Lucinda Davenport, Michigan State University; Denyse Smith • In 1870, there was a recorded 35 women journalists; Katherine Conway was one of them. By 1900, there were almost 2,000 women in journalism; and by then, Katherine Conway had almost single-handedly been publishing the Boston Pilot for a decade. Conway used her journalistic talents to advocate women’s vocations as wife and mother, while she was a single, career-woman. Her life was a paradox.

The Radical Act of Mommy Blogging: Redefining Motherhood Through the Blogosphere • Lori DesRochers, Indiana University • This paper provides an alternative to the masculine construction of the blogosphere by analyzing “mommy bloggers” through the lenses of feminism, autobiography, and political-economy. In qualitatively examining the blogs themselves and the media discourse surrounding them, the paper ultimately argues for their potential to build community and to challenge dominant representations of motherhood in the blogosphere and the mainstream media.

Gender’s role in perceptions of persuasiveness and quality of sports columns: An experimental study • Ada Diaconu-Muresan, Christopher Murray and Joshua Padilla; University of Nevada-Reno; Jennifer Greer; University of Alabama and Marie Hardin; Penn State • To examine whether female sports journalists still suffer from a lack of credibility among readers, an experimental study tested quality and persuasiveness of a column, manipulating author’s gender. Although the male and female columnists were rated equally when writing about women’s sports, gender stereotypes emerged for ratings of the columns about men’s sports. Women rated the work of the male columnist as significantly higher in quality and persuasiveness than the work of the female writer.

“Tale of Two Voices”: Women Communicators From Mississippi Freedom Summer & A New Black Feminist Concept • Brenda Edgerton-Webster, Mississippi State University • This study developed and employed a new concept of Black Feminism to examine women’s communication efforts in Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964. The oral histories of these women participants contribute omitted “voices” to journalism, civil rights, and women’s history. This study discovered generational differences of how the Movement shaped their worldviews and subsequent vocations. The rationale for this phenomena explain, in part, the omission of women from the historical “image” of the black civil rights leader.

Measuring a Woman’s Worth: Femininity and the Disciplined Body in FitTV’s “Buff Brides” • Erika Engstrom, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • The author examines the meanings of femininity contained in the fitness reality program “Buff Brides,” which ties physical fitness with the world of weddings. Women’s bodies, already subjected to hegemonic ideals, become even more scrutinized when taking on the role of bride. A textual analysis revealed recurrent themes such as bodily disapproval, food as enemy, and additional stress of wedding planning. Implications of this program in terms of mass media portrayals of femininity are discussed.

Under the Knife: How Women Perceive Cosmetic Surgery Reality Television • J. Robyn Goodman, University of Florida • This paper explores college women’s perceptions of cosmetic surgery reality television (CSRT) by conducting focus groups with low, moderate, and high CSRT viewers. Results found that the women largely saw CSRT as unrealistic because of the number of surgeries, the final outcome, and presenting surgery as a quick fix. However, the women found pleasure in the emotional aspects to the stories and the fantasy of transformation.

Maybe it’s not a “generational thing”: The values and beliefs of aspiring sports journalists in relationship to race and gender • Marie Hardin and Erin Whiteside, Penn State University • The assumption held by journalists and women’s sports advocates that the post -Title IX generation will produce journalists who will usher in more egalitarian coverage of female athletes is explored through focus groups with high school sports journalists. Participants articulated a narrow definition of sport that preserves white, male hegemony.

Sexual objectification, sports programming and music television: Frequency of viewing and support for sexually objectifying others • Stacey J.T. Hust and Ming Lei, Washington State University • A survey of 934 college students found that individuals who regularly watched sports programs and music television supported the sexual objectification of women. Males who regularly watched sports programming did not support sexually objectifying men, yet females who watched sports regularly did endorse the sexual objectification of men. Thus, both young women and men who watch sports and music television may be learning that sexual objectification is an acceptable way to view others.

First Lady Political Candidates in Semi and a Full Democracy: A Comparative Media Framing Rhetorical Analysis • Yusuf Kalyango, Jr. and Betty Winfield, University of Missouri – Columbia • This study examined how the news print media rhetorically frame two different political electoral campaigns of the First Ladies: Janet Museveni running for Parliament of Uganda in 2006 and Hillary Clinton running for the U.S. Senate in 2000. The purpose was to assess whether there are patriarchal journalistic norms across cultures in media framing by comparing the political campaign coverage of these two first ladies.

Teenage Beauty & Fashion Magazines: Selling Sexuality and Consumerism to Our Kids? • Camille Kraeplin, Southern Methodist University • This study reaffirmed the idea that teen magazines appear to place a great deal of emphasis on beauty and beauty products. Some 62 percent of the stories appearing in the women’s books and 46 percent in the teen books promoted beauty or beauty services. At least a third of the advertising items did as well.

When a Newswoman Becomes the News: A Case Study of Media Representations of Ann Curry • Hillary Lake, University of Oregon • Recent media attention on the gender of network evening news anchors emphasizes that equality is still an issue for women (and other minorities). Yet, media representations of newswomen have rarely been examined in light of their marginalized status, and increased cultural emphasis on public image.

Feminist Historiography in the Field: Writing New Histories • Lana Rakow, University of North Dakota • What is feminist history in the field of communication? This work addresses the challenges of countering standard histories in which both women and the work of feminist scholars are absent because of an emphasis in media history on “great men,” “great ideas,” and “great places.” Feminist scholars in six communication-related organizations were asked for their recollections of key works, key scholars, and key trends in feminist communication scholarship.

Katie Couric: Liberal and radical feminist perspectives of press coverage themes • Amanda Scheiner, Temple University • This study finds two themes throughout press coverage from The New York Times and The Washington Post of Katie Couric becoming the first female solo anchor. The initial foregrounds Couric as female, while the second theme is a discourse of praise concealing a subtext of doubt. A liberal feminist perspective notes the historic importance of Couric’s new position, while a radical feminist perspective complicates this analysis, noting Couric affirms the dominant cultural paradigmatic ideals.

Seeking the Online Stranger: The Double-Edge of Contemporary Motherhood • Felicia Song, Louisiana State University • The state of contemporary motherhood has been the focus of much scholarly attention as informal systems of kin care have increasingly become fragmented and uncertain. This paper is a preliminary exploration of how contemporary mothers use the Internet to communicate and gather information about childrearing. Drawing on Georg Simmel’s work on social distance, I argue that rationalization has become embedded in the relationships contemporary mothers have with their online networks of care and support.

How Women Make Meaning of Shared Involvement in News about Bioterrorism • Jennifer Vardeman and Linda Aldoory, University of Maryland • We conducted 23 in-depth interviews with women to explore how they made meaning of bioterrorism in news and perceived shared involvement with a news spokesperson. In general, the participants made meaning of bioterrorism in the news by negotiating their perceived susceptibility to risk; and they contextualized bioterrorism within their everyday lived experiences as caregivers and as potential victims of risk. However, some of the participants distrusted the media environment and organizational alliances of spokespeople.

Associated Press Reporter Bess Furman and Four Years of Access to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt • Liz Watts, Texas Tech University • Eleanor Roosevelt influenced AP Washington bureau reporter Bess Furman’s work and personal life. Mrs. Roosevelt granted access through her press conferences and friendship. Furman enjoyed and appreciated both. Under Mrs. Roosevelt’s tutelage, Furman learned a great deal about social conditions and reform policies, and gradually, this would raise her prominence and success as a reporter. As she began reporting on Mrs. Roosevelt, she dropped society stories, and she reported about Mrs. Roosevelt’s interests.

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Small Programs Interest Group

Theory vs. Skills Courses in Small Programs • Robert Bergland, Ken Rosenauer and Ann Thorne, Missouri Western State • The long-running debate between skills and theory courses in small journalism programs has a large influence on course and curriculum content. This survey of over 500 media advisers at small and large programs revealed the impact of size on internship and journalism workshop course offerings, along with adviser and student perceptions on the merits of theory vs. skills courses.

Relevance and critical thinking in the journalism curriculum: Harnessing the power of popular culture to discuss media approaches to diversity • Susan Brockus, California State University, Chico • Diversity is an issue that can be avoided without notice in many higher education classrooms, but one that is critical for journalism students to discuss and understand. Rather than fighting the power of American popular culture, journalism educators should embrace it as a tool to engage students to get them talking – and thinking.

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Science Communication Interest Group

Print Media Coverage of Passive Smoking: A Content Analysis Study of Mainstream Newspapers • Asya A. Besova, Louisiana State University • The primary objective of this research study was to assess the extent and content of newspaper coverage of passive smoking. The researcher found that passive smoking was portrayed as a controversial issue. Twenty nine percent of articles concluded that passive smoking is not harmful. Although the majority of people quoted in articles were scientists, physicians, and academicians; reporters devoted a considerable amount of quotes to tobacco company representatives.

Perspectives of African Americans and Dentists on Oral Cancer and Dentist-Patient Communication • Youjin Choi, Virginia Dodd, Jennifer Watson, Scott Tomar, Henrietta Logan and Heather Edwards, University of Florida • Oral cancer is one of the most pressing diseases that disproportionately affect African American men and White American men. Dentists’ role in delivering oral cancer information and explaining the importance of early detection exams is vital in reducing the disparities. Using focus groups with African Americans and dentists, this study compared African American’s knowledge about oral cancer and its exams, and perceptions of dentist-patient communication with dentists’ perspectives on the same topics.

To booze or not to booze? Newspaper coverage of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders • Colleen Connolly-Ahern, Penn State University and S. Camille Broadway, University of Texas at Arlington • This paper reports the results of a qualitative framing of the coverage of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Findings indicate that media discourse about FASD is characterized by differing story types and competing frames. The study also documents the recent emergence of a news frame in opposition to the prevailing abstinence frame in health coverage. This frame has shown physicians to be conflicted in their advice about drinking during pregnancy.

Precision of Information, Sensationalism, and Self-Efficacy as Message-Level Variables Affecting Risk Perceptions • Michael Dahlstrom and Anthony Dudo, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Risk studies often investigate how risks are processed psychologically, but few have investigated the effects of message-level variables on risk perception. This study examined the effects of three message-level constructs, risk precision, sensationalism and self-efficacy, on general and individual fear toward the risk of sick building syndrome. Results show that risk precision significantly affects general fear, but is moderated by sensationalism. Individual fear was not affected by any of the constructs.

News Frames of Hormone Replacement Therapy Before and After the Women’s Healthy Initiative Report in 2002 • Kenneth Kim, University of Florida • Until July 2002, Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is widely recommended by physicians for reducing the symptoms of menopause. However, in July 2002, there were alarming reports on the long-term HRT use from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a national health study for postmenopausal women. The WHI reported that any potential benefit of HRT might be offset by potential harms, including an increase in the risk of breast cancer, stroke, and heart disease.

Misunderstanding Public Understanding of Nanotechnology: Nanotechnology Researchers’ Views of Ordinary People, Media and Public Discourse • Victoria Kramer, University of South Carolina • Nanotechnology is an emerging technology predicted to have major impacts on society. There are those within the nanotechnology community calling for public involvement, yet there appear to be no studies examining nanotechnology researchers’ views of the public and science communication. This exploratory study examines how nanoresearchers perceive ordinary people, media coverage of nanotechnology and science’s role in society. The findings’ implications for how nanoresearchers are likely to approach science communication are discussed.

Public Concern, Risk Delineation and Source Use in Newspapers’ Coverage of Genetically Modified Food • Xigen LI, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • This study examined ten U.S. newspapers’ coverage of genetically modified food during 1994 and 2004,and attempted to answer several important questions on how U.S. newspapers covered issues of public interest, how media dealt with risk information, and to what degree source used was associated with the key aspects of the coverage.

Understanding Public Support for Stem Cell Research: Media Communication, Interpersonal Communication and Trust in Key Actors • Hui Liu and Susanna Priest, University of South Carolina • This paper analyzes data from a 2005 telephone survey of 1200 people in the U.S. that included questions about attitudes toward stem cell research and a broad range of communication variables. After all controls, trust in university scientists and religious leaders, exposure to national television news, familiarity, and religious service attendance produced statistically significant main effects on perception of research benefits, together explaining about 31% of the variance. Interpersonal communication may have contingent effects.

The Perceived Justice of Local Scientists and Community Support for their Research • Katherine McComas, Cornell University, John Beesley, University of South Carolina and Zheng Yang, Cornell University • This study investigates the relationship among measures of justice and attitudes toward local scientific research. It uses results of a mail survey of residents in two upstate New York counties (N=1306) that host substantial biotechnology and nanotechnology research facilities. Predictor variables are distributional, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice. Controls include demographics, media use, basic science knowledge, and technology awareness.

Intersections of Health Literacy and Media Literacy: An Explication of Concepts • Paula Rausch, University of Florida • Mass media are the primary means through which most Americans obtain health information, yet research examining their role in health literacy is rare. This explication provides overviews of both health literacy and media literacy and identifies the overlap between them. It then proposes a conceptual definition and an operational model of health literacy that links the two concepts and takes into account mass media as significant providers of public health information.

How Attention to Local Newspaper and Television Environmental News Relates to Risk and Knowledge • Daniel Riffe and Thomas J. Hrach, Ohio University • Survey data compared influence of local television and newspaper environmental coverage, exploring how environmental risk and value of environmental knowledge are related to exposure to news and attention to environmental news and beliefs about its quality. Respondents perceiving greater risk paid more attention and were more critical. Value of environmental knowledge was negatively related to perceived quality of television coverage and positively correlated with attention to newspaper environmental coverage.

Newspaper coverage of genetic modification events in China, Thailand and the United States: Across-cultural analysis • Lu Lu Rodriguez and Zheng Xiang, Iowa State University • This study compares how the English-language newspapers of three countries covered two genetic modification cases, the genetic engineering of rice in China and the US, and the genetic alteration of papaya in Thailand and the US. The intensity of newspaper coverage of each genetic modification event, the pattern and the tone of the coverage, the sources cited, and the frames employed were determined through a content analysis.

Environment Reporters and U.S. Journalists: A Comparative Analysis • David Sachsman, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, James Simon, Fairfield University and JoAnn Valenti • Reporters assigned to covering a beat like the environment might be expected to be more experienced and better educated in their subject area. However, a comparison between 652 environmental journalists working at daily newspapers and television stations and more than 1,000 U.S. journalists in general found that these reporters share many individual and work-related characteristics, perhaps due in part to their similar backgrounds and to the basic professional training received by most journalists.

At the Frontiers of Faith and Science: News Media Framing of Stem Cell Research • Nicole Smith, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Framing research has shown that media framing of issues has real implications for both policy makers and audiences. As the ethical debate surrounding stem cell research presents a problem of choice to the American people, how that choice is framed is a fundamental determinant of what the American people think, and ultimately decide, about the future of stem cell research. This study presents a framing analysis of newspaper coverage of the issue.

Sourcing Patterns in the Crisis Phases of a Bioterror Attack • Kristen Swain, University of Kansas • This study examined attribution in U.S. news coverage of the anthrax attacks across disaster phases, uncertainty factors, and types of media, attribution, advice, and explanations. Overall, 833 stories from AP, NPR, 272 newspapers, and four television networks were analyzed. Nearly half of attributions were unnamed sources. Prominent sourcing shifted from federal politicians to federal health officials shortly after journalists began receiving tainted letters. Fire-rescue/health care workers emerged as the top source after the attacks ended.

Health on the Web: A content analysis of mobilizing information on local TV Web sites • Andrea Tanner, Daniela Friedman and Kim Smith, University of South Carolina • This study explored the volume and scope of health coverage on local television news Web sites as well as the mobilizing information contained within the online health content. Data revealed that health stories were present on 64% of the sites examined. Little mobilizing information was presented. Health stories were significantly more likely to contain locational MI than identificational or tactical MI. There were also significant differences between large and small markets regarding specific health content.

Power, Knowledge, and Hope: The Framing of Breast Cancer in Women’s and Consumer Health Magazines • Kim Walsh-Childers and Heather Edwards, University of Florida • This framing analysis examined breast cancer articles from five popular consumer magazines read by women. The analysis revealed three primary frames – power, knowledge and hope – and two themes, fear and risks to young women, that were pervasive regardless of the dominant frame. The three frames, power, knowledge, and hope, suggest that while breast cancer is a real threat to women, they have good reason to feel that useful, risk-reducing actions are within their ability.

Media effect, political interests, and other social cultural factors: The making of China’s environmentalists and their view on their societal cultural environment • Qingjiang Yao, University of South Carolina • Using data from China part (2001, N=1000) of the World Value Survey, this research found a positive impact of news media use on environmental concern. However, political interest, income and postmaterialist value are found to have stronger and more consistent predicting power of being a Chinese environmentalist. The research also found that Chinese environmentalists who like to voluntarily work for environment protection with no pay tend to be more skeptical on government and media.

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Religion and Media Interest Group

Operation Lemonade: Opus Dei’s Public Relations Campaign in Response to the Da Vinci Code • Kirsten Biondich and Michael Mitrook, University of Florida • Through a textual analysis of campaign materials and broadcast media coverage, in addition to in-depth interviews with Opus Dei communications staff, this study works to examine whether Opus Dei’s communication efforts to portray “the real Opus Dei” were successful over the course of The Da Vinci Code crisis. In addition, this study hopes to provide an example to other religious and non-profit organizations on how to potentially combat rumors and establish beneficial relationships with media.

Subsidizing sacred cinema: A presumed media influence model of churchgoers’ enthusiasm for Gibson’s “Passion” • Ken Blake, Middle Tennessee State University and Robert O. Wyatt • Of the people who packed theaters in 2004 to see Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” most were already regular churchgoers. Using data from a Fall 2004 poll of a Southern state’s adult population, this study investigated the merits of explaining this phenomena using a presumed media influence model in which religious individuals chose to see the movie partly because they believed that the movie would promote religious faith and practice among others.

Adolescent Religiosity and Selective Exposure to Television • Piotr Bobkowski, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Relying on the Adolescents’ Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995), and selective exposure theory (Festinger, 1957; Klapper, 1960), this study investigates the hypothesis that religious adolescents watch less mature television programs than their less religious peers. Drawing on the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) Wave 2 survey data, results are based on responses from 1,317 16- to 18-year-olds.

Googling God: Religion and Internet Keyword Advertising • Brad Clark, Tom Dalton and Quint Randle, Brigham Young University • The Internet is increasingly important in people’s search for answers to religious and spiritual questions. Through a basic framework of social identity and realistic group conflict theory, this exploratory study presents a content analysis of the advertising and search keywords on Google associated with the most populous religious dominations in the USA.

From Back to the Future to Mean Girls: Religiosity in Popular Teen Movies from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s • Love Dawn, Jennifer Moore, Tom Robinson, Mark Callister and Quint Randle, Brigham Young University and Rebekah Paredes • Religion is often considered controversial and is thus generally avoided or treated in a superficial manner by the media, but studies have shown that recently the media have been increasingly willing to deal with this previously taboo topic. Also, studies show that religion is important to adults and teens in the U.S. and the overwhelming majority affiliate themselves with a religion and engage in religious practices.

Trademarks and Truths: The parallel processes of identity creation through product acquisition and religious appropriation • Mara Einstein, Queens College • The interaction between religion and marketing is less of a “culture war” than a cultural negotiation – a negotiation about meaning making and identity creation. In this paper I develop a theory of the parallel processes of religious conversion and product acceptance. I demonstrate the similarities in taking on religion and consumer products as part of personal identity using conversion career theory and the relationship marketing curve, which is based on the RM ladder.

In God We Trust: Religiosity as a predictor of perceptions of media trust, factuality and privacy invasion • Guy J Golan, Florida International University and Anita Day • The current study brought together two important areas of scholarship in mass communications: media credibility and religion and the media. While both areas have been widely investigated by scholars, there have not been many empirical investigations that examine the potential impact of religion on individual perceptions of media credibility.

God is Still Speaking, but Networks Aren’t Listening: United Church of Christ “Bouncer Ad” Controversy • Anthony Hatcher, Elon University • The UCC’s “Bouncer Ad” featured gays and minorities being turned away from church, and whites being allowed through a velvet rope. This and other United Church of Christ television ads have been rejected by the three major broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC – ostensibly for reasons such as violation of network policy concerning issue advocacy and religious advertising.

The Effects of a Gradual or Sudden Born-Again Conversion Experience on Religious Media Use • Barry Hollander, University of Georgia • The conversion experience is among the most studied concepts in the psychology of religion. National survey data is used to explore the role the sudden versus the gradual conversion experience may have on the use of religious mass media. Sudden converts differ significantly from gradual converts in a number of areas, although few differences are found in multivariate analyses on attitudes about the media or use of religious media.

Bridging the gaps virtually: Online interfaith dialogue and religious organizations • Ally Ostrowski, University of Colorado • Over one million religious congregations in the U.S. have established a presence in cyberspace and access to knowledge about other traditions has become much easier. With the diversity of religious traditions in the U.S., tolerance and understanding of different religious traditions is also more important than ever. This paper examines the presence of interfaith dialogue (IFD) resources online and ascertains why certain congregations and religiously oriented organizations use the internet to promote interreligious dialogue goals.

Evangelical Christians and the Media: A quantitative Analysis • Tayo Oyedeji; University of Missouri-Columbia • This study explores the similarities and differences between Evangelical Christians and three other distinct groups in society (Adherents of Other Religions (AOR), Non-Evangelical Christians (NEC), and Atheists/Agnostics) in four different areas—demographics/psychographics, media perceptions, media use, and media-related actions. The theoretical frameworks applied are the Hostile Media Effect and Interpretive Community. The “American Evangelicals” dataset was analyzed quantitatively and the implications of the results were discussed.

‘Goodness isn’t news’: The Sheldon Edition and the National Conversation Defining Journalism’s Responsibility to Society • Ronald Rodgers, University of Florida • This paper explores the national conversation in 1900 about press responsibility sparked by the Rev. Charles Sheldon’s week-long stint as editor of the Topeka Daily Capital. This conversation reveals the pulpit’s acknowledgment of its conferral of the role of agent of education and moral uplift to the press – the new arbiter of public opinion.

Not bishops but editors: The Gospel Advocate’s role in the 1906 Disciples of Christ schism • Jessica Smith, University of North Carolina • An American religious movement with autonomous congregations and no denominational authority faced divisive questions in the late nineteenth century. These Christians looked to religious newspapers for information and discussion of issues. One newspaper, the Gospel Advocate of Nashville, Tenn., supported Southern conservative voices within the movement and was a decisive influence when this conservative faction broke off from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and formed the Churches of Christ in 1906.

Correspondents and Correspondence from the “Axis of Evil”: Does Blogging Change News Framing of Religion? • Douglas Underwood, University of Washington/Dept. of Communication • A study of major western news outlets and blogging sites shows that – in the case of the letter from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to U.S. President George Bush – the well-documented tendency of American news correspondents to frame religious news in political terms and to miss the religious implications of a major political-diplomatic story held true for bloggers as well.

China’s Official Media Portrayal of Religion (1996-2005): Is a Significant Policy Change in an “Unsecularizing” Society Reflected • Qingjiang Yao, University of South Carolina, Daniel Stout, University of Nevada-Las Vegas and Zhaoxi Liu • Previous studies implied the significant policy change toward religion in the “unsecularizing” Mainland China. Content analyzing religious coverage in the People’s Daily in ten years, this study found more positive tone toward religion after 2001 than that before late 2001. Number of articles about religion in the newspaper kept increasing. Underrepresentation of Christianity proposed by previous studies is not found, but certain religions and religions in certain areas were favored in tone over others.

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Media and Disability Interest Group

A Sign of Difference: Constructions of Hearing Loss and Deafness on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation • Katherine Foss, University of Minnesota • This study looks at how CSI: Crime Scene Investigation portrays hearing loss and deafness through its main character, CSI Gil Grissom’s experience with otosclerosis, as well as other representations of deaf or hard of hearing people. Findings indicate that CSI suggests hearing loss to be isolating and career damaging. This show offers conflicting portrayals of deafness, presenting deafness as both a disability and a characteristic of the Deaf community.

Is a Woman Still a Woman? A Preliminary Exploration of Media Images of Mastectomy • Nicole Smith, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Breast cancer is a serious threat to the health of women, accounting for nearly 1 in 3 cancer diagnoses in women in the United States. In many cases, women with breast cancer are left with only one alternative: mastectomy. If woman is defined by the physical female body-breasts-is that woman still a woman if her breasts are destroyed?

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