Archives for May 2013

[January 26, 2010]

As John McCain seeks the presidential nod in the general election, his vice presidential pick clearly emphasizes his need to reach the conservative voter, the powerful political voting block that emerged from a coalition of splinter groups pulled together in the 1950s by the writers of National Review magazine according to a recent study.

National Review is a political magazine that is known for its conservative perspective. In an article just released in the scholarly journal Mass Communication and Society, Susan Currie Sivek, assistant professor of mass communication and journalism at California State University, Fresno, credited National Review for its impeccable ability to strategically construct media frames that influenced Americans from three smaller subgroups to merge under the conservative banner.

William F. Buckley, Jr., the magazine’s founder, brought together anti-Communists, Libertarians, and Christian conservatives. He gathered writers who saw the common threads across these groups, emphasized their common values, and de-emphasized more divisive leanings.

One tool that brought these groups together was the framing of “liberalism” as the common enemy, a strategy often employed later by President Ronald Reagan. In National Review’s first issue, it employed the language often used by anti-Communists but applied it in attacking liberalism.

In addition to appealing to anti-Communists, the magazine reached out to Libertarians in its philosophical statement in the opening issue. It said “The growth of government . . . must be fought relentlessly. In this great social conflict of the era, we are, without reservations, on the libertarian side.

To appeal to Christian conservatives, Sivek notes that the magazine “frequently invoked the philosophical nature and history of ‘Western Civilization’ and . . . the existence of moral absolutes.” National Review constructed a historical and religious foundation for conservatism and argued against the relativism of social engineers that “had taken over America.”

Sivek further explains how National Review was more influential than other conservative magazine attempts of the time. By refusing to join in with anti-Semitic voices of the 1950s and employing Jewish writers, the magazine eschewed one fringe branch that tried to identify itself as conservative. It also avoided McCarthyism’s vitriolic vocabulary of anti-Communism conspiracy that was later embraced by the John Birch Society. There is no question National Review still remained solidly anti-Communist.

The magazine influenced 1964 Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater who often used the language of the National Review to appeal to constituents. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush acknowledged the impact it had on American political view points, am impact that seems to have been reincarnated in talk radio programs like The Rush Limbaugh Show. Sivek, however, notes Buckley’s criticism of some Bush policies that have departed from the National Review’s conservative principles.

Sivek’s research was completed before knowing John McCain would be the Republican nominee for President. So she didn’t indicate where he would fit in the spectrum of conservatives that were taken under the National Review umbrella.

But Stephen Perry, Editor of Mass Communication and Society, said, “Perhaps the conservatives that were recruited to ‘take over the Republican Party’ through National Review are no longer in control based on McCain’s nomination. Still, the selection of Sarah Palin for his Vice Presidential running mate clearly indicates the conservatives still pull a lot of weight at the Republican table.”

In the article, Sivek detailed how one magazine shaped and developed the political opinions of millions through applying various frames to political philosophy. Sivek also demonstrates how framing and editing of political movements can increase political engagement throughout the nation. To read more about how National Review framed issues that created the Conservative movement, read “Editing Conservatism: How National Review Magazine Framed and Mobilized a Political Movement” in Mass Communication and Society, Volume 11, Issue 3.

CONTACT: Susan Currie Sivek, California State University, Fresno, ssivek@csufresno, (559) 278-4597.

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[February 2, 2010]

Within the past four years, Hispanics have become the largest minority in the United States, but their roles in both American and international politics remains limited.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in the 2006 U.S. midterm elections, Latinos only comprised 8.6% of all votes cast. Two studies published in the journal Mass Communication and Society indicate that political participation among Hispanics is not proportional to their ever growing population. The findings for these studies were based on research and statistics from the 2004 Presidential election, since research from the recent 2008 election is yet to be examined and analyzed.

Spanish language media is culturally more important and relevant to Latinos in the United States, and they have the ability to shape the audience’s attitudes and political opinions.  Results from the article A Matter of Language or Culture: Coverage of the 2004 U.S. Elections on Spanish and English Language Television, written by Matthew Hale from Seton Hall University, Tricia Olsen from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Erika Fowler from the University of Michigan, show that Spanish language media is doing very little to close the gap between Latino political participation and Latino population growth.

The study emphasized that Spanish language media are keeping their distance from the traditional political sphere. This apparent avoidance of politics may be the key reason why a lack of participation exists among the Latino population, the researchers suggest. While Latino news coverage is more likely to depict Latino issues or concerns than English stations, political candidates are not shown speaking as often and much of the news coverage entails the election horse race without relating where candidates stand on policies.

Since many Latinos are still citizens of their home country and ineligible to vote in America, the study Mexican Expatriates Vote? Framing and Agenda Setting in U.S. News Coverage about Mexico explored how Hispanic media provided information about politics for those able to vote by absentee ballot in the 2006 Mexican Presidential election.

Researchers Melissa Johnson, John Davis, and Sean Cronin from North Carolina State University found that big-circulation newspapers in cities with large Latino populations most often featured Mexican pre-election news. This shows the media recognized the importance of this Hispanic minority. They also pointed out that U.S. newspapers covering Mexican political candidates again focused mainly on the horse race along with political candidate attributes as opposed to policy. Other factors that this article suggests contributed to poor political participation from Mexicans included news coverage that depicted Mexicans as: corrupt, irrelevant to the absentee ballot process, and passive about key policy issues.

Overall, both of these studies describe how the media has a way of broadening the gap among Hispanics in politics. Although, Hispanics prefer media that caters to their needs, the research indicates that different measures need to be taken in order to increase Hispanic engagement in the political process.

CONTACT: Matthew Hale, Seton Hall University, halematt@shu.edu, (973) 275-2013; Melissa Johnson, Department of Communication, NC State University, melissa_johnson@ncsu.edu, (919) 515-9757.

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[September 9, 2009]

The prevailing wisdom among many scientists and scientific organizations is that, as a rule, scientists are press shy, and those who aren’t are mavericks.

However, a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, published in the current issue (summer 2009) of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, suggests otherwise. The study, conducted by journalism professor Sharon Dunwoody, life sciences communication professor Dominique Brossard and graduate student Anthony Dudo, provides evidence that many mainstream scientists occasionally work with journalists and some do so routinely. And the interplay between scientists and journalists, say Brossard and Dunwoody, has been remarkably stable since the 1980s.

“By and large, scientists speak to journalists, they know it is important and they’re willing to do it again,” Dunwoody says. “The frequency with which scientists and journalists interact has been pretty stable over time.”

The findings, extracted from a survey of 1,200 researchers in the areas of epidemiology and stem cell research, two fields that experience extensive news media attention, contradict the widespread view in science that scientists are out of touch.

“We found relatively frequent interactions,” says Brossard, explaining that about one-third of the respondents claimed to have had up to five contacts with journalists during a three-year period, while another third of the sample said they experienced more than six contacts with reporters over three years. Only one-third of respondents reported having no contacts with journalists.

“The frequencies are definitely encouraging,” adds Brossard.

The proportion of scientists in the sample who interact with journalists, according to the Wisconsin researchers, is intriguingly similar to studies from the 1980s, as well as patterns identified in the 1990s. The new data imply that journalistic engagement of scientists over time is greater and more stable than “persistent, anecdotal cautionary tales would suggest,” Dunwoody, Brossard and Dudo write.

Another key insight from the data is that it is generally not the case that journalists focus their attention on scientific outliers. Instead, scientists who interact most frequently with reporters tend to be senior, highly productive researchers or administrators. “The notion that journalists concentrate on mavericks is not true,” says Dunwoody. “That’s an important pattern. What it says is that journalists are working mostly with successful mainstream scientists.”

The results of the new study are important because they chip away at the common perception among scientists that media coverage of science is flawed. “We don’t know if the interactions are, in fact, better,” says Dunwoody. “But scientists are eager participants. It reflects a more active role by one of the major players in the process.”

The new study, according to Dunwoody, indicates that although scientists may have a general perception that news media coverage of science is faulty, that perception does not extend to coverage of their own work. “They often view their own work as being covered well, but that doesn’t influence the larger perception.”

The involvement of scientists in active public communication is widely viewed as critical, especially when controversial issues are at play or important policy is being forged. Coverage of such things as stem cell research, infectious disease, nuclear power, nanotechnology and biotechnology frequently entails important information about human health and has economic and social implications that reach far beyond the scientific community.

“We need to keep in mind that most people learn about scientific topics through mass media and not informal channels like science museums,” says Brossard. “Hence, the necessity for scientists to engage journalists.”

Another key insight from the study is that the scientists who work with journalists perceive that they do so not for personal gain but because their participation can influence public understanding of science and the role of science in society. In short, appealing to scientists’ moral or ethical values may be a way to increase participation in the process of making news.

Finally, the study provides evidence that scientists who have been trained or otherwise briefed about how to work with journalists are more likely to engage reporters.

CONTACT: Sharon Dunwoody, 608-263-3389, dunwoody@wisc.edu; Dominique Brossard, 608-262-0482, dbrossard@wisc.edu.

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[April 12, 2010]

A meta-analysis of 23 existing terrorism studies found that exposure to media coverage of terrorism is related to posttraumatic stress reactions.

The meta-analysis also found that the relationship between exposure to media coverage of terrorism and posttraumatic stress was greater for studies involving youth and for studies including people who were farther away from the terrorist event.

These results mean that youth who are further away from the terrorism event are at increased risk for developing posttraumatic stress reactions resulting from exposure to media coverage of a terrorist event.

“Parents, teachers, counselors, and anyone else who works or lives with children should be aware of these effects,” said Dr. J. Brian Houston, an Assistant Professor of Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center who authored this study.

“The mental health needs of youth not directly affected by terrorism may not be obvious in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, but by analyzing the results of several terrorism studies together we can see that this group experiences the greatest amount of posttraumatic stress reactions related to exposure to media coverage of terrorism.”

Dr. Houston says that future work should focus on developing public health interventions for youth that are aimed at ameliorating these potentially negative effects of media use.

Posttraumatic stress reactions may include: feeling hopeless, detached from others, and numb; having trouble concentrating; being startled easily; feeling always on guard; experiencing nightmares and trouble sleeping; and having problems at work or school.

Meta-analysis is the process of combining numerous existing research studies to answer research questions or hypotheses. Meta-analysis provides a more powerful estimate of how variables are related than is possible from a single research study.

CONTACT: J. Brian Houston, Assistant Professor of Research and Program Director for the Terrorism and Disaster Center in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 405.271.8001 ext. 47633, brian-houston@ouhsc.edu

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[April 12, 2010]

As new digital media replace traditional sources of news, the public’s knowledge of local affairs may be undermined.

This result headlines a new study by Lee Shaker, a researcher at Princeton University, that examines the effect of increased media choice upon citizens’ local and national political knowledge. The article, “Citizens’ Local Political Knowledge and the Role of Media Access”, is available in the current issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (winter 2009). Based on data from a 2007 survey of 1000 Philadelphia residents, a clear, negative relationship between having access to cable TV or satellite radio and citizens’ local political knowledge is depicted in the piece. A similar relationship does not materialize between new media access and national political knowledge. These results reinforce the fears voiced by many regarding the decline of local media – especially newspapers.

“Digital media clearly expand access to national political information, but they have yet to yield much additional local news,” Shaker says. “At the same time, traditional sources of local news are forced into a tough competition with new media for citizens’ attention. It appears that lower levels of local political knowledge may be one consequence of our changing media environments.”

Given so many new media options, most of which are non-local, it makes sense that citizens will shift some of their time and attention away from local news. “At some point, time spent consuming new non-local media must inevitably detract from time spent with local news,” Shaker says. “Americans need to be knowledgeable about their communities to effectively participate in local politics. Consequently, any evidence that suggests that citizens may become less informed about local affairs is concerning.”

In addition to examining the relationship between media choice and political knowledge, the article also reveals several other differences regarding who knows about local and national politics. For example, scholars have consistently found white, male citizens to be more knowledgeable about national politics than non-white or female citizens. The Philadelphia study replicated this national level finding – but did not find significant differences in local political knowledge across race or gender. “Local affairs are somewhat overlooked by scholars and these results may surprise people who normally focus on national politics,” says Shaker.

The article, drawn from a larger project that examined the intersection of media, technology, and local politics, depicts results from just one city. It is, however, a unique project that suggests that citizens and scholars alike should take a closer look at communication in America’s communities.

“Americans are being pulled in many opposing directions today,” Shaker adds. “On one hand, new media increasingly allows them to feel like citizens of the world. On the other, pressure is mounting to reduce their carbon footprints, eat local, and support small businesses. The danger is that citizens may become distracted by national, or even international, issues beyond their reach and fail to address local concerns that they could impact.”

CONTACT: Lee Shaker, (646) 450-7533, lshaker@princeton.edu, www.leeshaker.com

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