Scholastic Journalism Division

Disability Legislation as Hands-On News Writing Tool • Beth Haller, Towson University • Using material related to the Americans with Disabilities Act in news writing assignments teaches journalism students a number of crucial points: how and why federal legislation is implemented, how institutions do or do not comply, what attitudes about disability are and how they affect the law, and how to localize a national story to their own campus. This paper is a case study to illustrate the use the ADA as a writing assignment in the journalism classroom and how it provides a multi-level learning experience for students. Disability-related legislation provides a unique opportunity for understanding the implementation of a new form of civil rights in the United States, and students can assess whether changes are taking place in society.

Today’s Youth Sections: Crossing the Boundary of Language and Taste? • Mary Arnold Hemlinger, Newspaper Association of America Foundation • As newspapers rush to cope with declining readership, some appeal to the youth market and create teen sections. Many are partially written by teenagers. Critics say these sections are dumbed down in language and content. Journalism educators can take a leadership role in establishing guidelines in both areas. A January 1997 mail survey provides a profile of sections with teenage staffers. This is a first step for developing teaching materials for youth editors and teenaged staffers.

The Great Divide: High School Newspapers and Advisers in Chicago and the Metropolitan Area • Linda Jones, Roosevelt University • This paper draws on a telephone survey of Chicago high school newspaper advisers and a mail survey of high school newspapers in Chicago suburbs to compare adviser experience, newspaper and Journalism program profiles, media support for papers, limits to student expression and paper’s relative viability Distinct differences emerge between the city and suburbs

Captive Voices and Death by Cheeseburger on the Bayou: Assessing First Amendment Knowledge of Leading High School Journalism Students in Southern Louisiana • Joseph A. Mirando, Southeastern Louisiana University • Over the past quarter century, a series of commissions has consistently recommended that the nation’s secondary schools must devote more attention to First Amendment issues and to the overall improvement of scholastic journalism. The purpose of this paper was to investigate this recommendation by observing a knowledge assessment test given to a group of outstanding high school journalism students from Southern Louisiana. The students’ scores revealed a clear need for better First Amendment education.

Implementation and Effects of the Arkansas Student Publications Act • Bruce L. Plopper, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, William D. Downs, Jr., Ouachita Baptist University • A survey of Arkansas journalism advisers indicated some adviser ignorance about the Arkansas Student Publications Act and its requirements, as well as violations of the law by school officials. Results also showed the law had increased the number of existing written student publications policies; that 40% of the policies analyzed gave control of student publications to students, advisers, or a mix of students, advisers, and principals; and that most policies didn’t specify reasonable distribution guidelines.

Choosing a Media Career: Factors Influencing the College Student’s Decision-Making Process • Carolyn H. Ringer, Julie E. Dodd, University of Florida • The major motivations for career selection varied among the majors, based on a survey of students in a university introductory media writing course. Journalism majors selected opportunity to write as the top reason for their major. Advertising and public relations majors selected excitement of job as the top reason for the selection of major and rated opportunity to write as the least desirable aspect of media work. Factors affecting students’ perceptions of majors and careers included high school journalism experience and parents’ influence.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Radio-TV Journalism Division

Getting the Story Home: Reporting World War II for the Local Audience • Chris W. Allen, University of Nebraska at Omaha • Three distinctive reporting styles can be found in examining the stories that WHO Radio correspondent Jack Shelley wrote from the European Theater during the Battle of Bulge of World War II. The first is the extensive use of names of soldiers from the Middle West, communicating messages to families at home and telling a little about the soldiers’ experiences. The second style takes a longer view of the war, especially as the Western Front is disrupted by the German Advance. The third reporting style is commentary. The paper also takes a look at the audience’s reaction to the reports, and, as far as possible, the military’s view of such reporting.

Laws and Ethics Behind the Hidden and Intrusive Camera • Geri Alumit, Michigan • Network news stations and newsmagazines use the hidden and intrusive camera to uncover mayhem not able to be uncovered without the use of these clandestine techniques. The courts have heard lawsuits against the media that claim these techniques intrude on or invade privacy. Two lawsuits brought against television newsmagazines, one involving the hidden camera, the other the intrusive, will explore the rights of the media and the rights of the individuals captured on tape. This paper will also examine and suggest guidelines for the use of these stealthy techniques to gather the news.

Local Television and Radio News Congruence: Ownership Effects vs. Medium Effects • Douglas A. Barthlow, Suyong Choi, and Andrea Thomas, Georgia State • No Abstract available.

The Priming of the People: Television’s Influence on Public Perceptions of Presidential Candidates • Kim Bissell, Syracuse University • Since the 1960s, campaigning for President has taken on a new identity. The way Presidential candidates are presented on television has a lot to do with how the public subsequently formulates perceptions and opinions about that candidate. A telephone survey was conducted to asses public opinion about the influence of television. The results from this survey indicate there is a strong relationship between watching television news and being more candidate-centered than issue-oriented.

The Effect of Redundant Actualities on Recall of Radio News • Larry G. Burkum, University of Evansville • Research indicates broadcast news is quickly forgotten, suggesting presentation techniques might affect information recall. A mixed model 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design tested the effects of redundant auditory information, actualities, and a distracting secondary task on radio news recall and story appeal. The results indicate redundant auditory information improves recall but not news story appeal, actualities have no effect on recall or news story appeal, and a distracting secondary task decreases recall, and news story appeal.

Still Knowing Their Place: African Americans in Southeast TV Newscasts • Kenneth Campbell, Sonya Forte Duhe, Ernest Wiggins, South Carolina • The 1968 Kerner Commission report chastised the news media for inaccurate and misleading portrayals of African Americans, saying the media reported on them as if they were not a part of the viewing audience. The present study examines the portrayal of African Americans in Southern TV newscasts to assess to what degree progress has been made. The study concludes that while the Southern newscasts no longer ignore African Americans, there is an over-representation of blacks as criminal and whites as law enforcement officers, which perpetuates one of the most negative images of African Americans Ñ as criminals.

The Effects of Lead Story Positioning in Television Newscasts on Perception of Importance, Interest and Recall • Michael E. Cremedas, Dona Hayes, Syracuse University • This experiment focused on ways in which the placement of a story in the first (lead) position of a television newscast influenced three dependent variables: perception of story importance, level of interest in the story and ability to recall details of the story. Lead position accounted for significantly higher scores in all three of the dependent measures. The data demonstrate an agenda-setting effect for «spot» news stories. Furthermore, the findings suggest that TV news producers have primed viewers to readily accept the lead story as the most significant news of the day regardless of inherent news value.

Seven Dirty Words: Did They Help Define Indecency? • Jeff Demas, Ohio • This study explores the salience of FCC v. Pacifica Foundation et. al., also known as the «seven dirty words» case. The study attempts to answer the questions (1) Why was this case reviewed by the Supreme Court and (2) Did the decision really help define indecency? Interviews with the chief legal counsels of both parties, and research into publications of the time lend new insight to the breadth of the decision. The study also looks at the agenda of parties involved in taking this case to the Supreme Court.

Television Newsroom Training for the 21st Century • Sandra L. Ellis, Tennessee, Ann S. Jabro, Pennsylvania • This study attempts to clarify the status of continuing education in television newsrooms across the United States. A national survey of television news directors examined the ability of their employees to develop stories, the types of training available and areas of training in which news directors have interest The results suggest that television stations have relied too heavily on higher education to provide all the knowledge and skills TV journalists need to function in the profession.

Television News and Memory Distortion: Confidence in False Memories for Television News Stories • Julia R. Fox, Northern Illinois University • While recognition memory judgments about information presented in television news stories were more accurate than inaccurate, there was substantial evidence of memory distortions, and confidence in those false memories was quite high. Results are discussed in terms of memories as reconstructive decisions, based in part on judgments about how likely a memory is, and how willing people are to say they recognize information. Possible influences of distorted television news memories on personal and social decisions are also considered.

Hype Versus Substance in Campaign Coverage: Are the Television Networks Cleaning Up Their Act? • Julia R. Fox, Chris Goble, Northern Illinois University • A content analysis of the television networks’ weekday nightly newscasts during the final two weeks of the presidential election campaigns in 1988 and 1996 found a significant decrease in the amount of horse race coverage and a significant increase in the amount of issue coverage per campaign story from 1988 to 1996. However, there was less total campaign coverage during the final two weeks of the presidential election campaign in 1996 than in 1988.

The News of Your Choice Experiment in the Twin Cities: What Kind of Choice Did Viewers Get? • Kathleen A. Hansen, University of Minnesota, Joan Conners, Regis University • News of Your Choice was a collaboration between CBS-owned WCCO-TV/4 and KLGT-TV/23, a then-independent UHF station. This paper examines the «News of Your Choice» experiment and asks what the Channel 23 newscast added to the local television news market, and how Channel 4 designed its newscasts to take advantage of the innovation of «choice» and «interactivity». The study uses a content analysis of news broadcasts and an interview with WCCO’s then-general manager, and reports on content, story treatment, source use and overall newscast characteristics. The study finds that the extra time provided by the Channel 23 newscast was primarily filled with material from network SNG sources and human interest stories from outside the local geographic area.

Is it Really News? An Analysis of Video News Releases • Anthony Hunt, St. Cloud State University • Two pilot studies critically analyzed use of Video News Releases within television news in the Twin Cities market. While news bureaus denied using VNRs, the analysis of one week of news showed otherwise. It was very difficult to determine absolute use of VNRs, as open acknowledgment might affect station credibility. The author demonstrates the need for correct source recognition to encourage proper operation within the democratic process.

The Effects of Audience’s gender-based Expectations about Newscasters On News Viewing Satisfaction in A Collective Culture: South Korea • U-Ryong Kim, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, In-Suk Chung, Chungnam Sanup University, Hongsung-Up, Hongsung-Gun, Chungnam, Korea, Cheong-Yi Park, Michigan State University • This study focused on the effects of audienceÕs gender-based expectations about newscasters on news viewing satisfaction. It was theoretically supported by the integrated framework of the gratification and expectancy-value model, and the literature of collective culture; empirically tested by a nationwide survey in South Korea. This study concluded that, in relation to news viewing satisfaction, audiences expected that female newscasters would be both journalists and entertainers whereas they believed that male newscaster would be journalists rather than entertainers.

Political Candidate Sound Bites vs. Video Bites in Network TV News: Is How They Look More Important Than What They Say? • Dennis T. Lowry, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • Stimulate materials for this study came from network TV newscasts of Campaign Ô92. Forty different bites from Bush, Quayle, Clinton, and Gore were presented in three different forms: audio only (no video), video only (no audio), and normal audio-video. The design was a totally randomized, totally counter-balanced, repeated measures design. After each bite, subjects filled out Ohanian’s 15-item celebrity endorsers instrument to measure perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Results indicated that «the eyes had it» Ñ i.e., how candidates looked was indeed more important than what they said.

Television Web Site Interactivity • Television Station Web Sites: Interactivity in News Stories • Ray Niekamp, Pennsylvania State University • A sample of 108 television stations were surveyed to learn the effect of interactive elements within news stories on television stations’ World Wide Web sites. Regression analysis was used to determine what interactive elements best predicted the amount of use of a site. Hot links within news stories which lead the news consumer to related information were the only interactive element having a significant effect on Web site use.

How Objective Were the Broadcast Networks and CNN During the Persian Gulf Crisis? • Robert A. Pyle, Winthrop University • During the Persian Gulf War media critics questioned the objectivity of some television journalists. Objectivity is a canon of journalistic practice, a view that the journalist should be an impartial observer of news events. The crisis in the Persian Gulf provided an ideal opportunity to observe simultaneous news coverage by ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN in gauging how fair and impartial the networks were in their coverage of the War. For the first time all four networks competed directly in their coverage on a round-the-clock basis. A content analysis analyzing anchor, reporter and analyst language reveal, for the most part, that all four networks presented war news in a fair and objective fashion.

Broadcasting World Wide Web Sites: Public Service or Self Service? • James W. Redmond, University of Memphis • Despite optimistic views of the promise of the Internet an overwhelming majority of broadcasters use the technology primarily for self-promotion. Nearly 1,500 radio and television World Wide Web sites were examined in this content analysis. A small percentage of stations were providing significant market area news or public information at the time of field data collection in June 1996. The results of this study indicate broadcasters consider the Internet, fundamentally, to be a promotional tool.

New Managers and Local TV New: A Case Study • Jim Upshaw, University of Oregon • New leaders usually take over TV news operations to increase viewership, but with what near-term effects on newscasts? Do new managers quickly reach goals matching their personal news priorities? A case study of one leadership team’s first year found increased emphasis on what people are talking about, greater anchor prominence, more features, continuing substantive news, and audience growth. Further research into new-manager values and strategies, organizational inertia and content change is proposed.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Qualitative Studies Division

Scratching the Surface: The New York Times Coverage of the Mothers of Plaza De Mayo, 1977-1997 • Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, University of Georgia • Scholars have looked at the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo from a historical, political, feminist and rhetorical perspective. But how have the media presented the Mothers? Through textual analysis, this paper examines The New York Times coverage of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo from 1977 until today exploring how the Mothers have been constructed in this major U.S. newspaper. This construction is consistent with previous research in the area of news coverage of women. It is superficial and tends to simplify and trivialize the Mothers and the issues involved, presenting them as either victims or demons while demeaning their importance as interlocutors of reality.

Al-Amiriya, February 13,1991 Ñ Broadcasting Standards of Violence in a Time of War • Geri M. Alumit, Michigan • British television news stations used graphic video during its coverage of the Al-Amiriya bombings in Baghdad, Iraq on February 13, 1991. This study uses oral histories, video archive footage and document research to recreate the news coverage on that day and to analyze why the level of violence depicted on TV did not insult Britain’s viewing audience.

Undercover Reporting, Hidden Cameras and the Ethical Decision-Making Process: A Refinement • James L. Aucoin, University of South Alabama • The controversy over the ABC-Food Lion undercover reporting case among media practitioners and the public emphasizes that the issue of whether such reporting is ethical remains unresolved. This paper argues that the ethical decision-making model suggested by many media ethicists and used by many journalists is flawed in that it is based on the assumption that undercover reporting and hidden cameras are primarily information gathering tools, when in fact they are better positioned as story-telling techniques. Once undercover reporting is repositioned in this way, the Principle of Generic Consistency as outlined by moral philosopher Alan Gewirth is adapted to offer a higher standard for deciding when to use hidden cameras and other deceptive reporting techniques. Gewirth’s principle offers a rational justification for arguing that in certain instances Ñ when public freedom and/or well-being is in danger Ñ deceptive reporting techniques are not unethical if reporters have gathered enough evidence that the target of the investigation has indeed violated a moral law.

The Construction of Social Space in an Alternative Radio Text: Resistant Praxis and Hegemonic Rhetoric at KUNM-FM, Albuquerque • Warren Bareiss, Shorter College • This paper is part of a larger ethnographic study that I have conducted on KUNM FM, a noncommercial radio station in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The fundamental issue of the overall study is how an imagined community is constructed through discourse occurring at the station. This paper examines a specific KUNM program to illustrate how discursive patterns not only construct New Mexican communal space, but also privilege an a priori social hierarchy which is contradictory to organizational principles of KUNM and other alternative media.

Between Critical Layers: Lessons From Theories Within Histories of Communication Study • Ralph J. Beliveau, University of Iowa • Histories of the communication study as it evolved since the 1950s often explain the field through biographies and flow charts of influence, but they rarely justify such an explanation. This critique of three other histories examines them for their justifications, and uses them to critically reflect on the field’s communication about itself, particularly on the uses of theory, the (dis)unity of an intellectual ground, and the relationship between communication and learning.

Polity and Identity: Scotland’s Struggle for Cultural Independence and the Lesson of Quebec • Douglas Bicket, University of Washington • This paper comparatively examines the positions of the arts and mass media in Scotland and Quebec. It argues that, in spite of marginally increased funding for domestic cultural industries in recent years, Scotland’s separate cultural identity remains under threat in the absence of an independent, or at least substantially autonomous, Scottish polity. The example of Quebec shows that strong political and cultural institutions are needed to preserve small cultures under threat from hegemonizing external forces.

American Myth, Literary Journalism and The Last Cowboy’s Henry Blanton • Susan Blue, University of St. Thomas • Commentary on American Western myth emerges from Jane Kramer’s The Last Cowboy. This paper traces landscape and language in this piece of literary journalism, examining the myth’s roots in early American rhetoric. This cultural exploration also reveals pertinent gender tensions. In revisiting the cowboy myth and its formation, it is possible to isolate the changes in Western myth that Kramer shows, and to explore the myth’s contemporary ramifications.

After the Second Wave: Toward an Interpretation of the American Feminist Antipornography Movement • Carolyn, Bronstein, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This paper analyzes how the first American feminist antipornography organization, Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM), constructed a discourse about pornography in the mid-1970s. I trace historical links between antipornography and nineteenth century social purity campaigns, and try to show how these campaigns reflected the political, social and cultural circumstances of their organizers. In the case of antipornography, I argue that the movement’s basic ideas about sex and sexuality grew out of the second wave critique of male sexual violence, disillusionment with the «sexual revolution» and the emergence of political lesbianism. I offer a thematic analysis of the WAVPM newsletter, NewsPage, published monthly from 1977 to 1983, and conclude that the organization’s campaign against pornography ultimately mirrored social purity by restricting the definition of acceptable female sexual behavior.

Newsrooms Under Siege: Crime Coverage, Public Policy and the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen Murders • Christopher P. Campbell • This paper is a textual analysis of coverage by The Times-Picayune and WWL-TV (New Orleans’ CBS affiliate) that followed the murder of three employees of a French Quarter restaurant. It views the coverage as a microcosm of a news process that provides shallow interpretations of events and leads to ineffective public policy. It argues that the news media’s interpretation of events routinely strips them of significant historical, social, cultural and political implications.

Reflections on the Project of (American) Cultural Studies • James W. Carey, Columbia University • This essay reviews and evaluates cultural studies as program of qualitative research in communications. It provides one rendition of cultural studies from an American perspective and explores the relationship between this work and its philosophical presuppositions and the parallel work in England, particularly at the Center for the Study of Contemporary Culture. It also examines some of the tensions between cultural studies and political economy and tries to provide an ethical/political justification for one particular outlook within this broad arena of scholarship.

Context and the Developed World: Newspaper Coverage of Crisis in Scotland and Belgium • Christian Christensen, University of Texas • This study is a qualitative analysis of 34 New York Times articles on massacres in both Scotland and Belgium in 1996. The study examines coverage of these developed countries within the context of previous academic works on the inadequacies of coverage from developing (Third World) nations. The results of the study, examined with issues of proximity in mind, indicate that the NYT provided contextualized and highly developed stories from the two nations.

Ready, Aiming, and Firing Blanks: The Office of Civilian Defense Targets African-Americans During World War II • Caryl Cooper, University of Alabama • By the time the United States entered World War II, public relations was well on its way to becoming an integral part of government relations with the public. This case study examines how the Office of Civilian Defense executed those elements deemed necessary for a successful campaign. This study also examines how race, discrimination and public opinion impacted the government’s attempts to communicate with a special public during a time of national crisis.

Organizational Rhetoric as Performance Art: A Dramatistic Study of Corporate Communication, Public Relations and Fund Raising • Margaret Duffy, Austin Peay State University • In a case study of the public relations, fund-raising, and organizational communication of a not-for-profit organization, this article uses symbolic convergence theory, an approach rarely deployed in examining these activities. The study examines internal and external communication processes as social constructions of reality and argues that the dramas and stories through which organizational members make sense of their organizational world are manifested in the communicative products and processes of the collectivity.

On the Relevance of Standpoint Epistemology to the Practice of Journalism: The Case for Strong Objectivity • Meenaksi Gigi Durham, University of Texas at Austin • This paper interrogates traditional notions of «objectivity» and its interpretation in conventional news reporting. I argue here that the underlying principles of objectivity devolve in practice to an epistemic relativism that fails to consider the validity of various truth claims. I propose an alternative of «strong objectivity» grounded in standpoint theory. I trace the arguments against scientific objectivity that parallel critiques of journalistic objectivity, then propose an alternative conception of praxis that could fulfill the liberatory goals of journalism.

Heroes, Villains and Twice-Told Tales: The Normative Effect of Journalism’s Worklore • Frank E. Fee Jr. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Organizational communication theory, rhetorical theory, and popular culture theory provide a new framework for examining occupational lore’s power to create and maintain work cultures in news organizations. Folk heroes and antiheroes model behaviors salient to journalists’ views of their work processes and operating assumptions. The professional culture of journalists, reflected in heroes and villains, and the local newsroom culture, where the stories are told, in turn reveal tensions and problems in the practice.

Decontextualization of Hirohito: Historical Memory Loss in Docudrama Hiroshima • Koji Fuse, University of Texas at Austin • This paper is a discourse analysis of Showtime miniseries «Hiroshima,» aired in August 1995, to explore how Hirohito was depicted to suit the dominant ideology in line with the traditional conservative historical account of him as a robotic pacifist in contrast with aggressive Japanese military. The revisionist view of Hirohito, however, presents a very different picture of his prewar political power, aggressiveness, and disrespect of non-Japanese Asians, which were totally ignored in «Hiroshima.»

He Never Had a Chance: The U.S. Media’s Portrayal of Ross Perot’s Exclusion from the 1996 Debates • Eileen Gilligan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This paper examines how Ross Perot, his party, and his campaign were portrayed in the U.S. media, especially during his fight to gain entry to the 1996 presidential candidates debate. Using a sample of approximately 120 media news stories and qualitative analysis, this paper explores the media’s use of routine practices, marginalizing devices, and their focus on individuals as hegemonic methods for supporting the two-party electoral system or the status quo.

Public Journalism and the Search for Democratic Ideals • Theodore L. Glasser, Stephanie Craft, Stanford University • Public journalism’s commitment to promoting and improving the quality of public life raises interesting and important questions about what this arguably new role for the press entails and what view of democracy it implies. This paper focuses on three areas where public journalism’s conception of the press and the press’s interest in self-governance appear to be most problematic. It concludes with a brief assessment of the prospects for a public purpose for a private press.

Anti-Drinking and Driving PSAs: Do They Have Any Meaning to Underage College Students? • Alyse R. Gotthoffer, University of Florida • This study qualitatively examines underage college students’ drinking behaviors and what meanings, if any, anti-drinking and driving public service announcements (PSAs) have to them. Results suggest many implications for PSA designers, including localization of PSAs, and the use of consequences more relevant to college students, such as being charged with a DUI.

Money Talks: The Television Promotional Text as Ideological Expression • Joseph Harry, Michigan State University • A rhetorical and political-economic analysis of 34 television promotional spots representing 18 different Fall primetime programs on the three major commercial broadcast networks shows how each promo is framed to project a certain storyline pertaining, to varying degrees, either to the nature of the upcoming program or to the nature of the network itself. The promo rhetoric reflects the political-economic interests of the network, thus each promo can be read as a form of ideological expression.

When the Numbers Don’t Add Up: The Framing of Proposition 187 Coverage in the Los Angeles Times • Peter Hart, Rutgers University • This paper examines coverage of California’s Proposition 187 ( 1994) in the Los Angeles Times by means of both the administrative and the critical research paradigms. In the end, the critical research methodology appears to be more thorough and intellectually satisfying, as it both offers and answers substantial questions concerning the Times coverage. The paper addresses the competing research methodologies in regard to both Proposition 187 and in a more general context.

Narrative Literary Journalism’s Historic and Gratuitous Resistance to Critical Closure • John Hartsock, Marist College • This paper examines how rhetorical concrete detail assures that narrative literary journalism will resist coming to critical closure. Even in the instance when they serve symbolic purposes their phenomenalist status will resist wholesale reification. Such tropes could be characterized as «subversively gratuitous.» But in particular, it is «flagrantly gratuitous» details that most forcefully resist critical closure, begging instead with unfulfilled meaning. The writings of Ernest Hemingway, Tom Wolfe, Edmund Wilson, and Erskine Caldwell are examined.

Oprah’s Book Club Radical Reading and Talk Show Literature • Ann Haugland, Middle Tennessee State University • Oprah Winfrey’s on-air book club has been a phenomenal success. Using transcripts, news articles about the club and theories of popular culture the paper identifies the ways that the book club challenges some established assumptions about books and reading in contemporary culture. The success of the club provides further evidence that the high/popular distinctions based on class or status of the consumers of culture or on the characteristics of the work are inadequate and seriously limit our understanding of the possibilities for books and reading. Oprah’s book club is remarkable because it suggests an alternative discourse about serious books and alternative uses for them.

Analysis of Physician Assisted Suicide in the New York Times From 1991-1996 • Robert K. Kalwinsky, University of Iowa • This research paper represents a first step toward contextualizing the study of Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) within the framework of mass communications. An impassioned topic among certain groups, the incidence of PAS is apparently more prevalent than one would suspect. Save for accounts of Jack Kevorkian’s activities and a few contested cases, the media were initially silent in this regard. After defining terms and detailing relevant background material, a research proposal is set forth that utilizes textual analysis to trace the threads of developing accounts. Specifically, coverage of PAS in the New York Times over the past six years is analyzed to glean organizing principles that create cultural meanings for the practice.

Reading Presidential Candidate: A Semiotic Analysis of Televised Political Advertising in Korea • Soobum Lee, University of Oklahoma • This study examines and interprets the combined structure and content of televised political advertisements during the 1992 Presidential election in Korea, using the semiotics method. Semiotics is the study of underlying mechanisms by which signs convey meaning. Such studies can be applied to the case of televised political advertisements. As a result of this analysis, Kim Daejung emphasized change, while Kim Youngsam emphasized gradual reform with ordinary people. Consequently, Kim Youngsam received wide support from the voters, who preferred gradual reform to abrupt change. In conclusion, Kim Youngsam’s advertising represents a more commodificated image of the middle class. This type of advertising thus indicates that a successful presidential campaign depends on good image-marketing.

The Troubled Waters of Communication Research: Scylla and Charybdis in the Postmodern Era • Larry Z. Leslie, University of South Florida • Facing tight budgets and limited resources, many universities are watching their communications programs. A few have been discontinued; some have merged with other disciplines. Some say that the work communication departments do is not central to the mission of a university. Additionally, observers note our research is not high quality, not «scholarly.» This article critically examines some of the problems surrounding communications research; places communication research in a theoretical modernist paradigm; and calls for changes in the way communication scholars do their work, changes suggested by a postmodern culture.

Facts, Stories and the Creation of Worlds: An Analysis of Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s News for Kids • Elizabeth Pauline Lester, Usha Raman, University of Georgia • While recent textual analyses have focused on portrayals of Others in media, little critical research has looked at the socializing role of children’s media. In this paper we analyze the News for Kids section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a section that is targeted at children of upper-elementary through middle-school age. Our textual analysis uncovers five discursive strategies that NFK uses to construct images of Us (the preferred readers) and Other (different and marginalized groups, both international and local) in ways that sustain existing global and local socio-economic relationships and hierarchies.

News, Myth and Society: Mother Teresa as Exemplary Model • Jack Lule, Lehigh University • The purpose of this paper is to begin building a model that restores myth to a privileged place in studies of news and society. The paper first reviews the rich tradition that gave rise to comparisons of news and myth in the l950s and earlier. It briefly traces the strains of research that emerged from this tradition, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. It offers reasons why this research seemingly has faltered in our times. And it proposes a perspective that might recapture and extend the insights provided by links between news and myth. Finally, the paper demonstrates the possibilities of the model by using myth to explore a case of news reporting, New York Times coverage of Mother Teresa.

Olympian Melodrama: The Excess of NBC’s 1996 Olympic Games • Christopher R. Martin, Bettina G. Fabos, University of Northern Iowa • This paper argues that with the decreasing relevance of the traditional geopolitical narratives in television Olympic coverage, Olympian melodrama had to be reinvented. Network storytelling thus turned to individuals and individual conflicts to increase the tension, drama and excitement of the Games. The authors critically analyze the 171.5 hours of NBC’s 1996 Atlanta Games coverage, and explain how the new melodramatic narrative polarized individuals Ñ oftentimes athletes from the same American team Ñ through a record number of «up close and personal» stories. The analysis also covers the pitfalls of NBC’s narrative strategy, and explains why so many watched the Olympics yet hated the coverage.

The Legacy of Popular Culture Movement: A Case of National Cinema in Korea • Eung-Jun Min, Rhode Island College • Korean National Cinema is a theoretical, politicized, and often underground cinematic practice and discourse that speaks out for people and provides a site for creating and experimenting new forms and contents. It has inspired many cinematic possibilities and opens the possibility of creating non-capitalist filmic practice. The whole process of national cinema, whether it is cinematic or non-cinematic practices, gives a new meaning to the viewing of films in general. This article discloses and closely examines the persistent series of binding interrelationships, continuities, and similarities that, alongside the breaks and differences, has made this movement a significant socio-political and cultural force in Korea.

A Show About Nothing?: Social Manners, Seinfeld and the Dense Web of American Civility • David P. Pierson, Pennsylvania State University • This paper examines how the popular TV series, Seinfeld reveals a deeply-held cultural ambivalence towards the changing social codes and manners of contemporary American society. Drawing on the works of Bourdieu, Bakhtin, and Elias, the paper argues that all societies have placed a great emphasis on social manners and customs. This paper also illustrates the benefits of analyzing popular cultural forms as interpretive sites for charting the evolving social manners that comprise American civility.

Paradoxes of the Information Age: Recasting the Book-Versus-Computer Debate • Judy Polumbaum, University of Iowa • This paper suggests that bipolar categorization Ñ e.g., bibliophiles vs. technophiles, traditionalists vs. futurists, optimists vs. pessimists Ñ is a poor way to order discussions about the nature and implications of new communications media. Through review and analysis of a selection of recent popular and scholarly literature related to the book, reading, knowledge and communication in the digital era, the paper pursues the notion that attitudes toward older and newer media are evolving conjointly, often on the basis of shared rather than divergent goals and priorities. Values discerned as important to both boosters and skeptics of new media Ñ comfort, communion, community and continuity Ñ are examined in terms of old and new media technologies.

Re-Covering the Homeless: Hindsights on the Joyce Brown Story • Jimmie L. Reeves, Texas Tech University • A reconsideration of what Morley Safer once called a moral fable for our time, this paper takes a radically-historical interpretive perspective to treat the Joyce Brown controversy as a significant moment in the flow of 246 television news reports broadcast between 1981 and 1988 that, collectively, gave expression to the Reagan-era homeless narrative.

Preaching to the Unseen Choir: African-American Elders Producing Public-Access Television • Karen Riggs, Robert Pondillo, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee • The authors interviewed five older African-Americans who have been involved in producing or appearing on public-access television shows in order to promote particular social causes. The study contends that religious identification, joined with a charismatic and purposeful personal style, motivated these elders to turn to public access as a pulpit for democracy. The authors conclude that public access is imperfect as an element of the public sphere but carries the potential for people to effect change in their communities.

A New Media Analysis Technique: An Ethical Analysis of Media Entertainment • Eileen R. Ringnalda, University of Iowa • This paper asserts the need for an ethical analysis of media entertainment texts and describes how it may be carried out. Just as other forms of media criticism are grounded in the disciplines of linguistics, psychology, and sociology, this media analysis technique is based on ethical principles and the evaluation of values communicated by media entertainment.

From Legitimacy Crisis to Opportunity: The Advertising Industry and the Art of Spin in the 1930s • Inger L. Stole, University of Wisconsin-Madison • The 1930s advertising industry faced a burgeoning consumer movement. This paper examines how the industry used public relations in order to contain criticism of advertising. The advertising industry constructed bogus pro-industry consumer groups and undermined the drive to provide critical consumer education in schools. The advertising industry effectively limited discussion about advertising, channeling all advertising criticism into forms that would not threaten advertising’s privileged position.

An Exploration of the Social, Political, Religious, and Economic Constraints to the Implementation of an Effective AIDS Prevention Program • Radhika Talwani, University of Florida • Until a cure for AIDS is found, prevention is the key, but health communication research states that effective AIDS/HIV prevention programs have not been implemented. Researchers and AIDS prevention program coordinators agree about what constitutes an effective AIDS prevention program. However, both groups discussed various obstacles to the implementation of such programs. This study found that the obstacles that are the most prevalent spring from the conservative movement that has been sweeping the nation since the 1980s.

Black, White and Read All Over: Racial Reasoning and the Construction of Public Reaction to the O.J. Simpson Criminal Trial Verdict • Lauren R. Tucker, University of South Carolina • This case study deconstructs the media frame of the racial divide used by the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Defender define the public reaction to the October 3, 1995 Simpson criminal verdict. This frame analysis identifies differences and similarities between two newspapers, one mainstream and one Black, as they define, interpret and evaluate the public reaction to the Simpson’s acquittal.

Television and the Politics of Values: The Case of M*A*S*H • James H. Wittebols, Niagara University • As a long running situation comedy, «M*A*S*H» is an ideal vehicle for examining television’s politics and values. Four value orientations are presented to look critically at how: 1.) television lags behind value shifts occurring in society, 2.) television’s imperatives produce a focus on commercial and universal values, 3.) oppositional or counter cultural values are rarely portrayed, even in a show regarded as innovative and provocative and 4.) television stays within safe boundaries while reflecting some social tensions and contradictions.

Rethinking the Unintended Consequences: The Pursuit of Individualism in America Primetime Television Advertising • Joyce M. Wolburg, Marquette University, Ronald E. Taylor, University of Tennessee • A long-standing, unresolved issue concerns whether advertising messages merely reflect existing cultural values or construct new values. To reconsider the issue, this study examined primetime television advertising for expressions of individualism, the most basic cultural value in American society. Using a document analysis approach, four types of main message strategy and eight contextual categories emerged as elements that express individualism. These expressions showed that advertising portrayals often misrepresent what we know of the culture from census data. Conclusions were offered regarding advertising’s ability to construct new values.

Spokesperson as Agenda Builder: Framing the Susan Smith Investigation • Lynn M. Zoch, Columbia, Erin A. Galloway, Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce • This paper analyzes the thematic frames used by Sheriff Howard Wells, the main police spokesman in the Susan Smith investigation. Three overlapping frames served to build the media coverage of the nine day investigation, keeping the focus of the media on efforts to achieve the safe return of the two missing children, and downplaying suspicions of Smith while police conducted parallel investigations. Wells’ characteristics as a successful source, and his use of strategic ambiguity in his statements are also noted.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Public Relations Division

Evaluating the Public Informations Function: How Media Agents Framed the Silicone Breast Implant Controversy • Julie Andsager, Leiott Smiley, Middle Tennessee State University • Public information officers work to develop and transmit policy actors’ frames through the media to the public. We examined their effectiveness during the 1991-92 silicone breast implant controversy, which involved a major corporation, the medical community, and citizens’ activist groups. After determining policy actor frames via press releases, we analyzed their occurrence in six major newspapers. Medical community’s frame occurred most frequently and centrally in news coverage, while activists remained on the margin of discourse.

Patterns and Constraints in Public Relations Campaign Measurement: The Role of Practitioner Orientations in Reliance on Source or Receiver-Oriented Measurement Practices • Erica Austin, Bruce Pinkleton, Washington State University • A mail survey of 299 public relations practitioners assesses role orientations, research orientations and perceived barriers to performing public relations research. The data show two distinct-but correlated groups of practitioner role orientations (managers and technicians) and two orthogonal groups of research orientations (source orientation and receiver orientation). Management-oriented practitioners are more receiver-oriented than technician-oriented practitioners, who tend to be more source oriented. Budget is considered to be more of a constraint for management-oriented practitioners, with time and training more of a problem for technician-oriented practitioners. Supervisor interest and training are motivators to research for those with a management orientation. Client interest has no positive or negative associations with the perceived ability to perform public relations research.

Practitioner Roles, PR Education and Professional Socialization: An Exploratory Study • Dan Berkowitz, Ilias Hristodoulakis, University of Iowa • This study considered how two key socialization factors Ñ public relations education and work experience Ñ are related to the roles that public relations practitioners see for themselves. Data came from an exploratory survey of students and practitioners in one PRSSA chapter and one PRSA chapter. Results showed no clear differences between students and practitioners regarding management and technician roles. Instead, differences were linked mainly to whether a person had taken public relations coursework.

Critical Conflict Issues in Public Relations Agency-Client Relationships • Pamela Bourland-Davis, Georgia Southern University • Little research hag been conducted to assess key issues in maintaining public relations agency-client relationships. This study investigated conflict issues considered significant to agencies and clients. Both sides tended to agree on conflict issues relevant to their relations, and recognized that neither gide wag above reproach. Factor analysis, however, pointed to an us-versus-them perspective with four Factors: Agency Work, Client Expectations, Client Communication and Client Financial Obligations.

Evaluation and Assessment of a Service Learning Component in Academia: A Case Study • Pamela G. Bourland-Davis, Lisa Fall, Georgia Southern University • Many faculty incorporate service learning projects into their classes, yet have no way to present this material in annual evaluations and assessment. With assessment becoming increasingly important, institutions of higher education must find assessment measures for service which may not typically get much attention. This case study relates one method for quantifying service learning using the analogy of an agency with billable hours to generate an economic impact statement for service learning projects. Interviews with students were also conducted to provide some measure of student outcomes relevant to the use of service learning projects as a form of pedagogy.

Wired to the World: A Preliminary Study of News Release Wire Services As Conduits for International Communication • Lois A. Boynton, University of North Carolina • This preliminary study examines the use of news release wire services as credible means for U.S. organizations to access international media outlets. This is studied within the context of public relations theoretical models and the need for effective media relations. This first-stage assessment revealed that these providers may be useful conduit to international media, but additional services including clipping services are needed to better identify the effectiveness of employing news release wire services.

A Coorientational Approach to Analyzing Obstacles to Negotiation Among Interest Groups • Cindy T. Christen, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Symmetric public relations models call for negotiated solutions to conflicts between an organization and external publics. However, such models provide little guidance in predicting the relationships and behaviors of external groups, identifying obstacles to negotiation, and developing communication strategies which encourage cooperation. In this paper, a strategic approach to initiating negotiations is proposed. The method is applied to the conflict over recreation use impacts at Sand Flats Recreation Area, and recommendations are made for refinement.

Modeling Public School Partnerships: Merging Corporate and Community Issues • Cynthia M. Clark, Dale A. Brill, Boston University • This paper describes a model that merges corporate community relations strategy and public relations pedagogy to accelerate the rate at which internet-based technologies are integrated into the public schools systems. The model provides internet-based training for a select group of Key Contacts drawn from a local middle school. Training is delivered by graduate students in Boston University’s public relations program who have completed courses in the school’s interactive media sequence. The Key Contacts are trained as change agents for their host schools and are provided with two mobile instructional units connected to the internet using ISDN lines. The Key Contacts use these resources to conduct in-service programs, supported by continuous contact with the public relations graduate students. The model, known as the Boston University Public School Partnership (PSP), introduces a mutually beneficial relationship between a corporate sponsor (specifically the NYNEX Foundation), public relations education and public schools.

Better Than Drinking Poison: Editors’ Perceptions of the Utility of Public Relations Information Subsidies in a Constrained Economic Climate • Patricia A. Curtin, University of North Carolina • Public relations practitioners provide information subsidies to the media on behalf of their clients to influence the media agenda and potentially affect public opinion. McManus (1994) states news media are using more subsidies to contain costs and increase profits. This study of editors’ perceptions of the phenomenon suggests increasing economic constraints have led to an increased use of these materials only in specific instances that often do not support the agenda building goals of the sponsoring organizations.

Almost Ten Years Later: An Analysis of Ethnic Inclusion in Public Relations Textbooks and Reference Books for the Years 1991 – 1997 as Compared to Kern-Foxworth’s Analysis of Books for the Years 1979 – 1988 • Sandra Wills Hannon, Maryland • A content analysis of 18 public relations textbooks published between the years 1991 – 1997 was conducted to determine the quality of minority inclusion. Of a total of 8,071 pages examined, 97 pages included minorities. The findings are not significantly different from those of Kern-Foxworth’s study of textbooks published between the gears 1979 and 1988. The author suggests textbooks should provide students with information about ethnic groups so students can design culturally competent communications campaigns and products.

Demonstrating Effectiveness in Public Relations: Goals, Objectives, and Evaluation • Linda Childers Hon, University of Florida • Public relations planning and evaluation were explored among 32 practitioners and 10 top executives. Practitioners said their goals reflect the priorities of their institution. The CEOs believed public relations’ ultimate aim is communicating the image of the organization. Responses showed many practitioners conduct informal evaluation while only a few conduct formal evaluation. This research suggests public relations planning and evaluation are becoming more systematic but are still constrained by lack of resources and difficulty.

Impacts of Political System and Activism on Public Relations, A Perspective from the Theory of Global Public Relations • Yi-Hui Huang, University of Maryland • This paper employs the theory of global public relations to examine the extent to which a political system and level of activism affect public relations practice in Taiwan. A case-study design and pattern-matching logic were employed for data collection and data analysis. The findings are produced to generalize to the relevant theory. Five theoretical propositions are generated: l) The authoritarian political system severely limited the practice of free press, and in turn, the extent of public relations development; 2) Political systems only could impact the models of public relations to some extent; 3) Activist groups can motivate an organization to employ Excellence principles of public relations; 4) Activist groups can drive an organization to adopt the symmetrical model of public relations; and 5) The transformation of a political system triggers the development of activism and, in turn, contributes to an organization’s better quality of public relations.

Women in Public Relations: How Their Career Path Decisions are Shaping the Future of the Profession • Mara Hynes Huberlie, Syracuse University • This study focuses on the lives and career path decisions of twenty-five female practitioners currently working in the public relations profession. It looks at the choices they have made, the paths they have chosen and the societal and organizational restraints that influenced their decisions. As the industry becomes more feminized, the study examines the impact of the different career patterns for women and also asks whether the public relations profession is facing a potential loss or underutilization of talent.

Getting Past the Impasse: Framing as a Tool for Public Relations • Myra Gregory Knight, University of North Carolina • J. Grunig, L. Grunig and Dozier (1995) have proposed a two-dimensional model of public relations that combined the two-way symmetrical and asymmetrical models. They also named strategies important for both public and organizational influence and called for research dealing with others. This paper proposes framing as such a strategy. To demonstrate the technique’s potential, the author employs framing to show how sex education can be promoted more effectively within public schools.

Interpersonal Dimensions in an Organizational-Public Relationship: Toward a Theory of Loyalty • John A. Ledingham, Stephen D. Bruning, Capital University • No Abstract available.

Fourth Generation Evaluation: Implications for Public Relations Education • Debra A. Miller, Florida International University • The topic of evaluating student learning outcomes continues to receive attention from public relations educators. Although quantitative approaches are still widely used, what has not been addressed is an effective way of qualitatively assessing the achievement of instructional objectives, student attitudes about course content and teaching effectiveness. This paper discusses results of a study which tests the use of a fourth generation evaluation method used during a semester length course entitled Multicultural Communications and suggests implications for public relations educators.

The Writing Activities of Public Relations Professionals: An Assessment for Curriculum Design and Adjustment • Philip M. Napoli, Gerald Powers, Boston University • Public relations writing curricula must accurately reflect the writing responsibilities of public relations practitioners. This study provides descriptive information on the types of writing tasks conducted by PR practitioners. The study also investigates whether the type of writing and overall time spent writing vary with years of experience. Survey results from 200 public relations practitioners indicate that, for the most part, the nature and quantity of writing tasks does not vary substantially with years of experience. However, the percentage of the day spent writing does decline with experience, indicating that higher levels of writing efficiency come with writing experience.

Conflict Resolution and Power for Public Relations • Kenneth D. Plowman, San Jose State University • The use of conflict resolution and mixed motives can empower public relations managers to become part of the decision-making group of an organization. The conclusions of this study were first, that public relations will become a part of the dominant coalition if it has experience in the new model of symmetry to include tactics of conflict resolution. Secondly, top management directly affects the practice of public relations to operate according to its own agenda Ñ in a two-way, mixed motive manner.

Pluralistic Ignorance and Educators in Public Relations: Underestimating Professionalism of Our Educator Peers and of Practitioners In the Field • Lynne M. Sallot, Glen T. Cameron, Yarbrough Public Relations Laboratory, Ruth Ann Weaver-Lariscy • Responding to a battery of 45 items, educators from across the nation erroneously judged the current state of professional standards in the field held by their peers and by practitioners. Educators held their peers in comparatively low esteem and practitioners in lower esteem, viewing others collectively as somewhat naive, unprofessional and unenlightened when compared to their own personal self-images. This state of affairs, described in coorientation theory as pluralistic ignorance, suggests that public relations educators may actually hold higher standards and greater confidence in standards than educators commonly attribute to their peers and to their professional colleagues.

Sexual Harassment and Public Relations: Confusion and the Need for Leadership in the Workplace • Shirley Serini, Ball State; Elizabeth Toth, Syracuse; Donald Wright, South Alabama; Arthur Emig, Ball State • Quantitative and qualitative results of the sexual harassment section of a survey are presented. Though in decline, sexual harassment is a problem for public relations practitioners. Most were uncertain about its magnitude/importance relative to other issues. Men and women expressed confusion, concern and fear. Women feel it and its consequences are larger problems than do men. Younger men are less likely to harass. Men showed respect for women and concern about eliminating sexual harassment.

Non-profit Service Organization Partnerships With University Communications Programs: Cultivating the Values of Community Service and Volunteerism • Laurie Wilson, Brigham Young University • Service-learning, an educational method characterized by active participation of students in experiential learning activities that meet actual community needs, offers important contributions to university public relations education. Community service is being recognized as a key component in an individual’s overall value system, as well as a basis for sound relationships with an organization’s publics. This paper quantitatively and qualitatively evaluates a university model of service learning, and its impact on the value priorities and community service behavior of public relations graduates. It also assesses the role of career mentors in shaping service behavior.

Examining Employee Perceptions of Internal Communication Effectiveness • Donald K. Wright, South Alabama • This paper examines the effectiveness of employee communication programs in nine major organizations through a survey sent to a large, stratified random sample of employees that was followed-up with focus groups. There were 8,647 respondents to the survey and 208 employees participated in focus groups. Results reveal a large majority of employees do not consider themselves well informed about what is happening in the organizations where they work. Findings also suggest face-to-face, two-way communication from immediate supervisors is the most preferred and credible source for internal communication. The supervisor also was the most frequently used employee communication source in seven of the nine organizations studied. Respondents also said supervisors were the most effective and the most useful of the employee communication sources available to them. Findings suggest employees who are not communicated with effectively by their supervisors are more likely to seek out information about the organization they work for from other employees, the grapevine and external mass media.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Newspaper Division

Net Gain? Online Newspapers Take Time From Their Cyber-stampede to Assess Benefits and Drawbacks of Electronic Editions • Mary Jane Alexander, St. Michael’s College • This paper examines New England newspapers’ assessment of the benefits, drawbacks and future of electronic publishing. Conclusions are based on a survey of the region’s 602 daily and weekly newspapers, conducted from November 1996-February 1997. Respondents cited several pluses and minuses of cybereditions. The survey found that many of the aspects of online publishing that have been lauded as revolutionary, the ability to provide immediate updates, deliver the news instantly and without regard to space limitations, are the same elements that are cited as drawbacks by some online publishers. As for the future? Although most respondents said online news would never replace the traditional newspaper, 13 papers (6.5 percent) surveyed say the Internet Ñ or some as-yet unimagined technology Ñ would eventually replace the print medium; four more (2 percent) said its demise was possible.

Changing Values in the Newsroom: A Survey of Daily Newspaper Editors and Reporters • M. David Arant, University of Memphis, Philip Meyer, University of North Carolina • This mail survey of U.S. daily newspaper editors and reporters suggests that ethical standards of rank-and-file journalists have not deteriorated during the last 14 years. Replicating several variables from a 1983 survey, the study found that journalists in 1997 showed as great or greater ethical sensitivity in their responses to questions dealing with conflict of interest, deception and privacy as did the journalists who responded to these questions in 1983.

The Characteristics of Market-Oriented Daily Newspapers • Randal A. Beam, Indiana University • Results of a survey of 406 senior editors at 182 newspapers indicate that newspapers with a strong market orientation do more readership research than newspapers with a weak market orientation. Also, market-oriented newspapers are as committed to traditional content and public-affairs content as other papers. They are more committed to special-interest content, to endorsing an adversarial role for journalists and to publishing an excellent journalistic product. Cross-departmental interaction is more frequent at market-oriented newspapers.

So-30-Doesn’t Mean the End. Media Temps Provide Helping Hands for Community Newspapers • Lori Bergen and Linda Gilmore, Kansas State University • Who helps out when personal tragedies strike in a community newspaper? Who could relieve the staff of small, often exclusively family-run news organizations who haven’t had time off in years for a vacation or family visit? This paper discusses several ways that university journalism units can institute a Media Temps program that uses university students and faculty to assist in the temporary production of community newspapers. The experience for students and faculty is meaningful and significant in a number of ways, which is illustrated through examples of four successful Media Temp programs run by the Huck Boyd Center for Community Journalism in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University. The paper concludes with specific plans for instituting programs at other institutions.

Self-Promotion and the Internet • Steve J. Collins, Syracuse University • Economic theory and historical evidence suggest a newspaper’s coverage is affected by its financial interests. It was hypothesized that newspapers online themselves would provide more coverage of the Internet (in their traditional publications) than newspapers not online. Based on a content analysis (using Nexis) of 30 newspapers, a statistically significant difference between the two groups was found for the average number of stories with Internet in the headline, but not for average story length.

Corporate News Structure and News Source Perceptions: Another Test of the Editorial Vigor Hypothesis • David Pearce Demers, Washington State University • A recent content analysis of newspaper editorial content has disputed the conventional wisdom that newspapers become less vigorous editorially as they acquire the characteristics of the corporate form of organization. However, many scholars remain skeptical. This study tested the editorial vigor hypothesis using an alternative methodology, a national probability survey of mainstream news sources (mayors and police chiefs). As hypothesized, the more a newspaper exhibits the characteristics of the corporate form of organization, the more these news sources perceive that paper as being critical of them and their institutions.

New Study Contradicts Medsger’s Winds of Change • Fred Fedler, Maria Cristina Santana, Arlen Carey, University of Central Florida, Tim Counts, University of South Florida • Medsger’s Winds of Change found that 17X % of journalism’s educators never worked full time as journalists. This study, with a higher response rate, found that the figure is 4.3%. Like Medsger, however, this study found that new faculty members have less professional experience. This study also compared faculty members in JMC’s largest specializations. Those who taught reporting/editing had fewer Ph.D.s and conducted less research. None said they had no professional experience, although 2.9% did not answer the question.

Journalism’s Status In Academia: A Candidate For Elimination? • Fred Fedler, Arlen Carey, University of Central Florida, Tim Counts, University of South Florida • To learn more about JMC’s ability to survive in this era of retrenchment, the authors surveyed more than 600 academicians from all disciplines and all types of colleges and universities. If their institutions were forced to cut some programs, the respondents would be most likely to eliminate hospitality management and home economics, followed by Judaic, women’s and African-American studies. Only 2.7% would eliminate journalism. However, 31.6% would eliminate (or merge) advertising/public relations and 26.2% broadcasting.

Fairness and Defamation in the Reporting of Local Issues • Frederick Fico, Todd Simon, Michael Drager, Michigan State University • Stories involving conflict and defamation during May 1994 in 16 mid-sized randomly sampled dailies from around the nation were content analyzed. The study examined the relationship of source type (government proceedings and documents, other activities and documents, and interviews) to fairness, balance and defamation in the reporting of conflict. Some 38 percent of the 620 stories involving conflict contained defamatory assertions. Contrary to expectations, stories relying on interview sources were not more fair and balanced than stories relying on government proceedings and documents. Also contrary to expectations, interview-based stories were twice as likely as stories emerging from government proceedings or documents to contain defamatory assertions. Stories containing defamatory assertions were also examined to assess legal risk.

Beyond Accuracy: The Effects of Direct Vs. Paraphrased Quotation in Multi-Sided News Reports on Issue Perception • Rhonda Gibson, University of Houston, Dolf Zillmann, University of Alabama • The ability of quotation in news reports to influence media consumers’ judgments of issues was examined. Five print news reports addressing the economic conditions of farms were created. All reports presented the issue as two-sided, one side blaming bankers and the government for the failure of farms and one crediting these people for farms’ successes. The conditions included one with no quotation, one with direct quotation from both sides of the issue, one with paraphrased quotation from both sides of the issue, one with direct from side one and paraphrased from side two, and one with direct from side two and paraphrased from side one. Respondents exposed to reports containing direct testimony from poor farmers produced higher estimates of the number of farms that fail and were more likely to blame bankers and the government than respondents who did not read direct personal testimony from poor farmers.

An Analysis of Online Sites Produced by U.S. Newspapers: Are the Critics Right? • Jon Gubman, Jennifer Greer, University of Nevada-Reno • A content analysis of 83 sites produced by U.S. newspapers was conducted to examine whether criticism directed at the industry for failing to adapt to new technology is well-founded. The research shows online newspapers making strides in placement of news and reader interaction. Online papers are not doing as well adapting to the digital environment in news content and presentation of news. Sites produced by large newspapers appear closer to the critics’ ideal than small newspapers.

Newsroom Topic Teams: Journalists’ Assessments of Effects on News Routines and Newspaper Quality • Kathleen A. Hansen, University of Minnesota, Mark Neuzil, University of St. Thomas, Jean Ward, University of Minnesota • This study examines the effects of newsroom topic on news routines and newspaper quality. It is based on a census survey of journalists at the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which both instituted topic teams within six months of each other. Survey results are supplemented by focus group and written comments from journalists in these two Newspaper Guild newsrooms. The study finds that the effects of the team system on the news process and news quality have been mixed, but predominantly negative, in the assessment of these journalists.

Is The Women’s Section an Anachronism? Affinity for and Ambivalence About the Chicago Tribune’s WomaNews • Melinda D. Hawley, University of Georgia • Analysis of interviews with staff of the Chicago Tribune’s WomaNews and reader focus groups suggests women’s sections can help to retain women readers and increase the visibility of women in newspapers. However, the study warned the women’s label undermines the section’s success by appearing to: • exclude men from coverage of substantive issues affecting women, • reinforce stereotypes of women, • create a women’s news ghetto, and • attract advertising that conflicts with editorial content, thereby alienating women readers.

Sisyphus or Synergy: Effects of TV-Newspaper Collaborations on Voter Knowledge • Jurgen Henn, University of North Carolina • This paper examines whether collaborations of television and newspapers produce a synergistic effect, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It is going to demonstrate that media partnerships affected the citizens’ knowledge of the presidential candidates’ positions in a study of 20 U.S. media-markets during the 1996 election. It will also show statistical indications of a limited amount of cross-promotional effect of newspaper television partnerships in these markets.

Reversal of Fortune for the Dominant Print Media: Social and Economic Determinants for the Differential Revenue Growth among China’s Newspapers • Chen Huailin, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Guo Zhongshi, Hong Kong Baptist University, Xing Rong, Chinese University of Hong Kong • This research explores the emerging pattern of differential revenue growth among various newspapers in China and analyzes its social and economic origins. guided by a framework of key concepts and using data from multiple sources, our analysis uncovered several characteristics common to the revenue gap, including timing, region, magnitude, and nature of occurrences. We established that the interactions between newspaper orientation and market maturity factors are the main forces underlying the enlargement of the gap.

Life and Death in Jackson’s America: Cultural Values as Memory in Historic Newspaper Obituaries • Janice Hume, University of Missouri • Andrew Jackson’s 1828 election to the presidency represents a political and cultural turning point in American history. The new nation experienced vast changes during the era, but perhaps the most striking trend was the strengthening of egalitarianism, the notion that America should be a nation of equality. Indeed, more men gained access to the political franchise, but did this new spirit of equality affect the lives of everyday citizens or increase their value in the democracy? This study uses the historic newspaper obituary, which distills and publishes for public consumption the remembered worth of an individual citizen’s life, as a tool to help answer this question.

Media’s Coverage of Itself: How Eight Major Newspapers Covered the Telecommunications Act of 1996 • L. Paul Husselbee, Ohio University • Given the magnitude of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and its potential impact on society, media consumers seemed to be grossly underinformed about the scope of the new law. Some media practitioners, including Washington Post columnist Tom Shales and Nightline’s Ted Koppel, were vocal about media’s failure to cover the act before it became law. This study analyzes coverage of the Telecommunication Act by eight major newspapers to determine whether they provided balanced reports on the provisions and implications of the act. It concludes that coverage was not balanced and that some aspects of the proposed act were highlighted while others were not discussed. Statistical analysis indicates that there may be an association between these findings.

The Effect of Rape Victim Identification on Readers’ Perceptions of Victims and News Stories • Michelle Johnson, Westfield State College • Journalists have been discussing whether or not to name rape victims in news stories for more than three decades, but they have yet to resolve the issue. This study took an experimental approach to the problem, testing whether the inclusion of rape victims’ names in stories affected readers’ interest in the story, sympathy for the victim or assignment of responsibility for the crime. It found that while the inclusion of victims’ names affects readers views in some cases, the effects are not universal, uniform or predictable.

Untangling the Web: Teaching Students How to Use Online Resources and Critically Evaluate Information • Stan Ketterer, University of Missouri • Former presidential Press Secretary Pierre Salinger inadvertently issued a wake-up call to journalists worldwide last year that taking information from the Internet can be hazardous when he alleged that a TWA jetliner was downed by friendly fire. Initially, Salinger’s reputation lent credibility to the information, but ultimately he damaged the credibility of the profession by failing to ensure accuracy. Salinger’s vulnerablity indicates that educators must teach students how to critically evaluate information on the Internet and ensure its accuracy. The researcher created a World Wide Web site of hypertext links divided into useful categories that students could use for daily journalism. Guidelines for use of Web information were drafted. Students in advanced reporting and copy editing classes, students were taught how to use the site and how to evaluate information critically. During the first month, the site was accessed more than 1,200 times. Initial results indicate that the site appears to be useful, but more research must be done.

Reader-Friendly Journalism’s Lasting Impact: A Study of Reporters and Editors Involved in Knight-Ridder’s 25/43 Project • Kris Kodrich, Indiana University • On Oct. 11, 1990, Knight-Ridder kicked off a grand journalistic experiment called the 25/43 Project at The Boca Raton News, a sleepy 25,000-circulation newspaper in South Florida. The company invested millions of dollars in a bold move to attract baby boomers to newspapers. This is a qualitative study of the attitudes of some of the journalists involved in the project. Today, many of the reporters involved in the 25/43 Project believe they damaged newspapers more than they helped them to survive. Many are predicting, at the very least, a smudged future for newspapers. Newspapers, in attempting to redefine themselves, have destroyed themselves, says former reporter Phil Scruton. But one of the strategists of the 25/43 Project says some reporters never quite understood what the project was all about, and still don’t.

Making the Picture: A Study of U.S. Media Coverage of Dissidents in China and South Korea, 1989-1996 • Yulian Li, Ohio University • This study content-analyzed news stories published in the New York Times and the Washington Post covering dissidents in China and South Korea between 1989 and 1996. It found that the papers consistently portrayed Chinese dissidents as human rights campaigners and often described South Korean dissidents as violent radicals. The study concluded that the media were influenced by the American ideology and adopted the U.S. government schemes of interpretation in covering international events.

Adult Learners’ Attitudes About Newspapers • Carol S. Lomicky, University of Nebraska at Kearney • This study identifies attitudes about newspapers among adult learners in literacy programs. The researcher performed a principle components factor analysis on data obtained from the Q sorts of 47 subjects from Adult Basic Education programs in Central Nebraska. Thirty-two subjects loaded significantly (p< 0.01) on a four factor solution. The factors were labeled (a) Good Citizens, (b) Gregarians, (c) Pragmatics, and (d) Pragmatic Skeptics. Demographic data also was used to describe subjects.

Newspaper Nonreadership: A Study of Motivations • Gina M. Masullo, Syracuse University • Despite decades of research on declining newspaper readership, the newspaper industry still does not know how to reverse this trend. This study draws on the uses and gratifications perspective to provide new insight into the link between motivation to seek information and time spent reading newspapers. This survey analysis confirms that newspaper nonreadership is not solely a function of demographics, but that the root of nonreadership is a lack of motivation to seek information.

The Chattanooga Times and NewsChannel 9: Working Together to Get the Scoop and the Implications for Journalism Educators • Peter Pringle, Luther Masingill, Betsy B. Alderman, University of Tennessee/Chattanooga • No Abstract available.

Newspaper Readership Choices of Young Adults • Carol Schlagheck, Eastern Michigan University • This study looks at trends in newspaper readership among the 18-to-34 age group and examines some of the choices young adults make when reading newspapers. Specifically, this study explores what types of newspapers young adults read, what stories they read in those papers and what information they would like newspapers to give them. Some suggestions are offered for changing newspapers to make their content more appealing to young adults.

A Big Enough Web for the Both of Us? Online Coverage of the 1996 Election by Denver’s Warring Newspapers • Jane B. Singer, Colorado State University • The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News have been fiercely at war for 100 years. Last fall, the two papers got their first shot at trying to outgun each other in online political coverage. This exploratory study analyzes the print and Web versions of the two papers during the campaign season to determine how they handled the opportunities and challenges of cyberspace; interviews with their online editors provide insight into why things were the way they were this time around.

Assessment of Lead Writing Practices in U.S. Newspapers • Gerald Stone, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • Are U.S. newspaper journalists still adhering to the principle of writing short, active-voice leads? An assessment of leads in a large sample of staff written articles found that the average lead is about 24 words and that newspaper leads fall close to that average regardless of publication frequency, circulation size or whether the story is written on deadline. However, newspapers do deviate from the principle of using active voice leads.

Mainstream Newspapers’ Coverage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, 1991-1996 • Ana-Jimena Vargas, Ohio University • This study showed that there was a significant difference in the coverage of NAFTA by six mainstream newspapers during different phases of the agreement: negotiations, congressional approval and implementation. The coverage was indexed to what government officials and congressional members had to say about the accord, and focused primarily on the participants in the NAFTA debate and their arguments, rather than on the provisions and implications of the agreement.

Newspaper Editors’ Policies and Attitudes Toward Coverage of Domestic Assault • Wayne Wanta and Kimber Williams, University of Oregon • The attitudes and policies of newspaper editors regarding domestic violence were examined through a mail survey conducted in February 1995, during the O.J. Simpson trial. In general, few editors reported having formal policies to assist reporters covering domestic assault stories. Editors also felt that domestic assault presented more legal risks than other types of assault, but that the coverage of domestic violence did not pose ethical problems for their newspapers.

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