Minorities and Communication Division

Racial Differences in Responding to Occupational Portrayals by Models on Television • Osei Appiah, Stanford University • This study examined the differences in how black and white viewers process messages based on the race of television models representing five occupations. Findings from 54 black and white college students suggest that the race of the model has no impact on the amount of information white viewers remember from television models. In contrast, black viewers remember significantly more information from black television models than they do from white television models. The results imply that when designing campaign messages, particularly health messages, planners should make use of black models in order for black viewers to best remember those messages.

Framing Minority Image: A Case Study of Korean Americans Before and After the 1992 Los Angeles Riots • Hyun Ban, The University of Texas at Austin • This study examined and compared how the Los Angeles Times framed Korean Americans before and after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, according to four framing dimensions: substantive, affective, stylistic, and stereotypical. The results indicated that Times’ efforts to cover the Korean Americans more frequently and with a greater variety of aspects were successful. Nevertheless, their image in the Times did not significantly improve after the riots, in terms of favorability and depth.

Tolerance for First Amendment Rights in a Southern California Vietnamese Community • Jeff Brody, Tony Rimmer, California State-Fullerton • What are the dimensions of tolerance for civil liberties in immigrant communities? Models developed in large-scale surveys of the general American population have found education, liberal political ideologies, and newspaper reliance to be positively associated with tolerance, while religion, age and TV reliance are negative predictors. Closer inspection of these data, however, show radically different opinions may be held by subgroups. Some religious communities, for example, do report tolerant attitudes. The present study considers tolerance for speech and press rights in the Vietnamese community, a subgroup whose migrating circumstances over the last two decades suggest alternative tolerance models. We argue that the recent political history of the Vietnamese and their unique cultural and religious heritage will find the received general tolerance model wanting. Religious and media use measures (TV news rather than newspaper use) did play a positive role here in predicting tolerant attitudes towards the speech and press rights of others. Our attempt to incorporate historic circumstances into the model was not successful.

Newspapers’ Coverage of the Immigration Issue During the 1996 Presidential Campaign • Yu-li Chang, Ohio • This study about newspapers’ coverage of the immigration issue during the 1996 presidential campaign found that Hispanics and Asians were the immigrant groups most frequently covered and that immigrants were presented in a negative light. This study also found that papers published in cities with large immigrant populations and having large circulations were aware of the ethnic diversity among their readers since they contained more coverage and diversity of topics on the immigration issue.

Use of Asian American History in the News Media: The Discourse of Model Minority • Chiung Hwang Chen and Ethan Yorgason, University of Iowa • This paper focuses on the use of history in the American press’s model minority discourse between the 1960s and the 1980s. It looks at how the mainstream media constructed an Asian American past to justify the discourse of the model minority. It then addresses the political and ideological implications of this stereotype. It concludes by arguing that journalists ought to incorporate a deconstructive impulse in using history and writing about minorities.

They Just Keep Rolling Along: Images of Blacks in Film Versions of Show Boat • Douglass K. Daniel, Kansas State University • The four filmed versions of the venerable American musical Show Boat, dating from 1929 to 1989, significantly altered their depictions of blacks while telling the same story. Racial slurs and stereotypes diminished with each version. Yet the most popular film, the 1951 Technicolor extravaganza, responded to changing attitudes about black portrayals in film by virtually eliminating characters and subplots. The 1989 version filmed for television demonstrated an enlightened production of a racially flawed story.

White Viewers’ Perceptions of Black Television Images • Chontrese M. Doswell, University of Maryland at College Park, Carolyn A. Stroman, Howard University • The general foundation of the present study was the socializing influence the media have upon audience perceptions resulting from televised images. The specific aim was to examine whether media depiction of Black people shaped White audience members’ perceptions of Black people in the real world. Findings showed divergent opinions exist about viewer perceptions of White and Black people. White images on television were held more closely representative of White culture than Black images. Results of the study indicate that (1) there is a weak relationship between television images of Black people and White viewer perceptions of Black people in the real world, (2) in addition to television, music videos, magazines and firsthand experiences are predictors of knowledge about Black people among White people; and (3) weekly TV exposure is the strongest predictor of perceptions about Black people. This perceived reality study showed that White adult viewers perceived White and Black people differently. Traditionally, research in this area has only used children. Further research using adults should be done to fully determine the relationship between television exposure and subsequent perceptions.

An Investigation of Colorism of Black Women in News • Lillie M. Fears, University of Missouri-Columbia • Most studies of colorism in advertising have concluded that typically Eurocentric-looking models are more popular than typically Afrocentric-looking models. This study differs in that it examines whether news editorial photographs reveal the Eurocentric black woman’s life advantages over that of the Afrocentric black woman. Results indicate an overwhelming representation of Afrocentric-looking women, a finding that supports the notion that news, unlike advertising, presents a far more realistic view of the way Black America really looks.

Racism, Hegemony, and Local TV News: An Ethnographic Study of News Practice • Don Heider, University of Texas at Austin • Using theoretical frames of hegemony and everyday racism, this ethnographic study examines news practice in two local television newsrooms. News philosophy and coverage decision-making are examined, as well as where news room power resides. With the help of community leaders and informants within the newsrooms themselves, the author finds that news practice remains a process that routinely excludes coverage of people of color and naturalizes the process wherein Anglo values continue to control the daily news product.

Japan’s Challenge to America’s Game: Hideo Nomo’s First Season with the Los Angeles Dodgers • Tsutomu Kanayama, Ohio University, Joseph Bernt, Ohio University • Study of Hideo Nomo’s first season as a Japanese player in the major leagues content analyzed 229 stories covering games in which Nomo pitched. Stories represented the entire universe of such stories from USA Today and 14 metropolitan papers from the cities with National League franchises. Race-labeled description, photographic treatment, length of story, paper, and date of coverage were recorded to determine subtle evidence of biased reporting using a method similar to Washburn’s 1981 study of coverage of Robinson’s first season with the Dodgers. Coverage varied by time of season, type of paper, location of paper and game.

HIV/AIDS Video Programming for Latino Youth • Hilary N. Karasz, University of Washington • The purpose of this study is to provide guidelines for improving programming about HIV/AIDS for a specific population of Latino adolescents. A set of programming recommendations was developed from the literature and tested in a series of focus group discussions with Latino teenagers from a San Francisco outreach center. The findings show that teenagers prefer and recommend explicit, detailed information about HIV/AIDS, presented with particular attention to realistic characterization and the male/female relationship.

Like the Sun Piercing the Clouds: Native American Tribal Newspapers and Their Functions • Teresa Trumbly Lamsam, University of Missouri • In a content analysis of news content, three Native American tribal newspapers were examined for the functions of surveillance, correlation, transmission of culture and entertainment. For these three cases, the findings indicate that these tribal newspapers seldom perform an interpretive or propaganda function. Instead, the analysis shows that nearly 90 percent of the time, the common goal of the three newspapers was to keep tribal members informed of activities of the tribal government, elected tribal officials and tribal members.

A Survey of Asian American Journalists: A Look at Their Job-Related Experiences Due to Ethnicity, and a Look at Their Perceptions of Media Coverage of Asian Americans • Virginia Mansfield-Richardson, Penn State • This paper is a survey of 520 members of the Asian American Journalists Association asking about negative and positive experiences they have had as print, radio and television journalists, which they attribute to their ethnic status as Asian Americans. The survey also asks their opinions of how Asian Americans and issues affecting Asian Americans are being covered in the media today. The answers reveal a great deal of anger, passion, resentment, and bitterness, as well as many positive attitudes that there are advantages to being an Asian American in the news business today.

White and Whiter: Television’s Impediments to Inter-Racial Trust • Andrew Rojecki, Indiana • This paper argues that entertainment television erodes social trust between blacks and whites by constricting the range of inter-racial involvement and intimacy. It does so in two ways: structurally by putting blacks and whites in hierarchical relationships that diminish involvement beyond formal role requirements, and symbolically by stripping blacks of a full-range of human emotion by making them allegorical vessels of white virtue. The project uses the concept of social capital, most recently developed by Robert Putnam, to argue that the store of inter-racial trust depends on horizontal relationships that encourage candor and involvement.

No Racism Here: News Coverage of the Desegregation of the University of Alabama • Jim Sernoe, Midwestern State University • Autherine J. Lucy was one of the first students to enroll at a previously all-white university. Her enrollment at the University of Alabama in February 1956 was very controversial, and after a series of riots and administrative obstacles, Lucy was suspended. Using textual analysis, this paper examines news coverage in the New York Times from February 1956 through March 1957 to determine the frames and themes found in the coverage, concluding that although stereotypes were largely absent, the Times failed to see whites’ racism and blamed most of the problems on Autherine Lucy.

From Yellow Peril through Model Minority to Renewed Yellow Peril • Doobo Shim, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study is a historical analysis of Asian American portrayals in entertainment media and a contextualization of their meaning in society. The general nature of Asian stereotypes and the racial formation projected in those stereotypes are determined. With the knowledge of this history, the contemporary era’s renewed propensity to depict Asians as illegalists will be understood more clearly.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Media Management and Economics Division

Using Industry Trade Magazines as a Textbook for Media Management Courses • Edward E. Adams, Angelo State University • Weekly trade journals such as Editor & Publisher, Broadcasting Cable, and Advertising Age, can serve as texts for media management courses. Trade magazines provide a current context of management and economic issues for students, as well as exposure to industry publications. This paper discusses the advantages and limitations of utilizing trade magazines as a course textbook.

Network Affiliation Changes and Inheritance Effects • Marianne Barrett, Charles C. Brotherton, Arizona State University • The network affiliation changes and the challenges to viewing behavior that they present offer a unique opportunity to examine whether the traditional factors thought to impact audience duplication continue to do so. This study uses Nielsen ratings data for February 1994, 1995 and 1996 from sixty markets across the United States to assess the effect of the affiliation changes on audience duplication. The study finds that lead-in ratings continue to be the most important determinant of inheritance.

Rosse’s Model Revisited: Moving from Linearity to Concentric Circles to Explain Newspaper Competition • Janet A. Bridges and Barry Litman, Lamar W. Bridges • Competition in the newspaper industry is no longer explained by the linear umbrella model of competition proposed by Rosse in the 1970s. Changes in the newspaper industry suggest a more fluid model of concentric circles is appropriate. The proposed model retains the four Rosse layers, incorporates a fifth, and illustrates changing conditions in the newspaper industry that make suburban and satellite dailies more competitive.

Playing the Market: Diversification as a Management Strategy Among Publicly Traded Newspaper Companies Category: Media Management & Economics • John Carvalho, University of North Carolina • Many companies aggressively expand into new industries. Such strategies are promoted by management gurus, who claim that wise diversification enhances shareholder value. But what about newspaper companies? Are they following this strategy Ñ which often leads to larger debt and closing of unprofitable properties? Are they sticking to their core industries? This paper examines strategy at eleven publicly traded newspaper companies. The author found many companies are diversifying widely, while others continue to concentrate on newspapers.

The Radio Remote: A Model of Audience Feedback • Todd Chambers, Steven McClung, University of Tennessee • This exploratory study examined the processes involved in the radio remote. In particular, this study used a field observation method of 30 different radio remotes in six markets. The researchers found that the radio remote process involves a level of interdependence among the client, station and audience. Overall, the researchers concluded that remotes could be judged according to the presence of a client giveaway or special offer, station giveaways, station interaction with the audience and an activity for the audience. Based on these criteria, the researchers found that few remotes contained all four elements.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Convergence: The Strategic Alliances of Broadcasting, Cable Television, and Telephone Services • Sylvia M.Chan-Olmsted, University of Florida • Convergence through mergers and acquisitions seems to provide the best opportunity for companies to accelerate the implementation of new technologies while at the same time, capture a developed customer base. This paper addressed the following research questions: 1) What is the trend of M&A in the broadcasting, cable TV, and telephone industries after the 1996 ownership deregulation? 2) What are the initial M&A strategies for broadcasting, cable TV, and telephone companies on the way to convergence? 3) Is the convergence being carried out by internal (within industry) M&A or cross-segment integrated strategic alliances?

Revisiting Corporate Newspaper Structure and Profit-Making: Was I Wrong? • David Demers, Washington State University • In a survey of newspapers conducted in 1993, I found that the more a newspaper exhibits the characteristics of the corporate form of organization, the less emphasis it places on profits as an organizational goal and the more emphasis it places on product quality and other non-profit goals. However, some data in a survey I conducted in the fall of 1996 failed to support the profit findings. This paper reports on the findings from another, more comprehensive survey conducted in February 1997 in an attempt to resolve the discrepancy.

A Profile of Potential High-Definition Television Adopters in the United States • Michel Dupagne, University of Miami • A telephone survey was conducted with 193 adults in a major U.S. metropolitan area to assess consumer predispositions toward high-definition television (HDTV) and profile potential adopters of this technology according to demographics, mass media use, ownership of home entertainment products, and importance of television attributes. Based on diffusion theory and communication technology adoption studies, this study hypothesized that male, younger, better educated, and higher-income respondents who are more frequently exposed to mass media channels and value television features more highly would be more aware of HDTV, express a greater interest in HDTV, and be more likely to purchase an HDTV set. Results indicated that HDTV awareness was positively related to education, income, gender (male), newspaper use, ownership of home entertainment products, and picture sharpness; HDTV interest was positively related to age (negative), income, gender (male), moviegoing, and picture sharpness; and HDTV purchase intent was positively related to screen size.

How Family-Owned Hubbard Broadcasting Pioneered Direct Satellite Broadcasting • Hal Foster, University of North Carolina • In 1994 direct satellite broadcasting became the biggest consumer electronics hit since the VCR, thanks to the vision and persistence of Stanley S. Hubbard, patriarch of St. Paul, Minnesota-based Hubbard Broadcasting. This case study looks at how a family-owned operation could beat well-heeled corporate giants to become the first company to launch satellite-to-TV-set service. It offers lessons to media companies hoping to increase their wealth by exploiting new technology.

Predicting the Future: How St. Louis Post-Dispatch Journalists Perceive a New Editor Will Affect Their Jobs • Peter Gade, Earnest L. Perry, James Coyle, University of Missouri-Columbia • Journalists at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch went through a turbulent year of change in 1996. Editor William Woo, Joseph Pulitzer’s hand-picked successor in 1986, was removed from the job in July. He was replaced by Cole Campbell, former editor of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. The week before Campbell began work at the Post-Dispatch, we conducted a survey of newsroom employees concerning their perceptions of how the change in editors may affect their jobs and the operation of the newsroom. The purpose of this study was to attempt to measure how employees perceived change before the change actually occurred. A review of literature of the newspaper industry indicates no other study of this nature has been done. The data in this study indicate the conditions under which Post-Dispatch journalists perceive they are most willing to accept change are similar to those for employees who have experienced change in other organizations. If the new editor uses effective communication, has adequate newsroom resources and strong news values, then the staff is more likely to accept him.

The Superstar Labor Market in Television • Joseph Graf, Stanford University • Using literature from labor economics, this paper argues that the labor market in television is a «superstar» market in which a few collect large salaries and a large number of applicants vie for jobs. This is because of imperfect substitution among sellers in the market and the inability of applicants to accurately assess their chances of success. It suggests the effects of a labor market on individual behavior and continuing low salaries for new television journalists.

The Case Method and Telecommunication Management Education: A Classroom Trial • Anne Hoag, Ron Rizzuto, Rex Martin, The Pennsylvania State University, University of Denver • The efficacy of the case method is well known but only sometimes used in media management education. Now, as the convergence of media technologies and industries accelerates, there is a growing need for media management courses that teach across a broader array of technologies and management functions. The case method is particularly tuned to this kind of integrative experience-based learning. This paper, intended as a practical resource for educators, reviews case method literature and relates the results of a recent classroom trial in which complex telecommunication management cases were used with encouraging results.

The National Program Service: A New Beginning? • Matt Jackson, Indiana University • In 1992, PBS replaced the Station Program Cooperative (SPC) with the National Program Service (NPS). This paper compares programming and funding trends under both systems to determine if centralized decision-making has brought about the desired changes. The results suggest that NPS has had some impact, but that these changes are mostly due to cost-cutting measures. Corporate underwriting and station fees have not grown as hoped. Local autonomy and limited funding have prevented NPS from creating a network identity for the PBS program service.

State Influence on Public Television: A Case Study of Indiana and Kentucky • Matt Jackson, Indiana University • This study compares public television stations in Indiana and Kentucky to explore how different levels of state involvement affect public television. The results suggest that each station adjusts its mission according to its major source of funding. The Indiana stations, dependent on viewer donations, rely heavily on PBS programs. Kentucky Educational Television (KET), supported by the Kentucky legislature, focuses on classroom programming. Although state involvement affects their priorities, all stations rely on national programming because of the economics of program production.

Cable Subscribers’ Service Expectations • Randy Jacobs, University of Hartford • This paper reports data collected on cable subscribers’ expectations and preferences for installation, repair, and service representative availability. The data were gathered in 607 telephone interviews and analyzed using a performance elasticity approach that incorporated three expectations standards. The results reveal the range of performance expectations consumers hold for cable service and compare these standards with actual system performance in light of service satisfaction evaluations. Implications for research and cable system management are discussed.

Effect of VCR on Mass Media Markets in Korea, 1961-1993: The principle of Relative Constancy Reapplied • Sung Tae Kim, Indiana University • This study extends prior consumer mass media expenditure research by employing two different methods, regression analysis and market scale analysis. Research questions for this study are Does the PRC exist in mass media markets in Korea from 1961 to 1993 and How much impact does VCR have on previous mass media markets? The conclusion of this study indicated that mass media markets have been slightly positive trend and the PRC failed to be supported in regression analysis and in market scale analysis, VCR brought the rapid enlargement of the mass media markets in Korea during last three decades.

Job Satisfaction Among Journalists at Daily Newspapers: Does Size of Organization Make a Difference? • Kris P. Kodrich and Randal A. Beam, Indiana University • This study examines the relationship between job satisfaction of journalists at daily newspapers and organizational size. Past studies have shown that the size of an organization may play a role in job satisfaction. A secondary analysis of data from a survey of 636 daily newspaper journalists shows that while journalists at newspapers of different sizes are satisfied with their jobs for mainly the same reasons, a few differences do surface. This multiple-regression analysis shows the strongest overall predictor of job satisfaction is whether journalists think their organization is doing a good job of informing the public.

Use of the Industrial Organization Model in Examining TV Economics in the Asia Pacific Region • Tuen-yu Lau, Indosiar Visual Mandiri Indonesia, Penghwa Ang, Nanyang Technological University-Singapore • This paper seeks to employ the Industrial Organization Model (IOM) in examining TV economics in the Asia Pacific region. The IOM argues that the structure of the economic market affects the conduct and performance of participants. This structure-conduct-performance paradigm offers a conceptual framework to dissect the market components. This paper will discuss only the market structure, including these variables: concentration of sellers and buyers, product differentiation, barriers to entry and vertical integration. Three Asian markets, namely Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia, are used as case studies. By analyzing the interactive forces shaping the TV economics in these markets, the paper suggests that the application of the IOM in exploring TV developments in Asia can start with the definition of a market. This is an important conceptual and practical issue for TV managers, especially satellite TV planners.

Newspaper Stocks And Stock Market Indicators: A Comparison and Analysis of Means of Tracking Performance • Regina Lewis, University of Alabama, Robert G. Picard, California State University, Fullerton • The paper explores the nature of newspaper stocks and market indicators and compares the performance of newspaper stocks and newspaper stock indicators against broader market indicators. It finds that the Newspaper Stocks Report indicators avoid some of the problems of mixing different industries in stock indicators and that newspapers stocks overall followed stocks overall as shown in broad indicators such as the Wilshire 5000. The study identified differences among newspaper stocks performance during the period that can not be explained by general stock performance and deserve further research.

It’s a Small Publishing World After All: Media Monopolization of the Children’s Book Market • James L. McQuivey, Megan K. McQuivey, Syracuse University • This study considers how the current environment of media conglomeratization is affecting the little-studied industry that provides books to millions of children each year. Two hypotheses are proposed that test different aspects of competitive market theory. Hypothesis two is supported: children’s books that have ties with other media products sell more copies than books that have no such ties. The implications of the theoretical discussion and the supported hypothesis are discussed.

Teaching Lessons About Team Work, Goal Setting, Problem Solving, and Leadership Using the Reservoir City Game • Robert G. Picard, California State University, Fullerton • The author introduces the use of a new game designed to help overcome passive approaches to teaching managerial issues involved in team work, goal setting, problem solving, and leadership. The paper discusses how and why games and simulations are important to learning. It explores how to use «Reservoir City,» when it is effective, and lessons that can be learned from the game

Entrepreneurship and Economics: Essentials of the Media Management Course • Mary Alice Shaver, The University of North Carolina • Teaching students to understand the decision processes and constraints and to solve the problems inherent in the management role is essential. A series of three assignments including a start-up, a financial report and development of an original case involves students in realistic situations while teaching key concepts.

Wage Stabilization and the Daily Newspaper Commission in World War II • Mary Alice Shaver and Anthony Hatcher, University of North Carolina • This paper examines the role of the Daily Newspaper Printing and Publishing Commission in industry wage stabilization during World War II. The Commission was created in recognition of the essential nature of the newspaper industry to the war effort. During its 32 month existence, the Commission handled nearly 7000 voluntary and 243 disputed cases. Although the work was praised for bringing wage inefficiencies to light, much of the compliance was an artifact of war.

Mixed Wine in an Old Bottle? Media Market with Socialist Characteristics in Communist China • To Yiu-ming, Leonard L. Chu, Hong Kong Baptist University • No Abstract available.

Do Employee Ethical Beliefs Affect Advertising Clearance Decisions at Commercial Television Stations? • Jan LeBlanc Wicks, University of Arkansas, Avery Abernethy, Auburn University • Advertising clearance (or deciding whether to reject ads) has become more important because of the FTC chairman’s call for improved clearance and the airing of liquor advertisements. A national mail survey was conducted, with responses from over 350 stations, to discover whether employees who consider ethical beliefs important exhibit different clearance behaviors than employees who consider beliefs to be of lesser importance. Findings suggest that certain beliefs are associated with more stringent ad clearance decisions.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society Division

Content Analysis of Popular Songs Sung by Female Performers From 1965 to 1995 • Linda Aldoory, Syracuse University • This study content analyzed popular songs from Billboard’s Top 100, performed by women 1965 to 1995, hypothesizing that lyrics have kept pace with women’s increases in salaries, work force numbers and education. Findings revealed little support. Women portrayed in songs remained supportive of partners, dependent, and involved in unequal relationships. However, references to male partners decreased. Overall, popular songs performed by women today still portray females as stereotyped even with many women gaining in salaries, education, and employment.

Beyond Educational and Informational Needs: What is Quality Children’s Television? • Alison Alexander, Keisha Hoerrner, Lisa Duke, University of Georgia • Until the parameters of what constitutes quality children’s television can be agreed upon by all parties in the debate, discussions as to how the industry should progress in providing quality television cannot be resolved. This project takes the first step toward defining the quality construct by empirically analyzing how the industry defines quality. Our goal was to explore the characteristics of the best of the best children’s programming to determine the characteristics of a quality product. Our data were drawn from the archives of the George Foster Peabody Awards to study all the award-winning programs in the children’s category. Using the Peabody Awards winners as the data set, this project sought to answer the following research questions: (l) What are the characteristics of a quality program? and (2) What claims does the industry make about a quality program?

Press Freedom in Liberia, 1847 to 1970: The Impact of Power Imbalances and Asymmetries • Carl Burrowes, Marshall University • Breaking with the general pattern in the press-freedom literature to explain restrictions on an ideational basis, this paper argues that asymmetry and imbalances in the distribution of power resources among institutions are likely to accompany restrictions on the mass media of communications. That proposition, derived from the work of sociologist Dennis Wrong, was tested using data from Liberia, West Africa, spanning a period from 1847, when the nation declared its independence, to 1970, by which time significant inequalities had emerged. these data on power assets suggest a historical shift toward concentration of resources in the executive branch and corporate sector. Significant losses of press freedom were linked to new waves of foreign investments which caused increased asymmetry and imbalances to develop in the distribution of power resources.

Citizen Response to Civic Journalism: Four Case Studies • Steven Chaffee and Michael McDevitt, Stanford University, Esther Thorson, University of Missouri • Sample surveys are used to evaluate four civic journalism projects in three cities. Citizen exposure to each campaign was correlated with desired outcomes such as interpersonal discussion, activity in organizations, cognitive and affective involvement, and perceived efficacy. In Charlotte, NC, an intensive news series on inner-city crime brought whites closer to blacks in their concern about the problem. In Madison, WI, projects on both land use and juvenile delinquency stimulated participation in solving a neighborhood problem. In San Francisco, CA, intensive coverage of campaign issues increased turnout in the mayoral election among groups that tend not to vote regularly.

The Legitimization of Generation X: A Case Study in Status Conferral • Rebecca Chamberlin, Ohio University • This content analysis describes the coverage of a generational cohort and relates it to Lazarsfeld and Merton’s status conferral and Strodthoff, Hawkins, and Schoenfeld’s model of ideology diffusion. It studies the sources used (by age and occupation), portrayal and topics covered in magazine and newspaper articles about Generation X from 1987-1995. The coverage went through phases of disambiguation, legitimization and routinization.

Television Viewing and Perceptions of the 1996 Olympic Athletes: A Cultivation Analysis • Xueyi Chen, Syracuse University • This study is aimed at examining the effects of exposure to television coverage of the 1996 Olympic Games on the public perception of Olympic athletes and their performance. A telephone survey of a random sample of 397 adult New York residents from late September to early October of 1996 reveals that there is no significant relationship between television exposure and the public perception of Chinese athletes and their performance, but cultivation effect is found in the public perception of American athletes and their performance.

Corporate Newspaper Structure and Control of Editorial Content: An Empirical Test of the Managerial Revolution Hypothesis • David Demers, Washington State University, Debra Merskin, University of Oregon • Corporate newspapers are often accused of placing more emphasis on profits than on information diversity and other nonprofit goals considered crucial for creating or maintaining a political democracy. These charges contradict the managerial revolution hypothesis, which expects that as power shifts from the owners to the professional managers and technocrats, a corporate organization should place less emphasis on profits. This study empirically tests the managerial revolution hypothesis and finds support for it.

A Cynical Press: Coverage of the 1996 Presidential Campaign • Sandra H. Dickson, Cynthia Hill, Cara Pilson and Suzanne Hanners, The University of West Florida • An analysis of 332 CBS and Washington Post stories on the 1996 presidential campaign revealed coverage which was cynical in nature. Three factors suggest this to be the case: (l) the news organizations used overwhelmingly a game rather than policy schema in campaign coverage; (2) the sample, while chiefly objective in tone, contained few positive stories and a high percentage which were negative; and, perhaps most importantly, (3) when motives were attributed to the candidates, they were almost exclusively categorized as self-serving and more often than not the reporter served as the source for the motive statement.

News Media, Candidates and Issues, and Public Opinion in the 1996 Presidential Campaign • David Domke, University of Minnesota • This research has two primary goals. First, we examine whether news media were biased in coverage of the candidates or issues during the 1996 U.S. presidential campaign, as Republican Party candidate Bob Dole and others claimed. Second, we use an ideodynamic model of media effects to examine whether the quantity of positive and negative news coverage of the candidates was related to the public’s preference of either Bill Clinton or Dole. The model posits that a candidate’s level of support at any time is a function of the level of previous support (as measured in recent polls) plus-changes in voters’ preferences due to media coverage in the interim. This model, then, allows exploration of whether news media coverage, alone, could predict the public’s presidential preferences in 1996. Using a computer content analysis program, 12,215 randomly sampled newspaper stories and television transcripts were examined from 43 major media outlets for the time period March 10 to November 6, 1996. Findings reveal both remarkably balanced media coverage of the two principal candidates, Clinton and Dole, and a powerful relationship between media coverage and public opinion.

New Findings on Media Effects Upon Political Values and Attitudes • Christiane Eilders, Science Center Berlin • News value research has mainly been concerned with news selection by the media. This paper examines the role of news factors in the selection of political information by the audience. It is suggested that news factors indicate relevance and can therefore serve as selection criteria for the audience. The assumption is tested employing a content analysis of news items and the corresponding retentions of 219 respondents and comparing the news value of retentions and original news items.

The Portrayal of Women on Prime Time TV Programs Broadcast in the United States • Michael G. Elasmar, Mary Brain, Boston University, Kazumi Hasegawa, University of North Dakota • A content analysis of a probability stratified sample of prime time television programs broadcast in the United States was carried out. The sample included 1,903 speaking females. This study finds that, in comparison to previous studies, there has been an increase in the number of women characters on prime time TV although they are now more likely to be shown playing minor roles. Women on prime time are also less likely to be married, less likely to be housewives, less likely to be caring for children, more likely to have dark hair, less likely to commit or be the victim of violent crime, less likely to be involved in a romantic relationship, and more likely to be under the age of 50.

JMC Faculty Divided: Majority Finds Dozen Uses For Research • Fred Fedler, Maria Cristina Santana, Tim Counts, and Arlen Carey • The authors surveyed members of AEJMC. All but 4 of their 279 respondents reported using the field’s research. The respondents were most likely to use research to learn more about their field and to prepare for classes. More than 90% conducted research, and many explained that it made them better teachers Ñ and also that they enjoyed it. There were few differences by rank or gender. There were, however, differences by degree and institution.

The Characters of Television News Magazine Shows: News sources and Reporters in Hard Copy and 60 Minutes • Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Shuhua Zhou, Brooke Barnett, Indiana University • This content analysis examines Hard Copy and 60 Minutes in terms of news sources-and reporters. Specifically, we investigated their prominence, demography, and dramatic potential as characters in the news drama. News sources were also scrutinized for their institutional affiliation. A number of scholars have focused on newspaper and television newscast sources while ignoring news magazine programs. These inquiries consistently point at the disproportionate representation of elite news sources. In a society that rests on democratic ideals about the mass media’s facilitation of a pluralistic public debate, these findings provoke concern. Our analysis of 60 news magazine segments provide some support for these concerns. Yet, it is clear that Hard Copy featured a demographically more diverse pool of news sources than 60 Minutes. The study’s findings also reveal little difference in how the two news programs employ news sources and reporters as dramatic forces in news stories.

Community Integration from Hood to Globe • Ernest A. Hakanen, Drexel University • Abstract Media are important to a citizen’s sense of community integration. There are many levels or domains of community (i.e. friends, neighborhood, city, country and international). Respondents (N=182), randomly selected in a telephone survey, were asked about their feelings of responsibility to and influence (both measures of community integration) on various community domains. The data were analyzed for media effects on responsibility and influence. The findings are discussed in terms of political efficacy, community integration, and public sphere.

Lynch Mob Journalism vs. Compelling Human Drama: Editorial Responses to Coverage of the Pre-trial phase of the O.J. Simpson Case • Elizabeth Blanks Hindman • This analysis of newspaper editorials from June through December 1994 examines the media’s institutional views of their ethics and responsibilities regarding the O.J. Simpson murder case. It finds that the media shifted the blame to tabloids and non-media people and groups, acknowledged media irresponsibility, and argued that coverage was necessary despite unethical behavior. The media used libertarian, social responsibility, and communitarian philosophies of ethics situationally, often to justify questionable media ethics.

Priming of Religion as a Factor in Political Attitudes: The Role of Religious Programming • Barry Hollander, The University of Georgia • Religion and politics have long been intertwined, and yet little is known about the effect of religious programming on political attitudes. Priming is used as a theoretical basis for studying how religious programs can make religion an important factor in political attitudes. Analysis of national survey data reveals that exposure to religious broadcasts can make religion more of a factor in the formation or maintenance of political attitudes, particularly among Christian fundamentalists on high-valence issues such as abortion. Exposure to such programs also influences how important Catholics perceive religion to be in attitude maintenance and formation, but mainline Protestants are relatively unaffected by such broadcasts.

In the Eye of the Beholder? Complaints of Bias Filed By Overseas/Ethnic Groups With the National News Council 1973-84 • L. Paul Husselbee, Ohio University • Despite efforts to establish and maintain news councils in the U.S., few exist. Detractors argue that news councils threaten press freedom; supporters say they enhance journalistic credibility. The National News Council was formed in 1973 to serve as an unbiased watchdog of national media, but it failed in 1984, in part because journalist who feared bias refused to support it. This study examines complaints filed with the National News Council by overseas/ethnic interests to determine whether the council’s decisions conformed to ideological expectations of accepted theories of bias and stereotyping. It concludes that the third-person effect seemed to be present in the substance of complaints; this finding may suggest that the consistency of the council’s findings with previous studies indicates the fair, honest and judicious nature of the National News Council over its 11-year existence.

Murphy Brown Sets the Agenda: A Time Series Analysis of the Family Values Issue, 1988-1996 • Patrick M. Jablonski, The University of Central Florida • This study examines the relationship among the agendas of the media, the president, and the public regarding the family values issue in the United States from 1989 to 1996. ARIMA time-series analysis is used in an attempt to assess which factors drove the family values issue: the public, the press, or the president. Most important problem survey results from multiple organizations are aggregated into a series of 96 monthly time points to measure the public agenda. The media agenda is developed from a frequency analysis of articles containing the phrase family values in The New York Times and The Washington Post. The presidential agenda is developed from a similar analysis of the Public Papers of the Presidents. The three univariate time series are identified, estimated, and diagnosed. The white-noise component of each series is subsequently employed in a bivariate cross-correlation analysis to address the research questions. Results indicate that the presidential agenda was significantly driven by the press agenda regarding family values. Meanwhile, the public agenda followed both the presidential and press agendas at 4 month intervals.

Trusting the Media and Joe from Dubuque Online: Comparing Internet and Traditional Sources on Media Credibility Measures • Thomas J. Johnson and Barbara K. Kaye, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • This study surveyed politically-interested web users online to examine whether they view Web publications as credible as their traditionally delivered counterparts. Credibility is crucial for the Internet because past studies suggest people are less likely to pay attention to media they do not perceive as credible. This study found online media were judged as more believable, fair, accurate and in-depth than their traditional versions. However, both online and traditional media were only judged as somewhat credible.

Credibility and Accuracy in the Reporting of Scientific News • Steve Jones, Chad Moody, Andrea Sharrer, Amy Rhodes, University of Tulsa • Do science journalists check sources for credibility and accuracy? Do they report the information in a way that will attract readers or in a way that will portray the information clearly and accurately? To answer these questions we surveyed newspaper journalists from the forty major newspapers in America to discover the efforts they make in determining the accuracy of their sources. The study also considers the efforts they make to present the information accurately.

Moving to the Center: Press Coverage of Candidates’ Ideological Cleavage in a Campaign • Tien-tsung Lee, University of Oregon, Anthony Y.H. Fung University of Minnesota • Many political studies conclude that the ideological center is the winning position in elections. Considering the difference between Democrats, Republicans and the general population, candidates should compete for their partisan centers to win the primaries, then move to the center to win the general election. With empirical data, this paper tests whether there are indeed three ideological centers, and whether the press coverage of the 1996 presidential election supports the moving-to-the-center hypothesis.

Reexamining Violent Content in MTV Music Videos • Greg Makris, University of North Carolina • The purpose of this study was to examine violence in music videos by conducting a content analysis of videos appearing on MTV. Violent acts in a sample of MTV videos were coded by type, quantity, and total time duration. The results were compared by musical genre. Just over half of the videos contained violence, with assaults appearing most frequently. The overall time of all violent acts was brief. Among genres, Rap and Hard Rock videos appeared to be more violent.

The Construction of the News: A Survey of the Italian Journalists • Andreina Mandelli, Francesca Gardini, Bocconi University • The aim of this paper is to try to understand the view held by Italian journalists of news construction (selection and coverage of the events), and how this view influences the presentation of the news itself, while focusing on the controversial phenomenon of spettacolarizzazione the sensationalistic presentation of the news item. The findings underscore the increasingly urgent need to analyze more in depth the issues of news production, and consequently of its effective quality standards.

Issue Salience and the Third-Person Effect: Perceptions of Illegal Immigration in a Southwestern Region • Frances R. Matera, Arizona State University, Michael B. Salwen, University of Miami • This study, based on a telephone survey of 626 Phoenix, Arizona, respondents, examined the relationship between the salience concept in agenda-setting and the third-person effect. The third-person effect predicts that people perceive media messages to exert a greater persuasive influence on other people than on themselves. The study’s findings suggested that issue salience might magnify people’s tendencies to perceive greater media influence on others than on themselves. The study also examined whether Latino respondents’ ethnic-racial identification with the social problem of illegal immigration influenced their perceptions of media influence on themselves and on other people. Examination of the ethnically relevant problem of illegal immigration suggests that there may be ethnic differences that need to be explored in future research.

A Model of Public Support for First Amendment Rights • Jack M. McLeod, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mira Sotirovic, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Zhongshi Guo, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kuang-Yu Huang, World College of Journalism and Communication, Taiwan • This paper presents a model of public support for First Amendment rights. The model indicates two distinctive paths of support of rights in two cases: the (speech and assembly) rights of a neo-Nazi group to march in a Jewish neighborhood and the (press) right of a reporter during wartime to send home a story critical of military without military clearance. One path, providing positive support for rights, involves reading of newspaper public affairs, knowledge and reasoning. The second, a negative path, indicates rejection of rights through material values of control, watching of television entertainment and expression of negative affect. Data are gathered in a telephone survey of 436 adult residents of Dane county, Wisconsin.

How Responsible for Journalism are Journalists? • John McManus, Saint Mary’s College of California • Most national codes of journalism ethics place the entire moral responsibility for news on editors and reporters. And although recent court decisions have recognized some journalists as professionals, empirical evidence suggests the nearly century-long expansion of journalists’ autonomy has begun to erode as media corporations seek to maximize shareholder value. As journalists become more decision-takers than decision-makers, these codes of ethics become ethically suspect themselves. We need new codes that recognize the realities of market-oriented journalism.

Perceiving the Television Audience: Conceptualization in an Academic Institution • Lawrence J. Mullen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • This study focuses on the ways in which college television producers perceive the audience. Two ways of conceptualizing the audience (size and discernment) are analyzed. Descriptive data and regression analyses found patterns of audience conceptualization similar to that of professional television production environments, yet tempered by the organization of the academic institution. Small and well-defined is one way that college media producers perceive their audience. A relationship between the things students do to prepare for their productions and perceptions of a fragmented audience is another way they conceive the audience. Based on the finds from past research, young producers in academic organizations are conceiving the audience in slightly more diverse ways than in the professional organizational environment. Though academic television production seems to allow a broader interpretation of the audience, more can be done in the way of audience conceptualization.

Where We Live and How We View: The Impact of Housing Preferences on Family Television Viewing • Carol Pardun, Kansas State University • A survey of 269 home owners revealed that architecture has an impact on the number of televisions in the home. In addition, it was discovered that although 36% of respondents viewed television most often in the living room, 29 other rooms for television viewing were mentioned. The study also discusses that families’ viewing preferences are a significant factor in the number of sets that families own.

The Influence of Communication Media on Confidence in Democratic Institutions • Michael Pfau, Patricia Moy, Erin Kock, Wei-Kuo Lin, Weiwu Zhang, Lance Holbert, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study examines the relative influence of various communication modalities on public confidence in democratic institutions. The paper argues that communication modalities serve as an important source of secondary socialization for people: that negative depictions of such democratic institutions as the office of the Presidency, Congress, the court system, the public school system, and the news media by specific modalities cultivate negative perceptions of those institutions among users of those modalities. To test these positions, the study employed a broad interconnected approach, combining an extensive content analysis of the quantity and tone of all references to the specific democratic institutions listed above by communication modalities in conjunction with a survey of the public’s use of those modalities and confidence in institutions.

The Effects of Media Coverage of the O.J. Simpson Murder Trail: Pre and Post-Trial Issue Salience and Role of Expert Sources • Robert Pyle, Winthrop University • It was called the trial of the century. The O.J. Simpson murder trial was a major media event. Live cameras in the courtroom allowed the nation to witness the trial in real-time. And when the nation was not watching live unmediated coverage of the trial on CNN or Court Television, it was viewing the mediated courtroom drama nightly on network television news. This study examines how mediated and unmediated coverage of the murder trial affected viewers perception of Simpson’s guilt or innocence. The study also examines if expert analysis of the trial altered, in any fashion, the way viewers perceived issues, such as crime, judicial fairness and domestic violence. The study also looks at how ethnicity guided personal attitudes on Simpson’s guilt, as well as larger issues such as race and violence.

Blaming the Media: An Analysis of Public Opinion on the Media’s Role in Crime and Violence • James A. Ramos, Michigan State University • This paper looks at public perception of media effects through public opinion polls about crime, violence, and the media. These polls were examined using framing analysis in order to determine what is the public’s perception of the link between these issues and the media and how this has changed over time. Results show, among other things, that the strength of the perceived effect is conditional, based on whether media are presented within a context frame.

The Evolution of Crime Dramas: An Update • Arthur A. Raney, The University of Alabama • Thirty prime-time crime dramas were content analyzed in an attempt to update previous research completed by Gerbner, Dominick, and others. Characters portraying victims and suspects were coded for information such as gender, ethnicity, age, social class, crime experienced (victim), and crime outcome (suspect). Results were compared with the 1995 FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and previous television crime drama data. The findings suggest a continued overrepresentation of murder and other violent crimes on television as opposed to reality. White, middle-class males continue to be overrpresented, while females and Blacks are underrepresented, as victims and suspects on television. Arrests of suspects remain disproportionately high in dramas as opposed to reality, while a disturbing trend toward the killing of suspects has arisen.

Public Information and Public Dialogues: An Analysis of the Public Relations Behavior of Newspaper Ombudsmen • Craig Sanders, John Carroll University, Neil Nemeth, Purdue University • In this content analysis of the public columns of American newspaper ombudsmen we found the dominant role performed by ombudsmen was a one-way form of communication, usually explaining the newspaper’s behavior. This often occurred in tandem with two-way forms of communication, usually allowing the public to comment on the newspaper’s performance. To varying degrees, ombudsmen allow the public to scrutinize the newspaper’s performance. This facilitates a limited public dialogue about the newspaper’s performance.

Sensational: A Comparison of Content and Presentation Styles of the 60 Minutes and Dateline NBC Television News Magazines • Patrick J. Sutherland, Ohio University • This paper summarizes research findings on sensationalism and tabloidism in television news programming. Research consisted of a content analysis of 329 news magazine segments airing on CBS’s 60 Minutes and on Dateline NBC. Content and presentation styles were compared. 60 Minutes’ content remained consistent as primarily serious and informational. The two news magazines aired a similar proportion of entertainment segments between 1993 and 1995. Dateline’s presentation style was significantly more sensational and less factual.

Noble Journalism?: Four Themes of Revelation • Sari Thomas, Temple University • In this paper, we propose that the time has come to question explicitly two very common assumptions about hard-news journalism: (l) that the subject matter of news journalism is more important than the content of other genres of mass-media narrative, and (2) that the consumption of journalism news serves to inform intelligently in comparison to the function of other genres of mass-media narrative. Although there are three distinct bodies of scholarship, each of which serves to demystify this presumed nobility of journalism, they all tend to sidestep critical investigation of the two assumptions articulated above. The consequence of this theoretical evasion is that not only tabloid journalism, but, more importantly, media fiction has been underestimated and undervalued. This paper, then, attempts to outline the three existing themes of critical journalism theory and to redress the comparative degradation of popular culture by developing a fourth theme of revelation.

Affective and Behavioral Impact of Civic Journalism • Esther Thorson, Andrew Mendelson, Ekaterina Ognianova, University of Missouri-Columbia, Lewis Friedland.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Magazine Division

Risking Official Displeasure: The Trial and Tribulations of India’s First Newsweekly in 1780 • Debashis Aikat, North Carolina • James Augustus Hicky published India’s first newsweekly, the Bengal Gazette or the Calcutta General Advertiser in 1780. This paper narrates little-known facts about Hicky’s journalistic career, the influence of his newsweekly on society and other issues not probed by earlier researchers. An expatriate Irishman and a fiercely independent journalist, Hicky quickly realized that truly distinguished newsweeklies should serve society, even at the risk of official displeasure. Hicky’s newsweekly made interesting reading with its amply does of scurrilous reporting, risque advertisements reflecting the low morality in society and scandalous accounts of the misdeeds of British administrators in India.

Representation of Women in African News Magazines • Isaac Abeku Blankson, Ohio • Since the 1980s, the roles of African women have been changing toward more participation in the political, socio-economic and other significant sectors of the economies. More urban African women are taking jobs in high-level occupations in both the private and public sections and are making news almost every day. Unfortunately, the world media has the tendency to ignore or distort coverage of Africa. It is not surprising that these significant events in the lives of African women has gone unnoticed. A critical responsibility lies on African media to present such changing realities of events to the outside world. This study analyzed African news magzines to determine their coverage of women vis-a-vis men and to understand the importance African media ascribe to roles played by African women.

Catching a Glimpse of Hegemony in the Covers of Life Magazine during the Gulf War • Brian B. Feeney and Donnalyn Pompper, Temple • According to Gramsci, hegemony sustains its invisibility and illusion of common sense reality by constantly constructing social reality through the imposition of a seamless narrative overlay. Occasionally this process is disrupted by an event that exceeds the bounds of any text such as wars and disasters. For a brief moment, the seams are discernible in the narrative overlay. Life magazine’s coverage of the Gulf War was one such moment. The magazine returned to a heroic World War II grimmer of pictorial iconography during the period of heightened social anxiety immediately before and during the invasions of Kuwait and Iraq. This is especially evident in Life’s covers which a close reading reveals to be startling similar to many of its World War II covers in both tone and choice of subjects, even to the point of excluding people of color.

More than Angels: Women and Reform as a Topic in American Magazines, 1890 – 1910 • Agnes Hooper Gottlieb, Seton Hall • This paper examines how several types of magazines between 1890 and 1910 portrayed the emerging role of women in society. Specifically, this paper discusses the ways general interest magazines, reform journals and women’s magazines described and chronicled women’s increasing involvement in reform activities. During the discussion of women’s magazines, special attention is paid to the role of Good Housekeeping in order to illustrate well just how pro-active this publication was at a time when its circulation soared in the United States.

An American Title Abroad: A Cross-Cultural Study of One Popular Magazine in the U.S. and U.K. • Carolyn Kitch, Temple • This study examines one major American-owned magazine, Good Housekeeping, as it is published in the United States and the United Kingdom. Through a combination of methodologies, content analysis, interviews with editors, and interpretation of industry data, the researcher examined how cultural, demographic, geographic, and economic factors influence editorial content in different countries, despite a strong brand name that identifies the parent and subsidiary publications as the «same» magazine.

Magazine Myopia: Coverage of Development Programs in the Philippines by American Weekly Periodicals, 1950s-1990s • James Landers, Wisconsin • For 40 years, American agencies financed and directed efforts to transform the political ecomony of the Philippines. Almost none of the programs accomplished the intended goals. During most of the era, American newsmangazines usually ignored information indicating that development programs were inappropriate or ineffective because of cultural incompatibility. When analyses were published, most concluded that Filipinos were to blame for the failures, which left more people in poverty in the 1990s than during the 1950s.

Images of Older Women in Magazine Advertisements: A Content Analysis and an Analysis of Content • Melanie Laverman, Iowa • This paper looks at the images of older women in the media and what these images say about American culture and our attitudes toward aging. In particular the study focuses on images of women age 50 and older in mainstream magazine advertisements.

The Impact of Media Ownership: How Time and Warner’s Merger Influences Time’s Content • Tien-tsung Lee, Oregon and Hsiao-Fang Hwang, Northwestern • The increasing concentration of media ownership has been a popular research topic for mass communication scholars. Their usual focus is on diversity of voices in press coverage. However, because media conglomerates likely own more than only news media, the impact of such ownership invites investigation beyond news content. Our findings suggest that conglomerate ownership could force a leading news magazine to show favoritism toward the products of its parent corporation.

Martha Stewart Media: Revisiting Domesticity • Ann Mason, Georgia State • Martha Stewart has recently been showering the country with images of domesticity, images which may affect people’s conceptions of women’s roles. A qualitative textual analysis was conducted to determine whether or not the Martha Stewart media products perpetuate traditional sex role stereotypes for women. The results suggest that although the media messages occur within a predominantly domestic sphere, a stereotypically feminine sphere, the images of women presented are empowering, rather than oppressive.

The Hoary-Headed Apostle of Satan and Press Freedom in America: The Seditious Blasphemy Libel and Censorship Trials of Freethought Journalist Abner Kneeland • Charles Mayo and Richard Alan Nelson, Louisiana State • This study looks at the career of Abner Kneeland, an important freethought figure in the 1830s, and the legal actions for seditious blasphemy brought against him by Massachusetts authorities in his capacity as the Boston-based publisher-editor of the nationally-distributed The Investigator. As a freethinker, Kneeland devoted his journalistic efforts to promoting news and opinion about religious and political matters formed independently from traditional authority or established beliefs. His hard-fought censorship trials for individual liberty, reminiscent of earlier dissident pamphleteers seeking freedom from authoritarian actions by European monarchs, point to the rejection of democratic secular humanism at a critical time in American national history.

Jane Grant, The New Yorker, and Ross: A Lucy Stoner Practices Her Own Style of Journalism • Beverly G. Merrick, New Mexico State • One of the founders of the New York Newspaper Women’s Club was Jane Grant, first wife of magazine publisher Harold W. Ross and co-founder of The New Yorker. Grant is most known for championing women’s issues even as she wrote articles for the front page. She organized the Lucy Stone League which established legally that it is not necessary for a woman to take her husband’s name at the time of marriage. Her efforts to elevate the status of women journalists and of women in general have gone undocumented in the mainstream media. This purpose of this study is to present a biographical examination of her life, which addresses these oversights.

How the Nineteenth Amendment Was Framed in the Pages of the Ladies’ Home Journal • Sarah Wright Plaster, Ohio • This paper examines the extent to which Ladies’ Home Journal framed the goal of suffragists and the subsequent passing of the Nineteenth Amendment as securing the vote for women and not for women’s right to seek public office. All articles having to do with suffrage and the Nineteenth Amendment were analyzed the year prior, the year of, and the year after the amendment’s passage. Study also examines how the winning of the vote was framed as an extension of a woman’s relationship to the men in her life and how women’s vote would be a continuation of the established Anglo-Saxon political power base.

Magazines in Capitalist Russia: Impact of Political and Economic Transitions • Leara Rhodes, Georgia • As Russia is making the transition from a state centered economy to a private sector centered economy, the media are making a transition from being a political resource model to being a commodity. The impact of these transitions on magazines is made using a cross-national comparative study of the Russian edition of Cosmopolitan magazine. The transition is evaluated through policy decisions, organizational issues and production using the magazine and other periodicals to illustrate the negative and positive impacts of the transitions. This study of Cosmopolitan magazine illustrates that media in Russia are a limited commodity and will not be fully commodified until major policy changes are made.

The Role of Barriers to Entry in the Success or Failure or New Magazines: An Exploratory Study • Kathryn E. Segnar, Temple and Fiona A.E. McQuarrie, University College of the Fraser Valley • The concept of «barriers to entry» has been well established in economic research, but has not been extensively applied to the magazine publishing industry, despite its potential utility in exploring the high failure rate of new magazines. Barriers to entry are defined as factors which give existing market participants advantages over new market entrants. This exploratory study compares one new magazine, at the time of its inception, to three established magazines. The results suggest that established publications do enjoy some market advantages such as larger subscriber bases and high levels of revenue, however, new publications can gain competitive advantages through such factors as retail price and staff expertise.

From Pretty Blondes and Perky Girls to Competent Journalists: Editor & Publisher’s Evolving Depiction of Women from 1967 to 1974 • Joey Senat, North Carolina • The purpose of this paper is to examine the lexicon used by Editor & Publisher in describing women from 1967 to 1974. This paper concludes that Editor & Publisher contained much of the sexist lexicon feminists were criticizing newspapers for at that time. E&P, though, may have been more than a reflection of newspaper norms. At a time when newspapers were being called upon to recognize and avoid language that trivialized women, E&P’s steadfast practices of calling attention to women’s looks and calling them «girls» may have implicitly conveyed to some in the industry that such complaints themselves were trivial and than such language was appropriate.

Gospel of Fearlessness or Outright Lies: A Historical Examination of Magazine Letters to the Editor, 1902-1982 • Brian Thornton, Midwestern State • If you could hear people talk about journalism in 1902 and then again in 1982, would public discussion about the press change? And if you tracked public conversations about journalism over 10 years, what themes might materialize? To try to answer these questions, this research compared 2,154 letters to the editor published in 10 popular magazines from 1902 to 1912 with 41,822 letters printed in 10 magazines from 1982 to 1992. The purpose is to provide historical perspective on published conversations about journalism by magazine readers.

<< 1997 Abstracts

Law Division

Protection Without A Shield: Revisiting the Journalist’s Common Law Privilege • Laurence Alexander, University of Florida • This paper surveys the case law in state without protective shields, reports on the general findings across the states and analyzes specific cases that illustrate trends. It is an attempt to look back over the period since Branzurg vs. Hayes to determine how courts have defined the protection for journalists who are subject to court subpoenas in states that have not enacted shield laws.

Heat of the Moment: Flag-Burning and Legal Theory • Genelle I. Belmas, University of Minnesota • The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated 48 state flag desecration laws and the equivalent federal statute in Texas vs Johnson in 1989. The Court was divided 5-4. Brennan wrote for the majority, Kennedy filed a concurring opinion, and both Stevens and Chief Justice Rehnquist offered dissenting opinions. This paper analyzes these opinions in light of three socio-legal theories: historicism, positivism, and critical legal studies.

Of Jellyfish and Community Leaders: Redefining the Public Figure in Libel Litigation • John Bender, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • Courts say public figures are celebrities or leading figures in pre-existing public controversies. The definitions conflict with First Amendment values because they confuse celebrity with influence, overlook powerful but little-known persons and place investigative reporting at greater risk than routine reporting. Courts should redefine public figures as those involved in matters of public interest and who occupy influential positions, have reputations for being influential or are deeply involved in the decision-making process.

Privatized Government Functions and Freedom of Information: Public Accountability in an Age of Private Governance • Matthew D. Bunker, University of Alabama, Charles N. Davis, Southern Methodist University • Privatization Ñ the notion of private corporations providing governmental services Ñ is generating tremendous interest at all levels of government in the United States. This paper explores the public access issues raised by privatization and suggests that current statutory law fails to adequately address the line between public agency and private actor. In an attempt to provide a judicial standard for determining when to provide access to privatized records, the authors suggest a public function analysis which considers a number of factors.

When First Amendment Principles Collide: Negative Political Advertising & The Demobilization of Democratic Self-Governance • Clay Calvert, Pennsylvania State University • This article explores the First Amendment tensions created by negative political advertisements. On the one hand, such ads constitute political speech Ñ expression at the core of First Amendment values. On the other hand, new data suggest that these televised ads actually deter citizen participation in democracy, suppressing voter turnout. The article considers whether the information value of negative ads outweighs the detrimental affect on participatory democracy.

Obstacles to Defamation Recovery in Cyberspace • Mark Cenite, University of Minnesota • The ancient tort of defamation may not survive in interactive cyberspace user forums for the reasons that those forums appeal to many, they are easily accessible, anonymous, international, high-volume, rapid-transmission, chaotic forums. Existing statutory and case law favors system operators, a likely target of suits. Courts are reluctant to leave the defamed without remedy, but fortunately, an alternative remedy that maximizes freedom of expression, the opportunity for reply, is inherent in the medium.

The Constitutionality of the FDAÕs Tobacco Restrictions as a First Amendment Issue • Yung Kym Choi, Michigan State University • This article analyzes the constitutionality of the FDA’s tobacco rule by applying Central Hudson test. It discusses the history of tobacco advertising regulation and evolution of commercial speech protection. The availability of alternatives is found to be a crucial indicator of the fit between the FDAÕs ends and means. Regulation incorporating all four marketing factors is suggested as an alternative approach to achieve the goal of the FDA rule while upholding First Amendment principles.

44 Liquormart A Prescription for Commercial Speech: Return to Virginia Pharmacy • Frances L. Collins, Timothy D. Smith, Kent State University • The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overruled a liquor price advertising ban last year in 44 Liquormart v. Rhode Island, raising the possibility that commercial speech doctrine is headed for a major change. Already the impact has been felt in three federal circuits, even though there was no clear majority backing the main opinion’s strong support for 1st Amendment protection or commercial speech. The Court has since reversed and remanded two cases for reconsideration in light of 44 Liquormart, in the Fourth and Fifth Circuits. In the Ninth Circuit, an appeals court panel unanimously invalidated a ban on broadcasting casino ads, relying in large part on 44 Liquormart. As a result, the authors feel the stage has been set to retire Central Hudson as the focus of commercial speech analysis and replace it with the more liberal, and predictable, rationale found in Virginia Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council. That 1976 decision afforded 1st Amendment protection to advertising as long as it is truthful, not misleading, and promoting a legal product. While 44 Liquormart was decided using the Central Hudson four-part test, Justice John Paul Stevens, author of the main opinion, wrote at length about the evils of government regulation of advertising for paternalistic ends, a key component in the Virginia Pharmacy decision. The authors believe the 44 Liquormart decision points to a new approach to commercial speech doctrine, based on an old, but respected, case.

Public Health v. Commercial Speech: Are the FDA’s Tobacco Advertising Restrictions Constitutional? • Kay Ehas, University of Florida • An analysis of the FDA’s tobacco advertising regulations finds that they differ from recent regulations struck down by the Supreme Court. Previous Court cases involved either a total ban or bans on certain information. The FDA proposal balances the rights of adults to commercial information about a legal product and the promotion of an illegal product that is harmful to minors. The Supreme Court will likely uphold all of the advertising regulations except the billboard ban.

Presumed Innocent?: Network Newsmagazines’ Pretrial Coverage of the O.J. Simpson Criminal Case • Steven A. Esposito, Capital University • This research project applied findings from a comprehensive content analytic study to a narrative framework in examining network newsmagazines’ pretrial coverage of the O.J. Simpson criminal case. The nearly 17 hours of data analyzed, indicated family/friend was the top theme during the pretrial phase. The findings also revealed that ten percent of the newsmagazines’ total news time was devoted to coverage of the Simpson saga, coverage that often conveyed the impression of Simpson’s guilt.

The Concept That Would Not Die: Scarcity As a Justification for Broadcast Regulation • Anthony L. Fargo, University of Florida • The idea that the airwaves are a scarce public resource that must be regulated in the public interest has been around since the beginning of broadcast regulation in the 1920s. This paper explores the history of scarcity as a rationale for regulating broadcasters and examines how the concept has regained its efficacy in recent years despite a sharp increase in the number of media voices.

Burning the Global Village: The Constitutionality of State Laws Regulating Indecency in Cyberspace • Delores L. Flamiano, University of North Carolina • This paper examines the constitutionality of statutes regulating indecency on the Internet. Analyses of New York, Oklahoma, and Virginia indecency regulations and the Communications Decency Act indicate that legislators are attempting to restrict a wide range of Internet material. Most of the regulated material is protected by the First Amendment and therefore the statutes raise several constitutional issues. Currently in litigation, the New York statute and the CDA appear unlikely to pass constitutional muster.

Blurred Vision: How Supreme Court FOIA Opinions on Invasion of Privacy Have Missed the Target of Legislative Intent • Martin E. Halstuk, University of Florida • The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) recognizes it is crucial for citizens to have access to government information to make informed decisions concerning self-rule. However, the law also acknowledges the importance of privacy Ñ two of the FOIA’s exemptions allow agencies to withhold information that would invade the privacy of individuals. The purpose of this paper is to explore the access-privacy conflict. The examination focuses on the major Supreme Court opinions regarding legal challenges to the privacy interests covered under the two FOIA exemptions. The principal question posed in this analysis asks whether the Court has fairly balanced the conflicting values of access and privacy within the guidelines established by Congress in crafting the FOIA.

In Self Defense: How the Government Uses National Security Reasons To Withhold Information Under the FOIA • Martin E. Halstuk, University of Florida • The American government’s need for confidentiality and secrecy in the areas of international relations and defense often conflicts with the democratic principles of an open society. While secrecy is necessary to conduct foreign affairs and devise national security policy, it also stifles the democratic process that helps keep citizens informed about what the government is doing. The purpose of this paper is to focus on court opinions in which the government cited national security as the reason to reject requests for disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The principal question posed in this analysis asks: Have the courts exceeded the plain meaning and legislative intent of the FOIA in their opinions regarding the national security exceptions?

Point and Click for the Right to Know: An Analysis of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act of 1996 • Martin E. Halstuk, University of Florida • After five years of hearings, floor debated and compromises, Congress passed the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (EFOIA) on October 2, 1996. Legislatures crafted the law because new rules were needed to overcome obstacles in obtaining information from federal agencies in the era of new technology. Increasingly, government information is recorded and stored in electronic form. The purpose of this paper is to examine the history and content of the EFOIA to shed light on how the EFOIA crafters identified the problems of access in the computer age. The research question this paper explores is: How effective is the EFOIA in meeting the needs of access to government in the era of electronic record keeping and information storage?

A Limbo of Ambiguity: The Editorial Rights of State-Owned Licensees • Laura E. Johnson, University of Florida • Congress and the FCC have traditionally supported the concept that public television and radio stations operated by governments have the same responsibilities and freedoms as private stations. This paper will examine how the Courts have disagreed about the first amendment status of state-owned stations and their ability to act as editors. This ambiguity in the Courts has made it difficult for public state-owned stations to make editorial decisions, creating a chilling effect.

Media Rights versus Community Interests in Canada and the United States: Explorations in Legislative and Judicial Balancing • Vernon A. Keel, Wichita State University • This paper examines developments in five areas of media law in Canada and the United States, compares approaches to legislative and judicial balancing, and examines the way courts in both countries interpret their respective constitutional provisions for press freedom by looking at themes in those judgments that appear to promote individual rights of the mass media on one hand, or community and societal interests on the other.

Social Science in Commercial Speech Cases, 1960-1996 • Arati R. Korwar, University of North Carolina • This paper analyzes the role social scientific research played in commercial speech cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court from 1960 to 1996 and the lower court cases leading up to them. Discussing illustrative cases, this study finds that the use of social science in commercial speech case law is fairly common and that the most frequently cited types of social scientific research were economic, historical, survey and media-use.

Media Recognition and Access to the Presidential Primary Ballot • Karen M. Markin, University of Rhode Island • In a sizable minority of states that conduct presidential primaries, a candidate may qualify for placement on the ballot by being recognized by the media as a serious contender. Such statutes are poor public policy. They do not invite voter involvement and, given the nature of media coverage, may not lead to presentation of qualified candidates to the electorate. Democratic principles are better served when candidates follow tradition and file petitions bearing a specified number of voter signatures.

The Property Rights Associated with Factual Material and the Real-Time Transmission of Newsworthy Information • Paul McCreath, University of North Carolina • In January of 1996, two companies, STATS Inc. and Motorola Inc., started marketing beepers that would update National Basketball Association scores while the games were in progress. Shortly after the introduction of the service, the NBA filed suit requesting a permanent injunction to stop the sale of the SportsTrax service. The NBA was granted a permanent injunction, because of misappropriation, with the decision stating that SportsTrax benefited from the property of another having reaped where they have not sewn.

Virtual Meetings: Breakdown or Breakthrough in Participatory Government? • Susan D. Ross, Washington State • Analysis of state statutes finds laws that protect open government treat the use of information technologies differently. Roughly half the statutes fail to address the use of information technologies, and one-fifth of the states provide neither statutory nor legal opinion on virtual meetings. Such differences affect citizen access and checking on government. Strong open meeting statutes permit virtual meetings and assure citizen access to them.

Edwards vs. National Audubon Society and Libel Law: The Neutral Reportage Doctrine 20 Years After • Joseph A. Russomanno, Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State University • It has been 20 years since the doctrine of «neutral reportage» was first established, providing the media will another possible libel defense. It is a doctrine, however, whose acceptance has been slow. This paper examines the history of the privilege, particularly focusing on its second decade, and its impact on American libel law. The verdict: while accepted and applied by some courts, most have set it aside, ruling its application to be unnecessary or inappropriate.

Protecting Student Voices on the World Wide Web: Student Personal Home Pages and the First Amendment • Joey Senat, University of North Carolina • No Abstract available.

An Analysis of Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act • John Shiffman, American University • This paper argues Virginia’s public record law is too weak to give its citizens reasonable access to government held information. Conceptually, the law is good Ñ it states exemptions should be construed narrowly and access construed broadly. But in practice the opposite is true: exemptions are viewed broadly, and access viewed narrowly. This paper concludes that a dramatic overhaul is necessary to change deep institutional resistance by state officials to citizen access to publicly-held documents.

First Amendment Scrutiny and Commercial Speech: Raising the Bar for Regulating Advertising of Lawful Products • Sigman L. Splichal, University of Miami, Matthew D. Bunker, University of Alabama, J. Brian O’Loughlin, University of Alabama • Advertising has long been a stepchild of the First Amendment. A recent decision by the United States Supreme Court may indicate that the Court is moving in a more protective direction, however. This paper examines key cases in the evolution of the commercial speech doctrine, and explores the opinions by the justices in Liquormart. The paper then analyzes what sort of constitutional impact Liquormart may have on other recent advertising controversies.

Litigation Public Relations: The Lawyers’ Duty to Balance News Coverage of Their Clients • John C. Watson, University of North Carolina • This paper asks whether lawyers’ First Amendment right to speak about their clients’ cases in the mass media is evolving to become an obligation to argue their cases in the court of public opinion as well as in the courts of law and thereby balance the news coverage of their clients. The study focuses on the evolution of this right/obligation through U.S. Supreme Court decisions and rules promulgated by the American Bar Association.

Cohen v. San Bernadino Valley College: Employee Speech or Academic Freedom • Nancy Whitmore, Michigan State University • In Cohen vs. San Bernadino Valley College, the Ninth Circuit struck down a university’s sexual harassment policy on grounds of unconstitutional vagueness and enjoined the institution from further disciplinary action against a professor who used sexually-charged speech in the teaching of a remedial English course. This paper argues that the Ninth Circuit erred in its application of law and offers specific recommendations on policy in this free speech area.

Sizing Up Trade Dress: New Era of Cases Tests the Limits of the Lanham Act • Elizabeth M. Withersoon, University of North Carolina • This paper examines how the 1988 Amendments to the Lanham Act and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in Two Pesos v. Taco Cabana (1992) and Qualitex, Inc. vs. Jacobsen Products (1992) have affected the federal court’s interpretation and application of the Lanham Act in trade dress infringement cases. Trade dress is the subset of trademark law that protects product labeling and packaging and thought by some to be the most contentious area of trademark law.

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