Mass Communication and Society Division

Drudging Up the News: The Drudge Report and Its Use of Sources • Scott Abel, Missouri • The media are undergoing a re-evaluation of their standards and practices in the wake of the Clinton scandal. One concern of traditional journalists is the impact of Internet sites, such as The Drudge Report, on their profession. Many point to Drudge as a major player in the erosion of media standards of not using anonymous sources. This study examines the types of stories posted on Drudge’s site and the sources used early in the scandal. It shows Drudge’s reliance on unnamed sources in stories he designated as exclusives.

Online Love: Have Chatrooms Changed How People Make Friends and Date People? • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Fifteen people who use online chatrooms to make friends and to date people were interviewed about their social interactions. Some of the major themes include the following: 1. the limitations of chatrooms-not being able to see facial expressions or to hear voice tones-leads to misunderstandings; 2. some people become so addicted to being in chatrooms that it has negative effects on their personal lives; 3. some women are victimized by men online.

Exploring ‘Drench’ Effects of Dramatic Media: A Test of Volcanic Disaster Portrayals • C. Mo Bahk and Kurt Neuwirth, Cincinnati • Drawing upon the notion of drench hypothesis proposed by Greenberg (1988), this study explores the role of viewing involvement, perceived realism, and role attractiveness as factors generating drench effects of dramatic media. One hundred fifty-eight undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Participants in the experimental conditions were exposed to one of the four video clips: 1) the movie Volcano-a portrayal of a volcanic disaster taking place in the city of Los Angeles, 2) the documentary National Geographic Volcano, 3) an instructional video on gardening, and 4) the comedy Mr. Bean.

Gender Stereotyping and Intended Audience Age: An Analysis of Children’s Educational Informational TV Programming • Mark R. Barner, Niagara University • This study examined sex-role stereotyping within FCC-mandated children’s educational programming. A content analysis compared stereotyping across program age ranges and revealed that programs intended for young children present a more traditional view of sex roles than programs intended for teens. Male characters in old programs were stereotyped to a lesser extent than their young program counterparts. These results suggest that children are being exposed to consistently gender stereotyped television role models at precisely the age when they are forming their own sex role identities.

Differential Employment Rates in the Journalism and Mass Communication Labor Force Based on Gender, Race and Ethnicity: Exploring the Impact of Affirmative Action • Lee Becker, Edmund Lauf and Wilson Lowrey, Georgia • This paper examines whether gender and race and ethnicity are associated with employment in the journalism and mass communication labor market and-if discrepancies in employment exist-what explanations might be offered for them. The data show strong evidence that race and ethnicity are associated with lower level of employment among journalism and mass communication graduates. These discrepancies in success in the job market are not explainable by factors normally associated with hiring, such type of training, type of institution offering the training, or qualifications such as internships experience and level of performance in the classroom.

Whither Now?: Six Years of Internet Research in Mass Communications, 1993-1998 • Joel M. Benson and Thomas Gould, Kansas state University • This paper proposes to outline six years of research in mass communications targeting the Internet. This is an initial study focusing narrowly on the Internet, and as such, will be expanded in the future to include such subsets as the online journalism, interactive advertising, etc. Initially, however, the focus is just on the Internet and World Wide Web and limited to the years 1993 to 1998, inclusive.

New Media, Old Values: What Online Journalists say is Important to Them • Ann M. Brill, Missouri • This study seeks to advance the knowledge and understanding of the roles and values of online journalists. Using Weaver and WIhoit’s analysis of the functions that journalists in other media have rated as very important, the study examines the similarities and differences between the online and traditional environments and the journalists working within them. Findings led to the creation of an additional function-”marketing”-that seems to be embraced by online journalists.

Florida’s Public Records Law Put to the Test: Gaining Access to Crime Statistics • Michele Bush, Florida • One of the greatest checks of government’s inefficiency or corruption is the public’s right to access government information. However, it is not sufficient to accept that because there are legal provisions granting the public access to information, the public is actually receiving that access. To fully evaluate the openness of government, the practical application of access laws must be tested. Only then can scholars know whether citizens have access to government information.

Mass Media, the New Environmental Paradigm, and Environmental Activism: A Change in Focus • Jessica Staples Butler and James Shanahan, Cornell University • This analysis examined the association between media use, adherence to the “new environmental paradigm,” and environmental activism. There was a strong negative relation between television viewing and environmental activism. This correlation retained statistical significance under simultaneous control for age, gender, education level, and political affiliation. Regression analysis shows that television is the second largest predictor of behavior, independent of other factors. There was no relation between television viewing and all three NEP factors.

The Logic of the Link: The Associative Paradigm in Communication Criticism • Dennis Cali, East Carolina University • The metaphor of hypertext or “link” shapes the way we think about and process contemporary informational forms, overtaking the Traditionalist paradigm for constructing and critically analyzing texts. This essay examines the features of the newly-emerging Associative paradigm accompanying hypertext vis-a-vis the Traditionalist paradigm underlying print documents. The implications to communication criticism (practice and pedagogy)-and thus to culture and society-are considered.

The Impacts of News Frames and Ad Types on Candidate Perception and Political Cynicism during the 1998 Taipei Mayoral Election in Taiwan • Chingching Chang, National Cheng-chi University • The aim of this study is twofold. First, examining how commonly strategy-framed stories were used in the newspaper coverage of the 1998 Taipei mayoral election and how prevalently negative political ads were employed in this election. Second, employing a field experiment to explore whether exposure to campaign news with different frames and campaign ads of different valence had an impact on political cynicism and candidate evaluations.

Foreign Policy, Ideological Exclusion and the Media: How the American Press Shifts its News Coverage of Gerry Adams • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Michigan State • The present study examines the interplay among foreign policy, ideological exclusion, the U.S. president and the American press. The research proposed and found support for the hypotheses that the U.S. press has shifted its news editorial policy toward Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, across different presidencies. More specifically, the press was shown to be more favorable and accessible to Adams under the Clinton than the Reagan/Bush regime.

Interactivity and the ‘Cyber-Fan’: Audience Involvement Within the Electronic Fan Culture of the Internet • Vic Costello, Gardner-Webb University • Television viewing involvement and interpersonal communication activity were observed within the electronic fan culture of the Internet. A web-based survey was administered to a sample population (N=3,041) of cyber-fans-individuals who use the Internet to keep up with their favorite television program and to connect with other fans. Variables included favorite program affinity, parasocial interaction, post-viewing cognition, Internet affinity, interactivity, and interpersonal communication satisfaction. Six hypotheses received support from the data analysis.

The Portrayal of Race and Crime on Network News: An exploratory Study • Travis L. Dixon, Michigan • A content analysis of a random sample of network news programming was conducted in order to assess the portrayal of race and criminal behavior. It revealed that Whites are accorded prominent roles as perpetrators, victims and reporters on network news. Latinos are largely portrayed as victims while Blacks are more likely to appear in the role of perpetrator than victim or reporter. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the structural limitations of network news and an ethnic blame discourse. We argue for further investigation of race and crime on network television news.

Subservient Baby Sitters and their Symbiotic Relationships with the Press: The Congressional Press Secretaries’ Interactions with the Media and the Member of Congress • Edward J. Downes, Boston University • This paper examines the Congressional press secretaries’ relationships with the Members for whom they work and the media they serve. It is based on three data sets: a focus group, interviews, and a survey. Its findings suggest the press secretaries enjoy their work; serve the Member with deference; and have a relationship with the media based on guarded honesty. Alphas examining these relationships were developed and are available for future research.

Public Life, Community Integration and the Mass Media: The Empirical Turn • Lewis A. Friedland, Naewon Kang, Kathryn B. Campbell and Bob Pondillo, Wisconsin • In this paper, we first have attempted to lay out a revised theoretical framework for the study of the public sphere, reconceptionalizing it as a series of network relationships. Second, we have reported on a series of small studies designed to show how this reconceptualization might look within the framework of community integration. Our interviews found that all of the groups shared a distrust of the media. Our framing analysis has confirmed that these publics with some variations were reflected in the coverage of both newspapers.

When Bad Things Happen to Bad People: Motivations for Viewing TV Talk Shows • Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri • Why are millions of people attracted to, what some term, “trash TV” talk shows? Self-enhancement, or feeling better about oneself and one’s life, may be one of the primary reasons people watch what some consider to be “trashy” television talk programs. An experimental factorial design was used to evaluate predictions made from social comparison theory. Data obtained suggest that high self-esteem people felt better and experienced greater benefits after exposure to inferior, incompetent guests.

Journalists And Their Computers: An Inseparable Link For The Future? • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This study analyzes the role of computers in newsgathering. Drawing on daily newspaper data collected in annual national censuses between 1994 and 1998, the study reviews use of computers in newsrooms, needs for new computer skills, the most-sought computer tools, leading subjects for news stories and projects, and journalists’ perceptions of advantages and disadvantages that accompany computer use. The study found computer use has steadily grown during 1994-98 and that newsrooms seem to be making a serious commitment to use of computers in gathering news.

The Body Electric: Thin-Ideal Media and Eating Disorders in Adolescents • Kristen Harrison, Michigan • An instrumental replication of survey research demonstrating the link between thin-ideal media exposure and eating disorders was conducted with a sample of 366 6th, 9th, and 12th graders. Measures included interest in thin-ideal media content, exposure to thin-ideal television and magazines, and eating disorder symptomatology. Thin-ideal media exposure positively predicted eating disorder variables most frequently for older adolescents and girls. Relationships remained robust even when selective exposure based on interest in thinness-oriented media content was controlled.

Balancing Acts: Work/Family Issues on Prime-Time TV • Katharine E. Heintz-Knowles, Kristen Engstrand, Hilary Karasz and Meredith LiVollmer, Washington • A content analysis of two weeks of network-originated prime time television entertainment discovered that most TV adults were shown in either work or domestic situations, with little overlap between these two worlds. TV adults were infrequently shown attending to child care or elder care obligations, which were rarely presented as problematic The authors conclude that television is out of sync with real families who find balancing family and work a major issue in their lives.

Agenda Setting And The Y2K Bug: Paths Of Influence On Behaviors And Issue Salience • Emily Erickson Hoff, Laura Arpan Ralstin, Francesca Dillman, Alison Bryant, Alabama • This study seeks to build upon the agenda-setting models developed by Wanta (Wanta & Hu, 1994; Wanta, 1997) to examine individual-level variables by adding a new element to the process. Taking advantage of a unique issue that is currently growing on the media and public agenda – the Y2K bug – we examined three dependent variables: level of concern/involvement, planned behavior regarding Y2K computer compliance, and planned behavior regarding general Y2K preparation.

Absence of Dissent: A Linkage Analysts of Voting Records in National News Council Decisions, 1973-84 • L. Paul Husselbee, Lamar University • Previous research on the National News Council has suggested the need to analyze individual and collective voting behaviors of News Council members. This study addresses that need by using linkage analysis, a method similar to factor analysis, to examine News Council members’ voting records. The analysis seeks to identify the presence or absence of factions within the News Council, which was divided unevenly between “public” and “media” members.

Television News Impact on Images and Attitudes towards the United States • Yasuhiro Inoue, Michigan State University • With reference to cultivation theory, the present study hypothesized that an image of a dangerous America would be partly attributed to Japanese television news programs that portray the U.S. in violent terms. The data suggest that heavy news watchers held less positive attitudes towards the U.S. than light watchers did. On the other hand, heavy news watchers estimated lower murder rates in the U.S. compared to murders in Japan. This finding indicates a reverse cultivation.

Migrant workers: Myth or Reality? A Case Study of new Narratives in Thailand’s English-Language Newspapers • Suda Ishida, Iowa • The paper examines news coverage of migrant workers from Indochina and Burma that appeared in two Thailand’s English-language dailies-The Nation and the Bangkok Post-during the 1997 Asian economic crisis. The Thai media’s use of news patterns reflects bias against migrant workers. The narrative patterns, the author argues, can be traced to the pro-nationalist history of Thailand written in the 1930s, and may be seen as perpetuating stereotypes about Thailand’s neighboring countries.

Using is Believing: The Influence of Reliance on the Credibility of Online Political Information • Thomas Johnson, Southern Illinois University and Barbara K. Kaye, Valdosta State University • This study surveyed politically interested Web users online to investigate the degree to which reliance on traditional and online sources predicts credibility of online newspapers, television news, newsmagazines, candidate literature and political issue-oriented sites after controlling for demographic and political factors. Reliance on online and traditional media was the strongest predictor of credibility of online sources. Reliance on traditional media tended to be a stronger predictor of credibility of its online counterpart than reliance on the Web in general.

Public Trust or Mistrust?: Perceptions of Media Credibility in the Information Age • Spiro Kiousis, Texas • This paper explores perceptions of news credibility for television, newspapers, and online news. A survey was administered to a randomly selected sample of residents in Austin, Texas, to assess people’s attitudes toward these three media channels. Contingent factors that might influence news credibility perceptions, such as media use and interpersonal discussion of news, were also incorporated into the analysis. Findings suggest that people are generally skeptical of news emanating from all three media channels but do rate newspapers with the highest credibility, followed by online news, and television news respectively.

Evidence of Gender Disparity in Children’s Computer Use and Activities • M.J. Land, Georgia College & State University • This multi-method study examines the differences in male and female computer use in the home of children ages 9-14. Long interviews, observations, and surveys with children show males spend more time on the computer, but not on-line than females. Males and females engage in different computer activities. They play computer games about the same amount of time, but females spend more time on the computer to do word processing and desk-top publishing activities.

MPAA Film Ratings: Are they a Disservice to Parents? • Ron Leone, Syracuse University • The MPAA claims that film ratings are a guide for parents when deciding what movies their children can see. One criticism of the MPAA is that-despite evidence suggesting that violent content is more harmful to children than sexual content-they “target” sex. Here, it is hypothesized that parents of minors will have different opinions about children and sexual or violent film content than other adults. A telephone survey of 368 adults in Onandaga County, NY was conducted and used to test the hypotheses, which received limited support.

Setting the Media Agenda: The President and His Honeymoon with the Media • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This study addresses the question of who sets the media agenda by correlating the issue agenda of President Clinton with that of the major newspapers and television networks. It finds that the president has strong influence on the media agenda during his first year in office, i.e., the honeymoon period. It also indicates that there is a two-way flow of influence between the president and the media on certain issues.

The Big Scare: A Longitudinal Analysis of Network TV Crime Reporting, Public Perceptions of Crime and FBI Crime Statistics • Dennis T. Lowry and Josephine T.C. Nio, Southern Illinois University • Public perceptions of crime as the most important problem facing the country jumped tenfold, from 5% in March of 1992 to an unprecedented 52% in August of 1994. This paper analyzed the effects of three network television news predictor variables and two FBI predictor variables to determine what caused this “big scare.” Based upon data from 1982 through 1997, results indicated that the 1994 “big scare” was more a network TV news scare than a scare based upon the real world of crime.

Academic Letters of Recommendation: Perceived Ethical Implications and Harmful Effects of Exaggeration • David L. Martinson, Florida International University and Michael Ryan, Houston • This national survey of 150 assistant professors, associate professors and professors in schools and departments of journalism and mass communication focuses on the extent to which faculty members exaggerate recommendation letters, perceive that letters written by their colleagues are exaggerated, and believe that exaggeration is harmful and/or unethical. Results suggest that letters written in behalf of students and faculty colleagues are exaggerated, but perhaps not as much as some might imagine.

Pacing in Children’s Television Programming • James F. McCollum Jr., Lipscomb University and Jennings Bryant, Alabama • Following a content analysis, 85 children’s television programs were assigned a pacing index derived from the following criteria: (a) frequency of camera cuts, (b) frequency of related scene changes, (c) frequency of unrelated scene changes, (d) frequency of auditory changes, (e) percentage of active motion, (f) percentage of active talking, and (g) percentage of active music. ANOVA procedures reveal significant differences in networks’ pacing overall and in the individual criteria.

Do You Admit Or Deny? An Experiment In Public Perceptions Of Politicians Accused Of Scandal • Patrick Meirick and Zixue Tai, Minnesota • Scandal news has assumed an increasingly significant role in politics in recent years. Adapting the expectancy-value model to a new arena, this study examines the effects of three factors on politician evaluation: level of evidence, severity of the scandal, and the politician’s response. All three have a significant effect. It appears that denial is the best policy at least in the short run. A predicted interaction between evidence and response was not significant.

How Close is Our Relationship with Television Characters?: The Semantic Difference among Self, Best Friend, Closest Family Member, Closest Acquaintance, and Favorite Television Character • Woong Ki Park, Temple University • This study was an attempt to examine the effect of mass mediated communication on the processes of interpersonal relationship by using Horton and Wohl’s (1956) parasocial phenomenon concept. A series of bipolar semantic differential scales were administered to undergraduate and graduate students (n = 217) who were regular television viewers to see the semantic differences in relationship among viewers themselves and a number of items. The scales measured distance in semantic space among the viewers, best friend, closest family member, closest acquaintance, and favorite television character.

Deliberation And Democracy: Toward An Understanding Of Deliberative Processes • Dietram A. Scheufele and Lewis Friedland, Wisconsin and Patricia Moy, Washington • This paper addresses the discrepancy between normative ideals and empirical realities of a deliberative democracy. Based on a review of previous attempts to increase participation in deliberative processes, we develop a conceptual overview of deliberative democracy, defining the construct with respect to both inputs and outcomes. which factors make citizens more or less likely to participate in deliberative processes? How do actual outcomes of deliberation measure up to normative ideals put forth by deliberative theorists?

Does Tabloidization Really Make Newspapers Successful? A Summary of an Explorative Study • Klaus Schoenbach, Amsterdam • Concerned observers all over the world agree: Newspapers do not only follow a trend toward less serious, more emotional reporting and toward colorful, fuzzy layouts with many visual elements. The audience presumably also appreciates these developments. If tabloidization really sells was one of the questions of a tracking study of 350 local daily (workday) newspapers in Germany. Their efforts to attract readers in the first half of the 1 990s were systematically evaluated.

Autonomy in Journalism: How It Is Related to Attitudes and Behavior of Media Professionals • Armin Scholl and Siegfried Weischenberg, Muenster • Autonomy is a main characteristic of professions. Social system theory suggests observing journalism in terms of self-referentiality and external referentiality. In our study “Journalism in Germany”, we could identify a particular self-referential group of journalists1 which differed from the rest of the sample regarding role perception, unusual reporting practices and assessment of press-releases. Data provided further evidence for a more. complex and adequate perspective on journalists’ attitudes and behavior.

Expanding the ‘Virtuous Circle’ of Social Capital: Civic Engagement, Contentment, and Interpersonal Trust • Dhavan V. Shah, R. Lance Holbert and Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin • This research clarifies the mechanisms underlying the formation and sustenance of social capital on the individual level. First, it expands the conception of social capital by including life contentment in the “virtuous circle” of civic engagement and interpersonal trust. Second, it tests a structural model composed of these three endogenous variables. This analysis permits an examination of (a) the strength and direction of the causal relationships comprising the “virtuous circle’ of engagement, contentment, and trust; (b) the demographic, situational/contextual, personality, and attitudinal factors that are exogenous to these latent variables.

Changes in Female Roles in Taiwanese Women’s Magazines, 1971-1992 • Ping Shaw, National Sun Yat-sen University • A thematic content analysis performed on a sample of articles published in Woman and New Woman magazines over the period of 1971 to 1992 revealed a decline in the number having themes of women as wives, mothers, and homemakers and an increase in articles with political, social and economic themes. Traditional sex role models, however, still dominate the pages of most women’s magazines.

A Reassessment of the Relationship Between Public Affairs Media Use and Political Orientations • Kim A. Smith, Iowa State University • This study examined the influence of public affairs media on changes in diffuse and specific political orientations between the 1990 and 1992 general election campaigns, utilizing a two-wave panel of respondents. The results indicated that use of public affairs media was related to changes in the specific orientations of campaign interest, political discussion and attention to the campaign in the media in 1992. While public affairs media use did not influence the diffuse orientations of perceived political efficacy and political trust in 1992, it did predict changes in 1992 strength of partisanship.

Media Use and Perceptions of Welfare • Mira Sotirovic, Illinois • This paper examines public perceptions of the extent of governmental spending on welfare and the characteristics of a typical welfare recipient. It analyzes how these perceptions reflect differences in individuals’ media use, and how they affect individual’s support for welfare programs. The evidence shows that media use has an important influence on perceptions of welfare after accounting for demographic, ideological and interpersonal-contextual influences. Watching television entertainment, and cable news channel viewing work in the direction of introducing typical biases in welfare perceptions: overestimation of the percent of federal budget spent on welfare, perception of welfare recipients as being non-white, and of younger age.

Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Negotiating the Influences of Media, family, Friends and School • Jeanne Rogge Steele, Ohio University • How do mass media images and messages about love, sex and relationships interact with what teens learn about sexuality at home, in school and from their friends? Data generated in this multi-method, qualitative study suggest that Identity, tempered by ethnicity, gender, class status and developmental phase, plays an important role in media practice. The Adolescents’ Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995) is refined to include Resistance as a form of Application.

Social Structure, Media System and Audiences in China: Testing the Uses and Dependency Model • Tao Sun and Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota: Yu Guoming, Chinese People’s University • Much has been written about the structure and processes of China’s mass media changes before and after the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping initiated the economic reform and open-door policies in the late 1970s. Many of them focused on the commercialization, de-politicalization and internationalization of Chinese media as a result of the market economy and external openness. Little known, however, is how the audiences get caught up in the interplay between the fast changing social structure and the evolving media system in China.

Screen Sex, ‘Zine Sex and Teen Sex: Do Television and Magazines Cultivate Adolescent Females’ Sexual Attitudes? • Michael J. Sutton and Jane D. Brown, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Karen M. Wilson and Jonathan D. Klein, Rochester • A cultivation analysis of a national sample of 1,921 high school girls shows that magazines may mitigate attitudes toward the frequently risky sexual behaviors shown on television. Girls who said they learned about birth control, contraception, and preventing pregnancy from both magazines and television were more likely than girls who learned about contraception from television but not magazines to say they would be upset if they became pregnant at their current age.

Electronic Politics: The Internet As A Tool Of Political Communication • Mustafa Taha, Ohio University • This paper examines the uses of the Internet as a tool of political communication in U.S. It explores how the Internet is leveling the field for political activists who do not have access to traditional media outlets. The paper shows how the Internet’s interactivity enhances political discourse, and how the Web Wide Web can be used during political campaigns. It demonstrates how politicians relied on the Internet to raise funds and get the vote out, during the 1998 mid-term senatorial and gubernatorial elections.

Media Consumption and Social Capital Patterns in Urban African Americans and Whites • Esther Thorson and Ken Fleming, Missouri and Michael Antecol, Stanford • The survey research reported here was examined for links between exposure and attention to newspapers, local television news, and entertainment television and patterns of social capital exhibited by African Americans and Whites in a large Midwest city. The news media of the city included a daily newspaper that has been committed to public journalistic approaches for approximately three years. Part of the public journalism effort has involved increased efforts to communicate meaningfully with the large African American population in the city.

Is the Web Sexist? A Content Analysis of Children’s Web Sites • Linda Ver Steeg, Robert LaRose and Lynn Rampoldi-Hnilo, Michigan State University • A sample of twenty children’s Web sites (n=200 pages) was analyzed at the site, page, and character levels for sex role stereotypes. The characters (n=164) were 51% male. Results showed discrepancies between male and female characters for age, occupational portrayals, dress, and physical attractiveness. However, no gender differences were found for the types of activities characters engaged in (e.g., passive, active) or for the settings in which they were portrayed (e.g., home, outdoors).

<< 1999 Abstracts

Magazine Division

The Framing of Saddam Hussein: U.S. Foreign Policy and Coverage of Iraq in Time Magazine, 1979-1998 • Abhinav Aima, Ohio University • This study examined Time magazine’s coverage of Saddam Hussein for the last twenty years. The content analysis checked for the viability of the propaganda model within the framework of a statistically significant change in the nature of framing of Saddam along a corresponding change in U.S. foreign policy. It was found that the propaganda model was viable, with the number of mentions of Saddam increasing dramatically over time, a sharp decrease in the number of references praising him.

Environmental Issue Salience and Advertising: A Content Analysis of Business Week from 1988 to 1992 • Soontae An & Hyun Seung Jin, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study attempts to measure the relation between the public’s concern over the environment and the presence of environmental advertising. Public concern over environmental issues was measured by compiling the results of monthly national polls, in which similar versions of the question “What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?” were asked. Business Week from 1988 to 1992 was content analyzed to represent the frequency of environmental advertising.

False Hope: A Historical Review of Magazine Coverage of the First Artificial Heart Transplant • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper evaluates how magazines framed coverage of the first artificial heart transplant. Articles published in the first month after the transplant framed it as a tremendous success. Articles published during the next three months framed the operation as an unsuccessful, costly medical experiment. Finally, when Clark died after 112 days with the artificial heart, an interesting framing shift occurred. The articles were highly positive and similar to the articles published immediately after the transplant.

The Pursuit of Perfection: A Narrative Analysis of How Women’s Magazines Cover Eating Disorders • Ronald Bishop, Drexel University • Editors at the nation’s top women’s magazines devote only moderate coverage to eating disorders. This paper uses narrative analysis to explore the dominant themes in the 42 feature articles on eating disorders appearing in women’s magazines since 1980, when eating disorders found a recurring spot on the public’s agenda. One of the reasons for the sporadic coverage is the fact that publishers are reluctant to show readers the end-result of overzealous dieting.

Out of Their Hands: Framing and its Impact on Newsmagazine Coverage of Indians and Indian Activism, 1968-79 • Jennifer Bowie, Ohio University • This content analysis identified and described a media frame used by Time, Newsweek and US News & World Report to marginalize Indians and Indian activists from 1968-79. All seventy-eight stories that appeared during this period were analyzed. Activist events set a large portion of the magazines’ agenda. Indians were framed as a violent, militant, and divided out-group. Based on this deviant and illegitimate frame-and on limited survey data.

Education For The Bodybuilder Or Alibi For The Publisher? Sexual Mores In The Weider Muscle Building Course Of The 1950s • Bryan E. Denham, Clemson University • Joe Weider has been involved with bodybuilding since the late 1930s, and today he operates a health and fitness empire in Woodland Hills, California. His organization produces exercise equipment, nutrition supplements, books, and magazines, such as Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Shape and Men’s Fitness. This essay looks back to the 1950s and examines the sexual mores he advanced in a mail-order course designed for young men interested in weightlifting.

The Impact of Larry Flynt: An Overview of One Publisher’s Legal Battles • Amy M. Drittler, Ohio University • This study examines the long and colorful legal history of Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine. The paper focuses on four lawsuits, all appealed to the Supreme Court, involving the publication. Each case set an important precedent, but not every precedent was favorable from a media standpoint. The paper also examines Flynt’s personal influence upon the content in Hustler, and critiques his transformation from self-proclaimed porn king to self-proclaimed civil liberties activist.

Black in a Blonde World: Race and Girls’ Interpretations of the Feminine Ideal in Teen Magazines • Lisa Duke, Florida • Middle-class African American and European American female readers of teen magazines were interviewed for their interpretations of the feminine ideal presented by the texts. Black girls were uninterested in models because their culture values a heavier physique. Grooming advice was similarly seen as specific to White girls, who consequently invest more authority in the magazines’ counsel and images. The magazines are a one-way mirror through which Black girls observe White beauty culture.

The Women’s Liberation Movement, 1969-1972: Did the Graphics and illustrations in Ms. Magazine During the First Year of Publication Reflect or Contradict the Themes of the Movement? • Deborah M. Gross, Florida • During the late 1960s and early 1970s, feminist periodicals were founded to reflect and impact the women’s liberation movement. Ms. magazine, founded by Gloria Steinem, officially began publication in July 1972 and was one of the few feminist magazines that continued to flourish after its debut. This paper explores how the second wave of feminism influenced the portrayals of women in Ms. magazine editorial illustrations and graphics during the first year of publication.

Charles Moore’s Life Magazine Coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, 1958-1965 • John Kaplan, Florida • On September 3, 1958, photographer Charles Moore witnessed an argument between the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and two policemen on the steps of the Montgomery, Alabama courthouse. His picture of the local minister’s subsequent arrest was the first of Moore’s celebrated civil rights pictures to be published in Life Magazine. By 1965, Life had published Moore’s coverage of many of the significant events of the era including the fighting surrounding James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi, the dogs attacking protesters in Birmingham and the savagery of the Selma March.

Brand Extensions Within The Magazine Industry: A Study Of Brand Extensions Of “Shelter” Magazines • Patricia Kinneer, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This exploratory study examines brand extension strategies within home and garden magazines. Findings from a mail survey to the top thirty-three circulation magazines shows that publications extend in order to attain additional revenue by attempting to increase readership and create new avenues for advertisers. Corporate mandates are also a key factor for extensions. Consumer research and new product promotion are key predictors of a brand extension’s success, while extensions fail for a variety of reasons.

Coverage of Major Diseases in Popular African Magazines and Scholarly Medical Journals, as Public-Health Priorities • Cornelius B. Pratt, Zambia and Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce-Southern Africa • This study investigates the frequency and the format of health-related messages and their associated words, metaphors and phrases in four publications distributed widely in sub-Saharan Africa. The coverage of Africa’s five major diseases during a l7-year period (1981-1997) indicated the dominance of HIV/AIDS items, from the early to the mid-1990s; however, its coverage was minuscule in the early 1980s. In aggregate terms, malaria had the second-highest coverage, followed by tuberculosis.

Magazines In The ‘90s: Are They Really Turning Boys Into Girls? • Cheryl Rainford, Drake University • Several authors have recently argued that men’s magazines are becoming more like women’s. This study uses magazine covers and cover blurbs to examine GQ, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue from the 1980s and 1990s to note changes. No trends toward increasing similarity over time were noted. In fact, men’s magazines broadened their range of editorial focus, while women’s narrowed.

Exploring Patterns In Coverage of the Internet by Three U.S. News Magazines • Matthew M. Reavy, Scranton • This study examines coverage of the Internet by three U.S. news magazines, uncovering evidence of a Positive-Negative-Neutral in reporting of the emerging phenomenon. During the initial year of coverage, the magazines devoted more space to overly positive coverage than to overly negative. The percentage of negative coverage rose significantly during the second year. Negative coverage, as a percentage, dropped during the third year, as reporting became more objective.

The Rise of “Good Reading” over “Good Writing”: How and Why Women’s Magazine Fiction Changed in the 1950s and 1960s • Alison M. Rice, Northwestern University • This paper examines the shift from literary to “reader identified” fiction in the women’s magazines of the 1950s and l960s. Rather than analyzing the content as previous scholars have done, however, it seeks to provide the institutional context for these changes in fiction. It does this by drawing upon more than 800 pages of magazine business correspondence written by Wade H. Nichols, Jr., editor-in-chief of Redbook and Good Housekeeping during this time period.

Have Female Stereotypes Changed over Time?: A Longitudinal Analysis of Women in Magazine Photos • Shelly Rodgers, Missouri-Columbia • This study uses a longitudinal approach to measure changes in female stereotypes in newsmagazine photographs. The results indicate a slow but steady increase in the number of females represented in news photos between the 1970s and the 1990s. Likewise, the male-to-female ratio shows a decreasing trend. Improvements in stereotypes were also noted. More females appeared in nonstereotyped than stereotyped roles. And, although more females were stereotyped in terms of the photo topic, females did appear in a wider variety of topics overall.

It Was A Tough Year For The Babe… And Even Tougher For Roger Mans: Combining Interviewing And Content Analysis To Explain Coverage • John P. Smith, Drake University • This paper is an attempt to capture the coverage and characterization in the magazine press of the man Roger Mans, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa were chasing in the 1998 baseball season. How did the newsmagazines cover Roger Mans in 1961, and why did the contemporary record-breaking hitters react so differently to press scrutiny than Mans had? Coverage from both baseball eras is examined in Time, Newsweek and US News & World Report.

Baking a Bigger Pie: How Television Helped Magazines, 1950 to 1970 • David K. Sumner, Ball State University • This article argues that television helped the magazine industry grow. It presents quantitative data showing that both circulation and advertising revenue grew steadily between 1950-1970. It also presents data showing that ad expenditures for all media grew more rapidly the economy, thus creating a larger “advertising pie.” The reason that television helped magazines is because magazines exist only to satisfy various interests. Television exposed people to more ideas, new places and hobbies to be interested in.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Law Division

Shielded by Privilege: A New Layer of Protection for Journalists in Florida • Laurence B. Alexander and Anthony L. Fargo, Florida • In 1998, Florida became the 30th state to enact a shield law to protect journalists from being subpoenaed unnecessarily to disclose information they have compiled in the course of newsgathering. Later in the same year, the state Supreme Court also gave its assistance to the press when it decided in favor of reporters in three separate cases involving the much-litigated issue of protection for nonconfidential information. This research paper reviews the history of the common-law journalist’s privilege in Florida and analyzes the shield law that was created to codify and strengthen the common-law privilege.

Radio Without Radios: Audio Broadcasting And Copyright On The Internet • Timothy E. Bajkiewicz, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • A new type of broadcasting exists online, called streaming or webcasting. FCC-licensed and Internet-only radio broadcasters can deliver music and information via the Web. The copyright issues surrounding streaming are examined as they relate to these stations. Case law in this area has yet to be established, however, two new statutes have redefined how music is considered over digital media and will greatly impact not only online radio, but also the future of digital audio.

News or Nuisance? Regulation of Home Delivery of Free Newspapers • Andy Bechtel • Louisiana State University • This paper examines legal cases involving restrictions on delivery of free newspapers to private residences. Municipalities have attempted to regulate newspaper delivery in a number of ways, such as requiring carriers to apply for licenses or to obtain a government-maintained list of residents who do not wish to receive free newspapers. These regulations, however, often fail the “time, place and manner” test because they are not narrowly drawn.

Actual Malice: When Journalists Behave Badly, Politicians Can Still Win Libel Suits • Ginny Carroll, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • In New York Times V. Sullivan, the U.S. Supreme Court stood traditional libel law on its head and established the doctrine of actual malice. Almost a decade has passed since the Court last visited the concept. Subsequently, although the Court specified that common law malice was not an element of actual malice, lower courts have continued to consider ill will or harmful intent as a key factor in actual malice determinations.

Ban Spam?: Exploring the Legal Issues and Constitutionality of Federal and State Statutes and Bills Regulating Junk Email • Hwi-Man, Chung, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • The purpose of this study is to examine the constitutionality of both federal and state bills and statutes regulating unsolicited commercial electronic mail via the Internet. This paper suggests that in genera! federal and state bills and statutes can pass the Central Hudson test if they aim to prevent the ‘cost-shifting’ from advertisers to Consumers. However, this paper also suggests that the privacy protection will not pass the Central Hudson test because the Supreme Court had different rulings about privacy protection.

Liable to be Liable: The News Media, Search Warrants, and the Fourth Amendment • Stacey Cone, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines an issue currently before the Supreme Court: does the news media’s presence during the execution of search warrants violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. The Court’s decision is expected in June, but a turbulent history of case law at the state and federal appellate levels indicates the problematic nature of the issues involved.

Navigating the Channels of Effective Communication: Courts Assess Media Access in Defamation Cases • Constance K. Davis, Iowa • In its 1974 Gertz V. Welch decision, the Supreme Court gave lower courts some vague guidelines to use in determining which plaintiffs were limited-purpose public figures. One way to distinguish between public and private plaintiffs, said Justice Powell, is that public plaintiffs usually have “significantly greater access to the channels of effective communications.” But do they really have that access? This paper explores recent cases and finds that courts have rendered access almost irrelevant.

I Know It When I See It: Should Internet Providers Recognize Copyright Violation When They See It? • Irina Dmitrieva, Florida • The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 created a new standard of knowledge for Internet service providers in copyright infringements suits. The paper argues that in light of the statute’s legislative history, courts should narrowly construe the new knowledge requirement. Otherwise, service providers would have an incentive to restrict more online speech than necessary for enforcing copyright law on the Internet.

In the Wake of R.A.V. v. St. Paul Examining the Predictions and Implementation of a Controversial U.S. Supreme Court Decision in the U.S. Courts of Appeals • Joshua Hylton Godwin, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In 1992, the United States Supreme Court ruled on the controversial case of R.A.V. v. St. Paul. Members of the Court had widely differing reasons for corning to the decision The decision was said to be certain to confuse the lower courts and to weaken First Amendment protections by both justices and legal scholars alike. This paper examines the decision, the predictions made about the implications of R.A.V., and if those predictions have become reality.

“Moral Rights” Versus Amoral Rights, “Fair Dealing” Versus “Fair Use”: A Comparison Of The Copyright Statutes Of Canada And The United States • Laura Hiavach, Indiana University • The Canadian “fair dealing” copyright provision is not as broad as the U.S. “fair use” doctrine, but Canadian “moral rights” provisions are broader. Why do these important distinctions exist? What is the potential impact on these neighbors’ shared intellectual property markets? This paper examines the historical development of the U.S. and Canadian copyright acts and the cultural bases for these differences. These distinctions subtly reflect an international split on how copyrights should be conceived.

Free Speech And The Rule Of Law: Jury Nullification Activists And The First Amendment • Kathleen K. Olson, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Activists intent on informing jurors of their “right” to return a verdict contrary to the facts and/or law have increasingly sparred with judges and court administrators intent on protecting jurors from their message. This paper examines this clash of rights and the First Amendment implications of the restrictions that have been placed on jury nullification activists.

Hidden Cameras, Hidden Microphones: The State Of The Law In The 50 States • Kathleen K. Olson, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper examines the various statutory approaches taken toward eavesdropping and the use of secret recording devices and cameras. Part I addresses the federal interception statute, which governs wiretapping and secret recording and which serves as a model for two thirds of the state statutes. Part II analyzes those statutes, examining both their common features and their unique provisions. Part III examines state laws that specifically address the use of hidden cameras, a common technique of investigative journalism.

Pirate Radio’s Challenge to the FCC: Direct Action and the Judiciary as Tools for Change • Andy Opel, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper examines recent court decisions involving illegal micro radio broadcasting It explores the legal arguments made by the micro broadcasters and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Looking at U.S. v. Dunifer and four other cases, this paper outlines the challenges to current FCC policy and the response of the courts to these challenges. The FCC response to these challenges is explored through a recent notice of proposed rule making for low power FM.

Threats v. Theater: Does Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition Of Life Advocates Signify That Tests For True Threats” Need To Change? • Ashley Packard, Houston-Clear Lake • In a recent and controversial case, Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Advocates, a Portland, Ore., jury fined a group of abortion protesters $109 million for threatening abortion providers with a Web site and wanted-style posters. The Web site and posters contained no explicit threats, specified no time element and were not directed specifically to the plaintiffs. The case highlights a disparity between theories expressed in Supreme Court cases regarding threatening speech and those applied by the various federal circuits. U.S.

The Myth of Specialness: Why Broadcasting Is Entitled to Full First Amendment Protection • Paul Riismandel, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • In this paper I demonstrate that the principal rationales justifying the curtailment of broadcasters’ First Amendment rights are suppositions, not fact. Scarcity exists only due to governmental allocation and is not an a priori condition of the broadcast spectrum, while the special power of broadcast is a controversial notion that is not proven. Therefore, the First Amendment is best served by increasing broadcast spectrum and protecting broadcasters’ spectrum rights, not regulation of content or access.

The Status of Copyright Law: The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act • Johanna M. Roodenburg, Florida • Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in response to changing technologies impact on copyright law. This paper compares four titles of the DMCA to the copyright case law on digital works and reveals that copyright law already incorporated most of the legal principles embodied in the DMCA. Thus, the DMCA is an example of fine tuning copyright law only enough to implement the WIPO treaties while avoiding issues not yet judicially addressed.

Changing Circumstances, Contexts, and Concepts: Analyzing the Supreme Court’s Use of Public Through a Half-Century of Rulings on Electronic Media • Susan Dente Ross and Julie Andsager • Communication policy rests upon the concept of a public whose interests can be, should be, and are served by government. Yet the concept of public has been criticized as vague, poorly understood, and inconsistently applied by the Supreme Court. This study used a computer assisted content analysis program to analyze the use of the term public within the text of Supreme Court rulings. This method illustrates the highly contextual meaning of public as applied by the Court in its electronic media rulings since the mid-1900s.

The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act Of 1994: Does Congress Have The Constitutional Authority To Override State FOI Laws By Regulating Access To State Driver’s Licenses? • Joey Senat, Oklahoma State University • Seven federal courts have examined the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA). While the conflict between individual informational privacy and public access to millions of government records is at the heart of the statute, its fate more likely depends upon how courts resolve a conflict between the Commerce Clause and Tenth Amendment. This research concludes that Congress unconstitutionally commandeered states’ freedom of information policies when it enacted the statute.

Grumbling Barriers to Newsroom Searches: The Erosion of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 • Dan Shaver, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 was enacted to create barriers to the issuance of warrants for newsroom searches in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Zurcher vs. Stanford Daily decision This study finds that although newsroom searches are not widespread, adverse court rulings, limited sanctions for violations, law enforcement-and sometimes press-ignorance of the law, and Congressional tampering have significantly weakened the intended protections of the Act.

Congress Shall Make No Law Defining Who Is A Journalist • Kathy Sheehan, Washington • Despite the First Amendment, American courts have made case law numerous times defining who qualifies for legal protection as a journalist and who does not. With the explosion of Internet publishing in the 1990s, anyone with a computer and a modem can be a journalist. This paper examines cases, especially with state shield laws, where courts have created definitions for journalists. It also discusses how such definitions might be applied on the Internet and what problems could develop there.

Reno v. ACLU And Its Progeny: Implications For Communication Professionals • Truda Shinker, Ohio University • In Reno v. ACLU, the Supreme Court’s first encounter with the Internet and an indicator of the medium’s legal future, the Court ruled the Communications Decency Act of 1996 unconstitutional and granted the Internet the broadest possible protection under the First Amendment. In this paper, the author discusses the issues surrounding the Internet, the Communications Decency Act, and the Court rulings in the case, as well as the implications the case has for the future.

To Filter or Not To Filter: The Role of Public Libraries in Determining Internet Access • Barbara H. Smith, Florida • To filter or not to filter-that is the question facing public librarians who must decide if they can legally restrict patrons’ access to “offensive” web sites. The purposes of this paper are to examine the theoretical and practical aspects of blocking Internet content and to analyze the recent federal district court’s ruling that stated a Virginia library’s filtering policy was unconstitutional because it constituted prior restraint, was not narrowly tailored and was overly inclusive.

Dangerous Liaison: Speech in a Climate of Violence • Josie Tullos, SUNY Brockport • It is usually assumed that potentially dangerous speech will be evaluated under standards developed in advocacy cases or “fighting words” cases. Recent decisions involving various types of expression by anti-abortion activists indicate, however, that a different analysis may apply. The law of “true threats” is now being followed in cases involving speech that is not, on its face, a threat. This analysis relies heavily on context and raises questions about what expression is protected under the First Amendment when the context includes a general climate of violence.

Incitement: Hit Men, Hit Lists and Hit Movies • Lorna Veraldi, Florida International University • Recently, a jury awarded $107 million dollars in damages to abortion providers who claimed the posters and Web site of anti-abortion activists constituted a threat. The award seems unlikely to withstand a Constitutional challenge under the narrow incitement test set forth in Brandenburg v. Ohio. However, recent decisions concerning potential liability for “aiding and abetting” violence may signal a change in the court’s willingness to hold speakers accountable for speech that provokes violence.

Make ‘em Laugh: Assessing the Outcome of Actionable Humor Cases Against Intellectual Property and Publicity Right Challenges • Nancy Whitmore, Michigan State University • The degree of First Amendment protection parody, satire, and other forms of humor receive varies with the cause of action applied and type of humor the court determines is at issue in the case. This paper uses a content analysis research design to explore the correlates of the outcomes of cases involving actionable humor and intellectual property and publicity right challenges in order to assess the factors that have a relationship to the disposition of these cases.

Must-Carry: A Flawed Economic Analysis • Nancy Whitmore, Michigan State University • The must-carry rules, which require cable operators to carry the signals of local broadcast television stations, was hailed as a measure that would preserve the economic viability of the local independent broadcaster by unlocking the anticompetitive grip the local cable company placed on access to its system. But in the end, local independent stations became economically viable not because they were guaranteed carriage on a cable system, but because they represented a practical programming outlet for conglomerate firms with large investments in content production.

The Consent Defense in Television News Gathering • Scott D. Wiltsee, Georgia • When television news reporters enter private property or reveal private facts about individuals, they walk a fine line that may ultimately subject them to trespass or other privacy torts. This analysis examines a number of key court cases in which reporters relied on either explicit or implied consent defenses for trespass and privacy violations. These precedents reveal that reporters must remain particularly vigilant, because the success of the consent defense remains a moving target.

<< 1999 Abstracts

International Communication Division

Open Competition
Transnational Journalism And The Story Of AIDS/HIV: A Content Analysis Of Wire Service Coverage • Nilanjana R. Bardhan, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • This study links two global phenomena, AIDS/HIV and transnational journalism, and treats them both as dependent variables that intertwine to generate global images of AIDS/HIV. Weaving the concepts of news framing and agenda-setting with global news flow literature, this extensive study analyses the AIDS/HIV news frames of five transnational wire services-the AP, Reuters, AFP, ITAR-TASS and IPS-for the period 1991 to 1997. The strength of this study lies in its global scope. It addresses a global issue from a global platform.

A Distorted Mirror On The World: Photographs In The Los Angeles Times • Christopher E. Beaudoin and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • This study examines, via an extensive content analysis, the manner in which the Los Angeles Times covers the world via photography. The study relies on four theoretical frameworks, involving ideologies, personal values, news values, and stereotypes. Although the Times fared well in offering equal coverage of the developing world, focusing on Latin America and Asia, and offering a good mix of topic domains, it slipped up in terms of stereotyping individuals, especially women and non-adults.

Refining The Participatory Approach To Development Communication Through The Public Relations Excellence Model • Dan Berkowitz and Nancy Muturi, Iowa • Theoretical models of development communication have made a transition in recent years from a traditional top-down approach towards a participatory approach where beneficiaries of development efforts provide input for communication programs. This paper interfaces concepts from the recent public relations literature on communication excellence with the central ideas of the participatory approach. The conceptual discussion is then applied to a case study of a women’s reproductive health program in Kenya.

The Impact of Cable Television on Political Campaigns in Taiwan • Peilin Chiu, United Evening News, Taipei, Taiwan and Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, Florida • This study examined the impact of cable TV on Taiwan’s election campaign strategies, the implications of political affiliation/ownership of cable TV to political campaigns, and cable’s role in Taiwan’s democratization process. The results showed that cable has provided an alternative platform for the opposition parties and encouraged the emergence of rational politics in Taiwan. More campaign media budget has been allocated for this emerging political medium, campaign candidates and staff are taking a pro-active role in expending their cable airtime.

Is the System Down? The Internet and the World Intellectual Property Organization • Dane S. Claussen, Georgia • Gore says Internet is an educational and democratic miracle. But Clinton proposes to WIPO treaties making it looking at copyrighted webpages a violation. Clinton’s rationale: unless copyright is dramatically toughened, artists/authors won’t create. His other rationale: anything received free on the Internet would otherwise be paid for (although little but pornography is now paid for). In contrast, this paper concludes that intellectual property’s domestic issues are unchanged, and related international issues are largely unresolvable.

Praising, Bashing, Passing: Newsmagazine Coverage Of Japan, 1965-1994 • Anne Cooper-Chen, Ohio University • This longitudinal study of Japan, the world’s #2 economic power, analyzed all 290 pieces that Newsweek published during 30 years. Japan was portrayed positively (praised)1965-74, but more negatively (bashed) as Japan grew in power and then in a balanced way after 1985. The study found a decade of inattention 1975-84, followed by a surge of coverage 1988-93, and then a drop (passed) in 1994. In those high-attention years, longer stories and an accentuated linking of the United States to stories about Japan occurred.

Missionary Translation in Colonial Kenya: Groundwork for Nationalism • David N. Dixon, Regent University • Missionaries engaged in massive evangelistic efforts throughout the colonial period in Africa. An important element in their work was publishing, and toward this end they reduced African languages to writing and taught the people to read. Missionary translation, however, had unintended political consequences that reverberate even today. This paper examines two case studies in Kenya, the Friends Africa Mission and the Africa Inland Mission, and explores the political effects of literacy.

Sixty-Five Years of Journalism Education in Latin America • Leonardo Ferreira, Donn J. Tilson and Michael B. Salwen, Miami • This paper reviews the state of journalism education in Latin America. It reports both historical and contemporary developments, noting how events in the region’s past affect the present. This inquiry is based on scholarly and biographical works, documentary materials, personal interviews and data from directories and catalogues. After decades of modernization and critical-oriented approaches, Latin American journalism started shifting away from its neo-Marxist past, even before the end of the Cold War.

Development News?: A Case Study Of The Coverage Of United Nations’ Activities In Somalia • Anita Fleming-Rife, Penn State University • This case study examines the coverage of the United Nations Operation in Somalia during a two-month period in 1993. It examines the coverage, not only in five western newspapers but in the United Nations’ press briefing notes as well. Findings show that the UN briefed the correspondents about development activities, but western correspondents ignored this topic-choosing to focus on conflict instead.

Public Relations Functions and Models: U.S. Practitioners in International Assignments • Alan R. Freitag, North Carolina-Charlotte • Based upon Grunig and Hunt’s four-stage public relations model construct and upon Broom and Dozier’s role classification theory, this research explores approaches taken by U.S. practitioners in international assignments. A survey of PRSA members indicates practitioners stress craft/technician functions in international assignments more than in their U.S. duties. Similarly, respondents favor the press agentry model in international assignments to a greater degree than in U.S.-centered practice, though this publicity-focused model dominates both facets of their practice.

A Cross Cultural Analysis of the Perceived Credibility of Television Reporters • Sarah Kay Happel and Charles A. Lubbers, Kansas State University • This study compares the perceived credibility of television reporters between the United States and Finland. The source credibility theory was tested by comparing female reporters to male reporters when covering a war story, and also when covering a fashion story. There were no sexist attitudes discovered in either country when a female reporter covered a non-traditional topic. However, American men and Finnish women perceived the male fashion reporter as less credible than the female fashion reporter.

The Influence Of Ideological Perspective On Three North American Chinese-Language Newspapers’ Framing Of China’s Resumption Of Sovereignty Over Hong Kong • Jui-Yun Kao and William A. Tillinghast, San Jose State University • This content analysis of the tone and news framing of China’s China Press, the World Journal owned by a Taiwanese news group, and the Sing Tao Daily owned by Hong Kong interests found that newspapers did follow a pro-government stance on the issue of China regaining sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 and that content of the three newspapers differed significantly from each other before and after the return.

Making a Difference: U.S. Press’ Framing of the Kwangju and Tiananmen Pro-democracy Movements • Sung Tae Kim, Indiana University-Bloomington • The purpose of this study is to examine how the New York Times and Washington Post framed two student-led pro-democracy movements in East Asia in 198 Os, Kwangju of South Korea and Tiananmen of China. The findings showed the U.S. elite newspapers used news sources and symbolic terms in an opposite manner to differentiate the two similar international movements. In addition, to detect different news frames concerning national interests and ideological perspectives, the different responses of U.S. government and other potential factors during these two movements were also discussed.

Front Pages Of Taiwan Daily Newspapers 1952-1996 • Ven-hwei Lo and Hsiaomei Wu, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan; Anna Paddon, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • After years of martial law in Taiwan, editors no longer publish under licensing and page restrictions and have had the opportunity during the past ten years to introduce design innovations. Using content analysis, the front pages of three Taiwan dailies were examined for their use of color, graphics, headline styles, modular design and number of stories. To what extent these newspapers, which print characters rather than letters and use vertical rather than horizontal lines of type, have adapted contemporary newspaper design styles is described.

Manifestations of Ethnocentrism in U.S.-Japan Press Coverage • Catherine A. Luther, Tennessee • The purpose of this study was to explore if manifestations of ethnocentrism could be found in U.S.-Japan press coverage. A sample of news items concerning U.S.-Japan relations was selected from the United States’ New York Times and Japan’s Yomuri newspaper. Using attributional biases as indicators of ethnocentrism, each news item was examined to see the types of attributions mentioned in the item. Results showed the presence of ethnocentrism, but mainly in the U.S. news items.

Worthy Versus Unworthy Victims in Bosnia and Croatia, 1991 to 1995: Propaganda Model Application to War Coverage in Two Elite Newspapers • Lawrence A. Luther, Ohio University • A content analysis of news articles in The New York Times and The London Times was conducted. The war in Bosnia and Croatia was divided into three periods of study between 1991 and 1995. Examined were articles that mentioned the perpetrators and victims of ethnic cleansing, and refugees. Results demonstrated that the Serbians were presented as the main group responsible for ethnic cleansing. The Bosnian Muslims were named in almost exclusive terms as the victims.

Interactive Online Journalism At English-Language Web Newspapers In Asia: A Dependency-Theory Analysis • Brian L. Massey, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Mark R. Levy, Michigan State University • Three different measures of socio-economic development were used in an attempt to account for differences in the degree of interactivity associated with English-language Web newspapers in Asia. A five-dimension conceptualization of interactivity was used, and two hypotheses based on the Dependency Theory of national economic development were tested. A content analysis of 44 Asian Web newspapers showed that interactivity neither decreased regionally, from Asia’s developed center through to its economically peripheral nations, nor sub-regionally.

How Should Development Support Communication Address Power And Control Issues In Third World Development? A Nomological Analysis • S. R. Melkote, Bowling Green State University • This essay is an attempt to sketch a nomological framework for development support communication (DSC). The author defines what he/she believes should be the outcome for research and practice in this field, look at the relationships and differences between constructs, examine the practices or exemplars and explicate the role implications for DSC practitioners in the intervention process. The focal point of this essay is the concept of empowerment.

Split Images: Arab and Asian Political Leaders’ Portraits in Major U.S. News Magazines • Hye-Kyeong Pae, Georgia State University • This study reports how Arab and Asian political leaders are portrayed in news magazines. The content analysis was based not on the space allotted in the magazines but on the feature of language used. The language was primarily categorized by five biases and then was classified by another four biases in terms of degree of favorableness. The results support the contention that news magazines in the U.S. pay more attention to the nations affecting U.S. interests and that there are split images between the allies and non-allies.

Professionalism and African values at The Daily Nation in Kenya • Carol Pauli, Marist College • An survey of 15 journalists at Kenya’s largest independent newspaper finds that they place high importance on such hallmarks of professionalism as willingness to go to jail to protect sources and belief in the value of education (McLeod and Hawley, 1964). It also suggests a journalistic role of “ombudsman/peacemaker,” which is different from American ‘roles (Johnstone, Slawski, and Bowman, 1976; Weaver and Wilhoit, 1986) but consistent with African communitarian values, as suggested by Bourgault (1993).

The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Thailand: From Mass Media Campaigns to Community Interventions • Pim Pisalsarakit and Diana Stover Tillinghast, San Jose State University • The study traces the progress of the HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns in Thailand from 1987 to present. Three campaign phases are examined-the initial mass media campaigns, the multisectorial collaboration campaigns, and the current community mobilization campaigns, which use mass media as a complement to interpersonal interventions at the grassroots level. The paper includes findings from a field study of three community campaigns aimed at modifying the at-risk sexual behavior of students as well as residents of Bangkok’s slum communities.

Human Rights and Press Freedom in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Four-Nation Analysis • Cornelius B. Pratt, Zambia and Evelyn Hone College • The institutionalization of human rights in sub-Saharan Africa is as vital to the region’s search for sustainable development, foreign direct investments, social and economic enterprise and good governance as it is to press freedom. Therefore, this disquisition, among other things, affirms the interplay between human rights and press freedom in four African nations. It argues that the inherent synergy between both will, in the long run, make each to more directly embolden the other.

Can Broadcasting Serve the Public Interest and Diversity Today? A Look at the Political Economic Underpinnings of Broadcast Deregulation in Europe, the U.K and the U.S. • J. A. Rush, Jr., Brigham Young University • In the U.S., the U.K. and Western Europe, the time-honored goals and functions of public service broadcasting are under attack from several quarters. The most prevalent of these is the drive to digitize the system awhile allowing the business demands of the marketplace to determine some issues traditionally reserved for government rules and policy-making. This paper takes a political economic look at some of the reasons and outcomes of global de-regulation of broadcast media.

Problematizing Comparative Studies, Institutional Research Environment and Feminist Perspectives in Japanese Television Drama Discourse • Eva Tsai, Iowa • In this paper I critique three areas of the scholarly discourse that has emerged to describe and explain Japanese television dramas. First, scholars must go beyond cultural comparisons to study Japanese television. Second, the television industry in Japan has directed the course of Japanese television studies. Third, feminist scholarship, in addition to its image analyses of Japanese programs, could add to the discourse by addressing the issue of positionality.

Wag the Press: How Changes in U.S. Foreign Policy Toward China Were Reflected in Prestige Press Coverage of China, 1979 vs. 1997 • Zaigui Wang and Dennis T. Lowry, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • This study used content analysis to compare the news coverage of four U.S. prestige newspapers of the state visits of Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping in 1979 and Chinese President Jiang Zemin in 1997. The results showed that news coverage of Deng’s visit (1997) was (a) more favorable, (b) had more coverage of controversial issues, (c) used more ideologically loaded labels in reference to the Chinese government.

International Advertising Strategies in China – A Worldwide Survey of Foreign Advertisers • Jiafei Yin, Central Michigan University • This paper explores how international corporations advertise in China. A worldwide survey of foreign advertisers in China, the first of its kind, was conducted. The study has’ found that the predominant majority of the companies surveyed use the combination strategy, that is, partly standardized and partly localized. Factors that relate to the advertising strategies used in China are the number of subsidiaries, the perceived importance of localizing language and product attributes, and the perceived importance of mostly Chinese cultural values.

Libel Law And Freedom Of The Press In China • Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State University • In the context of libel law and press freedom in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), this paper examines “how the particular rules chosen reflect differing assumptions respecting reputation and a free press” by focusing on the constitutional and statutory status of reputation as an individual interest in China, on the judicial interpretation of Chinese libel law, and on the impact of the libel law on the Chinese press.

TV and the Perception of Crime and Violence Among Greek Adolescents • Thimios Zaharopoulos, Washburn University • This study looks at Greek adolescents’ television viewing and its role in influencing their perception of crime and violence. Greek adolescents accurately perceive the chances of becoming a crime victim is higher in the United States than Greece. Generally, as a group, they give accurate estimates of crime; chances of being victimized; and of the proportion of people working in law enforcement (first-order effects). On first examination, television seems to relate to how heavy viewers, as opposed light viewers, perceive the above issues.

Markham Competition
Coverage of Three Disruptive International Events in U.S. Newspapers • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This papers reviews the factors that contributed to U.S. newspapers covering three disruptive international news events. The cross tabulations identified several factors that influenced coverage. First, the higher the newspaper circulation size, the more likely a newspaper was to cover the events. A second factor was the presence of a foreign news editor. A third factor was the presence of an overseas news bureau.

Friend Or Foe? Bertelsmann And Kirch – Two German Media Companies And Their Uneasy Relationship With Regard To Digital Television • Kai Hattendorf, American • In today’s global media market, cooperation between competitors is increasingly common. The paper discusses the attempt by the German-based media companies Bertelsmann and Kirch-Gruppe to jointly develop digital Pay-TV in Germany. It shows as well that in Europe political control mechanisms minimize the power of the market by focusing on the policy of the European Unions Commissioner Karel van Miert.

How 10 American newspapers and the AP covered the world: A content analysis of June 29, 1998, to July 26, 1998 • Beverly Horvit, Missouri • A content analysis of 10 midsize and small U.S. newspapers was conducted for June 29 to July 26, 1998. Their international coverage was compared with The Associated Press’. The study showed the newspapers devoted a smaller percentage of their coverage to the Americas than did the AP; seven published a higher percentage from Western Europe. The newspapers ran about 6-11 international items – many briefs – a day, while AP offered about 48 items daily.

This Game is Brought to You Commercial-free: A Comparative Analysis of World Cup Soccer Television Coverage in Germany and the U.S. • Christian Kaschuba, Washington • This study analyzes “commercial elements” (advertising and sponsoring) in the television coverage of the 1998 Soccer World Cup in Germany and the United States. Hence, it compares coverage by non-commercial, public service broadcasters (ARD and ZDF in Germany) with commercial, i.e. profit-seeking, enterprises (Disney’s ABC and ESPN in the U.S.). The results of a content analysis clearly show that the coverage by ABC and ESPN in the U.S. is far more commercialized than the coverage by their German counterparts.

The Framing of Globalization in the First and Third Worlds: A Case of the Asian Economic Crisis and the IMF Rescue • Sung Tae Kim and Krista Kathleen Eissfeldt, Indiana University-Bloomington • This is a comparative study aimed at detecting ‘globalized’ news frames in major newspapers and newsmagazines published in the United States and South Korea. A content analysis was conducted of news coverage concerning the recent Asian financial crisis and the subsequent IMF bailout. Our findings are discussed with reference to cultural imperialism theory. Overall, we found that globalized news frames do exist in news stories, as evidenced by an unquestioning acceptance of neoliberalism, the imposition of blame on debtor-nations and traces of a “mentality of austerity” cultivated in media of the developing world.

Getting Neighbor’s News from “Monsters” living Thousand Miles Away? International News Flow among Asian Countries in the Internet Age • Yong-Chan Kim, Southern California • The present study examined whether the Internet affects the relationship between global news suppliers and local news organizations in Asia. This research critically reviewed the Malone’s “electronic market hypothesis”: the network technology will reduce transaction cost for interorganizational relations and the cost reduction will transform the hierarchically structured relations to market-type one. According to the interviews with 15 Asian journalists, the Internet is more likely to reinforce the current hierarchical relationship between the major Western news agencies and local news media in Asia.

A New Era of Freedom Latin American and Caribbean News Media Confront the Challenges of the 21st Century • Kris Kodrich, Indiana University • The news media in Latin America and the Caribbean have a tremendous opportunity in the 21st Century. Because of a new era of democracy in the region, the media have unprecedented amounts of freedom. They also are becoming more ethical, professional and technologically advanced. But the media also face incredible challenges. The region’s economies are teetering, and too many people are poor, hungry, sick and uneducated. Government restrictions are nowadays more legal than lethal.

National Interest and Coverage of U.S.-China Relations: A Content Analysis of The New York Times & People’s Daily 1987-1996 • Xigen Li, Michigan State University • This study tested the effect of national interest on the coverage of U.S.-China relations by The New York Times and People’s Daily. It examined the relationship between extramedia variables and the news coverage, and the relationship between national interest emphasis in the news coverage and the references to trade and non-trade political issues. The findings support the proposition that national interest affects the coverage of U.S.-China relations both in The New York Times and People’s Daily.

Songs of Freedom: A Communications Approach to the Study of Mau Mau Rebellion • Samuel Chege Mwangi, Iowa • This paper proposes a new way of conducting international Communication research in societies where illiteracy is high. It examines the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya and how music was used as a form of communication. It compares the songs against existing text books on the Mau Mau and makes the case that events as recorded in the music are corroborated in the books and therefore this is a credible and innovative way of conducting research.

Participatory Communication in a High School Setting: Lessons Learned and Development Alternatives from a Development Communication Project in Colombia • Rafael Obregon • The past two decades have witnessed an Increasing tendency to emphasize community participation as a key component in development programs. Development communication scholars and practitioners view participation as a crucial element in communication-related projects. Yet, the literature often highlights big scale projects that require high investments, often sponsored and implemented by international organizations without giving similar attention to small-scale, low-cost programs based on community participation approaches.

The Presidential Candidates In Political Cartoons: A Reflection Of Cultural Differences Between The United States And Korea • Jongmin Park and Sungwook Shim, Missouri-Columbia • This study examines the content of political newspaper comics in presidential elections to compare the culture of the United States and Korea from three perspectives: (1) the context of communication, (2) individualism vs. collectivism, and (3) confrontation. It finds a clear difference between candidate images in the cartoons of America and Korea. These three dimensions were good indicators of cultural differences between Western and Asian society.

Media Of The World And World Of The Media: A Crossnational Study Of The Ranking Of The “Top 10 World Events” From 1988 To 1998 • Zixue Tai, Minnesota • This paper studies the ranking of the top 10 world events from 1988 to 1998 by 11 media representing eight countries and examines the similarities as well as differences between/across media and nations. Findings indicate that all media display bias of their own in their ranking of the top world events and are myopic to those stories that are culturally, geographically and psychologically close. Media from the same national setting show strikingly similar patterns in their evaluations of world news.

Chilean Conversations: On-line forum participants discuss the detention of Augusto Pinochet • Eliza Tanner, Wisconsin-Madison • More than a thousand people participated in an on-line discussion of the October 1998 London detention of Chile’s ex-dictator and actual senator-for-life Augusto Pinochet. This textual analysis of 1670 letters shows that participants in the Spanish-language forum of La Tercera en Internet created and interacted in a virtual space that was important to them. Forum participants saw this communication as essential to the Chilean reconciliation process and a way to strengthen civic life.

Giving Peace a Chance? Agenda-building influence of Nobel Peace Prize announcements in U.S. newsmagazines, 1990-1997 • Michelle M. Tedford, Ohio University • This study found no support for an agenda-building influence in U.S. newsmagazines by the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s announcement of Peace Prize winners. Stories about the winners were measured for the two years surrounding each announcement since the end of the Cold War. Those not already considered news makers before the announcement received little coverage after the announcement. In stories announcing the winners, greater space was devoted to those already on the news agenda.

<< 1999 Abstracts

History Division

In Search of African-American Identity: A Comparison of the Early Black Press with the Oral Tradition • Bill Anderson, Georgia • The early black press was first designated by historians as exclusively abolitionist newspapers. Later historians argued that the early black press covered more diverse issues than just slavery. This paper argues that these diverse issues, when examined through the class prism, further understanding of the early black press as an exclusive vehicle for middle-class, elite, issues.

The Roots of Academic News Research: Tobias Peucer’s De relationibus novellis (1690) • R.A. Atwood, Idaho and A.S. de Beer, Potchefstroom University, South Africa • Probably the first graduate study of news reporting was a doctoral dissertation, De Relationibus Novellis (On News Reporting), written in Germany in 1690. A history and analysis of 17th century news reporting, it anticipated major themes of news research not fully explored until the latter half of the present century. Peucer’s research contributes to our understanding of early news reporting and offers scholarly insights still relevant today.

An Editor’s office is a Thankless One: Reassessing the Journalism Career of John Brown Russwurm • Carl Patrick Burrowes, Howard • John Brown Russwurm (Oct. 1, 1799-June 9, 1851) is well known for his role as Co-founder of Freedom’s Journal, the first African-American newspaper This paper examines his life after the Journal. It also challenges four claims made by historians regarding his tenure as editor of Freedom’s Journal. These myths regarding Russwurm have remained unchallenged due to an uncritical reliance on abolitionist sources, as well as a failure to transcend certain logical fallacies.

Journalism Revolution or Evolution?: The Bangor Daily Whig & Courier Covers the American Civil War • Crompton B. Burton, Ohio • While significant research has been conducted chronicling the experience of major metropolitan dailies during the Civil War, little exploration of the challenges and practices of less well-known newspapers has been produced. Exploits of famed correspondents and their editors at the New York Tribune, The New York Times, Baltimore American, Boston Journal and even the Cincinnati Commercial are well-documented suggesting the conflict ignited a revolution in American journalism. While this may hold for more established and noteworthy newspapers of the day, it is not symbolic of the entire press experience during the war.

Not Likely Sent: The Remington-Hearst ‘Telegrams’ • W. Joseph Campbell, American University • This paper examines the purported exchange of telegrams between Frederic Remington and William Randolph Hearst in 1897, in which the latter is said to have promised, “I’ll furnish the war.” The paper concludes it is exceedingly unlikely that the messages were ever sent, and discusses several reasons why. Among those reasons is that the sole original source of the colorful anecdote, James Creelman, only could have learned about it second hand. Moreover, Hearst’s pithy reply to Remington appears uncharacteristic of Hearst’s telegrams.

The Embryo, Birth, and Renaissance of Advertising in China: A Historical and Institutional Analysis of Its Seedbed • Hong Cheng, Bradley University • Seeing advertising as a social communication, this paper examines the social forces that have influenced and shaped the growth of advertising in China. Taking historical and institutional approaches, it provides an in-depth review and analysis of the embryo of Chinese advertising in distant history, its birth early this century, and its renaissance since 1979. This study strongly supports that only a properly functioning market economy can be a fertile seedbed for advertising.

Peggy Charren: A Bohemian Activist • Naeemah Clark, Florida • This paper is one in a series dealing with the history of the regulation of children’s educational television. The series begins in 1968 and ends in the early 1990s. For this paper, biographical information of Peggy Charren, founder of advocacy group Action for Children’s Television is used to depict the early days of the organization and the grass roots efforts to change children’s television regulation. This paper uses Federal Communication Commission information materials from magazines and industry publications in order to gather the correct information for the research.

The Shameful Delay: Newspapers’ Recruitment of Minorities Employees, 1968-1978 • Lori Demo, North Carolina • Ten years after the Kerner Commission admonished the nation’s media for being “shockingly backward in seeking out, hiring, training, and promoting Negroes,” the American Society of Newspaper Editors adopt its Year 2000 goal, which called for minority employment in newspapers newsrooms to mirror the US. population by the year 2000. This paper explores why it took editors ten years to make a definite and public commitment to racial parity.

Political Elites, the Press, and Race Relations: Insights From the Late Nineteenth Century • David Domke, Washington • In public discourse about race relations, social and political actors interact with the press with the goal of shaping the picture of social reality accepted by policy-makers and citizens. In a departure from research focusing on how elites shape news coverage, this research examines what policy-makers do – in a strategic sense- with discourse about race in news media. Evidence linking press content and/or journalists’ comments about race with advocacy by elites of certain legislative policies would be suggestive of how mass communication has been “used” in public discussion about race relations.

Passion And Reason: Mississippi Newspaper Writings Of The Secession Crisis, 1860-1861 • Nancy McKenzie, Loyola University • For 130 years, historians and writers have presented a view that pro-secession forces achieved hegemony in the South just before the Civil War. However, an examination of the newspapers of Mississippi, the second states to secede, shows a lively discussion on what course the state should take in response to Abraham Lincoln’s election. Although the state had its share of fire-eating, pro-secessionist editors, it also featured other editors who advocated alternatives to immediate secession.

The Naked Truth: Gender, Race, and Nudity in Life, 1937 • Dolores Flamiano, North Carolina • The establishment of Life magazine in 1936 marked a turning point in the history of photojournalism. Henry R. Luce’s weekly picture magazine was an important source of visual communication before television, providing news and entertainment for millions of Americans. Lift is best known for its contributions to the news-oriented photographic essay, but it also provided plenty of frivolous fare. For example, a cheesecake feature called “How to Undress” created controversy in 1937 and continues to raise questions about photojournalism’s affinity for sex and sensation.

The Big, Not-So-Bad Wolf: Cultivating A New Media Image • Richard Gross, Missouri • The author examines historical literature regarding the wolf’s negative image in Europe and America. Using the cultivation theory of media effects, which considers exposures over time, the author examines recent periodical writing about the wolf. The author discusses the more favorable recent print media imagery, particularly in most areas where wolves were reintroduced. The author concludes that continued favorable imagery may cultivate a more balanced view of the animal vis-à-vis humankind.

Launching the Radio Church, 1921-1940 • Tona J. Hangen, Brandeis University • This essay explores the struggle among religious groups for access to the radio airwaves for religious broadcasting from 1921 to 1940, and the broader context of that struggle: a deepening divide between modernism and fundamentalism, the ongoing debate over religion’s role in democracy, and the commercialization of radio itself. An examination of various religious groups and their radio strategies sheds new light on radio’s cultural impact in its first two decades.

The Forgotten Battles: Congressional Hearings on Television Violence in the 1950s • Keisha L. Hoerrner, Louisiana State University • Although Congress has been interested in television violence for over four decades, little scholarly attention focuses on its first actions. This paper looks at the 1952, 1954, and 1955 hearings, which laid the foundation for every subsequent congressional hearing on the issue as well as legislation passed in the 1990s. The paper utilizes historical methodology as well as legal analysis to expand the discussion beyond a simple summary of these first-yet so important-hearings.

Mediated U.S. Foreign Policy Rationales in the Cold War’s Early Years • Emily Erickson Hoff, Alabama• Historians and political scientists have generally portrayed the first decade of the Cold War as one in which virtually all foreign policies were based on the goal of “containing” the Communist threat to democracy. Was this period so simple? Traditionally, there have been other forces driving American foreign policy-from mundane economic self-interest to the rather heady notion of “manifest destiny.” Were these buried in the threat of nuclear war and Communist imperialism, or could careful analysis yield more foreign policy rationales than simply those pertaining to containment?

Making a Pitch for Equality: Wendell Smith and His Crusade to Integrate Baseball • Chris Lamb, College of Charleston • Pittsburgh Courier sports editor Wendell Smith has been called the most talented and influential of the black journalists” of the 1930s and 1940s. In his personal crusade to end baseball’s color barrier, he not only wrote emotionally about the need to integrate the national pastime, he worked behind-the-scenes with progressive baseball executives such as Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey, who ended segregated baseball by signing Jackie Robinson. Ultimately, Smith became Robinson’s confidante and biographer.

John Miller: A Forgotten Soldier in the Fight for Freedom of the Press • Patricia G. McNeely, South Carolina • This paper is a study of John Miller, printer of at least six major London newspapers, who was caught up in freedom-of-press battles in England between 1770 and 1783. This paper examines Miller’s role as one of the principal characters in five cases involving freedom of the press in England and his subsequent efforts to begin a new career in America where he established the third daily newspaper in the new republic.

Ruth Gruber, Arctic Journalist, Carves a Northwest Passage Through the Ice of the Red Scare, With Coverage of Alaska and Soviet Russia • Beverly G. Merrick, New Mexico State University • Ruth Gruber was a lecturer, journalist and foreign correspondent who was fascinated with other cultures and whose operative word was brotherhood. In 1935, at the age of 23, she became the first foreign correspondent, male or female, to obtain permission to enter the Soviet Arctic and the Gulag during Stalin’s iron-fisted presidency, interviewing party members in Moscow and reporting on the frontier of the Soviet outposts. Gruber obtained the Arctic assignment through a traveling fellowship awarded her by the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs.

The East Coast vs. Middle America: Cultural Geography, Authoritarian-Populism and Early PBS • Laurie-Rutgers Ouellette, Rutgers • In 1972, Richard Nixon vetoed an important funding bill for the newly-operational U.S. public television service. While provoked by the politics of a few PBS programs, the Nixon White House expressed its opposition in cultural and geographical terms that spoke to the resentments of local affiliates and the “silent majority.” Nixon’s advisors formulated an “authoritarian-populist” discourse that aligned the president’s vision for public television with Middle America against a “liberal East Coast aristocracy.”

Ambivalent Colleagues Of the Kansas Black Press: B.K. Bruce And S.W. Jones, 1890-1898 • Aleen J. Ratzlaff, Florida • In the late-nineteenth century, black editors were influential in shaping public opinion through their newspapers, which acted as unifying mechanisms to draw their readers together by providing a particular point of view about events, topics, and issues. This study examined newspapers edited by Blanche K. Bruce of Leavenworth and Samuel W. Jones of Wichita. The journalists’ ideological positions and differing backgrounds affected how their newspapers addressed political advocacy, racial uplift, and lynching.

Charles Osborn, Elihu Embree and the Tennessee Manumission Society: How Pioneers of the Abolitionist Movement Conceptualized Free Speech • Amy L. Reynolds, Miami University-Ohio • This paper details the abolitionists’ early reliance on and views about free speech rights by focusing on one of the earliest abolitionist societies, two of its members and the first abolitionist newspapers. Specifically, this paper focuses on the importance of the Tennessee Manumission Society, founding member Charles Osborn, and Elihu Embree, a prominent member of the Tennessee society who published the first abolitionist newspaper (Manumission Intelligencer in 1819) and subsequently published the Emancipator in 1820.

Exotic Americana: The French-Language Magazines Of Nineteenth-Century New Orleans • Sam G. Riley, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University • Listed and described in this paper are 42 non-newspaper periodicals that were published in French during the 1800s in this most exotic of American cities. These magazines are separated into the following categories: miscellanies, humor and satire, medical, literature and the arts, club organs, women’s, and other. Attention is given to how these periodicals fit into the social history of their city.

“Tuning” the Wireless World from 1906-1912: The Six Turbulent Years it Took to Solidify the Berlin Proposals in London • Darrell L. Roe, Marist College • The nations attending the Second International Conference on Wireless Telegraphy in Berlin, 1906, strove for cooperation and standardization of maritime radio protocols. The United States delayed approving the resolutions because of political disputes. Nevertheless, the validity of the Berlin concerns was soon borne out by frequent shipping disasters which influenced the framing of the U.S. Wireless Ship Act of 1910 and led to the revival of the 1906 concerns at the Third International Conference in London in 1912.

The Pre-Brown Black Press in the 20th Century: A Historiographical Exploration • Wim Roefs, South Carolina • From the 1920s to the 1940s, the black press came of age in terms of circulation, exposure and professionalism. Still, the amount of research about the black press in these decades is remarkably limited, both in terms of volume and the degree to which it systematically explores issues such as the press’s general development, role, content, and influence. This historiographical paper discusses the treatment of these issues in the literature while identifying unexplored questions.

Sex Could Sell A Lot Of Soap: Popular Formulas Of Magazine Advertisements, 1920-1929 • Juliann Sivulka, Bowling Green State University • Although various critiques of advertising have emerged over the years, useful studies of “critical” methods to analyze the “meanings” of advertisements are remarkably few. This study of advertising history, then, illustrates how formula can be used as a method to examine advertisements in a social-historical context. Like popular entertainment, formulaic conventions are also present in advertising, and ads can be analyzed in similar terms of story formula • settings, plot, characters, theme, and props.

What’s a Fish Among Friends? Victorian Cartoonists Mock a Two Century Old Border Dispute • David R. Spencer, Western Ontario • From almost the beginning Canada and the United States have enjoyed friendly international relations. However, among all good friends disputes arise. One, over fishing rights in the waters shared by these two nations, has been continuous since 1783. These disputes impacted on both nations as they tried to find their respective places in North America during the turbulent and expansive l9th century. Canadian-American relationships dominated the pages of Canada’s newest press, the literary and humour magazines.

Fighting for the Rights of American Labor • Rodger Streitmatter, American University • The earliest labor newspaper published in America appeared during the late 1820s with the beginnings of industrialization. This paper looks at three of those newspapers, the Mechanic’s Free Press (1828-31) in Philadelphia and the Free Enquirer (1828-35) and Working Man’s Advocate (1829-49) in New York City. Based largely on the content of the three publications, this paper identifies and discusses some of the major issues of concern to the early labor press.

President Nixon’s China Initiative: A Publicly Prepared Surprise • Zixue Tai, Minnesota • President Nixon’s announcement to normalize relations with China on July 15, 1971 took the world by surprise and marked a dramatic turning point in U.S. media coverage of China. The media were caught unprepared and generally deplored the lack of information about Nixon’s moves in U.S. policy shifts toward China prior to the sudden announcement. However, Nixon himself called his China initiative “one of the most publicly prepared surprises in history.”

Humbug, P.T. Barnum and Batmen on the Moon: Editorial Discussion of the Moon Hoax of 1835 • Brian Thornton, Northern Illinois University • The Great Moon Hoax of 1835 is presented in journalism history texts as a colorful newspaper fraud that caused little comment among readers and editorial writers. But the moon hoax has more to teach us about journalism standards of the day when examined within the context of the anti-slavery movement and the rise of the flamboyant promotional genius of P.T. Barnum. This paper examines letters to the editor and editorials before, during, and after the hoax in four leading New York City daily newspapers.

Designing Difference: Business Concerns and Turn-of-the-Century New York Newspaper Buildings • Thorin Tritter, Columbia • In the period between 1890 and 1905 New York City’s newspapers began to move away from the traditional newspaper center on Park Row. This paper explores the motivations for this shift and the architecture of the buildings that resulted. It argues that the decentralization of the industry was not only due to the growth of the city but also due to changes in the way news was produced and marketed.

Communicating With the Folk: Mark Twain’s Journalistic Storytelling • Betty Houchin Winfield, Missouri and Cathy M. Jackson, Norfolk State • If ever one writer had his work analyzed, that person is lark Twain. Scholars have long noted Twain’s uses of folklore in his fiction. Yet, few studies have examined his journalism for the language of the “folk”. This paper attempts to marry orality to narratology through Twain’s journalistic techniques of folklore. As the consummate nineteenth century storyteller, Twain’s journalism offers a clue to his national success and later writings.

<< 1999 Abstracts