Science Communication Interest Group

The Influence of Mass Media and Interpersonal Channels on White and Nonwhite Men’s and Women’s Health Behaviors • Cynthia Coleman-Sillars, Georgia State and Edward Slaughter, Rodale Press • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Self-monitoring, Issue Involvement and Appeal Selection in Health Communication: A Strategic Approach • Mohan Jyoti Dutta, Minnesota • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Local Coverage of a Chemical Explosion: A Case Study in the Media’s Use of Right-to-Know Information • Sharon M. Friedman, Lehigh • This paper examines a case study of a major chemical explosion to describe how well reporters for a local newspaper and television station – who were not full-time science or environmental reporters – used federal right-to-know laws to report about the chemicals involved in the explosion. Besides outlining initial media responses to the explosion, it examines problems encountered by these reporters in developing the chemical aspects of the immediate and continuing coverage of the explosion.

The Visual Presentation of Expertise: Y2K Experts on Television • Joshua Greenberg, Cornell • The recent Year 2000 Computer Problem (Y2K) offers a relatively contained event within which we can examine the construction of expertise. This paper surveys the ways in which images of technical expertise were visually created on U.S. television. Drawing on an innovative method for computer-aided television archiving, the study treats an unprecedented range of programming, from “high culture” media like network television news to “low culture” media such as daytime talk shows.

Construction of Technology Crisis and Safety: News Media’s Framing the Y2K Issue • Ju Yong Ha, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • This study analyzed the Y2K coverage in the Washington Post over two-year period, paying particular attention to the framing of the Y2K computer problem. The Y2K problems was assumed to be the kind of issue which are not directly experienced by the public until it happens, news media’s construction of the Y2K could have an influence on the public’s awareness and perception on the problem. The results demonstrates that the number of the Y2K coverage increased over time and government was the major source of the information.

Accounting for the Complexity of Causal Explanations in the Wake of an Environmental Risk • LeeAnn Kahlor, Sharon Dunwoody Wisconsin-Madison and Robert J. Griffin, Marquette • In 1993, Milwaukee-area residents experienced an outbreak of cryptosporidium, a parasite, which infested the metropolitan drinking supply and sickened some 400,000 people. Using survey data gathered from 610 residents in the wake of that outbreak, this study looks at predictors of the complexity of people’s understanding of two causal components of the outbreak: l) how the parasite got into the water and 2) how it causes illness once in the human body.

Is Television Ever an Environmentally Friendly Medium?: A Review of the Research Literature • Patricia M. Kennedy, Syracuse • As a preliminary stage in an effort to reconcile perceived disagreement over television’s capacity to serve as an actor for environmental protection, this paper summarizes research conducted between 1972 and 1999 that specifically looks at television coverage of environmental subjects, influences on television’s environmental content, and the role of television in enhancing or inhibiting environmental knowledge and environmentally “friendly” (pro-environment) attitudes and behaviors.

Environmental Coverage in National Geographic Magazine 1960-1998 • Jan Knight, Ohio • In 1970, National Geographic announced that it would cover environmental pollution, a shift from its longstanding policy of avoiding controversy. A content analysis revealed that after the editorial shift, the magazine’s environmental coverage did increase, but it did not rank environmental issues highly, showed environmental beauty far more often than degradation, and covered endangered species and environmental issues that concerned U. S. energy resources far more than real-world events or public environmental activism.

Theory and Practice of Public Meetings • Katherine A. McComas, Cornell • Public meetings are among the most commonly used, frequently criticized, yet least understood methods of public participation in environmental management. Yet while systematic research is sparse, a vast amount of experiential knowledge exists, which can form the basis for a working theory on why some public meetings work, and why others do not. This paper offers a working theory of successful public meetings based on interviews with 35 state environmental and health department officials.

Consumers’ Use of Science Content and Site Address to evaluate Web Health Stories • Suzanne Pingeee, Robert Hawkins, Gi Woong Yun, Sung-Yeon and Ronald Serlin, Wisconsin-Madison • The Web is unregulated, and the potential for misinformation is unlimited. This experiment examined how web consumers use the information present in a URL (site address) and the content (quality of the science) when they read web science stories. Results were minimal for scaled items, but for subject-generated essays about the science stories, both site address and good or bad science in a story affected responses to the web science stories.

Using Databases from Interactive Health Communication Applications for Formative Research on Program Development and Inductive Theory Building: A Case Study of the CHESS Program • Bret Shaw and Gi Woong, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper explains how to extract and utilize data from an interactive health communication (IHC) application designed for women with breast cancer. The paper also describes how to use inductive data analysis strategies to gain a better understanding of specific patient populations, inform subsequent development of IHC applications, and assist in building and refining existing communication and psychological theories. Specifically, health tracking data is presented and inferences are made about what variables appear to be most important to women coping with breast cancer.

Understanding Environmentalism And Information Effects In Water Conservation Behavior: A Comparison Of Three Communities Sharing A Watershed • Craig W. Trumbo and Garrett J. O’Keefe, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper describes a set of environmental attitudes, and their relationship to water conservation behavior. The analysis contrasts three distinct communities located in the Califomia-Nevada Truckee River watershed. The characteristics of such differences can provide important information for the execution of persuasive information campaigns on water conservation. Analysis is based on 733 telephone interviews. Results show specific conservation attitudes, social norms, and information seeking predicting intention to conserve to varying degrees in all three communities.

Whose Voices? Health Professionals and Consumers as Sources in Daily Newspaper Coverage of Health Issues • Kim Walsh-Childers, Jean Carver Chance, Carolyn Ringer Lepre and Leslie Mullen, Florida • A study of the types of sources included in a sample of 780 health-related daily newspaper stories showed that health professionals were significantly less likely to be included in stories focused on the health care system than in other health stories. More than 75 percent of health system stories included no health professionals as sources. Consumers had even less voice in these stories; only 18 percent of health system stories including even one consumer source.

Non-profit Healthcare Organizations’ Use of the World Wide Web to Relay Medical and Scientific Information • Richard D. Waters, Syracuse and Matthew J. Nee, Georgia • Through a content analysis of the World Wide Web sites of the nation’s top 129 non-profit healthcare organizations, this study explores how these organizations relay scientific and medical information to the public. The organizations mostly use the Web to relay basic information about the organization, including its mission, programs and services and contact information. A majority of the organizations also placed press releases, newsletters and recent media coverage of issues related to the organization on their Web sites.

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Religion and Media Interest Group

God and Mammon: The Effects of Secular Takeovers of Religious Media Outlets • William M. Alnor, Temple • Not often examined in reports of media buy-outs and takeovers is the fact that many profit-making secular (nonreligious) companies are acquiring religious publishing companies and religious television stations and entire networks. This has resulted often in the watering down of traditional religious messages, according to this study that was based on content analysis and a survey of evangelical publishing executives. But it has strengthened the financial bottom line.

Rev. Dr. J.C. White, South Carolina’s Black (Baptist) Bishop and Religion Editor of The Palmetto Leader, 1925-1926 • Kenneth Campbell, South Carolina • Black newspapers and black religious life have always had a close connection. Thus, any research documenting the life of preacher/editors has potential value of offering a fuller understanding of black press history as well as black community life. This is an account of the religious, political, and journalistic life and times of the Rev. Dr. J.C. White, called South Carolina’s Black Bishop, during the two-year period he was religion of the Columbia, South Carolina, Palmetto Leader, a black weekly.

Religion, Spirituality, and Uses and Gratifications Theory • Paul A. Creasman, Regent • Spirituality as a dimension of religiousness has been virtually ignored in media research despite an exponential increase in the presence of spiritually-themed media content. This paper proposes new variables/typologies for inclusion into future uses and gratifications studies that explore the intersection of religion and media. Through a critical examination, it is proposed that transcendence, irrationality, and community are vital to true spirituality. Using these three proposed variables/typologies, uses and gratifications theory might be well suited to examine questions of the spiritual dimensions of media content.

Testing Theoretical Constructs of Framing • Kyle Huckins, Regent • Entman’s fourfold definition of frames has made a strong impact on discussion of the topic. This paper used statistical measures to test both the definition and ways of measuring frames. A content analysis of news articles on two religio-political leaders for each of 10 years provided a long-term assessment of the strength of framing mechanisms. Results gave support for the definition and measures with statistically significant links to the affective domain applicable to other subjects.

The Rise of the Early Christian Church: A Triumph of Public Relations? • David Martinson, Florida International University • In discussing the historic evolution of public relations, public relations textbooks frequently suggest that the triumph of the early Church in bringing its message to the world can be equated with a successful contemporary public relations campaign. The author argues that such analogies must be challenged and rejected • unless all the appropriate nuances are included. He contends that it would be more efficacious to consider if and how a person like St. Paul might make use of a contemporary public relations practitioner.

Environmental Reporting, Religion Reporting, and the Question of Advocacy • Rick C. Moore, Boise State • Though both religion reporting and environmental reporting have been the subject of serious academic research, the connections between the two have received little attention. This study proposes to examine the similarities and differences between the two beats. Historically, environmental journalists appear to be more willing to practice advocacy reporting than are religion journalists. Yet, current challenges to the dominant modes of practice in journalism could alter the foundations on which these distinctions rest.

Spiritual Movement or Fanatic Cult: Chinese and U.S. Coverage of Falun Gong • Ren Li, Ohio • This study focuses on the diversity of Chinese and US coverage of Falun Gong, a quasi-religious group banned by the Chinese government in July 1999. A total of 120 news items from China Daily and the New York Times between April 1st, 1999 and December 31, 1999 were content analyzed. The findings indicated the dominance of government/Party affiliated sources and the restriction of dissident voices in China Daily. The New York Times carried a relatively more balanced and diversified coverage of the group and the ban.

The Effect of Age and Background of Religious Broadcasting Executives on Digital Television Implementation • Brad Schultz, South Illinois • This study sought to investigate whether the personal backgrounds of religious broadcasting executives would affect the timetable for digital implementation at Christian television stations. Results of the study showed a significant difference between religious and secular broadcasters in terms of background and digital implementation. A significant gulf between older and younger religious broadcasters was also discovered, which played an important role in this process.

Media Ministries and the Spirit of Capitalism • Jeffery A. Smith, Iowa • One of the paradoxes of American cultural studies is how the United States can be both one of the most religious and most market-driven of nations. Perhaps the “magic of the market,” long touted by free enterprise advocates, applies to the success of creeds. For centuries Americans have been largely free to choose the faith that suits them and to reward the media ministries that both try to persuade them and cater to their needs.

Mormons in Las Vegas: A Study of Entertainment Media and Secularization Defense Strategies • Daniel A. Stout and Mary Beth McMurray, Brigham Young • The Mormon Church is the third largest denomination in Las Vegas with 70,000 members. With official doctrines opposing gambling and strong admonitions to avoid unsavory media content such as R-rated movies, a number of tensions have emerged. Focus groups and non-participant observations reveal how Mormons experience entertainment media. Five ways of defining conflicts or “secularization defense strategies” are identified. These findings raise new issues for future research about the ways religiosity is applied in media use.

Advocacy, Objectivity, editorial freedom and Journalistic Quality: A Study of Issues in the Protestant Press • Ken Waters, Pepperdine • The reporting of religion by daily newspapers and the nation’s news magazines is an area of increasing interest among communication scholars. Much less research has focused on periodicals written by and for religious believers. Estimates of the number of religious publications in America runs as high as 3,000. The two Protestant press associations claim their member publications reach approximately 47 million readers each year. Millions more people read Catholic, Jewish and other religious magazines.

Religion News and “Values”: A Study of the Dallas Morning News’ Religion Section • Susan Willey, Florida Atlantic • This study explores how well religion news is able to meet the Hutchins Commission’s fourth requirement for a free and responsible press – to present and clarify the goals and values of society. An analysis of The Dallas Morning News’ religion section reveals that religion news presents a mosaic of values, but is severely challenged by a lack of diverse sources and depth, failing to fully examine the competing values that are operating in the stories.

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Media and Disability Interest Group

The Disabled and Promoting Census 2000: A Key Target or Lost in the Crowd? • Louella Benson-Garcia, Pepperdine • A successful Census 2000 could raise the number of disabled counted from 20 percent of the population to 25 percent or more. This study aimed to determine to what extent, if any, did the United States Bureau of the Census targeted the disabled population in its media relations efforts for Census 2000. None of the 136 press releases, 29 media advisories, 10 webcasts, or six public service announcements — and only one of the 25 fact sheets — referred to the disabled.

Hoddle’s Twaddle: Defining Disability through British Sports Coverage • Beth Haller, Towson and Sue Ralph, University of Manchester • In this study of British news media, we undertook a qualitative assessment of the discourse surrounding negative comments about disabled people made by the English national soccer coach in 1999. These comments by Coach Glenn Hoddle led to a five-day media frenzy and his subsequent resignation as national soccer coach. This analysis investigates the news narratives about disabled people that arise in British society when these narratives intersect with the British national sport, soccer.

Missing in Action? Images of Disability in Sports Illustrated for Kids • Marie Hardin, Florida Southern College, Brent Hardin and Susan Lynn, Florida State and Kristi Walsdorf, Valdosta State • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Technology and the Knowledge Gap: Two Barriers to Distance Education for the Person with a Disability • Jeffrey A. John, Wright State • This paper discusses two accessibility problems for the student with a disability in utilizing distance education: First, technical problems related to course design create barriers or negate assistive technology used by persons with disabilities. Second, problems related to the social environment from which the student with a disability encounters distance education programs create a social barrier. This paper argues that access to distance education programs will be in fact more affected by issues of social rights than by issues of technical access, and that the Knowledge Gap Hypothesis offers a framework for analysis of this issue.

Expanding Journalism Students” Notions of “Diversity”: Inclusion of Disability Issues in News Reporting Textbooks • Ann E. Preston, Quincy and Marie Hardin Florida Southern • This exploratory content analysis seeks to discover where and how disability issues are addressed in top selling reporting textbooks. These texts devote less than a tenth of their length to instruction on covering multiple cultures. Only half of the books included people with disabilities within their units on multicultural reporting and writing. Two texts offered fairly comprehensive advice on multicultural coverage consistent with guidelines developed by or with disability advocates.

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Internship and Careers Interest Group

Emotional Intelligence at Work: Three Internship Stories • Michael L. Maynard, Temple • The paper discusses the thesis of emotional intelligence (EI), applying its principles to the internship work site. Three internship stories are presented, problem situations are described and EI solutions are offered. It is proposed that the internship advisor’s knowledge of EI can lead toward successful internship outcomes. Appendix includes brief EI self-quiz, characteristics of persons with high/low EI, and list of EI web sites.

Mid-Career Interning: Faculty Going From Classroom to Newsroom • Dana Rosengard, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Every year, thousands of college students head to television newsrooms to work as interns to learn from the professionals. Back on campus, they sit in classes and listen to professors who, many times, have not been in a television newsroom themselves for years and years. This research looks at faculty internships. In this pilot-study, the television news directors in North Carolina were surveyed to learn if they would welcome such interns into their newsroom, what they would allow them to do, how they see the college or university faculty intern as both a challenge and a risk.

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Graduate Education Interest Group

Malaysia’s Broadcasting Industry in Transition: Effect of New Competitions on Traditional Television Channels • Tee-Tuan Foo, Ohio • Between July 1995 and December 1996, three new competitors • Metrovision, a private television station; Mega TV, a cable television; and ASTRO, a satellite television • entered the Malaysian television scene. This study seeks to answer the question how would the emergence of these new competition change (1) the total airtime, (2) the language of broadcast, (3) and types of program during the peak hour slots of the three traditional television channels: RTM 1, 2 and TV 3.

The Emergence and Transformation of Alternative Radio in Taiwan: from Underground Radio to Community Radio • Shun-Chih Ke, University of Birmingham, UK • This paper provides an example of how an alternative radio section emerged from a society Taiwan in this case, and the impact which it has. This paper uses four community radio stations which were underground radio station as a case study to examine the processes of transformation of alternative radio, and argues that the state, economic market and station identity are the key factors in determining the development of alternative radio.

Convergence of the Internet Websites by Newspaper, Broadcast, and Internet Organizations? • Sang Hee Kweon, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • This paper examines nine news websites, including those of three different media organizations, which have converged into Internet websites. The websites of the news organizations are compared with newspaper, TV broadcasting, and Internet only websites. The compared units are frame factors: pictures, news contributors, and interactivity. Newspaper websites presented more news items than both TV broadcasting and Internet organization websites, whereas TV websites made greater use of both photos and graphics.

The Press, President, and Presidential Popularity during Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs • Hyo-Seong Lee, Southern Illinois • This study tested a path model of agenda-building examining the relationships among the press, president, and presidential popularity rating during the Reagan administration in the 1980s. This study found that as presidential emphasis on the drug issue increased, so did the press coverage of the drug issue. Also, as the press coverage of the drug issue increased, so did presidential emphasis about the drug issue.

The Transparency of Culture and Politics in Economic Discourse • Jennie Rupertus, Texas-Austin • Global expansion and the interconnection of commercial markets have made it increasingly difficult to contest that economic structure influence our social realities. Likewise, it is equally problematic to discuss economics without also referencing issues of culture and politics. Yet an overwhelming proportion of today’s popular media mask the cultural and political values embedded in economic discourse as value-free ‘common sense.’

The Impact and Relationship of Policy and Competition on the Program Diversity in Cable TV • Seung Kwan Ryu, Southern Illinois • This study explores the impact of deregulation on program diversity in U.S. cable television, and the relationship of governmental policy and competition on program diversity. It examines whether there was more program diversity before or after the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, by comparing two time periods: 1992-1995 (from the enactment of the Cable Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 to the Telecommunications Act of 1996) and 1996-to the present (after the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 up to now).

Does Graduate Work Matter? Characteristics of Journalists Who Went to Grad School • Tanjev Schultz, University of Bremen, Germany • This paper reports a secondary analysis which compares characteristics of graduate school-trained journalists to those with only college-education. It also considers differences between studies in and outside the communication field. Besides demographics and job characteristics, assumed differences in perceived influences of education, in and to support an interpretative role, journalistic role concepts and audience perceptions were tested. Overall, the analysis revealed few differences. But journalists with graduate education were found to be more likely than college-educated journalists to work for larger news organizations.

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