Newspaper Division

Reliance and Science Knowledge: Do People Learn Science Information from the Media the Same Way they Learn Political Information • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines how reliance on newspapers and television news affects science knowledge. The newspaper-reliant group averaged 41.1 on the science knowledge test, compared with 38.5 for the television-news reliant group (t = -4.48, df = 346.75, p = .001). Moreover, the higher the respondents’ newspaper use, the higher their science knowledge (Std. beta = .104, p < .001). Gender and education also played important roles in predicting the respondents’ science knowledge.

Online Media Ethics: A Survey of U.S. Daily Newspaper Editors • M. David Arant, Memphis and Janna Quitney Anderson, Elon College • In this paper, 203 online editors at U.S. daily newspapers report their practices, problems and ethics in doing online journalism. All but four percent are publishing news online at least daily, with nearly a third updating more than once a day. Among their concerns about publishing online are the immediacy of Web publication, corrections procedures, linking to other sites, monitoring reader chat rooms and online news staff size.

Influences on a Daily Newspaper’s Market Orientation • Randal A. Beam, Indiana • A national study involving 183 daily newspapers found that organizational goals and ownership characteristics were the most significant influences on the degree to which a newspaper newsroom was “market oriented” or “market driven.” Newspapers that emphasized high profitability or that emphasized editorial excellence tended to have a strong market orientation, as did newspapers that belonged to large groups or that were part of a privately owned company.

Internet Use and Media Preferences of College Students • Bonnie Bressers and Lori Bergen, Kansas State • A survey of 400 at a midwest university shows students are frequent readers of their campus newspaper, but are unlikely to access any online newspaper. Students are likely to use the Internet for e-mail, information searches or reference and research materials, and spend an average of 92 minutes per day online. They seek information and use the Internet as replacement for the library, postal service and telephone. Recommendations for online newspapers include enhancing their local franchise online, bringing greater interactivity to their editorial and advertising content, and providing seamless access to their archives.

How Yellow Journalism Lives On: An Analysis of Newspaper Content Across 100 Years • W. Joseph Campbell, American University • Woven subtly into the literature of American journalism history is a thread that maintains that yellow journalism lives on, that defining features of the nineteenth century genre endure through widespread adoption and adaptation. The literature, however, reveals no systematic attempt to test such claims. This paper discusses such a study, a systematic content analysis of the front pages of seven leading U.S. newspapers, examined at ten-year intervals from 1899 to 1999.

Computer-Assisted Reporting in Michigan Daily Newspapers: More than a Decade of Adoption • Lucida D. Davenport, Fred Fico and Mary Detwiler, Michigan State • This study is a follow-up to previous studies, conducted in 1986 and 1994, and surveys all Michigan daily newspapers on their adoption and use of seven different computerized information sources. It also acts as a part of a longitudinal study on the adoption rate of computer-assisted reporting. Particularly important findings are that 47 of the 48 state dailies now use one or more computerized sources to obtain information for news stories.

Journalism Education: Weathering the Storm • Tom Dickson, Southwest Missouri State • The author surveyed members of the Newspaper Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and a random sample of daily newspaper editors to determine whether they agreed about the emphases and practices of college journalism programs and the types of knowledge and skills that were important for beginning newspaper journalists at the end of the 20th century.

Setting the News story Agenda: candidates and commentators in News coverage of a Governor’s Race • Frederick Fico and Eric Freedman, Michigan State • In coverage of the 1998 Michigan gubernatorial campaign, candidates and their supporters dominated coverage in the state’s nine largest dailies more than did “horse race” experts and issue experts who might have competed with those partisans to define the election. However, to a significant degree, reporters’ subjective leads competed with the candidates for such election-defining power.

Small Town Murder, Big Time Headlines: The Jasper Newsboy and the Texas Dragging Death • Barbara Friedman, Missouri • Jasper, Texas, became the focus of worldwide attention in June 1998, when a black man was dragged to his death behind a truck driven by three white men. Reporters, from as far away as Tokyo and Germany, called it a modern-day lynching and Jasper “more Deep South than Lone Star.” This study is the first to examine the role of the local newspaper, The Jasper Newsboy. Using textual analysis and personal interviews, this project considers editors’ perceived responsibilities to the community and how that was manifested in newspaper content.

Leadership, Values and Cultural Change: A Three-Year Case Study of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Peter Gade and Earnest L. Perry, Oklahoma • When Cole C. Campbell was introduced as the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in August 1996 it signaled a change in direction for a newspaper steeped in the Pulitzer tradition and long considered a member of this country’s “prestige press”. This three-year case study has measured newsroom employees’ perceptions of Campbell and the changes he has brought to the Post-Dispatch. Surveys were administered to employees in the autumns of 1996-98.

Online Information Use in Newsrooms: A Longitudinal Diffusion Study • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This study examined adoption of online information resources in newsrooms at U.S. daily newspapers from 1994 to 1999. Since the general public and news media began to embrace the Internet and World Wide Web in 1994, a process of adoption of this new interactive innovation by newspapers has occurred. The longitudinal survey data reveal that use of interactive information-gathering technologies in newsrooms has reached a critical mass for (a) general computer use, (b) online research in newsrooms, (c) non-specialist content searching, and (d) daily frequency of online use.

Second-Level Agenda-Setting in the New Hampshire Primary: A Comparison of Coverage in Three Newspapers and Public Perceptions of Candidates • Guy Golan and Wayne Wanta, Florida • Second-level agenda-setting was examined during the New Hampshire primary through a comparison of Gallup poll responses and coverage in three newspapers in the region. Results show that John McCain was covered much more positively than George W. Bush. The findings also show that respondents linked four of six cognitive attributes (issues, personal characteristics) to candidates in direct proportion to media coverage. The results show less support for media influence on the affective (positive) attributes individuals linked to candidates.

Diversity Efforts at the Los Angeles Times: Are Journalists and the Community on the Same Page? • Richard Gross, Stephanie Craft and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri and Michael Antecol, Stanord Center for Research in Disease Prevention • Survey data from Los Angeles Times editorial employees and residents of Los Angeles County were gathered to determine respondents’ views of the newspaper’s efforts to increase minority coverage, specifically with regard to the “market-driven” nature of those efforts. How respondents perceive market-driven journalism and the extent to which newsroom and community perceptions of it are similar were specifically addressed. Results suggest that people, whether journalists or readers, neither dismiss nor embrace market-driven journalism outright.

Reader Mindset and Bias: A Closer Look at the People Who Say We Skew the News • Deborah Gump, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Reader perception of media bias has been found in several studies going back many years. A reader has at least two routes to reach a perception of bias: the actual existence of bias, or a reinforcing predisposition within himself to believe bias exists. This study is a secondary analysis of the raw data in the American Society of Newspaper Editors 1999 survey to consider the second route. Do readers who think daily newspapers are biased have a particular mindset that helps them arrive at that opinion?

Looking Beyond Hate: How National and Regional Newspapers Framed Hate Crimes in Jasper, Texas, and Laramie, Wyoming • L. Paul Husselbee, Larry Elliott, ‘ÕBrien Stanley and Mary Alice Baker, Lamar • Journalists frame issues by choosing to emphasize some issues over others, affecting news consumers’ awareness and perception of public problems and concerns. Journalistic credibility suffers from public perception that reporters do not show respect for the communities they cover and that they chase “sensational” stories because they sell newspapers or grab the attention of viewers. This study analyzes national and regional newspaper coverage of two “sensational” hate crimes to determine how reporters framed the communities of Jasper, Texas, and Laramie, Wyoming, in the wake of two brutal murders.

Talking the Talk: Expressions of Social Responsibility in Public Newspaper Groups • Diana Knott, North Carolina and Ginny Carroll, Northwestern and Philip Meyer, North Carolina • This study examines the ratio of social responsibility and profit-oriented language in publicly owned newspaper groups’ annual report letters to shareholders through the use of content analysis software. In addition, the educational and professional backgrounds of these companies’ CEOs are compared, and the corporate cultures of the companies scoring the highest and lowest on social responsibility language are discussed.

Public Journalism and the Use of Nonelite Sources and Actors • Seow Ting Lee, Missouri • This study focuses on the impact of public journalism as a practice on a paper’s use of nonelite sources and actors. In a content analysis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a public journalism paper, is compared to the traditional, non-public journalism Washington Post The findings revealed that contrary to belief, public journalism has a limited impact on nonelite sourcing and the use of ordinary citizens as actors in news. Although more nonelite actors were used than elite actors, the coverage devoted to nonelite actors was dominated by crime victims and criminals • voiceless, passive ordinary citizens.

Web Design and Efficiency of News Retrieval: A Content Analysis of Five U.S. Internet Newspapers • Xigen Li, Louisiana State • A content analysis of five U.S. Internet newspapers found that the newspaper that earned the highest efficiency score provides a high level of immediate access to news information, and a smooth news flow. The findings regarding efficiency of information retrieval of Internet newspapers confirm that news readers are gaining more control in the hypermedia environment as the concern with user-centered efficiency of news retrieval is integrated into the Web design of the Internet newspapers.

When The Shooting Stops: A Comparison Of Local, Regional And National Newspaper Coverage Of 1990s School Shootings • Michael McCluskey, Washington • Newspapers in smaller communities have been shown to focus less on conflict than the press in larger communities, but this research looked primarily at events of local interest. This study examined frames employed by local, regional and national newspapers in coverage of five small-town school shootings in the 1990s, events of broader interest. Results showed the local newspapers focused the least and national newspapers the most on blaming societal ills, especially guns, for the shooting.

A Functional Analysis of New Hampshire Presidential Primary Debates and Accompanying Newspaper Coverage • Bryan Reber, Missouri • Texts from one Republican and one Democratic 2000 presidential primary debate were analyzed using functional theory. Acclaims, attacks, defenses, policy and character issues, and defense strategies were coded. Candidates offered acclaims over attacks during the debates. Policy issues were dominant. Fifty-one newspaper articles about the debates were coded using the same categories Coverage focused on attacks more than acclaims, policy more than character. Newspapers focused on conflict in debates and gave unproportional coverage to pithy statements

Changing Faces: Diversity of Local News Sources in the Los Angeles Times • Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, Missouri • Editors and publishers across the country are attempting fundamental changes in the news process. At the Times, reporters are being asked to seek out more local women and minority sources. Whether this effort has resulted in a greater diversity of local news sources is the topic of the current study. Overall, our findings revealed a disparity between local demographics and the demographics of local news sources among most subgroups examined. In addition, some stereotyping patterns were found, but not always in the way we expected.

Pagination and the Copyeditor: Have Things Changed? • John Russial, Oregon • This study, based on a national random sample of copyeditors and supervisors, reexamines the impact of pagination on copyeditors to see whether conditions found in several earlier studies have changed. Workload, largely the result of the shifting or production tasks into newsrooms, is perceived as higher after pagination, and length of experience with pagination does not appear to diminish the impact. The ambivalence noted in earlier studies was confirmed, but it appears that individuals tend to be either positive or negative about pagination’s impact, not both, as an earlier study suggested.

Information and Interaction: Online Newspaper Coverage of the 2000 Iowa Caucus • Jane B. Singer, Iowa • By the time of the 2000 Iowa caucus, there were an estimated 70 million active Internet users in the United States alone, at least 5,000 Web sites devoted to U.S. politics • and five Iowa newspapers willing to tackle the challenges of providing online coverage of an event that, in a more traditional media world, had always been “their” big story. This exploratory study examines these papers’ efforts to use the attributes of the online medium to go beyond “shovelware.”

Reporting of Public Opinion Polls in American Newspapers: The Case of the 1998 U.S. Senate Race • Young Jun Son and Rasha Kamhawi, Indiana • Published poll results can be misleading if they are not accompanied by methodological information that explains how the results were obtained. This study investigates whether metropolitan daily newspapers provide their readers with sufficient information to evaluate poll stories. Using the guidelines of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) for reporting surveys and polls, a content analysis was conducted. The amount of information disclosed is still far from accurate. National newspapers did worse than state newspapers.

Kincaid v. Gibson: Turning Back a Page to Harsher Times for the Collegiate Press? • Sigman L. Splichal and Lynn D. Carrillo, Miami • For more than 30 years, since Dickey v. Alabama State Board of Education, courts have afforded journalists at state colleges and universities broad First Amendment rights. Collegiate editors enjoyed virtually unfettered freedoms so long as they did not materially disrupt their institutions. In 1999, the 6th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a federal district court in Kentucky that called into question those rights, applying to college publications legal reasoning previously limited to high school expression.

To Quell The Quarrels • Examining The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Israeli/Palestinian Coverage • Judith Sylvester and J. Denis Wu, Louisiana State • The Philadelphia Inquirer has been receiving criticism from both the Jewish and Palestinian communities concerning the paper’s Mideast coverage. In response, a content analysis was conducted to examine the coverage. Results revealed that the Inquirer provided its audience with a great deal of information about the conflict. This study found that the paper provided a balanced coverage of both political entities. Weakness in coverage rested mainly in heavy reliance on Israeli sources compared with Palestinian sources.

Online Newspapers: Collating Banner Advertising with Editorial Content • David R. Thompson, ON-TRAC Consulting • More and more online newspapers are becoming self-sustaining profit centers. Effective online advertising is one element in the success of online ventures. This paper reports a content analysis of online newspaper practice regarding delivering appropriate advertising messages to an audience by collating editorial content and banner ads. For example, a banner ad for ordering tickets to St. Louis Cardinals games may appear on the same “page” as a sports story about Mark McGwire’s latest home run streak.

Truth, Moral Force, and Public Service: What Newspaper Letters to the Editor and Editorials Said About Journalistic Ethics in 1835 • Brian Thornton, Northern Illinois • This research examines published editorials and letters to the editor at the time of one of the first and most bizarre newspaper frauds in this country – the infamous moon hoax of 1835, perpetuated by the New York Sun and reporter Richard Adams Locke. The purpose is not simply to recount details of this colorful journalistic lie with its quasi-scientific revelations of man-like creatures living on the moon.

Two Topic Teams and how They Grew: Education and Public Life at The Virginian-Pilot • Leslie-Jean Thornton, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • It was projected in 1999 that by 2000 forty-two percent of U.S. daily newspapers with circulation above 25,000 would be using teams in their newsroom as part of a management structure that has grown in popularity since the early 1990s. The largest of the few papers to inaugurate teams in 1991 was The Virginian-Pilot. This paper explores the growth of the Pilot’s first two successful topic teams, which cover education and public life.

Daily Newspaper Use of Web Addresses: Longitudinal Analysis of New Content Form • Jean M. Trumbo and Craig W. Trumbo, Wisconsin • This analysis assesses the frequency and characteristics of URLs featured in newspapers. Using a sample from 35 daily newspapers, we show that attention to the Web has grown steadily since 1994, as has the inclusion of URLs in such content. Most URLs are in the .com domain, and almost all are external to the newspaper. Other results examine where in the newspaper Web addresses appear, and look at the rate of dead URLs across time.

Weekly Newspapers and Problems with Attracting Young Journalists: A Survey of South Carolina Newspaper Management and Journalism Students • Jennifer Wood, South Carolina • The problems South Carolina weekly newspaper management was having in attracting and retaining young journalists was this paper’s focus. Through a mail survey with a 65 percent response rate, much was learned about newsroom managers’ attitudes in regards to hiring journalism students and whether hiring and retention was a problem at South Carolina weekly newspapers. Through the journalism students’ survey results, editors were able to get a glimpse of what these students expect from future employers.

<< 2000 Abstracts

Minorities and Communication Division

Faculty Competition
Diversity in Local Television News: A Clogged Pipeline? • Terry Anzur, Sheila Murphy and Mieke Schechter, Southern California • The article presents a survey of television news directors in markets ranked between 100th and 150th nationally in terms of size, where aspiring TV news anchors and reporters get their first jobs. Entry-level hiring is done primarily by white males and reflects their perceptions of the local audience, the perceived difficulty of finding qualified applicants and the low priority placed on diversity. Women and minorities are under-represented among actual hires, contributing to an industry-wide shortage of diverse on-air talent.

Crime and Ethnic Group Coverage: Media Exposure and Audience Perceptions • Christopher E. Beaudoin and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • This study examines connections among media exposure and audience perceptions of ethnicity and crime coverage — in light of the continuing decline of newspaper readership. Relying on a telephone survey, it demonstrated that different ethnic groups view coverage in different ways and that newspaper readership was positively correlated with perceptions of coverage. The opposite was true for local broadcast news. Via structural equation modeling, the study suggests that perception determines media use • and, thus, that low credibility may undermine readership.

Copycats, Conspirators and Bigots: Themes in Southern, Northern and Western Newspaper Editorial Portrayals of the Black Church-burning Crisis • Sharon Bramlett-Solomon, Arizona State • Between January 1, 1995 and December 1997 at least 142 black churches were set on fire through arson, bombings or attempted bombings. Examination of all church burnings’ editorials appearing in the Lexis Nexis database and Editorials on File over this two-year period, yielded 109 editorials for content analysis. Findings in this preliminary study call into question the assumption of some media critics and scholars who suggest that regional differences exist in southern and northern newspaper portrayals of racial conflicts.

Media Correlates of a Protest in a Minority Community: Southern California’s Vietnamese Americans and the Hi-Tek Video Store Incident • Jeffrey Brody, Tony Rimmer & Edgar P. Trotter • California State-Fullerton — This paper explores correlates of participation in a protest in an immigrant community. Participation was assumed to be inversely associated with acculturation, political tolerance, and perceptions of English and Vietnamese-language media. Bivariate analyses of a 41 8-respondent survey showed no discrimination between protesters and nonprotesters on demographic variables, some discrimination on acculturation measures (on two attitudinal but not on three language proficiency indices), and significant discrimination on measures of media use and assessment of coverage of the incident.

Constructing Blackness: Media Coverage of African American Support for President Clinton • Dwight E. Brooks, Georgia and James A. Rada, Rowan • African American support for President Clinton. Nearly 40 broadcast, newspaper and magazine stories produce explanations that were placed into five discursive themes: morality, political pragmatism, distrust of the criminal justice system, forgiveness/redemption, and Clinton’s rapport with African Americans. The media not only contribute to the social construction of Blackness in intriguing ways, but its failure to explain White support (or lack of) for the President reinforces the invisibility of Whiteness as the norm.

Black in White: A Historical Inquiry into the Afro-Caribbean Press in the U.K. • James P. Danky, State Historical Society of Wisconsin and David Henning, Wisconsin • This paper, the initial part of a larger project on Afro-Caribbean and Diasporic journalism, asks the question “what do academic journalism histories say about the press by and for British blacks?” This paper begins with an overview of British journalism historiography from the nineteenth century to the present, looks at publications by and for British blacks, and treatments of that journalism by the academy. This paper is also a contribution to black British historical studies.

A Myth Analysis of Race and Beauty in Teen Magazines • Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Texas at Austin • This paper examines how race and beauty are interpreted by popular media targeted to teenage girls, in the context of the contemporary politics of diversity. This research employed myth analysis (Barthes, 1972) to uncover the ideological themes underpinning the discourses of racialized beauty in four top-circulating teen magazines. The analysis revealed a construction of beauty in which race was used as a device to orient girls toward consumerism by glossing over its political, historical, and cultural moorings and reinscribing categorical racial boundaries.

Black Like Me: How Idealized Images of Caucasian Women Affect Body Esteem and Mood States of African-American Females • Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri • Using the theory of social comparison, the present research explores how exposure to idealized images of physically attractive Caucasian women affects and changes the self reported esteem levels of African-American women. Though research reveals that the number of portrayals of African-Americans in ads is growing, little if any research has explored how images and advertisements influence behaviors and attitudes toward advertising images and messages. A sample of African-American females was surveyed on body esteem and other self-perception variables.

What A Difference A Channel Makes: Commercial Images In General Market V. Spanish Language Television • Jami Armstrong Fullerton, Oklahoma State and Alice Kendrick, Southern Methodist • Analysis of prime time commercials on NBC and Univision revealed the occurrence of significantly fewer commercials on Univision as well as significantly more inventory devoted to public service announcements. Commercials on the networks were also found to focus on different products and services. Roles of primary characters on NBC revealed a strong professional male presence on the general market network, contrasted with the prevalence of female characters on Univision.

Bridges Across the Digital Divide: An Exploratory Study of AHANA and Women’s Websites on the Internet • Dennis W. Jeffers, Central Michigan • This paper reports the results of an exploratory study which examined content of websites targeted at African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and women (AHANA/W), as well as the content of OneNetNow.com: a recently launched website designed to bridge the digital divide. The study focused on a large number of “demographic” and “content” variables previously used to document the digital divide. The results suggest that there is a great deal of similarity between websites not specifically designed to bridge the digital divide (existing AHANA/W sites) and OneNetNow.com.

Race and the Praxis of Crime Reporting: A Narrative Paradigm for Portrayals of Deviance • Craig Maier and Maggie Patterson, Duquesne • Social science studies present conflicting evidence of the effects of crime and race news coverage on audience and lead to a seemingly intractable debate. This essay suggests that narrative analysis may be a more useful tool. Using the content of an original study done in City X a mid-sized, mid-Atlantic city, and previously published social scientific research as a point of departure, this paper explores how narrative theory reconfigures race, crime news, and public opinion.

Do Skin Tones Matter When Judging the Guilt of Accused African Americans Pictured in News Crime Stories? • Dwyane Proctor, University of Connecticut Health Center and L.B. Snyder, Connecticut • Pundits’ claim that darkening complexions of African Americans accused of crimes in news photographs influence readers to prejudge the accused as guilty. Potential jurors (N = 421) read one of three news articles about a man arrested for murder. Two articles contained a photo of the accused; he was shown as African American with light or dark colored skin. The third article contained no photo or ethnic description of the accused.

What a Difference a Year Makes: A Content Analysis Before and After the Start of a Latino Initiative • Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • In an attempt to connect with and maintain readers, the Los Angeles Times launched a Latino initiative in the fall of 1998. The goal of the initiative was to seek out more Latino sources across a wider variety of topics. Although the Latino initiative is still on-going at the Times we wanted to see whether changes in the numbers and representations of Latinos were noticeable after one year of the initiative’s start date. Our findings suggest improvements in the representation of Latinos.

The University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux Logo • Raul Tovares, North Dakota • Taking a Gramscian perspective, this paper interrogates an official document addressing the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux logo. Prior to the late 1960s the dominance of the UND campus by white students, faculty, and administrators created a climate in which the appropriation of Native American images and symbols for fun and sport went largely unquestioned. The debates that have developed around the Fighting Sioux logo reflect the struggles of different groups to define the parameters of acceptable and unacceptable forms of communication.

Student Competition
Media Messages and the Thin Standard: Are African-American Women Receiving the Same Messages? • Laura I. Collier, Houston • A content analysis of three African-American and three Caucasian women’s magazines (72 issues) for the year 1997 was conducted to ascertain if African-American women receive the same thinness-depicting messages characteristically observed in the Caucasian media. In addition, body measurements of models found in Ebony and Ladies’ Home Journal from 1945-1998 were conducted. Results revealed African-American magazines place less emphasis on content dealing with body/shape/size. However, body measurements of African-American models follow similar thinness trends to Caucasian models.

Television Network Diversity Deals and Citizen Group Action in 21st Century Broadcasting Policy • George Daniels, Georgia • This paper provides an analysis of recent efforts by the NAACP and other ethnic groups to negotiate diversity agreements for employment and programming at the four major broadcast networks. The calls for diversity issued in 1999 are compared to the work of citizen action groups that influenced broadcasting policy in the 1960s and 1970s. With varying mechanisms for network accountability and monitoring of diversity, the agreements amounted mostly to a victory in the “court of public opinion.”

Building Identification with Hispanic Voters via the Web • Maria Len-Rios, Missouri-Columbia • This is the one of the first studies to examine presidential campaign messages targeting Hispanic voters during the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. A case study, employing textual analysis guided by using Kenneth Burke’s concept of identification, is used to determine how Bush and Gore identified with Hispanic voters through (l) common experiences/association, (2) antithesis, and (3) subtlety or cunning. Results reveal that Bush invested more in his “En Espanol” Web site.

Pointing Fingers: Victim Blaming and News Coverage of African-Americans, Health and Public Policy in Two Major Metropolitan Newspapers • Nicole Mikel-Brumfield, Florida • The presence of victim blaming of African-Americans and their health issues, as it relates to public policy, was examined through the content analysis of two newspapers, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the New Orleans Times Picayune, from November 1997 to November 1998. Overall, the Times Picayune published more victim blaming articles than the Plain Dealer. Also, male reporters did more victim blaming as was more blatant than their female counterparts.

Justifying the FCC’s Minority Preference Policies • Seung Kwan Ryu, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • This study investigates how courts have used empirical evidence in justifying the standard review they applied as their rationale in FCC’s minority preference and equal protection policies. The study suggests that courts should adopt not only evidence of historical and societal discrimination but also empirical evidence as their rationale, since in previous studies empirical evidence has already shown a positive correlation between minority ownership and program diversity in broadcasting.

Gender Stereotypes and Race in Music Videos: Cultivating Unreality • Helena K. Sarkio, Minnesota • Cultivation research examines the extent to which television shapes its audience’s perception of reality. The objective of this study was to contribute to the understanding of how exposure to the total pattern of music videos can cultivate their viewers’ conceptions of Caucasian and African-American women and men. Through a content analysis of music videos on BET, MTV and VH1, significant differences between the four groups were uncovered.

<< 2000 Abstracts

Media Management and Economics Division

The Rise of Corporate Journalism: Providing the Basis for a Hostile Takeover and the Split of the Scripps Newspaper Empire • Edward E. Adams, Brigham Young • E.W. Scripps was among the early adopters of establishing corporate ownership for newspapers. It helped him to develop a chain, and provide incentives to editors and business managers who could own stock in the individual newspapers. The corporate structure also helped create the first corporate split in a newspaper company. This paper examines the corporate structure created by Scripps and the events that led up to the split. It also reviews how a separation was possible and the subsequent consolidation of the remaining Scripps papers.

Syndicated Service Dependence and a Lack of Commitment to Localism: Scripps Newspapers and Market Subordination • Edward E. Adams, Brigham Young • With the exception of only two markets • Cincinnati and Cleveland • all of the Scripps papers maintained a subordinated position. This paper suggests that Scripps papers held a subordinate market position due to heavy dependence on syndicated services and smaller amount of local copy when compared to competitors. Scripps papers maintained skeleton staffs and the newspaper content was heavily dependent on articles from other papers through the UP and NEA services.

The Television Joint Venture and News Content Diversity • Todd Chambers, Texas Tech; Dennis Harp; Jimmie Reeves, Texas Tech; Jeff Klotzman; Opal Lertutai; Joanna Miller and Ann Befort • The recent ownership rules changes for the local television industry have created new management opportunities and problems related to the provision of news programming. Shared service agreements that allow one company to manage the news and/or sales departments of another local television station have raised questions about the diversity of local news programming. This content analysis sought to explore the link between ownership structure and the diversity of television news content within a local market.

Strategic Competition in the Multichannel Video Programming Market: An Intra-Industry Strategic Group Analysis • Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted and Jack C. C. Li, Florida • This paper applied a multichannel strategic group competition theory to assess the strategic patterns of the multichannel video programmers and the relationship between group membership and performance. Seven strategic groups were identified by a cluster analysis, including broadcasters’ cable niche group and cable-casters’ broadcast tier. There appears to be a relationship between strategic group membership and financial performance. Contrary to general industry belief, neither size nor vertical integration has played an important role in elevating the programmers’ financial performance.

The PBS Brand versus Cable Brands: Assessing the Brand Equity of Public Television in a Multichannel Environment • Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, Florida and Yungwook Kim, Illinois State • This paper assesses the brand equity of public television in a multichannel media environment by examining the brand image of public television and PBS in comparison to comparable cable networks. The authors found that public television continues to enjoy a very positive brand image among its viewers. The popularity of cable networks such as A&E, Discovery, and Nickelodeon did not dilute the positive brand perception of public television, nor did it change significantly the perceived importance of public television and the audience’s viewing behavior.

Who Owns Cable Television? Media Ownership Concentration in Taiwan • Ping-Hung Chen, National Taiwan Normal University • This study examines ownership concentration in Taiwan’s cable television industry by using concentration ratios (CR4 and CR8) and found that Taiwan’s cable systems and channels were highly concentrated in the hands of few media conglomerates, meaning that the cable industry has become more oligopolistic. Communications researchers in Taiwan should pay more attention to media ownership concentration across various communications industries or conduct further studies on cross-industry concentration in the communications sector.

Weekly Newspaper Industry: A Baseline Study • David Coulson, Nevada-Reno and Stephen Lacy, Michigan State and Jonathan Wilson, Nevada-Reno • This is the first study to examine important elements of the weekly newspaper industry. It will serve as a baseline for analyzing long-term changes in the business. A stratified random sample of 1,027 weekly newspapers was used. The industry was found to exhibit a great deal of variation in type of ownership, type of circulation, geographic location and day of publication. These variations affect advertising rates, advertising cost per thousand and circulation.

The Relationship Between What Managers Do and How Newsroom Workers Respond in Times of Change • George Daniels, Georgia • A key concern of many newsroom managers is successfully implementing change. Based on a survey of workers at CNN Headline News, where six major changes occurred simultaneously in 1998, information about how change relates to long-term goals was, by far, the most valuable predictor of how newsroom workers might respond to change. There was no relationship between an employee’s perceived level of communication and how likely an employee is to quit in a time of change.

The Influence of Timing of Market Entry on Competition in Local Cellular Telephone Markets • Hugh S. Fullerton, Sam Houston State • The American cellular telephone industry from its inception until the early l990s furnished a classic example of duopoly market structure at the local level. Earlier studies showed that firms in some markets exhibited substantial competitive behavior, while in other markets, firms were comparatively noncompetitive. In an effort to determine the roots of competitive behavior, this paper examines the influence of the timing of entry of the second firm into each market.

The Cultural Transformation of U.S. Newspapers: A Comparison of Management and Rank-and-File Attitudes Toward a Conceptual Model of Organizational Development • Peter Gade, Oklahoma • This study refines previous models of organizational development and in an attempt to build a stronger theoretical framework for understanding the process of change in the newspaper industry. A purposive sample of 18 newspapers affiliated with the American Society of Newspaper Editors Change Committee was used to survey a census of top newsroom managers and a random sample of rank-and-file most experienced with industry-wide change initiatives. The results indicate that management and rank-and file view the change process very differently.

How Magazines Covered Media Companies’ Merger: A Case of the Evolution of Time Inc. • Jaemin Jung, Florida • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Predicting Digital Cable Adoption: Who Will Be Upgrading to Digital Cable, and How Soon? • Myung-Hyun Kang, Michigan State • Digital cable is a technological innovation in the area of cable telecommunications, featuring more channels, more convenience, and more interactivity. The present study investigates the factors that influence the adoption of digital cable in terms of demographics, media use, technology ownership, their innovative attitudes, and their satisfaction with their cable company. Results of this study indicate that the earlier adoption of digital cable is more likely among those who watch television heavily, are satisfied with current cable service, and see themselves as well as their cable operator as technically progressive.

Looking for the Right Partners in the Information Era: A Longitudinal Study of Acquisition Strategies by the Communications Industries • Jack C.C. Li, Florida • The present paper uses the new industrial classification system (NAICS) to examine the acquisition patterns of the communications industries (TV, radio, cable, and telephony) from 1980 through 1999. Attention is focused on diversification strategies of entering the information industry. It is found that the 1996 Telecommunications Act has significant impact on the M&A patterns. The industries’ diversification strategies are also found to be influenced by the characteristics and historical background of the existing industries.

Great Expectations: Revealing a Placebo Effect in Brand Equity Evaluations of Network News Reporting • Walter S. McDowell and Steven J. Dick, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • The purpose of this study was first to explore the theoretical common ground shared by the concepts of placebo effects and brand equity and then to introduce the notion of media brand placebo effects within the context of audience evaluations of television program content. A controlled experiment, focusing on the perceived credibility of a network news report, provided support for two out of three hypotheses derived from this proposed branding construct.

Using Audience Turnover to Reveal the “Double Jeopardy” Effect In Television Daypart Ratings Performance • Walter S. McDowell and Steven J. Dick, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • Scores of conventional consumer goods studies have revealed that successful brands exhibit disproportionately greater consumer loyalty in terms of repeat purchases than less successful brands do. This phenomenon places struggling brands in a kind of “double jeopardy” posture, where they attract not only fewer customers, but also fewer loyalists. Studies of prime time television audience behavior in the 1980s found a similar double jeopardy effect.

Thriving on Chaos: A Case Study of Newspaper Cultural Change • Richard Somerville, Missouri • Newspaper managers are finding that major economic, social and technological shifts have thrown into the air all the revered assumptions about people and management practices. But accepting a need to adapt is not enough. The process of change has proved difficult to achieve even at modest levels. Massive paradigm shifts also are shaking up the field of organizational studies, with some theorists looking to chaos theory as a model for the 21st century business.

News Hole Sizing Polices At Nondaily Newspapers • Ken Smith, Wyoming • This study examined the methods used by nondaily newspapers to determine the sizes of their news holes. The results indicate that a large majority of nondailies (77.8%) base their news holes on a percentage of their advertising inches. In most cases, the type of advertising used to determine the sizes of the news holes was ROP advertising. Most nondailies did not take preprint advertising into account in sizing their news holes.

<< 2000 Abstracts

Media Ethics Division

Searching for the Journalist Phrenemos: An Exploratory Study of the Ethical Development of News Workers • Renita Coleman and Lee Wilkins, Missouri • More than 2,500 years ago Aristotle defined the ethical person as a phrenemos. More contemporary research has focused on moral development. Almost every type of profession that must grapple with ethical issues has been studied in the context of moral reasoning, except journalists. This research proposes to measure journalists’ moral development in order to compare them with other professionals, and to discover which variables are the most significant predictors of higher moral reasoning in journalists — that is, to model the journalist phrenemos.

Covering the Ethics of Death: An Exploration of Three Model Approaches • David A. Craig, Oklahoma • Through an in-depth textual analysis, this paper examines portrayal of the ethics of assisted suicide and euthanasia in three 1998 newspaper pieces that are exemplary in the depth of their of their treatment of ethics — and therefore, it is argued, ethically responsible in their coverage. Presentation of deontological and consequentialist issues and of ethical questions and themes is examined in these pieces, and implications for ethics coverage are discussed.

Of Joint Ventures, Sock Puppets and New Media Synergy: Ethical Codes and the Emergence of Institutional Conflicts of Interest • Charles N. Davis & Stephanie Craft, Missouri • The trend toward cross-ownership raises ethical concerns about entanglements created in the name of synergy. Ethics scholarship routinely defines conflict of interest as an individual act, which ignores the rise of the media conglomerate. This paper introduces the institutional conflict of interest. The paper outlines how media consolidation creates new conflicts of interest by outlining the term’s definitions in various professions and providing a revised definition that encompasses institutional conflicts of interest.

Ethics for Editors: What 11 Editing Textbooks Teach • Susan Keith, North Carolina • Newspaper copy editors have a vital, though often unheralded, role to play in the production of ethical journalism. As the last people to see newspaper stories before publication, they have the opportunity to raise questions that can save newspapers from unnecessarily harming readers or sources or hurting their own credibility. Copy editors can do this, however, only if they develop a good sense of how ethical principles apply to their jobs. One source for such information is the editing textbook.

Contractualist Morality in News Reporting: What Journalists Owe to Story Subjects, News Sources and The Public • Kathleen L. Mason, Syracuse • Tim Scanlon’s “What we owe to each other” is the most recent substantive addition to ethical theory, and his contractualist theory is the topic of heated philosophical debate. His central notion, that right and wrong “are judgments about what would be permitted by principles that could not reasonably be rejected,” is presented in application to situations faced in daily life. This paper examines how Scanlon’s theory might be used by journalists as they seek to balance their duty to the public against their duties to the subjects and sources.

Beyond Kant Lite: Journalists and the Categorical Imperative • Lee Anne Peck, Ohio • The misunderstanding of Kant’s ethical theory by journalists comes in many forms. According to John Merrill, journalists may thing that if they apply the Categorical Imperative (CI), they are nothing more than “moral robots.” The CI, however, does not tell a person what to do; thus, this paper explores what the CI really entails and what journalists can take from it.

Philosophy in the Trenches: How Newspaper Editors Approach Ethical Questions • Patrick Lee Plaisance, Syracuse • This study sought to identify the various strains of philosophical principles brought to bear on ethical dilemmas by working journalists. A nationwide survey of newspaper managing editors and news editors solicited actual ethical dilemmas and examined how respondents assessed statements that corresponded to various philosophical principles. The study suggested that journalists tend to favor specific philosophical approaches when they are confronted with certain types of ethical questions, affirming calls by some media ethicists for a “pluralistic” approach in newsrooms.

The Concept of Media Accountability Reconsidered • Patrick Lee Plaisance, Syracuse • The concept of media accountability is widely used but remains inadequately defined in the literature and often is restricted to a one-dimensional interpretation. This study explores perceptions of accountability as manifestations of claims to responsibility, based on philosophical conceptions of the two terms, and suggests media accountability to be more broadly understood as a dynamic of interaction between a given medium and the value sets of individuals or groups receiving messages. The shape-shifting nature of the concept contributes to the volatility of debate surrounding conflicting notions of press freedom and responsibility.

Electronic Discussion Groups: An Effective Journalistic Ethical Forum? • Thomas E. Ruggiero, Texas-El Paso • Mass communication literature suggests a perceived ineffectuality of past and current journalistic ethical forums, such as news councils, ombudsmen, ethical codes, academic analysis and journalism reviews, by American journalists. This study investigates the ramifications of the recent introduction of electronic discussion groups, such as “LISTSERVs” and “electronic mailing lists,” as a mode of journalistic ethical discussion. Results of an e-mail questionnaire to 139 working journalists at 69 daily general-interest U.S. newspapers suggest that, while American journalists are overwhelmingly using e-mail to conduct both professional and personal business, it is unlikely, at least at this time, that very many are logging on to electronic discussion groups to discuss ethical issues.

Reporting on Private Affairs Of Public People: A Longitudinal Study of Newspaper Ethical Practices and Concerns, 1993-1999 • Sigman Splichal and Bruce Garrison, Miami • In 1987, after the Miami Herald reported that Democratic presidential hopeful Gary Hart had spent a night in a Washington D.C. townhouse with a young model, a national debate ensued over the proper bounds of reporting about the private lives of public officials. As that debate matured, the Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee summed it up: “ . . . the rules have certainly changed.” The New Republic also weighed in on the issue: The Herald had “opened a sluice gate that will not be easily closed.”

The Moral Authority of the Minnesota News Council: Statements of Principle and Uses of Precedent • Erik Forde Ugland and Jack Breslin, Minnesota • This study addresses the Minnesota News Council’s moral authority — that is, its ability to serve as a referent for the moral choices of others — and how its authority is affected by perceptions of its legitimacy. After analyzing all of the Council’s 125 written determinations, the authors argue that the Council’s legitimacy and authority could be enlarged by clearer statements of ethical principles, explicit expressions of standards of conduct, and more consistent references to precedent.

Testing A Theoretical Model of Journalistic Invasion of Privacy Using Structural Equation Modeling • Samuel P. Winch and L. Kim Tan, Nanyang Tech • Data on invasion of privacy — such as stories identifying crime victims, photographs of grieving people and stories about people’s financial status — obtained through a content analysis of newspapers over 30 years were analyzed with social/structural data such as literacy rate, crime rate and urbanization to validate a theoretical model of privacy using structural equation modeling. Tentatively, urbanization and industrialization seem to predict a decreased incidence in certain types of journalistic invasion of privacy.

<< 2000 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society Division

An E-Community of Ideas and Information: Media Content Characteristics of Children’s Web Sites • Debashis Aikat, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The research for this study was based on concepts related to cultural studies and discourse analyses of top four mainstream children’s web sites based in the United States — Children’s Television Workshop (http://www.ctw.org/), Disney Online (http://www.disney.com/), Nickelodeon Online (http://www.nick.com/), and PBS Online (http://www.pbs.org). Using discourse analyses methods, this study examined media content characteristics of children’s web sites based on five specific construct categories: (a) Information, (b) Entertainment, (c) Education, (d) Commerce, and (e) Interactivity.

Quality Standards in Children’s Programming: An Empirical Analysis of Industry Claims • Alison Alexander, Louise Benjamin and Seok Kang, Georgia and Keisha Hoerrner, Louisiana • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Professional Autonomy and the American Journalist • Randal A. Beam, Indiana-Bloomington • This paper uses data from two national surveys of American journalists to examine the relationship between professional autonomy and the professional roles or functions that journalists embrace; the factors that journalists say influence their notion of what’s newsworthy; and the hypothetical judgments that journalists make about ethically questionable reporting practices. The purpose is to examine the ways in which reporters who have the freedom to pursue the stories that they want in the way that they want differ from reporters – apparently increasing in numbers – who face constraints in their work.

Mass Mediating Social Capital • Christopher E. Beaudoin and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • This study examines social capital in terms of its connections with news media use via a telephone survey. Positive links were found between social capital — defined in terms of group membership, voting behavior, and community trust — and exposure to news media, especially newspapers. The study suggests the importance age and ethnicity play in social capital — both as mediating factors and as predictors. The study, via structural equation modeling, suggests that causation flows in both directions between social capital and media exposure.

Access Denied: Records Custodians as Resistant Gatekeepers to Government Information • Michele Bush, Florida • Access to government information is a safeguard against government corruption by allowing the citizenry to keep watch over its leaders. Records custodians across the country are denying the citizenry this right. This paper shows the proliferation of records custodians unlawfully denying access to public information. It also shows that there is a lack of statutory guidance for records custodians across the country. This paper reports the problems and provides solutions for improving access to government information.

Television Viewing and Perceptions of Race, Socioeconomic Success, and Reasons For Lack Of Success • Rick W. Busselle and Heather Crandall, Washington State • This survey (N=139) investigates the relationships between television viewing and perceptions about socioeconomic success and failure among African-Americans Results extend previous research by indicating l) drama viewing was related to perceptions of greater educational disparity between blacks and whites and to perceptions that discrimination is a problem for blacks. 2) Sitcom viewing was related to perceptions of less educational disparity and higher estimates of blacks’ income. 3) News viewing was related to perceptions that relative lack of success is due to lack of motivation and not limited job opportunities.

Treating the Y2K Bug: Knowledge Gap Factors that Shaped the Outcome of a Public Issue • Francesca Dillman Carpentier, Alabama • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Whatever Works: A Test of the “Division of Labor Component of Uses and Gratifications Theory • John Carvalho, Campbell • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Rebels with a Cause: Teenagers on Daytime Dramas • Naeemah Clark, Florida • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

The Effects of News Stories That Put Crime and Violence Into Context: Testing the Public Health Model of Reporting • Renita Coleman and Esther Thorson, Missouri • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Retreads: Recycling American Prime Time Television for Fun and Profit • Chad Dell, Monmouth • In the 1990s, a new television programming strategy seemed to emerge: “retreads,” the movement of prime time programs from one network to another. In 1995 alone, five cancelled programs found homes on another network’s schedule. This essay accounts for the use of retreads over a fifty-year period, including its resurgence in the 1990s. The essay argues that as one of many program recycling methods, retreads contribute to the alienation of television audiences.

Married sex in the movies: The last taboo? • J.M. Dempsey and Tom Reichert, North Texas • While other studies have incidentally addressed the portrayal of sex between married partners, this study specifically analyzes how sexuality between married couples is depicted in mainstream movies, as represented by the top movie video rentals of 1998 In the 25 motion pictures, married partners were portrayed in sexual behavior 16 times, or in 15% of the 105 codable sexual encounters. The most common sexual behavior portrayed among husbands and wives was passionate kissing.

Newspaper Letters and Phone-Mail to the Editor: A Comparison of Reader Input • Michael E. Dupre, Saint Anselm College and David A. Mackey, Framingham State College • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Partisan and Structural Balance of Election Stories on the 1998 Governor’s Race in Michigan • Frederick Fico and William Cote, Michigan State • The partisan and structural balance of newspaper stories covering the 1998 governor’s race in Michigan was assessed and compared to the newspaper coverage of three earlier elections. The 1998 election coverage favored the Democratic challenger in terms of space and prominence given his campaign’s assertions. A detailed issue analysis, however, suggests that the Republican incumbent was able to dominate the substantive issue agenda, while the Democratic challenger became himself the issue because of his insulting campaign comments.

Journalists’ Newsroom Roles and Their World Wide Web Search Habits • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This paper reports an analysis of how newsroom staff members search for information on the World Wide Web. Daily newspaper data collected in 1998 and 1999 were analyzed to determine if computer-assisted reporting supervisors, news researchers, general assignment and beat reporters, news editors, and newsroom technical specialists differed in how they searched for information on the Web. Findings indicated that there are clear differences in how the group members search.

World Wide Web Use In Newsrooms, 1997-99 • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This study focuses on the use of the Internet and World Wide Web in daily newspaper newsrooms during a three-year period covering 1997-99. The study focused on how these news organizations used the Web to find information, the Web sites most often used for newsgathering, what journalists perceived as the strengths and weaknesses of information found, the Web-based interactive technologies most often used, and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of Web reporting.

Effects of Media Coverage on Illicit Drug Trial Among College Students: What Does Curiosity Really do to the Cat? • Alyse R. Gotthoffer, Miami • This study examines the effects of media coverage on college students’ intentions to try illicit drugs. An experiment was performed with 172 undergraduate students to determine whether awareness, interest, and product curiosity affected intention to try a fictitious drug, MCA. Students were asked to listen to one of six radio segments with drug messages embedded in them. The results suggest that among students predisposed to try illicit drugs, repeated exposure to drug messages heightens awareness, interest, and curiosity about drugs, which, in turn, leads to an intention to try new drugs.

Morality and the Maintenance of Order: The Instructional Potential of “The Jerry Springer Show” • Mary Elizabeth Grabe, Indiana • The prevalence of verbal and physical aggression on daytime television talk shows has earned this genre the designation of “confrontainment.” In recent times politicians, clergy, and media critics have drawn attention by making castigating remarks about the content of particularly “The Jerry Springer Show.” Media scholars have gathered on the sideline of this scuffle to express opinions and offer research evidence to either defend talk shows as democratizing or expel them from the menu of morally just television fare.

The Incidence and Nature of Altruism in Primetime Television Programming • James K. Hertog and Mike Farrell, Kentucky • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Entertainment Media Use and Attitudes Concerning Women’s Rights: Merging Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches to Better Understand a Process of Media Effects • R. Lance Holbert, Dhavan V. Shah and Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin-Madison • Critical feminist scholars have long argued that the consumption of televised entertainment programming, because it is a site of gender role construction and contestation, plays an important role in shaping attitudes toward women and their place in society. Merging these insights with research on media uses and gratifications, we posit that individual-level differences in basic demographic characteristics, value-preferences, and social orientations motivate in the use of various types of recreational and informational media content.

Community Controversy and the News Media: A Network Structure of Community Actors’ Co-Coverage in the Local Newspapers • Naewon Kang, Wisconsin-Madison • This study uses network analysis to investigate how the community actors were covered together in news articles of the two local newspapers over a controversial school pairing policy in Madison, Wisconsin. By examining the co-coverage pattern, the author analyzes a symmetrical matrix of 133 community actors appearing in 132 news articles published during 1992 to 1995. Bonacich centrality and multidimensional analysis demonstrate that individuals who are involved in institutional organizations occupy central positions in the co-coverage network.

A Multilevel Approach to Civic Participation: Individual Length of Residence, Neighborhood Residential Stability, and their Interactive Effects with Media Use • Naewon Kang and Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin-Madison • Adopting the Sampson’s (1991) multilevel system model, this study attempts to investigate the role of residential variables both at the individual and at the neighborhood levels and communication factors in individuals’ civic participation. Findings in this study show the significant impact of both residential variables, individual length of residence and neighborhood residential stability, and support past evidences on the influence of communication behaviors on civic participation.

From Here to Obscurity: Media Substitution Theory and the Internet • Barbara K. Kaye, Valdosta State and Thomas J. Johnson, Southern Illinois • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Internet Uses and Gratifications: Understanding Motivations for Using the Internet • Hanjun Ko, Florida • In this study, the uses and gratifications theory was applied to investigate the Internet users’ motivations and their relationship with attitudes toward the Internet as well as types of Web site visited by users. Four motivations and five types of Web sites were discovered via factor analysis. Differences among heavy, medium, and light users of the Internet were also analyzed in terms of their motivations, types of Web sites frequently visited, and attitudes toward the Internet.

A Framing Analysis: How Did Three U.S. News Magazines Frame About Mergers or Acquisitions? • Sang Hee Kweon, Southern Illinois • The study examined news coverage of the mergers based on the types of mergers, government policy, and news focus of the three U.S. news magazines. This study found that all three magazines covered mergers or acquisitions favorably, particularly media mergers, and mergers news coverage was 35.3% (183) episodic and 64.5% (335) thematic. Fortune, a business-focused magazine, covered non-media mergers more favorably, whereas Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report covered media mergers more favorably than non-media mergers.

Pleasure, Reality, and Hegemony: A Television Drama and Women in a Korean Confucian Patriarchal Family Structure • Oh-Hyeon Lee, Massachusetts • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Political Talk, Not All “Hot Air” A Path Model Predicting Knowledge, Cynicism & Vote in an Issue Campaign • Glenn Leshner and Maria E. Len-Rios, Missouri • This study used regional telephone survey data collected after a 1999 off-season issue election to examine how campaign media and interpersonal political discussion predict how much voters learned about the issue, how they voted, and how politically cynical they were. Three distinct types of voters were identified: those who thought the issue was important, those who reported being involved in the campaign, and those who relied on endorsements to decide how to vote.

The Role of Response Efficacy in Health Threat Messages • Yulian Li, Minnesota • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

City Characteristics of Newspaper Coverage of Social Security Reform: A Community Structure Approach • John C. Pollock, Tiffany Tanner and Mike Delbene, College of New Jersey • Utilizing the community structure approach developed by Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien (1973, 1980) and elaborated by Pollock and others (1977, 1978, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999), a set of hypotheses were tested to discover the relationship between city characteristics and newspaper reporting on Social Security reform. This approach suggests that certain demographics within a community are systematically linked to newspaper reporting on critical issues.

Thinking About Health: The Relationship of Mass Media and Cognition to Perceptions of Children’s Health • Bryan H. Reber, Missouri • How media use and cognitive work contribute to perceptions of children’s health and quality of life issues was tested in a survey of 1,238 adults. Demographics were predictors of cognitive work and media use on children’s health issues. High cognitive work on children’s health issues was significantly related to pessimistic perceptions about the status of children’s health. High television exposure and attention were related to optimistic perceptions. Cognitive work led to more accurate assessments of the health situation.

Perceptions of Media Fairness: Implications for The Nixon And Clinton Legacies • Marilyn S. Roberts, Florida and Thomas J. Johnson, Southern Illinois • The study examines perceptions of the Watergate and Lewinsky scandals. Survey data (n=450) was collected after the Senate rejected articles of impeachment against President Clinton. Three questions asked about the scandals: whether their actions were serious enough to warrant being forced out of office; perceptions of corruptness; and whether the media were out to get them. Included are measures of demographic and political variables to determine significant associations and implications for the two Presidential legacies.

Telemedicine versus Telelaw: A Legal Comparison Between Offering the Services of Doctors and Lawyers over the Internet • Johanna M. Roodenburg, Florida • This paper compares the movement of the services of doctors and lawyers onto the Internet. It finds that doctors are moving online at a more rapid pace than lawyers. The paper examines the policy rationale for the different telemovement pace between the two professions.

Co-use and Co-processing of News Media in the Family: An Explication and Empirical Validation • Christian Sandvig and Melissa Nichols Saphir, Stanford and Steven Chaffee, California • This study considers the sharing of media in the family by developing two concepts similar to co-viewing and mediation but that apply to communication media other than television. Termed co-use and co-processing, this paper first explicates these concepts, then presents preliminary empirical evidence that these concepts exist from a survey of parent-adolescent pairs. We find that families widely co-use media other than television, mutually co-process content from these media, and that adolescents often initiate co-processing.

An ‘Improbable Leap’: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of Hillary Clinton’s Transition from First Lady to Senate Candidate • Erica Scharrer, Massachusetts-Amherst • This study is primarily a quantitative content analysis of newspaper coverage of Hillary Clinton as she makes an unprecedented transition from first lady to senate candidate. 342 newspaper stories are analyzed to determine whether the press has responded to her adoption of non-traditional roles with a negative tone. 96 stories about Giuliani are used for comparison, and a qualitative analysis of negative statements appearing in news stories adds depth and dimension to the discussion of critical tone.

Media Cue-Taking and Trends in Mass Opinion: Explaining Evaluations of ClintonÕs Competency and Integrity • Dhavan V. Shahm Wisconsin-Madison; David Domke, Washington; Mark D. Watts, Abacus Associates and David P. Fan, Minnesota • Contrary to what might be expected according to many models of media effects and public opinion, President Clinton’s job approval ratings remained high – and even slightly rose – during the period of critical coverage surrounding the Monica Lewinsky debacle. At the same time, although it received much less attention, public evaluations of the President’s integrity plummeted. With these public opinion divergences in mind, several pollsters, pundits, and scholars have argued that news media must have been largely irrelevant.

The Impact of Political Advertising: Differences Between Positive Ads and Issue, Image and Mixed Attacks • Sung Wook Shim, Florida • The purpose of this study is to identify the impact on the attacking candidate when he/she attacks the attacked candidate with four types of ads: issue, image attacks, both issue and image combined attacks and positive. The study results show that image attack produced a greater negative change than issue attack for evaluation of attacking candidate. The decline was significant between likelihood of voting for attacking candidate in the pretest and likelihood of voting for attacking candidate in the posttest.

Media Bias, Campaign Coverage, and Public Opinion: The 2000 New York Senate Race • Young Jun Son and Deborah Soun Chung, Indiana • This study examines the linkage between candidate treatment and public opinion during the ongoing 2000 New York Senate race and tests T. Patterson’s media candidate portrayal models. With evidence of political bias, our findings demonstrate the New York Times and the Washington Times were respectively favorable to Mrs. Clinton, the Democrat, and to Rudolph Giuliani, the Republican. In the visual part, we did not find specific media bias. We could not support Patterson’s models both in the written and the visual part.

Exploration of TV-Free Life Style • Toward a Media Exchange Model • Tao Sun and Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Influence of Spouse Communication and Informational Media on Risk Perception • Eun-Ho Yeo and Clifford W. Scherer, Cornell • This study used a path model to examine the influence of two communication behaviors on risk perception. Spouse communication, talking about health issues, and mass communication, use of informational media, particularly print, was used to predict husband and wife personal risk perception and societal risk perception. The focus of the paper is to examine the possibility that the impact of informational mass media on risk perception is mediated by family interaction, particularly husband-wife communication.

Economic Literacy and News Interest • Lowndes F. Stephens, South Carolina • The National Council on Economic Education, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Department of Education (Goals 2000 Educate American Act) and other organizations are promoting economic literacy. In this investigation the author tests, and finds support for, two hypotheses (using a random telephone survey sample of 369 residents in a Southern metropolitan area) – that interest in economic, business, and personal finance news is strongly and positively correlated with economic literacy, and with estimated financial net worth.

Exporting the First Amendment a Case of the Fair Report Privilege • Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State • Under the fair report privilege doctrine of American libel law, “[t]he publication of defamatory matter concerning another in a report of an official action or proceeding or of a meeting open to the public that deals with a matter of public concern is privileged if the report is accurate and complete or a fair abridgment of the occurrence reported.” Regardless of how it is formulated, the answer to the question of whether reports of the proceedings of foreign courts and other agencies fall within the fair report privilege in U.S. law carries profound implications for American news media in global communication.

An Interdisciplinary Synthesis of Framing • Weiwu Zhang, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper provides a multidisciplinary treatment of the framing analysis and pays close attention to the framing processes linking its antecedents, contents, and consequences. The antecedents of framing addresses the issue of how frames are constructed in the first place and how these influences interact with news media routines to influence actual media content frames. The consequences of media content frames deal with the extent to which media frames are adopted by audience members.

<< 2000 Abstracts