Minorities and Communication Division

FACULTY COMPETITION
Representations, Constructions Of Cultural Spaces And Marking Racial Difference: The Discourse of Urban-Suburban Dialectic as an Exilic Narrative • Linus Abraham, Iowa State University of Science and Technology • This paper examines the manifestation of the urban-suburban dialectic in the media. It suggests the dialectic serves as a hyper-ritualized narrative, linked to the dominant racial ideology, which by essentializing the nature of cultural spaces on the basis of race (suburban = white, urban = black) promotes myths of racial superiority and inferiority. The dialectic functions as a regime for staging and marking racial difference in the culture.

Racial And Regional Differences in Readers’ Evaluations of the Credibility of Political Columnists by Race and Sex • Julie L. Andsager, Washington State University • The purpose of this study, an experiment, was to determine how- race and gender of columnist and reader interact to influence readers’ perceptions of the credibility of the opinion column. Further, we examined whether regional differences would relate to credibility. This experiment was conducted using 594 students from two universities 2,500 miles apart. No differences in credibility appeared by race or gender of the columnist until region and race of the subjects interacted.

Americans Online: Differences in Surfing and Evaluating Race-Targeted Web Sites by Black and White Users • Osei Appiah, Iowa State University • Two hundred three black and white subjects navigated through either a black- or white-targeted professionally designed web site. It was expected that race-targeted web sites would not affect white viewers’ browsing and evaluation of a web site. Race-targeted web sites were, however, expected to influence black viewers’ responses to a site. As expected, whites displayed no difference in their overall navigation time on a site and displayed no difference in their evaluation of a site based on the racial target of the web site.

Starkly Different Views: A Historical Examination of Letters to the Editor Responding to the Lynching of Three Blacks in Aiken, S.C., 1926 • Kenneth Campbell, South Carolina • This study examines letters to the editor of several newspapers written in response to a triple lynching in Aiken, S.C. in 1926. While it does not suggest that the letter writers are a mirror of public opinion, it does point to the value of their ongoing conversation as a part of the historical record that should be considered in accounts of the tragedy.

Language Preference Issues Related to the Entry of a Local Hispanic Television Newscast • Todd Chambers, Texas Tech University • This paper examines the language preference issues related to entry of a local Hispanic television newscast. As the Hispanic population continues to grow, local media outlets will attempt to meet that need. One of the acculturation issues related to Spanish language media is the issue of language preference. Using a telephone survey method of Hispanics in a local television market in the Southwest, this study found a large demand among Hispanics for a newscast targeted to their population.

The Race Card and Ethical Reasoning: The Importance of Race to Journalistic Decision Making • Renita Coleman, Louisiana State University • A controlled experiment is used to investigate the effects of race of news subjects on journalists’ ethical reasoning. In this study as well as in two previous studies reported here, the race of the people in the dilemmas had a highly significant effect on ethical reasoning. When participants knew the race because they saw photographs, their ethical reasoning scores were higher when the people in the ethical dilemmas were white than when they were African American.

The Linguistic Intergroup Bias In Interpretations of a Race-Related Crime Story • Bradley W. Gorman and Eileen N. Gilligan, Syracuse University • Social psychologists argue that language can subtly reflect the structure of our thinking, especially in situations involving groups. This paper examines the linguistic intergroup bias in the context of people’s interpretations of a race-related television news story. The LIB suggests that people use more abstract language to describe members of outgroups performing negative behaviors compared to those same behaviors performed by ingroup members.

Black Ink and the New Red Power: Native Newspapers and Tribal Sovereignty • Patty Loew, and Kelly Mella, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper examines the relationship between Native American newspapers and tribal sovereignty and how this relationship informs community dialogue over environmental issues. “Black Ink and the New Red Power: Native Newspapers and Tribal Sovereignty” uses both quantitative and qualitative methodology. It includes a content analysis of more than a thousand environmental stories in four tribal newspapers in Wisconsin over a five-year period (1995-1999), interviews with Native American journalists, and discussions with Indian focus groups.

We Want In: The African American Press’ Negotiation for a White House Correspondent • Earnest L. Parry Jr., Texas Christian University • Almost 60 years ago, Harry S. McAlpin shook the hand of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and held a brief conversation with him after a White House press conference. It marked the first time an African American reporter had participated at a White House press conference as an official correspondent. Though African American editors and publishers had been pressuring the White House to allow a journalist to represent them since the beginning of Roosevelt’s administration, the most concerted efforts did not occur until just before and during America’s involvement in World War II.

Color Blindsided in the Booth: An Examination of the Descriptions of College Athletes During Televised Games • James A. Rada, Rowan University and K. Tim Wulfemeyer, San Diego State University • During televised sporting events, African American athletes often are characterized as purely physical specimens on the field or court and they are the recipients of negative references to their off-field activities. In contrast, White athletes more often are the recipients of a broader and more positive set of descriptors. This research tested for the presence of racial bias in televised coverage of men’s collegiate sports. Results showed that while African Americans have made some progress, biased coverage still exists.

Economic News Coverage in Puerto Rico and the Contradictions of Dependent Development • Ilia Rodriguez, St. Cloud State University • The purpose of research was explore how an elite Puerto Rican newspaper mediated the political tensions surrounding the implementation of the economic development policy promoted on the island by the Puerto Rican and U.S. governments between 1947 and 1963. More specifically, the analysis focused on the framing strategies utilized by the daily El Mundo to cover those aspects of Operation Bootstrap that became the subject of debate and revealed some of the tensions and contradictions of industrialization in a colonial context.

At War At Home And Abroad: The Pittsburgh Courier Columns of George S. Schuyler In Roosevelt’s America • Earnest Wiggins, South Carolina • A review of the writings of George S. Schuyler suggests that the ‘30s and ‘40s were the most productive decades of his life, during which he published journalism, commentary, essays and novels. This study focuses on his journalistic product, the work that has garnered the least attention from scholars. This researcher contends that his political and social philosophies were solidified during the second and third Roosevelt Administrations, periods of national challenge and change.

STUDENT COMPETITION
Media Effect on Race and Immigration: Testing the Link • Cleo Joffrion Allen, Louisiana State University • Martin Gilens concludes in his book Why Americans Hate Welfare (1999) that racial stereotypes play a central role in whites’ attitudes about welfare, crime, and immigration. His content analysis suggests a link between the “darkening” of poverty in news and public perceptions, but fails to empirically connect the two. I test the putative link between race and immigration using 2000 NES data -specifically, whether media use is positively correlated to racial attitudes and attitudes about immigration spending.

A Fall from Grace: The Framing of Imam Fawaz Damra by The Cleveland Plain Dealer • Yolanda D. Campbell, Akron • This paper reveals how the September 11th terrorist attacks, committed by men of the Islamic religion, may have influenced the news coverage of a significant national Islamic leader. Through a qualitative content analysis, the researcher examines The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s news coverage of Imam Fawaz Damra, current Islamic leader of the Islamic Center of Greater Cleveland mosque in Parma, Ohio and nationally known Islamic leader. Findings indicate that before September 11th, the newspaper consistently anointed Damra as a “spiritual leader.”

The Black Press and the Integration of Baseball: A Content Analysis of Changes in Coverage • Brian Carroll, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study analyzes black press coverage of both the Negro leagues and major league baseball before and after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in April 1947. The study employs a content analysis of columns and articles before integration and after Robinson’s signing. The results are meant to contribute to an understanding of the role of the black press in achieving integration and the newspapers’ conflicted relationship with Negro league baseball.

News Media, Racial Profiling, and September 11: Implications for Driving While Black • Philip Garland, David Domke, Andre Billeaudeaux and John Hutcheson, Washington • Study of news coverage before and after September 11 illuminates how discourse changed with respect to voices used as sources and their respective degree of support for racial profiling. Journalists and individual citizens increased as sources in post September 11 news, despite recent scholarship suggestive of overwhelming media reliance on elites and government officials. Examination of source’s race pinpoints which racial groups drive increased support for racial profiling, revealing white American sources’ significant belief shifts.

Silencing the Voice of the Minority • Minjeong Kim, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper compares coverage of two newspapers — the Los Angeles Times in the United States and the Chosun Ilbo in South Korea — about the civil disturbance following the Rodney King verdicts in Los Angeles in 1992 to explore whether the media kept Korean-American views out of the marketplace of ideas by portraying events in ways that did not include Korean-American voices. It shows that Korean-Americans’ voices were limited in the Los Angeles Times.

Jesse Owens, a Black Pearl Amidst an Ocean of Fury: A Case Study of Press Coverage on Jesse Owens in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games • Pamela C. Laucella, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This research examines the mainstream and black press’s coverage of 1936 Olympic gold medallist Jesse Owns. It compares Grantland Rice’s articles with journalists at New Your Amsterdam News to elucidate the interplay between journalists, media content, and 1920s culture. While all recognized Owens’s talent and gracious deportment, Rice’s evasive, descriptive, and stylistic approach focused on surrounding scenes and racial stereotypes. Amsterdam News’ journalists remained passive yet resolute in emphasizing Owens’s place in history while denouncing Adolph Hitler.

Cultural Diversity under Deregulation: Minority Ownership in Broadcast and Cable after the 1996 Telecommunications Act • Seung Kwan Ryu, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • This study examines the consequences of cultural diversity in terms of the status of minority ownership in broadcast media and cable after deregulation: How has deregulation affected minority ownership and programming in the cable industry, including the ownership of broadcast media? First, this study discusses the FCC’s minority preference policy. Second, it explores the current status of minority ownership in broadcast media and cable, focusing on period after the 1996 Act.

Hispanics in the Heartland: Are New Members of Iowa Communities Getting Appropriate Coverage in Local Newspapers? • Ellen Thompson, Drake University • As Hispanic populations increase in small communities, what are the community newspapers doing to provide community-wide, equitable coverage? This study examines 129 Iowa newspapers and compares percentage increases (if any) of Hispanic coverage with actual percentage increases of Hispanic people in the community. In 2000, 63 newspapers had 143 Hispanic-related stories in 8 of 14 news categories, the largest being 41 in Education, Classic Arts, and Religion.

<< 2002 Abstracts

Media Management and Economics Division

“Many Will Play, Few Will Win”: Global Strategies and Content Characteristics of Web Portals of Transnational Internet Media Corporations • Debashis “Deb” Aikat, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Inspired by their success in the United States, transnational Internet media corporations have launched international Web portals by forging global partnerships or starting localized subsidiaries to market their products and vision worldwide. Based on a survey and a content analysis incorporating information theories and concepts related to Internet economics, this study analyzed the global strategies and content characteristics of Web portals and examines media management practices.

Change and Stability in the Newspaper Industry’s Journalistic Labor Market • Lee B. Becker, Tudor Vlad and Hugh J. Martin, Georgia • Among the common assumptions made about the journalistic labor market is that it hierarchical, with entry-level hiring done almost exclusively by smaller organizations. Individuals are thought to be able to gain employment at larger media organizations only after they have served time in smaller ones. The assumed normal career progression for a newspaper journalist is from a small newspaper, perhaps even a weekly, to a larger one and on up the chain, with employment at larger organizations open only to those who have served their time at the lower levels of the employment chain.

Measuring Radio Program Diversity in the Era of Consolidation • Todd Chambers, Texas Tech University • This paper addresses the issue of market structure in the top 50 radio markets and the different types of program diversity measures. The study used a secondary analysis of ownership information, format information and song information to analyze the research questions and hypotheses. Overall, the study confirmed previous research related to an increase in format diversity with an increase in the number of competitors. Likewise the findings showed a negative relationship between ownership concentration and radio program diversity.

Diversification Strategy of Global Media Conglomerates: Examining Its Patterns and Drivers • Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted and Byeng-Hee Chang, Florida • This paper reviews the diversification patterns of the leading global media conglomerates and proposes an analytical framework for examining the factors that influence these strategic choices. Using a case-study approach, we analyzed the top seven global media conglomerates’ product and international (geographic) diversification strategies. Combining both the industrial economics and resource-based view of strategic management, we further devise a system of drivers that might affect the extent, direction, and mode of diversification for global media conglomerates.

The Emerging Broadband Television Market: Assessing the Strategic Differences between Cable Television and Telephone Firms • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted and Jae-Won Kang, Florida • This paper compared the strategic differences between telcos and cable television firms based on a proposed strategic architecture that depicts the roles of various channel members and the interrelationships between them in the emerging broadband television industry. We found that M&As were practiced more frequently than other types of alliances and cable was a more attractive target as well as an active acquirer in M&A alliances. Also, “relatedness” appeared to be a more important M&A strategy for the cable firms as the telcos focused on a resource alignment strategy, allying with firms in the information services and software sectors.

The Dual Structure of Global Networks in the Entertainment Industry: Interorganizational Linkage and Geographical Dispersion • Bum Soo Chon, Kyunggido, Korea and George A. Barnett, SUNY-Buffalo • This paper describes the contour of the global media networks in terms of interorganizational linkages and spatial distribution of foreign direct investment in the entertainment industry. The results of the multiple network analyses revealed that there were significant differences in the positional structures of global media networks in the entertainment industry. However, in the case of the structural relationships between the interorganizational and geographical dispersion networks, the QAP analyses revealed structural similarities between both networks in the entertainment industry.

Measuring the Financial Success of Motion Pictures: A Study Integrating the Economic and Communication Theory Perspectives • Bryan Greenberg, Syracuse University • Prior research into movie attendance has fallen into two camps. The first, economic, revolves around financial measurements and how these measurements correlate with attendance. The second perspective, known as the communication theory or psychological approach, focuses on the processes undertaken by the audience in choosing an entertainment option. While these two perspectives differ on the surface they in fact share certain similarities, most notably an assumption of an active audience influenced by and interacting with outside variables.

Ownership and Barriers to Entry in Non-metropolitan Daily Newspaper Markets • Stephen Lacy, Michigan State University; David C. Coulson, Nevada-Reno and Hugh J. Martin, Georgia • This exploratory study found that private ownership of dailies was negatively associated with the number of weekly newspapers and with the penetration of paid and all weeklies within the county. This is consistent with the prediction that privately held newspapers keep prices and profits lower and quality higher than publicly held dailies. The strategy of lower prices and higher investment in quality could discourage weeklies from starting and would lower weekly penetration.

A Case-Study Analysis of Divestiture Determinants & Strategies of Major Media Firms, 1996-2000 • Daphne Eilein Landers, Florida • The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has stimulated media firms to restructure their operations, relative to new opportunities. The deregulatory law has led firms to engage in extensive mergers and acquisitions. Nevertheless, media firms also have divested numerous operations. The goal of this exploratory research paper, therefore, is to ascertain what have been the divestiture strategies – and divestiture determinants – of major media firms since the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Divestiture strategies and motivations are reviewed and applied to recent media divestiture activity.

Switching Radio Stations While Driving: Magnitude, Motivation and Measurement Issues • Walter McDowell, Miami and Steven J. Dick, Southern Illinois University • Rather than examining what attracts radio audiences to a station, this study looked at what turns audiences away. Among the findings of a general public self-report survey of over 350 people were that, while driving a car or truck, there is considerable station switching within a mere quarter-hour listening span and that avoidance of commercials (or zapping) was by far the most influential motivator.

Free Riders and Pretenders: Media Industry Organizations and Collective Action • Jennifer H. Meadows, Design California State University, Chico and August E. Grant, Focus25 Research & Consulting • This study uses collective action theory to examine membership in media industry organizations. In particular it examines the free riders, those actors who benefit from the services of a media industry organization such as lobbying but do not participate. A survey of members and non-members of a media organization was conducted to measure dimensions of collective action. A third group, pretenders, non-members who indicate that they are members, was found. Differences among members, non-members and pretenders are examined.

Anatomy of a Death Spiral: Newspapers and Their Credibility • Philip Meyer and Yuan Zhang, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Editors have long believed in their hearts that the economic success of newspapers depends on their credibility. We find evidence to support this belief by examining 21 counties where newspaper credibility has been measured. The more people believe what they read in the papers, the greater the robustness of circulation penetration over a recent 5-year period. Unfortunately, both credibility and readership are falling in what appears to be a classic reinforcing process.

DonÕt I Know You? Understanding and Serving Audiences for Special-Interest Publications • Allison Morgan, Middle Tennessee State University • Using a case study approach, this paper considers how media managers working for special interest publications can seek to hold and maintain their readers’ loyalty. Specifically, this study explored the challenges faced by the communications department of Tennessee Farmers Cooperative, a farm-supply organization that publishes a monthly special-interest newspaper for its agricultural audience.

Digital Cinema Goes to Hollywood: The Economic Effects of Digital Technology on the Motion Picture Industry • Siho Nam, The Pennsylvania State University • Situated within economic and industrial contexts, this research aims to examine how digital technology differs from other preceding film technologies and to assess the economic effects of digital cinema at this stage of development by utilizing some secondary statistical data. It also pays specific attention to the technical and economic barriers that inhibit digital cinema’s rapid diffusion. Finally, a possibility of the Internet as a new film exhibition venue is briefly discussed.

Must-Carry: An Economic Consideration • Namkee Park, Southern California • In Turner Broadcasting System v. FCC (1994 & 1997), the US Supreme Court justified and affirmed the constitutionality of the “must-carry” restrictions of the Cable Act of 1992 by referring to the cable operators’ “bottleneck, or gatekeeper control over most of the television programming.” However, an economic analysis focusing on the current conditions for competition, relevant market analysis, and concentration and vertical integration data suggests that the Court’s ruling was based upon faulty reasoning.

Managing Innovation: Newspapers’ and the Development of Online Editions • Shashank Saksena and C. Ann Hollifield, Georgia • Media managers in the 21st century will need to constantly assess and respond to emerging technologies that have the potential to disrupt the industry. This project examined the innovation management processes that the newspaper industry used to respond to the Internet, using an analytical framework of recommended innovation management techniques derived from previous research. The study found that newspapers’ innovation-management processes were generally haphazard and that industry executives should be better prepared in the future to manage innovation.

Business Models Of Online News Organizations: Endgame For Global Media Dominance? • Frederick Schiff, and Jefferson Gaskin, Houston • The study compares leading news websites. Results show that content factors and market factors are both important in predicting the size of the unique audience attracted to news sites. The most important market factor seems to be paying attention to news consumers outside the area of the core product strength of established media firms. Content characteristics also predict online performance of news organizations, especially business models that optimize information retrieval and storage, and interactive networking.

Competition and/or Coexistence?: The Relationship between Local Television Stations and Their Websites at the Macro and Micro Levels • Tae-Il Yoon and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri-Columbia • In an attempt to explore the relationship between traditional television media and the new Internet media, this study will use market survey data of local television stations in a city within the framework of the niche theory framework. The findings of the current study suggest that the relationship between local TV stations and their websites are more complicated than practitioners and researchers assume. Their relationship depends on the context in which the two media work.

<< 2002 Abstracts

Media Ethics Division

Moral Language in Newspaper Commentary: A Kohlbergian Analysis • Wendy Barger, Oregon • This study begins with the question of whether the news media are conveying messages that help us as individuals grow morally. Using a Kohlbergian model, the study begins to explore the question by analyzing the moral language in commentaries and letters to the editor within three Oregon newspapers. The study’s content analysis reveals that most arguments presented in the opinion section of the three papers are done so at either Kohlberg’s pre-conventional or conventional levels.

Ethics as a Cross-Cultural and Cross-Boundary Bridge: American and Israeli Journalists’ Views of Ethical Issues • Dan Berkowitz, Iowa; Yehiel Limor, Tel-Aviv University and Jane Singer, Iowa • This study explores how social dimensions of a reporter’s world shape ethical decisions through a survey of reporters in Israel and one state in the Midwestern U. S. We found that personal backgrounds and journalistic socialization were not closely related to ethical decisions, but the broader cultural dimension stood out. The context of specific ethical situations was also important, as was a reporter’s ethical orientation toward the public interest.

The Effects of Visuals on Ethical Reasoning: What’s a Photograph Worth to Journalists Making Moral Decisions? • Renita Coleman, Louisiana State University • Two experiments are used to explore the effects of photographs on ethical decision making in the journalism domain. Both studies found that photographs did have the ability to change participants’ ethical reasoning for the better. Also, both identified mental elaboration as significant in that process; thinking about the people affected by an ethical situation helped improve ethical reasoning. Involvement was also important; when participants were not very involved with the dilemmas, having photographs significantly improved their ethical reasoning.

The Promise and Peril of Anecdotes in News Coverage: An Ethical Analysis • David A. Craig, Oklahoma • This analytical essay assesses the use of anecdotes in news coverage on ethical grounds, pointing both to their promise and to their potential dangers. The argument draws on Craig’s framework for analyzing news coverage of ethics, on Christians et al.’s communitarian ethic, and on Gilligan’s relationship-oriented ethic. Examples from news stories illustrate the ethical complexity of anecdotes. The essay also suggests how journalists can choose anecdotes more critically and points to an adaptation of the anecdotal form that is ethically more supportable.

Covering Kids: Are Journalists Guilty of Exploiting Children? • Romayne Smith Fullerton, Western Ontario, Canada • Social researchers have a well-established body of literature and clear protocols that assist them in their interactions with children. Journalists do not. This paper applies some of the ethical considerations from social research to press practice. Using several recent Canadian cases involving coverage of children, I explore a wide range of ethical concerns that may confront a journalist interacting with and writing about minors. While the examples are drawn from the Canadian media scene, the observations are valid across North American newsrooms and the implications for this discussion are universal.

Ethics and Eloquence in Journalism: A Study of the Demands of Press Accountability • Theodore L. Glasser, Stanford University and James S. Ettema, Northwestern University • This study of ethics in journalism equates ethics with accountability. It argues that the problem of ethics in journalism is not the inability of journalists to know right from wrong but their inability to talk, reflexively and articulately, about it. Our “being ethical-means-being-accountable” theme draws from, but is not entirely wedded to, the model of discourse ethics developed in recent years by Jurgen Habermas.

A Masochist’s Teapot: Where to Put the Handle in Media Ethics • Thomas W. Hickey, South Florida • The task of defining ethics in mass communications can be aided by an interface with religion. The four guiding principles of the Society of Professional Journalists express ethical tension that can be viewed as a conflict between the metaphysical concepts of the one and the many. The doctrine of the Trinity resolves this conflict by uniting both concepts instead of pitting them as opposites. Following this model, a grid can be developed for plotting ethical journalism.

Stalker-razzi and Sump-pump Hoses: The Role of the Media in the Death of Princess Diana • Elizabeth Blanks Hindman, North Dakota State University • This case study examines mainstream newspaper editorials’ discussion of the role, responsibility and ethics of the media in the death of the Princess of Wales. Using attribution theory, it concludes that the newspapers dealt with criticism of the media in the case in several ways. First, they distanced themselves from the photographers who chased her car before it crashed; second, they blamed those outside the media, including Diana herself; and third, they acknowledged some responsibility.

Rwanda, News Media, And Genocide: Toward a Research Agenda for Reviewing the Ethics and Professional Standards of Journalists Covering Conflict • Kevin R. Kemper and Michael Jonathan Grinfeld, Missouri-Columbia • The ongoing United Nations war crimes tribunals for journalists accused of inciting genocide in Rwanda provide the backdrop for a discussion about reviewing the ethics and professional standards of journalists covering conflict. The authors argue that journalists and ethicists – regardless of epistemologies or methodologies – need to frame an ethical paradigm for journalists covering conflict. Possible concepts for study may include autonomy, objectivity, conflict theory, nationalism, intergenerational racism and ethnic hatred and technology, among others.

Generation Y’s Ethical Judgments of Sexual and Fear Appeals in Print Advertising • Jeffrey J. Maciejewski, Creighton University • This study reports the results of an empirical investigation into the ethical beliefs of Generation Y, in particular their moral assessments of sexual and fear appeals in print advertising. The study offers empirical support for the measuring of ethical ideologies, but found that such measures may have limited value in assessing levels of Machiavellianism among individuals. More importantly, the results from this study strongly suggest that the moral appraisals of Gen Y may be significantly differently than other individuals.

Radical Leadership and Debate in the Ethics of Naming Rape Victims • Richard J. Riski, Memphis • The status quo for a majority of newspapers is to not publish a rape victim’s name. Only a handful of publications defy this rule. Since the legal right to publish is established, the question for the media is how to create an ethical policy, or consistent practice, of deciding when — if at all — to name rape victims. This paper explores the ethical reasoning behind the six points of significant debate that separate those who do — and those who do not — publish victims’ names.

Entertaining Media Entertainment Ethics: Prospects for Development • Lawrence A. Wenner, Loyola Marymount University • This paper seeks to answer foundational questions about media entertainment ethics as distinguishable from the broader field of media ethics. The analysis explores the developmental predispositions of a journalism-centered media ethics. Reasons for the limited consideration of media entertainment in the context of media ethics are assessed. A review and critique of three significant works centered in media entertainment ethics aims to inform developmental foundations for a research agenda.

Nelson Mandela and South African Apartheid: The Media as Deconstructive Agent • Alisa White, Texas at Arlington and Vardaman White, Birmingham • The purpose of this paper is to describe deconstruction according to the goals and strategies of Jacques Derrida, examine his essay, “The Laws of Reflection: Nelson Mandela, in Admiration,” and examine the media’s role in the deconstruction process. Derrida seeks to separate the sign from the signified. For him, there is no inherent meaning within the language, rather, meaning emerges through the play of the words.

<< 2002 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society Division

FACULTY
The Credibility of Newspapers, Television News, and Online News • Rasha A. Abdulla, Bruce Garrison, Michael Salwen, Paul Driscoll, and Denise Casey, Miami • This exploratory study analyzes the components of credibility of news from newspapers, television, and online news. A national telephone survey of 536 adults was conducted in February 2002. Respondents evaluated the credibility of newspapers, television news, and online news using a variation of Gaziano and McGrath’s 12-item Likert-type news credibility scale. While there were similarities in how each medium was perceived, the study also revealed some fundamental differences. Respondents evaluated newspaper and television news credibility more similarly than they did online news credibility.

Looking for an Agenda: Meta Analytic Review of the Literature on Political Advertising and Issue Learning • Soontae An and Hyun Seung Jin, Kansas State University • Meta analytic review of the literature on political advertising and issue learning reveals why the effect of political advertising appears to be inconsistent and why care is needed in generalizing from different types of studies. The research method (experimental vs. survey), the level of election (presidential election vs. lower-level election), and advertising measurement (recall measure vs. attention or exposure measure) were the factors causing seemingly inconsistent results.

Modeling the Development of International Knowledge and Attitudes • Christopher E. Beaudoin, Indiana-Bloomington • Via a national telephone survey of 467 adults, the current study attempts to model the development of knowledge and attitudes about China and Great Britain. Two well-fitting structural equation models indicate that international general knowledge appears to be predicted by individual (education and international interest), societal (attitudes toward new immigrants), and mediated (international news use) influences. In contrast, international episodic knowledge is predicted by only individual (education and international interest) and mediated (international news use) influences.

Talking the Talk & Walking the Walk: The Mass Media and Social Capital in Towns and Cities • Christopher E. Beaudoin, Indiana-Bloomington • The current study defines social capital in terms of four attitudinal and four behavioral measures. It then asks whether these measures differ in towns (population less than 20,000) and cities (population around 2 million). A telephone survey of adults in two towns and two cities in one Midwestern state allows for the testing of 1) patterns and levels of social capital, and 2) relationships with news and entertainment media use. Contrary to expectation, social capital levels were higher in cities than towns.

Must See TV or ESPN: Entertainment and Sports Media Exposure and Body Image Distortion in College Women • Kimberly L. Bissell and Peiqin Zhou, Alabama • Many studies offer clear evidence that exposure to TDP (thinness depicting and promoting) media leads to distorted body image perceptions in school-age females and college women. Only recently have researchers broadened the TDP media definition to include sports media. This study compared women’s exposure to two types of media entertainment and sports mediaÑand looked for possible associations with body image distortions and eating disorders. Exposure to “thin-ideal” television was a significant predictor of four dimensions of disordered eating for women of all races.

A Content Analysis of Farm Safety Health Messages: Challenging Assumptions of Current Health Communication Theory on the Use of Fear and Empathy Appeals in the Mass Media • Rose G. Campbell, Butler University • This content analysis of farm safety messages assesses the extent to which fear appeals (based on the Extended Parallel Process Model [EPPM]; Witte, (1992) also contain elements that facilitate empathic arousal (1997, 1999, 2000). Twenty-five percent of health messages containing all four EPPM elements also contain all five Empathy elements. These findings raise questions about the spuriousness of both EPPM and empathy studies that fail to assess other elements that may be responsible for risk judgments and behavioral effects.

Third Person Perception and School Violence • John Chapin, Penn State University and Grace Coleman, Crisis Center North • The study is the first of its kind to study third-person perception within the context of school violence. Linkages to the health psychology literature (optimistic bias) provide the basis for further understanding of adolescents’ perceptions of school violence and the influence of media violence in their lives. Results from a survey of 1,500 middle school and high school students suggest third-person perception regarding media violence decreases with age, and is influenced by perceived reality of media violence, optimistic bias, and knowledge of real world youth violence.

Preventive or Punitive? A Case Study on the Third-Person Effects and SupportfFor Media Censorship • Stella Chih-Yun Chia, Kerr-hsin Lu and Douglas M. McLeod, Wisconsin-Madison • This study investigates the third-person perception and individualsÕ support for media censorship with both preventive and punitive explanations in the context of a controversial sexual VCD that infringed on a public figure’s privacy. The preventive explanation views individuals’ support for censorship as a preventive action to protect others from threatening media effects; the punitive explanation argues that individualsÕ favorable attitudes toward media censorship show their intention to penalize the media for the harm they have done to the subject of the negative communication.

Black and White Perpetrators and Victims on TV News Psychological Reactions to the Race of Victims and Criminals Portrayed on Television News • Travis L. Dixon, Michigan • The current study assessed television news viewers’ psychological reactions after exposure to a crime story in which a Black, White or race unidentified criminal is suspected of killing a White, Black or race unidentified victim. Participants were exposed to a crime story embedded in a newscast in a 3 (Victim Race – Black, White, or Race Unidentified) X 3 (Perpetrator Race – Black, White, or Race Unidentified) X 2 (Racism – High, Low) X 2 (News Viewing – Heavy, Light) factorial design.

Alcohol Advertising Exposure and Perceptions: Links with Alcohol Expectancies and Drinking or Intention to Drink in Teens and Young Adults • Kenneth Fleming and Esther Thorson, Missouri and Charles Atkins, Michigan State University • This study tests a mediation model of alcohol advertising effects that argues drinking or intention to drink is related to amount and type of alcohol advertising one is exposed to, as mediated by perceptual responses to the advertising and expectancies about alcohol. The model was tested using survey data of two important age cohorts, teenagers aged 12 to 20 and young adults 21 to 29. The findings show there was a good fit between the data and a model that suggests the impact of alcohol advertising exposure on drinking is mediated by alcohol advertising attitudes and positive alcohol expectancies.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Newspapers Nationwide: A Community Structure Analysis • Daniella Gratale, Christina Steer, John C. Pollock, Ph.D., Megan Deacon, Katie Huber and Bill Hults, The College of New Jersey • This study uses a “community structure approach” to explore the connection between city characteristics and nationwide newspaper coverage of embryonic stem cell research. A sample of 350 articles, chosen from 21 newspapers across the nation, were coded for “prominence” and article “direction” (favorable, unfavorable, or neutral). The results were combined to calculate a single-score “Media Vector” for each newspaper. Pearson and regression analysis revealed that three variables accounted for 85% of the variance: “health care access” (number of physicians per 100,000 residents); “stakeholders” (% Catholic and % Republican), and “media access” (% cable-subscribers).

Evaluating the Credibility of Online Information: A test of source and advertising influence • Jennifer Greer, Jane Baughman, Patricia Cunningham-Wong, Ethnie Groves Catherine McCarthy, Megan Myers, and Cindy Petterson, Nevada-Reno • An experimental design examined whether source or advertising credibility influence perceived credibility of an online news story. It was hypothesized that, in the absence of a brand-name news source, subjects would look to advertising as a secondary cue. While source credibility was significantly tied to their ratings of the story, advertising credibility was not. Further, subjects paid little attention to the ads, even though the comprised at least a third of the page.

Achieving the Men’s Health Look: College Males’ Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding the Lean and Toned Body Ideal • Magdala Peixoto and Kim Walsh-Childers, Florida • Studies suggest two trends: the male body ideal disseminated in the media is becoming more muscular, and body dissatisfaction and weight control and muscle building behaviors are increasing among young men. This study explored the possible relationship between these trends through focus groups with college males. Results suggest young men are aware of the lean and toned mediated ideal and are engaging in weight control and/or muscle building behaviors in an effort to approximate it.

An Ideological Race between Journalistic Values and Corporate Interests on the Information Superhighway: NBC News’ Web Coverage of a GE-related Incident • Tien-tsung Lee, Ph.D. Washington State University and Kuang-Kuo Chang Michigan State University • The impact of media mergers, or the concentration of media ownership, has been a popular subject in mass communication research. Some observers argue that one of the implications of the increase of corporate ownership is that news organizations may lose their autonomy and objectivity while covering their parent corporations. The present research theorizes that journalistic professionalism may be able to overcome such pressure. The coverage of an accident involving GE — which owns NBC — on the websites of eight major U.S. news organizations, was analyzed.

Motivating Turnout Counter-Endorsement Third-Person Effects, Campaign Negativity, and Voting • Glenn Leshner, Lance Holbert, and Tae-Il Yoon; Missouri-Columbia • This study analyzed the respective behavioral effects of campaign negativity and third-person perceptions fostered by counter-attitudinal issue endorsements on voting. The context for this study involved a survey during an off-off-year statewide ballot initiative, which would have granted individuals the right to carry a concealed weapon. We found that endorsements that run counter to voters’ stated positions on this issue created third-person perceptions, and that these perceptions had a positive influence on actual voting.

Bypassing The Middleman: The Impact Of Web Use On The Public Perception Of Physicians • Wilson Lowery, Mississippi State University and William B. Anderson, Louisiana State University • This study asks if today’s physicians are losing some of their authority when faced with clients who are empowered with online knowledge. Findings suggest that heavy Web users are less likely to see physicians as exclusive holders of health information. The study also explores the degree of use of online health information and predictors of this use. Finding show substantial use of the Web for health information and that age, education level, employment and income level are the dominant predictors.

Peer and Social Influence on Opinion Expression: Combining the Theories of Planned Behavior and the Spiral of Silence • Kurt Neuwirth, Cincinnati, Edward Fredrick, Southern Mississippi, Jocye M Wolburg, Marquette University • This study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior and Spiral of Silence to explore the role of peer and social influence on communicative acts related to drinking behavior. Results of the study suggest that a person’s own attitude and sense of self-efficacy are important influences on willingness to communicate about drinking. The study also found that peers, and to a lessor extent perceptions of majority attitudes, were associated with willingness to voice an opinion.

Less Influenced Than Who, Exactly? The Role Of Stereotyping In Third-Person Perception Of Effects Of Media Violence • Erica Scharrer, University of Massachusetts • The third-person perception as it relates to the issue of television violence is examined via survey responses of 624 adults from three regions in the United States. Respondents are asked to specify which social groups they deem most susceptible to negative media influence. Results suggest that unfavorable stereotypes of certain marginalized social groups (e.g., people of color, urban residents) may help shape perceptions of who is perceived to be more negatively influenced by media violence than others.

The Influence of News Coverage On Gulf War Syndrome • Robert L. Stevenson, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper considers whether news coverage of Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) had any influence on calls made to a Department of Defense hotline from the time the hotline was introduced in early 1994 until 1999. News coverage is measured by the total number of words published in two major national newspaper, the Washington Post and USA Today, and the word equivalents presented on the evening newscasts of the three commercial networks and CNN Headline News during the same five-year period. Granger Causality regression is used, among other techniques, to test the assertion that media coverage was a factor in the proliferation of a strange illness that medical authorities could not define or find a cause of.

Cancer Information on the Web: Gross Characteristics and Readability • Craig W. Trumbo, Missouri • This project is an exploratory investigation of the WebÕs content on cancer. This paper reports the results of the first of two components of this study: the overall characteristics of this public resource, including an examination of the contentÕs readability.

Disruptive and Cooperative Interruptions in Prime Time Television Fiction: The Role of Gender, Status, and Topic • Xiaoquan Zhao, Pennsylvania and Walter Gantz, Indiana University • Speech characteristics of male and female characters in fictional television have received only scant attention in media content research. A content analysis of prime time television revealed that male characters were more likely to initiate disruptive interruptions than female characters while female characters were more likely to use cooperative interruptions than male characters. Such differences, however, were moderated by status differential between interactants and topic of conversation.

STUDENTS
Soliciting and Expressing Social Support Over the Internet: An Investigation of On-line Eating Disorder Support Groups • Kristen L. Campbell, Miami • Using a longitudinal and systematic sample of 490 postings, this study analyzed the themes, the type of social support, and the strategies used to solicit social support provided on the top five Yahoo! eating disorder discussion boards. Optimal matching theory, the notion that it is possible to attribute stressful events to social supportive behavior in order to find the most favorable match, led to the formulation of two hypothesis. Both were supported.

“American Taliban:” A Framing Content Analysis of the U.S. Press Coverage of John Walker Lindh • Shao-Chun Cheng, Ohio University • Employing quantitative framing content analysis, this study examined the U. S. news media’s coverage of John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban.” During the three-month sampling period, 95 articles were taken from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Time and Newsweek were content analyzed. The results found that the U. S. news media primarily framed John Walker Lindh’s story as a political/legal incident, and the most often used frame was “political/legal negative” frame.

Third-Person and First-Person Perceptions Of Smokers And Non-Smokers: Effects Of Attitudes Toward Smoking And Involvement In Smoking On Perceived Influences Of Anti-Smoking Public Service Announcements • Youjin Choi, Missouri and Mijong Chae, Florida • This study examined effects of attitudes toward smoking and involvement in smoking on perceived influences of anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs). The hypotheses were that people who have negative attitudes toward smoking perceive a larger influence of the PSAs on themselves than others, and those who have positive attitudes toward smoking perceive a smaller influence of the PSAs on themselves than others.

Communicating in the Aftermath of a Crisis: Lessons Learned from 9/11 • Terence (Terry) Flynn, Syracuse University • The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001 were devastating examples of how a crisis can strike at the heart and soul of an organization. Crisis management literature provides the basis for understanding the steps that organizations should take but provides limited empirical evidence of what organizational variables contribute to the successful management of a crisis event. This study uses, for the first time, three indexes to measure organizational leadership, preparedness and demand during crises.

Political Elites, News Media, and the Rhetoric of U.S. National Identity Since September 11 • John Hutcheson, David Domke, Andre Billeaudeaux, and Philip Garland, Washington • Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 it has been common for U.S. leaders to publicly articulate themes of American national identity. We argue that this national identity rhetoric has been at the heart of the governmentÕs mobilization campaign to unite the American public in support of the war on terrorism. Using content analysis of Time magazine, this study examines specific communication strategies employed by government leaders to galvanize public sentiment and promote national unity.

“Laugh Away Your Mistrust”: Revisiting the Relationship between Friendship Sitcom Viewing and Social Trust • Jong-Eun Roselyn Lee, Pennsylvania • While television entertainment is blamed for decline in social capital, a series of recent studies have produced consistent findings that suggest friendship sitcoms have positive effects on social trust. This research re-examines and elaborates the association by testing possible interaction effects between sitcom viewing and demographic characteristics on social trust. The analyses find income and race have significant interaction effects with sitcom viewing, illustrating that the relationship between sitcom viewing and social trust may vary across different demographic segments.

Media Coverage of Mexican Immigration into the United States: A Community Structure Approach • Guinevere Lehman, Daniella Gratale, Nicholas Stine and Patrick Snyder, The College of New Jersey • This study uses a “community structure approach” to examine the relationship between specific city demographics and newspaper coverage of immigration into the United States. A sample of 280 newspaper articles, published between 10/29/93 and 9/11/01, and chosen from 14 newspapers across the nation, were coded for “prominence” and article direction (favorable, unfavorable, or neutral). The results were combined to calculate a single-score “Media Vector” for each newspaper.

Stimulus or Outcome: An Operant Conditioning Explanation of Threat Messages’ Effectiveness • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This experimental study investigates the effects of outcome and threat on attitudes and behavioral intention. Applying the cardinal rule of operant conditioning that human behaviors are largely controlled by outcomes, this study finds that the high or pleasant outcome is consistently more effective than the low or unpleasant outcome in increasing subjectsÕ attitude toward object, attitude toward behavior and behavioral intention. Threat is found to have little impact.

Effects of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack on U.S. Press Coverage • Jensen Moore, Samantha Kemming and Betsy Neibergall and David P. Fan, Minnesota • This study investigated effects of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on U.S. press coverage before and after the event. Analysis focused on two of the terrorists’ goals – peace in Palestine and respect for the Muslim faith – as articulated in Osama bin Laden’s October 7, 2001 statement. Coverage was assessed using a computer-based content analysis program that categorized/evaluated text. Findings indicated that terrorists did change U.S. print media.

The Internet Comes to Radiotown: Media Use 40 Years After Schramm • Jay Newell, Michigan State University • Forty years ago Wilbur Schramm collected data on the media use habits of children in what may have been the last town in North America not to have television. This present research returns to Schramm’s “Radiotown” to explore the current media use habits of the now adult subjects of Schramm’s study. Televisions, radios and computers are ubiquitous among Schramm’s former subjects, and the use of the devices is nearly constant. Findings are compared with key aspects of three theories: uses and gratifications, diffusion of innovation and social cognitive theory.

Intensity and Goal Dimensions of Internet Dependency Relations: A Media System Dependency Theory Perspective • Padmini Patwardhan and Jin Yang, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • Using a cross sectional email survey of 166 respondents randomly drawn from the faculty, staff and student population at a large mid-western university in the United States, this study examined individual-media relations in the online environment. Intensity and goal dimensions of individual Internet relations were explored from a micro-level Media System Dependency theory perspective. Some demographic antecedents of Internet Dependency Relations were also investigated.

Framing Mental Illness: The Trial of Andrew Goldstein • Elaine Sieff, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Portrayals of mental illness in the mass media have been historically negative and inaccurate. Using framing analysis, this research attempts to understand the portrayal of schizophrenia in reports of a particular event involving an individual diagnosed with schizophrenia. Differences in the coverage between three newspapers, and the frames used were observed. Although efforts to promote more understanding of mental illness were observed; the coverage is often negative and stereotypical in nature.

Privacy In A State Of War: The Effect Of The Events Of September 11 On Media Privacy Framing • J. Richard Stevens, Texas at Austin • Privacy can be expressed in the mass media in different ways. An analysis of the use of privacy frames in the New York Times in the 16-week period surrounding the events of September 11 attempted to measure their impact on the framing of privacy. The study found a dramatic increase in the number of frames advocating increased access to individuals following Sept. 11, while the number of frames advocating less access remained relatively unchanged.

The Enactment of JournalistsÕ Role Conceptions • Tim P. Vos, Syracuse • This study tests the assumption that journalistsÕ role conceptions are reflected in how journalists write news stories. A survey of journalists was conducted to establish individual role conceptions. The findings are compared to a content analysis of those same journalists’ news content. The results indicate that role conceptions are not a reliable predictor of how news stories are written.

Framing Social Responsibility: Media Coverage of Nike Sweatshops from 1996 to 1998 • Ning Wang, Syracuse University • This paper tried to detect media frames in the coverage of Nike sweatshop issue during 1996 to 1998. Content analysis was done with 116 articles extracted from Lexis-Nexis database. The results revealed a clear trace of framing as: the workers in distant Asian countries were almost unheard of, this issue has not much government involvement, there were not many ordinary people concerned, the whole issue is primarily the charge and counter-charge between Nike and non-governmental organizations, and Nike’s promise to change was welcomed and credited.

<< 2002 Abstracts

Magazine Division

Truth Beyond Fact: An Analysis of the Gonzo Journalism of Hunter S. Thompson • Jamie Kopf, Texas at Austin • Hunter S. Thompson, who patented the aggressive, subjective first-person form of journalism known as Gonzo, has generated considerable debate among scholars of literary journalism, some of whom argue that his trademark fictionalization renders his work satire, not journalism. In arguing for Thompson’s classification as a literary journalist, this paper examines his work in the context of New Journalism, addresses the defining characteristics of the Gonzo approach, and hypothesizes the potential agenda underlying Thompson’s political writing.

Seeing Red: The Reader’s Digest during the McCarthy Era • Marianne Russ, Ohio University • A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Reader’s Digest from 1950 to 1954 finds that the popular magazine’s fanatically anti-Communist tone was often emphasized through articles that originated at the Digest, rather than condensed reprints from other periodicals. Articles dealing with the threat of Communism in the U.S., justification for intervention in Communist countries, conditions behind the Iron Curtain, and military preparation are featured. Current events make historical research on such propaganda relevant.

Newsmagazine Coverage of AIDS, 1995-1996: Progress and Hope or Hype? • William P. Cassidy, Oregon • This study analyzes AIDS coverage in Newsweek, Time and U.S. News & World Report in 1995 and 1996 to assess if the tone of coverage changed following the early 1996 introduction of protease inhibitor drugs, Critics allege that following the introduction of these successful drug therapies, coverage became overly optimistic. Results show that the overall mean tone score of coverage was 1.17 (on a scale of 0-2) and that coverage became slightly more negative in 1996.

Counting Coup: A 1987-2000 Circulation History of Native Peoples, the First National Consumer Magazine about America’s First Peoples • Marcelyn M. Kropp, Ohio University • Since 1826, over two thousand newspapers and periodicals have been published in the United States about American Indians and Alaska Natives. This paper “counts coup” or tells the story of how one of those periodicals, Native Peoples, became the most widely circulated, national consumer magazine about contemporary American Indians ever published by chronicling its 1987-2000 circulation. Circulation reached an all-time high in 1993-1999 due to a partnership with the National Museum of the American Indians.

A Content Analysis of Advertising Visuals in the Magazine Advertisements: The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression • Daechun An, South Carolina • This content analysis of a sample of advertising from Time, New Yorker, and Saturday Evening Post during the 1920s and 1930s examined the impact of the national economic conditions on advertising and its visuals. This study suggests that the impact of national economic conditions in the 1920s and 1930s on the use of ad visuals in the mainstream magazine advertisements seemed visible. Photographs were more prevalent in the 1930s. Also, the use of literal visuals was dominant in the 1930s.

“The Best-Read Page Of ÔPure Reading Matter”Ô: Eleanor Roosevelt’s “If You Ask Me” And Mid-Century Feminism • Michael T. McGill, Bowling Green State University • Overlooked by journalism historians, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s Ladies’ Home Journal column — “If You Ask Me” — represents a blueprint of the women’s movement of the 1940s. Herself a feminist, Roosevelt used the Journal page as a public forum to discuss problems and obstacles confronting women’s roles in society, focusing particularly on the role of women in American politics, the equality of the sexes, the role of women during World War II, and the role of women in the workplace.

A Mediational Model of the Impact of Health and Beauty Magazine Reading on Body Shape Concerns Among A Group Of College-Age Women • Steven Thomsen, Brigham Young University • In the present study, data from a survey of 355 college-age women were used to test a structural equation model that examined three potential factors — hope, beliefs about men’s expectations for female thinness, and expected weight gain or loss in five years — that might mediate the relationship between reading health and fitness and beauty and fashion magazines and body shape and size concerns. The study found that health and fitness and beauty and fashion magazine reading are differentially related to body image concerns.

The Coverage of Prostate Cancer and Impotence in Four Magazines: 1991 -2000 • W. Buzz Hoon, Western Illinois University • The purpose of this study was to explore press coverage of two men’s health issues, prostate cancer and impotence, in magazines with large male readerships. Examined were issues of Gentleman’s Quarterly, Esquire, Men’s Health and Ebony published between 1991 and 2000. Results show magazines ran more articles on the issues after 1995; coverage was usually presented in an informational manner; content provided information on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the diseases; and men wrote most of the stories.

How Those Diamond Girls Did Shine: The Influence of Publicity and Promotion on Magazine Coverage Of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League • Andi Stein, California State-Fullerton • This is an examination of the role publicity and promotion played in the establishment of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and exploration of the link between these promotional efforts and magazine coverage that resulted from them. This link is analyzed by reviewing various promotional strategies used as part of the publicity efforts of the MGPBL and assessing how these strategies were reflected in magazine articles written about the League between 1943-1954.

Do They ÔPlay Like Girls”? A Look At Advertising Photographs In Four Women’s Sport Magazines • Marie Hardin, West Georgia, Susan Lynn, Florida State University and Kristie Walsdorf, Florida State • This study examines advertising photographs in four women’s sports and fitness magazines, to ascertain the presence of sexual difference and to differentiate between advertising messages in the magazines. Researchers found strong support for sexual difference Shape advertisements, and, at the other end of the spectrum, rejection of sexual difference in Real Sports. The now-defunct Women’s Sports and Fitness, and Sports Illustrated for Women provided some support for sexual difference in their advertisements.

A Longitudinal Quantitative Study of Gender and Related Determinants in U.S. Consumer Magazines • David Abrahamson, Rebecca Lynn Bowman, Mark R. Greer and William Brian Yeado, Northwestern University • In an effort to examine a-number of fundamental questions about the U.S. consumer magazine publishing industry in a historical context, the research of a baseline 1991 quantitative study was duplicated exactly 10 years later employing the same research methodology. It is evident that gender-specificity continues-to be an important determinant in the shape of the U.S. consumer magazine industry: Significantly more publications are aimed at male readers, and they tend to be smaller in circulation than women’s magazines, but this difference in circulation size is clearly narrowing.

Black Women’s Portrayals in Essence, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Working Woman on the Brink of the 21st Century • Teresa Mastin, Alison Coe, Sheri Hamilton and Sheila Tarr, Middle Tennessee State University • This study attempted to determine whether a pattern of racial separation and hierarchy found in a study that examined Black’s portrayals in television commercials would emerge in a print medium. In particular, the study examined Black women’s portrayals in three women’s magazine advertisements during the last decade of the 20th, century. Results indicate that women’s magazine advertisements that include Black women more often present images reinforcing racial division than images promoting racial acceptance and equality.

Helping Women Save Their Marriages: A Content Analysis of the Marriage Advice Given In Ladies’ Home Journal Articles from the 1950s and 1950s • Renee Martin Kratzer, Missouri • Ladies’ Home Journal dispenses marital advice in the department called “Can This Marriage Be Saved.” This popular department, which debuted in 1953, presents case files from various counselors. The articles reveal people’s marital problems and the counselor’s solutions for saving the marriage. A content analysis of articles from the 1950s and the 1950s reveals that the advice given to the spouses changed over time, and that this department serves to reinforce social norms of marriage.

Marriage, Magazines and Makeup Tips: A Comparative Content Analysis of Brides Magazine and Glamour Magazine • Vincent F. Filak, Missouri • Researchers have often argued that women’s magazines present a shallow and narrow view of what women want to know. Articles and advertisements are geared mostly toward beauty and fashion, ignoring deeper needs and non-consumer-driven issues. This paper argues that bridal magazines follow the same pattern in terms of advertising and content while receiving little criticism from the academic press.

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