Minorities and Communication Division

Framing News Stories: The Role of Visual Imagery in Priming Racial Stereotypes • Linus Abraham, Minnesota and Osei Appiah, Ohio State • Three thematic news reports on welfare, the three-strikes law, and school vouchers were differentially illustrated with photographs. News stories were either illustrated with no images, with two photographs of blacks, with two photographs of whites, or with two photographs, one of a black and the other of a white person (mixed condition). In none of the four conditions did the text make any reference to the ethnic/racial identity of the subjects in the photographs juxtaposed with the text.

Are You Targeting Me? Effects of Ethnic Identification on Web Browsers Attitudes Toward, and Navigational Patterns on Race-Targeted Sites • Osei Appiah, Ohio State • Contrary to research that suggests blacks can only be reached effectively with black-oriented media (e.g., Appiah & Wagner, 2002; Fannin, 1989), this research demonstrates that there appears to be subset of the black population that can be reached equally well with white-targeted media as they can with black-targeted media. The study findings confirm expectations that blacks’ differential responses to race-targeted web sites are mediated by their level of ethnic identity.

La Opinion Digital: The Framing of Latino Immigrants’ Issues From a Latino Journalistic Angle • Jose Luis Benitez, Ohio-Athens • This study examines how a Spanish-language newspaper through its online version • La Opinion Digital • frames the issues concerning the Latino immigrants in the United States, the extent this journalistic reporting “advocates” for these communities, and how the different Latino groups are represented in the coverage of this newspaper. The findings of this content analysis from June 2001 • June 2002 highlight crucial relations between the reporter and certain aspects in the process of framing the news story.

Diversity • Awareness Assignments: Effective Teaching Tools for Journalism Students • Lori Boyer, Louisiana State • No abstract available.

Can We Talk? Racial Discourse as Community-Building Paradigm for Journalists • Meta Carstarphen, Oklahoma • This study is a discourse analysis of transcripts taken from depth interviews with 60 journalists about race and journalism. Framed by Oscar Gandy’s call from a structural approach to the study of communication and race and in light of continuing research about news and stereotyping, this new analysis of 1997 data offers some exploratory interpretations about the ability of journalists to define race, and to describe their racial sensibilities as members of a “discourse community” within their workplaces.

The More Public Schools Reform Changes, The More it Stays the Same: A Framing Analysis of Brown v. The Board of Education • Anita Fleming-Rife and Jennifer M. Proffitt, Penn State • Three salient frames emerged from the study of two Topeka newspapers, one mainstream and one black: conflict, consequences and dominant/subordinate. These frames told readers what and how to think about the United States Supreme Court decision on Brown. This study finds that the reform measures made in opposition to desegregation have survived for nearly 50 years and are now framed as public education policy measures aimed to assist disadvantaged students acquire improved educational access.

News Use and Knowledge about Diabetes in African Americans and Caucasians • Kenneth Fleming and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model, this study examined the effects of newspaper and local television coverage of health care through personal relevance on development of knowledge about diabetes in African Americans (n=387) and Caucasians (n=1,219). The findings show that attention to news media, not exposure, and personal relevance have independent positive effects on knowledge about diabetes in both samples.

The Symbolic Convergence of Color On “Cops” • David B. Franz and William R Davie, Louisiana-Lafayette •Reality television has brought forth a variety of slices of life, and perhaps none more powerful to the public perception of crime and justice than the reality police drama. This content analysis based on substantial data sets from “Cops” applies the symbolic convergence theory to demonstrate how the show establishes patterns of what constitutes a rhetorical vision based on the behavior of police officers toward minorities.

A Matter of Life and Death: Effects of Emotional Message Strategies on Black Women’s Attitudes about Preventative Breast Cancer Screenings • Cynthia Frisby, Missouri-Columbia • A 2×2 experimental study was conducted to investigate the effect of message strategies on attitudes toward breast cancer prevention. The researcher used a sample of African American women (n=59) and two dependent variables: willingness to have a mammogram and perceived importance of breast cancer screening. Results indicated that message appeals utilizing testimonials taken from real breast cancer survivors are most effective in increasing willingness to have mammograms and perceived importance of regular screening.

Performing the Watchdog Function: An Investigation of the Status of Freedom Of Expression Within Native American Tribal Courts • Stacey J. T. Hust, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Much has been published about the perceived censorship of Native American newspapers, but very little research about the tribal courts’ protection of press freedoms has been conducted. This study analyzes how free expression is defined and protected by native Tribal Courts. Results show tribal courts do not often deal with freedom of expression cases. However, the few cases included in this study, show tribal courts do protect their tribal members’ rights of free expression.

Model Minority: Portrayal of Asians and Asian Americans on U.S. Prime-Time Television • Jin Hee Kim, Penn State • This study examines the portrayal of Asians and Asian Americans on U.S. prime-time television at three different levels: programming, character, and scene. They frequently appear on drama genres, and their typical roles are as temporary special guests, or other minor, background, and crowd roles. Their occupations on television are heavily oriented to the legal, education, and health care fields. At the scene level, their most typical stereotype on television was “all work and no play.”

The Fighting Whites Phenomenon: Toward an Understanding of the Media’s Coverage • Lynn Klyde-Silverstein, Northern Colorado • The Fighting Whites, an intramural basketball team at the University of Northern Colorado, inspired a media frenzy during March 2002. Their names and mascot, a caricature of a Caucasian man, was an attempt to shed light on what many people considered a racist mascot in a nearby high school. Through interviews, this paper seeks to understand the media coverage afforded the team.

Media Use and Attitudes Toward Asian Americans • Tien-tsung, Washington State and H. Denis Wu, Louisiana State • No abstract available.

Portrayals of Asian Americans in Michigan State Magazine Ads: An Update • Ki-Young Lee and Sung-hee Joo, Michigan State • This study examines the extent to which portrayals of Asian Americans in magazine ads reflect a “model minority” stereotype commonly associated with this group. Portrayals of Asian Americans are content-analyzed in terms of several dimensions reflecting their model minority stereotype. The findings are also compared with those from the analysis of blacks and Hispanics’ portrayals. The results of a series of logistic regression analyses show that despite some improvement, the presence of Asian Americans is still limited to narrowly defined stereotypical roles.

College Students’ Stereotypes of Different Ethnicities in Relation to Media Use: What are they Watching? • Moon J. Lee, Meagan S. Irey, Heather M. Walt and Alana J. Carlson, Washington State • This study examined how college students in two regions stereotyped different ethnicities in relation to their television viewing patterns. Students were asked to rate six ethnic groups based on a brief version of the Big-Five Personality Traits. The purpose was to investigate whether heavy television viewing affects individuals’ stereotypes. In particular, how television exposure of different programming types influences individuals’ ratings of ethnic groups.

Competing Frames and Images of Carl McCall: An African American New York Gubernatorial Candidate • Belio A. Martinez, Jr., Florida • In 2002, State Comptroller Carl McCall, an African American ran unsuccessfully for New York State Governor as the Democratic candidate. Critics blamed McCall’s depleted funds and old-style campaigning for the low turnout among blacks. This paper offers an analysis of the key frames used by the McCall camp and the media to communicate his candidacy to black voters. It also examines the McCall frames held by blacks and their interpretation of the media’s frames.

Korean Immigrants’ Media Uses and Gratifications in the United States • Seung-Jun Moon and John DeLamater, Wisconsin-Madison • This study investigates Korean immigrants’ media usage patterns, based on the Uses and Gratifications perspective. MANOVA and a hierarchical regression were used, and results from the two different methods are consistent with each other in that the Uses and Gratifications perspective was applicable in explaining Korean immigrants’ American media usage patterns but not in explaining their Korean media usage patterns.

Use of Elite and Non-elite Sources At the Navajo Times and the Gallup Independent: A Conent Analysis • Keena Neal and Marcella LaFever, New Mexico • This study investigates the use of elite and non-elite sources to determine whether differences exist between mainstream and ethnic newspaper publications. A content analysis measured three dependent variables: who is quoted, elite or non-elite; title given, generic or non-generic, and; positioning within the article, front page or jump. Two newspapers were used as the independent variable: the Navajo Times, a newspaper of the Navajo Nation, and the Gallup Independent, a privately-owned newspaper.

Coverage of Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: A Content Analysis of Major U.S. Newspapers • David Oh, Syracuse • This study examines the extent to which Arab Americans were cast as the “other” in major U.S. newspapers after September 11, 2001. A content analysis was conducted to determine the extent to which Arab Americans have been depicted as outgroup members, ingroup members, and victims. At least in terms of coverage of Arab Americans, the results of this study seem to confirm the existence of modern racism and its manifestation after 9/11.

How Television Defines Deviance: African American Athletes and the Culture of Poverty • James A. Rada, Howard and K. Tim Wulfemeyer, San Diego State • No abstract available.

Pitting Latinos against African Americans?: Narratives of Inter-Ethnic Relations in News Reporting of 2001 Census Statistics on Race and Ethnicity • Ilia Rodriguez, St. Cloud State • This paper offers a critical reading of news reporting on the statistics on race and ethnicity released by the U.S. Census Bureau in January 2003. It focuses on the analysis of framing patterns in mainstream newspapers to show how they produce a discourse on the inter-ethnic relation between Latinos and African Americans that emphasizes competition, conflict and antagonism, while ignoring or marginalizing common goals and stories of solidarity among minority groups.

Lifting as we Climb: The Role of the National Association Notes in Furthering the Issues Agenda of the National Association of Colored Women, 1897-1917 • Dulcie M. Straughan, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines the role of the National Association Notes, the official publication of the National Association of Colored Women, in helping both to further the issues agenda of the organization and to build a sense of unity among its members. This paper analyzes stories from the first 20 years of the publication and identifies six major themes, or issue topics that appeared in The Notes over the 20-year period.

Publications of a Dangerous Tendency: Press Suppression in the Civil Rights and Gay Rights Movements • John C. Watson, American • This article examines the link between press freedom and the civil rights struggles of two minority groups in the United States. The focus here is on the similarities between the efforts to suppress press freedom as a means of quelling the movements, and the consequences of success and failure. This examination highlights the role played by the law and U.S. Supreme Court rulings on cases generated by suppression.

Can Cross Burning Be Constitutionally Proscribed?: Sixty Years of Hate Speech Rulings Culminating In Black v. Virginia • Roxanne S. Watson and Courtney Barclay, Florida-Gainesville • In a landmark decision 10 years ago, the U. S. Supreme Court found a statute prohibiting cross burning to be unconstitutional. Recently, however, events in Virginia have prompted the Court to hear arguments in another cross burning case in December 2002. The Court is expected to release its opinion by June 2003. This paper argues that cross burning is speech which can be proscribed consistently with the First Amendment.

<< 2003 Abstracts

Media Management and Economics Division

Combating Economic Downturn During the Great Depression: The Recovery of Scripps-Howard Newspapers • Edward E. Adams, Brigham Young • The Great Depression created economic upheaval that affected corporate profits and caused unemployment as high as twenty-five percent nationally. A dramatic loss of advertising among newspapers was caused by the depression and the rise of radio. This article shows that the financial prognosis for the newspaper industry was not as dire as may be perceived. An examination of Scripps-Howard reveals that the company came out of the depression stronger than when they entered the economic crisis.

Let Radio’s Marketplace Decide: The Public’s Perception of Localism •Todd Chambers and Coy Callison, Texas Tech • This paper addresses the issues of localism in radio markets. Specifically, the paper examines the previous policies of localism to construct measures of localism. Using a nationwide telephone survey, the results indicated that there were some significant differences in the audience perception of localism between listeners of group-owned stations and independent-owned stations. Other findings included the development of a scale to measure perceptions of localism.

Supervisor Leadership Behavior’s Effect On Television Newsworker Professionalism • Natalie Corey, Alabama, • The effect of supervisors’ leadership behaviors on television newsworker professionalism is examined. McLeod & Hawley’s (1964) professionalism index and the Path-Goal leadership theory are used as a framework for this study. Professionally oriented newsworkers were found to be positively related to relationship-oriented leadership behaviors. A positive correlation between the professionals and the task-oriented leadership behaviors was also found. Findings suggest that effective supervisors exhibit both relationship- and task-oriented leadership behaviors in retaining professionally oriented employees.

A 20th Century Phenomenon: Employee-Owned Dailies Rare, And 71% Fail • Fred Fedler, Central Florida • As the United States moves into the 21” century, few owners seem likely to turn daily newspapers over to their employees. Thousands of dailies were published in the United States during the 201h century, yet only 14 were acquired by their employees – and 10 of those 14 failed, often in just a few years.

Applying the Structure-Conduct-Performance Framework in the Media Industry Analysis • W. Wayne Fu, Nanyang Technological University-Singapore • This article critically reviews the current state of applications of the Industrial Organization Structure-Conduct-Performance (S-C-P) paradigm in the literature of media economics. Within the applications done among media researchers, performance is often construed as the achieving of particular objectives with social or political values. Such conceptualizations and interpretations in media market studies are compared against conventional economic notions of market performance and accordingly commented upon. Issues which are often approached by the S-C-P model are also re-treated.

The Evolution of the Managerial Revolution: Corporate Newspapers, Profit and Organizational Change • Peter Gade, Oklahoma • This secondary analysis of Q methodology data tests several theoretical assumptions of the mid-20th century managerial revolution hypothesis and Demers’ research on the corporate newspaper, its structure and emphasis on profit. The initial factor analysis yielded three types of newsroom managers. Respondents agree that newsroom managers must be more marketing conscious; however the types disagree about the impact change and profit motive is having on newsrooms and newspaper content.

Postmodern Journalism: Redefining Newspaper Leadership in a Chaotic World • Peter Gade, Oklahoma • This essay assesses U.S. newspaper organizational change in a postmodern context. Numerous scholars have chronicled the end of modernity, and although postmodernism remains a somewhat elusive and vague concept, postmodern thinking is becoming more apparent in both organizational models and media practice. This essay offers insights into the postmodern societal and philosophical foundations driving change.

The Bigger, the Better? Measuring the Financial Performance of Media Firms • Jaemin Jung, Florida • This study examined the impacts of product diversification of media firms on their financial performance. For a pooled sample of 26 media firms from 1996 to 2002, this study tested the linear model adopted from the industrial organizational economics and the inverted-U shaped curvilinear model based on the strategic management studies. The results showed a U-shaped model not the expected inverted-U curvilinear model.

The Effect of Screen Quota System on the Self-Sufficiency Ratio in Domestic Film Markets • Byoungkwan Lee, Michigan State and Hyuhn-Suhck Bae, Yeungnam University-Korea • This study examined the impact of the screen quota system and other determinants on the self-sufficiency ratio. The regression models show that the quota system is a weak predictor of the self-sufficiency ratio, suggesting the system may not be an effective mechanism to limit foreign cinemas screened in its own territory. GDP, box office revenue, and production investment were found to be strong predictors; cultural discount is a moderate; and English-speaking is a weak determinant.

Internet Radio as a New Mass Medium • Seungwhan Lee, Indiana • Internet radio stations and audiences are increasing quickly in their numbers. This paper begins by reviewing the development of Internet radio and trying to conceptualize it from communication perspectives. It then surveys the current proliferation of Internet radio and analyzes the characteristics of Internet radio audiences. The paper categorizes Internet radio broadcasters into two different kinds of entities: the existing over-the-air radio broadcasters and Internet-only radio broadcasters and their different strategies are discussed.

Market Competition and Media Performance of Cable Television Industry in Taiwan • Shu-Chu Sarrina Li, and Xien-Ru Chi, Taiwan • Using industrial organization theory as the theoretical framework, this study examines the relationship between market competition and media performance of cable television industry in Taiwan. Cable television systems differ from these traditional mass media because providing various services such as installation, repairing or billing to their subscribers is an important part of their media performance. Furthermore, cable television systems use lots of resources from local communities and are expected to help the development of local communities.

Cross-Ownership: Does It Always Affect Media Content? • Yehiel Limor (also of Sapir College), Ines Gabel and Ravid Oren, Tel Aviv University-Israel and Semadar Salton-Ben-Zvi, Bar-Ilan University-Israel • The present study attempts to trace and assess the exploitation of cross-ownership or the synergetic power wielded by the conglomerates to promote their varied business interests. Two case studies – one regarding television and the other the music industry – examine two media conglomerates that control most of the mass media market in Israel. The findings of both studies were surprising and unexpected, as no significant correlation was found between media ownership and content.

Teaching Media Management in the 21st Century: What Curricula is Needed? • Kenneth D. Loomis and Alan B. Albarran, North Texas • A national survey of 223 radio and television general managers identified the ways these individuals have adapted to managing multiple stations in the new consolidated media marketplace. Implications of these adjustments are discussed for broadcasting management curricula. The findings indicated GMs are spending most of their time on financial management issues and are reliant on their department heads to effectively run the stations. Implications for curricula includes strengthening the financial management content of appropriate courses.

Some Effects from Horizontal Integration of Daily Newspapers on Markets, Prices, and Competition • Hugh J. Martin, Georgia • This study examines a strategy that creates clusters of commonly-owned, geographically adjacent newspapers. Results show one-third of all United States dailies are part of a cluster. As some newspapers are added to clusters, other clustered dailies are being taken out of business. Samples of clustered and non-clustered dailies were compared. The clustered newspapers competed less aggressively and had higher advertising and subscription prices than the non-clustered papers.

Has Lead-in Lost Its Punch? A Comparison of Prime Time Ratings Inheritance Effects Between 1992 and 2002 • Walter S. McDowell, Miami and Steven J. Dick, Southern Illinois • For decades, the single best predictor of a television program’s ratings performance has been the supposed inheritance effects derived from the ratings of the program leading into it. Recognizing the recent dramatic increase in the number of channels available to the typical American household coinciding with an equally dramatic decrease in audience ratings for the major broadcast networks, there was reason to speculate that over the past decade “couch potato” audiences have come out of their stupor and become more discriminating and therefore, less susceptible to this scheduling strategy.

Radio Business on the World Wide Web: An Examination of the Streaming Terrestrial and Internet-Based Radio Stations in the United States • Wen Ren and Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, Florida • This study explores the Web content of the Internet-based radio stations and the terrestrial radio stations streaming online. It also compares the different strategies adopted by these two groups of Internet radio stations as reflected by their online contents. The websites of 176 stations were analyzed to examine two broad interactive dimensions-audience-oriented and source-oriented-and six strategic patterns-virtual information space, virtual promotion space, virtual distribution space, virtual communication space, virtual sponsorship space, and virtual transaction space.

Competition, Financial Commitment to Content, and Diversity in Dual Television Markets: The Netherlands and Germany • Andrea Roth, University of Amsterdam • This paper focuses on the competition between commercial and public television channels in Germany and the Netherlands. In the context of media policy and regulatory supervision in these countries diversity is seen as an important performance criterion. The central questions addressed are on the relationships 1) between market structure and diversity, and 2) between financial commitment to content and diversity.

How U.S. Television Stations are Responding to Digital Conversion • Brad Schultz, Mississippi • The study focused on the attitudes and responses of U.S. television stations to the mandated conversion to digital broadcasting. Responses from different groups of stations were applied to a theoretical model of organizational response. Results indicated that the model was a good fit. Public stations were much more ‘enthusiastic about conversion and more willing to implement; low-power and religious stations were pessimistic and more likely to resist conversion or exit the industry.

Strange Bedfellows: The Diffusion of Convergence in Four News Organizations • Jane B. Singer, Iowa • This study examines newsroom convergence •a combination of technologies, products, staffs and geography among the previously distinct provinces of print, television and online media • though the framework of diffusion of innovations theory. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data drawn from case studies of four newsrooms, it suggests that although there are ongoing culture clashes and other issues of compatibility, journalists see clear advantages to the new policy of convergence.

Effects of Culture on Cellular Phone Adoption: The Case of Taiwan • Kenneth C. C. Yang, Texas-El Paso • The recent deregulations of telecommunications industry in Taiwan have created a booming market for a variety of telecommunications services and equipment providers. Mobile telephony industry benefits most from such regulatory changes as it grows from non-existence to 100% penetration in less than 15 years. The present study aims to examine whether respondents’ cultural value orientations as proposed by Hofstede (1997) have effects on their adoption motivation and importance perception of cellular phone attributes.

Audience Concentration in the Media: Cross-media Comparisons and the Introduction of the Uncertainty Measure • Jungsu Yim, Seoul Women’s University-Korea • This article examined how audiences respond to item abundance by analyzing audience concentration of magazines, cable television networks, radio networks and broadcast television networks. The finding is that there is a positive relationship between item abundance and the degree of audience concentration measured by uncertainty ratios. The efforts to promote item diversity by policy makers can be undermined by the result that audiences are more highly concentrated on a smaller portion of items with an increase in item options.

<< 2003 Abstracts

Media Ethics Division

Bad Apples or Rotten Culture: Media Discourse on the Corporate Scandals of 2001 and 2002 • David Craig, and Kristy Turner, Oklahoma • This paper evaluates 263 print media pieces and broadcast segments to assess how the discourse of 18 major news organizations addressed the ethical dimension of the scandals involving Enron and other companies. Ethical discussion emerged at several levels • individual, organizational, professional, and social • in a variety of formats including in-depth analytical reporting, commentary, and question and answer. Though much of the discourse was not in depth, the best examples point to ways that news organizations can effectively address business ethics.

Balancing News Reporting with National Security in an Age of Terrorism • David Cuillier, Washington State • In the shadow of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, this paper examines the ethics of reporting information in the media that could help citizens but also aid terrorists. Three cases are used to illustrate the ethical considerations journalists face to aggressively obtain and report the truth while minimizing the likelihood that the information could be used for future attacks.

Punctuation and Epistemic Honesty: Do Photos Need What Words Have? • Scott Fosdick and Shahira Fahmy, Missouri • This research begins a discussion of the ethics of sampling reality by drawing together parallel research on quotations and photography. Interviews with editors at leading magazines reveal internalized standards that draw nothing from formal codes of ethics. Editors do not support the adoption of “photation marks” to serve as the visual equivalent of the quotation mark. The authors argue that news practitioners should consider replacing Truth with Honesty as their guiding light when presenting samples of reality.

A Bellwether in Media Accountability: The Work of the New York World’s Bureau of Accuracy and Fair Play • Neil Nemeth, Purdue-Calumet • This paper provides the first detailed analysis of the New York World’s Bureau of Accuracy and Fair Play, which existed from 1913 until 1931. The bureau had been created in an effort to “promote accuracy and fair play, to correct carelessness and to stamp out fakes and fakers.” The paper argues that the bureau represents a bellwether in the efforts of media organizations to make themselves more accountable to readers, listeners and viewers.

Eight Arguments for the Importance of Philosophical Thinking in Journalism Ethics • Hendrik Overduin, McNeese State • This paper presents eight arguments to establish the importance of philosophical thinking in journalism ethics. The arguments address general issues as well as six philosophical problems unique to journalism. These are the paradox of news judgment, the choice among professional models, the imperative of professional autonomy, the need to reconcile professional values with scientific knowledge, the primacy of discursive reason in news judgment, and the communitarian challenge to traditional arguments for freedom of the press.

Perry Meets Freire: Moral Development’s ‘Leap of Faith’ in the Classroom • Maggie Patterson and Matthew Gropp, Duquesne • The ways teachers can help students through ethical development are explored by drawing upon William G. Perry’s Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years (1970) and, to a lesser extent, Mary F. Belenky, et al.’s Women’s Ways of Knowing (1986). The paper argues that the middle stage of moral development, called Realizing of Relativism, is a critical turning point at which students can turn back, freeze in place, or move on to an eventual commitment to ideas and values.

A Gang of Pecksniffs Grows Up: The Evolution of Journalism Ethics Discourse in The Journalist and Editor and Publisher • Patrick Plaisance, Colorado State • This content analysis explores how journalism’s first trade publications reflected discussion of ethical issues before and during the Progressive Era. While issues of normative behavior for reporters and editors were thought to have developed from earlier efforts to professionalize the field, this study suggests that the two areas, while intertwined, developed along different trajectories.

Questions of Judgment in the Newsroom: A Journalistic Instrumental Value Theory •Patrick Plaisance, Colorado State • Current media theorizing remains preoccupied with building competing normative philosophical frameworks yet does not often focus on the construction and operation of human value systems • which arguably are the engines that drive most ethical deliberations. This study uses social psychology research on value systems to construct a profile of journalistic values using a modified version of the Rokeach Value Survey. A nationwide probability-sample survey of 600 newspaper journalists produced a response rate of 59 percent (N=355).

The Randal Case: An Analysis of the Legal and Ethical Arguments Regarding Journalists Testifying in a War Crime Tribunal • Bastiaan Vanacker, Minnesota • No abstract available.

An Examination of Diversity Issues at Southeastern Journalism Conference Newspapers • Kathleen Wickham, Mississippi • College newspapers are the incubators for young journalists as they develop writing styles, become part of the journalism culture, test ethical problems and determine the news they want to cover. To produce a fair and balanced representation of a diverse population a newsroom must include professionals with varying backgrounds and experience. This study examines a common breeding ground for professional journalists—the college newsroom.

Conflicted Interests, Contested Terrain: Journalism Ethics Codes Then and Now • Lee Wilkins and Bonnie Brennen, Missouri • By analyzing ethics codes, a professional statement of what constitutes good work, this essay links codes to a theory of culture and history. It considers two early journalism ethics codes and assesses the latest New York Times ethics code in light of philosophical theory. The paper suggests that professional tensions outlined in Good Work are reified in the Times code • and that history and culture may be less supportive of a positive outcome of this struggle over values than the insights of psychology might suggest.

Opposing Influences: Reporters’ Perceptions of Structural Constraints • Young Jun Son, Kookmin University-Korea • Political journalists identified a wide variety of structural variables that influenced their ability to select and frame news stories in the coverage of the 2000 Bush-Gore campaign. Newsroom power arrangements were perceived as more influential in selecting and framing stories than media practices. While reporters viewed the influence of editors and wire services on their autonomy in a positive light, they held negative views of the influence of horizontal colleagues and priorities of other media.

<< 2003 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society Division

The First Hours Of September 11th: How Accuracy and Sourcing Fared in Three Television Networks’ Breaking News Coverage • Scott Abel, International University of Estonia, Andrea Miller, Louisiana State and Vincent F. Filak, Ball State • No abstract available.

Beyond Censorship: Real World Third-Person Effects • Stephen Banning, Lousiana State • Recent focus on the third-person effect has centered on behavioral implications, especially those relating to censorship. The third-person effect is the tendency for people to believe that others, “third-persons,” are more likely to be affected by media messages. This study examined behavioral implications in the context of messages with a random telephone survey (n=835) of people in a mid-sized city. Crime Stoppers is a program that uses local media to involve citizens in tracking down alleged criminals.

Confidential: Florida Child Abuse and Neglect Records • Courtney Anne Barclay, Florida • Florida has recently been in the national spotlight because of tragic child welfare cases, resulting in a call to loosen Florida’s confidentiality laws to create more accountability. This paper comprehensively discusses Florida’s laws regarding child abuse and neglect records. First, it discusses Florida’s constitutional and statutory laws providing for confidentiality of these records. Then, it discusses the relevant operating procedures for Florida Department of Children and Families. Finally, the paper analyzes the relevant case law.

Maturity And Interest In Movies, Videotapes, Or Advertisements And Reviews Of Movies Or Videos An Ohio Survey • Joseph Bernt and Marilyn Greenwald, Ohio • Based on questions in an October, 2001, random-digit telephone survey, this study examined entertainment preferences and sources of entertainment information of 403 Ohio residents, looking at media use, views of importance of film advertisements, promotions, reviews, and word-of-mouth comments, and other topics. Younger respondents were more frequent moviegoers and more dependent on media and interpersonal sources. Heavy television viewers in the survey had not attended a movie theater and half had not rented videotapes in the past month.

Sports Model, Sports Mind: The Relationship Between Entertainment and Sports Media Exposure, Sports Participation and Body Image Distortion in Division I Female Athletes • Kimberly L. Bissell, 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. This study investigated Division I female athletes’ exposure to two types of media- entertainment and sports media-and looked for possible associations with body image distortions and eating disorders. Sports participation and interest in sports media were important control factors for this study.

Public Perceptions of the Phrase “God Bless America” • John V. Bodle and Larry Burriss, Middle Tennessee State • The phrase “God bless America” has been virtually everywhere people are following the events of September 11, 2001. Through random sampling of Tennessee residents in 2002, this study probes what people mean when they use the phrase. Significant variables include political perspective, education, age, gender, income and race. Information from public (conversations with clergy) and media (newspaper readership) sources also appears to have influenced perspectives. Respondents were split over what President Bush means when he says “God bless America.”

Cognitive Mapping: Another Window into the Ethical Reasoning of Journalism • Sandra L. Borden, Western Michigan • The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of a coding technique called cognitive mapping, which is a systematic way of coding discourse that allows researchers to transform data into a visual representation of another’s thinking. A subset of data from an earlier study was coded using cognitive mapping to analyze journalists’ ethical reasoning in the first phase of a project that also will involve transferring coding decisions to mapping software in a second phase of analysis.

The Print Media And The Quality Of Governance As A Reflection Of The Existing State Of Social Capital In India’s States • Sumana Chattopadhyay, Missouri-Columbia • This paper attempts to analyze the effect of the print media using proxies like the vernacular language newspaper circulation as also the total newspaper circulation on the level of social capital as reflected by the quality of governance using a panel of fourteen Indian states. Newspaper circulation significantly affects the level of government development expenditures especially on social services like education and medical service.

Beyond Good and Evil: The Binary Discourse of George W. Bush and an Echoing Press • Kevin Coe, David Domke, Erica Graham, Sue John and Victor Pickard, Washington • Binary communications represent the world as a place of polar opposites. Binaries are commonplace in Western thought, but take on a heightened importance when they are used in political and media environments. With this in mind, this research (a) examines the presence of binary discourse by U.S. President George W. Bush in 15 national addresses, from his inauguration in January 2000 to commencement of the war with Iraq in March 2003; and (b) analyzes the response of editorials in 20 U.S. newspapers to the president’s communications.

Access to the Internet in the Context of Community Participation and Community Satisfaction • Mohan J. Dutta-Bergman, Purdue University • The introduction of the Internet in American life has led to debates among media scholars, sociologists and political scientists about the role of the Internet in society. Two areas of research that have received substantial attention in the domain of Internet effects are digital divide and social capital. Digital divide researchers have pointed out the critical gaps in society among different groups in the context of their access to new media and technology.

Reaching Unhealthy Eaters: Applying a Strategic Approach to Media Vehicle Choice • Mohan J. Dutta-Bergman, Purdue • Founded upon the argument that unhealthy eaters need to be reached through strategic choices that are driven by adequate formative research, this paper examines the media consumption patterns of unhealthy eaters. Based on an analysis of the 1999 Lifestyle data, the paper points out that healthy and unhealthy eaters differ systematically in their media choices. While television news is the most effective channel for reaching healthy eaters, television sports and entertainment-oriented Internet are the two major media categories consumed by the unhealthy eater.

When the Terrorist is American: Analyzing News Frames of the September 11, 2001 Attacks and the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing • Jacqueline M. Eckstein, Oklahoma • The September 11, 2001 attacks and 1995 Oklahoma City bombing offer an opportunity to examine the performance of the U.S. news media under conditions of unprecedented civilian death and destruction. Guided by the theory that media frame what terrorism is and suggest its appropriate response (Iyengar, 1991), this study examined whether news frames differ when an American. is the terrorist perpetrator, or when non-Americans are believed the culprits.

September 11 and the Newslore of Vengeance and Victimization • Russell Frank, Pennsylvania State • The September 11, 2001 attacks inspired an outpouring of electronic folklore. This “newslore” is of two types. The newslore of vengeance consists of fantasies of annihilation or humiliation aimed at Osama bin Laden or Afghanistan. The newslore of victimization expresses bewilderment at the role of fate or chance in who lived and who died. This article analyzes the newslore of September 11 as a “strategy of rebellion” against the decorousness of the mainstream news media.

Follow the Leader: The Bush Administration, News Media, and Passage of the U.S.A. Patriot Act • Erica S. Graham, David Domke, Keven Coe and Sue L. John, Washington • Following September 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress quickly passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act with strong support. We hypothesize that President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and the news media were instrumental in this process via their communications about this anti-terrorism legislation. We content analyzed Bush and Ashcroft’s public communications and news coverage about the U.S.A. Patriot Act to identify both (a) the themes emphasized and (b) the timing of communications.

Is “Fat Free” Good for Me? A Panel Study of Television Viewing and Children’s Nutritional Knowledge and Reasoning • Kristen Harrison, Illinois • The family diet is influenced by children’s attitudes toward food, which in turn are influenced by television. In a panel study involving 135 1st-3rd grade children, television viewing, nutritional knowledge, and nutritional reasoning were measured six weeks apart. Television viewing predicted a subsequent decrease in nutritional knowledge and reasoning, but only for foods that tend to be heavily marketed as weight-loss aids. Television’s framing of diet foods may confuse children by equating weight-loss benefits with nutritional benefits.

Free Congress Research and Education Foundation: An Extremist Organization in Think Tank Clothing? • Sharron M. Hope, Purdue • No abstract available.

Information Control and Journalistic Performance: A Content Analysis of News Coverage in Two Chinese Websites • Qiping Hu and Glen T. Cameron, Missouri-Columbia • To better understand the relationship between information control and journalistic performance, two Chinese news websites, one inside China named SINA and one outside the borders named CNN, were compared using systematic content analysis. Results show that contrary to much conventional thinking, news organizations that are freer from information control do not necessarily perform better in terms of fairness and objectivity.

Sources of Influence on People’s Perceptions of the Quality of Life Available in their Communities and Elsewhere • Leo W. Jeffres, Kimberly A. Neuendorf, Cheryl Campanella Bracken and David Atkin, Cleveland State • Research into the “good life” has recognized that people’s assessments of their quality of life may be affected by their assessment of the larger environment and its impact on them. Few researchers have empirically examined sources of influence as people make comparisons based on personal experiences and observation as well as the mass media and interpersonal communication channels.

Compelling Arguments & Attitude Strength: Exploring the Impact of Second-Level Agenda Setting on Public Opinion of Presidential Candidate Images • Spiro Kiousis, Florida • This study explores the relation between attribute agenda setting and public opinion of political candidates. Specifically, media salience of presidential candidate attributes across 5 national elections is compared to public opinion data that measured perceived candidate salience and the strength of public attitudes regarding those candidates. Findings suggest that media salience of attributes is strongly linked with strengthened attitudes and is moderately liked with candidate salience. The implications of the findings are also discussed.

Is the Internet Shaping our Perceptions and Attitude? A Cultivation Analysis Perspective to Internet Use • Madhukar Kumar and Robert Meeds, Kansas State • A secondary analysis was conducted to investigate possible relationships between the amount of time a respondent spends on the Internet responses to cultural indicator questions from the perspective of cultivation theory. Data from the General Social Survey (2000) were analyzed and results showed that some of the cultural indicator variables had significant relationships with the amount of time a respondent spent on the Internet even when demographic control variables were taken into consideration.

A Multidimensional Approach to Socio-Political Internet Use: Patterns of Internet Use, Informal Associations, and Public Affairs Participation • Nojin Kwak, Ann Williams, Sung-Hee Joo and Xiaoru Wang, Michigan • This research project explores the ways in which distinct factors of socio-political Internet use influence offline political and civic engagement. Our analysis reveals that the three principal components of socio-political Internet-use: instrumental use, communal use, and expressive use each have unique associations with participatory outcomes. An examination of socio-recreational web-use, confirms that these types of activities are negatively related to traditional participation; however, it is found that offline informal socializing may be a conduit through which socio-recreational Internet use harbors a positive influence on participatory behaviors.

Health Communication Ad Campaigns: A Content Analysis of Televised Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertisements • Karla M. Larson Hunter and Sharlene R. Thomson, Oklahoma and Lisa Sparks Bethea, George Mason • This pilot content analysis of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising extends analysis of this ad phenomenon to arguably their most impacting medium, television. Shimp’ s (1981) foundational Affective versus Cognitive Processing theory provides the research lens. Findings indicate that DTC ads’ persuasive appeals are overwhelmingly affective in nature, and that adverse information is omitted or presented in ways which negatively impact recall of it, thus raising concern for the social implications of this form of advertising.

Outcome as a Determinant of Families’ Adoption of a Seasonal Allergy Drug • Yulian Li, Jackson State • This study is an experimental study of the effects of outcome description in a media message on families’ adoption of a seasonal allergy drug. The experiment randomly assigned the family subjects into two groups: outcome-present and outcome-absent. The results demonstrated that the family members exposed to the outcome-present message showed greater anticipation of outcome, more favorable attitude toward the brand, and greater purchase intention of the drug.

Presence in Informative Virtual Environments: The Effects of Self-Efficacy, Spatial Ability and Mood • Lynette Lim, Linda A. Jackson, Frank Biocca, Gretchen Barbatsis, Keith Bradburn, Ming Tang, Yong Zhao and Hiram Fitzgerald, Michigan State • The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether 3-D virtual environments have an effect on learning in virtual environments. The same information is presented on a regular webpage and a custom constructed 3D spatial environment. The results show (1) a correlation between an individual’s positive attitudes about the environment and a sense of presence; and (2) partial support for the hypothesis that users with high computer and Internet self-efficacy would experience a higher sense of presence in the 3D virtual environment.

The Role of Media Dependency in the Wake of September 11 • Wilson Lowery, Alabama • This pilot study uses Micro-Media Systems Dependency Theory to examine dependencies on media after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Generally findings show that socio-economic status and degree of social capital and connectedness matter little to either degree of dependency or to subsequent attitudinal and behavioral effects. Degree of perceived threat and age are the important predictors of overall media dependency, and prior use patterns most strongly predict dependencies on individual media types.

Patriarchy v. Functional Truth: Assessing the Feminist Critique of Intimate Violence Reporting • John McManus, Stanford and Lori Dorfman, Berkeley Media Studies Group • Journalism assumes reporters are able to pursue “functional truth”-an account of issues and events reliably describing social reality. Critical feminist scholars, however, contend that journalists working in male-dominated corporations are constrained by a culture of patriarchal values. The present study is the first in the U.S. to test this critique as it applies to reporting the vast social pathology of intimate partner violence. Contrary to that critique, newspapers very rarely blamed female battering victims or mitigated suspect blame.

F Is For Fat: Constructions Of A Weight Ideology In Children’s Books • Alissa A. Nolan and Michael P. Boyle, Wisconsin • Although research has examined weight portrayals in various media, little research has looked at representations of body size in children’s literature. Children’s media play an important role in the development of norms associated with weight. Our content analysis of children’s books takes a step toward understanding how weight is portrayed in children’s media. Findings demonstrate heavy characters were described according to weight almost four times as often and were shown with twice as many emotional reactions as thin characters.

Quantifying Globality in Hollywood Film • Jonathan Obar, Syracuse • This study examines the globalization of Hollywood film content, questioning the existence of a contemporary preference towards increasingly homogenous texts that transcend national/cultural boundaries. A quantitative system was formulated to evaluate the ten highest grossing films domestically in each five-year-period from 1951-2000. The findings show that globality (the ability to transcend boundaries) in Hollywood films has increased over time, but universal qualities in films from each decade assert that Hollywood films have always had global elements.

Media Perceptions and Public Affairs Apathy in the Politically Inexperienced • Bruce E. Pinkleton and Eric Weintraub Austin, Washington State • Political scholars and others regularly express concerns about a lack of public affairs involvement among young people. Although they are able to vote, college-aged citizens are notorious for their failure to engage in even the most basic forms of public affairs participation. The mass media are a primary source of political information for young citizens, though some researchers have expressed concern that the media discourage young people from participation.

Surveying the Home Media Environment: Family Characteristics, Media Deployment and Family Use Patterns • Jennifer A. Robinson, Alabama and Jinhee Kim, Penn State • A home media ecology survey of college and middle school students was conducted. Family media rules were related to the pattern of family communication and parental attitudes towards different media. The most used medium is still television, which is primarily used for entertainment and whole family viewing; whereas the computer is primarily used for information and individual use. Understanding family characteristics that moderate media use can assist families in wisely using the media at home.

Hypermasculinity, Aggression, and Television Violence: An Experiment • Erica Scharrer, Massachusetts-Amherst • This experiment tests the role of hypermasculinity (HM) and trait aggression in predicting aggressive responses to violent television. 91 male college students were exposed to a violent and HM television program, a violence only program, or a control program. Results find that some dimensions of HM and pre-existing aggression interact with exposure to the treatment stimulus to predict aggressive responses, and that HM can also be treated as a dependent variable that is affected by television exposure.

The Differential Effects of Exposure to “Youth-Oriented” Magazines on Adolescent Alcohol Use • Steven R. Thomsen, Brigham Young and Dag Rekve, Norwegian Ministry of Social Affairs-Norway • Objective: To examine the effects of exposure to “youth-oriented” magazines, those that typically contain high levels of alcohol advertising and that have a substantial number of readers under the legal drinking age, on normative beliefs about teenage drinking, drinking expectancies and drinking frequency during the past 30 days by a group of adolescents. Three specific magazine categories were considered: music and entertainment, sports and men’s lifestyle.

Mapping Deviance: The Role of News Content in Communicating Legitimacy • Tim P. Vos, Syracuse • This study examines the news media’s in mapping social deviance and legitimacy. Newspaper journalists are surveyed for their assessment of the relative deviance of several political, entertainment, and business organizations. Then a content analysis of newspapers is performed to assess the legitimacy of those same organizations. Three types of deviance are hypothesized as predictors of three types of legitimacy. The results show that normative deviance was a partial predictor of stability legitimacy.

Agenda Setting and International News: Media Influence on Public Perceptions of Foreign Nations • Wayne Wanta and Cheolhan Lee, Missouri and Guy Golan, Louisiana State • A national poll and a content analysis of network newscasts examined if coverage of foreign nations had an agenda setting influence. The more media coverage a nation received, the more respondents were to think the nation was vitally important to U.S. interests, supporting the first level of agenda setting. The more negative coverage a nation received, the more respondents were to think negatively about the nation, supporting the second level of agenda setting.

I Just Had to Look, Having Read the Book: Determinants of Film Attendance in the Information Age • Patricia Williamson, Central Michigan, Robert LaRose and William War, Michigan • What influences individual decisions to attend movies? Multiple regression analysis revealed that special effects and the books on which they were based were important predictors of intentions to attend The Fellowship of the Ring and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone among a sample of 343 college students. Visits to movie Web sites were also an important influence. Surprisingly, the perceived movie preferences of dating partners and friends had a relationship to movie attendance.

Exploring the Effects of Web Advertising on Readers’ Perceptions of On-line News • Hyeseung Yang and Mary Beth Oliver, Penn State • This study examines the idea that the commercialization of Internet news sites can have a negative impact on perception of news. An experiment (N=260) shows that perceptions of on-line news stories vary as a function of the presence or nature of webadvertising and Internet use (light versus heavy). Specifically, findings suggest that among light Internet users, the inclusion of advertisements results in significantly lower perceived news value of hard news stories.

Modeling Internet Current Affairs News Usage from Perceived Credibility of Internet News, Internet Dependency Relations and Social Locus • Jin Yang, Southern Illinois-Carbondale and Padmini Patwardhan, Texas Tech • Using an attitudinal, relational, and social locus perspective, this study constructed and tested an exploratory model of Internet current affairs news use. It examined causal relationships between Internet credibility, Internet dependency relations, age, education, and Internet usage for current affairs news. Data were collected through an email survey in a university population.

The Effects of Trust, Social Connectedness, and Mass Media Use On Civic and Political Participation • Weiwu Zhang, Austin Peay State and Stella C. Chia, Wisconsin-Madison • More recently, many scholars have lamented the declining levels of social capital and civic participation in American society. This study attempts to clarify the concept of social capital and its major components. We differentiate three dimensions of social capital: interpersonal trust, institutional trust, and social connectedness. In addition, we investigate the differential effects of newspaper and television hard news use, internet use, and entertainment programs viewing, on civic and political participation.

<< 2003 Abstracts

Magazine Division

Media Coverage Of Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Comparison Of Popular Men And Women’s Magazines • Aimee Barrows and Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Indiana • Sexually Transmitted infections (STI) have been increasing steadily since the late 1980s in the United States. This study comparatively examines coverage of sex and STI’s in two men’s and two women’s magazines. The results show that, overall, STI information is in short supply. Several differences between men and women’s magazines in covering sex and STI’s emerged. Some of these findings are consistent with the evolutionary psychology perspective on gender variance in mating behavior.

An Analysis of Vietnam War-Related Coverage in Good Housekeeping and Mademoiselle Magazines • Julie Collins, Drake • Of 35 magazine/war studies located, none examined how women’s magazines covered that war. Here, feature articles about the Vietnam War in all issues of Good Housekeeping and Mademoiselle from 1960-1970 were analyzed. Overall, coverage of the Vietnam War was scant, “fluffy,” and opinion-driven. Few factual articles were run. Mademoiselle did the better job of coverage, with more in-depth features on the war.

Working Women in Mainstream Women’s Magazines: A Content Analysis • Juanita J. Covert, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study examines whether dominant gender stereotypes about working women exist in women’s magazine content, thereby supporting the cultural ratification model. It also considers whether portrayals of women disconfirming those stereotypes are likely to weaken the stereotypes by employing subtyping and subgrouping theories. Findings demonstrate cultural ratification and it is argued that some portrayals (in Glamour and Good Housekeeping) that discomfirm stereotypes are likely to weaken stereotypes while others are not (in Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, and Woman’s Day).

No Business like Show Business: Tracking Commodification over a Century of Variety • Scott Fosdick and Sooyoung Cho, Missouri • Since 1905, Variety has thrived as a business magazine serving the producers of popular entertainment. As such, it is a rich chronicle of pop culture. This content analysis uses the concept of commodification, borrowed from the field of critical studies, to explain shifts in the mix of coverage from 1906 to 2001. It finds significant evidence of commodification, which correlates strongly with increases in coverage of recorded entertainment and decreases in coverage of live entertainment.

Making Connections: Exploring The Interactive And Integrative Dimensions Of Magazine Influence • W. David Gibson, Rutgers • In the menagerie of mediated communication, the magazine is frequently seen as a rather mundane beast — tame, predictable and taken for granted. Yet, while much attention has rightly focused on the expanding capabilities of the “new” media, there is also crucial need to fully appreciate the ongoing interactive and integrative contributions of a more traditional and familiar medium, the magazine. Both by editorial intent and by force of circumstance, magazines exert connective powers that shape and reshape the communication environment.

Henry Luce’s Anti-Communist Legacy: A Qualitative Content Analysis of U.S. News Magazines’ Coverage Of China’s Cultural Revolution • Daniel Marshall Haygood, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Critics have long accused Henry Luce, a fervent anti-Communist, of using his stable of Time, Incorporated media vehicles, particularly Time magazine, to promote causes and governments with which he supported such as General Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist government in the Chinese civil war and pro-American regimes in the Korean and Vietnam wars. The common theme throughout was always to fight Communist regimes around the globe, and Luce developed his staff, including reporters and managers, along this ideological line.

Gender Images in Global Versions of Gentlemen’s Quarterly • Hong Ji, Ohio • This study intends to explore the gender images displayed in global versions of Gentlemen’s Quarterly, a men’s magazine. Non-advertising pictures of people in eight zoned versions of GQ are content analyzed. The study finds that the GQ depicts its men and women “glocally.” Each version prefers male and young models to different degrees. Males are less explicitly exposed than female models, and females show more subordinate markers than males in each version.

Selling Silicon: The Framing of Microcomputers in Magazine Advertisements, 1974-1997 • Jean P. Kelly, Ohio • Guided by social construction of technology theory and framing theory, this study investigates the “frame building” process by which the microcomputer became a common and trusted appliance in offices, homes and schools. Using content analysis of 233 advertisements appearing in select consumer magazines from 1974-1997, the role of marketing in defining uses and values of computers was investigated.

‘A Working-Class Hero Is Something to Be’: The Narrative Legacy of September 11 • Carolyn Kitch, Temple • Within 24 hours of the September 11th attacks, a specific narrative about heroism, and a particular American hero, had emerged in news media. In the form of a prototypical fireman, working-class manhood became a media symbol of national strength and determination. This cultural construction, which occurred in journalism as well as other types of media, intertwined nationalism with ideas about gender and class, in a heroic civilian story that foreshadowed a military one.

Is There a Maxim Effect? Men’s Magazine Covers “Sexed-Up” for Sales • Jacqueline Lambaise, North Texas and Tom Reichart, Alabama • Since its 1997 American debut, Maxim magazine has featured a scantily dressed woman on its cover every month and circulation has skyrocketed to 2.6 million readers. The popular press has charged Maxim with changing the men’s magazine landscape, noting that GQ, Esquire, Details, and even Rolling Stone have hurried to mimic the newcomer.

Magazine Professors vs. Editors: Are We Teaching Students What They Need to Get Jobs in the Magazine Industry? • Carolyn Lepre and Glen L. Bleske, California State-Chico • This study was designed to fill a gap in the literature by analyzing the attitudes of magazine editors and educators toward various skills that recent graduates should exhibit when applying for magazine jobs. As expected, there was a noticeable gap between educators and editors. Educators rated 18 of the 23 skills, courses, and educational experiences significantly more important than did the editors.

Deeper Than the Fictional Model: Origins of Literary Journalism in Greek Tragedy and Aristotle’s Poetics • Charles Marsh, Kansas • This paper demonstrates that the narrative structure of literary journalism originated not simply in the novel or short story but, rather, in Greek tragic drama. In ancient Greece, the adaptation of mythology from oral tradition to tragic drama necessitated structural changes – a process called “literary transfiguration” by anthropologist/mythologist Claude Levi-Strauss and “displacement” by literary critic Northrop Frye. The first and greatest critic of mythology’s displacement into drama was Aristotle, in his Poetics.

Cultivation and Social Comparison of The Thin-Ideal Syndrome: The Effects of Fashion Magazine Exposure on Body Image Disturbance and The State Self-Esteem of College Women • Josephine T.C. Nino, Southern Taiwan University of Technology • This study examined the media effects on college women’s cultivation of and social comparison to the thin-ideal, body image disturbance and state self-esteem, using an experiment, with natural stimuli (fashion and non-fashion magazines). Subjects were 130 White college women (age 18-28) randomly assigned to the fashion and non-fashion groups. Five out of twelve hypotheses were supported.

Combining Mass and Class:’ The Story of O, The Oprah Magazine • April L. Peterson, Washington • The proof is in the numbers. And, O, what numbers! When it debuted in the April 2000, O, The Oprah Magazine sold 1.6 million copies, nearly selling out. As of December 2002, 2.3 million subscribers welcomed the magazine into their homes. And how about those ad numbers? The muscular 318-page debut issue featured 166 pages of ads. Moreover, in 2001 the magazine earned more than $140 million in advertising revenues.

Advertiser Pressure And Editorial Favoritism In Consumer Auto Magazines: A Content Analysis • Quint Randle, Jennia Parkin and Brad L. Rawlins, Brigham Young • This study sought to provide evidence of advertiser pressure and editorial favoritism in the two largest circulation auto magazines. Through a content analysis, it examined the relationship between advertising pages and several types of editorial coverage during 1995 and 2000 in Car & Driver and Motor Trend magazines. It was hypothesized that as advertising increased so would editorial coverage.

Media Perspectives: 2001-2002 Canadian and U.S. News Magazine Coverage of the War on Terror • Amanda Rudloff, Ohio • The purpose of this study is to attempt to identify the reactions of both American and Canadian news magazines to the “War on Terror” which followed the September 11, 2001 attacks. The study was conducted using framing as a theoretical outline and the sample consisted of feature articles on the War on Terror which appeared in Time and Maclean’s from September 2001 to September 2002, which encapsulated the time from which the event that precipitated the War on Terror occurred, through the time when that event was heavily revisited by the news media.

“Like Feeding Time At The Zoo”: Analysis Of U.S. Newsmagazine Coverage Of The Iraqi Kurds • Melissa A. Wall, California State-Northridge • This study employs qualitative frame analysis of US newsmagazines’ coverage of the Iraqi Kurds just after the first Gulf War in 1991 when they were urged by then President Bush to rise up against Saddam Hussein who quickly suppressed their rebellion. Afterward, the U.S. set up a relief operation establishing military encampments for the Kurds that were guarded by the coalition forces.

Shifting the Gaze: Male Objectification, Nudity, and Generation Y Lifestyle Depictions in Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly • Andrew Paul Williams and Kaye D. Trammell, Florida • Recently magazines increased the use of male models as objects of desire. Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly (A&FQ) takes the trend to an extreme. Content analysis explored the level of male objectification in one-year A&FQ sample. Images included semi-nude models (25.6%), of which mostly were male (62.1%), supporting the first hypothesis. The second hypothesis was supported in that men (31.7%) and women (12.9%) were objectified. Other frames examined levels of objectification were also measured.

<< 2003 Abstracts