Civic Journalism Interest Group

Exploring Polyphony in Community Radio Stations: A Case Study of an Appalachian Community Media Arts Center • Chike Anyaegbunam and Rajesh Guar, University of Kentucky • Proponents of community radio argue that such stations often practice participatory journalism and can contribute significantly to strengthening civic engagement and democracy. This paper presents and analyzes the philosophy and practices of Appaishop, an Appalachian community media center and radio station, as it strives to provide a forum for the community to engage in the deliberation of their problems and solutions, celebrate their strengths and culture, and confront economic policies, and political practices that constrain self governance and sustainable development in the region.

Community Journalism Can Transform African Communities • Robert C Moore and Tamara L Gillis, Elizabethtown College • Changes in the media of sub-Saharan Africa allow for citizen empowerment and social interaction due to the integration of community journalism and community media as process and mechanism. Citizens have the opportunity to engage in a partnership with media that allows them to share in decision-making concerning issues that affect their future. Community journalism and community media are able to make a difference in the lives of people in Africa.

Public Journalism: Using New Institutionalism as a Theoretical Tool to Explore the Rise and Spread of the Movement • Sandra L Nichols, Carmichael, CA • Although studies show that public journalism has experienced widespread effects since its emergence in the late 1980s, it has not as yet developed full institutional status, wherein new civic routines and practices are accepted and adopted as natural and reasonable by journalism professionals. This study offers new institutionalism as a theoretical tool to explain the rise of the movement, its diffusion through the journalistic field, and forces constraining its ability to achieve full institutionalization.

Double Crossing Democracy? The Civic Vision vs. Vertical Integration in the Debate Over the Cross-Ownership Ban • Ronald Rodgers, Ohio University • The ongoing cross-ownership debate hinges on two distinct positions — one that regards dispersed ownership of the media as fundamental to democracy, and another that views the media through the lens of a commodity metaphor. This paper looks at the cross-ownership debate and concludes that a commodified media may well create community, but one of consumers grounded in consumerist values, not in the values of civic commonality as the source of an interstitial community.

Deliberative communities online: Towards a model of civic journalism based on the blog • Lori Cooke Scott, York University and Ryerson University • This essay examines the citizen-run “weblog” to conceptualize a fully participatory democratic mediated public sphere. The author argues that the content, conventions, structure and practices of “blogging” lend themselves to applications of meaningful participatory journalism. It is suggested that news organizations can encourage a rejuvenation of citizenship by educating, facilitating and integrating blogs into their news coverage and the local community, as well as by advocating for protection of the “blogosphere” as a space for open deliberation.

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Visual Communication Division

The Phenomenon of the Gros Canon • Kay Amert, Iowa • The paper examines the phenomenon of the gros canon, exploring the introduction of the first display roman and its rapid imitation and adaptation in France and abroad. Early iterations involved a six-way intersection of the ideas and work of Simon de Colines, Geofroy Tory, Robert Estienne, Antoine Augereau, Guillaume Le Bé, and Claude Garamond. Micro-analysis distinguishes the fonts and suggests their relation. The findings shed light on the cultural meaning of the gros canon in its own time.

Alphonse Marie Mucha: Posters, Panels and Comic Books? • Brandon Bollom and Shawn McKinney, University of Texas • Creative work, theories and techniques of early 20th Century Art Nouveau poster designer and commercial artist, Alphonse Mucha, continue to inform the creation of contemporary media products to a surprising extent. Interviews conducted with comic book artists reveal the extent of Mucha’s continuing impact on the development of an under-appreciated medium. Features identified as common to both commercial and more exalted forms of art encourage a reevaluation of Mucha’s historic significance.

Digital News Photography: Is the Historic Record a Blip on the Screen? • Howard Bossen, Michigan State University • Members of the National Press Photographers Association were surveyed to examine how the transition from film to digital cameras has affected the creation and preservation of photographic records. Results indicate that the diffusion of digital cameras into daily newspapers is virtually complete. Digital cameras are being used on almost all assignments. But while photographers may be shooting more with digital cameras, a lower proportion of these images are eventually archived, compared to 35mm film.

In the Age of the Instant: The Influence of the Digital Camera on Social Interaction between Subject and Photographer in Photojournalism • Dennis Dunleavy, San Jose State University • This research paper focuses on how visual routines related to social interactions between the photojournalist and subject are affected by the use of the digital camera when compared to prior experiences using a film camera. Goffman’s theory of “interaction ritual” is explored in this study as a way of understanding the influence of the digital camera on visual routines. A textual analysis of interviews with professionals collected over the past two years provides deeper insight into photojournalist are redefining and renegotiating visual routines in a digital age.

‘They Took It Down’: Picturing the Toppling of the Saddam Hussein Statue in National and International Newspapers • Shahira Fahmy, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • Results of a visual content analysis examining the tone of coverage of the toppling of the Saddam’s statue event in 41 newspapers of 30 countries reveal a range of photographs ran in newspapers around the world. The study explores the relationship between several contextual variables and overall tone of visual depictions. Findings indicate the visual coverage in U.S. newspapers was more favorable than visual coverage of newspapers from coalition and non-coalition countries.

The Impact of Group Identity on the Spiral of Silence: An Examination of Freelance Photographers and Copyright Retention Issues • Vincent Filak and Thomas Price, Ball State University • We examined whether group-based identities would impact an individual’s desire to speak out more so than the fear of isolation as posited in the spiral of silence. Survey data collected from a group of freelance photographers (n=234) revealed that the latter stages of the spiral of silence were affirmed in the overall prediction of whether individuals would speak out on the issue of copyright infringement. However, group media predicted personal opinion and individuals were more likely to speak out on the issue when their group identity was made salient. Theoretical and professional implications are discussed.

Conventionalization in Newspaper and Magazine Feature Photography: A study of Winning Photographs in the Pictures of the Year International Competition • Keith Greenwood and C. Zoe Smith, University of Missouri at Columbia • This study examines conventionalization in content of newspaper and magazine feature photographs selected as winners in the annual Pictures of the Year International competition. A sample of winning images was created at five-year intervals from the 60 years of the competition and builds upon similar studies using sports feature photographs. The results show specific contents of the feature images have changed over time but the type of content exhibits a degree of conventionalization.

A Continuum of Difference: Race and Gender in Visual Depictions of Sporting Females • Marie Hardin, Susan Lynn and Kristie Walsdorf, Pennsylvania State University • This research integrates understanding of the media’s presentation of racial difference and sexual difference in sport by examining racialized images of females in general-interest women’s sport magazines. More than 4,000 photo images from four magazines were coded for relationships between racial and gendered depictions of athletes. The results of this research point to a continuum of racial and sexual difference in depictions of female athletes. Black/Masculine/Sport anchors one end and White/Feminine/Non-Sport anchors the other, reinforcing the idea that Black and White females in U.S. culture are defined by their differences. Non-Black minority women are virtually invisible and fall somewhere in between Blacks and Whites on the continuum. This continuum emphasizes both sexual and racial difference for females, locking them into hegemonic structures that reinforce their low status in U.S. culture.

Male Newspaper Photographers’ Perceptions of Women Photojournalists • Ken Heinen and Mark Popovich, Ball State University •This study is the third in a series that explored the attitudes of newspaper photojournalists toward the increasing number of women coming into the field. Q Methodology was used to understand how 16 male photojournalists felt about this phenomenon. Two factors were derived from the analysis and they were labeled as “Gender Blind” and “Gender Sensitive.” Both factors were similar in their beliefs that women and men were equal in stature in the field, which is an indication of how the stereotypical notions about women in photojournalism have changed in the past decade.

The Homogenized Imagery of Activist Organizations on the Internet • Linda Jean Kensicki, University of Minnesota •This research evaluates websites from non-deviant and deviant activist organizations to better understand the relationship between the type of advocacy group and the visual imagery used for self-representation. Seventeen of 21 variables measured for this study found no difference between non-deviant and deviant activist organizations’ visual representations on the Internet. These findings complicate the notion of a diverse communicative sphere and suggest a strong homogenizing effect could actually be occurring. Now that activists face the responsibility of representing themselves to potentially millions of viewers, it is suggested that self-imposed ‘normalizing’ restrictions on visual constructions of organizational identity may be inevitable.

Out of the Pool and into the Bed: Photographic Coverage during the Persian Gulf and Iraqi Wars in Three U.S. Newspapers • Paul Lester and Cynthia King, California State University at Fullterton • The United States has been engaged in military conflicts both honorable and questionable. Consequently, journalists have traveled to the front lines to produce stories and pictures both supportive and critical. A content analysis was conducted of images published in three US newspapers during the 1991 and 2003 wars with Iraq. The conclusion reveals that the U.S. military probably received the type of coverage it hoped when it installed the embedding program.

Myth and Photography: A Semiotic Analysis of Magazine Advertisements • Teruggi Page, University of Missouri at Columbia • This paper addresses the importance of visual media in society and in particular its rhetorical power within the context of women’s home magazines. The study examines three evocative “As I See It” advertisements, part of a rare fifteen-year long campaign for Kohler kitchen and bath products, featuring the surrealist photography of Hugh Kretschmer. A semiotic analysis suggests a transformative relationship between female models and the products, connoting referents of human commodification, self-alienation, sexual activity, and desire.

Alteration Tolerance: Gauging the Acceptability of Digital Manipulation Techniques in News Photographs • Lulu Rodriguez and Joel Geske, Iowa State University • The acceptability of digitally manipulated news photographs to a group of potential mass media practitioners and image handlers was examined by showing 130 college newspaper readers a series of 19 paired local news photographs. Each pair consists of the original image and its digitally altered version, and respondents were asked to rate the extent to which each alteration was acceptable to them. The results indicate that in general, manipulating photos that included people was more unacceptable than manipulating photos of objects. Respondents did accept some alterations, especially if these entail removing distracting elements or other ways by which the technical strengths of photographs can be enhanced.

News Photography and Reactions to Tragedy: How Journalistic Imagery Triggers Emotion and Influences Perceptions of Violence, Safety and Responsibility • Margaret A. Spratt, University of Washington • This research considers how a dramatic news photograph influences the way individuals react to and process information about vital social issues, especially issues dealing with trauma, crime, and violence among youth. Through an experimental approach, this project finds that readers respond differently to a print news analysis about youth and violence if a potentially disturbing photographic image is included – in this case, the dramatic Pulitzer-prize winning image of two students grieving at Columbine High School.

The Effect of Visual Continuity in Television News: The Filmic Code, the Journalistic Code and the News Viewer • Susan Zuckerman, Indiana University • Television journalists use visual continuity techniques to construct news reports. These techniques were originally employed to evoke realism in theatrical films and documentaries and became the preferred method of presenting visual material in television news. This study used an experiment to investigate the effect of visual continuity on perceived reality, credibility and affective reaction in TV news. It found no differences for reports constructed according to continuity guidelines than for those that violated the guidelines.

<< 2004 Abstracts

Scholastic Journalism Division

One body, four photos, and third-person effect: A teaching formula destined to lessen student support for press access to public records? • David Cuillier, Washington State University • Given the increasing closure of government records, college journalism students are in greater need than ever of developing an appreciation for open government and skills in acquiring access to documents and meetings. Applying third-person effect theory and research from the support for free-epression literature, this paper suggests that the way freedom of information is taught might actually lessen student journalists’ support for press access to records. Suggestions for research and pedagogical approaches are provided.

Transmission down the line: Teacher motivation, student motivation and teacher-course evaluations • Vincent F. Filak, Ball State University; and Kennon M. Sheldon, University of Missouri at Columbia • Does academic motivation go “down the line,” from administrators to teachers to students? We tested a two-level path model based on self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000), using a sample of 220 introductory journalism students nested within 14 different course instructors. In the best-fitting model, perceived autonomy-support from administrators predicted self-determined instructor motivation. In turn, self-determined instructors provided more autonomy support to their students, which then predicted more self-determined course motivation in students.

I think I can write, but grammar confuses me: Pre-JMC students’ high school and college language skill instruction, perceptions of self-efficacy, and variables that predict success on a required language skills exam • Peter Gade, University of Oklahoma • This study explores the perceptions of students entering JMC programs on their experiences in English courses in high school and college, the extent of their language skill instruction, and their sense of language skills self-efficacy. This study finds that students are not getting much grammar and basic language instruction in their college composition courses. For scholastic educators, this study suggests that they do their students a service if they make a considerable effort to teach the basics of the English language.

Transmitting the media hierarchy for athletics coverage: Gender and racial diversity in sports journalism textbooks • Marie Hardin, Pennsylvania State University; Kim Lauffer, Towson University and Julie E. Dodd, University of Florida • This study examines images in sports journalism textbooks for their depictions of females, minorities and people with disabilities. Textbook photographs are powerful, memorable transmitters of cultural values to students. This research found that these textbook photos emphasize hegemonic values, such as the general marginalization and stereotyping of female athletes and the complete exclusion of people with disabilities. The authors suggest ways textbook authors and editors can improve the books and ways sports journalism instructors can incorporate more progressive values into their instruction.

Must We Print Both Sides? The Viewpoint-Neutrality Quagmire In Public School-Sponsored Forums • Dan Kozlowski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • In Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the student newspaper under question was a nonpublic forum. Although public forum analysis usually includes an examination of viewpoint-neutrality, the Hazelwood Court concluded its analysis without any such discussion. The omission has resulted in a split in the federal courts of appeals. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Sixth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits continue to require viewpoint-neutral regulation, while the First, Third, and Tenth Circuits eliminated the requirement in school-sponsored nonpublic forums. This paper examines the decisions of the six cases in the federal courts of appeals, concluding that the First, Third, and Tenth Circuits offered the more accurate interpretation of Hazelwood.

Making Their Way In The World: Journalism Students’ Globalization Awareness • Lyle D. Olson and John E. Getz, South Dakota State University • Globalization — and all of its ramifications — is a reality journalism and mass communication schools must address. A survey at a Midwestern university revealed statistically significant findings related to students’ level of global awareness and their college newspaper experience. The survey also found that students understand the value of a global mindset but are not particularly globally astute. The authors recommend six strategies to increase students’ globalization awareness.

Speaking Up in Class: A Quantitative Analysis of High School Environments and Student Attitudes About Free Expression • Neil Ralston, Northwestern State University • More than 1,000 high school graduates were surveyed to determine what connections, if any, existed between the students’ attitudes regarding free expression and several other variables. Among the findings were that students were more likely to support free expression if they obtained most of their news from print media, if they believed they had “total” or “a lot” of freedom of expression in high school, and if they worked on a school newspaper.

Using Writing to Predict Students’ Choice of Majors • Eric M. Wiltse, University of Wyoming • This predictive study examines whether discriminant analysis results can classify students enrolled in communication courses into their majors. Predictor variables were writing apprehension, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, skills and experience. The study correctly classified 53% of the participants as journalism, communication or non-majors. Discriminant analysis found that writing apprehension, self-efficacy and experience were positive predictors of academic major.

<< 2004 Abstracts

Radio-TV Journalism Division

The Canadian News Directors Study: How Television Newsroom Decision Makers Understand Their Journalistic Roles • Marsha Barber and Ann Rauhala, Ryerson University • This is the first Canadian academic study to attempt to understand how news directors, the people who run Canada’s broadcast newsrooms, conceive the professional roles of the journalists who work for them. The research suggests that there are important differences between the way U.S. and Canadian journalists conceive their roles. In addition, it suggests that there are significant differences between public and private news directors’ conceptions of journalistic roles.

What’s Interesting: Local-news promos as a caricature of presumed audience preferences • Eran N. Ben-Porath, University of Pennsylvania • An analysis of local-news promos was conducted to answer the question “what do news-providers think their viewers find most interesting?” The content of 24 news programs is compared with the content of their corresponding promos. This comparison finds that promos caricature the news, accentuating its extremes, over-representing pragmatic information such as the weather and consumer tips, while under-representing policy issues. In a competitive television market, these discrepancies represent the news organizations’ perception of viewer preferences.

A Content Analysis of News Crawls on Three 24-hour News Networks • April Blackmon, Kimball Benson, and Susan Berhow, Kansas State University • This study’s purpose is to describe television news crawls through a content analysis of three 24-hour news networks. News crawl history, agenda setting theory and the Cultural Indicators paradigm are addressed. Topic and frequency of crawls was assessed using Deutschmann’s (1959) modified categories as used in Stempel’s (1988) work on news network topic choices. The researchers found that news crawls primarily featured hard news items and agenda setting could be observed within the crawl.

Down to the Wire: NPR’s “Morning Edition” Coverage of the 2000 Presidential Election Campaign • Timothy Boudreau, Central Michigan University • This content analysis examines how National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” news program covered the 2000 presidential election campaign. The study of 116 news stories over about a ten-week period found that NPR’s reporters relied heavily on traditional sources and provided similar tone of coverage to both Al Gore and George W. Bush. The study further noted a significant shift in coverage for Bush after the first presidential debate.

Local television news anchors’ usual tasks: Work roles, gender, and the factory analogy • Katherine A. Bradshaw and James C. Foust, Bowling Green State University; and Joseph P. Bernt, University of Ohio • Anchors regularly complete gatherer, manager, and performer tasks, and participate in multiple steps of the “news factory” analogy. Results further call into question the usefulness of the work roles typology of gatherer and manager, dispute the usefulness of the news factory analogy, and expand the discussion of gender and news anchors. Tasks completed vary significantly by years of experience by gender. Less experienced females perform more tasks and more experienced males perform more tasks. Experienced female anchors may disappear from the anchor desk, and those who stay may become less powerful as they gain experience. A survey of local anchors (895) resulted in 451 usable surveys, a 50.4% response rate.

How Network TV News Covered Breast Cancer, 1974 to 2003 • Sooyoung Cho and Sam H. Jeon, University of Missouri at Columbia • The present study content analyzed all the 602 news stories on breast cancer in three major TV networks over the past three decades (1974-2003). We found that the amount of news coverage increased during the time period. Sub-issues like prevention and treatment significantly increased, while issues like surgery and celebrities decreased. The proportion of the news coverage that included the thematic frame and research findings increased across time whereas some characteristics of the coverage has not changed, such as the dominant citation of medical doctors.

How Do We Select Them and Then What Do We Teach Them? A Survey of Success Factors for Student Broadcast Journalism Award Winners • Dale L. Edwards, C.A. Tuggle and Dan Kozlowski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • How accurately admissions criteria predict student success has been thoroughly studied. However, little research has examined the connection between those criteria and journalism student success. We survey winners of student broadcast journalism awards to identify factors they believe led to their success. We conclude that standardized tests scores and grade point averages are mildly predictive, but that other factors were stronger predictors. Thus, rigid admissions criteria might exclude some students who would be highly successful.

Reporting on Two Presidencies: News Coverage of George W. Bush’s First Year in Office • Stephen J. Farnsworth, Mary Washington College; and S. Robert Lichter, Center for Media and Public Affairs • Personal coverage of President Bush during 2001 on network television and in six U.S. newspapers became far more positive after September 11, 2001, with the largest gains found in network television coverage. Coverage of the rest of the Bush administration, in contrast, became distinctly more negative after the terrorist attacks. The vast majority of the executive branch coverage both before and after the terrorist attacks in all media outlets focused on job performance, not the questions of character, ethics and political conduct that often dominate presidential campaign coverage.

Partisan and Structural Balance of Local Television Election Coverage of Incumbent and Open Gubernatorial Elections • Frederick Fico, Geri Alumit Zeldes, and Arvind Diddi, Michigan State University • Local television stories and segments covering the 2002 open race for governor in Michigan were compared with the same stations’ coverage of the 1998 election in which an incumbent governor ran against a challenger. Coverage of the 2002 race was more even handed toward the Republican and Democratic candidates, as predicted. Overall, multi-story segments making up a day’s news coverage were more balanced than the individual stories, consistent with previous research in 1998. Stories and segments leading newscasts were more balanced than those run inside. Election stories that ran alone in a day’s newscast were also more balanced. However, stories covered by reporters were less likely to be balanced than stories covered by anchors, contrary to predictions.

The “I” of Embedded Reporting • Julia Fox and Byungho Park, University of Indiana • This study compares the use of personal pronouns in embedded and non-embedded reports during the “Shock and Awe” campaign to investigate whether embedded reporters’ objectivity was compromised during the Iraq War. The results indicate that critics were warranted in their concerns that embedding reporters in troops would make the reporters part of the story and thus compromise their objectivity, given the increased use of the indexical referential “I” in embedded reporting.

Intermedia Agenda Setting and Global News Coverage: Assessing the Influence of The New York Times on Three Network Television Evening News Programs • Guy Golan, Louisiana State University • For several decades, media scholars have attempted to identify the key variables that shape the complicated international news selection process. At the heart of the research lies the question of what makes a nation or an international event newsworthy? Research findings point to several key determinants of international news coverage including deviance, relevance, cultural affinity and location in the hierarchy of nations. The current study suggests that the newsworthiness of international events may result from an intermedia agenda setting process.

Developing a New Measurement for Television News Accuracy • Gary Hanson and Stanley Wearden, Kent State University • This research study seeks to develop a workable measure of TV news accuracy by asking sources to describe perceived errors using a standardized form and to rate their seriousness and impact. This paper replicates the basic methods of the 2002 study with a new set of questions that examine stories for specific factual errors and for errors in the visual elements: video, graphics and on-camera interviews.

The Impact of Local, Network, and Cable News Dependence during the Iraq War on Attitudes, Interest in the War, Preference for Visual Complexity, and Central vs. Peripheral News Features • Yan Jin and Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; and Michael Antecol, Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc. • With online survey data from the first week of the 2003 U.S.-Iraq War, this study uses the Elaboration Likelihood Model and research on the processing of TV structural variables, especially visual complexity, to ask how people with news dependency on local, network and cable television differ. Those who indicated the most preference for “central” information and high visual complexity chose cable television to get their war news. Type of television news dependence was not differentially associated with preference for “peripheral” information.

Caught on Tape: A Case Study of How Three Local TV Stations Used a Dramatic Amateur Videotape in Reporting Crime • Stan Ketterer, Marc A. Krein and Tom Weir, Oklahoma State University • This case study examines the use of a dramatic amateur videotape in local television news reporting of a crime story involving a police “rough arrest.” The results indicate three stations in Oklahoma City used the dramatic videotape because it was available, but the extent of usage depended on the station. The researchers found the three network affiliates differed dramatically in story placement, video usage, and presentation. However, all stations showed police hitting the suspect with batons more times in a single newscast than in the original tape. Although news executives said sweeps month did not affect coverage, the station using the tape the most had the highest ratings.

Walking in Step to the Future: Views of Journalism Education by Practitioners and Educators • Ernest F. Martin, Jr., Debora H. Wenger, Jeff C. South and Paula I. Otto, Virginia Commonwealth University • This study, based on an Internet survey of 317 educational administrators, television news executives, newspaper editors and online executives during first quarter 2004, contrasts views about preparation of students for current and future jobs by showing gaps between what employers’ value most in job applicants and what educational programs are providing. Second, it addresses newsroom challenges that are shaping the industry and journalism education.

How Would Aristotle Evaluate the Quality of Contemporary Political Discourse Over the Broadcast/Cable Media? • David Martinson, Florida International University • This paper contends that Aristotle’s discussion of what is termed the golden mean can be utilized in attempting to evaluate, from an ethical and public interest perspective, the manner in which the broadcast and cable media provide coverage of contemporary political and public affairs issues. It suggests that an Aristotelian perspective can be particularly helpful in light of the virtual explosion of political discussion/debate over the broadcast airwaves and cable channels in recent years.

“…A Suit That Touches Caesar Nearer”: Television Breaking News And The Relevance Effect • Andrea Miller and David D. Perlmutter, Louisiana State University • The visual clutter and hyperkinetic pace and action of the modern news broadcast and cablecast challenge the distinctiveness of the “breaking news” story. We submit that in the era of visual overload, the key criterion for a successful breaking news story will be “relevance.” Relevance theory asserts that human beings use visual and cognitive cues to attend to items in the environment that are most relevant to them. In our study, we surveyed undergraduates and asked them for the criteria for which, and the degree to which, they would pay attention to hypothetical breaking news stories. We found that it does not matter what story breaks into programming, viewers just want it to be personally relevant to them.

Middletown Media Studies: A Comparison of TV News and TV Use Across Three Research Methodologies • Robert A. Papper, Michael E. Holmes; and Mark N. Popovich, Ball State University • Three studies of television news and other media in “Middletown” are reported: a telephone survey, a diary study, and an observation study. The studies reveal people spend almost triple (193.8 percent) the time with television news than they think they do. That inability to identify time spent with media was common across most media. Overall, people were observed spending an average of 11.7 hours a day using one or more media. Because of media multitasking, total time in media usage is less than the sum of its parts. Simply summing all media use by medium results in a staggering 15.4 hours per day. Diary tabulations of media use documented more usage than did the telephone survey, but it was still 12.9 percent below observed use overall.

Local Television Sports: Band-aids for a Compound Fracture • Brad Schultz, University of Mississippi; and Mary Lou Sheffer, Louisiana State University • A content analysis was conducted in six different television markets to study the sports segment of the local television newscast. The stations say they are making changes to attract new audiences, but data indicated the changes were both minor and ineffectual. Results also showed that such strategies have failed in terms of building ratings. Implications were discussed, including stations eliminating local sports or outsourcing its production.

A Lopsided Deal: The Recent Application of the Equal Opportunities Doctrine • W. Joann Wong, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study suggests that the original idea of equal opportunities doctrine has been undermined by its application. This study, which analyzes all federal cases on the equal opportunities doctrine over the past decade, reveals that the Federal Communications Commission’s and the federal courts’ rulings on the doctrine have expanded the scope of the exemptions for bona fide news. Therefore, most broadcasters now can easily fit their telecasts into one of the exemption categories. As a result, the fundamental purposes of the equal opportunities doctrine – the equality of candidates’ use of broadcasting facilities and the audiences’ maximum access to election information – have not been served effectively. The equal opportunities doctrine has become a lopsided deal between broadcasters and political candidates.

<< 2004 Abstracts

Public Relations Division

Shared Involvement and risk perceptions in responding to bioterrorism: An extension of the situational theory of publics • Linda Aldoory and Mark Van Dyke, University of Maryland • This study extended the situational theory of publics into risk communication. Risk communication theories were integrated here to measure their usefulness in extending the situational theory. Focus group participants were given hypothetical news scenarios about a terrorist threat on a U.S. food product. Participants discussed problem recognition, level of involvement, constraint recognition, fear, risk, threat, and social approval. Findings indicated “shared” involvement decreased perceived threat. Perceived susceptibility was central to involvement, and fear arousal was a constraint.

Toward an apologetic ethic: A casistical approach • Sandra L. Borden and Keith Michael Hearit, Western Michigan University • Most approaches to crisis management ethics apply existing ethical theories deductively to the crisis management context. This essay takes an inductive approach by using casuistry to first specify the context that gives concrete meaning to ethical principles. The result of this analysis is the development, in paradigmatic form, of the content (what should be said) and the manner (how it should be said) of ideal ethical apologetic communication when organizations are guilty of wrongdoing.

Cutting out the middleman: Must public relations messages be filtered through traditional news media to gain credibility? • Coy Callison and Norman E. Youngblood, Texas Tech University • Credibility of information presented through various media was examined experimentally (N=240). Results suggest that information presented on Web sites, regardless of host, lacks credibility compared to information presented in traditional media. Likewise, information presented by public relations media is viewed as less credible than information presented by news media, independent of format. Most important to practitioners, information relayed via corporate Web sites lacks credibility compared to information distributed by other presentation formats.

Public nudity on cell phones: Managing conflict in crisis situations • Sooyoung Cho and Glen T. Cameron, University of Missouri at Columbia • Using a case study of news coverage to recount a fast-moving, dramatic marketing PR incident that recently occurred in South Korea, the contingency theory of conflict management and crisis management strategies are integrated to examine how crisis is communicated and managed in a very short period of time. Several types of strategies were utilized by contending parties through the various stages of the crisis life cycle. We found evidence for a new contingent variable that should be added in the matrix of contingent factors—the importance of Internet community and Netizens as organized and influential publics. Netizens played an important role throughout the crisis period in changing the organization’s stance from advocacy to accommodation.

The First Amendment protection for corporate speech concerning business practices: The implications of Nike vs. Kasky • Jounghwa Choi, Michigan State University • In 2003, the Nike v. Kasky case alarmed public relations professionals, because the case questioned the First Amendment protection afforded for core communication activities. This study presents an overview of constitutional history of corporate speech in the Supreme Court and discusses Nike v. Kasky in terms of its impacts on corporate speech and public relations practices. In particular, this paper examines constitutional rationales applied in the Kasky court and debates around it. Several noticeable trends in the Supreme Court’s decisions on corporate speech and implications for public relations professionals are discussed.

The importance of appearing competent: An analysis of corporate impression management strategies on the World Wide Web • Colleen Connolly-Ahern and S. Camille Broadway, University of Florida • Web sites have become important impression management tools for corporations, because they represent a constantly available source of information for an organization’s publics. This study uses quantitative content analysis to assess current corporate impression management techniques, using Jones (1990) typology of impression management strategies: ingratiation, competence, exemplification, supplication and intimidation. Findings indicate that corporate Web sites focus on competence and exemplification strategies, and that they are not using the full associative powers of the Web.

How successful are communication strategies? A framing analysis of political PR during the national debate on immigration in Germany • Romy Froehlich and Burkgard Rüdiger • Our study elaborates on the question how to measure PR success. Our study examines media coverage and political PR during the national debate on immigration that occurred in Germany between May 2000 and March 2002. The findings indicate that it is worthwhile to invest in developing a framing-based instrument for the comparison of meanings and contexts instead of depending merely on comparisons of topics or issues.

Crisis management’s new role in educational settings • Barbara Gainey, Kennesaw State University • This paper explores the status of crisis management in educational settings, focusing on crisis management preparation in South Carolina public school districts and the extent to which these districts are “crisis-ready” organizations. A new framework is proposed for analyzing the crisis-ready status of these organizations. The three Cs—crisis management planning, communication (two-way/relationship-building), and cultural leadership within the school community—are seen as essential, interconnected elements of successful crisis management in the 21st century.

Writing and the public relations curriculum: Practitioner perceptions versus pedagogy • Marie C. Hardin, West Georgia University; and Donnalyn Pompper, Florida State University • Educators and practitioners seem to agree that writing is a public relations curriculum fundamental. Value perceptions deviate, however, in assessments of quality and degree of attention to writing in the classroom. An examination of the writing requirements of 152 ASJMC accredited public relations programs indicate that only a little more than half (57%) require a news writing course. Fewer require a public relations writing course (51%). Nearly 200 public relations practitioners were surveyed as to their perceptions of college public relations educators’ writing emphasis. This exploratory study’s findings suggest that practitioners believe both news writing and public relations writing classes should be mandatory among public relations students; they offer slightly stronger support for news writing.

The impact of CEO reputation, corporate credibility, and brand loyalty in relationship building • ChangHyun Jin, University of Florida • The purpose of this paper is to identify the effect of CEO Reputation, corporate credibility, and brand loyalty in relationship building. This study found that corporate credibility has a positive impact on brand loyalty and the relationship building. The results indicate that CEO reputation and corporate credibility had a positive impact of brand loyalty. Furthermore, brand loyalty also important played a role in relationship building. Thus, CEO Reputation, corporate credibility and brand loyalty are likely to affect by moderating in relationship building.

Different means to the same end: A comparative contingency analyses of Singapore and Chinese governments’ management of the perceptions and emotions of their multiple public during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis • Yan Jin, Augustine Pang and Glen T. Cameron, University of Missouri at Columbia • Using content analyses of SARS news coverage in both Singapore and China, the contingency theory of conflict management and current crisis management literature were integrated to examine how crisis was communicated at the macro levels by the two governments, what were the stances taken, and what strategies were used to manage their multiple publics. Findings showed that although both countries, which shared similar cultures and media systems, perceived the crisis similarly in terms of severity and attribution, the dominant factors and motivations influencing each of their stances and strategies between advocacy and accommodation were different.

Ready for the rainy day: A case study of labeling issue management in the cosmetic industry • Yan Jin, I-Huei Cheng and Anca Micu, University of Missouri at Columbia • To demonstrate how a crisis management model can be applied, particularly to the state of pre-crisis, the current case study analyzed the media coverage of the recent labeling issues that imposed threats to cosmetic industry. In April 2000 European Union (EU) announced that all cosmetic products would be required to fully disclose their ingredients and allergens, beginning in March 11,2005, which set cosmetics industry at an early stage of crisis. Based on Coombs’ (1999) model, crisis signals were detected by locating media-coverage key issues and evaluating information on industry-stakeholder relationship. The reactions of activist groups were also assessed in terms of their strategies and impacts.

A theoretical perspective on “fear” as an organizational motivator for initiating public relations activities • Jangyul Robert Kim, University of Florida • This exploratory study identifies the correlation between fear and the public relations activities of an organization. A survey of forty public relations professionals in Florida was conducted Fear was identified as a critical causal factor that motivates an organization to initiate or undertake public relations activities. The effect of fear on public relations activities of an organization differed by public relations area, by degree of fear, by public/stakeholder and by type of fear/threat.

First- & second-level agenda building & agenda-setting effects: Exploring the linkages among candidate press releases, media coverage, & public opinion during the 2002 Florida gubernatorial election • Spiro Kiousis, Michael Mitrook, Xu Wu and Trent Seltzer • This study explores the role of candidate news releases, media content, and public opinion in shaping the salience of political issues and candidate images during the 2002 Florida gubernatorial election. The study analyzed 77 public relations releases, 1,538 newspaper stories, and public opinion data from a statewide survey of 572 respondents. Significant correlations were found supporting both first- and second-level agenda-building and agenda-setting effects, working to inform strategies of public relations practitioners involved in political campaigns.

Friends in high places: States legislators as targets of public school PR campaigns • Tien-Tsung Lee, Washington State University; and Mark M. Havens, Havens CPR • State legislators are an essential public for school public relations efforts at any time, but especially during a state budget crisis. To identify effective ways to target this audience, a mail survey of all 105 Idaho state senators and House representatives was launched in May 2002. Findings reveal the most common channels through which legislators receive information about public schools, their self-estimated level of knowledge on various issues, and factors affecting their knowledge. Because legislators rarely rely on the news media for information on public schools, school PR campaigns should not utilize this channel. Alternatives are discussed.

News release flow-through: News release/news article LSA metric • Ernest F. Martin, Jr., Virginia Commonwealth University • This paper describes the exploration of latent semantic analysis (LSA) as possible automated, statistically reliable metric for measuring the degree to which a particular news release influences a particular news article or story. In the exploratory study, LSA provides a useful evaluative metric to indicate whether the news release impacted a news article. Additionally, the LSA metric is useful for relative scoring—potentially indicating strong, medium or weak coherence between news releases and news stories.

From liftoff to landing: How NASA’s crisis communications affected media coverage following the Challenger and Columbia tragedies • Ryan M. Martin and Lois Boynton, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • NASA’s public relations effort following the Challenger explosion in 1986 is considered an example of crisis communications failure. After the 2003 Columbia disaster, however, NASA was praised for its successful handling of the crisis. This paper identifies how four newspapers presented NASA’s crisis communication efforts following the two crises, utilizing crisis communication concepts associated with stakeholder theory. Results showed that NASA applied these concepts more effectively and received more positive coverage following the Columbia disaster than the Challenger disaster.

Attitudes and aptitudes: Gender differences and outlook on the future by incoming public relations students • Michael A. Mitrook, University of Florida • A national survey is used to explore the attitudes and capabilities of men and women at the earliest stage of the decision-making process that brings them into the public relations field. Female undergraduates and particularly those majoring in public relations have the aptitudes and most of the requisite attitudes needed to become public relations managers. Women were more interested in symmetrical communication than men, offering more versatility and sophistication for the field. However, they appear disinclined to take on the managerial role, envisioning a less-focused career than men envision and opting for technician over managerial positions.

Readers’ preferences for graphic designs by age, generation and life strategies • Linda P. Morton, Oklahoma University • This study examined graphic design decisions by readers’ age, generation and life stages. It used a visual instrument containing three designs for each of twelve design elements. Communicators comprised the 232 subjects for this study. Chi-squares indicated that preferences differed by age for four design elements: informal balance, proximity, rules and typesetting; by generations for four design elements: informal balance, proximity, rules, and typesetting; by life stages for three design elements: rhythm, rules and typesetting.

Research, measurement & evaluation: Public relations educators assess and report current teaching practices • Julie O’Neal, Texas Christian University • This study secured feedback from public relations educators regarding their teaching practices related to research, measurement, and evaluation and their assessments of those practices. One hundred seventeen educators participated in a web-based survey. Although most educators believe a stand-alone research methods course should be offered, less than half of respondents’ units offer a separate course. Most respondents don’t think that educators are doing a good job teaching research competency. Implications for public relations educators are offered.

Exploring global public relations in China’s context • Lan Ni, University of Maryland • This study explores global public relations through China’s cultural context. Culture is first examined through observing dimensional variability together with cultural members’ native meaning making, and then used to explore the influence on both the actual practice and application of principles of excellent public relations in China. Power distance and interpersonal relationship are cultural factors with the most impact. Findings basically support major principles and two additional suggestions are made for the particular cultural context.

Shouting in the media’s deaf ear: A qualitative analysis of the NAACP’s public relations messages in the post-election debacle of 2002 • Stephanye Perkins, University of North Florida • When the contest for the U. S. presidency went into overdrive, the media sought soundbites to put the events in perspective. The NAACP was one of the organizations that sought the media’s ear, but its message of voter disenfranchisement was either drowned in the cacophony or shouted into the media’s deaf ear. This study uses qualitative framing to examine how the nation’s oldest civil rights organization used public relations to deliver its message.

Researching employees’ perception of benefits communication: A communication inquiry on channel preferences, understanding, decision-making, and benefits satisfaction • Gaelle Picherit-duthler and Alan R. Freitag, University of North Carolina at Charlotte • This paper, part of a larger research effort, reports results from a Web-based survey of employees of one organization to examine their perceptions of benefits communication effectiveness. The survey addressed categories of benefits provided, benefits satisfaction, employees’ level of understanding, the decision-making factors driving their benefit choices, and overall effectiveness of communication channels. Results indicated that most employees were satisfied with their benefits communication; ironically, however, many perceived it as a confusing, complicated and sometimes frustrating process.

Conflict and public relations: A hot waste issue in Utah • Kenneth D. Plowman, Brigham Young University • Multiple party negotiations may be the next step in the stream of research combining public relations and conflict resolution. This study undertook a qualitative quasi-experimental design with 11 graduate students taking on different roles in the hot waste issue in Utah. These students framed the issue, defined their self-interests as stakeholders, and then conducted a series of five role plays on the issue. Preliminary findings revealed that contention was the most used strategy, but most often in combination with principled. If those strategies were not successful, then roles players turned to avoidance.

Education and job satisfaction: Toward a normative theory of public relations pedagogy for social change • Donnalyn Pompper, Florida State University • This study investigated how a sample of female African-American public relations practitioners viewed their preparedness for a career that employs few people of color and where even fewer achieve senior-level management status. Focus groups were conducted in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Little formal research is conducted to evaluate effectiveness of public relations curricula – beyond graduates’ job placement figures. Practitioners report that public relations programs’ failure to address multicultural diversity in the classroom has adversely affected their job satisfaction. A normative theory of public relations pedagogy for social change is offered.

The Internet and litigation public relations • Brian Reber, Karla Gower and Jennifer Robinson, University of Missouri at Columbia • The Internet is an emerging new tool in litigation public relations. This paper explores this new phenomenon of personal litigation Web sites by content analyzing the Web sites of three celebrities who are currently involved in high-profile litigation, Martha Stewart, Richard Scrushy and Michael Jackson. The analysis revealed that standard litigation public relations standards transfer well to the Internet and suggests that such Web sites are a promising means for disseminating and controlling a client’s message.

Value assessment of PRSSA Bateman competition • Cathy Rogers, Loyola University • The competition which the Public Relations Student Society of America initiated in 1973 as a classic case study has changed considerably since its inception. The Bateman Case Study has evolved into a competition where students develop, implement, and evaluate a campaign for a real corporate client. This study includes a survey of PRSSA advisors and a qualitative analysis of winning entries developed since 1999, when the implementation phase was added to the competition.

War and peace between journalists and public relations practitioners: Working together to set, frame and build the public agenda 1991-2003 • Lynne M. Sallot and Elizabeth A. Johnson, University of Georgia • Agenda-setting, framing and agenda-building theoretical frameworks were used to investigate how journalists view their relationships with public relations practitioners by analyzing 381 depth interviews conducted with journalists from 1991 through 2003. Journalists who perceived and accepted practitioners’ roles the most as agenda setters, framers and agenda builders for the media, measured by journalists’ estimates of how much news content uses public relations contacts, reported having better relationships with practitioners and valuing public relations more. On average, journalists estimated that 44% of the content of U.S. news media or the medium for which they worked is subsidized by practitioners.

Managing relationships and reputations in the National Pan-Hellenic Council • Arlana Shields, University of Florida• The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is the umbrella organization for nine predominately African-American Greek-letter organizations (National Pan-Hellenic Council, 2003). The members of NPHC organizations are the “first full line of defense.” People have a greater chance of interacting with general members than with the organizations’ executive board members. Consequently, how members behave and display the symbols of their organizations is important to managing public-organization relationships and to maintaining the reputations of these organizations.

Occums Razor in the contingency theory: A national survey of PR professional responses to the contingency model • Jae-Hwa Shin, Glen T. Cameron, University of Missouri at Columbia; and Fritz Cropp, Munich, Germany • A random sample of public relations professionals assessed 86 factors in the contingency theory of public relations. This study aims at identifying what contingent factors matter most in public relations practice to provide public relations professionals with a refinement of the contingency factors in public relations activities. Support was found for a matrix of internal factors and external factors affecting public relations practice, and particularly individual factors (i.e., communication competency, ethical value, ability to handle complex problems, problem recognition, familiarity with external public) were identified that affect the contingency undertaken by public relations practitioners in a given situation.

Contingent factors in public relations practice: Modeling generic public relations in Korea • Jae-Hwa Shin, Southern Mississippi University; Jongming Park, Kyung Hee-Korea; and Glen T. Cameron, University of Missouri at Columbia • This study aims at identifying what factors public relations practitioners perceive as influential to public relations practice and discriminating public relations practitioners by the distinctive factors in a Korean context. It has some decades of history that many scholars argue what public relations “is” or “should be.” With a qualification of Grunig’s study, Cameron and his colleagues proposed that public relations depend on a number of factors. Based on the contingent factors, this paper looks at what contingent factors are influential in Korean public relations practice. It also examines if the generic rule of excellent public relations is being applied to a non-Western country.

Reaching key publics online: University public relations practitioners’ use of the World Wide Web • Deborah A. Silverman, University of Buffalo • The author conducted a content analysis of all 261 American doctorate-granting universities to determine how they are using the World Wide Web to provide information for key publics. The analysis revealed that although most universities have clearly labeled, dedicated newsrooms linked from their home page, content is often limited. Special links on the home page for key publics were most common for alumni and friends; current students; prospective students; and faculty and staff.

Ending a chapter of their lives: A study of disaffiliation in college sororities • Jessalynn Strauss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This study examines the process of disaffiliation, the process by which members officially sever ties with their sorority organization. In this study, eight former sorority members were interviewed about their sorority experience, their disaffiliation process, and their thoughts on sorority membership and ex-membership. Information gathered from this study will be used to inform a public relations plan for the Panhellenic sororities at a major Southeastern university to help the sororities improve their communication with the university and its community.

Emergent postmodern approaches to corporate communication strategy • Ursula Ströh, University of Technology, Australia •In this paper I suggest a new approach to corporate communication strategy in line with postmodern theories. I argue for a more participative approach with high ethical and moral meaning creation through action science and research rather than the structured approaches suggested by current corporate communication theorists. I further more call for relationship management based on the basic interpersonal relationship principles where ethics, integrity, trust, openness, and listening skills determine the success of relationships. Organizations that favor their shareholders above other stakeholders and believe that business determines success and drives policy should be replaced with organizations that function as responsible, moral, and honest citizens of a larger environment. This approach ensures a positive reputation for the organization through socially responsible change processes that have relational influences into a larger societal community structure.

To give or not to give: Factors determining alumni intent to make donations as a PR outcome • James C. Tsao and Gary Coll, University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh • This study is significant to those schools and departments seeking to develop segmented fund raising campaigns. Segmented campaigns are those undertaken and carried out by individual schools and departments, supplementary to campus-wide efforts. The majority of journalism and mass communication programs have traditionally relied on their campus development or foundation office to conduct annual mass giving campaigns to the entire population of alumni, including journalism and mass communication graduates. However, such individual and segmented campaigns can be costly because departments cannot benefit much from economies of scale in producing and distributing appeals. Further, the appeals are not likely to be as sophisticated in execution as those developed by campus foundation offices. So it is doubly important for organizations considering segmented fund raising campaigns to identify factors that effectively enhance alumni giving.

Analysis of fund raising models at public historically Black colleges and universities • Natalie Tindall, University of Maryland • This empirical study examined whether public historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) predominately practiced the press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical, two-way symmetrical or mixed motive models of fund raising. The findings reported the heavy usage of press agency model of fund raising by advancement officers, replicating a component identified by both Alessandrini (1998) and Kelly (1991; 1995a; 1995b; 1998). The impact of the state appropriations and institutional support on the advancement function indicated the relevance of state and institutional funding to the practice of fund raising and dictated whether fund raising would be an effective component of the organization. The most interesting concepts emerging from the research was the emergence of a mixed motive model of fund raising.

Responding to activism: An experimental analysis of public relations strategy influence on attributes of publics • Kelly Page Werder, University of South Florida • Experimental methods were used to examine the influence of public relations strategies on attributes of publics. Specifically, public relations strategies derived from Hazleton and Long’s public relations process model (1988) were tested to determine strategy influence on problem recognition, level of involvement, constraint recognition, and goal compatibility toward an organization responding to activism. Results indicate that the attributes of problem recognition and level of involvement are influenced by public relations strategies. In addition, the findings of this study support the situational theory of publics; however, items measuring level of involvement and goal compatibility were found to be the strongest predictors of information seeking behavior. Findings indicate that goal compatibility is a predictor of strategy effectiveness.

A qualitative study of military-media relations during the war in Iraq: Investigating embedding, discovering relationship theory in action • David S. Westover, Jr. and Margot Opdycke Lamme, University of Florida • This exploratory, qualitative approach to examining media embedding during the U.S. military’s largest combat operation since the Gulf War afforded an opportunity to establish grounded theory. Instead, what emerged were four of the elements identified in the scholarly literature as central to organization-public relationships: trust, access, exchange, and understanding.

Examining the existence of professional prejudice and discrimination against public relations • Donald K. Wright, South Alabama University • This study of a large sample of public relations educators (n=342) examined attitudes and opinions about the existence of professional prejudice and discrimination in public relations and public relations education. A web-based survey and follow-up interviews were used with a sample selected from members of the Public Relations Division of the AEJMC and the Educators Academy of PRSA. Results found substantial evidence suggesting such prejudice and discrimination exists. Nearly 98 percent of the study’s respondents agreed some people are prejudiced against public relations. More than half (56.6%) of the public relations educator respondents said they have had a dean, director or department chair who was prejudiced against public relations, and many of these administrators evidently have made use of exaggerations and stereotypes about public relations while criticizing it. Results also suggest this prejudice is more pronounced among print journalists and journalism faculty than it is among other groups of communication educators and practitioners.

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