Magazine

Ag Mag Readers Speak Out: Is Advertiser Influence A Concern? • Stephen A Banning, Louisiana State University; and James F Evans, University of Illinois Urbana at Champaign • This study continues an examination of power relationships within the agricultural magazine publishing triad: advertisers, periodicals and producer readers. It particularly focuses on the views of producers in regard to the agricultural periodicals they read and the agricultural marketers that advertise in those periodicals. A mail survey was used to learn the opinions and observations of producers in a nationwide sample. Results indicate that producers are quite discerning and insightful in what they read. With regard to this study, a majority expressed concern about advertiser-editorial relationships. Results of a credibility index revealed much room for improvement. Authors suggest that farm publishers and advertisers should reconsider their relationships if they wish to address readers’ concerns and improve their credibility.

It’s “real” but not “simple”: Developing a Focus Group Method to Measure “The New Simplicity”• Michael Bugeja, Iowa State University • Meredith Corporation, publisher of More and Better Homes and Gardens, requested development of a focus group instrument and method to measure “the new simplicity,” a trend behind the success of Real Simple. Magazines rely on face-to-face focus groups as a qualitative method to ascertain reader tastes; however, the process is not always cost-effective. This study documents the development of a survey tool as preliminary indicator of cost-effectiveness before a company invests in consultation and facilitation.

Representation and Effects of the Portrayal of Women of Color in Mainstream Magazines • Juanita J Covert, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Travis L Dixon, University of Illinois Urbana at Champaign • This research examined the depiction of women of color in mainstream women’s magazines and the effect of counter-stereotypical portrayals on readers. A content analysis revealed White women were overrepresented while Latina and Black women were underrepresented compared to U.S. Census data in magazine articles, particularly in managerial and professional occupations. An experiment found that an increase in the frequency of counter-stereotypical depictions in magazine articles increased readers’ occupational expectations for women of color. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Teaching Magazine and Feature Writing by Example: Using Pulitzer Prize-Winning Stories in the Classroom • Edward Jay Friedlander, University of South Florida • This paper compares and contrasts all of the Pulitzer Prize-winning feature story authors by age, education and experience, and the winning stories by type of story, story structure, story lead and story ending. Between 1979 and 2003 the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing recognized 25 journalists who produced packages containing 45 separate stories. Most stories were magazinestyle multi-part profiles, using chronological structure and summary endings. The typical journalist was 40 with 17 years of experience. Nineteen of the 22 winners with degrees had degrees in journalism. Although the Prize-winning journalists were unlike university undergraduates, most winning stories were equivalent to a university-level classroom magazine assignment.

Bridging The Gap: Agenda-Setting and ethnic disparities in coverage of health care • Cynthia M Frisby, University of Missouri at Columbia • To better understand how health behaviors are covered, a traditional agenda-setting methodology was employed to determine if stories published in four women’s magazines might explain disparities in health behaviors exhibited by African Americans. Data show that out of 275 stories on health behavior topics published in African American magazines, few focused on health-behaviors that put that population at risk; HIV/AIDS (.07 %), diabetes (.01%), cancer (.08%), and heart disease/stroke (.02%). Implications for magazine editors, writers, and other influential media personnel are provided to ensure more and better coverage of health behavior-related stories, especially in magazines aimed at African American women.

Henry Luce, Head Cheerleader for American Hegemony? Time Magazine’s Coverage of Indonesia, 1965-1966 • Daniel Marshall Haygood, University of Tennessee • Critics have accused Henry Luce of using his Time, Incorporated media to promote his vision of America and its duty to spread democracy and capitalism around the world, particularly to China. This paper looks at Time’s coverage of Indonesia during the mid 1960s and asks whether the coverage reflects the fierce anti-communist views of Luce, even after he retired as managing editor of Time’s Incorporated’s publications. Did Luce leave an anti-communist legacy at Time magazine?

The Framing of Microcomputers in Magazine Features, 1973-1997 • Jean P Kelly, Otterbein College • This study investigates the “frame building” process by which the microcomputer became a trusted appliance. Using content analysis of 83 feature stories from select consumer magazines, the frequencies of dominant frames revealed that the technology was predominantly defined as a tool used by men to improve efficiency and organization. Three potentially influential historical landmarks were selected as independent variables to show how changes in sponsor agendas, consumer actions and technological advances influenced these frames.

Nostalgia Magazines as Gendered Communities of Memory • Carolyn Kitch, Temple University • This paper examines two nostalgia magazines, Reminisce and The Good Old Days, both with content contributed primarily by readers. Using narrative and discourse analysis and drawing theoretically on social-science research about memory, this paper contends that women—who dominate not only the older population, but also the stories in these publications—re-envision the past in ways that celebrate harder times as “better,” while highlighting stories of women’s strength and celebrating a female world of treasured belongings.

What the Stories Told Them: Implications for Readers of Women’s Magazines in Britain and the United States, 1920-1928 • Amy Mattson Lauters, University of Minnesota ;and Jensen Moore, University of Missouri at Columbia • This study explores the changing roles of women during the 1920s through the depictions of women in romantic serial fiction stories published in an American women’s magazine and a comparable British magazine from 1920 to 1928, in a time when suffrage and contraception were key women’s issues in the socio-political arena. This paper is based on the presumption that the media — in this case, women’s magazines —play an important role in maintaining the status quo in regard to gender.

The Construction of Readership in Ebony, Essence and O, The Oprah magazine • Lee Miller, Bonnie Brennen and Brenda Edgerton-Webster, University of Missouri at Columbia • Grounded in cultural materialism, this research uses a critical literary analysis to examine the construction of readership in three prominent African American owned and/or operated lifestyle magazines: Ebony, Essence, and O, the Oprah magazine. The authors suggest that these magazines profess to set a political and social agenda for target audience members to privilege them and their ways of experiencing patriarchal power by invoking self-definition, spirituality, and a heightened awareness of “sombodiness.”

Cross-Cultural-Generational Perceptions of Ideal Body Image: Hispanic Women & Magazine Standards • Donnalyn Pompper and Jesica Koenig, Florida State University • This study expands social comparison theory by examining magazine use along dimensions of gender, age, and ethnicity. Perceptions of magazines’ idealized body image standards among two generations of Hispanic women were gathered using the focus group and telephone interview methods. Findings suggest that respondent groups aged 18-35 and those 36 and older both compare their body image to magazine standards, but behavioral effects vary. Two significant patterns are discussed: 1) assimilated magazine standards, and 2) dissonance in homogenization. This is the first study to explore cross-cultural-generational perceptions of mediated body image among Hispanic women using the stated research methods.

Tainting of the Stream of Pure News: Collier’s Criticism of the Newspaper Press During the Norman Hapgood Years, 1902 to 1913 • Ronald R Rodgers, Ohio University • This research examines the criticism of newspapers by one of America’s major popular magazines Collier’s Weekly – from 1902 to 1913. This period constitutes the majority of the magazine’s daily press criticism of sensationalism and the influence of financial interests. Unlike earlier studies of Collier’s, this paper looks primarily at the magazine’s criticism before and after Will Irwin’s now classic 15-part dissection of the newspapers in America that ran in Collier’s over 15 weeks in 1911.

Relationship Portrayals in Advertising: Differences in Men and Women Magazines • Enas Salmeen and Zengjun Peng, University of Missouri • This study examines the sexual continuum in advertisements featuring both a male and a female model. A content analysis of two male orientated magazines, Esquire and GQ, and two women oriented magazines, Glamour and Mademoiselle, from 1990 to 1999 was conducted. A total of 1,470 advertisements were analyzed. Using the theoretical framework of gender and sexual appeals, the advertisements were placed into four main categories on whether they portray a relationship that is of a sexual nature, friendship, family, or neutral. Results show that men magazines use more sexual appeals in their advertisements, while women magazines tend to use sexual and friendship appeals.

Inventing Modern Family and Gender Norms Through Advertising in the 1920s China • Huaiting Wu, University of Minnesota at Minneapolis • No abstract available.

<< 2004 Abstracts

Law Division

The Durban Principles, Jurisdictional Issues, and International Libel In the Digital Age: A Marriage of Convenience? • Adedayo Abah, Washington and Lee University • This study makes the argument that the Durban Principles in conjunction with ‘focal point’ standard established in Zippo Mfg. Co. v. Z4po Dot Corn, Inc., and enlarged upon in Young v. New Haven Advocate, as well as Revell v. Lidov are worthy of consideration as international standards for evaluating jurisdictional issues in international libel cases based on Internet publication. This standard of analysis will also enable U.S. courts to enforce foreign libel judgments in the U.S.

Balancing the Right to Privacy and the Right of Access: Access to Child-Abuse Records in the 50 States • Courtney Anne Barclay, University of Florida • With recent tragedies in child-welfare systems, critics have called for more public access to child-abuse records to increase accountability. The purpose of this study is to assess the current level of confidentiality for those records. This study compared the statutes of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the federal laws regarding the child abuse record confidentiality. Florida and New Jersey, two states known for child-welfare tragedies, were the two most open states.

Challenging The Wisdom Of Solomon: The First Amendment And Military Recruitment On Campus • Clay Calvert and Robert D Richards, Pennsylvania State University • This paper analyzes the ongoing legal battle in the federal courts over the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment. This statute allows the federal government to withhold all funds from colleges and universities that refuse to allow military recruiters on-campus access. It is being challenged by a number of law schools and law professors who claim that it violates their First Amendment rights of free expression, academic freedom and freedom of expressive association.

Medium-Based Regulation and Criminal Libel on the Internet • Edward L Carter, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit • Courts reviewing the constitutionality of content-based speech regulations examine the government’s interest in relationship to the unique characteristics of the content in question and the fit between means and ends. The recent phenomenon of states selectively prosecuting alleged criminal libels on the Internet necessitates application of a similar test. Under this test for “medium-based regulation,” the unique characteristics of the Internet must closely relate to the state’s asserted interest in treating online speech differently than other mediated speech.

In Search of a New Radio Market Definition: The Modified Metro • Amy Jo Coffey, University of Georgia • Regulatory complications tend to accompany media industry growth. Radio is no exception. The signal contour overlap method of radio market definition has produced anomalies that, by the FCC’s own admission, were never intended by Congress. In 2003, the FCC redefined the radio market, opting for a geographically-based definition. However, the new definition produces new anomalies. This paper analyzes the contour overlap method and alternatives. Finally, a radio market definition remedy is offered: “The Modified Metro.”

Sunshine Laws: How Are States Making Lawbreakers Pay? • Lynn Corney, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper examined the open records and open meetings laws of all 50 states, specifically scrutinizing portions that address awarding attorney fees. While some states statutes require legal fees be paid to a party who successfully brings an open meetings or records lawsuit, other state statutes regard attorney fees as merely a possibility. Some make no mention of attorney fees whatsoever. This paper also analyzed court cases in which media outlets have sued for access. The results will help journalists better understand sunshine laws in each state, and the examination of recent cases will serve as a guide to how state courts are deciding to use the fee-awarding provisions of the statutes.

A Real Home-Field Advantage: The Status of University Foundations Under State Public Records and Open Meetings Laws • Charles Davis and Scott Reinardy, University of Missouri • Private, non-profit university foundations have grown into multi-million-dollar entities with very little public scrutiny. The foundations’ private status in many states allows them to conduct university business without accountability to the tax-paying public that supports the institutions. In recent years, however, several state courts have opened the records of university foundations. This paper analyzes the public records status of university foundations, concluding that courts in most states would find such foundations public agencies for purposes of freedom of information laws.

Reforming Alone: An Examination Of State FOI Advocacy Groups • Emily Erickson, Louisiana State University • Journalists have long fought to improve the public’s ‘right to know’ without the public knowing anything about this battle – problematic when reform is best served by broad coalitions. But in the 1990s, a number of ostensibly citizen-based state FOI groups began emerging as state-level access reform efforts gained momentum. This paper presents a typology of FOI advocacy groups, exploring their strengths and weaknesses, and the difficulty journalists face in making any of them truly citizen-based.

Disfavored Advertising: Telemarketing, Junk Faxes and the Commercial Speech Doctrine • Emily Erickson and Anita G Day, Louisiana State University • In February 2004, the Tenth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of a national do-not-call registry, reversing a district court decision that found it unconstitutional for privileging non-commercial telemarketing over commercial telemarketing. This paper will examine how telemarketing and “junk” fax rules – and the constitutional challenges to those rules – have provided yet another opportunity for the U.S. Supreme Court to rethink its commercial speech doctrine, or at least give better guidance to courts applying the Central Hudson test.

Privilege and Pragmatism: How the Seventh Circuit Put Journalists and Their Sources on Thin Ice • Anthony L Fargo, University of Nevada at Las Vegas • Journalists have long claimed that the First Amendment press clause protects them from subpoenas for their work product, but there is much disagreement in the law. A recent ruling from a federal appellate court, in McKevitt v. Pallasch, continues a recent trend of erosion of the privilege in federal courts. The paper examines the meaning of McKevitt and also examines how the legal philosophy of the opinion’s author, Judge Richard A Posner, affected the outcome.

“Don’t Pooh-Pooh Our Poo Poo”: Penalty, Subsidy, and Refusal to Fund in the Aftermath of National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley • James R Gaddy, Louisiana State University • Legal scholars said the Finley decision would create a “chilling effect” in government subsidy programs and unlawfully expanded the government speech doctrine. By analyzing cases that subsequently use Finley for a substantive part of their rationale, this article argues the opposite: the courts have rejected the government’s attempts to interpret the decision as allowing viewpoint discrimination. It argues further that, under the government speech doctrine, Finley provides the controlling precedent for truly “hybrid speech” cases.

Holding the Spymasters Accountable: A Proposed Model for CIA Disclosure Requirements Under the Freedom of Information Act • Martin Halstuk, Pennsylvania State University • For the last two decades, CIA secrecy has gone largely unchecked, principally because of a sweeping 1985 United States Supreme Court decision that exempted the Agency from virtually any disclosure requirements under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This paper argues that the Court’s rationale for blanket CIA secrecy has been outmoded by modern events, and it proposes a legislative model that would establish guidelines for CIA information disclosure under the FOIA.

The Aftermath of Bartnicki v. Vopper: Judicial Determinations on Telephone Conversations of Public Concern • Laura J Hendrickson, Georgetown University • This paper examines the brief aftermath of the 2001 Supreme Court decision Bartnicki v. Vopper to explore its significance for journalism. In Bartnicki, the Court excused a radio broadcaster from liability for broadcasting a cell phone conversation illegally recorded by an anonymous person. They relied on the Daily Mail principle that issues of public concern are constitutionally protected. Therefore, the paper concludes by discussing issues of public concern in the context of intercepted telephone conversations.

In the Interest of Security: The Impact of 9-11 on State Access-to-Information Laws • Suzanne Horsley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This paper examines the legislation regarding access-to-information laws that has been passed by the states since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It categorizes the changes that have been made to determine the implications of these legislative moves for the media and the public. Forty of the states and the District of Columbia succeeded in passing new laws in attempts to thwart terrorist access to critical information. The resulting sixty-two new laws in this study were categorized as follows: records exemptions to ensure safety and security, closed meetings to ensure safety and security, provisions for allowing media access, and calls for further study on ways to protect government information. While there are many concerns about the speed and breadth of the new legislation, there was a mixed response to what the changes mean for American citizens and reporters.

Making Kalle Lasn’s Case: CBS v. Democratic National Committee Revisited • Gordon Jackson, University of Wisconsin at Madison • This paper undertakes a First Amendment analysis of the discretion of federal broadcast licensees to exclude advertisers that they deem unsuitable for other than the standard reasons of indecency. The issues are crystallized by the case of Kalle Lasn and Adbusters Media Corp., who have tried unsuccessfully to get the networks to run their anti-ads, which attempt to de-glamorize consumption. The main business of the paper is to revisit the principal impediment to an action by Lasn – a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court holding, CBS v. Democratic National Committee. This case seems to stand for the proposition that decisions by licensees on who will use the public airwaves to advertise can never be characterized as state action, and therefore are beyond constitutional reach.

Where Is The First Amendment?: A Case Study Examining Internet Service Provider Safe Harbor Under The Digital Millennium Copyright Act Of 1998 • Shawn D Katz, Trinity University • A case currently pending in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, Online Policy Group, Pavlosky and Smith v. Diebold, could have a profound influence on the future interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States. In this case, Diebold Election Systems sent cease-and-desist letters to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who were carrying sites which were allegedly posting infringing internal corporate documents. Consequently, the ISPs, who are provided a safe harbor from copyright infringement liability under the DMCA, had the sites shut down. After unwanted publicity about the action, Diebold withdrew its allegations. The Online Policy group and two Swarthmore students, however, did not drop the issue, and instead brought action against Diebold. The paper examines how the DMCA laws that allowed the sites to be shut down constitutes an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.

Freedom of the press for the Cherokee Phoenix during the early nineteenth century: An elegant dream, an elusive myth • Kevin R Kemper, University of Missouri at Columbia • Media scholars long have known that the Cherokee Phoenix, the official paper for the Cherokee Nation, has been suppressed at times. By comparing literature and historical sources, this study details how the federal, state, and tribal governments controlled the Cherokee press during the early nineteenth century. Also, this paper looks at seditious libel during this time, giving support to Leonard Levy’s theory that seditious libel extended past.

Nike v. Kasky: Reconsideration of noncommercial v. commercial speech • Eyun-Jung Ki, University of Florida • This study examines the case of Nike v. Kasky. The primary discussion in this paper is about a public relations campaign by Nike that responded to allegations of poor working conditions for employees in their foreign factories. Whether false or misleading statements should be categorized as commercial or noncommercial speech, and therefore unprotected or protected, is the most important issue in the case. The main discussion is about the distinction between commercial and noncommercial speech, in terms of judicial scrutiny and the degree of protection afforded each type of speech. The author suggests that speech such as that used by Nike should be protected under the First Amendment and proposes ways to prevent corporations from making false or misleading speech.

“More Likely to Withhold Information?”: Comparison of Implementation of FOIA Policies under the Clinton and Bush Administrations • Minjeong Kim, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • A month after the September 11, 2001, the U.S. Attorney General released a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policy instructing federal officers to withhold information whenever it is necessary and possible. This policy contrasts with that of the Clinton administration. To explore whether two different FOIA policies have resulted in real differences in the effectiveness of FOIA as an instrument of access, this study analyzed data from annual FOIA reports issued by all fourteen federal departments and sixty-one independent federal agencies for fiscal years 1998 through 2002. Some evidence was found indicating the Bush Administration FOIA policy might have impaired the effectiveness of FOIA as an instrument of access, although dramatic differences were not found.

Secrecy Or Security: Identifying Trends In State Access Law Legislation • Nissa Laughner, University of Florida • Since September 11, 2001, states have aggressively pursued and passed legislation that would limit or prohibit access to information related to national and state security. Since the current “war on terror” may be indefinitely extended, states are likely to continue to limit access in favor of national security. State legislation, however, may be limiting public access to a great deal of information that poses little direct security risk. Ultimately, states may be frustrating the public policy motives between public access. This paper analyzes state legislation relating to safety and security and public access in order to evaluate trends in state access policies.

‘To Protect The Interests’: How The Unique Constitutional Status Of American Indians Affects The Trademark Case Against The Washington Redskins® • Dan Lewerenz, Pennsylvania State University • This paper employs American Indian law as an entree for First Amendment analysis of the trademark lawsuit against Pro-Football, Inc., owners of the Washington Redskins. The Trademark Trial and Appeals Board vacated the “scandalous” and “disparaging” Redskins trademark, but in September 2003 a federal judge overturned that ruling. No previous analysis of this case has considered how the unique constitutional status of American Indians, and concomitant federal responsibilities toward American Indians, might influence the First Amendment questions.

Jurisdiction over Internet Libels • Bill Loving, Idaho State University • The use of traditional minimum contacts analysis to decide jurisdiction is not appropriate in the age of the Internet. Courts continue to apply jurisdictional principles based on traditional models of commerce to cases involving libels created in distant forums and felt in the home states of defendants. Courts have denied plaintiffs access to forums where they suffered the greatest harm, where evidence can be most easily accessed and where issues can be most efficiently resolved.

Fighting for the Online Anonymous Speech of John and Jane Doe: Where Do We Go From Here? • Lesa Hatley Major, Louisiana State University • The debate over anonymous online speech has reached a boiling point in the last year, with numerous individuals and companies taking legal action to compel ISPs and Web publishers to identify anonymous online users. This paper argues for the amendment of existing anti-SLAPP statues to include online defamation and the provisions set forth in California Assembly Bill 1143 including the following criteria: adequate notice, SLAPP determinant, and financial equity.

An Analysis of the BCRA ◊ 201’s Disclosure Provisions for Electioneering Communications • Barbara M Miller, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • The paper examines the constitutionality of the compelled disclosure requirements the BCRA ◊ 201. Through an analysis of briefs and affirming and dissenting Court opinions, this paper clarifies the reasoning behind the Court’s decision in McConnell v. FEC regarding the BCRA ◊ 201. Additionally, this paper comments on the Court’s ruling and whether the BCRA will adequately address the Buckley loophole without crossing the line between preventing political corruption and circumventing the First Amendment.

Viewer Discretion Advised: Graphic Violence On Television News & The Television Rating System • Sarah E Real, Pennsylvania State University • This paper analyzes the dichotomy in the television rating system between rated images of fictional violence on entertainment programming and unrated images of real-life violence on newscasts. The paper, which argues that the dichotomy is increasingly illogical, critiques it through three different lenses: First Amendment theory and jurisprudence, the practices of broadcast journalism that blur the line between news and entertainment, and social-science evidence of the effects on children of fictional violence versus real-life violence.

Libel Law and Words: Innocent Construction in Illinois • Robert L Spellman, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • The innocent construction rule in libel law is unique to Illinois. As it has evolved, it requires a judge at the start of a libel per se suit to dismiss the action if the alleged defamatory words can be reasonably construed as not of and concerning the plaintiff or to not be defamatory. The rule has given the news media in Illinois a better record of prevailing in libel suits than their counterparts in other large states. Recently the protection to the media has been eroded by restrictive interpretations by courts. One of the practical advantages of the rule has been savings in legal costs due to dismissals at the start of cases. That advantage suffered a setback in 2003 when a federal appeals court held that dismissal upon the pleadings violated federal procedural law. Nevertheless, the rule remains a useful protection for the news media.

Protecting the High and Mighty: Libel Law in Canada. • Robert L Spellman, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • Canada’s judiciary does not share the liberal free press values of the United States as enunciated by the United States Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan. In Hill v. Church of Scientology the Supreme Court of Canada in 1995 severely criticized Sullivan while upholding the largest libel verdict ever awarded by a Canadian court. The court reaffirmed Canada’s adherence to the strict liability regime of common law of libel. Hill involved criticism of the official conduct of a crown attorney. A government agency financed the libel suit. Hill was decided prior to the decision of the House of Lords in Reynolds v. Times Newspapers. Some softening of the pro-plaintiff bias of Canadian law may be indicated by Jones v. Campbell, a decision of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal which applied Reynolds qualified privilege to overturn a libel verdict against two attorneys for their criticism of police conduct as unconstitutional and symptomatic of systemic racism.

Nike v. Kasky and the Running-But-Going-Nowhere Commercial Speech Debate • Samuel A Terilli, University of Miami • The lawsuit filed by Marc Kasky against Nike illustrates the dangers to free expression posed by Supreme Court decisions defining “commercial speech” as a category deserving of some, but not full, first amendment protection. The commercial speech doctrine should be replaced with the approach used by the Court to permit prosecutions of acts with the requisite intent to commit the underlying offense, even if the act was accomplished, in whole or in part, through expression.

<< 2004 Abstracts

International Communication Division

Faculty Papers
Reflection of Cultural Values in Internet Advertising in Korea and the U.S.: A Theory-based Content Analysis • Daechun An, Ball State University • A content analysis of 600 advertising websites was performed to examine cultural values reflected in Internet advertising in Korea and the U.S. By employing Hall and Hofstede’s cultural values as theoretical frameworks, this study found a clear pattern of dissimilarities in the use of information cues and creative strategy, supporting the idea that the observed between-country differences were attributable to between-country differences in cultural values. In addition, this study demonstrated the effectiveness of the theoretical framework and their linkage with advertising appeals in visualizing a broad representative picture of cultural differences in Internet advertising.

Manufacturing Dislike: The Influence of Direct and Indirect Contact on Stereotypes of Foreigners • Christopher E. Beaudoin, Indiana University at Bloomington • Via a national telephone survey of 467 adults, the current study examines the influence that direct and indirect contact with foreigners has on stereotypes of foreigners. Direct contact with Chinese positively influenced stereotypes of Chinese people while international news attention (a form of indirect contact) negatively influenced stereotypes of Chinese people. International news attention and direct contact did not have significant influence on stereotypes of British. The effects of international news attention on stereotypes of both Chinese and British were more negative for respondents with low levels of direct contact than for respondents with high levels of direct contact.

The Rise of Anti-Americanism in India: A Case Study • Kalyani Chadha, University of Maryland • Widely manifest today, anti-Americanism is frequently sought to be explained in terms of broad generalizations as an ideological phenomenon rooted in opposition to American political and cultural values. This paper argues instead that anti-Americanism is more fruitfully analyzed as a contextual phenomenon and seeks to study it in the case of India, finding recent anti-Americanism within the middle class, to be rooted not in opposition to America’s values but to its foreign policies.

Accuracy and Fairness in News Reporting: How Foreign Newspapers Covered the 2004 Pre-Election Eve Shooting of the Taiwanese President • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Waipeng Lee, and Wenli Chen Nanyang Tehcnological University • Accuracy and fairness are two important journalistic values. However, international journalists have difficulties upholding them in news-breaking episodes. This study examines news coverage of the shooting of the President of Taiwan immediately before his recent reelection in major English-language newspapers. Sixty articles, representing newspapers from eight countries, were analyzed. Results show that journalists made factual mistakes and gave unfair prominence to the “Pan-Green” camp in Taiwan (i.e., the incumbent President, his allies and supporters).

The Influence of Contextual Factors on the Selection of News Frames: A Cross-National Approach to the News Coverage of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Nanyang Tehcnological University; Charles T. Salmon, Byoungkwan Lee, Jounghwa Choi, and Geraldine Marie Zeldes, Michigan State University • SARS became the focus of massive news coverage throughout the world in 2003, riveting the attention of travelers, business owners and politicians alike. This paper reports a content analysis of SARS coverage in six nations directly affected by SARS, but to varying degrees. In particular, this paper examines the role of context-related factors in influencing media frames about the SARS epidemic. Implications of these and other findings are discussed in terms of journalistic practices and cultural factors.

A China without AIDS: A Longitudinal Study of AIDS News in People’s Daily, 1986 – 2002 • Dan Chen, Fudan University; Tsan-Kuo Chang and Dong Dong, University of Minnesota • News media seem to employ a different way to define AIDS and to represent people with AIDS (PWAs). In this longitudinal study, we try to outline the discourses surrounding HIV/AIDS in Chinese news media, discover the major news foci, and discuss the perceived outcomes resulted from the media’s representation and construction of AIDS in contemporary China. We find that driven by a predominant ideology of modernization, AIDS is regarded a social problem that might postpone or deter China’s fast pace toward modernization. Hence, People’s Daily, the most important Chinese Party organ, tries to make this issue invisible to the public.

The Perception of newsworthiness in ten countries: Journalists, public relations practitioners and news consumers • Akiba A. Cohen, Tel Aviv University; and Pamela J. Shoemaker, Syracuse University • Using a simulated newsroom selection task, the study found that across countries there was a positive relationship among how journalists, public relations practitioners and news consumers ranked the newsworthiness of newspaper items, that there was a positive relationship between how these people ranked stories and how prominently their newspapers actually presented them, and that the ranking of stories were more similar to each other than to their actual rankings in the newspapers.

Is it right, wrong, or different? Exploring the impact of cultural factors in validating research. • Barbara J. DeSanto, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; William Thompson, University of Louisville; and Danny Moss, M.A. Hons, Manchester Metropolitan University • Scholarship is an established resource providing practitioners and educators with knowledge to improve communication from business to academia. As communication explodes globally, the importance of sharing diverse cultural scholarship from around the world is critical to creating equal global understanding. This pilot study develops a framework to assess how the dominant paradigm of U.S.-based journals includes or excludes the diverse cultural scholarship of global scholars and suggests ways to further study international journal publication values.

The Text is the Vortex: Three African Newspaper Cartoon “Re-Presentations” of President, Press and International Lending Institutions in the Post-Cold War era • Lyombe Eko, University of Iowa • This study analyzed the “re-presentation” of African presidents, the African press and the international lending institutions (the IMF and the World Bank) in the cartoons of two independent African satirical newspapers, Le Cafard Libéré of Senegal, and Le Messager Popoli of Cameroon. The cartoons of a mainstream newspaper, The Daily Nation of Nairobi, Kenya were added for purposes of linguistic and regional balance. The analysis was carried out within the framework of Legrand’s “re-presentation,” and Deleuze and Guattari’s “deterritorialization” Perspectives.

The View From Here: A News-flow Study of the On-line Editions of Canada’s National Newspapers • Mike Gasher, Concordia University • Employing a methodology adapted to the anaylsis of newspaper sites on the World Wide Web, this paper reports on an international news-flow study of the on-line editions of Canada’s three national newspapers: the Globe and Mail, the National Post and Le Devoir. If the Internet provides the technological capacity for newspapers to expand their news geography beyond conventional borders, this paper seeks to determine whether there is any evidence that newspapers are doing so.

News about the EU Constitution: Journalistic challenges and media portrayal of the European Constitution • Martin Gleissner and Claes H. de Vreese, University of Amsterdam • This multi-method study investigates how news media in Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands covered the European Union Constitution. The study draws on interviews with Brussels correspondents and a content analysis of television news and national newspapers. Results show that the Constitution entered and vanished from the media agenda, the tone of the coverage was predominately negative, and the issue was reported from a European angle. Explanations of these results come from journalists’ relation with EU institutions, their home news organizations, and their perception of the audience.

A Descriptive Analysis of Family Interactions in the Television Daily Drama in Korea: Cross-cultural Approach • Jong Won Ha, Sun Moon University • Many television dramas have featured families as the primary story vehicle. This paper aimed to analyze the family interactions focusing on the power process across family roles in Korean daily drama in comparison with American drama. The interactions between family members were characterized by conflicts of female members with the exception of wives. Mothers, daughters, sisters, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law were arranged at the core of conflicts and struggles in contrast to their counterparts: fathers, sons, brothers, fathers-in-law and sons-in-law, namely men. It was dissimilar to those of American drama.

Who dominates the debate? Five news agencies and their sources before the U.S.-Iraq war • Beverly Horvit, Texas Christian University • A stratified random sample of 321news articles related to the U.S.-Iraq conflict from Jan. 31, 2003, to Feb. 18, 2003, was selected from five news agencies – AP, Agence France Presse, Xinhua, ITAR-TASS and Inter Press Service. U.S. official sources were the most frequently used, and only ITAR-TASS — showed nationalistic bias in its sourcing. However, the non-Western news agencies offered readers more diverse sourcing in their coverage of the debate leading up to the war.

Gratifications Sought from New Technology: Cellular Telephones in the Lives of Japanese Youth • Hiromi Kondo and Tony Rimmer, California State University • Uses and gratifications theory was used to explain why young people use cellular telephones to satisfy their social and psychological needs. A summer 2003 survey of 1,292 high school and college students in Japan found very high levels of cell phone ownership and use. A cellular phone was seen by respondents as an important medium for maintaining relationships with peers. But beyond just talk, cell phones fulfilled socialization desires for Japanese young people. Use of other mass media by young people was not related to cell phone use.

The Contextual Effects of Gender Norms, Communication, and Social Capital on Family Planning Behaviors in Uganda: A Multi-Level Approach • Byoungkwan Lee, Charles T. Salmon and Kim Witte, Michigan State University; and Hye-Jin Paek, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study hypothesized a multi-level model to examine the contextual effects of gender norms, exposure to health-related radio programs, interpersonal communication, and social capital on family planning behavior in Uganda. The results of HLM showed that all of the four variables were marginally significant predictors of family planning behavior. We found that gender norms as a contextual factor significantly interacted with the individual-level perceived benefit. The significant cross-level interaction between the contextual variable of exposure to a health-related radio program and the individual-level variable of interpersonal communication was also found.

National Interest and Source Use In the Coverage of U.S.-China Relations: A Content Analysis of The New York Times and People’s Daily 1987-1996 • Xigen Li, Arkansas State University • This study examined relationship between national interest and source use in the coverage of U.S.-China relations in their respective elite newspapers of record, The New York Times and People’s Daily. The findings provided support to source dependency in international news coverage and impact of national interest on news content. The findings suggest the relationship between national interest and source use was decided by what was the central interest of the respective country in bilateral relations and how the issues involving national interest was presented by the newspapers.

The Framing of SARS: An Analysis of News Coverage in China and in the United States • Catherine A. Luther and Xiang Zhou, University of Tennessee • This research study examines how the press in the United States and in China framed the story of SARS. While showing that the news frames of economics, responsibility, and human-interest, previously established in other studies were also present in the U.S. and Chinese press coverage of SARS, it also identified a new frame, leadership. How these frames were presented differed depending on the origin of the newspaper.

Confronting gazes: Framing of Saudi women in the American press and American women in the Saudi press • Smeeta Mishra, University of Texas at Austin • This paper analyzes framing of Saudi women in the American press and compares it with representations of American women in the Saudi press by using an empirical ‘list of frames’ approach and drawing upon the critique of Orientalism, second level agenda setting and framing, and feminist critical analysis. Results show that the American press emphasizes restrictions on Saudi women over all other aspects of their lives. The Saudi press highlights ‘questionable values and superficial freedoms’ of American women among other frames.

Crime, Violence and Implications to HIV/AIDS Prevention: Challenges for Behavior Change Communication for in Jamaica • Nancy Muturi, University of the West Indies • Behavior change communication is an effective intervention in HIV/AIDS prevention but faces many challenges particularly in resource poor countries where socio-cultural and economic factors mitigate behavior change. This paper examines the impact of sexual violence on HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean, which the author contends, is contributing to the HIV/AIDS infection ranking the Caribbean only second to sub-Saharan Africa. Data for the study are gathered through a combination of participatory research methods in Jamaica.

“Nobody came to tell us how to live but how to die”: A HIV/AIDS focus group in sub-Sahara Africa • Emanuel Nneji, Utah State University • This study examines and compares the perceptions of two cohorts of indigenous communities in Nigeria and Botswana, in relation to their participatory communication experience in HIV health-related programs and considers appropriate ways of effectively involving them in such programs. Based on focus group discussions carried out by the author in Nigeria and Botswana in 2002, it is found that none of the focus group participants in either country had any full participatory experience.

International Students in the United States: Sojourners Using Home Country Media • Prajakta Paranjpe Mumbai India; and Jyotika Ramaprasad, Southern Illinois University • Set within the context of sojourning literature as well as uses and gratifications theory, this study examined how international students in the United States used home country mass media to satisfy their needs for information, integration with co-nationals, and familiarity. International students had relatively high use of home country media and above average needs for information, social integration, and familiarity. Their English competency, intention to return home, level of adjustment to the host culture, and needs predicted home country media use either or both in terms of time spent on and attention paid to home country media.

Internet Dependency Relations in Cross National Contexts: A Study of American and Indian Internet Users • Padmini Patwardhan, Texas Tech University; Jyotika Ramaprasad, Southern Illinois University • This study of American and Indian Internet users is one of the first to conduct a cross-country investigation of user-Internet connections within a micro-analytic Media System Dependency (MSD) framework. Using the term Internet Dependency Relations (IDR) to describe these relations, the study investigated 1) overall IDR intensity and intensity of IDR for six goal dimensions specified by MSD theory (social & self understanding, action & interaction orientation, and social & solitary play) and 2) demographic, geographic, and Internet use-related predictors of IDR. Data were collected through a cross-sectional online survey administered to a non-probability sample of American and Indian Internet users (n = 700).

Hybridity and the Rise of the Korean Media in Asia • Doobo Shim, National University of Singapore • A newly-coined phrase Korean wave, which refers to the Korean media culture enjoying popularity across East and Southeast Asia, is representative of the recent regional media development. This paper, by examining the recent big leap of the Korean media industries, argues that the U.S. dominance thesis of the globalization is not entirely justified. Although popular entertainment forms such as film and television are Western invention, Koreans have provided their own twists to the media by blending indeigenous characteristics and adding their unique flourishes in often innovative ways.

Libel Law In India: Following In Sullivan’s Footsteps • Robert L. Spellman, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • New York Times v. United States revolutionized the law of libel in the United States. It eliminated the harsh strict liability regime of the common law of libel. Sullivan and its progeny held that the First Amendment did not permit public officials and public figures to collect damages for libel unless they proved knowing falsity or reckless disregard of truth or falsity. Other common law nations have rejected Sullivan. The one exception is India. In Rajagopal v. Tamil Nadu the Supreme Court of India adopted a Sullivan-like rule for public officials or public figures to collect libel damages.

Bias in International Coverage? Two U.S. Newspapers’ Treatment of the Venezuelan Political Crisis in 2002-2003 • Kristen Stevens, Natalia Matukhno, Julie Shaw, and Jose Benítez, Ohio University • The focus of this content analysis is to investigate how two major U.S. newspapers—the New York Times and the Washington Post—covered the political crisis in Venezuela from February 2002 through January 2003. This study analyzes the coverage by these newspapers of political, social, and economic discord in Venezuela during a time when U.S. policy was directly opposed to President Chåvez.

Improving internal relationships in South African newsrooms: the need for managerial competencies • Elanie Steyn and TFJ Steyn, North-West University; and Arnold S de Beer, University of Stellenbosch • The Sanef 2002 National Journalism Skills Audit found that bureaucratic managers could not understand today’s young people (having) no respect for or loyalty to the … organization. However, participatory managers reported improved staff loyalty and output. South African media managers witness employees demanding more inclusion in decision-making. This paper investigates whether managerial competencies of communication, planning and administration, teamwork, strategic action, global awareness and self-management might improve newsroom management, and ultimately journalism output in the country. This is also the focus of a second Sanef Audit currently underway.

Our brothers’ keeper: An analysis of media coverage of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1981-2002 • Dulcie M. Straugham, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This content analysis study of network evening news coverage of the AIDS crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past 21 years examines the scope of topics covered, the sources used in news stories frames employed by the media to talk about AIDS. Findings suggest that although coverage of the issue is slim, there has been an increase recently. Frames identified are similar to those found in earlier studies of coverage of the AIDS crisis in the United States.

The Influence of Cultural Parameters on Videostyles of Televised Political Spots in the U.S. and Korea • Jinyoung Tak, Keimyung University; Lynda Lee Kaid and Hyoungkoo Khang, University of Florida • Considering cross-cultural aspects of political communication, this study explored how political advertising plays a conspicuous role as an indicator of cultural orientations by comparing and contrasting videostyles of the televised political spots between the United States and Korea since the presidential elections in 1992. A content analysis of verbal, nonverbal, and production components of the videostyles shows that televised political spots were highly reflective of the respective cultural values with regard to high-low context communication, degree of uncertainty avoidance, nonverbal expressions, and the social aspect of Che-Myon.

HIV/AIDS as News: A Case Study Analysis of the Journalistic Coverage of HIV/AIDS by an African Newspaper • Nelson Traquina, New University of Lisbon • When is HIV/AIDS selected as news? This paper is a case study analysis of the news coverage of HIV/AIDS in an African country, Angola that has been ravaged by a civil war since independence from Portuguese rule in 1975 until a cease-fire in 2002. The coverage by Angola’s only daily newspaper, Jornal de Angola, is compared with coverage provided by two Portuguese dailies, Diário de Notícias and Correio da Manhã, in similar years, namely, 1985, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1998 and 2000.

Renegotiating Media in the Post-Soviet Era: Western Journalistic Practices in the Armenian Radio Program Aniv • Gayane Frunze Torosyan and Kenneth Starck, University of Iowa • This study explored the interplay of Soviet-style and Western journalistic conventions by examining an Armenian commercial radio news program, Aniv, which is broadcast nationally and produced through an American-funded non-governmental organization, Internews. Six issues guided the inquiry: (1) Objectivity, (2) Newsworthiness, (3) Social Role of Journalism, (4) Competition, (5) Professional Values, (6) Education and Employment. Results of personal interviews and observations indicated that success in promoting societal discourse is dependent on adapting imported practices to local circumstances.

The Cross-cultural Effects of American TV Programs on Nigerian Audiences • Chioma Ugochukwu, University of South Carolina • This experimental study investigates the effects of American-produced entertainment programs on Nigerian audiences’ knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and values, using the cultural imperialism theory as a framework. The subject pool for the experiment consisted of 482 senior secondary school boys and girls from Nigeria, who are representatives of the three major ethnic/religious groups in the country.

“Robed Revolutionaries:” Internet and Television Usage by Students in the UAE • Tim Walters, Zayed University; Lynne Masel Walters, Texas A&M University, Fatma Abdulrabam Mohamed Abdulraham • The students of the title are 20-ish, female Emirati students at Zayed University who move back and forth between the traditional Islamic culture of their families and the modernized Western culture they experience through the media and on the campus. This paper looks at the when, where, and how the use television and the Internet and what they are looking for as they use it. This paper seeks to answer some of these questions and frame further discussion of media use in the modern Middle East.

Newsgathering Practices: How Hong Kong Journalists Operate in the Newsroom • Doreen Weisenhaus, University of Hong Kong • There has been a dramatic rise worldwide in concern over journalistic practices. These issues are considered particularly relevant in Asia as the media play increasingly important roles in fledgling democracies such as Hong Kong, emerging market-oriented systems such as mainland China and more established but politically volatile democracies such as Thailand. This study looks at actual newsroom practices in Hong Kong through the results of a survey of 422 journalists and considers some of the implications of their use.

Shock and Awe: Media Impact on Anxiety and International Support for the Iraq War • Lars Willnat, George Washington University • This study investigates the impact of news coverage about the prelude to the Iraq War on people’s emotional reactions to the war and their international support for the Iraq War. The analysis is based on a survey conducted before and after the start of the war among 2,286 university students from seven countries in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. The findings indicate that exposure to war coverage is associated with more fear of terrorism, higher levels of war anxiety, and less support for the Iraq War in general.

Ideologies of Crime Coverage in Chinese Media: A Case Study of Chinese Commercial Portals’ Newscontent and Interactivity • Li Xiao and Judy Polumbaum, University of Iowa • Analyzing news stories, commentaries, and readers’ discussions of a sensational serial murder case on China’s two most popular commercial online portals, this study examines how the Internet’s medium-specific characteristics of unlimited space and interactivity facilitate both reinforcement and challenges to dominant ideologies of crime coverage. Textual analysis yields four themes in the news coverage and three themes in readers’ discussions suggesting that both process are underway simultaneously.

Examining the Cultural Paradox Hypothesis on Commercial Websites • Tae-Il Yoon, Hallym University; and Esther Thorson, University of Missouri at Columbia • This study attempts to examine how consumers from different cultural backgrounds respond to visual cues (advertising models) and verbal cues (language) embedded in commercial websites. The results of a web-based experiment confirmed de Mooiji’s (1998) cultural paradox hypothesis. The participants belonging to an Eastern culture were more likely to favor the visual/ verbal cues featuring Western culture, whereas the participants of a Western culture responded more favorably to the visual cues representing Eastern culture.

Changes in Chinese JMC Schools’ Curricula Since China’s Media Reform and Entry into WTO • Ernest Zhang, Fritz Cropp, and Wayne Wanta, University of Missouri at Columbia • This study investigated changes to the curricula of the Chinese schools of journalism and mass communication (JMC) since China’s media reform and entry into the World Trade Organization. Guided by the diffusion of innovations theory, this study discovered the current Chinese curricula, which were inspired by the American curricula, have become more business-related and mass communication-oriented.

Student Papers
Identity via Satellite: A Case Study of the Kurdish Satellite Station Medya TV • Andrea E. Allen, University of Texas at Austin • The content of the Kurdish satellite television station Medya TV was intended to appeal to all Kurds regardless of whether they lived in the Middle East or diaspora. This qualitative study of the station’s goals and programming reveals that while Medya TV produced diverse content to appeal to a variety of Kurdish experiences, the station still privileged a “modern mentality.” This raises questions about the hegemony of values in diasporic media organizations.

The African Hunger Fad: Once in Vogue, Now Out of Style? An Analysis of ABC, CBS and NBC News Networks August 1968-August 2003 • Rucha Chitnis, Ohio University • In the 21st century, researchers suggest that famines have largely prevailed in Africa, although risks continue in other nations. This study examined ABC, CBS, and NBC’s coverage of famines that have struck the African continent. The results of this study showed that TV news networks’ coverage of hunger places prominence on the food crisis in very few countries. The media have largely failed in bringing African famines to the attention of viewers in its earlier stages. The media also use standardized sources in the famine coverage. Famines when packed with other newsworthy or entertaining elements receive more coverage.

Failing Hegemony: A Comparative Content Analysis of the Coverage of the Lead-up to the Attack on Iraq in 2003 in the World Media • Erin Collins, Martin Jensen, Peter Kanev, Matt MacCalla, Aalborg University, Denmark • The media in a hegemonic system follow and reinforce the ‘spin’ of the political elites. This ability of the powerful to enlist the media in their campaigns against enemies, real or imagined, is an indicator of the elites’ power to convince and to define the limits and flow of the public discourse. The US-led war against Iraq in the early 2003 was preceded by a media debate, which demonstrated that global media are breaking new ground. News outlets from around the world challenged the dominant news frame of the United States. While in a similar conflict 12 years earlier the world the news outlets of 2003 did not buy into the story of the ‘Coalition of the Willing.’ This implies a serious challenge of the global hegemon’s ‘soft power’ to convince and to conduct policy without resorting to coercion.

Content Analysis: A Study of the Top Frequently Visited Web Sites in the United States, China, and Korea • Corie Forrest, Gennadi Gevorgyan, Cong Li, and Youjeong Kim, Kansas State University • The current study identifies the relationship between cultural variability and online communication. Hofstede’s model of cultural variability is used as the theoretical framework to compare the Web site design in the United States, China, and Korea. The results of the study suggest that the four cultural dimensions examined (collectivism, power distance, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance) in the context of Web site design demonstrate different levels across cultures. The implications of cultural variability are discussed.

My news or your news? CNN Interactive’s regionalization policy • Margaretha Geertsema University of Texas at Austin • Based on theories of globalization, a content analysis of CNN Interactive’s regional Web sites were conducted in 2002 and 2003 to determine whether CNN is indeed targeting regional audiences with these sites. The study shows not only that CNN successfully regionalizes its stories, but that it refined its regionalization strategy over the last two years. However, CNN lacks in original content on the pages for Africa, the Americas and the Middle East, and these regions remain undercovered.

“We Are What We Watch” A Media Ethnography of Hybridity, Acculturation, and Ghorba Among Arab-Canadian Families • Adel Iskandar, University of Kentucky • This paper is an ethnographic study of the processes by which Arab immigrants in Canada contest their identities and how their consumption and negotiation of mass mediated narratives from national and transnational satellite television both assist and resist the process of acculturation into Canadian society. By employing exploratory focus groups and extended participant observation among immigrant families, this study showcases the strategies by which these families articulate their Arab and Canadian identities. The study also reveals and explicates the term Ghorba as a conceptual tool to assist in the examination of the contrasting forces and pressures affecting social and cultural assimilation.

Blacklisted and Defiant: Voices of Middle Eastern Political Struggle in Cyberspace • Amani Ismail, University of Iowa • Cyberspace’s capacity to communicate messages across various entities distinguishes this medium from others. It allows messages of those stigmatized by society and mainstream media to be conveyed. The stigmatized include political violence groups, sometimes called “terrorists.” Textual analysis of web sites of two organizations classified as “terrorist” by the U.S. government examines how cyberspace allows them to deliver their ideologies. Findings suggest that the Internet may be empowering for them, contrary to mainstream media’s representation.

Exploring Influential Factors on Music Piracy across Countries • Eyun-Jung Ki, Byenghee Chang and Hyoungkoo Khang, University of Florida • This study explored various determinant factors influencing music piracy rates across countries. The results of regression analysis showed that GDP, Individualism, Intellectual property protection and size of music market has significantly associated with the music piracy rates across the globe.

Reporting Al-Jazeera’s Close Encounter With U.S. Militarism: A Comparative Content Analysis Of American And British Newspapers’ Post-9/11 Wartime Journalism • Nam-Doo Kim and Seckjun Jang, University of Texas at Austin • Given the recent repercussions of Arab network al-Jazeera’s wartime prominence, we conducted a comparative content analysis of the New York Times and the Guardian to examine their uses of al-Jazeera-sourced information and voices, portrayals of the Arab medium and related issues, and presentations of al-Jazeera-sourced Osama bin Laden’s statements. We predicted that the British newspaper would be more active in use of the media source, more favorable in description of the Arab medium, and more serious treatment of the terrorist messages than the American counterpart.

News Coverage of U.S. War in Iraq: A Comparison of The New York Times, The Arab News, and The Middle East Times • Changho Lee, University of Texas at Austin • This study investigated how The New York Times, The Arab News, and The Middle East Times reflected their national interests in their coverage of the Iraqi War. Overall, The New York Times emphasized U.S. war efforts, citing primarily U.S. officials while the Arab newspapers devoted more space to antiwar voices, citing primarily Arab sources. Thus, national interest became an important factor influencing media coverage of conflicts. Considering overall findings, The New York Times followed the interests of an attacking country whereas Arab newspapers reflected the interests of an attacked country.

Do You Mirror Me? – Intermedia Agenda Setting Effects among 8 Online Media in Korea • Gunho Lee, University of Texas at Austin • This study explores the intermedia agenda-setting effects among 8 Korean online newspapers, 5 of which are online extensions of traditional media; one is an online edition of a wire service, and the other 2 are “original” online newspapers, which were born on the Internet. Rank order correlations revealed that some of the traditional media’s online siblings influence others of the same kind, while they have no such effect on the original online newspapers. Original online newspapers and the wire service showed weak agenda-setting effects on the traditional media’s online counterparts, but they do not have any agenda-setting effects on original online newspapers.

Standardized, Localized, or Glocalized Programming?: An Analytical Study of MTV’s Programming Strategy in Japan • Goro Obo, University of Florida • Glocalization, characterized by cultural fusion as a result of adaptation of foreign products to suit local tastes and needs, is an omportant strategy used by many transnational media corporations. This study examined how glocalized television programming works, taking MTV Japan for example. It was discovered that glocalized programming was prominent, occupying 63 percent of the programming schedule, provided the network had a comparative advantage in the industry, and met viewers’ demands for local and foreign music.

World AIDS Day and Relevant Campaigns: How They Affected the International Media Coverage of AIDS • Qi Qiu, University of Missouri at Columbia • This study examined the role of World AIDS Day and campaigns around it in setting media agenda. Content analysis of worldwide print media coverage of AIDS during and outside the World AIDS Day 2003 period indicated that AIDS Day affected the media agenda by boosting coverage of AIDS. Additionally, the study found that campaign scale rather than real world factors was a strong predictor of media coverage of AIDS, as suggested by information subsidy theory.

President Bush Visits Africa: An analysis of Botswana’s Daily News and South Africa’s Mail & Guardian • Denise St. Clair, University of Wisconsin at Madison • Using framing as both theory and method, this paper evaluates how two key African newspapers — one from Botswana, the government owned Daily News, and one from South Africa, the independent Mail & Guardian—covered President Bush’s July 2003 trip to Africa. This study builds on Entman’s work on framing, and seeks to see if Entman’s hypothesis that newspapers support the dominant ideology of their government holds true in international settings.

An Islamist Newspaper Faces West: Commentaries in Zaman’s English and Turkish Editions
During a Seismic Year • Kristen S. Stevens, Ohio University • This study analyzes Turkish commentaries translated for an online English edition, Zaman, between March 2003-March 2004, and compares coverage between Zaman’s Turkish and English language editions surrounding the November 2003 terrorist attacks in Istanbul. An analysis of the primary topic selection in moderate Islamist Zaman’s articles and commentaries revealed that there has been a change in its coverage since the attacks in November 2003 – and some surprising substantial ideological consonance between the different language editions.

Chinese National Identity with Global Characteristics: A Look at Hollywood Films Reception by Popular Cinema • Weiqun Su, University of Minnesota • Hollywood films, from the perspective of cultural studies scholars, are seen as having been actively advocating the American way of life and American values. However, China’s case is very unique in the sense that its reception of Hollywood films changes with the drastic change in its internal politics: from seeing Hollywood films as reinforcing the traditional Marxist vision of evil capitalism, to seeing Hollywood films as the manifestation of the American way of life and to the celebration of the ethos of film stars.

China’s Image of Japan: Framing in Chinese Media, 2002 • Xiaopeng Wang, Ohio University • A poll conducted in 2002 indicated that anti-Japanese sentiment was rising in China. Critics argued that negative coverage of Japan greatly affected people’s attitudes. This study analyzes Chinese Global Times, one major newspaper mainly covering world news in China, and finds that Japan was framed as an economical partnership and a historical foe of China. However, no significant correlation was found between media frames and people’s perceptions of Japan.

Reflecting The Caribbean: A Content Analysis of the BBC’s Online News Coverage of Four Caribbean Countries • Kallia Wright, Ohio University • This paper explores the amount of coverage the British Broadcasting Corporation’s news website allocates to four Caribbean countries, Haiti, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in terms of stories on conflict and resolution. The research exposed that over a five-year period over 75% of the online stories posted by the BBC on the countries focused on conflict. Additionally, no attention was given to Haiti’s bicentenary independence celebrations in comparison to the amount of coverage the country’s conflicts received.

Bicultural identity and its effects on fear appeal perception for health messages • Cui Yang, University of Minnesota • This research project is to determine under what condition, how cultural identity may impact the persuasion of fear appeals, particularly in the domain of individuals’ decision making to avoid sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), among biculturals with both Chinese and American cultural backgrounds. This study found evidence that the effect of cultural situation cues and health message content are moderated by dual cultural identity, or the perceived compatibility or opposition between ethnic and mainstream cultures. Findings suggest that in health campaigns, it is important to understand how cultural frame switching facilitates or hinders the processing of health information.

Imported American Television Programs and Viewers’ Satisfaction with Personal Life and Society in South Korea • Hyeseung Yang, Pennsylvania State University • This study explored how the values and images embedded in exported “mainstream” U.S. media may function as a catalyst that deteriorates individuals’ subjective well-being in developing, “marginalized” countries. The survey results show that heavy viewing of American television programs among people living in South Korea is associated with amplified estimates of Americans’ affluence and consequently lower satisfaction with Korean society. Implications of findings in terms of international cultivation research are discussed.

Their Word against Ours: News Discourse of the 2003 Gulf War Civilian Casualties in CNN and Aljazeera • Mervat Youssef, University of Iowa • In times of war the reporting of casualties becomes one of the most controversial issues. Journalists have to walk the fine line between reporting the suffering of civilians and avoiding accusations of being mouthpieces of the enemy. Textual analysis of news reporting Iraqi casualties on both CNN and Aljazeera suggests that both news outlets disseminated propagandistic messages as they downplayed casualties. In either case, propaganda served a different and distinct sociological function.

The Ecology of Games Shaping China’s Television Broadcasting Policy: Analysis of the conditional broadcasting licenses to foreign cable TV • Jia Zhang, University of Washington • October 2001 marked a breakthrough for western television broadcasters that AOL Time Warner first reached a cable carriage agreement with the Chinese government. This paper employs an ecology of games as an analytical approach to study this conditional broadcast licensing policy, providing explanations about the context, the actors and their behaviors in the policy-making process. The analysis also suggests certain features that are characteristically Chinese about the ecology of games shaping the television broadcasting policy.

The U.S. News Coverage of China Related to WTO Membership in the Pre-WTO Eras • Miao Zhang, Ohio University • This study analyzed four US newpapers, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune, to explore how US news media covered China and its WTO membership in the pre-WTO eras. Findings show that US news coverage of China and WTO membership is much less in the post-WTO era than in the pre-WTO era, and that news focus and countries discussed changed significantly. However, non-Chinese sources remained dominant in news coverage.

Effect of Chinese Cultural Ties in Chinese National’s Media Use • Ting Maggie Zhang, Syracuse University • This paper examines the relationship between the strength of Chinese national’s cultural ties and their use of Chinese-language media and English-language media in the United States. It uses acculturation/adaptation theory and sees Chinese cultural ties as a reverse process of acculturation. A survey method is employed at the individual level to study the topic.

Shenbao: Cultivating a Modern Chinese Public Sphere, 1872-1889 • Xiang Zhou, University of Tennessee at Knoxville • This exploratory study examines the Shenbao, an influential daily Chinese-language newspaper published by a British merchant in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1872, highlighting its editorial efforts in bridging communication between the Chinese and Western communities and helping cultivate a modern society in the important transformation period of China. This study may help readers become aware of the political and moral implications of the debate about the role of the foreign communities in China’s development.

<< 2004 Abstracts

History Division

News across the border: Associated Press in Canada, 1894-1917 • Gene Allen, Ryerson University • The connection between powerful international news agencies and their smaller domestic counterparts is a central characteristic of the international news system. This study of the relationship between Associated Press and Canadian Press illustrates that while AP was the dominant partner, it also pushed the Canadians into forming a functioning domestic news agency despite their reluctance. For both parties, the requirements of telegraphic news affected the structure of their relationship more than national sentiment.

“We See Beyond Tomorrow Now” Progress and Press Promotion of Bonneville Dam • Jon S. Arakaki, New York at Oneonto • For Oregonians living along the Columbia River, the greatest symbols of economic and social advancement, as well as man’s manipulation of nature, are the four large federal dams—Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day, and McNary—constructed between 1933 and 1968. Not only did the dams fulfill its objective of providing navigation, irrigation, hydro-electric power, and flood control—they also transformed the environmental, economical, philosophical, and political nature of the Pacific Northwest. This study examines local press promotion leading up to federal funding approval of the first of these dams, Bonneville (1933)—and more specifically, how the idea of progress was communicated to gain community support for the project.

Moral Duty Trumps Legal Rights On The Other Hutchins Commission • Frederick Blevins, University of Oklahoma • In the mid-1940s, University of Chicago President Robert Maynard Hutchins appointed to study groups – one to examine the state of the press in American, another to explore the feasibility of establishing a new world order. One, the Commission on Freedom of the Press, prompted the social responsibility theory of the press as the other, the Committee to Frame a World Constitution, faded quickly into the footnotes of postwar history. But the press panel’s moderate findings, tempered by remnants of libertarian thinking among a few members, evolved a few months later into a global free press clause that specifically outlined how civil liberties – including expression – could be abridged. The key debate on the press commission brought balance between duties and rights. On the constitution panel, the debates started and finished heavily favoring a maximalist position of duties over rights.

Social Questions Treated in The Catholic World Magazine During the 1884-1897 Transition Period of the American Catholic Press • Jack Breslin, Iona College • The Catholic World magazine, a prominent Catholic monthly periodical, was first published in 1865 by Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers. The World was both a forum for discussion and advocate for change on several key social questions in American life, while staying within Church orthodoxy. In focusing on the treatment of social questions in the World during the 1884-1897 Transition Period of the Catholic American Press, this study offers insights into the perceptions of Catholic clergy and laity during the late nineteenth century.

Covering a Two-Front War: African-American Correspondents during World War II • Jinx C. Broussard and John Maxwell Hamilton, Louisiana State University • This article examines the largely unrecognized area of African-American foreign correspondence during World War II, and it looks at local reporting about the conflict. The Norfolk Journal and Guide, one of the most respected African-American newspapers sent three journalists overseas to cover the war. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of editorials and articles in selected issues of the Journal and Guide between 1940 and September 1945. It finds that the contributions and perspectives of the newspaper and its war correspondents reflected the intense African-American domestic struggle for recognition, inclusion, and equal rights.

“Not in Mexico, But in Colorado!”: Newspapers’ Responses to the Ludlow Massacre • Elizabeth V. Burt, University of Hartford • This paper examines ten daily newspapers’ coverage of the Colorado mine strike and Ludlow massacre in April 1914. It was discovered that these newspapers, which usually displayed little sympathy for labor issues, did not follow the usual pattern of coverage of conflicts between labor and management. Rather than focusing solely on the conflict inherent in such a situation, many of the ten newspapers in the study developed themes unique to the Ludlow situation. One of these themes used the rhetorical argument of a paradoxical appeal to common belief when it compared the situation in Colorado to the ongoing bloody revolution in Mexico The second theme focused on the slaughter of innocents and the horrors of the massacre.

Dear, Kent State: Letters to the Editor from May 1970 • Naeemah Clark, University of Tennessee • On Monday, May 4, 1970, four students were killed on the Kent State campus during a Vietnam War protest. Due to the events of that day, the university was closed for the rest of the semester and, as a result, the student newspaper was not published. This paper focuses on the letters to the editor that were sent to newspaper’s office. These letters address what the public wanted to say to the students about this defining moment in American history.

Of Intellectual Leadership and Legacies: How JW Fulbright Sustained America’s Antipropaganda Movement in Congress, 1945-1980 • Stacey Cone, University of Iowa • Senator JW Fulbright is famous for his dissent against mainstream foreign policy but is less well-known for his antipropaganda activism. During the years when critical propaganda analysis became politically untenable in academia, Fulbright kept the antipropaganda movement alive in Congress. This paper traces and analyzes Fuibright’s activism, arguing that for much of the century, he was the unacknowledged leader of a dispersed and disorganized opposition that has remained underappreciated in media history despite its great significance for the development of national identity.

Visualizing Race: Native American and African American Imagery in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1888-1891 • John M. Coward, Tulsa University • This study investigates race and racial meanings in a popular illustrated journal at an important moment in the nineteenth century. The analysis identifies four major themes in these images: (1) negative stereotyping, (2) social progress, (3) scientific exoticism, and (4) classic humanism. In Leslie’s illustrations, the shifting views of Indians and blacks in this era sometimes expanded but never subverted the existing racial order.

“The Courage of His Convictions:” C. F. Richardson, the Houston Informer, and the Fight for Racial Equality in the 1920s • Mary M. Cronin, Bridgewater State College • This research attempts to partially rectify the void in 1920s black press scholarship by examining the editorial vision of one of the South’s most prominent, eloquent, and activist publishers, Clifton F Richardson of the Houston Informer. What sets Richardson apart from many African American publishers of the time and makes him particularly worthy of study is the fact that he did not view the three leading strains of black thought of the period—Garvey’s black pride rhetoric, the Du Boisian activist vision of civil rights, or Washington’s promotion of uplift—as being incompatible or in opposition.

Mythical Hero American-Style: An Examination of the Presence of Myth in the Coverage of General Norman Schwarzkopf and the Persian Gulf War • Dale L. Edwards, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Lule argues the news media repeat stories that portray subjects according to seven categories of myths. This paper examines the coverage of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf in three news magazines and three biographies, seeking to determine whether that coverage portrayed Schwarzkopf as a mythological hero as defined by Lule. It concludes the coverage did portray Schwarzkopf in that manner and that the biographies used press coverage and other information to enlarge the hero status further.

After 25 years: U.S. v. The Progressive Inc. and Prior Restraint in the Era of the War against Terrorism • Eric Freedman and Ann-Marie Murphy, Michigan State University • Twenty-five years ago in the atmosphere of the Cold War, a federal judge imposed a prior restraint blocking The Progressive’s article about building an H-bomb. It was only the second time since World War II that the government obtained an injunction against the media on national security grounds. The 1979 decision conflicted with the Supreme Court’s Pentagon Papers ruling. Now, First Amendment experts worry that history may repeat itself if the government seeks prior restraints against the press in the atmosphere of a war against terrorism.

How to Infuriate a Bank, an Airline, Unions, Printing Companies, Immigration Authorities, Canadian Police, Vice President Agnew, and President Nixon in Ten Months: The Scanlan’s Monthly Story • William Gillis, University of Ohio • If a magazine’s achievements can be measured in part by whom and how many it infuriated in the shortest amount of time, then surely Scanlan‘s Monthly deserves to be honored. In its ten-month, eight-issue appearance on U.S. newsstands in 1970 and 1971, Scanlan‘s drew the attention—and often the ire—of business, labor, law enforcement, and government leaders. Scanlan ‘s also managed to print some of the most provocative muckraking journalism of its time.

Battles of opinion: Editorials through history reveal diversity of opinion in competing daily newspapers • Steve Hallock, Ohio University • Beginning with the post-Revolutionary War era and continuing through the latter half of the twentieth century, competing American newspapers have engaged in vigorous debate on topics ranging from the adoption of the constitution, war and slavery to presidential endorsements, social policy and diet. This debate has waned in recent years as the number of monopoly and chain-owned community newspapers has risen and the number of two-newspaper communities has decreased. This study, which examines select editorials from the end of the 18th century and into the Franklin Roosevelt administration to ascertain editorial diversity, found not only meaningful ideological editorial differences but also editorial variety measured in other ways – including vigor of argument, tone, focus, editorial placement and space devoted to opinions.

Media History Pedagogy: Answering Carey’s “Problem of Journalism History” 30 Years Later • Beth Fantaskey Kaszuba, Pennsylvania State University • In 1974 the first edition of the journal Journalism History included an essay by cultural historian James Carey, who criticized communications historians for redundant, unimaginative scholarship that did a disservice to students. This research explores the state of media history pedagogy today. Using a review of textbooks and syllabi, as well as instructor interviews, the author determined that scholars have in large part answered Carey’s challenges by restructuring texts and re-invigorating classroom presentations.

“We Shall Not Submit!” How the Twenty-Fourth Congress and the Jackson Administration attempted and failed to stop the circulation of abolitionist publications through the United States Post Office during the late 1830s • Kevin R. Kemper, University of Missouri at Columbia • During the rising conflict over slavery, the Twenty-Fourth Congress and the Jackson Administration attempted and failed to stop the circulation of abolitionist publications through the United States Post Office during the late 1830s. The age of Jackson includes precursors to the “clear and present danger” and “bad tendency” tests of free press jurisprudence during the twentieth century. This legal history illustrates that openness during political discourse promotes democratic solutions during times of crisis.

Raymond Bonner and the Salvadoran Civil War 1980 to 1983 • John F. Kirch, University of Maryland • This paper tells the story of New York Times correspondent Raymond Bonner through his reports from El Salvador during the early 1980s. In short, the historical narrative and textual analysis found some evidence to suggest that the Times pulled Bonner out of El Salvador under pressure from the Reagan White House. In addition, the paper found that the Times softened its critical reporting of the civil war in El Salvador after Bonner was reassigned to the city desk in 1982.

The Day Jackie Robinson Changed Baseball and Society: The Press Coverage Was as Striking as Black and White • Chris Lamb, College of Charleston • The signing of Jackie Robinson to a professional baseball contract transformed both baseball and society. With the signing of Robinson, baseball emerged as more than a game and came to represent not the dreams deferred of segregation but the possibilities of integration. The story meant one thing to the black press and quite another to the mainstream press. This paper examines the differences in the coverage of this story by examining more than 50 newspapers and magazines.

“Woman’s Angle In War”: World War II Reporter Ruth Cowan Nash Tightrope Act Across the Separate Spheres • Linda J. Lumsden, Western Kentucky University • This paper argues that Associated Press overseas correspondent Ruth Cowan’s quest for the woman’s angle paradoxically reinforced restrictive gender divisions of the traditional male and female “separate spheres” despite the radical act of a woman writing about war. It concludes that conceptualizing the woman’s angle as a function of separate spheres offers a promising new theoretical framework for analyzing women’s journalism history, which often has found itself stuck in the compensatory stage of women’s history.

The Weapons of Character Assassination: “Scandal Intertextuality” in Anti-Blaine Political Cartoons During the 1884 Presidential Campaign • Harlen Makemson, Elon University • For more than a hundred years, “A Campaign of Caricature” has been credited for helping Grover Cleveland reach the White House. Puck artists and Harper’s Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast shared a desire to discredit Republican candidate James Blaine by ascribing to him characteristics of scandal during the presidential campaign of 1884. This research explores how cartoonists differed in their approaches using the concept of “scandal intertextuality.” This study offers strong evidence that cartoonists had a great deal of influence on each other during the canvass.

The (Oregon) Advocate: Boosting The Race and Portland, Too • Kimberly Mangun, University of Oregon • Through a qualitative analysis of editorials and columns in the African American newspaper The (Portland, Oregon) Advocate, this original study examines The Advocate’s role as a booster. Between 1922 and 1932, editors ED and Beatrice Morrow Cannady promoted the city to current and potential residents even as they criticized Oregon’s unwritten segregation policies. Racism offers an interesting lens for exploring how the editors worked to build a community and reconcile these related — yet conflicting — objectives.

These Working Wives: The “Two-Job” Woman in Interwar Magazines • Jane Marcellus, Middle Tennessee State University • Between the world wars, a married woman who worked for pay was called a “two-job wife.” This paper examines portrayal of the two-job wife in four magazines—Ladies’ Home Journal, Forbes, The American Magazine, and Independent Woman. Depiction varied, with the two-job wife often portrayed as a beneficiary or a victim of modern times, or as an intruder in male territory. Dissident depictions did appear, both in the mainstream and, particularly, in Independent Woman.

The Feminist in the Feminine: WHER-AM Radio and 1950s Proto-feminism • Melissa Meade, University of Washington • In 1955 Memphis’ ninth radio station went on-air: WHERaAM, the “All-Girl Station.” In addition to the gimmick of vocalized femininity, WHER emerged as a women’s cultural space that can allow us to think through notions of gender and femininity in postwar U.S., women in media production, and how gender operates within the study of media history. While the WHER staff may not have articulated a feminist agenda, the station activities were an important proto-feminist endeavor.

To Suppress or Not To Suppress, That Is the Question: Pros and Cons Over the Suppression of the Japanese-Language Press From Pearl Harbor to Mass Evacuation • Takeya Mizune, Bunkyo-Japan • After Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration faced a question of how to treat the Japanese “enemy language” newspapers within its borders. While one group demanded to suppress them all, another group insisted to preserve them. Their political battle ended in favor of the latter, meaning the Japanese-language press would be immune from total suppression. But the mass evacuation policy forced all West Coast Japanese papers to close, leaving only a few in Utah and Colorado.

The Olympics during the Cold War: Coverage of U.S. and Soviet Athletes in Two Leading American Newspapers • Anthony Moretti, Texas Tech University • This research examines coverage of the Summer Olympic Games from 1948 through 1988 in two leading American newspapers and argues that the reporters and columnists at both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times provided unequal coverage of American and Soviet athletes. The achievements of U.S. Olympians tended to be over-reported, while the accomplishments of Soviet Olympians were under-reported in both newspapers. The author concludes that the press nationalism model accounts for this imbalance in coverage.

Eating the Zombies: George W. Bush Feeds on Reporters at a Pre-war Press Conference • James E. Mueller, University of North Texas • This paper analyzes the March 6, 2003, press conference in which George W Bush discussed war with Iraq. Bush joked that event was “scripted,” and it quickly became notorious as an example of a toothless White House press. This paper argues that although some of the questioning was flawed, both the president and press did their jobs, the former by conveying his ideas and determination, and the latter by asking him the appropriate questions.

Path Not Taken: Wired Wireless and Broadcasting in the 1920s • Randall Patnode, Xavier University • In 1922, a U.S. Army Maj. George O Squier demonstrated a system for distributing radio signals over telephone and electric power lines. Called carrier current broadcasting, or wired wireless, it solved three of radio’s most challenging problems, including how collect payments directly from the listener instead of indirectly through program sponsorship. Although both American Telephone and Telegraph and the Radio Corporation of America believed they had rights to wired wireless, neither exploited its potential. This article argues that preexisting business models, defensive business practices, and squabbling over patent rights precluded either company from adequately testing the possibilities of a technology that could have challenged over-the-air broadcasting.

The Other Double V: The Chicago Defender’s Dual Victory Campaign During 1942 • Earnest L. Perry Jr., University of Missouri at Columbia • This study examines the Chicago Defender’s dual victory campaign from its inception in March 1942 until it quietly vanished from the newspaper’s pages in June 1942. The campaign coincided with a tumultuous period in the relationship between African Americans and the white majority during the war. The reluctance on the part of the military to allow African American men to enlist and its continued segregation policies caused African Americans to question why they should participate in a war to save democracy abroad when they were denied freedoms at home. The Defender’s campaign differed from that of the more famous Pittsburgh Courier in that it also promoted a self-help plan to strengthen the African American community and debunk negative stereotypes.

Shot Down: The Women Airforce Service Pilots and the U.S. Media • Laura Resnick, Ohio University • The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of WWII were the first women pilots to fly for the U.S. military. The media initially praised the WASPs, but negative media attention later turned public opinion and Congress against them, leading to their deactivation. This paper examines how the media both lionized and victimized the WASPs, ultimately shooting down the U.S. military’s first women pilots.

The Genteel Magazines’ Criticism of the Daily Newspaper Press 1890 to 1910 • Ronald Rogers, University of Ohio at Athens • The sensationalist press in the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th confronted the genteel culture’s desire to fend off modernity. The criticism of that press by the four major genteel magazines largely concerned itself with the sensationalism of the newspaper press and the evils that cascaded from it. In addition, within that critical discourse were arguments still relevant today about the media’s role in our society.

Images of Brutality: The Portrayal of U.S. Racial Violence in Overseas News Photographs (1955-1965) • Carol B. Schwalbe, Arizona State University • This article examines how news photographs of U.S. racial violence were perceived overseas during the early years of the cold war (1955-1965) and the effects those images had on U.S. diplomats abroad and leaders at home as they confronted powerful foes in the postwar period before television and satellite communication became significant factors overseas. Images of brutality not only raised serious concerns among America’s allies and the unaligned nations but also aided its enemies.

The Devil’s Advocate: Will H. Hays and the Campaign to Make Movies Respectable • Stephen Vaughn, University of Wisconsin at Madison • As the Motion Picture Association of America now selects a successor to Jack Valenti, it is well to examine the origins and nature of this organization that first hired Will H. Hays to be its president in 1921. Although Hays’s name remains synonymous with movie censorship, he should be remembered as an innovator in the use of new media, one of his generation’s successful practitioners of public relations, and the man who ushered motion pictures into respectability in the United States.

The Federal Election Campaign Act: A Historical Explanation • Tim P. Vos, Syracuse University • The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1971, the last major change to the Communications Act’s equal access section ( ◊ 315), is notable for what it accomplished and for what it did not do. This paper provides a historical explanation for the FECA outcomes. Employing the analytical categories of comparative politics, alternative explanations are critically examined and found inadequate. Changes to equal access law faced structural constraints-notably cultural ideas about access and mistrust in broadcasters.

<< 2004 Abstracts

Cultural and Critical Studies Division

Producing Telenovelas In A Time Of Crisis: The Venezuelan Case * Carolina Acosta-Aizuru, University of Georgia * Currently, Venezuela is deeply polarized between those who staunchly support President Hugo Chavez and those who fervently oppose him. Drawing on the “circuit of culture,” I conducted in-depth interviews with Venezuelan telenovela actors, writers and media executives to provide a snapshot of how the telenovela industry is affected by the country’s political, economic and social crises, and how these production participants envisioned the future of Venezuelan telenovelas’ texts, production and circulation. The study suggests a gap between media executives who see telenovelas solely as an economic product, and writers and actors who believe that the genre carries an important ideological weight that could help ease the current crisis.

The Reality Of Black Women’s Images Informed by Mediated Representations: A Reception Study * Oluwa Tosin M. Adegbola, Morgan State University * A reception study was conducted on the portrayals of black women in women’s magazines. Audience are conceptualized as active readers of the magazine materials who recognize dominant messages present in magazines and possess different standpoints that are brought to bear on their reading of the images. Study consisted of a survey questionnaire, journal entries and focus group interviews. Using Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding model positions of dominant, negotiated and oppositional, black women are not unified on their reception of these images, but are influenced by images in informing their identity on a continuum from acceptance to rejection images in question.

Quiet Control: How American Journalism Obstructs the Democratic Ideal: An Institutional Analysis * Seth Ashley, University of Missouri at Columbia * This paper is an institutional analysis of American journalism, reviewing and synthesizing the scholarly literature on media’s inability to serve democracy. American journalism obstructs the democratic ideal by neglecting the information and ideas necessary for citizenship and self-governance. One example of this is the marginalization of minor party presidential candidates, which provides the impetus for this review.

Conservative Nostalgia about the Economy of News: Repair vs. Reform * Isabel Awad, Stanford University * Based on a textual analysis of Columbia Journalism Review’s coverage of news media ownership and control during the last decade, this paper argues that critics’ prevalent view on the political economy of news is characterized by a conservative nostalgia. Instead of questioning the marketplace, they legitimize it and treat inherent flaws as deviations to be fixed. The repairing nature and means-orientation of this discourse underscores its limitations as a critical forum that could empower journalists.

“My Mum’s A Suicide Bomber”: Motherhood, Terrorism, News, And Ideological Repair * Dan Berkowitz and Sarah Burke-Odland, University of Iowa * This paper argues that the news media engage in the repair of society’s ideological beliefs, a process much like repair of the journalistic paradigm. Concepts about news as myth and the mythical archetype of the Good Mother are used to investigate a case study of media coverage about a Palestinian mother of two who became a suicide bomber. Textual analysis shows how this repair process took place by creating a boundary for acceptable motherhood behavior.

Native Storytelling: Dominant Narratives in the Lewiston Morning Tribune * Andy Boyan, Brooke Hempstead, Pat Hockersmith and Raul Moreno, Washington State University * Today’s Native Americans face the redefinition of their identities. This proves to be no easy task with stereotypical judgments from the mainstream, as well as media representations produced by non-Natives. This study explores stories from the Lewiston Morning Tribune. Using narrative analysis we explore the stones to observe what narrative emerges. This narrative rings true with societal attitudes toward Native Americans and continues to keep Native American histories on the sidelines of mainstream America.

Amassing the Multitude: Audience Powers Then and Now * Jack Z. Bratich, Rutgers University * This essay examines early and recent problematizations of “the audience” in communication studies. Using Michael Hardt and Toni Negri’s concept of the “multitude” and Michel Foucault’s term “problematization,” I argue that the audience is a product of discursive constructions, but that these constructions draw upon ontological practices which may be called “audience powers” or “mediated multitudes.” Comparing early problematizations of the audience as “mass” with current notions of the audience as networked and interactive, I contend that an ontology of media subjects and audience powers offers new perspectives on audiences and audience studies.

Going For The Gold (Member): Product Placements And The Construction Of Consumers * Bonnie Brennen and Margaret Duffy, Missouri School of Journalism * No abstract available.

The History and Meaning of the Election Night Bonfire * Mark Brewin, University of Tulsa * The paper examines a practice commonly associated with American political elections in the nineteenth century—the building of large bonfires by gangs of young boys on the night of the vote—in order to make a larger point about the meaning that an election ritual communicates to a voting public. I argue that the ritual message that elections send to public is more fluid, even contradictory, than is often acknowledged. The election night bonfire operated as a symbol of the polyphonic nature of the election ritual for nineteenth century urban publics. Its disappearance can be associated with the political culture’s more general attempt to control the meaning of politics in American democracy.

Coming to You “Live”: Exclusive News Reports and the Battlefield Reporter * Susan Brockus, Purdue University * Operation Iraqi Freedom marked an unprecedented partnership between the U.S. government and corporate media outlets. Some 600 journalists – sanctioned, select teams of reporters and camera crews – were given battlefield training and allowed to live and travel with U.S. troops. Embed accounts thus were exclusive, both as the purview of a given network and as a form of reporting that excluded more expansive coverage in favor of a highly individualized viewpoint.

The Reign of the Blues Queens:Cathartic Uplift in Women’s Blues in the Chicago Defender, 1920-1923 * Mark Dolan, University of Mississippi * The present study is a cultural history of advertisements for women’s blues recordings in the Chicago Defender from 1920 to 1923. The advertising is considered as a new, emotive uplift emerging in the black press.

Crisis notes: Journalism, globalization, and the Thai currency crisis of 1997 * Frank Durham, University of Iowa * This case study of The Financial Times’ coverage of the 1997 Thai crisis interprets the role of the financial press within the broader, transnational context of globalization. In a textual analysis, this essay interprets news coverage of that event by The Financial Times of London. Jameson’s concepts of cognitive mapping and the struggle for representation are considered as ways to understand how journalism might adapt to cover a post-structural world.

Sex in the transnational city: New discourses of sex and body in Indian popular culture * Meenakshi Gigi Durham * University of Iowa * Emerging Indian popular culture is rife with nontraditional, increasingly explicit representations of gender and sexuality. Contemporary film directors and cultural producers assert that these trends represent Westernization and modern sensibilities. In this paper I explore the ideological contexts of these texts’ production, developing a theoretical framework that locates these forms of popular culture in the realm of global politics and in relation to the East/ West neocolonial relations that underpin sex tourism, child prostitution and other forms of sexual commerce.

Women of a Certain Age, Magazine Advertising, & a Politics of the Unmarked * Kim Golombisky, University of South Florida * Examining visual representations of middle-aged women in magazine advertising, this critical-interpretive essay explores recurring themes of in/visibility. Perhaps lacking visual tropes with which to inscribe female midlife, advertisers seem to find ways to represent the middle-aged woman that do not necessarily require her photographic presence. Building on Phelan’s (1993) politics of the unmarked, the author argues that there is something resistant and subversive in remaining ambiguous, anonymous, and even invisible and that maybe playing the unmarked in advertising is preferable to a visibility politics that equates what is seen with reality.

The evolution of the makeover from print to television: An analysis of the social construction of female body image * Amanda S. Hall and Lisa Hebert, University of Georgia * Our paper discusses the cultural ideology that permeates our society surrounding female body image, socially constructed ideals of beauty and identity as they are represented in media texts—those of the makeover programs, A Makeover Story, What Not to Wear and Extreme Makeover. For this study, we conducted a textual analysis of selected episodes of each of these programs to examine the ideological impact of patriarchy, particularly as it relates to female body image.

Locke Meets Horatio Alger in the U.S.: Revisiting the Commercialization of America Radio Broadcasting * Youngkee Ju, University of Missouri at Columbia * The various political theories of American liberal tradition were examined to identify the ideological feature working on the commercialization of the American radio broadcasting system. The unique nature of American liberalism was delineated with such symbols or concepts as “Horatio Alger,” “humanist liberalism,” and “corporate liberalism.” Accordingly, this study identified Lockean individualism, humanist liberalism, and Algerism referring to a passion for wealth as the bases of the commercialization process.

Non-Profit Organizations’ Use of the Internet * Linda Jean Kensicki, University of Minnesota * According to previous research, the internet can potentially form a Habermasian public sphere that will improve public education, fundraising, credibility, volunteer recruitment, publicity, advocacy, service delivery, research and communication. Yet, there is very little research that evaluates the internet based on information from those actually attempting to use the technology toward these utopian goals. In this research, fifty-two people responsible for creating internet strategy and/or web content for non-profit organizations participated in seven focus groups across the country. This research found that claims of sweeping improvements in democratic participation through the internet are not supported.

A Lawyer in our Midst: Does Jerome Barron Deserve Canonic Status? * John F. Kirch, University of Maryland * In 2003, Katz et al. “nominated” thirteen articles from the field of communication for canonization. Their proposal — the first time a group of scholars suggested that a canon of media research be created — opened the door for debate over who should be included on this list of monumental texts. This paper contributes to that discussion by nominating for canonization a 36-year-old law review article by Jerome A. Barron that greatly influenced the debate over free speech in the United States.

“There’s a Little Rapper and a Little Dapper in All of Us!” Race Relations MTV Style * Kim LeDuff, Indiana University * During Mardi Gras 2003, MTV produced a network special surrounding the events. As part of the programming, rappers Redman and Method Man were invited to spend the night with the Metcalf family, a wealthy white family residing in New Orleans. Perhaps in an effort to show the American viewing audience that race relations in the deep South are not as bad as some might believe, MTV produced this mini reality show to illustrate that blacks and whites do have something in common after all. But after viewing the show with a critical eye and identifying dialogue and interaction laden with hegemonic reference, it appears that the show instead reiterates difference. Using semiotic analysis, the media text was carefully examined and questions the goal of the program when juxtaposed with the cast of characters, what they represent, and their interaction.

“Heaven, Hell and here:” Understanding the impact of incarceration through the rhetorical vision of a prison newspaper * Eleanor Novek, Monmouth University *Prison journalists reveal the realities of the pains of imprisonment and enlighten us about its consequences in ways that are seldom part of the dominant discourse. This article illuminates the world of a state prison for women through textual analysis of an inmate newspaper. It uses the lens of cultural studies to situate the newspaper as a tool of ideological struggle and uses symbolic convergence theory to provide a fantasy theme analysis of the texts and their meanings.

No Longer “Just a Word” from Your Sponsor: The Increasing Presence of Corporate Sponsorship on PBS Kids Television * Angela Paradise, University of Massachusetts * This paper provides a critical analysis of the increasing presence and power of corporate sponsorship on PBS Kids television. Drawing from PBS documents, the PBS Kids website, PBS Kids television content, historical analyses, scholarly critiques, empirical studies and popular press articles, the author traces the transformations within PBS Kids’ underwriting policy and examines recent corporate sponsorship segments that bracket PBS children’s programming. The findings suggest that PBS Kids is increasingly adhering to an advertising-driven, market-model of television, thereby positioning child viewers not as developing citizens but as consumers and commodities.

Parents’ Perceptions of the Commercialization of PBS Kids Television: A Focus Group Study * Angela Paradise, University of Massachusetts * In this paper, the author reports the results of an analysis of focus group interviews conducted with 36 participants in April 2003. The author identifies and assesses parents’ perceptions of children’s public television with emphasis on views of commercialism, distinctiveness, trust and status of PBS Kids television. Themes surfacing during the discussions include 1.) the heightened presence of corporate sponsorship, 2.) the branding, licensing and merchandising of PBS Kids, 3.) the blurring of PBS Kids with network and cable television, 4.) the ramifications to social class issues depicted on screen as a result of heightened commercialization, and 5.) the positioning of the young child as consumer. The findings of this study suggest that parents of child viewers of PBS Kids do not embrace the increasingly commercial nature of children’s public television.

Military Metaphors, Masculine Modes, and Critical Commentary: Deconstructing Journalists’ Inner Tales of September 11 * Radhika Parameswaran, Indiana University * This paper analyzes the rhetoric of trade publications that target journalism professionals in the United States. Borrowing insights from cultural approaches to journalists as an interpretive community, I examine the ways in which reporters and editors interpret and frame their experiences in producing news narratives on the events of September 11, 2001 for their audiences. I conduct a feminist and semiotic analysis of stories that appeared in the American Journalism Review, Columbia Journalism Review, Communicator, Broadcast and Cable, and Quill. The paper shows that journalists’ public memories of their work relied on masculine metaphors of military and sport, elevated male anchors, and privileged empiricist tasks of knowledge production over complex processes of internal reflection.

Anxieties of Self: The New York Tribune’s Radio Stories and the Fictional Imagination, 1925-1926 * Randall Patnode, Xavier University * The rhetoric surrounding new technologies exhibits a strong – some might say unavoidable – progressive slant, and nowhere is this seen more clearly than in America. In a 1998 interview, Leo Marx summarized the American attitude toward technology as general faith that “things were going to get better and better – not only materially but also morally, politically and socially – and this predominant view assumed that advancing technology was a sufficient basis for that progress.” When it came to the introduction of radio broadcasting in America in the 1920’s, this sort of technological optimism was rampant – in the public and in the chroniclers of the phenomenon.

Entering the Matrix: A Political Economic Analysis Of A Global Textual Event * Jennifer M. Proffitt and Dung Yune Tchoi, Pennsylvania State University * Hollywood blockbusters have become global textual events. One such global event, The Matrix trilogy, demonstrates the continuing economic power of media conglomerates. The aim of this paper is to explore how The Matrix trilogy constructs a mega text within the context of global Hollywood. The film’s primary producer, Time Warner, attempted to maximize the film’s profitability via multiple revenue streams, including tie-ins, a video game, animation, and special release DVDs. The Matrix saga as a global textual event produces the context within which Hollywood motion picture events take place and sets limitations on audiences’ interpretations of and experiences interacting with this event.

Late Modern Life and the Rise of the “Blogosphere”: Can New Media Meet Life’s New Challenges? * Lori Cooke Scott, York University and Ryerson University * This essay examines the new media practice of “blogging” within a specific view of late-modernity in an attempt to attach some meaning to it in terms of the reflexivity of individuals and “diseinbeddedness” of society. The weblog phenomenon can help us understand some important changes in the way identity is being worked out, the way people are forming relationships and creating communities, and how individuals use news and information to exert discursive power.

Constructing the Kurds in the Turkish Press * Diara Sezgin and Melissa Wall, California State University at Northridge * This paper examines how the leading Turkish newspaper, Hurri yet, constructs an image of the ethnic minority Kurds. Critical discourse analysis is used to assess how the image of the Kurds has changed from the end of the internal conflict with the PKK to the country’s bid to join the EU, finding that Kurds are not allowed to speak for themselves and their culture is mocked and demonized by the mainstream Turkish press.

A Postcolonial Interrogation of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide: An analysis of the New York Times * Denise St. Clair, University of Wisconsin at Madison * This paper looks to evaluate the New York Tmes’coverage of the Rwandan genocide through the lens of postcolonial theory in order to see if the representation of the conflict and the people accurately represents the history and context of the conflict, or instead perpetuates stereotypes and misunderstandings so often associated with Africa. By interrogating the type of history written and why, we can begin to deconstruct and critique how Africa is covered in the media.

When the media became the story: The New York Times’ national mediascape in the wake of September 11 * Sujatha Sosale, University of Iowa * This study examines a specific authoritative news site’s, The New York Times’ intense coverage of US culture industries’ reactions to the traumatic events of September 11, 2001, in the quarter following that eventful day. Drawing from theoretical intersections of journalism, popular culture, and media and nationalism during crisis, and through a textual analysis of the news, the study demonstrates how The Times news discourse worked to position media industries as vital sociocultural (national, global, linguistic, capitalistic, etc.) entities central to cultivating popular perceptions of the crisis.

An Eyewitness to a “Real” Miracle * Michelle Stack, University of British Columbia * This paper is a case study and a critical discourse analysis of how 20/20, and in particular its executive producer, Alan Goldberg, came to know and represent the Montreux Clinic for the Treatment of Eating Disorders, and its founder Peggy Claude-Pierre as a miracle. The paper will also examine how this knowing affected other media outlets and prospective patients.

Philanthropy as Public Relations: A Historical, Social and Economic Assessment of Cause-Related Marketing * Inger L. Stole, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign * This paper discusses the practice of cause-related marketing from social, cultural and economic perspectives and explores some of the political ramifications associated with business’ approach to charity. The paper looks at the criteria used to determine issues that warrant cause-related efforts and discusses why some social causes lend themselves more easily to cause-related marketing venues than others. It also explores some of the problems associated with linking the act of consumption to solving social issues.

Narratives of Job Satisfaction on the World Wide Web: Interpretations of Value and Reward Within the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America” * Douglas J. Swanson, University of Wisconsin at La Crosse * This research analyzed employee job satisfaction narratives on World Wide Web sites of companies named among Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work for in America.” Fewer than one-third of WWW sites included narratives. Narratives were most likely to express job satisfaction in personal, emotional terms and least likely to identify job security, benefits, or compensation as important rewards of work. Narratives often appeared targeted toward new college graduates. Clichés were used excessively in Web sites and narratives.

<< 2004 Abstracts