Law Textbooks for School Administrators: Do They Present the Same Tinker and Hazelwood We Know? • Candace Perkins Bowen, Kent State University; Trevor Ivan, Kent State University • Textbooks that future secondary school administrators use in their educational law classes cover student media and related legal issues. These books explain the challenge of balancing students’ First Amendment rights and principals’ concern for control. Comparing how these texts and the only scholastic media text on the subject, Law of the Student Press, cover two landmark Supreme Court cases — Tinker and Hazelwood  — could be a clue to disagreements and misunderstandings between principals and journalism teachers.

Technology, Self-Efficacy, and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Predictors of Burnout Among High-School Journalism Educators • Gretchen Sparling, University of North Texas; Koji Fuse, University of North Texas • This research investigated high-school journalism educators’ use and teaching of convergence technology, as well as their self-efficacy, job satisfaction, job dissatisfaction, and burnout. In general, instructions and uses of multimedia tools were not as prevalent as traditional-journalism instructions and tools. One-third of the teachers expressed moderate or strong levels of burnout in terms of their emotional exhaustion. Although both job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction were strong predictors of burnout, self-efficacy was not.

Journalism students and civic engagement: Is there still a connection? • Geoffrey Graybeal, University of Georgia; Amy Sindik, University of Georgia; Jen Ingles, University of Georgia • This study examines the civic engagement levels of high school journalism students.  Through a pilot study and focus groups, this paper examines the way high school journalism students feel about civic engagement, and if the students connect civic engagement to their works as young journalists.  The focus group findings indicate that being involved in journalism does increase an interest in the world around them, and creates a group of students that believe that they know more about current affairs than their peers.  Cyclically, the students believe that civic engagement also develops their journalism skills.

Digital Natives, Journalism and Civic Engagement:  Cultivating Citizenship with Technology • Ed Madison, University or Oregon • Scholarly literature reveals a troubling truth: younger generations show declining levels of interest in civic affairs. Simultaneously, new technology, in the form of smartphones, electronic tablets and other mobile devices that were once considered optional accessories are quickly becoming essential communicating and learning devices.  This qualitative study looks at two schools where digital cameras, laptops and smart mobile devices are being used to catalyze civic engagement in and outside of the classroom.

The student journalist: Roles of the scholastic press in the 21st Century • Adam Maksl, University of Missouri • This paper examines normative roles of high school journalism in general, and the high school newspaper in particular, over the course of the history of the scholastic press. More importantly, through a survey of high school newspaper advisers (N=365), it answers the question of what school newspaper roles are most dominant today, as well as what factors influence an adviser’s role perceptions. Implications for future study of scholastic press freedom are discussed.

Just Hit Reply: How Student Journalists Use Email in the Newsroom • Sara Netzley, Bradley University • This article examines the way in which student journalists use email on the job. College students working at campus newspapers across the country participated in an online survey asking them how often they use email to conduct certain newsgathering tasks, including using email to conduct interviews with sources. It also asked about their perceptions of the quality of such interviews and their use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The findings could have implications for how these students will conduct themselves in professional settings upon graduation and for how journalism educators should approach this topic in the classroom.

Journalism as a viable career choice: What guidance counselors are telling students • Terry Rentner, Bowling Green State University; Seth Oyer, Bowling Green State University; Mark Flynn, Bowling Green State University • Media portrayals of journalism careers paint a dismal picture of its future.  Of concern is how these portrayals may influence high school guidance counselors’ recommendations of a journalism career.  This study surveyed U.S. high school guidance counselors to gauge their knowledge of the journalism field.  Results show that while roughly half of the guidance counselors surveyed would recommend a journalism career, they think that fewer students are likely to pursue journalism as a career path.

Student Journalists v. School Administrators: A More Structured Way To Resolve Disputes • Jonathan Peters, University of Missouri • Public schools have wrestled for decades with the boundaries of free expression.  Although students do not enjoy the same First Amendment rights as adults, they do not shed those rights at the schoolhouse gate.  Disputes between student journalists and school administrators are common, and because they take place in the school environment, they have the potential to be disruptive.  Student journalists and school administrators need a structured way to address and resolve those disputes.

Perils and Recommendations for Student Publications After Christian Legal Society v. Martinez • Andrew Pritchard, North Dakota State University • The Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, that a public university’s student organizations may be required to accept a “”take all comers”” policy as a condition of recognition, jeopardizes the ability of student publications to maintain their quality, distinctiveness, and independence. Close examination of the court’s opinion, however, reveals several avenues by which student publications can limit the decision’s consequences for them.

<< 2011 Abstracts

Sourcing in national vs. local television news coverage of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: A study of experts, victims, roles and race • Andrea Miller, Louisiana State University; Victoria Bemker LaPoe, LSU • The purpose of this study is to identify the sources used by national and local television news outlets in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill coverage and how those sources contributed to the frames and functions of the media in crisis. The study consisted of a content analysis of the sourcing from weeks one and six of the disaster. Findings show national press did a better job of serving the management role, but also operated in a responsibility frame and relied heavily on political analysts. Local outlets relied more on state officials and scientists. National versus local differences in sourcing (experts, victims, race) and frames are discussed in terms of their individual missions and responsibilities to their publics during a crisis situation.

Who says news can’t be imaginative? A quasi-experiment testing perceived credibility of animated news, news organization, media use and dependency. • Ka Lun Benjamin Cheng, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University; Wai Han Lo, Hong Kong Baptist University • Animated news is a news reporting technique emerging in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. Online news media using such technique has yielded very considerable size of viewership to their news videos. Animated news is a format of using digital animation to reenact the detail course of a news event as part of a news report. Often times animated news video mixes the facts gathered by journalists with their own imaginations to fill missing links of an event. A quasi-experiment with 153 college students as participants was done to compare the perceived credibility of news using and without using animation. Results showed that participants indicated sound effects of animated news would reduce its credibility. Perceived news credibility was also found related to its news organization and medium dependency. Implications to animated news media and future research direction in animated news were discussed.

Are Advertisers Potential (and Effective) Influencers on News Content? An Examination of TV Reporters’ Perceptions of Possible Extramedia Pressures on Media Content & Coverage Decisions • Rita Colistra • This study examined reporter perceptions of extramedial-level influence on news content based on an original data from a national Web-based survey of TV reporters. More specifically, this study asks how, how often, and under what conditions do organizational forces attempt to influence television media and their coverage, and to what effect are they successful at doing so? The project also attempts to develop the little-studied area of agenda cutting.

Golden-age Foreign Correspondence, Sourcing, and Propaganda • Raluca Cozma, Iowa State University • This study uses content analysis to complement existing historical research on the use of propaganda by CBS foreign correspondents during World War II. Using the propaganda definition and typology proposed by the Institute of Propaganda Analysis during the time that this research captures, the analysis could not find support for the thesis that Edward Murrow and the reporters he recruited to cover World War II used blatant propaganda in their foreign news reporting. While many of their reports were biased and relied heavily on foreign officials and local media, they also used more peace journalism than war journalism and steered away from employing fear appeals. The study also lends support to the literature on the relationship between sourcing and framing.

Making Noise in the New Public Sphere: How Small Market Television Stations Find Their Mouth on Facebook • Shawn Harmsen, University of Iowa • For decades, Jurgen Habermas and other scholars and critics have worried that mass media in general and television in particular would stunt or destroy the public sphere necessary for a health democracy. This study examines the experience of several television news departments and finds some evidence that television news might be helping recreate a new public sphere online using social media, particularly Facebook.

Across Town or Across the Country? Remote Delivery of Local TV News • Lee Hood, Loyola University Chicago • The practice of outsourced local news, a trend for several years in radio, is also appearing in local television markets. This study employs a content analysis to compare locally- and remotely-produced newscasts in one market served by both, examining newscasts recorded over several weeks in fall 2010. Newscasts are compared on measures of story type, including the use of video, and on whether the stories cover local, state, or national news. Statistical measures of the comparisons yielded highly significant results on several measures.

Thirty Years of Broadcasting Africa on the U.S. Network Television News • Yusuf Kalyango, Ohio University; Uche Onyebadi, Southern Illinois University Carbondale • The study examines how ABC, CBS, and NBC covered news topics about Africa. It also assessed whether coverage featured stories with a specific U.S. strategic interests and whether coverage changed over time. A content analysis of news items about Africa from 1980 to 2010 indicated that the networks disproportionately focused primarily on southern Africa (mainly South Africa) and northern Africa (mainly Egypt and Libya) regions. Coverage of natural disasters and conflicts featured more stories on the aftermath than during the event itself. Coverage declined in the 1980s and 1990s and during the U.S. wars with Iraq and Afghanistan.

Skill Set: A Measurement of Journalistic Skills, Accuracy, and Objectivity in Television Journalists • David Keith, University of Central Arkansas • This study suggests that people perceive broadcast journalists who they see as having a higher level of journalistic skill also provide information that is more accurate and objective. It is indicated that positive perceptions of a journalist are possible even if the individuals have a low opinion of the journalist’s network. It also appears that individuals’ personal political beliefs are not a strong factor in measuring the journalistic skill, accuracy, and objectivity of specific journalists.

Political Transition, Freedom of the Press, and the Iraqi Broadcasting Industry • Hun Shik Kim, University of Colorado at Boulder • This study examined how Iraqi broadcasters perceive the concept of press freedom in their newly emerging media environment since 2003. Based on the survey of 122 Iraqi broadcasters, this study found that individual, attitudinal, and organizational factors determine Iraqi broadcasters’ perceptions of press freedom. Specifically, their perceptions are shaped by their individual characteristics such as education, and income; their attitudinal characteristics such as job satisfaction, interest in adopting Western-style reporting skills, and their views on the future of Iraqi broadcast media; and their organizational characteristics such as type of broadcast media ownership, the expansion of their broadcast operations, and beat reporting. Three groups—Shiite militias, religious sects, and Sunni insurgents—were identified as the groups that are most influential on press freedom in Iraq. Departing from the conventional press freedom indices on Iraq compiled by Western freedom advocate organizations, this study suggests that the Iraqi broadcasters’ perceptions on the press freedom are relative, not absolute or uniform as depicted through numerical indices or qualitative labels.

The Real “Sunshine” State: An Oral History of Cameras in the Courtroom During the 2000 Recount in Florida” • Christina Locke • The debate over cameras in the courtroom pits fair trial rights against the guarantee of a free press. Florida has long been a leader in bringing “sunshine” into the courts. This paper draws on oral history interviews to illustrate how the 2000 election recount proceedings in Florida once again allowed the state’s openness to spur better access in other courts.

From State Controlled to Public Broadcasting: Signs of Change in Serbia’s RTS Television Newscasts from 1989-2009 • Ivanka Radovic, University of Tennessee; Catherine Luther • This study examined the newscasts produced by Serbia’s main television broadcaster, Radio-Television of Serbia (RTS), from 1989 to 2009. Its goal was to reveal possible changes that had been made in the newscasts as a shift took place in Serbia’s political system, from one of authoritarian control to that of democratic governance. The findings showed the newscasts had changed, making them appear Western in style. Elements of Serbia’s older news practices, however, were also apparent.

Facebook and Twitter: How and Why Local Television News is Getting Social with Viewers • Suzanne Lysak, Syracuse University; Michael Cremedas, Syracuse University; John Wolf • This paper examines the role social media is playing in local television newsrooms. The authors used a Web-based national survey of news managers at network affiliated stations to look at what forms of social media are being used in the newsroom, who is using it and how it is being applied. The results show stations are embracing social media as a means of connecting with news consumers and raising their newsrooms’ profile in the community, and are encouraging their news staff members to have an individual social media presence. Stations also report their news staff are using social media as a newsgathering tool, but the value and reliability of information gathered through this means is up for debate.

Perceived Media Bias and Cable News Branding: The Effects of Diversification in the Marketplace of Information • Dylan McLemore, Southern Arkansas University • This study measured perceptions of bias in differentiated news outlets CNN, MSNBC, and the Fox News Channel. An experiment was conducted utilizing an unbiased news article and the cable network logos, serving as cues for potential perceptions of bias. Participants had distinct perceptions of each of the networks, which often differed among partisans. However, neither personal ideology nor perceptions of the cued networks affected perceptions of the experimental article, which was overwhelmingly perceived as unbiased.

Modern Arab Uprisings and Social Media: An Historical Perspective on Media and Revolution • Roger Mellen, New Mexico State University • New social media are given credit for helping to organize and even causing the wave of current popular uprisings in the Middle East. Using primary sources from social media sites, news reports, and state department documents, this paper examines—within the media theories of historians—the idea of new media causing revolution. It concludes that new media are an important factor in inspiring and implementing these recent revolts, but that they do not cause revolution.

The Tyler Perry Effect:            George Musambira; Nicole Jackson • This paper examined the relationship between Tyler Perry’s two highly rated shows, House of Payne and Meet the Browns and the cultivation of the black identity. Only House of Payne was found to have some positive links with African American identity.

Measuring the Messenger: Analyzing Bias in Presidential Election Return Coverage • Kathleen Ryan, University of Colorado, Boulder; Lane Clegg • Media bias has long been discussed in relation to the presentation of politics to media consumers and is defined as “a concept used to account for perceived inaccuracies to be found within media representations” (Hartley 2002, 17). It is a concept that has gained traction with the general public, with the assumption that some news outlets skew more conservatively and others more liberal. But it has frequently been difficult to quantify, with the perception of bias often being in the eye of the beholder (and his or her own world view). This study used methodology developed by Zeldes et al (2008) to measure if bias was present in 2008 national election return coverage by the American broadcast and cable news networks. Partisan and structural bias were differentiated as a measurement of favoritism shown to candidates on each of the news channels. The study found that while the coverage was skewed in favor of the winners on election night and the day after, networks and news channel were distributed over a fairly narrow spectrum of difference, presenting partisans from both sides for analysis and commentary. It argues that hostile media perception, rather than news outlet bias, may be responsible for accusations of bias by outlets.

Multimedia Effects on News Story Credibility, Newsworthiness, and Recall • Zhi Wen Ho, University of Missouri; Alice Marie Roach, University of Missouri; Youn-Joo Park, University of Missouri; Yue Sun, University of Missouri • The purpose of this experiment was to investigate whether multiple multimedia elements presented on an online news story influence people’s perceptions of credibility, perceptions of newsworthiness, and recall of story information. Sixty participants were presented with six online news stories; three of the stories contained three multimedia elements plus a text story, and three of the stories were text-only. Findings indicated that exposure to a text story plus multiple multimedia elements—a video, photo, and illustrative graphic—in online news stories significantly enhances the story’s perceived message credibility, the story’s perceived newsworthiness, and respondents’ recall of the story.

Broadcast journalism education and the capstone experience • Andrea Tanner, University of South Carolina; Kathy Forde; John Besley, University of South Carolina; Tom Weir, University of South Carolina • This study assesses the current state of the television news capstone experience in accredited journalism and mass communication programs. Specifically, the authors employed a mixed-methods approach, interviewing 20 television news capstone instructors and conducting an analysis of broadcast journalism curriculum information obtained from 113 schools. More than 90% of accredited schools offer a television news capstone, and faculty had similar insights about television news instruction and how best to teach the television news capstone course.

<< 2011 Abstracts

Open Competition

Quiet, Creeping, and Sudden?!: Exploring Public Information Officers’ Definitions of Health Crisis • Elizabeth Avery and Tatjana Hocke, University of Tennessee • Practitioners’ responses to crises and academic theory construction are guided by how crises are conceptualized; yet, research informing how we define and discuss crisis is limited contextually. Depth interviews with 17 public information officers (PIOs) provide new insights into public health crisis. Interview analysis reveals unique crisis characteristics as a foundation for future research and theory construction in public relations, specifically crisis communication: resources, organizational partnerships, nature of crisis and publics, and internal management.

Developing a Valid and Reliable Measure of Crisis Responsibility • Kenon A. Brown and Eyun-Jung Ki, University of Alabama • This study attempted to develop a reliable and valid measure of a crisis responsibility that could be uniquely applied to public relations research. The four dimensional measure of crisis responsibility was initially tested and refined using Netemeyer’s (2003) four-step process for scale construction. Specifically, this study conducted rigorous two-step pilot tests and a nationwide panel full administration survey. The constructed measures were further refined using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The factor analysis resulted in including 11-items in the final crisis responsibility scales, consisting of two items for intentionality, three items for locality and six items for accountability. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the hypothesized factor structure and confirmed the three dimensions of crisis responsibility scale had reliable and valid factor structure.

Twittering to the Top: A Proposed Model for Using and Measuring Twitter as a Communication Tool • Haley Edman and Nicole Dahmen, Louisiana State University • The microblogging site, Twitter, has become a communication channel where interpersonal conversations between millions of users thrive. This study examines how 47 corporations use Twitter as a communication and relationship-building tool. Grounded in Grunig’s four models of public relations, the research concludes with implications of using Twitter and how public relations practitioners can effectively use Twitter for developing and maintaining long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with publics.

Relationship Management With the Millennial Generation of Public Relations Agency Employees • Tiffany Gallicano, University of Oregon • The purpose of this study is to achieve a deep understanding of the Millennial generation of practitioners who work at public relations agencies and to understand the best ways of building effective relationships with them. Data was gathered through five asynchronous focus groups with a total of 51 participants. The data resulted in implications for Millennial practitioners, for the teachers who work with them, and for the bosses who manage them.

Strategize – Implement – Measure – Repeat: Are We Evaluating Our Way to PR Accountability • Susan Grantham, University of Hartford; Edward Vieira, Simmons College • This study examines attitudes toward PR measurement, if evaluation is a standard part of the planning process, and who is driving this demand. Through the assistance of PRSA, 256 PR professionals participated (66% = women and 34% = men). Findings revealed that although encouraged by senior management, respondents were evenly split on the need to evaluate. Senior management and those involved with strategic planning perceived value to PR measurement”

What Information is Available For Stakeholders on Facebook and How Does This Information Impact Them? • Michel Haigh and Pamela Brubaker, Pennsylvania State University; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee • This two-part study examines organizations’ Facebook pages. First a content analysis was conducted of 114 organizations’ Facebook pages. Results indicate organizations update their Facebook pages about every 15 days. Coding results indicate Facebook pages major purpose is public relations, and organizations post similar types of information as nonprofit Facebook pages. Facebook does promote two-way communication, and offers some general information about corporate social responsibility. After the content analysis was conducted, a two-phase experiment was employed (N = 275) to see how the Facebook pages impact stakeholders. Results indicate Facebook pages bolster stakeholders’ attitudes toward the organization, perceptions of the organization – public relationship, and purchase intent. Experimental results indicate if an organization discusses CSR efforts on its Facebook page, it leads to more favorable perceptions of the organization – public relationship, perceptions of CSR, and purchase intent than when an organization uses Facebook to discuss products and services.

Communication and the D.C. Sniper: Toward a response typology for public safety crises • J Suzanne Horsley and Kenon A. Brown, University of Alabama • The D.C. Sniper case of 2002 provides an opportunity to explore crisis communication responses by law enforcement and government sources during the three-week shooting spree. The authors generated a list of 32 possible crisis communication responses from image repair theory, situational crisis communication theory, best practices in crisis communication, and best practices in emergency management communication. The results showed that image repair theory and SCCT did not provide an adequate explanation of the communication choices made during this event. The authors propose a public safety crisis communication typology that fills a gap in the existing crisis communication literature that does not take into account organization type or goals.

Toward A Theory of Public Relations Practitioners’ Own Conflict: Work vs. Life • Hua Jiang, Towson University; Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University • This study took a first step to build a theory understanding public relations practitioners’ work-life balance. Specifically, through a national sample of PRSA members, we examined what factors give rise to public relations practitioners’ perceptions of work-life conflict and what kind of impact such perceived work-life conflict may have on their income and career path. Analysis of online survey data of 820 public relations practitioners found that a more family-supportive organizational work environment overall would minimize practitioners’ reported work-life conflict. Gender did matter, especially in explaining strain-based conflict perceived by practitioners. Lastly, regardless of gender, practitioners generally received lower salaries if their career was ever interrupted. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Impact of Organizational Social Capital on Transparency and Trust: Communication Adequacy and Accuracy • Bumsub Jin, State University of New York at Oswego; Moonhee Cho, University of Florida; Maria De Moya, University of Florida • The purpose of this research was twofold: First, based on social capital, the study examined whether adequacy and accuracy of communication are empirically different as indicators of organizational social capital. Second, it tested the impact of these indicators on three measurable outcomes (transparency, trust in corporations, and behavioral intent), which are related to effectiveness of public relations. The study was conducted in two phases. The first included a statewide mail survey and the second a 2 x 2 between-group experiment. Results of CFA analysis showed evidence of empirical difference between adequacy and accuracy. A two-way MANCOVA test found effects of the two indicators on organizational transparency, trust, and behavioral intent. These results suggest theoretical and practical implications of how social capital indicators can contribute to organizational effectiveness in the perspective of public relations.

Determinants of Ethical Practices of Public Relations Practitioners • Eyun-Jung Ki and William Gonzenbach, University of Alabama; Hong-Lim Choi, Sun Moon University; Junghyuk Lee, Kwangwoon University • The present study was designed to examine various determinant variables influencing public relations practitioners’ ethical practices. Six variables, consisting of idealism, relativism, age, gender, education, and awareness of ethics code existence, were utilized for this study. Results indicate that relativism and awareness of ethics code existence directly impact ethical practices, whereas age influenced ethical practices though relativism.

Relative effectiveness of prior corporate ability vs. corporate social responsibility associations on public responses in corporate crises • Sora Kim, University of Florida • This experimental study employing both victim and preventable crises supports strong transferring effects of corporate ability (CAb) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations on the public’s responses in corporate crises. In addition, CSR associations are found to be more effective than CAb associations in offsetting detrimental damage created by corporate crises. The study argues that the reason for more enduring and salient transferring effects of prior CSR associations in crisis situations is because CSR associations are positioned on a company’s virtue-related dimensions, whereas CAb associations are positioned on its skill-focused dimensions.

Revisiting the effectiveness of base crisis response strategies in comparison of reputation management crisis responses • Sora Kim and Kang Hoon Sung, University of Florida • This experimental study found that employing reputation management crisis-response strategies was no better than adopting only the base crisis-response strategy (i.e., instructing and adjusting information) in terms of generating positive responses from the public. Two-sided messages (i.e., sharing both positive and negative information) in crisis communication were found to be more effective than one-sided messages in a victim crisis. In addition, even in a preventable crisis, one-sided messages (i.e., sharing only positive information) were not more effective than two-sided messages. Finally, the study found little support for Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT)’s recommendations for the best crisis response strategy selections.

Presidential apology and level of acceptance: The U.S.Beef import negotiation upheaval in South Korea • Yungwook Kim and Yujin Lim, Ewha Womans University • The purpose of this paper is to analyze apology strategies used by South Korean President Myung-bak Lee during the U.S. beef import negotiation upheaval in South Korea in 2008, and to investigate how these apologies were perceived by the South Korean public. The role of party identification as an audience-related variable in the perception of political apologies in the South Korean context was then examined. A content analysis of President Lee’s speeches and related daily newspaper coverage was conducted, and experimental work assessing the level of acceptance of the President’s apology strategies as well as the effects of party identification on the level of acceptance was also carried out. As a result, two new strategies, ambiguous corrective action and fear mongering, were identified and added to the existing apology classification of Benoit (1995). According to the results of the experimental work, President Lee’s apology strategies were generally ineffective, with the exception of the clear corrective action strategy. The impact of party identification on the level of acceptance of the major apology strategies was then confirmed.

Influencing forces or mere interview sources? What media coverage about health care means for key constituencies • Cheryl Ann Lambert and Denis Wu, Boston University • This study aimed to discover the strategies and actions of those involved in the mediated communication process of health care reform during 2009-10. The researchers conduct in-depth telephone interviews of twelve identified sources that appeared in print and broadcast media coverage. The semi-structured questions of the interview centered on the sources’ activities and their interaction with media professionals and policy makers during that time frame. The results of the interviews revealed that sources were keenly aware of media’s tendencies and practices. Given the complexity of this issue, the sources stressed the importance of expertise, knowledge, and ability to explain the matter in a lucid fashion to the general public. They also agreed on the anxiety of the American people toward the issue and the important role media played in the policy-making process.

Finding antecedents of CSR perceptions and Relationship Outcomes: Individual-Level Collectivist Orientation and CSR Genuineness • Hyunmin Lee, Ye Wang, Glen Cameron and Shelly Rodgers, University of Missouri • The purpose of this study was to identify and test individual-level collectivist orientation and CSR genuineness as antecedent factors of CSR activity perceptions and organization-public relationship (OPR) outcomes. Based on multidisciplinary literature, this study proposed a model that individual-level collectivist orientation is positively associated with positive perceptions of CSR activates, perceptions of the CSR activities as being genuine, and positive organization- public relationship management outcome of satisfaction and commitment. The model also projected that CSR genuineness is positively associated with positive perceptions of CSR activities. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to test seven hypotheses, and the analyses concluded that individual-level collectivist orientation and CSR genuineness are significant antecedents to CSR perceptions and OPR outcomes.

Legitimacy Disputes and Social Amplification of Perceived Risk • Joon Soo Lim and Kwansik Mun, Middle Tennessee State University; Sung-Un Yang, Syracuse University • This article examined how the legitimacy disputes for government’s risk communication affected online publics’ perceived risk in the case of the 2008 U.S. beef import controversy in South Korea. A content analysis of the Korean blogosphere revealed that there have been notable changes in types of legitimacy disputes and perceptions of risk among bloggers, across four phases of issued development. Results of the content analysis produced significant two-way interaction effects between legitimacy and such risk communication phases, as well as between perceived risk and risk communication phases. As the key finding of the study suggests, failures to establish a legitimate and credible public relations program during the risk situation caused inflated public fear and created enormous damage to involving constituencies, followed by huge protests from disgruntled publics.

Effective Public Relations Leadership in Organizational Transformation: A Case Study of Multinationals in Mainland China • Yi Luo, Montclair State University • This study explores the role of public relations leadership during organizational transformation in four multinational organizations in mainland China. The results are based on 40 in-depth interviews. Particularly, the findings suggest that organization-wide public relations leadership during change was shown through managing employee emotions, providing training to middle management, resolving conflicts, and reinforcing shared visions. Individually, the senior public relations directors exhibit leadership during change through advising top management’s communication styles, fostering participatory management, and challenging management decisions. The senior public relations participants also demonstrated popular leadership types (e.g., transformational, pluralistic, and interactive leadership). This findings support existing research on leadership in public relations and also shed light on some unique dimensions about public relations leadership during organizational transformation.

“Like” or “Unlike”: How Millennials Are Engaging and Building Relationships with Organizations on Facebook • Tina McCorkindale, Appalachian State University; Marcia DiStaso, Pennsylvania State University • More than half of Facebook’s 500 million active users in the U.S. consist of the Millennial generation (ages 13 to 29). With more organizations taking advantage of the site’s high consumer ratings, determining how organizations are interacting with Millennials on Facebook is important. Thirty Millennials participated in one of three focus groups. Results indicate participants were not opposed to interacting with organizations on Facebook, but were very specific in terms of how and why they wanted to engage. Suggestions for future research are included.

How Companies Cultivate Relationships with Publics on Social Network Sites in China and the United States: A Cross-Cultural Content Analysis • Linjuan Rita Men and Wanhsiu Tsai, University of Miami • This study extends the investigation of relationship cultivation on social media from a cross-culture perspective by examining how companies use popular social network sites (SNSs) to facilitate dialogues with publics in two culturally distinct countries: China and the United States. In order to understand dialogic relationships on SNSs, we incorporate both the messages of the organizations and the voices of the publics. Through an exploratory content analysis of fifty corporate pages with 500 corporate posts and 500 user posts from each country, findings suggest that overall, companies in both countries have employed the relationship-cultivation strategies proposed by scholars but the specific tactics vary across the two markets. Furthermore, this study finds cross-cultural differences among the types of corporate posts and public posts on SNSs, indicating that cultural differences play a significant role in shaping the dialogue between organizations and publics in different countries. This analysis provides implications and suggestions for future research.

Testing the Theory of Cross-National Conflict Shifting: A Quantitative Content Analysis and a Case Study of the Chiquita Brands’ Transnational Crisis Originated in Colombia • Juan-Carlos Molleda and Vanessa Bravo, University of Florida; Andrés Felipe Giraldo Dávila and Luis Horacio Botero, Universidad de Medellín • This study uses the Cross-National Conflict Shifting theory to analyze Chiquita Brands’ transnational crisis originated in Colombia with consequences in the United States. The research includes a content analysis and a case study conducted by U.S. and Colombian scholars. This research contributes to the global public relations’ body of knowledge by supporting nine out of 10 theoretical propositions, and further supporting the theory with three research questions and eight hypotheses (two partially supported, six supported).

Exploring Negative Organization-Public Relationships (OPR) in Public Relations: Toward the Development of an Integrated Measurement Model of OPR • Bitt Beach Moon and Yunna Rhee, Hankuk University of Foregin Studies • Although several organization-public relationship measurements have been developed in public relations, negative characteristics of organization-public relationship (OPR) have not been researched extensively. As much as it is important to understand how public relations can contribute to the development of positive OPR, it is also important to know how negative OPR can hamper or damage public relations efforts. In this regard, the study focuses on exploring the negative dimensions OPR, and attempt to develop an integrated measurement model of OPR. In order to develop the model, this study implemented a thorough literature review, expert surveys, pretests, and two surveys. The study identified four negative OPR dimensions including dissatisfaction, distrust, control dominance, and dissolution. The study results revealed that the 32-item, integrated OPR scale including the negative and the positive dimensions is reliable and valid. Theoretical and practical implications of the study results are also discussed.

Students’ Motivations and Expectations for Service Learning in Public Relations • Nancy Muturi, and Samuel Mwangi, Kansas State University; Soontae An, Ewha Womans University • The paper is a survey of public relations students (N=96) on their motivations to engage in service learning projects and their expectations from that engagement over two year period. It reports their understanding of service learning, prior engagement in service learning projects and how this influences their attitudes and expectations for participating in the project. Results show no significant association between prior engagement and attitudes or motivation but motivation and attitude are significantly associated. Motivation is also significantly associated with expectations from the project.

Consumer Knowledge of News Making: How Increased Persuasion Knowledge of Video News Releases Influences Beliefs and Trust in a News Story • Michelle Nelson and Sangdo Oh, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign; Jiwoo Park, Southern Illinois University • News stories offer valuable information to consumers and drive sales for featured companies. Many stories are inspired by video news releases (VNRs), which are short video segments created and provided by a public relations agency to the news organization for free. Across two studies, we show how viewers’ beliefs about and perceptions of credibility in a news story “change” as their persuasion knowledge about VNRs and the featured story increases.

The Effective of Dialogic Relationship on the Military Public Relationship • Sejin Park, Lisa Fall and Michael Kotowski, University of Tennessee; • This research investigates the influence of dialogic relationship and organizational cultures on the military-public relationship. College students (N=218) participated in a 2 x 2 (levels of dialogic relationship: high vs. low x organizational cultures: military vs. civilian) factorial design experiment. The results reveal that dialogic relationship exerts a strong effect on the military-public relationship by improving the degree of control mutuality, trust, commitment and communal relationship and that organizational culture has a partial influence on the military-public relationship. The results of this study have both theoretical important practical implications for military public affairs. Implications and recommendations are discussed.

Integrated Impression Management: How NCAA Division I Athletics Directors Understand Public Relations • Angela Pratt, Bradley University • The purpose of this study is to learn how intercollegiate athletics directors (ADs) understand public relations. For this study, a qualitative approach was used. Twelve NCAA Division I ADs were interviewed, and their transcripts were analyzed using comparative analysis procedures. The findings show that the participants understand public relations as integrated impression management: a combination of image, message, and action/interaction. The results imply that executives do not necessarily separate public relations from other disciplines, such as marketing.

Issue Salience Formation among Information Subsidies and Business Media Coverage during Corporate Proxy Contests • Matt Ragas, DePaul University • This study tests for issue agenda-building between corporate-controlled information subsidies (news releases and shareholder letters) and business media coverage during contested corporate elections, known as proxy contests. Detailed content analyses of subsidies and media coverage in the 25 largest proxy fights over a five-year period (2005-2009) support the agenda-building proposition and suggest issue salience formation may be a contributing factor in a successful contest outcome. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Internal Relationship Building: A Chinese Story • Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University • This study was one of the first to empirically test a relationship-building model within organizations in an international context, in the hopes of developing an international theory of internal relationship management, to add to the extant strategic management paradigm of public relations. It tested a model that included symmetrical relationship maintenance strategies as antecedents, quality relationships between organizations and their employees as the mediator, and subsequent behavioral outcomes, i.e., employees’ turnover intention and contextual performance behavior. Data were collected from an online survey of 568 Chinese employees working in a variety of types of organizations. Structural equation modeling results supported all the hypothesized linkages.

The overlooked sector: An analysis of nonprofit public relations literature • Hilary Fussell Sisco, Quinnipiac University; Erik Collins and Geah Pressgrove, University of South Carolina • Using a content analysis, this study identified the number of articles about nonprofit public relations published in the Journal of Public Relations Research and Public Relations Review from their inceptions through 2010. Various aspects of the journal articles were examined, including types of nonprofit organizations studied, theoretical frameworks and research methodologies. A key finding is evidence of a recent growth in the number of articles published, but an overall paucity of research specifically about nonprofit public relations. Also, there was a noticeable lack of theory-based research in the journal articles studied, in contrast to the number of introspective articles published about nonprofit public relations.

Women as Public Relations Managers: Show Me the Money • Bey-Ling Sha and David Dozier, San Diego State University • Using probability sampling, a 2010 survey of Public Relations Society of America members confirmed hypotheses that women earn significantly lower salaries than men, have less professional experience, and enact the technician role more frequently than men. Counter to hypotheses, women enacted the manager role as frequently as did men. Men and women did not differ significantly in the role (manager or technician) they enacted predominantly. Income differences were reduced but remained statistically significant after controlling for role enactment and professional experience.

Corporate Social Performance and Reputation: Effects of Industry and Corporate Communication • Weiting Tao and Mary Ann Ferguson, University of Florida • Corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate reputation have become two concepts of strategic significance to corporations. By conducting secondary data analysis, this study attempted: (1) to explore relationships between seven CSP dimensions (i.e., community, environment, employee relations, diversity, product, human rights, and corporate governance) and corporate reputation, and (2) to discover whether industry type and corporate communication efforts moderate the relationship between CSP and corporate reputation.

A network approach to public diplomacy: A case study of U.S. public diplomacy in Romania • Antoneta Vanc, Quinnipiac • Few studies have attempted to explore public diplomacy practices around the world and the scholarship that investigates public diplomacy practices in the newly democratic countries now members of the European Union is even scarcer. Hence, this exploratory case study looks at U.S. public diplomacy practices in Romania and aims to explore in more detail diplomats’ functions abroad. By employing the relationship management theory of public relations, this case study seeks to explore diplomats’ roles of facilitators of relationships between people of the two countries and their role of catalysts of relationships within the Romanian civil society. Data collected through in-depth interviews with former U.S. diplomats who served in Romania during 2001-2009, reveal diplomats’ new roles of creators and managers of networks of relationships, which ultimately aim to establish the embassy as a social, cultural, professional, and business network hub in the host society.

Representational, structural, and political intersectionality of public relations’ publics • Jennifer Vardeman-Winter, University of Houston; Hua Jiang, Towson University; Natalie Tindall, Georgia State University • We interviewed 31 women of different racial, socioeconomic, age, and relationship backgrounds to explore the extent to which they perceived their multiple, overlapping identities impact their health decision-making. This study is an effort to provide evidence to a proposed publics’ theory of intersectionality. We suggest that publics experience co-occurring oppression and privilege in varying contexts: in representations of them, in policies that impact them, and in structures that enable or hinder their ability to do something about their health. The topic we explored with participants was how their identities impacted their perceptions of the new recommendations for breast cancer screening. Findings suggest that gendered roles are the most salient identity for these women; furthermore, the data demonstrate that age, race, and class alter how women perceive their roles have been recognized by policy-makers. The findings expand current theory of segmentation of publics and policy-making as well as practical suggestions for how to understand publics’ unique situations more comprehensively.

Motivating Publics to Act: An Analysis of the Influence of Message Strategy and Involvement on Relational Outcomes and Communication Behavior • Kelly Werder and Michael Mitrook, University of South Florida • This study tested the main and interaction effects of public relations message strategies and issue involvement on relational outcomes and communication behavior. The results of a 2 x 6 factorial design (N = 333) indicate that issue involvement influences trust, control mutuality, and commitment in publics. Message strategies and issue involvement significantly influence communication behavior. Cooperative problem solving strategies were the most effective in motivating publics to act in both high and low issue involvement conditions.

Private labeling, crisis communication and media influence: The Menu Foods pet food recall • Worapron Worawongs and Colleen Connolly-Ahern, Pennsylvania State University • In 2007, Menu Foods Inc. issued a voluntary recall of more than 60 million cans and pouches of pet food, becoming the largest recall recorded in the United States. The current study investigates the complexities of crisis communication in the current private label manufacturing environment through an examination of information subsidies distributed and news accounts written during the Menu Foods crisis. Analysis of the press releases disseminated during the pet food recall revealed organizations predominantly adopted excuses and defense of innocence strategies to protect their images. The findings indicated organizations were not effective in getting journalists to adopt their image restoration strategies.

Localization of Public Health News Releases for Publication in Community Newspapers • Rachel Young, Erin Willis, Jon Stemmle and Shelly Rodgers, University of Missouri • Although localization is linked to publication of news releases, no study analyzes localized news releases in their published form. This study uses content analysis to compare the rate and form of health news releases (n = 378) published in urban and suburban vs. rural newspaper. Localization of content spurred publication in community newspapers and retention of localized data and resources referrals. Our findings indicate that localization assists in disseminating public health messages to rural audiences.

Teaching

Missing citations, bulking biographies and unethical collaboration: Types of cheating among public relations’ majors • Giselle Auger, Duquesne University • Educators know and research has shown that students cheat (McCabe and Trevino (1993; 1996). It would stand to reason then that students of public relations are not immune from such practice. For a field such as public relations that has had a continual struggle for credibility, the issue of student cheating should be paramount, for the unethical students of today become tomorrow’s practitioners. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the extent to which public relations majors cheat, and the types of academically dishonest behaviors in which they participate. Results of the study indicated cause for concern as more than 79% of students admitted to cheating and the average number of times students participated in any given cheating behavior ranged from a low of 1.9 times to a high of 3.5 times.

Perceptions of public relations students’ empowerment, faculty interaction, and perceived relationship investment as determinants of relationship quality with their academic department • Moonhee Cho, University of Florida; Giselle Auger, Duquesne University • Scholars of public relations stress that the role of public relations is to help organizations manage their relationships with publics (Broom, 2010); however, studies of the relationship between students (as publics) and their academic departments (as organizations) has been neglected. This oversight is surprising as the on-going recession, economic uncertainty, and increased costs of post-secondary education (Cotton & Wilson, 2006; Pryor, Hurtado, DeAngelo, Palucki, Blake, & Tran, 2010) have placed increased scrutiny on colleges and universities not only by parents but also by government such as, state legislatures (Tinto, 2006-07; Rockwell, 2011). Research indicates that part of a quality post-secondary educational experience should involve student-faculty interaction (Kuh & Hu, 2001; Tinto, 2006-07). Given the increasing need for retention of satisfied and successful students, and given the demonstrated importance of faculty-student interaction to retention of students, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between student empowerment, faculty-student interaction, students’ perceived relationship investment of department and the perceived quality of relationships formed with students’ departments. Results of the study demonstrate the significance in relationship between student-faculty interaction, empowerment, and perceived relationship investment to quality of student-departmental relationships.

Are we teaching them to be CSR managers? Examining students’ expectations of practitioner roles in CSR • Rajul Jain; Lawrence Winner • This study examines the roles that public relations students expect to play in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and how these perceptions are influenced by their public relations education and professional training, as well as their personal and professional values. A survey of 198 college students reveals that students most strongly identify with a managerial role in CSR and that their attitudes have a significant association with their values and an insignificant association with their training.

Service-Learning for Branding Success: A Case of Student-Client Engagement in Oklahoma State University’s $1 Billion Capital Campaign • Lori McKinnon, Oklahoma State University; Jacob Longan; Bill Handy • This paper offers a case analysis of student-client service learning in OSU’s $1 billion, capital campaign, Branding Success. Capstone campaign students joined with the OSU Foundation to develop and implement strategic plans for the campaign and its OSUccess scholarship contest component. The service-learning arrangement succeeded in engaging the University community in an online conversation about “success,” in securing media coverage, in generating attendance at the campaign launch event, and in stressing the importance of giving.

U.S. Student-Run Communication Agencies: Enhancing Students’ Understanding of Business Protocols and Professionalism • Lee Bush, Elon University; Barbara Miller, Elon University • Student-run communications agencies mimic professional public relations and advertising agencies by providing students with a professional environment in which to work on real projects for real clients. This study involved a survey of agency advisors at AEJMC universities and ACEJMC-accredited universities to evaluate the attributes, structure, and perceived student learning outcomes of agencies in the U.S. Additionally, this study examined how agency structure, workspace and advisor commitment impact agency protocols and student learning outcomes.

College vs. Credential: What Do Entry-Level Practitioners in Public Relations Need? • Bey-Ling Sha, San Diego State University; John Forde; Jay Rayburn • Using an online survey (response rate=16.4%; n=1,634), this study examined the attitudes of members of the Public Relations Society of America regarding entry-level qualifications in public relations in general, as well as their views on an entry-level credential in particular. In short, association members generally felt positively toward both public relations-specific curriculum and toward the concept of an entry-level certification. The manuscript also examines the history of both public relations curriculum and the effort to establish an entry-level certification in public relations.

Student

A Process Evaluation of the Carolina Covenant’s Communication Strategy • Joseph Erba, Stephanie Silverman and Luisa Ryan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Low-income high school students are most in need of financial aid programs to attend college. Concomitantly, they are also the least informed about scholarship opportunities. A process evaluation assessed the communication strategy of the Carolina Covenant, the first loan-free financial aid package offered by an American public university. Best practices and recommendations are discussed. Findings could help other programs hone their communication efforts and conduct their own process evaluations.

Forty Years of Award-Winning Campaigns: What PRSA’s Silver Anvil-Winning Campaigns Say about the Public Relations Industry • Eva Hardy, North Carolina State University • Public relations textbooks prescribe a common approach to the campaign development process: Conduct research to understand the situation and publics, develop goals and objectives prior to planning and implementing the campaign, evaluating the efforts and finally carrying out stewardship elements to further the relationship with the campaign’s targeted audiences. This process has become the norm for the public relations industry. This project seeks to provide a more sound description of professional norms in the public relations industry by analyzing Silver Anvil-winning public relations campaigns from 1969 to 2010 (n = 420). A content analysis of the award-winning campaigns from the Public Relations Society of America database reveals trends in how the five phases of the campaign process have been carried out over the past 42 years as well as striking differences in how public relations agencies and non-agency campaign sources carry out the campaign development process.

Public Diplomacy at Arab Embassies: Fighting an Uphill Battle • Leysan Khakimova, University of Maryland • Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the practice and study of public diplomacy gained increased attention. However, three major gaps are evident in public diplomacy literature: weak theoretical background, the lack of empirical research, and limited scope of many studies. This study seeks to address some of the gaps in the literature by using Benoit’s image repair theory to explore Arab governments’ public diplomacy efforts in the United States. Analysis of 16 interviews with Embassy employees and 84 documents retrieved from Embassies’ websites revealed that Arab embassies face opportunities and constraints relating to culture, power, strategic planning, interpersonal and online communication. In addition to theoretical implications, the study offers practical suggestions to government employees on building a positive relationship with foreign publics such as giving more power and independence to embassies as well as using embassies’ cultural and communication expertise to engage with foreign audiences.

How a Public Evaluate an Organization’s Official Statement to pursue Organizational Transparency: An Impact of Organizational Claims to Truth on the Public’s Perception of Credibility toward the Content • Bo Kyung Kim and Seoyeon Hong, University of Missouri • Guided by previous research in transparency (Allen, 2008; Craft & Heim, 2009; Mitchelle & Steele, 2005; Plaisance, 2007; Sweetser, 2010) and the empirical study regarding two types of organizational claims to pursue transparency (Kim, Hong, & Cameron, 2011), this study explores the lay public’s estimation of the initial measure for organizational transparency (Rawlins, 2009) and a relationship between an organization’s claim to pursue transparency, perceived credibility of the claim, and organizational reputation. Factor analyses and bootstrapping analysis are used.

Youth Political Engagement: Factors That Influence Involvement • Jarim Kim, University of Maryland, College Park • This study employed qualitative, in-depth interviews with college students to look at how and why they became actively engaged in the political process. The situational theory of publics was employed as a guideline to examine their active participation. Specific attention was given to the antecedent factors of involvement. Findings indicate that a set of factors, including issue relevance, source characteristics, communication strategies, significant others, general interests about the world, and emotional satisfaction, influenced an active public’s level of involvement. Lastly, this paper discusses theoretical elaborations of the situational theory of publics and practical implications for political campaign practitioners.

Exploring the Impact of CEO Credibility on Perceived Organizational Reputation and Employee Engagement • Linjuan Rita Men, University of Miami • The purpose of this study is to explore how corporate leadership influence internal public relations effectiveness by examining the relationships between CEO credibility, employees’ evaluation of organizational reputation and employee engagement. To that end, an on-line survey was conducted with 157 employees at different levels of position from a Fortune 500 company. Key findings include that CEO credibility is positively associated with perceived organizational reputation and employee engagement. Organizational reputation in the eyes of employees has a large and positive impact on employee engagement. In addition, employees’ perception of organizational reputation fully mediates the impact of CEO credibility on employee engagement. Important theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

The Impact of Dialogue on Blog Traffic: An Analysis of the Blogs of the Philanthropy 400 • Sarah Merritt, Dale Mackey and Lauren Lawson, North Carolina State University • The five principles of dialogue, as described and measured according to the methodology of Kent and Taylor (1998), were used to identify and measure the use of dialogic principle on blogs hosted by nonprofit organizations. Using every blog available from organizations on the Philanthropy 400 list, 124 blogs were coded using a 32-item coding schema, measuring ease of interface, conservation of visitors, useful information, generation of return visitors, and the dialogic loop. Most nonprofit blogs used the five principles, however to varying degrees, and few similarities of dialogue principle use was found across all nonprofit subsectors. Our results also showed that blogs frequently utilizing the dialogic principles frequently had higher traffic rankings, although traffic ranking was not affected by the number of sites that linked to individual blogs. The number of sites linking in to a blog was higher for nonprofits with a top ranking on the Philanthropy 400 list.

Impact of corporate social responsibility on consumers’ attribution of a crisis responsibility: A buffer against reputation withdrawal or a backfire • Hanna Park, University of Florida • This study aimed to examine how CSR-crisis congruency interacted with the severity of crisis on subjects’ attribution of the crisis, attitude, trust, and supportive behavior intention toward a company. Specifically, 2 (severe crisis vs. minor crisis) _ 3 (high CSR-crisis congruency vs. low CSR-crisis vs. no CSR information) factorial designs were used to investigate main effects of two independent variables and their interaction. Six experiment booklets were developed for the study. Results showed that subjects in the severe and high CSR-crisis congruency condition indicated (1) more negative attitudes, (2) less trust, and (3) less supportive behavior intention toward the company than people in the low CSR-crisis congruency condition. Despite the negative effects that occur when CSR programs are congruent with severe crises, this study provides evidence that implementing CSR programs is preferable to not making any CSR efforts at all.

The affect of receiver expertise on perceptions of source credibility and message believability • Austin Sims, Texas Tech University • From a public relations perspective, credibility is one of the most powerful tools possessed by a practitioner or organization. Whether it deals with one or multiple publics, broad or niche, the perception of credibility lends itself to greater persuasiveness and more effective communications (Conger, 1998; Hart, Friedrich, & Brummett, 1983). However, throughout such research, the focus has been almost exclusively on defining attributes of the source that increase credibility and make messages more persuasive, ignoring the possibility that expertise held by the receiver could influence the perception of the message. The question becomes: Can an expert set aside his or her expertise and/or trustworthiness of the source based upon the merits of the information provided? Legislative aides in a large, southwestern state capitol and students from a large southwestern university were surveyed using an experiment embedded within a survey to ascertain if public policy experts perceive sources and persuasive messages differently than non-experts. The experiment measured perceived message and source credibility based upon the expertise of the receiver (expert, non-expert) and sources (lobbyist, citizen, industry executive, and economist/professor) typical of those sources most likely to testify before a committee or speak to legislators and/or staff. The results showed experts’ perceptions were significantly different than non-experts in reviewing message content. Expert receivers were effectively able to separate the message from low-trust, low-expert sources.

Expecting the unexpected: Nonprofit media responses to anti-abortion terrorism • Beth Sundstrom, Rowena Briones and Melissa Janoske, University of Maryland, College Park • This study explored crisis management through the lens of complexity theory to understand six nonprofit organizations’ communication responses to anti-abortion terrorism. Through a qualitative content analysis of 277 press releases, news articles and tweets, findings suggest practical implications for anti-abortion counterterrorism and crisis management, provide opportunities to develop communication counter measures, and further develop complexity theory.

Is Interactivity always worth it? The Effect of Interactivity and Message Tone on Attitude toward Organization • Kang Hoon Sung, University of Florida • This study examined the effect of three independent variables (i.e., Perceived interactivity, Message valence, and Tone of the organization) on people’s attitude toward an organization and their purchase intention, specifically on a social media setting. The findings confirmed that public’s exposure to negative comments about the organization can do harm to the attitude toward organization. However, the findings suggest that increasing interactivity with customers by responding to their opinions can minimize the negative effects of the online comments. In addition, when responding to customer’s opinions, the response should be done in a human voice, (i.e., personal and caring approach) rather than in an organizational voice (i.e., mechanical and routine approach).

The Impact of Corporate Social Performance on Customer Satisfaction: A Cross-Industrial Analysis • Weiting Tao, University of Florida • Corporate social performance (CSP) and customer satisfaction have become two critical areas of focus for corporations. However, their relationship has not yet been explored. Therefore, by analyzing a comprehensive secondary data set obtained from three different databases, this study attempted (1) to explore the relationship between CSP and customer satisfaction, and (2) to discover whether industry type moderates the impact of CSP on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, its contributions to the public relations arena were briefed.

<< 2011 Abstracts

Open Competition

Mainstream Newspaper Coverage of Native Americans: A content analysis of newspaper coverage of Native American issues in circulation areas with high concentrations of Native Americans • Cristina Azocar • A content analysis examined coverage of Native Americans in newspapers in circulation areas that have the highest percent of Native Americans. The three most common topics were Arts/Entertainment, Casinos/Gaming and Tribal Politics. The majority of the stories were neutral in tone, however most stories used non-Native sources. The theory of in-group bias is posited as a possible explanation to the findings.

Bias, Slant and Frame Selection in Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal • Sid Bedingfield, University of South Carolina • When Rupert Murdoch purchased the Wall Street Journal, critics feared he would slant the news to fit his political views. This study used content analysis to compare coverage in Murdoch’s Journal with New York Times coverage of President Obama’s health care plan. It then compared coverage in Murdoch’s Journal with Wall Street Journal coverage of the Clinton health care plan in 1994, when the Bancroft family owed the paper. Findings suggest Murdoch’s Journal was no more negative in its coverage than either the Times or the Bancroft family’s Journal.

Reputation Cycles: the Value of Accreditation for Undergraduate Journalism Programs • Robin Blom, Michigan State University; Lucinda Davenport; Brian J. Bowe, Michigan State University • Many faculty members feel constrained by various outside influences when developing an ideal journalism curriculum. Accreditation is one of these. The value of journalism accreditation standards for undergraduate programs has been the focus of prior studies and continues to be debated among educators. This study adds to discussion by finding out the views of opinion leaders in journalism programs across the country. Almost 130 administrators responded to a survey on the reasons for being accredited or not being accredited. Results show that for schools with accreditation, or those in the certification process, the most important reason is reputation enhancement. However, many directors question the value of accreditation. In particular, some perceive the cap on the number of journalism credits a student can take as a limitation of student development and a hindrance of the ability to respond to the growing convergence in the professional marketplace.

Morality of News Issues and Public Contributions in Comment Forums on U.S. Daily Newspaper Websites • Serena Carpenter, Arizona State University; Robin Blom, Michigan State University; Stephen Lacy, Michigan State University; Ryan Lange • The media shapes individual attitudes and beliefs. Communication research has found the morality of an issue can affect human behavior in experimental and survey settings. Comment forums present an opportunity for researchers to examine behavior in naturally occurring settings. Through a quantitative content analysis of individual comments (n=2,103), this research examines human behavior in comment forums to determine whether there are significant differences between morally laden and nonmoral articles in adjacent forums on 14 U.S. newspaper websites. The results show that morally laden articles do have a greater proportion of negative emotional responses from participants.

Consumer Adoption of Mobile News: An Examination of Motivation Predictors • Sylvia Chan-Olmsted; Hyejoon Rim, University of Florida; Amy Zerba • Applying the uses and gratification approach, this study identifies the motivation predictors of mobile news adoption among young adults. The survey findings suggest that content related motives, in particular surveillance, are significant in predicting most adoption behaviors for mobile news. This finding suggests informational needs continue to be important with this emerging medium. From the perspective of platform related and integrated motives, this study found instrumentality to be the most significant predictor for adoption.

A Matter of Life and Death? Examining the Quality of Newspaper Coverage on the Newspaper Crisis • H. Iris Chyi, University of Texas at Austin; Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota; Nan Zheng, University of Texas at Austin • During 2008-2010, U.S. newspapers covered the crisis of their own industry extensively. Such coverage raised questions about whether journalists misunderstood or over-reacted to this newspaper crisis. This study examines how the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the New York Times framed the crisis. Results showed that the coverage focused on short-term drama, lacked sufficient context, shifted blame away from newspapers themselves, invoked “death” imagery, and altogether struggled to capture a holistic portrayal of newspapers’ troubles.

Framing Airline Mergers in Newspapers: A Crash Course • Clay Craig, Texas Tech University; Shannon Bichard, Texas Tech • The merger and acquisition (M&A) process tends to be examined through the lens of those directly involved in the merger (employees or shareholders), with little attention paid to how the media portrays the situation. The blending of organizational and communication theories provides the theoretical background for examining the newspapers’ coverage of M&A. This study evaluates the application of a subset of social identity theory (SIT) and tenor framing in local newspapers either directly or indirectly affected by the 2008 Delta and NWA merger. A content analysis of 614 articles pertaining to the Delta Airlines and NWA merger from four local newspapers over two 10-month periods was utilized in order to examine the variation of tone, space, and prominence framing between the newspapers. The findings indicate a significant difference between tone, space, and prominence used by directly and indirectly affected local newspapers over the time frame investigated.

Contrary to Scholarly Opinion: Sourcing Trends in New York Times Drug-War Reports Before and After 9/11 • Bryan Denham, Clemson University • Extending the analytic approach used in previous research on anonymous attribution, the current study focused on how the New York Times, through its sourcing, covered the US war on drugs before and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Data were gathered from 135 news reports and 3,541 news paragraphs published across an eight-year period, September 1997 to September 2005. Results revealed that while anonymous sources and public officials from certain agencies were plentiful in drug-war coverage, especially following the terrorist attacks, person-on-the-street sources were not as rare as journalism scholars may have assumed and in fact appeared in higher numbers than did many in the 21-source coding scheme. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are offered.

Traditional Newspapers and Their Web-based Counterparts: A Longitudinal Analysis of Relative Credibility • Gregg Payne; David Dozier, San Diego State University • This study provides a longitudinal extension of a 2001 study of newspaper credibility. That study showed that familiarity with a media type enhances perceived credibility. Subjects rated conventional (paper) newspapers as more credible than web-based counterparts. This study, sampling from the same population, shows that statistically significant differences in channel credibility have disappeared. This change is attributed to growing familiarity with web-based newspapers, due to passage of time and increased exposure to web-based newspapers.

Longitudinal review finds decline in unnamed source use, rise in transparency • Matt Duffy, Zayed University; Ann Williams, Georgia State University • Some have argued that the use of unnamed sourcing has increased in recent years. This longitudinal content analysis finds that anonymous sourcing peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, an era some call journalism’s “Golden Age.” The analysis also finds that contemporary journalists are more likely to explain the reason for anonymity and offer details about the identity of the source. No change was detected in the use of information from a single, unnamed source.  ”

Use of print & online news media for local news: A uses & dependency perspective • Kenneth Fleming, University of Missouri-Columbia • This study examines the effects of uses and dependency model of mass communication on use of both print and online news media for local news. The data of the study came from a telephone survey of 605 residents of a college town in the Midwest of the United States in 2010. Results show that print media dependency was significantly and positively associated with readership of the print community newspaper; online media dependency was significantly and positively associated with use of the newspaper’s website, and with use of the Internet for local news, after demographics were statistically controlled. In addition, age was significantly and negatively associated with online media dependency, and positively associated with legacy media dependency.

Game Over? Male and female sportswriters’ attitudes toward their jobs and plans to leave journalism • Jessie Jones; Jennifer Greer, University of Alabama • Through a survey of 200 sports journalists at the 100 largest U.S. newspapers, this study examined gender differences in demographics, job characteristics, job satisfaction, feelings of empowerment, and outlook toward the profession. Male and female sportswriters were fairly satisfied with their jobs and did not differ on any attitudinal measure. However, controlling for all factors, female sportswriters were still significantly more likely than men to say they planned to leave the field before retirement.

National Unity and Memory: Discursive Construction of War Memories • Choonghee Han, Hope College • Presentations of collective and cultural memory in newspapers are based upon the construction of the past, which enables nation states to remind the public of national unity. This paper explores the discursive constructions of the past and collective/cultural memories of the Asia-Pacific War that appeared in three East Asian newspapers from China, South Korea, and Japan. A critical discourse analysis was employed to examine the ways in which national unity was constructed through war memories.

Follow the Leaders: Newspaper Journalists’ Networks of Association on Twitter • Kyle Heim, Seton Hall University • This study examined newspaper journalists’ patterns of following users on Twitter. Results showed that the distribution of users conformed to a power-law relationship, although the distribution did not display as much concentration or inequality as has been found in other online contexts. The Twitter user followed most frequently by journalists was Poynter Institute blogger Jim Romenesko. Generally, the users followed most frequently tended to be other journalists from elite news organizations, particularly The New York Times.

Missing the Metro: Can an E-Reader Replace the Print Newspaper? • Barry Hollander, University of Georgia; Dean Krugman, University of Georgia; Tom Reichert, University of Georgia; J. Adam Avant, University of Georgia • As major metropolitan newspapers have withdrawn from outer circulation areas, many are left without access to a primary source of state news. In just such a real-world situation, we explore whether an e-reader (Kindle DX) preoloaded with a digital subscription to a major metro paper was seen by former readers of the print edition as an adequate substitute. While most liked the Kindle, reviews of the e-reader as a replacement were mixed.

Covering a world in conflict: The New York Times and peace journalism • Elizabeth Lance, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Beverly Horvit, University of Missouri; Amy Youngblood, Texas Christian University • This study examines New York Times coverage of four conflicts for the characteristics of peace journalism advocated by Galtung. A content analysis of stories about Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia-Ethiopia and Chad-Sudan finds the majority were framed as peace journalism. This study contradicts findings that Western news organizations primarily report from a war journalism perspective. More than half the stories explained the causes and consequences of conflict and were careful to avoid victimizing, demonizing and emotive language.

The Diffusion of an Online Community Newspaper Among College Students • Daniel Hunt; David Atkin; Chris Kowal • As more news consumers are turning to online news instead of traditional news sources, the diffusion of online newspapers within communities needs further empirical investigation. This study tested a diffusion model for an online newspaper among a community of college students (N = 428). Community attachment was shown to be a predictor of one’s level of interactive feature use and ratings of credibility for an online newspaper. An individual’s level of use for interactive features on the online community newspaper website was shown to predict satisfaction with the online newspaper. Higher credibility ratings positively predicted satisfaction with the online newspaper, although there were gender differences in ratings of credibility. The application of this research to future studies is also addressed.

Turning a Blind Eye: Why Reporters Ignore Third-Party Candidates • John Kirch, Towson University • This paper examines why political reporters ignore third-party gubernatorial candidates. Using in-depth interviews with eight reporters in California and Wisconsin, this study identified five criteria journalists use to determine when to provide a minor-party candidate with substantial coverage. In addition, this paper found both practical and ideological reasons to explain why candidates who challenge the establishment are often relegated to the sidelines, where their voices are rarely heard.

Sources of Evaluative Information in Election News: The Role of Reporters                  Dominic Lasorsa • This study tested and found lacking long-held assumptions about the use of sources in news coverage. It examined evaluative information (either positive or negative themes toward a candidate) included in the news pages of the New York Times in the final weeks of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, focusing upon the sources of that information, including the candidates, their spokespersons, other supporters, those unaffiliated with the campaigns, and reporters themselves. Surprisingly, the reporters accounted for most of the evaluative coverage, followed by the unaffiliated sources. While the partisan sources tended to talk more about the opponent than about their own candidate, the two ostensibly nonpartisan sources (reporters and unaffiliated) shared their coverage more equitably between the two major candidates. Although the overall evaluative coverage was more negative than positive, the reporters’ evaluations surprisingly were more positive than negative, and more positive than any of the other sources. Compared to the partisan sources, which predictably gave mostly positive coverage to their own candidate and negative coverage to opponents, the reporters were more equitable in their coverage. Still, the reporters gave more positive coverage to Obama and more negative coverage to McCain, and were less equitable in their coverage than the unaffiliated sources. Thus, while reporters were more impartial than the partisan sources, they appeared to be less impartial than the other ostensibly nonpartisan sources, those not affiliated with either campaign. Implications of these surprising findings are discussed.

Distinctions in Covering BP Oil Spill Suggest a Maturing Press • Norman Lewis, University of Florida; Walter Starr, University of Florida; Yukari Takata, University of Florida; Qinwei (Vivi) Xie, University of Florida • Newspapers in the five Gulf states (n = 777) covered the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill as an environmental story that morphed into an economic one while the three national dailies (n = 238) treated it as an event story. Each state treated the story differently, affirming Bennett’s indexing hypothesis. Overall, nuances in how the story was covered suggest the press has matured in its handling of environmental disaster stories.

Newspaper Financial Performance: Content Really Does Make a Difference • You Li, University of Missouri; Esther Thorson, University of Missouri; Shrihari Sridhar • This study explores the relationship between newspaper content and financial performance using a rare monthly data spanning10 years. The study assesses amount and type of newspaper content by measuring the number of words produced along three dimensions: topic category, geographic focus, and origin of contents (wire or staff-produced). Each dimension is regressed upon the newspaper financial indicators, which include online and print revenues, advertising revenue, and circulation. The study finds that the content measures, especially the topic categories of contents, significantly predict newspaper financial performance. Both linear and nonlinear relationships between newspaper content quality and financial performance appear to be present, indicating diminishing returns to content. The three types of content have varying patterns and magnitudes of influence, suggesting implications for newspaper theory and management.

Online Disagreement Expression and Reasoned Opinions: An Exploratory Study of Political Discussion Threads on Online Newspapers • xudong liu, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Xigen Li • This study content analyzes the comments posted immediately after the stories published on two online newspapers and investigates political discussion involvement reflected in the comments posted in online newspaper forums. More than one-third of the comments on the online newspapers involve disagreement expressions towards others’ opinions, and the comments provide fewer reasons for others’ opinions than for one’s own opinions. Online disagreement expression is positively related to opinion reasoning and discussion involvement. The finding’s implication for online newspaper’s role in deliberative democracy is discussed.

News Framing of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Leak and the 2010 BP Oil Spill • Chen Lou, Ohio University; Hong Cheng, Ohio University; Carson Wagner, Ohio University • Focusing on news framing and nationalism, this study examines how The New York Times and The Washington Post framed the Bhopal gas leak in India in 1984 and the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The findings show that the frame for the Bhopal incident-caused by Union Carbide, de-emphasized the U.S. corporation’s role. Conversely, the framing of the BP spill focused on the faults of the BP.

Constructing an Image of the U.S.: An Analysis of British and French WikiLeaks News Coverage • Ivanka Radovic, University of Tennessee; Catherine Luther; Iveta Imre • The main objective of this study was to explore how newspapers can convey images of nations through news framing. With a focus on the image of the United States in Britain and France, coverage of the WikiLeaks disclosure of classified U.S. diplomatic cables by Britain’s The Guardian and France’s Le Monde was analyzed. Remarkably similar news frames were revealed from these newspapers. As a result, an analogous image of the United States came to light.

Local News Coverage in the Digital Age: Comparing Online News with Newspapers in Two Metropolitan Markets • Scott Maier, University of Oregon; Staci Tucker • A content analysis of digital and print newspapers in Seattle and Minneapolis indicates that a fundamentally different mix of top news stories is provided online than in print. Online newspapers focused on old-style news – crime, disaster and sports – while print offered more on politics, environment and education. But the digital divide all but disappeared when major news occurred. Applying news consonance as a theoretical framework, the study explores the implications for the newspaper industry and the reading public.

Conflict in the news: Influences of proximity, importance and newspaper size • Michael McCluskey, Ohio State University; Young Mie Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison • News values help explain why newspaper stories are published and the way stories were written. Few studies, however, evaluate the way values and other characteristics interact in news decisions. This study examined 952 non-opinion stories about advocacy organizations to examine how conflict with government was portrayed, considering proximity, story location and newspaper size. Proximity (with federal government) and story location (with state and local government) were important factors both in group-government engagement and the tone of conflict. Analysis suggests that interaction of values and context are important factors in understanding how conflict and other values are portrayed”

The Engagement Effect: The Relationships Among Engagement, Satisfaction, and Readership and What Can be Done to Stop the Death of the Print Newspaper • Rachel Davis Mersey, Northwestern University; Edward Malthouse, Northwestern University • Satisfaction is commonly measured by newspapers to monitor consumer responses because satisfaction is an antecedent to readership. In fact, countless studies have shown that satisfaction is associated with usage. Still an essential, open question remains: How do you get to satisfaction? This paper explores how to produce satisfaction that newspapers so desperately want by focusing on readers’ experiences with newspapers.

Newspaper Headlines on Human Trafficking in the United States from 2000 to 2010 • Brandon Burnette; Lyle Olson • Human trafficking has spurred increasing international media attention. Previous research, limited to two United States newspapers, focused on the framing of stories and differing opinions on the issue. This investigation randomly sampled 54 U.S. newspapers, examining the extent and frequency of human trafficking headlines. It concluded that higher circulation newspapers had statistically significant heavier coverage, accounting for three-fourths of the total number of headlines found. This study also examined how regions of the country, border versus non-border states, and type of ownership affected coverage of human trafficking. Data from this study is useful to organizations attempting to increase public awareness of human trafficking, a first step toward prevention. The results also revealed that continued media research on this socially important topic is needed.

Hard News Still Attracts Readers: A comparison of online and pre-Internet community newspaper readership • Carol Schlagheck, Eastern Michigan University • This study looks at readership of a 20,000-circulation Midwest community daily newspaper, comparing online page views throughout 2010 with reader choices reported in an unpublished 1992 survey of print subscribers of the same newspaper. The original study, conducted before the Internet was widely available and years before this newspaper had an online presence, asked 400 print newspaper subscribers about their readership choices. It identified several types of traditionally “hard” news among the top news sought. The current investigation identified specific stories that received the most page views during 2010. Again, hard news articles emerged as the most-read stories.

Social Construction, Influence, and News Work: A Study of the ‘Reality’ of Newspaper Journalism Today • Bill Schulte, Ohio University; Joseph Bernt • Informed by the social construction of reality and the hierarchy of influence model, this exploratory study examined 25 interviews with newspaper journalists to study the culture of the modern newsroom as newsworkers adjust to the paradigm shift between digital and traditional news platforms. The analysis revealed that many newsworkers are struggling with digital tasks which were not prevalent when the entered the workforce, and concern with ever downsizing organizations which can not seem to find a business model that will keep them employed in the future. It also finds that with management constantly looking upward for answers, newworkers are finding new opportunities to exert autonomy.

Blogging Wall Street on DealBook: A Content Analysis (2006-2010) • Michael Sheehy, University of Cincinnati; Hong Ji, The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism • Examining the content of DealBook, a business and finance news blog on nytimes.com, this study found that from 2006 through 2010, DealBook produced an increasing amount of original content over time and began to rely less on reprocessed news from other information sources; that coverage topics changed over time; that most content contained named sources; that linkage to New York Times content increased over time; and that most content was oriented to fact reporting.

Crowd Control: Collaborative Gatekeeping in a Shared Media Space • Jane Singer, University of Iowa • This paper explores the implications of a significant but generally unheralded transition to an environment in which users have become gatekeepers of the content published on media websites. This expanded user role involves assessment of contributions by other users; assessment and communication of the perceived value or quality of user- and journalist-produced content; and selective re-dissemination of that content. Preliminary empirical evidence indicates these user gatekeeping capabilities have become pervasive on U.S. newspaper sites.

Redefining 21st Century Partnerships: Who’s Sharing What With Whom and Why? • Larry Dailey; Mary Spillman, Ball State University • This exploratory study, based on data from a 2010 national survey of editors at daily newspapers in the United States, examines the types of partnerships that exist between newspapers and both traditional (newspapers, radio, television) and non-traditional (web sites, blogs, universities) news organizations. Results suggest that newspapers are open to partnerships, but that organizational culture affects their propensity to innovate and successfully develop new routines and storytelling models.

Framing Capital Crimes in Two Newspapers • Jakob Berr, University of Missouri School of Journalism; Tim Vos, University of Missouri School of Journalism • This study examines how two newspapers framed capital punishment in two different parts of the U.S. – an area with high public support and an area with low public support for the death penalty. The framing analysis uses Bandura’s mechanisms of moral disengagement to explore how stories are framed. The analysis shows distinct differences in framing in the two locations, with a morally engaged frame in Maryland and a morally disengaged frame in Texas.

Audience perceptions of editing quality: An experimental study of the effects of news processing • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • This study uses a controlled experiment to begin addressing whether and how much traditional markers of editing quality affect audience perceptions of the quality and professionalism of news articles. Articles were presented in a mixed design in which participants saw four articles in the edited condition and four in the unedited condition. Results indicate that standard newsroom editing practices have a significant positive effect on a diverse audience’s perception of news quality.

Local Newspaper Coverage Influences Support of the U.S. Military Buildup on Guam • Francis Dalisay, Cleveland State University; Masahiro Yamamoto, Washington State University • Roughly 8,600 U.S. Marines and about 10,000 of their dependents will be relocated to Guam. A content analysis revealed that the Pacific Daily News (PDN), a newspaper on Guam, reported more frequently on this military buildup’s economic benefits, and less on its environmental risks. A community survey showed that reading the PDN influenced residents’ endorsement of the buildup’s economic benefits, but not endorsement of its environmental risks. Findings support the system-maintenance role of local newspapers.

Changing News Frames as a Pandemic Develops: Coverage of the 2009 H1N1 Flu in the Washington Post • Lily Zeng, Arkansas State Univ.; Zhiwen Xiao, University of Houston • This study examines the coverage of the H1N1 flu pandemic in the Washington Post from a dynamic perspective. According to the CDC definition of two peaks of flu activity in the U.S. (May and October 2009), this study identifies four stages of the crisis: Peak I, Valley, Peak II, and Post-Peak II. The findings reveal that the amount of media attention across time reflected the dynamics of flu activity. During the lifespan of the pandemic (April 2009 to February 2010), the capital-based newspaper maintained a consistent emphasis on the event as a “nationwide health emergency” as announced by the government, with an apparent focus on current updates of the situation of the disease, especially during the two peak stages of the pandemic. When the crisis entered a new stage, however, the frame-changing strategy was usually employed to maintain the salience of the event on the news agenda.

Man, woman, or child: The portrayal of young adults in the news media • Amy Zerba; Cory Armstrong, University of Florida • The term “young adults” is often used loosely in conversation and research. This can leave audiences to interpret whom young adults are, possibly reinforcing stereotypes. Using the theoretical framework of social construction of reality, this content analysis study examines how media describe young adults and related terms in news stories. The findings showed few definitions and use of young adults as sources; and negative portrayals by city officials and of young adults’ behavior and health.

MacDougall Student Paper Competition

Analyzing News about the Veil: Examining Racist Discourses in Europe • Katie Blevins, The Pennsylvania State University • This paper examines newspaper coverage concerning the 2010 legislation in France that bans the wearing of the full-face Muslim veil, or niqab, in public places. This paper is concerned with the representation of French-Muslim women who lie at the intersection of competing interests in this: media, political, and individual. Methodologically, this paper employs a feminist critical discourse analysis of the newspaper coverage and Joan Wallach Scott’s four categories of discourse from The Politics of the Veil (racism, secularism, sexuality, and individualism) to frame the discourse.

A Study of the Urbanization of News Content • Michael Clay Carey, Ohio University • This research analyzes geographic coverage trends in two American metropolitan newspapers, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Columbus Dispatch, to understand how frequently those newspapers included news about places and people far from their urban coverage areas. A content analysis found a trend away from rural coverage and an increase in coverage in and around urban cores during the five-year time period studies.

Deceptive Reality: Using Media to Implant False Memories and Internet Source Credibility • Jenna Carolan, Iowa State University; Faye Gilbert , Iowa State University• People are constantly bombarded with media messages that affect the way they think, but can it also affect their memories? This study measures the extent to which false memories can be implanted using media. It also looks at the effect of perceived source credibility in false memory formation. Surveys were used to compare memories before and after stimuli exposure and showed that a large number of participants had, in fact, created false memories regarding the news events. The perceived credibility of all four sources was nearly identical, although some sources were fabricated.

Witnessing Executions: How Journalists Prepare for and Respond to Planned Trauma Exposure • Kenna Griffin • This series of interviews with journalists who witnessed executions explains how these journalists prepared for and emotionally responded to witnessing the traumatic events. The journalists fulfilled their professional obligation to report the newsworthy happenings to the public, while putting themselves at risk of suffering emotional trauma. The emotional impact can be mediated if addressed through organizational support and training. The journalists who were interviewed, however, rarely were offered support and denied experiencing negative emotions.

Press Independence in the Guantanamo Controversy: Effects of The New York Times’ Coverage on Public Opinion During the Bush and Obama Administrations • Jaesik Ha, Indiana University • This study analyzes the relationship between the U.S. government and the media after the events of 9/11. It investigates two aspects of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: (1) How The New York Times covered the controversy over the closing of the Guantanamo prison during the Bush and the Obama administrations; and (2) How The New York Times’ choice of frames affected public opinion. This study analyzed the content of 2,216 news paragraphs which dealt with the Guantanamo prison issue between 2004 and 2010. One of the issues that this study explores is whether the American news media played an independent role as a watchdog of the government’s issue-framing by challenging the Bush government’s anti-terrorism frame or if it acted as the government’s guard dog and consistently reinforced its frames. 57.4% of the content-analyzed news stories published during the Bush administration used a “torture frame” which described the Guantanamo prison as violating the human rights of prisoners and lacking due process. On the other hand, the “anti-terrorism frame,” which emphasized the positive aspects of the Guantanamo prison – such as its role in reinforcing national security and protecting Americans from possible future terrorist attacks – was found in 21.3% of the news stories published during the period of the Bush presidency. By contrast, during the Obama administration, 40.3% of news reports used the torture frame, while 28.3% used the anti-terrorism frame. The New York Times showed itself to be a powerful and consistent challenger to the Bush administration on the Guantanamo issue. However, the findings also show that The New York Times’ coverage did not have a significant impact on public support for the closing of the Guantanamo prison.

Experiencing error: How journalists describe what it’s like when the press fails • Kirstie Hettinga, Penn State • Corrections are a way for newspapers to amend the record when errors occur. However, while the process of correcting a mistake is dealt with through industry norms, how error is experienced is personal to each journalist who makes an error that gets printed. This research, which borrows ethnographic techniques and draws upon gatekeeping theory, explores how journalists in one newsroom experience error and their recommendations for how errors and their corrections should be handled.

Typing corrections: Examining corrections and their role in democratic theory • Kirstie Hettinga, Penn State • Newspaper errors typically fall in subjective and objective categories. In this qualitative content analysis of corrections from The New York Times in 2010, the kinds of articles that typically yielded errors are documented. Other themes including attribution of error are also noted. The author suggests that in terms of democratic theory, corrections fall along a continuum of significance, where not all corrections are necessary for people to function within society.

Media Agenda Setting Concerning the 2009 Health Care Reform Debate • Jihye Kim, Univ. of Florida • The purpose of this study is to evaluate the newspapers agendas concerning the United States healthcare program by applying the agenda-setting process to identify varying agendas. The study also applied intermedia agenda-setting in order to correlate the relationship between the newspaper media and the press releases. The results expressed unidirectional and directional trends paired with interesting results of the relationship between the two agendas, while attempting to identify an “elite” newspaper source.

Examining the Local Sections of Three South Florida Newspapers Before and After a Content-Sharing Agreement. • Jeffrey Riley, Ohio University • This study examined the effects of a content-sharing agreement on the local news sections of three South Florida metropolitan newspapers: The Miami Herald, the Sun Sentinel, and The Palm Beach Post. The content analysis found that only nine articles out of 971 examined were borrowed through the sharing agreement. Additionally, the study found that the number of published local articles per year dropped 28.95% from 2006 to 2009.

Medium Matters: Newsreaders’ Recall and Engagement with Online and Print Newspapers • Arthur Santana, University of Oregon; Randall Livingstone, University of Oregon; Yoon Yong Cho, University of Oregon • Increasingly, newsreaders are abandoning the print newspaper in favor of online news. This experimental research asks: Do reader engagements towards news stories vary by media? Half of a subject pool (N = 45) perused The New York Times and half browsed its accompanying Web site. Both groups answered questions on the extent to which the news stories made an impression. The results reflect prior research that shows print subjects remembered more news stories than online subjects and suggest that the development of dynamic online story forms in the past decade have had little effect toward making them more impressionable than print stories.

Does competition make a difference? An examination of the impact of the Apple Daily on three major newspapers in Taiwan • Chien-Yun Song, University of Kansas; Jia-Wei Tu, University of Kansas • This content analysis study examined the effects of the Apply Daily on three leading Taiwanese newspapers after its publication in 2003. Findings show that these newspapers have added more “soft news” on their front pages in 2004 in order to compete. It can be argued that the Apple Daily has forced its rivals to become more sensational. Competition does not improve news quality in this case.

Bloggers’ Reliance on Newspaper, Online, and Original Sources in Reporting on Local Subjects Ignored by the Press • Brendan Watson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Journalism & Mass Communication • This study of 100 blogs found that contrary to media assertions and prior research, local public affairs bloggers do not rely on newspapers for a majority of their sources. Bloggers in this study were more likely to use original sources and original reporting than rely on media sources, particularly when writing about local topics (e.g. historic preservation) the news media frequently ignore.

<< 2011 Abstracts

African-American Students’ Perceptions of Public Relations Education and Practice: Implications for Minority Recruitment • Kenon A. Brown, The University of Alabama; Candace White, University of Tennessee; Damion Waymer, Virginia Tech University • In-depth interviews were conducted with African-American public relations students to explore their perceptions of public relations and the role race may play in their career success. The motivations for pursuing public relations and perceptions of the field are not different than those of other groups of students found in previous studies. However, the findings provide insights that are helpful in recruiting African-American students, and also in retaining them in the major. Central themes that emerged from the data are that it is important to have African-American role models, and that students’ view race as a fact of life that can be both a barrier and an asset.

What Y’all Laughin’ At? Humor Theory in Tyler Perry’s Sitcoms • Teddy Champion, University of Alabama • This paper examines a sample of content from Tyler Perry’s two television shows, House of Payne and Meet the Browns, in order to scrutinize specific joke types from a creative voice that has dominated film and television for the past five years. Analysis incorporates both cultural and psychological aspects of the characters and of the audience using two major theories of humor: misattribution and superiority. References to other sitcoms give a context for Perry’s comedy, noting comparisons to other black and non-black artists or characters, with the goal of defining how Perry’s agenda may affect audiences.

Expanding the Parameters of Research on the News Media & the Other: The Faisal Shahzad Case Study and ‘Homegrown’ Terrorism • Angie Chuang, American University School of Communication; Robin Chin Roemer, American University Library • Research on news media representations of the Other has generally addressed racial minorities, immigrants, and Muslims as often-disparate areas of study with some similarities but few overlaps. In particular, since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the question of Muslim Americans as an identity group has at times been viewed through the scholarly lens of race and, more often, through assessments of coverage patterns of terrorism. This case study focuses on the Pakistani American perpetrator of the 2010 attempted Times Square bombing. It contextualizes newspaper coverage of Faisal Shahzad with existing research on Orientalism and Other identity, as well as on media representations of black, immigrant, and Muslim Americans. The findings include that in constructing Shahzad as a new kind of “homegrown terrorist,” newspapers deviated from historical representational patterns of immigrant Americans observed in previous scholarship on the general topic. The papers gave near equal emphasis to Shahzad’s “normal American” characteristics as they did to his alien, foreign, Other ones.

Sources of health information for American Indians in the Midwest United States • Mugur Geana, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Kansas; Allen Greiner, Department of Family Medicine, University of Kansas; Angelia Cully; Myrietta Talawyma, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health KUMC; Christine Makosky Daley, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health KUMC • American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) have significantly higher rates of tuberculosis, alcoholism, diabetes, death by traffic accidents and suicide compared to the general population; American Indians show poor results on other health outcomes and are near the top of the list for unhealthy behaviors, such as obesity and smoking. Providing target audiences with accurate and culturally tailored health information has been shown to influence health attitudes and behaviors. The present study explores sources of health information for American Indians from the Midwest United States, their preferences for information presentation, and their use of health information during the medical encounter. We conclude that campaigns targeting Natives should be narrow focused and be community driven or employing community resources. American Indians use a diversity of media sources to obtain health information, with Internet being an underutilized, but highly regarded source. Partnership with the IHS providers and pharmacists may offer the “expert” advice needed to enforce attitude or behavioral change.

“To Plead Our Own Cause”: How Citizen Journalism Served as a Vehicle for Racial Equality in Austin, Texas, Post 1968 • Dean Graber, University of Texas – Austin • Sociologist Anthony M. Orum (1987) has described the history of Austin, Texas, as a series of struggles between capitalism and democracy, and a set of conflicting visions over the city’s growth. Early in the 20th century, a core group of Austin leaders envisioned a metropolis built on industry, wealth, and private property. However, other Austinites—many concentrated in the East Side, home to large Black and Mexican American neighborhoods—imagined a city in which greater numbers of people share the benefits of growth and take part in defining the city’s future. Orum identifies Austin’s daily newspapers as key promoters of the capitalist vision. In contrast, this paper presents the trajectories of three East Austin publications produced outside traditional settings in 1968–1982, the period when the civil rights movement turned to focus on matters of desegregation. I use a comparative-historical method described by sociologist Mounira M. Charrad as “examining how long-term trajectories combine with short-term developments at critical historical moments to lead to different political outcomes.” The publications are presented as emerging at crucial moments in Austin’s history and combining with long-term legacies of inequality and discrimination. The resulting media demonstrated a varied mix of ideologies, objectives, and practices toward achieving equal citizenship. I argue that the small-scale newspapers form a history of citizen journalism that pre-dated the Internet by several decades, and that journalism discussions that emphasize Internet-based media as catalysts for “citizen media” should

Covering Immigration: Journalists’ Perceptions of Geo-Ethnic Storytelling • Josh Grimm, Texas Tech University • In 2006, millions of immigrants protested in cities around the nation against H.R. 4437, a new bill in Congress that threatened to treat undocumented immigrants as felons. I interviewed editors and reporters at California newspapers about the debate surrounding this bill to determine the presence and/or prevalence of geo-ethnic storytelling, which posits that racial and geographic location of a particular community creates a unique network for telling and understanding stories. These results suggest that editors acknowledge the importance of race and community, but that these factors do not influence news coverage of immigration issues.

Story-Chatterers Stirring Up Hate: Racist Discourse in Reader Comments on U.S. Newspaper Websites • Summer Harlow, University of Texas – Austin • This content analysis of online comments explores how readers discuss race in online newspaper forums, and provides insight for editors struggling to meet the Kerner Commission’s objectives. Results show that reader comments included racial terms, even when the article did not. Further, reader comments that mentioned race tended to reiterate stereotypes. This study suggests newspapers eliminate anonymous comments and “color-blind” policies that ignore race, and make a concerted effort to publish more race-related articles.

Tarred With the Same Brush? African-American Journalists and Memories of Janet Cooke and Jayson Blair • Mary Hill-Wagner, member at large (University of Southern California) • This study examines how African-American reporters view the workplace narratives of Janet Cooke and Jayson Blair. This analysis, based on interviews, employs the theory of narrative inquiry from the field of communications. In the study, African-American reporters believe the scandals created by two black reporters, Blair and Cooke, had an adverse impact on the careers of other African-American journalists.

The Little Smith Act: Application of the Smith Act to the Pro-Independence Movement in Puerto Rico • Myrna Lebron, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • This historical analysis compares use of the Smith Act by the Puerto Rican authorities to its application by the American legal system. Ley 53 trials are also examined, including Pueblo v. Pedro Albizu Campos (1951), the case against the leader of the PRNP. Specifically, the study contributes to the literature of First Amendment rights in the understudied context of Puerto Rico’s struggle for independence during the first half of the twentieth century.

Latino Youth as Information Leaders: Implications for Family Interaction and Civic Engagement in Immigrant Communities            Mike McDevitt, University of Colorado; Mary Butler, University of Colorado • This study contemplates implications of Latino adolescents acting as information leaders in immigrant families. We highlight the heuristic value of thinking about the family as a venue for information exchanges that engender civic inclinations. This framework is refined by insights obtained from a survey and focus groups conducted in northern Colorado. We find that assimilation is both embraced and resisted in family communication, as parents and children work out tensions between Latino and Anglo values.

To Protest a Cause but Dismantle a Company: Newspaper Framing of the Montgomery Bus Boycott • Felicia McGhee-Hilt, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • The Montgomery Bus Boycott is seen as a catalyst in the Civil Rights Movement. The success of this 381-day boycott forced the city to integrate the Montgomery bus system. The purpose of this study is to show how the bus company, The Montgomery City Bus Lines, was framed during the course of the boycott thus becoming the voice “caught in the middle.” The method used was a content analysis of 311 articles from the Montgomery Advertiser to determine how the bus company was framed in the local newspaper, along with an analysis of the bus boycott trial transcript. Findings indicate that the bus company suffered a severe loss of revenue, and as a result the company was forced to discontinue routes, lay off employees, and double the cost of fares. This study is important because it demonstrates how the company suffered a financial quandary by no fault of its own. The company could not change the segregation laws, but nevertheless, was the focus of a widespread boycott. Also, for contemporary scholarship, the results of this study could be applicable in regards to current boycotts of businesses. Lastly, this analysis provides a deeper understanding of the historic boycott and its reach into the business community.

Differences in Editorial Coverage of Jeremiah Wright in the Minority and Mainstream Presses • Mia Moody, Baylor University; Amanda Sturgill, Elon University • This article looks at how the black and mainstream press’s editorials framed the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal during the 2008 presidential primaries. Findings indicate the two presses differed significantly in most areas, except sources. Regarding media frames, the presses were particularly different on religious issues, with the black press significantly more likely to include a frame of Wright’s comments being appropriate within the church with the idea that his quotes were taken out of context. This fits within Blinder’s (2006) idea of the black press representing a ‘separate public sphere,’ wherein the religious issues might be discussed as a part of the process of educating audiences. It also suggests that while both newspaper types remained true to their missions, black press was more steadfast in its aim to provide the black perspective for its readers.

Online Social Networking and Socialization Among Hispanic College Students • David Park; Homero Gil de Zuniga, University of Texas – Austin; Oleg Mironchikov; Maria Cedeno • This study examines relationships between socialization and online social network (SNS) use among Hispanics. Respondents were placed in “high” and “low” groups based on the number of online friends within their SNS networks. Our results indicate that among Hispanics, the larger the SNS network, the more likely the user is to report having fewer “real” friends, the more likely he or she will be younger, and the more likely he or she will prefer to communicate through mediated methods rather than in person. In this context, our study confirms and adds to previous studies by indicating heightened participation with online social networking appears to hamper face-to-face socialization among Hispanic SNS users.

Pushed to the Periphery: Incivility in Online Newspaper Readers’ Comments • Arthur Santana, University of Oregon • Reader comment forums in online newspapers have been called spaces of public deliberation, but the forums are also widely seen as sites of pervasive incivility. Analyzing reader comments from three border state newspapers, this paper aims to quantify and contextualize anecdotal evidence from reporters around the country that Latinos are regularly debased, stereotyped and cast as subhuman in the forums by anonymous commenters, especially following immigration stories.

“What Are You Talking About?” Differences in Twitter Uses and Gratification Between Black and White Twitter Users • Christopher Saunders, University of Missouri, School; Saleem Alhabash, University of Missouri; Cynthia Frisby, University of Missouri • A survey of Black and White Americans (N = 223) explored the differences in their motivations to use Twitter and patterns of using this site. Results showed that compared to Whites, Black users significantly spend more time on Twitter, reported having more followers, higher intensity of use, and higher likelihood of using Twitter to communicate with their offline friends. When it comes to motivations of using Twitter, both Black and White participants were equally motivated to use Twitter to express themselves. However, White participants rated the motivation to us the site for information sharing higher than Black participants, who in turn reported higher levels of motivation to use the site for social interaction and entertainment motivations. Results are discussed in light of the uses and gratifications theory and other sociological approaches to racial and ethnic differences in media use.

African American Cartoon Characters: An Analysis of The Proud Family • Adrienne Smith, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville • The purpose of this research is to examine the portrayals of the African American cartoon characters in the Disney Channel series The Proud Family (2001) and demonstrate the implications of those portrayals concerning race and representation. A textual analysis was used to address the following research question: How do the African American cartoon characters in The Proud Family television series relate to Stuart Hall’s three tropes of blackness (the slave, the native, the clown/entertainer)?

Charting the future of journalism education at HBCUs: Finding a place for convergence in the curriculum • Kim Smith, North Carolina A&T State University • A survey of 240 journalism educators and their department chairs at 51 Historically Black Colleges and Universities was taken to learn how they were coping with possible changes in their journalism curriculum as a result of the growing popularity of convergence journalism. Ninety seven percent of respondents agreed that all students in a journalism program should be required to take convergence courses. But they disagreed over who should take the lead for making curriculum changes. Other obstacles included (a) lack of faculty training in convergence (multimedia) techniques, and (b) lack of financial resources to buy and maintain the equipment needed to teach convergence. The study also compared obstacles HBCUs face in adding convergence to the curriculum to studies that examined the stumbling blocks predominately white colleges and universities (PWCUs) have faced in adding convergence to their journalism curriculum.

Reporting Health to Minority Populations: A Content Analysis of Localized News Reporting • Ye Wang, University of Missouri; Shelly Rodgers, University of Missouri • The purpose of this study is to examine localized news reporting in minority newspapers and compare localized news reporting in minority newspapers and local general readership newspapers. Localized news reporting is based on the news value of proximity and targeted messages, which can potentially improve health communication through media channels targeting minority populations. To inform health journalists about the practice of localized news reporting in health reporting targeting minority populations, a content analysis was conducted to examine local news, local sources, localized information, and localized statistics in health news sampled from Hispanic, Black, and general readership newspapers in five areas in California. The results showed that local sources were most frequently used while localized statistics was least used in health reporting. Hispanic newspapers were most likely to use localized information in health news reporting, and Black newspapers were least likely to report local health news. The results suggest that Hispanic newspapers better serve the health informational needs of the local Hispanic communities. The discussion suggests that which tactics of localized news reporting will be used in health reporting depends upon a number of factors including newsroom resources.

Mass Media and Perceived and Objective Environmental Risk: Race and Place of Residence • Brendan Watson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Lynsy Smithson-Stanley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Daniel Riffe, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Emily Ogilvie, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Framed in an environmental justice context, this study using statewide telephone survey data (N=406) shows that nonwhite residents of North Carolina perceive greater environmental risk where they live than do whites, but the hypothesized additional effect of rural residence was generally not supported. Perceptions, however, may not reflect objective health risks. Race (being nonwhite), residence (urban), and watching local and national TV news predicted overall environmental risk perceptions, but county-level health measures did not.

Headline Hawai`i: Racial Aloha in Kama`aina News • Cory Weaver, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University • The front page of Hawai`i’s largest-circulated newspaper – The Honolulu Star-Bulletin – was reviewed for a three-month period: March 1, 2008 – June 1, 2008, to examine representations of race in a media market where Caucasian individuals are the minority. Analysis of the data collected determined that there is an extremely large gap between quality of coverage for different ethnic groupings, with Caucasian individuals shown much more positively than people of color.

Quality of minority health communication: An analysis of Hispanic-targeted health websites • Emma Wertz, Kennesaw State University; Sora Kim, University of Florida • The Internet has become one of the most used forms of health communication media. Using the Health on the Net code of conduct, this study examined the quality of health information available on the Internet for one of the United State’s fastest growing minorities, Hispanics. When comparing Hispanic-targeted websites with those that target the majority population, this study found significant differences with respect to quality. Specifically, sites targeting Hispanics had a lower level of quality than those that targeted the majority population.

Americans Misbehaving: Anti and prosocial behaviors on minority vs. mainstream television networks • Sherri Williams, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Cory Weaver, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Lynessa Williams, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University • Researchers conducted a content analysis of prosocial and antisocial behavior on three networks: CBS, the number one mainstream television network; Black Entertainment Television, geared toward African-Americans and LOGO targeted toward gays. Results show antisocial behavior occurred most prevalently on CBS. BET had the most prosocial acts coded. Niche networks that showcase marginalized communities exhibited more prosocial behavior, which goes against traditional stereotypical television portrayals of socially maligned groups.

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