Religion and Media Interest Group

‘I’d vote for him because…’ Religious beliefs and closed mindedness as factors
explaining how individuals use political endorsements when evaluating candidates • John Wirtz, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities • The current study explores the degree to which agreement with orthodox Christian beliefs (Hunsberger, 1989) and cognitive closed mindedness (Webster & Kruglansk, 1994) explain variation in how individuals use endorsements when evaluating political candidates. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three candidate endorsement conditions (Christian/conservative, secular/liberal, local/neutral) and asked to read a portion of a campaign website including position statements and the political endorsements. Participants then described what was important when evaluating the candidate.

Time to “get” religion? An analysis of religious literacy among journalism students • Jeremy Littau and Debra Mason, University of Missouri • Research shows the earlier students are exposed to a topic, the greater the potential for long-term knowledge gain. A survey (N=513) tested religious knowledge for journalism students and non-journalism students. Results indicate journalism students scored poorly on basic religious knowledge and in fact fared no better than non-journalism students. We argue that small changes in curriculum emphasis can help increase religious knowledge and improve job performance for journalists, who face an increasing diversity in both readership and news sources.

Reporting Buddhism in Taiwan • Chiung Hwang Chen, Brigham Young University-Hawaii • Through analyzing media coverage of Buddhist events and utilizing interviews with key actors in media and Buddhism, this paper examines how the mainstreaming of Buddhism in Taiwan has changed, if at all, people’s perception and understanding about Buddhism. Specifically, the paper assesses both the position of Buddhism in contemporary Taiwanese society and the media/Buddhism relationship.

The Double-Edged Sword: LDS Church Leaders’ Messages on Media, 1900-1948 • James Phillips and Brad Rawlins, Brigham Young University • This study is the first attempt to examine every remark LDS (Mormon) Church leaders have made in the church’s bi-annual conference regarding mass media. Utilizing grounded theory, sermons covering the pre-television era were inspected, with several themes emerging. Overall church leaders viewed media as a powerful tool that could be used for good or ill, cautioning church members to practice selective exposure.

The Press, Pulpit and Public Opinion: The Clergy’s Conferral of Power and the Concomitant Call for a Journalism of Advocacy in an Age of Reform • Ronald Rodgers, University of Florida • This study of the discourse that appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in books, the newspaper trade journals, and periodicals – both secular and religious – reveals the pulpit’s publicly stated conferral of its role of agent of education and moral uplift to the press as the moral agent for change in an age of reform and demographic upheaval.

“Who Does God Want Me to Invite to See This Movie?”: Thoughts on Marketing The Passion of the Christ to Evangelicals • Jim Trammell, St. John Fisher College • The analysis explores dominant themes of The Passion of the Christ’s marketing campaigns to evangelical Christians, and explores what these themes reveal about the relationship between religion, media and consumption. The marketing suggested that Passion’s purported accuracy, authenticity, rating and images culminate into an experience that would appeal not only to the faithful, but to the unchurched as well. It also challenges the notion that religious cultures are weakened through cultural consumption.

A Question of Ethics: Comparing Framing of Stem Cell Research in Evangelical and Mainstream News Media • Nicole Smith Dahmen and Lisa Lundy, Louisiana State University • Scientific knowledge is gained through a complex environment and is heavily influenced by one’s beliefs, values, and the views of other people. As such, the religious connection in stem cell research provides a fruitful area of inquiry. This study extends previous research to compare mainstream news coverage with evangelical news sources.

Cinematic Spiritualities: Finding Religion in Bollywood • Ally Ostrowski, University of Colorado • Bollywood cinema is a proverbial machine, cranking out upwards of 800 new films each year. Recently, however, Indian directors have begun looking toward Hollywood for an abundance of storylines to reform for Bollywood consumers. In most cases the original Hollywood plotline is indiscernible amidst the Bollywood panacea of singing and dancing and Indian religious references are often inserted to validate and legitimate characterizations, situations and bring an Indian cultural atmosphere that Bollywood audiences require.

Effectiveness of Islamic School Teachers in the Intervention of U.S. News Media Framing of Islam on Muslim Students • Thomas E. Ruggiero, University of Texas at El Paso • Informed by Said’s Orientalist theory, this study examines the perceptions of young Muslims and their teachers at U.S. Islamic schools, and how they react to U.S. news media framing about Muslims. Results suggest Muslim teachers and students agreed that news media coverage of Muslims focused primarily on terrorism and war, providing a simplistic and generalized description of Muslims, and of a severe lack of positive images for young Muslims to emulate.

Free from Religion, Bound to Language: The Dilemma of Atheist Discourse, a Case Study • Melissa Tully, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This paper is a case study of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a nontheist, educational group concerned with freethinking and the separation of church and state. Using the FFRF as the primary example, this paper examines discourse related to atheism and non-belief, particularly focusing on the FFRF discourse and news coverage of the Foundation.

Religion, Media Credibility and Support for Democracy in the Arab World • Guy J. Golan, Seton Hall University and Spiro Kiousis, University of Florida • Ever since the events of September 11th, 2001 and the subsequent war in Iraq, the U.S. State Department has invested much effort into winning the hearts and minds of individuals all around the Muslim world. Using secondary data from a large-scale public opinion survey of Arab youth in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the current study presents a model that identifies the complex and multidimensional relationship between religion based variables, media credibility and individual assessments of democracy.

Scandal is a Sin: How Church and Victims Framed the Boston Catholic Priest Abuse Scandal • Stacie Jankowski, Indiana University • This study examined the framing of causes and solutions by the Catholic Church and abuse victims during the Catholic priest abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese from 2001-2003. A random sample of news articles from The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald was analyzed according to source, frame, valence, and thematic or episodic mentions. The analyzed stories were then compared both within the newspaper and between the newspapers.

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Internships and Careers Interest Group

I’m a People Person!: A look at public relations majors’ perceptions of the major and their first jobs • Brigitta R. Brunner and Margaret Fitch-Hauser, Auburn University • No abstract available.

Correlating Use of Digital Media for News with career planning and expectations • Tony DeMars, Texas A&M University, Commerce and Leo Chan, University of Houston-Clear Lake • No abstract available.

Privileged to be on camera: Sports broadcasters assess factors important to success in the profession • Marie Hardin, Penn State University and Jason Genovese, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania • No abstract available.

A comparison of student interns and supervisors regarding internship performance ratings • Lulu Rodriguez, Kimberly McDonough, and Marcia Prior-Miller, Iowa State University • Student media internships require three-way communication among educational institutions, student interns, and workplace supervisors. This study assesses the extent to which interns and supervisors agree in ratings of intern performance. Self-administered questionnaires measured four skill sets that incorporated ACEJMC competencies and related items. Respondents differed in their respective mid- and final evaluations, becoming more congruent as internships progressed. Statistically significant differences were observed as students’ tendency to self-rate performances more highly than did their supervisors.

Learning to learn from the industry: Employer internship satisfaction survey • Dana Saewitz and Michael Maynard, Temple University • A survey to over 100 internship employers, with a best partner response rate of around 90% yielded critical information for improving the university internship program. Three curricular adjustments flowing directly from the feedback are (1) a new course in marketing, (2) a special course in preparing students to interview successfully for jobs, and (3) increased rigor in writing courses throughout the curriculum. The survey has proven to be an excellent learning tool.

Internships and Standard Nine: Shall We Dance? • Lillian Williams, Columbia College • As assessment assumes greater significance for accredited journalism and mass communication programs, an examination of ways that internships are utilized to meet the new assessment requirement is timely. This paper presents a case study of a program that utilizes internships to measure values and competencies cited in accrediting standards. Interviews offer perspectives of key participants, including administrators, faculty, staff, students, and work-site supervisors.

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Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Interest Group

Effects of Gay and Lesbian Exemplars in News Stories on Reader Perceptions • Rhonda Gibson and Dean C. Smith, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Joe Bob Hester, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • A news report about the housing market was manipulated to create versions differing in proportion of sources that were gay or lesbian (none, one-third, two-thirds) and number of photos of gay male and lesbian couples (none, two). Readers estimated the percentage of gays/lesbians in the homebuying/selling population and the general U.S. population. In addition, measures of readers’ attitudes toward homosexuality were tested pre- and post-exposure.

Exploring the link between sports ideology, sports consumption and homophobia • Marie Hardin, Penn State University; T.C. Corrigan, Penn State University; Jennifer Greer, University of Alabama; Kelly Shultz-Poniatowski, Penn State University • Prior research suggests that sports serve as a platform to reinforce heterosexism (Harry, 1995). In this study, college students were surveyed to determine the association of sports ideology with sexist and anti-homosexual attitudes. The influence of mediated sports consumption and participation were also investigated. Results suggest that gender plays a significant role in sexist and anti-homosexual attitudes, mediated sports viewing does not. Furthermore, sports serve as a platform to accommodate rather than create homophobia.

Defining a Gay Logo with Coming Out Stories: Containing Queer Identities with Reality Television • Philip Johnson, Syracuse University • This qualitative study examines the first season of Logo’s Coming Out Stories with textural analysis methods to explore representations of coming out that are depicted within the boundaries of a reality television program. Situated within a queer studies interpretive worldview approach, the author shows how the process and structure of coming out on Coming Out Stories exemplifies and situates representations of LGBT identities in a heternormative mainstream society.

Selling a Cultural Phenomenon: Political Economy and “The L-Word” • Rebecca Kern, Temple University • The L-Word is not a traditional primetime show in ways that go far beyond the structure of the text and the thematic tropes within the narrative. The L-Word on Showtime, a pay cable network, has no outside advertising. This paper focuses on the ways media integrates into the United States economic system, particularly focusing on The L-Word as a program that does not follow traditional media economic models, and the cultural commodities surrounding The L-Word.

An Imposition of Silence: The Closet within the American Society of Newspaper Editors • Gwyneth Mellinger, Baker University • Despite its leadership in the newsroom diversity movement, the American Society of Newspaper Editors failed to incorporate gay identity into its vision of an inclusive newsroom. This paper traces the construction of the closet within ASNE and examines the ways in which gay identity has been marginalized within both the ASNE and the newsroom diversity movement.

Visibility That Demystifies: Gays, Gender, and Sex on Television • Sara Netzley, Bradley University • A content analysis of 98 primetime entertainment programs from the 2005-2006 television season showed that gay characters were more likely to be guest stars on commercial broadcast television than on cable television, and that female characters were more likely to be shown in same-sex sexual situations than male characters. In addition, gay characters made up 7.5% of all the characters coded. This study discusses the implications of these findings for gay and straight audiences.

Coverage of Methamphetamine in GLBT Newspapers • Joseph Schwartz, University of Iowa; Aaron Willis • Research demonstrates that methamphetamine is a serious problem in gay communities. This study examined the framing of methamphetamine in nine gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) newspapers. Results showed that methamphetamine was framed as a “gay problem,” that sexual health and solutions frames were prevalent, and that GLBT newspapers covered methamphetamine in a way that is similar to how they covered AIDS in the 1980s. Implications for health campaigns are discussed.

The Queer Frontier: Dual Perspectives on Primetime Portrayals of Contemporary Gay Representations • John Wolf, Val Scheisberger • Gay representations account for less than 2% of characters on network primetime television. In an era of relative queer conspicuousness, this study examines how television-viewing audiences perceive these gay and lesbian representations. The study combines past literature on representations of minority groups with contemporary principles of queer theory to establish a theoretical foundation. From this groundwork, it is apparent that few audience reactions and perceptions about gay and lesbian representations have been discussed.

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Graduate Education Interest Group

When War is the Only Option: A qualitative analysis of cancer narrative development and effects • Kathleen Pontius, University of Oregon • Communication campaigns have led to the creation of an expected experience for those affected by cancer. This project combines rhetorical analysis of communications material published by the Lance Armstrong Foundation with data from young adult cancer survivor interviews to identify a dominant cancer narrative and examine how cancer patients challenge this narrative. Using the theoretical lens of constitutive rhetoric, this paper illustrates the effects a limited cancer narrative has on cancer patients and survivors.

Television representing television: How NBC’s 30 Rock parodies and satirizes the culture industry • Lauren Bratslavsky, University of Oregon • Television sitcoms offer a wealth of representations of culture. Of interest is the representation of the workplace, specifically, working in the television industry. An important component to television comedy as well as representation are two humor devices—satire and parody. Using the culture industry, the circuit of culture framework, and humor techniques, this paper analyzes the NBC sitcom, 30 Rock, for its representation of the television industry, the production of culture, and the culture of production.

Becoming “Quirky”: Towards an Understanding of Practitioner and Blogger Relations in Public Relations • Brian Smith, University of Maryland • The growing influence of consumer-generated media (CGM), including blogs, online forums, podcasts, and other social media tools, has changed the environment in which public relations practitioners conduct campaigns for their clients and connect with their stakeholders. Rather than working solely with journalists to reach publics—practitioners may now become part of “the quirky blogging community” to influence the online conversations about their clients.

News, Neighborhoods, and the Need for Understanding: The Cultural Competence of Journalists • Dianne Garyantes, Temple University • The need for understanding diverse cultures is an urgent priority, given increasing globalization and ongoing military conflicts. Yet, journalists have long been criticized for their inability to represent people who are culturally different from themselves. This paper explores the cultural competence of 83 undergraduate journalism students reporting on diverse urban neighborhoods. Findings indicate important implications for journalism education, including that overcoming language barriers and informally talking with local people are key factors in cultural competence.

Public Relations Education in the United States: An International/Chinese Perspective • Ai Zhang, University of Maryland • Identified as the leader in public relations in the world, the US public relations education has profound implications on what and how public relations is understood and practiced in the rest of the world. The present study adopts an international (i.e., Asian/Chinese) perspective to examine a few critical issues and challenges exemplified in the Western public relations education and discuss their implications on international public relations education with a focus on China.

Blogging for Sovereignty: An Exploratory Analysis of Palestinian Blogs • Justin D. Martin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Sherine El-Toukhy, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill • This study is a quantitative content analysis of Palestinian blogs (N=127) in both Arabic and English. Blogs in the sample—authored by Palestinian descendents as well as Palestinian advocates of other nationalities—were examined in terms of political content and treatment of Israel, and for differences in content due to language, nationality of the author (Palestinian, American, Egyptian, British etc.), and authors’ location (whether they resided in Israeli-controlled territory or other countries).

Investigating the Effectiveness of Satellite TV Broadcasting as a Tool for International Political Communication: An Empirical Study • Foad Izadi, Louisiana State University • The present study attempts to address the state of pro-American attitudes and pro-American policy positions in Iran. Using hierarchical OLS regression, the study addresses the influence of satellite TV use – as an indicator of access to U.S. sponsored international broadcasting – on the degree of pro-American opinion, above and beyond individual level demographic factors. In this study, I develop two scales of pro-American attitudes and pro-American policy positions based on individuals‘ responses to a 2006 poll.

Getting News Online: Does Media Habit Matter? • Q. Lisa Bu, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study investigates the relationship between people’s habits of using traditional news media and their uses of the Internet as their main source of news. A regression analysis is conducted on a secondary dataset, the Biennial Media Consumption Survey 2006 by Pew Research Center. The major findings are (1) Habit of watching television news has a significant positive relationship with having the habit of getting news online.

The Pipeline to Publication: Analysis of Student Research Productivity in Mass Communication Journals • Hai Tran, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This research updates knowledge of student scholarly productivity in top-tier mass communication journals. The impetus for the current analysis is a lack of follow-up in this body of literature while there is anecdotal evidence that young academics are increasingly adopting the “publish or perish” mentality in graduate school. In examining a complete census of thirteen mass communication journals between 1999 and 2006, this study provides empirical evidence regarding the pipeline to publication for student research.

The Influence of Sex on Cultivation Effects • Veronica Garcia-Michael, BGSU • This study examines the cultivation effects based on the sex of the subject and the amount of television watched. Specifically, this study examines the effect of television viewing on female and male college students in order to understand what affect television viewing may have on the consumer. A modified version of the Cultivation Index Scale was administered to 157 college students. A series of ANOVA’s were performed on these data.

Supervision and Web News-Editing Accuracy • David Stanton, University of Florida • The current study examines supervision of a Web-driven news production and editing course at a large, southeastern university. The course, which has been taught for over a decade, utilizes a dynamic site driven by a relational database (MySQL via PHP) and AJAX. Content management systems (CMS) allow journalists to remotely input content, edit and deliver the final product to print and Web-based publications.

The Litigious “Wall”: Reviewing China’s Regulations of the Internet from a Positive Perspective • Xudong Liu; Southern Illinois University Carbondale • This paper discussed numerous approaches applied by the Chinese government to monitor or constrain the Internet users. It addressed the main differences between Chinese regulation and the U.S. regulation regarding the Internet. The paper proposed that, due to the complicated IT technology and the Chinese government’s in-efficiency in carrying out those policies, those who use the Internet were not petrified and the regulations failed in many cases.

Virtual Hillary vs. Obama Girl: A Rhetorical Analysis of Gender, Race, and Age in the 2008 Presidential Primary Campaign • Erin Armstrong; E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University • This qualitative case study analyzes general rhetorical components of the official websites for Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during the 2008 primary campaign. Gender, race, and age are considered through impression management. This study suggests a shift in public relations strategy as website users are building and undermining support for each candidate through website material, like blogs, as well as linked website material, such as posting videos to YouTube and fundraising on Facebook.

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Community Journalism Interest Group

Evaluating Reader Feedback Importance to Newspapers: A Look at Community Structure and Economic Influences • Carly McKenzie, Hal Hays, Jee Young Chung, Chang Wan Woo, and Wilson Lowrey, University of Alabama • This paper compared the relative influence of reader feedback and economic influences with regard to determining news content. A survey of newspaper editors assessed the frequency of monitoring, and the emphasis placed upon, reader responses and key economic indicators. A structural pluralism approach informed the study. Community pluralism was found to function through organizational size to exert influence on newspapers’ attention to audience/clients.

Finding It, Storing It, Discussing It: A Content Analysis of Weekly Newspaper Web Sites • Kelly Mitchell, Erik Collins, and Anna Saunders, University of South Carolina, School of Journalism and Mass Communications • The research reported in this study examined a sample of U.S. local community weekly newspaper Web sites. Specifically, the researchers sought to determine the presence or absence of three key elements – hyperlinks, archives of information and classified advertising, and interactivity – suggested by scholars and practitioners as necessary elements of an ideal newspaper Web site. The findings suggest that many weekly newspapers are not embracing the Internet at all, much less using it to their fullest advantage.

Collaborator or Competitor? Community News Editors’ Perceived Roles of Professional and Citizen Journalists • Seungahn Nah and Deborah Chung, University of Kentucky • Using a statewide, Web-based survey targeting community newspaper editors, this study examines community newspaper editors’ professional role conceptions along with their views of emerging citizen journalists’ roles. Results indicate that while the perceived roles of professional journalists are positively correlated with their perceived roles of citizen journalists, community news editors rate the importance of professional journalists’ roles higher than citizen journalists’ roles.

Using a Newspaper to Stabilize a Community • Lindsey Wotanis, University of Maryland • This paper is a historical inquiry of a regular column written by Gertrude Poe, former editor of The News Leader, the weekly newspaper serving Laurel, Maryland. Poe’s column sought to stabilize the community at a critical time of change—the years following World War II—and its regular appearance in the paper produced a symbolic cultural product that helped not only to define the community, but also to ground it in a time of change.

Beyond Standard Professionalism: Journalism and Language Roles Among European Minority Language Journalists • Iñaki Zabaleta, Journalism, University Basque Country; Nicolás Xamardo, University of the Basque Country; Arantza Gutierrez, University of the Basque Country; Santi Urrutia, University of the Basque Country; Itxaso Fernández, University of the Basque Country; Carme Ferré, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona • This paper examines to what extent European minority language media journalists believe their journalistic role before the community is strictly professional, professional plus language supporter or professional plus language activist/militant. Results from a representative and weighted survey of 230 journalists from ten European language communities indicate they favor a concept of professional journalism in which the role as language development actors is also incorporated. This may suggest the need for a contextual approach to professional journalism.

<< 2008 Abstracts