Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly is the flagship journal of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The journal provides leadership in developing theory, disseminating empirical research, and introducing new concepts to its readership. Because communication is a diverse field, articles address a broad range of questions using a variety of methods and theoretical perspectives. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly challenges the boundaries of communication research, guiding its readers to new questions, new evidence, and new conclusions. While we welcome submissions focusing on particular areas or specialties, articles should be written in a style that is accessible to all communication scholars.

1. Submissions. Submit an electronic copy of your manuscript, whether on a computer disk or CD-ROM, or as an e-mail attachment. The text format should be double-spaced, with endnotes, tables, and figures at the end of the manuscript. Word or WordPerfect documents are preferred. Author identification should not appear anywhere on the main text pages or in the main text file (if possible, remove identifying information from the “Properties” information under “File”). Manuscripts should be no longer than 5,000 words “of main text,” but manuscripts  that do not employ tables, figures, or appendices of up to 6,000 words of main text will be reviewed and their length evaluated as part of the review process. Only original manuscripts not under review elsewhere should be submitted. We try to make decisions within three months.
2. Abstract and author information. An abstract of no more than 100 words should be included as a separate electronic file, and the abstract should indicate all author identification and contact information, institutional affiliation, and any funding sources. Authors should provide four or fewer key words or terms on the abstract that identify the content of the submission. Author identification should not appear anywhere except on the abstract page.
3. Style. For final acceptance, use Chicago Manual of Style (15th. ed.) guidelines. For law manuscripts, Chicago refers you elsewhere for certain citations. Do not use in-text references, i.e., (Weston, 1972). Do not use op. cit., ibid., or loc. cit. In ordinary text, whole numbers from one through ninety-nine are spelled out. However, when normally spelled numbers cluster in a sentence or paragraph, use figures. Use % instead of percent. Underline or italicize names of cities when using newspaper names, i.e., New York Times. In endnotes and in book review headings, use postal code abbreviations for states; in regular copy, use traditional abbreviations.
4. Heading Styles. First-level headings are typed in bold italic and justified left. Second-level headings are indented and typed in bold italic. Third-level headings are indented and typed in italic. Note example:
Method
Sample. A random sample …
Sampling Techniques. These techniques are useful when …
5. Tables. When creating tables, use the WordPerfect table feature, MacIntosh Word using the “Insert Table“ command, or PageMaker with tabs. Do not duplicate material in text and tables. Tables and figures should be used only when they substantially aid the reader, not merely because computers make tables easy to create.
Basic Endnote Style:
1. Todd Gitlin, Inside Prime Time (NY: Pantheon, 1985), 82. [Note that page numbers do not carry the pp. or p. prefix.]
2. Joseph R. Dominick, “Children’s Viewing of Crime Shows and Attitudes on Law Enforcement,” Journalism Quarterly 51 (spring 1974): 5-12.
3. Leon V. Sigal, “Sources Make the News,” in Reading the News, ed. Robert Karl Manoff and Michael Schudson (NY: Pantheon Books, 1986), 9-37.
4. Ruthann Weaver Lariscy, Spencer F. Tinkham, Heidi Hatfield Edwards, and Karyn Ogata Jones, “The ‘Ground War’ of Political Campaigns: Nonpaid Activities in U.S. State Legislative Races,” Journalism & Mass Communi-cation Quarterly 81 (autumn 2004): 477-97.
5. Robert K. Manoff and Michael Schudson, eds., Reading the News (NY: Pantheon Books, 1986), 8.
6. “Nicaragua’s Bitter Harvest,” New York Times, December 23, 1983, sec. A, p. 2, col. 4.
7. E. W. Caspari and R. E. Marshak, “The Rise and Fall of Lysenko,” Science, July 16, 1965, 275-78.
8. George A. Donohue, Clarice N. Olien, and Phillip J. Tichenor, “Knowledge Gaps and Smoking Behavior” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Lancaster, PA, 1990). [When association is AEJMC, use initials only.]
Shortened, or Second References:
1. Gitlin, Inside Prime Time, 2.
2. Dominick, “Children’s Viewing,” 8.
3. Sigal, “Sources Make the News,” 22.
4. Lariscy et al., “The ‘Ground War’ of Political Campaigns,” 481.
5. Donohue, Olien, and Tichenor, “Knowledge Gaps and Smoking Behavior.”

Send JMCQ submissions to: Dan Riffe, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 117 Carroll Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.

<< JMC Quarterly

How Facebook Influences Students’ Motivation to Learn, Affective Learning, Classroom Climate and Engagement • YoungAh Lee, Missouri School of Journalism; Saleem Alhabash, University of Missouri, School of Journalism; Cynthia Frisby, University of Missouri • Using theories on CMC integration in education, a cross-sectional survey (N=129) examined the relationship between using Facebook for student-teacher communication and dimensions related to student learning. Results indicated that using Facebook to communicate with the instructor significantly predicted higher student motivation, affective learning, classroom climate and engagement. Results also showed that high use of both Facebook and email for student-teacher communication positively affected the four learning dimensions. Results are discussed within the framework of educational use of communication technologies, along with practical implications for journalism and mass communication educators.

Teaching Journalism as a Liberal Art: Social Justice, Empathy, and Community Decision-Making • Mary Beth Callie, Regis University • This essay relates what I have discovered in teaching community-based learning journalism courses (Introduction to Media Writing and In Depth Reporting and Writing) that are co-listed between Communication (home department) and the Peace and Justice Studies program (major and minor). Both of these courses introduce students to a values-centered approach, grounded in civic and peace journalism, that focuses on how their reporting and writing can serve the college and surrounding community, and inspire their own growth and development. The essay details the structure and assignments that I have developed in those courses to meet students where they are and then guide them through a process of discovery in their reporting, writing, and reflection. I have found that students’ motivation to engage their stories greatly depends on their attitudes, habits, and beliefs about community, service, and the purpose of college. Understanding the decision and policy-making context, values, and multiple perspectives can help with that engagement. As teachers, the challenge is to find ways to understand where students are, to meet them there, and to move them toward deeper engagement.

A Pedagogical Response to the Coverage of Islam: A Wiki-Based Best Practices Document for Reporting on Muslims and Islam • Jennifer Hoewe, Michigan State University; Brian Bowe, Michigan State University; Geri Alumit Zeldes, Michigan State University • A Michigan State University course titled Reporting on Islam utilized a Wiki-based tool that allowed students to engage in a virtual discussion of how to best report on Muslims and Islam. The contents of this discussion were compiled and edited into a best practices document. This article presents an argument for closer examination of the coverage of Muslims and Islam and then discusses the educational importance of the document resulting from of the Wiki interactions.

Reading to Learn: Engaging University Students in Meaningful Reading and Classroom Discussion • Jan Larson, UW-Eau Claire; Amy Young, UW-Eau Claire; Mary Beth Leibham, UW-Eau Claire • Reading to Learn is an ongoing interdisciplinary research effort designed to understand university students’ reading practices and classroom discussions within the context of reading communities. The goal is to contribute to best practices for engaging students in reading course texts and in meaningful classroom discussion that promotes critical thinking and enhances learning. Preliminary data indicate that students perceive reading communities as being helpful in clarifying their thinking, increasing learning, and improving class discussion.

Analyzing Student Writing Proficiency and Assessment Measures in Programs of Journalism and Mass Communication • Andrew Lingwall, Clarion University • This study explores respondents’ perceptions of the writing proficiency of students entering programs of journalism and mass communication, and measures used to assess and improve student writing. Key findings are that regardless of institutional attributes, faculty members are dealing with many new students who are only moderately proficient in writing. This study also established that among respondents, there is no clear pattern in measures used or in the degree of success achieved with those measures.

The Gumshoe Project: A model for collaboration between a small college program and large newspaper • Donna Shaw, The College of New Jersey; Sarah Monisha Pulimood, The College of New Jersey; Emilie Lounsberry, The College of New Jersey • Journalism and computer science students and professors at our small, primarily undergraduate college collaborated to analyze data involving suspects arrested for gun-related crimes. The project helped lay the groundwork for a four-part series in which The Philadelphia Inquirer concluded, as did our analysis, that more than half of all gun-crime prosecutions in Philadelphia were dropped or discharged before trial. The newspaper’s series has led to an ongoing investigation by local, state and federal officials.

I shot a prescriptivist in my pajamas last night: A grammatical disarmament proposal for editors and educators • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • In an economic atmosphere in which do more with less means fewer and fewer people do more with less, would a new look at how journalism schools teach grammar help editors – and instructors – do their jobs more effectively? This paper seeks to find out whether the profession and the academy can agree on what sorts of language basics new editors need to know – and, by extension, which old ones we can discard.

How 2 rite Gr8 leeds: A study of the impact of text messaging on basic news writing skills • Myleea Hill, Arkansas State University; Jack Zibluk, Arkansas State University • Despite of, or perhaps because of, the increased opportunities and outlets for communication, educators and journalists often bemoan the quality of student work. Student deficits in spelling and grammar were found to be especially problematic in a 2004 study of journalism faculty published in Journalism and Mass Communication Educator. According to a 2001 study published in Journalism, new technologies should be used to shape up rather than dumb down journalism education. The reliance on century’s-old techniques, metaphors and explanations – such as the effects of cutting of telegraph wires during the Civil War – may be interesting, but the relevance of such examples are fading in the wireless era. Few aphorisms, old or new, help students acquire the desired writing skills in a news writing class. The following study cuts the wires and explores student responses to using a newer and widely available medium and form of expression – the cell-phone text message and applies it to a standard exercise: writing a news lead. This study examines the effects of using text messaging to teach news writing fundamentals to college students. Early in the spring 2010 semester, researchers at an ACEJMC-accredited university in the Mid-South compared news leads written by students in a traditional method with those written as text messages. Findings suggest that text messaging does not impede students’ ability to write leads. The approach might in fact enhance it – especially in terms of news judgment.

<< 2010 Abstracts

Strike a Pose: Comparing Associated Press and UNICEF Visual Representations • Sadaf Ali, Wayne State University; Debbie James, Wayne State University; Fred Vultee, Wayne State University • When images of children in conflict situations are selected and published for a Western audience, what roles do the images fulfill for the audience? A content analysis of photographs provided by the Associated Press and the United Nations Children’s Fund suggests that news agencies and aid agencies frame children of conflicts differently, as passive agents or success stories, in accordance with ideological and organizational guidelines.

You just have to be there: Video Journalism as a Social and Material Construction • Mary Bock, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania • News organizations are increasingly turning to video journalism as a strategy for survival in the era of convergence.  Video journalism, or the process by which one person shoots, writes and edits video stories for exhibition on television or the internet, represents both a socially and materially constructed form of news. While photojournalism has long represented both material and social practice, the adoption of video journalism, particularly by formerly text-based journalists, presents a new dimension to daily work practices. This qualitative project examines the daily work practices of video journalists in a variety of organizational settings.  Data was collected in the U.S. and the U.K.  in 2007 and 2008 and includes a variety of site visits, participant observation opportunities, and more than 75 long-form interviews with video journalists, photojournalists, newsroom managers, and public relations representatives who work with video journalists as part of their organizational responsibilities. The project found that the material dimension of video journalism constricts the newsgathering process in ways that can alter not only the way stories are told but which stories are chosen to be told. The material requirements of video journalism have the potential to shift control of some aspects of news narrative away from journalists toward their supporting sources.

Remembering 9/11 through Photos in Anniversary Editions of Impact Site Newspapers • Bob Britten, West Virginia University • This research examines the memorialization of the September 11 attacks in newspaper photography. The cultural concepts of place and collective memory are employed in this analysis. Content analysis is conducted on photographs in the major newspapers serving each of the impact sites and in a neutral, non-site newspaper. The results suggest a journalism of we at play, with media tending to focus only on the memorialization activities of their own areas even in this example of a national catastrophe. The implication is that place limits, both individual and institutional, may keep journalists and audiences from understanding the parallel memorial work of others.

College Student Preferences for Trendy Versus Classic Typefaces: A Q-Study • Tara Buehner, University of Oklahoma • This study discerns groups of college students based on their opinions about the trendy typography in textbooks. Q methodology was used to collect and analyze the data about typeface preference. This methodology is especially suited to preliminary research used to obtain a deeper understanding about under-explored concepts like subjective typographic preference. The researcher was able to identify four distinct groups of students based upon individual subjective typeface visual preferences.

Do You See What I See?:  A Comparative Content Analysis of Iraq War Photographs Published in The New York Times and the Tehran Times • Garen Cansler, University of South Carolina; Erik Collins, University of South Carolina; Cecile Holmes, University of South Carolina • In expansion of research analyzing framing of photographic content in national and international newspapers, the present study uses comparative content analysis to examine the similarities and differences in the framing of the 2003 Iraq War.  The portrayal of Coalition forces, Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi civilians were examined in 2003 editions of The New York Times and the Tehran Times.  Overall, the depiction of these groups was strikingly similar, with a few notable differences. Recommendations for future research in this fertile area of visual communication studies includes the expanded analysis of newspaper photographs published in countries with varying cultural and geographic distances to the Iraq War.

Four years later: A longitudinal study of emerging visual icons of Hurricane Katrina • Andrea Miller, Louisiana State University; Nicole S Dahmen, Louisiana State University • Iconicity continues to be a topic of importance to visual communication scholars. This research uses longitudinal data from the same cohort—a cohort who experienced the storm firsthand—to study the iconicity of Hurricane Katrina images. Researchers found a striking similarity between recalled images from Time 1 to Time 2. These images represent the vastness of the disaster and have endured in our collective memory. The research also shows that emerging technologies have complicated the formation of a visual collective consciousness and thus the scholarly study of iconic images.

Interactive Graphics Development (IDG):  A framework for studying innovative visual story forms • Jennifer George-Palilonis, Ball State University; Mary Spillman, Ball State University • There is considerable scholarship defining unique features of digital storytelling and on interactive content for online newspapers. However, little scholarship exists that provides theoretical and practical analysis of the creation of interactive graphics. This paper establishes the Interactive Graphics Development framework, a theoretical model for researchers studying the effectiveness of interactive graphics and their potential in storytelling. The IGD also standardizes definitions for interactive graphics and provides a touch point for journalists refining nonlinear storytelling.

How a multimedia course design affects differing learning styles  in the visual communication classroom • Jennifer George-Palilonis, Ball State University; Vincent Filak, UW-Oshkosh • A study of 117 students enrolled in a visual communication course that employs a multimedia course design revealed students gravitated toward tools that accentuated their learning needs. Students reported strong levels of agreement with statements regarding their overall sense of learning, enjoyment of the course and overall effort. Additionally, no significant differences existed among the four learning styles identified here, indicating the course satisfied all four groups equally. Implications for pedagogy and theory are discussed.

Why We Travel: Enduring and Emergent Representations in a New York Times Travel Text • Katherine Good, Northwestern University • Travel journalism draws upon socially-constructed ideas of the foreign, making it a unique window for observing the formation and circulation of global discourses. This paper analyzes an unorthodox The New York Times online travel feature called Why We Travel, a collection of over 2,000 reader-submitted photos and captions describing personal travel experiences. To make sense of this polysemic, multi-authored text, I refer to the theories of tourism scholars MacCannell (1976) and Urry (2002) to locate within the images a series of enduring and emergent travel representations. The former include an unequal distribution of certain subject matter across regions, emphasis on authentic touristic experiences, and methods for minimizing signs of Western culture through visual representation. Within the same collection, however, emergent representations feature new tourisms and itineraries, highly reflexive or ironic portraits of tourists, and conscious confrontation of interconnectivity. In conclusion, I consider the cultural functions that Why We Travel performs as it coheres under the Timesʼ authoritative presentational aesthetic. More than a travel feature, it may be considered a prominent part of the Timesʼ multifaceted coverage on the globalization of American middlebrow culture.

The visual rhetoric of consumer journalism • Grant Hannis, Massey University • Supra-textual design theory is used to identify the visual rhetoric of leading magazine Consumer Reports. Various visual devices help convince the reader that Consumer Reports indeed is a magazine and can be read and enjoyed as such. But its visual emphasis on products and product testing, frequent use of technical tables, and recurrent image of the wise, fatherly figure seek to convince the reader Consumer Reports is more trustworthy and reliable than its competitors.

Consuming the West: A Semiotic Analysis of Western Models and Symbols in Chinese Magazine Advertising • Ying Huang, Southern Illinois University Carbondale            • Using semiotic analysis, this study examines the representations of Western models, landmarks, architecture, and other Western symbols in ten Chinese magazine advertisements. It shows Western models are integrated into both erotic/sex appeal and status appeal. Though sometimes objectified, the West is still constructed as superior and more advanced ‘other’ in relation to China, which is a reflection of China’s economic relationship with the West and the official discourse for economic development.

A critical look at the Internet’s influence on logo design • Debra Kelley, University of Minnesota • The advent of digital media has prompted a change in the design of logos. Clear, simple lines and solid colors have morphed into an array of squiggles, swirls, 3D and transparent images, drop-shadows, manipulated photos, illustrations and cut up letter forms.  Computer-mediated logo design opened a floodgate of graphic possibilities to designers; however, the availability of increased technical capabilities has not necessarily brought about better designed logos. Before the idea of creating eye candy on the computer screen became possible, technical limitations had a positive influence on the aesthetic look, memorability and functionality of logo designs. A brief look at the history of trends in graphic design and a comparative study of logos, suggests how technical advances influence design trends. Many logos produced today don’t meet classic principles of design, nor fulfill all the requirements of a complete corporate identity system.

The non-fiction hides, while the fiction seeks:  Waltz with Bashir and the truth of animated documentary • Robert Peaslee, Texas Tech University • Waltz with Bashir (WWB), Israel’s first animated feature film, premiered at Cannes in May of 2008 and became Israel’s official entry for consideration for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, for which it was eventually nominated. It was the first animated film in history to be so appointed by the Academy. Awarded prizes at several festivals, WWB was described in critical circles with the unlikely moniker of animated documentary (Ansen, 2008) or documentary cartoon (Corliss, 2008). Traditionally, these constructions are seen as contradictory. The goal of this paper is to show the ways in which the formal choices made by director Ari Folman and his team have perhaps precipitated the creation of a truer document – have sought rather than hidden. Moreover, I suggest that while Folman’s public statements about the film suggest that his goal was to interrogate the nature of memory via his own reflexive journey, the film simultaneously delivers a convincing critique of the photographic image in the context of 21st-century information production and consumption.

Doing more with less: How the jobs of newspaper photojournalists have changed • Arthur Santana, University of Oregon; John Russial, University of Oregon • The era of the interactive newsroom has required that journalists learn a host of new technical skills at newspapers across the country. A national survey shows how photojournalists have taken on much of the new responsibilities at newspapers while continuing to fulfill their old ones as well. Results show that workload is high and job satisfaction is somewhat low and that satisfaction is related to a number of intrinsic aspects of the job.

Online Communities’ Impact on the Profession of Newspaper Design • Steve Urbanski, West Virginia University; Amanda Miller • The importance of the Internet to visual journalism is increasing with every technological progression. Within the past several years, online communities have formed and flourished, creating a cyber design haven for creative professionals to meet and share their visual work. This paper focuses on the possible impact of these emerging online communities on the profession of newspaper design as a whole. Qualitative interviews of newspaper designers who participate in online communities specifically focused on the profession unveil current and important transformations occurring within the newspaper design profession. Additionally, this paper expands on both offline and online community theory, offering qualitative insight into future studies that may focus on the Internet’s effects on various professions.

Graphical Depictions of Quantitative Data: Can Interactivity Affect Recall and Attitudes? • Bartosz Wojdynski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Quantitative information is often an important element of mediated messages, used to convey financial information, risk likelihoods of various hazards, and to express changes over time in social factors ranging from unemployment to cell-phone use.  This between-subjects experiment (n=72) examined the effects of three levels of interactivity (low, medium, and high) on subjects ability to recall quantitative information from a news story containing graphics.  The results suggest that allowing users to interact with information displayed in graphics may have beneficial effects on how they view the information. No support is found here for a relationship between interactivity and recall of numerical information in graphs.  However, there is evidence that interactivity in information presentation leads to more positive attitudes toward the content for users who were not highly involved with the content.

Show Me a Story: The Synergy of Photo Stories and Words • Carolyn Yaschur, University of Texas • An experiment comparing three journalistic stories by format – photos only, words only, and a combination of the two – found text and photos together were preferred with regard to three criteria. The text-photo combination resulted in improved recall, enhanced assessment of credibility and greater enjoyment of stories. Based on the mental model theory and dual coding hypothesis, the study extends the literature to include photo stories, which is relevant given the current emphasis on multimedia storytelling.

Photojournalists’ Job Responsibilities and Satisfaction: The Impact of Range of Affect and Changes in Contract • Carolyn Yaschur, University of Texas • A nationwide survey was conducted among daily newspaper photojournalists and photo editors about their evolving roles and job satisfaction. Staff decreases and workload shifts were found, resulting in alternate sources and variance in quality of photographs. Enjoyment of traditional job facets, such as shooting still photos, creativity, and autonomy, were related to job satisfaction, but newer responsibilities, like producing videos and audio slideshows, which constitute a change of psychological contract, were not.

<< 2010 Abstracts

Let’s Go Crazy: Teaching Cultural Literacy Through Remix • xtine burrough, cal state fullerton; Emily Erickson, cal state fullerton • This paper suggests how educators can guide coordination norms for creating user-generated content (UGC) with a rich knowledge of fair use. An outline of UGC challenges to fair use, and a history of the technology that paved the way for a participatory culture provide background information for this activity. Students study the fair use doctrine as applied to the Lenz v. Universal case, and create a remix of Lenz’s original video for YouTube.

Disruption and Innovation: Online Learning and Degrees at Accredited Journalism Schools and Programs • Laura Castaneda, USC — Annenberg • This study examined online journalism courses and degrees at the 113 ACEJMC-accredited programs in 2008-09. A Web survey, which garnered a 72 percent response rate, and interviews with faculty members and administrators, found that 13 percent of programs now offer or plan to offer online degrees. Viewed through innovation theories, these and other results suggest that online journalism programs and courses are growing, and early innovators could carve out new markets of non-traditional students.

Tinkering with Student Expression: The Schoolhouse Gate Becomes a Revolving Door • Thomas Eveslage, Temple University • Technology is changing the learning landscape and blurring the boundaries of public schools. One worrisome result is that the ease with which students communicate with one another inside and outside of school is tempting school officials to flex their administrative muscles beyond school boundaries with the same authority they believe courts have given them within the schools. This paper examines the four U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the past 40 years that provide the legal framework for regulation of student expression and identifies the parameters established there for off-campus punishment of online expression. A review of recent cases concludes that lower courts are still trying to find a comfortable way to fit Supreme Court precedence into an educational environment populated by techno-savvy students armed with new ways to challenge administrative authority.

Editor Toast: A study of burnout and job satisfaction among college newspaper editors • Vincent Filak, UW-Oshkosh; Scott Reinardy, University of Kansas • Using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, a study of 185 college newspaper editors revealed that participants were experiencing moderate levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, two key factors in clinical burnout. Emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were significant negative predictors of editors’ job satisfaction while personal accomplishment was a significant positive predictor. When compared to the advisers for these editors (n=217), student editors had significantly higher scores on the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scales. However, there were no differences between advisers and editors on job satisfaction.

Scholastic Millennials and the Media: News consumption habits of young journalism students • Geoffrey Graybeal, University of Georgia; Joe Dennis, University of Georgia; Amy Sindik, University of Georgia • This study examines the media patterns of high school journalism students, and what factors motivate them into consuming news media. This study conducted a survey and focus groups at a weeklong 2009 summer scholastic journalism camp at a university in the southeastern United Sates. The study found that parents and classes are primary factors that influence the news and media consumption of teenagers interested in journalism

High School and Collegiate Journalism: The Ties That Bind (Through an AEJMC Division, and Beyond) Bruce Konkle, University of South Carolina- Columbia • Connections between high school and collegiate journalism programs run deep, perhaps because of AEJMC’s approval of a Secondary Education Division in 1965-1966, the inclusion of nearly 80 scholastic journalism-related research articles published in the association’s research publications, education journal articles highlighting the link, and the sponsoring of scholastic media associations and summer journalism workshops by journalism and mass communications schools. How important were the links between high school and college journalism programs to the growth and prospering of high school journalism?

Toothless Tinker: The Continued Erosion of Student Speech Rights • Dan Kozlowski, Saint Louis University • This paper analyzes four primary ways in which federal courts have weakened Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark student speech case. The study particularly focuses on recent lower court interpretations of Tinker. Analysis shows that even when Tinker provides the applicable precedent in a case, students are increasingly losing their First Amendment claims with alarming frequency, leaving student speech advocates to wonder what rights students actually have left.

Authoritarians in the front office? Personality and support for expression rights among high school principals • Brian Schraum, University of Missouri; Adam Maksl, University of Missouri • This study applies authoritarian personality theory to the context of free expression in schools through a survey of Missouri high school principals (N=86). Support for the First Amendment in society, in-school student speech rights and off-campus digital expression rights are measured. The results show no significant relationship between level of authoritarianism and level of support for student expression rights, contradicting the notion that administrators are quick-to-censor authoritarians. Alternative predictor variables are also discussed.

Protecting the ‘impressionable minds’ from the ‘impressionable minds’: The third-person effect and student speech • Adam Maksl, University of Missouri; Brian Schraum, University of Missouri • We examined support for student expression and First Amendment attitudes among Missouri high school principals (n=86) using the third-person effect as a possible predictor. We found the greater principals perceived mass media to affect others over themselves, the less supportive they were for student free expression rights, particularly online. In addition to applying a theoretical framework to this area of research, we present several significant covariates to free expression attitudes other than the third-person effect.

Teen attitudes towards journalism and the news media: a study of inner city youth • Regina Marchi, Rutgers University • Based on formal one-on-one interviews with 20 (of an eventual 30) high school aged journalists, this paper discusses young people’s attitudes towards the profession of journalism and towards the news media, in general. While most existing research on teen journalists has focused on suburban, predominantly White and middle class youth, this work in progress seeks to illuminate how racially diverse, predominantly working class teens get their news; which news stories they feel are most important, and what role they feel journalism plays in the larger society. The paper also explores these young people’s notions of the public good and their frustrations regarding the mainstream news media, offering clues to how news organizations might better appeal to the younger demographic they so desperately seek to engage.

Squelching Student Speech?: The Impact of Florida’s Anti-Cyberbullying Law on Public School Student Expression Policies • Kara Murrhee, University of Flordia • A survey of ten Florida school district anti-cyberbullying policies revealed that all had amended their policies in light of the Florida’ anti-cyberbullying law. Of the ten school district policies surveyed as part of this thesis, the large school districts tended to include additional provisions that amplified the restrictions placed on student expression, whereas the small school districts appeared to stick more closely to the language adopted by the Florida Department of Education. Although the districts’ efforts are admirable, it is doubtful they would pass constitutional muster if challenged in court on First Amendment grounds. Such over-proscriptions would stand in the way of offering protection when public school children would need it most.

Understanding the Role of Structural Correlates, Functional Considerations, and Modality Evaluations on Interest in Campus Newspapers • Fernando Paragas, Nanyang Technological University • Using data from a survey of 1,064 respondents from nine universities in the Philippines, this research finds it is the students’ course domains, among five structural correlates, which differentiate level of interest in the content of campus newspapers (CN). It discovers interest is determined by the use of the CN to address cognitive and integrative needs, and the evaluation of how the CN fulfills its purpose. It reveals readership and interest are significantly, but weakly, correlated.

Computational journalism in the middle school • Kim Pearson, The College of New Jersey; Ursula Wolz, The College of New Jersey; Monisha Pulimood, College of New Jersey; Meredith Stone, The College of New Jersey; Mary Switzer, college of New Jersey • This paper presents a model of scholastic journalism that is designed to introduce students to computer science concepts that will be essential not only for the next generation of journalists, but also for the professionals across a range of computing-dependent fields. The model was created as part of a three-year demonstration project funded by the National Science Foundation. Results suggest that the study has succeeded in spreading awareness about the range of computing careers.

Journalism Teacher Assessment of Education Inhibitors • Bruce Plopper, University of Arkansas at Little rock; Taylon Cook, University of Arklansas at Little Rock • Combining cultural-historical theory of human development with research pinpointing education inhibitors, a survey was developed to investigate how journalism teachers evaluated the effects of five education inhibitors on their students’ learning. Results showed that use of electronic gadgets and lack of parental education were perceived as having the most negative influence on learning, while students’ subcultures were perceived as having the smallest effect. Respondents knew the least about their students’ nutritional intake. Implications are discussed.

The underprivileged: Journalism students seeking the shield • Erica Salkin, Graduate Student • Undergraduate and master’s-level journalism students tackle a variety of newsgathering and writing assignments, with the expectation they perform at or near a professional level. Despite this expectation of quality, journalism students are not afforded the journalistic privilege given to their professional counterparts, even those working on student newspapers. This paper examines the potential for journalism students to claim privilege under state statutory and common law, federal common law and the concept of a researcher’s privilege.

<< 2010 Abstracts

Interdependence and adoption: The application of critical mass theory to diffusion of non-linear editing • Tim Brown, University of Central Florida; Heidi D. Campbell, University of South Carolina; August E. Grant, University of South Carolina; Harvie Nachlinger, University of South Carolina • This paper applies critical-mass and collective-action theory to the adoption of non-linear video editing by communications programs and television stations. The results of two surveys provide evidence of an accelerating production function of adoption by television stations while the adoption pattern in academia exhibits a decelerating production function. Post-hoc hypotheses suggested by collective action theory suggest that the external forces and interdependence between stations and communications programs (stations hire communications programs graduates) inhibited later-stage adoption by colleges preventing the academy from being a true innovator. Finally, the implications of these interdependent processes suggested by collective action theory are discussed.

Third-person perception and myths about crime and victims of crime • John Chapin, Pennsylvania State University • The study extends the third-person perception (TPP) literature by documenting the phenomenon within the context of news coverage of crime, and by establishing a relationship between TPP and myths or misperceptions about crime. Results of a community sample (N = 340) indicate that TPP is predicted by perceived importance of the topic and belief in myths, but not by experience with crime, age, race, or gender.

What Was the Murrow Tradition? A Case for Supplementing Historical Research with Content Analysis • Raluca Cozma, Iowa State University • This study content analyzes a representative sample of world news roundups from the golden age of foreign correspondence at CBS Radio in order to better understand what the so-called Murrow tradition was in quantitative terms. As the results don’t seem to match the glorified image we have about that era, this study makes a case for supplementing historical research with content analysis in order to better understand the history and evolution of foreign news.

New Media Skills Competency Expected of TV Reporters and Producers: A Survey • Michael Cremedas, S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Suzanne Lysak, S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University This study examined the current state of online news production at local television stations—what is being produced and who is producing it—and what emphasis news directors place on new media skills when making hiring decisions. Armed with a picture of how today’s TV newsrooms are attempting to meet the demand for Web content, broadcast journalism educators can more efficiently establish a proper balance between traditional classroom instruction and training in new media.

Domestic Terrorism on the Nightly News • Ruth DeFoster, University of Minnesota • This study examines coverage of domestic terror attacks in the United States on evening network news broadcasts, analyzing both the extent of coverage and differences in coverage—including the presence of the term terrorism—between attacks perpetrated by culprits identified by different ethnic, racial, and religious descriptors. Analysis of 394 stories (42 events) found a significant association between the use of the word terrorism and the identification of culprits as Muslim (x2 = 25.026, df = 1, p < .0001).

Audience Preferences in Determining Quality News Production of Backpack Journalism • Charlie Gee, Duquesne University • This study explores preferences by younger news audiences of backpack journalism in local television news. Local television news has to compete with Internet and other media to attract viewers. The focus of the study centered around technology’s influence on television newsgathering techniques and if the techniques delineated the quality of journalistic presentation and is theoretically based on uses and gratifications.

News Source Perceptions of Accuracy for Newspaper & Television Websites • Darrell Blair, University of Tennessee; Mark Harmon, University of Tennessee • In a pilot study, researchers tested perceptions of accuracy by news sources utilizing a conventional research methodology adapted to sample online news websites. Findings mirror several aspects of existing accuracy research. In general reporter error is often cited as a reason for factual inconsistencies or misrepresentations of facts within news stories and subjective errors are more prevalent than are objective errors. Researchers provide recommendations for future accuracy research.

Bridging the Gap between Students and Veteran Journalists: Promising Practices for Journalism Educators • Sarah Holtan, Concordia University Wisconsin • This study examined television journalists regarding their perceptions of on-the-job success and the role of prior education. The findings show success is in all levels, it is relative to age, and is never-ending. Success means moving forward, being factually accurate, having a positive impact as a professional, and avoiding preventable on-air mistakes. The informants found value in learning about ethics and news judgment in college but felt overwhelmed by the practical aspects of their jobs.

Social Identity and Convergence: News Faculty and Student Perspectives on Web, Print, and Broadcast Skills • Glenn Hubbard, The University of Texas at Arlington; Elizabeth Crawford, NDSU; Vincent Filak, UW-Oshkosh • National survey of 342 mass communication students and faculty (n=342) assessed the relationship between social identity with given mass communication disciplines (print, broadcast, advertising, and public relations) and preferences for the teaching of broadcast, print, or web-oriented skills. Findings indicate that broadcasting students and faculty who identify highly as broadcasters are less open to the teaching of cross-platform skills than others in the sample. Also, among all mass communication student and faculty participants, there was a negative relationship between the strength of preference for the teaching of traditional print or broadcast skills and the teaching of web-related skills. This negative relationship was strongest among those in broadcasting, indicating that intergroup bias is stronger among broadcasters than others in mass media programs, and possibly suggesting that broadcasters are less open to convergence than other mass communication students and faculty. There were no significant differences between students and faculty in terms of print or broadcast skills preferences, but students ranked the teaching of all mass communication skills more highly than faculty.

Motivations and Attitudes toward Crime News as Predictors of Risk Perception • Eun Hwa Jung, University of Florida • This study investigated the factors influencing risk perception through crime news on television. To gain insights into the issue, the study considered motivations for watching television news and attitudes toward crime news as predictors of risk perception. However, only frequency of watching crime news was found to positively influence risk perception. The findings contribute to greater understanding of television news audiences and the effect that crime news on television has on audiences’ perceptions of risk.

Operationalizing the dimensions of current events: Two pilot studies • Jack Karlis, University of South Carolina; August E. Grant, University of South Carolina • Journalism faculty has long used current events tests as a tool to help journalism students develop the habit of consuming news. A number of previous studies have examined the relationship between consumption of specific media and college students’ current events knowledge. However, the literature on current events knowledge is limited compared to other aspects of mass communication curriculum, and a notable weakness in most of these studies is a failure to provide a specific, operational definition of current events. This paper explores the use and previous operationalizations of current events tests and reports the results from two exploratory studies designed to investigate the perceived importance of current events subject matter and move towards an operational definition of current events testing in mass communications curriculum. Ten dimensions of current events are operationalized, and differences in knowledge and importance of these dimensions by sex are investigated.

Differing Uses of YouTube During the 2008 U.S. Presidential Primary Election • Gary Hanson, Kent State University; Paul Haridakis, Kent State University; Rekha Sharma, Kent State University • In this study we explored YouTube use during the 2008 U.S. presidential primaries. Specifically, we identified people’s motives for using the site and described the types of videos people viewed and shared. Results indicated participants used YouTube predominantly for habitual entertainment and information seeking purposes. But there was a strong relationship between political surveillance motivation and watching news, political ads, direct-to-camera videos, and campaign ads, suggesting YouTube could be a significant medium in future elections.

Tweeting the news: Broadcast stations’ use of Twitter • Jessica Smith, Texas Tech University; Stephanie Miles, Texas Tech University; Jillian Lellis, Texas Tech University • This pilot study offers a picture of basic characteristics of Twitter posts by television broadcast stations. A content analysis examined a sample of 8,566 tweets selected from 117 stations in one month. Most tweets included hyperlinks to additional content, and most lacked source attribution for the information they offered. Tweets about crime and law enforcement, miscellaneous content, government and politics, and accidents or disasters were the most common topics, composing more than 56% of the sample. Finally, few tweets included Twitter-specific functions that link topics and users in online conversation.

The Evolving Frame: NBC’s Coverage of The U.S. Presidents’ Visits to China, 1989-2009 • Boya Xu, West Virginia University • This study analyzes NBC’s coverage of the U.S. President’s visits to China from 1989 through 2009, and investigates the evolving characteristics of media framing over time. By examining the changes of primary target, content orientation, and tone in news reporting in different time periods, using quantitative content analysis, it is concluded that journalistic ideology in the newsroom played an important role in news making, while the media interpretation of international communication is applied within the context of foreign policies and bilateral relations.

Marketing Sensationalism: A Comparison of Television News in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan • Shuhua Zhou, University of Alabama; Trisha Lin, Nanyang Technological University; Cui Zhang, the University of Alabama • Examining the prominence of sensational content, features and storytelling in news reports, this comparative study investigated news sensationalism in commercial and state-owned Chinese television news. For the selected cases (CCTV from mainland China, TVB Hong Kong, TTV and TVBS from Taiwan), 1,132 news stories from 56 main evening newscasts in the fall of 2007 were content analyzed. Three sets of variables, sensational topics, tabloid packaging and vivid story-telling techniques, were used to measure dramatic elements in news stories. The findings partially supported the contention that the more competitive TV newscasters (Hong Kong’s TVB and Taiwan’s TVBS) have more sensational topics, tabloid packaging, and vivid storytelling techniques than the state-owned CCTV of China and Taiwan’s TTV. Implications of these findings on Chinese television news were discussed.

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