Graduate Education Interest Group

An Exploration Into the Haves and Have-Nots of Electronic Commerce • Sean Baker, Washington • A telephone survey was conducted to explore typical users of Internet commerce in Washington state. Findings suggest that lower income, less educated, rural, and senior citizens have disproportionate access to communication and information technologies. These groups are falling victim to an existing “technology gap” in our society. However, one finding suggests that information access for women is becoming more equitable. Suggestions for future research are presented.

The Press Release And The Bscore: New Statistical Measurement Explored • Lee Bollinger, South Carolina • Persuasion messages dynamically impact people/society, and scholars plough their way through mounds of rhetoric to determine how such impact can be predicted Researchers develop measures of effects; advertisers reach for sales data; TV producers pay for ratings; marketers attempt consumer measures of taste; social psychologists analyze social systems over time for predictive purposes; and public relations people diligently study the craft of the press release to attract media. All prediction attempts involve usage of precision tools.

Coming to America: Perceptions of International Graduate Students in Journalism • Teresa Trumbly Lamson, Richard Gross, Steven E. Chappel, Renita Coleman and Keith P. Sanders, Missouri • To examine motivations of international students’ selection of American universities for graduate study in journalism, a Q-study was conducted at a Midwestern journalism school. Questionnaires were constructed in accordance with standard practices for the Q-methodology. Factor analysis was conducted. Researchers found three closely related factor types, with subtle distinctions among them. Researchers conclude international students were motivated to study in the United States based on the school’s reputation, the professional potential it offered, and finances.

Cultural Myth and Nature as Adversary in “Dateline NBC” • Robert Newell, Washington • Adopting the Barthesian logic that modern media engages in culturally informed mythmaking, this author searches for myths behind today’s news content. Qualitatively and quantitatively examining a number of texts from the popular NBC newsmagazine, “Dateline NBC”, this author suggests that American news, or at least newsmagazine, coverage of the natural environment is informed by a unique perspective that runs through American letters, essays, historical documents and literary tradition.

Dumpster Dining And Symbolic Sleep: Homelessness, Political Theater And The Community For Creative Non-Violence • Kathleen Olson, North Carolina -Chapel Hill • The Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) was a “radical Christian group” that skillfully used the “media event” during the Eighties to turn public attention to the homeless. This paper examines CCNV’s use of political theater and the Supreme Court case that linked homelessness and symbolic speech, Clark V. Community for Creative Non-Violence, concluding that CCNV used the case itself as a form of political theater to put the plight of the homeless at center stage.

Professors of Foresight: Finding a Place for the Future in Journalism Curricula • Richard Somerville, Missouri • The study of the future has grown into a valued tool for business planners, government and non-government organizations, and many areas of the social sciences. Yet despite the need for reporters and editors who can inject foresight into the news-and despite studies showing that “futures thinking” not only can be a useful tool for journalists in a rapidly changing world, but a vital one-the use of futures studies in the teaching of journalism and mass communications is found to be an underused resource.

The Effect Of Membership In The Society Of Environmental Journalists On Inclusion Of Enabling Information In Stories On Water Quality • Michelle Tedford, Ohio University • This study builds on Rossow and Dunwoody’s finding that enabling information in environmental stories is tied to editors’ concerns for the issues. If membership is an indicator of concern, stories by SEJ members should include more enabling information from different sources, include more graphics, and influence the story’s placement. In a look at water quality stories from 1993, none of these differences was found to correspond with membership when comparing member and non-member groups.

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Civic Journalism Interest Group

Civic Journalism And Community Policing: Potential For Partnership • Kathryn B. Campbell, Wisconsin-Madison • The reforms movements of civic journalism and community policing are intended to replace or substantially modify entrenched models of media practice and law enforcement. However, no academic research has been completed on the theoretical or empirical connections and interactions between community policing and civic journalism models. Civic journalism, despite its own liabilities, may provide a way for specific policing concerns about protecting individual rights and establishing community norms to be addressed.

Civic Journalism And Gender Diversity In News-Story Sourcing • Brian L. Massey Nanyang Technological University, Singapore • The proposition that civic journalism corrects for traditional journalism’s weaknesses was tested for the under-representation of women as sources in traditionally reported news. By comparison, women’s appearance in news stories as information sources increased under civic journalism, but only marginally and only in stories reported by female journalists. Men sources were still numerically dominant. The results of this case study raise questions about civic journalism’s long term success at reforming traditional newswork.

Constructing Meaning: The Role Of The Audience In News Writing • Jack Morris, Missouri • Writing theory and practice are shifting from a linear product paradigm that focuses on delivery of facts to an interactive process paradigm that focuses on construction of meaning. This shift is evident in composition, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, literary theory and psychology, and it is the root of the civic-traditional journalism debate. This paper traces the history of the construction of meaning movement and shows how it parallels the development of more interactive communication models.

Following Their First Steps: A Lesson In Launching Public Journalism • Rebecca A. Payne, Arizona • Public journalists experimenting with ways to improve daily coverage have a greater challenge than their contemporaries who focused on “project” reporting. This case study examines the public journalism efforts of one newspaper, The State, in Columbia, South Carolina, to reconnect with readers and improve coverage. Results emphasize the importance of choosing a topic and for including reporters in decision-making from the beginning. A poorly conceived project and one that has little support from newsroom staff may actually harm rather than heal connections with readers.

Media Coverage of Sports and Politics: An Examination of the Press’ Role in Campaigns for Professional Sports Stadium Construction • Robert Trumpbour, Pennsylvania State University • In recent years, a new “Super Bowl” has emerged for sports franchise owners, with the construction of a taxpayer subsidized stadium as the ultimate prize. This paper argues that civic journalism might offer a better coverage strategy than the traditional reporting methods when reporting on political attempts to publicly fund sports stadia. In many regards, the stakes of the stadium finance game are much more significant for the typical citizen and sports fan since the result has been franchise relocations and/or new taxes in order to subsidize stadium construction for professional sports franchises.

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Visual Communication Division

Listening To The Subjects Of Routine News Photographs: A Grounded Moral Inquiry • Cindy Brown, Southern Mississippi • This study explores the relationship between photojournalists and subjects using a method of ethical inquiry known as grounded moral theory. Grounded moral theory consists of listening to people’s concerns, generating recommendations based on these concerns, and extrapolating to ethical theory. Interviews with subjects of news photographs revealed subjects’ were concerned about two types of understanding: (1) contextual understanding conveyed in their photograph/story, and (2) understanding photojournalists showed them.

Grounding the Teaching of Journalistic Design in Creativity Theory: 10 Steps to a More Creative Curriculum • Renita Coleman and Jan Colbert, Missouri • Creativity is an important ingredient in news design. Yet most Classes do little more than offer examples of others’ creative works; rarely do we teach students how to develop the cognitive skills they can use to tap into their own creativity. The purpose of this article is to propose a change in the way journalism design classes are taught, from using an anecdotal approach to creativity, to one that is grounded in theory developed through psychological research.

How Marc Riboud’s Photographic Report From Hanoi Argued The Vietnam War Was Unwinnable • Claude Cookman, Indiana University • While many combat photographs presented American involvement as morally wrong, Marc Riboud’s 1968 report on North Vietnam argued that the war could not be won by the U.S. and its South Vietnamese ally. His pictures show the saturation bombing failed at two primary objectives: to break the North’s will to resist and to interdict the flow of military sup-plies to the South. They also humanize the North Vietnamese people and their top leaders, who had been demonized by U.S. officials.

Typographic Design Considerations for the Elderly: An Analysis of AARP’s Bulletin • Catherine K. Craven and Birgit Wassmuth, Missouri • As baby boomers enter their elderly years, between 2010 and 2030, as many as one in five Americans will be 65 or older. That’s up to 80 million people. As people age, their vision changes. Designers and publishers must make changes now to keep up with the needs of this affluent audience. Hear the state of design guidelines for the aging. See if AARP pushes the “elder design” envelope in redesigning its Bulletin.

Cops Like Us: Camera Placement and Viewer Identification on Cops • Veronica Davison, Pennsylvania • Although reality-based crime programs are growing in popularity among communication scholars, a focus on camera movement has been virtually ignored. This study examines how camera perspective, camera angle, and shot structure create a sense of identification on the part of the viewer (as outlined in the theory of paraproxemics) and how each may or may not be altered depending on who is framed in the shot. While the analysis of camera angle and shot structure do not support the theory of paraproxemics, through the use of the involved-objective camera, camera perspective does appear to offer moderate support for Meyrowitz’s theory of paraproxemics.

Readability of Reverse Type in Computer Mediated Communication • Joel Geske, Iowa State University • This experimental design used 78 subjects to test readability of type on computer screens. Subjects read passages set in traditional high contrast black type on a white background; low contrast black type on a gray background; and reverse type (white type on a black background). Subjects were tested for speed of reading and recall of material. The study found significant differences and reversals of previous re-search based on print media.

Reading Between the Photographs: The Influence of Incidental Pictorial Information on Issue Perception • Rhonda Gibson, Texas Tech University and Dolf Zillmann, Alabama • An identical news report on an Appalachian tick disease was differently illustrated. It either contained no images, an image of ticks, or this tick image plus three child victims. The victims were ethnically balanced (two White, one Black) or not (either all White or all Black). The text did not make any reference to the victims’ ethnicity. Respondents assessed the risk of contracting the disease for children of different ethnicity.

The College Studio Critique: What Does it Mean to Students? • Deborah M. Gross, Florida • The primary investigator conducted three participant observations, one focus group and ten individual interviews. The study showed that students are not actually taught to critique-they are “thrown” into it and learn by experience. Results indicate students’ preferences for certain critique formats-what’s helpful and what’s not. Participants also discussed the role of peers and professors in the critique process, along with the effect of grades. Further implications of the college classroom critique are discussed.

Readers’ Perception of Digital Alteration and Truth-value in Documentary Photographs • Edgar Shaohua Huang, Indiana University • This is a baseline study on how readers of print news media accept digital imaging alterations and how much they trust digital documentary images. The purpose is to examine to what extent readers accept the postmodern ideas about truth and reality embedded in this new technology and to provide empirical basis for the making of guidelines and principles regarding the use of digitally altered photographs in documentary contexts. Survey and in-depth interviews were conducted to understand both patterns and rationales of readers’ attitudes.

The Visual Representation Of Individuals Of Different Genders, Ages And Ethnicity’s In The Photographs Of The Los Angeles Times • Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • The authors examine gender, age and ethnic stereotypes and portrayals in news photographs of the Los Angeles Times. The Times was chosen because of its status as one of the nation’s great newspapers and because it serves a diverse populace where Latinos are the majority, and the presence of African Americans and Latinos is very high. Although many stereotypes were still found to exist, changes were noticeable-some positive and some negative.

“Negro Stars” and the USIA’s Portrait of Democracy •- Melinda M. Schwenk, Pennsylvania • From 1952-1961, the U.S. Information Agency indirectly addressed the nation’s race problems with films about “Negro stars.” This paper analyzes how the USIA celebrated in films the lives of five famous African-Americans to provide evidence that American democracy fostered individual freedom.

A Comparative Study of Internet Page Legibility on WebTV and PC-TV Large-Screen Displays • Peter B. Seel, Colorado State University • This study compared the legibility of text in three Internet Web sites displayed on a large 32-inch television set using WebTV technology, with a similarly-sized, high-resolution PC-TV digital screen. The study found that the legibility of navigation and main body text on the WebTV system was superior to that of the PC-TV display at the longer distance, but the PC-TV display provided better overall text legibility at shorter distances. With the diffusion of television-based Internet access systems such as WebTV, these findings are important in assessing the relative legibility of Web site content in large-screen home viewing environments.

The Stereograph: The Rise And Decline Of Victorian Virtual Reality • James Staebler, Ohio University • This study examines the rise and decline in public popularity of the stereograph or more commonly known as the stereo view. This popular Victorian mode of entertainment was the precursor to the modern popularity of three dimensional games) pictures and posters seen in the mass media today. Many factors contributed to the decline of stereographs after the First World War. The popularity of new technology such as the automobile, motion pictures and radio helped erode this medium.

Claims And Visual Frames On The World Wide Web: An Approach To Framing Analysis Of Visual Content • Jean Trumbo, Wisconsin, Madison • A visual frame analysis model is developed and applied to a site on the World Wide Web with the assumption that site structure and visual elements encourage particular kinds of audience response and that elements are organized in a manner that asserts or advocates certain themes. Theories of framing as applied in communication and in visual design are synthesized. Framing devices developed in the model include five categories: syntactic, semantic, grammatical, thematic, and rhetorical structures.

Cuddly Bear and Vicious Ape: Soviets and Germans in editorial cartoons, 1933-1946 • Samuel P. Winch, Nanyang Technological University • During the 14-year period 1933 to 1946, relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union fluctuated wildly-from ally to enemy to ally to enemy. This study is an examination of the portrayal of Soviets in editorial cartoons printed in three American newspapers during this period. Although pubic opinion polls in the late 1930s and early 1940s showed that Americans disliked Soviets even more than Germans, editorial cartoons of the Soviets were often favorable during the period.

Visual Rhetoric: A Semiotic Evaluation of the Misrepresentation of a Subculture within the Myth of Lesbian Chic in Mainstream Advertising • Susan Zavoina, Tom Reichert, North Texas • Visual imagery dominates advertising messages. A visual rhetoric is established as the viewer’s perception of the advertising message is defined. Homoerotic images of women are appearing in mainstream consumer advertising giving credence to a phenomenon of “lesbian chic.” Through a semiotic analysis this paper suggests that the meanings embedded in these advertising images have little to do with “lesbianism” per se and are more closely aligned with mainstream heterosexual pornography of women engaged in “lesbian” sex.

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Scholastic Journalism Division

High School Student Newspapers in U.S. Youth Culture: From Gossip to Politics to Social Issues; From Vocational Education to PR Tool, to Forum for Expression and Back Again • Dane S. Claussen, Georgia • Scholastic journalism studies are almost entirely limited to students’ First Amendment rights; principals’ and teachers’ knowledge of, or attitudes toward, scholastic journalism (including why they think students should work on publications); publication content and design analyses; trends in female and minority staffers; publications’ finances; and newspapers’ use in teaching English or for school PR. Drawing on extensive existing literature, this is first known work focusing on why students have worked for and/or read student newspapers.

Students’ Use Of E-Mail In An Undergraduate Public Relations Course • Tom Kelleher and Julie E. Dodd, Florida • The study examined the use of e-mail between the students in an introductory public relations class and their instructor. E-mail use was parallel to the use of face-to-face communication, with students reporting that they used office time and e-mail primarily to ask questions about quizzes, tests and assignments. Older students and students further along in school were less likely to use e-mail to contact their parents but reported greater enjoyment of and learning from e-mail contact with the instructor.

Analysis of High School Newspaper Editorials: Before and After Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier • Carol S. Lomicky, Nebraska at Kearney • In the fall of 1997 the principal of a Midwestern public high school informed the student newspaper adviser that an article about a new and controversial class scheduling plan would have to be cut or changed before it could be published. In fact, journalism educators at this school report that for the past 10 years administrators routinely preview that student newspaper before the publication is taken to the local printer.

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Radio-TV Journalism Division

Media Reliance And Political Knowledge: Have Researchers Underestimated The Effects Of Radio And Television News Because Of An Operationalization Artifact? • Raymond Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines how media exposure affects political knowledge. Unlike most studies, a person can be reliant on more than one medium. Respondents with multiple media reliances scored a mean of 3.3 on a knowledge scale, compared with 2.91 for respondents with single/no reliances (t = -2.32, df =382, p <.05). Total media time accounted for 1.6 percent of the variance in political knowledge.

Student And Professional Attitudes Regarding Advertising Influence On Broadcast News Content: A Comparative Study • Hubert Brown, Syracuse University • Students studying Broadcast Journalism or Advertising and professionals working in those fields were surveyed on their attitudes regarding advertising influence on broadcast news content. This study compares the attitudes of the students and practitioners in the respective professions. while students and professionals agreed on a majority of opinion statements, the areas where there was significant disagreement hold important implications for preparing students in both disciplines for the realities of the marketplace.

Winner By A Sound Byte: Fairness and balance in the 1998 Michigan Governor’s Race • Sue Carter, Michigan State University • Much of what voters learn about candidates for state office comes to them from local television news programs. Just how frequent and, more importantly, how fair and balanced coverage of these candidates is presents a fertile area for research. In this study, “Winner by a Sound Bite. Fairness and Balance in the 1998 Michigan Governor’s Race,” the researchers discovered that local television stations may claim fairness and balance in their overall coverage from Labor Day to the election, but that individual stories can be substantially out-of whack when it comes to structural and partisan balance.

The State, Market and TV Regulation in China: A Managerial Perspective of Decentralization and Depolicitization • Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota-Twin Cities • Within the managerial perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between the state and the market in TV regulation against the backdrop of the fast changing Chinese social structure and processes over the past two decades. Through a careful analysis of documentaries, the study looks at how the evolution of official conception of television in China has affected TV in the areas of entertainment, new technology, roles and functions, geographical boundary, and professionalism.

Sesame Street And Children Learning English In Hungary: Measuring Appeal • Rita Csapo-Sweet, Missouri • This paper reports on the appeal of ‘Sesame Street’ for 9 to 15 year old Hungarian students studying English as a Second Language (ESL), measured by three different methods. The students (N = 129) were tested with a twenty-question survey rating “high” to “low” appeal. Results from the measurements of attention parameters, agree with those from written comments by the children. The opinions of the children in their individually written comments to open-ended questions and observed responses to the program agreed with results from the twenty-question survey and also the attention measurements.

Public Broadcasting in Transition: News, Elections and the New Market Place • Claes de Vreese, Amsterdam • As public broadcasters in most European countries are challenged to operate in increasingly competitive environments, a shift in policy and approach towards elections can be observed. Based on newsroom observations, interviews, and content analytic indicators, the 1998-99 municipal, provincial, national, and European election campaign coverage of Dutch public broadcaster, NOS News, was investigated. Newsroom observations and interviews with reporters and news executives revealed an increasingly pro-active and selective editorial approach to elections.

Has The Salary Gap Closed? A Survey Of Men And Women Managers At U.S. Television Stations • Jennifer Greer, Nevada-Reno • A survey of 169 general managers, general sales managers, news directors, and program managers at the nation’s television stations found that while more women have reached the industry’s top ranks, they still report lower salaries, number of benefits, and feelings of authority than male managers. However, when personal (gender, education, and age) and job characteristics (including market size and job title) were entered into a regression analysis, gender was a significant predictor only for salary.

GI Jane Trapped In Stereotype: How Television Magazine Shows Bolster Gender Bias While Purporting To Fight It In Their Coverage Of Military Women • Christopher Hanson, North Carolina • This paper analyses TV magazine news shows that took up the cause of women who accused Sgt. Major Gene McKinney of sexual harassment, of Lt. Kelly Flinn, who faced prison on adultery charges, and of Navy fighter pilot Lt. Carey Lohrenz, who was grounded for alleged poor flying. Reports on 60 Minutes and Dateline argued sexism led to their unfair treatment. Yet these reports advanced other stereotypes woman as victim, woman as emotionally fragile-that inadvertently suggested these women did not belong in a tough environment.

Media Use, Knowledge of and Support for Megan’s Law • Michelle Johnson, Marist College • Media critics complain the news media provides an inaccurate picture of crime and punishment in the United States, while a number of media scholars suggest exposure to crime news, particularly on television, fosters punitive attitudes in news consumers. We explored these propositions in regard to Megan’s Law, one of the most heavily publicized criminal justice initiatives of the 1990s. We found media use to be unrelated to individuals’ usually poor knowledge of the law.

The Effects of Competition on Television Coverage of City Hall • Stephen Lacy, Charles St. Cyr Michigan State University and David Coulson, Nevada-Reno • A national sample of 303 television reporters found no correlation between the number of news organizations covering city hall and journalists’ perceptions of how competition affected their coverage. However, 40 percent or more of the journalists said television competition increased the number of city hall stories produced, made it more difficult to do in-depth city hall stories, and increased the coverage of stories that might have been missed otherwise. Newspaper competition was perceived as putting greater pressure on TV journalists to produce more stories and to cover news they otherwise might have overlooked.

A Comparative Study of Local and National Television News Coverage of a Natural Disaster • Aaron Quanbeck and Marwan Kraidy, North Dakota • The spring of 1997 is one that the community of Grand Forks, North Dakota will never forget. Exceeding all modern day records, the Red River of the North rose to over 54 feet, flooding nearly the entire community of Grand Forks, causing one of the largest evacuations in United States history as 50,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes. In the midst of the flood, a fire broke out in downtown Grand Forks, destroying nearly a dozen buildings before it was put out.

A Quarter Century of Television Network News: Fewer, Longer (?) and Softer News items • Daniel Riffe and Lori Spiczka Holm, Ohio University • This paper reports the results of a study of 27 years (1971-1997) of television network news. The nightly news programs of the so-called “Big Three” networks-ABC, CBS and NBC-have weathered changes over the years affecting their audiences and news packages. Consider, for example:-audience share. A 1998 Pew Center report warned: “As the public’s appetite for national and international news wanes, viewership of nightly network news continues its decline.”

Prime Time News: Effects Associated With The Rise Of The Television News Magazine Format • Jennie Rupertus, Texas-Austin• In the past few years, the television news magazine format has become increasingly pervasive in prime time programming. There been an increase in both the number of news magazine programs and how frequently those programs are aired. This paper examines the effects of such increases on news and its role in society, its content, and its audience. This essay also addresses the consequences of blurring the distinctions between news and entertainment.

Television Network Affiliation Changes in a Major Market and the Effect on News Viewing • Samuel Sauls, North Texas • In most studies of the reasons why viewers tune in to any given television program, the effects of program loyalty, channel loyalty, and network loyalty may be somewhat difficult to separate. Network affiliation changes will offer a naturally occurring opportunity to observe these effects. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine which of these concepts would determine news viewing in a major market after experiencing a network affiliation change.

The 1996 Presidential Nomination Contests: Network News Coverage • Karon Speckman, Truman State University • This study examined whether television network newscasts during the nomination period of 1996 focused on strategy and horse-race schemata rather than explanations of how nomination contests differed from state to state. Specifically, lead-ins, introductions, segments, kickers, video sequences, and graphics were studied. Results showed that strategy messages were more frequent than explanatory information on contest differences both in words and pictures. The opportunity to use full-screen graphics was not utilized for learning.

Editorial Rights Of Public Broadcasting Stations Vs. Access For Minor Political Candidates To TV Debates • Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State University • The U.S. Supreme Court in 1998 addressed whether a state-owned public television station, in conducting a debate among political candidates, creates a limited public forum open to all candidates. In the context of the Supreme Court’s decision, this paper examines the constitutional and statutory framework on the access for political candidates to television debates, the judicial interpretations of the political candidates’ claim for access to public television debates prior to 1998, and the U.S.

<< 1999 Abstracts