bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
More Than Just Talk: Uses, Gratifications, and the Telephone
Authors: O'Keefe Garrett J. , Sulanowski Barbara K.
Published: December 2011

This study examines gratifications sought from telephones and variations in behavioral patterns of telephone use. Such research is increasingly important as telephones become a mixed mass-media, interpersonal communication channel. The results of a survey of Midwestern adults delineate social, entertainment, and instrumental dimensions of telephone use. Uses vary considerably across specific demographics.
Old-Growth Forests on Network News: News Sources and the Framing of An Environmental Controversy
Authors: Liebler Carol M. , Bendix Jacob
Published: December 2011

The old-growth forest debate involves two sides (“procut” and “prosave”) presenting competing views of the issue. Television news stories may reflect one or the other of these frames through (1) choice of sources, (2) choice of visuals, and (3) reporter's summary remarks. We examined four years of coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC, and found that while the distribution of visuals was inconclusive, source use and reporter wrap-ups predominantly reflected the procut frame. This may be because the procut frame emphasized an unambiguous conflict that was more amenable to brief explanations.
Policing Political Ads: An Analysis of Five Leading Newspapers' Responses to 1992 Political Advertisements
Authors: McKinnon Lori Melton , Kaid Lynda Lee , Murphy Janet , Acree Cynthia K.
Published: December 2011

Researchers analyzed the content of five leading newspapers' coverage of 1992 political advertisements. Findings revealed that newspaper ad watches focused more on negative than on positive television spots, particularly those offered by incumbents rather than challengers. Political ads tended to be issue rather than image oriented. The researchers suggest that gatekeepers frame ad watches as priority agenda items. Although the visual and verbal content of the political spots are often discussed, most ad watch features fail to analyze ethically suspect techniques.
Talk Radio: Predictors of Use and Effects on Attitudes about Government
Authors: Hollander Barry A.
Published: December 2011

Early studies portrayed the talk radio listener, and the caller in particular, as more alienated and less politically and socially active. The research here, using national survey data, finds that the portrait of the talk radio audience has changed to one more positive in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and political participation. However, talk radio is also found to be associated with a number of negative political factors such as cynicism about government, lower perceptions of government's responsiveness to citizen needs, and more extreme attitudes. The differences between nonlisteners, listeners, and callers are discussed.
Measures of Attitude Strength as Predictors of Willingness to Speak to the Media
Authors: Baldassare Mark , Katz Cheryl
Published: December 2011

The “spiral of silence” literature has concerned itself more with explaining why people do not speak out than with why some individuals choose to express their political views. This paper analyzes the effects of attitude strength on willingness to speak out in public, using data from four preelection surveys. Those with greater interest in politics, those who have extreme political views, and those who have paid attention to the election are more willing to be interviewed by a news reporter after a pre-election survey. Attitude strength plays a significant role in predicting willingness to express political views in all four surveys.
The Effectiveness of Simple and Stratified Random Sampling in Broadcast News Content Analysis
Authors: Riffe Daniel , Lacy Stephen , Nagovan Jason , Burkum Larry
Published: December 2011

A comparison of simple random, monthly stratified and quarterly/weekly stratified sampling in content analyses of television news used annual “populations” of network newscasts. Different samples were drawn and sample statistics compared with annual parameters. Based on percentages of samples that included population means within one or two standard errors, the most efficient technique was two random days per month.
Australian Journalists' Professional and Ethical Values
Authors: Henningham John
Published: December 2011

In this first comprehensive national study of Australian journalists, the author surveyed 1,068 news people in all mainstream news media. Australian journalists are similar to their U.S. colleagues in distributions of age, sex, and socio-economic background, but have less formal education. Like U.S. journalists, Australians have mixed professional and ethical values and are committed both to investigative and to news-disseminating roles of the media.
Departmental Influences on Interdepartmental Cooperation in Daily Newspapers
Authors: Sylvie George
Published: December 2011

A survey of Ohio daily newspaper department heads shows that interdepartmental differences about cooperation exist. Managers do positively distinguish their departments from others while agreeing on the role of goals in interdepartmental troubles. And how much cooperation a manager believes is needed - as well as the perception of which departments are or are not cooperative-depends on, to some degree, what department that manager manages. Still, departmental affiliation plays a negligible role in determining existing levels of cooperation. News managers generally named advertising as the most difficult department, while advertising said the same about news. Circulation was named most cooperative department.
Divining the Social Order: Class, Gender, and Magazine Astrology Columns
Authors: Evans William
Published: December 2011

This content analysis compares the astrological advice offered in magazines targeted at working- and middle-class women. Readers' social class was a far better predictor than readers' zodiac sign of the nature of astrological advice offered. Working-class horoscopes were less likely than middle-class horoscopes to advise readers to travel and spend money. Working-class horoscopes were less likely than middle-class horoscopes to predict career-related advances and positive interactions with family, friends, and lovers. Readers of both classes were commonly advised to nurture others, be patient and cooperative, and avoid confrontations rather than assert themselves, but middle-class readers were encouraged more frequently than working-class readers to expect some autonomy.
Journalists and the Overtime Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act
Authors: Jensen Robert
Published: December 2011

News media owners and workers have been struggling over whether journalists are professionals under federal law and exempt from mandatory overtime payments. Owners argue that journalists are professionals and need not be paid overtime; journalists disagree. This article reports on recent case law, which supports the journalists' position, and suggests a more detailed examination of the meaning of “professional” beyond the law is needed.
Effects of Exemplification in News Reports on the Perception of Social Issues
Authors: Zillmann Dolf , Gibson Rhonda , Sundar S. Shyam , Perkins Joseph W.
Published: December 2011

A news report on the plight of a minority of American family farmers was manipulated to create versions differing in the degree of precision of general information (precise, imprecise) and in the use of exemplifying case histories (selective, blended, representative). Selective exemplification featured only histories of failing farms, representative exemplification a distribution of histories of failing and successful farms proportional to their actual occurrence. Respondents reported their own views concerning the farmers' plight either shortly after reading or after a delay of one or two weeks. The accuracy of estimates of failing farms was found to be highest for representative and lowest for selective exemplification—despite the availability of corrective general information. These effects were stable over time.
Elaborating Public Relations Roles
Authors: Leichty Greg , Springston Jeff
Published: December 2011

This study investigated the structure of public relations roles. Broom and Smith's role questionnaire was factor analyzed in conjunction with items used in studies of organizational boundary spanning. Eight activity factors were extracted in the analysis. Four primary practitioner roles and one minor role were subsequently identified in a cluster analysis. The clusters refined and elaborated previous PR roles concepts in important ways. Two practitioner types give high priority to technical activities even though they also scored high on managerial and boundary spanning activities. A validation analysis showed that the practitioner groups could be differentiated on relevant criterion variables.
Professional Roles of Russian and U.S. Journalists: A Comparative Study
Authors: Wu Wei , Weaver David , Johnson Owen V.
Published: December 2011

This study compares the perceptions of Russian and U.S. journalists regarding the importance of various professional roles. It also identifies predictors of three key journalistic roles — the timely disseminator, the interpreter, and the adversary — and compares these predictors across countries. These findings are based on interviews with 1,156 U.S. journalists during the summer of 1992 and 1,000 Russian journalists during autumn of 1992. These interviews suggest that there are similarities between Russian and U.S. journalists' views, but also some notable differences.
Sample Size in Content Analysis of Weekly News Magazines
Authors: Riffe Daniel , Lacy Stephen , Drager Michael W.
Published: December 2011

This study explores a variety of approaches to deciding sample size in analyzing magazine content. Having tested random samples of size six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen issues, the authors show that a monthly stratified sample of twelve issues is the most efficient method for inferring to a year's issues.
Compassion Fatigue: Communication and Burnout toward Social Problems
Authors: Kinnick Katherine N. , Krugman Dean M. , Cameron Glen T.
Published: December 2011

This study establishes the construct of “compassion fatigue,” encompassing desensitization and emotional burnout, as a phenomenon associated with pervasive communication about social problems. The study marks the first-known empirical investigation of compassion fatigue as it relates to media coverage and interpersonal communication about social problems. A telephone survey methodology was used to measure compassion fatigue among a general, adult population toward four social problems: AIDS, homelessness, violent crime, and child abuse. Results indicate the existence of a compassion fatigue phenomenon, in varying degrees of magnitude, for every issue. Compassion fatigue was found to be a situational variable, rather than a personality trait. Cognitive, affective, and behavioral manifestations of compassion fatigue are identified, and significant predictors of compassion fatigue are discussed. The findings support the existence of a mass-mediated compassion fatigue phenomenon and suggest that the nature of contemporary media coverage may contribute to emotional fatigue with society's problems.
Journalistic Authority: Textual Strategies of Legitimation
Authors: Lipari Lisbeth
Published: December 2011

To the extent that news texts participate in social and political discourse, they also participate in constructing social and political life. This paper examines one textual strategy of news, the journalist's use of stance adverbs. The analysis illustrates how stance adverbs operate as a strategy of legitimation that can augment or diminish the legitimacy of knowledge claims, masquerade as evidence, and steer readers toward a preferred interpretation of the news. As with other aspects of news work, textual strategies such as stance adverbs can serve to enhance and conceal both journalistic and social authority.
Licensing Journalists in Latin America: An Appraisal
Authors: Knudson Jerry W.
Published: December 2011

The issue of professionalization of journalism and therefore of how to achieve professional standards has been of concern to journalists and to the general public for many years.1 In Latin America, one attempt at professionalization - the development of the colegio - has garnered some praise and has raised concerns about government control. Probably no issue in recent years concerning the Latin American press has aroused greater opposition or misunderstanding in the United States than the system whereby anyone must have a university degree in journalism and/or be a member of a colegio - a professional association - in order to practice journalism. Despite recent Supreme Court decisions in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica against obligatory licensing by their colegios of journalists, the institution is gaining headway in Latin America as a whole. Opponents maintain that the colegio system imperils freedom of the press. But others assert it raises professional standards and increases salaries. The author of this study notes that colegios frequently uphold freedom of expression under dictatorial or military regimes, and that opposition by publishers to colegios seems to be based on economic rather than “free press” grounds.
“Who Was 'Shadow'?” the Computer Knows: Applying Grammar-Program Statistics in Content Analyses to Solve Mysteries About Authorship
Authors: Ellis Barbara G. , Dick Steven J.
Published: December 2011

This study's objective was to employ the statistics-documentation portion of a word-processing program's grammar-check feature as a final, definitive, and objective tool for content analyses - used in tandem with qualitative analyses - to determine authorship. Investigators concluded there was significant evidence from both modalities to support their theory that Henry Watterson, long-time editor of the Louisville Courier- Journal, probably was the South's famed Civil War correspondent “Shadow” and to rule out another prime suspect, John H. Linebaugh of the Memphis Daily Appeal. Until now, this Civil War mystery has never been conclusively solved, puzzling historians specializing in Confederate journalism.
Audience Recall of AIDS PSAs Among U.S. and International College Students
Authors: Lee Jung-Sook , Davie William R.
Published: December 2011

Results from an experimental study show that the audience recall of AIDS PSAs is related to message appeal types, cultural identity, and gender. PSA messages with strong emotional appeals are better remembered by college students than the rational appeal messages. The U.S. viewers recall more of the AIDS prevention messages than the international participants. Results also show that college women recall more AIDS PSA messages than college men in general, and emotional AIDS message appeals in particular. The pattern indicates an exact reversal of differences between two message-appeal types for each gender.
Appropriating Reality: Consumers' Perceptions of Schema-Inconsistent Advertising
Authors: Warlaumont Hazel G.
Published: December 2011

Appropriating realism has resulted in a plethora of advertising styles mimicking news, documentary, and editorial formats - breaking a long tradition of distorting reality for the consumer rather than replicating it. Using schema theory to explain consumers' expectations of what they expect to see in advertisements, this study surveyed consumers about their perceptions of reality-style advertising and its associations. The study suggested that these “hybrid” styles triggered values and meaning generally associated with more realistic forms of communication, perhaps making realism an involving and positive marketing strategy.
The Contribution of Local Media to Community Involvement
Authors: Stamm Keith R. , Emig Arthur G. , Hesse Michael B.
Published: December 2011

Do local media contribute to individuals' involvement in a community? The “community integration hypothesis” has long held they do, but a recent test based on a stricter measurement criterion shows the extent of contribution may have been overestimated. Results also suggest some media contribute more than others, and the relative contribution of each medium depends upon the individual's stage of settling into the community. The study is based on a probability telephone survey of 432 respondents.
Targets, Effects, and Perpetrators of Sexual Harassment in Newsrooms
Authors: Brown Cindy M. , Flatow Gail M.
Published: December 2011

Results of a random sample survey of Indiana journalists concerning targets, perpetrators, and effects of sexual harassment are used to test two theoretical models that have been formulated to explain sexual harassment — the sociocultural model and the organizational model. Both models are grounded in a conception of power differences between harassed and harasser. Survey responses show both models have explanatory power. However, the two models explain the same results in different ways and sometimes combinations of the models provide better explanations of the results than simple versions.
The Impact of the Baseball Strike on Newspapers
Authors: Wanta Wayne , Kunz William M.
Published: December 2011

A survey of 227 editors examined how newspapers were affected by the 1994 major league baseball strike. Overall, the nation's largest newspapers were most affected. Larger papers cut the space devoted to sports more than smaller papers. Smaller papers increased football coverage, while larger papers increased their coverage of minor league baseball. Larger papers also were more likely to report loss of circulation due to the baseball strike. Very few papers reported any loss of advertising revenue.
Native American Stereotypes, TV Portrayals, and Personal Contact
Authors: Tan Alexis , Fujioka Yuki , Lucht Nancy
Published: December 2011

This study tests hypotheses derived from extremity-complexity and stage theories of stereotyping which predict that frequency of contact with a minority group leads to knowledge which then leads to positive group evaluations. We also test hypotheses from learning theories of behavior which predict that evaluations of contact with minority groups determine group evaluations. The hypotheses are tested for direct personal contact and vicarious contact via television.

We administered questionnaires to white college students to measure the contact variables and stereotypes of Native Americans. Results show strong support for the learning hypotheses, but not for extremity-complexity theories of stereotyping. Evaluations of first contact as pleasant or unpleasant, frequency of contact, and evaluations of TV portrayals as negative or positive predict stereotyping. Implications for stereotyping theories are discussed.
The Case of “Alvarez” vs. “Albertson”: Effects of Author's Ethnicity on Evaluation of News Stories
Authors: Burkhart Ford N. , Sigelman Carol , Frith Katherine T.
Published: December 2011

Newspapers believe the ethnic composition of newsrooms should mirror the society that journalists seek to understand and record. Yet little research has addressed how readers react to the ethnicity of a journalist. In two experiments manipulating ethnicity in bylines and good news/ bad news treatment, an Hispanic author was highly likely to be associated in readers' minds with a glowing article about Hispanics, but was unlikely to be credited with authorship of a positive article about Anglos. The Hispanic author was evaluted no differently than was the Anglo-American author of comparable skill. Negative treatments of news were regarded as better stories than the positive treatments.
Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830–1847: The Impact of Heterogeneity and Modernity
Authors: Burrowes Carl Patrick
Published: December 2011

Using data drawn from Liberia, West Africa (1830 to 1847), this study tested two propositions offered by historian John D. Stevens concerning a possible correlation between legal restrictions on the press and cultural homogeneity on the one hand and a lack of economic development on the other. Although Liberia seemed to meet both criteria suggested by Stevens, an outbreak of social tensions in 1840 did not lead to restrictions on the opposition Africa's Luminary newspaper, despite the existence of a sedition law. In conclusion, it is argued that the week predictive power of these propositions was due large to imprecise definitions of key terms.
The Influence of Commercial Humor on Program Enjoyment and Evaluation
Authors: Perry Stephen D. , Jenzowsky Stefan A. , Hester Joe Bob , King Cynthia M. , Yi Huiuk
Published: December 2011

The theory of excitation transfer has been used to explain why residual stimulation from a program can heighten response to commercials aired within the program. This research examines the reverse phenomenon with commercial humor levels affecting the program. Higher humor levels in otherwise identical commercials were shown to enhance viewer enjoyment of humorous television programs in a 2 × 2 × 2 experimental design. Programs were rated on a composite measure labeled “program entertainment value.”
A Content Analysis of Content Analyses: Twenty-Five Years of Journalism Quarterly
Authors: Riffe Daniel , Freitag Alan
Published: December 2011

Examination of the increasing number of articles employing quantitative content analysis in 1971–95 Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly showed primary focus on news/editorial content in U.S. media. Nearly half examined newspapers, and half were coauthored. Most used convenience or purposive samples. Few involved a second research method or extra-media data, explicit theoretical grounding, or research questions or hypotheses. Half reported intercoder reliability, and two-fifths used only descriptive statistics. Analysis of trends shows growth in coauthorship and reporting of reliability, and increasing emphasis on more sophisticated statistical analysis. No parallel trend exists, however, in use of explicit hypotheses/research questions or theoretical grounding.
Self-Perceived Knowledge of the O.J. Simpson Trial: Third-Person Perception and Perceptions of Guilt
Authors: Driscoll Paul D. , Salwen Michael B.
Published: December 2011

This study tested the “third-person effect” during the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial. The perceptual component of the third-person effect predicts that people judge themselves to be less susceptible to media influence than other people. Findings from a nationwide telephone survey indicated that respondents' self-perceived knowledge about the legal issues involved in the Simpson trial was correlated with third-person perception of a perceived “neutral” media message. Self-perceived knowledge was not correlated with third-person perceptual bias of a perceived “biased” message. It was suggested that the biased message primed respondents' perceptions of Simpson's guilt or innocence. The relative contributions of various predictors of third-person perception were assessed using regression analysis.
Contrast in U.S. Media Coverage of two Major Canadian Elections
Authors: Husselbee L. Paul , Stempel Guido H.
Published: December 2011

U.S. media have long ignored Canada. However, when Quebec came close to voting for secession from the rest of Canada in 1995, it was front-page news in major U.S. newspapers and a big story in news magazines and on network TV newscasts. Yet, the election a year earlier that had set the stage for the secession referendum was largely ignored. Both events contained the elements that gatekeeping studies say predict coverage such as proximity, relevance, implications for trade and threat to the United States, yet the coverage differed markedly.
Speaking Up and Silencing Out in Face of a Changing Climate of Opinion
Authors: Shamir Jacob
Published: December 2011

This paper relies on panel data from Israel to test the spiral of silence theory's assumptions concerning overt expression of opinion. The research design provides a way to examine the effect of a changing climate of opinion on who speaks up and who silences out over time and changing circumstances. In addition, a multivariate approach is adopted to test the role of climate perceptions relative to other factors, and extend our understanding of public speech. Perceptions of the climate of opinion are found to be related to overt expression of opinion cross-sectionally; however, their impact is not consistent and weaker than other factors. General political involvement is most important, and also various sociodemographic characteristics of people are more powerful than climate perceptions. Over time this relationship does not hold, and the paper focuses on political discontent and value expression considerations.
The Journalist's Personality: An Exploratory Study
Authors: Henningham John
Published: December 2011

Personality, a little-explored variable in studies of journalists, may prove useful in understanding news people's values and motivations. A short test of two personality dimensions was applied to a random sample of 173 Australian journalists, who were found to be more extroverted than the general population, but not significantly different on the dimension of neuroticism. Job stress was related both to neuroticism and to extroversion, while extroversion was related to the valuing of information disseminating roles of media and of direct feedback from the public. Early success in journalism was related positively to extroversion and negatively to neuroticism. Further approaches to the study of personality in journalism are suggested.
Toward a “Philosophy of Framing”: News Narratives for Public Journalism
Authors: Parisi Peter
Published: December 2011

Civic journalism advances discussion of news as a coherent narrative of the world, serving particular interests. But in practice, it limits its horizons to community news agendas and solutions. To define a truly public journalism, a story on the threat of environmental catastrophe is analyzed. The analysis suggests that journalism must in significant part be an active narrative initiative carried forward by journalists themselves. The difficulties lying in the way of realizing public journalism are also discussed.
Differences Among Newspapers, Television, and Radio in their Contribution to Knowledge of the Contract with America
Authors: Stamm Keith , Johnson Michelle , Martin Brennon
Published: December 2011

While communications research has shown a contribution to citizens' knowledge of political affairs from newspapers and television, it has not shown a similar contribution for radio. This study questions those findings, asking if researchers' failure to find a contribution to radio is due to inadequacies in sampling and measurement techniques. In this study, commuters were sampled and asked about their attention to media coverage of the Contract With America, a topic of heavy discussion on talk radio. The authors found that radio made as large a contribution to respondents' knowledge of this particular political issue as newspapers and television. They suggest future studies of learning about political affairs for media should include radio in their analysis.
News Media, Candidates and Issues, and Public Opinion in the 1996 Presidential Campaign
Authors: Domke David , Fan David P. , Fibison Michael , Shah Dhavan V. , Smith Steven S. , Watts Mark D.
Published: December 2011

There are two primary goals with this research. First, we examine whether news media were biased in coverage of the candidates or issues during the 1996 U.S. presidential campaign, as Republican Party candidate Bob Dole and others claimed. Second, we use an ideodynamic model of media effects to examine whether the quantity of positive and negative news coverage of the candidates was related to the public's preference of either Bill Clinton or Dole. The model posits that a candidate's level of support at any time is a function of the level of previous support (as measured in recent polls) plus changes in voters' preferences due to media coverage in the interim. This model allows exploration of whether news media coverage, alone, could predict the public's presidential preference in 1996. Using a computer content analysis program, 12,215 randomly sampled newspaper stories and television transcripts were examined from forty-three major media outlets from 10 March to 6 November 1996. Findings reveal both remarkably balanced media coverage of the two principal candidates, Clinton and Dole, and a powerful relationship between media coverage and public opinion.
Foreign Media Exposure and Perceptions of Americans in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Singapore
Authors: Willnat Lars , He Zhou , Xiaoming Hao
Published: December 2011

This study examines the relationship between foreign media exposure and stereotypical perceptions of and feelings toward Americans in Hong Kong, Shenzhen (China), and Singapore. In line with previous studies, it finds that foreign TV consumption is related to negative stereotypical perceptions of and feelings toward Americans among all tested subjects. However, it also finds that different types of foreign media, such as newspaper, radio, video, and movies, exhibit very distinct and different relationships with perceptions of Americans by subjects from China and Singapore. It suggests that in studies of foreign media impact, attention should be given to specific foreign media channels, the actual content of the media, the impact of local media, the stages at which other cultures encounter the Western culture, and the cultural context of each society.
Toward an Understanding of Cultural Values Manifest in Advertising: A Content Analysis of Chinese Television Commercials in 1990 and 1995
Authors: Cheng Hong
Published: December 2011

Based on Richard Pollay's concept that advertising is a “distorted mirror,” the author analyzed the content of 483 Chinese television commercials in 1990 and 1995. Results show that “modernity,” “technology,” and “youth” predominate in Chinese advertising in the 1990s, and the dominance of “quality” in 1990 was superseded by “tradition” in 1995. Symbolic values from both Eastern and Western cultures occurred more frequently in 1995. This change implies that contemporary Chinese advertising is not only a “distorted mirror” but a “melting pot” of cultural values. Results also indicate that the new advertising law taking effect on 1 February 1995 did not reduce Western values depicted in Chinese commercials.
Intercounty Group Ownership of Daily Newspapers and the Decline of Competition for Readers
Authors: Lacy Stephen , Simon Todd F.
Published: December 2011

This study used a national sample to estimate the potential for intercounty daily competition and how many counties contained dailies whose companies owned a daily in an adjoining county. In 1993, an estimated 347 dailies circulated in adjoining counties in which another daily was headquartered. In 113 such situations, the intruding daily reached 10 percent or more penetration in the adjoining county. Intercounty ownership existed in about 15 percent of all counties in 1983, 20 percent in 1988, and 18 percent in 1993. Intercounty ownership was associated with reduced overall county penetration and reduced intercounty competition.
Scheduling Practices Based on Audience Flow: What are the Effects on New Program Success?
Authors: Adams William J.
Published: December 2011

This study looked at the effects of lead-in, lead-out, hammocking, and block programming on new programs' renewal rates and the ability of new programs to improve upon the ratings, shares, and rankings compared to the program replaced, the lead-in, and the follow-up. The study found that while these scheduling methods are used with more than 80 percent of new programs, they made no real difference as far as improving rank, rating, or share were concerned. However, they did increase renewal rates. The study also found that the use of these scheduling methods increased even as their effectiveness decreased. Finally, the study found absolute ratings, regardless of whether the numbers represent a gain or a loss, play an increasingly important role in renewal decisions.
Prime-Time Stereotyping on the New Television Networks
Authors: Eaton B. Carol
Published: December 2011

This content analysis examines portrayals of women in prime-time promotional announcements broadcast on five television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and UPN) during one week in 1995. Findings supported the hypotheses that (1) women are underrepresented in all television networks' promotional announcements, and that (2) stereotypical portrayals of women in these announcements varied due to the television network's target audience. Specifically, television program promotional announcements on networks that seek a younger male audience contained more stereotypical female characters than other network programming produced for a more general audience.
The Visible Hand: Money, Markets, and Media Evolution
Authors: Abrahamson David
Published: December 2011

While the precise future evolution of the Internet remains uncertain, the historical development of other media, e.g., magazines in the twentieth century and broadcasting since World War II, may offer useful parallels. It is argued that significant analogous developments in the Internet's future are likely to include pervasive commercialization, niche-building and fractionation, less governmental regulation and oversight, and considerable economic concentration.
The Internet and the End of the National Communication System: Uncertain Predictions of an Uncertain Future
Authors: Carey James W.
Published: December 2011

The Internet should be understood as the first instance of a global communication system. That system, in turn, is displacing a national system of communications which came into existence at the end of the nineteenth century as a result of the railroad and telegraph, and was “perfected” in subsequent innovations through television in the network era. Such transformations involve not only technical change but the complex alteration of physical, symbolic, and media ecologies which together will determine the impact of the medium.
The Ideology, Rhetoric, and Organizational Structure of a Countermovement Publication: The Remonstrance, 1890–1920
Authors: Burt Elizabeth V.
Published: December 2011

This article examines the anti-suffrage ideology, rhetoric, and structure of The Remonstrance, the publication of the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women. As a counter- movement publication, The Remonstrance was principally reactive, that is, driven to respond to suffrage claims and strategies. Basic themes illustrated the ideology of the anti-suffrage movement. Further, the anti-suffrage ideology was reflected in the organizational structure of both the MAOFESW and The Remonstrance. Although they changed over time, they failed to keep step with the broad social changes affecting women's lives in the early twentieth century.
News Before Newspapers
Authors: Streckfuss Richard
Published: December 2011

From 1513 to 1640, news pamphlets informed and entertained the English. Such publications have been difficult to identify and little has been written about them. More than 1,200 pamphlets were identified by reviewing entries in the Short Title Catalogue. They were then analyzed by numbers produced and subject matter. Factors that news pamphlets may share with modern news formats - including subject matter, sales methods, and newsgathering techniques - are described. Their characteristic tone is also examined. It is suggested that news pamphlets may help media historians examine what is universal about the news and what is culturally influenced.
Reputational Assault: A Critical and Historical Analysis of Gender and the Law of Defamation
Authors: Borden Diane L.
Published: December 2011

This article looks at the manner in which the U.S. judicial system treats men and women differently in terms of reputational harm. It explores a variety of state statutes that encode such differences as well and places both court cases and legislative enactments in the context of the development of women's history. It shows that women's reputations are generally discussed in terms of virtue, while men's reputations are cast in terms of honor. The article shows how the women's experience with the law of defamation is quite different from the experience of men in two time periods.
Of Horse Race and Policy Issues: A Study of Gender in Coverage of a Gubernatorial Election by two Major Metropolitan Newspapers
Authors: Serini Shirley A. , Powers Angela A. , Johnson Susan
Published: December 2011

This study of news coverage of a gubernatorial race suggests (1) gender may be a larger factor in selection of policy stories than in selection of horse race stories; (2) coverage of the horse race, particularly news coverage of advertising strategy, appears to have greater impact on the outcome of the election than coverage of policy issues; (3) a woman will be more successful in a political race if she presents herself as a man.
Newspaper Photographs and the 1996 Presidential Election: The Question of Bias
Authors: Waldman Paul , Devitt James
Published: December 2011

This article presents results of a content analysis of photographs of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole appearing in five major newspapers during the last two months of the 1996 presidential campaign. Clinton is found to have received slightly better pictorial treatment, with the most substantial difference found in the Chicago Tribune, an editorially conservative paper. In addition, a week-by-week analysis finds that photos of the two candidates rose and fell together in favorability. Placing the current study in the context of previous content analyses, the authors reject the conclusion of “liberal bias” in the press coverage of presidential campaigns, arguing instead for the presence of a strategic bias benefiting the front-runner.
Cruising is Believing?: Comparing Internet and Traditional Sources on Media Credibility Measures
Authors: Johnson Thomas J. , Kaye Barbara K.
Published: December 2011

This study surveyed politically-interested Web users online to examine whether they view Web publications as credible as their traditionally- delivered counterparts. Credibility is crucial for the Internet because past studies suggest people are less likely to pay attention to media they do not perceive as credible. This study found online media tended to be judged more credible than their traditional versions. However, both online and traditional media were only judged as somewhat credible.
Web Page Design and Graphic Use of three U.S. Newspapers
Authors: Li Xigen
Published: December 2011

A content analysis of three U.S. Internet newspapers has found that Internet newspapers gave more priority to providing textual information than graphic information, and large graphics were more likely to appear on homepages than on frontpages and news article pages. The news links and the multiple communication channels adopted by Internet newspapers in web page design created a new environment of communication, involving more than host newspaper and initial audience. With interconnected links, the traditional one-to-many newspaper publishing process turned into many-to-many communication centered with and facilitated by the host Internet newspapers. The interconnected news links brought in audience participation in producing newspaper content and providing information beyond the original newspaper content, which demonstrates a shift of balance of communicative power from sender to receiver.
What Were You Thinking? A Survey of Journalists who were Sued for Invasion of Privacy
Authors: Voakes Paul S.
Published: December 2011

Forty-two journalists who had been sued for invasion of privacy were asked to reconstruct the thought processes that led to the publication (or broadcast) that brought the lawsuit. Findings indicate that the journalists were generally unaware of impending legal trouble; that they perceived these situations as fundamentally ethical to a slightly greater degree than they perceived them as legal; and that legal reasoning seems to take place in a “total context” of social factors. The study raises further questions about the relationship between ethical and legal consciousness in journalists' everyday decision-making.
Sample Size in Multi-Year Content Analyses of Monthly Consumer Magazines
Authors: Lacy Stephen , Riffe Daniel , Randle Quint
Published: December 2011

This study examined efficient sampling for content analyzing monthly consumer magazines during a five-year period. As with other forms of media content, sampling of monthly consumer magazines is more efficient using a stratified sample than a simple random sample. When sampling from a five-year period, a constructed year of twelve issues (one issue randomly selected from among the issues in each month) is more efficient and accurate than twenty randomly selected issues - the smallest simple random sample meeting standards of efficiency on all content measures.
Public Opinion on Investigative Reporting in the 1990s: Has Anything Changed since the 1980s?
Authors: Willnata Lars , Weaver David H.
Published: December 2011

In view of the recent developments in public attitudes toward the use of investigative reporting, this study compares past findings on perceived public importance of investigative reporting and the acceptability of different reporting methods with findings from a national telephone survey of 1,211 respondents conducted in February 1997 by Princeton Survey Research Associates. While past studies only found weak relationships between approval of investigative reporting and respondents' individual-level characteristics, this study hypothesizes that the increased use of these techniques in popular television shows and local evening news has created a highly divided audience which, while paying great attention to reports that use investigative reporting techniques, either strongly approves or disapproves of their use. Findings indicate that the best predictor for whether people approve or disapprove of investigative reporting is their general attitude toward the media's role in society, rather than increased exposure to investigative news stories.
U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Human Rights in Latin America, 1975–1982: Exploring President Carter's Agenda-Building Influence
Authors: Cassara Catherine
Published: December 2011

President Jimmy Carter's elevation of human rights to a major foreign policy concern had an impact on U.S. news coverage of Latin America. In the mid-1970s, U.S. coverage of Latin America was erratic at best. By the time Carter left office, the U.S. media had significantly increased both the resources and space devoted to covering the region.
“Their Rising Voices”: A Study of Civil Rights, Social Movements, and Advertising in the New York Times
Authors: Ross Susan Dente
Published: December 2011

This content analysis of the New York Times and review of NAACP records documents strategic use of advertising in the New York Times by the civil rights movement between 1955 and 1961. The advertisements are scrutinized in light of theories of social movements, communication, and sociology, and the history of the civil rights movement. The ads framed the civil rights movement to prime the audience to receive radical messages from marginalized speakers, to encourage media legitimization of the movement, to popularize movement goals, and to mobilize support and resources beyond the South.
“Delays and Vexation”: Jack London and the Russo-Japanese War
Authors: Sweeney Michael S.
Published: December 2011

Jack London and his colleagues attempting to cover the Russo-Japanese War in Korea and Manchuria in 1904 were subjected to systematic and highly restrictive censorship as they tried to send their dispatches to their home newspapers. Little has been written about London and his work as a journalist; this paper examines one part of that career and focuses on the difficulties he encountered in his effort to report on that conflict.
Public Affairs Decision Making in the U.S. Air Force: An Application of Multiattribute Utility Theory
Authors: David Prabu , Pierson Michael M.
Published: December 2011

Public relations decision making by U.S. Air Force public affairs personnel was evaluated by using multiattribute utility theory. Exploratory cluster analysis revealed that only 48% of the decisions adequately fit the public relations excellence criteria of accommodation and long-term relationship building. Fourteen percent of the decisions were based on asymmetrical options with a clear emphasis on leverage for the organization, and 37% of the decisions focused on communication tactics. There was a negative correlation between strength of relationship with the supervisor and preference for symmetrical solutions. Furthermore, female employees reported a weaker relationship with their supervisors than their male counterparts.
The Sound Bites, the Biters, and the Bitten: A Two-Campaign Test of the Anti-Incumbent Bias Hypothesis in Network TV News
Authors: Lowry Dennis T. , Shidler Jon A.
Published: December 2011

This study is the first longitudinal study to address two separate lines of research—sound bite research and news bias research—within a single network TV news study. Presidential and vice presidential campaign stories from Campaign '92 (ninety-nine newscasts) and Campaign '96 (100 newscasts) were analyzed to test the anti-incumbent bias hypothesis. The overall conclusions of this study were that (a) the anti-incumbent bias hypothesis received only minimal support, and (b) in both campaigns, Republicans tended to be negatively bitten more often than Democrats. In this respect, the networks were not equal-opportunity biters.
Women Making News: Gender as a Variable in Source Selection and Use
Authors: Zoch Lynn M. , Turk Judy VanSlyke
Published: December 2011

An important dimension of agenda setting is the way in which the media frame the issues and events they present to the public. This article focuses on one of the most important dimensions of framing: choice of information source—the selections journalists make from among the many possible and potential holders of information of those sources whose information and viewpoints will actually be included in the news. In particular, this content analysis often years of three southern newspapers focuses on the inclusion of female sources in newspaper stories and analyzes whether the gender of the reporter affects that inclusion.
Courage of Convictions: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the New York Times, and Reform of the Pure Food and Drug Act, 1933–1937
Authors: Witherspoon Elizabeth M.
Published: December 2011

The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 and the Wheeler-Lea Amendment to the Federal Trade Commission Act became law together after five years of intense lobbying as a relatively weak compromise over the original proposal to overhaul the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Conscious of threats by the drug industry to cancel all advertising if the legislation passed, many newspapers participated in the effort to defeat it by editorializing against it or omitting coverage altogether. This study shows that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was an exception and actually crusaded for reform of the Food and Drug Act.
Newsroom Topic Teams: Journalists' Assessments of Effects on News Routines and Newspaper Quality
Authors: Hansen Kathleen A. , Neuzil Mark , Ward Jean
Published: December 2011

This study examines the effects of newsroom topic teams on news routines and newspaper quality. It is based on a census survey of journalists at the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which both instituted topic teams within six months of each other. Survey results are supplemented by focus group and written comments from journalists in these two Newspaper Guild newsrooms. The study finds that the effects of the team system on the news process and news quality have been mixed, but predominantly negative, in the assessment of these journalists.