Mass Communication and Society 1998 Abstracts
Mass Communication and Society Division
Voter’s Election Involvement and Media Attention: Intention to Vote Commitment to a Candidate, and Partisanship • Soontae An, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Newspaper Consumption and Beliefs about Canada and Quebec • Michael Antecol and James W. Endersby, Missouri • This research examines the linkage between types of newspapers read by Canadians and individual feelings toward Quebec and Canada. A regression model, controlling for demographic characteristics and socioeconomic indicators, reveals that consumers of French language newspapers have significantly more positive feelings toward the province of Quebec and more negative assessments of the nation of Canada. Reader of (English-language) nationally-oriented papers, however, have more favorable views of Quebec that other Canadians.
Taking Liberties: Crystal Eastman, Media Ethics and the Exercise of a Free Press • Amy Beth Aronson, New York • Crystal Eastman (1881-1928) was a labor attorney, peace attorney, peace activist, radical organizer, and journalist whose work engaged virtually every major social movement of the twentieth century feminism, antimilitarism, socialism, and civil rights. Although less famous than her editor brother, the radical Max Eastman, Crystal Eastman drafted New York State’s first worker’s compensation law in 1910, was a founder of the American Union Against Militarism in 1914, was president of the Women’s Peace Party of New York in 1917, was co-owner and Managing Editor of the radical magazine, The Liberator (1918-24), and was instrumental in founder the Civil Liberties Bureau, which in 1920 became the ACLU.
Marketing A Movement: Media Relations Strategies of the Gay and Lesbian Movement • Jane R. Ballinger, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona • This study documents via content analysis changes in news media coverage of gay and lesbian marches on Washington, D.C. in 1987 and 1993. Interviews with movement leaders reveal that increased prioritization of and sophistication in the movement’s media relations strategies in the time period between the marches contributed to improved news media coverage of the movement. The study also considers additional factors that may have contributed to improvements in news coverage of the movement over time.
Talk Radio as Forum and Companion: Listener Attitudes and Uses and Gratifications in Austin, Texas • John Beatty, North Carolina-Pembroke • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Poor Vision of Intelligence: The Very White, Very Male, and Very Professional World of Jeopardy! • Joseph P. Bernt, Ohio University • When FCC chairman Newton Minow described television as “a vast wasteland” in the early 1960s, perhaps he did not foresee or understand the social and cultural impact television would have on our society. Indeed, many critics of television have used terms such as the “boob tube” or “plug-in drug” to describe what they believed was a detrimental addition to society. Too often such critics fail to deal with the simple reality • good or bad, welcomed or unwelcomed • that television has become as central to American life as the automobile or telephone.
Intermedia Agenda Setting in the 1996 Presidential Election • Thomas P. Boyle, Susquehanna University • This study on the network news coverage across two time periods during the 1996 presidential election. Results from a content analysis of 116 political advertisements, 818 newspaper stories, and 101 network news stories found support for the belief that advertising influences the prominence of an issue within network newscasts, but not in the overall time devoted to it. Also, findings suggest prestige newspapers play a role in determining what issues lead television newscasts.
Auto Elite and Agenda-Setting: How the Auto Elite Set the Trade Policy Agenda? • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Oregon • The automotive industry leaders were illustrated through a descriptive content analysis as the agenda-setters for U.S. newspapers on their news coverage of the auto trade conflict between American and Japan. The study reveals that Lee Iacocca, alongside other auto elite, set the agenda for the New York Times and the Detroit News, both of which rely heavily upon these auto elite, and through them, U.S. presidents, Congressmen and U.S. Trade Representatives as the Primary news sources.
Television Viewing and Aliens’ Perceptions of the United States • Xueyi Chen, Syracuse University • The effects of television viewing have been the subject of communication research for many decades. Does television viewing truly influence individuals’ perception of social reality? Is the medium or the system the message (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan & Signorielli, 1994)? Do relationships between television viewing and conceptions vary according to audience from different cultures? Are there any contributions of television to viewers’ conceptions of social reality relatively “global” (Morgan, 1990).
Print Mass Media Coverage of the Promise Keepers: The First Five Years • Dane Claussen, Georgia • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Thoughtful Self-Critique of Journalistic Cannibalism? International Press Coverage of Princess Diana’s Death • Martin Eichholz, Syracuse University • This study focused on the unexplored field of media self-critique and used the news coverage of Britain’s Princess Diana’s death to analyze differences between elite papers and tabloids as well as differences between German and US papers. Results show that elite papers’ coverage was more likely to focus on the media’s role and more likely to critique the media than the tabloids’ coverage. No significant differences were found between German and US papers regarding the amount of media critique they provided in their coverage.
Sex and Lies in the White House: How Journalists Wrote Themselves into the Story • Elizabeth Fakazis and Adrienne Russell, Indiana • Coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky story instigated a wave of media criticism by journalists, journalism professors, and journalists-turned critics. This study examines how those connected with the profession explained, defended or criticized their performance to the public and each other in news stories. These stories fall within the dominant discourse of journalistic professionalism, confirming the professional status of journalism and efficacy of the norms and standards already in place.
Premodernism: Aristotle and Diana • Bob Frank, Berry College • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Can Social Comparison Theory Explain Fascination with TV Talk Shows? • Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri • Mass Media commentaries suggest that television talk shows are dramatically increasing and have become quite popular with American viewers. Despite the public’s interest in TV talk shows, mass media researchers have paid little attention to assessing the short-term and long-term effects of watching these programs. I is hypothesized that self-enhancement or feeling better about oneself and one’s life may be a reason people watch what some consider to be trashy, morbid TV programs.
Agenda-Setting and Spanish Cable News • Salma I. Ghanem, Texas-Pan American and Wayne Wanta, Oregon • A survey conducted in a highly Hispanic area examined whether exposure to Spanish-language cable news had an agenda-setting effect. Results show that level of exposure was associated with agenda-setting effects for Spanish cable news, but perceived media credibility and media reliance were not related to the strength of agenda-setting effects. Exposure, credibility and reliance were not associated with agenda-setting effects for English-language newscasts — perhaps because English-speakers had more news options in our survey area.
Reporters’ Politics and Their Use of Political Sources in State Government Reporting • Eileen Gilligan, Wisconsin-Madison • This study examines the relationship between statehouse newspaper reporters and their sources. A content analysis was conducted using a total sample of 864 articles written by 28 reporters in four states. The reporters also were surveyed. No significant relationships were found between reporters’ political orientations and their use of political sources. However, reporters were found to use more sources that supported the status quo, specifically the political party in power in each state.
Do Social Norms and Media Coverage Influence Illicit Drug Trial Among College Students? Implications for Media Practitioners and Drug Educators • Alyse R. Gotthoffer, Florida • Illicit drug use by college students is hardly a recent phenomenon. According to an annual survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 31.4% of full-time college students had tried an illicit drug in the past year (1994). The most prevalent of these drugs was marijuana, followed by hallucinogens, LSD, and stimulants, respectively. In addition, 16% of these students had used an illicit drug in the previous 30 days (1994).
Explicating Sensationalism in Television News: Content and the Bells and Whistles of Form • Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Shuhua Zhou and Brooke Barnett, Indiana • Sensationalism in journalism has been a popular topic of fiery discussions for centuries. Yet, it appears that this topic is more often debated than systematically investigated. Indeed, the word sensationalism has become an easy name-calling device for those who are in the mood for criticizing the mass media. Even in academic circles the term has been used with little precision. The notion of sensationalism is in desperate need of explication.
Journalistic and Humanist Approaches: Movie Reviews in The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly • James Kendrick, Baylor University • This study compared reviews of 15 movies in Entertainment Weekly and The New Yorker to determine whether they used a journalistic or humanist approach, according to Bywater and Sobchack (1989). Using content analysis, the researcher coded for humanist mentions in eight major categories. The results showed that both magazines employed the journalistic approach in the majority of their reviews, which meant they concentrated more on describing facts about the movies rather than interpreting humanist traits.
Poll Wars in 1996 Presidential Election: Did the Pollsters Fail? • Hyun K. Kim, Wisconsin-Stevens Point • In the 1996 U.S. presidential election, most of the pre-election polls gave President Clinton a double-digit lead over the GOP candidate Bob Dole. The polls, with one exception, overestimated Clinton’s actual eight percentage point margin. Even though error margins were factored in, most of the pre-election polls were hardly accurate in the public’s eyes. This study compared polls with the actual results, examining the sampling errors and nonsampling errors that affected the election projections.
Willingness to Censor: Developing a Quantitative Measurement Across Speech Categories and Types of Media • Jennifer L. Lambe, Minnesota • Previous research about individual attitudes towards free expression focuses either on one category of speech (like pornography), or treats expression as a single concept. The “Willingness to Censor” scale measures across seven speech categories, and seven types of media. Subjects respond to 49 scenarios, each incorporating a unique combination of speech category and medium. From this scale, it is possible to generate an overall willingness to censor score, and subscores for each category and medium.
Answering the Critics: Are News Councils Out to Get the Media? • Jennifer L. Lambe, Genelle I. Belmas and William A. Babcock, Minnesota • Nearly 15 years after the demise of the National News Council, there is a renewed debate about the need to establish some similar mechanism for handling public complaints against the media. Recent discussions reveal that there are still strong reservations on the part of many members of the news media. This paper addresses the question of whether news councils are a forum for media-bashing, using the records of the Minnesota News Council as a case study.
The Framing of Title IX: A Textual Analysis of The New York Times and The Washington Post, 1971-1975 • Julie B. Lane, Alexandria, VA • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Distinction and Integration: Socio-Demographic Determinants of Newspaper Reading in the U.S.A. and Germany, 1974-96 • Edmund Lauf and Klaus Schoenback, Germany; Jack M. McLeod and Dietram A. Scheufele, Wisconsin-Madison • Who reads daily newspapers in the U.S.A. and in Germany? Inspite of a steady decline of newspaper reading, its socio-demographic determinants have been surprisingly stable in each of the countries since the mid-1970s. A long-term comparative analysis of audience data suggests that newspapers serve different cultural functions: In the U.S.A., they seem to be an instrument of social distinction, in (West) Germany additionally one of social integration.
Constructing ‘Public Personage’: A Strategy of the Korean Press for a Safeguard Against Libel Suits • Jae-Jin Lee and Jongbae Hong, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • There is no doubt that the Korea press has been enjoying its “golden age” due to the sweeping democratization that began at the end of 1987. For the last decade, Korean press had expanded to a great extent, at least before Korean society was strongly struck by economic crisis in 1997. By the end of 1996, the number of daily newspapers increased to 282, which is nearly ten times as many as that in 1987.
The Use and Abuse of Media-Sponsored Opinion Polls in Two Presidential Campaigns: A Critical Analysis of Network TV News and Six Prestige Print Media • Dennis T. Lowry and Josephine Nio, Southern Illinois University • This study is the first longitudinal critical analysis of media-sponsored opinion polls by three different categories of prestige new media network TV, newspapers and news magazines. Poll stories from Campaign ‘92 and Campaign ‘96 were analyzed for conformity to AAPOR disclosure standards, and also for eight additional types of reporting/interpretation errors. Both the number of poll stories and the quality of poll stories was down in Campaign ‘96. Newspapers were the clear winner in conforming to AAPOR disclosure standards, and TV networks were the clear loser.
What’s in a Name Foreign Names and Their Influence on Perceived Reporter Credibility • Charles M. Mayo, Louisiana State University • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
Adolescence, Advertising, and the Menstrual Taboo • Debra Merskin, Oregon • Beliefs surrounding menstruation contribute to adolescent girls’ self-image in modern society. A content analysis shows that advertising in Seventeen and Teen continues to depict menstruation as a “hygienic crisis.” The findings suggest that not only do the ads carry messages from the past about cleanliness based on taboos, but also contribute to girls’ feelings about their bodies. This is important to researchers and consumers given that advertising is an important agent of socialization for adolescent girls.
Television Use and Social Capital: Testing Putnam’s Time Displacement Hypothesis • Patricia Moy, Dietram A. Scheufele and R. Lance Holberts, Wisconsin-Madison • Robert Putnam (1995a, 1995b) has charged that telecision is the driving force behind America’s decline in social capital. He argues that television viewing has privatized our leisure time, thus inhibiting participation outside the homes. However, Putna’s time displacement hypothesis has never been tested. We empirically examine the extent to which television reduces social capital through time displacement. Analyses of data from a Midwestern city (n=416) did not support the time displacement hypothesis; time spent with television did not affect civic engagement through perceptions of time pressure.
The Value of the Journalistic Identity on the World Wide Web • Ekaterina Ognianova, Southwest Texas State University • An experiment found that content providers on the Web associated with journalism, e.g., an online newspaper or television network online, were perceived as most credible, compared to a content provider that had nothing to do with journalism but was delivering news and an unidentified content provider. In content providers that had a journalistic identity, stories and ads were perceived as most credible. Stories were liked the most and likelihood of subscribing was the highest in the newspaper as perceived source.
Audience Responses to Mediated Terror: TV Coverage of the Ottawa Incident • Allen W. Palmer, Brigham Young University • Broadcast news reports of a hostage incident in Ottawa, Canada, are used in this experimental study to explore the question of how a media audience makes sense of mediated terrorism. The deliberate engagement of the news media by a terrorist nominally suggests control (top-down) of the construction of social meaning. Yet, meaning is sometimes seen as audience-centered as individuals draw upon idiosyncratic knowledge to make sense of news reports. Subjects (N=175) watched video reports of a hostage incident and then recorded responses.
Perceptions of Traditional American Journalists Toward the Internet as a News Source: A Critical Approach • Thomas E. Ruggiero, Bowling Green State University • This study examines, from a critical perspective, the perception of traditional American journalists toward the Internet as a news source. Specifically, it argues that because traditional American journalists are socialized both ideologically and professionally into the dominant ideology, many are refusing to share their elite positions as disseminators of news with the Internet. Analyzed data from the Lexis-Nexis database and American journalism review magazines indicates that a concerted effort by traditional American journalists to Repair the elite new paradigm against incursion by the Internet is occurring.
Social Reality Effects of the Mass Media: The Case of the Aum Shinrikyo Affair in Japan • Shinichi Saito, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and Miki Kawabata, Fukushima College for Women • The Aum Shinrikyo cult affair got massive mass media coverage in 1995. However, the media was severely criticized for its exaggerated and biased reports. This study examined the impact of the media coverage of the Aum issues on audiences. The results showed that the more respondents were exposed to the media coverage, the more they felt social anxiety or the worse their images of new religions becomes. Their implications for the cultivation perspective were discussed.
A Case Study: Daily Newspaper Editors’ Audience Construction Routines • Randall S. Sumpter, Texas A&M University • Media ethnographers have documented a variety of work routines used by reporters to establish the newsworthiness of events of persons in their negotiations with editors and sources. Less work has been devoted to the work routines of editors. In this case study of editors at a large daily newspaper, the observer identified several routines used by editors to socially construct substitute audiences and to reach marketing decisions about what stories should be offered to them.
Participation in Community Organizations and Consumption of TV and Newspaper News • Esther Thorson and Glenn Leshner, Missouri-Columbia • This study examined how habitual and “special” news consumption was related to three measures important for indexing how people are integrated with their own communities: participation in community organizations, voting, and knowledge about issues and occurrences important to their community. The hypothesis that news consumption is an important variable in how people relate to their communities was tested in five U.S. cities, each of which had experienced some kind of news media intervention (i.e., the “special news”).
Actual and Perceived Media Bias in Presidential Campaigns: Explaining Public Perceptions of a Liberal Press • Mark D. Watts, David Domke, Dhavan V. Shah and David P. Fan, Minnesota • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
In The Olympic Tradition: Sportscasters’ Language and Female Athleticism • Lisa M. Weidman, Syracuse University • Citing hegemony theory, the author argues that sports media reinforce patriarchal ideologies and dominant definitions of “femininity” and “masculinity.” Through a quantitative content analysis, comparing the way announcers on U.S. broadcasts of the 1996 summer Olympics spoke of female and male athletes, the author tests the hypothesis that sports announcers try to make female athletes seem more feminine and therefore more appealing. The hypotheses are not supported, indicating that media coverage of female athletes may be changing.
The Agenda-Setting Process of a Daily Newspaper: A Case Study • Elizabeth Evenson Williams, South Dakota • In this case study, the agenda-setting process of a Midwestern daily newspaper was examined through interviews with staff members along with a content analysis and other indicators. Five theoretical perspectives socialization, shared news values, definition of the situation, exchange theory and dominant ideology framed this study, and all were found to interact to shape the agenda-setting process. In addition, this study found that economic constraints, intermediate competition and role taking by staff members also played key parts in agenda setting.
CMPC (Computer Mediated Political Communication) and its Impact on the Political Process in Korea • Sook-Yeong Won, Bum-Soo Lee, Dong-Ah University and Eun-Ho Yeo, Cornell University • This study examines public participation in political process through CMPC (computer mediated political communication) in Korea. The authors examine political discussions from March to April, 1997, on two major on-line computer networks that are the most popular in Korea. The results show that CMPC in Korea is in its developing stage. Also, it is found that the public access to the political forum established by political forum established by political society tends to be difficult and private information is often not secured.
An Alternative to the Impasse: The Grassroots Approach to Cope with Media Violence Issues • Haoming Denis Wu and Lois A. Boynton, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • There has long been concern that television content that is violent in nature can have adverse effects on viewers, particularly children (see, for example, Comstock and Strasburger, 1993). Although television has been regulated by federal laws since its inception, these statutes do little to address content (Hughes and Hasbrouck, 1996). Most content regulation attempts have been met with stiff Constitutional resistance.
A Virtual Fetish: Themes of a Virtual Community as Presented in Time and Wired • Marjorie Lynne Yambor, Michigan State • A somewhat novel mania is sweeping society: the virtual community. The online virtual world of the internet represents the current state of virtual reality, providing an immersive environment in which individuals may interact with other; this alternative-playpen-existence has reached fetish status. People everywhere are discovering the lure of chat rooms, e-mail systems, internet games, and usenet news groups.
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