Newspaper 2003 Abstracts
Newspaper Division
War with Iraq: how The New York Times and the Guardian of London covered the story after the first Anniversary of the Sept. 11 Attacks • James H. Baden, Missouri • This study examines the news pertaining to the war with Iraq in The New York Times and the Guardian of London between Sept. 11, 2002, the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks, and Sept. 30, 2002. This examination found significant differences in how these two newspapers framed the invasion of Iraq story. The study suggests that The New York Times tended to frame its coverage with a more tone, and the Guardian of London framed its coverage with a more foreign official-negative tone.
Framing Freedom: Hoosier Republican and Democratic Newspaper Editors Frame Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation• David W. Bulla, Florida • In the fall of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln declared to his fragmented nation that slaves in the seceding states would be considered free on Jan. 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation changed the reason for fighting the war. No longer was the North only fighting to reunite with the South; now it was also fighting for the freedom of black men. What follows is an examination of how newspaper editors in Indiana chose to frame emancipation.
A Comparative Analysis of Source and Reporter Gender in Newsrooms Managed by Men Vs. Women • Stephanie Craft, Wayne Wanta and Cheolhan Lee, Missouri • The types of sources used by male and female reporters at newspapers with high and low percentages of women in managerial positions were compared through a content analysis. Male experts dominated as sources across all 30 newspapers in the study. Female reporters did use more female sources than their male counterparts. Similar sourcing patterns were found at newspapers with high percentages of female managers, but female reporters used more female non-experts and male reporters used more male non-experts at male-dominated newspapers.
The Convergence Continuum: A Model for Studying Collaboration between Media Newsrooms • Larry Dailey, Lori Demo and Mary Spillman, Ball State • This paper offers a conceptual framework for filling a void in the research on convergence and for extending research into gatekeeping and diffusion of innovation. It offers the Convergence Continuum as a dynamic model that defines news convergence as a series of behavior-based activities illustrating the interaction and cooperation levels of staff members at newspapers, television stations, and Web organizations with news partnerships. The continuum’s components provide media professionals with a touchstone as they develop cross-media alliances.
Partisan and Structural Balance in News Stories Covering Incumbent and Open Governor’s Races in Michigan • Fredrick Fico and Eric Freedman, Michigan State • A comparison of news stories about Michigan gubernatorial races 1998 and 2002 shows that the open race in 2002 was covered in a more even-handed way than the 1998 election, in which an incumbent sought reelection. The proportion of stories favoring the challenger was much higher in 1998 than was the proportion favoring either major candidate in 2002. An equal proportion of stories on the 2002 election favored each candidate.
Cultural Convergence: An Examination of Intergroup Bias and Journalism • Vincent F. Filak, Ball State • A survey of 189 print and broadcast journalists (n=189) assessed whether journalists possess characteristics of groups in an intergroup-bias dynamic. The participants rated a convergence plan more positively when they perceived it to have been created by members of their ingroup as opposed to their outgroup. Additionally, journalists were more positive toward the group that created the plan if they perceived the group not to be comprised solely of outgroup members.
The Perceived Credibility of Electronic Mail in Newspaper Newsgathering • Bruce Garrison, Miami • Journalists from U.S. daily newspapers responded to a national survey of the credibility of electronic mail use in newsgathering. Factor analysis produced a six-dimension solution. The dominant factor was appropriateness, but other factors focused upon completeness, sociability, clarity, timeliness, and techno-complexity. Journalists expressed concern for the perceived lack of accuracy and completeness, but were ambiguous about its sociability. Clarity and understandability were viewed as significant components, as were speed and timeliness. The high technology characteristic was seen as a complication.
Policing the Political Spinners: Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of Political Adwatches from 1988-2000 • Chris Glowaki, Thomas J. Johnson, Kristine E. Kranenburg, Southern Illinois-Carbondale • This study examined adwatch coverage in three national newspapers to explore if adwatches have increased over the last four presidential elections. This study also compared adwatches and general advertising stories to determine if they focused on accuracy or strategic elements. The number of adwatches fluctuated between campaigns, paralleling the fervor with which journalists covered the campaign in general. While general advertising stories focused on strategy over accuracy, most adwatch stories examined both strategy and accuracy.
The Evolution of Online Newspapers: A Longitudinal Content Analysis, 1997-2003 • Jennifer Greer and Donica Mensing, Nevada-Reno • This study tracked a panel of 83 Web sites produced by U.S. newspapers each year from 1997 to 2003, analyzing news, multimedia, interactivity, and potential revenue generating features present on the sites. Overall, the sites became increasing more sophisticated in each area, but small newspapers still lagged significantly behind their larger counterparts. The findings suggest that online newspapers are anything but stagnant as they approach the end of their first decade of existence.
The Paradox of Editorial Diversity: A Content Analysis of the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Post • Steve Hallock, Ron Rodgers, Mike Gennaria and Fei Wei, Ohio • A content analysis of editorials over a one-month period of two newspapers operating under a joint operating agreement in Cincinnati found that while the two papers did not differ ideologically, they did offer a high degree of diversity in editorial topics. The study also found that with the few editorials in which the two papers wrote on common topics, disagreement involved areas of focus within the editorials rather than opinions or conclusions.
Under Construction: Measures of Community-Building at Newspaper Web Sites • Cassandra Imfeld and Glenn Ward Scott, North Carolina • Working from the conceptualizations of Rheingold, Preece, Kim, Outing, and others, this paper examines the structure of interactive discussion forums embedded in U.S. newspapers’ online news sites. Researchers carried out a content analysis of 47 news sites, coding for 19 variables. Online sites of newspapers in four circulation strata were sampled. The study found no difference in structure based on newspaper circulation size but found suggestions that production choices can have implications for local discourse associated with the news.
The Summer of Fear: examining Newspaper Coverage of Child Abductions from a Public Health Perspective • Renee Martin Kratzer, Missouri • Child abductions across the nation captured the media’s attention in 2002. This study examines major newspapers’ coverage of these abductions to discover if the reporting placed the incidents into proper context or used a public health perspective. A content analysis of 196 newspaper stories reveals that less than a third cited statistics showing that the actual rate of child abductions by strangers is on the decline.
Agenda Building and the Media: A Content Analysis of the Relationship Between Candidates and the Media in the 2002 Michigan Governor’s Race • Karen M. Lancendorfer and Byoungkwan Lee, Michigan State • This study used content analysis to examine how the 2002 Michigan candidates for Governor presented election issues in press releases, and the subsequent media coverage of issues in Michigan newspapers. Analysis revealed positive cross-lagged correlations between candidate and media issue agendas, along with a reciprocal effect, indicating that candidates also run the risk of being influenced by the same media they are attempting to influence.
A Multistage Approach to Obtaining a Nationally Representative Sample of Local News Coverage • Marilee Long, Michael Slater and Linda Stapel, Colorado State • To accurately represent local media coverage of a news event or issue, content analysts must devise a systematic method for sampling local news coverage in markets nationwide. This paper presents one approach to constructing a valid national sample of local news coverage. Using dominant market areas (DMAs), which represent the dominant geographic area of influence for television stations, researchers can create a nationally representative sample of local media, including both television and newspaper coverage.
Searching for a New Paradigm: Results of the National Media Writing Faculty Survey • Mark Masse and Mark Popovich, Ball State • The initial objective of this national media writing faculty survey was to compile a contemporary profile of the typical U.S. journalism educator. This profile includes demographic data and information on pedagogical attitudes, practices and resources. The second, related objective was to search for a new, more integrated paradigm in the teaching of media writing — where instruction blends both product and process techniques, enabling students to gain confidence and proficiency in their craft.
Civil Liberties and Mobilization Information in Press Coverage of the USA PATRIOT Act • Jessica Matthews, Penn State • This paper provides a baseline for the amount of newspaper coverage of the USA PATRIOT Act and proposes a new method for content analysis that measures salience by considering every story that refers to the Act and the number of references per story. It expands the idea of mobilization information to issue awareness during the legislative process and finds that civil liberties concerns represent a complex issue for the press.
Quantifying Newspaper Quality “I Know It When I See It” • Philip Meyer and Koang-Hyub Kim, North Carolina • The bottom-line benefits of reducing newspaper quality are immediate and visible. The long-term costs in reduced reader loyalty are slower to materialize. We are taking the first small steps toward making those costs more visible. We survey current editors to get their collective judgment on valid indicators of newspaper quality. Then we use factor analysis to reduce their fine-grained rankings to five operable indicators: ease of use, localism, editorial vigor, news quantity, and interpretation.
Print Vs. Computer Screen Effects Of Medium On Proofreading Accuracy • Patty Wharton Michael, Penn State • This study was designed to examine whether the medium by which information is presented would influence participants’ proofreading accuracy. A general linear model ANCOVA was conducted to examine participants’ ability to detect proofreading errors in printed text compared to those on computer screens. The results suggest that the medium by which information is presented could influence participants’ proofreading accuracy, and that the participants’ familiarity with the topic of the text may hinder their ability to concentrate on the proofreading task.
Perceptions of the Audience by the Alternative Press Producers: A Case Study of The Texas Observer • Incheol Min, Chosun University • The study tests ideas about how the alternative press relates to its audience, comparing this with previously published literature about how mainstream media relate to their audiences. This study interviewed nine former and current producers in the Texas Observer to ask about their perceptions of the audience. Through interviews with staff members, the study concludes that the staff’s connection with its readers is closer than is usual for mainstream media and that the readership is politically active.
Angels and Demons: A 20-Year Analysis of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Feature Stories • Jeanie McAdams Moore, American and Chris Lamb, College of Charleston • This paper represents a critical analysis of Pulitzer Prize-winning features over the category’s first two decades, in an effort to contribute to the understanding of journalistic excellence in general, and Pulitzer quality in particular. The results indicated that there were, in fact, several common denominators shared by the winners. These themes included the expected stories of hardship and a marked preference for metropolitan newspapers based in the East, while other discoveries included a surprising recurrence of Christian metaphor to delineate “right” from “wrong.”
USA Today’s Handling of Sampling Error in its Election 2000 Polling • Matthew M. Reavy, Scranton • This paper examines how USA Today reported its own daily tracking poll during the 2000 U.S. presidential election, specifically the accuracy with which it reports who was leading the polls and changes in voter preference. The results indicate that USA Today had a tendency to discuss change and difference in its Election 2000 daily tracking poll even when that change or difference could be accounted for by sampling error. Implications of the findings for future election coverage are discussed.
No Substitute For Being There: How Statewide Public Affairs Television Tries To Fill The Gap For Journalists • Karen M. Rowley and David D. Kurpius, Louisiana State • Research has documented the diminishing resources traditional media devote to coverage of state government, while, at the same time, state government has grown increasingly complex. That places statehouse reporters across the country in the position of having to do more with less. Now a potential new tool has emerged for reporters in the form of statewide public affairs television. This comparative case study examines what use reporters are making of statewide public affairs television and what affect that has had on state government coverage.
Framing the Internet: Before and After the Tech Bust • Cindy Royal, Texas-Austin• This study analyzes the framing of the Internet in newspapers before and after March 2000, to test if market conditions change the way coverage of an issue is framed, this coloring the publics view, particularly those of non-users. Three years of Austin American-Statesman coverage were analyzed to determine relevant frames around the Internet and any patterns that were affected by the declining market.
The Sociology of Convergence: Challenges and Change in Newspaper News Work • Jane Singer, Iowa • A growing number of newsrooms around the country are experimenting with convergence, a sharing of news staffs, technologies, products and geography among the previously distinct provinces of print, television and online media. The demands of electronic media challenge many long-standing norms and routines of newspaper news work. This paper, based on case studies of four converged newsrooms, draws on qualitative and quantitative data to examine those sociological shifts and journalists’ reactions to the changes.
Homogeneity and Diversity in Op-Ed Pages: A Comparative Analysis of Op-ed Pages of the Washington Post and the Washington Times • Yonghoi Song, Missouri • Op-ed pages of the two ideologically distinct Washington dailies – the Washington Post and the Washington Times – were content analyzed to compare the differences in topics, organizational affiliations of authors, and perspectives of articles. Results show that both newspapers favored most the articles touching on foreign affairs. But they showed clearly different patterns in their preferences for organizational affiliation of op-ed authors and the perspectives of their articles.
U.S. Newspaper Coverage of The Spanish-American War Centennial • Christopher A. Vaughan, Rutgers • Coverage of the Spanish-American war’s centennial largely failed to elicit professional expertise, examine the past critically, or make connections between past and present, but analysis of more than 600 newspaper, wire service, and magazine articles about the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars from 1997 to 1999 does reveal some of the common building blocks of American popular memory, as well as the lacunae of understanding they reveal about the conflicts and the globalization they propelled.
Experience and Internet News: The Real Reason for the Online News Reading Gender Gap • Amy Schmitz Weiss, Sharon Meraz, Nilo Figur and Paula M. Poindexter, Texas-Austin • This study highlights that gender disparities with reading Internet news is not directly related to gender, as has been previously asserted, but due to years reading Internet news online. When years of reading Internet news online is held constant and placed as an intervening variable between gender and frequency of reading Internet news, the significant relationship between gender and frequency of reading Internet news disappears at every level.
America Strikes Back – A Comparative Content Analysis of The New York Times Coverage of U.S. Policy after Pearl Harbor and 9/11 • Olaf Werder, New Mexico • The recent months have put the spotlight squarely on U.S. foreign policy’s influence on world affairs. For that reason, the U.S. news media play an important role in describing the administration’s actions to the public. Given that U.S. news media outlets have been accused of being more patriotic and hawkish in covering U.S. foreign policy since 9/11, this comparative study explores whether this biased coverage is a recent phenomenon or whether crisis situations always influence the style of media coverage.
Keep up with the Time: A Study of Top Story Updates in Online Newspapers • Jin Xu, Bowling Green • By examining the number, frequency, type and time of updates, the research intends to answer if and how new media has changed the news cycle of online newspapers. Data consist of updates recorded in twenty real time observations, 24 hours each, where top stones were continuously monitored at 12-minute intervals. The findings are: most update top stories more than once a day; updates are made frequently; there are four types of updates; updates are made round-the-clock.
Dual and Single Newspaper Readers: Media Use Patterns, Relations to Community, and Demographic Profiles • Doyle Yoon, Esther Thorson, Missouri and Maria Len-Rios, Kansas • The present study will look specifically at features of those who read a single newspaper and those who read two newspapers. These readers live in twin cities where there is a metropolitan paper available in both cities. Telephone survey with 985 respondents showed some differences in demographics and media use between single and dual newspaper readers. More implications are discussed.
Presidential Endorsement Patterns by Chain and Non-chain Newspapers • Youngmin Yoon, Syracuse • This study examines how the ownership structure of newspapers (chain vs. non-chain) is related to their endorsement of presidential candidates. Through a content analysis based on Lexis-Nexis search, it investigates the endorsement homogeneity across two elections-1996 and 2000. There was a significant difference in the endorsement homogeneity among chains. Some chains were more likely to endorse the candidates from the same party across elections than others.
Online versions of US Daily Newspapers: Does Size Matter? • Thimios Zaharopoulos, Washburn • This content analysis of online versions of U.S. daily newspapers attempts to ascertain the type of content and related techniques that newspapers use on-line. It also examines the relationship between newspaper circulation and types and amount of content on their online version. Most online newspaper home pages are still traditional in their approaches, presenting primarily news in a textual manner, and advertising. Larger newspapers tend to have a greater online presence, with more and more diverse content.
Characterizations of the “9/11” Attack and Perpetrators in Three U.S. Elite Newspapers • Li Zeng, Southern Illinois • This study examines the characterizations of the “9/11” attack and its perpetrators in three elite newspapers. In addition to identifying the most frequently employed characterizations of the attack and its perpetrators, the study reveals that the type of characterizations differs by sources. Specifically, the official source tends to use more descriptive terms than the media source when referring to both the attack and perpetrators and than the witness source when referring to the attack.
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