Newspaper 1997 Abstracts
Newspaper Division
Net Gain? Online Newspapers Take Time From Their Cyber-stampede to Assess Benefits and Drawbacks of Electronic Editions • Mary Jane Alexander, St. Michael’s College • This paper examines New England newspapers’ assessment of the benefits, drawbacks and future of electronic publishing. Conclusions are based on a survey of the region’s 602 daily and weekly newspapers, conducted from November 1996-February 1997. Respondents cited several pluses and minuses of cybereditions. The survey found that many of the aspects of online publishing that have been lauded as revolutionary, the ability to provide immediate updates, deliver the news instantly and without regard to space limitations, are the same elements that are cited as drawbacks by some online publishers. As for the future? Although most respondents said online news would never replace the traditional newspaper, 13 papers (6.5 percent) surveyed say the Internet Ñ or some as-yet unimagined technology Ñ would eventually replace the print medium; four more (2 percent) said its demise was possible.
Changing Values in the Newsroom: A Survey of Daily Newspaper Editors and Reporters • M. David Arant, University of Memphis, Philip Meyer, University of North Carolina • This mail survey of U.S. daily newspaper editors and reporters suggests that ethical standards of rank-and-file journalists have not deteriorated during the last 14 years. Replicating several variables from a 1983 survey, the study found that journalists in 1997 showed as great or greater ethical sensitivity in their responses to questions dealing with conflict of interest, deception and privacy as did the journalists who responded to these questions in 1983.
The Characteristics of Market-Oriented Daily Newspapers • Randal A. Beam, Indiana University • Results of a survey of 406 senior editors at 182 newspapers indicate that newspapers with a strong market orientation do more readership research than newspapers with a weak market orientation. Also, market-oriented newspapers are as committed to traditional content and public-affairs content as other papers. They are more committed to special-interest content, to endorsing an adversarial role for journalists and to publishing an excellent journalistic product. Cross-departmental interaction is more frequent at market-oriented newspapers.
So-30-Doesn’t Mean the End. Media Temps Provide Helping Hands for Community Newspapers • Lori Bergen and Linda Gilmore, Kansas State University • Who helps out when personal tragedies strike in a community newspaper? Who could relieve the staff of small, often exclusively family-run news organizations who haven’t had time off in years for a vacation or family visit? This paper discusses several ways that university journalism units can institute a Media Temps program that uses university students and faculty to assist in the temporary production of community newspapers. The experience for students and faculty is meaningful and significant in a number of ways, which is illustrated through examples of four successful Media Temp programs run by the Huck Boyd Center for Community Journalism in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University. The paper concludes with specific plans for instituting programs at other institutions.
Self-Promotion and the Internet • Steve J. Collins, Syracuse University • Economic theory and historical evidence suggest a newspaper’s coverage is affected by its financial interests. It was hypothesized that newspapers online themselves would provide more coverage of the Internet (in their traditional publications) than newspapers not online. Based on a content analysis (using Nexis) of 30 newspapers, a statistically significant difference between the two groups was found for the average number of stories with Internet in the headline, but not for average story length.
Corporate News Structure and News Source Perceptions: Another Test of the Editorial Vigor Hypothesis • David Pearce Demers, Washington State University • A recent content analysis of newspaper editorial content has disputed the conventional wisdom that newspapers become less vigorous editorially as they acquire the characteristics of the corporate form of organization. However, many scholars remain skeptical. This study tested the editorial vigor hypothesis using an alternative methodology, a national probability survey of mainstream news sources (mayors and police chiefs). As hypothesized, the more a newspaper exhibits the characteristics of the corporate form of organization, the more these news sources perceive that paper as being critical of them and their institutions.
New Study Contradicts Medsger’s Winds of Change • Fred Fedler, Maria Cristina Santana, Arlen Carey, University of Central Florida, Tim Counts, University of South Florida • Medsger’s Winds of Change found that 17X % of journalism’s educators never worked full time as journalists. This study, with a higher response rate, found that the figure is 4.3%. Like Medsger, however, this study found that new faculty members have less professional experience. This study also compared faculty members in JMC’s largest specializations. Those who taught reporting/editing had fewer Ph.D.s and conducted less research. None said they had no professional experience, although 2.9% did not answer the question.
Journalism’s Status In Academia: A Candidate For Elimination? • Fred Fedler, Arlen Carey, University of Central Florida, Tim Counts, University of South Florida • To learn more about JMC’s ability to survive in this era of retrenchment, the authors surveyed more than 600 academicians from all disciplines and all types of colleges and universities. If their institutions were forced to cut some programs, the respondents would be most likely to eliminate hospitality management and home economics, followed by Judaic, women’s and African-American studies. Only 2.7% would eliminate journalism. However, 31.6% would eliminate (or merge) advertising/public relations and 26.2% broadcasting.
Fairness and Defamation in the Reporting of Local Issues • Frederick Fico, Todd Simon, Michael Drager, Michigan State University • Stories involving conflict and defamation during May 1994 in 16 mid-sized randomly sampled dailies from around the nation were content analyzed. The study examined the relationship of source type (government proceedings and documents, other activities and documents, and interviews) to fairness, balance and defamation in the reporting of conflict. Some 38 percent of the 620 stories involving conflict contained defamatory assertions. Contrary to expectations, stories relying on interview sources were not more fair and balanced than stories relying on government proceedings and documents. Also contrary to expectations, interview-based stories were twice as likely as stories emerging from government proceedings or documents to contain defamatory assertions. Stories containing defamatory assertions were also examined to assess legal risk.
Beyond Accuracy: The Effects of Direct Vs. Paraphrased Quotation in Multi-Sided News Reports on Issue Perception • Rhonda Gibson, University of Houston, Dolf Zillmann, University of Alabama • The ability of quotation in news reports to influence media consumers’ judgments of issues was examined. Five print news reports addressing the economic conditions of farms were created. All reports presented the issue as two-sided, one side blaming bankers and the government for the failure of farms and one crediting these people for farms’ successes. The conditions included one with no quotation, one with direct quotation from both sides of the issue, one with paraphrased quotation from both sides of the issue, one with direct from side one and paraphrased from side two, and one with direct from side two and paraphrased from side one. Respondents exposed to reports containing direct testimony from poor farmers produced higher estimates of the number of farms that fail and were more likely to blame bankers and the government than respondents who did not read direct personal testimony from poor farmers.
An Analysis of Online Sites Produced by U.S. Newspapers: Are the Critics Right? • Jon Gubman, Jennifer Greer, University of Nevada-Reno • A content analysis of 83 sites produced by U.S. newspapers was conducted to examine whether criticism directed at the industry for failing to adapt to new technology is well-founded. The research shows online newspapers making strides in placement of news and reader interaction. Online papers are not doing as well adapting to the digital environment in news content and presentation of news. Sites produced by large newspapers appear closer to the critics’ ideal than small newspapers.
Newsroom Topic Teams: Journalists’ Assessments of Effects on News Routines and Newspaper Quality • Kathleen A. Hansen, University of Minnesota, Mark Neuzil, University of St. Thomas, Jean Ward, University of Minnesota • This study examines the effects of newsroom topic 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.
Is The Women’s Section an Anachronism? Affinity for and Ambivalence About the Chicago Tribune’s WomaNews • Melinda D. Hawley, University of Georgia • Analysis of interviews with staff of the Chicago Tribune’s WomaNews and reader focus groups suggests women’s sections can help to retain women readers and increase the visibility of women in newspapers. However, the study warned the women’s label undermines the section’s success by appearing to: • exclude men from coverage of substantive issues affecting women, • reinforce stereotypes of women, • create a women’s news ghetto, and • attract advertising that conflicts with editorial content, thereby alienating women readers.
Sisyphus or Synergy: Effects of TV-Newspaper Collaborations on Voter Knowledge • Jurgen Henn, University of North Carolina • This paper examines whether collaborations of television and newspapers produce a synergistic effect, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It is going to demonstrate that media partnerships affected the citizens’ knowledge of the presidential candidates’ positions in a study of 20 U.S. media-markets during the 1996 election. It will also show statistical indications of a limited amount of cross-promotional effect of newspaper television partnerships in these markets.
Reversal of Fortune for the Dominant Print Media: Social and Economic Determinants for the Differential Revenue Growth among China’s Newspapers • Chen Huailin, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Guo Zhongshi, Hong Kong Baptist University, Xing Rong, Chinese University of Hong Kong • This research explores the emerging pattern of differential revenue growth among various newspapers in China and analyzes its social and economic origins. guided by a framework of key concepts and using data from multiple sources, our analysis uncovered several characteristics common to the revenue gap, including timing, region, magnitude, and nature of occurrences. We established that the interactions between newspaper orientation and market maturity factors are the main forces underlying the enlargement of the gap.
Life and Death in Jackson’s America: Cultural Values as Memory in Historic Newspaper Obituaries • Janice Hume, University of Missouri • Andrew Jackson’s 1828 election to the presidency represents a political and cultural turning point in American history. The new nation experienced vast changes during the era, but perhaps the most striking trend was the strengthening of egalitarianism, the notion that America should be a nation of equality. Indeed, more men gained access to the political franchise, but did this new spirit of equality affect the lives of everyday citizens or increase their value in the democracy? This study uses the historic newspaper obituary, which distills and publishes for public consumption the remembered worth of an individual citizen’s life, as a tool to help answer this question.
Media’s Coverage of Itself: How Eight Major Newspapers Covered the Telecommunications Act of 1996 • L. Paul Husselbee, Ohio University • Given the magnitude of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and its potential impact on society, media consumers seemed to be grossly underinformed about the scope of the new law. Some media practitioners, including Washington Post columnist Tom Shales and Nightline’s Ted Koppel, were vocal about media’s failure to cover the act before it became law. This study analyzes coverage of the Telecommunication Act by eight major newspapers to determine whether they provided balanced reports on the provisions and implications of the act. It concludes that coverage was not balanced and that some aspects of the proposed act were highlighted while others were not discussed. Statistical analysis indicates that there may be an association between these findings.
The Effect of Rape Victim Identification on Readers’ Perceptions of Victims and News Stories • Michelle Johnson, Westfield State College • Journalists have been discussing whether or not to name rape victims in news stories for more than three decades, but they have yet to resolve the issue. This study took an experimental approach to the problem, testing whether the inclusion of rape victims’ names in stories affected readers’ interest in the story, sympathy for the victim or assignment of responsibility for the crime. It found that while the inclusion of victims’ names affects readers views in some cases, the effects are not universal, uniform or predictable.
Untangling the Web: Teaching Students How to Use Online Resources and Critically Evaluate Information • Stan Ketterer, University of Missouri • Former presidential Press Secretary Pierre Salinger inadvertently issued a wake-up call to journalists worldwide last year that taking information from the Internet can be hazardous when he alleged that a TWA jetliner was downed by friendly fire. Initially, Salinger’s reputation lent credibility to the information, but ultimately he damaged the credibility of the profession by failing to ensure accuracy. Salinger’s vulnerablity indicates that educators must teach students how to critically evaluate information on the Internet and ensure its accuracy. The researcher created a World Wide Web site of hypertext links divided into useful categories that students could use for daily journalism. Guidelines for use of Web information were drafted. Students in advanced reporting and copy editing classes, students were taught how to use the site and how to evaluate information critically. During the first month, the site was accessed more than 1,200 times. Initial results indicate that the site appears to be useful, but more research must be done.
Reader-Friendly Journalism’s Lasting Impact: A Study of Reporters and Editors Involved in Knight-Ridder’s 25/43 Project • Kris Kodrich, Indiana University • On Oct. 11, 1990, Knight-Ridder kicked off a grand journalistic experiment called the 25/43 Project at The Boca Raton News, a sleepy 25,000-circulation newspaper in South Florida. The company invested millions of dollars in a bold move to attract baby boomers to newspapers. This is a qualitative study of the attitudes of some of the journalists involved in the project. Today, many of the reporters involved in the 25/43 Project believe they damaged newspapers more than they helped them to survive. Many are predicting, at the very least, a smudged future for newspapers. Newspapers, in attempting to redefine themselves, have destroyed themselves, says former reporter Phil Scruton. But one of the strategists of the 25/43 Project says some reporters never quite understood what the project was all about, and still don’t.
Making the Picture: A Study of U.S. Media Coverage of Dissidents in China and South Korea, 1989-1996 • Yulian Li, Ohio University • This study content-analyzed news stories published in the New York Times and the Washington Post covering dissidents in China and South Korea between 1989 and 1996. It found that the papers consistently portrayed Chinese dissidents as human rights campaigners and often described South Korean dissidents as violent radicals. The study concluded that the media were influenced by the American ideology and adopted the U.S. government schemes of interpretation in covering international events.
Adult Learners’ Attitudes About Newspapers • Carol S. Lomicky, University of Nebraska at Kearney • This study identifies attitudes about newspapers among adult learners in literacy programs. The researcher performed a principle components factor analysis on data obtained from the Q sorts of 47 subjects from Adult Basic Education programs in Central Nebraska. Thirty-two subjects loaded significantly (p< 0.01) on a four factor solution. The factors were labeled (a) Good Citizens, (b) Gregarians, (c) Pragmatics, and (d) Pragmatic Skeptics. Demographic data also was used to describe subjects.
Newspaper Nonreadership: A Study of Motivations • Gina M. Masullo, Syracuse University • Despite decades of research on declining newspaper readership, the newspaper industry still does not know how to reverse this trend. This study draws on the uses and gratifications perspective to provide new insight into the link between motivation to seek information and time spent reading newspapers. This survey analysis confirms that newspaper nonreadership is not solely a function of demographics, but that the root of nonreadership is a lack of motivation to seek information.
The Chattanooga Times and NewsChannel 9: Working Together to Get the Scoop and the Implications for Journalism Educators • Peter Pringle, Luther Masingill, Betsy B. Alderman, University of Tennessee/Chattanooga • No Abstract available.
Newspaper Readership Choices of Young Adults • Carol Schlagheck, Eastern Michigan University • This study looks at trends in newspaper readership among the 18-to-34 age group and examines some of the choices young adults make when reading newspapers. Specifically, this study explores what types of newspapers young adults read, what stories they read in those papers and what information they would like newspapers to give them. Some suggestions are offered for changing newspapers to make their content more appealing to young adults.
A Big Enough Web for the Both of Us? Online Coverage of the 1996 Election by Denver’s Warring Newspapers • Jane B. Singer, Colorado State University • The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News have been fiercely at war for 100 years. Last fall, the two papers got their first shot at trying to outgun each other in online political coverage. This exploratory study analyzes the print and Web versions of the two papers during the campaign season to determine how they handled the opportunities and challenges of cyberspace; interviews with their online editors provide insight into why things were the way they were this time around.
Assessment of Lead Writing Practices in U.S. Newspapers • Gerald Stone, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • Are U.S. newspaper journalists still adhering to the principle of writing short, active-voice leads? An assessment of leads in a large sample of staff written articles found that the average lead is about 24 words and that newspaper leads fall close to that average regardless of publication frequency, circulation size or whether the story is written on deadline. However, newspapers do deviate from the principle of using active voice leads.
Mainstream Newspapers’ Coverage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, 1991-1996 • Ana-Jimena Vargas, Ohio University • This study showed that there was a significant difference in the coverage of NAFTA by six mainstream newspapers during different phases of the agreement: negotiations, congressional approval and implementation. The coverage was indexed to what government officials and congressional members had to say about the accord, and focused primarily on the participants in the NAFTA debate and their arguments, rather than on the provisions and implications of the agreement.
Newspaper Editors’ Policies and Attitudes Toward Coverage of Domestic Assault • Wayne Wanta and Kimber Williams, University of Oregon • The attitudes and policies of newspaper editors regarding domestic violence were examined through a mail survey conducted in February 1995, during the O.J. Simpson trial. In general, few editors reported having formal policies to assist reporters covering domestic assault stories. Editors also felt that domestic assault presented more legal risks than other types of assault, but that the coverage of domestic violence did not pose ethical problems for their newspapers.
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