Graduate Education 2007 Abstracts
Graduate Education Interest Group
Do Endorsements Make a Difference?: Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate Post-Election Day Newspaper Coverage from 1958-2006 • Erin, Armstrong, Ohio University • This study explored endorsements made by the six largest newspapers in Ohio of gubernatorial candidates from 1958-2006 and the post-day general election coverage these candidates received. It found that Republican gubernatorial candidates were endorsed more often than Democratic candidates, and incumbents were favored by the newspapers for endorsements. Further, endorsed candidates received not only greater content and prominence, but they also received more positive coverage than the non-endorsed candidates on the day after the election.
Developmental news in news media: In the context of NGO-media interaction in Bangladesh • Masudul Biswas, Ohio University • This paper has examined the factors influencing the coverage of developmental issues in news media in the context of NGO-media interaction in Bangladesh employing qualitative interview and thematic analysis method.
Hiring trends in journalism and mass communication: A content analysis of faculty position advertisements with a new media emphasis • Ying Du, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Recent years have witnessed the striking growth in the demands of new media faculty. This study is a content analysis of positions advertised by JMC programs that are seeking new media faculty. It reports an overview of the hiring trends in the discipline. It attempts to provide useful indicators of the hiring trends for applicants seeking such positions. Additionally, the results of this study may be useful to JMC programs in search of future faculty.
Human Intention as a Means to Activate Narrative Persuasion Processing over Paradigmatic Processing • Michael Dahlstrom, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Successful narrative persuasion activates a unique cognitive processing pathway, but little is known about message level variables that activate such a pathway. This study analyzed the perception of human intention as a possible variable using a short video with floating geometric shapes. The video processed using human intention was perceived as more interesting, more engaging and resulted in greater total recall than when it was processed without intention.
Colliding Ideologies and Inmate Violence: The Final Chapter in the Life of a Prison Newspaper • Lisa Forster, Ohio University • This study examines the factors that contributed to the death of one of the country’s oldest prison newspapers, the seventy-six-year-old OPNews, which was produced by Ohio Penitentiary inmates. Although inmates struggled to keep the award-winning newspaper alive, it fell victim to repeated outbreaks of violence within the prison walls and an ongoing ideological battle between those advocating a rehabilitative form of corrections and those supporting a disciplinarian system.
Inextricably Intertwined: The Blurring Line Between Constitutional Protection for Political and Commercial Speech in a Democratic Society • Joshua Godwin, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper contends that, due to its substantial similarity to noncommercial speech and its evolving role in our democratic society, commercial speech has become virtually indistinguishable from other forms of protected expression. As such, the artificial distinction established and perpetuated by the U.S. Supreme Court should be abandoned and replaced with a strict scrutiny standard for evaluating the constitutionality of content-based regulations on all speech.
Measuring Alumni Perceptions of a Required Media Law Course: A Pilot Study • Joshua Godwin, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Researchers surveyed 405 University of North Carolina alumni regarding their attitudes toward a required media law course. The results showed that while more than 70% of respondents reported using the material covered in the class infrequently in their professional careers, nearly 85% believed that the course should continue to be required for all undergraduate and graduate students.
Modern Day Dystopia: Thought police in the Marketplace of Ideas • Sunny Hughes, University of Florida • Since September 11th, the Terrorist Surveillance Program has been used to monitor citizen’s domestic phone conversations without warrants. This has yielded cases filed by citizens who complain that not only their Fourth Amendment right to privacy, but their First Amendment rights to free expression have been violated. This paper establishes a connection between these protections by arguing that privacy has an insulating effect in protecting subversive views in the marketplace of ideas.
Is Measuring U.S. Public Diplomacy Effectiveness Possible? Revisiting the Debate after 9/11 • Foad Izadi, Louisiana State University • Recent reports on U.S. public diplomacy efforts after 9/11 terrorist attacks conclude that government agencies responsible for U.S. public diplomacy do not have a “culture of measurement” to systematically gauge the effectiveness of their programs. This study adds to the body of literature on public diplomacy by examining recent congressional hearings to determine what reasons government officials present for this shortcoming and how members of Congress react to this issue.
Women in Military Broadcasting • Jeanine Kabrich, University of Tennessee-Knoxville • This paper is an introductory study investigating why women become military broadcasters, and finds that many did so paradoxically. While they anticipated being treated as equally as men, they also expected to make unique contributions because they were women. The women in military broadcasting interviewed for the study indicate that very often they were treated equally, and made contributions that were distinctive.
Medicating a Collapsing Empire: Components of the “Public” and the “Opinion” in the Late Qing • Xudong Liu, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale • In the Late Qing, the social crisis presented amiable political circumstances favoring the aggregation of public opinion. Within a different social context, various strata of people accumulated their specific public opinion towards foreigners, the political system, and the approaches to save the country. Through civic or official channels, the emperors obtained public opinion. The Emperor, based on an unstable political situation, evaluated and dealt with these opinions strategically, adopting them in policy-making or suppressing them.
Health Promotion in Media: A Qualitative Analysis of Heart Disease in Prevention Magazine • Jennette Lovejoy, Ohio University • This study is a qualitative analysis of the portrayal of heart disease in one of the most widely read health magazines in the United States, Prevention Magazine. Articles were sampled from the years 1991-2005 and three thematic frames emerged. Results indicate that Prevention’s depiction of heart disease is one that can be mitigated with lifestyle behaviors and emphasized optimism in readers’ abilities to overcome the threat of heart disease.
How Do You Like Your Drugs? A Survey of DTC Drug Advertisements • Amy Martin, Louisiana State University • As spending on direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertisements increases, researchers are studying the comprehension levels of consumers of the information in these ads. This experiment sought to determine if consumers will intend to talk to physicians, based upon seeing an advertisement with an emotional or rational appeal. Results showed that the emotional condition was more likely to display information-seeking intent. Internet was also cited as an effective medium to answer a patient’s additional questions.
Newbery Books and Children: What Worldview Do Protagonists Reveal to Young Readers? • Anthony Nisse, Brigham Young University, Jonice Hubbard and Lois Bauman • Children’s literature plays a significant role in society because it reflects values and attitudes that will be passed to children as they read. One of the most prestigious awards for children’s literature is the John Newbery Medal, which is presented annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished contribution to literature for children. Newbery books have a large readership, and are consistently among the most requested books in bookstores and libraries.
“Nightly” and “Daily:” How NBC and Jon Stewart Frame the News • Erin Ryan, University of Georgia, Melissa Galin and Karen Hilyard • In the ever-changing world of “youth and news,” it is important to understand the media landscape as defined by students’ news source patterns, and recent research suggests many young Americans are turning to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Thus, moving outside the usual Presidential election cycle research, this study compares such “comedy news” and traditional media during a routine non-election news week, examining how both genres frame the top stories of the day.
Two Sides of Scripps: Reconciling Support for the Workingman with His Life as a Capitalist • Dave Sennerud, Ohio University • E.W. Scripps, the founder of the modern newspaper chain, is a study in contradictions. Although he championed working-class causes, Scripps was not known for treating his own workers with similar regard. By looking primarily at his own writings, this paper attempts to reconcile these two sides of E.W. Scripps. The author concludes that since Scripps’ actions run counter to his professed goals, such attempts were ultimately just excuses for an internally conflicted man.
Broadening the debate: An analysis of emerging models for a national broadband network • Gwen Shaffer, Temple University • With just 49% of U.S. adults reporting high-speed Internet access at home, more than half of the residents in the wealthiest nation on Earth lack access to technology that is now necessary for activities ranging from filling out job applications to accessing government services to completing school work.
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