Mass Communication and Society 1997 Abstracts
Mass Communication and Society Division
Content Analysis of Popular Songs Sung by Female Performers From 1965 to 1995 • Linda Aldoory, Syracuse University • This study content analyzed popular songs from Billboard’s Top 100, performed by women 1965 to 1995, hypothesizing that lyrics have kept pace with women’s increases in salaries, work force numbers and education. Findings revealed little support. Women portrayed in songs remained supportive of partners, dependent, and involved in unequal relationships. However, references to male partners decreased. Overall, popular songs performed by women today still portray females as stereotyped even with many women gaining in salaries, education, and employment.
Beyond Educational and Informational Needs: What is Quality Children’s Television? • Alison Alexander, Keisha Hoerrner, Lisa Duke, University of Georgia • Until the parameters of what constitutes quality children’s television can be agreed upon by all parties in the debate, discussions as to how the industry should progress in providing quality television cannot be resolved. This project takes the first step toward defining the quality construct by empirically analyzing how the industry defines quality. Our goal was to explore the characteristics of the best of the best children’s programming to determine the characteristics of a quality product. Our data were drawn from the archives of the George Foster Peabody Awards to study all the award-winning programs in the children’s category. Using the Peabody Awards winners as the data set, this project sought to answer the following research questions: (l) What are the characteristics of a quality program? and (2) What claims does the industry make about a quality program?
Press Freedom in Liberia, 1847 to 1970: The Impact of Power Imbalances and Asymmetries • Carl Burrowes, Marshall University • Breaking with the general pattern in the press-freedom literature to explain restrictions on an ideational basis, this paper argues that asymmetry and imbalances in the distribution of power resources among institutions are likely to accompany restrictions on the mass media of communications. That proposition, derived from the work of sociologist Dennis Wrong, was tested using data from Liberia, West Africa, spanning a period from 1847, when the nation declared its independence, to 1970, by which time significant inequalities had emerged. these data on power assets suggest a historical shift toward concentration of resources in the executive branch and corporate sector. Significant losses of press freedom were linked to new waves of foreign investments which caused increased asymmetry and imbalances to develop in the distribution of power resources.
Citizen Response to Civic Journalism: Four Case Studies • Steven Chaffee and Michael McDevitt, Stanford University, Esther Thorson, University of Missouri • Sample surveys are used to evaluate four civic journalism projects in three cities. Citizen exposure to each campaign was correlated with desired outcomes such as interpersonal discussion, activity in organizations, cognitive and affective involvement, and perceived efficacy. In Charlotte, NC, an intensive news series on inner-city crime brought whites closer to blacks in their concern about the problem. In Madison, WI, projects on both land use and juvenile delinquency stimulated participation in solving a neighborhood problem. In San Francisco, CA, intensive coverage of campaign issues increased turnout in the mayoral election among groups that tend not to vote regularly.
The Legitimization of Generation X: A Case Study in Status Conferral • Rebecca Chamberlin, Ohio University • This content analysis describes the coverage of a generational cohort and relates it to Lazarsfeld and Merton’s status conferral and Strodthoff, Hawkins, and Schoenfeld’s model of ideology diffusion. It studies the sources used (by age and occupation), portrayal and topics covered in magazine and newspaper articles about Generation X from 1987-1995. The coverage went through phases of disambiguation, legitimization and routinization.
Television Viewing and Perceptions of the 1996 Olympic Athletes: A Cultivation Analysis • Xueyi Chen, Syracuse University • This study is aimed at examining the effects of exposure to television coverage of the 1996 Olympic Games on the public perception of Olympic athletes and their performance. A telephone survey of a random sample of 397 adult New York residents from late September to early October of 1996 reveals that there is no significant relationship between television exposure and the public perception of Chinese athletes and their performance, but cultivation effect is found in the public perception of American athletes and their performance.
Corporate Newspaper Structure and Control of Editorial Content: An Empirical Test of the Managerial Revolution Hypothesis • David Demers, Washington State University, Debra Merskin, University of Oregon • Corporate newspapers are often accused of placing more emphasis on profits than on information diversity and other nonprofit goals considered crucial for creating or maintaining a political democracy. These charges contradict the managerial revolution hypothesis, which expects that as power shifts from the owners to the professional managers and technocrats, a corporate organization should place less emphasis on profits. This study empirically tests the managerial revolution hypothesis and finds support for it.
A Cynical Press: Coverage of the 1996 Presidential Campaign • Sandra H. Dickson, Cynthia Hill, Cara Pilson and Suzanne Hanners, The University of West Florida • An analysis of 332 CBS and Washington Post stories on the 1996 presidential campaign revealed coverage which was cynical in nature. Three factors suggest this to be the case: (l) the news organizations used overwhelmingly a game rather than policy schema in campaign coverage; (2) the sample, while chiefly objective in tone, contained few positive stories and a high percentage which were negative; and, perhaps most importantly, (3) when motives were attributed to the candidates, they were almost exclusively categorized as self-serving and more often than not the reporter served as the source for the motive statement.
News Media, Candidates and Issues, and Public Opinion in the 1996 Presidential Campaign • David Domke, University of Minnesota • This research has two primary goals. 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, then, allows exploration of whether news media coverage, alone, could predict the public’s presidential preferences in 1996. Using a computer content analysis program, 12,215 randomly sampled newspaper stories and television transcripts were examined from 43 major media outlets for the time period March 10 to November 6, 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.
New Findings on Media Effects Upon Political Values and Attitudes • Christiane Eilders, Science Center Berlin • News value research has mainly been concerned with news selection by the media. This paper examines the role of news factors in the selection of political information by the audience. It is suggested that news factors indicate relevance and can therefore serve as selection criteria for the audience. The assumption is tested employing a content analysis of news items and the corresponding retentions of 219 respondents and comparing the news value of retentions and original news items.
The Portrayal of Women on Prime Time TV Programs Broadcast in the United States • Michael G. Elasmar, Mary Brain, Boston University, Kazumi Hasegawa, University of North Dakota • A content analysis of a probability stratified sample of prime time television programs broadcast in the United States was carried out. The sample included 1,903 speaking females. This study finds that, in comparison to previous studies, there has been an increase in the number of women characters on prime time TV although they are now more likely to be shown playing minor roles. Women on prime time are also less likely to be married, less likely to be housewives, less likely to be caring for children, more likely to have dark hair, less likely to commit or be the victim of violent crime, less likely to be involved in a romantic relationship, and more likely to be under the age of 50.
JMC Faculty Divided: Majority Finds Dozen Uses For Research • Fred Fedler, Maria Cristina Santana, Tim Counts, and Arlen Carey • The authors surveyed members of AEJMC. All but 4 of their 279 respondents reported using the field’s research. The respondents were most likely to use research to learn more about their field and to prepare for classes. More than 90% conducted research, and many explained that it made them better teachers Ñ and also that they enjoyed it. There were few differences by rank or gender. There were, however, differences by degree and institution.
The Characters of Television News Magazine Shows: News sources and Reporters in Hard Copy and 60 Minutes • Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Shuhua Zhou, Brooke Barnett, Indiana University • This content analysis examines Hard Copy and 60 Minutes in terms of news sources-and reporters. Specifically, we investigated their prominence, demography, and dramatic potential as characters in the news drama. News sources were also scrutinized for their institutional affiliation. A number of scholars have focused on newspaper and television newscast sources while ignoring news magazine programs. These inquiries consistently point at the disproportionate representation of elite news sources. In a society that rests on democratic ideals about the mass media’s facilitation of a pluralistic public debate, these findings provoke concern. Our analysis of 60 news magazine segments provide some support for these concerns. Yet, it is clear that Hard Copy featured a demographically more diverse pool of news sources than 60 Minutes. The study’s findings also reveal little difference in how the two news programs employ news sources and reporters as dramatic forces in news stories.
Community Integration from Hood to Globe • Ernest A. Hakanen, Drexel University • Abstract Media are important to a citizen’s sense of community integration. There are many levels or domains of community (i.e. friends, neighborhood, city, country and international). Respondents (N=182), randomly selected in a telephone survey, were asked about their feelings of responsibility to and influence (both measures of community integration) on various community domains. The data were analyzed for media effects on responsibility and influence. The findings are discussed in terms of political efficacy, community integration, and public sphere.
Lynch Mob Journalism vs. Compelling Human Drama: Editorial Responses to Coverage of the Pre-trial phase of the O.J. Simpson Case • Elizabeth Blanks Hindman • This analysis of newspaper editorials from June through December 1994 examines the media’s institutional views of their ethics and responsibilities regarding the O.J. Simpson murder case. It finds that the media shifted the blame to tabloids and non-media people and groups, acknowledged media irresponsibility, and argued that coverage was necessary despite unethical behavior. The media used libertarian, social responsibility, and communitarian philosophies of ethics situationally, often to justify questionable media ethics.
Priming of Religion as a Factor in Political Attitudes: The Role of Religious Programming • Barry Hollander, The University of Georgia • Religion and politics have long been intertwined, and yet little is known about the effect of religious programming on political attitudes. Priming is used as a theoretical basis for studying how religious programs can make religion an important factor in political attitudes. Analysis of national survey data reveals that exposure to religious broadcasts can make religion more of a factor in the formation or maintenance of political attitudes, particularly among Christian fundamentalists on high-valence issues such as abortion. Exposure to such programs also influences how important Catholics perceive religion to be in attitude maintenance and formation, but mainline Protestants are relatively unaffected by such broadcasts.
In the Eye of the Beholder? Complaints of Bias Filed By Overseas/Ethnic Groups With the National News Council 1973-84 • L. Paul Husselbee, Ohio University • Despite efforts to establish and maintain news councils in the U.S., few exist. Detractors argue that news councils threaten press freedom; supporters say they enhance journalistic credibility. The National News Council was formed in 1973 to serve as an unbiased watchdog of national media, but it failed in 1984, in part because journalist who feared bias refused to support it. This study examines complaints filed with the National News Council by overseas/ethnic interests to determine whether the council’s decisions conformed to ideological expectations of accepted theories of bias and stereotyping. It concludes that the third-person effect seemed to be present in the substance of complaints; this finding may suggest that the consistency of the council’s findings with previous studies indicates the fair, honest and judicious nature of the National News Council over its 11-year existence.
Murphy Brown Sets the Agenda: A Time Series Analysis of the Family Values Issue, 1988-1996 • Patrick M. Jablonski, The University of Central Florida • This study examines the relationship among the agendas of the media, the president, and the public regarding the family values issue in the United States from 1989 to 1996. ARIMA time-series analysis is used in an attempt to assess which factors drove the family values issue: the public, the press, or the president. Most important problem survey results from multiple organizations are aggregated into a series of 96 monthly time points to measure the public agenda. The media agenda is developed from a frequency analysis of articles containing the phrase family values in The New York Times and The Washington Post. The presidential agenda is developed from a similar analysis of the Public Papers of the Presidents. The three univariate time series are identified, estimated, and diagnosed. The white-noise component of each series is subsequently employed in a bivariate cross-correlation analysis to address the research questions. Results indicate that the presidential agenda was significantly driven by the press agenda regarding family values. Meanwhile, the public agenda followed both the presidential and press agendas at 4 month intervals.
Trusting the Media and Joe from Dubuque Online: Comparing Internet and Traditional Sources on Media Credibility Measures • Thomas J. Johnson and Barbara K. Kaye, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • 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 were judged as more believable, fair, accurate and in-depth than their traditional versions. However, both online and traditional media were only judged as somewhat credible.
Credibility and Accuracy in the Reporting of Scientific News • Steve Jones, Chad Moody, Andrea Sharrer, Amy Rhodes, University of Tulsa • Do science journalists check sources for credibility and accuracy? Do they report the information in a way that will attract readers or in a way that will portray the information clearly and accurately? To answer these questions we surveyed newspaper journalists from the forty major newspapers in America to discover the efforts they make in determining the accuracy of their sources. The study also considers the efforts they make to present the information accurately.
Moving to the Center: Press Coverage of Candidates’ Ideological Cleavage in a Campaign • Tien-tsung Lee, University of Oregon, Anthony Y.H. Fung University of Minnesota • Many political studies conclude that the ideological center is the winning position in elections. Considering the difference between Democrats, Republicans and the general population, candidates should compete for their partisan centers to win the primaries, then move to the center to win the general election. With empirical data, this paper tests whether there are indeed three ideological centers, and whether the press coverage of the 1996 presidential election supports the moving-to-the-center hypothesis.
Reexamining Violent Content in MTV Music Videos • Greg Makris, University of North Carolina • The purpose of this study was to examine violence in music videos by conducting a content analysis of videos appearing on MTV. Violent acts in a sample of MTV videos were coded by type, quantity, and total time duration. The results were compared by musical genre. Just over half of the videos contained violence, with assaults appearing most frequently. The overall time of all violent acts was brief. Among genres, Rap and Hard Rock videos appeared to be more violent.
The Construction of the News: A Survey of the Italian Journalists • Andreina Mandelli, Francesca Gardini, Bocconi University • The aim of this paper is to try to understand the view held by Italian journalists of news construction (selection and coverage of the events), and how this view influences the presentation of the news itself, while focusing on the controversial phenomenon of spettacolarizzazione the sensationalistic presentation of the news item. The findings underscore the increasingly urgent need to analyze more in depth the issues of news production, and consequently of its effective quality standards.
Issue Salience and the Third-Person Effect: Perceptions of Illegal Immigration in a Southwestern Region • Frances R. Matera, Arizona State University, Michael B. Salwen, University of Miami • This study, based on a telephone survey of 626 Phoenix, Arizona, respondents, examined the relationship between the salience concept in agenda-setting and the third-person effect. The third-person effect predicts that people perceive media messages to exert a greater persuasive influence on other people than on themselves. The study’s findings suggested that issue salience might magnify people’s tendencies to perceive greater media influence on others than on themselves. The study also examined whether Latino respondents’ ethnic-racial identification with the social problem of illegal immigration influenced their perceptions of media influence on themselves and on other people. Examination of the ethnically relevant problem of illegal immigration suggests that there may be ethnic differences that need to be explored in future research.
A Model of Public Support for First Amendment Rights • Jack M. McLeod, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mira Sotirovic, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Zhongshi Guo, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kuang-Yu Huang, World College of Journalism and Communication, Taiwan • This paper presents a model of public support for First Amendment rights. The model indicates two distinctive paths of support of rights in two cases: the (speech and assembly) rights of a neo-Nazi group to march in a Jewish neighborhood and the (press) right of a reporter during wartime to send home a story critical of military without military clearance. One path, providing positive support for rights, involves reading of newspaper public affairs, knowledge and reasoning. The second, a negative path, indicates rejection of rights through material values of control, watching of television entertainment and expression of negative affect. Data are gathered in a telephone survey of 436 adult residents of Dane county, Wisconsin.
How Responsible for Journalism are Journalists? • John McManus, Saint Mary’s College of California • Most national codes of journalism ethics place the entire moral responsibility for news on editors and reporters. And although recent court decisions have recognized some journalists as professionals, empirical evidence suggests the nearly century-long expansion of journalists’ autonomy has begun to erode as media corporations seek to maximize shareholder value. As journalists become more decision-takers than decision-makers, these codes of ethics become ethically suspect themselves. We need new codes that recognize the realities of market-oriented journalism.
Perceiving the Television Audience: Conceptualization in an Academic Institution • Lawrence J. Mullen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • This study focuses on the ways in which college television producers perceive the audience. Two ways of conceptualizing the audience (size and discernment) are analyzed. Descriptive data and regression analyses found patterns of audience conceptualization similar to that of professional television production environments, yet tempered by the organization of the academic institution. Small and well-defined is one way that college media producers perceive their audience. A relationship between the things students do to prepare for their productions and perceptions of a fragmented audience is another way they conceive the audience. Based on the finds from past research, young producers in academic organizations are conceiving the audience in slightly more diverse ways than in the professional organizational environment. Though academic television production seems to allow a broader interpretation of the audience, more can be done in the way of audience conceptualization.
Where We Live and How We View: The Impact of Housing Preferences on Family Television Viewing • Carol Pardun, Kansas State University • A survey of 269 home owners revealed that architecture has an impact on the number of televisions in the home. In addition, it was discovered that although 36% of respondents viewed television most often in the living room, 29 other rooms for television viewing were mentioned. The study also discusses that families’ viewing preferences are a significant factor in the number of sets that families own.
The Influence of Communication Media on Confidence in Democratic Institutions • Michael Pfau, Patricia Moy, Erin Kock, Wei-Kuo Lin, Weiwu Zhang, Lance Holbert, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This study examines the relative influence of various communication modalities on public confidence in democratic institutions. The paper argues that communication modalities serve as an important source of secondary socialization for people: that negative depictions of such democratic institutions as the office of the Presidency, Congress, the court system, the public school system, and the news media by specific modalities cultivate negative perceptions of those institutions among users of those modalities. To test these positions, the study employed a broad interconnected approach, combining an extensive content analysis of the quantity and tone of all references to the specific democratic institutions listed above by communication modalities in conjunction with a survey of the public’s use of those modalities and confidence in institutions.
The Effects of Media Coverage of the O.J. Simpson Murder Trail: Pre and Post-Trial Issue Salience and Role of Expert Sources • Robert Pyle, Winthrop University • It was called the trial of the century. The O.J. Simpson murder trial was a major media event. Live cameras in the courtroom allowed the nation to witness the trial in real-time. And when the nation was not watching live unmediated coverage of the trial on CNN or Court Television, it was viewing the mediated courtroom drama nightly on network television news. This study examines how mediated and unmediated coverage of the murder trial affected viewers perception of Simpson’s guilt or innocence. The study also examines if expert analysis of the trial altered, in any fashion, the way viewers perceived issues, such as crime, judicial fairness and domestic violence. The study also looks at how ethnicity guided personal attitudes on Simpson’s guilt, as well as larger issues such as race and violence.
Blaming the Media: An Analysis of Public Opinion on the Media’s Role in Crime and Violence • James A. Ramos, Michigan State University • This paper looks at public perception of media effects through public opinion polls about crime, violence, and the media. These polls were examined using framing analysis in order to determine what is the public’s perception of the link between these issues and the media and how this has changed over time. Results show, among other things, that the strength of the perceived effect is conditional, based on whether media are presented within a context frame.
The Evolution of Crime Dramas: An Update • Arthur A. Raney, The University of Alabama • Thirty prime-time crime dramas were content analyzed in an attempt to update previous research completed by Gerbner, Dominick, and others. Characters portraying victims and suspects were coded for information such as gender, ethnicity, age, social class, crime experienced (victim), and crime outcome (suspect). Results were compared with the 1995 FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and previous television crime drama data. The findings suggest a continued overrepresentation of murder and other violent crimes on television as opposed to reality. White, middle-class males continue to be overrpresented, while females and Blacks are underrepresented, as victims and suspects on television. Arrests of suspects remain disproportionately high in dramas as opposed to reality, while a disturbing trend toward the killing of suspects has arisen.
Public Information and Public Dialogues: An Analysis of the Public Relations Behavior of Newspaper Ombudsmen • Craig Sanders, John Carroll University, Neil Nemeth, Purdue University • In this content analysis of the public columns of American newspaper ombudsmen we found the dominant role performed by ombudsmen was a one-way form of communication, usually explaining the newspaper’s behavior. This often occurred in tandem with two-way forms of communication, usually allowing the public to comment on the newspaper’s performance. To varying degrees, ombudsmen allow the public to scrutinize the newspaper’s performance. This facilitates a limited public dialogue about the newspaper’s performance.
Sensational: A Comparison of Content and Presentation Styles of the 60 Minutes and Dateline NBC Television News Magazines • Patrick J. Sutherland, Ohio University • This paper summarizes research findings on sensationalism and tabloidism in television news programming. Research consisted of a content analysis of 329 news magazine segments airing on CBS’s 60 Minutes and on Dateline NBC. Content and presentation styles were compared. 60 Minutes’ content remained consistent as primarily serious and informational. The two news magazines aired a similar proportion of entertainment segments between 1993 and 1995. Dateline’s presentation style was significantly more sensational and less factual.
Noble Journalism?: Four Themes of Revelation • Sari Thomas, Temple University • In this paper, we propose that the time has come to question explicitly two very common assumptions about hard-news journalism: (l) that the subject matter of news journalism is more important than the content of other genres of mass-media narrative, and (2) that the consumption of journalism news serves to inform intelligently in comparison to the function of other genres of mass-media narrative. Although there are three distinct bodies of scholarship, each of which serves to demystify this presumed nobility of journalism, they all tend to sidestep critical investigation of the two assumptions articulated above. The consequence of this theoretical evasion is that not only tabloid journalism, but, more importantly, media fiction has been underestimated and undervalued. This paper, then, attempts to outline the three existing themes of critical journalism theory and to redress the comparative degradation of popular culture by developing a fourth theme of revelation.
Affective and Behavioral Impact of Civic Journalism • Esther Thorson, Andrew Mendelson, Ekaterina Ognianova, University of Missouri-Columbia, Lewis Friedland.
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