Newspaper 1998 Abstracts
Newspaper Division
Newspaper Coverage of Medicine: A Survey of Editors and Cardiac Surgeons • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Richard A. Moore, Conemaugh’s Memorial Medical Center and Patricia Heilman, Indiana University-Pennsylvania • Forty-four newspapers offer health-science sections, and millions of Americans rely on newspapers as their number one source of medical information. Daily newspaper editors and cardiac surgeons were surveyed about newspaper coverage of medicine. Cardiac surgeons gave newspapers a much lower accuracy rating than editors (p=-.000). In conclusion, there are significant differences in perceptions between editors and cardiac surgeons about newspaper coverage of medicine.
50 Years Later: “What it Means to Miss the Paper” Berelson, Dependency Theory and Failed Newspaper Delivery • Clyde Bentley, Oregon • This study revisits a landmark investigation of newspaper readership published 50 years ago. Like the work of Bernard Berelson, it attempts to discover why regular newspaper readers “miss” their paper when they cannot receive it. This study uses individual stoppages cased by normal delivery problems at a daily newspaper in lieu of the strike originally studies. The study reviews the research on readership since the original project and suggests linkages to the media dependency theory.
Hobbes, Locke and Newt Gingrich: Enlightened or Biased Reporting? • Lee Bollinger, South Carolina • This paper asks the question, just who can we trust? The researcher content-analyzed coverage in the Atlanta Journal & Atlanta Constitution 1994-1995 and found manipulative language which suggests that journalism has stepped beyond the borders of merely enlightened opinion. Using the perspectives of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke on the subjects of social responsibility, social contract and government, the researcher attempts to answer the research question.
Triggering the First Amendment: Newsgathering Torts and Press Freedom • Matthew D. Bunker and Sheree Martin, Alabama and Sigman L. Splichal, Miami • The recent Food Lion case highlights attempts by those suing the press to short-circuit First Amendment protections by attacking how news is gathered rather than its publication. This paper examines recent cases illustrative of this trend. It then analyzes and critiques the current state of the law and suggests a new framework that provides protection for the press as it goes about the vital process of gathering news.
Information Pollution?: Labeling and Format of Advertorials in National Newspapers • Glen T. Cameron, Cox Institute for Newspaper Management Studies; Kuen-Hee Ju-Pak, California State University-Fullerton and Bong-Hyun Kim, Diamond Ad • Four hundred thirty advertorials found in three national newspapers over a ten year timespan were analyzed as possible contributors to information pollution, defined here as the blurred distinction between editorial and commercial messages. Blurring occurs when advertorials masquerade as editorial items. The content analysis suggests that most advertorials are not easily recognized, multi-page inserts. Further, advertorials could be better labeled and formatted to signal readers of the commercial nature of the item.
Parallels in Partisan Journalism: A Comparative Study of Party Newspapers of the Early American Republic and Those of Contemporary West Africa • W. Joseph Campbell, American University • Common features are both striking and abundant between the press of the early years of the American republic and that of contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. Both encountered financial difficulties that forced many newspapers to cease publication after only a few issues. Both faced uncertain access to newsprint and limited reading audiences. Both slowly evolved from weekly to daily publication. This study concludes that the parallels between the early U.S. partisan press and the contemporary partisan press in Africa are more substantial than superficial than merely curious.
Free Trade or Fair Trade?: The U.S. Auto Trade Policy and the Press • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Oregon • Conducting both quantitative and qualitative content analyses, this study shows that the auto elite set the agenda for the New York Times and Detroit News, both of which were inclined to have their news coverage of the auto trade conflicts between the U.S. and Japan biased toward the so-called fair trade, not free trade. Additionally, the News is more likely than the Times to be more biased, especially when the conflicts were mounting.
CD-ROMs in Metro Daily Newspapers • Lucinda D. Davenport, Michigan State University • The focus of this baseline study was to document the use of CD-ROMs in newspapers, something no other research has done. In particular, the study answers why newspapers have CD-ROMs, the number and types of CD-ROMs used most often, accessibility of CD-ROMs, and how they are used in the reporting processes. Results show that CD-ROMs are an important reporting tool at newspapers. Implications are that training seminars, workshops, university courses and textbooks need to include CD-ROM as part of their instruction.
Effect of Structural Pluralism and Corporate News Structure on News Source Perceptions of Critical Content • David K. Demers, Washington State University and Debra L. Merskin, University of Oregon • A recent content analysis of newspaper editorials and letters to the editor disputes 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). The data show that the more structurally complex the newspaper, the more news sources perceived that paper as being critical of them and their institutions.
Caught In The Web: Newspaper Use of The Internet and Other Online Resources • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This paper reviews use of the World Wide Web and other online services by U. S. daily newspapers. The study analyzes general computer use, value placed on the Web as a news tool, preferred browsers, search tools, most widely used sites, site qualities and problems, and online successes and failures. General computer use is at 88% and online use is at 90%. Daily use has almost doubled and about 92% of newspapers use the Web. Furthermore, online research by reporters has increased to 48% from 25% two years earlier.
Use of Sources by Statehouse Newspaper Reporters: A Content Analysis • Eileen Gilligan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • This content analysis of 864 articles demonstrates how newspaper reporters in four states used sources based on political prominence. The prominence of governors was compared to that of legislators, lobbyists, ordinary citizens, and others. Newspaper circulation also was a variable. Results show that governors were not treated as more prominent than legislators; however, governors took precedence over non-government sources except when paired with ordinary citizens. Small newspapers used more quotations from governors than large newspapers.
Effects of Photographs in News Reports on Issue Perception • Rhonda Gibson, Texas Tech University; Dolf Zillmann and Stephanie Sargent, Alabama • The influence of photographs in news reports was investigated. Reports featured either no photograph, a photograph exemplifying one side of the issue under consideration, a photo exemplifying the opposite side of the issue, or two photographs exemplifying both sides. Issue perception was ascertained immediately or ten days later. Perception of issues was strongly influenced by the one-sided use of photographs. In the delay condition especially, assessments were biased in the direction suggested by the photographs.
Australian Newspaper Gatekeepers: Their Use Of Readership Research • Kerry Philip, University of Queensland • Australian gatekeepers enjoy limited use of readership research. Despite considerable research being done at the nation’s major newspapers, gatekeepers report limited access to the research but strong, interest in using it. The gatekeepers take a conservative approach to the news agenda and favor following the agenda, deferring to audience preferences, rather than setting the agenda. Australian newspapers, like newspapers around the world, are struggling, to reverse a national trend towards lower circulation.
Conflict, Consensus, & the Community Newspaper: Unearthing a Buried Counter-Thesis in Social-Structural News Media Theory • Joseph Harry Michigan State University • Tichenor, Donohue and Olein’s ‘social-structural’ thesis is that community structure strongly conditions newspaper coverage of social conflicts. Big-city newspaper coverage of conflict reflects the metropolis’ conflict-driven nature; conversely smaller-town newspapers reflect the consensus-oriented nature of their own communities by downplaying conflict. Evidence from source-use patterns in a small-town versus a big-city newspaper argues for the authors’ buried but under-explored counter-thesis: Sometimes, a small-town paper performs exactly opposite of what the authors’ central thesis would predict.
To Each According to Its Niche: A Resource Dependence Analysis of the Structural Segregation in China’s Newspaper Industries • Chen Huailin, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Guo Zhongshi, Hong Kong Baptist University • This article adopts a political economy of communication analysis of an emerging structural transformation in China’s print media. Through comparisons of old and new resource allocation patterns in the country’s newspapers, it argues that tensions between ideology and marketization facilitate a structural segregation that polarizes powerful party newspapers and popular mass appeal tabloids. The end result of such a divergent movement is that each group has secured its own niche in the market with a distinct configuration of resources.
Megan’s Law: Being Just in Coverage of Criminal Justice • Michelle Johnson, Westfield State College and William A. Babcock, University of Minnesota • In the 1990s, a growing number of states adopted community notification laws, requiring police to inform residents when sex offenders move in to their neighborhoods. In many states, journalists receive lists of high-risk sex offenders in their circulation areas. Journalists must decide how or if they will use this information in news stories, considering the risk offenders pose to their neighbors, the prospect of vigilantism against sex offenders, and the role of the media as a watchdog on the criminal justice system.
Online Newspapers: A Trend Study Of News Content And Technical Features • David Kamerer and Bonnie Bressers, Kansas State University • This is a content analysis of online newspapers in April and November 1997. Coders examined them for technical features, content, and advertising support. Online papers grew more sophisticated in each category over the six-month period. They also increased their use of links to other sites. In technical features, daily newspapers were the most sophisticated, followed by specialized newspapers and nondailies. In news content, dailies were most sophisticated, followed by nondailies and specialized newspapers.
Community Journalism At Work: Newspapers Putting More Emphasis on Importance of Local News • David Kaszuba and Bill Reader, Penn State University • In a content analysis of daily newspapers with circulations under 50,000, described as “community newspapers,” the authors found that, over the past 30 years, newspapers have increasingly devoted larger percentages of their front pages to the presentation of local news. The larger of these community newspapers appear more devoted to local news coverage, possibly as a result of having more resources available for such coverage than their smaller counterparts.
News Bias and the Sandinistas: A Content Analysis of Coverage by The New York Times And The Miami Herald of The 1990 And 1996 Nicaraguan Elections • Kris Kaszuba, Indiana University • This article finds evidence of news bias in the coverage of the 1990 and 1996 Nicaraguan elections by the New York Times and the Miami Herald. The bias is reflected in amount of coverage, prominence of stories and sources used. Both newspaper took at least some cues from the U.S. government. For example, when the U.S. government had a more active role in opposing the Sandinistas, the two newspapers also relied more on anti-Sandinista sources. This study illustrates that the U.S. media even in a relatively free system operate under some formal and informal government and social controls.
The Impact of Beat Competition on City Hall Coverage • Stephen Lacy and Charles St. Cyr, Michigan State University and David C. Coulson, Nevada-Reno • The study used a survey of 232 newspaper city hall beat reporters about the impact of newspaper and television competition on their coverage. Newspaper competition was more likely to affect content than television competition, but television did have an impact on some reporters, especially in the absence of newspaper competition. The most interesting results were the relationship between competition and reporter-editor interaction and the strong impact of this interaction on reporters’ perceptions of content changes.
Sources in New York Times’ Coverage of China Before and After June 4th, 1989: A Content Analysis Focusing on Influence of Crisis Situation On Sourcing Patterns of US Media in World News Coverage • Guoli Li, Ohio University • This is a study of the New York Times’ coverage of the students’ movement in China in 1989 and focuses on the influence of this political incident on the sourcing patterns of the New York Times when covering China. By comparing the New York Times’ coverage of China in four time periods both before and after the students’ demonstration, the author finds that the crisis situation impacted the sourcing patterns of the New York Times both during and after the event and has a lingering effect.
Record Newspapers, Legal Notice Laws and Digital Technology Solutions • Shannon E. Martin, Rutgers University • Record newspapers have served for decades as official bulletin boards in communities across the United States. Many of these newspapers, designated by state statutes, are now providing online, digital format news products that do not meet statutory guidelines for public notice functions. The research reported here examines the adjustments to existing legal language necessary so that digitally delivered newspapers may serve the informational function intended by public notice that has been traditionally provided in record newspapers.
The Reporting of Survey Data in Newspapers: Do Readers Get the Complete Story? • Paul McCreath, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • In the first edition of Precision Journalism, Phil Meyer stated that news stories should include seven items such as the sample size and margin of error when reporting the results of public opinion polls. A content analysis was done to determine compliance with the suggested standards. The paper concludes that newspaper stories are good at including a basic level of information concerning survey data, but those conducting the research should stress the importance of including ancillary information which gives a truly complete picture.
Analyzing Bias in Press Coverage of State Policymaking for Higher Education • Michael K. McLendon and Marvin W. Peterson, Michigan • Theoretically-grounded analysis of press coverage that examines what news accounts convey about the interactions of higher education institutions during periods of tremendous legislative conflict is virtually non-existent. This study utilized a theory of news construction to predict and to analyze patterns of press coverage of legislative conflict between two nationally-prominent universities. The chief finding is that newspapers with competing political interests give preferential treatment to their “local” universities, producing “biased” news coverage of critical state policy episodes.
Effects of Novel News Photographs On Readers’ Interest in and Memory for Newspaper Content • Andrew Mendelson, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville • The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of novelty in content and composition of news photographs on newspaper readers attention and memory for the photographs and the accompanying stories. An experiment showed that the different novelty conditions had no effect on story interest story rank or story recall, even when people judged the photographs as different from each other in novelty. Only specific news topics affected story interest and recall.
The Economics of Online Newspapers • Donica Mensing, Nevada-Reno • Little is known about the economics of online news sites. A survey of online editors at U.S. newspapers with daily updated Web sites revealed that few papers are covering costs for their Web sites. Display advertising is the single largest source of revenue, followed by Internet access fees and classified advertisements. The outlook for Web profitability is murky, with revenue strategies problematic because of technological limitations, audience size, consumer demand and intense competition.
Measuring Recall of Linear And Non-Linear Online News Stories • Donica Mensing, Jennifer Greer, Jon Gubman, Sumita Louis, Nevada-Reno • Online newspapers are seeking to tell stories differently to take advantage of the medium’s unique characteristics. This study examines whether information recall is affected by online news presentation style. No differences were found in recall between subjects reading linear news articles that required scrolling down multiple screens and subjects reading the same information in a non-linear, linked format. Additionally, no significant differences emerged in examining story type and its interaction with subjects’ computer comfort levels.
Sources of the Decline in Newspaper Reading: Examining Long-Term Changes by Means of Nonlinear Trend Decomposition • Wolfram Peiser University, St Mainz • In many Western countries, newspaper reading has declined in the past decades. Intercohort differences apparently play a role, younger birth cohorts reading less frequently. Applying a new method of trend decomposition, this research investigates how much of the decline in U.S. and German newspaper readership during the past 25 years was due to cohort succession (in conjunction with intercohort differences). Results indicate that cohort succession contributed substantially to past declines and works towards future declines.
Coping With Change: The Reaction of St. Louis Post-Dispatch Journalists to Changes in the Newsroom • Earnest L. Perry and Peter Gade, Missouri • Cole C. Campbell became the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1996, a turbulent year of change at one of the nation’s most respected newspaper. The former editor of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Campbell replaced William Woo, who had been Joseph Pulitzer III’s hand-picked successor a decade earlier. Picked for his “journalistic skills, business acumen, leadership and vision,” Campbell’s track record showed him to be a proponent of change in the newspaper industry.
Generation X: Is Its Meaning Understood? • Paula M. Poindexter and Dominic L. Lasorsa, Texas-Austin • Although newspapers and other mass media increasingly have been using the term “Generation X” to refer to young adults, little is known about what the public thinks about this label A random sample of 489 Austin, Texas, area residents in 1997 found that an unexpectedly large number of people, almost one in three-was unfamiliar with the term and that of those familiar with the term, fewer than 14 percent considered it to be a label with a positive connotation and nearly 40 percent said it was a negative term.
Lux Libertas: Open Records and Open Meetings at the University • Patricia A. Richardson, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study analyzes 24 North Carolina newspapers’ coverage of proposed changes in the state’s open records and open meetings laws over a five-month period in 1997. At issue was the definition of public body as it applied to the state university system. Analyses according to objectivity and equal presentation of viewpoint showed the media did not act as a forum for open exchange, nor were they objective in reporting on the issue.
“Reality” as it Appears in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A Content Analysis • Shelly Rodgers, Michael Antecol and Esther Thorson, Missouri • This study finds that ethnic, gender and age groups are portrayed in biased and stereotypical ways in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Adult, white, male characters dominated all topics except juvenile crime, education and health. Stories that ran in the Front and Business sections generally were more negative than other sections, and the Business section tended to frame “blame” in terms of the institution. Overall, stories tended to take a liberal slant. Suggestions for improving news coverage are discussed.
Digital Formats for the Future: The Web vs. Paper vs. a Vertical-Screen, Page-Based Design • Carl Schierhorn, Stanley T. Wearden, Ann B. Schierhorn, Pamela S. Tabar and Scott C. Andrews, Kent State University • Newspapers are moving rapidly into the digital age, but little research exists to guide them on consumer preferences. Web sites, read primarily on horizontal computer screens and requiring scrolling to read an entire page are state of the art, but some have argued for a lightweight Portable Document Viewer (electronic tablet) with a vertical touch screen. This study tests subjects’ preferences for a traditional newspaper vs. a Web site with the same contents vs. a vertical-screen, page-based design suitable for display on a PDV.
Superstars or Second-Class Citizens?: Management and Staffing Issues Affecting Newspapers’ Online Journalists • Jane B. Singer, Martha P. Tharp, Amon Haruta, Colorado State University • This paper reports preliminary findings from a survey of online and print editors at 466 U.S. newspapers, designed to identify key online staffing issues such as salary and experience levels, job classifications and benefits. The results indicate that online newspaper staffs remain small, with salaries and benefits roughly commensurate with those paid to print employees in comparable jobs. Online editors express concerns about the pressure to turn a profit, as well as about the perception that they and their staffs are seen as second-class citizens by many of their print colleagues.
Newspaper Ombudsmanship As Viewed by Ombudsmen and their Editors• Kenneth Starck and Julie Eisele, Iowa • Declining readership and growing cynicism among Americans has caught the attention of newspaper professionals across the country. The newspaper ombudsman position has been identified by media experts as a potential tool for enhancing credibility. This study, stimulated by American Society of Newspaper Editors concerns about credibility, surveyed editors and ombudsmen at newspapers where ombudsmen are on staff. Responses indicate that ombudsmanship enhances the newspapers efforts to be fair and accurate and, in the process, to promote accountability and credibility.
A Shifting Attention Agenda: A Study of Travel-Related Articles in the New York Times From 1950 To 1989 • Barbara R. Shoemake Southern Mississippi and Huiuk Yi, College of Commerce and Economics-S. Korea • This paper examines 40 years of travel articles from the New York Times and compares them to Americans’ international travel data. Scholars of tourism studies stress the importance of information sources in the development of destination images. Tourism advertising and tourists’ information-seeking strategies have been the focus of heavy research. However, travel articles and editorial content of columns have not been heavily reviewed as to their importance in determining tourists’ images of destinations.
Local Press Coverage of Environmental Conflict: A Content Analysis of the Daily Review, 1985-1994 • Claire E. Taylor, Jung-Sook Lee and William R. Davie, Southwestern Louisiana • An examination of 600 items in the local press coverage of environmental conflict over a ten-year period showed that a community daily in a small, but heterogeneous system (l) did indeed favor government/industry sources rather than activists/citizens through all five stages of the conflict; (2) supported local industry in editorials and staff opinion columns in only two stages (Mobilization and Confrontation); and (3) legitimized local industry and marginalized its opponents through all five stages.
Readers’ Response to Digital News Stories Presented in Layers and Links • Karen Vargo, Carl Schierhorn, Stanley T. Wearden, Ann B. Schierhorn, Fred F. Endres and Pamela S. Tabar, Kent State University • This study of 162 students compared their preferences on ways of hyperlinking news stories to related material and their preferences on the format of links. It compared the traditional World Wide Web underline, eight- to 10-word headlines, headlines plus a deck and headlines plus a 40- to 80-word abstract. It found that these readers, by a substantial margin, preferred longer links • both from an original screen to an entire story and from the story to a sidebar.
Complementing the Alternative: Newspaper Sourcing of Complementary and Alternative Medicine • Brian Vastag, Stephanie Dube, Lisa Brown, Scott McMahan and Kristie Alley Swain, Texas A&M University • Interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is growing among doctors, researchers, and health care consumers. By examining sources used in CAM articles in nine elite newspapers from the U.S. and overseas between 1992 and 1997, this study set out to address the question: Who gets a say in the CAM debate? An analysis of 259 articles found CAM coverage to be overwhelmingly positive. Conventional health care sources were used more frequently than CAM sources.
Innovators or News Hounds? A Study of Early Adopters of the Electronic Newspaper • Tom Weir, Oklahoma State University • The study looks at a sample of early adopters of an electronic newspaper and compares them with a random telephone sample across personality characteristics and demographic categories to assess the usefulness of several hypothesized predictors of adoption. The research finds that general experience within the product category is not particularly important. Opinion leadership is demonstrated to be significant, but greater innovativeness is not, highlighting a unique situation with media as an information utility.
Portrait vs. Landscape: Potential Users’ Preferences for Screen Orientation • Stanley T. Wearden, Roger Fidler, Ann B. Schierhorn and Carl Schierhorn, Kent State University • Little research has been done to establish consumers’ preferences when reading from screens, and no research, prior to this study, has established whether consumers prefer a portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) screen orientation. Using a mockup of a Portable Document Viewer, the researchers tested the screen-orientation preferences of a random sample of 201 consumers in a mall-intercept survey. There was a strong preference for a portrait screen orientation for reading a newspaper.
Handling Hate: A Content Analysis of Washington State’s Newspaper Coverage of Hate Crimes and White Supremacists • Virginia Whitehouse, Whitworth College • Washington’s newspapers aggressively cover white supremacist hate groups and do a fair job of reporting hate crimes. Hate crimes were best covered, and sometimes only covered, when committed by hate groups. Violent crimes, particularly assault, tend to be downplayed. This creates an inaccurate community portrait of local hate crimes. Because media coverage in large part shapes public opinion, communities may fail to respond to the true nature of hate in their midst.
‘Powerful’ Attributive Verbs and ‘Body-Language’ Statements Revisited • Sherrie L. Wilson, Nebraska-Omaha • This paper reports the results of an experiment to determine the impact of “stronger” attributive verbs than said (“insisted,” “contended,” “exclaimed”) and “body-language” statements (“waving a stack of petitions,” “pounding her fist on the table”) on the readers of news stories. The study was modeled after earlier research by Cole and Shaw.
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