Newspaper 2001 Abstracts
Newspaper Division
Who Brought US These Grapes of Wrath? New York Times and Washington Post Coverage of the 1996 Israeli-Hezbollah Conflict • Abhinav Aima, Ohio University • This study examined the coverage of the 1996 Israeli attack on the Hezbollah in Lebanon. A content analysis of 92 news stories collected from the Lexis-Nexis databank for the month of April 1996 yielded 1090 sources. An examination of the sources and their comments lent support to the propaganda model theory: Both newspapers over-represented the sources that were favorable to the foreign policy of the U.S., or largely kept their opinions within the confines of the foreign policy debate.
Convenient Excuses? Jobs, Classes, And Misconceptions Limit JMC Students’ Involvement In Major • Betsy Alderman, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and Fred Fedler, University of Central Florida • College students say they have literally run out of time. Ninety-two percent are enrolled full-time, and 79.3 percent work at least part-time. Although their intentions are good, 81.5 percent have not completed an internship and 78.4 percent have not worked for any campus media. Moreover, many students are mistaken about employers’ priorities. When given a list of 13 possible priorities, students ranked good writing skills fourth, internships seventh, and work for campus media twelfth.
Creating new value for copy editing instruction in the curriculum and the university • Ann E. Auman, University of Hawaii, Frank E. Fee Jr, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and John T. Russial, University of Oregon • Traditionally, copy editors have taken a back seat to reporters in newsrooms, and journalism schools have reflected this. This study, a survey of 69 editing instructors on the value of copy editing in journalism curricula, shows that copy editing does not have equal status with reporting/news writing classes but that it is valued. Instructors should emphasize that editing is the “glue”; it teaches the big picture view and critical thinking skills, which are valued throughout the university.
Exploring the Market Relationship Between Online and Print Newspapers • Hsiang Iris Chyi, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Dominic L. Lasorsa, University of Texas at Austin • A random-sample telephone survey was conducted in a typical one-newspaper city to investigate the public’s response to local, regional, and national newspapers’ print and online editions. Results identified a substantial overlap of online and print readerships for the local daily —suggesting the potential of a complementary product relationship. Cannibalization — the negative impact of launching a free Web edition on print circulation—was insignificant because print readership was strongest among readers of that same newspaper’s online edition. The print format was preferred—even among Web users—when compared with the online edition on an “other things being equal” basis.
Social Construction of Depression in Newspaper Frames • Cindy Coleman-Sillars, Portland State University and Jessica A. Corbitt • The authors examine factors that are brought to bear on the social construction of depression in newspaper coverage. In a 14-month period, the authors explore news frames that reveal stigma, and examine how solution, disease and war frames shape coverage. They conclude that, while coverage is not overtly biased, the structure of coverage, news routines and influences of exogenous variables, combined with use of specific metaphors, help shape depression in an unfavorable light.
Mapping the Public Journalism Continuum: Do Newspaper Educators and Editors Agree on the Outcomes and Goals of Public Journalism? • Tom Dickson, Wanda Brandon and Elizabeth Topping, Southwest Missouri State University • Following suggestions of previous research that there was not one public journalism but several, the authors surveyed editors of daily newspapers and members of the AEJMC Newspaper Division to determine whether they agreed on the outcomes and goals of public journalism. The authors concluded that the two groups did not differ in their opinions about the outcomes or the goals of public journalism; however, editors rated the importance of each of the six goals significantly higher than did educators. The authors also found that institutional variables studied were more important to both editors’ and educators’ responses concerning outcomes of public journalism and the less-activist goals of public journalism but that individual variables were more important concerning the more-activist goals of public journalism.
Back to the Future? Teaching Copy Editing Skills in Changing Times • Frank E. Fee, Jr., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; John Russial, University of Oregon and Ann Auman, University of Hawaii • A survey of editing professors at ACEJMC-accredited programs indicates that traditional skills of text editing, headline-writing and design remain fundamental but that new skills involving technological and organizational competencies have become quite important too. The study also compares the responses of professors with those of copy editing professionals in a previous national survey. It shows that professors and professionals are largely in agreement about which skills are crucial for copy editors to have but that professors feel their students need a wider variety of skills. Neither group currently places much emphasis on multimedia skill. The views of professors were closer to those of professionals at small to mid-size papers, papers that are more likely to hire students out of college.
Connecting With the News Culture: Trade-Press Readership Among Copy Editors and Their Supervisors • Frank E. Fee Jr., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This research examines external factors in the training and professionalization of journalists, asking whether a key group of news workers, copy editors, attend professional trade press and journals and benefit from potential training and professionalism they offer. It finds that copy editors and the people who hire, supervise and evaluate them report low levels of professional journal and trade press readership. Implications for journalism education and practice are discussed and newsroom training opportunities are identified.
“Still Shocking, But No Longer Surprising”: The Anomaly Paradox in Newspaper Coverage of the 1997-1998 School Shootings • Russell Frank, Pennsylvania State University • This paper brings together Tuchman’s “what-a-story,” Fishman’s “crime wave dynamic” and Gans’ identification of small-town pastoralism and social order as “enduring values in the news” in accounting for similarities among newspaper stories about five school shootings that occurred in 1997-98. The juxtaposition of Tuchman and Fishman sheds further light on one of the fundamental paradoxes of journalism: A series of similarly anomalous events is considered more anomalous than a single anomalous event.
Turbulent Times: Organizational Change and Development in the Newspaper Industry • Peter Gade, University of Oklahoma • In the late 1990s, the newspaper industry embarked on broad-based change initiatives in an attempt to ensure the long-term viability of the industry in a dynamic media marketplace. Newsrooms were restructured, news values revised, job descriptions and necessary skills redefined. This mail survey of 457 rank-and-file journalists (56.6 percent response rate) from a purposive sample of 17 newspapers leading industry change draws on the commonality of the journalists’ experiences with change, attempting to provide benchmarks for understanding industry change that are (a) practical to newsroom managers and (b) theoretical. Respondents perceive themselves as open-minded toward change, but think change initiatives have not been planned, implemented or monitored in accordance with organizational theory. Journalists report they do not think team-based newsrooms provide more autonomy or improve the content of newspapers. They perceive change as primarily market- and profit-driven. Organizational development initiatives, newsroom structure and news values are significant predictors of morale, which is low.
The Aesthetics of Work: How Faculty Editors and Student Reporters Negotiate Good Work in the Newsroom • Beverly Horvit, Winthrop University • This qualitative study examines the aesthetics work in a university newsroom. The analysis, based on observation and interviews, shows how student reporters and faculty editors negotiate what will be considered good journalism, good academic performance and good teaching. Both parties are shown to juggle different responsibilities and make compromises in the production of the newspaper. Both have to manage time and space in deciding how to do good work and determining what good work is.
A Comparative Analysis of On-line versus Print Media: Readability and Content Differentiation of Business News • Jaemin Jung and Samsup Jo, University of Florida • The purpose of this study was to examine the readability and content differentiation of business news. Specifically, three newspapers and three Internet sites were content analyzed to see differences based on the media type. The findings suggest that the Internet business news showed more difficult readability with longer sentences, lower reading ease scores and more complex business terminology. The other results showed differences in the topics and visual usages between newspapers and Internet sites.
Diffusion in the Heartland: Internet Use at Small Dailies and Weeklies in Oklahoma • Stan Ketterer, Oklahoma State University • This paper looks at how reporters in Oklahoma use the Internet. All dailies and most weeklies in the study bad Internet access. It was too costly and unavailable for some weeklies. Further, all dailies and most weeklies used the Internet for reporting. Journalists at some weeklies thought it was not useful for local news. Overall, these journalists sought similar information, although dailies had higher usage. All newspapers relied mostly on primary and secondary sources, and most included Internet information in their stories.
THE FEDS. THE FAMILY, THE FATHER: THE FRAMING OF ELIAN • Kimberly Lauffer, Towson University, Alyse Gotthoffer Lancaster, and Sandra Florentin, University of Miami • Six-year-old Elian Gonzalez made these and other headlines nationwide when he was returned to his father by the Immigration and Naturalization Service on April 23, 2000. This study examines newspaper coverage from the day after the federal agents removed the boy from Miami and reunited him with his father, who was waiting in the Washington, D.C. area. Seventy articles in three South Florida newspapers were analyzed qualitatively to elicit the framing techniques used by the newspapers. Frames included insider/outsider, proactive/reactive, freedom/repression, civilized/uncivilized, and religious/sacrilegious, advanced by the assignation of blame, personalization, use of loaded language, use of figurative language, use of comparisons and contrasts, and use of sources.
Impact of Web Design Approach on News Retrieval Efficiency • Xigen Li, Louisiana State University • A computer lab experiment of news retrieval process of three U.S Internet newspapers found that Web design approach has a significant impact on news retrieval efficiency. This study identified several factors that affect obtained gratification of users when they retrieved news information from Internet newspapers. The site balanced with graphics and text achieved the highest retrieval efficiency among the three Internet newspapers. Besides media content, this study demonstrated that the means that facilitates users to get information is also important in predicting value associated with the medium. The Internet newspapers with different designs are functional alternatives available to audience in all markets and are likely to compete for audience in their selection of communication channels within the medium.
Official sources, embedded perspective and news frameworks: How two Korean newspapers covered a public health crisis • Robert A. Logan, Jaeyung Park and Jae-Hwa Shin, University of Missouri-Columbia • A content analysis of the coverage of a public health crisis in Korea from September 1999 to December 2000 explored 13 hypothesis about news reporting and selection that were derived from qualitatively based international literature. The findings suggest a tendency to: overemphasize official sources, underemphasize other news sources and avoid extensive in-depth reporting. However, the newspapers surveyed diversified their reportorial and news selection range as events occurred.
Framing Youth Violence • John McManus and Lori Dorfrnan, Berkeley Media Studies Group • Have quality newspapers incorporated what we’ve learned over the last quarter century about making news more useful as a resource for civic participation? A yearlong analysis of reporting about youth violence provides a schizophrenic conclusion: After the Columbine massacre, newspapers provided rich context, a wide range of sources and many frames offering causes and solutions. But coverage of the more common violence that most threatens society was typically frameless , minimally contextualized, and police-sourced.
Numbers in the News: A Mathematics Audit of a Daily Newspaper • Scott R. Maier, University of Oregon • To establish baseline information about journalistic use and misuse of numbers, 1,500 local news stories were examined in a mathematics audit of a daily metropolitan newspaper. Nearly half of local stores were found to involve mathematical calculation. Eleven categories of numerical inaccuracy were identified. Most errors were self-evident and involved elementary mathematics. Results suggest that journalists fail to apply the attention and skepticism to numbers that they routinely apply to other aspects of their work.
Newsroom Numeracy: A Case Study of Mathematical Competence and Confidence • Scott R. Maier, University of Oregon • By testing the ability of reporters and editors to perform math tasks commonly encountered in their work, this case study of a metropolitan daily newspaper provides a baseline assessment of numeracy in the newsroom. The study also examines mathematical confidence of journalists, with strong performers in math outnumbering weak performers, the results challenge the view that most journalists cannot handle even elementary mathematics. However, testing revealed high math anxiety even among strong math performers.
The Scope and Nature of Newspaper in Education programs: A National Survey • Patrick C. Meirick and Daniel J. Sullivan, University of Minnesota • Even though there are fewer Participating newspapers than in 1992, ME programs now reach an estimated 14.4 million students, up 33 percent. More than twice as many newspapers provide school copies free of charge, thanks to the growing role of sponsors. An increasing emphasis on circulation is apparent: Circulation departments are now primarily responsible for 69 percent of ME programs, and newspapers were much more likely to rate “immediate circulation gains” as an extremely important reason for the program.
At Play in the Field of the Word: A content analysis of the coverage of women’s sports in selected San Francisco Bay Area newspapers • Greg Mellen and Patricia Coleman, University of Missouri • This study extends previous research on inequities in media coverage of women’s sports in newspapers. A content analysis was conducted on sports sections from large, medium and small newspapers from the San Francisco Bay Area. 4,152 stories and 66,000 inches of text were coded. The study hypothesized that men’s stories receive the majority of coverage and that smaller papers provide more equitable coverage of women’s sports. Chi squares and descriptive data supported both hypotheses.
Campaign Advertising Coverage in the 1990s Elections: A Content Analysis • Young Min, University of Texas-Austin • This paper explores the discursive patterns and styles of campaign advertising coverage. Specifically, it examines how the news sets contextual frames for political ads, attending to how two prestigious newspapers—the New York Times and the Washington Post—covered the 1992, 1996, and 2000 general-election advertising campaigns. An analysis of 118 ad stories indicates that ad coverage in the 1 990s has paid more attention to challengers than incumbents, to presidential than state or local races, and to negative than positive ads. While employing an investigative and research driven style of reporting, the press has applied a “double-standard” to the assessment of political ads; it has tended to deflate the authenticity of campaign ads, but more often than not it has reinforced the causes of the campaigners concerning the political effectiveness of those ads. Most importantly, the press has exhibited a Republican bias in coverage and a Democratic bias in tone in reporting on advertising campaigns. Overall, the campaign ad coverage in the 1990s has shifted its attention from the effectiveness of the charges and countercharges to their accuracy, focusing more on the substance of candidates’ issue positions. This shift may encourage candidates to engage each other with the matters that are more essential and relevant to governance.
Newspapers in the Age of the Internet : Adding Interactivity to Objectivity • John L. Morris, Adams State College • Four recent books on public journalism make clear this ideological movement has drawn attention to the interactive processes of journalism over its static products. This emphasis on process has led many critics to connect public journalism with activism and, consequently, a loss of objectivity. Scholars of the writing process and social psychology maintain that all human communication is interactive, however, and some theorists argue the more interactive the communication, the more effective it is.
Gatekeeping and the Editorial Cartoon: A Case Study of the 2000 Presidential Campaign Cartoons • Jennifer M. Proffitt, University of Wyoming • This study explores gatekeeping studies and the political editorial cartoon, comparing the experiences of editorial cartoonists with gatekeeping research findings and examining how standardization and conservative news policies appear to apply to editorial cartoons pertaining to the 2000 presidential campaign published in The Denver Post. Sixty-nine cartoons were analyzed and compared to the 155 select articles concerning the 2000 presidential campaign. The study also discusses The Post’s endorsement of Vice President Gore and its possible effect on choice and content of cartoons.
COPY FLOW AT SMALL NEWSPAPERS: LESSONS FOR METROS SEEKING CHANGE? • Judy Gibbs Robinson, University of Oklahoma • Some newspapers are eliminating their copy desks in a move to flatten hierarchies and return to more generalist workers. There is much less role specialization and hierarchy at small newspapers because of staff sizes, therefore they might be models for this large-newspaper trend. A mail survey confirmed that small newspapers (<25,000 circulation) have flattened hierarchies and generalist workers. It also identified three general patterns of copy flow at small newspapers that have no copy desk.
Local Advertisers and Online Newspapers: Will Print Revenue Streams Reproduce on the Web? • Dan Shaver, Michigan State University • Many newspaper publishers launched online newspapers as companions or supplements to their print publications for strategic reasons, without a well-developed plan for achieving profitability. Once online, however, economic imperatives have quickly emerged. A great deal of attention has been focused on the impact of online publications on content and readers, and a good deal of research about web-based advertising has been conducted, but little notice has been given to local advertisers and online newspapers. This study addresses the question of whether local advertisers, the backbone of support for print newspapers, are likely to become dependable supporters of electronic news products. It finds that local advertisers have a commitment to a future online presence despite generally negative past experiences, that whether online newspapers or other web-based vehicles capture this business is an open question, and that newspapers are likely to suffer less than broadcast and cable television as advertising budgets are adjusted to pay for online services.
Journalistic voice in public affairs & public confidence in the press • Hoon Shim, University of Texas-Austin • The primary purpose of this study was to explore if biased reportage in public news accounts is linked to the public distrust toward the media. It was predicted that three chief factors are contributing to the decline in press performance ratings: (1) an increase in the number of descriptively biased reports (2) an increase in the number of points of view (3) an increase in the number of thematic frames. Data support the first and third propositions.
All The Surveys That Are Fit to Print: The Romanian Case • Razvan Sibii and Brad Thompson, American University in Bulgaria • Against the background of a theoretical discussion of the legitimacy of public opinion polling, this paper looks at the way three Romanian newspapers treated survey stories in the five months before the Romanian parliamentary and presidential elections in fall 2000. The survey stories examined were found to violate numerous standards of poll reporting as established by the Associated Press. This raises questions about media practices and professionalism in Romania and throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS: Online Newspapers Go Beyond Shovelware in Covering Election 2000 • Jane Singer, University of Iowa • As newspapers move online, they encounter opportunities to contribute to campaign coverage, a staple of American journalism, in new ways. This study, based on a survey of online editors at sites affiliated with leading U.S. papers, indicates that editors gave primary emphasis to the medium’s ability to provide Election 2000 information faster and in more detail. Though options for enhancing political discourse were appreciated by some, both interactivity and multimedia presentations were less widely cited among editors’ key goals and perceived successes.
Gender Politics: News Framing of the Candidates’ Wives in Campaign 2000 • Betty Houchin Winfield and Barbara Friedman, University of Missouri • News coverage of the first lady has historically covered her during the White House years in four frames: as an escort to her husband; as a style setter; in a noblesse oblige role; and as a policy advisor. This qualitative study examines coverage in three newspapers of the presidential and vice presidential candidates’ wives during the 2000 election. What frames are present as these women are introduced to the American public? How journalists, after the sweeping changes in American women’s lives and in the wake of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s unprecedented tenure, cover these figures, may tell us something about how the first lady’s and second lady’s roles are still evolving.
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