Radio-TV Journalism 1999 Abstracts
Radio-TV Journalism Division
Media Reliance And Political Knowledge: Have Researchers Underestimated The Effects Of Radio And Television News Because Of An Operationalization Artifact? • Raymond Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines how media exposure affects political knowledge. Unlike most studies, a person can be reliant on more than one medium. Respondents with multiple media reliances scored a mean of 3.3 on a knowledge scale, compared with 2.91 for respondents with single/no reliances (t = -2.32, df =382, p <.05). Total media time accounted for 1.6 percent of the variance in political knowledge.
Student And Professional Attitudes Regarding Advertising Influence On Broadcast News Content: A Comparative Study • Hubert Brown, Syracuse University • Students studying Broadcast Journalism or Advertising and professionals working in those fields were surveyed on their attitudes regarding advertising influence on broadcast news content. This study compares the attitudes of the students and practitioners in the respective professions. while students and professionals agreed on a majority of opinion statements, the areas where there was significant disagreement hold important implications for preparing students in both disciplines for the realities of the marketplace.
Winner By A Sound Byte: Fairness and balance in the 1998 Michigan Governor’s Race • Sue Carter, Michigan State University • Much of what voters learn about candidates for state office comes to them from local television news programs. Just how frequent and, more importantly, how fair and balanced coverage of these candidates is presents a fertile area for research. In this study, “Winner by a Sound Bite. Fairness and Balance in the 1998 Michigan Governor’s Race,” the researchers discovered that local television stations may claim fairness and balance in their overall coverage from Labor Day to the election, but that individual stories can be substantially out-of whack when it comes to structural and partisan balance.
The State, Market and TV Regulation in China: A Managerial Perspective of Decentralization and Depolicitization • Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota-Twin Cities • Within the managerial perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between the state and the market in TV regulation against the backdrop of the fast changing Chinese social structure and processes over the past two decades. Through a careful analysis of documentaries, the study looks at how the evolution of official conception of television in China has affected TV in the areas of entertainment, new technology, roles and functions, geographical boundary, and professionalism.
Sesame Street And Children Learning English In Hungary: Measuring Appeal • Rita Csapo-Sweet, Missouri • This paper reports on the appeal of ‘Sesame Street’ for 9 to 15 year old Hungarian students studying English as a Second Language (ESL), measured by three different methods. The students (N = 129) were tested with a twenty-question survey rating “high” to “low” appeal. Results from the measurements of attention parameters, agree with those from written comments by the children. The opinions of the children in their individually written comments to open-ended questions and observed responses to the program agreed with results from the twenty-question survey and also the attention measurements.
Public Broadcasting in Transition: News, Elections and the New Market Place • Claes de Vreese, Amsterdam • As public broadcasters in most European countries are challenged to operate in increasingly competitive environments, a shift in policy and approach towards elections can be observed. Based on newsroom observations, interviews, and content analytic indicators, the 1998-99 municipal, provincial, national, and European election campaign coverage of Dutch public broadcaster, NOS News, was investigated. Newsroom observations and interviews with reporters and news executives revealed an increasingly pro-active and selective editorial approach to elections.
Has The Salary Gap Closed? A Survey Of Men And Women Managers At U.S. Television Stations • Jennifer Greer, Nevada-Reno • A survey of 169 general managers, general sales managers, news directors, and program managers at the nation’s television stations found that while more women have reached the industry’s top ranks, they still report lower salaries, number of benefits, and feelings of authority than male managers. However, when personal (gender, education, and age) and job characteristics (including market size and job title) were entered into a regression analysis, gender was a significant predictor only for salary.
GI Jane Trapped In Stereotype: How Television Magazine Shows Bolster Gender Bias While Purporting To Fight It In Their Coverage Of Military Women • Christopher Hanson, North Carolina • This paper analyses TV magazine news shows that took up the cause of women who accused Sgt. Major Gene McKinney of sexual harassment, of Lt. Kelly Flinn, who faced prison on adultery charges, and of Navy fighter pilot Lt. Carey Lohrenz, who was grounded for alleged poor flying. Reports on 60 Minutes and Dateline argued sexism led to their unfair treatment. Yet these reports advanced other stereotypes woman as victim, woman as emotionally fragile-that inadvertently suggested these women did not belong in a tough environment.
Media Use, Knowledge of and Support for Megan’s Law • Michelle Johnson, Marist College • Media critics complain the news media provides an inaccurate picture of crime and punishment in the United States, while a number of media scholars suggest exposure to crime news, particularly on television, fosters punitive attitudes in news consumers. We explored these propositions in regard to Megan’s Law, one of the most heavily publicized criminal justice initiatives of the 1990s. We found media use to be unrelated to individuals’ usually poor knowledge of the law.
The Effects of Competition on Television Coverage of City Hall • Stephen Lacy, Charles St. Cyr Michigan State University and David Coulson, Nevada-Reno • A national sample of 303 television reporters found no correlation between the number of news organizations covering city hall and journalists’ perceptions of how competition affected their coverage. However, 40 percent or more of the journalists said television competition increased the number of city hall stories produced, made it more difficult to do in-depth city hall stories, and increased the coverage of stories that might have been missed otherwise. Newspaper competition was perceived as putting greater pressure on TV journalists to produce more stories and to cover news they otherwise might have overlooked.
A Comparative Study of Local and National Television News Coverage of a Natural Disaster • Aaron Quanbeck and Marwan Kraidy, North Dakota • The spring of 1997 is one that the community of Grand Forks, North Dakota will never forget. Exceeding all modern day records, the Red River of the North rose to over 54 feet, flooding nearly the entire community of Grand Forks, causing one of the largest evacuations in United States history as 50,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes. In the midst of the flood, a fire broke out in downtown Grand Forks, destroying nearly a dozen buildings before it was put out.
A Quarter Century of Television Network News: Fewer, Longer (?) and Softer News items • Daniel Riffe and Lori Spiczka Holm, Ohio University • This paper reports the results of a study of 27 years (1971-1997) of television network news. The nightly news programs of the so-called “Big Three” networks-ABC, CBS and NBC-have weathered changes over the years affecting their audiences and news packages. Consider, for example:-audience share. A 1998 Pew Center report warned: “As the public’s appetite for national and international news wanes, viewership of nightly network news continues its decline.”
Prime Time News: Effects Associated With The Rise Of The Television News Magazine Format • Jennie Rupertus, Texas-Austin• In the past few years, the television news magazine format has become increasingly pervasive in prime time programming. There been an increase in both the number of news magazine programs and how frequently those programs are aired. This paper examines the effects of such increases on news and its role in society, its content, and its audience. This essay also addresses the consequences of blurring the distinctions between news and entertainment.
Television Network Affiliation Changes in a Major Market and the Effect on News Viewing • Samuel Sauls, North Texas • In most studies of the reasons why viewers tune in to any given television program, the effects of program loyalty, channel loyalty, and network loyalty may be somewhat difficult to separate. Network affiliation changes will offer a naturally occurring opportunity to observe these effects. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine which of these concepts would determine news viewing in a major market after experiencing a network affiliation change.
The 1996 Presidential Nomination Contests: Network News Coverage • Karon Speckman, Truman State University • This study examined whether television network newscasts during the nomination period of 1996 focused on strategy and horse-race schemata rather than explanations of how nomination contests differed from state to state. Specifically, lead-ins, introductions, segments, kickers, video sequences, and graphics were studied. Results showed that strategy messages were more frequent than explanatory information on contest differences both in words and pictures. The opportunity to use full-screen graphics was not utilized for learning.
Editorial Rights Of Public Broadcasting Stations Vs. Access For Minor Political Candidates To TV Debates • Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State University • The U.S. Supreme Court in 1998 addressed whether a state-owned public television station, in conducting a debate among political candidates, creates a limited public forum open to all candidates. In the context of the Supreme Court’s decision, this paper examines the constitutional and statutory framework on the access for political candidates to television debates, the judicial interpretations of the political candidates’ claim for access to public television debates prior to 1998, and the U.S.
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