Radio-TV Journalism 2000 Abstracts
Radio-TV Journalism Division
Local Television News and Viewer Empowerment: Why the Public’s Main Source of News Falls Short • Denise Barkis-Richter, Palo Alto College • A content analysis of local television news revealed that only one out of four stories contained empowering information. Through participant observation at a local television news station and in-depth interviews with local television newsworkers, three principal reasons emerged why empowering information was excluded: l) the absence of the station’s commitment to provide empowering information; 2) newsworkers’ lack of enterprise; and 3) the newsworkers’ perception of viewers and what their viewers want.
A Tale of Two Cities: How National Network Television Framed Hate Crimes in Jasper, Texas, and Laramie, Wyoming • Larry Elliott, L. Paul Husselbee, O’Brien Stanley and Mary Alice Baker, Lamar University • Sensational hate crimes in the small cities of Jasper, Texas and Laramie, Wyoming, drew the blinding spotlight of network television in 1998. Television journalists “framed” national images of Jasper and Laramie after an African-American was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Texas and a homosexual man was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in Wyoming. Despite residents’ fears that they would be tarred by the national media, the most dominant network television “frame” was favorableÑan emphasis on healing after the crimes.
Learning Ethics: On the Job or In the Classroom? • Gary Hanson, Kent State • Training in ethics is an important component of journalism education. Students are taught to think critically when confronted with ethical dilemmas and to follow an accepted set of professional journalism standards. This preliminary study suggests there are significant differences in the way television news directors and students in journalism classes view ethics instruction and in the possible topics that may raise ethical questions once a student enters the journalism workforce.
Constructing Class & Race in Local TV News • Don Heider, Texas at Austin and Koji Fuse, Pittsburg State • Using participant observation and content analysis, the researchers looked at one local television newsroom to examine what role class and race played in news decision making. Because of journalists’ own position, inhabiting positions in the middle- and upper-middle classes, and because of phenomena such as targeted story selection and story avoidance, the authors’ found that news coverage of the poor specifically and of the lower classes in general was significantly lacking.
Going Digital: An Exploratory Study of Nonlinear Editing Technology in Southeastern Television Newsrooms • Seok Kang, George L. Daniels, Tanya Auguston and Alyson Belatti, Georgia • The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated that all broadcasters convert to a digital standard by 2006. This exploratory study of a stratified sample of large, medium and small market television newsrooms in the southeastern U.S. examined the progress toward converting to nonlinear editing. The findings show conventional wisdom may not apply to the way stations are making the shift to the digital standard. Instead, cost is probably a bigger indicator who will be the “innovators” and “laggards” in going digital.
Symbolic Racism in Television News • David Kurpius, Louisiana State • This research project examines the construction of symbolic racism in television news. Symbolic racism in television news is the combination of two non-racist elements that creates a negative racial stereotype. The researcher assumes these creations are unintended, but still extremely damaging. The purpose of this study is to see if symbolic racism exists in local television news and whether minority hiring and a formal race policy including dialogue about race helps diminish symbolic racist constructions.
Deregulation and Commercial Radio Network News: A Qualitative Analysis • Richard Landesberg, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The once vibrant and vital business of commercial radio network news is now a declining industry controlled by just two companies. Yet, radio remains a main source of information for many Americans. This study analyzes the consolidation and decline in commercial radio network news and the role of regulation in that decline. It approaches the subject using qualitative methodology to explore the views of network news radio professionals, both journalists and managers.
Stealing the Show: How Individual Issues Dominate the Nightly Network News • Brad Love, Florida • As major stories develop, the media often overwhelm the audience with coverage. Certain issues can dominate and force other stories out of sight all together. This paper examines nightly network newscasts to see exactly what topics lose air time when a non-routine story takes over, as well as looking at the common contention that all three networks cover the same issues in the same proportions.
For the Ear to Hear: Conversational Writing on the Network Television News Magazines • C.A. Tuggle, Suzanne Huffman and Dana Rosengard, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This study examines the level of adherence to conversational writing style and the rules of grammar by correspondents and producers for network television news magazines on the three primary over-the-air networks. The researchers document differences between networks, but point out that writers for all shows in the sample could do a better job of writing short sentences, using common words, and following the rules of grammar. The researchers employ the Flesch readability scale and devised a second scale to measure additional elements of conversational writing.
Synergy Bias: Conglomerates and News Content • Dmitri Williams, Michigan • The “church-state” division between the editorial and business departments of a news organization is threatened by corporations who promote cooperation between and among divisions (“synergy”). A content analysis tested the hypotheses that the influence of parent companies on news content produces an increase in the quantity and quality of company related materials mentioned on the news. The results showed that such biases did occur, but not evenly and more often in the vertically integrated corporations.
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