Graduate Education 1999 Abstracts
Graduate Education Interest Group
An Exploration Into the Haves and Have-Nots of Electronic Commerce • Sean Baker, Washington • A telephone survey was conducted to explore typical users of Internet commerce in Washington state. Findings suggest that lower income, less educated, rural, and senior citizens have disproportionate access to communication and information technologies. These groups are falling victim to an existing “technology gap” in our society. However, one finding suggests that information access for women is becoming more equitable. Suggestions for future research are presented.
The Press Release And The Bscore: New Statistical Measurement Explored • Lee Bollinger, South Carolina • Persuasion messages dynamically impact people/society, and scholars plough their way through mounds of rhetoric to determine how such impact can be predicted Researchers develop measures of effects; advertisers reach for sales data; TV producers pay for ratings; marketers attempt consumer measures of taste; social psychologists analyze social systems over time for predictive purposes; and public relations people diligently study the craft of the press release to attract media. All prediction attempts involve usage of precision tools.
Coming to America: Perceptions of International Graduate Students in Journalism • Teresa Trumbly Lamson, Richard Gross, Steven E. Chappel, Renita Coleman and Keith P. Sanders, Missouri • To examine motivations of international students’ selection of American universities for graduate study in journalism, a Q-study was conducted at a Midwestern journalism school. Questionnaires were constructed in accordance with standard practices for the Q-methodology. Factor analysis was conducted. Researchers found three closely related factor types, with subtle distinctions among them. Researchers conclude international students were motivated to study in the United States based on the school’s reputation, the professional potential it offered, and finances.
Cultural Myth and Nature as Adversary in “Dateline NBC” • Robert Newell, Washington • Adopting the Barthesian logic that modern media engages in culturally informed mythmaking, this author searches for myths behind today’s news content. Qualitatively and quantitatively examining a number of texts from the popular NBC newsmagazine, “Dateline NBC”, this author suggests that American news, or at least newsmagazine, coverage of the natural environment is informed by a unique perspective that runs through American letters, essays, historical documents and literary tradition.
Dumpster Dining And Symbolic Sleep: Homelessness, Political Theater And The Community For Creative Non-Violence • Kathleen Olson, North Carolina -Chapel Hill • The Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) was a “radical Christian group” that skillfully used the “media event” during the Eighties to turn public attention to the homeless. This paper examines CCNV’s use of political theater and the Supreme Court case that linked homelessness and symbolic speech, Clark V. Community for Creative Non-Violence, concluding that CCNV used the case itself as a form of political theater to put the plight of the homeless at center stage.
Professors of Foresight: Finding a Place for the Future in Journalism Curricula • Richard Somerville, Missouri • The study of the future has grown into a valued tool for business planners, government and non-government organizations, and many areas of the social sciences. Yet despite the need for reporters and editors who can inject foresight into the news-and despite studies showing that “futures thinking” not only can be a useful tool for journalists in a rapidly changing world, but a vital one-the use of futures studies in the teaching of journalism and mass communications is found to be an underused resource.
The Effect Of Membership In The Society Of Environmental Journalists On Inclusion Of Enabling Information In Stories On Water Quality • Michelle Tedford, Ohio University • This study builds on Rossow and Dunwoody’s finding that enabling information in environmental stories is tied to editors’ concerns for the issues. If membership is an indicator of concern, stories by SEJ members should include more enabling information from different sources, include more graphics, and influence the story’s placement. In a look at water quality stories from 1993, none of these differences was found to correspond with membership when comparing member and non-member groups.
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