Media Management and Economics 1998 Abstracts

Media Management and Economics Division

The Representation of Financial Institutions on the Boards of Directors of Publicly-Traded Newspaper Companies • Soontae An and Hyun Seung Jin, North Carolina-Chapel • This study examined the representation of financial institutions on the boards of directors of 17 publicly-held newspaper companies to find its relation with the company’s financial status. The ownership and financial data were collected using Compact Disclosure, and the data regarding boards of directors were gathered from Proxy and Annual Report. Standard & Poor’s Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives was used to cross-check the information about the directors and identify financial institutions.

Not the Same Story: Differences in Sexual Harassment of Women Who Work as Newspaper and Television Journalists • Lori Bergen, Kansas State University • In a replication of a national study of newspaper women, which examined sexual harassment, this survey of 103 women included journalists from newspaper and television newsrooms from one Midwestern state. Results showed that newspaper journalists were significantly more likely to report sexual harassment perpetrated by news sources than television journalists, who were more likely to report sexual harassment by their co-workers. Forty-four percent thought sexual harassment is at least somewhat a problem for women journalists, and more than one-quarter said it had been so for them personally.

Values and Alcohol Advertising: The Influence of Values on Radio Station Managers’ Clearance of Alcohol-related Advertisements • A. Joseph Borrell, Pennsylvania • This study finds that a general manager’s age, belief in professional values and college major predicted his or her willingness to accept advertisements for alcohol-related products and businesses. The most powerful variable in explaining the differences in clearance of these controversial advertisements was found to be the personal ethical values of the manager, including his or her concern for the audience.

Brand Management in Today’s Broadcast Television Market: An Exploratory Analysis • Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted and Yungwook Kim, Florida • This study explored the perceptions and current practices of branding among the general managers of commercial television stations. The authors found that these TV broadcasters generally have a very high awareness of the branding concept, believe that branding plays an important long-term strategic role to the success of a station. Nevertheless, the managers perceived branding to be more associated with news and promotion rather than management and practiced branding mainly as tactical operations.

Creative Ownership Transition Strategies for Community Newspapers • Dane Claussen, Georgia • This paper first briefly reviews the latest economic, legal, and industry developments some of which are positive developments but most of which continue or create problems affecting the selling of community newspaper publishing companies. It then critiques the “patronage” sale concept as described and essentially advocated by Pilgrim (1994). Its contribution is to suggest and describe numerous alternative sale mechanisms, and then suggesting several management transition strategies in the absence of a sale.

Parent Company Influence on Local Market Competition in Cellular Telephone • Hugh S. Fullerton, Radford University • The duopoly market structure of the cellular telephone industry provides conditions under which competition can occur. However,. large telephone companies own multiple cellular systems. To determine the extent to which these companies influence competition on the local level, four indicators of competitive behavior were compared over a seven-year period in the first 30 markets. The study concludes that cellular affiliates owned by the same company tend to use similar competitive strategies. Different companies, however, utilize differing competitive strategies at the local level.

The Impact of Horizontal Mergers and Acquisitions on Corporate Concentration in the U.S. Book Publishing Industry: 1989-1994 • Albert N. Greco, Fordham University • Using data on market shares, revenues, and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, I analyze the impact U.S. book industry horizontal mergers and acquisitions had on corporate concentration in this industry between 1989-1994. I define the book market and outline the principle arguments regarding the creation of a “media monopoly” in this industry. Data are analyzed using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (with C4 and C8 ratios) to ascertain whether Department of Justice antitrust guidelines were violated because of these mergers and acquisitions.

A New Entry in the Television Broadcasting Industry and Program Diversity: In the Case of the Emergence of SBS-TV in Korea • Myung-Hyun Kang, Michigan State University • This paper investigates the relationship between the program format diversity and network competition caused by an addition of the new network, using Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Based on the oligopoly theory and its relevant research, this study hypothesizes that networks competition encourages their program diversity. Consistent with the oligopoly theory, the findings of this study supported the hypothesis. More specifically, this study first showed the existing networks maintained limited program formats until they observed the new rivalry.

Modeling Strategy for Mass Media: A Resource-Based Approach • Hugh J. Martin, Michigan State University • The resource-based view of strategy argues firms gain a competitive advantage by assembling bundles of valuable, difficult to imitate resources. This paper integrates the resource-based view with Industrial Organization research on advertiser-supported media. The paper argues media firms with a reputation for producing quality content can attract stable audiences and gain a competitive advantage. Factors that contribute to a reputation for quality are discussed, and propositions are developed to describe sources of competitive advantage.

The Impact of the Expansion in the Aftermarket on Network Prime Time Programs • Sora K. Park, Northwestern University • Utilizing the intertemporal intermedia flow model of television programs, this study explores how the growth in the syndication market has affected the network prime time programming decisions. The regression results show that as the market for syndication grows the initial budget for network primetime shows have also grown as well as the deficits. Other factors that contribute to a program’s “syndicatability” were also related to the size of initial budget and deficit level of network programs.

The Community and Physician Relations Department at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital: A Case Study in Media Management • Kenneth D. Plowman and Erika H. Powelson, San Jose State University • The purpose of this case study was to explain the current communications management in the Community and Physician Relations Department (CPRD) at Lucile Salter Packard Children’s hospital at Stanford (LPCH), California. The management style of the CPRD, led by Terry O’Grady, definitely leaned towards the participative theory, but resorted to the authoritative style on certain occasions. in a mixed motive manner. Two-way symmetrical and two-way asymmetrical communications also were in evidence.

The 90’s Experience: A Demand Approach to Measuring Diversity in Broadcast Television Program Options for African Americans • James A. Ramos, Michigan State University • Addressing the limitations of traditional supply side methods used to study the issue of diversity in broadcast television programming, this paper proposes a demand side approach employing television ratings. Testing this alternative methodology, it was hypothesized that diversity in programming choices for African American households increased on commercial broadcast television as competition in the industry increased through the growth of Fox and the arrival of new networks in the 1990’s.

Preprints Versus Display Advertising: Which is More Profitable for Nondaily Newspapers? • Ken Smith, Wyoming • This study examines the differences in the profitably to nondaily newspapers resulting from preprint and display advertising. Whether the measure is overall profits, profit per column inch, or a comparison of a full page of display advertising to an 8-page tabloid preprint, display advertising is more profitable. Differences in the profit margin between display ads and preprints are not nearly as great as the differences in other measures of profit.

Managing Single-Market Radio Clusters • Greg Stefaniak, Arkansas-Little Rock • This study indicated that managing a cluster of radio stations is very different from managing a single radio station. Cluster managers have a greater need and use of a wide variety of skills, attributes and information. The study suggested that this new and very different group of managers could be helped by the establishment of special workshops, seminars, literature, and organizational support systems.

<< 1998 Abstracts

Law 1998 Abstracts

Law Division

Merging Law and Ethics: Discourse Legal Theory and Freedom of Expression • David S. Allen, Illinois State University • Building on the work of Jurgen Habermas, this paper argues that discourse legal theory put forward a blatantly political idea of law that is guided by the ethical goal of improving discourse in society. In an attempt to take the discussion from the abstract to the practical, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hurley decision is examined. It is suggested that discourse legal theory puts forward a more protective standard for disempowered groups than current interpretations.

The Viability of the Libel-proof Plaintiff Doctrine Following the Masson Decision • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Defamation laws allow a person to sue for statements that damage his or her reputation. However, a few courts have ruled that some defendants have such poor reputations that they should not be allowed to sue for libel. this paper reviews how courts have ruled on the libel-proof plaintiff doctrine following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, which repudiated part of the doctrine. The analysis showed that it remains a viable defense for media defendants.

Videodialtone Reconsidered: Prospects for Competition in the Wake of the Telecommunication Act of 1996 • David J. Atkin, Cleveland State University • The purpose of this study is three fold: (1) to revisit the rationales behind the 1996 Telecommunication Act, (2) evaluate its short term and likely long term impacts on cable industry structure and conduct, and (3) update the state of cross-media competition between cable, local telephone and long-distance industries, in order to provide a context to explore implications of greater merger activity facilitated by the Act. Implications for industry conduct are discussed, particularly in light of cable-telco competition facilitated by the 1996 Act.

Building Bridges: Metaphors and Analogies Used by Courts in Cases Involving the Internet • Stephanie Lyn Beck, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Increased Internet use in recent years has resulted in increased litigation and legislation surrounding speech via this new medium. In order to adjudicate these cases, courts have looked to a variety of regulatory models for guidance. This paper examines the models courts have used in their attempts to adjudicate questions of defamation, indecency and interstate commerce. Specifically, this paper will examine the application of the publisher, distributor, commerce clause, and broadcasting models.

Behind the Veil: The Rights of Private Individuals in the Wake of Hustler v. Falwell • Diane L. Borden, George Mason • The primary theories of speech liability • libel, invasion of privacy, and infliction of emotional distress • have been so broadly applied and with such conflicting brushstrokes that even private plaintiffs have little recourse when the mass media sully their reputations or harm their peace of mind. judicial tests have tended to turn on the idea of “publickness” • whether the speech is of public concern and whether the plaintiff is a public person.

“Exclusive” Reputation Injury: Harm by Hypocritization and the Emerging Reputational Dyad in Free Speech Jurisprudence • Clay Calvert, Pennsylvania State University • This paper analyzes the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 1997 decision in Eastwood v. National Enquirer, Inc. The paper argues that Eastwood: 1) is a defamation action masquerading as a misappropriation case, and, as such, is part of a trend in First Amendment jurisprudence in which plaintiffs attempts to plead around the high hurdles of libel law when suing the media; 2) rekindles the need for finding better measures of reputational harm.

Mass Communications Research in First Amendment and Other Media-Related Federal Court Opinions • Dane Claussen, Georgia • Lexis-Nexis searches determined levels of social science evidence from academic journal articles in mass communication, economics, psychology, and political science cited by all federal courts in all published opinions. Mass communication research is cited only a small fraction as often as that from other fields. Possible explanations are offered. This paper also reviews the history and status social science research’s use in American federal courts, highlighting Monahan and Walker’s research and proposals.

Setting New Boundaries: How Iowa Newspaper Editors Are Applying A New Law Granting Them Expanded Access to Juvenile Names • Constance K. Davis, Iowa • On July 1, 1997, a new Iowa law allowed the release of names of juveniles as young as ten when they are taken into custody or when they commit any public offense. This paper examines whether Iowa newspapers have expanded their use of juvenile names and finds editors have only nudged at their previous boundaries.

Craft or Profession: Court Rulings Leave Room for Journalists to Decide the Question • Lori Demo, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • In the early 1990s, the courts issued conflicting rulings on three cases that asked whether newspaper journalists are professionals exempt from overtime pay under federal laws. The conflicting rulings can prove puzzling for newspaper managers who want to follow the law while also controlling newsroom payroll costs. This paper examines the professional orientation of journalists from sociological and legal perspectives and offers editors guidelines for how they can increase the professional orientation of the journalists from sociological and legal perspectives and offers editors guidelines for how they can increase the professional orientation of their staffs.

Mirrored in Parody, Mired in Paradox: Trademark Dilution and An Ancient Art • Stephen J. Earley, Denver • The passage of the federal Trademark Dilution Act (FTDA) in early 1996 opened up the latest battleground in the long tradition of litigation between those who practice the ancient art of parody and those who feel its sting. This paper explores recent legal frameworks along with historical factors, changing technologies, and aspects of politics and culture which make parody as a form of commentary more controversial, and arguably more vital, than ever.

The Supreme Court Press Corps • Dru Riley Evarts, Ohio University • The author, who was at the U.S. Supreme Court for the 1996-1997 term, surveyed the Court’s press corps, replicating in part a survey of that group that Everette Dennis had done in 1974. The 1997 group was much larger and 100 per cent of the “regulars” in the press corps participated. Among the findings are comparisons of the male/female ratio, age, media, political and social leanings, and these reporters’ opinions on a number of suggestions that have been made by which the Supreme Court could make coverage of that institution more readily available to the public.

The Journalist’s Privilege for Nonconfidential Information in States with Shield Laws • Anthony L. Fargo, Florida • A 1997 report by the Society of Professional Journalists warning of an erosion in the journalist’s privilege, plus recent case law and empirical studies, have focused attention on protections for nonconfidential information. This study found that sixteen states and the District of Columbia appear to protect nonconfidential information is statutes, but little consensus about the nature of the privilege exists.

Free Speech v. Fair Trial A 50-State Analysis of Trial Publicity Rules • Kathy R. Fitzpatrick, Southern Methodist • This paper addresses the question of what rules — if any — should regulate attorney speech in the trial context. A 50-state analysis of professional disciplinary (ethics) rules was conducted in an effort to better understand the various state approaches to restricting attorneys’ extrajudicial comments. The results indicate a need to reconsider the broad range of existing state practices and to develop a universal rule consistent with Constitutional principles.

A Methodological Framework for Comparative Media Law • Karla Gower, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This paper examines the secondary literature on comparative methodology in the disciplines of law, sociology, and political science for a methodological framework to be used when comparing media law in different countries. After deriving the methodological framework, the paper critiques comparative media law articles in light of that framework. The paper concludes that a consistent method is absent in mass communication comparative legal research and that a workable comparative methodology would strengthen the field of mass communication law.

Bits, Bytes and the Right to Know: How the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Holds the Key to Public Access to a Wealth of Useful Government Databases at Nominal Costs • Martin Halstuk, Florida • The Electronic Freedom of Information Act (EFOIA) became law on October 2, 1996. The purpose of this paper is to focus on one of the EFOIA’s key provisions, Section 3, which says all records compiled by federal agencies — even those recorded and stored in electronic formats — are subject to the Act’s policy of full disclosure. This paper concludes the EFOIA Section 3 has the potential of providing public access to a wealth of useful government databases at nominal costs.

Divergence of Duty: Differences in the Legal and Ethical Responsibilities of the Media in the Branch Davidian-ATF Shootout • Elizabeth Blanks Hindman, North Dakota State • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Revisiting Free Speech on Private Property in the New Information Environment: A First Amendment Response to the Private Ownership Model • JoAnne Holman, Purdue • The utility of government as regulator of telecommunications industries in the post-Telecommunications Act era has been questioned by proponents of deregulation and competition. This paper argues that government has an important role in formulating the structural policy necessary to ensure system access to the new communications technologies. It examines how the doctrine of free speech on private property provides grounding for policy to ensure users can access a diversity of information sources and disseminate their own information to others.

When News Artists Take Without Asking: Digital Photo Collage As Transformative Commentary • Wilson Lowrey, Georgia • This article explores the copyright implications for news publications when news artists sample and distort protected news photos in digitally created photo collages. To date, no case on digital sampling of visual media has been tried. The author weighs the rights of the photographer and the rights of the news publication in a hypothetical case involving a photo collage created by the author. Several samplings are examined, each progressively more significant, to determine the threshold of infringement.

The Supreme Court and its “Public”: The Maturation of Theory and Interpretation • Susan Dente Ross, Washington State University • This study explores the complex and transient nature of publics and the evolution of legal policy by applying public opinion theory and the policy cycle concept to the multi-branch adoption and interpretation of the public interest concept. This research suggest that shifting Supreme Court interpretations of the public interest reflect the maturation of policy, and reflect and contribute to the continuing cycle of theory development.

On Denying the Obvious: A Critical Examination of Competing Ethical and Legal Claims Regarding Holocaust Denial • Kevin R. Stoner, Russell Sage • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

The Firebrand of My Youth: Oliver Wendell Holmes and the Influence of Emerson • Joseph A. Russomanno, Arizona State University • There is probably no figure in American jurisprudence who has been studies and whose record has been more studied and whose record has been more analyzed than Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Among the aspects of Holmes’ career that have commonly piqued the interest of scholars is the apparent transformation of Holmes’ view of the First Amendment and freedom of expression rights. In 1919, Holmes led a re-direction of the U.S. Supreme Court and its interpretation of these rights with a dissenting opinion in which he set forth a broader approach than what had previously been used, and what Holmes himself had previously held.

Link Law: The Evolving Law of Internet Hyperlinks • Mark Sableman, J.D., St. Louis, MO • Contrary to the “freedom to hyperlink” ethos, case law refutes any absolute right to link on the Internet. Rather, business and intellectual property law imposes limits on linking. This article reviews the basics of the legal theories applicable to hyperlinks; describes key hyperlink cases that have arisen involving direct links, “framing” and “inlining,” hidden metalinks, and contributory infringement through links and mirror sites; and concludes that linkages will often be subject to legal controls.

Defamation by Racial Misidentification: A Study of Exposure to Public Hatred and Contempt In the South • John C. Watson, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • This a cross-disciplinary study of journalism law, history, and sociology. Specifically, it is an examination of the periods in Southern history when courts ruled that it was defamatory and libelous per se to identify a white person as black. By studying defamation lawsuits filed in Southern courts from 1791 through this century this paper traces the evolution and regression of the racial misidentification. Here, court ruling are treated as historical artifacts that reflect the Southern social structure.

<< 1998 Abstracts

Advertising 1998 Abstracts

Advertising Division

Research
Effectiveness of Negative Political Advertising • Won Ho Chang, Jaejin Park and Sung Wook Shim, Missouri-Columbia • Throughout history politicians have used various methods, such as whistle-stop speeches, political advertising and political rallies, to achieve their primary goal, the winning of votes. However, over the years, politicians have found that it is most advantageous to use political advertising to persuade voters. And a significant trend in today’s political advertising is the increasing use of negative political advertising. Why do political practitioners increasingly use negative political advertising? Do they think negative ads are the most effective way to persuade voters in a short period of time in order to win an election?

Information Processing of Web Advertising: Modified Elaboration Likelihood Model • Chang-Hoan Cho, Texas-Austin • This paper develops Modified Elaboration Likelihood Model to understand how people process advertising on the Internet. An empirical study verifies this model by examining several variables influencing voluntary exposure to banner ads; e.g., level of product involvement, the size of a banner ad, relevancy between the content of a vehicle and the product category of a banner ad, attitude toward the vehicle, and overall attitude toward Web advertising. The findings document significant relationships between these variables and voluntary exposure to banner ads and support the hypothesized model.

Comparing Cinema Versus In-Home Viewing Contexts in Audience Experiences and Interpretations of Brands in Movies • Denise E. DeLorme, Georgia • This qualitative study sought further phenomenological understanding of how brand placement is interpreted within the everyday lived experience of the movie audience. Specifically, this paper compares cinema versus in-home viewing contexts in audience experiences and interpretations of brands in movies. Data collection involved eight focus groups and thirty in-depth interviews with older, younger, frequent, and infrequent non-college moviegoers. Constant comparative analysis uncovered six differences and two similarities regarding viewing contexts.

The Birth of Adwatches: Political Advertising Becomes Front-page News • Jennifer Greer, Nevada-Reno • Political advertising, once virtually ignored by the newspapers, became the subject of journalists’ attention following a perceived rash of “dirty” campaign commercials in the 1988 presidential race. A brigade of “ad cops” was deputized to police false and misleading statements contained in ads. The development of adwatches is reviewed in a historical context of political advertising and journalistic coverage. Emerging research on adwatches is detailed to shed light on this new form of political coverage.

A New Taxonomy with Cultural Reflection for Comparative Advertising Styles • Kazumi Hasegawa, North Dakota • This paper proposes a new taxonomy for comparative advertising styles. The significant attribute is that the model can provide a framework for both intercultural and international analyses/evaluations of various comparative advertising communication styles. It is unique because the new model: (1) recognized the categories that have not been conceptualized previously, and (2) not only provides a basic function of taxonomy which is useful for categorization but also adds an intercultural approach to the form.

A Longitudinal Study of Characteristics and Use of Advertorials in Magazines and Newspapers • Kuen Hee Ju-Pak and Wei-Min Lai, California State University-Fullerton • For the years 1992 to 1995, a total of 447 advertorials were identified from nine magazines and three national newspapers and then content analyzed. The study was intended to build on previous work on advertorial advertising by assessing current trends in advertorial usage and analyzing executional characteristics of advertorials. Findings suggest a notable drop in advertorial use among magazines, with newspapers differing from magazine in usage as well as executional characteristics.

Political Parties and Changes in Taiwanese Electronic Media in the 1990s • Wei-Kuo Lin, Wisconsin-Madison • The study is to present an overall picture of changes in relationships between Taiwanese media and political parties during a pursuit of democracy in the 1990s. Three research questions regarding the long-term effects of the media on an emerging democracy at a macroscopic level have been answered. It applies a methodological combination of historical analysis, theoretical criticism, and in-depth interviewing. This study not only provides exploratory findings on the role of mass media interacting with democratic development, but also, more importantly, bridges these findings to essential theories which enable future researchers to follow.

Differential Effects of Self-assessed Consumer Knowledge and Objective Consumer Knowledge on Responses to Print Ads for Technical Products • Robert Meeds, Kansas State University • The roles of two constructs of consumer knowledge, self-assessed product knowledge and objective product knowledge, are examined in an experiment in which consumers read ads for high-tech products containing varying levels of technical language. Self-assessed knowledge was a better predictor of participants’ cognitive responses and general attitudinal evaluations. Objective knowledge, on the other hand, was a better predictor of ratings of specific product attributes. These differential results are considered with respect to the role of product advertising in consumer information search strategies.

A Content Analysis of Banner Advertisements: Potential Motivating Features • Blessie Miranda, California State University-Fullerton • This study examines, through content analysis, the common content, design, and context features of 200 Web banner advertisements among 50 top web sites ranked by ad revenues. The results indicated that most banner ad designs feature characteristics similar to ads designed for traditional media, as well as unique characteristics of advertising in the new Internet medium. The implications could help advertisers improve their banner design decisions. Knowing the common features could help facilitate future studies of what motivates user click-through behavior.

Adver-Thai-sing Standardization: Can a U.S. Study of Sex Role Portrayals Transcend Cultural Boundaries? • Chompunuch Punyapiroje, Mariea Grubbs Hoy, Margaret Morrison, Tennessee • We report the results of a study conducted among women in Thailand which investigated the influence of three female role portrayals (traditional, superwoman and egalitarian) and women’s gender ideology on advertising effectiveness. We examine two questions: (1) Are research methods and assumptions about consumer behavior that are widely accepted in the U.S. appropriate for other cultures?; (2) If a study yields certain findings in the U.S., are these findings transferable to a Pacific Rim nation?

Assessing Advertising Effectiveness: A Comparison of Two Real-time Measures of Ad Liking • Fuyuan Shen, South Dakota • This paper uses a quasi-experimental approach to examine two real-time measures of ad liking and their relationships with delayed consumer responses such as delayed ad liking, recall and recognition of brand names. The two real-time measures were mean liking and peak liking, which were collected on a moment-to-moment basis while subjects were viewing the television commercials. The delayed responses were collected more than 24 hours after respondents viewed the ads in natural environments.

Placing Alcohol Warnings Before, During, and After TV Beer Ads: Effects on Recall, Knowledge, and Responses to the Ads and the Warnings • Michael D. Slater, Donna Rouner, David Karan, Kevin Murphy and Frederick Beauvais, Colorado State University • This experiment compares the effects of warnings placed before, during or after television beer advertisement. Findings suggest that warnings can increase knowledge relative to the control condition, especially for viewers who consumer relatively more alcohol, and also decrease positive responses to beer advertisements. Warning placement also influences amount of responses to ads. Earlier findings regarding effects of warning topic and quantitative information in the warnings were replicated.

Hard Liquor Advertising on Television: What Do Americans Know About It and Do They Care? • Esther Thorson, Michael Antecol, Missouri and Charles Atkin, Michigan State University • In 1996, the distilled spirits industry discarded their long-held voluntary ban from television advertising. Although their commercials are not currently being accepted by the networks, they are advertising on local television and on cable. The primary purpose of the national telephone survey reported here was to determine whether Americans knew that liquor advertising was now appearing on television, and what, if anything, they thought the impact would be on themselves, on problem drinkers, and on teens and children.

A Cross-cultural Comparison of the Effects of Source Credibility on Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions • Kak Yoon, Washington State University; Choong Hyun Kim, Sogang University and Min-Sun Kim, Hawaii-Manoa • This paper investigated: 1) whether the dimensionality of source credibility is applicable to Koreans; 2) which dimension exerted more influence on dependent variables. Findings suggest that the dimensionality of source credibility was remarkably similar between the two samples. The influence of three source credibility dimensions varied by dependent variables. Attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness were equally important to purchase intentions. All three dimensions affected involvement with the ad message. Only trustworthiness had a significant impact on attitude toward the brand and brand beliefs.

Special Topics
The Impacts of Emotion Elicited by Political Advertising on Candidate Evaluation • Chingching Chang, National Chengchi University • Employing an experiment, this study showed that attacking or promoting itself did not contribute significantly to variation of candidate evaluation beyond what could be explained by ad-evoked emotional responses. This study also examines the role of ad attitude. Integrating all the findings, this study proposes a model that will help understand the process of how positive and negative political advertising may influence candidate evaluation. Emotion theory is applied to explain the process.

Perceptions of Japanese Advertising: A Q-Methodological Study of Advertising Practitioners in Japan • Fritz Cropp, Missouri • Q-methodology was used to isolate the perceptions of advertising professionals in Japan. Three distinct types of advertising professional emerged: The Establishment Types sees minor changes but not dramatic changes precipitated by difficult economic times. The Emigrant Type believes that cultural factors preclude major change in Japan’s advertising climate. The Change Agent Type foresees dramatic change in adverting in Japan, precipitated by difficult economic times and fierce competition. Conclusions and implications of these findings are discussed.

Does it Pay to Have a Web Site? Assessing the Value of URLs in Print Advertising for Non-Technology Products • Deborah A. Procopio, North Carolina • Many businesses today feel pressure to be online but see no real value in maintaining a web site. However, the presence of a URL in a traditional print advertisement may add value. This study found no evidence to support the hypothesis that a web site in a print advertisement for a non-technology product will directly increase brand value. However, large companies (regardless of technological level of product) without a web presence in future may be risking customer relationships. Those companies may also be perceived as being less current.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Advertising: It’s Time for a New Look • Don Umphrey, Southern Methodist University • New insights are still being gained from cognitive dissonance theory, introduced 41 years ago. In advertising, however, usage of the theory has been practically non-existent for the past two decades. This is despite research in the mod-1980s linking the theory with the concept of selective exposure. This paper reviews cognitive dissonance theory from pertinent fields and shows how it might be applied by advertising research in the future.

PF&R
Preparing Students for Real-world Ethical Dilemmas: A Stakeholder Approach • Anne Cunningham and Eric Haley, Tennessee • Advertising educators often ignore complaints that the advertising industry is devoid of all morals. Harrison (1990), for example, found that only 25% of colleges or universities offer a course devoted to communications ethics; those schools that offer a course generally teach it from a journalism perspective. Based on a review of the literature and additional preliminary research, this paper argues for a more business-oriented approach to teaching advertising ethics.

Codes of Conduct: Public Images and Silent Voices • Jean Grow vonDorn, Wisconsin-Madison • This paper looks at the evolution of codes of conducts as they relate to manufacturing policies, brand imaging and youthful consumer responses to these issues. I argue that young consumers are generally ignored by activists who tend to focus on regulation. Yet, these consumers could provide an additional avenue of activism. By consciously engaging young consumers, a vast potential for successful activism abides within the grasp of activists.

The American Way to Menstruate: Feminine Hygiene Advertising and Adolescent Girls • Debra Merskin, Oregon • In American life, menstruation has been socially constructed as a problem•something shameful and dirty. This study explores the content of feminine hygiene advertising that targets pre-adolescent girls in Seventeen and Teen magazines. The findings suggest that not only do the ads carry messages from the past about cleanliness based on societal taboos, but also contribute to girls’ feelings about their bodies in preparation for participation in American consumer culture.

Teaching
Advertising Educators’ Textbook Adoption Practices • Louisa Ha, The Gallup Organization • This article reports a national survey of advertising educators that examined their advertising textbook adoption practices as well as the importance of ancillary materials as desirable attributes of textbooks. Textbooks were used by most of the respondents. Although content is a very important adoption criterion in all courses, in courses that provided ancillary materials such as Introduction to Advertising, the availability of multimedia teaching aids becomes an important criterion and possibly the major source of high satisfaction among the adopters.

Integrating Hypermedia Instruction into an Advertising Communications Graphics Classroom • Stacy James and Sydney Brown, Nebraska-Lincoln • Students and faculty of advertising and mass communications programs are wanting to learn more about the mechanics, and teaching and learning opportunities offered by the World Wide Web. This paper explores some of the pedagogical and theoretical issues with the content and delivery of hypermedia instruction in an advertising communications graphics elective laboratory course, and examines some of the benefits of and problems with integrating hypermedia instruction into the class, from the perspectives of the students and the instructor.

Identifying Critical Teamwork Tools: One Way to Strike a Balance Between Team Training and Course Content • Brett Robbs and Larry Weisberg, Colorado-Boulder • Teamwork is playing an increasingly important role in business and the classroom. Educators need to find ways to include team training in courses without sacrificing other content. This paper addresses that issue. The literature on collaborative learning is reviewed to provide a pedagogical framework. The paper then describes teamwork tools presented to graduate students at a required weekend seminar. The journals kept during a subsequent team project were analyzed to identify the tools students found most essential.

Advertising Ethics and Pedagogy: Findings from the 1995 Advertising Division Membership Survey • Elizabeth M. Tucker, Texas-Austin and Daniel A. Stout, Brigham Young University • The moral development of advertising educators is an important component in understanding the nature of advertising ethics as the topic is conveyed in the classroom. This article describes the results of a survey that explored how advertising educators define and think about ethics. It examines the theoretical foundations of moral development in relation to teaching advertising ethics and provides a summary describing advertising educators’ ideas about the nature of ethics.

<< 1998 Abstracts

Small Programs 1999 Abstracts

Small Programs Interest Group

Integrating Active Learning, Critical Thinking and Multicultural Education in Teaching Media Ethics Across the Curriculum • Tom Brislin, University of Hawaii • This paper presents four teaching strategies, grounded in pedagogical theory, to encourage an active, challenging, creative and meaningful experience for journalism and mass communication students grappling with moral issues, and developing higher order thinking in ethical decision-making processes. Strategies emphasizing critical thinking and diversity awareness have shown success in lower-division media and society classes. Strategies emphasizing active and collaborative learning have been effective in an upper-division journalism ethics class as well as in professional journalism groups.

Codes of Ethics: Shaping the Classroom Environment and Building Moral Decision-making Skills • Carroll Ferguson Nardone, El Paso Community College • A recent study concluded that codes of ethics are not typically used in media outlets to guide journalistic behavior. This is problematic for teachers of media ethics who often point to professional codes as doctrine for students to follow in defining conventional journalistic standards. This case study suggests the creation and use of classroom codes of ethics within media writing classrooms to train future media practitioners and to guide ethical behavior in the workplace.

Teaching Media Ethics to Superman instead of Underdog: A Content Analysis of Three Textbooks’ Cases • Virginia Whitehouse, Whitworth College • Media ethics textbooks may be teaching to Superman (the news manager) rather than Underdog (the undergraduate looking for a first job). Content analysis of case studies from three media ethics textbooks revealed that students were asked most often to take on the role of media managers in making ethical decisions. This pedagogical approach may not help students reach course objectives because the cases do not allow students to exercise critical thinking skills necessary to articulate ethical opinions from low positions of power.

Religion and Media 1999 Abstracts

Religion and Media Interest Group

Mother Teresa’s Death As Mystical Narrative In National Newspaper Dailes • Dennis D. Cali, East Carolina University • Newspaper coverage of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, overshadowed in part by the extravagant media attention to Princess Diana’s death, was arguably abbreviated. However, articles on the Teresa story captured the symbolic significance and mythic character of the diminutive nun. This essay explains how, isolating rhetorical qualities that render the articles, collectively, a “mystical narrative.”

Communication In Religious Lobbying: Making Meaning Through Journalism • Kyle Huckins, Northwest Oklahoma State University • “Communication in Religious Lobbying: Making Meaning through Journalism” examines influence-building strategies used by religious groups in their discourse on issues. Taking Hofrenning’s list of three such strategies (symbolic, language, and coalition-building), the study applies the trio to an organizational publication. The study of Christian Coalition’s Christian American concludes that the group of religious conservatives used varying issue emphases, contexts and alliances to mobilize followers, and gravitated toward a political rather than religious agenda.

Not Alone In A Crowd: Religion, Media and Community Connected-ness At The Dawn Of A New Century • Michael A. Longinow, Asbury College • Religion and media in America have intertwined each other in a variety of ways from the earliest decades of this country’s democratic experiment. Moreover, religious organizations and those interested in religion have adapted themselves in innovative ways to the changing formats of popular media through this century, in many cases bringing cohesion and community to American religion. The end of the Twentieth Century and the dawn of the Twenty-First bring hope that this intermingling of media and religion will not diminish and could grow and flourish.

The Press And The “Greening Of Religion”: Themes, Sources, And Conflict In Newspaper Coverage Of Faith-based Environmentalism • Rick Clifton Moore, Boise State University • This paper investigates news coverage of environmental activity among American religious groups in the 1990s. The press, in reporting this phenomenon, presented a facade of religious inclusiveness while consistently reporting the story in ways that focused on traditional American religious institutions. In addition, official sources were called upon much more frequently than unofficial sources. Finally, reporters tended to downplay conflict in stories, using novelty as the key news value and attempting to extend that novelty over several years of reporting.

The Effect of Digitalization on Religious Television Stations • Brad Schultz, Southern Illinois University • This study sought to investigate the effect of the government-mandated transfer from analog to digital broadcasting, as it pertains to religious television stations. The study measured attitudes of religious broadcasting executives through a mail survey and had three hypotheses: digitalization would result in more consolidation, syndication and the emergence of a new economic model. Support was shown for consolidation and a new model, but not for syndication.

Hollywood’s God: The Problem of Divine Providence • Jeffery A. Smith, Iowa • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.

Secularists or Modern Day Prophets: A Study Of The Ethical And Moral Values Of Today’s Journalists And Their Connection To The Judeo-Christian Tradition • Doug Underwood, Washington • This nationwide study a strong religious orientation in their lives, and that their professional values are rooted solidly in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Respondents reported strong levels of religious belief by a variety of measurements. Even journalists who weren’t religiously oriented responded positively to a series of professional exhortations by famous journalists that contain strong religious overtones, as long as the maxims didn’t use language that is overtly religious in nature.

Watching The Religious Audience: The Complex Relationship Between The Christian Media, The Mainstream Media And The Conservative Protestant Audience • Hillary Warren, Wisconsin-Stevens Point • This paper considers the problematic relationship between the conservative Protestant audience and the Christian media. Using a combination of interviews and market data, the author finds that the Christian media is limited as an indicator of rank and file opinion. The paper concludes with several suggestions for research into this relationship, primarily focusing on the importance of small groups and interpersonal connections in the formation of media-related opinion in the conservative Protestant community.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Media Ethics 1999 Abstracts

Media Ethics Interest Group

An Intellectual History Of Mass Media Ethics • Clifford Christians and John Nerone, Illinois • Examining the case of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s reporting on Chiquita, we argue that media ethics is challenged to support media critique and political actions. We trace this impasse in media ethics historically, identifying a continuing reliance on utilitarianism and modernist rationalism. We conclude by looking to a dialog among Habermasism discourse ethics, communitarianism and feminism for scholars.

Ethics On Trial: Courts Scrutinize Plaintiff Journalists’ Roles in Defamation Cases • Constance K. Davis, Iowa • Two plaintiff journalists lost defamation cases in 1998. In both cases courts scrutinized the journalists’ ethics and found their actions had helped turn them into limited-purpose public figures. In one case, a photojournalist had taken his concerns about staged photographs in Time magazine to a computer discussion group. In another, a broadcast journalist got into the middle of the failed ATF raid at the Branch Davidian compound, helped move wounded agents and shared his information with other media.

To Council or Not To Council: Debunking Common Myths and Fears About The National News Council • L. Paul Husselbee, Lamar University • Three common assumptions seem to have emerged from speculation about the demise of the National News Council. These assumptions, coupled with journalists’ concerns about news councils in general, are frequently cited as reasons not to consider news councils as a viable mechanism of media accountability. This analysis of the complaints filed with the National News Council finds no evidence to support these assumptions. It suggests that journalists’ traditional “news council phobia” is just that-an irrational fear.

Press, Privacy and Presidential Proceedings: Moral Judgments and the Clinton-Lewinsky Affair • Jennifer L. Lambe, Christina L. Fiebich and Darcia Narvaez, Minnesota • This exploratory study examines the relationship between levels of moral judgment and various attitudes towards the Clinton-Lewinsky affair and subsequent impeachment proceedings. Trends suggest that individuals with higher levels of moral reasoning take a more systemic view of political controversies. Expectations about Presidential competence and character are found to be highly correlated with attitudes concerning the private lives of public officials. Both demographic characteristics and attitudinal variables are shown to be associated with the level of blame assigned to the news media in shaping the Clinton-Lewinsky situation.

Value System Changes Resulting from a Media Ethics Course: A Postmodern Perspective • Larry Z. Leslie, South Florida • This pre- and post-test study examined value system changes resulting from a media ethics course. Over three semesters, seventy-four students participated in the study. They were given Rokeach’s lists of terminal and instrumental values on the first day and again on the last day of class and asked to rank each value on the lists in terms of its importance to them. The study was designed to answer several questions about the degree to which formal instruction in ethics could be influential in students changing the relative importance of several values, particularly those deemed important and less important to contemporary, postmodern culture.

Conservation vs. Dynamism: Five Versions of a Code of Ethics-A Case Study of the Israel Broadcasting Authority • Yehiel Limor, Tel-Aviv University and Ines Gabel, The Open University • The Nakdi Document is the code of ethics and practice of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (‘BA). Since it was drawn up in 1972, the document was updated four times (in 1979, 1985, 1995 and 1998) and expanded fourfold. The significant changes during the years reflect the unique position of the ‘BA as a public broadcasting organization. The research analyses the changes and the political, religious, cultural and professional reasons and circumstances for these changes.

A Research Agenda for Establishing a Grounding for Journalistic Ethics • Dan Shaver, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • The author suggests a model derived from modified professional theory and a set of characteristics for a system of media ethics that may avoid some of the difficulties of traditional approaches. The model proposes the cultivation of a relationship of trust based on bargains between individual news organizations and the immediate public they serve. A six-phase research agenda for testing the basic assumptions and for developing and implementing the model is proposed.

Telling It Like It Is: Letters To The Editor Discuss Journalism Ethics in 10 American Magazines, 1962-1972-1982-1992 • Brian Thornton, Northern Illinois University • This research found that: Negative letters increased from 47% negative in 1962 to 93% negative in 1992; Letters about journalism declined 95 percent during the study period; Themes in the letters changed from ethical concerns about truth to the view that objectivity has been abandoned. These findings add a largely unexplored dimension to the topic of public opinion and press ethics while building on Hazel Dicken-Garcia’s research into letters in the 1800s.

Autonomy and Accountability: Reassessing the National News Council • Erik Ugland, Minnesota • This study examines complaints brought before the National News Council, which operated from 1973 to 1984. It seeks to answer the arguments and assumptions posed by opponents of the Council that the Council was biased against the news media and therefore intruded on their autonomy. It seeks evidence of bias by examining disparities in the success of media respondents versus public complainants and disparities in the voting patterns of individual members of the Council.

Rights, Wrongs and Responsibilities: The Nexus of Law and Ethics in the Newsroom • Paul S. Voakes, Indiana University • How do journalists sort out the tangle of legal rights and ethical responsibilities in their everyday news work? In a survey of 1,037 journalists and in-depth interviews with 22 others, this project found substantial evidence for three models of the relationship of law and ethics: A Separate Realms model, a Correspondence model and a new “Responsibility Model,” in which the law is considered in problematic situations but only as one of several considerations in what is essentially an ethical decision.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Visual Communication 1999 Abstracts

Visual Communication Division

Listening To The Subjects Of Routine News Photographs: A Grounded Moral Inquiry • Cindy Brown, Southern Mississippi • This study explores the relationship between photojournalists and subjects using a method of ethical inquiry known as grounded moral theory. Grounded moral theory consists of listening to people’s concerns, generating recommendations based on these concerns, and extrapolating to ethical theory. Interviews with subjects of news photographs revealed subjects’ were concerned about two types of understanding: (1) contextual understanding conveyed in their photograph/story, and (2) understanding photojournalists showed them.

Grounding the Teaching of Journalistic Design in Creativity Theory: 10 Steps to a More Creative Curriculum • Renita Coleman and Jan Colbert, Missouri • Creativity is an important ingredient in news design. Yet most Classes do little more than offer examples of others’ creative works; rarely do we teach students how to develop the cognitive skills they can use to tap into their own creativity. The purpose of this article is to propose a change in the way journalism design classes are taught, from using an anecdotal approach to creativity, to one that is grounded in theory developed through psychological research.

How Marc Riboud’s Photographic Report From Hanoi Argued The Vietnam War Was Unwinnable • Claude Cookman, Indiana University • While many combat photographs presented American involvement as morally wrong, Marc Riboud’s 1968 report on North Vietnam argued that the war could not be won by the U.S. and its South Vietnamese ally. His pictures show the saturation bombing failed at two primary objectives: to break the North’s will to resist and to interdict the flow of military sup-plies to the South. They also humanize the North Vietnamese people and their top leaders, who had been demonized by U.S. officials.

Typographic Design Considerations for the Elderly: An Analysis of AARP’s Bulletin • Catherine K. Craven and Birgit Wassmuth, Missouri • As baby boomers enter their elderly years, between 2010 and 2030, as many as one in five Americans will be 65 or older. That’s up to 80 million people. As people age, their vision changes. Designers and publishers must make changes now to keep up with the needs of this affluent audience. Hear the state of design guidelines for the aging. See if AARP pushes the “elder design” envelope in redesigning its Bulletin.

Cops Like Us: Camera Placement and Viewer Identification on Cops • Veronica Davison, Pennsylvania • Although reality-based crime programs are growing in popularity among communication scholars, a focus on camera movement has been virtually ignored. This study examines how camera perspective, camera angle, and shot structure create a sense of identification on the part of the viewer (as outlined in the theory of paraproxemics) and how each may or may not be altered depending on who is framed in the shot. While the analysis of camera angle and shot structure do not support the theory of paraproxemics, through the use of the involved-objective camera, camera perspective does appear to offer moderate support for Meyrowitz’s theory of paraproxemics.

Readability of Reverse Type in Computer Mediated Communication • Joel Geske, Iowa State University • This experimental design used 78 subjects to test readability of type on computer screens. Subjects read passages set in traditional high contrast black type on a white background; low contrast black type on a gray background; and reverse type (white type on a black background). Subjects were tested for speed of reading and recall of material. The study found significant differences and reversals of previous re-search based on print media.

Reading Between the Photographs: The Influence of Incidental Pictorial Information on Issue Perception • Rhonda Gibson, Texas Tech University and Dolf Zillmann, Alabama • An identical news report on an Appalachian tick disease was differently illustrated. It either contained no images, an image of ticks, or this tick image plus three child victims. The victims were ethnically balanced (two White, one Black) or not (either all White or all Black). The text did not make any reference to the victims’ ethnicity. Respondents assessed the risk of contracting the disease for children of different ethnicity.

The College Studio Critique: What Does it Mean to Students? • Deborah M. Gross, Florida • The primary investigator conducted three participant observations, one focus group and ten individual interviews. The study showed that students are not actually taught to critique-they are “thrown” into it and learn by experience. Results indicate students’ preferences for certain critique formats-what’s helpful and what’s not. Participants also discussed the role of peers and professors in the critique process, along with the effect of grades. Further implications of the college classroom critique are discussed.

Readers’ Perception of Digital Alteration and Truth-value in Documentary Photographs • Edgar Shaohua Huang, Indiana University • This is a baseline study on how readers of print news media accept digital imaging alterations and how much they trust digital documentary images. The purpose is to examine to what extent readers accept the postmodern ideas about truth and reality embedded in this new technology and to provide empirical basis for the making of guidelines and principles regarding the use of digitally altered photographs in documentary contexts. Survey and in-depth interviews were conducted to understand both patterns and rationales of readers’ attitudes.

The Visual Representation Of Individuals Of Different Genders, Ages And Ethnicity’s In The Photographs Of The Los Angeles Times • Shelly Rodgers and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • The authors examine gender, age and ethnic stereotypes and portrayals in news photographs of the Los Angeles Times. The Times was chosen because of its status as one of the nation’s great newspapers and because it serves a diverse populace where Latinos are the majority, and the presence of African Americans and Latinos is very high. Although many stereotypes were still found to exist, changes were noticeable-some positive and some negative.

“Negro Stars” and the USIA’s Portrait of Democracy •- Melinda M. Schwenk, Pennsylvania • From 1952-1961, the U.S. Information Agency indirectly addressed the nation’s race problems with films about “Negro stars.” This paper analyzes how the USIA celebrated in films the lives of five famous African-Americans to provide evidence that American democracy fostered individual freedom.

A Comparative Study of Internet Page Legibility on WebTV and PC-TV Large-Screen Displays • Peter B. Seel, Colorado State University • This study compared the legibility of text in three Internet Web sites displayed on a large 32-inch television set using WebTV technology, with a similarly-sized, high-resolution PC-TV digital screen. The study found that the legibility of navigation and main body text on the WebTV system was superior to that of the PC-TV display at the longer distance, but the PC-TV display provided better overall text legibility at shorter distances. With the diffusion of television-based Internet access systems such as WebTV, these findings are important in assessing the relative legibility of Web site content in large-screen home viewing environments.

The Stereograph: The Rise And Decline Of Victorian Virtual Reality • James Staebler, Ohio University • This study examines the rise and decline in public popularity of the stereograph or more commonly known as the stereo view. This popular Victorian mode of entertainment was the precursor to the modern popularity of three dimensional games) pictures and posters seen in the mass media today. Many factors contributed to the decline of stereographs after the First World War. The popularity of new technology such as the automobile, motion pictures and radio helped erode this medium.

Claims And Visual Frames On The World Wide Web: An Approach To Framing Analysis Of Visual Content • Jean Trumbo, Wisconsin, Madison • A visual frame analysis model is developed and applied to a site on the World Wide Web with the assumption that site structure and visual elements encourage particular kinds of audience response and that elements are organized in a manner that asserts or advocates certain themes. Theories of framing as applied in communication and in visual design are synthesized. Framing devices developed in the model include five categories: syntactic, semantic, grammatical, thematic, and rhetorical structures.

Cuddly Bear and Vicious Ape: Soviets and Germans in editorial cartoons, 1933-1946 • Samuel P. Winch, Nanyang Technological University • During the 14-year period 1933 to 1946, relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union fluctuated wildly-from ally to enemy to ally to enemy. This study is an examination of the portrayal of Soviets in editorial cartoons printed in three American newspapers during this period. Although pubic opinion polls in the late 1930s and early 1940s showed that Americans disliked Soviets even more than Germans, editorial cartoons of the Soviets were often favorable during the period.

Visual Rhetoric: A Semiotic Evaluation of the Misrepresentation of a Subculture within the Myth of Lesbian Chic in Mainstream Advertising • Susan Zavoina, Tom Reichert, North Texas • Visual imagery dominates advertising messages. A visual rhetoric is established as the viewer’s perception of the advertising message is defined. Homoerotic images of women are appearing in mainstream consumer advertising giving credence to a phenomenon of “lesbian chic.” Through a semiotic analysis this paper suggests that the meanings embedded in these advertising images have little to do with “lesbianism” per se and are more closely aligned with mainstream heterosexual pornography of women engaged in “lesbian” sex.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Public Relations 1999 Abstracts

Public Relations Division

Research
Delineating (and Delimiting) the Boundary Spanning Role of the Medical Public Information Officer: A Survey of Editors and Cardiac Surgeons — Raymond N. Ankney and Patricia A. Curtin, North Carolina — Medical public information officers serve as boundary spanners between medical experts and journalists. Editors at every daily newspaper in Pennsylvania and cardiac surgeons in Pennsylvania were surveyed the role of medical PIOs. While the two groups expressed many similar opinions, editors generally were more open to medical PIOs as boundary spanners, whereas surgeons preferred to handle their own media relations.

Getting Past Platitudes: Factors Limiting Accommodation in Public Relations — Glen T. Cameron, Fritz Cropp and Bryan H. Reber, Missouri — We wanted to learn whether top corporate public relations executives at companies with revenues measured in billions of dollars had ever encountered situations that precluded taking an accommodative stance toward a public. Respondents offered instances when proscriptive factors did preclude accommodation on some occasions. Top practitioners strive for accommodation toward most publics, expressed in win-win platitudes. But the practice of two-way symmetrical communication was supplanted when “we got down to cases” that provide a rich understanding of the forces at play in conflict management.

The Cultural Competence Spiral: An Assessment and Profile of U.S Public Relations Practitioners’ Preparation for International Assignments — Alan R. Freitag, North Carolina-Charlotte — This applied research predicts, and finds support for, a spiral beginning with public relations practitioners’ preparation for international assignments, leading to assignment-seeking behavior, success and satisfaction in those assignments, consequently increased intercultural competence, followed by further assignment-seeking behavior, continuing the upward spiral. Results indicate that academic and professional preparation for international assignments among U.S. practitioners is limited, but that preparation correlates positively with success and satisfaction in international assignments.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Do People Really Hold Corporations Responsible For Their Actions? — Jessica Hicks, Hua-Hsin Wan and Michael Pfau, Wisconsin-Madison — Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a hot issue in public relations. Many corporate CEOs believe that CSR plays an instrumental role in consumer evaluations of a corporation. Surveys of consumers’ attitude and behaviors also indicate that they intend to reward corporations for being socially responsible and punish those who are not. In reality, however, there is a debate over whether consumers indeed do what they intend to do. fIn other words, researchers have argued that there is a discrepancy between consumers’ intention to act and their actual behavior. >

Measuring the Economic Value of Public Relations — Yungwook Kim, Florida — This study establishes a two-step model to measure the economic value of public relations by testing two relationships: 1) the impact of public relations expense on reputation as a goal of public relations, and 2) the economic impact of reputation on revenues as companies’ bottom lines. The proposed model showed an appropriate fitting and coefficients were statistically significant. All three hypotheses were supported. By integrating the results of the hypothesis tests, the proposed two-stage model for measuring the economic impact of public relations activities was supported.

Persuasion, Image, And Campaign Message Design: A Case Study Of University Image — Mary Anne Moffitt, Illinois State University — It is a bit ironic that research conducted into image has typically focused on the profit-oriented corporation and that many scholars exploring image have not paid much attention to the image processes of the one organization which Supports most of them-the university. Recent research into image, however, has begun to recognize the importance’ of studying university image processes (Bok, 1992; Gose, 1994; Immerwahr & Harvey, 1995; Phair, 1992; Theus, 1993).

Uncovering the Support Area/In-House Agency Paradox with Evaluative Research — Juan C. Molleda and Lynn M. Zoch, South Carolina — While conducting evaluative research for the corporate communications division of a large regional affiliate of a national insurance group, the researchers uncovered a paradox in the way the communication function is viewed by the division and its “internal customers.” The staff of the division see themselves as a support area of the organization, acting mainly in a technical function by following the directives of other areas, while the areas with which they work see corporate communications as an in-house agency and themselves as its “clients.”

Toward a Self-Regulated and an Ethics-Based Framework for Marketing Communications in Sub-Saharan Africa — Cornelius B. Pratt, University of Zambia and Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce-Southern Africa, Charles C. Okigbo, North Dakota State University and Louisa Ha, The Gallup Organization — Marketing communications, as a promotional strategy, are being used in public- and private-sector campaigns to stimulate the establishment and expansion of much-needed economic growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this paper argues that such a pivotal role be performed within an ethical framework, if the resources of the region and its potential are to be fully explored to attain such goals. The framework is anchored on the non-consequential, duty-based normative theory of deontology.

The Models of Public Relations in India — K. Sriramesh, Florida — As we approach the new millennium, we see a shrinking world in which people in the far corners of the world are increasingly influencing each other in many ways. The decade of the 90’s has been the harbinger of cross-nation exchanges of goods and services. The formation of trading blocks such as NAFTA, EC, ASEAN and APEC has resulted in increased trade among different countries. Further, the explosion of communication technology such as satellite communication and the Internet has contributed to the development of markets around the globe.

A Content Analysis of the Web Pages of Large U.S. Corporations: What is the Role of Public Relations and Marketing? — Suchitra Vattyam and Charles A. Lubbers, Kansas State University — American businesses have expended a great deal of effort on World Wide Web activities, often with limited success. A content analysis of homepage features for 83 of the Fortune 100 companies was performed. The percentages of pages with each feature is provided and then the features are classified according to the business function each attempts to fulfill. The results indicate that many activities found on these homepages are traditionally associated with public relations.

An Innovative Look at Gender in Public Relations: Examining Relationships between Gender and Source Credibility in Employee Communication Messages and Media — Donald K. Wright and Jill R. Haynes, South Alabama — Gender differences between women and men have served as the focal point for much public relations research within the past two decades. However, the public relations body of knowledge lacks any studies that examine gender in terms of how women and men react differently to public relations communication messages and the communication media delivering them. This study examines the impact of gender differences on the receivers of an organization’s internal public relations communication messages.

Teaching
An Exploratory Look at Graduate Public Relations Curricula — Linda Aldoory and Elizabeth L. Toth, Syracuse University — This was an exploratory content analysis of master’s degree programs in public relations that described the status of public relations graduate curricula. Using recommendations of the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education as a benchmark, general requirements, core public relations courses, optional public relations courses and other optional courses were examined. Findings indicated a lack of adherence to the Foundation’s recommendations and a lack of consistency across programs as to number and type of courses required or offered.

A National Study of a Three-Weekend Accelerated Class Format Within the Public Relations Curriculum — Lisa T. Fall, Michigan State University — The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of Public Relations Management courses offered over a six-month period in a three-weekend accelerated curriculum format. The theoretical framework from which this study was designed is derived from Malcolm Knowles’ andragogy theory of adult learning. This study addresses the following three research questions: RQ1: How do students who are enrolled in this class format rate its effectiveness in relation to the assumptions of the andragogy theory?

Helping Students Succeed in the Introduction to Public Relations Course: The Influence of Student Study Manuals and Cablecast Review Sessions on Classroom Performance — Charles A. Lubbers, Kansas State University — This research assessed the value of two distance learning tools as supplements for the traditional introduction to public relations course. The point totals from four exams taken by 506 students were regressed with students’ reported usage of a study manual, usage of televised review sessions, year in school and major status. The results indicate that all four variables are significantly correlated with class performance, but that the study manual explains the most variance.

The Internet, Online Resources and Public Relations Practitioners: What They Use and What They Recommend for Students — Michael Ryan, Houston — This paper reports the results of a nationwide survey of 150 public relations practitioners who were to indicate the extent to which they use the World Wide Web and online resources; when they began using computers for non-word processing purposes; what computer skills are needed in their offices; what skills they seek in new hires; the extent to which they were involved in creating Web sites; and how much importance they attach to Web pages.

Student
Do Corporate Annual Reports and Web Sites Support a Commitment to Social Responsibility? — Kimberly Gill, Florida — This pilot study employed content analysis to examine the extent to which the corporate annual reports and web sites of six corporations demonstrated social responsibility. Social responsibility was framed through the literature review using definitions of social responsibility, philanthropy and public relations. Literature indicated that investors are concerned about the corporate citizenship of companies in which they invest. Contrary to what the literature suggested, companies lacked complete social responsibility disclosure in annual reports and web sites.

Making the Web Work for Non-Profits: Recommendations for the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas — Amy Henika, Trinity University — This paper discusses making Web sites effective for non-profit organizations. It reviews Web sites in general: what they are, why they have proliferated, how they function as part of marketing communications, and what makes them effective. It compares an effective commercial site, Gap, with two lion-profit sites: Bryan’s House and Ronald McDonald House of Dallas. Based on that analysis, the paper recommends improvements for the Ronald McDonald House of Dallas site.

Tactics in Labor Disputes Viewed as Public Relations Activities: Two Strikes in Milwaukee, 1934-1935 — Darlene Jirikowic, Wisconsin-Milwaukee — The mid-1930s were rich in union organizing and the period lends itself to a review of public relations functions as they were used in an arena not usually associated with such activities. This paper focuses on the strategies designed to influence a public or publics in two high-profile strikes in Milwaukee, the Electric Railway and Light Company and the Lindemann-Hoverson Stove Works. In particular, this paper concentrates on the tactics centering on the unions’ most important external public, the employer.

What Dimensions Constitute A Good Corporate Image In the Eyes of Chinese Educated Public in Hong Kong — Lee Kaman Betty, Hong Kong Baptist University — The present study is to examine what dimensions constitute a good corporate image in the eyes of Chinese educated public in Hong Kong. Two hundred and fifty-four (54 males and 200 females) undergraduate students in Hong Kong participated in the present study. An empirical measure called Corporate Image Scale was developed and used. Varimax factor analysis revealed seven meaningful factors. Moreover, the predictability of each factor was examined. Implications of findings are discussed.

Standardizing International Crisis Communication In The United States: The Effects Of Spokesperson Ethnicity On Credibility And Image Ratings Of Multinational Organizations — Laura Arpan Ralstin, Alabama — An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of using American versus non-American spokespersons for multinational organizations in a crisis situation. The experiment varied the home country of the organization (United States, Mexico, Japan, and Germany) as well as whether the company used a spokesperson from its home country or an American spokesperson. Path analyses found company image to be predicted by spokesperson credibility ratings. Additionally, the degree of participants’ ethnic identities affected spokesperson similarity ratings, which in turn predicted spokesperson credibility ratings.

Responding to Crisis: The Communications Aftermath of the Thurston High School Shootings — Andi Stein, Oregon — This paper is a case-study of the crisis communications response that took place following the Thurston High School shootings in Springfield, Oregon, in May 1998. It addresses the challenges faced by the public information officers in the Springfield/Eugene, Oregon, area who dealt with the communications aftermath of the Thurston shootings and evaluates the public relations activities implemented by these individuals while responding to this crisis.

There’s Something About PR: Influence Of Positive And Normative Models Of Public Relations On Job Satisfaction Among Bulgarian Practitioners — Christopher Varadon, Florida — This study explores job satisfaction among Bulgarian public relations practitioners in the light of the four models of public relations-press agentry/publicity, public information, two-way asymmetrical and two-way symmetrical in positive (real–life) and normative (ideal) settings. In addition, this study tests integral models of craft vs. professional public relations. Findings suggest that Bulgarian practitioners are dealing with both craft and professional models in their daily business, but aspire to revert only to the professional model.

<< 1999 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society 1999 Abstracts

Mass Communication and Society Division

Drudging Up the News: The Drudge Report and Its Use of Sources • Scott Abel, Missouri • The media are undergoing a re-evaluation of their standards and practices in the wake of the Clinton scandal. One concern of traditional journalists is the impact of Internet sites, such as The Drudge Report, on their profession. Many point to Drudge as a major player in the erosion of media standards of not using anonymous sources. This study examines the types of stories posted on Drudge’s site and the sources used early in the scandal. It shows Drudge’s reliance on unnamed sources in stories he designated as exclusives.

Online Love: Have Chatrooms Changed How People Make Friends and Date People? • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Fifteen people who use online chatrooms to make friends and to date people were interviewed about their social interactions. Some of the major themes include the following: 1. the limitations of chatrooms-not being able to see facial expressions or to hear voice tones-leads to misunderstandings; 2. some people become so addicted to being in chatrooms that it has negative effects on their personal lives; 3. some women are victimized by men online.

Exploring ‘Drench’ Effects of Dramatic Media: A Test of Volcanic Disaster Portrayals • C. Mo Bahk and Kurt Neuwirth, Cincinnati • Drawing upon the notion of drench hypothesis proposed by Greenberg (1988), this study explores the role of viewing involvement, perceived realism, and role attractiveness as factors generating drench effects of dramatic media. One hundred fifty-eight undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Participants in the experimental conditions were exposed to one of the four video clips: 1) the movie Volcano-a portrayal of a volcanic disaster taking place in the city of Los Angeles, 2) the documentary National Geographic Volcano, 3) an instructional video on gardening, and 4) the comedy Mr. Bean.

Gender Stereotyping and Intended Audience Age: An Analysis of Children’s Educational Informational TV Programming • Mark R. Barner, Niagara University • This study examined sex-role stereotyping within FCC-mandated children’s educational programming. A content analysis compared stereotyping across program age ranges and revealed that programs intended for young children present a more traditional view of sex roles than programs intended for teens. Male characters in old programs were stereotyped to a lesser extent than their young program counterparts. These results suggest that children are being exposed to consistently gender stereotyped television role models at precisely the age when they are forming their own sex role identities.

Differential Employment Rates in the Journalism and Mass Communication Labor Force Based on Gender, Race and Ethnicity: Exploring the Impact of Affirmative Action • Lee Becker, Edmund Lauf and Wilson Lowrey, Georgia • This paper examines whether gender and race and ethnicity are associated with employment in the journalism and mass communication labor market and-if discrepancies in employment exist-what explanations might be offered for them. The data show strong evidence that race and ethnicity are associated with lower level of employment among journalism and mass communication graduates. These discrepancies in success in the job market are not explainable by factors normally associated with hiring, such type of training, type of institution offering the training, or qualifications such as internships experience and level of performance in the classroom.

Whither Now?: Six Years of Internet Research in Mass Communications, 1993-1998 • Joel M. Benson and Thomas Gould, Kansas state University • This paper proposes to outline six years of research in mass communications targeting the Internet. This is an initial study focusing narrowly on the Internet, and as such, will be expanded in the future to include such subsets as the online journalism, interactive advertising, etc. Initially, however, the focus is just on the Internet and World Wide Web and limited to the years 1993 to 1998, inclusive.

New Media, Old Values: What Online Journalists say is Important to Them • Ann M. Brill, Missouri • This study seeks to advance the knowledge and understanding of the roles and values of online journalists. Using Weaver and WIhoit’s analysis of the functions that journalists in other media have rated as very important, the study examines the similarities and differences between the online and traditional environments and the journalists working within them. Findings led to the creation of an additional function-”marketing”-that seems to be embraced by online journalists.

Florida’s Public Records Law Put to the Test: Gaining Access to Crime Statistics • Michele Bush, Florida • One of the greatest checks of government’s inefficiency or corruption is the public’s right to access government information. However, it is not sufficient to accept that because there are legal provisions granting the public access to information, the public is actually receiving that access. To fully evaluate the openness of government, the practical application of access laws must be tested. Only then can scholars know whether citizens have access to government information.

Mass Media, the New Environmental Paradigm, and Environmental Activism: A Change in Focus • Jessica Staples Butler and James Shanahan, Cornell University • This analysis examined the association between media use, adherence to the “new environmental paradigm,” and environmental activism. There was a strong negative relation between television viewing and environmental activism. This correlation retained statistical significance under simultaneous control for age, gender, education level, and political affiliation. Regression analysis shows that television is the second largest predictor of behavior, independent of other factors. There was no relation between television viewing and all three NEP factors.

The Logic of the Link: The Associative Paradigm in Communication Criticism • Dennis Cali, East Carolina University • The metaphor of hypertext or “link” shapes the way we think about and process contemporary informational forms, overtaking the Traditionalist paradigm for constructing and critically analyzing texts. This essay examines the features of the newly-emerging Associative paradigm accompanying hypertext vis-a-vis the Traditionalist paradigm underlying print documents. The implications to communication criticism (practice and pedagogy)-and thus to culture and society-are considered.

The Impacts of News Frames and Ad Types on Candidate Perception and Political Cynicism during the 1998 Taipei Mayoral Election in Taiwan • Chingching Chang, National Cheng-chi University • The aim of this study is twofold. First, examining how commonly strategy-framed stories were used in the newspaper coverage of the 1998 Taipei mayoral election and how prevalently negative political ads were employed in this election. Second, employing a field experiment to explore whether exposure to campaign news with different frames and campaign ads of different valence had an impact on political cynicism and candidate evaluations.

Foreign Policy, Ideological Exclusion and the Media: How the American Press Shifts its News Coverage of Gerry Adams • Kuang-Kuo Chang, Michigan State • The present study examines the interplay among foreign policy, ideological exclusion, the U.S. president and the American press. The research proposed and found support for the hypotheses that the U.S. press has shifted its news editorial policy toward Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, across different presidencies. More specifically, the press was shown to be more favorable and accessible to Adams under the Clinton than the Reagan/Bush regime.

Interactivity and the ‘Cyber-Fan’: Audience Involvement Within the Electronic Fan Culture of the Internet • Vic Costello, Gardner-Webb University • Television viewing involvement and interpersonal communication activity were observed within the electronic fan culture of the Internet. A web-based survey was administered to a sample population (N=3,041) of cyber-fans-individuals who use the Internet to keep up with their favorite television program and to connect with other fans. Variables included favorite program affinity, parasocial interaction, post-viewing cognition, Internet affinity, interactivity, and interpersonal communication satisfaction. Six hypotheses received support from the data analysis.

The Portrayal of Race and Crime on Network News: An exploratory Study • Travis L. Dixon, Michigan • A content analysis of a random sample of network news programming was conducted in order to assess the portrayal of race and criminal behavior. It revealed that Whites are accorded prominent roles as perpetrators, victims and reporters on network news. Latinos are largely portrayed as victims while Blacks are more likely to appear in the role of perpetrator than victim or reporter. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the structural limitations of network news and an ethnic blame discourse. We argue for further investigation of race and crime on network television news.

Subservient Baby Sitters and their Symbiotic Relationships with the Press: The Congressional Press Secretaries’ Interactions with the Media and the Member of Congress • Edward J. Downes, Boston University • This paper examines the Congressional press secretaries’ relationships with the Members for whom they work and the media they serve. It is based on three data sets: a focus group, interviews, and a survey. Its findings suggest the press secretaries enjoy their work; serve the Member with deference; and have a relationship with the media based on guarded honesty. Alphas examining these relationships were developed and are available for future research.

Public Life, Community Integration and the Mass Media: The Empirical Turn • Lewis A. Friedland, Naewon Kang, Kathryn B. Campbell and Bob Pondillo, Wisconsin • In this paper, we first have attempted to lay out a revised theoretical framework for the study of the public sphere, reconceptionalizing it as a series of network relationships. Second, we have reported on a series of small studies designed to show how this reconceptualization might look within the framework of community integration. Our interviews found that all of the groups shared a distrust of the media. Our framing analysis has confirmed that these publics with some variations were reflected in the coverage of both newspapers.

When Bad Things Happen to Bad People: Motivations for Viewing TV Talk Shows • Cynthia M. Frisby, Missouri • Why are millions of people attracted to, what some term, “trash TV” talk shows? Self-enhancement, or feeling better about oneself and one’s life, may be one of the primary reasons people watch what some consider to be “trashy” television talk programs. An experimental factorial design was used to evaluate predictions made from social comparison theory. Data obtained suggest that high self-esteem people felt better and experienced greater benefits after exposure to inferior, incompetent guests.

Journalists And Their Computers: An Inseparable Link For The Future? • Bruce Garrison, Miami • This study analyzes the role of computers in newsgathering. Drawing on daily newspaper data collected in annual national censuses between 1994 and 1998, the study reviews use of computers in newsrooms, needs for new computer skills, the most-sought computer tools, leading subjects for news stories and projects, and journalists’ perceptions of advantages and disadvantages that accompany computer use. The study found computer use has steadily grown during 1994-98 and that newsrooms seem to be making a serious commitment to use of computers in gathering news.

The Body Electric: Thin-Ideal Media and Eating Disorders in Adolescents • Kristen Harrison, Michigan • An instrumental replication of survey research demonstrating the link between thin-ideal media exposure and eating disorders was conducted with a sample of 366 6th, 9th, and 12th graders. Measures included interest in thin-ideal media content, exposure to thin-ideal television and magazines, and eating disorder symptomatology. Thin-ideal media exposure positively predicted eating disorder variables most frequently for older adolescents and girls. Relationships remained robust even when selective exposure based on interest in thinness-oriented media content was controlled.

Balancing Acts: Work/Family Issues on Prime-Time TV • Katharine E. Heintz-Knowles, Kristen Engstrand, Hilary Karasz and Meredith LiVollmer, Washington • A content analysis of two weeks of network-originated prime time television entertainment discovered that most TV adults were shown in either work or domestic situations, with little overlap between these two worlds. TV adults were infrequently shown attending to child care or elder care obligations, which were rarely presented as problematic The authors conclude that television is out of sync with real families who find balancing family and work a major issue in their lives.

Agenda Setting And The Y2K Bug: Paths Of Influence On Behaviors And Issue Salience • Emily Erickson Hoff, Laura Arpan Ralstin, Francesca Dillman, Alison Bryant, Alabama • This study seeks to build upon the agenda-setting models developed by Wanta (Wanta & Hu, 1994; Wanta, 1997) to examine individual-level variables by adding a new element to the process. Taking advantage of a unique issue that is currently growing on the media and public agenda – the Y2K bug – we examined three dependent variables: level of concern/involvement, planned behavior regarding Y2K computer compliance, and planned behavior regarding general Y2K preparation.

Absence of Dissent: A Linkage Analysts of Voting Records in National News Council Decisions, 1973-84 • L. Paul Husselbee, Lamar University • Previous research on the National News Council has suggested the need to analyze individual and collective voting behaviors of News Council members. This study addresses that need by using linkage analysis, a method similar to factor analysis, to examine News Council members’ voting records. The analysis seeks to identify the presence or absence of factions within the News Council, which was divided unevenly between “public” and “media” members.

Television News Impact on Images and Attitudes towards the United States • Yasuhiro Inoue, Michigan State University • With reference to cultivation theory, the present study hypothesized that an image of a dangerous America would be partly attributed to Japanese television news programs that portray the U.S. in violent terms. The data suggest that heavy news watchers held less positive attitudes towards the U.S. than light watchers did. On the other hand, heavy news watchers estimated lower murder rates in the U.S. compared to murders in Japan. This finding indicates a reverse cultivation.

Migrant workers: Myth or Reality? A Case Study of new Narratives in Thailand’s English-Language Newspapers • Suda Ishida, Iowa • The paper examines news coverage of migrant workers from Indochina and Burma that appeared in two Thailand’s English-language dailies-The Nation and the Bangkok Post-during the 1997 Asian economic crisis. The Thai media’s use of news patterns reflects bias against migrant workers. The narrative patterns, the author argues, can be traced to the pro-nationalist history of Thailand written in the 1930s, and may be seen as perpetuating stereotypes about Thailand’s neighboring countries.

Using is Believing: The Influence of Reliance on the Credibility of Online Political Information • Thomas Johnson, Southern Illinois University and Barbara K. Kaye, Valdosta State University • This study surveyed politically interested Web users online to investigate the degree to which reliance on traditional and online sources predicts credibility of online newspapers, television news, newsmagazines, candidate literature and political issue-oriented sites after controlling for demographic and political factors. Reliance on online and traditional media was the strongest predictor of credibility of online sources. Reliance on traditional media tended to be a stronger predictor of credibility of its online counterpart than reliance on the Web in general.

Public Trust or Mistrust?: Perceptions of Media Credibility in the Information Age • Spiro Kiousis, Texas • This paper explores perceptions of news credibility for television, newspapers, and online news. A survey was administered to a randomly selected sample of residents in Austin, Texas, to assess people’s attitudes toward these three media channels. Contingent factors that might influence news credibility perceptions, such as media use and interpersonal discussion of news, were also incorporated into the analysis. Findings suggest that people are generally skeptical of news emanating from all three media channels but do rate newspapers with the highest credibility, followed by online news, and television news respectively.

Evidence of Gender Disparity in Children’s Computer Use and Activities • M.J. Land, Georgia College & State University • This multi-method study examines the differences in male and female computer use in the home of children ages 9-14. Long interviews, observations, and surveys with children show males spend more time on the computer, but not on-line than females. Males and females engage in different computer activities. They play computer games about the same amount of time, but females spend more time on the computer to do word processing and desk-top publishing activities.

MPAA Film Ratings: Are they a Disservice to Parents? • Ron Leone, Syracuse University • The MPAA claims that film ratings are a guide for parents when deciding what movies their children can see. One criticism of the MPAA is that-despite evidence suggesting that violent content is more harmful to children than sexual content-they “target” sex. Here, it is hypothesized that parents of minors will have different opinions about children and sexual or violent film content than other adults. A telephone survey of 368 adults in Onandaga County, NY was conducted and used to test the hypotheses, which received limited support.

Setting the Media Agenda: The President and His Honeymoon with the Media • Yulian Li, Minnesota • This study addresses the question of who sets the media agenda by correlating the issue agenda of President Clinton with that of the major newspapers and television networks. It finds that the president has strong influence on the media agenda during his first year in office, i.e., the honeymoon period. It also indicates that there is a two-way flow of influence between the president and the media on certain issues.

The Big Scare: A Longitudinal Analysis of Network TV Crime Reporting, Public Perceptions of Crime and FBI Crime Statistics • Dennis T. Lowry and Josephine T.C. Nio, Southern Illinois University • Public perceptions of crime as the most important problem facing the country jumped tenfold, from 5% in March of 1992 to an unprecedented 52% in August of 1994. This paper analyzed the effects of three network television news predictor variables and two FBI predictor variables to determine what caused this “big scare.” Based upon data from 1982 through 1997, results indicated that the 1994 “big scare” was more a network TV news scare than a scare based upon the real world of crime.

Academic Letters of Recommendation: Perceived Ethical Implications and Harmful Effects of Exaggeration • David L. Martinson, Florida International University and Michael Ryan, Houston • This national survey of 150 assistant professors, associate professors and professors in schools and departments of journalism and mass communication focuses on the extent to which faculty members exaggerate recommendation letters, perceive that letters written by their colleagues are exaggerated, and believe that exaggeration is harmful and/or unethical. Results suggest that letters written in behalf of students and faculty colleagues are exaggerated, but perhaps not as much as some might imagine.

Pacing in Children’s Television Programming • James F. McCollum Jr., Lipscomb University and Jennings Bryant, Alabama • Following a content analysis, 85 children’s television programs were assigned a pacing index derived from the following criteria: (a) frequency of camera cuts, (b) frequency of related scene changes, (c) frequency of unrelated scene changes, (d) frequency of auditory changes, (e) percentage of active motion, (f) percentage of active talking, and (g) percentage of active music. ANOVA procedures reveal significant differences in networks’ pacing overall and in the individual criteria.

Do You Admit Or Deny? An Experiment In Public Perceptions Of Politicians Accused Of Scandal • Patrick Meirick and Zixue Tai, Minnesota • Scandal news has assumed an increasingly significant role in politics in recent years. Adapting the expectancy-value model to a new arena, this study examines the effects of three factors on politician evaluation: level of evidence, severity of the scandal, and the politician’s response. All three have a significant effect. It appears that denial is the best policy at least in the short run. A predicted interaction between evidence and response was not significant.

How Close is Our Relationship with Television Characters?: The Semantic Difference among Self, Best Friend, Closest Family Member, Closest Acquaintance, and Favorite Television Character • Woong Ki Park, Temple University • This study was an attempt to examine the effect of mass mediated communication on the processes of interpersonal relationship by using Horton and Wohl’s (1956) parasocial phenomenon concept. A series of bipolar semantic differential scales were administered to undergraduate and graduate students (n = 217) who were regular television viewers to see the semantic differences in relationship among viewers themselves and a number of items. The scales measured distance in semantic space among the viewers, best friend, closest family member, closest acquaintance, and favorite television character.

Deliberation And Democracy: Toward An Understanding Of Deliberative Processes • Dietram A. Scheufele and Lewis Friedland, Wisconsin and Patricia Moy, Washington • This paper addresses the discrepancy between normative ideals and empirical realities of a deliberative democracy. Based on a review of previous attempts to increase participation in deliberative processes, we develop a conceptual overview of deliberative democracy, defining the construct with respect to both inputs and outcomes. which factors make citizens more or less likely to participate in deliberative processes? How do actual outcomes of deliberation measure up to normative ideals put forth by deliberative theorists?

Does Tabloidization Really Make Newspapers Successful? A Summary of an Explorative Study • Klaus Schoenbach, Amsterdam • Concerned observers all over the world agree: Newspapers do not only follow a trend toward less serious, more emotional reporting and toward colorful, fuzzy layouts with many visual elements. The audience presumably also appreciates these developments. If tabloidization really sells was one of the questions of a tracking study of 350 local daily (workday) newspapers in Germany. Their efforts to attract readers in the first half of the 1 990s were systematically evaluated.

Autonomy in Journalism: How It Is Related to Attitudes and Behavior of Media Professionals • Armin Scholl and Siegfried Weischenberg, Muenster • Autonomy is a main characteristic of professions. Social system theory suggests observing journalism in terms of self-referentiality and external referentiality. In our study “Journalism in Germany”, we could identify a particular self-referential group of journalists1 which differed from the rest of the sample regarding role perception, unusual reporting practices and assessment of press-releases. Data provided further evidence for a more. complex and adequate perspective on journalists’ attitudes and behavior.

Expanding the ‘Virtuous Circle’ of Social Capital: Civic Engagement, Contentment, and Interpersonal Trust • Dhavan V. Shah, R. Lance Holbert and Nojin Kwak, Wisconsin • This research clarifies the mechanisms underlying the formation and sustenance of social capital on the individual level. First, it expands the conception of social capital by including life contentment in the “virtuous circle” of civic engagement and interpersonal trust. Second, it tests a structural model composed of these three endogenous variables. This analysis permits an examination of (a) the strength and direction of the causal relationships comprising the “virtuous circle’ of engagement, contentment, and trust; (b) the demographic, situational/contextual, personality, and attitudinal factors that are exogenous to these latent variables.

Changes in Female Roles in Taiwanese Women’s Magazines, 1971-1992 • Ping Shaw, National Sun Yat-sen University • A thematic content analysis performed on a sample of articles published in Woman and New Woman magazines over the period of 1971 to 1992 revealed a decline in the number having themes of women as wives, mothers, and homemakers and an increase in articles with political, social and economic themes. Traditional sex role models, however, still dominate the pages of most women’s magazines.

A Reassessment of the Relationship Between Public Affairs Media Use and Political Orientations • Kim A. Smith, Iowa State University • This study examined the influence of public affairs media on changes in diffuse and specific political orientations between the 1990 and 1992 general election campaigns, utilizing a two-wave panel of respondents. The results indicated that use of public affairs media was related to changes in the specific orientations of campaign interest, political discussion and attention to the campaign in the media in 1992. While public affairs media use did not influence the diffuse orientations of perceived political efficacy and political trust in 1992, it did predict changes in 1992 strength of partisanship.

Media Use and Perceptions of Welfare • Mira Sotirovic, Illinois • This paper examines public perceptions of the extent of governmental spending on welfare and the characteristics of a typical welfare recipient. It analyzes how these perceptions reflect differences in individuals’ media use, and how they affect individual’s support for welfare programs. The evidence shows that media use has an important influence on perceptions of welfare after accounting for demographic, ideological and interpersonal-contextual influences. Watching television entertainment, and cable news channel viewing work in the direction of introducing typical biases in welfare perceptions: overestimation of the percent of federal budget spent on welfare, perception of welfare recipients as being non-white, and of younger age.

Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Negotiating the Influences of Media, family, Friends and School • Jeanne Rogge Steele, Ohio University • How do mass media images and messages about love, sex and relationships interact with what teens learn about sexuality at home, in school and from their friends? Data generated in this multi-method, qualitative study suggest that Identity, tempered by ethnicity, gender, class status and developmental phase, plays an important role in media practice. The Adolescents’ Media Practice Model (Steele & Brown, 1995) is refined to include Resistance as a form of Application.

Social Structure, Media System and Audiences in China: Testing the Uses and Dependency Model • Tao Sun and Tsan-Kuo Chang, Minnesota: Yu Guoming, Chinese People’s University • Much has been written about the structure and processes of China’s mass media changes before and after the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping initiated the economic reform and open-door policies in the late 1970s. Many of them focused on the commercialization, de-politicalization and internationalization of Chinese media as a result of the market economy and external openness. Little known, however, is how the audiences get caught up in the interplay between the fast changing social structure and the evolving media system in China.

Screen Sex, ‘Zine Sex and Teen Sex: Do Television and Magazines Cultivate Adolescent Females’ Sexual Attitudes? • Michael J. Sutton and Jane D. Brown, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Karen M. Wilson and Jonathan D. Klein, Rochester • A cultivation analysis of a national sample of 1,921 high school girls shows that magazines may mitigate attitudes toward the frequently risky sexual behaviors shown on television. Girls who said they learned about birth control, contraception, and preventing pregnancy from both magazines and television were more likely than girls who learned about contraception from television but not magazines to say they would be upset if they became pregnant at their current age.

Electronic Politics: The Internet As A Tool Of Political Communication • Mustafa Taha, Ohio University • This paper examines the uses of the Internet as a tool of political communication in U.S. It explores how the Internet is leveling the field for political activists who do not have access to traditional media outlets. The paper shows how the Internet’s interactivity enhances political discourse, and how the Web Wide Web can be used during political campaigns. It demonstrates how politicians relied on the Internet to raise funds and get the vote out, during the 1998 mid-term senatorial and gubernatorial elections.

Media Consumption and Social Capital Patterns in Urban African Americans and Whites • Esther Thorson and Ken Fleming, Missouri and Michael Antecol, Stanford • The survey research reported here was examined for links between exposure and attention to newspapers, local television news, and entertainment television and patterns of social capital exhibited by African Americans and Whites in a large Midwest city. The news media of the city included a daily newspaper that has been committed to public journalistic approaches for approximately three years. Part of the public journalism effort has involved increased efforts to communicate meaningfully with the large African American population in the city.

Is the Web Sexist? A Content Analysis of Children’s Web Sites • Linda Ver Steeg, Robert LaRose and Lynn Rampoldi-Hnilo, Michigan State University • A sample of twenty children’s Web sites (n=200 pages) was analyzed at the site, page, and character levels for sex role stereotypes. The characters (n=164) were 51% male. Results showed discrepancies between male and female characters for age, occupational portrayals, dress, and physical attractiveness. However, no gender differences were found for the types of activities characters engaged in (e.g., passive, active) or for the settings in which they were portrayed (e.g., home, outdoors).

<< 1999 Abstracts

International Communication 1999 Abstracts

International Communication Division

Open Competition
Transnational Journalism And The Story Of AIDS/HIV: A Content Analysis Of Wire Service Coverage • Nilanjana R. Bardhan, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • This study links two global phenomena, AIDS/HIV and transnational journalism, and treats them both as dependent variables that intertwine to generate global images of AIDS/HIV. Weaving the concepts of news framing and agenda-setting with global news flow literature, this extensive study analyses the AIDS/HIV news frames of five transnational wire services-the AP, Reuters, AFP, ITAR-TASS and IPS-for the period 1991 to 1997. The strength of this study lies in its global scope. It addresses a global issue from a global platform.

A Distorted Mirror On The World: Photographs In The Los Angeles Times • Christopher E. Beaudoin and Esther Thorson, Missouri-Columbia • This study examines, via an extensive content analysis, the manner in which the Los Angeles Times covers the world via photography. The study relies on four theoretical frameworks, involving ideologies, personal values, news values, and stereotypes. Although the Times fared well in offering equal coverage of the developing world, focusing on Latin America and Asia, and offering a good mix of topic domains, it slipped up in terms of stereotyping individuals, especially women and non-adults.

Refining The Participatory Approach To Development Communication Through The Public Relations Excellence Model • Dan Berkowitz and Nancy Muturi, Iowa • Theoretical models of development communication have made a transition in recent years from a traditional top-down approach towards a participatory approach where beneficiaries of development efforts provide input for communication programs. This paper interfaces concepts from the recent public relations literature on communication excellence with the central ideas of the participatory approach. The conceptual discussion is then applied to a case study of a women’s reproductive health program in Kenya.

The Impact of Cable Television on Political Campaigns in Taiwan • Peilin Chiu, United Evening News, Taipei, Taiwan and Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted, Florida • This study examined the impact of cable TV on Taiwan’s election campaign strategies, the implications of political affiliation/ownership of cable TV to political campaigns, and cable’s role in Taiwan’s democratization process. The results showed that cable has provided an alternative platform for the opposition parties and encouraged the emergence of rational politics in Taiwan. More campaign media budget has been allocated for this emerging political medium, campaign candidates and staff are taking a pro-active role in expending their cable airtime.

Is the System Down? The Internet and the World Intellectual Property Organization • Dane S. Claussen, Georgia • Gore says Internet is an educational and democratic miracle. But Clinton proposes to WIPO treaties making it looking at copyrighted webpages a violation. Clinton’s rationale: unless copyright is dramatically toughened, artists/authors won’t create. His other rationale: anything received free on the Internet would otherwise be paid for (although little but pornography is now paid for). In contrast, this paper concludes that intellectual property’s domestic issues are unchanged, and related international issues are largely unresolvable.

Praising, Bashing, Passing: Newsmagazine Coverage Of Japan, 1965-1994 • Anne Cooper-Chen, Ohio University • This longitudinal study of Japan, the world’s #2 economic power, analyzed all 290 pieces that Newsweek published during 30 years. Japan was portrayed positively (praised)1965-74, but more negatively (bashed) as Japan grew in power and then in a balanced way after 1985. The study found a decade of inattention 1975-84, followed by a surge of coverage 1988-93, and then a drop (passed) in 1994. In those high-attention years, longer stories and an accentuated linking of the United States to stories about Japan occurred.

Missionary Translation in Colonial Kenya: Groundwork for Nationalism • David N. Dixon, Regent University • Missionaries engaged in massive evangelistic efforts throughout the colonial period in Africa. An important element in their work was publishing, and toward this end they reduced African languages to writing and taught the people to read. Missionary translation, however, had unintended political consequences that reverberate even today. This paper examines two case studies in Kenya, the Friends Africa Mission and the Africa Inland Mission, and explores the political effects of literacy.

Sixty-Five Years of Journalism Education in Latin America • Leonardo Ferreira, Donn J. Tilson and Michael B. Salwen, Miami • This paper reviews the state of journalism education in Latin America. It reports both historical and contemporary developments, noting how events in the region’s past affect the present. This inquiry is based on scholarly and biographical works, documentary materials, personal interviews and data from directories and catalogues. After decades of modernization and critical-oriented approaches, Latin American journalism started shifting away from its neo-Marxist past, even before the end of the Cold War.

Development News?: A Case Study Of The Coverage Of United Nations’ Activities In Somalia • Anita Fleming-Rife, Penn State University • This case study examines the coverage of the United Nations Operation in Somalia during a two-month period in 1993. It examines the coverage, not only in five western newspapers but in the United Nations’ press briefing notes as well. Findings show that the UN briefed the correspondents about development activities, but western correspondents ignored this topic-choosing to focus on conflict instead.

Public Relations Functions and Models: U.S. Practitioners in International Assignments • Alan R. Freitag, North Carolina-Charlotte • Based upon Grunig and Hunt’s four-stage public relations model construct and upon Broom and Dozier’s role classification theory, this research explores approaches taken by U.S. practitioners in international assignments. A survey of PRSA members indicates practitioners stress craft/technician functions in international assignments more than in their U.S. duties. Similarly, respondents favor the press agentry model in international assignments to a greater degree than in U.S.-centered practice, though this publicity-focused model dominates both facets of their practice.

A Cross Cultural Analysis of the Perceived Credibility of Television Reporters • Sarah Kay Happel and Charles A. Lubbers, Kansas State University • This study compares the perceived credibility of television reporters between the United States and Finland. The source credibility theory was tested by comparing female reporters to male reporters when covering a war story, and also when covering a fashion story. There were no sexist attitudes discovered in either country when a female reporter covered a non-traditional topic. However, American men and Finnish women perceived the male fashion reporter as less credible than the female fashion reporter.

The Influence Of Ideological Perspective On Three North American Chinese-Language Newspapers’ Framing Of China’s Resumption Of Sovereignty Over Hong Kong • Jui-Yun Kao and William A. Tillinghast, San Jose State University • This content analysis of the tone and news framing of China’s China Press, the World Journal owned by a Taiwanese news group, and the Sing Tao Daily owned by Hong Kong interests found that newspapers did follow a pro-government stance on the issue of China regaining sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 and that content of the three newspapers differed significantly from each other before and after the return.

Making a Difference: U.S. Press’ Framing of the Kwangju and Tiananmen Pro-democracy Movements • Sung Tae Kim, Indiana University-Bloomington • The purpose of this study is to examine how the New York Times and Washington Post framed two student-led pro-democracy movements in East Asia in 198 Os, Kwangju of South Korea and Tiananmen of China. The findings showed the U.S. elite newspapers used news sources and symbolic terms in an opposite manner to differentiate the two similar international movements. In addition, to detect different news frames concerning national interests and ideological perspectives, the different responses of U.S. government and other potential factors during these two movements were also discussed.

Front Pages Of Taiwan Daily Newspapers 1952-1996 • Ven-hwei Lo and Hsiaomei Wu, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan; Anna Paddon, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • After years of martial law in Taiwan, editors no longer publish under licensing and page restrictions and have had the opportunity during the past ten years to introduce design innovations. Using content analysis, the front pages of three Taiwan dailies were examined for their use of color, graphics, headline styles, modular design and number of stories. To what extent these newspapers, which print characters rather than letters and use vertical rather than horizontal lines of type, have adapted contemporary newspaper design styles is described.

Manifestations of Ethnocentrism in U.S.-Japan Press Coverage • Catherine A. Luther, Tennessee • The purpose of this study was to explore if manifestations of ethnocentrism could be found in U.S.-Japan press coverage. A sample of news items concerning U.S.-Japan relations was selected from the United States’ New York Times and Japan’s Yomuri newspaper. Using attributional biases as indicators of ethnocentrism, each news item was examined to see the types of attributions mentioned in the item. Results showed the presence of ethnocentrism, but mainly in the U.S. news items.

Worthy Versus Unworthy Victims in Bosnia and Croatia, 1991 to 1995: Propaganda Model Application to War Coverage in Two Elite Newspapers • Lawrence A. Luther, Ohio University • A content analysis of news articles in The New York Times and The London Times was conducted. The war in Bosnia and Croatia was divided into three periods of study between 1991 and 1995. Examined were articles that mentioned the perpetrators and victims of ethnic cleansing, and refugees. Results demonstrated that the Serbians were presented as the main group responsible for ethnic cleansing. The Bosnian Muslims were named in almost exclusive terms as the victims.

Interactive Online Journalism At English-Language Web Newspapers In Asia: A Dependency-Theory Analysis • Brian L. Massey, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Mark R. Levy, Michigan State University • Three different measures of socio-economic development were used in an attempt to account for differences in the degree of interactivity associated with English-language Web newspapers in Asia. A five-dimension conceptualization of interactivity was used, and two hypotheses based on the Dependency Theory of national economic development were tested. A content analysis of 44 Asian Web newspapers showed that interactivity neither decreased regionally, from Asia’s developed center through to its economically peripheral nations, nor sub-regionally.

How Should Development Support Communication Address Power And Control Issues In Third World Development? A Nomological Analysis • S. R. Melkote, Bowling Green State University • This essay is an attempt to sketch a nomological framework for development support communication (DSC). The author defines what he/she believes should be the outcome for research and practice in this field, look at the relationships and differences between constructs, examine the practices or exemplars and explicate the role implications for DSC practitioners in the intervention process. The focal point of this essay is the concept of empowerment.

Split Images: Arab and Asian Political Leaders’ Portraits in Major U.S. News Magazines • Hye-Kyeong Pae, Georgia State University • This study reports how Arab and Asian political leaders are portrayed in news magazines. The content analysis was based not on the space allotted in the magazines but on the feature of language used. The language was primarily categorized by five biases and then was classified by another four biases in terms of degree of favorableness. The results support the contention that news magazines in the U.S. pay more attention to the nations affecting U.S. interests and that there are split images between the allies and non-allies.

Professionalism and African values at The Daily Nation in Kenya • Carol Pauli, Marist College • An survey of 15 journalists at Kenya’s largest independent newspaper finds that they place high importance on such hallmarks of professionalism as willingness to go to jail to protect sources and belief in the value of education (McLeod and Hawley, 1964). It also suggests a journalistic role of “ombudsman/peacemaker,” which is different from American ‘roles (Johnstone, Slawski, and Bowman, 1976; Weaver and Wilhoit, 1986) but consistent with African communitarian values, as suggested by Bourgault (1993).

The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Thailand: From Mass Media Campaigns to Community Interventions • Pim Pisalsarakit and Diana Stover Tillinghast, San Jose State University • The study traces the progress of the HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns in Thailand from 1987 to present. Three campaign phases are examined-the initial mass media campaigns, the multisectorial collaboration campaigns, and the current community mobilization campaigns, which use mass media as a complement to interpersonal interventions at the grassroots level. The paper includes findings from a field study of three community campaigns aimed at modifying the at-risk sexual behavior of students as well as residents of Bangkok’s slum communities.

Human Rights and Press Freedom in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Four-Nation Analysis • Cornelius B. Pratt, Zambia and Evelyn Hone College • The institutionalization of human rights in sub-Saharan Africa is as vital to the region’s search for sustainable development, foreign direct investments, social and economic enterprise and good governance as it is to press freedom. Therefore, this disquisition, among other things, affirms the interplay between human rights and press freedom in four African nations. It argues that the inherent synergy between both will, in the long run, make each to more directly embolden the other.

Can Broadcasting Serve the Public Interest and Diversity Today? A Look at the Political Economic Underpinnings of Broadcast Deregulation in Europe, the U.K and the U.S. • J. A. Rush, Jr., Brigham Young University • In the U.S., the U.K. and Western Europe, the time-honored goals and functions of public service broadcasting are under attack from several quarters. The most prevalent of these is the drive to digitize the system awhile allowing the business demands of the marketplace to determine some issues traditionally reserved for government rules and policy-making. This paper takes a political economic look at some of the reasons and outcomes of global de-regulation of broadcast media.

Problematizing Comparative Studies, Institutional Research Environment and Feminist Perspectives in Japanese Television Drama Discourse • Eva Tsai, Iowa • In this paper I critique three areas of the scholarly discourse that has emerged to describe and explain Japanese television dramas. First, scholars must go beyond cultural comparisons to study Japanese television. Second, the television industry in Japan has directed the course of Japanese television studies. Third, feminist scholarship, in addition to its image analyses of Japanese programs, could add to the discourse by addressing the issue of positionality.

Wag the Press: How Changes in U.S. Foreign Policy Toward China Were Reflected in Prestige Press Coverage of China, 1979 vs. 1997 • Zaigui Wang and Dennis T. Lowry, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • This study used content analysis to compare the news coverage of four U.S. prestige newspapers of the state visits of Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping in 1979 and Chinese President Jiang Zemin in 1997. The results showed that news coverage of Deng’s visit (1997) was (a) more favorable, (b) had more coverage of controversial issues, (c) used more ideologically loaded labels in reference to the Chinese government.

International Advertising Strategies in China – A Worldwide Survey of Foreign Advertisers • Jiafei Yin, Central Michigan University • This paper explores how international corporations advertise in China. A worldwide survey of foreign advertisers in China, the first of its kind, was conducted. The study has’ found that the predominant majority of the companies surveyed use the combination strategy, that is, partly standardized and partly localized. Factors that relate to the advertising strategies used in China are the number of subsidiaries, the perceived importance of localizing language and product attributes, and the perceived importance of mostly Chinese cultural values.

Libel Law And Freedom Of The Press In China • Kyu Ho Youm, Arizona State University • In the context of libel law and press freedom in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), this paper examines “how the particular rules chosen reflect differing assumptions respecting reputation and a free press” by focusing on the constitutional and statutory status of reputation as an individual interest in China, on the judicial interpretation of Chinese libel law, and on the impact of the libel law on the Chinese press.

TV and the Perception of Crime and Violence Among Greek Adolescents • Thimios Zaharopoulos, Washburn University • This study looks at Greek adolescents’ television viewing and its role in influencing their perception of crime and violence. Greek adolescents accurately perceive the chances of becoming a crime victim is higher in the United States than Greece. Generally, as a group, they give accurate estimates of crime; chances of being victimized; and of the proportion of people working in law enforcement (first-order effects). On first examination, television seems to relate to how heavy viewers, as opposed light viewers, perceive the above issues.

Markham Competition
Coverage of Three Disruptive International Events in U.S. Newspapers • Raymond N. Ankney, North Carolina at Chapel Hill • This papers reviews the factors that contributed to U.S. newspapers covering three disruptive international news events. The cross tabulations identified several factors that influenced coverage. First, the higher the newspaper circulation size, the more likely a newspaper was to cover the events. A second factor was the presence of a foreign news editor. A third factor was the presence of an overseas news bureau.

Friend Or Foe? Bertelsmann And Kirch – Two German Media Companies And Their Uneasy Relationship With Regard To Digital Television • Kai Hattendorf, American • In today’s global media market, cooperation between competitors is increasingly common. The paper discusses the attempt by the German-based media companies Bertelsmann and Kirch-Gruppe to jointly develop digital Pay-TV in Germany. It shows as well that in Europe political control mechanisms minimize the power of the market by focusing on the policy of the European Unions Commissioner Karel van Miert.

How 10 American newspapers and the AP covered the world: A content analysis of June 29, 1998, to July 26, 1998 • Beverly Horvit, Missouri • A content analysis of 10 midsize and small U.S. newspapers was conducted for June 29 to July 26, 1998. Their international coverage was compared with The Associated Press’. The study showed the newspapers devoted a smaller percentage of their coverage to the Americas than did the AP; seven published a higher percentage from Western Europe. The newspapers ran about 6-11 international items – many briefs – a day, while AP offered about 48 items daily.

This Game is Brought to You Commercial-free: A Comparative Analysis of World Cup Soccer Television Coverage in Germany and the U.S. • Christian Kaschuba, Washington • This study analyzes “commercial elements” (advertising and sponsoring) in the television coverage of the 1998 Soccer World Cup in Germany and the United States. Hence, it compares coverage by non-commercial, public service broadcasters (ARD and ZDF in Germany) with commercial, i.e. profit-seeking, enterprises (Disney’s ABC and ESPN in the U.S.). The results of a content analysis clearly show that the coverage by ABC and ESPN in the U.S. is far more commercialized than the coverage by their German counterparts.

The Framing of Globalization in the First and Third Worlds: A Case of the Asian Economic Crisis and the IMF Rescue • Sung Tae Kim and Krista Kathleen Eissfeldt, Indiana University-Bloomington • This is a comparative study aimed at detecting ‘globalized’ news frames in major newspapers and newsmagazines published in the United States and South Korea. A content analysis was conducted of news coverage concerning the recent Asian financial crisis and the subsequent IMF bailout. Our findings are discussed with reference to cultural imperialism theory. Overall, we found that globalized news frames do exist in news stories, as evidenced by an unquestioning acceptance of neoliberalism, the imposition of blame on debtor-nations and traces of a “mentality of austerity” cultivated in media of the developing world.

Getting Neighbor’s News from “Monsters” living Thousand Miles Away? International News Flow among Asian Countries in the Internet Age • Yong-Chan Kim, Southern California • The present study examined whether the Internet affects the relationship between global news suppliers and local news organizations in Asia. This research critically reviewed the Malone’s “electronic market hypothesis”: the network technology will reduce transaction cost for interorganizational relations and the cost reduction will transform the hierarchically structured relations to market-type one. According to the interviews with 15 Asian journalists, the Internet is more likely to reinforce the current hierarchical relationship between the major Western news agencies and local news media in Asia.

A New Era of Freedom Latin American and Caribbean News Media Confront the Challenges of the 21st Century • Kris Kodrich, Indiana University • The news media in Latin America and the Caribbean have a tremendous opportunity in the 21st Century. Because of a new era of democracy in the region, the media have unprecedented amounts of freedom. They also are becoming more ethical, professional and technologically advanced. But the media also face incredible challenges. The region’s economies are teetering, and too many people are poor, hungry, sick and uneducated. Government restrictions are nowadays more legal than lethal.

National Interest and Coverage of U.S.-China Relations: A Content Analysis of The New York Times & People’s Daily 1987-1996 • Xigen Li, Michigan State University • This study tested the effect of national interest on the coverage of U.S.-China relations by The New York Times and People’s Daily. It examined the relationship between extramedia variables and the news coverage, and the relationship between national interest emphasis in the news coverage and the references to trade and non-trade political issues. The findings support the proposition that national interest affects the coverage of U.S.-China relations both in The New York Times and People’s Daily.

Songs of Freedom: A Communications Approach to the Study of Mau Mau Rebellion • Samuel Chege Mwangi, Iowa • This paper proposes a new way of conducting international Communication research in societies where illiteracy is high. It examines the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya and how music was used as a form of communication. It compares the songs against existing text books on the Mau Mau and makes the case that events as recorded in the music are corroborated in the books and therefore this is a credible and innovative way of conducting research.

Participatory Communication in a High School Setting: Lessons Learned and Development Alternatives from a Development Communication Project in Colombia • Rafael Obregon • The past two decades have witnessed an Increasing tendency to emphasize community participation as a key component in development programs. Development communication scholars and practitioners view participation as a crucial element in communication-related projects. Yet, the literature often highlights big scale projects that require high investments, often sponsored and implemented by international organizations without giving similar attention to small-scale, low-cost programs based on community participation approaches.

The Presidential Candidates In Political Cartoons: A Reflection Of Cultural Differences Between The United States And Korea • Jongmin Park and Sungwook Shim, Missouri-Columbia • This study examines the content of political newspaper comics in presidential elections to compare the culture of the United States and Korea from three perspectives: (1) the context of communication, (2) individualism vs. collectivism, and (3) confrontation. It finds a clear difference between candidate images in the cartoons of America and Korea. These three dimensions were good indicators of cultural differences between Western and Asian society.

Media Of The World And World Of The Media: A Crossnational Study Of The Ranking Of The “Top 10 World Events” From 1988 To 1998 • Zixue Tai, Minnesota • This paper studies the ranking of the top 10 world events from 1988 to 1998 by 11 media representing eight countries and examines the similarities as well as differences between/across media and nations. Findings indicate that all media display bias of their own in their ranking of the top world events and are myopic to those stories that are culturally, geographically and psychologically close. Media from the same national setting show strikingly similar patterns in their evaluations of world news.

Chilean Conversations: On-line forum participants discuss the detention of Augusto Pinochet • Eliza Tanner, Wisconsin-Madison • More than a thousand people participated in an on-line discussion of the October 1998 London detention of Chile’s ex-dictator and actual senator-for-life Augusto Pinochet. This textual analysis of 1670 letters shows that participants in the Spanish-language forum of La Tercera en Internet created and interacted in a virtual space that was important to them. Forum participants saw this communication as essential to the Chilean reconciliation process and a way to strengthen civic life.

Giving Peace a Chance? Agenda-building influence of Nobel Peace Prize announcements in U.S. newsmagazines, 1990-1997 • Michelle M. Tedford, Ohio University • This study found no support for an agenda-building influence in U.S. newsmagazines by the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s announcement of Peace Prize winners. Stories about the winners were measured for the two years surrounding each announcement since the end of the Cold War. Those not already considered news makers before the announcement received little coverage after the announcement. In stories announcing the winners, greater space was devoted to those already on the news agenda.

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