Helen MacGill Hughes

Bio: Helen MacGill Hughes is an academic researcher from Monash University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Newspaper & Ethnic group. The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 32 publications receiving 530 citations. Previous affiliations of Helen MacGill Hughes include Northeastern University.

News and the Human Interest Story

Abstract: In this account of the growth of newspapers in modern, industrial society, Helen Hughes traces the development of a mass audience through analysis of the origins of the human interest story in the popular ballads of an earlier day. She shows how such commonly found interests as a taste for news of the town, ordinary gossip, and moving or gripping tales with a legendary or mythic quality have reflected the tastes of ordinary folk from the days of illiterate audiences to the present. She explains how these interests ultimately were combined with practical economic and political information to create the substance and demand for a popular press. In describing the rise and fall of newspaper empires, each with their special readership attractions, Hughes shows how technological innovation and idiosyncratic creativity were used by owners to capture and hold a reading audience. Once this audience developed, it could be fed a variety of messages--beamed at reinforcing and maintaining both general and specific publics--as well as a view of the world consonant with that of the publisher and major advertisers. Hughes offers a persuasive argument for the continuing viability of this method for combined social control, instruction, and amusement captured by the association of news and the human interest story.

Report on an Educational Campaign: The Cincinnati Plan for the United Nations

Abstract: The Cincinnati Plan for the United Nations, a six-month experimental campaign of information, was used as a case study in mass education. A survey of local opinion and attitudes on the United Nations, made by the National Opinion Research Center before the campaign opened, demonstrated that it is those already interested, even if poorly informed, who will welcome information, while the well informed, if not interested, pay little attention to it, and that the interested also tend to be favorably inclined toward the United Nations. Therefore, the recommendation was made that the campaign be planned so as to interest certain specified classes which were found to be the most in need of enlightenment. But a second survey made immediately after the campaign disclosed that the materials circulated by the plan, voluminous and ingenious though they were, reached few of these people. The principle derived from the experiment is that information, to be disseminated at all, must be functional, that is, interesting t...

Where peoples meet : racial and ethnic frontiers

Abstract: The authors discuss cultural, racial, and ethnic relations and ideas about the contacts of peoples and the situations in which such contacts occur.

The Age of Migration

Abstract: Preface to the 3rd Edition - Introduction - The Migratory Process and the Formation of Ethnic Minorities - International Migration Before 1945 - Migration to Highly Developed Countries since 1945 - The State of International Migration: The Quest for Control - The Next Waves: The Globalization of International Migration - New Migrations in the Asia-Pacific Region - Migrants and Minorities in the Labour Force - The Migratory Process: A Comparison of Australia and Germany - New Ethnic Minorities and Society - Migrants and Politics - Conclusion: Migration in the Post Cold-War Era of Globalization

An Integrative Model for the Study of Developmental Competencies in Minority Children

Abstract: In this article a conceptual model for the study of child development in minority populations in the United States is proposed. In support of the proposed model, this article includes (a) a delineation and critical analysis of mainstream theoretical frameworks in relation to their attention and applicability to the understanding of developmental processes in children of color and of issues at the intersection of social class, culture, ethnicity, and race, and (b) a description and evaluation of the conceptual frameworks that have guided the extant literature on minority children and families. Based on the above considerations, an integrative conceptual model of child development is presented, anchored within social stratification theory, emphasizing the importance of racism, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, and segregation on the development of minority children and families.

McQuail's mass communication theory

Abstract: PART ONE: PRELIMINARIES 1. Introduction to the Book Our object of study The structure of the book Themes and issues in mass communication Manner of treatment How to use the book Limitations of coverage and perspective Different kinds of theory Communication science and the study of mass communication Alternative traditions of analysis: structural, behavioural and cultural Conclusion 2. The Rise of Mass Media From the beginning to mass media Print media: the book Print media: the newspaper Other print media Film as a mass medium Broadcasting Recorded music The communications revolution: new media versus old Differences between media Conclusion PART TWO: THEORIES 3. Concepts and Models for Mass Communication Early perspectives on media and society The 'mass' concept The mass communication process The mass audience The mass media as an institution of society Mass culture and popular culture The rise of a dominant paradigm for theory and research An alternative, critical paradigm Four models of communication Conclusion 4. Theory of Media and Society Media, society and culture: connections and conflicts Mass communication as a society-wide process: the mediation of social relations and experience A frame of reference for connecting media with society Theme I: power and inequality Theme II: social integration and identity Theme III: social change and development Theme IV: space and time Media-society theory I: the mass society Media-society theory II: Marxism and political economy Media-society theory III: functionalism Media-society theory IV: social constructionism Media-society theory V: communication technology determinism Media-society theory VI: the information society Conclusion 5. Mass Communication and Culture Communication and culture The beginnings: the Frankfurt School and critical cultural theory The redemption of the popular Gender and the mass media Commercialization Communication technology and culture Mass media and postmodern culture Conclusion 6. New Media - New Theory? New media and mass communication What is new about the new media? The main themes of new media theory Applying medium theory to the new media New patterns of information traffic Computer-mediated community formation Political participation, new media and democracy Technologies of freedom? New equalizer or divider? Conclusion 7. Normative Theory of Media and Society Sources of normative obligation The media and the public interest Main issues for social theory of the media Early approaches to theory: the press as 'fourth estate' The 1947 Commission on Freedom of the Press and the social theory of responsibility Professionalism and media ethics Four Theories of the Press and beyond The public service broadcasting alternative Mass media, civil society and the public sphere Response to the discontents of the public sphere Alternative visions Normative media theory: four models Conclusion PART THREE: STRUCTURES 8. Media Structure and Performance: Principles and Accountability Media freedom as a principle Media equality as a principle Media diversity as a principle Truth and information quality Social order and solidarity Cultural order The meaning of accountability Two alternative models of accountability Lines and relations of accountability Frames of accountability Conclusion 9. Media Economics and Governance Media 'not just any other business' The basics of media structure and levels of analysis Some economic principles of media structure Ownership and control Competition and concentration Mass media governance The regulation of mass media: alternative models Media policy paradigm shifts Media systems and political systems Conclusion 10. Global Mass Communication Origins of globalization Driving forces: technology and money Global media structure Multinational media ownership and control Varieties of global mass media International media dependency Cultural imperialism and beyond The media transnationalization process International news flow The global trade in media culture Towards a global media culture? Global media governance Conclusion PART FOUR: ORGANIZATIONS 11. The Media Organization: Pressures and Demands Research methods and perspectives The main issues Levels of analysis The media organization in a field of social forces Relations with society Relations with pressure and interest groups Relations with owners and clients Relations with the audience Aspects of internal structure and dynamics The influence of personal characteristics of mass communicators Role conflicts and dilemmas Conclusion 12. The Production of Media Culture Media-organizational activities: gatekeeping and selection Influences on news selection The struggle over access between media and society The influence of sources on news Media-organizational activity: processing and presentation The logic of media culture Alternative models of decision-making The coming of convergence culture: consumers as producers Conclusion PART FIVE: CONTENT 13. Media Content: Issues, Concepts and Methods of Analysis Why study media content? Critical perspectives on content Structuralism and semiology Media content as information Media performance discourse Objectivity and its measurement Questions of research method Traditional content analysis Quantitative and qualitative analysis compared Conclusion 14. Media Genres and Texts Questions of genre Genre and the internet The news genre The structure of news: bias and framing News as narrative Television violence The cultural text and its meanings Conclusion PART SIX: AUDIENCES 15. Audience Theory and Research Traditions The audience concept The original audience From mass to market Goals of audience research Alternative traditions of research Audience issues of public concern Types of audience The audience as a group or public The gratifi cation set as audience The medium audience Audience as defi ned by channel or content Questions of audience reach Activity and selectivity Conclusion 16. Audience Formation and Experience The 'why' of media use A structural approach to audience formation The uses and gratifi cations approach An integrated model of audience choice Public and private spheres of media use Subculture and audience Lifestyle Gendered audiences Sociability and uses of the media Normative framing of media use Audience norms for content The view from the audience Media fandom The end of the audience? The 'escape' of the audience The future of the audience The audience concept again Conclusion PART SEVEN: EFFECTS 17. Processes and Models of Media Effects The premise of media effect The natural history of media effect research and theory: four phases Types of communicative power Levels and kinds of effects Processes of media effect: a typology Individual response and reaction: the stimulus-response model Mediating conditions of effect Source-receiver relations and effect The campaign Conclusion 18. Social-Cultural Effects A model of behavioural effect The media, violence and crime Media, children and young people Collective reaction effects Diffusion of innovation and development The social distribution of knowledge Social learning theory Socialization Social control and consciousness formation Cultivation Media and long-term social and cultural change Entertainment effects Conclusion 19. News, Public Opinion and Political Communication Learning from news News diffusion Framing effects Agenda-setting Effects on public opinion and attitudes The elaboration-likelihood model of infl uence The spiral of silence: the formation of climates of opinion Structuring reality and unwitting bias The communication of risk Political communication effects in democracies Effects on the political institution and process Media influence on event outcomes Propaganda and war Internet news effects Conclusion EPILOGUE 20. The Future of Mass Communication Origins of the mass communication idea The end of mass communication? The survival of mass communication The consequences of new media for mass communication Conclusion

Rethinking racism: toward a structural interpretation *

Abstract: The study of race and ethnic conflict historically has been hampered by inadequate and simplistic theories. I contend that the central problem of the various approaches to the study of racial phenomena is their lack of a structural theory of racism. I review traditional approaches and alternative approaches to the study of racism, and discuss their limitations. Following the leads suggested by some of the alternative frameworks, I advance a structural theory of racism based on the notion of racialized social systems. "The habit of considering racism as a mental quirk, as a psychological flaw, must be abandoned." -Frantz Fanon (1967:77) he area of race and ethnic studies lacks a _ sound theoretical apparatus. To complicate matters, many analysts of racial matters have abandoned the serious theorization and reconceptualization of their central topic: racism. Too many social analysts researching racism assume that the phenomenon is selfevident, and therefore either do not provide a definition or provide an elementary definition (Schuman, Steeh, and Bobo 1985; Sniderman and Piazza 1993). Nevertheless, whether implicitly or explicitly, most analysts regard racism as a purely ideological phenomenon.

Objectivity as Strategic Ritual: An Examination of Newsmen's Notions of Objectivity

Abstract: The newspapermen studied believe they may mitigate such continual pressures as deadlines, possible libel suits, and anticipated reprimands of superiors by being able to claim that their work is "objective." This article examines three factors which help a newsman to define an "objective fact": form, content, and interorganizational relationships. It shows that in discussing content and interorganizational relationships, the newsman can only invoke his news judgment; however, he can claim objectivity by citing procedures he has followed which exemplify the formal attributes of a news history or a newspaper. For instance, the newsman can suggest that he quoted other people instead of offering his own opinions. The article suggests that "objectivity" may be seen as a strategic ritual protecting newspapermen from the risks of their trade. It asks whether other professions might not also use the term "objectivity" in the same way.