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Showing papers in "Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly in 2002"


Journal Article
TL;DR: The Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide as discussed by the authors examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios.
Abstract: Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 303 pp. $60 hbk., $20 pbk. Forecasts that the Internet heralds a world of more democracy and less poverty seem as inflated as dot.com stocks. This rosy view has electronic voting, political chat rooms, and email access re-engaging apathetic publics in politics. Digital technologies redress economic disparities, and the benefits of the Internet percolate down to transform poor societies. Equally exaggerated is the gloom of naysayers. The Internet Age has done little to narrow the gap between rich and poor countries, the information haves and havenots, cyber-skeptics contend. Indeed, digital technologies could create new inequalities and reinforce the dominance of power elites. In her new book, Digital Divide, Pippa Norris, associate director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, steps into this fusillade of cyber-hyperbole, lowers the decibel with a well-written and thoughtful examination of Internet use and access in 179 countries and dissects the claims and counter-claims. Her research and findings place her on middle ground, somewhere between current reality and optimism. The Internet era seems to be changing "politics as usual" in a number of countries, expanding and loosening information about governments and politics, allowing the entrance of new political players, and fostering international movements on the environment, women's rights, and other issues across borders. The disappointment is that digital technologies are activating the already politically active and passing up the disengaged and uninterested. A major challenge to digital democracy is the gulf between the United States, Scandinavia, and other early Internet adopters and the rest of the world. That gap is now so wide that at the turn of the century, more than three-quarters of the online community lived in the developed world. Internet use tracks the path of economic and technological development. But that situation could begin to change, Norris says. The Internet is in its technological adolescence. Costs of access are falling. And governments can make a difference if policymakers take the initiative. We have the historical patterns of other communication technologies to study. Norris examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios. American dominance could recede as Internet access grows worldwide. Contrary to what officials of the Bush Administration contend, Norris finds that the digital divide between rich and poor within the United States remains substantial. Europe mirrors that trend. In the long run, the Internet could become more accessible to the excluded: lower income families, minorities, and women. …

940 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: Reese et al. as mentioned in this paper present a collection of perspectives on framing in the context of the framing of public life, focusing on the role of the media in social change in the process of social change.
Abstract: Framing Public Life: Perspectives on Media and Our Understanding of the Social World. Stephen D. Reese, Oscar H. Gandy Jr., and August E. Grant, eds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. 399 pp. $99.95 hbk. When I conduct content analyses of transcripts, media content, and government documents with students and other faculty, I often advocate combining the study of agenda setting with the study of framing. Especially when I will not be the one doing the work. Conceptually, the pairing of issue salience with issue portrayal is a natural: just as the agenda-setting process can be studied as diffusion or social change involving institutional actors and nascent groups, through media attention, and on to the actions and nonactions of bureaucrats and elected officials, so too can framing provide a compelling and malleable lens through which to understand political jockeying and media access, issue portrayal in media, and the meanings assigned to media content by members of the public. But operationalization is another matter. Whereas the means of studying agenda setting are rather delimited (parsimony certainly accounted for part of its initial attractiveness to media scholars), approaches to framing analysis suggest a bit of a free-for-all. Especially when quantification of frames is attempted, I find the effort less than optimum in terms of what we usually learn. Even when we are trying not to, we tend to mistakenly weed out and discard the substance of frames (meanings, associations, metaphors, interests)in our pursuit of inter-coder reliability. I have found the study of framing to be more difficult and oftentimes more insightful than the study of agenda setting, and, when paired, a perfect example of the advantages of multi-method research designs. Framing Public Life is a very useful book for providing guidance about conceptual and operational alternatives and procedures concerning framing. Faced with a loose and complex paradigm of research, the editors have spent far more than the average amount of time pulling together themes across contributed chapters, carefully constructing prologues and epilogues, allowing time for contributors to react to the editors' own claims and positions about framing and the study of media, and commissioning chapters that were not originally presented at the 1997 University of South Carolina conference that served as the basis for this volume. The collection is just that: not a unified approach to framing, but rather a well-integrated and diverse set of perspectives on framing. Mapping out a citation analysis based on the references cited in these collected chapters would be interesting; I expect that while cliques of researchers focusing, for example, on social movements would be discernible, an overall network among framing scholars could be demonstrated. …

411 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined the attribute agenda-setting function of the media, which refers to significant correspondence between prominent issue attributes in the media and the agenda of attributes among audiences, and found that issue attributes salient in media were functioning as significant dimensions of issue evaluation among audience members.
Abstract: This study examined the attribute agenda-setting function of the media, which refers to significant correspondence between prominent issue attributes in the media and the agenda of attributes among audiences. An opinion survey on a local issue and a content analysis of a local newspaper revealed that, by covering certain issue aspects more prominently, the media increase the salience of these aspects among audience members. We also found an important outcome of attribute agenda setting, attribute priming effects. Findings indicated that issue attributes salient in the media were functioning as significant dimensions of issue evaluation among audience members. This study concluded that the media, by emphasizing certain attributes of an issue, tell us “how to think about” this issue as well as “what to think about.”

403 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: The Black Image In the White Mind: Media and Race in America by Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki as mentioned in this paper explores the effect of media on race relations as media help to shape and re-shape the culture we live in.
Abstract: The Black Image In the White Mind: Media and Race in America, Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001. 320 pp. $15 pbk. What exactly is the injury suffered when "television news, entertainment and advertising, as well as Hollywood films, register and help both to alter and to perpetuate White America's racial disquiet?" The answer to this query is the subject of the book The Black Image In the White Mind: Media and Race in America by Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki, The authors focus on African Americans because of their consistent visibility, their long history of discrimination and oppression in America, the availability of research tools where ready identification of subjects' race is used, and the authors' wish to narrow the study to one manageable group. The literature on media effects generally falls into one of two categories: some focus on esoteric issues of interest to the academic/ scholarly arena, while others target the general populous. This study offers the rare "blended" perspective, somewhat accessible to both groups of readers. Entman and Rojecki attempt to demonstrate the powerful effect media have on race relations as media help to shape and re-shape the culture we live in. The authors also want to influence media practitioners and viewers and hope to contribute to improvements in relations between Black and White racial groups in America. The book spans the fields of critical/ cultural studies as well as political science and other social sciences. The authors carefully and succinctly review cases and theoretical arguments about race relations, while they, in some instances, propose solutions for problems under review. Related and powerful insights animate the authors' analyses. First, they review and assess White attitudes and the new forms of racial differentiation present in the minds of White Americans and throughout media that reinforce White perceptions. Second, their use of national survey data and studies of White racial opinions help readers understand how Blacks came to occupy a "limbo" status in America and how that status affects both Blacks and Whites. Third, the authors show how media "content" actually leads to public ignorance about race relations and about social conditions. They argue, for example, that the public policy issue of affirmative action was distorted by media decisions and political concerns unrelated to the perceived value of affirmative action that, in reality, cut across racial lines. The authors focus not just on the content of television news and public affairs, but they probe television entertainment (networks and cable), the broad effects of media advertising, and the content of Hollywood's movie hits. …

399 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: This book writtern contains secrets and lies digital security in a networked world to read, not only check out, yet likewise download them and even check out online.
Abstract: Looking for competent reading sources? We have secrets and lies digital security in a networked world to read, not only check out, yet likewise download them and even check out online. Discover this excellent book writtern by by now, merely here, yeah only here. Get the data in the types of txt, zip, kindle, word, ppt, pdf, as well as rar. Once more, never ever miss to check out online and also download this book in our website right here. Click the link.

348 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focused on how individuals used personal home pages to present themselves online, and content analysis was used to examine, record, and analyze the characteristics of personal home page.
Abstract: This study focused on how individuals used personal home pages to present themselves online. Content analysis was used to examine, record, and analyze the characteristics of personal home pages. Da...

337 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: The Handbook of Visual Analysis as discussed by the authors provides an overview of available approaches and an explication of how they may be used to advance knowledge and understanding in the selected area of visual analysis.
Abstract: Handbook of Visual Analysis. Theo van Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt, eds. London, England: Sage Publications, 2001. 210 pp. $27.95 pbk. Martin Lister and Liz Wells make a compelling case for the importance of visual research: "With the late twentieth century's explosion of imaging and visualizing techniques (digitization, satellite imaging, new forms of medical imaging, virtual reality, etc.) . . . everyday life has become 'visual culture.' This can be seen as an acceleration of a longer history involving photography, film, television and video. [Some also argue] that the study of visual culture can not be confined to the study of images, but should also take account of the centrality of vision in everyday experience and the production of meaning." It is frustrating and challenging that such an important dimension of human communication is so ubiquitous yet so poorly understood. Part of the reason for our skimpy knowledge of visual communication is a proliferation of theorizing about visual communication at the same time that a mismatched welter of methods are being employed-empirical and critical, objective and subjective, focused and hit-miss, controlled and uncontrolled-to assess content, communicator motivations, viewer perceptions and effects, and societal embeddedness. This handbook seeks to provide an overview of available approaches and an explication of how they may be used to advance knowledge and understanding in the selected area. This book, written by leading internationally recognized scholars and practitioners of their perspectives, makes a good stab at those ambitious goals. In addition to Lister and Wells' chapter on cultural studies, the book also features overviews by Philip Bell on content analysis, Malcolm Collier on visual anthropology, van Leeuwen on semiotics and iconography, Gertraud Diem-Wille on therapeutic psychoanalytic use of drawings, Carey Jewitt and Rumiko Oyama on social semiotics, Charles Goodwin on ethnomethodology, and Rick Iedema's social semiotic analysis of a documentary film. The content analysis chapter is an excellent overview of a dominant method employed in visual analysis. A comparison of the first twenty with the last twenty covers of Cleo magazine walks the reader through the basic steps. Visual anthropology, which combines art and science in its analysis approach, is explicated in a very readable chapter, drawing on longitudinal photographic studies dating back to the 1930s of Navajo, Pueblo, and Hispanic populations in the American Southwest, as well as a San Franciscan Chinatown photo map. Lister and Wells' chapter on cultural studies provides a lot of dense verbiage as underbrush to be hacked through, but the towering treetops above are worth the trail through the terminology. I disagreed with their characterization of several photographs, but cultural differences may be at work here, since the British authors interpret photographs made by several nationalities. The chapter on semiotics and iconography contains clear, straightforward prose that nicely illustrates the complicated writings of others, particularly Roland Barthes (visual semiotics) and Erwin Panofsky (iconography). …

266 citations



Journal Article
TL;DR: The authors of What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response as discussed by the authors, a book written by a preeminent scholar of Middle Eastern studies, provide no conclusive answer, although tentative answers are offered.
Abstract: What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. Bernard Lewis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. 180 pp. $23 hbk. What went wrong in the Islamic world? How could an advanced culture that once viewed the West as a remote, barbaric hinterland have been overtaken by the West? This slim book, written by a preeminent scholar of Middle Eastern studies, provides no conclusive answer, although tentative answers are offered. Some of the answers are grounded in cultural concerns addressed by communication scholars. But finding answers is not the point. The point, Lewis argues, is how the Islamic world has responded to difficult questions. Lewis believes it has not responded well. Indeed, Lewis believes there is no serious debate in the Islamic world concerning how it has fallen behind-only rabid rage directed at enemies. "When things go wrong in a society," Lewis writes, "in a way and to a degree that can no longer be denied or concealed, there are various questions that one can ask. A common one, particularly in continental Europe yesterday and the Middle East today, is 'Who did this to us?' The answer to a question thus formulated is usually to place the blame on external or domestic scapegoats-foreigners abroad or minorities at home." Lewis, the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus at Princeton University, is the author of more than two dozen books on the Middle East, many of them classics. He does not believe that Western culture is responsible for the Islamic world's problems. He often blames the Islamic world for failing to adopt salutary Western values. This is an erudite book. Readers will have difficulty following the cast of characters and obscure battles. The chapters seem like disjointed lectures, and in fact they are largely based on lectures. Lewis' expertise is on the Ottoman Empire, and he relies too much on non-Arab Turkish culture for generalizations about the Islamic world. Nonetheless, the writing is clear. The reasoning is sound. Anyone who gives the book a chance will acquire an understanding of the Islamic world's frustrations. The book was in page proof form when the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks occurred. Lewis acknowledges the attacks in the preface, stating that the book explores "the longer sequence and larger patterns of events, ideas, and attitudes that preceded and in some ways produced [the attacks]." For centuries, the proud Islamic world ignored the West. This supercilious attitude blinded Islamic leaders to advances taking place in the West. Excessive pride, then, must rank as one of the things that went wrong. With European victories over Ottoman armies in the early seventeenth century, the Islamic world was shaken from its stupor. …

219 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper found that people now rate the Internet as a credible source, but while several studies, as well as poll results, suggest that people still rate the internet as a trustworthy source, less attention has been paid to the Internet itself.
Abstract: Fears that credibility among traditional media will be dragged down by perceptions that the Internet is not a believable source seem to have abated as studies suggest that credibility ratings for both the Internet and traditional media may be on the rise.' Specifically, studies indicate that as more people are drawn to the Internet as a convenient source of information they are becoming increasingly savvy about which information and sources to believe and which to discredit.* But while several studies, as well as poll results, suggest that people now rate the Internet as a credible source, less attention has been paid to

205 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a series of non-recursive models using a national survey of nearly 3,400 respondents were performed to simultaneously test the reciprocal relationship between frequency of Internet use and three sets of community engagement behaviors: informal social interaction, attendance at public events, and participation in civic volunteerism.
Abstract: Although some argue that Internet use may erode involvement in public life, the most common Internet behaviors, social communication and information searching, may actually foster social and civic participation. To examine this possibility, we test a series of non-recursive models using a national survey of nearly 3,400 respondents. Two-stage least squares regressions were performed to simultaneously test the reciprocal relationship between frequency of Internet use (i.e., hours per day) and three sets of community engagement behaviors: informal social interaction, attendance at public events, and participation in civic volunteerism (i.e., annual frequency). Time spent online has a positive relationship with public attendance and civic volunteerism. No evidence of time displacement from frequency of Internet use is observed.

Journal Article
TL;DR: Lule as discussed by the authors argues that news is a " sacred, social story that draws on archetypal figures to offer exemplary models for human life" and identifies seven "eternal stories" or myths that regularly appear in the news.
Abstract: * Daily News, Eternal Stories: The Mythological Role of Journalism. Jack Lule. New York and London: The Guilford Press, 2001. 244 pp. $17.95 pbk. This lucid and compelling study of news as essential stories that provide models for social life and human behavior builds on and contributes to scholarship that treats news as narrative, as storytelling, as symbolic and cultural expression. Specifically, Lule, who is professor and chair of the Department of Journalism and Communication at Lehigh University, has studied the language of news, looking for meaning and finding that "ancient myths are told in the news stories of today." Many readers will see how Lule's study connects to cultural studies generally and to the scholarship, ideas, and essays of Elizabeth Bird and Robert Dardenne, James Carey (including his edited volume, Media, Myths, and Narratives), Richard Campbell, Paul Heyer and others, as well as that of Kenneth Burke. His research frame and his major theme are significantly informed and shaped by the work of several major scholars of myth, including Sir George Frazer, Carl Jung, and Joseph Campbell, but especially the work of Mircea Eliade. But Lule also nicely makes effective use of his own reporting experience, which also informs the study. In a discussion of a piece he did at the Philadelphia Inquirer in the early 1980s, Lule readily admits that had someone back then described that article as a modern retelling of a classical myth that he "would have snorted with loud derision." But that was because he did not have a model for understanding the social role of news, he says, and he did not understand the connection between news and storytelling, including connections in form and theme to myth, legend, and folklore. He understands that journalists today may still snort at his claim to a news-myth connection: "Chortling and disowning, however, may not be a bad start," he writes. "At least a conversation will be under way." On his side of the conversation, Lule takes some care in defining myth and in emphasizing that in comparing myth and news he is not saying that news consists of untrue stories. Far from it. News, he declares, consists of "the great stories of humankind for humankind" and myth "is best conceived as a sacred, social story that draws on archetypal figures to offer exemplary models for human life." He explains how his extensive review of news stories led to his identification of seven "eternal stories" or myths that regularly appear in the news. These seven master myths that Lule says "guide the news stories of today" are the Victim, the Scapegoat, the Hero, the Good Mother, the Trickster, the Other World, and the Flood. Lule persuasively demonstrates just how these myths are given contemporary expression by using close textual analysis and a case study approach to examine New York Times coverage of the terrorist killing of Leon Klinghoffer (the Victim), the death of Black Panther Huey Newton (the Scapegoat), Mark McGuire's quest to break Roger Maris's homerun record (the Hero), Mother Teresa over a thirty-year period (the Good Mother), boxer Mike Tyson's trial and conviction for rape (the Trickster), Haiti after the return of Aristide 1994 (the Other World), and Hurricane Mitch's devastation through Central America in 1998 (the Flood). …

Journal Article
TL;DR: Andrews and Jackson as mentioned in this paper discuss the cultural politics of sport celebrities and the role of the mass media in celebrity culture, arguing that celebrities are a product of commercial culture, imbued with symbolic values which seek to stimulate desire and identification among the consuming populace.
Abstract: Sport Stars: The Cultural Politics of Sporting Celebrity. David L. Andrews and Steven J. Jackson, eds. London: Routledge, 2001.280 pp. $75 hbk. $22.95 pbk. What do Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Andre Agassi, Tiger Woods, Venus Williams, Ian Wright, Paul "Gazza" Gascoigne, David Beckham, Diego Maradona, Wayne Gretzky, Hideo Nomo, Martina Hingis, Nyandika Maiyoro and Kipchoge Keino, Imran Khan, Brian Lara, and Cathy Freeman have in common? They are all athletes, they are all sport stars, and they are the subjects of the sixteen chapters in this excellent collection of case studies. Given the ubiquity of sporting celebrity worldwide, it was inevitable that someone would come out with a volume like this one. It is our good fortune that Andrews and Jackson answered the call, for they have taken advantage of their academic connections to amass a collection of unusually strong essays from contributors around the globe. Andrews, associate professor of sport and cultural studies at the University of Maryland at College Park and a senior visiting research fellow at De Montfort University, Bedford, United Kingdom, is an associate editor of the Journal of Sport and Social Issues. Jackson, senior lecturer in sport and leisure studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, serves on the editorial board of Sociology of Sport. In a comprehensive introduction to the volume, they elaborate a view of celebrity that draws on the work of P. David Marshall, Leo Brandy, and Daniel Boorstin. The anthology, they state, "is underpinned by the notion of the sport celebrity as a product of commercial culture, imbued with symbolic values, which seek to stimulate desire and identification among the consuming populace." Celebrity is broadly defined as comprising various forms of public individuality within popular culture. The role of the mass media is, in Braudy's phrase, to act as the "arbiters of celebrity." The mass media feature prominently throughout the book, beginning with the first newspaper sports section in William Randolph Hearst's the New York Journal in 1895. That innovation and its imitators are credited with providing a mechanism "for the transformation of notable athletes into nationally celebrated figures," while at the same time increasing newspaper circulation. But it is television, of course, that draws the most attention. The relationship between sport and television is seen as "ever more collusive," and the editors, at least, seem to accept Charles P. Pierce's 1995 pronouncement that sport has become "basically media-driven celebrity entertainment." We've come a long way since Babe Ruth. Or maybe not, since the editors identify him as the "prototypical sport celebrity endorser," someone who served as spokesperson for a myriad of commercial entities. …

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article found that female voters were more likely to read about a female candidate's personal traits, such as her appearance or personality, than those of a male candidate, while male voters preferred reading about a male's stand or record on public policy issues.
Abstract: Daily newspaper reporters in 1998 treated female and male gubernatorial candidates equitably in terms of the quantity of coverage. However, newspaper readers were more likely to read about a female candidate's personal traits, such as her appearance or personality, than those of a male candidate. By contrast, they were more likely to read about a male candidate's stand or record on public policy issues than about a female candidate's. Some of these differences disappeared after examining campaigns individually. Results indicate that differences in coverage were due to stories written by male reporters who covered gubernatorial campaigns.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The cognitive mediation model of learning from the news proposes that motivations for news use influence the processing to which the news information is put, and that this processing is the proximal determinant of learning as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The cognitive mediation model of learning from the news proposes that motivations for news use influence the processing to which the news information is put, and that this processing is the proximal determinant of learning. The role of motivations in learning from the news, then, is indirect through information processing. Secondary analysis of data indicate substantial support for the model. The relationship between motivations and knowledge was reduced by the introduction of the mediating cognitive variables, news attention, and news elaboration. Both attention and elaboration were significantly related to knowledge, even after controlling all other variables in the model.


Journal Article
TL;DR: Trust Us, We're Experts! How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future as mentioned in this paper is a detailed account of the ways in which journalists are duped by corporations that threaten public health and welfare.
Abstract: Trust Us, We're Experts! How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber New York: Jeremy P Tarcher/Putnam, 2001 360 pp $2495 hbk $1495 pbk WARNING: THIS BOOK MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH Well, okay That may be a little over the top, but not by much Journalism and mass communication teachers may become clinically depressed after devouring this meticulous, thoroughly researched account of the ways in which journalists-many of whom we teach-are duped by corporations that threaten public health and welfare To make matters worse, many public relations practitioners-whom we also teach-participate in or invent schemes to ensure that dangerous corporate actions are not recognized, regulated, or curtailed The depression is likely to deepen as teachers discover how devious-and successful-the corporate disinformation campaigns really are This well-written, well-organized book is a project of the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy, which is "dedicated to investigative reporting on the hidden PR manipulations of government and industry" Those of us who want the media to perform well will not find much comfort in this book Investigative journalists Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber acknowledge that "there are also enterprising, committed journalists who take seriously their responsibility to serve as the public's eyes and ears," but little of that committed journalism is on display here Some of the case studies cause one to wonder whether democracy really works The Global Climate Coalition, for example, was formed in 1989 solely to help corporations and trade associations wage war against those who would reduce greenhouse gas emissions The energy, transportation, and chemical companies that created the Coalition could lose billions if governments ever got serious about regulating emissions Few reputable scientists denied the reality of global warming, so the Coalition's goal was "simply to stop people from mobilizing to do anything about the problem, to create sufficient doubt in their minds about the seriousness of global warming that they will remain locked in debate and indecision" The Coalition and similar groups have enjoyed remarkable success in deferring emission regulation It is disheartening to read how journalists are used to protect narrow self-interests, and how public relations practitioners are part of the plot The success of the hugely expensive attacks against "junk science" also is disconcerting "Junk science," in the view of many in industry and government, is any science that threatens profits or the status quo …

Journal Article
TL;DR: Carmenni and Friedland as discussed by the authors explore the process itself through more than 700 interviews with participants, and they cover the literature behind this movement, and give credit to organizations such as the National Civic League, the Kettering Foundation, and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism that have poured inspiration and support into nurturing nascent projects.
Abstract: Civic Innovation in America: Community Empowerment, Public Policy, and the Movement for Civic Renewal. Carmen Sirianni and Lewis Friedland. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001. 371 pp. $19.95 pbk. The authors agree with Robert Putnam that in recent decades civic participation has showed worrisome decline in wake of developments that depleted social capital created through generations of citizens' work in volunteer organizations, local government, and other community-building activities. The authors do not accept, however, a gloomy prognosis for democracy. Instead, they see a robust response to the kind of malaise President Carter once decried, as Americans learn a more deliberative model developed through innovative experiments in self-government. Sirianni and Friedland are admitted participants in this movement for civic renewal as well as observers and analysts. They do not seek to measure results, however, other than to describe specific successes or disappointments. Instead, they explore the process itself through more than 700 interviews with participants, and they cover the literature behind this movement. They give credit to organizations such as the National Civic League, the Kettering Foundation, and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism that have poured inspiration and support into nurturing nascent projects. They also acknowledge the intellectual framework contributed by scholars such as John Dewey, Ben Barber, Jane Mainsbridge, and Robert Bellah, who have provided theoretical support for pragmatic field work. The authors focus upon four broad categories where innovators have been particularly active: community building, environmental action, community health, and public journalism. Many readers of this book will be particularly interested in the latter. Having watched public journalism develop and having participated in it as well, the reviewer recommends this chapter to anyone who wants a primer on what has become essentially a revisionist movement within a profession that, despite its twin crises of readership decline and loss of public trust, remains highly resistant to ideas that might connect isolated newsrooms to community renewal. At last count, about 200 newspapers have engaged in some form of public (also known as civic) journalism, and reactions from some traditionalists such as Max Frankel at the New York Times and Leonard Downie Jr. at the Washington Post have become less shrill and antagonistic. Meanwhile, National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service helped legitimize the tenets of public journalism through embracing its methods to reform coverage of political campaigns. Contrary to what its harshest critics claim, public journalism does not abandon the time-honored value of objectivity, the authors insist. Nor do its practitioners typically insist upon a pre-determined agenda. Rather, public journalists often cast themselves in the roles of catalysts or conveners, as they encourage citizens to identify and then address problems within their communities. The authors acknowledge, however, that public journalism, like many other renewal efforts, has yet to be fully institutionalized. …

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors compared the main data findings of a survey among Dutch journalists with results from recent projects in more or less similar countries: Germany, Great Britain, Australia, and the United States.
Abstract: This paper compares the main data findings of a survey among Dutch journalists with results from recent projects in more or less similar countries: Germany, Great Britain, Australia, and the United...

Journal Article
TL;DR: Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America by Bradford W Wright as mentioned in this paper is a comprehensive overview of comic book history with an emphasis on the two leading publishers, Marvel Comics and DC Comics.
Abstract: Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America Bradford W Wright Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press, 2001 336 pp $3495 hbk Newcomers to the field of comic book history will find Comic Book Nation a highly readable overview of the history of mainstream comic books, with an emphasis on those of the two leading publishers, Marvel Comics and DC Comics The book is arranged chronologically and takes the reader from the beginnings of the modern comic book in the late 1930s into the early 1990s Black-and-white illustrations of comic book covers and pages supplement the text Wright approaches comics books as cultural history, modeling his study on the work of William Savage, Comic Books and America 1945-1954, published in 1990 He combines a history of the comic books themselves with a discussion of the business history of comic book publishing, imbedding this survey within the larger context of American history His primary sources are the comic books themselves, and he adds narrative summaries of comic book stories to support his conclusions about the ways in which American society, and particularly youth culture, are reflected in the comic books of the time Most of Wright's history traces the evolution of the superhero comics, examining their origins, the role of superhero comics as World War 11 propaganda, the decline of the genre in postwar America, the rise of the "flawed superhero" in the 1960s, and the changes in the industry in the last two decades that gave rise to a new breed of creators who both deconstructed and revitalized the superhero genre He also devotes considerable time to tracing the rise of crime and horror comics as well, detailing the campaign against comics spearheaded by psychiatrist Frederic Wertham He touches on other genres, including jungle comics, war comics, and romance comics, which he suggests prepared girls for domestic life But it is the superhero that remains central to Wright's history In his epilogue, he writes that comic books will have a place in American culture "so long as they bring out the superhero in us all" Comic book scholars, however, may be somewhat disappointed with Wright's history It is largely derivative, condensing material from the popular histories such as Mike Benton's multivolume work and books by Les Daniels and Ron Goulart Likewise, his history of American culture, even with its focus on consumer and youth culture, draws on secondary sources He spends a third of the book, three overlapping chapters, on the decade following World War II, unarguably the period of comic book history that has attracted the most scholarly attention, and he simply duplicates the findings of these earlier studies …

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined images of male bodies in the popular magazines GQ, Rolling Stone, and Sports Illustrated, from 1967 to 1997, and found that the male bodies featured in these magazines became more lean, muscular, and V-shaped (featuring a broad chest tapering to a narrow waist).
Abstract: This study examined images of male bodies in the popular magazines GQ, Rolling Stone, and Sports Illustrated, from 1967 to 1997. A sample of images was analyzed using an eight-point scale measuring levels of body fat and muscularity. Findings suggest that the male bodies featured in these magazines became more lean, muscular, and V-shaped (featuring a broad chest tapering to a narrow waist) over the years. Leanness and V-shape increased dramatically from the 1960s and 1970s to the 1980s, declining slightly in the 1990s. Muscularity increased progressively over the years, reaching its highest level in the 1990s.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors studies New York Times editorials in the aftermath of September 11 from the perspective of myth, and reviews a wide range of scholarship that approaches news as a kind of "myth".
Abstract: This article studies New York Times editorials in the aftermath of September 11 from the perspective of myth. After defining myth and reviewing a wide range of scholarship that approaches news as m...

Journal Article
TL;DR: The Business of Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest by Croteau and Hoynes as mentioned in this paper is a good starting point for a discussion of the relationship between media and the public interest.
Abstract: The Business of Media: Corporate Media and the Public Interest. David Croteau and William Hoynes. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2001.302 pp. $25.95 pbk. In The Business of Media, sociology professors David Croteau and William Hoynes pose a simple but well-supported formula to explain how media companies have expanded their business interests and social influence the past two decades: technology + politics = deregulation. Media deregulation, further fueled by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, permitted-even encouraged-the wave of mergers and buyouts in the late 1990s. The authors trace how new technology has not only made the media more pervasive, simply in terms of the amount of media content, but also has allowed media companies to capitalize on new ways of presenting and packaging media products. However, in pursuing its business interests, the authors assert, the media industry is falling woefully short of meeting the social and political needs of citizens in a democracy. The media sell content to the public, but the more cherished media market is advertisers, who buy access to media audiences. This more lucrative market requires media to cater to advertisers in ways that impact content and direct attention to corporate interests. The authors assert this structure challenges the belief that the unregulated market model responds adequately to public needs. Readers are asked to consider media more broadly and use a public sphere model as a basis for comparison. Juxtaposed, the market model conceives media as private companies that define public interest by what is popular, treating audiences as consumers, and measuring success by profit margins; regulation interferes with market forces, and accountability is to owners and shareholders. The public sphere model envisions media as democratic resources, promoting active citizenship with diverse content, even if not popular; regulation is useful for protecting public interest, and accountability is to the public and government, who measure success by the extent to which media serve public interest. The authors chronicle the growth of media companies, showing how growth has been encouraged by national media policies rooted in market logic. They write the Telecommunications Act of 1996, promoted as emphasizing more business competition, actually helped consolidate the power of media conglomerates and greatly diminished the prospects of the Internet remaining a free, diverse, democratic medium. Operating largely unregulated, media companies have become integrated horizontally (owning many types of media products: broadcast, film, newspapers, books, and Internet) and vertically (owning means to produce, distribute, promote, and sell their products). The authors contend that the handful of fully integrated global media conglomerates are hard to regulate through antitrust laws because the late-twentiethcentury wave of mergers teamed companies that had not been direct competitors. The result has been the growth of integrated companies that own all the production and distribution pieces in the media pie. …


Journal Article
TL;DR: Spigel's "Welcome to the dreamhouse: Popular Media and Postwar Suburbs" as discussed by the authors is a survey of popular media and visual culture in the post-war period.
Abstract: Welcome to the Dreamhouse: Popular Media and Postwar Suburbs. Lynn Spigel. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2001. 440 pp. $64.95 hbk. $21.95 pbk. Suburban homes and spaceships. Portable televisions and sexual liberation. These are not the things one usually thinks of when considering the decades following World War II. But that is just the point in Welcome to the Dreamhouse. According to television historian and feminist media studies scholar Lynn Spigel, when Americans look back, they tend to think in stereotypical and oversimplified ways. Poodle skirts and black leather jackets readily come to mind, and gender roles, as seen in the era's television shows and today's ubiquitous Nickelodeon reruns, were fixed and rosy. But, in examples ranging from Sputnik to NASA, and from Barbie to Dennis the Menace and Peanuts, Spigel brings us a new view of postwar media and visual culture. In addition, she connects these concerns to our ways of looking at the present, as well as the future. In ten essays, Spigel helps us see the complexity of past, present, and future conceptualizations of popular culture, especially as they are tied to television, advertisements, and other visual media. Each of the book's five sections have two essays, the first a reprint of one published earlier, and the second a new one. In section one, Spigel begins her look at postwar America by asking the reader to reconsider how to think about America's flight to the suburbs along with television in the 1950s. As America's "suburban home companion," television's emergence accompanied changes in public and private culture as more and more people fled to the fringes of the nation's cities. Then, on the heels of this human geographical and architectural shift, in essay two, Spigel illustrates how the makers of portable television appealed to the public. Not just something for the family in the living room, television became a personal item, an ideal device for individuals on the move. This assessment of television as a vehicle for "domestic space travel" serves as a fitting segue into part two, where Spigel explores America's 1960s fascination with space. The period's "fantastic family sitcom[s]"-Lost in Space, for example-and African Americans' responses to NASA, are featured in this section's pair of essays. In "Seducing the Innocent," the first of part three's essays, Spigel discusses critics' concerns about the effects of mass media on children, calling for a re-evaluation of their goals and assumptions. Then, in an essay on postwar kid strips, she considers a relationship between Dennis the Menace and Peanuts and the nation's quest for national supremacy during the cold war. …

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined sources of variation in political participation and cognition, testing the effects of several factors on individuals' engagement in the local political process including, as a result, factors such as dep...
Abstract: This study examines sources of variation in political participation and cognition, testing the effects of several factors on individuals' engagement in the local political process including, as dep...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A study of 1,071 sources in 184 television entries to the James K. Batten Civic Journalism Awards found that civic journalism improved traditional source diversity for women and minorities as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Research studies consistently demonstrate a disproportionate use of elites, males, and non-minorities as sources. Previous research demonstrated that only enterprise reporting altered journalistic routines and therefore improved source diversity. Civic journalism is a decade-old, foundation-driven effort to encourage journalism organizations to alter their coverage routines to better reflect communities and the public dialogue on issues. Civic journalism encourages greater depth of knowledge of communities, alternative framing for stories, and developing sources within layers of civic life (from officials to private individuals). This study of 1,071 sources in 184 television entries to the James K. Batten Civic Journalism Awards found that civic journalism improved traditional source diversity for women and minorities.

Journal Article
Abstract: Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends. Thomas L. McPhail. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2002. 272 pp. $47 pbk. There is nothing misleading about the title of this book. It is an accurate description of what McPhail provides and the structure he uses for presenting much useful information and some thought-provoking ideas on the topic of global communication. For a number of reasons, including the end of the cold war, the pattern of mergers and acquisitions in media industries, and advances related to the Internet and satellite technologies, international journalism and global communication are in the midst of some significant changes. The approach taken here for addressing these changes, and for organizing the book, is found to the right of the title's colon. Although not actually labeled as such, each of the twelve chapters seems to focus on either theories, stakeholders, or trends in global communication. Depending on a reader's background and interests, this can work quite well or be a little frustrating. Those chapters dealing with stakeholders are thorough, if perhaps a bit too descriptive, in listing basic information about the histories and status of U.S. and foreign media companies, wire services, advertising agencies, and international organizations. Details are given about how multinational conglomerates have formed and where they seem to be headed. Among the more interesting of the "stakeholder" chapters are the two that deal with international bodies involved in communication issues. Chapter nine is a reading that could stand on its own as a most worthwhile discussion of UNESCO. Chapter ten presents a fascinating overview of the International Telecommunications Union and Intelsat. These chapters cover events and shifting positions concerning New World Information and Communication Order debates and raise matters of increasing importance about the development and global regulation of media technologies. The theory component of Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends is based largely on world-system theory, a critical theory of social history and cultural change first articulated in the 1970s, and the theory of electronic colonialism, a media dependency explanation elaborated on by McPhail in two editions of a Sage book by that name in the 1980s. Other theories and research traditions, including cultural imperialism, development journalism, functionalism, and structuralism are brought up but dismissed as outdated or inadequate for providing full understanding of modern global communication conditions and outcomes. The book does an excellent job of relating electronic colonialism and world-system theories and adopts the nomenclature of the latter throughout. …

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest that perceived motives of self-interest may explain the poor reputation sometimes attributed to public relations, and present a 4×2×2 factorial design experiment with 585 participants.
Abstract: Impression management theories suggest that perceived motives of self-interest may explain the poor reputation sometimes attributed to public relations. A 4×2×2 factorial design experiment with 585...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper investigated how coder characteristics such as language skills, political knowledge, coding experience, and coding certainty affected inter-coder and coder-trainer reliability and found that Politically knowledgeable coders coded more reliably, while coding experience did not affect reliability.
Abstract: Cross-national assessment of coding reliability and its methodological problems have largely been neglected. In an exploratory first study and a more elaborate second study, we investigated how coder characteristics such as language skills, political knowledge, coding experience, and coding certainty affected inter-coder and coder-trainer reliability. The second study showed that language skills influenced both reliability types, albeit mediated by coding certainty. Politically knowledgeable coders coded more reliably, while coding experience did not affect reliability. Overall, the results suggest that cross-national researchers pay more attention to cross-national assessment of reliability.