Showing papers in "Newspaper Research Journal in 1981"

Newspaper Quality's Relation to Circulation:

Abstract: This report is another in a series of daily newspaper circulation prediction studies that has extended from 1976 to the present' It supports a practical finding that daily newspaper circulation in any given town can be predicted with 75% accuracy by knowing a few key census and media competition figures; and it offers a theoretical implication: that some of the remaining 25% of variance in the circulation of a daily newspaper is attributable to the quality of the journalistic product itself. A substantial amount of past literature and formative testing, documented in detail in the referenced material, can be summarized as follows: 1) Characteristics of the city of publication are related to some extent 'o newspaper circulation. For inctance, a city of 250,000 population is expected to have a daily with more circulation than a city of 150,000 population. 2) Several census characteristics are actually stronger predictors of circulation than is population. These include household measures such as the number of homes in the city zone, those in the trade zone and the number of owner-occupied households. 3) Measures of local media competition—whether the town has local television news and the number of radio stations in the town— are a refinement to the circulation prediction formula. 4) After testing more than 20 community variables including such items as race, family income and education (all correlated with newspaper readership), it was possible to predict newspaper circulation only at about 75% accuracy.

What Newspapers Tell Us (and Don't Tell Us) about Rape:

Abstract: Rape is a crime surrounded by myths and misperceptions. Police data,* interviews with rape victims^ and studies of rapists and rape victims^ indicate that many commonly held beliefs about the relationship between rapist and victim, attributes of the victim and the situation surrounding rapes are erroneous. Through common misperceptions, people often consider the typical rape situation to be one in which a stranger accosts a young, attractive woman on the street late at night. By extension, this implies that rapes happen only to women who are not being careful enough, who are \"asking for it,\" and who entice men through their appearance or behavior.\"* Interviews and surveys,^ however, indicate that the rapist is often someone known at least casually by the victim, that rapes occur at all hours and to women of all ages, and that a large percentage of rapes occur in the victim's home rather than on the street. Since many people don't know, or aren't aware they know, a rape victim, newspaper presentation of rape could greatly affect the public's view of rape, fear of rape and attitudes toward both rapists and rape victims. Speier^ maintains that one role of the media is to create a \"second-

Newspapers in Education: What We Know.

Abstract: A national program to advance the use of newspapers as an educational tool in the schools was initiated more than 20 years ago. Today, newspapers in education (NIE), as the programs are called, are being conducted by at least 18% of all United States newspapers. About 350 newspapers are employing NIE coordinators or directors of educational services. More than 250 programs are distributing an estimated 44.6 million newspapers each school year reaching about 1 out of 5 schools, 1 out of 20 teachers and 1 out of 10 students. It is estimated newspaper businesses are spending over $2 million for staff time, teacher training and supplementary materials in addition to the cost of providing newspapers at a reduced subscription price.' In the early 1960s there were about five graduate credit courses/ workshops offered in colleges and universities across the U.S. This past year there were well over 125 graduate credit programs. In addition, newspapers, school districts and educational organizations sponsored a plethora of inservice programs on the use of newspapers for teaching and learning. The literature on suggestions, techniques and ideas for using newspaper's content in the classroom is enormous. Newspaper readership surveys are abundant. The research regarding newspapers as an instructional tool, its influence on attitudes and achievement is sparse. After a thorough investigation, only three doctoral dissertations and about 40 other studies were found. The results of several studies are reported in this article.

The Trouble with Bad News

Abstract: Comments and anecdotal reports from veteran newsmen and media critics leave the impression that bad news is getting to be a major problem in this country. Subjective verification comes in the form of people's immediate reactions when \"the bad news problem\" is mentioned. Anecdotes, impressions and random observations are interesting and provocative, and perhaps even necessary to research. But they don't qualify as acceptable evidence. The real question at hand is: What do we really know about bad news? How much empirical research has been done on the topic, and what has really been discovered? This article will review the existing research-based evidence on a possible ''bad news\" problem as the framework for further research on the topic if justified. Major Questions About Bad News

Variations in Attribution Affect Readers' Evaluations of Stories

Abstract: With few exceptions, the stories published by newspapers in the United States are attributed to their sources. But because few specific guidelines are available to help reporters attribute their stories more effectively, much of their work is based upon convenience, intuition or tradition. Systematic study has been rare, and significant questions remain unanswered. For example: How fully should sources be identified? How much attribution is necessary? How should it be worded? When should it be used? Should its use vary from one type of story to another? Also, what are the consequences when editors agree to protect their sources and to withhold their identities from readers? The issues are important ones, since some readers blame newspapers for all the errors, all the bad news and all the unpopular opinions they report, regardless of that information's source. Used more effectively, attribution might help readers understand that newspapers are publishing accurate summaries of their sources' remarks, and that the sources share some responsibility for the remarks' publication. Previous research has generally been limited to three narrower issues: (1) the public's understanding of quotations, (2) the credibility of various sources, and (3) the comparative value of direct versus indirect quotations. For example: Culbertson and Somerick found that 80% of their respondents \"demonstrated basic knowledge of what quotation marks mean.\"^ Weaver, Hopkins, Billings and Cole, who compared the effective-

Defining Local News

Abstract: Local news is often touted as the mainstay of daily newspapers in the United States and Canada.^ Lemert^ and Greenberg and RolofP found that most respondents relied on newspapers for local news, and on television for national and international news. As Leo Bogart noted in his recent book, 'The ascendant power of television network news has led many editors to concentrate on local coverage, where the newspaper's preeminence is rarely challenged.\"\"* Bogart also reports that between 1977 and 1979, 40% of the newspapers surveyed changed the proportion of local and state news versus national and international news. Among these papers, the changes were about three to one in the direction of greater emphasis on local news. The shift to local news was greatest for papers with under 25,000 daily circulation, with twothirds of these putting more emphasis on local news.^ Despite all this attention, the concept of local news has remained largely unexplicated. Exactly what is local news? Local news can be defined monolithically—the entire set of news topics (government, crime, school, sports, obituaries, etc.) originating in the local area, with the geographic boundary for what is local set in terms of a city or county boundary or the limits of a metropolitan area. But such a monolithic definition of local news ignores the fact that few readers are likely to be equally interested in all types of local news and events. It also sets arbitrary geographic boundaries. Such a monolithic definition offers no guidance to city editors in their daily decision-making about which stories to cover and how to play them. One alternative conceptualization is to define local news in terms of several discrete sets of news topics; in other words, to speak of several distinct types of local news. Since no comprehensive theory of news or of news-seeking behavior among audiences is available from which to deduce such sets of news

Impact of Newspaper Reading on Adolescent Consumers.

Abstract: While considerable research exists on the effects of television on consumer cognitions and behaviors, little attention has been devoted to the study of the effects of newspaper reading. The limited research that has been conducted suggests the newspaper may be an important consumer socialization agent by transmitting consumer information to adolescents and shaping their general consumer orientations.' However, specific effects of newspaper reading have not been systematically studied, although such influences would seem to be of interest to newspaper marketers and executives. They may be interested, for example, in knowing the impact of newspaper ads on brand preference formation, especially during adolescence when brand preferences are likely to be formed^ or how newspapers may affect adolescent consumer attitudes such as materialism and conspicuous consumption. This study examines the influence of newspaper reading on the acquisition of a variety of consumer attitudes and behaviors during adolescence, a period considered crucial for socialization in general and consumer socialization in particular.^

The Changing Face of Labor in the Newspaper Industry

Abstract: The 19th century newspaper employe was ageneralist. It was not unusual to find a worker who could gather the news, write it, set it in type, print it and bundle it for distribution. Today, after a century of technological change which resulted in the formation of more than 20 national printing and publishing craft unions, the newspaper generalist is returning. Computerized systems in the newsroom have allowed the editor to recapture the key stroke, to direct the production process from creation of the story to distribution of the printed page. In the century-long swing from overall control to total diversification and back again, craft employes have felt the pendulum's weight knocking them out of the picture or forcing them into new positions. The swath being cut by the automation pendulum is broad—so broad it has affected the employment status of everyone from the reporter to the mailer. The effects of the technological revolution are most readily seen among one segment of the industry's work force: those with union representation. In the entire printing and publishing industry approximately one-third of the workers are unionized; within the newspaper industry, approximately one-quarter are organized. This report attempts to show (a) how automation is affecting the industry employment picture in general and the union employment picture in particular; (b) how the changing employment picture is altering the industry's economic picture; and (c) how management and labor are responding to employment changes brought about by automation.

The Computer Connection: America's First Computer-Delivered Newspaper

Abstract: During 1980, improving computer technologies and a worsening economy combined to bring about a first in the history of mass communication in the United States—the first commercial daily newspaper available to homes equipped with a telephone and a home computer. The paper was the Columbus (O.) Dispatch, a locally-owned seven-daya-week newspaper with a circulation of 200,463 Monday through Saturday and 337,651 Sundays/ The first date on which computer owners could obtain news which had been published in that day's Dispatch was Tuesday, July 1,1980, the 109th anniversary of the founding of the newspaper. At 6 p.m., climaxing only four months of planning, the Dispatch went on line, and news for the home computer was prepared by Dispatch copy editor Bill Prewitt. The computer time-sharing corporation which stored the information and then transferred it to the home computers, was CompuServe, Inc., ironically enough also located in Columbus. It had $25 million in annual sales and computer installations in 260 cities across the United States.^ The third party to the agreement, the party which in fact brought the other two parties together, was the Associated Press, headquartered in New York City. Before reviewing the details of the hookup and its ramifications for American newspapers, let's look at the three principals—the Dispatch, CompuServe and Associated Press— and their reasons for entering the ''experiment.'' Robert M. Johnson, vice president and general manager of the Dispatch,

Older Adults as Older Readers: Newspaper Readership after Age 65

Abstract: Wherever we turn, newspaper stories, television programs, movies, newsletters and political campaigns are confronting us with the news about the \"graying of America.\" Our government has a National Institute on Aging as well as a Federal Administration on Aging. Every state has an Office on Aging, as do most major cities. We can see that the social fabric of our nation has gray and silver highlights, but what does that mean for the daily newspaper? Are older adults (people age 65 and older) frequent or infrequent readers? If they are different from other readership segments, can this be an asset for the paper? What have we learned about this growing segment of the population from past research?^ Newspapers and television maintain a consistent presence in the lives of older adults (see Table 1).̂ Radio use clearly wanes as people age, though a majority of older adults do listen to a radio. Television viewing stays fairly constant from age 25 to 54 then climbs at ages 55-64, the beginning of the retirement years. Newspaper reading tends to peak in middle age (45 to 54) and then remains fairly constant through the remainder of the life cycle. Breaking newspaper readership down into morning and afternoon papers, we see a similar pattern. However, afternoon papers have a fairly constant \"peak readership\" from age 35 on. The overall age-structure pattern is not as clear when readers are dichotomized into frequent (reads a

Commentary: More Effective People Management Through QWL

Abstract: The attitudes of American workers are going through drastic changes. The traditional carrot and stick approach isn't working too often anymore. Workers do want money, but they also want meaningful work and a voice in the important decisions affecting them. This is as true in the newsroom as anywhere else. Reporters and editors want to take pride in the product, have a chance to shape it, and be responsible for its direction. Human resource management, however, hardly is the forte of the American newsroom manager. In fact, these words penned by Daniel Yankelovich ring all too true in the industry: \"There is strong resistance in top management circles, once you get beyond lip service, to the idea that human resources are a key to improving productivity and competitive effectiveness.''' Or, to quote Ted Mills of the American Center for the Quality of Work Life, there is a \"serious and even dangerous absence of perceiving of better people-management as a critical business objective for U. S. work organizations in the 1980s.\"^ Newspapers should be judged on such qualities as accuracy and responsibility. What managers must realize, however, is that these ideals cannot be met without first understanding human resource management. Newsroom managers are fond of saying that their employees are their greatest asset, but as management consultant Peter Drucker notes, \"While managers proclaim that people are their major resource, the traditional approaches to the managing of people do not focus on people as a resource, but as problems, procedures, and costs.\" Certainly there is evidence to show that many newspaper managers fail to pay enough attention to

The Youth Market's Ideal Newspaper

Abstract: In the past few years print journalism has been facing an everincreasing dilemma: total daily newspaper circulation in the United States has declined about 1.5 percent since 1974.^ The significance of this drop increases when matched with the concurrent rise in population of about three percent for the same period.^ Some have contended that newspapers are rapidly becoming monuments to a by-gone era and that newspapers are not changing sufficiently with the times. The American Newspaper Publishers Association and the Newspaper Advertising Bureau committed themselves to a three-year look and a $3 million fund designated to pinpoint the causes and find remedies for the loss of newspaper readership.•' A prime target for such a probe would be the 18 to 34-year-old market, which is one of the weakest segments in the newspaper readership population.'* In 1960, the Census Bureau reported that in households in which the head of the household was under 25, newspapers only had 44.8 percent penetration compared to 67.3 percent penetration in households in which the household head was between 35 and 39.^ In 1976 Yankelovich, Skelly and White, Inc. for Harte-Hanks Newspapers found that while all newspaper reading in the last decade has declined four percent, readership by young adults had decreased by 10 percent.^ The 18 to 34-year-old market is obviously not a homogeneous one with one set of needs and wants that newspapers tend to meet. With this in mind, this study used segmentation, a research technique used extensively by marketers to ascertain the needs and wants of consumers.^ Segmentation is not a new technique in the field of newspaper readership. Most existing studies have segmented markets along demographic or usage lines: age, reader-nonreader, subscriber-nonsubscriber, resident-new resident.*

On Using Newspaper Readership Research

Abstract: As one who has the luxury of recommending to editors and publishers how to conduct readership studies and how to use the results, without having to suffer the immediate consequences of whatever decisions are made on the basis of such studies, I'd like to make five rather simple points about readership studies from my academic perspective: 1. Readership studies should not be conducted solely for the purpose of increasing newspaper circulation. 2. Readership studies should not be confined to content already present in the newspaper. 3. Simple frequencies and crosstabulations are not adequate for getting the most information from a set of readership data. 4. Plans for using readership research findings should be based ultimately on the judgment of editors. That is, there should be no stipulation that certain actions will be taken automatically on the basis of certain findings. 5. Editors should be \"trustees\" of the public, not \"delegates,\" in their use of readership research. Now let me go over each point in more detail. I. Readership studies should not be conducted solely for the purpose of increasing circulation. Why do I argue this, when many readership studies are conducted precisely because a newspaper is losing circulation or not keeping up with population growth in circulation? If you look at the various studies which have tried to predict gross circulation, or circulation per household, or per person, it's apparent that newspaper content (and especially newspaper design) are not the best predictors of circulation. Instead, as Stone points out in his review of more than 50 studies of newspaper circulation and readership, the best predictors of newspaper circulation are number of households.

The Relationship between Writing Style and Personality Structure

Abstract: Evidence is mounting from a variety of sources that writing skills are eroding at an alarming rate in this country. The national Assessment of Education Progress, evaluators of writing skills of Americans between the ages of nine and 35 since 1969, reported in 1970 that nine year olds possessed almost no mastery of basic writing mechanics, 17 year olds had serious deficiencies in spelling, grammar and structure and that people over the age of 18 had a reluctance to write at all. A 1976 update reported the situation had deteriorated even further between studies. Although few would deny that the ability to write is a crucial skill, little systematic research has been done to examine potential causes of deficiencies in writing ability. Moreover, little is known about things that might correlate with writing problems or for that matter with the gift of writing well. Since a casual perusal of any job opportunities section of a daily newspaper indicates employers from media institutions to manufacturers are now requiring writing skills as a major part of their job descriptions, it is clear that students who do not gain such skills as part of their educational experience are dooming themselves to major difficulties in the job arena. Obviously, no profession has a keener interest in the development of writing skills than does print journalism. The research that does exist centers on determining educational strategies that will improve writing skills, correlating demographic and socio-economic variables with deficiencies in writing, or examining what constitutes acceptable levels of writing proficiency.

Reporters and Editors— Some Differences in Perspective

Abstract: A daily newspaper is a fairly complex, bureaucratic organization. It's natural for employes to protect the status of their own departments.^ In moderation, this may be a healthy stimulus to growth and improvement.^ However, organizational theorists call for an accompanying effort to look at least occasionally at the total organization in ways not colored by one's particular job.-' Scholars have studied the backgrounds, problems and perspectives of journalists with varied jobs.'' Unfortunately, little of this research has focused on overall purposes and ideals of newspapers. Differences in viewpoint on such matters (and perhaps more important, lack of awareness of them^) may hamper overall performance. This research makes related comparisons within a sample of 258 reporters and editors on 17 varied eastern and midwestem dailies. The study sought to extend the work of Johnstone, Slawski and Bowman,^ who found evidence of two schools of thought within contemporary journalism. The first was called neutral, the second/7articipant. Argyris'' and the present author* have found evidence of three distinct schools of thought: 1. A neutral, objective or traditional school which emphasizes factual accuracy, speed, trusting of common sense and fairly strict but creative adherence to conventions about newswriting, news judgment and layout. Underlying this view is an assumption that news reveals itself naturally in the form of clearly definable facts. 2. An interpretative SQ\\).OO\\C2^\\ing for the use of social-science, historical and other research tech-

Dimensions and Readership of Newspaper Content

Abstract: For several decades, journalists have been interested in the question of what content attracts newspaper readers. One approach taken to answering the question has been to identify what specific topics and features have high and low appeal. Readers have been asked to note what actual stories they read in a given issue of a newspaper,^ to recall what they read,^ or to rate a preselected list of topics.^ Typically such topics as world events, national politics, crime and big cities, and the governor and the state have been found to attract high readership or interest, while such topics as coping with modern life, high school sports, and travel have had lesser appeal.\"* Another approach has been to use a statistical procedure—factor analysis—to identify patterns of readership, that is, to uncover what clusters or categories of content form readership and interest groupings. Those who have taken this approach argue that it is superior to the ''referendum\" approach of simply identifying the most popular items because many of the most popular items appeal to the same readers. As Haskins^ noted regarding magazine editing, a better editorial mix may be achieved by determining what categories of content need representation. A publication can then tailor its contents to the desires of its different constituent audiences, thereby reaching a larger audience overall. Weaver and Mauro^ have echoed the same viewpoint regarding newspapers. In the last three decades, numerous factor-analytic studies have

The Functions of the Daily Newspaper

Abstract: This report presents the results from five omnibus readership surveys that pertain to the importance of newspaper news in fulfilling various functions. The approach taken is essentially functional,^ in that it is assumed that people actively use the media to satisfy needs rather than allowing the media to dictate the terms of their use. It was thought that identifying the newspaper's importance as an agent of information, influence, entertainment and diversion would assist newspaper personnel in making better content-related decisions. Not only would it offer explanations for why certain topics and stories are more widely read, it would offer guidance in what kind of treatment or perspective to give major content areas. The results reported here come from five geographically and demographically disparate markets in which readership studies were conducted:^ Niagara Falls, N.Y., highly permanent, industrial, largely bluecollar community with high average income but low average education; Binghamton, N.Y., a more rural, older community with higher average education but lower incomes; Rockford, 111., a relatively stable, midwestern city of average age, moderately high income and moderately low education; Salinas, Calif., a wealthy, highly educated growing community in the heart of the agricultural area, with a large Hispanic population; and Stockton, Calif., a relatively affluent, growing community with a diversified economy, moderate education levels and a sizeable minority population (mostly Hispanic and Oriental). The diversity reflected by these markets lends generalizability to the results. Additionally, as a point of comparison to television, the Rockford survey produced ratings for the functions of television news.

Effects of NIE on Adult Newspaper Use.

Abstract: Among the most sensitive issues in the newspaper industry today— perhaps a more sacred cow than Sears or Chevrolet—is the Newspaper in Education (NIE) program. Reports lauding the program are plentiful; those critical barely exist. This investigation concerns the one aspect of NIE about which some doubt has been raised: Exposure to the NIE program should increase the likelihood of adult newspaper use. Promoting future readership of newspapers among adults is only goal No. 3 of the NIE. It strives first to improve reading levels and secondly to increase awareness of current events—and many objective studies find these two goals are being met.̂ The major studies that deal with NIE's ability to increase the likelihood of adult readership are the Newspaper Advertising Bureau's 1977 study^ and a similar study the same year by Linda Rowe of Shippensburg State College^ who reported findings like those of the NAB. But the NAB findings were that two out of three who had used the newspaper as part of their grade school or high school curriculum subscribed to newspapers as adults. That sounds impressive until we remember that 67% subscribers hip by adults is just about the average nationally. In fact, the figure is about three percentage points below the average adult subscribership in 1977.^ Where the NIE program did seem to make a significant impact on later adult readership, according to the NAB report, was among blacks. This group, and especially those in the racial minority who did not have access to the newspaper in the home as children, showed 41% subscribership if they had been exposed to a classroom newspaper program versus only 26% subscribership if they had not been exposed to an NIE program.^

Local Community Orientations of Suburban Newspaper Subscribers

Abstract: Becoming connected with a community is strongly related to becoming connected with a newspaper. Studies have shown that locating in a community is associated with subscribing to a paper^ and that settling down is associated with staying subscribed.^ But to what sorts of communities do residents connect? Communities are more than just places. They are also associations and states of mind. What is it that draws potential subscribers to such communities and what is it that keeps them there? Knowing this should help editors and publishers determine what it might be that sets them using and subscribing to the paper. This study examined factors that appeared to both attract and attach residents to the suburbs, where place, association and state of mind boundaries are blurred and it is not at all clear to what sort of communities subscribers might be connected. Knowing about such community orientations should contribute to learning about reasons for the relationships between settling down and subscribing. Several studies have examined aspects of relationships between subscribers and community.^ Some have employed three related conceptualizations of community that seemed useful for the suburban context: 1) Physical—Place where basic facilities and services are provided such as housing, schools, stores, police and fire protection; 2) Social—Association through involvement, integration or participation in collective activities;

Existing Decision-Making Practices on American Dailies

Abstract: Reporter alienation is evident in some daily newspaper newsrooms in America.' One of the reasons for the alienation could be a bureaucratic system where management makes most decisions and excludes reporters from meaningful participation. One classic solution to eliminating such alienation, according to social psychologists Argyris, Maslow, Likert, McGregor and Katz, is decentralization. Such increased participation in decisions for workers will, according to these theorists, increase the mental health of the individual and the organizational health. It is possible, though, that reporters are participating in many decisions. The primary objective of this exploratory research is to report the decision-making practices within American daily newsrooms as perceived by city and county reporters. A secondary goal is to assess the influence of organization size on decision-making practices. There is no literature on decision-making activities of city and county reporters. There is also very little recent data on participative practices of other daily reporters. There is limited evidence that some investigative,^ foreign,^ science/ sports, women,-̂ veteran^ and \"star\"'' reporters have considerable influence over some job-related decisions. Some reporters even help select their supervisors^ while others offer suggestions through consultative committees.^ A Minneapolis/St. Paul survey of reporters notes that 33% of them had a \"strong\" voice in news decisions affecting their own work; 30%

Newspaper Education Coverage Has Been Expanded, Improved.

Abstract: Few, if any, topics covered by United States newspapers today affect more persons more directly than education. Millions are enrolled in the nation's public and private schools and colleges. Hundreds of thousands are engaged in adult education programs. Virtually everyone who pays taxes makes a substantial contribution to the support and development of education. U.S. News & World Report noted in September 1980 that the nation's public education system was valued at $95 billion.^ Newspapers and other media are challenged to provide information about education so the public can make intelligent judgments concerning its massive investment. Unfortunately, the extent to which newspapers are meeting the challenges has not been extensively studied and the value of existing educational coverage seldom has been authoritatively documented or denied. There was talk of a boom in education coverage during the Post World War II decades, and the amount of space devoted to education did increase substantially. But a major study reported in Journalism Quarterly in 1967 suggested that the proportion of educational assignments had not increased in proportion to all assignments. The number of educational assignments had doubled between 1950 and 1963 but so had the space devoted to listing all editorial assignments. The study concluded that the \"celebrated 'Boom on the School Beat' appears to have been limited to metropolitan daiUes, and to have been more a sign of recognition than a rise in the proportion of all special editorial employes holding school news assignments on American daily papers.\"^ Other studies suggest some insights into the relationships between

Supplemental News Services

Abstract: Supplemental news services have amplified the national influence of the newspaper combinations that package and sell their reports to noncompeting newspapers. Important as they are, the supplemental still occupy a gray area in federal antitrust policy. Are they more like the Associated Press or more like a feature syndicate? If they are more like the AP, then the Supreme Court precedent of 1945 would require that all newspapers be offered equal access to the services of their choice.' But if they are more like a feature syndicate, then the U.S. Department of Justice concedes the right of the seller to grant exclusivity throughout a reasonable circulation territory that may extend well beyond the city of publication.^ Into which of these categories the supplementals belong \"remains an open question,\" one of the government's top antitrust lawyers has said.̂ The effect of supplemental news service availability on newspaper competition, particularly in and around metropolitan areas, would seem to have a bearing on what the antitrust policy ought to be. Yet this too remains an open question. Except for occasional efforts to count the number of newspapers buying news services, based usually on incomplete data 'mEditor& Publisher yearbooks, journalism research has overlooked the growth of supplementals during a period of central city decline and exurban development.'* More newspapers of all sizes now purchase and publish the reports of the supplemental services—a trend that has generally been applauded. Grant contends that the \"elite\" or \"serious\" newspapers that operate supplemental services are more likely to employ better-educated and betterpaid \"analytical journalists.\"^ Grant observes that \"hundreds of provincial newspapers\" no longer need rely on the Associated Press and United Press Intemational, the two major breaking-news wire services characterized by him as devoted to the reporting of routine information from official sources. Hess was told by an AP reporter in Washington that \"papers are increasingly using the supplementals for more of the big

Newspaper Reporting of U.S. Business Crime in 1980

Abstract: \"It has now become an article of faith with businesspeople that there is a bias in the news media and among the journalists that prevents them from getting fair and objective exposure of their viewpoint.\" With these words S. Prakash Sethi opens chapter three of his Advocacy Advertising and Large Corporations. * The complaints continue. The Media Institute, a business supported foundation (Mobil, Westinghouse), accused television in 1979 of having a marked antinuclear bias. The business magazine Fortune (a possession of Time) in 1980 criticized \"three powerful films\" for their opposition to aspects of business.^ Other people believe media favor business (a point of view not discussed by Sethi). The \"Corporate Crime of the Century,\" an awardwinning investigative report published in Mother Jones about the sale of illegal and dangerous products by U.S. corporations to third world markets, was named the number one \"best censored\" story of 1979 by Project Censored. According to Project Censored the United States mass media virtually ignored the story, which received widespread coverage abroad. And of the ten \"best censored'' stories of 1979, business was involved in five more—third world sweatshops, occupational disease, the Rio Puerco nuclear spill, oil company control of the Public Broadcasting System, and the lobbying power of the Business Roundtable.^ Daniel Ford, former director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told a Convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors that newspapers shared the blame for the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island because so many acted as a ''cheering section\" for commercial atomic power.^

Reader Response to Redesign of St. Cloud Daily Times

Abstract: Most American newspapers have made major changes in format in the last decade. For example. Click and Stempel found that 57% have adopted six-column formats and 98% have dropped column rules.^ Yet these changes have been made with a minimum of assurance of their acceptability to the readers. It is true that several studies have found that in general readers prefer modern formats to earlier formats.^ Those studies, however, certainly do not remove all doubts that a publisher may have when he or she contemplates such changes. So far as we have been able to determine, no systematic follow-up study of reader response to format changes has been reported. This article reports on such a study, which documents reader response in a given instance and demonstrates that such assessment of reader response is feasible. The St. Cloud Daily Times formed a Redesign Committee under the direction of News Editor John Bodette. They soon decided to bring in a consultant, and so Garcia joined the redesign effort. The basic philosophy of the redesign was to make specific features and news items easy to find, easy to read and pleasant to look at. Helvetica was chosen as the basic type for headlines, with bold, medium and light being used. Helvetica Black was used for all standing headlines. Bylines and cutlines provided contrast through the use of sans serif light and bold. Part of the redesign was to improve the packaging. \"Teaser\" heads were used over the nameplate to tell the reader in a hurry where to find other major stories that didn't

How Much News is Enough

Abstract: Few would challenge the assertion that the volume of news and information available to society through the mass media has increased enormously in recent years. It cannot be assumed, however, that this has led to a commensurate increase in knowledge of public affairs, nor that democratic government works the better for it. In fact, it could be argued that most Americans can and do get by without absorbing much news (as traditionally defined) while, the political system, like Old Man River, \"just keeps rolling along\"— carried in part by sheer inertia and in part by the exercise of real power by others who are not affected by decisions made in the voting booth. Furthermore, this situation need not affect the economic health of the news media, which can thrive by providing saleable audiences to advertisers, no matter what content is used to create such audiences. However, the net effect may be to weaken the confidence of the public in all its social institutions.

Newspaper Use by Working and Non-Working Women

Abstract: Newspapers, like the rest of the media, have felt an increasing need to keep track of the changing nature of their audiences and how these changes affect newspaper use. Women constitute an important segment of the newspaper's audience. Significant changes in the role of women in the last decade may have important implications for newspapers, particularly changes brought about by the entry of women into the workforce in increasing numbers. While the percent of women entering the labor market has been climbing steadily since 1950 when 37% were employed, the seventies saw a significant increase in the numbers of working women.^ Between 1970 and 1978, the number of working women increased from 32 million to 42 million. By the end of 1979, an additional 11 million had entered the labor market; nearly eight million of these women were married with children.^ Has this change in lifestyle had any impact on how women view and use newspapers? This study evaluates newspaper use patterns of working and non-working women based on secondary analysis of two data sets. The first set of these was a survey conducted during October, 1979 which addressed respondents' general media use. Trained graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in a mass communications research course and an undergraduate reporting course conducted the telephone interviews. Interviewees represented a systematic random sample from the metropolitan Syracuse telephone directory. Response rate was 73%. Of the 408 respondents, 186 were women; 90 described their occupation as housewife and 96 indicated

Which Do-it-Yourself Newspaper Surveys Do it?

Abstract: Since 1977 there seems to have been a spate of materials published on do-it-yourself surveys. The one apparently getting the most publicity is the series of manuals published by Suburban Newspapers of America.^ But there has also been the question index of Belden,^ the book by Breen,^ and a booklet by Mitchell and Mitchell/ All these are aimed to tell the non-professional researcher how to do his own survey. There have also been articles in this journal describing do-ityourself surveys.^ The \"kits\" fall into three categories. The SNA kit provides complete, specific details for selected projects. Belden provides a \"partial\" kit—questions only. Breen and Mitchell and Mitchell provide general instructions. The first two are aimed directly at newspapers; the latter two are not. It's time to take a look at these, and to make critical comments, both good and bad, about each. Right off it should be said that I was the sole author of the SNA manuals. They were my writing, down to the last word. This is said not to be egotistical, but to enable me to report that some changes were made in organization which make the material more difficult, in my mind, to assimilate. When the material was first distributed to SNA members, in its original form, I believe it was far easier to digest. Maybe this provides the best transition to the first of these short reviews.

Local Government Reporters Evaluate Their Tasks

Abstract: The course probably considered most important in many professional journalism or \"skills\" curricula is the one that deals with public affairs reporting. This is especially true in journalism curricula that are based on the premise most significant news involves government or developments having an impact on the public as a community. This premise has a corollary, long accepted by journalism educators and accrediting agencies, that to properly report and interpret public affairs, journalism students must have a broad, eye-opening, mindstretching education. The influential Willard Grosvenor Bleyer of the University of Wisconsin, then chairman of the Council on Education in Journalism, told the 1930 convention of the American Association of Teachers of Journalism: \"A well-organized course in newspaper reporting . . . is not primarily concerned with the techniques of news gathering and news writing. . . . The course in reporting in a school of journalism is devoted largely to an intensive study of local news and its significance.\"^ Noting that two-thirds to threequarters of journalism curricula are liberal arts studies, Bleyer added: \"Even the courses in journalism insofar as they undertake to train students to think straight, to write clearly and effectively, and to apply what they have learned in other fields to the practice of journalism, are broadly cultural rather than narrowly technical.\" Essentially the same philosophy is widely held today, although the emphasis in some departments and in some reporting courses has tilted toward \"precision journaHsm\" and the tools and methods of the social scientists.

Hemisphericity and Journalism--How Do Journalists Think?.

Abstract: Answers to questions such as what makes a journalist think, what makes him good at his job and what makes his newspaper sell are now looming via the use of left-right hemisphere research. The new research, heretofore applied only in other fields such as education and medicine, may be a major drawing card newspaper editors can use to put the whammy on their big-league competitor, television. Answers may allow for better layout methods, more perceptive writing, increased paper sales, increased advertising and better linking of the product to consumer preferences. This research may also aid the newspaper editor in personnel recruitment and staff training. It has implications for improving journalism education in universities. It may even be used as a career/lifestyle yardstick to show a prospective journalist in which occupation he'd likely be more productive and happy, that of reporter, editor or photographer. How left-right hemisphere research may answer these questions is forthcoming after hemisphericity is defined.