Carl R. Bybee

Invisible Power: Newspaper News Sources and the Limits of Diversity

^ The last broad-based, systematic assessment of news source diversity was published by Sigal 10 years ago. • Culbertsons study of the veiling of news sources is almost as old.^ In the meantime, not only has the theoretical debate become more lively and more sophisticated, but substantial changes have taken place in the poUtical, organizational and commercial environments of the news industry. These changes call for general recalibration, on the order of Sigals and Culbertsons studies, regarding the nature and extent of diversity of news sources and news channels.

Determinants of Parental Guidance of Children's Television Viewing for a Special Subgroup: Mass Media Scholars.

This study examines the level and nature of parental guidance regarding revision exercised by mass media scholars. It also focuses On relationship of that guidance to beliefs the scholars here about the effects of television, to characteristics of the scholarship, and to basic demographic information.

Investigating the Assumptions of Uses and Gratifications Research

This study attempted to determine empirically the gratifications sought from communication channels and to test the assumption that individuals differentiate channels based on gratifications. Age-related changes in the dimensions adolescents use to differentiate channels were also investigated Results indicated that three dimensions were operative across three age levels, although the importance of the dimensions varied with age. The three dimensions were surveillance/entertainment, affective guidance, and behavioral guidance.

Mass Communication and Voter Volatility

toward unpredictability and rapid change of sentiment and power is manifested by aggregate trends in a variety of indicators: the declining strength of the major political parties, the rising absention rates, and split-ticket voting. While there is abundant evidence from aggregate voting statistics and from the marginal percentages of public opinion polls showing that such trends exist, the more difficult tasks of identifying the causes and consequences of volatility have barely begun. Indeed, it has not yet been established whether these indicators of

Constructing women as authorities: Local journalism and the microphysics of power

This study extends Tuchmans concept of “symbolic annihilation” by applying recent power/knowledge research to the issue of gender inequality in news work. In political and feminist theory, power recently has been conceptualized as inseparable from the production of knowledge, involved in the production of the very meaning of scarcity and the meaning or necessity of conflict. This study integrates the power/knowledge perspective into the ideological conception of news work and uses this integrated position to illustrate how women are constructed or deconstructed as legitimate authorities in local news reporting—in this case, a routine story about child care.

Oppositional Readings of Network Television News: Viewer Deconstruction

This paper describes an empirical study regarding deconstruction by network television news viewers. We define news deconstruction as the identification and criticism of ideology in news by its viewers. Twelve viewers were given surveys about the news, shown videotapes of NBC news, and asked to fill out cognitive response forms during viewing. We explained our studies of news deconstruction and then interviewed them regarding their impressions of our explanation and their feelings about the ideological aspects of news and how they oppose them. We contentanalyzed the cognitive response and interview data for deconstruction moves using four categories which we call oppositional statement types: 1. Criticism—comments concerning news content. 2. Resistance—disbelief in news content. 3. Challenge—questioning of factual accuracy of news. 4. Deconstruction—exposing ideology that promotes only one view of events and discourages others. Our content analysis indicates that most oppositional moves for the viewers we studied are criticism comments—surface-level criticisms. The least common oppositional moves are challenges. The purpose of the interviews was to have the viewers discuss how they feel about news deconstruction. Our interview observations indicate how viewers attempt to deconstruct the news and where they have trouble doing so. After news deconstruction was explained to them, most of our viewers appeared capable of identifying news bias and ideology. However, they tended to struggle when trying to replace TV news as an information source with one they find more trustworthy. This finding is consistent with our quantitative finding that challenge statements are uncommon.

Fitting Information Presentation Formats to Decision-Making: A Study in Strategies to Facilitate Decision-Making

A theoretical approach to structuring communication messages is outlined and an initial test of the approach is performed. The research question addressed is whether the job of decision makers can be made any easier by providing them with information organized to fit the decision-making strategy they intend to execute. An experiment employing a three-factor randomized design was executed (N = 211). The three independent variables were decision-making strategy employed (disjunctive vs. maximax). information format (alternative-by-alternative vs. attribute-by-attribute), and complexity of decision made (high vs. low). The dependent variables were several dimensions of decision-making facilitation (information recall, satisfaction, time and cognitive strain). Planned comparisons were used to directly test four hypotheses derived from the research question. The results provided some limited support for the hypothesized importance of matching information presentation formats to decision-making strategies to facilitate decision-making. However, the most effective pattern of matching turned out to be in the opposite direction of prediction. Several methodological and conceptual explanations for the results are discussed.

Bad News for Kids: Where Schools Get Their News for Kids

As parents, teachers, civic leaders, and citizens, we all want the children we work with, as well as our own children, to grow up to be responsible adults engaged with the future of our nation and government. We want them to be good citizens, as well as good parents and good neighbors. And we do not want them to be poor. We want them to be at least economically comfortable, if not financially successful.