Cory L. Armstrong

The Influence of Reporter Gender on Source Selection in Newspaper Stories

This study analyzed the frequency and placement given to male and female sources and story subjects in news-paper coverage and their relationship to the gender of the reporter, A content analysis of 889 stories found that male sources and subjects received more mentions and were placed more prominently in the stories. Controlling for structural and editorial influences, results indicated that the presence of females in the byline is a significant predictor of females appearing within the news story.

Information Seeking and Emotional Reactions to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks

Based on uncertainty reduction theory, this paper argues that individuals were motivated to seek information and learn about the September 11 terrorist attacks to reduce uncertainty about what happened. Results from a panel survey indicate that negative emotional response was a strong predictor of efforts to learn. Analyses also show that relative increases in newspaper, television, and Internet use from Wave 1 to Wave 2 were positively related to efforts to learn about the attacks. The findings extend uncertainty reduction theory to the mass media context thereby contributing to our understanding of uses and gratifications.

Now Tweet This: How News Organizations Use Twitter

This content analysis examined how Twitter is used as a content dissemination tool within the news industry. Using Gans’ conception of news values as a theoretical framework, this study looked at tweets of nine news organizations during a 4-month period to determine how individuals, links, news headlines and subject areas were employed within the 140-character limits. Results indicated that regional media tended to differ in Twitter usage from both local and national media and that broadcast news agencies were more likely to tweet multimedia packages than were print-based organizations. Crime and public affairs were the most tweeted topics. Implications of results were discussed.

Blogs of Information: How Gender Cues and Individual Motivations Influence Perceptions of Credibility

This study examines how gender cues influence perceptions of credibility of informational blogs. Using 2 experiments for data collection, this study manipulated the gender descriptors of a Weblog authors and had participants rate the overall perceived credibility of 1 of 3 blog posts. Male authors were deemed more credible than female authors, and main effects were found for information seekers, who found the blogs more credible than noninformation seekers. Implications are discussed.

Providing a Clearer View: An Examination of Transparency on Local Government Websites.

Abstract This study examines the role of content professionalism and public outreach, along with partisanship in the availability of online local public information. Comparing county and school board websites in Florida, the author suggests that online public records serve as a proxy for the entitys overall level of transparency. A content analysis of 134 local government websites reveals that school boards had a higher level of transparency than counties in Florida, while websites with a more professional look and those located in communities with a high Republican proportion had greater transparency than others. Finally, implications for scholars and government leaders are discussed.

Adherence to the Protest Paradigm: The Influence of Protest Goals and Tactics on News Coverage in U.S. and International Newspapers

Research shows that news coverage of protest groups that challenge the status quo treats them relatively critically. To develop a more precise understanding of such coverage, this study content analyzes an international set of newspapers (N = 220) to explore the relationships between a protest group’s goals and tactics on resulting news coverage. The findings indicate that a group’s tactics—more than its goals—play a substantial role in affecting coverage. Furthermore, the findings also show that the protest issue and location indirectly affect coverage through their relationship to a group’s tactics. Implications for journalists and protesters alike are discussed.

How Newspaper Sources Trigger Gender Stereotypes

News stories rely on sources to convey information. Official sources are often titled and typically male. This study outlines how such source cues can trigger gender stereotypes to varying degrees in two experimental studies. When the unofficial source cue offered ambiguous gender information, individual differences in propensity to stereotype were shown. Those people who score high on an ethic of caring were less likely to attribute a gender to the source. Results are explained in terms of processing differences and gender stereotyping.

Reaching Out: Newspaper Credibility Among Young Adult Readers

The researchers examined student perceptions of campus and community newspaper credibility at the University of Florida using a Web survey (n = 1,906) of those enrolled in a general education class. A moderate correlation (r = .28) existed between college newspaper credibility and community newspaper credibility. Using hierarchical linear regression, the researchers found interest in news content to be a statistically significant predictor of credibility for both local newspapers and college newspapers. In addition, students whose parents encouraged them to read a newspaper found both newspapers more credible than did their peers, and exposure to a newspaper was found to be a strong predictor of credibility for that newspaper. Finally, the results of this case study also suggest White respondents find local newspapers more credible than other races. Implications for researchers and practitioners were discussed.

Structural Pluralism in Journalism and Media Studies: A Concept Explication and Theory Construction

This article critically reviews scholarship on structural pluralism (Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, 1973, 1980) in journalism and media studies. Relying partly on a concept explication and theory construction process (McLeod & Pan, 2004), the article explicates structural pluralism as a multifaceted concept with multiple dimensions and indicators. While reviewing relationships or hypotheses between structural pluralism and various outcomes, the article then discusses and proposes issues and agendas for future studies.

Blogging the Time Away? Young Adults' Motivations for Blog Use

The content of Weblogs ranges from personal diary entries to interactive content from news organizations. Employing the uses and gratifications framework, this study examined how much time young adults spend with blogs and how well traditional predictors of media trust fit a model of overall blog trust. Findings from data collections in 2005 and 2007 indicate that information seekers trust blog content more than those using blogs for entertainment purposes. However, traditional indicators of media trust, such as interest in current events, are negatively associated with blog trust. Implications are discussed.