J. D. Martin

Blogging and Hyperlinking: use of the Web to enhance viability during the 2004 US campaign

This study focuses on the online campaigning of presidential candidates during the 2004 US presidential campaign. A random sample of the front pages of the websites and weblogs (“blogs”) of George W. Bush and John Kerry was collected between Labor Day and Election Day 2004. These pages were analyzed in order to examine both candidate blogs and websites in terms of online fundraising, hyperlinking practices, and concentration on certain political issues. Results suggest that candidates more frequently use websites than blogs as fundraising mechanisms. In terms of hyperlinking, the Bush and Kerry campaigns were likely to confine visitors to the bounds of their websites by providing links to content within the overall site, but also linked consistently to outside, advocating sources. On the other hand, candidate blogs were more likely to provide directives to external links. Regarding issues discussed online by the campaigns, results suggest marked differences between the most salient issues in candidate blogs as opposed to candidate websites.

Journalism and the Debate Over Origins: Newspaper Coverage of Intelligent Design

In light of increasing media coverage and national debate of a discipline called Intelligent Design (ID), this study content analyzed 575 articles from major newspapers on this topic. Researchers drew articles from the LexisNexis® database and coded them for the presence of certain portrayal, and scientifically certain versus uncertain portrayal, and these variables were analyzed across news type. Researchers also measured the presence of several frames and the dominant frame within each article. Results suggest that ID was largely portrayed as a religious—as opposed to a scientific—movement. Coverage also was largely skeptical of IDs scientific legitimacy.

Outsourced Credibility?: A quasi-experimental study of corrections at newspapers pre- and post-outsourcing of copy editing

This study tests the assumption that outsourcing copy editing harms accuracy. Authors content analyzed all corrected errors in five newspapers in a full year both before and after outsourcing of all copy editing (N = 3255), while controlling for newspapers’ circulation during the two-year period. Literature on media credibility informs the analyses. Five daily newspapers in the United States and Canada have outsourced all copy editing either to parent-company editing centers in other states or cities (Hartford Courant, CT; Raleigh News & Observer, NC; Winston-Salem Journal, NC; Daily Press, Newport News, VA) or a commercial firm external to the newspaper company but based in the same city (Toronto Star). Results are mixed but do not generally support the suppositions of some industry observers that outsourcing copy editing uniformly harms accuracy. The Daily Press experienced a significant increase in accuracy, that is, a fall in average daily corrections. Average corrections did rise significantly at the News & Observer, but were unchanged at the other newspapers. In terms of specific corrections, mathematical errors at the newspapers decreased after outsourcing, while visual and layout errors rose.

Media use predictors of online political efficacy among Internet users in five Arab countries

ABSTRACT Informed by research on the uses and gratifications of the Internet for political activity, this study examines predictors of online political efficacy among Internet users in five Arab countries (N = 4029): Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Qatar, and the U.A.E. As predicted, variables presumed to be associated with political dissidence in Arab countries – unemployment, distrust of mainstream media, young age, and feeling country is on the wrong track – were not positively associated with online political efficacy. Counter to what was hypothesized, however, Internet reliance and social media use were not strongly or consistently associated with online political efficacy in the five countries. Rather, the strongest predictors of efficacy were a belief in news media credibility, print media use (newspapers, magazines, and books), belief in the reliability of online information, and tolerance of free speech online. Findings align with some prior research on predictors of online political efficacy, but not with common presumptions of the role the Internet plays among Arab publics.

A Census of Statistics Requirements at U.S. Journalism Programs and a Model for a “Statistics for Journalism” Course:

This essay presents data from a census of statistics requirements and offerings at all 4-year journalism programs in the United States (N = 369) and proposes a model of a potential course in statistics for journalism majors. The author proposes that three philosophies underlie a statistics course for journalism students. Such a course should (a) represent a statistics course with journalism, not a journalism course seasoned with a few statistics; (b) encourage awareness of error and skepticism of omniscience of official figures; and (c) cultivate statistical enthusiasts, not formulae repositories. Findings report students in just one fifth of U.S. journalism programs are required to take statistics, and none of those programs offer a course within their own academic unit that fulfills a traditional statistics requirement.

Predictors of blogging activity in six Arab countries

This study examines predictors of blogging in six Arab countries in a secondary analysis of population surveys of, in total, 7,525 respondents in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, Bahrain, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates in 2013. The surveys assessed a wide variety of Internet uses, news and information consumption, and also levels of political efficacy, media trust, and attitudes toward free speech, among other cultural and political indicators. Despite the oft-referenced supposition that blogging in the Arab world is associated with political disaffection, results here suggest that in the six countries investigated blogging is mainly connected to online engagement in general—such as sharing photos online, participating in online chats, and reading others’ blogs—rather than to sociopolitical indicators. In none of five of the six countries, for example, does a sense that one’s country was not ‘on the right track’ significantly predict blogging behavior. Also, distrust of mainstream news organizations only played a minimal role.

Innovation and Idea Flow at U.S. International Campuses.

This article explores some of the components of innovation that U.S. universities abroad can seize, or in some cases have seized, upon to maximize information flow, productivity, and idea generation at their overseas institutions. Using research in psychology, education, economics, and other fields, the article identifies the following as among the contributing factors to innovation: regular congregation among members of knowledge communities, commingling with others for extended periods of time, retrieval of information from other knowledge ecosystems, and professional efficacy. Attention is given to discussing how U.S. campuses abroad are in a unique position to nourish such components of innovation.