James W. Tankard

News Source Perceptions of Accuracy of Science Coverage.

Study using 42 error categories finds higher error rate for science news than earlier studies did for regular coverage.

Effects of Eye Position on Person Perception.

Stimulus photographs were prepared of models in 3 conditions, looking straight into the camera, looking downward, and looking sideways. Photographs were shown to 48 Ss who were told to assume they were interviewing the models for jobs. Ss rated models on 15 semantic differential scales and a salary scale, and answered some other brief questions. Eye position influenced response to models. Significant differences were found for 11 of 16 scales in comparisons of straight and downward gazes and for 2 of 16 scales in comparisons of straight and sideways gazes.

Compliance with American Bar Association Fair Trial-Free Press Guidelines.

The American Bar Association adopted its Standards Relating to Fair Trial and Free Press in 1968. These standards, based on the recommendations of the 1966 ABA special study panel (the Reardon Report), provided the first comprehensive guidelines for the types of nonprejudicial information that could be released for publication prior to a trial and the types of information that should not be released.’ Subsequently. 23 states have adopted voluntary press-bar guidelines specifying the types of potentially prejudicial information that should not be published or broadcast before a trial. What role have the voluntary pressbar agreements played in promoting generally responsible coverage of crime in the nation‘s press? Previous attempts to answer this question have rested on either the opinions of a few expert observers or on sample surveys of press and bar members. For instance, Mitchell reports that Washington state judges indicated several years after adoption of

Quantitative Graphics in Newspapers.

b How can graphs and charts be used in newspapers to display quantitative information in the most effective way? As newspapers tend toward the use of more statistical graphs, this is a question of interest to reporters, editors and staff artists. This article attempts to improve quantitative graphs in newspapers by identifying ten common problems in graphs that should be avoided much as newswriting textbooks have attempted to improve lead writing by identifying types of leads to avoid. Newspapers seem to be using graphs to display quantitative information more in the past three or four years than they did in previous years. As White has noted, “Charts have catapulted from the stock market pages into every section of today’s newspapers.”’ Partly this may be due to the influence of USA Today, which has made statistical graphics a regular part of its news package. At least four graphs appear in USA Today every day in the “USA Snapshots” at the bottom of the front page in each section. Other graphs often appear at other locations in the newspaper. All of these graphs in USA Today tend to be in color and cartoonlike. The cartoon approach is obviously used to attract attention to the graphs by

Specificity, Imagery in Writing: Testing the Effects of “Show, Don't Tell”

Sentences that show are usually perceived by readers as more interesting, engaging and informative than sentences that merely tell.

The H.G. Wells quote on statistics: A question of accuracy

Abstract A widely disseminated quotation by H.G. Wells on the importance of statistics is shown to have been misrepresented.

Wilbur Schramm: Definer of a Field.

Wilbur Schramm (1907-1987) probably did more to define and establish the field of mmunication research and theory than any other person. He founded two institutes of communication research (and helped to found a third), wrote several basic textbooks in a field that had none before, and trained a small army of young scholars who, for the first time, thought of themselves full-time commUnic9tion scholars. He also had an intellectual impact that is hard to measure, but a big part of it was almost single-handedly defining the paradiem widely used for decades in communication research. Along the way, he also contributed more than a few theoretical ideas of his own and helped to

New Study Shows Further Declines in Writing Ability

Some strong ammunition in the growing debate over declining writing ability is contained in the recent report “Writing Mechanics, 1969-1974.”1 The document by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides some of the most solid evidence yet for what many in journalism education have suspected for some timewriting skills are deteriorating among American young people. The evidence is impressive because it is based on the writing of actual essays and not multiple choice questions or other indirect measures of writing ability. The study also has a number of other methodological strengths. Probability sampling was used, so the findings can be generalized to all youths of the nation of a certain age. Judges were given 1969 and 1974 essays but these were not identified by year, so a scorer could not know when a particular essay was written. This meant the same standards were applied to essays from both years and that a judge’s opinions about decline or improvement during the interval could not influence the judging. The essays were scored in two ways. Each was given an “evaluative” score ranging from 1 (the lowest quality score) to 8 by judges who were trained with sample papers until they had learned a scoring system. Each essay was also analyzed deJames w. Tankard Jr. is associate professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Pro/. H. Paul Kelky. director of the Measurement and Evaluation Center at the Vniversity of Texas. assisted Pro

Problem Areas in Science News Writing

Tankard in inrerpreting the report. ‘ The report is available for 61.30 from the Superintendent of Documents, V.S. Government Printing qfice, Washington, D.C. 20402. scriptively, with tabulations made of sentence type (simple, complex with phrase, fragment, awkward sentence, etc.), mechanical errors (comma used when none required, no cbmma when required, fused sentences, etc.), misspelled words, and coherent and incoherent paragraphs. The NAEP has the ambitious and highly useful goal of measuring educational attainment on a national level at regular intervals in 10 different fields: art, career and occupational development, citizenship, literature, mathematics, music, reading, science, social studies and writing. The project is a good example of the use of social indicators, or attempts to measure the state of society at particular times. This writing report comparing 1969 and 1974 essays is one of the first NAEP reports completed that measures change over time.

How to Build Social Science Theories

Problem areas in science news coverage were identified as part of a survey of the accuracy of science news reporting in newspapers. Mail questionnaires and newspaper clippings were sent to the major sources cited in the articles. Common problem areas in science writing were identified by examining the comments scientists made on the questionnaires. Specifically, seven problem areas are discussed here: finding angles, writing leads, quoting accurately, using language correctly, interpreting technical conclusions properly, avoiding sensationalism, and using the words “cure” and “breakthrough.”