Michael Bugeja

Tragedies of the Broadcast Commons: Consumer Perspectives on the Ethics of Product Placement and Video News Releases

This article explores cynicism as an ethical issue associated with the blurring of content and advertising in mass media. From a communitarian perspective and adapting Hardins (1968) metaphorical use of “commons” to the domain of broadcasting, we surveyed the attitudes of individuals toward two phenomena of media saturation (product placement and video news releases) and three constructs (cynicism directed toward government, cynicism directed toward marketers, and the individuals assessment of their marketing literacy). Respondents were highly cynical about government regulation of advertising and nearly as cynical of the ability of marketers to self-regulate.

Consider the Source: Predictors of Online Citation Permanence in Communication Journals

This study focuses on six leading communication journals and their use of online citations in articles published between 2000 and 2003. The study uses content analysis to explore if there is a relationship between citation characteristics and their stability. The findings show that online citations in the .gov and .org domains are more likely to remain accessible over time. Year of publication and URL level also emerged as significant predictors of online citation permanence. More than 37 percent of the online citations have disappeared from the original source over a four-year period (2000–2003). The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of reliability and replicability of scholarship.

Making Whole: The Ethics of Correction

This qualitative analysis investigates the ethics of correction across media platforms. Using rhetorical and philosophical methods, I identify key components of corrections, associating them with accountability and other ethical precepts. Explications of three case studies follow—60 Minutes Wednesday: The Bush Memos, Intel: The Infamous Chip Flaw, and Google in China: “Do No Evil”—supporting conclusions about the consequences of accountability (or lack thereof).

The Interpersonal Divide

Since the 1990s I have been investigating how higher education has invested in technology, often without any assessment. I have documented the cost of technology, not only in equipment, tuition and fees, but also in curricula, which has expanded dramatically to incorporate, maintain and support the software, hardware and wireless systems that enrich corporate entities whose restrictive service terms have altered our culture of transparency and due process.

Online Citations in History Journals: Current Practice and Views from Journal Editors

Abstract This study examines use and stability of online citations in Journalism History and American Journalism. Content analysis results show that unlike other journalism and communication journals, online citations remain rare in media history articles. Analysis is supplemented with interviews of the journal editors. Discussion addresses factors accounting for the r arity of online content, predicting more as the Internet becomes the focus of historical research, and analyzes implications of vanishing primary, secondary and “ephemeral” sources.

Reconsider the Source: Implications of Vanishing Online Citations in Communication Journals

This invited essay focuses on the use of Internet footnotes in academic journals, an increasingly popular practice that may undermine scholarship—and the teaching thereof—in every discipline. Recent studies have documented that online footnotes disappear from the original source, undermining communication research reliability and replicability. The half-life of Internet footnotes also has pedagogical ramifications. The authors recount findings from their several investigations and propose methods to stabilize online footnotes in scholarly works.