Raluca Cozma

MySpace Politics: Uses and Gratifications of Befriending Candidates

This study examines the uses and gratifications (U&G) of accessing political candidate profiles on social network Web sites. An online survey of visitors to the MySpace profiles of 2008 primary candidates revealed that voters are drawn to this source of political information mainly by the desire for social interaction with other like-minded supporters, followed by information-seeking, and entertainment. While information seeking and entertainment are common U&G of consuming online political content, they were weaker factors compared to the social interaction factor that seems to distinguish MySpace, possibly SNSs in general, from other online sources of political content.

NYT Pulitzer Stories Show More Independence in Foreign Sourcing

A comparison of Pulitzer Prize winning foreign correspondence at The New York Times to non-winning stories finds increased use of named sources and source diversity across eight decades for both. Yet, winning stories reveal much more independence from official U. S. views.

The Paradox of Respectability: The Limits of Indexing and Harrison Salisbury’s Coverage of the Vietnam War

In December 1966 through January 1967, Harrison Salisbury of the New York Times wrote dispatches based on a visit to Hanoi that disputed the administration’s claims that its highly accurate bombing did not hit civilian targets in North Vietnam. Administration officials, other journalists, and even his own paper challenged his reporting. Deemed unpatriotic, Salisbury was denied a Pulitzer Prize. This case study employs documents from the files of the New York Times , the CIA, and the Harrison Salisbury Papers at Columbia University, as well as content analysis of his coverage of Vietnam compared with other reporting by him that won a Pulitzer. The study shows how editorial standards of news sourcing become higher when correspondents challenge the official line. While illustrating factors that lead newspapers and reporters to index foreign news to the prevailing political consensus, it also demonstrates the limits of indexing and the conditions under which journalists may effectively challenge the official line.

FROM MURROW TO MEDIOCRITY?: Radio foreign news from World War II to the Iraq War

This content analysis compares a unique CBS radio dataset during the “golden age” of foreign correspondence (1940–1942) to National Public Radios (NPRs) coverage during the Iraq War (2004–2006) to track changes in sourcing, originality, and typology of foreign news reporting on radio. Findings show that NPR outshines the golden-age performance, suggesting that we should stop taking reverential trips down memory lane when assessing broadcast reporting and instead recognize that current reporting can be even better in keeping audiences well informed about international affairs.

Were the Murrow Boys Warmongers

Drawing on scholarship on framing, sourcing, and propaganda, this content analysis complements historical research on the golden age of foreign correspondence in the United States. Using the propaganda typology proposed by the Institute of Propaganda Analysis during the time that this research captures, the analysis could not find support for the thesis that the forefathers of broadcast journalism—Edward Murrow and the reporters he recruited to cover World War II for CBS Radio—used blatant pro-war propaganda in their foreign correspondence. The study also investigates the use of peace journalism versus war journalism framing. The analysis lends support to the growing body of literature on the relationship between sourcing and framing. The findings are important because very little actual analysis of World War II broadcasts has been conducted by previous scholarship. Most accounts are anecdotal, and much of the historical work on “the Murrow Boys” was written by Murrows colleagues and supporters. By picking and choosing specific scripts, authors can make almost any argument they would choose. But this research project goes back to the source itself, the war broadcasts, and undertakes a systematic analysis of how the stories were reported. The results are surprising and show that while Murrow favored US intervention in World War II, he was not a propagandist.

Film Portrayals of Foreign Correspondents

This study combines content analysis and a close reading of movies to assess the portrayal of foreign correspondents in films during two periods: the golden age of foreign correspondence (the 1930s to World War II) and the years after the Vietnam War. The analysis revealed that movies generally depict foreign correspondents as heroes, but their status changes over time, and so do the circumstances in which they work. The differences during the two periods track changes for real foreign correspondents. In the golden age, silver screen correspondents were happy elites at ease with themselves even when stepping out of journalistic roles, unlike the latter period, when they were angst-ridden and questioned their responsibilities.

John H. Parmelee and Shannon L. Bichard. Politics and the Twitter Revolution: How Tweets Influence the Relationship Between Political Leaders and the Public

Published in a book series that promotes focused examination of the role communication plays in the realm of politics, John Parmelee and Shannon Bichards multimethod study of how political leaders...