Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

Structural-pluralism theory pertaining to differences in how metropolitan and small-town news media cover the news is used to frame a comparative analysis of source-quotation patterns by a small-town and a nearby big-city newspaper covering the same environmental conflict. Results suggest that some aspects of structural-pluralist theory may merit re-examination as the social structure of small towns undergoes change, meaning some community papers may perform more like their big-city counterparts for sustained periods of time.

This study assessed the kinds of sources setting the story “agenda” in election news covering the 1998 governor's race in the nine largest Michigan dailies. The assertions of candidates or their partisan supporters were more likely than those of experts or other sources to dominate story leads and paragraphs. Sources included for their expertise on the “horse race” and issue aspects of the campaign were cited in only a third of the election stories, and their comments were usually placed far down in the stories. Statehouse bureau reporters were more likely than their newsroom-based and wire-service colleagues to write stories including experts. A substantial number of stories also contained unattributed “reporter leads.” Most of these leads were references to events or developments that could be verified by any reader. Other reporter leads contained interpretations that were substantiated in the stories. But about 5 percent of the stories were introduced by reporter leads that contained interpretations or conclusions that were not or could not be substantiated in stories. Statehouse bureau reporters were also more likely than wire service or newsroom reporters to write interpretative leads.

This national study of 432 weekly newspapers found that competition from other weeklies in a county was correlated with a lower cost-per-thousand ad rate. However, when a subsample of 236 weeklies with intense competition was analyzed, this relationship with cost per thousand disappeared. Instead, the data showed that as competition became more intense, a weekly's open-column-inch ad rates decreased. Also, when market size was controlled for, ad rates for paid weeklies did not differ from free weeklies' ad rates.

Results from a national study show that market-driven journalism does not appear to pay off with higher circulation or household penetration. The study does show, however, that senior editors from market-oriented newsrooms express less uncertainty about their paper's environment than editors from other newspapers. They also feel more confident that they can adapt their paper to changes in its environment.

This study examines the New York Times' conformity to the guidelines adopted by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) regarding minimal information that should be disclosed about a poll in any report of the poll results. The study reveals that stories based on polls conducted by the Times, regardless of length, are more likely to comply with the disclosure standards than stories on polls from other sources. A composite compliance score created to represent the sum of what was considered the positive score for each standard shows that about half of the articles in the study met five or fewer of the twelve standards studied, and about half met more than five.

This study investigates how the War Relocation Authority (WRA) formulated newspaper publishing policy in Japanese-American camps during World War II. The WRA allowed evacuees to publish their own newspapers “freely” without “censorship” but under the authority's “supervision.” This study uses archival documents of the WRA and other concerned governmental agencies and examines development of the “free under supervision” press policy. The study shows that the federal government used camp newspapers to convince the domestic and international public that “democracy” was fully protected within camps.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Scripps chain was profitable and the largest newspaper operation in terms of number of newspapers owned. However, these two accomplishments belie the fact that most of the chain's papers were in a subordinated market position, and often the last position in the market. A content analysis and historical assessment suggest the chain's heavy dependence on syndicated material and lack of commitment to local issues contributed to the subordinated market position.

An important element of news delivery on the World Wide Web today is the near ubiquity of breaking news headlines. What used to be called search engines (e.g., Yahoo! and Lycos) are now “portals” or “hubs,” popular services that use news, weather, and other content features to extend the time users spend on the sites. Traditional models of news dissemination in the mass media often assume some level of intention behind most news exposure. The prevalence of news on the disparate corners of the Web provides opportunities for people to encounter current affairs information in an incidental fashion, a byproduct of their other online activities. This study uses survey data from 1996 and 1998 to test whether accidental exposure to news on the Web is positively associated with awareness of current affairs information. The results indicate that incidental online news exposure was unrelated to knowledge in 1996 but acted as a positive predictor in 1998.

In the current Internet environment, media must not only compete with one another but with a host of newcomers, including online companies with no traditional media ties and a variety of other entrepreneurs. To what extent do the media reflect their traditional strengths and features? Furthermore, since the Internet allows for two-way communication, which of the media are taking advantage of this feature to connect with their audiences? This paper reports the results of a content analysis of 422 websites associated with local newspapers, radio stations, and television stations in twenty-five of the largest metro markets in the United States. Results show that each medium (including newspaper, radio station, and television station) has a relatively distinctive content emphasis, while each attempts to utilize its website to maximize institutional goals. Market size is found to be a relatively unimportant factor in shaping the content of these websites, but media type helps explain how these websites are differentiated.