Journalism

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The Kent County News: A History and an Era, 1950-1980
(1981) Gruenburg, Drew Nathan; Beasley, Maurine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
This thesis focuses first on the history of the Kent County News, and second on how the paper covered the problems and pressures that an urbanized twentieth century brought to a rural Eastern Shore Maryland county from 1950 to 1980. The Kent County News is a weekly newspaper -- the only local paper for the people of Kent County, Maryland. Its roots are in one of the nation's oldest newspapers, the Chestertown Spy, established in 1793. The history of the Kent County News includes long editorial tenures which spanned both generations of families and myriad changes in technology, content and ownership. The past thirty years brought a particularly large number of changes in content and administration to the Kent County News. This study also gives special attention to how the Kent County News covered three issues: the building of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and other attempts to span the Bay; the advent of zoning regulations in the county; and the possibility of a nuclear power plant being located in the county. Using the complete files of the Kent County News housed in the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore, Maryland, every issue of the paper from 1950 to 1980 was examined for information on these three issues. Other material used in this study included interviews with editors of the Kent County News, secondary source material on country weeklies and Maryland, and Maryland state publications. This study has shown that over the years the Kent County News has presented an intimate picture of life in Kent County. In the last thirty years, as the county has faced the pressures of increased urbanization and as the paper experienced changes in design, content and ownership, the paper has become a staunch publicist for the values of small-town life. The paper has also been an educator, and an important force in promoting community consciousness and harmony.
The American Press and the Sinking of the Lusitania
(1986) McDonough, Joseph; Beasley, Maurine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
Purpose of Study: The purpose of the study was to analyze to what degree the sinking of the R.M.S. Lusitania swayed editorial opinion against Germany in seven representative United States newspapers. Procedures: Seven newspapers were chosen for this study, based on their geographic location and political prominence: the New York Times, Atlanta Constitution, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Examiner, Washington Post, Kansas City Star, and the Milwaukee Journal. The historical record of U.S. foreign policy prior to World War I, and the political viewpoint of each newspaper was reviewed by way of introduction. The papers were examined for news and editorial content. Items studied included: the first seven pages of each newspaper, the unsigned editorials expressing the view of the editorial staff, and letters to the editor that dealt with the sinking. Each paper was studied six months prior to the sinking, during the crisis (including the exchange of diplomatic notes between the United States and Germany), and six months after the answer to Wilson's final Lusitania note. Conclusion: The study found that the sinking of the Lusitania did not sway editorial opinion against Germany in the selected newspapers.
Women Correspondents in Vietnam: Historical Analysis and Oral Histories
(1988) Martin, Christine; Hiebert, Ray; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
Although women correspondents have covered wars since the Spanish-American conflict, it was not until the Vietnam War that they achieved full access to the battlefield and equal opportunities to cover all aspects of the conflict. Easily attained army accreditation, the burgeoning women's movement and the unique nature of the Vietnam War - a Third World, essentially, political conflict - combined to offer women reporters unprecedented opportunities to cover the war and to prove themselves as worthy members of journalism's elite crew - war correspondents. More women covered Vietnam than any other war. They focused their coverage primarily on the "human interest" angle and the effects of war on its civilian and military victims. This traditional women's focus took on a new prominence in Vietnam, where an understanding of the social and political underpinnings of Vietnamese culture was essential to the success of the American war effort. As a result, the traditional news definition of war as battlefield was widened and the "women's angle" became central to war correspondence. This study presents an historical analysis of the evolution of the role of the woman war correspondent, from the Spanish- American conflict to Vietnam, and presents the oral histories of 10 women who worked as war correspondents in Vietnam.
The Decline and Fall of the Baltimore News American
(1989) Girsdansky, Paul Scott; Beasley, Maurine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
This study examines the factors that led to the Baltimore News American's failure as a major metropolitan afternoon newspaper and the efforts taken to try to save the newspaper. Factors examined include the number of newspapers in the Baltimore newspaper market, the problems faced by major metropolitan afternoon newspapers in the United States and the shared inability of large newspapers in the Hearst newspaper chain to make money. The changing content of the newspaper under a series of newsroom administrations from 1973 to 1986 was examined and a series of interviews with managers and staffers were used to gain insight into the decline of the newspaper. This study concludes that the closure stemmed from underlying demographic and competitive factors and was exacerbated by the unwillingness of the newspaper's owner to invest in improvements.
Women Journalists and the Municipal Housekeeping Movement: Case Studies of Jane Cunningham Croly, Helen M. Winslow and Rheta Childe Dorr
(1992) Gottlieb, Agnes Hooper; Beasley, Maurine Hoffman; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
While suffragists in the late nineteenth century commanded a high profile in their fight for the vote, other less militant women also advocated a wider sphere for women. These semi-traditional women believed a woman's place was in her home, but defined women's "homes" as the cities in which they lived. Their natural "sphere," therefore, involved "municipal housekeeping" chores, which included helping women and children and rooting out corruption, crime, filth and immorality in the cities. This dissertation uses a case study approach to illustrate the involvement of three women journalists, Jane Cunningham Croly, Helen M. Winslow and Rheta Childe Dorr, in the municipal housekeeping movement. These women were chosen because their careers, taken as a whole, show how writing about municipal housekeeping evolved over time from a plea for women to become more socially responsible into a logical argument for suffrage. Croly, a founder of the women's club movement in the United States in 1868, advocated a more public role for women in her newspaper and magazine work, especially in her magazines for club women, The Woman's Cycle, The Home-Maker, and The New Cycle. Winslow, editor and publisher of The Club Woman, and Dorr, a writer on reform for Hampton's magazine, were affected by Croly's ideas and, in turn, expanded them into publicity for women to assume a wider sphere in public affairs. The work of these women from Croly's articles in the 1860s to Dorr's militant reform writing in the 1900s illustrates how journalists portrayed the municipal housekeeping movement. All three believed in the concept of a separate sphere for women, but they sought to expand its limits. Croly's gentle reminders that women should seek interests outside the home gradually gave way to Winslow's argument in favor of women's involvement in municipal government, which in turn was only a step away from Dorr's advocacy of equal rights, including the vote, for women. Thus, the municipal housekeeping journalism of Croly and Winslow gradually merged into the suffrage journalism of Dorr.
The Washington, D.C. 1991 Riots in Mount Pleasant: An Analysis of Local Press Coverage
(1993) Lima, Christina C.; Gurevitch, Michael; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
Studies in the field of communication have found that the U.S.A. mainstream (English-language) news media coverage of minorities is characterized primarily by the portrayal of minorities only in the context of the problems or difficulties that they pose to society. In addition, because of cultural values and customs, the media, when covering minorities, tend to focus on the event itself rather than on the underlying causes of the event. Thus the coverage tends to be stereotypical. In order to address these issues, this thesis analyses the content of coverage of the 1991, Washington, D.C. Mount Pleasant civil disturbances in two English- and two Spanish-language newspapers. A quantitative content analysis was employed in order to determine the extent and type of coverage provided to Latinos two weeks before the disturbances, the week of the disturbances, and the week after the disturbances. For the same period, a thematic content analysis was used to contrast the frameworks used by the English-language press in comparison to the Spanish-language press. The assumption was that by having cultural proximity to and understanding of the Latino Community, the Spanish-language press provided a more thorough coverage of the event. The results, however, show that both presses failed to provide a comprehensive coverage of the event. In fact, the results seem to indicate that both presses followed journalistic news values and patterns more closely than they followed cultural values. The most notable difference between the two presses was that they incorporated the news values and patterns into their own cultural bias.
The Ethyl Controversy: How the news media set the agenda for a public health controversy over leaded gasoline, 1924-1926
(1993) Kovarik, Wiliam J.; Journalism
This dissertation is a history of the public health controversy surrounding the introduction of Ethyl leaded gasoline between 1924 and 1926. It is the first historical study of the newspaper coverage of the Ethyl controversy and the first time that the news media have been used to establish a more comprehensive history of this controversy. The dissertation includes a content analysis of articles about the controversy printed by New York City daily newspapers between 1924 and 1926. The analysis concludes that the news media invested far more credibility in industry sources than in any other category of source, although Walter Lippmann's World newspaper gave significantly more space to university scientists critical of Ethyl leaded gasoline. The news media did not understand the scientific issues, however, and fell back on seemingly familiar political alignments when forced to decide between conflicting scientific experts of equal stature. Also, the news media failed to evaluate industry scientists' claim that no alternatives to Ethyl leaded gasoline were known to science. Actually, General Motors and Standard Oil Co. (N.J.) had patented and researched dozens of alternatives, and information about this work was available had the news media searched for it. The dissertation also analyzes primary industry documents made public in 1992 concerning the development of leaded gasoline. It concludes that G.M.'s original special motive for developing leaded gasoline was to gradually adapt automotive engines for higher quality alternative fuels of the future (especially ethyl alcohol from cellulose) in anticipation of the depletion of U.S. petroleum supplies. G.M.'s Charles Kettering and others saw leaded gasoline as temporary bridge to non-petroleum fuels, not a permanent part of the fuel supply. Standard Oil, on the other hand, resisted alternative fuels. These private corporate ideas and strategies were not reflected in the public controversy in part because the news media had difficulty understanding scientific and technological issues.
Disability Magazine and Newsletter Editors: Perceptions of the Disability Press, Community, Advocacy, Mainstreaming, and Diversity
(1996) Ransom, Lillie Sharon; McAdams, Katherine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
There is a growing body of scholarly information about media and disability. To date, the majority of this information discusses how people with disabilities have been portrayed in mainstream media. Very few scholars have studied media produced by and for people with disabilities. This dissertation is one of the first attempts to do so, and to analyze how these publications may help forge group identity. The study examines the tensions of liberal-pluralism and Marxist theories and their ability to explain the function of disability publications in American society. The researcher explored disability publication editors' perceptions about disability related issues, and examined how disability related publications are similar to feminist and African American publications.
International Public Relations: A Theoretical Approach to Excellence Based on a Worldwide Delphi Study
(1997) Wakefield, Robert Irwin; Grunig, James E.; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
International public relations is one of the fastest growing areas in the public relations field. With 40,000 transnational organizations in operation, and with the myriad complexities of the international arena, there never has been a greater need for public relations practitioners who understand cultures, political systems, media, and other factors that affect these organizations. And more and more organizations and practitioners now are jumping into international public relations. Despite the rapid growth, there are no adequate guides for those who practice internationally. Most articles on international public relations are anecdotal and offer little theoretical understanding of how to effectively practice. The few theoretical examinations mostly compare public relations from one country to the next. Virtually no one has examined the pertinent influences and necessary elements of an effective public relations program in a transnational organization. The purpose of this study was to gather theories and principles that could apply to international public relations and, by exposing them to a global panel of scholars and practitioners, to create a theoretical framework for practice and research in this expanding field. The study generated fourteen propositions from related disciplines about what constitutes effective international practice. The literature implied that effective practice would balance global imperatives with factors that affect local implementation. The study thus distinguished between generic propositions, or those that may be universal, and specific propositions, or the cultures, political systems, and other factors that influence local practice. To determine if certain principles were indeed universal, and also to examine the specific influences, the propositions were "tested" through a Delphi panel of public relations experts from eighteen different countries. The results of the study indicated that the generic variables can be universally applied. The study also verified the influence of culture, language, political systems, development, the media, and activism on local and global strategies. International public relations was seen as different from domestic public relations in its increased complexities. The two-way symmetrical model of communication was accepted as the normative basis for effective public relations, and was viewed as more important for multinational entities than for exclusively domestic organizations.
Reporting Laos: The U.S. Media and the "Secret" War in Laos: 1955-1975
(2001) Dickey, Angela Renee; Roberts, Eugene; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
From 1955-1975 the United States Government was involved in covert paramilitary efforts in Laos. Congress did not approve the Laos conflict, which pitted tens of thousands of American-hired ethnic mercenaries against the North Vietnamese army and featured a massive bombing campaign by U. S. aircraft. Yet approximately 500 Americans were killed or disappeared in Laos during the period, and hundreds of millions of U. S. taxpayer dollars were expended on the covert war. Up to 200,000 Lao civilians were killed in the fighting. Meanwhile, policy makers were able to keep secret the main details of American operations in Laos until late 1969. How they did so without being challenged seriously by the mainstream American media is the subject of this study. The thesis incorporates relevant secondary sources as well as interviews with more than 30 personalities associated with the war or the American media coverage. It concludes that the press corps did not begin to focus on the actual situation in Laos until very late, when the U.S. public began to demand an end to the Indochina conflict in general. Moreover, U.S. journalism was hampered in Laos by its own "professional routines," including an overwhelming dependence on U.S. Government sources to provide the "news."
Marguerite Higgins: An Examination of Legacy and Gender Bias
(2003-12-05) Murray, Peter Noel; Beasley, Maurine; Journalism
This study examined the historical legacy of journalist Marguerite Higgins. The core research question of this dissertation is whether the legacy of Higgins, as portrayed in history, accurately reflects the facts of her life. The thesis focuses on allegations in the literature regarding unethical and immoral behavior by Higgins as she pursued her career, and addresses the degree to which these allegations may have been influenced by gender bias. The word 'legacy,' as used in this dissertation, is defined as that which has been handed down from the past. This study examined archival material and analyzed information concerning Higgins' life by searching the collections of Higgins' papers and those of people who knew and worked with her during her career, as well as those of authors who wrote about her. The thesis then compared this information about Higgins obtained through primary research with the portrayal about Higgins that has been established over the years by scholars and other authors who have written about her since her death. The theoretical context of this study is the psychology of stereotypes and gender bias. The study considered whether the attitudes and behavior of Higgins' male peers might have been influenced by bias. The work of other authors has described discrimination against women journalists, including Higgins, by newspaper editors, for example, in their restriction of women to writing for the women's section of newspapers, and by the U.S. military in its efforts to prevent women from covering combat. This study focuses on more subtle forms of possible discrimination, the attitudes and behavior of her male colleagues. The study found inaccuracies in Higgins' historical legacy and determined that there were numerous gaps between information available in archival collections and the portrayal of her by authors who created the written record of her life.
Reason and Radicalism: The History of Donna Allen and Women's Activism in Media
(2003-12-11) Walker, Danna L; Beasley, Maurine H; Journalism
This dissertation is a study of Donna Allen, the founder of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press and Media Report to Women, a feminist newsletter on women's efforts to influence the mass media. Allen lived from 1920 to 1999. My intent is to assess Allen's influence in the women's movement as it related to media. I show that her life can be used to illuminate the origins of significant feminist activism and thought in the communication field and in communication academia. I wrote a biography of Allen in relation to her work in founding the institute and MRW. By tracing Allen's participation in the feminist movement within communication, I analyze what actions activists took and why, as well as what the goals of feminism in activism and scholarship within communication were in the last part of the 20th century. I document the efforts of feminists to change mass communication theory and education, and I highlight the praxis of feminist communication the publications of feminist journalism. I also show how Allen linked women in a global effort to gain access to technology and use media to produce social change. I conclude that Allen was a leader in what I call mediafeminism, a movement by women as communicators and networkers to take action on media in the way that the ecofeminist movement takes action based on women's connection to the environment. By examining Allen's life and her work in communication, this dissertation contributes to a burgeoning area of research into the effort and impact of women's media activism over the last three decades on media reforms, public perceptions, media technology, and communication history and education.
THE KOREAN PRESS IN JAPAN AFTER WORLD WAR II AND ITS CENSORSHIP BY OCCUPATION AUTHORITIES
(2004-02-25) Yoon, Hee Sang; BEASLEY, MAURINE H; HIEBERT, RAY E; GUREVITCH, MICHAEL; SCHREURS, MIRANDA; Journalism
This study deals with censorship of the Korean language press in Japan by the American occupation after World War II. It focuses on the social roles of mass media in a minority community when there were harsh media controls such as discriminatory printing paper allocation as well as censorship. It finds that, in spite of the government control, the press continued to play social roles such as community integration, identity formation, and agenda setting. The dissertation represents the first scholarly examination of 19 Korean newspapers, including one for women, and 14 magazines published by Koreans in Japan during the occupation. It is based on previously unavailable material recently opened to researchers as part of the Gordon W. Prange Collection at the University of Maryland. Therefore, the entire dissertation is the only study to date of Korean publications in Japan during the occupation. This study reveals the contents of articles scheduled to appear in Korean publications that were suppressed by censors. Through this study, the voices of suppressed Korean speakers have been revived and can, for the first time, be heard in on an open forum. Even though the voices represent quite different ideological factions, those of the leftwing, rightwing, and mid-road, the study concludes that Korean publications in Japan, reflecting the yearnings of Koreans in Japan, zeroed in on a consensus: Korea is one; therefore, the homeland should overcome the division over North and South and develop a unified nation. This study shows how a marginalized ethnic minority group, the Koreans in Japan under the Japanese government and American occupation authorities, recognized themselves as members of the same community belonging to one homeland in spite of their geographical distance from it. It demonstrates the fact that journalism under conditions of harsh control may negotiate with the authorities, or attempt to circumvent control. The study also brings out the fact that, from a freedom of the press view, controlling the physical media of communication [printing paper] may be more damaging than control of the contents of communication [censorship].
In the lion's mouth: Advocacy and investigative reporting about the environment in the early 21st century
(2004-04-29) Schwartz, Debra Ann; Barkin, Steve; McAdams, Katherine; Journalism
This study explores what might qualify investigative reporting about the environment as advocacy. It applies a phenomenological approach to gathering and sorting data, which resulted in the identification of several essences of investigative reporting about the environment. This study further analyzes data using grounded theory. According to grounded theory, categories emerge from interview data and, through a process of reduction, produce a mid-range theory. Adhering to method and theory, this work identifies a new kind of investigative reporting the author terms integrated investigative reporting. It appears environment reporters are leading the way on this emerging form. Some investigative reporters writing about the environment go two steps beyond the approach endorsed by Investigative Reporters & Editors, known as The Paul Williams Way. A pioneering finding, those steps have roots deep in phenomenology, a process of meaning making dating back to Aristotle. In that respect, the use of phenomenological process seems to point to a constructivist approach taking hold in news reporting today. This dissertation also reveals that personal narrative is fast becoming a component of investigative reporting, particularly in the form of online diaries. Several more bridges also surfaced in this study. One connects professional and academic research approaches. Another demonstrates an innovative approach to a literature review, which the author calls a literature synthesis. Another shows how to combine objectivist grounded theory with Charmaz's interactionist approach to grounded theory, which study participants described doing in their investigations. This writing refutes the professional idea that training investigative reporters in how to work an environment story requires that more attention be paid to the scope of the story than the process of story collection. Rather, this study reveals that the study participants tease out scope by going two steps beyond standard investigative reporting practice. Challenges to some tenets of journalism appear in this study as well, including Lippmann's notion that "there is but one kind of writing possible in a world as diverse as ours. It is a unity of method" and Kovach and Rosenstiel's notion that journalism of assertion is weakening the methodology of verification journalists have developed.
REDEFINING WOMEN'S NEWS: A CASE STUDY OF THREE WOMEN'S PAGE EDITORS AND THEIR FRAMING OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
(2004-10-25) Wilmot Voss, Kimberly; Beasley, Maurine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
For many decades the main area of journalism to which women could contribute was women's pages in newspapers. These sections, which ran from the late nineteenth century until the late 1960s, have been overlooked by journalism historians as containing significant content. While it was true that many sections concentrated on news of weddings, society events, routine notices of club meetings, fashion and recipes, other sections contained news of political and social issues that were important to women especially throughout the 1960s when the women's pages were often the only way that women could learn about the women's liberation movement. This study details the lives of three progressive women's page editors: Vivian Castleberry, Dorothy Jurney and Marjorie Paxson. Throughout their long journalism careers and in their private lives, they strove to redefine news for women by rejecting the limitations of traditional women's sections. In addition to examining their lives through a biographical approach, this dissertation uses framing and feminist theories to analyze the content of the women's sections edited by the three women. This study also includes an examination, using framing theory, of the winning submissions in the Penney-Missouri award competition from 1960 to 1971. These awards, which have not been studied previously, were meant to raise the standards of women's pages by recognizing sections that went beyond traditional content. I found Penney-Missouri award winners, which included Castleberry, Jurney and Paxson, framed women's news differently than male journalists framed news pertaining to women. Women's page editors attempted to balance conflicting messages of staying at home versus fighting for change that were being given to women during the women's movement. They did not focus on friction when they covered it. They created their own issue-based frame that took the women's movement seriously without excluding women who wanted to remain homemakers. The findings support a revision in the history of women's pages and their role in the women's liberation movement. While traditional women's pages filled with society, home and wedding news, appeared in many newspapers, some sections were progressive in content and writing style. Not recognizing the differences among women's page editors at various newspapers leads to the invisibility of women in journalism history and overlooks the important role played by women in pressing for change.
Building the Stained Glass Prism: The Development of the Polish Catholic Church's Electronic Media Properties 1989-2003
(2004-11-24) Burns, David Paul; Hiebert, Ray E.; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation investigates the Polish political, economic, and social transition from 1989 to 2003 from communism to capitalism, specifically its impact on a powerful Polish institution the Roman Catholic Church - and by extension, the Church's electronic media properties. As Poland changed from an eastern-looking collectivist society to a more western individualist society, its conservative Catholic Church likewise moved from a more autocratic, cohesive force towards a more liberal, Post-Vatican II approach to worship supported by the first Polish pontiff, John Paul II. Various Catholic religious orders with political viewpoints ranging from liberal to ultra-conservative managed the Church's radio, television and Internet properties and shaped the Church's mediated messages along their own religious ideology. This divisiveness was similarly reflected in fragmentation within the Church hierarchy, with individual Polish bishops supporting the media properties that most closely espoused their viewpoint.
Televising the Space Age: A Descriptive Chronology of CBS News Special Coverage of Space Exploration From 1957 to 2003
(2005-05-04) Hogan, Alfred Robert; Gomery, Douglas; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
From the liftoff of the Space Age with the Earth-orbital beeps of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957, through the videotaped tragedy of space shuttle Columbia's reentry disintegration on 1 February 2003 and its aftermath, critically acclaimed CBS News televised well more than 500 hours of special events, documentary, and public affairs broadcasts dealing with human and robotic space exploration. Much of that was memorably anchored by Walter Cronkite and produced by Robert J. Wussler. This research synthesizes widely scattered data, much of it internal and/or unpublished, to partially document the fluctuating patterns, quantities, participants, sponsors, and other key details of that historic, innovative, riveting coverage.
THE CAUTIOUS CRUSADER: HOW THE ATLANTA DAILY WORLD COVERED THE STRUGGLE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN RIGHTS FROM 1945 TO 1985
(2005-05-24) Odum-Hinmon, Maria E.; Beasley, Ph.D., Maurine; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Title of Dissertation: THE CAUTIOUS CRUSADER: HOW THE ATLANTA DAILY WORLD COVERED THE STRUGGLE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN RIGHTS FROM 1945 TO 1985 Name: Maria E. Odum-Hinmon Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation Directed By: Prof. Maurine Beasley, Ph. D. Philip Merrill College of Journalism This dissertation is a study of the Atlanta Daily World, a conservative black newspaper founded in 1928, that covered the civil rights struggle in ways that reflected its orientation to both democratic principles and practical business concerns. The World became the most successful black daily newspaper in the nation after becoming a daily in 1932 and maintaining that status for nearly four decades. This dissertation details how this newspaper chronicled the simultaneous push for civil rights, better conditions in the black community, and recognition of black achievement during the volatile period of social change following World War II. Using descriptive, thematic analysis and in-depth interviews, this dissertation explores the question: How did the Atlanta Daily World crusade for the rights of African Americans against a backdrop of changing times, particularly during the crucial forty-year period between 1945 and 1985? The study contends that the newspaper carried out its crusade by highlighting information and events important to the black community from the perspective of the newspaper’s strong-willed publisher, C. A. Scott, and it succeeded by relying on Scott family members and employees who worked long hours for low wages. The study shows that the World fought against lynching and pushed for voting rights in the 1940s and 1950s. The newspaper eschewed sit-in demonstrations to force eateries to desegregate in the 1960s because they seemed dangerous and counterproductive when the college students wound up in jail rather than in school. The World endorsed Republican Presidents and was not swayed to the other side when the Rev. Jesse Jackson ran for President in 1984. The newspaper, however, drew a line against the conservative agenda when the World wholeheartedly endorsed the merits of affirmative action. Now a weekly under more liberal leadership, the World continues to struggle to find its new role when blacks are more assimilated than ever into the fabric of American society. This dissertation, the first in-depth scholarly study of the newspaper, shows how it has managed to maintain itself as a voice of middle-class African American belief in the democratic process.
Getting Personal: The Personal Essay in Print Journalism
(2005-08-15) Davis, Stephania Heather; Paterson, Judith; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This thesis explores the use of the personal essay in newspapers and considers its potential to enrich newspaper journalism and perhaps retain - and even increase - readership in a time of declining circulation. Personal essay addresses the changing expectations of readers, who are increasingly demanding to know more about the people who are gathering and reporting the news. Writers also benefit from publishing personal essays, often becoming more empathetic journalists. This thesis also describes some of the early uses of personal essay in newspapers, reviews the roots of the concept of objectivity, which discourages journalists from writing in the first-person, and gives several recent examples of personal essays published, what the experience was like for the journalists who wrote them and readers' responses to them.
Media Influences Explored: What High School Students Say About the Power of Newspapers, Television and Magazines
(2005-11-28) Henry, Tamara Maxine; McAdams, Katharine C.; Journalism; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
A body of theoretical works on media, their effect and impact shows that the ubiquitous nature of media messages tinges the beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of media consumers (Katz and Blumler 1974; Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur 1976; Shoemaker and Reese 1991; and, Gerbner 1995). To investigate high school students' awareness of media, a survey of 355 Florida and Pennsylvania students was conducted during the 2004-2005 school year. Focus groups in both states in May and June 2005 followed up on survey responses. Both the survey and the focus groups sought to answer a central research question: How cognizant are high school students of media influences on various aspects of their lives, particularly the impact of newspapers, television and magazines? Today's youth are multi-billion dollar consumers, so the goal of the research project was to understand how well students identify media messages, comprehend the purposes and sources of the messages, recognize the strategies of media to win conformity to their messages and appreciate why media suggest certain actions, beliefs and behaviors. This type of understanding is popularly known as "media literacy," a relatively new, fast-developing field of study. Past media surveys and studies typically have focused on children and students' exposure to and use of media, rather than on media literacy. The dissertation's cogent theme is that students need a sophisticated knowledge of how media function in society, a grasp of media's disparate languages and the skills to successfully navigate their terrain. Data showed, however, that these high school students do appear to have an elementary understanding of the power of the media with the majority denying media's influence in their choice of clothing, snacks and beverages or their opinions about such things as what makes teens popular or cool. These students do acknowledge media's influence with intangible things like the issues that they consider important. In conclusion, the study found unequal effects of media on different racial and ethnic groups and suggests that further research is needed to develop specific ways to empower students to understand, enjoy and challenge the media, while avoiding unpropitious influences.

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