Communication Commons^™

Demarcating The Right To Gather News: A Sequential Interpretation Of The First Amendment, Erik Ugland

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

The recent spate of cases in which reporters have been subpoenaed, fined, jailed, or otherwise disciplined has laid bare the divisions among the courts over the existence and scope of the “reporter’s privilege.” The cases have also exposed the doctrinal, historical, and theoretical infirmities of the broader law of newsgathering, which encompasses not only source relationships, but also rights of access to places and records, protections against civil and criminal liability for torts and crimes committed in the pursuit of news, and protections against government searches of newsrooms and phone records, among other things. Resolving these conflicts has grown more …

Patriotic Motherhood And The Iraq War, Ana C. Garner, Karen L. Slattery

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

She plays a familiar character in our nation's war stories and she has a warm place in our nation's heart. She is the patriotic mother, a cultural symbol of bravery and sacrifice, stoicism and silence. Her image may reflect our historical understanding of the mothers of combat soldiers, but the story the national press tells about the mothers of U.S. soldiers in the Iraq War does not quite match these cultural expectations.

Sex And Shock Jocks: An Analysis Of The Howard Stern And Bob & Tom Shows, Lawrence Soley

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Studies of mass media show that sexual content has increased during the past three decades and is now commonplace. Research studies have examined the sexual content of many media, but not talk radio. A subcategory of talk radio, called “shock jock” radio, has been repeatedly accused of being indecent and sexually explicit. This study fills in this gap in the literature by presenting a short history and an exploratory content analysis of shock jock radio. The content analysis compares the sexual discussions of two radio talk shows: Infinity’s Howard Stern Show and Clear Channel’s Bob & Tom Show.

Savedisney.Com And Activist Challenges: A Habermasian Perspective On Corporate Legitimacy, Sarah Bonewits Feldner, Rebecca J. Meisenbach

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This study develops a Habermasian framework for evaluating and generating challenges to organizational legitimacy. The launch of the SaveDisney.com web site represents an innovative example of an Internet-based activist public successfully challenging a corporation’s legitimacy and advocating for changes in corporate governance. Legitimacy research has focused on strategies used by organizations to build legitimacy (e.g., Dowling & Pfeffer, 1975; Metzler, 2001), but scholars rarely address how publics challenge legitimacy claims. Using Habermas’ conceptualization of communicative action and legitimacy to explore the SaveDisney.com case offers insight into ways that activist publics successfully challenge and reject the legitimacy claims of powerful corporations.

Blending Journalism And Communication Studies, John J. Pauly

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Political Engagement Through Debates: Young Citizens’ Reactions To The 2004 Presidential Debates, Mitchell S. Mckinney, Sumana Chattopadhyay

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This study examines how exposure to a televised debate affects young citizens’ normative democratic tendencies, attitudes that have been linked to increased civic and political participation, including voting behavior. The authors also are interested in the confidence young citizens express in the political knowledge they possess—their political information efficacy—and specifically how confidence in one’s knowledge may be affected by exposure to such a sustained and “information-rich” source of campaign information as a 90-minute candidate debate. Findings reveal that debates strengthen, at least in the short term, democratic attitudes and also strengthen young citizens’ levels of political information efficacy.

Review Of Sex In Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content Of Media And Marketing, Jean M. Grow

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

"What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?": A Discursive Analysis Of Career Socialization And Decision-Making, Jeanine Mcmillen

Master's Theses (1922-2009) Access restricted to Marquette Campus

Career decision-making is an increasingly important concern in contemporary society, where the individual-organizational relationship has changed dramatically, sometimes appearing as a series of brief engagements rather than a long-term commitment. Current socialization research has not examined career socialization and decision-making as a dynamic and comprehensive process. This study explores how various communication interactions and experiences impact individuals' views of career and career decision-making. Specifically, this study analyzes young professionals' career socialization experiences. Participant accounts revealed that they are less influenced by socialization experiences within organizational structures. Instead, participants' definitions of career are a reflection of socializing interactions and experiences with …

Who Is A Journalist And Why Does It Matter? Disentangling The Legal And Ethical Arguments, Erik Ugland, Jennifer Henderson

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

The contemporary debate about "who is a journalist" is occurring in two distinct domains: law and professional ethics. Although the debate in these domains is focused on separate problems, participants treat the central question as essentially the same. This article suggests that the debates in law and professional ethics have to be resolved independently and that debate within those domains needs to be more nuanced. In law, it must vary depending on whether the context involves constitutional law, statutory law, or the distribution of informal privileges by government officials. In professional ethics, the debate should not be oriented around a …

A Meta-Analysis Of Political Advertising, William L. Benoit, Glenn M. Leshner, Sumana Chattopadhyay

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Political advertising is one of the dominant media for reaching voters. Previous metaanalyses (Allen & Burrell, 2002; Lau, Sigelman, Heldman, & Babbitt, 1999) found little or no net benefit to negative versus positive ads. However, this finding does not reveal whether ads have effects (both or neither could be persuasive). A meta-analysis revealed that political spots increased issue knowledge, influenced perceptions of the candidates’ character, altered attitudes, and affected candidate preference; influenced agenda-setting, and altered vote likelihood (turnout). One moderator variable was detected: The effect size for learning was larger for studies of students than non-students; however, the effect size …

The Corporatization Of Communication, Eric Chiappinelli, Adam Candeub, Jeffrey Chester, Lawrence Soley

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Playing The Zero‐Sum Game With Diversity: Who's The Worthiest Of Them All?, Joyce M. Wolburg

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

– This article confronts the contradictory ideas surrounding diversity and the inconsistent efforts at embracing it. It aims to explore the reasons why marketing, recruitment, and philanthropic efforts differ for various groups, particularly African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and Native Americans.

Design/methodology/approach

– This article examines data from published research, personal interviews, and government statistics to have a clearer picture of the myths and facts surrounding each group.

Findings

– Some groups can be reached more efficiently by marketers than others. Some groups are more likely to receive support motivated by affirmative action efforts than others, particularly those that …

Saving Disney: Activating Publics Through The Internet, Sarah Bonewits Feldner, Rebecca J. Meisenbach

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Sports Journalism As Moral And Ethical Discourse, Thomas P. Oates, John J. Pauly

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This paper explores the marginalized practice of sportswriting to demonstrate the limited ways in which the question “who is a journalist?” has been answered within the profession. Following John Dewey and Raymond Williams, we offer an alternative view of democratic culture that values narrative as well as information. We also discuss how “New Journalists” (and other writers since), in their quest for fresh, sophisticated storytelling strategies, turned to sports as a cultural activity worthy of serious examination. Our goal is to demonstrate that sportswriting fundamentally resembles other forms of reporting and that journalism should not use sports as an ethical …

We Have All Been Here Before, John J. Pauly, William R. Burleigh, E. W. Scripps

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Mothers Of Soldiers In Wartime: A National News Narrative, Karen L. Slattery, Ana C. Garner

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

National news media represent mothers of US combat soldiers in the Iraq War as archetypal good mothers, that is, mothers who continue their maternal work even after their children are deployed. However, not all mothers are depicted as the archetypal patriotic mother, i.e., a good mother who is also stoic and silent about the war and her child's role in it. Mothers of soldiers are portrayed as good mothers who sometimes also voice their attitudes about the war effort. The maternal attitudes ranged from complete support for the war to opposition to the war but support for the soldiers. The …

A Description Of Lobbying As Advocacy Public Relations, Kati Tusinski Berg

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This study defines lobbying as advocacy public relations. Data were collected from self-administered surveys of 222 registered lobbyists in Oregon. This study provides insight into a specialized group of public relations practitioners.

Review Of Can God And Caesar Coexist? Balancing Religious Freedom And International Law, Steven R. Goldzwig

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Demagoguery, Democratic Dissent, And "Re-Visioning" Democracy, Steven R. Goldzwig

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Measuring Responses To Commercials: A Projective-Elicitation Approach, Lawrence Soley

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Photoelicitation and projective assessment are research methods derived from visual sociology and psychoanalysis respectively. This study combined the methods by having respondents view a commercial, and then showing them one of two versions of a projective drawing showing a lone or a male-accompanied woman sitting on a couch. Respondents were told that the woman in the drawing had just seen the commercial and were asked about what the woman was thinking. The results show that a paper-and-pencil attitude measure correlated moderately with the visually-primed responses, but the visually-primed responses included psychoanalytically-predicted reactions such as denial and displacement and were dependent …

The New York Times' Visual Art Criticism And Advertising (1970-2000), William A. Thorn

Master's Theses (1922-2009) Access restricted to Marquette Campus

The goal of this study is furthering understanding of the relationship between advertising ·and visual art criticism. It must be noted, first, that measuring critiques for tone (positive and negative) is not in any way a judgment. A negative review, for instance, is neither good nor bad, merely negative. If a gallery exhibits a shoddily produced show of mediocre work, a negative review may be most appropriate. Simply put, since we are comparing New York Times visual art criticism only to itself (albeit across time), we require a standard for documenting change, movements, or trends in the New York Times …

The Size And Development Of The Shadow Economy: An Empirical Investigation From States Of India, Kausik Chaudhuri, Friedrich Schneider, Sumana Chattopadhyay

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Using the state level data from India, this paper investigates the size of the hidden economy in Indian states over the period 1974/75 to 1995/96. Our analysis has shown that after liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991/92, the growth in the size of the hidden economy has decreased on an average. Our results show that the growth in the size of the hidden economy is approximately 4% less in scheduled election years than in all other years. We also demonstrate that the growth is significantly lower in those states where the coalition government is in power. An increased growth …

WhoʼS Watching Us At Work? Toward A Structural-Perceptual Model Of Electronic Monitoring And Surveillance In Organizations, Scott C. D'Urso

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Nearly 80% of organizations now employ some form of employee surveillance. This significant level of use infers a salient need for additional theory and research into the effects of monitoring and surveillance. Accordingly, this essay examines the panoptic effects of electronic monitoring and surveillance (EM/S) of social communication in the workplace and the underlying structural and perceptual elements that lead to these effects. It also provides future scholarly perspectives for studying EM/S and privacy in the organization from the vantage point of contemporary communication technologies, such as the telephone, voice mail, e-mail, and instant messaging, utilized for organizational communication. Finally, …

After The Flood: Anger, Attribution And The Seeking Of Information (Presentation), Robert J. Griffin, Janet Yang, Ellen Ter Huurne, Francesca Boerner, Sherry L. Ortiz, Sharon Dunwoody

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

In an effort to understand what motivates people to attend to information about flood risks, this study applies the Risk Information Seeking and Processing model to explore how local residents responded to damaging river flooding in the Milwaukee area. Anger at managing agencies was associated with the desire for information and active information seeking and processing, as well as with risk judgment, personal efficacy, lower institutional trust, and attributions for the causes of flood losses.

Transparency In Communication: An Examination Of Communication Journals’ Conflicts-Of-Interest Policies, Lawrence Soley, Sarah Bonewits Feldner

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Increased corporate-sponsored university research and professorial consulting has caused medical, psychological, and other scientific journals to adopt conflicts-of-interest disclosure policies. This study examines editorial policies concerning conflicts of interest at communication journals in the context of Habermas’s theory of communicative action. The results show that communication journals do not have the same mandatory disclosure requirements that journals of other disciplines have. In this regard, communication research journals are similar to the mass media. Consequently, the article suggests that disclosure policies are needed if communication research journals are to function as part of a larger dialogic process. Moreover, communication researchers are …

"Your Life Is Waiting!": Symbolic Meanings In Direct-To-Consumer Antidepressant Advertising, Jean M. Grow, Jin Seong Park, Xiaoqi Han

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This semiotic analysis demonstrates how pharmaceutical companies strategically frame depression within the hotly contested terrain of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. The study tracks regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, relative to DTC advertising, including recent industry codes of conduct. Focusing on the antidepressant category, and its three major brands—Paxil (GlaxoSmithKline), Prozac (Eli Lilly), and Zoloft (Pfizer)—this comparative study analyzes 7 years of print advertising following deregulation in 1997. The authors glean themes from within the advertising texts, across the drug category and within individual-brand campaigns. The findings indicate that DTC advertising of antidepressants frames depression within the biochemical model of causation, privileges …

In Search Of A Corporate Moral Compass, Kati Tusinski Berg

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Living Our Mission: A Study Of University Mission Building, Sarah Bonewits Feldner

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

At the same time that organizational communication and management scholars are focusing attention on trends of spirituality in the workplace, faith-based organizations are taking up the question of how they might maintain a distinct spiritual identity. For these institutions, communicating mission becomes the defining feature of institutional identity. Explicitly religious organizations provide a venue for understanding the implications of incorporating spirituality in organizational discourse. This empirical study explores a mission-building conference and examines the ways in which communicating a spiritual mission simultaneously enriches and constrains both the individual members and the organizations as a whole.

The Demise Of Native American Mascots: It's Time To Do The Right Thing, Joyce M. Wolburg

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose – The intent of this article is to show why the use of Native American mascots, logos, and nicknames by sports teams perpetuates depictions that are perceived as harmful and racist by Native Americans.

Design/methodology/approach – This article examines data from published research, personal correspondence, and essays by Native Americans so that non-natives can understand the issue from the native perspective. It also calls into question previous communication efforts that may have limited the voices of Native Americans.

Findings – By examining the meaning of warriors and other cultural symbols for Native Americans and by exploring the different views …

College Students’ Responses To Antismoking Messages: Denial, Defiance, And Other Boomerang Effects, Joyce M. Wolburg

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Despite the success of antismoking campaigns that aim to prevent young teens from smoking, this qualitative study provides strong evidence that different initiatives are needed for college students, particularly those who already smoke. When asked for responses to current antismoking messages, nonsmokers generally championed the cause; however, smokers often responded with anger, defiance, denial, and other negative responses. Consumers who respond in this manner are not well served by existing strategies, and money used for such campaigns could be better spent. New strategies are offered in hopes that antismoking campaigns can communicate more effectively with one high-risk group—college student smokers.