Communication Commons^™

Gatekeeping Blackness: Roles, Relationships, And Pressures Of Black Television Journalists At A Time Of Racial Reckoning, Denetra Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Building on Du Bois’ (1903) concept of double-consciousness, Critical Race Theory, and communications theories including Gatekeeping, this dissertation aims to provide understanding of the experiences of Black broadcast journalists at a racially contentious time in American history. In 2020-2021, following the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests, and during a global pandemic, a “racial reckoning” ensued throughout the nation. The reckoning, which continued through the writing of this dissertation, was a salient issue for news media. Through my positionality as a Black female forever journalist, I interviewed 29 Black journalists who …

“Power, Poison, Pain & Joy”: Applying A Critical Race Conceptual Model Of Implicit Racial Bias To Narratives Framing Blackness In Black Sports Columns, Black Music, And Black Journalism, Christina Lauren Myers

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a Critical Race Conceptual Model of Implicit Racial Bias to representations of African Americans in mass media to illustrate how stereotypical depictions and racist ideologies arise in media content, including by Black content creators. By bridging the concepts of implicit bias, framing theory and concepts from critical race theory through the conceptual model, I contend that content creators implicitly share racially biased beliefs. Moreover, Black content creators in expressing the authentic experiences of the Black community also do the same. Thus, Black content creators further stereotypes, majoritarian narratives as well as deficit perspectives about the Black community …

Influences On Business Journalists In Egypt During Imf-Backed Economic Adjustments Of 2016-2019, Tamim Salman

Theses and Dissertations

The economic adjustments that Egypt implemented as part of an IMF-backed program between 2016 and 2019 were a milestone event in the country's economic history. Business journalism was an important part of it as people, policymakers and businesses tried to grasp the developments. Using qualitative in-depth interviews with business journalists and editors, this study attempts to examine the various influences experienced by journalists that affected their framing of news and the quality and type of coverage. The study argues that journalists came under the influence of political pressure and media controls, as well as the technical allure of market sources …

Factors That Push Bangladeshi Media To Exercise Self-Censorship, Abu Taib Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

Self-censorship is one of the biggest threats to press freedom. Press freedom, as well as freedom of the expression, is an indicator of a society’s freedom and democracy. If the media cannot act freely, it can impact society’s ability to function as a democracy. Journalists often face pressures from various power structures to engage in self-censorship. While journalistic self-censorship has been examined in a number of different countries, no studies of journalistic self-censorship in Bangladesh have been undertaken or no studies have been undertaken to see what factors influence journalists to exercise self-censorship or to figure out reasons that make …

Production Of Native Advertising In The New Media Economy, Siddhant Dwivedee

Theses and Dissertations

The need to study the production of advertising content from an academic standpoint, particularly advertising content that mimics or is embedded in other editorial content, in some form or the other, is greater than ever. Emerging marketing techniques such as native advertising, content marketing, and sponsored content have disrupted traditional media eco-systems and created a new media economy. While traditional advertising research is skewed in the favor of the consumer experience, researching the production and the lived experiences of journalists involved in the production of native advertising can yield promising results.

This project discusses native ethnographic fieldwork that has been …

Contextualizing The News: Newspaper Front Pages In The Age Of Fact-Checking Journalism., Srijan Sen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates influences on the selection of stories on the front pages of newspapers. It investigates whether a daily newspaper that has an in-house, fact-checking unit (The Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel) selects front-page stories differently from a newspaper that does not have an in-house, fact-checking unit (The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, MN). While the study found no direct influence of fact-checking journalism, it did find that newspaper front pages in 2014 were increasingly prioritizing contextual stories over conventional stories. It also found a decline in political/governmental stories on front pages. It is suggested that these changes might signal a …

How Working In Local Tv News Affects Journalists' Personal Lives, Danielle Stobb

Theses and Dissertations

This study uses participant observation and interviews to determine how working in local television news affects journalists’ personal lives. Twenty-eight journalists from a top 50 Midwestern station were interviewed. The inductive research data is organized into three themes: 1) Schedules 2) Family, friends and relationships 3) Moving. A personal narrative of the researcher’s experience working part-time ties each theme together.

The Cycle Of Exclusion In Local Print News: How News Content Reflects And Reinforces Patriarchy, Emily Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Print news has been relied upon as a source of information for centuries. Despite recent strides towards gender equality, women are persistently marginalized in news content and newsrooms. This thesis analyzed over 950 staff-written Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stories and conducted 19 interviews with both men and women staff reporters and editors to examine how patriarchy might infiltrate local print news. I analyzed how women and men authors, sources and subjects are included or excluded from the news. Furthermore, this thesis examines the gendered division of labor within the newsroom.

God's Eye News: The Use Of Drones In Journalism, A Documentary Film, Robert Lance Carroll

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses the format of documentary film to investigate the aesthetic, legal, and ethical issues surrounding the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, commonly known as drones, in journalism. Particularly important are the topics of public perception, safety, freedom of speech, and privacy. Do journalists' First Amendment protections extend to the right to gather images using drones? How will the privacy of citizens be protected against aerial cameras that can go virtually unnoticed? Can drones be safely integrated into the National Airspace System? The goal of the documentary is not necessarily to answer these questions, but to gather opinions from …

Innovation Among Georgian Journalism Educators: A Network Analysis Perspective, Ana Keshelashvili

Theses and Dissertations

Rapid developments in technology in recent years have disrupted the media’s traditional role as a main informer for citizens. The changes have challenged journalism educators worldwide, pushing them to innovate and experiment. One purpose of this dissertation is to examine adoption of innovations by journalism educators in Georgia, a small post-Soviet country with partly free media and lack of professional outlets, that has been and still is a beneficiary of Western aid for media development. Employing innovation diffusion theory and the network analysis perspective, this dissertation uses a census of journalism educators and journalism program leaders in Georgia to understand …

Redefining News In The Face Of Economic Crises: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Transition To A Watchdog Journal, Aras Coskuntuncel

Theses and Dissertations

In the early 21st century, daily newspapers across the United States struggled with how to respond to economic and technological challenges. This thesis studies one newspaper's response to those challenges. Using ethnographic methods, it explores the Milwaukee (Wis.) Journal Sentinel's transition to a watchdog-centric journal. The thesis suggests that the newspaper responded to economic and technological challenges by redefining news. However, that redefinition brought with it unforeseen problems both in the practice of journalism and the product that journalists produced. The redefinition increased tensions between watchdog and beat reporters, and between older, more experienced journalists and more tech-savvy, younger journalists. …

Parental Mediation Of Adolescent Movie Viewing, Larry James Webster Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Parental mediation of media use by children has been studied extensively as it applies to television and children 12 years old and younger. This study expands the scope of Parental Mediation Theory by applying it to adolescents (age 13-17 years old) and movie viewing. The results of this study show overall parental mediation of adolescent movie viewing is negatively associated with the age of the child. The results show that among parents who mediate movie viewing, restrictive, instructive and social co-viewing mediation strategies are negatively correlated with the age of the adolescent. Third Person Effect is also examined as parental …

What Can Reader Comments To News Online Contribute To Engagement And Interactivity? A Quantitative Approach, Brett A. Borton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the relationship between journalism and computer-mediated communication by exploring the degree to which newly empowered audience members are using the reader comment forum on newspaper websites to participate in democratic discourse - a key component of civic engagement. Twenty-first century journalism has evolved from the traditional asynchronous, 'one-to-many' model into a process involving producers, content and audiences. The interactive capabilities of Internet-based news products have enabled legacy media to connect with audiences in unprecedented fashion. Perhaps more than any other interactive platform, the reader comment forum on online news sites reflects the ideal of the 'public sphere,' …

Judging The Credibility And Professionalism Of Citizen Journalism Versus Professional Journalism, Caroline Christiansen Hood

Theses and Dissertations

Because of the advent of the Internet, traditional journalism is changing. Advanced technology includes the tools for everyone to publish their thoughts, feelings, photos, and videos, allowing individuals to be citizen journalists. This experimental-design study was aimed at discovering the influence of biographies in people's judgments of the credibility and professionalism of news articles. The study involved four treatments 1: professional journalist feature article with professional journalist biography; 2: citizen journalist feature article with professional journalist biography; 3: citizen journalist feature article with citizen journalist biography; and 4: professional journalist feature article with citizen journalist biography. These treatments were used …

News Credibility And Blogs: Exploring The Effect Of Blog Use On Perceptions Of News Credibility, Daniel Spencer Duerden

Theses and Dissertations

News credibility studies have been around since radio and television began competing with the newspaper industry for consumers' attention. However, at this time, the news industry is experiencing a shift in medium as the Internet is quickly becoming the predominant source by which many get their news. Due to the free and independent nature of the Internet and the rise of blogging as a source by which people get news and information, audience perception of what constitutes a credible source needed to be examined. This study took the dimensions of news credibility that have been set in previous studies and …

The News Director's Balance Of Business And News: An Oral History Exploration Of Salt Lake Television News, 1948 - 2008, Andrew Miles Tyler

Theses and Dissertations

News directors fill, perhaps, one of the most difficult roles within the drama of the news room. In an environment where objectivity and trust are paramount, and where bias must be kept at an absolute minimum, the news director exists as the arbiter, balancing these journalistic ideals with the necessities for financial survival. This scenario presents a conflict, in which the news director must constantly balance the journalistic obligation to inform the public, with the managerial obligation to generate a profit. In an exploration of this conflict, I interviewed three news directors from KUTV, KSL, and KTVX within the Salt …

Ethnographic Literary Journalism, Christel Lane Swasey

Theses and Dissertations

Leon Dash and Ted Conover have modeled an ethnographic approach to literary journalism. This approach combines literary journalism's compelling narrative techniques with ethnographic “naturalist-like” (Brewer, 2000) thoroughness and trustworthiness. Rosa Lee: A Mother in Urban America, by Leon Dash, and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, by Ted Conover, exemplify this painstaking method that skillfully uses the narrative craft, generates trustworthy data, and contributes to an academic body of knowledge as well as exposing findings to the general public. Dash, Conover, and others have demonstrated the synergy and problem-solving potential of merging anthropology with literary journalism, yet there is no …

Faith And News: A Quantitative Study Of The Relationship Between Religiosity And Tv News Exposure, Raquel Marvez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between religiosity and broadcast news usage. This study examines the level of religiosity of individuals and its correlation to broadcast news exposure. The correlation between religiosity and perceptions of violence on broadcast news was also measured. Two theories were applied in this study. Uses and Gratifications asserts the active character of the audience to choose what they watch, how often, etc., and Selective Exposure defends the ability of the individual to select media that coincides with personal value systems. These two theories complement each other and provide support in the …

Competitive Fire: An Historical Descriptive Analysis Of Adherence To Traditional Journalistic Tenets In Television News Coverage Of The Mark Hofmann Salt Lake City Bombings, B. William Silcock

Theses and Dissertations

Television news contains factors of time constraints and deadlines that add pressures to the underlying rules of objectivity, fairness, and bias. This study seeks to determine if the elements of "responsible journalism" dissipate in television news coverage of a highly significant, developing news story. In other words, how well do the rules hold up under pressure? The momentous story selected for observation was the Mark Hofmann bombings in Salt Lake City, Utah. The focus centered on the coverage by local stations rather than the network television news operations.

A History Of The Photojournalism Department Of The Deseret News 1948 To 1970, Richard J. Nye

Theses and Dissertations

The photojournalism department of the Deseret News is presently one of the most highly organized and productive departments within the newspaper itself. Major changes in staffing and management of the photo lab have been made since 1948, resulting in a more efficient department. Deseret News staff photographers are skilled in their profession and are proud to be a part of the newspaper staff.

The Deseret News has a colorful history, from its beginning in 1850 with all the trials that accompany a growing newspaper up to and including the establishment of the Newspaper Agency Corporation in 1952. It is a …

A Century Of Journalism In Manti, Utah, 1867-1967, Don A. Carpenter

Theses and Dissertations

To write a descriptive, chronological history of Manti journalists and their newspapers was the purpose of this study. A century of journalism was traced, during which twenty-six editors and publishers printed six country newspapers. The study covered the years from 1867 to 1967.