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0769: Roger And Eve (Alwyn) Hinchman Papers, 1871-1994, Marshall University Special Collections

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Eve Alwyn-Hinchman was born August 15, 1914 and died on November 16, 2005. She was a successful television and radio personality with her mother Laurie Alwyn, both in Boston M.A. and Fort Lauderdale FL. Eve and Lauri hosted radio shows in the Baltimore MD area for over 7 years before moving to Florida where they hosted a radio and later a Television show in the Palm Beach FL area for many years. Eve was married to Roger Hinchman (b. November 28, 1912; d. January 1, 1991) on June 1, 1964 after the moved to Florida. Lauri, a health educator and …

The President And The Press: The Framing Of George W. Bush’S Speech To The United Nations, Stephen D. Cooper, Jim Kuypers, Matt Althous

Communications Faculty Research

In this essay, we provide a brief overview of how frames work, discuss the relationship of frames to the news media, and perform a qualitatively based, comparative framing analysis of President Bush’s speech to the United Nations and the mainstream American press response that followed. Findings suggest that by the end of formal military operations in Afghanistan, the press was increasingly framing its reports in such a way that President Bush’s public statements were inaccurately transmitted to the public at large. Three key findings are advanced: one, the press depicted the Bush administration as an enemy of civil liberties; two, …

Ladies On The Label: A Meta-Analysis Of Stereotypes In Advertising, Valerie L. Spears

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis explores the origins of modern-day racism and sexism by combining a meta-analysis with an in-depth historical examination of the Aunt Jemima and Betty Crocker campaigns. The ten studies used in the meta-analysis were selected and analyzed based on criteria developed from the research question and literature review. The researcher made three major conclusions based on the meta-analysis results: 1) It is not only important that minorities are shown in media images, but how they are shown; 2) stereotypes can sometimes mold viewpoints about the stereotyped member(s) of society; and 3) the consumer psyche provides further evidence that viewing …

0761: Marvin L. Stone Papers, 1924-2000, Marshall University Special Collections

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Personal papers of Marvin L. Stone. Marshall Alumnus, past editor of U.S. News and World Report, Deputy Director of the U.S. Information Agency during the Reagan Administration. He was founding president and chairman of the non-profit International Media Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C, an organization that promoted free press in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. After the IMF, he spent a year in Europe on a Knight Foundation journalism fellowship, and then retired in 1996[?].

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Marvin L. Stone Collection, 1924-2000 here.

Social Issues In America, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

One of the more contentious issues in social science at this time is the question of media bias. Both the scholarly and popular literature are thick with writings on this topic, yet for all the interest in it and work devoted to it we are far from a consensus on how media bias can be defined, conceptualized, or researched. Ironically enough, many writings on the subject of media bias do take the position that the news content distributed to the public fails, in one respect or another, to accurately and fairly represent real events, issues, personalities, and situations. Studies differ …

Geopolitical Analysis Of Terror In Selected U.S. Countries, Aaron M. Goodman

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Throughout the world media reports of airplanes crashing into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C made the front page of every paper almost instantly after September 11, 2001. This unprecedented media event led to the generation of certain key questions in the ways in which the media reports on terrorism. This research is concerned with the ways in which the U.S media has responded to the 9- 11 terrorist attacks through time and space. In examining how U.S based media responds to terrorist attacks we can begin to understand if this response is …

A Comparative Framing Analysis Of Embedded And Behind-The-Lines Reporting On The 2003 Iraq War, Jim A. Kuypers, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

Although a contested position, we believe that reporters and editors frame the news in a way that reflects their personal feelings and newsroom culture (Kuypers, 1997, 2002, 2005; Cooper, in press). Audiences usually receive their political news from only a few press sources; rarely do they read the original statements of those being reported upon.

Bringing Some Clarity To The Media Bias Debate, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

Jim A. Kuypers’ recent book, Press Bias and Politics, has made a significant advance in the methodology of inquiring into this issue—although it’s a safe bet that many in the scholarly community will be tempted to dismiss it out of hand. That’s a shame, if so, because even if one is disinclined to accept Kuypers’ conclusion that the press tends to favor ideas associated with the political left, his method can at least put the debate on a firmer footing.

Embedded Versus Behind-The-Lines Reporting On The 2003 Iraq War, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

A 2003 study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that “Most Americans (53%) believe that news organizations are politically biased, while just 29% say they are careful to remove bias from their reports ... More than half—51%—say that the bias is ‘liberal,’ while 26% discerned a ‘conservative’ leaning. Fourteen percent felt neither phrase applied” (Harper, 2003). Now add to this that even some academicians are finally accepting the idea that journalists, as a group, are more liberal than the population as a whole. However, whether political or other biases (Hahn, 1998) affect news coverage …

Unreality Tv, Andrew Sikula Sr., Lorraine P. Anderson

Management Faculty Research

Presents a discussion about the ethical challenges facing a psychologist asked to conduct interviews with potential contestants of a television reality show that places participants in a series of stressful and embarrassing activities. Response to the career-altering opportunity; General practice issues facing the psychologist; Public view on psychologists' involvement with the media.

Press Controls In Wartime: The Legal, Historical, And Institutional Context, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

News coverage of warfare poses a dilemma for social systems with a free press, such as the United States. In an era of high-tech weaponry and nearly instantaneous global communications, conflict is inevitable between the obligation of the press to inform the general public and the obligation of the military to successfully conduct war. The importance of secrecy to the conduct of warfare heightens the issue in the current counterterrorism operations. The competitive advantage of live coverage raises the stakes in a crowded media market. The military’s control over newsgathering during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War set off a controversy …

Mountaintop Removal: An Assessment Of The Propaganda Model Of The News Media, Tonya Lynn Adkins

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This research used the method of content analysis to examine how the issue of mountaintop removal mining was presented in four print media sources: the Logan Banner, the Charleston Gazette, the Herald Dispatch, and Graffiti. The propaganda model put forth in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, was used as the model upon which the research was based.

The purpose of the research was to determine whether or not the coal industry exerts a form of censorship over print media sources in West Virginia. It also sought to determine if there …

Collaborative Musical Expression And Creativity Among Academics: When Intellectualism Meets Twelve Bar Blues, Gary P. Radford, Stephen D. Cooper, Robert W. Kubey, David S. Mccurry, Jonathan Millen, John R. Barrows

Communications Faculty Research

The Professors are a blues, rock, and sometime heavy metal band made up of communication professors from a number of New Jersey schools. Formed in 1995, the band has played in clubs in New York City as well as a number of academic venues, including the annual conference of the International Communication Association in Chicago in 1996 and the annual conference of the National Communication Association in New York City in 1998. The Professors have been featured in both local and national press, including the Chronicle of Higher Education. When we learned of the call for papers for this special …

Black Or White: A Content Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage Dealing With Nba Players & Race, Daniel Eric Newman

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

A content analysis of The New York Times and The Washington Post was conducted to determine if there were differences in the coverage devoted to African-American and Caucasian players in the National Basketball Association from July 1, 1999, through June 30, 2000.

The study examined 96 randomly chosen articles, 48 from each publication, to determine trends with regard to coverage of each race.

While the hypotheses predicted African-American players would receive more negative coverage than their Caucasian counterparts, the results showed that Caucasian players actually receive slightly more negative coverage.

The results also showed The New York Times is more …

An Effect Of The Medium In News Stories: “The Pictures In Our Heads”, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

This study used an experimental design to test for a channel effect in news stories. Four television news stories were recorded off-air, then the narrations were transcribed to form a print news story containing the same words; the broadcast video and the print story were the two treatment levels. Subjects received the stories in one of the treatment levels, and were asked to judge the blameworthiness or praiseworthiness of the actors named in the story. Logistic regressions could predict with substantial accuracy the medium in which subjects had received the story from these judgments, indicating a channel effect on their …

0689: Associated Press Bulletins, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection contains copy read on the air by newscasters at WSAZ-TV, the local NBC affiliate in Huntington, West Virginia on Nov. 22 and 23, 1963, during coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The bulletins are based on Associated Press news reports. Also included are two wire photographs of Lee Harvey Oswald being shot and John F. Kennedy Jr. at the funeral of John F. Kennedy.

A Content Analysis Of Newspaper Columns Written In 1994 By Syndicated Humorist Columnists Erma Bombeck And Art Buchwald, Carol Patricia Wight

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study uses content analysis to reveal aspects of the content in newspaper columns written by Erma Bombeck compared with column content written by Art Buchwald. The purpose of this study was to reveal content characteristics that may be perceived as having propelled the columnist Erma Bambeck into the status of one of the top syndicated humorist columnists, based on the uses and gratifications and media dependency theories. Art Buchwald was chosen for a comparative analysis because of his status as one of the top syndicated humorist columnists.

Content analysis was used to reveal answers to these questions about the …

Are Journalists Qualified To Write About Health And Science?, Burnis R. Morris

SOJMC Faculty Research

This article examines the preparation of journalists to report on health and science issues. It traces the historical linkage between the news media and health and science and reports the results of a survey of college professors who teach reporting courses at 86 departments and schools of journalism and mass communication. The article, also intended to help explain the journalistic method to scientists, concludes that many young journalists are qualified to cover simple stories about health and science and other topics when they leave college and acquire the skills to report on more complex issues through on-the-job training and specialized …

A Content Analysis Of Televised Health News Coverage Within The Huntington, West Virginia Designated Market Area, Leigh Suzanne Hall

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Local media should carefully consider whether or not their health information coverage provides current and useful information to people living within their viewing area. Media play an important role in providing Americans with pertinent health information. As Greenberg and Wartenber (1990) suggest, “American people receive two-thirds more cancer prevention information from television than from their physicians.” Therefore, local television media should make a conscious effort to educate themselves about which health diseases and problems most affect people within their viewing area. For example, people living in Appalachia experience health conditions that are not consistent with those experienced in every region …

Military Public Affairs Practitioners' And Civilian Journalists' Perceptions Of Army Crisis Communications, Michelle L. Martin

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Public relations is at the heart of an organization's relaying of messages to its internal and external audiences. Communication with key audiences allows the organization to release important information, answer questions, address fears and misconceptions, maintain or change the organization's image, influence public opinion and address crises affecting the organization. The Army, like any large organization, must communicate effectively with its publics - legislators, service members, government representatives, the media, and the general public from which it draws its members.

Experts recommend a four-step process for conducting public relations programs (Hiebert, 174). An organization should first conduct research, both primary …

Common Law, And Privacy In Computer-Mediated Environments, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

Computer-mediated environments pose a special challenge to our legal and cultural protections of privacy. These environments are unprecedented in the way commercially valuable information can be generated in their very use. The ease and low cost with which electronic information can be gathered and disseminated in these environments have led many to advocate regulation protecting privacy interests from commercial encroachment. At the same time, the use of digital communications to support criminal or terrorist activities have led others to advocate regulation allowing law enforcement agencies to eavesdrop or intercept. The cultural history of the Internet as a self-regulating, almost anarchical, …

Radio Advertising Decision-Making In The Tri-State --: Huntington, West Virginia; Ashland, Kentucky; And Ironton, Ohio Radio Market, Terry L. Hapney Jr.

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Modern radio came into being November 2, 1920, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The nation’s first federally-licensed radio station, KDKA, broadcast the Harding-Cox election returns:

These words changed our world forever…’This is KDKA of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We shall now broadcast the election returns…’ (StratiComm America 2).

The first radio announcer, or disc jockey, was ham radio operator Frank Conrad of Westinghouse. In 1919, Conrad played records supplied by a local store in exchange for free plugs on the air, the equivalent of today’s bartering or trading in which stations receive merchandise from a business …

A Survey To Determine How The Media Affected Operational Security Of The 1st Armored Division In Bosnia, Stanford E. Angion

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to survey the commanders and public affairs officers who were mobilized and deployed to Bosnia in 1995 with the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division as part of Operation Joint Endeavor, for their views about how they think the media affected their units’ operational security. Many articles have been written concerning the adversarial relationship between the military and the media, but little scientific research has been published on the effects of the media on military operational security during times of conflict. This study will build on the research previously conducted by Capt. John B. Snyder …

Military Control Over War News: The Implications Of The Persian Gulf, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

News coverage of warfare poses a difficult problem for political systems with a free press, such as ours in the United States. In an era of high-tech weaponry and nearly instantaneous global communications, conflicts are inevitable between the obligation of the press to inform the general public, and the obligation of the military to successfully conduct war. The military’s controls over news-gathering during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War set off a controversy still smoldering during the Haiti occupation of 1994. This paper examines the legal, historical, and technological aspects of this issue.

The Contract With America As Reported In Time And Newsweek : A Cluster-Agon Analysis, Cheryl J. Wilson-Ward

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The 1992 presidential election was labeled "The Election of Discontent" by the November 1992 edition of The World and I. Voter participation decreased steadily during the 1980s and the cynicism about politicians was labeled as the primary reason. In an November 7, 1994, Newsweek Poll, sixty-eight percent of Americans polled said they were dissatisfied with the way things were going in their country and more than seventy percent blamed politicians for those problems. Americans seemed not to be interested in casting their vote based on issues but on a growing angry sentiment toward incumbents.

Privacy And The News Media, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

The right of the public to know and the right of the individual to be let alone are inherently in conflict. The origins of these rights are quite different: the former derived from the First Amendment's protection of a free press, the latter in a law journal article published in the late nineteenth century. So, too, has the development of these ideas followed different paths: the former as Constitutional law, the latter as tort law. This article examines the relationship between privacy law and the press. A century ago two lawyers called for legal relief from aggressive newspaper reporters. At …

News Media Objectivity: How Do We Ask The Questions?, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

There is a lively and often public debate in progress concerning the objectivity of the news media, or the lack of it Scholars have approached this topic from three distinct angles: content analysis, values, and the economics of the news industry. Their conclusions have varied markedly, apparently guided by their particular frames of reference.

This article suggests that while we seem to have lost our fix on objectivity as a measurable attribute of news products, the news work routine of objectivity encourages fairness in our public discourse, and deserves attention in scholarly research.

0549: Byron T. Morris Papers, 1775-1989, Marshall University Special Collections

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Wayne County, West Virginia, resident, newspaper columnist. Collection consists of correspondence, family histories, some primary sources, and a collection of newspapers, 1775-1880's. Also part of the gift were books, genealogy materials, and bound volumes of the Wayne County News. Also contains numerous clippings written by Evelyn Scyphers Jackson about Boyd County Kentucky families.

0525: Doris C. Miller Papers, 1915-1989, Marshall University Special Collections

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Doris Copley Miller was a Huntington, West Virginia poet, newspaperwoman, and local historian. Papers include her work in draft and printed form and correspondence, notably the Jesse Stuart letters. It also contains poetry submissions from other friends and the public as well as working files from her years as religion, education and poetry editor at the Huntington Publishing Company. In addition to her newspaper columns, she also conducted genealogical research.

To view materials from this collection that are digitized and available online, search the Doris C. Miller Papers, 1915-1989 here.

0472: Clyde Wellman Papers, 1808-1947, Marshall University Special Collections

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Huntington, West Virginia, newspaperman. Papers include original typescripts for articles for the Herald-Dispatch concerning early history of Cabell County and Huntington, West Virginia.