Choosing six Mexican newspapers representing an ideological range from liberal to conservative, a study analyzed the content of the newspapers' editorials and political columns from 1951 through 1980. Data established that Mexican newspapers, contrary to many critics' judgments, criticized government policies and political figures. They did,…

A pilot study asked 94 students enrolled in introductory newswriting classes at three separate universities to evaluate 18 news stories. About half the stories concerned topics that proponents of multiculturalism have suggested would receive more emphasis if newspapers employed more women and minorities: topics such as breast cancer, divorce,…

The Farmers' Alliance was organized in Texas in 1877, and soon spread through the South and Midwest. Farmers formed cooperatives to combat the crop-lien system that bound them to furnishing merchants and to oppose differential railroad rates that hampered the shipment of their crops. As it grew, the alliance began to demand other land,…

A study investigated whether political interest was a factor in differences in political knowledge between television and newspaper reliant individuals. Data were collected through 353 hour-long interviews with adults in a midwestern city. Subjects supplied information about their media use and preferences, political preferences, education level,…

This study investigated college students' use of and attitudes toward traditional and nontraditional news media, and the role of cable news network (CNN) and its integration into evolving news consumption patterns. Results indicate later college years are associated with heavier consumption. CNN viewers are heavier users of traditional media.…

Working from a knowledge gap hypothesis stating that as amounts of information in a community or society increase, segments of the population with more education and higher socioeconomic status acquire this information at a greater rate than do lower status groups, a study examined the contributions to neighborhood residents' knowledge of local…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the Supreme Court and the limits of the First Amendment in "Zurcher v. Stanford Daily"; (2) the radical journalist, I. F. Stone; (3) group owned vs. independentl owned…

Anticipating a possible future method of newspaper design (including multimedia content) and delivery, a study examined the interface among people, modality (paper, computer, multimedia), and three types of news story (news, sports, entertainment). The "primacy of print" theory (which predicts that information will be recalled better…

A content analysis of white-oriented and black-oriented Milwaukee, Wisconsin, newspaper coverage of that city's racial riots in 1967 was conducted to test the following hypotheses: (1) the general media would rely more on "authority" sources, while the specialized black media would rely more on "nonauthority" sources; (2) the…

This work considers desktop publishing technology as a way used to paginate newspapers electronically, tracing the technology's development from the beginning of desktop publishing in the mid-1980s to the 1990s. The work emphasizes how desktop publishing technology is and can be used by weekly newspapers. It reports on a Pennsylvania weekly…

This overview of the development of media education in Japan begins with a discussion of the motion picture as entertainment and the public attitude toward film in Japan during the early years of the century. The introduction of film education into the schools in the 1920s--both teaching by film and teaching about film--is then described together…

Focusing on knowledge of four public affairs issues important to residents of a Midwestern inner-city neighborhood, a study examined the relative contributions to knowledge made by two neighborhood newspapers and by organized community group activities. A sample of 239 residents was asked open-ended questions about housing, crime, economic…

To examine the relationship between parent and child news media use within specific age groups and to evaluate the stability of this use over time, 501 parent child pairs were interviewed by telephone in the winter and again in the fall of 1980 on their political views, social values, and media use. Findings on exposure to five types of…