Noting that covering the United States Department of Education can pose special problems for journalists, this report provides information about the operations of the department and notes the strengths and weaknesses of information produced by and about it. The first three sections of the report discuss the current political atmosphere at the…

Through an analysis of the products of the radical press, this paper presents the rhetorical outlines of a cultural history of the 1930s. Following an overview of the "reportage" of the radical press, the paper focuses on that medium's rhetoric, specifically its conscious and unconscious use of religious symbolism. Among the publications…

Newly discovered transcriptions of 87 of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's women-only press conferences held from 1933 to 1945 make possible an examination of the objectives, topics, and value of these conferences. By holding the conferences, Mrs. Roosevelt attributed to women an important function in the political communication process, and at the…

An examination of the changes in press laws after India gained its independence in 1947 shows how a free press is shaped mostly by the structure and evolution of the democratic society that it is intended to serve. The most salient features that have characterized the Indian press, from the early nineteenth century to the present day, are…

A study of the wartime press suggests that the plan to incarcerate Japanese Americans (under Executive Order 9066) was government-initiated, that the public and the press initially disapproved of such treatment, and that events emanating from the government influenced shifts in press and public opinion that allowed implementation of the plan.…

Reviewing the historical development of media agenda-setting theory suggests that topics emphasized by the mass news media become the topics people think are most important. The vast majority of agenda-setting studies, however, rely on aggregate measures of media and public agendas, and produce very little support for the original theory as there…

Explains how differential coverage of politics, policy, and personality regarding the same two events in three different media--a local newspaper, an elite newspaper, and television network news--reveals three different portraits of presidential concerns and actions. (MM)

As jazz music found its way onto the public agenda between 1921 and 1929 the "New York Times" became a major forum for the controversy surrounding the new music form. Although jazz was played mostly by black musicians, this fact was seldom reflected in the newspaper's stories, and the specter of racism loomed just beneath the surface of…

Notes that relationships between the media and the presidency have been written about extensively, yet some conclusions have been misapplied and overvalued, while other potential conclusions have been overlooked or denied. Presents 10 propositions providing corrective hypotheses and new focus for presidential communication researchers. (SKC)

An examination of five muckraking magazines--"Collier's,""Cosmopolitan,""McClure's,""Everybody's," and the "Arena"--reveals that while addressing many other social ills, muckraking journalists failed to take a strong stand against one of the most glaring evils of their day--the lynching of blacks.…