The context for education policy making has changed dramatically in recent years. Policymaking at the state-level has become characterized by near-unprecedented enactment of neo-liberal education policies, increased influence of so-called Education Reform Advocacy Organizations (ERAOs) and increased challenges to unions' political influence. In…

Offers the case of Lee Iacocca as a study of the print media's role in the creation of popular heroes. Focuses on patterns that present action and actors as heroic. (SR)

A case study compared United States and South Korean press coverage of the crash of the November 29, 1987, Korean Air Lines (KAL) flight 858, to examine how the press reported the terrorism angle before evidence supporting the charges of terrorism was uncovered. Stories dealing with the crash reported in four prestigious United States newspapers…

The eugenicists of the 1920s and 1930s aggressively pursued media attention and sought policy change for their cause of improving the human race by selective breeding. Eugenics gained momentum in the United States when the American Eugenics Society (AES) was organized in 1921. Policy formation and information dissemination were central to the…

A truly diverse press not only takes seriously its political role of fostering robust debate but stands committed to its cultural role of providing a distinctively local context for the issues and discussions it reports. However, what contributes to the diminution of press diversity remains a controversial question that continues to attract…

School reform involves the public: its expectation of participation and its support for a reform agenda. In theory, the press influences both. To explore this link, we compare education coverage in four press outlets, two each in Chicago and Cleveland. Articles and editors are interrogated for (1) style of journalism and (2) assumptions about the…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the late 1980s appeared to pursue its own agenda of broadcast deregulation, notwithstanding congressional pressures. The apparent power shift is evident in a case study of the interactions between Congress and the FCC on the subject of children's television. In the early 1970s, the FCC tended to…

Predicated on the assumption that organized labor has long been misrepresented by the mass media, and bolstered by a literature review, a case study analyzed in detail labor news coverage from the "Columbus Dispatch" for the month of April 1994. A total of 37 articles were gathered that related to labor issues--articles on the ongoing…

On a daily basis, American television and radio audiences are subjected to a stream of broadcast Public Service Announcements (PSAs), each promoting "some kind of social or economic action deemed beneficial" (Stridsberg, 1977). Often, these announcements employ humor as a presentational device to help stimulate the behavioral change…

A study explored the safety education provided by six newspapers, using the 1988 crash of Delta Flight 1141 as a case study. A total of 351 "Delta 1141" news stories were analyzed for five key areas: overall story category, passenger safety theme, flight personnel safety theme, plane safety theme, and rescue safety. Of the stories…

The media's use of videotaped 1992 New Year's greetings to President George Bush (taped by several people in front of a life size image of the president from his college days) raises questions of the media's diversity, ethics, and agenda setting. A New Haven television station reported on the activity as one of many taking place that night. Ten…

Explaining complex scientific and environmental subjects in the mass media is difficult to do, particularly under such constraints as short deadlines and lack of space or time. When a scientific controversy and human health risk are involved, this becomes an even harder task to accomplish. The subject of electromagnetic fields (EMF) involves…

The Qualitative Studies section of the Proceedings contains the following 10 papers: "An Alternative to Alternative Media'" (James Hamilton); "A Critical Assessment of News Coverage of the Ethical Implications of Genetic Testing" (David A. Craig); "Earth First! and the Boundaries of Postmodern Environmental…

Argues that the plurality of tensions among the commodified market economy and more heroic traditional norms of excellence engendered "social dramas" in the presentation of the 1984 Winter Olympic games. Applies Turner's narrative phases of social drama in order to appreciate the moments of rhetorical urgency and reflective possibility within the…

The Public Relations section of this collection of conference papers contains the following six papers: "Spanning the Boundaries: Support for First Amendment Rights among Public Relations Practitioners, Journalists and the Public" (Robert O. Wyatt and Sharon S. Smith); "Organizational Factors That Contribute to Practicing…