From August 2006 through August 2007, Elvira Arellano, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, lived in a church on Chicago's West Side with her U.S.-born 7-year-old son, Saul, to avoid a deportation order. Her plight played out in Chicago-area and national media, piggybacking on a nationwide debate on immigration. This study focuses on one piece of…

This article focuses on how five journalists arrived at their decisions about how to report policy, particularly educational policy. It is part of a larger study that takes the position that the media play a central role in educational policy-making and that educators need to understand the power that journalists working within corporate…

A return to excellence and ethics can end the bashing of the press and earn it respect. H. L. Mencken was an outstanding press-basher. One problem he identified is that journalists see themselves as professionals, when they are no more than "hired hands" unable to control admission to the craft. A solution Mencken offered was to improve…

While the founders of the penny press did not set out to establish a truer form of journalism, they did popularize both low prices for newspapers and newspaper economics based on sales instead of political party backing. The history of "The Sun,""The Herald," and "The Tribune" disprove the idea (advanced by journalism…

A case study examined a 1920 controversy between two newspapers. One of the last vestiges of the era of "yellow journalism" was the editorial "war" between the Kansas City "Star" and the Kansas City "Post" which culminated in a 1921 showdown. The "Star," a champion of main street interests and…

To measure the editorial advocacy of influential newspapers concerning the membership of the Supreme Court, a study analyzed editorials from such newspapers concerning the last five Supreme Court nominees of President Ronald Reagan (William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Robert Bork, Douglas Ginsburg, and Anthony Kennedy). A telephone survey of 100…

Providing insight into the problems encountered by the media in developing countries, this paper addresses the history and evolution of the press in Guatemala, focusing in particular on conditions faced by journalists today under the democratically elected civilian government of the Christian Democractic party after some 20 years of military rule.…

Analyzes postassassination newspaper editorials eulogizing John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. Argues that they fulfill four rhetorical functions: providing a public space for symbolic catharsis, celebrating individual virtues and mythic constructions of those virtues, attempting to reknit communal bonds, and calling…

Since, in most cases, sequestration is no longer an option for judges to insure an impartial jury, judicial restraints or suppression orders directed at trial participants have become increasingly attractive. The problem is that the press has a desire to disseminate information about the judicial process to the public. Silence orders prohibiting…

The pro-German American newspaper "The Fatherland," published shortly before the United States entered the First World War (1914-1917), displayed a failure of public relations in terms of defining and offering themes likely to convince a target audience to side with Germany. By looking at a public relations campaign undertaken by the…

This paper analyzes the relationship between the press and professional wrestling. It examines professional wrestling as a business and the conflicting goals of the promoters and the press. The paper focuses on how the press covered the most widely viewed professional wrestling show of all time, WrestleMania III (looking at newspaper coverage…

Surveys op-ed page editors, finding that fewer than half of the responding papers have op-ed pages; that professional journalists, public figures, and propagandists dominate the pages; and that editors firmly control the agenda. (SR)

Discusses the changes in journalism occurring during the growth of private enterprise in the United States. Focuses on newspapers in Chicago and other midwestern cities. Describes Joseph Pulitzer's "New York World" as the culmination of the urbanization of U.S. journalism, recognizing the development of public interdependence in a…

Discusses the U.S. public's fascination with the judicial system and high-profile court cases. Highlights several trials that have been deemed the "Trial of the 20th Century." Explains that there are certain dramatic and societal elements inherent in particular cases making them high profile, such as religion, racism, revenge, scandal, and fame.…

Through three real-life examples in and involving Hong Kong during the period from June 1987 to November 1988, this paper analyzes the impact of competition and availability of alternative news sources on the conduct and performance of the communist press in the pluralistic society of British colonial Hong Kong--a media-rich metropolis over which…