Data collected in three recent reseach reports were examined to answer two basic questions about social science coverage in the news media. The first question, whether the media prefer social science stories to other kinds of science questions, was answered affirmatively by three kinds of evidence. First, combined analysis of 1977 and 1979…

A study surveyed newspapers that print religious news to determine the kinds of coverage their religion journalists provide and to determine the type of audience for which they write. Mail surveys were completed by 141 daily newspapers with circulations ranging from under 10,000 to over 100,000. All but 13 respondents provided a working definition…

To determine whether the media in one state have reflected current trends in crime reporting, a study focused on crime news content in the 24 Louisiana daily newspapers in 1980 and in 1985. Issues addressed were whether statewide crime coverage increased or decreased, if the placement of crime news and type of headline changed, and whether…

A study analyzed statistically the monotony of all-news radio listening and identified stylistic figures that elicit attention in listeners. Subjects were 30 graduate students whose experience with radio news ranged from occasional listening over several months to regular listening five or seven days per week for several years. Respondents were…

Measurements were taken from 8 randomly selected Gannett papers and from 23 non-Gannett papers in an effort to determine whether Gannett papers are unlike other kinds of papers. The content of every issue of every newspaper was divided and measured into eight categories: advertising, news, opinion, letters, sports, features, entertainment, and…

A study examined whether "Sports Illustrated" offers a biased view of the sports world by focusing primarily on the eastern teams. The units of analysis were articles about Major League baseball appearing in the "Sports Illustrated" issues from late April to early October in the years 1975 to 1984. The teams were divided into…

A study was conducted to compare the news reporting of religion specialists and nonspecialists at three major metropolitan newspapers. Representing different news policies and structural constraints, 1,164 religion news items from the "New York Times," Minneapolis "Star," and the Richmond (Virginia) "Times-Dispatch"…

Jacques Ellul defined "prepropaganda" as the subtle and sophisticated use of news services to improve an authoritarian government's public image. Because its value is directly related to its being used sparingly, he predicted that prepropaganda would increase when an authoritarian government felt threatened and decrease when it once more…

A study was conducted to determine attitudes of police toward components of the law enforcement process and whether differences in rank, level of police enforcement, years of service to a police force, or familiarity with reporters made a difference in police attitudes toward newspaper reporters. Thirty-one officers completed a two-part…

Critics of international news flow characteristics have charged that news is biased toward the interests of the developed world and against the developing world, thereby giving an unrepresentative image of their countries to the United States reader. A study was conducted to examine the output and presentation of reports by foreign correspondents…

Survey data on newspaper food editors and newspaper readers were collected through a title-rating technique. Analysis of responses to 40 food titles and leads indicated three newspaper food-editor types: transitional, traditional, and "new guard." Food-page readers fell into two types: information oriented (nutritionists) and cooking…

A survey of 65 newspaper editors and 64 television news directors was conducted to examine policies concerning unnamed sources and unattributed information in news stories, and to measure the effects of the incident in which a "Washington Post" reporter fabricated a major story and claimed that she had granted her sources…

Defining development as a participatory process within a society aimed at creating or maintaining social structures and institutions that allow a society's present and future needs to be met, a study was undertaken to discover what kind of treatment was given to development news by Third World media. Eleven foreign newspapers from a university…

A study was conducted to assess the indications in print of news borrowing (reporting news distributed by second hand or government controlled sources) in the 1970s, and to examine the relationship between borrowed news and the restrictions and reductions in newspapers' overseas news staff. The "New York Times" and the "Chicago…

Twenty-six American Newspaper Publishers Association research reports published since 1978 are reviewed in this paper. The paper analyzes each of the reports in order to provide an overview of what their findings really say and what newspapers can do in their own market areas to use the findings to improve their product. Among the topics covered…