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…

This book attempts to show how the relationship between the American daily press and other social institutions determines the press's definition of news, where it seeks news, and how that news is presented. Chapter 1 discusses news as a force of information, examines news as a sociological problem, and describes the difficulty of defining news.…

Reports on an investigation of the amount and partisan direction of editorial space that ten leading newspapers devoted to foreign affairs in the 1976 presidential election, and of the way in which the newspapers dealth with foreign policy issues. (GW)

Analyzes editorial endorsements on the basis of ownership. Suggests that neither group-owned nor independently owned newspapers had much impact on the outcome of the statewide elections examined. Reveals that group newspapers are slightly more liberal in their endorsements. (MM)

The study examines, within a conflict theory framework, the women's liberation movement in Los Angeles County at 2 points in time compared to the movement's image in 2 major, local newspapers. (FF)

Analysis of the New York "Times's" financial column for the period October 13 to November 13, 1929, reveals that the column did not predict the stock market crash, that it was usually neutral in its financial analyses, and that it was more often optimistic than pessimistic in outlook. (FL)

An analysis of 1,288 editorials published in four prestigious United States daily newspapers between 1967 and 1977 revealed that support for Israel was neither monolithic nor invariable and that the predominant position of the press was one of support for any negotiated peace settlement and denunciation of belligerency by either side. (GT)

Finds that the journalist and the public frequently differ on issues regarded as important to the well-being of the press and society. (RB)

A study examined newspaper coverage of the United States' withdrawal from Unesco to determine whether the public was given a balanced picture of the issues involved and to examine the degree of impartiality of the coverage of one specific issue, the New World Information Order. The study analyzed reports that appeared in American daily newspapers…

Representing the earliest findings in an ongoing national survey examining how black elected officials view the community press, 113 black state senators and legislators (33% response rate) from 50 states were surveyed using five-point Likert-type items with responses ranging from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree." Mean…

A study examined the different approaches that daily newspaper and weekly newspaper editors take toward letters to the editor. It was believed that (1) editors of weekly newspapers would regard as more important letters referring to the community positively, while (2) editors of daily newspapers would regard as more important letters dealing with…

A study explored the question of whether there is an adversary press, by examining the recent trends in adversarial attitudes among newspaper journalists in the United States. Using a differentiation model for delineating the nature and boundaries of American adversarial journalism, the study re-analyzed the data from two national surveys. The…

In theory, the Chinese Communist press is required to engage in criticism of other institutions and of Party or government bureaucrats through its news coverage and self-criticism of its own mistakes in response to criticism from readers. In practice, Party control of the press prevents any effective criticism or self-criticism. Basically, the…