Examines the impartiality of Thomas Fleet, Sr.'s "Boston Evening Post" during the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, a period during which patriots put pressure on newspapers take their side. Reviews data illustrating the paper's even-handed dealing with issues concerning Patriots and Loyalists. (TB)

The black press has a long history of service and struggle in the United States. The young black journalists of today, employed in mainstream media, owe a great debt to their predecessors in black newspapers that date back to 1827. A brief history describes their development. (SLD)

This article contains a critical analysis of agenda-setting theory and research. In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news…

This report examines the status of school desegregation efforts in Southern and Border States immediately before and after the May 1968 U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that school districts must abandon ineffective freedom-of-choice plans. Separate sections devoted to events in each state contain specific detail describing the political, legislative,…

Political responses to the "cult of efficiency" in the schools, academic freedom, and the role of education in social reform between 1914 and 1921 are traced in issues of the "Nation" and the "New Republic." The variety within political liberalism at the time was reflected in a similar diversity of educational…

The way in which United States journalists covered the views of the South African black leader Steven Biko both before his death in prison in 1977 and after it is examined in this paper. Press coverage of Biko's death is first described; it is noted that journalists wrote of his great stature and significance and of his "moderate and…

The limited effectiveness of the press as an agent of reform is considered in this paper in view of the role of the Minneapolis press in the rise and decline of a corrupt city administration from 1900 to 1905. The paper first posits a continuum along which press effects on reform may be pinpointed; it then discusses the muckraking era, which…

The purpose of this study is to present systematic findings concerning bias in TV news coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign and to describe the kinds of coverage that the candidates and parties received during the campaign. News about the election was analyzed from weekday network evening news programs, AP day and night wire coverage, a…

This paper is thirty-eighth in a series which expands the analysis of the crisis under discussion to provide a multinational view by quoting comment from a selection of newspapers of several countries. The issue presented here is the problem of world food shortages, which is briefly introduced in relation to the attemps at the Rome Conference to…

A study examined the influence of nation states' self-interests on their media's coverage of a major news event, in this instance, the Soviet shooting down of a Korean airliner. It was hypothesized (1) that there would be discrepancies between different accounts of the KAL 007 incident, a complex news event with international political…

A growing international controversy exists between the West on one hand and the Third World, Marxist states, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the other focusing on the concepts of "free flow of information" and "Western communication imperialism," and on ethical issues relating to these…

The role that time frame plays in the media agenda-setting process was studied by examining the single issue of civil rights over an extended period between 1954 and 1976. The public agenda was determined from 27 Gallup polls, conducted between 1954 and 1976, which asked respondents what they considered the most important issue facing the American…

The purpose of this book is to explore the effects of public opinion on governmental policy making, with a special focus on the role of the mass media in this process. Specific areas covered include political campaigning, the President and the press, blacks and the media, and cable television. Topics of discussion in the ten chapters are: linkage…

This book presents a history of journalism in the United States. The opening chapters discuss the European roots of American journalism and cover the time-span ending with the Civil War; the primary concern is an exposition of the principles of the American press. The remaining chapters examine the mass media--newspapers, television, radio,…

Contemporary journalism, although claiming to be politically objective and neutral, has become a powerful critic of the conduct of the government, often seeming to be a force for the reordering of national priorities along leftist lines. This "adversary journalism" of the past 15 years has strayed a long way from the neutral journalism…