What the public expects of local news: Views on public and traditional journalism

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

Volumn 82, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 952-967

  Heider, Don ^a   McCombs, Maxwell ^b   Poindexter, Paula M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

^b Department of Communications ^*

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ATTITUDINAL SURVEY; SERVICE SECTOR;

EID: 33645806741     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769900508200412     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. For accounts of early public journalism projects and commentary, see Michael Hoyt, "The Wichita Experiment: What Happens When a Newspaper Tries to Connect Readership and Citizenship?" Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 1992, 42-47
2. Davis "Buzz" Merritt and Jay Rosen, "Imagining Public Journalism: An Editor and Scholar Reflect on the Birth of an Idea," Roy W. Howard Public Lecture In Journalism and Mass Communication Research 5 (School of Journalism, Indiana University, 13 April 1995).
3. Brian L. Massey and Tanni Haas, "Does Making Journalism More Public Make a Difference? A Critical Review of Evaluative Research on Public Journalism," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 79 (autumn 2002): 559-86. Public journalism studies published since the Massey and Haas review have primarily focused on content and journalists.
4. Judy H. McGregor, Margie A. Comrie, and Susan L. Fountaine, "Beyond the Feel-Good Factor: Measuring Public Journalism in the 1996 New Zealand Election Campaign," Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 4 (winter 1999): 66-67.
5. Thomas F. Blazier and James B. Lemert "Public Journalism and Changes in Content of the Seattle Times," Newspaper Research Journal 21 (summer 2000): 69-80. Other public journalism characteristics that were compared included number of staff-written stories; number of sources from citizen organizations and unaffiliated individuals; prominence of citizen sources; number of stories that placed subject in context to answer the how and why; inclusion of issue antecedents or historical context; number of stories that connected issues to related stories; number of stories that included solutions to problems; number of stories that included core values that reflect ideals, goals, and values; number of stories with mobilizing information to facilitate participation and deliberation; number of stories less likely to emphasize polar opposites but include a range of views; number of election stories that emphasized issues and candidate record over horse race and candidate character.
6. Leigh Moscowitz, "Civic Approach Not So Different From Traditional Model," Newspaper Research Journal 23 (fall 2002): 62-75.
7. David Kennamer and Jeff South, "Civic Journalism in the 2000 U.S. Senate Race in Virginia" (paper presented at the annual convention of AEJMC, Washington, DC, 2001).
8. David D. Kurpius, "Sources and Civic Journalism: Changing Patterns of Reporting?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 79 (winter 2002): 853-66.
9. Renita Coleman, "Use of Visual Communication in Public Journalism," Newspaper Research Journal 21 (fall 2000): 17-37
10. Renita Coleman and Ben Wasike, "Visual Elements in Public Journalism Newspapers in an Election: A Content Analysis of the Photographs and Graphics in Campaign," Journal of Communication 54 (3,2004): 456-73.
11. Young Choi, "Study Examines Daily Public Journalism at Six Newspapers," Newspaper Research Journal 25 (spring 2004): 12-27.
12. David D. Kurpius, "Civic Journalism and Commercial Local Television News: In Search of a Civic Model," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 77 (summer 2000): 340-54
13. David D. Kurpius, "Bucking a Trend in Local Television News: Combating Market-Driven Journalism," Journalism 4 (2003): 76-94.
14. Michael McDevitt, Bob M. Gassay, and Frank G. Perez, "The Making and Unmaking of Civic Journalists: Influences of Professional Socialization," Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 79 (spring 2002): 87.
15. David Weaver, Randal Beam, Bonnie Brownlee, Paul S. Voakes, and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, "The American Journalist in the 21st Century: Key Findings" (paper presented at the annual convention of AEJMC, Kansas City, MO, 2003).
16. Key results of the American Journalist survey can be found at (retrieved 7 October 2005).
17. For previous national surveys of journalists, see David H. Weaver and Cleveland Wilhoit, The American Journalist in the 1990s: U.S. News People at the End of an Era (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1996);
18. David H. Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, The American Journalist: A Portrait of U.S. News People and Their Work (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986);
19. John W.C. Johnstone, Edward J. Slawski, and William J. Bowman, The News People: A Sociological Portrait of American Journalists and their Work (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976).
20. Weaver et al., "American Journalist in the 21st Century."
21. Massey and Haas, "Does Making Journalism More Public Make a Difference?"
22. Frank Denton and Esther Thorson, "Civic Journalism: Does it Work?" (Washington, DC: Pew Center for Civic Journalism, 1995).
23. Although recent scholarship has paid little attention to audience effects of public journalism, examples of studies that focused on the effects of public journalism on the audience can be found in Massey and Haas, "Does Making Journalism More Public Make a Difference?"
24. Massey and Haas, "Does Making Journalism More Public Make a Difference?" 577.
25. Weaver et al., "American Journalist in the 21st Century."
26. These four areas were compared because similar questions were asked of the public and journalists.
27. Questionnaire, sample size, and survey dates were provided 18 April 2005 by David Weaver through e-mail correspondence with the third author. In response to a follow-up query that noted the word "watchdog" had not been used in the questionnaire, Weaver replied in a 6 May, 2005 e-mail that although "'watchdog' was not used in the questionnaire, 'watchdog' was used in the printed report we distributed at AEJMC to refer to the role of investigating government claims, not to refer to the adversary role. It was put in quotation marks in the headline on p. 12 of the Key Findings to indicate that it's not the exact term used in the question, but rather a shorthand label for the role of investigating government claims." Weaver added: "My experience has been that journalists are much more likely to embrace a watchdog role than an adversary one. Many consider 'adversary' to be a synonym for 'bias,' whereas watchdog implies a vigilant journalist but not necessarily a biased or opinionated one."
28. The survey was conducted in a metropolitan area comprised of two counties. The population of the larger county was 812,280; the smaller county's population was 249,967. According to U.S. Census data, in the larger county, 41% percent had a bachelor's degree or higher; in the smaller county 34% had a bachelor's degree or higher; The median household income for the larger county was $47,000; for the smaller county, the median household income was $61,000. The median age was 30.4 years for the larger of the two counties and 32.3 years for the smaller county. According to census data in the two-county area surveyed, 72% were white, 8% black or African American, 4% Asian, 16% other, .5% Native American. Hispanic or Latino, representing any race, was 26%. When sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points is factored in, it can be seen that the racial-ethnic composition of the sample was consistent with the census data for whites, blacks, and Asians in the two-county area. Although it is important to remember that appropriate statistical comparisons are with local - not national - census data because the focus of the study was on expectations of local - not national - news, the following U.S. population statistics are noted: 75% white; 12.5% Hispanic/Latino of any race; 12.3% African American; $42,000 median household income; median age 35.3 years; 24% bachelor's degree or higher. Socio-economic characteristics and news would likely vary by local community. (retrieved 8 January 2004).
29. To calculate difference in proportions for two independent random samples, see James L. Bruning and B.L. Kintz, Computational Handbook of Statistics (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1968), 199-201. According to Table 2, although journalists (58%) were more likely than the public (50%) to say the civic journalism role of offering solutions to problems was extremely important, this difference was not significant. But the public (48%) was significantly more likely than journalists (32%) to say the civic journalism role of providing a community forum was extremely important.
30. Davis Merritt and Maxwell McCombs, The Two W's of Journalism: the Why and What of Public Affairs Reporting (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaurn Associates, 2004), 53.
31. "The State of the News Media 2004: An Annual Report on American Journalism" (retrieved 18 March 2004).
32. Eric Dash, "Newspapers' Circulation Still Going Down," New York Times, 3 May 2005, sec. C, p. 4.