Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: As the official publication of AAPOR (American Association for Public Opinion Research), Public Opinion Quarterly (POQ) is an important channel for scholars to report their current research on public opinion and mass communication. So it is generally regarded as a barometer of theoretical and methodical development in this field. While regrettably, there was few systematic content analysis of the POQ during its 65 years. So we have no clear idea about what on earth the POQ has contributed to the mass communication research. In this paper, the authors use quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the development of media effects research in the POQ articles in the recent twenty years. Theoretical frameworks dealing with media effects, the findings of new factors mediating media effects, the use of research methods and the medium involved are the four major variables concerning this topic. The authors try to answer the following questions:
1) Which theories on media effects have been proposed, proved or developed in the POQ?
2) Which new factors have been found to mediate media effects in the POQ?
3) Which methods have been more or less used in media effects research in the POQ?
4) Which kind of medium has been more or less dealt with in media effects research in the POQ?
All research articles published in the POQ from 1980 to 1999 will be analyzed. Besides content analysis, the authors use background literatures to evaluate the contributions that the POQ made to media effects research in the past twenty years. By this study, the authors expect to give readers a clear map of the development of the POQ as a leading academic journal and “media effects research” as a focused area in the field of mass communication. The future study will also be discussed in the paper.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper reports research on national environmental strategy as evinced through resource choices. It explores the strategic influences of political alignment, executive bureaucratic leadership, and management thematic emphasis. The results indicate a number of unexpected relationships among strategic choices and institutional actors.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We examine differentials in adult Partial Life Expectancies by type of disability between two censuses within each racial group; and among white, black, Asian, and Native Americans in 1990. During the 1980s, women of minority groups benefited from an improvement in Disability Free Life Expectancy, while white women lived more years with disability. Black women experienced the most positive changes, while Native American men scored the worst. Elderly fared better than younger adults and elderly women improved regardless of race. Compared to whites in 1990, Native American males and females and black males are the most disadvantaged with higher disability free differentials. Disability data and the counts of persons are extracted from the US Censuses 1980 and 1990 (pums1 percent-). The counts of deaths come from vital statistics (100 percent- counts). The procedure of analysis developed and applied here allows a simultaneous assessment of the differentials in longevity and disability.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper we examine the relationship between race/ethnicity and sex in occupational segregation over time. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of statistical discrimination, social closure, human capital, and industrial restructuring, we explore the processes that generate change in the representation of race/ethnicity and gender groups in detailed occupational categories in the United States over time. Multinomial regression analyses of occupational-level data reveal that sex is the major factor in occupational segregation, with race/ethnicity playing an important role within the sexes. In comparison to white men, women are less likely to enter occupations that are stereotyped as male and more likely to move into occupations that have both experienced disproportionate growth and carry authority. African-American and Hispanic women are less likely than their white counterparts to be moving into occupations with high human capital requirements. African-American and Hispanic men are more likely than white men to be entering occupations previously dominated by white men, but are less likely to be taking on traditionally male work. These findings suggest that processes of statistical discrimination contribute to both sex and race segregation within the workplace; that social closure operates simultaneously, but less forcefully than we imagined; and that differences in levels of education, as suggested by human capital theory, play an important role as well.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Many studies have assessed threat theory by investigating the relationships between the size of minority populations and police strength in U.S. cities. Yet almost all of these investigations analyzed older data with cross-sectional designs. Recent shifts in these relationships and interaction effects predicted threat theory were largely ignored. This study uses a fixed-effects panel design to detect nonlinear and interactive relationships between minority presence and the population corrected number of police officers in large U.S. cities. The findings show that the relationship between racial threat and the number of police officers has recently become stronger. In accord with other theoretically based expectations, cities with larger black populations that are residentially isolated from majority whites have smaller departments, but the number of officers is greater in larger (and more difficult to police) cities that also have more African American residents. The estimates of nonlinear relationships between minority presence and police strength are more theoretically plausible than those found in prior studies.