Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: This paper is a re-examination of women’s page content that finds women’s page journalists were introducing a new role for women by using a different political and rhetorical approach than many of the more often studied alternative women’s newspapers of the 1960s. The women’s page journalists were negotiating the progressive messages by combining them with messages that were familiar to the middle-class homemakers who were the primary readership. The findings demonstrate that women’s page journalists played a bigger role in spreading awareness of women’s liberation issues than initially thought.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: A study into how newsroom culture is framing the adoption of user-generated content (UGC) at leading UK newspaper websites is used to highlight some of the methodological challenges in the analysis of this emerging field. An online survey and interviews were used to study the adoption of UGC and to investigate the debates taking place in newsrooms over the publication of user media. Findings reveal that news executives are providing opportunities for UGC but are experiencing problems with incorporating it into professional journalism structures due to concerns about reputation, trust and legal issues.

The term "participatory journalism" itself is ill defined. Terms such as citizen journalism, participatory journalism or user-generated content are often used interchangeably when referring to the emergence of online tools that allow for broad participation in the creation and dissemination of content by individuals via the Internet. This study also found that there are inconsistencies in the terms used to describe UGC formats, despite an attempt to develop taxonomy of generic formats.

Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate attitudes among senior online news executives to UGC. The participants were selected as representatives of a particular position in the social system in question, and the number (11) exceeded the quantity sufficient for qualitative research based on in-depth interviews. However, research into emerging forms of media can only explore meanings, uses and impacts of early adopters, in this case senior online news executives at the UK's most popular newspaper websites. Consequently, this raises questions over how representative this group is compared with the news industry as a whole.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In 1966 Iphigene Ochs, the mother of New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, complained to her son that a Times story on homosexuality was too prominent and too sympathetic. Executive editor Turner Catledge justified the topic as legitimate, but promised to cover gays and lesbians more discreetly in the future. This paper seeks to measure the relative influence of journalists, social trends, events, government officials, editors, and owners on Times coverage of lesbian and gay individuals and issues from 1960-1995. It finds that, while many factors influenced the nature and frequency of coverage, one key factor in major shifts in coverage were the views of the Times’ owners. The documentary evidence highlights that for many years the owners actively intervened to suppress coverage of gays and lesbians, even as reporters and editors recognized that the increased visibility of these individuals in society often made them newsworthy. Finally, statistical analysis confirms that while actual events and statements of officials attracted some attention by the New York Times throughout the period, they were more likely to generate prominent coverage after 1987 when the stories were consistent with the enthusiasms of the owners.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: From 1896 until 1907, Adolphus D. Griffin published The New Age, a weekly newspaper for African Americans, in Portland, Oregon. During most of his tenure, the paper was the sole voice for a small but vibrant community. Consequently, The New Age offers important insight into race relations in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the twentieth century. It also can be seen as a snapshot of African American life. Culture, religion, education, migration, politics, job opportunities and more were discussed regularly in the newspaper. Despite its importance to black Oregonians, scholars who study the black press have overlooked the Portland paper and its editor, demonstrating that there still is much work to be done to recover lost voices and publications, particularly in the Northwest. For this qualitative project, more than one hundred issues of The New Age published between 1899 and 1907 were examined critically to see what topics and themes were discussed in editorials and news articles. In addition, census and voting records, and articles published in the white and black press were consulted to supplement the study and add insight into the man, his career, and the complexities of race relations at the turn of the twentieth century.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Labor leaders, economists, reformers, and government officials actively participated during the 1930s in a social action network tied to the publication of the American Federationist, the monthly journal of the American Federation of Labor. Records of correspondence with AFL President William Green, and the AFL’s director of research, Florence Thorne, suggest these writers believed they could educate and influence organized labor, and more broadly, the working class, during the Great Depression. The academics, activists, and government officials who wrote about economic and social problems saw the Federationist as an important conduit to the American people. This paper focuses on the relationship between the authors and editors of the Federationist during the 1930s and early 1940s, when the labor movement was in a period of extraordinary growth. After a brief description of the content and business operations of the journal, this paper explores what authors and editors imagined they were doing in producing this publication, and it examines the role of the intellectual within and outside the labor movement during the New Deal years. In addition, this paper looks at circulation records to provide some understanding of who might have had access to the Federationist. A close examination of who corresponded with the AFL’s editors, what correspondents cared about, and what they thought they could accomplish, can add to our understanding of organized labor and the role academics and activists hoped to play in that social movement during the Great Depression.