Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In recent years, traditional media in this country have been buffeted by changes, including a drop in audience, competition from cable, and industry consolidation (Graber 2005). Another force in this hurricane of change has come from the Internet, specifically from the blogs. Following several high profile successes from bloggers, speculation began to swirl about the impact of blogs on traditional journalism. Opinion ranges from the “Blog Triumphantalists,” who hear the bells tolling for traditional journalists and inside-the-beltway politicians, to the “Blog Alarmists,” who blame bloggers for dragging down a noble profession. It is necessary to step away from these exaggerated claims and the isolated events and ask, how much of an impact do blogs really have on media and politics. Are they improving or degrading news coverage? Are they are an important new force in the media industry or are they merely oddities whose fifteen minutes of fame are coming to a close?
This paper attempts to take us one step closer towards understanding how technology, and blogs in particular, is affecting traditional journalism. In July 2007, a survey was sent to journalists at four elite newspapers -- New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times. Journalists were asked to describe the impact, either positive or negative, of blogs on their work and on the profession as a whole. While their answers may be too partial to be the last word on the subject, they take us one step closer to learning more about this major change in media and politics.

Overall, reporters believe that blogs have had a minor, positive impact on their profession, especially as sources of ideas and access to experts. Reporters were divided over whether blogs have made the profession more sensational and whether blogs have improved the accuracy in articles. The chief downside of blogs they believe has been a loss in newspaper readership. The impact of blogs on their own work was a sensitive topic evoking passionate responses. Most reporters read a few blogs a day, though they might not have a regular blog reading list. Most reporters review blogger commentary about their work. Reporters feel that they, and the profession as a whole, has benefited from bloggers that link and comment on one topic.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper, I consider the activities of a group of individuals who tinker with and build radio hardware in an informal setting called “Geek Night.” The actors conceive of Geek Night as both play or leisure and radical pedagogical activity, which constitutes an aspect of activism surrounding citizen access to low power FM radio. They are also concerned with combating the gendered nature of hardware skills, yet in spite of their efforts men tend to have more skill and familiarity with radio hardware than women. Radio tinkering has a long history as a masculine undertaking and a site of masculine identity construction; I argue that this case represents an interplay between geek, activist, and gendered identities, all of which are salient for these actors, but which do not occur without some tension.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This research draws on two waves of data from Teen Media: The Mass Media and Adolescent Health Project that includes face to face interviews with both adolescent girls and ther parents, survey data, media life histories, collages made by participants and video interviews of the participants discussing their room and giving a ‘room tour’. This qualitative analysis seeks to identify the multiple strategies and multiple texts that buffer girls’ susceptibility to hypersexualized media influences and early sexual activity.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In industrialized societies, the primary social expectation for youth is academic attainment. However, research consistently finds that adolescents often place greater emphasis on peer status and social acceptance than academic success. This study examines the individual characteristics and attributes associated with peer status and how these criteria are potentially moderated by gender, grade level and school contexts. It relies on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to identify status-related characteristics and test theoretically derived hypotheses. Contrary to the hypothesis that delinquency increases peer status by overcoming a “maturity gap” (Moffitt 1993), findings suggest that high-rate male delinquency is unrelated to sociometric measures of status. Although a positive association is found between female delinquency and friendship network size, this relationship declines significantly with grade level. Additionally, results support the hypothesis that non-athletic activities provide opportunities for once-rejected youth to connect with similarly situated peers. Through the high school grades, band participation, but not academic success, is found to significantly increase male sociometric status. Finally, several status criteria - including sports participation, student government, band, and delinquency - vary by school context, suggesting that local structural conditions are important contributors to student social relations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Previous studies showed that gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) students’ friendship networks mostly consist of straight students, but little is known about how these cross-orientation friendships develop. This study examines what sociodemographic backgrounds and attitudes predict straight students’ chance of having GLB friends, taking advantage of school-wide friendship nomination data and sexual orientation measures available in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The analysis of subsample data from two schools showed that straight females with white racial background, college educated parents, and high cognitive ability and straight males with less masculine gender displays were more likely than other straight students to have GLB friends. These patterns resulted mostly from shared attributes between straight students and their GLB friends, demonstrating that cross-orientation friendships are constrained by homophily, like other friendships. Some attributes of straight students predicted presence of friendship ties with GLB students beyond the homophily effects, indicating that attitudes toward sexual diversity and drift processes may also contribute to the development of cross-orientation friendships.