Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The local growth coalition model first proposed by Logan and Molotch (1987) identified a diverse power structure operating within communities to promote economic growth, often overpowering other community voices concerned with more aesthetic considerations. This model included community media organizations as active participants in that coalition but little subsequent research has focused on the influence of local media in the context of this model and little supporting empirical evidence has ensued. This study analyzed news and editorial coverage by newspapers serving 24 Illinois communities seeking selection as prison sites over the past quarter century. Analysis of frames and frame sponsorship provided evidence of an effective alliance within these rural communities consistent with the local growth coalition model. More specifically, the study found significant imbalances in coverage of an economic growth proposal consistent with support by community newspapers of local growth coalitions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: U.S. immigration policy has been subject to two contradictory trends: (1) gender equality in eligibility to legally immigrate as permanent residents; and (2) gender inequality in the original 1986 amnesty program and legal labor recruitment or impact of proposed guest worker programs. The key results are the equalization of male and female immigrants sex ratios as a whole and the imbalance of sex ratios in traditional male sojourner immigrant streams and new woman initiated sex ratio imbalanced streams. Increasingly, the labor market is both heterogenized and divided by degree of rights based on citizenship, permanent alien, H2-4 or undocumented status. Academicians need to reach an understanding of the feminization of migration and the impact of heterogenization of the international labor force and virtual migration. Immigration policies proposed in 2006 are based on old thinking which respond to citizen sense of threat but do not recognize global realities or pay sufficient attention to human rights. This paper concludes by suggesting rethinking immigration policy in terms of the new gendering of immigration and global social change.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Despite widespread concern that differences in voter turnout rates across groups have lead to biased outcomes in American democracy, empirical tests have repeatedly found that the skewed nature of the electorate has not had any real impact on who wins or loses. In this paper we challenge this finding by noting that much of the research to date focuses on national elections, which minimizes potential bias for two reasons. First, voter turnout is much higher in Presidential and Congressional elections, effectively limiting the potential extent of bias. Second, whether or not small minority groups turn out at the national level is unlikely to affect outcomes. In contrast, non-voting by these same groups in local contests where they often make up much larger shares of the electorate could be critical. We find that turnout does matter at the local level. The lower levels of participation of racial and ethnic minorities substantially reduce their representation on city councils and in the mayor's office.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Theory. The issue of environmental injustice became a powerful force in public policy during the last decade as advocates and scholars brought attention to the inequitable dispersion of toxic wastes. The national debate over environmental injustice prominently featured those who declared that minorities were targeted for receipt of society’s most toxic wastes and those who countered that discriminatory claims are not supported by quantitative analysis. With a cursory application of Advocacy Coalition theory, I propose that two competitive coalitions dominated the policy development of environmental justice programs to the detriment of communities facing disproportionate environmental risks. Hypotheses. This study turned the focus of the environmental injustice lens to the urban areas of St. Louis, MO and Milwaukee, WI for several reasons. First, this study aimed to apply a newer lens to test the overarching null hypothesis of environmental justice. One of its manifestations is when there are no differences in the socioeconomic composition of residents near and far from environmentally hazardous sites. This study deployed a multiscale analysis to test the hypothesis that statistical results will vary across spatial scale and confound any conclusive single-scale environmental justice interpretation. A third deficiency in most studies is that they lack any comparative hazard or risk measures. Proximity tells decision makers nothing about relative-risk that would allow policy to address the “worst things first”. This study also examined the postulate that dramatic differences would be seen in the relative-risk of chemical releases across the region. Methods and Findings. Using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Risk Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) linked to 1990 census tract and block group data; this study used Geographic Information System (GIS) software to analyze the distribution of residential characteristics near and far from polluting facilities. The null hypothesis of environmental justice was rejected as minority and low-income residents were disproportionately closer to Toxics Release Inventory facilities at nonrandom significance levels. The second hypothesis was also supported as statistical results differed across spatial levels. A third postulate pertaining to relative-risk also received support as some of the most hazardous releases occurred in concentrated areas in two of the three urban areas. The methodologies combined in this study will allow decision makers to steer the next environmental justice initiative in these regions towards improved air monitoring surrounding the riskiest polluters as well as expanding community health surveillance programs. In sum, environmental injustice emerged in this study but while the analysis does not support concluding that it was intentional, any continued inaction in turning policy towards the worst relative-risk polluters in these regions would be tantamount to discriminatory neglect.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: To better understand how media portray intimate partner violence (IPV) and resultant implications for public perceptions and social policy, the study presented here content analyzes a nationally representative sample of newspaper coverage of IPV over a 2-year period and compares this coverage to epidemiological data, examining implications of discrepancies between coverage and social reality. Stratified media outlets across the country were used to obtain a representative sample of daily newspapers based on their designated market areas, resulting in 395 IPV-related articles. Results show that newspaper framing of IPV tends to be heavily skewed toward episodic framing, and that there are significant differences between content analysis data and epidemiological estimates, particularly in the area of homicide coverage and substance use, which may skew public perceptions of risk. Implications for public perceptions and social policy are discussed.