Newspapers--Objectivity

Do newspapers consider their readership and its interests when choosing which news to print? The Palm Beach Post, the Austin American-Statesman and the Dayton Daily News--all owned by Cox Enterprises--serve metropolitan areas with widely varying Jewish populations. A content analysis--including story length, placement and use of graphic elements--of newspapers printed in March and July 1994 looks at whether coverage of the Middle East varies among the three newspapers.

The ways in which local newspapers select those actors who will be quoted in their stories has a profound effect on the local policy-making process. In stadium development issues, it is theorized that the media has a pro-growth bias because it has a vested interest in expanding its readership and it relies on institutional sources at the expense of community actors in part because of its increased need to maximize efficiency in its news gathering routines. The results are inconclusive on whether or not a growth bias exists but definitive in its illustration of the over-reliance on governmental sources. The result is that latent and/or actual community opposition to the stadium development issue is ignored in lieu of institutional complaints and the true sentiment of the public is not presented in the public arena.