Journalism

This study examined 1994 gubernatorial election coverage by two Florida daily newspapers, The Miami Herald and The Sun-Sentinel, to determine if their coverage was biased. The author conducted content analyses of the titles and terms both papers used to describe the candidates, the total column inches devoted to each candidate, and the number of times the candidate's name appeared in headlines. The results of the analyses were inconclusive for both elections, but in the Republican primary The Miami Herald appeared to show slight favoritism for Jeb Bush, a Miamian. The Sun-Sentinel provided relatively equal coverage for all four major candidates. In the general election both papers mentioned Lawton Chiles more frequently with more attention directed to his stand on issues possibly because of his incumbency.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is generally considered a reliable source for international news. Their web site includes a Northern Ireland news page, which provides daily coverage of the province including extensive information on the ongoing peace process. This study examines the online coverage of the Northern Ireland conflict in the year 2000. Through a textual analysis of 21 articles, an ideological critique of the BBC's rhetoric is provided. To reveal the ideological perspective of the BBC Online, the verbal text used in each article is carefully analyzed, the sources consulted are examined in terms of representation, and the images that accompany the article are studied to determine if the images match the stories or simply cater to browsers. The findings show that despite their promise of impartiality, the BBC presents a view of the Northern Ireland conflict that leans toward a unionist perspective.

This qualitative research study explores the relationship between reducing uncertainty and assigning source credibility in the context of social media sites (SMS) and examines the effect of uncertainty reduction within the social media environment on the development of relationships between journalists and their sources. For this study, interviews were conducted with professional journalists to determine whether uncertainty was reduced and credibility was established with sources via SMS (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) and what theoretical strategies journalists used to reduce their uncertainty. The study also aims to determine if correlations exist between a reporter's age, beat, and/or personal adoption of SMS and the reporter's usage of SMS for source development. The interviews were conducted with 15 journalists of The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Florida), using a standardized interview protocol. Subjects were asked to voluntarily participate in a face-to-face interview with the researcher. Reporters were selected based upon their gender and cultural ethnicity, which was representative of the newsroom demographics of The Palm Beach Post at that time. This research aims to contribute to the uncertainty reduction theory in the realm of computer-mediated communications, specifically with regard to the use of SMS in forming and maintaining journalist-source relationships.