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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 459 496 CS 510 713 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (84th, Washington, DC, August 5-8, 2001). Newspaper Division. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE 2001-08-00 NOTE 528p.; For other sections of the 2001 proceedings, see CS 510 704-724. PUB TYPE Collected Works Proceedings (021) EDRS PRICE MF02/PC22 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Athletics; Broadcast Television; Case Studies; Comparative Analysis; Content Analysis; Depression (Psychology); Editing; Females; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Internet; *Journalism Education; National Surveys; News Writing; *Newspapers; Numeracy; Presidential Campaigns (United States); Professional Development; Public Health; Readability; Student Attitudes; Student Publications; Teacher Student Relationship IDENTIFIERS Business News; Civic Journalism; *Media Coverage; Newspaper in Education Program; Political Cartoons; Social Constructivism; South Korea ABSTRACT The Newspaper section, Part 1 of the proceedings contains the following selected papers: "Gatekeeping and the Editorial Cartoon: A Case Study of the 2000 Presidential Campaign Cartoons" (Jennifer M. Proffitt); "Campaign Contributions: Online Newspapers Go Beyond Shovelware in Covering Election 2000" (Jane B. Singer); "At Play in the Field of the Word: A Content Analysis of the Coverage of Women's Sports in Selected San Francisco Bay Area Newspapers" (Greg Mellen and Patricia Colemen); "An Explorative Study on the Market Relationship Between Online and Print Newspapers" (Hsiang Iris Chyi and Dominic L. Lasorsa); "Official Sources, Embedded Perspective and News Frameworks: How Two Korean Newspapers Covered a Public Health Crisis" (Robert A. Logan, Jaeyung Park, and Jae-Hwa Shin); "Numbers in the News: A Mathematics Audit of a Daily Newspaper" (Scott R. Maier); "Newsroom Numeracy: A Case Study of Mathematical Competence and Confidence" (Scott R. Maier); "Social Construction of Depression in Newspaper Frames" (Cynthia-Lou Coleman and Jessica A. Corbitt); " 'Still Shocking, But No Longer Surprising': The Anomaly Paradox in Newspaper Coverage of the 1997-1998 School Shootings" (Russell Frank); "Creating New Value for Copy Editing Instruction in the Curriculum and the University" (Ann E. Auman, Frank E. Fee, Jr., and John T. Russial); "Back to the Future? Teaching Copy Editing Skills in Changing Times" (Frank Fee, John Russial, and Ann Auman); "Convenient Excuses? Jobs, Classes, and Misconceptions Limit JMC Students' Involvement in Major" (Betsy Alderman and Fred Fedler); "The Aesthetics of Work: A Case Study on How Faculty and Students Negotiate Quality in the Newsroom" (Beverly Horvit); "Newspapers in the Age of the Internet: Adding Interactivity to Objectivity" (John L. "Jack" Morris); "Connecting with the New Culture: Trade-Press Readership among Copy Editors and Their Supervisors" (Frannk E. Fee, Jr.); A Comparative Analysis of On-line versus Print Media: Readability and Content Difference of Business News" (Jaemin Jung and Samsup Jo); "Copy Flow at Small Newspapers: Lessons for Metros Seeking Change?" (Judy Gibbs Robinson); and Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. "The Scope and Nature of Newspaper in Education Programs: A National Survey" (Patrick C. Meirick and Daniel J. Sullivan).(RS) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (84th, Washington, DC, August 5-8, 2001): Newspaper Division U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) o This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY BEST COPY AVAILABLE TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Gatekeepers 1 Running head: GATEKEEPING AND EDITORIAL CARTOONS Gatekeeping and the Editorial Cartoon: A Case Study of the 2000 Presidential Campaign Cartoons Jennifer M. Proffitt University of Wyoming E-mail: [email protected] Submission to AEJMC Annual Convention, Washington, DC, Newspaper DivisionSummer 2001 Gatekeepers 2 Abstract This case study explores gatekeeping studies and the politicaleditorial cartoon, comparing the experiences of editorial cartoonists with gatekeepingresearch findings and examining how standardization and conservative news policiesappear to apply to editorial cartoons pertaining to the 2000 presidential campaign published in The DenverPost. Sixty-nine cartoons were analyzed and compared to the 155 select articles concerning the2000 presidential campaign. This exploration also discusses The Post's endorsement of VicePresident Gore and its possible effecton choice and content of cartoons. 4 Gatekeepers 3 Gatekeeping and the Editorial Cartoon: An Exploration of the 2000Presidential Campaign Cartoons From the revolutionary time of Benjamin Franklin, hailedas the first American political cartoonist, to the 2000 election, political editorialcartoons have been fixtures in newspapers. As Somers (1998) stated, American editorial cartoonists reflectthe social and political "moods of the nation, refining and simplifying their workto insure the maximum impact on a public with little time to ponder the complex drawings and lengthy captionsof earlier times" (pp. ix-x). The political editorial cartoon should crystalliZe the issues of the day inhumorous illustrations, which is significant in a time when many Americans have little timeto spend reading a newspaper in depth. The ideal role of the political cartoonist is tocomment, through humor and sarcasm, on issues and events that occur in American society. Accordingto Spencer (1949), "One of the big jobs of the editorial cartoonist is to pack his panel withpunch...make his editorial message smack the reader in the eye" (p. 3). And according to Press (1981), politicalcartoons seek "to do more than amuse or make one sigh out a 'Well, that's life', it tries to influence the viewerto a particular viewpoint and predispose him or her toa particular action" (p. 13). However, due to standardization of news and cartoons, the proliferation of the conservativeideals of newspaper owners and editors (gatekeepers), and economic and politicalpressures, the editorial cartoon does not have the "punch" it carried in Ben Franklin's time. Thiscase study will first explore the functions of editorial cartoons, comparing the experiences of the political cartoonist with the findingsin gatekeeping studies conducted by mass media scholars. This explorationalso will examine and describe how these concerns apply to the cartoons published in The DenverPost pertaining to the 2000 presidential campaign; the study also will tryto identify possible effects of newspaper endorsements of political candidates on political cartoons. Gatekeepers 4 Gatekeeping and the Editorial Cartoon According to Somers (1998), newspaper cartooning evolved gradually. Editorial cartoons were regularly featured in newspapers throughout the country by the turn of the century, and this "proliferation so alarmed the politicians who were the target of these drawings that between 1897 and 1915 the legislatures of California, Pennsylvania, Alabama, and New York formulated anti- cartoon legislation" (Somers, 1998, p. 13). As Harrison (1981) stated, those in power have traditionally feared political cartoons for at least three reasons: "(a) the cartoon's savage ability to depict in unflattering caricature; (b) the cartoon's ability to crystallize complex issues into a simple metaphor, a mobilizing call for action; and (c) the cartoon's availability, even to those who may not be especially literate or politically aware" (p. 14). By World War I, radical cartoonists' work appeared in alternative newspapers and magazines because their uncompromising political positions were unacceptable to mainstream press (Somers, 1998). By the 1970s, syndication became the norm. The standardization of the political cartoon is similar to the findings of gatekeeper studies. According to Breed (1955a), several factors contribute to the standardization of news: "wire services and syndicates, supplying different papers with identical material in great quantities; publicity handouts distributed widely; chain ownership, and the tendency of most publishers to maintain a conservative political policy" (p. 277). Furthermore, according to Grossberg, Wartella, and Whitney (1998), journalists are constrained by the values they share for what news is, and each works for an organization with routines that also confine what news is. According to Hess (1996), "As technology widened the reach of communications, increased the costs of acquiring or starting media enterprises, and expanded the potential profits, thenews business in the twentieth century followed some of the same tendencies toward greater consolidation that can be seen in other major industries, such as automobiles and oil" (p. 7). In 6 Gatekeepers 5 1900, 10 percent of the national daily circulation was controlled by the eight largestnewspaper companies; in the 1990s, more than 70 percent of daily newspapers in the United Stateswere owned by business