An Experimental Study of Listener Responses to Localism in Radio Programming and Ownership
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2008 Interest, Convenience, or Necessity? An Experimental Study of Listener Responses to Localism in Radio Programming and Ownership Glenn Thomas Hubbard University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Hubbard, Glenn Thomas, "Interest, Convenience, or Necessity? An Experimental Study of Listener Responses to Localism in Radio Programming and Ownership. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2008. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/551 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Glenn Thomas Hubbard entitled "Interest, Convenience, or Necessity? An Experimental Study of Listener Responses to Localism in Radio Programming and Ownership." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Communication and Information. Benjamin J. Bates, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Mark Harmon, Naeemah Clark, David Schumann Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Glenn Thomas Hubbard entitled “Interest, Convenience, or Necessity? An Experimental Study of Listener Responses to Localism in Radio Programming and Ownership.” I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Communication and Information. Benjamin J. Bates, Major Professor _______________________________________ We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Mark Harmon _______________________________________ Naeemah Clark _______________________________________ David Schumann _______________________________________ Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School _______________________________________ (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) Interest, Convenience, or Necessity? An Experimental Study of Listener Responses to Localism in Radio Programming and Ownership A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Glenn Thomas Hubbard August 2008 Copyright © 2008 by Glenn T. Hubbard All rights reserved ii DEDICATION I lovingly dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Dr. Glenda T. Hubbard and Dr. William C. Hubbard, who never told me what I should do with my life, but led me to it by example. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the expertise, generosity and patience of my committee chair, Dr. Ben Bates, who always made time for me and always gave sound advice. I believe a dissertation should be a growth experience, and Dr. Bates held me to a standard that made this happen. I also thank my committee members, Dr. Mark Harmon, Dr. Naeemah Clark, and Dr. David Schumann, for their wise counsel. I’ve heard stories of adversarial committees, but mine was purely collaborative. All doctoral candidates should be so lucky. A special word of thanks to Dr. Schumann for pinch hitting at the last minute and, to continue the baseball metaphor, hitting a grand-slam homerun. I owe a lot to Dr. Schumann for the hours he spent consulting on my research design and data analysis. It has been an honor to work with him. In addition, Dr. Dwight Teeter was a member of my committee before book deadlines and scheduling conflicts necessitated his replacement, but his contribution to this dissertation is significant nonetheless. Few as accomplished as Dr. Teeter are so giving of their time and expertise. I also thank Cary Springer in Statistical Consulting for her many hours of hard work getting the web survey up and running, and for putting me through the ringer in the data analysis process. She’s been a great teacher. It’s become a cliché to say one makes friends for life in graduate school, but it’s true. I thank Dr. Elizabeth Crisp Crawford for her friendship, wisdom, humor, collaboration, and Wisconsin cheese. Thanks, also, to Dr. Sora Kim for her friendship and expertise – and for introducing me to Korean food. And thanks to Dr. Alla Kushniryk, Charlie Gee, Aya Muchtar, Steve Bales, Bernardo Motta, Dr. Jim Miller, Katerina Spasovska, and all my GTA office buddies for being such a significant part of my life through these most interesting years. iv I thank our associate dean, Dr. Sally McMillan, for her good work, and our dean, Dr. Michael Wirth, who lent me a stack of books on regulatory policy from his personal library. I would also like to thank the faculty in my department, the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, especially Dr. Jim Stovall, Dr. Catherine Luther, Dr. Lyn Lepre, Dr. Barbara Moore, Dr. Bob Legg, Dr. Dorothy Bowles, and our leaders, Dr. Peter Gross, Dr. Sam Swan, and Dr. Jim Crook – all wonderful colleagues, mentors and friends. Thanks also to Deborah Douglas, Chandra Eskridge, Diana King, Sherry McNair, John McNair and Anne Hensley for always finding ways to make our lives easier – and for rescuing us from our own foolishness. I thank my four years’ worth of UT broadcasting and journalism students for teaching me probably as much as I taught them. I also have brand new colleagues at the University of Texas at Arlington whom I’d like to acknowledge. I haven’t known them long, but I already feel a part of the family because of their kindness. I’m blessed with a loving family and many wonderful friends. Here’s where I really can’t list everybody, but I will name (in no particular order) Dave, Heidi, Rog, Matt, Aaron, Kris, Tim, Karla, Pam, Chris, Mary, Pastor Bob, Barbara, Suzy, Billy Ralph, Jane, Eveleen, Carolyn, Jim, Sylvia, Viara, Iveta, and my dear friend Evelyn Deviney, whose enthusiasm for learning is contagious and never-ending. I thank my brother, Curt, for being a constant source of encouragement, inspiration, and a much-needed diversion from academic work. Also, my dedication says it, but I can’t thank my mom enough – for everything. She’s the best. Finally, I would like to thank the immediate family members who have seen me through this process up-close and personally: Holly, Xavier, and Ruby. Their love and support have sustained me, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. I’m a lucky guy. v ABSTRACT Localism has long been a key goal of broadcast regulatory policy. In recent years, members of the FCC have echoed the often-repeated claims of community activists that low- power radio stations, being inherently more “local”, not only serve the public interest more effectively but also function as an antidote to what many consider the negative effects of nationally consolidated, corporate ownership of increasing numbers of radio stations. However, such a claim hinges on the assumption that small, low-power and/or community radio stations are able to compete effectively for at least some of the same listeners big corporate stations pursue. Furthermore, there is an assumption in much literature on the subject that localism itself – both in terms of ownership and programming origination – is a quality that listeners find attractive. The purpose of this study was to test these assumptions empirically. The researcher created a series of experimental conditions, delivered in the form of an online survey with embedded audio files, in which subjects heard radio program excerpts manipulated to test the variables of ownership and locality of origination, answering questions after each excerpt. Dependent variables were affective response, medium credibility and source credibility. A total of 331 respondents in Knoxville, Tennessee heard excerpts of a legal-advice program, a newscast, and a religious music show, each manipulated to sound either locally originated or nationally syndicated, on stations identified as owned by companies ranging from non-profit low-power FMs to national groups such as Clear Channel Worldwide and Infinity-Viacom. Results showed slight, statistically significant preferences for local origination of the legal advice show, on the measure of medium credibility, and for the newscast, measured in terms of affective response. Other manipulations and measures pertaining to locality of origination revealed no vi significant differences, and there were no significant differences resulting from ownership manipulations. After the experimental portion of the study was completed, subjects responded to Likert-type questions self reporting their radio listening and localism preferences, indicating that they considered radio an important source of information but had only moderate preferences for local origination. A majority registered low levels of concern about broadcast ownership. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................