LSU and Southern University Compete For

Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2005 A tale of two champions: LSU and Southern University compete for coverage in Louisiana newspapers Damiane Christopher Ricks Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Ricks, Damiane Christopher, "A tale of two champions: LSU and Southern University compete for coverage in Louisiana newspapers" (2005). LSU Master's Theses. 1993. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/1993 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A TALE OF TWO CHAMPIONS: LSU AND SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY COMPETE FOR COVERAGE IN LOUISIANA NEWSPAPERS A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Mass Communication In The Manship School of Mass Communication by Damiane C. Ricks B.A., University of New Orleans, 1999 May 2005 For Ava ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the result of three-and-a-half years of hard work. It would not have been possible without the help of several very important people. First, I’d like to thank my committee members, Dr. Lori Boyer and Dr. Ralph Izard. Thank you both for lending me your expertise and advice, as well as testing the fruits of my labor in the fire of constructive criticism. A special thank you to Dr. Izard for giving me the opportunity to be a master, that on paper I probably didn’t deserve. Many, many, many thanks to my chair, Dr. Renita Coleman. Thank you for chairing yet another graduate research project. Your excitement about my topic and your constant encouragement throughout the whole process made writing this thesis less of the monster I dreaded. Thank you for working hard for me as if my project was yours, and for making yourself available at work, home and even over sushi. You were exactly what I needed in a chair, and I will always be grateful. A huge thank you to my coders, Ben and Siobhan. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the work you did for me while juggling the demands of your own lives. Ben, thanks for coding the lion’s share of the sample. Siobhan, you are a woman of integrity. It would have been so easy to back out, yet you worked for me across state lines. I consider both of you my friends. I would also like to thank my parents for always being in my corner. And last but not least, my wife, my best friend and the mother of my child, Terri, who left me alone when I needed to work, cracked the whip when I didn’t feel like working, and never doubted I would reach my goal. I love you. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………ii ACKNOLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………...iii LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………….…..v ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………….….1 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………….….5 Theory………………………………………………………….….5 Stereotypes and Modern Racism Theory…………….……5 Schema Theory……………………………………………6 Framing……………………………………………………7 Background………………………………………………………..9 Empirical Evidence………………………………………………..9 Hypotheses………………………..……………………………...18 Research Question……………………………………………….20 CHAPTER THREE: METHOD…………………………………………………………21 Operating Definitions……………………………………………23 Coder Training and Intercoder Reliability………………………25 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS…………………………………………………………..27 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION…………………………………………………….…32 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION……………………………………………...………...45 Future Studies……………………………………………………47 Beyond This Study………………………………………………48 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………..49 APPENDIX I: CODING BOOK………………………………………………………...52 APPENDIX II: CODING SHEET……………………………………………………….57 VITA……………………………………………………………………………………..59 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Individual and combined coverage……………………………………………..28 Table 2: Individual and combined coverage for the 1995 season………..……...……….28 Table 3: Individual and combined coverage for the 1998 season………………...……...29 Table 4: Individual and combined coverage for the 2003 season………………...……...29 Table 5: Prominent placement overall…….…………………………………...………...29 Table 6: Prominent placement in the Times-Picayune only…………………...………...29 Table 7: Intelligence – hard work/ effort positive index………………………...…….....30 Table 8: Physical/ athletic ability – hard work/ effort negative index………………...…31 v ABSTRACT This study’s purpose was to discover if two Louisiana newspapers gave Louisiana State University’s football team more favorable coverage than that of the team from Southern University, a historically black university. A content analysis of articles published in The Advocate (Baton Rouge) and the Times-Picayune (New Orleans) from the 1995 and 1998 seasons, when Southern University’s team accomplished greater success than LSU’s team, and the 2003 season, where both teams won national championship titles revealed that while LSU’s team did not receive more prominent coverage and praise than Southern University’s team, racial stereotypes appeared throughout the 667 articles analyzed. Although each team has a predominant number of black players, characteristics stereotypical of white players (intelligence, hard work) were used in describing LSU’s football team, which represents a predominantly white university. Characteristics stereotypical of black players (athletic ability) were used in describing Southern’s football team, which represents a historically black university. Although, there was not significantly more black stereotypes used to describe Southern than LSU, LSU players were framed significantly more often as intelligent and hard working than Southern players. These findings are consistent with modern racism theory. vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION When the Fighting Tigers of Louisiana State University football defeated the No. 1 Bowl Championship Series-ranked Sooners of Oklahoma University in the 2004 Nokia Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, they vaulted to the front page of newspaper sports sections around the country. This was no more true than in the Louisiana press. The Advocate, LSU’s hometown newspaper, hailed the 13-1 season as “the winningest season in school history,” and other Louisiana newspapers echoed the same. Another champion was born in Louisiana that year as well. Baton Rouge’s other college football team, the Southern University Jaguars, finished their season 12-1, and also were crowned national champions—the black college national champion. Southern University is a historically black university with an enrollment of about 10,000 students, compared to LSU’s 30,000-plus enrollment. While LSU competes at the Division 1-A level, the Jaguars compete at the lower Division 1-AA level. The two universities’ success had journalists dubbing Baton Rouge “Titletown,” and, like LSU, Southern appeared in Louisiana sports pages. Despite the press that both football programs received in 2003, many locals believe LSU is more favored by the press than Southern. No group makes this claim more than African-Americans, believing the cause to be racial at its core. This is significant because academic studies have shown that although the media no longer engage in traditional, old-fashioned racism that is very obvious, overt racism still exists within the media (Rainville & McCormick, 1979; McConahay, Hardee and Batts, 1981; Entman, 1990). 1 Regardless of whether racism is the reason for an assumed disparity in news coverage between the two football teams, one could argue that LSU football possesses more news value than Southern. LSU is a Division 1-A football program. This means that its opponents are more competitive than the teams Southern faces. Division 1-A teams appear in nationwide television broadcasts far more than Division 1-AA teams. Therefore, they have more exposure and thus a larger fan base. LSU is the state’s flagship university. Unlike Southern University, it bears the state’s name. LSU in many ways represents the entire state more than any other state university, while Southern, a predominately black institution, represents only a fragment of the community. In Louisiana, African Americans make up only 32 percent of the population, a comparable demographic to LSU’s 30,000 students to Southern’s 10,000 students. Clearly, from a national perspective LSU is more newsworthy than Southern University. Surely, LSU would receive more coverage than Southern in the national media. Audiences in other parts of the country are more familiar with LSU, considering most of LSU’s football games are broadcast nationwide. LSU also is the 2003 College Football National Champion. The only nationwide coverage Southern football receives is once a year when NBC broadcasts the “Bayou Classic.” While Southern’s lack of national prominence compared to LSU is a seemingly good justification for more favored news coverage, could that lack of prominence be promulgated by the media’s lack of coverage? The same argument has been made in regard to women’s sports. Gender bias studies have recorded the prejudice in reporting of women’s athletic events (Salwen and Wood, 1995; Knight and Giuliano, 2001; Eastman and Billings, 2000 and 2001), thus attracting nominal audiences.

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