Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (85Th, Miami, Florida, August 5-8, 2002). Radio-Television Journalism Division
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 473 792 CS 511 777 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (85th, Miami, Florida, August 5-8, 2002). Radio-Television Journalism Division. PUB DATE 2002-08-00 NOTE 325p.; For other sections of these proceedings, see CS 511 769-787. PUB TYPE Collected Works Proceedings (021) Reports Research (143) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PC14 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Broadcast Journalism; Chinese; Cross Cultural Studies; *Elections; Emotional Response; Ethics; Facial Expressions; Higher Education; *Journalism Education; *Mass Media Effects; Mass Media Role; Media Coverage; *Presidential Campaigns (United States); Radio; Sex Bias IDENTIFIERS News Sources; September 11 Terrorist Attacks 2001; Sesame Street; *Television News; *Weather Forecasting ABSTRACT The Radio-Television Journalism Division of the proceedings contains the following 12 papers: "Chinese-Language Television News in the U.S.A.: A Cross-Cultural Examination of News Formats and Sources" (Yih-Ling Liu and Tony Rimmer); "News Diffusion and Emotional Response to the September 11 Attacks" (Stacey Frank Kanihan and Kendra L. Gale); "Pacing in Television Newscasts: Does Target Audience Make a Difference?" (Mark Kelley); "The Myth of the Five-Day Forecast: A Study of Television Weather Accuracy and Audience Perceptions of Accuracy in Columbus, Ohio" (Jeffrey M. Demas); "Visual Bias in Broadcasters' Facial Expressions and Other Factors Affecting Voting Behavior of TV News Viewers in a Presidential Election" (Renita Coleman and Donald Granberg); "The Real Ted Baxter: The Rise of the Celebrity Anchorman" (Terry Anzur); "Do Sweeps Really Affect a Local News Program?: An Analysis of KTVU Evening News During the 2001 May Sweeps" (Yonghoi Song); "Stories in Dark Places: David Isay and the New Radio Documentary" (Matthew C. Ehrlich); "Television Breaking News & The Invalid Application of a Utilitarian Justification: A Practical Plan for Consequential Ethical Dialogue Before Breaking News Occurs" (Andrea Miller); "The Chromakey Ceiling: An Examination of Television Weathercasting and Why the Gender Gap Persists" (Kris M. Wilson); "Network and Local Coverage of the Year 2000 Presidential Election" (Frederick Fico and Geri Alumit Zeldes); and "On Print, Politics & the Public: 'Sesame Street's' Impact Beyond Television" (Stephanie Hay). (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 (85th, Miami, FL, August 5-8, 200Z): Radio-Television Journalism Division. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY J- 1-4cG, TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research andImprovement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproducedas received from the personor organization originating it. Minor changes have been madeto improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinionsstated in this document do not necessarilyrepresent official OERI position or policy. AVAILABLE BESTCOPY tr-1 2 RTVJ Division Chinese-Language Television News in the U.S.A: A Cross-Cultural Examination of News Formats and Sources by Yih-Ling Liu and Tony Rimmer Department of Communications, California State University, Fullerton (714) 278-3217 [email protected] Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, Miami, FL, August, 2002 Yih-Ling Liu graduated with a master's degree in communications from Cal State Fullerton. Tony Rimmer is a professor of communications in the Department of Communications at Cal State Fullerton. This paper comes from Yih-Ling Liu's thesis. Dr. Rimmer was her thesis adviser. Drs. Ed Fink & Fred Zandpour served as thesis committee members. 3 RTVJ Division Abstract Chinese-Language Television News in the U.S.A: A Cross-Cultural Examination of News Formats and Sources by Yih Ling Liu and Tony Rimmer Department of Communications California State University, Fullerton (714) 278-3271 [email protected] To study the effects of culture on ethnic news content, hypotheses were proposed based on how several cultural dimensions might influence news format and source of U.S., Taiwanese, and Chinese TV news materials broadcast to the southern California Chinese community. Cultural variables used in the hypotheses were power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, high and low context, and mono and polychronic. When compared to TV news from Taiwan, U.S. news edited by ethnic Chinese journalists at a Chinese-language television station was found to be shorter, more sensational, to contain less information, fewer government sources and fewer sources in general, to contain more female sources, and use fewer routine channels. News from mainland China was found to be different from that of Taiwan in that it showed less conflict, conveyed less information, and was reported at a slower pace. Culture seems to have influenced the way ethnic Chinese journalists produce and present TV news. The cultural dimension utilized in this study provided a useful tool for comparing the effects of culture on ethnic news media. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, Miami, FL, August, 2002 4 Chinese-Language TV News in the U.S.A. 1 Chinese-Language Television News in the U.S.A: A Cross-Cultural Examination of News Formats and Sources1 Introduction The Chinese community in southern California can see daily, locally produced, Chinese-language television news offering material that has originated in mainland China, from Taiwan, and in the U.S. This study began with a simple premise we wondered if there might be identifiable features in TV news originating from these three countries that might reflect cultural characteristicsof each country. We imagined a continuum where U.S.-originated news material at one end might show production values highlighting pace and personality and a wide variety in source type, while we might be able to place at the other end of the continuum the more government elite-centered and slower-paced TV news material from mainland China. And all this produced by U.S.-based Chinese journalists presumably immersed in the acculturation process themselves. And what of Taiwan's position on this continuum? To what degree might that country's closer ties with the U.S. influence the way its TV news was presented? Beyond the more readily apparent issues of pacing and source type, we wondered if some theoretical ideas from comparative culture developed by Hall (1983, 1976) and Hofstede (1991) might help explain the differences we saw in TV news from these three countries. This study asks whether culture is associated with TV news production forms, and attempts to identify some of the ways that culture might have an effect. More speculatively, the study considers whether western news production values reach back across the Pacific and may have an impact onthe way TV news is produced in other countries. Ethnic media can play a significant acculturative function for new immigrants. Most studies in this field emphasize the influence of ethnic media on the immigrant audience, while the impact of acculturation on the content of ethnic media is seldom mentioned. This study considers how acculturation processes might shape the content and form of ethnic media. It is ethnic journalists who are typically responsible for the news content of ethnic media. These journalists are often immigrants themselves, and therefore are influenced by the acculturative processes in their new country. As a result, their ideology of news work may be different from that of the journalists in their country of origin, as well as in the majority culture in which they now live. Acculturation may be involved in the agenda-building processes of ethnic news production by influencing the way ethnic journalists select and present news stories for their audiences. 1The authors wish to thank KSCI-TV, Los Angeles, and the managers of World Report for allowing the first author to observe their news room and talk with journalists and editors, and Drs. Ed Fink and Fred Zandpour, committee members on the thesis (Liu, 1995) from which this paper is drawn. 5 Chinese-Language TV News in the U.S.A. 2 The process of acculturation involves shifts that occur in attitudes, values, and/or behaviors of minority members toward majority cultures. A set of cultural factors is proposed here to identify ethnic differences and to explain the acculturation process. These factors may influence news formats and source selection, thereby shaping to some degree the content of television news. By examining the degree to which ethnic media content is shaped by the majority culture, and by assessing to what degree ethnic media have maintained the original culture, we may better understand part of the agenda-building process of the ethnic media. This study explored how cultural factors might shape the news formats and source selection patterns of World Report, a Chinese-language TV news program broadcast by KSCI-TV, an international TV channel in Los Angeles, California. World Report contains a section on U.S. news which is edited by World Report journalists. At the time of this study World Report contained Taiwanese and Chinese news sections which