‘Opinion Leaders’ and Processes of Standardization BY WARREN BREED* The author hypothesizes an “arterial process” which would bring about a high degree of uniformity among U.S. , even if economic competition and political diversity could be in- creased. Better editors and reporters, with professional stand- ards, seem to be the best hope for counteracting this tendency.

MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS HAVE great quantities; publicity handouts dis- passed since Marlen Pew, on returning tributed widely; chain ownership; and from a trip across the country, re- the tendency of most publishers to marked that “Hundreds of newspapers, maintain a conservative political policy. though published in cities scattered The present essay will suggest a series from coast to coast, were as like as so ol further factors which have received many peas in a pod.”‘ This uniformity, little attention. or standardization, of the content of It is true, of course, that these indi- American newspapers has often been vidual newspapers are indeed reporting noted, and deserves analysis. the events of the same nation and the Standardization signifies that various same world. Thus one would expect papers (1) contain the same or similar that every editor would feature an ob- items, and (2) that these are styled and viously “big” story such as the out- arranged in the same or similar ways. break of a war, the outcome of a cru- One particular aspect of standardiza- cial congressional action, or a policy- tion, which will be the focus of the making speech by the chief executive. present article, is the tendency of many Critics of standardization feel, however, papers to feature the same stories atop that the press often exhibits conformity their front pages, to the exclusion of hardly justified by the value of the par- others. ticular stories displayed at the top of Several factors contributing to stand- page one by hundreds of editors. ardization come easily to mind: wire What seems worthy of study, then, is services and syndicates, supplying dif- the process by which editors select the ferent papers with identical material in top stories they will feature on a given day. If, as may be assumed, individual *The author. a former newspaper man, is now editors are not entirely dependent on assistant professor of sociology at Tulane Uni- versity, New Orleans, La. This article is an out- their own personal criteria of selection, growth of his Ph.D. dissertation in sociology at how in fact are the top stories chosen? Columbia University under the direction of Prof. Robert K. Merton and Prof. Paul F. Lazarsfeld. Who, or what, constitute the guides of ‘In Editor & Publisher, April 22, 1933, p. 82. Pew was long the editor of Editor & Publisher. editors? Certainly editors do not follow

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by277 FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 278 QUARTERLY governmental leaders’ suggestions as to (30,000)4 said, in response to the rou- top stories, and would resent such an tine question about which papers he inference. It is basic in the ideology of read fairly regularly: the free and responsible press that each I look at the New York Times and editor is free to decide what his paper the Herald Tribune, too, to see how they will feature or ignore. The existence of handle the . standardization, however, especially as Fortuitously, the interviewer asked, regards the featuring of certain “top” “Does this help you in playing your stories rather than many alternative sto- news?” ries, may have consequences for the Yes. (Pause.) But we don’t neces- working of democracy. These possible sarily ape them; we always give a local consequences will be discussed, follow- story the biggest play. . . . ing an account of some further and This became a consistent pattern in littlerecognized factors promoting con- the interviews. An editor would be formity. asked if the “play” of other papers That these factors exist appears evi- helped him decide which stories were dent from the writer’s study of the worth page one. Regularly, he would processes of newspaper control2 (as agree, then rapidly would back out, ditferentiated from content, audience usually to afkm that he didn’t copy the and effect). During this study some 120 other paper, and that local stories, or newspapermen+ditors and stders- later big stories, always rated over those were interviewed with relation to “con- featured in the paper read. Two forces trol,” or editorial production, of the seemed to be at work upon the editor: paper. The interviews a conversa- he wanted to acknowledge the aid from tional form, and averaged well over an other papers, yet as a professional, he hour each in duration. wanted to maintain his auton~my.~ Several “standardizing” processes While it is clear that many editors were discerned. are independent, or “innerdirected” about their decisions regarding news fl AS THE OBSERVER WATCHES NEWS- judgment, it also seems evident that one men at work, he notices that they are paper influences another, as regards the great readers of newspa~ers.~In the journalistically vital matter of page one , if a man is not working or play. The influence goes “down,” from chatting, the chances are that he is larger papers to smaller ones, as if the reading a paper. This rather pedestrian editor is employing, in absentia, the edi- truth entered-and advanced-the in- tors of the larger paper to help “make vestigation, however, only when in an up” his page.6 How true this is in any early interview a Michigan editor 4 Figures given after a newsman’s locality indi- cate the circulation range of his paper. *Warren Breed, ‘The Newspaperman, News ‘This response pattern is analogous to that of and Society” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, congressmen, who displayed some reluctance to Department of Sociology, Columbia University, admit that opinion polls correctly portrayed and 1932; and Ann Arbor, University Microfilms). measured public opinion (and, presumably, the Another phase of the study is reported in Warren influence of polls on themselves and their votes). Breed, “Social Control in the Newsroom: A George F. Lewis, “The Congressman Looks at Functional Analvsis.”,, Social Forces. 33 :326-3s the Polls,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 4:229-31 (May 193s). (June 1940). *Staffers interviewed said they read about five ‘A gross form of influenca was seen in the newspapers a day, editors claimed seven. Breed, early days of radio in the 1920s. “In the good ‘The Newspaperman, News and Society.” pp. old days, news commentators got their material 103, 134. The term staffers embraces reporters, re largely by buying late editions of the afternoon write men, copy readers, etc. papers, jotting down a few notes and marching

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Newspaper “Opinion Leaders” 279 particular case is an empirical question; ACTUAL PROOF THAT THE ARTERUL some editors are surer of their judgment pattern exists, of course, would require than others. experimental study. The front page of a The pattern of influences seems to “big” paper would have to be checked assume an “arterial” form, analogous against several “satellite” papers in its (although in reverse) to the dendritic area, and an accurate count kept of geological pattern by which rills, run- similarities and differences for equiva- nels and freshets flow into brooks and lent time-intervals. Especially close streams which in turn join the great watch would focus on “breaks” in the river. For instance, we would expect news pattern, to see whether the smaller that, say, a county weekly in Iowa will papers “switched” to the play taken by “look up to” the nearest daily for some the leader. Distant papers would serve guidance as to . The small as controls. Short of such an experi- daily, in turn, will scan the nearby big- ment, however, the following evidence city papers which are checking the Des can be marshalled to substantiate the Moines Register’s front page. Register arterial hypothesis. editors will be reading papers (we 1. The great amount of newspaper would expect) from such regional cen- reading by newsmen. This does not ters as Chicago, Minneapolis and St. prove influence, but it is logical to ex- Louis. In addition, they, together with pect that newsmen read papers not most other editors, will also see one or purely for information alone, but also two of the near-national papers: the to apply their reading to their own New York Times,7 the Herald Tribune, work. Continued exposure to a set of and the Christian Science Monitor. stimuli predisposes the individual to de- These journals are so widely mentioned veloping a favorable frame of attention, by newsmen as “papers they see fairly at least when the of the stimuli regularly” that they take on new signifi- (in this case, other papers) is valued by cance as “opinion leaders” for hundreds the individual.0 of smaller papers. Similar patterns 2. Interview responses. No editor could be found in other areas of life, flatly stated that he did not check other especially other vehicles of mass cul- papers for their news-play. Most, in ture (movies, radio, advertising, etc.) , fact, tended to acknowledge the arterial and in business, family and educational effect. Here is what some said: activities.s Definitely. You want the help of oth- er peopl-ther men who have had up to the microphone.” T. R. Carskadon, quoted in George L. Bud and Frederic E. Merwin, The lots of experience in preparing their Newspaper and Society (New York: Prentice- front pages. It’s a must. For example, Hall, 1942), p. 542. The pattern also occurs in the news editor and I will go to the ex- this form in communities moving from “folk” to change desk, and compare the handling “urban” stahls, the writer once watched a radio news broadcast in Saltillo. Mexico, in which the announcer simply read news from a newspaper. ’ heavily weighted in favor of urban, rather than ‘Thus the Tfmes, with some 500,000 circula- rural, activities. The phrase “opinion leaders” tion, may have far greater national fnfluence than was originally suggested in Paul F. Lazarsfeld, the New York Daily News, with its 2,000,000 Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet. The People’s circulation. Also. of course, the two papers are Choice (New York: Columbia University Press. read for different purposes. and the Tfmes is 1948). chap. 5. probably read more by “important” people (opin- *For a systematic discussion of this principle ion leaders). and related principles, see Charles E. Osgood and ”or the ineuence stemming from larger to Percy H. Tannenbaum. “Attitude Change and smaller cities in other ways, see R. D. McKenrie, the Principle of Congruity,” in Wilbur Schramm, The Metropolitan Community (New York: Mc- ed., The Process and Eflecfs of Mass Communi- Graw-Hill, 1933), chap. 8. It is quite clear, inci- cation (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, dentally, that news, in the American sense, is 1954). pp. 2514.

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 280 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY of stories in various papers. (Managing not, into his own dispatches; they influ- editor, Ohio, 90,000.) ence his personal political attitude and I rely on these other good papers for his professional activity.”11 T. R. Caw- help in news judgment, and on the bet- ter radio broadcasts. (Editor, Ohio, ley of the Gannett group has opined 25,000.) that perhaps what a newsman considers To a certain extent, you get a con- news is “measured by his reading of the sensus, particularly in state stories. I big dailies.”12 Smith and Rheuark quote don’t check them with that in mind. But a Pennsylvania editor as saying that if I’m in doubt sometimes, I check an early edition of a (state capital) paper, “the best news tips come from newspa- so 1 can keep with my hunch, or change. pers themselves. . . . A building boom (Editor, Midwest, 30,000.) in Pittsburgh . . . may reveal a tiny Sometimes I will see the (Philadel- boom in the correspondent’s own com- phia) Inquirer, and get ides for my munity.” l3 Allen, while confining his headlines. (Wire editor, Pennsylvania, 25,000.) statement to editorials (but presumably Sure, like everything else, you learn news-play would operate similarly), from the good points of others. There’s said “For 40 years the great editorial a herd instinct over the American press; page of the New York World was the they follow a certain line to succeed- textbook of editorial writers throughout the line which seems successful for the bigger papers. (Editor, Midwest, the country. It was consciously imitated 40,000.) by newspapers everywhere.” l4 You always study the other guy’s front page. (Editor, East, 40,000.) fl SPECULATION AS TO SOME POSSIBLE reasons why newsmen do so much A comment by a managing editor to his newspaper reading may add some clari- wire editor, overheard by the researcher fication to the pattern: (1) Many edi- while observing city desk action on a tors require staffers to be acquainted Pennsylvania daily (30,000), was: with late developments on reporting for “What did the New York papers do work, ready to “follow up” in later edi- with this story?” tions what happened in time for an 3. Scattered suggestions from the earlier paper. (2) It is professionally literature. Rosten was struck by the in- advantageous for a staffer to keep up, . fluence exerted by such papers as the both on the news itself and on newspa- New York Times and Herald Tribune, per techniques. (3) Newsmen are not the Sun, the Washington busy at all times during their eight-hour Post and the Star, and also by colum- day, newspapers are inevitably present nists-clapper, Mallon, Krock, Allen in all , and it may “look bet- and Pearson. “The influence exerted by ter” to be seen reading than to be mere- writers for the New York Times, for ly sitting. (4) News becomes a “value” example, is thus very great: the facts in to the newsman, a phenomenon he, a New York Times dispatch will be rates highly and identifies with; this is copied widely and incorporated-in possibly so true that he prefers to read whole or in part-into news accounts 11 Ibid., p. 169. going to papers all over the country.”lO 12 In Editorially Spenkfng, Rochester. n.d., IV. Elsewhere, Rosten added: “Newspapers 14-17. ppiaC. R. F. Smith and Kathryn M. Rheuark. supply a reporter with information MaMgement of Newspaper Correspondents (Ba- which he incorporates, consciously or ton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1944). p. 55. 1‘ Eric W. Allen, “The Editorial Page in the 10 Leo Rosten, The Washington Correspondents Twentieth Century,” in Bird and Merwin, op. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1937), pp. 94-9. cit., p. 310.

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Newspaper “Opinion Leaders” 28 1 papers than, say, to work in his spare believed the Times was not using it be- office time doing research or planning cause he was “riding” it. The Times re- a local feature. (5) If there are any porter corroborated this, indicating that characteristics common to the emotion- it was Times policy not to play second al and mental make-up of the newspa- fiddle to the other (much newer and perman, one may be a tendency to rest- smaller) paper. Thus readers of the two lessness, a searching for something he papers received a markedly different cannot pin down. One could “search version of the slum clearance situation. forever” in newspapers. (6) Reading The arterial effect can also work in newspapers probably fills certain needs reverse, where the bigger paper is sus- of relaxation and a sense of adequacy pect. One wire editor (eastern 30,000) (as when he discovers a story which he said, “If I see Hearst giving a story a could have handled better). In any big blast, I’ll double check it for a event, the newsman does much news- phony angle.” Similar attitudes among paper reading, and one would be hard some Midwest newsmen were voiced put to claim he is not influenced by this concerning the Chicago Tribune. repeated experience. Several kinds of suggestive evidence There are some situations which lim- have been advanced that the arterial it, or even negate, the working of the process in fact exists. A further set of arterial effect. The big local story gen- data which could support the argument eraly outranks the big national or world deals with the career pattern of news- story, and here the local editor his has men. Respondents were asked where own decision to make about relative men went on leaving their paper. By far newsworthiness. The more recent story the greatest proportion went to larger is preferred to the top story in the big papers, or to wire services. The associ- city paper, which was printed hours ate editor of a Midwest paper (40,000) earlier and at some distance. said that in 31 years only two departing In a city with competing papers, an staffers had gone to smaller papers. interesting pattern may occur. If one Here we have another reason why news- paper breaks a story of less than para- men follow larger papers: they may mount interest, the other will sometimes work for one some day. ignore or de-emphasize it. An excellent example was found in Trenton. The re- THE EXISTENCE OF SUCH A PHENOM- searcher, in checking five weeks’ issues enon prompts the question “Why?” of both papers, noted that the Trento- Why is it that many editors seek gui- nian in several issues featured, on page dance from larger papers? Here again one, news of federal aid to a local slum- some tentative suggestions will be es- clearance project amounting to some sayed, as points of departure for further $700,000. The Trenton Times barely research. noted the development with a few lines 1. Journalism lacks a body of tested at the bottom of its weekly city council knowledge about news judgment. The stories. City hall reporters on both learned disciplines-medicine, science, dailies were aware of this discrepancy. engineering, etc.-have built up, The Trenioniun reporter, on being in- through research, a body of systematic terviewed, said that he had “broken” theory and principles. Journalism, with the story (i.e., published it first), figured few exceptions, has not. Therefore, it was big news, and followed it up. He what criteria of relative newsworthiness

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 282 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY can the small-city editor apply? l5 4. A final-and more tenuous-line Which of the scores of stories reaching of reasoning to explain the pattern of his office any day merit page one? At “follow the opinion leader” would stem best, he has certain traditional rules of from something we might call the drive thumb concerning news values (names, toward cosmopolitanism. Small cities money, sex, scandal, war, conflict, etc.) . show signs of yearning to be bigger; He does know, however, that the New small papers often seek to increase their York Times employs many experienced size or appearance of size. They may do specialists to make decisions about rela- this by employing big-city “circus” tive news importance. It is a short step make-up and featuring world, rather for him to follow such a paper as the than local, news. No American city is Times. isolated from larger cities. Urbanism, 2. Following the news judgment of through the mass media, travel and mi- larger papers furnishes the newsman on gration has spread its influence widely a smaller paper a feeling of satisfaction, into non-urban places. Bigness has often or a rationalization, that he has per- been termed an American value. That formed his job adequately. An eastern the small paper may try to simulate the staffer said that editor of his bigger one, then, is not surprising. One paper compared his own news decisions hears small-town people speaking apol- with those of the Times as “proof he’s ogetically about “our little town,” “our 0. K.” The staffer then asked, “Is this little police force,” “our little newspaper why front pages all over the country here in town.” Small city institutions look the same?” A second staffer noted ure small, and in American culture big- that if an editor questions a newsman’s ness is coveted. From such considera- judgment, the latter can point to a tions of American values about bigness larger (and thus prestigeful) paper and and status, it could follow that the arte- show that the big-town editors “agreed rial pattern is a normal response. with him.” What about the reverse pattern of in- 3. There is scattered evidence that fluence: do small papers influence big many papers are understaffed. Costs of ones? Available data indicate that they publishing are up and profits are down. do not. Newsmen, asked which papers Staffers consequently have little time to they read regularly, seldom mentioned examine each piece of news for its in- smaller papers. Frequently one reporter trinsic worth. Only the big papers em- is assigned to check the smaller papers ploy editors who do nothing but sift and of the surrounding shopping area, to evaluate dispatches. The small-town clip items for rewriting. This varies in- man, aware of this, places faith in the versely with the number of “string” larger paper and the validity of its news (part-time) correspondents maintained judgment. by the paper. An example of the “big city” orientation of newsmen is the lc Walter Lippmann noted the editor’s dilemma in his classic Public Opinion, fi&t published in case of the county editor of an eastern 1922. “Without standardization, without stereo- types, without routine judgments, without a fairly paper (30,000). Although responsible NthleS disregard of subtlety, the editor would for news in the environs, he had never soon die of excitement.” Public Opinion (New York: Penguin, 1946). p. 261. The problem of seen a copy of the weekly paper from a news judgment has yet to receive adequate study. town 15 miles away, but he knew well An interesting empirical study is Walter B. Pitkin and Robert F. Harrel. Vocarional Studies in Jour- the papers from larger cities. MiLrm (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931), Part I. It seems significant that while news-

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 Newspaper “Opinion Leaders” 283 men will perhaps not be surprised about More independent editors allowed a discussion of the arterial pattern, it that the budget was a handy device but generally exists below the threshold of that they had their own sense of news their conscious mind. Only one news- values and judged accordingly. The man contacted in the survey verbalized comments given above, however, sug- a statement of the pattern before it was gest how critical the items listed on the broached by the interviewer. In much budget can be. One wants to know, who the same way, pre-literate people may selects the budget items? be unaware of the functions of some of Interviews with AP executives in their folkways. New York disclosed that the decision about budget items is made by the gen- fl THERE ARE OTHER FACTORS ENCOUR- aging uniformity in news selection: eral news editor, who works an eight- hour shift, and his two assistants who The wire budget. This device is a list take the other shifts. AP bureaus send of the stories that wire services send to tc New York a budget line or budget subscribing papers at the start of each offering, suggesting their biggest stories news-day, stories they believe will be for the day. The general news editor de- “tops” that day. National budgets (the cides which will form the budget. United Press uses the term “editors schedule”) list some ten stories. These The service message on page one dis- are supplemented by occasional later play. The “service message,” or “play notes about “upcoming” big stories, and message,” is close kin to the budget, but by regional and state budgets. The prac- less prominent. The New York Times tice dates from the early 1920s. syndicate sends to clients a report of the stories it is featuring on page one Some wire editors use the budget that night, and also which stories the more than others. It would seem that, as Herald Tribune is featuring. It would with the arterial effect, the smaller and be expected that a New England editor, less experienced editors use it most. All say, who changed his make-up after re- editors contacted, however, looked at it ceiving the Times message, would skew each day. Some comments: his shifts in the indicated direction. It is used religiously. It immediately Wire services also sometimes transmit enables you to look forward to what’s notes about the play being given by big coming-makes make-up easier. You can almost make up your paper without papers. One editor (eastern, 15,000) seeing the news-just by using the budg- said : et. (Ohio managing editor, 90,000.) The UP sends out play messages at You know they’re (budgeted stories) night . . . we do some studying and important, so you can use ’em. (Ohio soul-searching if the big papers are play- editor, 30,000.) ing something up and we’ve minimized Each day the wire service sends out it. (So you do revamp in this case?) its budget of the big stuff, and the boss Well, we do plenty of analyzing and follows that. (Assistant wire editor, considering about it. eastern, 40,000.) The managing editor . . . makes up Clipping and pasting. An “old-timer,” the paper, but doesn’t see the story-he a reporter who had drifted from paper depends on me for that. But he makes to paper in pre-Guild years, made this up the paper without reading the copy -either local or wire stuff. Just uses the remark: budget, and the report on what the city A newspaperman never thinks up editor has about local stuff. (News edi- anything new; he copies stuff from oth- tor, eastern, 60,000.) er papers.

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 284 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY City editors are still observed clipping with the ideals of democracy? Specifi- items from other papers for re-working. city requires that we briefly characterize Sometimes a reporter will simply re- democracy. For the present purposes, write the same material with a new the following six characteristics of de- twist; sometimes he will use the clip as a mocracy may suffice: point of departure and gather new ma- 1. Elective, rather than appointive, terial on the story. A reporter (eastern, officials. 25,000) said: 2. Reliance on discussion over policy issues, which in turn means that the I’m the early man in the morning. I channels of discussion must be kept . . . clip the morning paper for each open to all: good government is not an man’s beat. . . . acceptable alternative to self-govern- ment. Another reporter (eastern, 60,000) 3. Belief in the essential dignity of showed a reason for the practice, and the individual, regardless of his status, criticized it a moment later: and the belief that the individual is ra- tional and therefore capable of intelli- Around 8 a.m., the local officials gent discussion. aren’t on the job yet . . . you can’t call 4. The opportunities and freedoms of them, so we’ll just copy it right out of the civil liberties, including the freedom the morning paper. . . . Every morning of speech and the press, the freedom of the boss gives me the morning paper’s the human personality to develop to the stories of the day. . . . Confidentially, fullest. and the freedom from the inhi- if nobody’s watching, I toss ’em in the bitions of orthodoxy and conformity. wastebasket. Burns me up to think I 5. The separation and balance of in- can’t cover my beat. . . . terests, to the end that no one group dominates the activities of others. Local handling of wire copy. Wire 6. The process of peaceful change, in stories are seldom changed significantly which forms of government and the by local papers. When the copy arrives economy are not fixed, but subject to on a “ticker,” the copy editor generally modification. confines his efforts to marking capital It will be seen that standardization, as letters, and “chopping” from the bot- seen in the arterial effect and other de- tom for space reasons. In recent years vices short of autonomy, falls short of wire copy is sent to many newspapers in achieving the level of performance re- coded tape form which automatically quired by the criteria of democracy. In activates the local typesetting machine; each of the six characteristics, except any changes would require considerable the first, democratic norms would de- work. The technological innovation is mand more independence of the indi- thus insuring even closer conformity to vidual editor. the national pattern. On only one paper Criticisms of the press from the point visited did editors do any considerable of view of democracy usually point to altering of wire copy; this was a “liber- the class basis of press ownership (“the one-party press,’’ etc.),*O or to the al” daily near Washington and New in- creasing number of onepublisher cities York, thus in a position to check wire (Continued on Page 328) stories, when suspect, with sources in those news capitals. ‘#For an old and corruscating blast on this thesis, see Upton Sinclair, The Bras Check (Pas- fl IT APPEARS, THEN, THAT STANDARDI- adena: The Author, 1920). For a recent study, see Nathan Blumberg, One-Purty Press? (Lincoln: zation of newspapers exists. Now we University of Nebraska Press, 1954); the inter- pretations based on data in thin study are open can ask: How does standardization jibe to argument.

Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com by FELICIA GREENLEE BROWN on April 12, 2012 328 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY news summaries. In a sense, though, A reader or listener has at each mo- each follow-up or story of controversy ment but a limited amount of mental is a review of the controversy. Given power available. To recognize and in- terpret the symbols presented to him, the elements of controversy, these meth- requires part of this power; to arrange ods can be utilized from day to day. and combine the images suggested re- These structure types allow the con- quires a further part; and only that part which remains can be used for realizing tinuing practice of another newspaper the thought conveyed. Hence the more procedure: the cutting of a story from time and attention it takes to receive the bottom up. The important elements and understand each sentence, the less are still at the beginning of the story. time and attention can be given to the contained idea; and the less vividly will Chilton R. Bush, in his latest book that idea be conceived. . . . news writing, quotes Herbert Spen- on Further exploration of the relation- cer : ship between story structure and com- prehension is being planned-particu- 1‘ Chilton R. Bush, The Art of News Communl- larly as to the effect on comprehension c&n (New York: Appleton-Cenhwy-Crofts, Inc., 19S4). p. 12. of present practices in structuring.

Newspaper “Opinion Leaders’’ (Continued from Page 284) (“monopoly”) .I7 In contrast, the pres- between the ideals and the working of ent criticism focuses rather upon editors democratic information processes, at and the processes of , indepen- the point of the editor‘s decision as to dent of the structure of ownership. In which stories shall be displayed on page other words, the present hypothesis one. While some are undoubtedly inde- holds that the arterial and other “jour- pendent and use their own news judg- nalistic” processes would obtain even ment, many “follow the opinion leader.” with competing cities and with less oli- It is also clear, however, that editors of garchic press ownership and control. small papers are not necessarily to be All these conditions, separate and com- blamed for their abdication of auton- bined, are non-democratic. For the fu- omy. Rather, a set of institutional con- ture, one can hardly hope for more ditions causes them to follow the arte- democratic ownership or for more com- rial pattern. Under these conditions, petition; but one can always hope that editors may actually be serving their the trend toward better reporters and readers (but not ideal democracy) bet- editors will continue, and that this pro- ter by adhering to the news judgment of fessionalism may reduce the editor’s ds specialists in the big cities. pendence upon arterial aid. The danger is the potential influence What this analysis reveals is a gap of a small number of persons in decid- ing what millions of citizens will read. Great responsibility rests upon those ‘‘See. for instance, Morris L. Emst, The Fint Freedom New York: Macmillan, 1946), chaps. few. In effect, editors of large papers, 111 and N. For a strikingly effective rebuttal to this hypothesis, see Stanley K. Bigman, “Rivals and “general news editors” of wire ser- in Conformity,” JOURNALISMQUARTERLY, 25: 127- vices, hold more responsible posts than 31 (June 1948), and Raymond B. Nixon, “Im- plications of the Decreasing Number of Competi- even they perhaps realize, as absentee tive Newspapers,” in Wilbur Schramm, ed., Com- guides of the news display policies of municatfonr in Modern Society (Urbana: Univer- sity of Illinois Press, 1948). pp. 42-57. hundreds of newspapers.

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