Newspaper 'Opinion Leaders'

Newspaper ‘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. newspapers, 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 JOURNALISM 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 news. 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 took 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 newsroom, 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 news values. 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 source 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 other 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.

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