Offensive Language Spoken on Popular Morning Radio Programs Megan Fitzgerald
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2007 Offensive Language Spoken on Popular Morning Radio Programs Megan Fitzgerald Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE SPOKEN ON POPULAR MORNING RADIO PROGRAMS By MEGAN FITZGERALD A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2007 The members of the Committee approve the Dissertation of Megan Fitzgerald defended on October 31, 2007. Barry Sapolsky Professor Directing Dissertation Colleen Kelley Outside Committee Member Jay Rayburn Committee Member Gary Heald Committee Member Steven McClung Committee Member Approved: Stephen McDowell, Chair, Communication John K. Mayo, Dean, Communication The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Patrick and Kathleen Fitzgerald. Thank you for supporting all that I do—even when I wanted to grow up to be the Pope. By watching you, I learned the power of teaching by example. And, you set the best. Thank you. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was completed under the guidance of my major professor, Dr. Barry Sapolsky. Dr. Sapolsky not only served as my major professor, but also as a mentor throughout my entire graduate program. He was a constant source of encouragement, motivation, and, at times, realism. In addition to serving on my committee, he also gave me the opportunity to work in the Communication Research Center. It was there that I learned the practical application of the research skills taught in the FSU classroom. It was also there that I met Michael Sarasti and made life-long friends like Anthony Marvin. Characters like Mike and Anthony made life outside of Diffenbaugh interesting and my fours years in Tallahassee memorable. Lucky for me, back home, Mike continues making my life interesting and memorable. I would also like to recognize Dr. Rayburn who always went the extra mile to support me. He offered advice, gave me countless opportunities to develop my research skills, and always checked on my health. Dr. Heald shared his vast knowledge of content analysis and intercoder reliability with me. On the first day of my first graduate class, Research Methods, I told Dr. Heald that I was worried because I had always done poorly in math. He replied, “Don’t worry. I can teach math to anyone.” He was right. I earned my first “A” in math that semester. I’d also like to acknowledge my sister, Maura Jennings, for helping format my dissertation. Without her, I’d still be trying to figure out how to insert roman numerals. Maura, Katie and Erin Fitzgerald thank you for filling my Tallahassee apartment with laughter and white- powdered donuts. Lastly, I’d like to acknowledge my best friends—all of whom changed their last names during this process—Susan Candrian, Elizabeth Love, and Allison Nucci. I couldn’t ask for better girlfriends. And, they were the only people who survived— unscathed—saying something like, “Seriously, you need to hurry up and graduate already.” Perhaps even more impressive, when they said it, I actually acknowledged they were right. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................ Page vi Abstract ...................................................................................................... Page viii 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ Page 1 Problem Statement...................................................................................... Page 1 Purpose ................................................................................................ Page 2 Context of the Problem ............................................................................... Page 3 2. Literature Review............................................................................................ Page 4 History of Offensive Language................................................................... Page 4 Offensive Language and the U.S. Courts.................................................... Page 11 The Function of Offensive Language in Society ........................................ Page 17 Cultural Concerns of Offensive Language ................................................. Page 19 Gender and Offensive Language ................................................................ Page 22 Theoretical Issues Concerning Indecent Language .................................... Page 24 Popular Press Coverage .............................................................................. Page 27 Radio and Offensive Language................................................................... Page 28 Review of Offensive Language Research on Television............................ Page 30 Research Questions and Hypotheses .......................................................... Page 32 3. Methodology ................................................................................................ Page 34 Procedure for Selection of Stations............................................................. Page 34 Coding Categories....................................................................................... Page 36 4. Results ................................................................................................ Page 37 5. Discussion ................................................................................................ Page 46 Limitations ................................................................................................ Page 49 v APPENDICES ................................................................................................ Page 51 A Study Sample ........................................................................................ Page 51 B Coding Scheme ..................................................................................... Page 52 REFERENCES ................................................................................................ Page 57 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .............................................................................. Page 64 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Station Ranking by Market.................................................................... Page 35 Table 2: Top-20 Offensive Words ....................................................................... Page 37 Table 3: Occurrence of Offensive Language by Category .................................. Page 38 Table 4: Sex of Radio Personalities..................................................................... Page 38 Table 4a: Sex of Speaker and Offensive Language............................................. Page 39 Table 5: Frequency of Offensive Language by Format....................................... Page 40 Table 6: Collapsed Formats and Frequency of Offensive Language................... Page 41 Table 6a: Category of Offensive Language within each Format......................... Page 41 Table 6b: Category of Offensive Language by Format ....................................... Page 42 Table 7: Offensive Language in each Market...................................................... Page 43 Table 7a: Offensive Language in each Region.................................................... Page 43 Table 7b: Category of Offensive Language in each Region................................ Page 43 Table 8: Hour of Offensive Language Use.......................................................... Page 44 Table 8a: Frequency of Category in each Hour................................................... Page 44 Table 9: Verbal vs. Implied Use of the Seven Dirty Words ................................ Page 45 vii ABSTRACT A content analysis examined offensive language spoken on popular morning radio programs on the five highest-rated radio stations offering live-streaming audio over the Internet in the top ten U.S. markets. While concerns over indecency have long existed, renewed interest in the issue of indecency on television and radio was sparked during the 2004 Super Bowl half- time show and, as evident in the 2007 firing of radio personality Don Imus, continues to be of concern today. The purpose of this study was to identify the amount and kind of offensive language spoken on-air. Overall, there were 872 instances of offensive language or 4.36 words spoken per hour. Of these, words classified as mild (words such as “hell” and “damn”) were the largest proportion (40.9%). While the seven dirty words were the least common form of offensive language, these supposedly banned words were still uttered on popular morning radio programs. The bulk of crude language was spoken on radio formats such as Rock and Popular that target a young audience. Additionally, the Northeast broadcasts featured significantly more instances of offensive language. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This dissertation reports the results of a content analysis of the five highest-rated radio stations in the top ten U.S. markets offering live streaming audio over the Internet. The purpose of this study is to identify the amounts and kinds of offensive language in these broadcasts. This chapter presents the problem statement, outlines the purpose of the study, and provides