M.Mcbride Thesis
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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:November 16, 2004 I, Michelle McBride , hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Master of Science, Health Planning and Administration in: School of Planning, College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning It is entitled: African Americans and the Journal of the Outdoor Life: A Content Analysis of Volumes 10-20, January 1913-December 1923 This work and its defense approved by: Chair: Jan M. Fritz, Ph.D. Christopher Auffrey, Ph.D. AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE JOURNAL OF THE OUTDOOR LIFE: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF VOLUMES 10-20, JANUARY 1913-DECEMBER 1923 A thesis submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in the School of Planning of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning 2004 by Michelle L. McBride, B.A. University of Cincinnati 1994 Committee Chair: Jan M. Fritz, Ph.D. Christopher Auffrey, Ph.D. 1 ABSTRACT This content analysis reviews volumes 10-20 (1913-1923) of the Journal of the Outdoor Life, a historical health journal targeted toward tuberculosis patients in the early twentieth century. Feature articles were researched citing references to African Americans. It was known that there was a much higher infection rate of tuberculosis among African Americans during the period of time in which the researched journals were published. However, few references to African Americans were identified through this content analysis. The number of articles found with references to African Americans was conversely proportionate to the high tuberculosis infection rate among African Americans during the early twentieth century. Articles with references to African Americans were further reviewed and classified by their type, focus and tone. The type classification of articles with found references was predominately “informational” as opposed to “educational” or “personal viewpoint” and the tone was classified primarily as “positive” rather than “negative” or “neutral”. African Americans were the focus of the content in only a third of the articles found to have references. This leads one to question what impact these articles had on society at the time, and perhaps more importantly, what impact they could have had in decreasing the mortality rate among African Americans in the early twentieth century. 2 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLES AND GRAPHS………………………………………………………………...4 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...5 CHAPTER 2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM…………………………………………….10 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY………………………………………………………………19 CHAPTER 4 DATA……………………………………………………………………………23 CHAPTER 5 ANALYSIS………………………………………………………………………34 Representation of Articles with References to African Americans………………………………………………………………..34 Frequency of Articles with References to African Americans…………. 36 Summary of Type, Focus and Tone…………………………..………….37 Pictorial References to African Americans………………………………38 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..40 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………..44 4 TABLES Table 1: Volume 10, 1913, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................23 Table 2: Volume 11, 1914, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................24 Table 3: Volume 12, 1915, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................24 Table 4: Volume 13, 1916, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................25 Table 5: Volume 14, 1917, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................25 Table 6: Volume 15, 1918, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................26 Table 7: Volume 16, 1919, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................26 Table 8: Volume 17, 1920, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................27 Table 9: Volume 18, 1921, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................27 Table 10 : Volume 19, 1922, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................28 Table 11: Volume 20, 1923, Journal of the Outdoor Life: Number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and number of pictures by issue.................................................................................................28 5 Table 12: Summary Information, Journal of the Outdoor Life, Volumes 10-20, January 1913-December 1923: Total number of pages, number of feature articles, number of references to African Americans and total number of pictures......29 Table 13: Feature articles with references to African Americans, Volumes 10-14 Journal of the Outdoor Life, January 1913 through December 1917: Title, length, author’s name, author’s location and author’s race by article...........30 Table 14: Feature articles with references to African Americans, Volumes 15-20 Journal of the Outdoor Life, January 1918 through December 1923: Title, length, author’s name, author’s location and author’s race by article...........31 Table 15: Feature articles with references to African Americans, Volumes 10-14 Journal of the Outdoor Life, January 1913 through December 1917: Type, focus, tone and pictorial reference by article...................................................32 Table 16: Feature articles with references to African Americans, Volumes 15-20 Journal of the Outdoor Life, January 1918 through January 1923: Type, focus, tone and pictorial reference by article .............................................................33 Table 17: Summary of Type in 37 Articles With References to African Americans.........37 Table 18: Summary of Tone in 37 Articles Found With References to African Americans .......................................................................................................................37 GRAPHS Graph 1: Feature Articles with References to African Americans vs. Total Feature Articles..............................................................................................................34 Graph 2: Pages in Feature Articles With References to African Americans vs. Total Pages in Volumes 10-20 ...................................................................................35 Graph 3: Frequency of Publication of Articles With Reference to African Americans by Year...................................................................................................................36 6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this research is to analyze the content of all feature articles that appeared in the Journal of the Outdoor Life, between January 1913 and December 1923, for references to African Americans. All issues published between 1913 and 1923 can be found in volumes 10-20, with 12 monthly issues bound in each annual volume. The Journal of the Outdoor Life was a monthly publication that evolved from an earlier journal titled The Outdoor Life. The Outdoor Life was published from 1904-1905 (Shyrock, 1957: 162-63). The Outdoor Life became the Journal of the Outdoor Life in 1905, and was made an official publication of the National Tuberculosis Association in 1906. The purpose of the journal was to “be helpful to persons seeking health by an outdoor life, and to disseminate reliable information looking to the prevention and cure of tuberculosis” (Knopf, 1922: 15). In the early nineteenth century, many individuals believed spending time outdoors, particularly at high elevations, promoted a healthy lifestyle and could even help cure tuberculosis. This belief was supported by the fact that elevation increased heart and lung action, allowing pure, aseptic oxygen to penetrate deeper in the lungs and aid in healing (Ott, 1996: 40). The association between an outdoor lifestyle and health benefits led to the entitlement of the American tuberculosis