University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation
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MANUFACTURER INFLUENCE ON TONE IN AUTO REVIEWS By GREGORY FINK A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MASS COMMUNICATION UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2013 1 © 2013 Gregory Fink 2 To my parents, teachers, friends and family who supported me through this process 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair for taking the time to both teach and guide me through the process of writing this thesis. I would also like to thank my committee for providing me with their insights during my proposal and defense. The knowledge I have gained from each of these individuals’ teachings will help me succeed well into the future. Finally, I would like to thank the University for providing me an environment conducive to my studies. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 9 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 12 Second-Level Agenda Setting ................................................................................ 13 Financial Influence .................................................................................................. 17 Product Endorsement in the Media ......................................................................... 20 The Role of the Internet and the Gate Keeper ........................................................ 22 3 RESEARCH METHODS ......................................................................................... 29 Diction and Definitions ............................................................................................ 32 Data ........................................................................................................................ 36 Intercoder Reliability ............................................................................................... 39 Empirical Framework .............................................................................................. 40 4 RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 47 Empirical Results .................................................................................................... 47 Testing for Bias in Relation to Awards .............................................................. 47 Testing for Bias in Relation to Advertising Expenditures .................................. 48 Manufacturer’s advertising expenses, 2011 ............................................... 49 Manufacturer’s magazine advertising expenses, 2011 .............................. 50 Manufacturer’s Internet advertising expenses, 2011 .................................. 51 Manufacturer’s Internet and magazine advertising expenses, 2011 .......... 52 Testing for Bias in Relation to Manufacturer-sponsored Events ....................... 53 Testing Car and Driver for bias from manufacturer-sponsored events ....... 54 Testing Motor Trend for bias from manufacturer-sponsored events .......... 54 5 DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................... 63 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 63 Future Study ........................................................................................................... 68 APPENDIX: CODEBOOK ............................................................................................. 73 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 74 5 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................ 79 6 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 3-1 Overall advertising expenditures in 2011 by manufacturer ................................. 42 3-2 Advertising expenditures on magazine and Internet in 2011 by manufacturer ... 43 3-3 Variables tested .................................................................................................. 44 3-4 Variables tested by manufacturer ....................................................................... 45 4-1 Results by independent variable ......................................................................... 56 4-2 Results by advertising expenditures in 2011 ...................................................... 58 4-3 Results by magazine advertising expenditures in 2011 ...................................... 59 4-4 Results by Internet advertising expenditures in 2011 ......................................... 60 4-5 Results by magazine and Internet advertising expenditures in 2011 .................. 61 4-6 Results by number of press drives ..................................................................... 62 7 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Mass Communication MANUFACTURER INFLUENCE ON TONE IN AUTO REVIEWS By Gregory Fink August 2013 Chair: Wayne Wanta Major: Mass Communication The relationship between automotive manufacturers and the automotive press is often muddled. Using a content analysis, this study looked at 296 reviews of vehicles by ten major manufacturers in the publications Car and Driver and Motor Trend for the year of 2011 (January through December). Using the theory of second-level agenda setting, each review was analyzed for tone and compared with the advertising expenditures of each manufacturer in 2011, as well as the number of press-related driving events each manufacturer offered each publication. The results failed to support any financial influence by the manufacturer to affect editorial tone; however, significance was found between tone and press events for one of the tested publications. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The role of advertisers often times bleeds from the pages of the media into the newsroom as David E. Davis Jr. discovered in his April 1968 article for Car and Driver “Turn Your Hymnals to 2002”. Driving the then-new BMW 2002, Davis (1968) wrote, “The 2002 had a lovely- looking AM/FM affair neatly slipped into its console—easily a hundred-and-fifty bucks worth of radio—and I couldn't pick up a Manhattan station from the far end of the Brooklyn Bridge. Honestly. It was maybe the dumbest radio anybody ever stuck in an automobile, like all Blaupunkt and Becker radios, yet the German car makers—for reasons unknown—continue to use them” (p. 86). Davis would admit in September 2009 that his refusal to write a column apologizing to Blaupunkt cost him his job with Ziff Davis Publishing, the then-owner of Car and Driver (Autoline After Hours, 2009). Automotive publications however not only rely on manufacturers as advertisers; these publications also rely on manufacturers to supply vehicles for testing – a practice that has allowed automakers to take advantage of the press and new-vehicle consumers. The use of a “ringer” 1964 Pontiac GTO with a bigger than stock 421 cubic- inch V8 engine given to Car and Driver for testing resulted in performance numbers the real car was unable to achieve (socalspeedzone, 2010). Automotive journalist Jason Cammisa reports that Volkswagen was guilty of putting more powerful European-spec engines in Volkswagen Scirocco press cars driven by American journalists when the second-generation model of the car was introduced (Cammisa, 2012). 9 Volkswagen’s press fleet was called out again late in 2011, when Consumer Reports noticed that the Volkswagen Passats being reviewed by the press contained equipment unavailable on cars sold to consumers (Linkov). Even Ferrari has dealt with issues of delivering “ringers” to journalists. British journalist Chris Harris notes in his opinion piece “How Ferrari spins” that, “Ferrari will never admit that its press cars are tuned, but has the gall to turn up at any of the big European magazines' end-of-year-shindig-tests with two cars. One for straight line work, the other for handling exercises” (Harris, 2011). Harris’ point is such: Ferrari prepares its press cars in a manner unlike the models consumers can buy. In an interesting twist, Harris was blackballed from driving Ferrari press vehicles after writing “How Ferrari spins” (Wert, 2011). Though Harris’ assertions in “How Ferrari spins” may be untrue, the ability of manufacturers to pull press credentials over an article the company disagrees with puts into question just how “unbiased” the automotive media are. In his article “Taking Readers for a Ride,” Frank Greve (2011) notes that automotive journalists are often gifted “free business-class flights and expense-paid stays at places like Archerfield House, an exclusive seaside golf resort north of Edinborough.” In the instance of the Archerfield House, Volkswagen arranged for the press to stay at the luxury resort during the press launch of the then-new Bentley Mulsanne. Of course, “gift” is a relative term to members of the automotive media. Former Car and Driver editor William Jeanes told John Phillips (2011), “As far as manufacturer gifts are concerned, a $25 windbreaker is the