Journalism Monographs

JOURNALISM MONOGRAPHS NUMBER FIVE- SEPTEMBER, 1967 BRUCE H. WESTLEY, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD RICHARD F. CARTER, DAVID G. CLARK, DONALD -M. GILLMOR, BRADLEY S. GREENBERG, WILLIAM A. HACHTEN, GEORGE S. HAGE, OLIVER KNIGHT, JACK M. MCLEOD, JOHN T. MCNELLY, JAMES J. MULLEN, EDWIN B. PARKER, GALEN RARICK, GUIDO H. STEMPEL III, DWIGHT L. TEETER, VERLING C. TROLDAHL, FREDERICK T. C. YU. Members of the AEJ Publications Committee: HILLIER KRiEGHBAUM (Chairman), WILLIAM E. AMES, ROBERT W. DESMOND, C. RICHARD KING, RALPH O. NAFZIGER, KARL F. ZEISLER. Published serially by the Association for Education in Journalism at Austin, Texas. Copyright 1967 by the Association for Education in Journalism. Manuscripts and other editorial correspondence should be addressed to the editor, Prof. Bruce H. Westley, School of Journalism, University of Wisconsin, 425 Henry Mall, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Business cor respondence, including subscriptions, should be directed to the School of Communication, University of Texas, Awtin, Texas 78712. Subscrip tion rates: $3 per year, $3.30 outside the United States and Canada. Numbers are individually priced. Checks should be made out to Jour nalism Monographs. GEORGE GERBNER The Press and the Dialogue in Education THE CASE STUDY OF A NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL CONVENTION AND ITS DEPICTION IN AMERICA'S DAILY NEWSPAPERS DR. GERBNER is dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. This report is part of a larger study of . the image of education projected by the mass media which he has carried out for the U. S. Office of Education. Contents Preface Introduction The Context of National Press Attention 5 Procedure and Preview 6 Reporting the Convention 13 Sunday: The Day .of Presidents 15 Monday: Attack on "Machines" 17 Tuesday: Attack on Complacency, Communism, Clergy 23 Wednesday: Midweek Doldrums . 25 Thursday: Attack on Schools; Promise .of "Fights" to Come 26 Friday: "Fights" Fizzle on Convention Floor but Not in Press Coverage. 27 The Speakers 28 The Pattern of Issues 30 Political Issues 32 Curriculum and Teaching Issues 39 Professional and Community Issues 43 The Final Pattern 44 List of Tables 1 Number and Average Circulation of U.S. English Language Daily Newspapers in Four Circulation Classes 7 2 Convention Press Coverage by Circulation Classes and Time Periods 8 3 Comparison of Total U.S. Circulation and TOTAL NEA Convention Coverage Circulation by Four Circulation Classes 8 4 Length of All NEA Convention Stories by Circulation Classes 9 5 Sources of Stories in Convention Press Coverage 9 6 Sources of Stories and Topics Featured Before and Mter Opening Day 14 7 Ten Most Frequently Cited Speakers in the Convention Press Coverage. 29 8 Types of Issues Featured in the Convention Press Coverage 31 9 Front Page Stories in the Convention Press Coverage 31 10 Editorials in 'the Convention Press Coverage 32 Preface THE COVERAGE OF A COMPLEX AFFAIR such as a large conference is a selective process. Its product is a system of mass-produced messages presenting to newsreaders across the nation a synthetic image of aspects of events, and reflecting many influences. The organizers of the event supply the raw material. The publicity staff pre-forms and makes visible certain aspects. Reporters shape their own selection to the image of the conventions of their trade and to the specifications of their newsrooms. Editors sift again, re-shape, headline, allocate and dis play. The outcome is a collective "report to the nation" selected, organ ized, weighted and presented from the vantage point of an institution. The press coverage analyzed in this study was both the record of such institutional behavior and, as the actual representation of real events, a source bf public information and ideas about educators and education expressed through the reporting of an education convention. In a sense, this was a case study of how one institution, the press, views and repre sents another, organized education, at least in the limited context of a national education convention. The specific events reported are of less consequence now than the process of representation, the vantage point of the "coverage," the institutional dynamics of collective image-mak ing, and the patterning of issues that results. But it was through an examination of the events and aspects selected for representation and weighted by circulation and emphasis that this case study attempted to explore that process. This study was part of a larger investigation reported in the author's technical report to the U. S. Office of Education: "Mass Communica tions and Popular Conceptions of Education," Cooperative Research Project 876 (Washington, D.C.: Office of Education, U. S. Depart- 2 GEORGE GERBNER ment of Health, Education and Welfare, 1964), but only a small part of the material reported here is contained in that report. I would like to thank for their invaluable assistance and cooperation Roy K. Wilson, Beatrice M. Gudridge, M. Ruth Broom, Phyllis Marcuc cio and others on the staff of the National Education Association who made available clippings and other materials essential to this study. GEORGE GERBNER Philadelphia, Pa. Introduction EDUCATION, THE BIGGEST PUBLIC ENTERPRISE of the nation, makes about 4 percent of all news in the daily press.' Most of that news is of local origin. Few regular events shift the educational news spotlight onto the national scene. One of these occasions is the annual convention of the National Education Association. The NEA is the largest educational, and indeed the largest profes sional, association in the world. Its top governing body, the Representa tive Assembly, meets onc~ a year in conjunction with the Annual Con vention. The 99th Annual Convention and 40th Representative Assem bly of the NEA met in Atlantic City, N.J., from Jnne 25 to June 30, 1961. The affair drew a total of about 12,000 conventioners, msitors and observers from the U.S. and abroad. Representatives of commer cial and professional media were on hand to report through press, radio, telemsion and specialized publications what the NEA had to say about the state and problems of American education to the profession and to the public. For six days, the convention plowed through a schedule of speeches, panels, business meetings, banquets, receptions, demonstrations and ex hibits. Delegates met in four General Assemblies, six Business Sessions, some 29 Department, 24 Committee and Commission and 17 Section meetings. They attended 46 film showings, mewed some 150 commer cial exhibits and saw five demonstrations of "Nike in the Attack." There were well over 500 speakers and other scheduled (and many unsched- 1 This estimate is based on our own measures and several published studies e.g. Paul Deutschmann, News Page Content of Twelve Metropolitan Dailies, (New York: Scripps-Howard Research, 1959). Similarly based estimates for front page news space range up to 1~.4 percent, and editorial space about 2.4 percent. 4 GEORGE GERBNER uled) participants to hear and-potentially-to report. Needless to say, no one could encompass it all. The Proceedings of the General Assem blies and Business Sessions alone ran to 240 closely printed pages. But even what could be encompassed and reported faced tough competition. Voluntary associations list over half the adult population of America on one or more memberships rolls.' A respectable amount of public visibility has become a virtual requirement for organizational survival and success. Little service could be performed, funds collected, mem bers enrolled or public influence exerted without some organizational facade attracting the attention of non-members who, in one way or another, affect the climate of both private and public giving and deci sion-making. Wrote Frank W. Hubbard, NEA Assistant Executive Sec retary for Information Services, in the foreword of the NEA booklet on How to Win Convention Headlines: Most conventions need to have publicity. This need is especially impor~ tant with regard to conventions organized by members of the teaching pro fession. Educators simply must have the cooperation of the communication channels-newspapers, radio, TV and magazines-in order to promote public understanding of education and of the profession. Newspapers, too, must perform several functions and cater to diverse interests. Their primary need of self-preservation requires servicing the industrial order and promoting the sale of goods (and copies) from which revenue is derived. This function accounts for most of the space, dictates the basic policies and permeates the content of the American daily paper. 2 Murray Gende11 and Hans L. Zetterberg, A Sociological Almanac for the United States (New York: The Bedminster Press, 1961), Table 35. The Context of National Press Attention NATIONAL NEWS IS LIMITED to an average of less than 12 percent of the total news space, even in large metropolitan dailies.' Organizations are among the most vociferous news-makers on the national scene. If every one of the over 8,700 national associations in America held only one major annual meeting lasting only three days, 72 national conventions would be competing for press attention every day. And they probably are. The main business of that clamor for attention is business itself. More than 57 percent of all national associations represent manufacturing, trade and commerical interests.' The industrial and business establish ment itself is the main sponsor, client and information source of the press, supporting

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