Rise of the Audience: News, Public Affairs, and the Public Sphere in a Digital Nation

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Rise of the Audience: News, Public Affairs, and the Public Sphere in a Digital Nation Rise of the Audience: News, Public Affairs, and the Public Sphere in a Digital Nation A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Edgar C. Simpson August 2012 © 2012 Edgar C. Simpson. All Rights Reserved. This dissertation titled Rise of the Audience: News, Public Affairs, and the Public Sphere in a Digital Nation by EDGAR C. SIMPSON has been approved for the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism and the Scripps College of Communication by Michael S. Sweeney Professor of Journalism Scott Titsworth Interim Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii Abstract SIMPSON, EDGAR C., Ph.D., August 2012, Journalism Rise of the Audience: News, Public Affairs, and the Public Sphere in a Digital Nation Director of Dissertation: Michael S. Sweeney Professional daily journalism is contracting nationwide as metro newspapers withdraw from their suburbs, reduce zoned editions, and even cut back from printing seven days a week. Smaller dailies and community newspapers also are downsizing and closing their doors. Neither broadcast television nor radio nor Web start-ups have replaced the displaced journalism, creating what the Federal Communications Commission calls a “media deficit” in many communities. This dissertation seeks to explore what this trend means for public affairs information entering the public sphere by examining two live news environments, one with a daily newspaper (Wood County, Ohio) and one where a newspaper had closed (Geauga County, Ohio). Methods used were textual analysis of media texts and audience contributions including those associated with print reports, television, social media, and start-up Websites. In-depth interviews were conducted with journalists, citizens, and public officials. A survey polled opinion leaders in both counties about their assessment and use of the media in their areas. Two focus groups were conducted. Overall, this study found that daily professional journalism makes a significant difference not just in the amount of public affairs information available to a community, but also in the amount and type of conversations that take place in the digital world. In the community without daily professional journalism, residents were forced to craft their own news feeds through cobbling together social media, digital, and the less regular print reports from weekly news operations and iii those outside the county. The implications for representative democracy in the face of a daily professional journalism in retreat are clear: If the U.S. system is to thrive, more resources, at the community level, must be marshaled to support journalism. Further, the citizens will have to become increasingly sophisticated in understanding the type of content they are consuming to inform their worlds and, more importantly, what information are they not consuming. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Michael S. Sweeney Professor of Journalism iv Dedication For Mom (1937-2011) v Acknowledgments It takes a village to produce a dissertation, and this effort was no exception. This project would not have been possible without the infinite patience, keen guidance, wisdom, and computer-like memory of my chair, Dr. Michael S. Sweeney. Thank you. Dr. Aimee Edmondson, who suffered as well through my master’s thesis, was a constant, positive voice and a source of inspiration and insight. Drs. David Mould and Katherine Jellison gave cheerfully and willingly of their time, energy, and deep experience. This project was infinitely improved through their efforts. Space prohibits thanking each of the journalists, public officials, agency managers, citizens, Web entrepreneurs, and so many others who contributed to this study. This project could not have happened without hundreds of people giving of themselves to provide their perspective and experience about the fate of journalism. I would like to make special acknowledgement of those who took the time to answer the questionnaire and take part in an online focus group in the wake of the school shooting in Chardon, Ohio. This event deeply affected the community, and their willingness to talk about media coverage, which must have seemed so mundane in comparison to the deaths of three young people, is deeply appreciated. This project, too, could not have happened without the support of the staff at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and its director, Dr. Robert Stewart, who provided a grant to help complete the survey. The future of journalism always will be in good hands as long as schools such as Scripps exist and dedicated, curious, and energetic professors like Dr. Stewart continue to direct them. vi Table of Contents Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication ........................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. vi List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... xi List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1: Rise of the audience .......................................................................................... 1 Public affairs and the Public Sphere ............................................................................. 10 First Amendment ...................................................................................................... 10 Public Sphere ............................................................................................................ 12 Definition of public affairs ........................................................................................ 14 Role of journalism ..................................................................................................... 15 The communities ........................................................................................................... 18 The national landscape .............................................................................................. 18 Local communities .................................................................................................... 21 Methods ........................................................................................................................ 25 Types of text ............................................................................................................. 27 Limtations ..................................................................................................................... 31 The news divide paradoxes ........................................................................................... 32 Chapter 2: The shifting news landscape .......................................................................... 45 Place, space, and journalism ......................................................................................... 47 Geauga County news landscape ................................................................................... 54 The battle for Geauga County ................................................................................... 58 Retrenching ............................................................................................................... 61 Wood County landscape ............................................................................................... 63 Escalating and overlapping public spheres ................................................................... 68 Content in Geauga and Wood counties ..................................................................... 70 Geography ................................................................................................................. 71 Topics of content ....................................................................................................... 72 Sourcing .................................................................................................................... 74 vii Length ....................................................................................................................... 77 Letters to the editor ................................................................................................... 79 Public affairs coverage .............................................................................................. 81 Daily circulation decline ........................................................................................... 83 Broadcast and public affairs ......................................................................................... 84 ‘War on Easter’ ............................................................................................................. 88 Chapter Three: Pixels, posts, and producers ................................................................... 102 Digital extensions ....................................................................................................... 107 Converging the streams ........................................................................................... 109 The digital landscape in Geauga and Wood counties ................................................
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