BROADCAST EDUCATION BEA ASSOCIATION VOLUME 47 • NUMBER 5 • SEPTEMBER 2006 Feedback [ FEEDBACK ] September 2006 (Vol. 47, No. 5) Feedback is an electronic journal scheduled for posting six times a year at www.beaweb.org by the Broadcast Education Association. As an electronic journal, Feedback publishes (1) articles or essays— especially those of pedagogical value—on any aspect of electronic media: (2) responsive essays—especially industry analysis and those reacting to issues and concerns raised by previous Feedback articles and essays; (3) scholarly papers: (4) reviews of books, video, audio, film and web resources and other instructional materials; and (5) official announcements of the BEA and news from BEA Districts and Interest Divisions. Feedback is not a peer-reviewed journal. All communication regarding business, membership questions, information about past issues of Feedback and changes of address should be sent to the Executive Director, 1771 N. Street NW, Washington D.C. 20036. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 1. Submit an electronic version of the complete manuscript with references and charts in Microsoft Word along with graphs, audio/video and other graphic attachments to the editor. Retain a hard copy for refer- ence. 2. Please double-space the manuscript. Use the 5th edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) style manual. 3. Articles are limited to 3,000 words or less, and essays to 1,500 words or less. 4. All authors must provide the following information: name, employer, professional rank and/or title, complete mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, email address, and whether the writing has been presented at a prior venue. 5. If editorial suggestions are made and the author(s) agree to the changes, such changes should be submitted by email as a Microsoft Word document to the editor. 6. The editor will acknowledge receipt of documents within 48 hours and provide a response within four weeks. REVIEW GUIDELINES 1. Potential instructional materials that can be reviewed include books, computer software, CD-ROMs, guides, manuals, video program, audio programs and Web sites. 2. Reviews may be submitted by email as a Microsoft Word document to the editor. 3. Reviews must be 350-500 words in length. 4. The review must provide a full APA citation of the reviewed work. 5. The review must provide the reviewer’s name, employer, professional rank and/or title, email address and complete mailing address. SUBMISSION DEADLINES Feedback is scheduled, depending on submissions and additional material, to be posted on the BEA Web site the first day of January, March, May, July, September and November. To be considered, submissions should be submit- ted 60 days prior to posting date for that issue. Please email submissions to Joe Misiewicz at [email protected]. If needed: Joe Misiewicz, Feedback Editor, Department of Telecommunications, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306, USA. Feedback receives support from Ball State University’s College of Communication, Information and Media. BROADCAST EDUCATION ASSOCIATION BEA Customer Service: [email protected] Toll free: (888) 380-7222 FEEDBACK EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR: Joe Misiewicz, Department of Telecommunications, Ball State University ASSISTANT COPY EDITOR: Kerri Misiewicz, University Teleplex, Ball State University CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Scott Davis, Ball State University Feedback September 2006 (Vol. 47, No. 5) [ CONTENTS ] Click on title to view page. [ ARTICLES ] INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF U.S. TELEVISION ABROAD: THE CASE OF ADOLESCENTS IN MOROCCO Michael G. Elasmar ....................................................................................................4 OPINION : EXCLUSIVE EXPOSÉ OF BREAKING NEWS! Paul Greeley ..............................................................................................................17 TV MARKET AND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT MISMATCHES: EFFECTS ON CAMPAIGN SPENDING AND ELECTION OUTCOMES Mark D. Harmon ......................................................................................................19 HOW SERVICE-LEARNING, THREE PROFESSORS AND A CLIENT MET IN THE MASS COMM CLASSROOM Wayne Hepler ............................................................................................................31 ADVERTISING AVOIDANCE AND DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDERS Rachel Smiley & Steven McClung .............................................................................38 [ REVIEW ] 48 [ BIOS ] 50 [ NEWS & NOTES ] 53 [ FEEDBACK INDEX ] 66 [ DIRECTORY ] 78 BEA—Educating tomorrow’s electronic media professionals 3 [ ARTICLE ] INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF U.S. TELEVISION ABROAD: THE CASE OF ADOLESCENTS IN MOROCCO Michael G. Elasmar, ABSTRACT Ph.D. This paper set out to understand the influence of imported Associate Professor of Communication U.S. television on Moroccan adolescents. A survey of Moroccan Research and Director adolescents was undertaken during 2002. The results of this of the Communication paper support the notion that the reception and impact of Research Center, imported television programs are not isolated phenomena. Boston They are better understood by examining the components of University a viewer’s schema. In this paper, preexisting affinity of local [email protected] viewers, parental influence, and attitudes toward the imported TV programs were found to propel the viewers’ consumption of Aziz Douai, Ph.D. Candidate imported television programs. [email protected] Penn State University When television made its debut in developing countries, it began relying on imported programming content. This foreign TV content came primarily from developed countries. In the 1960s and 1970s, the United States was the main exporter of TV programs (Nordenstreng & Varis, 1973). The presence of foreign TV programs in domestic television schedules progres- sively raised concerns on the part of policy makers and interna- tional observers. These concerns became louder as television grew in popularity. When critics of imported TV discuss its influence, they overwhelmingly do so under the rubric of cultural imperial- ism (CI) (Schiller, 1969, 1991). According to its proponents, CI is “a verifiable process of social influence by which a nation imposes on other countries its set of beliefs, values, knowledge, and behavioral norms as well as its overall style of life” (Beltran, 1978, p. 184). Critics of imported TV programs use the term CI to label both the process of influence and the outcome that is assumed to result from such a process. When it comes to foreign TV influ- ence, the CI model is straightforward: exposure to imported TV programs will result in strong and homogenous effects on local viewers. 4 Feedback September 2006 (Vol. 47, No. 5) Over the years, a competing perspective about the influence of imported TV has emerged. This perspective takes into account a viewer’s ability to select from among television programs. As early as the1960s, Browne (1967) pointed out the individual differences among viewers to explain the many factors that hinder foreign TV from having a homogenous impact on domestic audiences. This notion is also supported by Salwen (1991) who maintains that: “At the very least, factors inherent within cultures... account for different responses to foreign media messages” (p. 36). This alternative perspective has been recently summarized by Elasmar (2003) in his Susceptibility to Imported Media model (SIM). The SIM model contends that the effects of imported TV programs are a function of a complex process and will depend upon pre-existing antecedents among audience members. Having both theoretical perspectives in mind, this paper sets out to understand whether U.S. TV programs have an influence on Moroccan adolescents and if so, which of the two perspectives can better explain any influence detected. LITERATURE REVIEW The Strong and Homogenous Effects Perspective: The flow and exchange processes of cultural products among world nations have given rise to an impassioned debate on how these artifacts move around the world and impact their consumers (Paterson, 2001). The theory of cultural imperialism has taken the lead in this debate while its conceptual underpinnings remain rooted in the theories of political economy and structuralism (Roach, 1997). Media-centered cultural imperi- alism theory was put forth by a number of researchers in the 1960s and 1970s (Beltran, 1978; Schiller, 1969; Mattelart, 1977). The historical context of the era, fraught with ideological strife, helped in the promulgation of its claims (Roach, 1997). Cultural imperialism underscored the close-knit relationship between the worldwide scale of the U.S. economic expansion and the exportation of American mass culture and other media products (Roach, 1997). The underlying assumption was that “the economic structures of capitalism were complemented by communications structures and cultural industries” (Roach, 1997, p.48). Varis’ study (1993) of the international flow of television in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s compiled evidence for the case of media imperialism. The study observed the process was imabalanced (Varis, 1993). Countries from the south were reduced to the role of “passive recipients of information disseminated by a few other countries”(Varis, 1993, p.33). Among the exporting countries, central focus is put on the U.S. for what is characterized as its attempt to impose its “super culture” on the world (Boulding, 1968). For MacAnany (1986), accusing the U.S. of cultural imperialism is the logical corollary of its status as a dominant