Media Coverage of Music Education: How One Local Newspaper Reports on Music in the Public Schools THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jonathon Meeker, B.M. Graduate Program in Music The Ohio State University 2012 Master's Examination Committee: Dr. Patricia J. Flowers; Advisor Dr. Daryl Kinney Dr. Russel Mikkelson Copyright by Jonathon Meeker 2012 Abstract The present study investigated how a local newspaper in a large Midwestern city reported on music education in relation to the economy, politics, and advocacy. Eight years were selected from a 20 year time period. Three targeted years covered times of economic prosperity, three more covered economic decline, and two were during times of political change that had a direct effect on music education. All articles from each of these years were examined for any mention of school music programs Articles were collected and coded from the Columbus Dispatch. Articles were identified using broad search terms from the news database NewsBank. A total of 1,454 articles were coded. The results showed that the Dispatch has remained consistent on the number of articles that feature music programs when economics or politics are not being reported. Economic issues varied the greatest from year to year, with the economic low years resulting in more articles. The most recent economic decline resulted in more economic news regarding music education than all other studied years combined. Federal policy received virtually no mention in relation to music education. The majority of political news dealt with tax issues or local politics regarding curriculum and personnel. Articles that featured music programs as the main theme of the news story were generally positive. Over all, the Dispatch supported the public notion that music education is important but plagued by bad economic news. ii Dedicated to Kathleen and Zoe, my brilliant family. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank everyone who helped, guided, and supported me on this project and in my career. Specifically, I would like to thank Dr. Kinney and Dr. Mickkelson for their time and effort in working with me on this document. I would like to thank Dr. Flowers for her endless support and guidance. She has been a great help as I have worked through this degree. She is a tremendous person. Finally I would like to thank my wife Kathleen for her great support and outstanding editing skills. When I found myself floundering for words, she always had a great suggestion. iv Vita March 28, 1980 ..............................................Born - Pullman, Washington 2002................................................................B.M.E. Youngstown State University; Youngstown, Ohio 2002-2006 ......................................................Instrumental Music Teacher: Jefferson Area Local School District, Jefferson, Ohio 2006-2010 .....................................................Private Instrumental Teacher: World Music Nashville, Nashville Tennessee; Music & Arts, Franklin Tennessee 2010-present ..................................................Graduate Student: The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Music v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv Vita ...................................................................................................................................... v Fields of Study .................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Introduction and Review of Literature .............................................................. 1 Need for the Study........................................................................................................... 1 Review of Literature ........................................................................................................... 3 Music Education and its Relationship with the Community ........................................... 3 Defining community. ................................................................................................... 4 Connections between community outreach and public perceptions. ........................... 9 Research on music education and communities. ....................................................... 10 Federal Education Policy and its Effect on Music Education. ...................................... 13 Influence of U.S. social policies. ............................................................................... 14 Influence of curricular policies. ................................................................................. 14 Music education policy. ............................................................................................. 18 Music Education and the Media .................................................................................... 21 Purpose of the study ...................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 2: Methods ........................................................................................................... 27 Local Media Selection ................................................................................................... 27 Sampling Procedures ..................................................................................................... 28 Search Procedures ......................................................................................................... 31 Coding Procedures ........................................................................................................ 32 Chapter 3: Results ............................................................................................................. 36 Organization of the Columbus Dispatch ....................................................................... 36 vi Newspaper as a whole ................................................................................................... 38 Coverage of Music Education by Content Category ..................................................... 40 Feature Articles. ......................................................................................................... 41 Passing References. ................................................................................................... 42 Front Page Coverage. ................................................................................................ 43 Neighbor News .............................................................................................................. 44 Analysis by year ............................................................................................................ 46 Chapter 4: Discussion ....................................................................................................... 49 Advocacy ....................................................................................................................... 51 Coverage of ensembles.................................................................................................. 52 Neighbor News .............................................................................................................. 53 Where the news is printed ............................................................................................. 57 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 59 References ......................................................................................................................... 61 vii List of Tables Table 1. Coding topics and definitions ............................................................................. 35 Table 2. List of sections and the years they appeared in the results ................................. 37 Table 3. Number of articles printed in each section ......................................................... 40 Table 4. Number of articles printed each year, excluding Neighbor News ...................... 46 viii List of Figures Figure 1. Rate of change in Real GDP in % ..................................................................... 30 Figure 2. Unemployment in % of labor force from 1985-2010 ........................................ 31 ix Chapter 1: Introduction and Review of Literature When operating levies are put on ballots in local school districts, members of the community are faced with difficult choices. Often, communities are presented with a choice between increased taxes and cuts in programming. For a variety of reasons, arts education is frequently among the programs threatened to be cut during tough economic times. Although communities may consider music and the arts important, these experiences may have a low priority when important funding