Search

Based on Jef Verschueren's Adaptation Theory, Lakoff's definition and Prince et al.'s classification of hedges, this paper takes New York Times and China Daily from January 23rd to April 8th, 2020 as corpus sources, randomly selects 39 COVID-19 reports, and makes a contrastive study of hedges among them, aiming at exploring the similarities and differences in the use of hedges in COVID-19 reports selected from Chinese and American mainstream newspapers and further revealing their influencing factors.

This study focuses on the investigation of frequency and distribution of the active, passive sentences and nominalized structures in new reports about "the terrorist attack in Ankara on October 10th" (2015) across British and American newspapers. In the light of this purpose, the following research questions are addressed: 1. How is the news about the terrorist attack in Ankara reported in British and American newspapers as far as active, passive sentences and nominalized structures are concerned? 2. What are the frequencies and distributions of active, passive sentences and nominalized structures in news reports across British and American newspapers? The data of the study are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively by finding out the frequencies and distributions of the structures, and by explaining examples from the document analysis process respectively. American newspapers were found to present the agent more frequently compared to British newspapers. The results of the study show that there are instances of passivization in mitigating a claim about the agent, or attenuating to present the details of the events. The journalists use active voice in describing the actions and events whereas they prefer passive voice in presenting the actions in which the agent is unknown or irrelevant. As the newspapers examined within the domain of this study are the most circulating and leading newspapers, the choice of these structures and their potential role in conveying ideology have crucial role in presentation of the image of Turkey in external media (i.e. the news reported abroad about Turkey). [This research study was presented at the Corpora and Discourse International Conference (June 30-July 2, 2016) Siena University, Italy.]

The article discusses the relationship between newspapers, the suburbs and advertisers. According to predictions made by the United States Bureau of the Census at the time of publication, by 1980 half of the entire population of the U.S. will be suburban. The author believes that because the suburbs are becoming increasingly divorced from and independent of large metropolitan areas, a good suburban newspaper focuses its material on a smaller geographical area that is relevant to members of that community.

Proposes that newspapers on CD-ROM can be used as effective resource for materials production in British or U.S. civilization and current-affairs courses and English-for-Specific-Purposes courses. Provides ideas for using newspaper articles as basis for materials design, language-learning exercises, project work, computer-assisted language-learning exercises, and conversation classes. Gives practical advice on how to obtain newspapers on CD-ROM in Europe and the United States. (Author/JL)

Major changes to the operation of local newsrooms--ownership restructuring, layoffs, and a reorientation away from print advertising--have become commonplace in the last few decades. However, there have been few systematic attempts to characterize the impact of these changes on the types of reporting that local newsrooms produce. In this paper, we propose a method to measure the investigative content of news articles based on article text and influence on subsequent articles. We use our method to examine over-time and cross-sectional patterns in news production by local newspapers in the United States over the past decade. We find surprising stability in the quantity of investigative articles produced over most of the time period examined, but a notable decline in the last 2 y of the decade, corresponding to a recent wave of newsroom layoffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the competitive forces which shaped ideological diversity in the US press in the early twentieth century. We find that households preferred like-minded news and that newspapers used their political orientation to differentiate from competitors. We formulate a model of newspaper demand, entry, and political affiliation choice in which newspapers compete for both readers and advertisers. We use a combination of estimation and calibration to identify the model's parameters from novel data on newspaper circulation, costs, and revenues. The estimated model implies that competition enhances ideological diversity, that the market undersupplies diversity, and that optimal competition policy requires accounting for the two-sidedness of the news market. (JEL D72, K21, L13, L41, L82, N42, N72) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there are numerous anecdotal reports, there are few systematic studies of advertisers' attempts to influence news reports. The two empirical studies that examined advertising pressures on editors and writers at farm, business, and consumer magazines found that the pressure is much greater than suggested by academic writers. Another study of television found organizational pressures to approve deceptive program-length advertisements, i.e., infomercials. This study extended the empirical research about advertising pressures to newspapers. A survey of editors at daily newspapers found that just under ninety percent reported that advertisers attempted to influence the content of stories appearing in their papers; ninety percent had economic pressure applied on them by advertisers because of their reporting; and thirty-seven percent had capitulated to advertiser pressure. Despite these pressures, eighty-five percent of the editors reported that their papers carry stories that advertisers "find critical or harmful." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Judicial behavior is contingent on case salience. Unfortunately, existing measures of case salience have met with some skepticism. After discussing the characteristics of an ideal measure of salience, the authors construct a new measure of case salience. This new measure expands on prior studies by examining coverage in four diverse newspapers and includes coverage anywhere in the paper, instead of concentrating on front-page coverage only. By developing this new measure, the authors uncover patterns about national media coverage of the Court and provide a potentially more useful measure of case salience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In August 1996, a regional newspaper, the San Jose (CA) Mercury News unveiled the results of its year-long investigation into links between the spread of crack cocaine in the U.S. and fundraising for the CIA-backed contra rebels in Central America. "Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion" was the first investigative report to achieve national prominence primarily via Internet dissemination. Investigations by three of the country's largest dailies, rather than advancing the Mercury's claims, turned into a sustained and damaging critique. Commentators have characterized this sharp scrutiny of a respected regional paper as everything from a defense of journalistic standards to damage control for the CIA. Nearly all, however, have ignored the larger critique of the Internet as a medium of news distribution that emerged in the follow-up coverage. This study examines the controversy as a case of news repair, as defined by Bennett, Gressett, and Haltom (1985), noting what the case reveals about the operation of news repair itself in an era of Internet-based news delivery. The repair of "Dark Alliance" affirmed a paradigmatic understanding of what is and is not news. More broadly, it defended the authority of established broadsheets over the new media and affirmed the traditional hierarchy of national over regional newspapers. This paper argues that the Internet's role in the publication of this controversial exposé created both need and opportunity for repair of institutional boundaries -- those violated by the Mercury's use of the new medium and a more general erosion in the ongoing migration of news to the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use new data on entries and exits of US daily newspapers from 1869 to 2004 to estimate effects on political participation, party vote shares, and electoral competitiveness. Our identification strategy exploits the precise timing of these events and allows for the possibility of confounding trends. We focus our analysis on the years 1869- 1928, and we use the remaining years of data to look at changes over time. We find that newspapers have a robust positive effect on political participation, with one additional newspaper increasing both presidential and congressional turnout by approximately 0.3 percentage points. Newspaper competition is not a key driver of turnout: our effect is driven mainly by the first newspaper in a market, and the effect of a second or third paper is significantly smaller. The effect on presidential turnout diminishes after the introduction of radio and television, while the estimated effect on congressional turnout remains similar up to recent years. We find no evidence that partisan newspapers affect party vote shares, with confidence intervals that rule out even moderate-sized effects. We find no clear evidence that newspapers systematically help or hurt incumbents. (JEL D72, L11, L82, N41, N42, N81, N82) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considers the origins of newspaper politics in the late 1780s and early 1790s in the United States (US). Primary model of the US leaders in devising a press policy for the government; Details on the efforts of John Fenno, an entrepreneur, to equip the US government with a newspaper voice; Introduction of the newspaper `Gazette of the United States' in April 1789.

Mugshot websites have become popular -- and controversial -- across the United States as news outlets seek more Web traffic and the advertising revenue that accompanies it. Proponents argue that online photo galleries showing recent arrests in the community are a modern incarnation of a practice that newspapers and television stations have done for years and provide a valuable public service. However, critics contend such sites may demonize innocent people, perpetuate racial stereotypes, and permanently brand individuals with a digital scarlet letter. As the national conversation on criminal justice shifts following the police killing of George Floyd, newsrooms are beginning to reevaluate their mugshot galleries and several have decided to discontinue them. With the law providing little, if any, help, according to First Amendment scholars, the issue is primarily an ethical one. This paper analyzes the controversy through the lens of the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics. It concludes that, while mugshot sites are not an inherently unethical journalism practice, many news outlets present mugshots utilizing ethically dubious methods that urgently need to be reformed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Portland, Oregon-based newspaper the "Oregonian" during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It comments on the roles of the newspaper's publisher, E. Palmer Hoyt, reporter and later publisher Robert C. Notson, and consultant Guy T. Viskniskki. The author examines the newspaper's approaches to adapting to changed economic conditions, noting its radio broadcasting activities, the loosening of editorial policies to include a greater variety of viewpoints, and changes to advertising practices.

This article reports on the coverage of the U.S. healthcare crisis by newspapers in 2006. The crisis received a little attention from the press. The reasons for this observation are indicated. Moreover, this article states the position of physicians on the crisis and some actions they are taking to address it.

The merits of two competing views of newspaper bias are evaluated using the New York Times' coverage of racial controversies in New York City between 1960 and July 1964. The idea that the news is biased receives only limited support. Minority actors were not prohibited successfully from presenting their case to the public, were seen as initiating a variety of actions and received similar placement in the paper for their activities as more powerful political adversaries received. The conditions under which information derived from newspaper stories can be treated as a reliable and valid record of conflicts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the phenomenon of the gift enterprise bookstore in the mid-nineteenth-century United States. An early form of premium marketing, the gift-book enterprise promised to reward each book purchase with a surprise 'gift', ranging from pencils to dress patterns to cutlery to jewellery. A novel form of marketing books, the gift enterprise bookstore teetered on a thin line between sensation and sham. Although decried as form of illegal lottery gambling and beset by accusations of dishonesty, gift-book enterprises grew immensely popular. Drawing on extensive archival research on one of the most successful gift-book enterprises, the bookstores of G.G. and D.W. Evans--operating in urban centres from 1856-1861--this article examines gift enterprise bookselling in the context of mid-nineteenth-century American print cultures. As savvy entrepreneurs, the Evans' leveraged the national reach and perceived authority of the newspaper by engaging in debates over the morality and legality of the business in the columns of widely-circulating papers and capitalised on editorial and reprinting practices to endorse their business model and market their bookstores. In addition, in lengthy bookseller catalogues distributed across the nation, the Evans' created a bookstore in print and shaped inclusive imagined and real communities of readerbook buyers. Examining the print culture of Evans' gift-book enterprise offers new insights into nineteenth-century book marketing and the ways in which gift enterprise bookselling was intimately connected to and inseparable from contemporary print forms, networks, and practices. Taking the gift-book enterprise seriously expands the histories of American bookselling and decentres the dominant focus on large publishers. In addition, the gift-bookstore phenomenon highlights how bookselling is always entwined with larger cultural dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between media bias and the influence of the media on voting in the context of newspaper endorsements. We first develop a simple econometric model in which voters choose candidates under uncertainty and rely on endorsements from better informed sources. Newspapers are potentially biased in favour of one of the candidates and voters thus rationally account for the credibility of any endorsements. Our primary empirical finding is that endorsements are influential in the sense that voters are more likely to support the recommended candidate after publication of the endorsement. The degree of this influence, however, depends upon the credibility of the endorsement. In this way, endorsements for the Democratic candidate from left-leaning newspapers are less influential than are endorsements from neutral or right-leaning newspapers and likewise for endorsements for the Republican. We also find that endorsements are more influential among moderate voters and those more likely to be exposed to the endorsement. In sum, these findings suggest that voters do rely on the media for information during campaigns but that the extent of this reliance depends upon the degree and direction of any bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Cigarette butt litter is a potential target of tobacco control. In addition to its toxicity and non-biodegradability, it can justify environmental regulation and policies that raise the price of tobacco and further denormalise its use. This paper examines how the tobacco industry has managed the cigarette butt litter issue and how the issue has been covered in the media. Methods We searched the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library () using a snowball strategy. We analysed data from approximately 700 documents, dated 1959-2006, using an interpretive approach. We also searched two newspaper databases, Lexis/Nexis and Newsbank, and found 406 relevant articles, dated 1982-2009 which we analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results The tobacco industry monitored and developed strategies for dealing with the cigarette litter issue because it affected the social acceptability of smoking, created the potential for alliances between tobacco control and environmental advocates, and created a target for regulation. The industry developed anti-litter programs with Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and similar organisations. Media coverage focused on industry-acceptable solutions, such as volunteer clean-ups and installation of ashtrays; stories that mentioned KAB were also more frequently positive towards the tobacco industry. Among alternative approaches, clean outdoor air (COA) laws received the most media attention. Conclusions Cigarette litter, like secondhand smoke, is the result of smoker behaviour and affects nonsmokers. The tobacco industry has tried and failed to mitigate the impact of cigarette litter. Tobacco control advocates should explore alliances with environmental groups and propose policy options that hold the industry accountable for cigarette waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on connected factors that contribute to United States (US) media reporting on anthropogenic climate change science. It analyses US newspapers and television news from 1995 to 2006 as well as semi-structured interviews with climate scientists and environmental journalists. Through analyses of power and scale, the paper brings together issues of framing in journalism to questions of certainty/uncertainty in climate science. The paper examines how and why US media have represented conflict and contentions, despite an emergent consensus view regarding anthropogenic climate science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses on the literary works of author Virginia Woolf during the 19th century in the U.S. It emphasizes that during Woolf's period, newspaper was a popular means of literary media. For her, the journal "The Times," has played a formative role developing her feminism. The influence of newspaper has been demonstrated in her last novel "Between the Acts."

Focuses on the significance of the "Ostfriesische Nachrichten" ethnic newspaper on the homeland settlement in the U.S. Discussion on the flow of information in place for the East Frisians; Biography of Luepke Hündling, editor of the newspaper; Effect of "Ostfriesische Nachrichten" on East Frisian identity and migration in the country.

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article comments on Walter J. Primeaux Jr.'s paper "The Newspaper Rate Differential: Another Element in the Explanation." Primeaux argues that the national rate is set higher by newspapers, acting under competitive pressures, in order to accommodate retail customers in their practice of double billing. Since most newspapers charge a higher rate to national advertisers, the presumption must be that they and their retail customers are engaged in a continuing collusion to bilk manufacturers. This has been going on for a very long time, and one might suppose that even if it had been ignored by the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission it might have come to the attention of the vendors who pay the cost but who are, according to Primeaux, "usually unaware that double billing is being employed." There is, moreover, on many papers a substantial difference between the maximum or open-line retail rate and the minimum rate that applies for a retail account that advertises with high volume and frequency.

Produced in a historiographical spirit, this literature review traces trends in the depiction of Hmong Americans not in popular representations such as newspapers or public perception, but in the American academic discourse itself. By adopting a thematic approach, it evidences the curious chronological development of which aspects of Hmong studies were treated in which way from the 1980s until the present. To this extent, the paper argues that while the 1980s and 1990s saw a heavy emphasis on social scientific studies of Hmong family ties and clan structure which, while careful and mostly sensitive in their treatment, nevertheless on occasion construct the Hmong as either irreconcilably or undesirably different (sections I and II). It then proceeds to crystallise the significant treatment of education with respect to the Hmong, which, produced in particular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, presented powerful cases of forced assimilation through the lens of Hmong Americans themselves (section III). A brief fourth section focuses on the marginal role ascribed to economic problems encountered by the Hmong, treated as almost inevitable. Crucially, the fifth section proceeds to problematise more recent feminist critiques. The argument presented here is that their central drawback lies in the appropriation and overriding of Hmong voices for a particular project. This construction of Hmong voices, finally, is on the retreat in most recent studies which, centred on horticulture, music, rituals and medicine - to name but a few - attempt to elucidate the Hmong American experience through the lens of the protagonists themselves. This is an important step, and one which must be pursued further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis explores how case facts and the characteristics of media and the judiciary affect news coverage of the courts. It examines newspaper coverage of the decisions of twenty state supreme courts during calendar year 1998 and matches relevant stories to the cases contained in the Brace and Hall State Supreme Court Data Project (2002). The results are consistent with the hypotheses that case facts, media characteristics, and judicial characteristics all affect the probability that a case will receive news coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the role of newspapers at the time of the French revolution during 1792-1793. It is stated that a study of newspapers in 1792-1793 reveals the impact of the radicalized French Revolution on the political culture of the U.S. It is mentioned that newspapers developed a feeling of community among otherwise unconnected francophiles, and also provided them with a chronology of events. Many Democratic-Republican editors, including Thomas Adams, promoted the role of newspapers in the advancement of liberty. Events during the French Revolution included the French victory over the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy on September 20, 1792, and the establishment of the French Republic on September 22, 1792.

Historical newspaper research has become increasingly straightforward with digitization and has allowed historical research to be more accessible for the general public. The Utah Digital Newspapers program is a seminal project that has led the way for libraries and archives to digitize their historical newspapers. With over five million newspaper articles online, first-hand reports of historical events are at the fingertips of anybody with an Internet connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalists seem to treat public relations and its practitioners with contempt. However, this tension is complex and no studies have investigated the problem’s historic roots. Thus, this paper explores the perspective of “early insiders” through an historical analysis of autobiographies, biographies, and magazine articles written by and about early US newspaper reporters and editors. Results revealed six interrelated factors that contributed to the origins, persistence, and contradictions surrounding the hostility. The paper concludes with practical implications and future research directions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents views concerning the articles written by Mark Twain in the San Francisco "Daily Alta California" newspaper on November 20, 1867. It asserts that the writings of Twain moved him beyond the provincial fame as a journalist in the far western U.S. It mentions that the articles demonstrate Twain's authorial maneuvering in the moment of literary identity crisis. Moreover, it states that the articles of Twain are part of a rich tradition of journalistic humor in the far western U.S.

Discusses the role of mediators in the process of cultural transfer in the American-occupied Germany during the years 1944 to 1947. United States Office of Military Government in Germany's creation of the newspaper `Die Neue Zeitung'; Newspaper's transmission of cultural values to Germany; Staff's understanding of how to present American values to a German audience.

The article addresses the controversy over the invention of the sound motion picture. It examines Parisian journalists' attempts to write the history of synchronised sound films in reaction to the U.S. film industry's eventual conversion to sound. Between April and October 1935, newspapers in Paris, France, carried a series of polemical article concerning the inventor of the talking picture. On the occasion of the death of inventor Thomas Edison on October 18, 1931, a series signed pseudonymously Phil M. Daly which appeared in the New York trade paper "Film Daily" looked back at the Kinetophone. The arguments between the various trade journals and newspapers climaxed at the end of October 1935.

An analysis of the coverage by two St. Louis newspapers of local crime occurrences between 1969 and 1972 finds that (1) how much various types of crime increase or decrease from year to year is unrelated to how much more or less attention is given them by the press; and (2) the type of crime and its location within the city affect the amount of coverage it receives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Develops a microeconomic planning model to forecast sales and earnings for the New York Times newspaper. Elements of a newspaper model; Evaluation of the impact of changes in internal and external conditions on newspaper earnings; Integration of the financial, production and marketing activities of each division; Applications of the model in planning and budgeting.

This article explores discursive constructions of women trafficked for sexual exploitation in newspaper articles in the United Kingdom and the United States. I draw on the results of a multimodal discourse analysis of 25 articles published in 2018 across seven newspapers. The framework of politics of pity is used to analyze the politics of representation of trafficked women. The analysis yields six categories that fall into two themes: Agency is depicted through trafficked women as deceased, controlled, and injured subjects, and visibility through the categories of strangers, victims, and survivors. These ways of appearance suggest that, in newspaper content, trafficked women are placed on a hierarchy of victimhood. Appeals to compassionate care are reserved for "ideal victims," while those lower on the hierarchy are construed as ambivalent subjects lacking a political voice. The study shows that dominant constructions of public suffering reflect a neo-abolitionist politics of representation, while marginalized identities and subjectivities are framed through ambivalence. To expand the remit of care, ambivalence could be productively used to contextualize social oppression in media accounts of human trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degree to which the media report a health emergency affects the seriousness with which the people respond to combat the health crisis. Engagement from local newspapers in the US has received scant scrutiny, even though there is a sizable body of scholarship on the analysis of COVID-19 news. We fill this void by focusing on the Rio Grande Valley area of the US-Mexico border. To understand the differences, we compared such local news coverage with the coverage of a national news outlet. After collecting the relevant news articles, we used sentiment analysis, rapid automatic keyword extraction (RAKE), and co-occurrence network analysis to examine the main themes and sentiments of COVID-19 news articles. The RAKE identified that county-specific news or local regulations are more prevalent among the key terms in The Monitor which are absent in USA Today. The co-occurrence network shows the coverage of the disruption of sports season in USA Today which is not present in The Monitor. The sentiment analysis presents fear emotion is more dominant in USA Today, but trust emotion becomes more prevalent in The Monitor news coverage. These findings show us that, although the subject of the health emergency is the same, local and national newspapers describe it in different ways, and the sentiments they convey are also not the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Information about how newspapers portray antidiabetic medicines to readers is lacking. This study investigated the reporting on antidiabetic medicines in the most widely circulated newspapers published in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) over a 10-year period. Methods: The Nexis UK database was used to identify and select relevant articles. Systematic content analysis of the articles which met the inclusion criteria (articles of any format that contained reference to antidiabetic medicines) within the highest circulated newspapers in the UK and US between 2009 and 2018 was conducted. Inter-rater reliability of coding was established using a 10% sample of the identified articles. Results: A total of 560 (369 UK and 191 US) relevant newspaper articles were retrieved. In the UK, the number of relevant articles showed a slightly increasing trend over the study period, while in the US, article numbers declined over the study period. Safety/risk of antidiabetic medicines was the most frequent theme covered by the articles (34.6%). Over one-third of the newspaper articles were written from a clinical perspective (37.7%). Insulin was the most commonly discussed class of antidiabetic medicine (23.1%). Control of blood sugar levels (53.1%) and side effects/toxicity (92.7%) were the most frequently reported benefit and risk of antidiabetic medicines, respectively. The most frequently reported organ systems harmed by antidiabetic medicines were the cardiovascular, endocrine and gastrointestinal systems. The UK newspapers were more likely to report the benefits of antidiabetic medicines (p = 0.005), while the US articles were more likely to report on harms/risks (p = 0.001). The majority of relevant articles (91.8%) were judged as having a balanced judgement, while 8.2% of the articles were rated as exaggerated. Conclusions: This study has revealed that antidiabetic medicines are indeed reported on by UK and US newspapers. As media portrayal has the potential to negatively or positively influence patients' views of their medication for diabetes, healthcare professionals should check on patients' beliefs and knowledge about their medication and proactively provide objective and balanced information (including promotion of medication adherence). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the past decade, most people who buy and own guns are doing so for self-defense. Yet little is known about actual defensive gun use in the USA. Methods: To discover what information newspaper articles and local news reports might add, we read the news reports of defensive use incidents assembled by the Gun Violence Archive. We examined a sample of more than a quarter of the incidents from 2019, the last year before the pandemic. We examined all cases from four months—January, April, July, and October. We created a typology of defensive gun use incidents. Results: Of 418 incidents, in about half, the perpetrator was armed with a firearm. In almost 90% of the cases, the victim fired their firearm—315 perpetrators were shot and about half of them died. The average number of perpetrators shot per incident was 0.75; the average number of victims shot was 0.25. We estimate that in 2019 fewer than 600 potential perpetrators were killed in defensive gun use incidents that made the news. Among the thirteen categories of shooting were drug-related (4% of incidents), gang-like combat (6%), romantic partner disputes (11%), escalating arguments (13%), store robberies (9%), street robberies (5%), unoccupied vehicle theft (5%), unarmed burglaries (7%), home invasions (20%), and miscellaneous (6%). Conclusion: We believe the Gun Violence Archive dataset includes the large majority of news reports of defensive gun use—and especially those in which the perpetrator is shot and dies. Some of the strengths of using news reports as a data source are that we can be certain that the incident occurred, and the reports provide us with a story behind the incident, one usually vetted in part by the police with occasional input from the victims, perpetrator, family, witnesses, or neighbors. Defensive gun use situations are quite diverse, and among the various categories of defensive gun use, a higher percentage of incidents in some of the categories seemed far less likely to be socially beneficial (e.g., drug-related, gang-like, escalating arguments) than in others (e.g., home invasions). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This study investigated the nature of newspaper reporting about online health information in the UK and US. Internet users frequently search for health information online, although the accuracy of the information retrieved varies greatly and can be misleading. Newspapers have the potential to influence public health behaviours, but information has been lacking in relation to how newspapers portray online health information to their readers. Methods The newspaper database Nexis®UK was searched for articles published from 2003 - 2012 relating to online health information. Systematic content analysis of articles published in the highest circulation newspapers in the UK and US was performed. A second researcher coded a 10% sample to establish inter-rater reliability of coding. Results In total, 161 newspaper articles were included in the analysis. Publication was most frequent in 2003, 2008 and 2009, which coincided with global threats to public health. UK broadsheet newspapers were significantly more likely to cover online health information than UK tabloid newspapers (p = 0.04) and only one article was identified in US tabloid newspapers. Articles most frequently appeared in health sections. Among the 79 articles that linked online health information to specific diseases or health topics, diabetes was the most frequently mentioned disease, cancer the commonest group of diseases and sexual health the most frequent health topic. Articles portrayed benefits of obtaining online health information more frequently than risks. Quotations from health professionals portrayed mixed opinions regarding public access to online health information. 108 (67.1%) articles directed readers to specific health-related web sites. 135 (83.9%) articles were rated as having balanced judgement and 76 (47.2%) were judged as having excellent quality reporting. No difference was found in the quality of reporting between UK and US articles. Conclusions Newspaper coverage of online health information was low during the 10-year period 2003 to 2012. Journalists tended to emphasise the benefits and understate the risks of online health information and the quality of reporting varied considerably. Newspapers directed readers to sources of online health information during global epidemics although, as most articles appeared in the health sections of broadsheet newspapers, coverage was limited to a relatively small readership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media freedom strongly inhibits corruption and promotes good governance, but what leads to media freedom? Do economic development and higher advertising revenues tend to make media outlets independent of political groups' influence? Using data on nineteenth-century American newspapers, I show that places with higher advertising revenues were likelier to have newspapers that were independent of political parties. Similar results hold when local advertising rates are instrumented by regulations on outdoor advertising and newspaper distribution. In addition, newly created newspapers were more likely to enter the market as independents in places with higher advertising rates. I also exploit the precise timing of major changes in advertising rates to identify how advertising revenues affected the entry of new newspapers. Finally, I demonstrate that economic development, and concomitant higher advertising revenue, is not the only reason that an independent press expands; political factors also played a role. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

AIM: To investigate the impact of newspaper use in a year of increased coverage of litigation against the tobacco industry on youths' beliefs about the health risks of ‘light’ cigarettes, and examine relations between inaccurate beliefs about ‘lights’, perceptions of risk and intentions to quit smoking. PARTICIPANTS: The data come from the 2004 National Annenberg Survey of Youth, a representative random digit dial telephone survey of youths aged 14–22 years in the USA (n=1501; current smokers, n=305; ‘lights’ smokers, n=112). DESIGN: All youths were asked about newspaper use and beliefs regarding ‘light’ cigarettes (riskiness, addictiveness, ease of quitting). Smokers reported on risk perceptions and quitting intentions. We also examined changes in newspaper coverage related to ‘lights’ from January 2001 to April 2004. RESULTS: Newspaper coverage related to ‘lights’ increased in the first months of 2003, and continued into 2004. Logistic regression analyses suggest that ‘lights’ smokers with lower levels of newspaper use were most likely to hold inaccurate beliefs about ‘lights’ (OR=5.93, 95% CI 1.48 to 23.77). Smokers of ‘lights’ with inaccurate beliefs were less likely to perceive their smoking as risky (OR=0.29, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.87), and smokers with inaccurate beliefs were less likely to have strong quitting intentions (OR=0.52, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.96). CONCLUSIONS: Inaccurate beliefs about the risks of ‘lights’ were negatively related to youth smokers' perceptions of risk and intentions to quit smoking. News coverage surrounding the tobacco industry's failure to disclose these risks might help reduce these inaccurate, and potentially dangerous, beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines how national and local newspapers in the United States frame Chinese product recalls in 2007. First, it reviews literature on international communication and framing. Second, it content analyzes the presentations of the Chinese product recalls in two leading national newspapers, including the New York Times and the USA today, and six major newspapers from five Southern states, including Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Third, it compares media representations of Chinese products in the two national newspapers with those in Southern newspapers. We argue that American media are still dominated by stories from the U.S. perspectives and Chinese sources are less likely to be cited. Even though Southern newspapers play an important role in constructing local knowledge, their limited scope of coverage and perspectives constrain their role in reporting international news. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses technological resources concerning U.S. history during the time of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and how to interpret them. The author discusses patterns within primary sources of this period, including newspapers and telegraphs, which help researchers understand public opinion. The article details the most commonly used words in four Northern and Southern newspapers between April 1861 and April 1865. The article provides several photographic examples of language patterns during the U.S. Civil War.

Background: Results of 2 trials of postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) challenged established practice patterns; 1 was not associated with changes in HT use, whereas the other was associated with substantial decline. Differential coverage by lay newspapers may have contributed to the differential impact.Objective: To examine newspaper coverage of HT before and after the publication of the Heart and Estrogen Replacement Study (HERS) in August 1998, and the main findings of the estrogen plus progestin therapy arm of the Women's Health Initiative (EPT-WHI) in July 2002.Design: Longitudinal review of newspaper articles, 1998 to 2003 (n=663).Setting: Twenty local and 6 regional/national newspapers.Measurements: Number and content of articles about HT.Results: The average number of articles about HT published during the month of the publication of the EPT-WHI was at least 8-fold greater than the number of articles published on the topic during any prior period. While the majority of articles in all periods presented information about the potential benefits of HT, information about harms became more common than information about benefits during the 2 months before the publication of the EPT-WHI, when the trial participants were notified of the early termination of the study. The presentation of specific health harms was more common after the publication of the EPT-WHI than after the publication of HERS. Few articles in any period used visual aids.Conclusions: The publication of the EPT-WHI was associated with a change in both the volume and content of newspaper coverage about HT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys the history of Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune to explore the social unease and contradictory impulses that gave rise to an American liberal tradition. It was said that the Tribune was both an organ for Republican champions of bourgeois property rights and the most influential reform newspaper in the U.S. Some writers of the newspaper formulated a social democratic ideology that showed a profound ambivalence toward the spread of market individualism and industrial capitalism. The term social democracy was used to describe the expanse between Marxism and bourgeois liberalism, a discursive space where the New-York Tribune was an important popular participant. It was found that the Tribune's social democratic commitments were highly dynamic, even in the two decades prior to the Civil War.

This article examines evidence of sampling or statistical bias in newspaper reporting on campaign finance. We compile all stories from the five largest circulation newspapers in the United States that mention a dollar amount for campaign expenditures, contributions, or receipts from 1996 to 2000. We compare these figures to those recorded by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The average figures reported in newspapers exceed the figures from the FEC by as much as eightfold. Press reports also focus excessively on corporate contributions and soft money, rather than on the more common types of donors-individual-and types of contributions-hard money. We further find that these biases are reflected in public perceptions of money in elections. Survey respondents overstate the amount of money raised and the share from different groups by roughly the amount found in newspapers, and better-educated people (those most likely to read newspapers) showed the greatest discrepancy between their beliefs and the facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on the actions taken by the Franklin Network, an alliance of printers with Benjamin Franklin, against the Stamp Act which aimed to tax publications and legal papers in the U.S. Involvement of Lord George Greenville in the development of the Stamp Act; Impact of the French and Indian war on the development of the law; Effect of the law on the prices of newspapers.

Previous research demonstrates the role of religious beliefs, practices, and people in a wide variety of social movement struggles. In most cases, religious resource mobilization seems to occur in a relatively straightforward, uncomplicated manner and with positive outcomes for the movement in question. Little attention has been paid to the challenges that exist to mobilizing religious resources and building coalitions with religious supporters. This essay examines the problematic nature of religious resource mobilization as part of union strategies to win a strike/lockout against Detroit's two newspapers, the News and the Free Press, between 1995-2000. Intensive interviews with strikers, union spokespersons, and religious activists, illustrate how religious resources contributed to union strength during the strike. However, these contributions were limited by the internal dynamics in the relationship between the unions and religious supporters as well as by the power disparities between these local coalitions and the multinational corporations they struggled against. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The press is the oldest medium regularly informing people about sports. From the beginning, sports teams showed keen interest in print media coverage: Newspapers formed the principal means of bringing news of coming events and results of past events. The first newspapers were published in the beginning of the 17th century and about 150 years later the first sports-related articles appeared. In the middle of the 18th century, sports became a topic in newspapers of the United States. The first newspaper with a special sports section was the Morning Herald in England, followed by other English and American papers. Sports reporting in newspapers seems to be quite successful today, the daily sports sections are very popular, especially among younger readers. There are many reasons that make sports so popular for newspapers. The language of the topic is simple and understandable. Victory and defeat create tension and emotions in an otherwise bored society. Sports create idols and objects of public voyeurism. The fact that print media are not live-media becomes an advantage. There is enough time and space for background information, interpretation, and comment.

This article analyzes the newspaper product market, with a particular emphasis on the two corporations that own newspapers in Detroit, Michigan. It integrates national trends with the Detroit case in order to argue that monoponistic control in the labor market has reduced the power of unions in the industry. This analysis finds two forces creating a monopsony environment in the newspaper industry, firstly the economic changes in the industry that allow for more regional control over the printed news and the legal structure of Joint Operating Agreements that allows for regional papers to combine operations.