Contributes to scholarship on the complexities of press freedom in non-Western nations. Discusses the context of press freedom in Jordan; the press before the 1989 liberalization; factors that favored press liberalization in 1989; the 1993 press law; the "Temporary Law for the Year 1997"; press reaction to the amendments; and factors…

Investigates specific effects of one particularly influential presentation type of journalistic exemplification--the direct quotation. Finds that issue perception by undergraduate student subjects was greatly influenced by citation, with respondents adopting the cited position more than the paraphrased position. Finds this effect most pronounced…

Discusses how four situational concerns (the rise of press agents, the fallout from World War I propaganda, sensationalism's resurgence, and editorial independence) contributed to a noticeable decline of the public's trust in the press. Shows how, as a result, 12 state press association ethics codes from the 1920s consistently emphasized the…

Describes five common mistakes of journalism historians: assuming that the media are always central to a historical event; assuming that commercial forces always have a corrupting influence on journalism; reducing complex events to technological or economic explanations; accepting that journalism is constantly declining; and assuming that news…

Contributes to research on the relationship between journalism and public relations by surveying journalists and public relations practitioners. Shows that the two groups share generally similar news values, but that journalists were largely unaware of this similarity. Finds that practitioners, expecting contributions of social good by public…

Examines the increasing number of articles employing quantitative content analyses published from 1971-1995 in "Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly," in terms of frequency, authorship, focus on different media and content, sampling, reliability reporting, links to theory, and use with other methods and data. (SR)

Examines whether readers' perceptions of online news stories varies as a function of source attribution in those stories. Finds that they rated stories with quotes significantly higher in credibility and quality than identical stories without quotes; but that quotes did not affect liking for (and representativeness or newsworthiness of) online…

Examines media coverage of a gubernatorial election, suggesting that: (1) gender may be a larger factor in selecting policy stories over "horse race" stories; (2) coverage of the horse race has greater impact on election outcome than coverage of policy issues; and (3) a woman will be more successful in an election if she presents herself…

Finds starkly different conceptions of journalistic ethics, with members of the public believing the journalists' ethics are guided primarily by occupational norms and competitive pressures, whereas journalists themselves cited organizational policies, the relevant law, and their individual reasoning as primary influences on their ethical decision…

Contributes to scholarship on journalism law and journalism ethics by probing 42 journalists' decision-making processes in news gathering situations that resulted in lawsuits for invasion of privacy. Indicates that journalists were generally unaware of impending legal trouble; and that legal reasoning takes place in a "total context" of social…

Finds that the presence of more newspapers in a county leads to closer election outcomes in races for the United States Senate and for governor, with the effect somewhat stronger in Senate races than in gubernatorial contests, and stronger still in open-seat campaigns, compared to those in which incumbents seek reelection. (SR)

Contributes to scholarship on interactivity and online journalism by performing content analysis of 44 English-language Web newspapers from 14 Asian countries, offering and testing an enlarged theoretical framework for doing so. Finds that the online newspapers provided users with a relatively complex choice of news content, but most did not rate…

Explores attitudes among Canadian news workers, finding that more professionalism, a less formal and smaller organization, media sector, and several social attributes lead to more job satisfaction. Shows that newspaper workers were most satisfied due to a combination of intrinsic factors, such as autonomy, authority, and control of work; and…

Examines how readers react to a journalist's ethnicity. Finds that (1) a Hispanic author was highly likely to be associated in readers' minds with a glowing article about Hispanics but was unlikely to be credited with authorship of a positive article about Anglos; and (2) the Hispanic author was evaluated no differently than was the Anglo-American…

Uses content analysis to examine the changes in trends in the aftermath of deviant acts by individual members of the clergy, given that such acts are "triggering events" for further negative stories. Finds strong media agenda-setting effects of the negative triggering events on subsequent coverage of the clergy in general. (SR)