Results of two experiments revealed a significant correlation between function-word predictability and reader enjoyment and a strong correlation between content-word unpredictability and reader enjoyment. (FL)

Activities are described for developing students' interest in current events through teaching about the news media: introducing major newspapers and magazines; encouraging analysis and forecasting on current issues; and teaching news reporting, interviewing, and writing techniques, culminating in a mock presidential press conference. (SJL)

Uses the semantic differential method to survey student attitudes toward a new "writing for print media" course in New Mexico State University's journalism department. Finds that students gained confidence in themselves and their professional potential when exposed to highly professional requirements. Shows that this longitudinal method…

Presents a brief overview of the 1989 Dow Jones Intensive Journalistic Writing Institute at Marquette University. (MM)

Develops a model for the news writing process based on research conducted with both professional and student journalists in their normal work environment over the past six years. Finds evidence indicating that leads do more than grab the reader's attention, and that reporting and writing are not separate acts. (MS)

Discusses how the adviser of the Hillcrest High School (Dallas, Texas) and the student staff covered the suicide of a fellow student. Notes that the adviser, who is committed to student decision making, made sure the student staff raised the appropriate ethical questions when deciding on the type, amount, and duration of coverage of the suicide.…

Describes how yearbooks and school newspapers across the country deal with covering deaths of students, faculty, or staff. Notes that policies, if they even exist, can vary greatly from school to school. Appends an exercise on yearbook policies. (RS)

This study of editorial conferences in a university news laboratory examined the connections between dialogues about revision and the interpretations of dialogues by reporters and the editor in this journalism culture. The editorial conferences of two reporters with varying experience in publication and employment settings were analyzed, and the…

Guidelines for two group activities are presented, one for high school and one for junior high school. The purpose of the activities, both of which follow the same format, is to introduce or review causes of the Civil War while reviewing and applying previously acquired skills and information about the newspaper. The procedure is described as…

After discussing the need for message pluralism in a democracy, this report focuses on a three-stage research strategy conducted to study the effects of newspaper/television cross-ownership on news homogeneity. The three stages consist of: an analysis of questionnaire data obtained from 214 newspaper managing editors and television news directors;…

Because modern terrorism threatens democratic values such as personal liberty, free expression, and the limitation of institutional authority, it raises ethical problems for journalists who are drawn into a symbiotic relationship with those who threaten or use violence against a community. Recent terrorist incidents in the United States involving…

The way in which United States journalists covered the views of the South African black leader Steven Biko both before his death in prison in 1977 and after it is examined in this paper. Press coverage of Biko's death is first described; it is noted that journalists wrote of his great stature and significance and of his "moderate and…

The use of interpretive reporting techniques and programs offering real world training to writers may provide solutions to the problems encountered in writing about science for the mass media. Both science and environmental writers have suggested that the problems they face would be decreased by the use of more interpretive and investigative…

Presents ways of finding news sources for newspaper and yearbook reporters. Suggests how to work the "Beat System." (JK)

Provides examples of media coverage on interferon, herpes, and starch blockers, suggesting that biology teachers can put such coverage into broader perspective by answering student questions, explaining details, and sensitizing them to the limitations of the media. Includes resources to help teachers with this task. (JN)