This study tested the power of "elite nation" factors (trade, population, and gross national product) to predict the amount of foreign news coverage for specific countries. A composite week for the first quarter of 1975 was randomly drawn, and ten Canadian and twenty-nine United States newspapers were coded for all news items reported on…

To assess the relationship between the way graduating journalists perceive the profession of journalism and the way graduates find it to be in reality, a 61-item questionnaire was administered to 212 graduating seniors at two Kansas universities and to 213 news-editorial graduates of the ten years preceding the study. The nine areas of concern…

Presents description of local-area network of personal computers installed in the Broadcast News Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin to help produce and teach broadcast news. Highlights include development and design of the system, software and hardware considerations, and the use of tutorials for writing and technical concepts. (LRW)

Describes how an intensive journalistic writing course motivated students by combining journalistic writing with a school-history research project. (MM)

Presents a detailed plan for school publications staffs in covering a crisis or disaster. Describes things to do before, during, and after the crisis (natural disasters, student deaths, fire, violence, etc.). Appends two exercises--ranking story ideas in order of importance, and establishing an emergency-contact list. (RS)

Describes a journalism adviser's dual role as teacher and adviser when it comes to covering school violence and the school's new security measures. Discusses production of a special issue of the Rockwood South (Missouri) "RAMpage" on school safety. (RS)

Describes a technique for using e-mail and the World Wide Web to teach an introductory media writing course online. Surveys students' attitudes toward the technique and evaluates the technique's effectiveness in helping students learn. Finds that participating students rated the course highly enjoyable and convenient, and substantial majorities…

The media, which includes editorials, have been shown to play an important role in the definition of priorities in public agenda. In the domain of international matters, the public relies heavily on the media, and editorials play an even greater role. This article examines how explicit mentions of external sources of information function in the…

A study analyzed patterns of usage of political vocabulary in Hong Kong English as found in newspaper reports of a leading Hong Kong English-medium newspaper and two other English-medium newspapers. Data were drawn from a computerized corpus and a clippings file. The report begins with an overview of the theoretical basis of the study of ideology…

Teaching ideas and learning activities for using newspapers to improve reading achievement, reading motivation, and writing skills are provided in this guide. Most of the guide consists of student activity sheets and is designed to assist elementary and secondary teachers in the use of newspapers as teaching tools. The eight sections (and their…

The guide provides enrichment suggestions for teaching personal writing skills to gifted and talented intermediate students. The unit is organized according to objectives, entry skills, teacher's approaches, student activities, resources, and followup/evaluation. Topics covered include the following: formal and informal diction; sentences to…

To discover what college courses of study were most beneficial to established television and radio journalists, a survey was conducted of the persons in charge of 434 television stations and 362 radio stations. The study, similar to previous studies, asked whether the journalists had attended college and where, which of their college courses they…

This study examined the effect of news writing instruction in freshman composition to determine whether the diversity of instruction would result in improved writing performance and attitudes of students. Data were gathered from 71 students at a private Oklahoma college randomly assigned to three control groups (taught by a traditional approach)…

Defining myth as a cultural narrative in symbolic form that articulates a world view and offers consensus with that view, this paper uses a brief "New York Times" report on the Soviet shooting down of South Korean airline flight 007 as the basis for comparison of international news and myth. Following a review of the literature on myth…

The film "Pieces of a Puzzle" (part of the series "Writers Writing" that was coproduced by WNET and Learning Designs and televised by WNET in 1985), helped students become better writers and facilitated the discovery of material and techniques appropriate to academic writing. First, students were introduced to reader response…