ERIC Number: ED144054
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1976
Pages: 276
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Effects of Newspaper-Television Cross-Ownership on News Homogeneity.
Gormley, William T., Jr.
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; field work in a stratified sample of ten cities, including interviews with reporters and news executives at 44 newspapers and television stations; and a content analysis of 9335 newspaper and television stories. The data reveal that the sharing of carbon copies, hiring patterns, and news-organization location are "intervening variables" of cross-media ownership that serve to increase intermedia cooperation and that may have a homogenizing effect on the news the public receives. Many methods of data comparison are used in discussing the effects of cross-media ownership on story overlap and on issue treatment and story treatment. The report concludes with a critical evaluation of the Federal Communication Commission's 1975 cross-ownership decision and provides its own public-policy proposals. Four appendixes contain material related to the study. (RL)
Descriptors: Broadcast Industry, Information Dissemination, Information Networks, Mass Media, Media Research, News Media, News Reporting, News Writing, Newspapers, Press Opinion, Public Policy, Shared Services, Television
Publications, Institute for Research in Social Science, Manning Hall, Drawer G, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514 ($4.00 paper)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: John and Mary R. Markle Foundation, New York, NY.
Authoring Institution: North Carolina Univ., Chapel Hill. Inst. for Research in Social Science.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A