The failure of journalism historians to address important philosophical and methodological issues has led to a loss of vitality in historical research and teaching. As far back as the early 1950s, this situation attracted considerable concern, but it was not until the late 1960s that complaints were transformed into critical historiographical…

Reports on a study of the reasons why 40 of 125 persons did not respond to a questionnaire asking them about the accuracy of news stories in which they had been mentioned. (GW)

Presents excerpts from a symposium in Charlottesville (VA) at which researchers, policymakers, and journalists discussed educational issues and the relationship of research to reform. Discusses issues concerning communication problems between groups and why it is important to keep talking with each other. Explores ways of improving the…

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)

Attempting to correct and amplify the portrayal of Stephen Crane in journalism history, this paper provides an analysis of relevant works in journalism and other disciplines in order to point out the weaknesses in the journalism historiography and to show how they apparently came about. Evidence is presented from the literature of journalism,…

Points out the need for histories that take mass communication as their subject and include journalism as a part of that larger topic; describes concerns shared by mass communication history and the field of American studies. (GW)

Discusses the nature of academic research, limits on practical newspaper research, and promoting practical research among professors. Argues that the academic world should have room for all kinds of research and that industry should be more supportive of academic research efforts. (SR)

Discusses pitfalls authors can avoid in their research to improve their chances for publication: careless writing; unspecified assumptions; undefined context; unanswerable questions; soft and/or fuzzy hypotheses; vague, undefined terms; inadequate samples; inappropriate use of students in conducting research; inappropriate conclusions; multiple…

Investigates whether different measurements can significantly influence the outcome of a study. Examines whether voters learn more from political advertisements than from television news, using exposure and attention to measure television watching, confidence and accuracy to measure knowledge, and different control strategies. Finds that different…

Reviews the scholarly work that uses content analysis to study political substance in magazines. Uses a modified version of Laswell's communication model to classify the current literature. Discusses problematic issues and offers possible solutions. (SR)

After outlining feminist theory (conceptualization and characteristics), a study examined attitudes toward issues having to do with feminist scholarship and the fields of journalism and communication, particularly assessing the validity of the conventional wisdom that women are advised against doing feminist research. The subjects were a purposive…

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…

Discusses the concept of professionalization, two professionalism scales, a professionalism security typology, a Swedish survey that tested different ways of measuring professionalism, and occupational mobility, and research needs in this area. (GW)

Examines quantitative magazine research studies published in various journals during the period 1983-1993. Questions the heavy reliance on content analysis techniques to study the role of magazines in American society. Calls for a redirection in magazine research, combining media content studies with media effects studies. (SR)

Shows how one medium-size daily newspaper operation in Louisiana has set up a viable polling system at modest cost. Points out some of the problems involved. (RL)