Laying off the techies
I nodded in recognition when I read Regina McCombs’ latest blog entry on Poynter (“Power Struggles over Converged Newsrooms May Diminish Value of Web Sites”) about the layoffs of online staff at the Washington Post. She suggests that the targeting of multimedia folks in the latest rounds of cuts at news organizations is an indication [...]
Toddlin’ off to Chicago
Tomorrow I leave for Chicago for the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research, always one of my favorite trips on the conference circuit. It is hard to beat Chicago as a convention city. As Frank Sinatra crooned: Bet your bottom dollar you will lose the blues in Chicago. If you haven’t been to MAPOR, it [...]
Uses and Gratifications in the Internet Age
I have told my theory students that theories are a lot like fashion. Some theories (like the two-step flow) were once quite in vogue but have gone out of style. Others like selective exposure went out of style but are try to make a comeback. Uses and gratifications may be the ultimate example of a [...]
Knowledge gaps in the Internet Era
The knowedge gap hypothesis has a simple premise. According to its authors, Tichenor, Donohue and Olien: “As the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments, so that the gap in [...]
Spiral of Silence in the Internet era
The emergence of the Internet and convergent media will force us to adapt or discard some of our leading communication theories. Spiral of silence, in particular, ia a theory that does not seem to hold up well in the Internet era. Spiral of silence, frankly, is a theory I have never been able to get [...]
Toddlin’ to Chicago
I am leaving shortly to head to the Midwest Association of Public Opinion Research conference. I will give you a report when I get back. This is probably my favorite conference. If AEJMC is a high school reunion, this is a family reunion. For fellow MAPORites (MAPORians?), see you there!
Media and the Election: Part II (color of news)
Pew Internet and the Project for Excellence in Journalism found, probably to nobody’s surprise who has followed the election on television, that you get a different picture of the campaign depending on what cable network you watched. Fifty-two percent of the audience for Fox News was Republican and 17 percent Democratic. The audience for both [...]
Shameless Plug
My co-author Barbara Kaye and I are doing our fourth election study of the role of the Internet in the presidential campaign. We invite you to participate by clicking on the link below. http://survey.utk.edu/mrIweb/mrIWeb.dll?I.Project=POLITICS08
Nothing rotten in the state of Denmark
I am taking a week off from blogging to attend the Internet Research 9.0 conference of the Association of Internet Researchers to be held in Copenhagen next week. I will give a full report when I get back. Vi ses!