Date of Award

12-1-1994

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to examine and critique the news coverage of one type of educational issue. Because most educational institutions in the United States receive public financial support, and because most of the public receives its information from the news media, it was judged important for educational leaders to understand the media's methods of covering educational issues. As a second objective, this study also attempted to expand the application of W. Lance Bennett's four information biases from political figures to other public but non-elected figures, in this case university presidents.The specific focus of this study was the forced resignations of nine university presidents as reported by the local daily newspapers. Using a case study approach, various content analysis techniques were applied to the newspaper items to determine if a trend in the coverage could be revealed across all cases. These techniques included identifying the type of item, noting the date and day of the week, measuring the headline length and height, identifying page location, measuring column units, identifying the prominence of the items, and assessing the direction of the items. In each case study, the number of individual crises faced by the president was also determined. In addition, each set of newspaper items was examined for indications of Bennett's information biases, again to search for a trend in the coverage. The information biases Bennett has identified include news that is personalized, fragmented, normalized and dramatized.The content analysis conducted in this study did reveal some indication of patterns in the news coverage. One recurring pattern was steadily increasing coverage, followed by a sharp decline in coverage once the resignation had occurred. Another pattern occurring with less frequency was evidence of a tendency for unfavorable newspaper items to outnumber favorable news items. The critical analysis also revealed some instances of personalization and dramatization in the newspaper coverage, and to a lesser extent, fragmentation and normalization.

Download

Share

COinS