Recent Research
Community Structure
Watson, B. & Riffe, D. (2011). Structural determinants of local public affairs place blogging: Structural pluralism and community stress. Mass Communication & Society, 16, 879-904. DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2011.611922
This study examines the relationship between community-level characteristics and the presence of public affairs place blogs in 232 U.S. cities. Two models to predict the presence of these sites are tested: A structural pluralism model, which suggests the presence of one of these sites reflects more pluralistic voices; and a community stress model, which suggests the presence of these sites reflects citizens’ efforts to cope with community problems. Analysis of demographic and crime data using logistic regression suggests that the community stress model is the stronger predictor.
Public affairs place blogs are more likely in cities with higher murder rates, poverty rates, more physical decay, and more residents with professional occupations. It is these residents — with more education and income, living on the periphery of the most affected urban neighborhoods — who are most likely to go online to write about obtrusive community problems.
Watson, B. (2011). Is Twitter an alternative public sphere?: A comparison of journalists’ and Twitter users’ attitudes toward the BP oil spill. Paper presented at the Convergence & Society Conference: Sustainability, Journalism and Media Regeneration, Columbia, SC.
This study examines Gulf Coast journalists’ (N=212) and Twitter users’ (N=535) attitudes toward the oil industry following the BP oil spill. Survey data is used to examine whether in the context of the oil spill, compared to mainstream journalism, Twitter might be considered an alternative public sphere. If Twitter is an alternative public sphere, Twitter users’ attitudes should be substantively different from journalists’ and should be shaped by different social, economic, and political factors. This study found that journalists’ and Twitter users’ attitudes toward the oil industry following the BP disaster were nearly identical, suggesting Twitter was not a radical alternative. However, Twitter users’ attitudes toward the industry were less shaped by their communities’ economic reliance on the oil industry. Journalists’ attitudes, however, were less motivated by their personal ideologies. Depending on one’s perspective — for example, that mainstream journalism is too beholden to wealthy interests, or that social media encourages further ideological divisiveness in the public sphere — either medium may be considered, to a limited extent, an important alternative to the other.
Watson, B. (2011). Predicting journalists’ attitudes toward the BP oil spill: Community structure, ideology, and professional roles. Paper accepted for presentation at the bi-annual Conference on Communication and the Environment, El Paso, Tx.
This study uses a survey of 218 Gulf Coast journalists who covered the BP oil spill to examine the individual and community-level variables that shaped their attitudes toward the oil industry following the spill.
Analysis shows that journalists’ attitudes toward the oil industry are ideologically driven. Conservative journalists and those who express less environmental concern are more likely to have positive attitudes toward off-shore oil drilling, to oppose regulation of the industry, and to believe the oil industry behaves responsibly. At the same time those journalists who see their role as being one of a populist mobilizer are significantly more likely to support regulation of the industry.
The analysis shows that after controlling for journalists’ individual ideologies and preferences for different professional roles, journalists’ pro-drilling attitudes were also shaped by the context of the communities where they work. Journalists in communities with higher percentages of workers employed in the oil industry had significantly more positive attitudes toward off-shore oil drilling. This last finding is consistent with previous studies, which have suggested that rather than always acting as strong independent watchdogs, journalists frequently act as guard dogs for the powerful interests they cover.
Watson, B., Smithson-Stanley, L., Riffe, D., and Ogilvie, E. (2011). Mass media and perceived and objective environmental risk: Race and place of residence. Paper accepted for presentation at the annual Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication Conference, St. Louis, Mo.
(Top faculty paper, Minorities and Communication division)
Framed in an environmental justice context, this study using statewide telephone survey data (N=406) shows that nonwhite residents of North Carolina perceive greater environmental risk where they live than do whites, but the hypothesized additional effect of rural residence was generally not supported. Perceptions, however, may not reflect objective health risks. Race (being nonwhite), residence (urban), and watching local and national TV news predicted overall environmental risk perceptions, but county-level health measures did not.
Watson, B. (under review). Place, race, and waste: Community structure and local media coverage of the first environmental justice conflict. Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature & Culture.
North Carolina’s decision in 1978 to dispose of illegally-dumped PCBs-laced oil in a predominately poor, black county, resulted in the first protests to explicitly link civil rights and an environmental issue. While this environmental justice struggle is frequently written about from a social movements perspective, the news media’s role in defining the legitimacy boundaries of the issue has been overlooked. This historical study fills this gap in the literature, examining how three local newspapers’ coverage of the protests against the dump in Warren County reflects the dominant social structures in which each newspaper was embedded. This study illuminates the media’s important roles in the battle over the control of information involving environmental controversies and how the media act as guard-dogs — not watchdogs — protecting a community’s dominant social structure.
Blogs/Social Media
Lacy, S., Watson, B., & Riffe, D. (in press). The relationships among public affairs blogs, alternative weeklies and mainstream news media. Newspaper Research Journal.
A study of the presence of public affair blogs, alternative weeklies and mainstream news media (dailies, mainstream weeklies, radio and television) in 216 cities found negative relationships among presence of alternative weeklies and presence of mainstream weeklies and public affair blogs, suggesting their substitutability. Positive associations were also found between the number of radio and television stations and both the presence of alternative weeklies and presence of public affair blogs, suggesting a complementary relationship.
Watson, B. (2011). Bloggers’ reliance on newspaper, online, and original sources in reporting on local subjects ignored by the press. Paper accepted for presentation at the annual Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication Conference, St. Louis, Mo.
This study of 100 blogs found that contrary to media assertions and prior research, local public affairs bloggers do not rely on newspapers for a majority of their sources. Bloggers in this study were more likely to use original sources and original reporting than rely on media sources, particularly when writing about local topics (e.g. historic preservation) the news media frequently ignore.
Watson, B. & Wang, X. (2011). How much is enough?: Sample size guidelines for content analysis of political blogs. Paper accepted for presentation at the annual Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication Conference, St. Louis, Mo.
This study based on comparing random samples to known population means derived from a year of posts on 12 “AList” political blogs is the first to produce empirically-derived guidelines for sampling blogs for content analysis. The results suggest one draw a random sample of at least 18 consecutive blog posts, or 12 randomly sampled blog posts, though there is some variation in efficient sample sizes among the blogs.
Immigration
Watson, B. & Riffe, D. (2011). Perceived threat, immigration policy support, and media coverage: Hostile media and presumed effects in North Carolina. Paper accepted for presentation at the annual Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication Conference, St. Louis, Mo.
(Second Place Faculty Paper, Mass Communication & Society division)
This study, using survey data (N=529), examined perceived “threat,” subjective knowledge about immigration, support for punitive and assimilative policies, and opinions about media coverage effects. Perceived threat was related to support for punitive policies, and “hostile media perception” was confirmed. However, perceived threat was not related to presumed influence of coverage. Internet use, age, race, and education predicted threat perception; perceived threat, perceived favorableness of coverage, and daily newspaper reading predicted presumed influence of coverage.