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UNIVERSITY
OF FLORIDA
LIBRARIES
Journalism and Communications
Reading Room
I II I I / Jl
NEWS RESEARCH FOR
BETTER NEWSPAPERS
VOLUME 2
Compiled and edited by
DR. CHILTON R. BUSH
American Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation
750 Third Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10017
-70 (S-7-2-
JOURNA-ISM
& COMM.
OURNALIM ANPA FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES
OFFICERS
President: Robert L. Taylor, Philadelphia (Pa.) Bulletin
Vice President: Eugene S. Pulliam, Indianapolis (Ind.) Star and News
Secretary: Barnard L. Colby, New London (Conn.) Day
Treasurer: Eugene C. Bishop, Peninsula Newspapers, Inc., Palo Alto,
Calif.
General Mahager/Acting Treasurer: Stanford Smith, ANPA, 750
Third Ave., New York
TRUSTEES
Peyton Anderson, Macon (Ga.) Telegraph and News
M. W. Armistead, III, Roanoke (Va.) Times and World-News
St. Clair Balfour, Southam Press Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Richard H. Blacklidge, Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune
Crosby N. Boyd, Washington (D.C.) Star
Peter B. Clark, Detroit (Mich.) News
John H. Colburn, Wichita (Kan.) Eagle and Beacon
M. J. Frey, Portland (Ore.) Oregonian
Jack R. Howard, Scripps Howard Newspapers, 200 Park Ave., New
York
David Lindsay, Jr., Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune and Journal
Irwin Maier, Milwaukee (Wis.) Journal and Sentinel
Gene Robb, Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union and Knickerbocker News
William F. Schmick, Jr., Baltimore (Md.) Sun
Joyce A. Swan, Minneapolis (Minn.) Star and Tribune
William Davis Taylor, Boston (Mass.) Globe
Walter W. White, Lincoln (Neb.) Star
J. Howard Wood, Chicago (Ill.) Tribune
June, 1966
MEMBERS OF ANPA NEWS RESEARCH CENTER
STEERING COMMITTEE:
Representing :
American Newspaper Publishers Association
Eugene S. Pulliam, Indianapolis (Ind.) Star and News Chairman
Associated Press Managing Editors Association
Arville Schaleben, Milwaukee (Wis.) Journal
United Press International
Francis T. Leary, New York, N. Y.
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Norman Isaacs, Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal and Times
National Newspaper Promotion Association
Newell Meyer, Milwaukee (Wis.) Journal
Bureau of Advertising of the ANPA
Dr. Leo Bogart, New York, N. Y.
Association for Education in Journalism
Dr. Wayne A. Danielson, University of North t
FOREWORD
This book is dedicated to the many people who are
devoting their energies to advancing the excellence and
progress of the daily newspaper.
Like its predecessor in 1966, Volume II of "News Re-
search for Better Newspapers" is designed to put to the test
of public response some of the various components which
go into making a newspaper -from type size to Sunday
comics and peoples' reading habits, likes or dislikes.
The American Newspaper Publishers Association since
1964 has undertaken the financing and developing of a news
research program (of which the present book is an out-
growth) aimed at improving the writing and presentation
of news. A News Research Center Steering Committee was
appointed to guide it, including in its membership: ANPA,
the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, United
Press International, American Society of Newspaper Edi-
tors, National Newspaper Promotion Association, Bureau
of Advertising of the ANPA, and the Association for Edu-
cation in Journalism. The success of Volume I is indicated
by the sale of several thousand copies, hopefully in good
use, and the letters of response from many newspaper
people.
In charge of the project is Dr. Chilton R. Bush, former
executive head of the Department of Journalism at Stan-
ford University. Dr. Bush has been a consultant for several
California newspapers and has made many research studies
for newspapers in various parts of the country.
This book is published and distributed by the ANPA
Foundation, a non-profit organization established to look
beyond newspaper problems and plan for the future of the
daily newspaper.
We hope this book will stimulate its readers to probe
further into the field of news research as a tool in editorial
decision-making.
STANFORD SMITH
General Manager
American Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation
750 Third Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10017
February 1967
INTRODUCTION
The very high utilization of the research findings in
"News Research for Better Newspapers," published a year
ago, has prompted the publication of Volume 2.
Like the first volume, Volume 2 is a reproduction of
summaries published in 30 News Research Bulletins and
assembled under appropriate chapter headings. The chapter
headings differ slightly from those in Volume 1 because the
subject-matter reported in 1966 was somewhat different.
When similar subject matter was reported in Volume 1,
it is mentioned in a note at the beginning of such chapters
of Volume 2 so that readers will know about all of the re-
search in each area that has been reported since establish-
ment of the News Research Center in September, 1964.
A considerable effort is made in the bulletins not to
tell editors how to edit. The main purpose is to supply data
which editors can use for making their own judgments.
Of the 74 summaries in this volume, 39(53.5%) repre-
sent research done in the universities; six were sponsored
by the ANPA; 21 represent research done by individual
newspapers; and eight represent research done by others.
Chilton R. Bush
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
NO.
CHAP. 1. How and When the Newspaper Is Read
P position of the E editorial Page ...................................................................... 1
How Readers Go Through One Morning Newspaper ............ 3
H ow P people R ead Jum ps .................................................................. ............... 4
W hen M morning Paper is Read .......................... .......................... ............ 5
S T im e S pent R leading .............................................................................. ............ 6
CHAP. 2. Some Audience Characteristics
How Much Interest in Culture? ................................................... 7
A n A utum n W weekend (1955) ........................................................................ 10
W ho R eads Sunday Com ics? ........................................................................ 11
Readership of Sunday Comics: By Education .......................... 12
T he N ature of N ew s ............................... .................... ............ ................. 13
L letters to th e E ditor .......................................... ................................................ 18
Newspaper Readership by Influential Persons .......................... 18
Credibility of the Newspaper: An Experiment ....................... 18
"TV Tab's" Main Use is as a Directory ......................................... 20
How Much Do Readers Know? (III): Medicine and
S c ie n c e ........................................................................................................................ 2 1
How Much Do Readers Know? (IV): Satellites .................... 22
How Much Do Readers Know? (V): The Atom Bomb ......... 23
How Much Do Readers Know? (VI): The Vietcong ............ 24
How Much Do Readers Know? (VII): Financial Terms 24
How Much Do Readers Know? (VIII): Communist China 26
How Much Do Readers Know? (IX): Percentage With
Adult Experience of Certain Events ...................................... 27
How Much Do Readers Know? (X): Name of Their
C on g ressm an ...................................................................................... ............ 28
CHAP. 3. Readership
Readership by Listeners and Viewers ............................................... 29
Readership of Stock Tables .................................................... .................. 31
Readership of a Saturday Paper ................................................. 32
Readership of Sports N ew s ............................................ .................. 33
Readership of the Church Page ............................ ................... 34
Readership of the Youth Section ........................... .................. 35
Readership of the Real Estate Section ............................................ 36
Readership of Medical and Nonmedical Science News ...... 37
Many Readers Want More Medical News ................................... 37
The Effect of Sputnik I on Reading of Science News ......... 38
Culture and Other Special Interests .............................................. 39
Readership of Pages in Omaha World-Herald .......................... 40
CHAP. 4. Readership by Teenagers
Texas Teenagers Tell the Content They Want in a
C olum n or S section ..................................................................................... 42
Older Teenagers Lose Some Interest in Comics and
C h ildren 's P ag e ...................................................................................... 44
Interests of B oys, 14 to 16 .......................................................................... 46
Newspaper Readership by Omaha Teenagers .......................... 47
Sub-T eenage R leadership ................................................................................. 48
As Sub-Teenagers' TV Viewing Increases So Does Their
N ew spaper R leading ................................................................................. 50
More Sub-Teenagers Read Sunday Than Daily News-
p ap er ........ .............. .... ................................. ............... 50
PAGE
NO.
CHAP. 4. Readership by Teenagers (Continued)
Sub-Teenagers Prefer Comics That Are "Funny" and
E x citin g ..................................................... ............................................................ 56 2
Is the 'Front-Page Teenager' Treated Favorably or
U n fav ora b ly ? ..................................................................................................... 53
The "Front Page Teenager" Myth ............................ .............. 54
CHAP. 5. Some Communication Behavior
Communication Behavior of the Elderly ...................................... 56
T he N ature of R um or .......................................................................58..................... 8
Where Do People Get Science Information? ............................. 61
Change in Media Use in Aurora, Illinois ..................................... 62
The Use of Media as Adult Education ................................................ 63
CHAP. 6. Typography
Why All-Cap Headlines Are Less Legible Than c & Ic ...... 65
Square Serif Headline Is Less Legible Than Roman and
S a n s-S erif ..... ....................................................................................................... 6 6
Aesthetic Qualities of Type Faces ................................... ............. 67
'Readability' of Different Typographical Forms .................... 73
Type Size, Non-Justification More Salient Than Non-
H y ph en action .............................................................................. .................. 74
CHAP. 7. Headlines
Headline Count: Should it be Assigned Arbitrarily for
All Stories? Or Vary With Complexity of the Story? 76
The Effect of Headlines ............................................................................... 81
CHAP. 8. News and Editorial Policy
Traffic Violators' Names Published: 81% Approve ............... 84
Advising Readers How to Vote ........................ ................................... 85
California Newspapers Have Political Influence ................. 85
Oregon Editor Influenced Election Results for 25 Years 87
Racial Identification in the News ............................ ....... ............ 88
Slanting News Stories: Three Experiments ............................ 90
A Semi-Rural Public Looks at the Newspaper's Leader-
sh ip R ole .............................................................. ....... ... ................... ........... 9 2
To Print or Not To Print? .............................. ................................... 93
CHAP. 9. Free Press and Fair Trial
Confession Induces Belief in Guilt; Criminal Record and
E evidence D o N ot ................................................ ....................................... 95
How "Readers" Evaluate Guilt in Crime Stories: An
E x p erim en t ................................................................................. .................. 97
"Murder, Juries, and the Press" .............................................................. 99
CHAP. 10. Miscellaneous
Basic Tendencies of Eye Movement .................................................. 102
Lighting Angle in Pictures Makes Persons Appear
F a v o ra b le .............................................................................................................. 1 0 4
"Writing Captions for Newspictures" ............................................... 105
The Public Evaluates its Newspaper .......................... ................. 106
When is Repetition Justifiable? .......................... .................... 107
Names in the News ............................................................... ..................... 109
Fewer "Good" Employees Available Now ...................................... 111
High Questionnaire Returns From Writers of Letters to
th e E editor .............................................................................................................. 112
Chapter 1
HOW AND WHEN THE NEWSPAPER IS READ
For summaries of previous research about the subject
matter of this chapter, see "News Research For Better
Newspapers," (1966), pages 10-20.
Position of the Editorial Page
An ANPA-sponsored study suggests that the reader
has a different mental set when he reads opinion and
when he reads news; and that, for many papers, the loca-
tion of the opinion page does not correspond to the
reader's psychological need.
The web perfecting press did not become available as
standard equipment until after 1871 and few newspapers
had one until the 'eighties. Prior to that time, one side of
a sheet was printed first (pp. 2, 3, 6 and 7) and then on
the reverse side pages 1, 4, 5 and 8 were run off. On the
turned sheets were usually late news, late ads and edi-
torials.
The editorial page of Horace Greeley's New York Trib-
une, for example, was on page 4. This practice accommo-
dated the felt need of Greeley and his contemporary edi-
tors, who valued editorial comment highly, and gave them
the advantage of a later deadline.
But those editors never thought of making an accom-
modation to the readers' psychological needs. Such an ac-
commodation wasn't necessary with an 8-page paper.
It is doubtful that since Greeley's time-although news-
papers have increased in size-newspaper executives have
given much thought to the proper position of the editorial
page, although some Hearst papers and the Christian Sci-
ence Monitor around the turn of the century placed it on
the last page.
We can hypothesize that the reader has a different
mental set when he reads news and when he reads opinion.
When he reads news he is making a rapid surveillance of
his environment to find out what has happened since
yesterday or since this morning.
But when he reads opinion the reader makes a differ-
ent original commitment of his attention. Since he has a
more affirmative purpose he prepares himself to read more
slowly and, perhaps, more thoughtfully. He reads news and
opinion under different conditions.
An Experiment
Dr. Galen Rarick, of the University of Oregon School
of Journalism, tested this hypothesis last July in a study
sponsored jointly by ANPA and the Salem (Ore.) Capital
Journal.
A sample of 673 adult readers of the Capital Journal
was asked this question:
"When you come to the editorial page, as you are read-
ing the newspaper, do you usually stop and read something
on it immediately, or do you go through all or most of the
paper and then turn back to the editorial page to read it?
Or do you not read the editorial page at all?"
The editorial page was page 4 in the 28-page paper in
four sections.
The responses of all readers were as follows:
Men Women
Read it immediately .............. 59.3% 60.1%
Pass it and come back to it......... 30.0 30.0
Don't read it and not answered ...... 5.0 6.4
Other response ................... 5.7 6.4
100.0 100.0
Those who said they passed by the editorial page and
then came back to it were asked why they did that. Some of
the typical reasons given were these:
"I read current news first, then philosophy and
theory."
"It takes longer and more concentration to read edi-
torials."
"Because it is more thoughtful reading, and I like to
take time."
"I come back to study."
The data seem to show that (1) 30% of all readers do
not permit the location of the editorial page at page 4 to
interrupt their surveillance of their environment, and (2)
60% are compelled to shift from one mental set to another
and then to shift again.
Do the data tell us the proper location of the editorial
page? It is not possible to say positively, for readers of
most papers have been conditioned to the present location.
Perhaps the editorial page would be read more thoroughly
and thoughtfully if its location were as far back in the
paper as the controlling factors permit.
"Reading for Relaxation" Page
The Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot has a "Reading for Re-
laxation" page. It carries syndicated columns by Louis
Sobol, Earl Wilson, Walter Winchell and others, a few
humor panels, an animal picture feature, "Today's High-
light in History" and the cross-word puzzle. The page is
usually 8, 10 or 11.
How Readers Go Through One Morning Newspaper
by Robert D. Coursen, Research Manager
Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company
Three main styles of reading a newspaper were re-
corded in conjunction with a statewide readership survey
of the Minneapolis Tribune for Thursday morning, Novem-
ber 18, 1965.
The most popular approach was to start reading at a
particular location. Half of the readers directed their atten-
tion to some specific area of which news, sports, comics,
women's section, and Ann Landers were the leading at-
tractions.
Three out of every 10 readers took a page-by-page tour
of the Tribune on a casual basis, scanning material of inter-
est as they went through the paper.
About one-sixth of the readers read their Tribunes
thoroughly, page-by-page.
Interesting differences in the reading habits of men and
women were revealed in the survey data. Men were more
likely to turn immediately to news or the sport pages. Many
women enjoyed going through the newspaper page-by-page
scanning items of interest.
The questions and answers:
"How did you go about reading Thursday's Tribune ? Did
you go through page by page or did you turn to some spe-
cific item right away? (If 'page by page') In going through
the paper page by page are you more likely to scan it or to
read it quite thoroughly ?" All adults Men Women
Turned to a specific item .................................... 49% 58% 42%
Page by page and scanned ......................... 30 22 37
Page by page and read thoroughly ...... 17 16 17
Page by page and gave other answers 3 3 3
O th er an sw ers .................................................................. 1 1 1
100% 100% 100%
Each person who read a specific item was asked: "What
specific item did you first turn to?"
All adults Men Women
News; front page; local news ........................ 18% 20% 17%
Sports section ............................................................. 13 28 1
C om ics .............................................................................. .... 6 5 6
W omen's section ........................ .................. 4 7
A nn L anders ............................................................... .... 4 1 6
Financial section; stock markets;
busin ess n ew s ............................................................... 3 4 2
E editorial page ................................................................. 2 1 3
W ill J on es ............................................................................. 1 2 -
M r. F ix it ........................................................................ .... 1 2 -
Weather forecast ........................ *
A lm an ac ...................................................................... ...... *
Entertainment; TV section ........................... -
O their answ ers .................................................................. 3 1 6
(*Less than one-half of one per cent) 55% 64% 48%
3
All percentages reported here are based on the total
sample which was 439 readers overall; 193 were men and
246 were women, 18 years of age or over.
(Ed. Note: For previous reports on how the newspaper
is read, see Chapter 1 of "News Research for Better News-
papers", 1966.)
How People Read Jumps
The Minneapolis Tribune conducted a statewide reader-
ship study of the metropolitan and state editions of the
issue of Thursday, Nov. 18, 1965.
In the metro or state editions nine stories were
jumped from the front page to inside pages. The average
readership of the nine front page stories was 49%-rang-
ing from 27% for one story to 75% for another. The aver-
age readership of the jumped stories on inside pages was
27%.
Readers were asked this question, among others: "A
jump article in a newspaper is one that is continued to an-
other page. Some readers stop reading these articles when
they have to turn the page. Others like to read them all the
way to the end. Do you have any set ways of reading jump
articles? (If Yes) How do you go about reading jump ar-
ticles?"
The answers were as follows:
Yes, special way ............
N o ........................
Other answers ..............
Finish article immediately ....
Depends on the story ........
Read rest when I come to it...
Finish it if I'm interested;
All
Adults
85%
14
1
100
48
22
10
Men
80%
19
1
100
44
20
9
Women
90%
10
100
51
23
11
otherwise I wait .......... 4 5 4
Other answers .............. 2 2 2
86 80 91
(Multiple answers are included in the table)
When readers next were asked, "Why do you suppose
newspapers have jump articles ?" the answers for all adults
were as follows:
Not enough room on first page for all
important articles ...................... 74%
Directs attention to inside pages, gets
people interested in other pages .......... 25
Other answers ............................. 1
Don't know ................................ 6
106
(Multiple answers are included in the table)
One of the foregoing responses could be questioned:
"Directs attention to inside pages, gets people interested in
other pages." The reverse can be postulated for some situa-
tions, as when a long jump takes up most of the newshole
on a page; it could cause some readers to skip the whole
page, thus missing the ads on the page. Neither of these
hypotheses has been tested.
When Morning Paper is Read
When the Minneapolis Morning Tribune made a state-
wide study of its readers in November 1965, it found that
81% of the women had "first started to read" the paper
before noon but only 72% of the men had done so.
About one-half of the readers did all of their reading
at one sitting and about one-half returned to the paper to
do more reading.
There were also considerable differences between met-
ropolitan and state edition readers. Whereas 71% of the
metropolitan readers started to read the paper before 9 a.m.,
only 59% of state edition readers had done so. (Only 79%
of state edition readers received the paper by carrier deliv-
ery as compared with 96% for metropolitan readers.)
The times of day when readers first started to read the
Tribune were as follows:
State Metrop.
B before 6 a.m .............................................................................................1.. % 1%
6 -8 :5 9 a .m ............................................................................................. .... 5 8 7 0
9 1 1 :5 9 a .m ............................................................................. ..... 1 5 13
12 -2 :5 9 p .m ..................................................................................... ..... 14 5
3 -3 :5 9 p .m ................................................................................... ... 3 4
6 -8 :5 9 p .m ................................................................................................... 8 5
9-m id n ig h t ............................................................ .............................. 1 2
100% 100%
Time Spent Reading
In a survey of 1,640 adults and teenagers in Nebraska
and western Iowa in the summer of 1965, the Omaha World-
Herald asked the respondents how much time they spent
reading that newspaper. Readers in the City Zone (Omaha
and Council Bluffs, Iowa) estimated the average number
of minutes as follows:
M e n ..................................................................... 4 0
W om en ................................................. ...... 39
T eenagers ........................................ ...... 21
The breakdown of the responses was as follows:
Men Women Teenagers
15 mins. or less ............................... 7.0% 8.3% 29.3%
30 m ins. ..................................................... 27.9 27.4 34.6
More than 30 mins. .................... 63.9 62.6 24.2
Not answered .................................. 1.2 1.7 11.9
100.0 100.0 100.0
The average number of minutes spent by readers in
twenty cities outside the City Zone was as follows:
M e n ..................................................................... 3 7
W om en ............................................................ 38
T een agers ................................................... 20
The Wall Street Journal recently asked a large national
sample of readers how much time they spent reading that
newspaper. The average (median) number of minutes was
38.2.
Chapter 2
SOME AUDIENCE CHARACTERISTICS
For summaries of previous research about the subject
matter of this chapter, see "News Research For Better
Newspapers," (1966), pages 21-34.
How Much Interest in Culture?
Roper found that 10% of the adult population is "cul-
turally active."
According to Berelson, the average adult spends four
hours a month "in the presence of culture", 4%% of his
total leisure time.
Samuelson and others show that some of the time for
media use by the higher educated man is preempted by
other activities; the lesser educated man, however, has
less competition for his time.
Elmo Roper recently asked a national sample of adults
to specify (from a list) those subjects in which they had
"a good deal of interest."
The results, for the whole population and for those who
had attended college, are in Table 1.
TABLE 1
Whole Attended
Population College
R religion ....................................................................................... 49 % 49 %
S p orts ............................................................................................ 47 53
M u sic ......................................................................................... .. 46 56
Politics and gov't ............................................................ 40 59
International affairs ................................................. 37 60
C ook in g .................................................................................. 36 3 1
H om e decoration .......................................................... 35 36
H history ................................................................................... .. 22 37
S cien ce ......................................................................................... 20 36
L literature ............................................................................... 19 39
A rt ................................................... ............................................... 13 3 1
Roper also developed an index of "cultural activity"
from the responses to a scale of questions (i.e., readership
of news magazines; of magazines with intellectual content;
regular readership of two or more newspapers; readership
of books "to advance knowledge," interest in art, literature,
etc.).
He classified adults by their scores on the index. The
results were as follows:
Culturally inert ......... 51%
Fairly inactive .. ................ 26
Fairly active ............... 13
Culturally active ................ 10
Roper broke down the "culturally actives" by education
as follows:
Grade school ........................................ 1%
H igh school .............................................. 4
Som e college ........................................ 26
College graduate ............................ 62
N ot answ ered ..................................... 7
Bernard Berelson computed the approximate number of
hours per month an adult spends "in the presence of cul-
ture."
He used various sources of data on thirteen different
kinds of cultural activities, such as attendance figures for
films and newspaper readership, etc.
For each kind of activity, he adopted a high criterion:
to qualify as culture each kind of content "would presumably
have to be given serious attention as part of a liberal educa-
tion in a good college." For example, 90% of the rental films
exhibited in 1962 were excluded as were 85% of the courses
offered in adult education. (He calculated that only 1% of
the total time spent on newspapers would qualify; that is,
time spent on Lippmann's column, art, literary and music
criticism, etc.)
Berelson does not claim that his figures are precisely
correct.
Table 2 shows the approximate number of hours per
month spent by adults "in the presence of culture."
TABLE 2
Thousands % of
of Hours Total
per Month (447,000,000)
Commercial TV .............................................. 96,285 22
Magazines ...................... .................... 89,310 20
Books (all sources) .................................... 76,172 17
R adio ............................................................................ 38,192 8
R records .......................................... ............................ 36,960 8
Musical, artistic, theatrical
performing (amateur) ........................ 27,500 6
M otion pictures .............................................. 22,252 5
Educational TV ............................................. 21,800 5
A dult education ................................................. 12,750 3
N ew spapers ................................................ ....... 12,000 3
M museum s ..................................................................... 5,600 1
C concerts ............................................................... 4,250 1
Theater ............................................... . ..... 3,950 1
T otal ................................................................ 447,000 100
The average time spent on all of these activities is 4
hours per month. This represents 41/2% of the total leisure
time of the average adult. Berelson set the total leisure time
of an adult at three hours per day.
8
Berelson also analyzed his findings by education. The
breakdowns are shown in Table 3.
TABLE 3
% of
% of Estimated % Number Free Time
Adults in Distribution Hours (at 3 hrs.
Education Population of Culture Per Month per day)
College grad. ......... 8.5 25 11.75 13.0
Some college ............ 9.5 20 8.0 9.5
H.S. grad. ............. 25.0 25 4.0 4.5
Others ........................... 57.0 30 2.0 2.0
Average .................. 4.0 4.5
In the absence of historical data, Berelson says, "it
seems almost certain" that the United States today has a
higher score on cultural activity than ever before and will
have a still higher score a decade hence. His reasoning:
attention to culture is strongly tied to educational attain-
ment.
By the same token, he says, the United States probably
compares favorably with most foreign countries, "even those
with such popular traditions as opera in Italy."
Samuelson, Carter and Ruggels computed correlations
between education and time spent by men only on six dif-
ferent kinds of mass media. They adjusted the data, by a
part-correlation method, to determine the effect of time
preempted by other activities (for example, job-connected
hours of work and number of organizations in which respon-
dents were active).
They found that, because the more highly educated man
has less time to devote to television, radio and newspapers,
he actually spends less time than he would like to spend;
whereas "the medium orientation of the less educated man
and role demands on his time are at a level that permits
their satisfaction with less competition and less mutual dis-
placement."
(Elmo Roper, "How Culturally Active Are Americans?",,
Saturday Review, May 14, 1966, pp. 22-23; B. Berelson, "In
the Presence of Culture," Public Opinion Quarterly, 28: 1-12,
1964; M. Samuelson, R. F. Carter and L. Ruggels, "Educa-
tion, Available Time, and Use of Mass Media," Journalism
Quarterly, 40: 491-496, 1963.)
An Autumn Weekend (1955)
More people read newspapers over the weekend than
engage in any other activity.
On Monday, Oct. 3 and Tuesday, Oct. 4, 1955, the Uni-
versity of Minnesota School of Journalism interviewed 243
adult readers of the Minneapolis (Minn.) Star (evening)
about their activities on the preceding Saturday and Sun-
day.
Although the findings- are now eleven years old, they
have some value for the present. At the time of the sur-
vey, for example, 92% of the Star readers owned a TV
set, and the average work week was 40 hours.
Table 1 shows, in descending order, the percentage of
adults who engaged in each of twenty-nine activities on
Saturday and Sunday combined.
Table 2 breaks down the data in Table 1 to show when
the respondents engaged in twenty of the activities. Sun-
day evening was the only period in which more people
viewed tv than read a newspaper.
The findings are relevant to the season in which the
study was done. They would be somewhat different for
winter, spring or summer.
Of those who were employed outside the home full-
time or part-time (40% of the total sample), 42% worked
on Saturday, Oct. 1 and 26% on Sunday, Oct. 2.
Table 1 Men Women
1. R ead a new spaper ...................................................................... 83% 90%
2. W watched television ................................................................... 79 73
3. D id routine house ork ............................................................ 14 94
4. W ent to church ... ........................................................................ 48 62
5. Did any shopping at any type of store ................ 43 65
6. L istened to the radio ............................................................. 47 55
7. Just relaxed most of the time, did nothing
in p articu lar'- ............................................................................ .. 53 4 1
8. Took an autom obile ride .................................................... 38 51
9. Visited friends, neighbors in their home .......... 43 46
10. Played w ith children ............................................................. 30 52
11. R ead a m magazine ......................................................................... 30 34
12. Entertained friends in home ............... 19 34
13. Worked in yard or garden ................. 23 13
14. Went to work at regular job ............... 30 6
15. W ent for a w alk ......................................................................... 14 15
16. Read a book (other than Bible) ............................... 12 11
17. Went to an entertainment spot .................................. 9 15
18. Did repair work on house .............................................. 18 7
19. Played games or sports indoors ............................... 9 12
20. Listened to a record-player ........................................... 9 9
21. W ent to a football gam e .................................................... 13 3
22. Took part in outdoor sport or game ...................... 8 8
(continued on next page)
10
23. Spent tim e on hobby .................................................................
24. Worked on auto-wash or repair ....................
25. W en t to m ov ies ..............................................................................
26. Played a musical instrument ..........................................
27. Repaired a home appliance .............................................
28. Did interior decorating in home .................................
29. Built something in home workshop ...........................
Table 2
1. Read a newspaper ..................
2. Watched television ...............
3. Read a magazine ..................
4. Listened to radio ..................
5. Did any shopping ..................
6. Visited friends, neighbors
7. Entertained friends in
h om e ................................. ............
8. Played with children .........
9. Went to work ..................
10. Did routine housework ......
11. Took an auto ride ..................
12. Spent time on hobby .........
13. Went to the movies ...............
14. Went to church .....................
15. Did repair work on house
16. Played games or sports
in doors ............................ ...........
17. Worked in yard or garden
18. Read a book (other
than Bible) ...........................
19. Went to some
entertainment spot .........
20. Just relaxed most of the
time, did nothing in
particular ..............................
Sat.
mom.
7%
5
2
19
23
2
1
9
12
50
4
2
2
4
8
2
1
8
Sat.
aft.
22%
20
5
24
25
8
4
16
11
31
8
4
1
6
1
8
2
2
Men V
10%
10
3
5
4
3
2
Sun. Sun.
morn. aft.
49% 35%
7 35
6 9
20 17
2 4
3 23
2 9
12 28
7 7
37 25
7 29
2 2
- 1
52 2
3 3
1 1
5 4
3 3
- 3
16 21 16 28 28
Who Reads Sunday Comics?
Robinson and White, in 1962, studied readership of
comics in the United States. The study was sponsored by the
Newspaper Comics Council, Inc., and interviewing was done
on a national probability sample of 1,360 adults by Opinion
Research Corporation.
One of the findings was that readership of Sunday
comics is distributed quite evenly across all occupational
categories. The main exceptions are farmers, retired persons
and widows. (See Table 1).
Women
6%
2
4
2
2
2
Sun.
eve.
27%
56
8
15
3
13
11
17
4
21
8
2
2
2
1
3
2
4
2
TABLE 1
Every
Week
Prof., technical workers........ 54%
Farmers ............................................ 26
Mgrs., props., officials......... 47
C lerical ..................................................... 52
S ales ........................................................ 4 7
Craftsmen, foremen ................. 49
Operatives ........................................ 46
Service workers .......................... 43
Laborers ................. ............................ 43
Unemployed ................................... 41
Retired, widows ............ 28
1-3 Times Occa-
a Month sionally
5% 12%
15 9
10 12
13 8
14 12
7 18
12 11
17 6
14 16
10 10
5 14
The investigators, however, suspected that there is a
widespread belief that comics are read chiefly by persons in
the lower occupational levels. So they asked respondents to
complete the following sentence: "Of all the occupational
groups in our country, I would say that read
the comics the most."
Only 365 of the responses could be classified to fit the
occupational descriptions in Table 1. An analysis of these
responses, however, confirmed the stereotype. (See Table 2).
TABLE 2
Lower occupational categories............ 54%
Middle occupational categories............... 12
Upper occupational categories............... 34
(E. J. Robinson and D. M. White, "Comic Strip Reading in
the United States", Report No. 5, Boston University Com-
munications Research Center, August, 1962.)
Readership of Sunday Comics: By Education
Robinson and White, in 1962, studied comics reading
in the United States. The study was sponsored by the News-
paper Comics Council, Inc. and interviewing was done on a
national probability sample of 1360 adults by Opinion Re-
search Corporation.
One of the findings was that as education increases so
does "every week" reading of Sunday comics-up to the
college graduate level. Then it declines somewhat. (Table 1).
Seldom,
Never
29%
50
31
27
27
26
31
34
27
39
53
TABLE 1
8 H.S. Some College Grad.
Grades Grad. College Grad. School
Every week .............. 37% 52% 53% 41% 38%
2-3 times a week ......... 5 4 4 2 5
Once a month .................. 7 8 2 3 4
Occasionally ..................... 14 12 13 14 14
Seldom, never .............. 37 24 28 40 39
100 100 100 100 100
Respondents were asked to complete the following sen-
tence: "I think reading the comics is .......... ." The per-
sonal reasons given were analyzed by education. (Table 2).
TABLE 2
1-7 9-11 H.S. Coll. Grad.
Grades Grades Grad. Grad. Work
Positive pleasure ......... 44% 52% 56% 48% 43%
All right for children 20 12 15 14 21
Negative response ...... 12 15 17 27 31
Educational, useful ... 7 5 4 4 3
Other response ......... 16 16 8 7 2
99 100 100 100 100
The following responses were classified as "positive
pleasure" responses: "enjoyable," "fun," "nice," "relaxing,"
and "good."
Negative responses included these: "waste of time,"
"not educational," "not entertaining," "gives people bad
ideas," "foolish," "silly," "bad habit," and "juvenile."
(E. J. Robinson and D. M. White "Comic Strip Read-
ing in the United States." Report No. 5, Boston University
Communications Research Center, August, 1962)
The Nature of News
Although textbook and other writers have tried to de-
fine news, we have needed a theory which explains the psy-
chological processes of news reading. Dr. Wilbur Schramm,
who is well-trained in psychology, has developed such a
theory. It is reported, in part, below and should have some
value for younger members of the editorial staff:
"I think it is self-evident that a person selects news
in expectation of a reward.
"This reward may be either of two kinds. One is re-
lated to what Freud calls the Pleasure Principle, the other
to what he calls the Reality Principle. For want of better
names, we shall call these two classes immediate reward
and delayed reward.
"In general, the kinds of news which may be expected
to furnish immediate reward are news of crime and corrup-
tion, accidents and disasters, sports and recreation, social
events, and human interest.
"Delayed reward may be expected from news of public
affairs, economic matters, social problems, science, educa-
tion, and health.
"News of the first kind pays its rewards at once. A
reader can enjoy a vicarious experience without any of the
dangers or stresses involved. He can shiver luxuriously at
an axe-murder, shake his head sympathetically and safely
at a tornado, identify himself with the winning team or
(herself) with the society lady who wore a well-described
gown at the reception for Lady Morganbilt, laugh under-
standingly (and from superior knowledge) at a warm little
story of children or dogs.
"News of the second kind, however, pays its rewards
later. It sometimes requires the reader to endure unpleasant-
ness or annoyances-as, for example, when he reads of the
ominous foreign situation, the mounting national debt,
rising taxes, falling market, scarce housing, cancer, epidem-
ics, farm blights. It has a kind of 'threat value.' It is read
so that the reader may be informed and prepared. When
a reader selects delayed reward news, he jerks himself
into the world of surrounding reality to which he can adapt
himself only by hard work. When he selects news of the
other kind, he retreats usually from the world of threaten-
ing reality toward the dream world.
Unstable Boundaries
"For any individual, of course, the boundaries of these
two classes are not stable. For example, a sociologist may
read news of crime as a social problem, rather than for its
immediate reward. A coach may read a sports story for its
threat value: he may have to play that team next week. A
politician may read an account of his latest successful rally,
not for its delayed reward, but very much as his wife reads
an account of a party. In any given story of corruption or
disaster, a thoughtful reader receives not only the immedi-
ate reward of vicarious experience, but also the delayed re-
ward of information and preparedness. Therefore, while the
division of categories holds in general, the predispositions
of the individual may transfer any story from one kind of
reading to another, or divide the experience between the
two kinds of reward.
"But what is going on psychologically beneath these
two kinds of choice of news ?
"A kind of choice which we have called immediate re-
ward is simple associational learning, or problem solving. A
stimulus is present; a response is made; the response is
rewarded. When the stimulus is again presented, there is
a tendency to make the same response. If it is again re-
warded, the tendency to make that same response is pro-
gressively reinforced. If it is not rewarded, the tendency
is progressively extinguished. The stimulus in this case, of
course, is the news item. The response is the decision to read
or listen to the item. The reward may be either a reduction
of tension or discomfort (e.g., curiosity, worry) or an in-
crease in satisfaction (e.g., from a vicarious enjoyment of
the achievements of the winning team).
"But what is the process which leads a reader or
listener to select a news item even though he knows it
may not reduce tension, but actually increase tension; not
relieve discomfort but actually increase discomfort; not
bring satisfaction, but actually bring dissatisfaction and
worry? We have already suggested that these two kinds of
reading are related to what Freud called the two principles
of mental functioning, the Pleasure Principle and the Real-
ity Principle. That is, the immediate reward choice is
learned through trial and error because it succeeds in re-
ducing drives and tensions. The delayed reward choice, on
the other hand, is made not because it is pleasant, but be-
cause it is realistic. It is not pleasant to be afraid or to
anticipate danger; but it is necessary, if one is to avert
harm and avoid danger.
Two Aspects of Learning
"0. H. Mowrer, in his reinterpretation of conditioning
and problem solving, has advanced a concept of learning
which is extremely suggestive to any student of the process
of communication. He points out that there are really two
aspects of learning, related respectively to the two nervous
systems. The central nervous system is the one chiefly
through which we affect society; the autonomic nervous sys-
tem is the one chiefly through which society affects us. The
central system is the one through which habits-that is,
learned responses of the skeletal musculature-are formed.
The autonomous system is the one through which attitudes
or emotions-that is, learned responses of glands, smooth
muscle, and vasomotor tissue-are formed. Habits, of
course, come into being to reduce drives and solve problems.
Attitudes and emotions, on the other hand, are themselves
drives or problems, and call forth skeletal reactions on the
basis of which the central nervous system may go into
action and develop habits.
"Therefore, responses to the two kinds of news corres-
15
ponds to what Sherington calls anticipatory and consum-
matory responses. One is made as the consummation of a
drive and with the expectation of immediate reward. The
other is made to set up a drive, and in expectation of danger
or delayed reward. One reduces a drive and is therefore
pleasant; the other sets up a drive and may be painful.
The two responses are not always clearly differentiated.
For example, the dramatic quality in a foreign news story
may give an immediate reward, while the content arouses
only fear or anticipation of danger. But learning may take
place through either method. Gordon Allport gives an ex-
ample of learning through the anticipatory response: 'Sup-
pose I mispronounce a word in a public speech . and
suffer mounting shame and discomfort. Tension has been
created, not reduced; dissatisfaction and not satisfaction
has resulted; but in this sequence of events I shall surely
learn.'
Child's Reading Habits
"When a child starts to read a newspaper he usually
begins with the comics and the pictures. He proceeds to
the sports news, the human interest stories, and sensational
stories of crime and disaster, all before he makes much
use of public affairs news. It is interesting to conjecture
how a child begins to read public affairs news. Perhaps he
has an experience in which he is able to make not-too-long-
delayed use of something he has read in the paper. Perhaps
it helps him answer a question at school, or to take his
raincoat and avoid a soaking, or to avoid a street which is
closed for repairs-in other words, to avoid trouble by be-
ing informed. He looks at the paper with respect. If reading
the particular item was of benefit to him, would it not be
well for him to read other items also? As his understanding
broadens, he perceives more of the causative and repetitive
relation of events in society. And thus he substitutes other
stimuli for the stimulus which has had a proved reward,
and as his horizon broadens comes to see more and more
reason for reading news of public affairs.
"Thus the time when he comes to read public affairs
news is an important point in his socialization. Most of the
news in the immediate reward group is important to him
individually because of the individual satisfaction and drive-
reduction it accomplishes. But the news in the delayed
group is important to him because it arouses the tensions
and anticipation that are necessary for survival and develop-
ment, that help him to be more effective, better prepared,
socially....
Proximity And People
"If we accept tentatively the theory that there are two
general classes of news, two patterns of reading, and two
aspects of the learning process involved, then another vari-
able becomes important. Within each kind of news, what
determines the likelihood that a given item will be selected ?
What determines the attractiveness of a given item to the
reader?
"Leaving out chance, conflicting mental sets, and the
qualities of presentation which call attention to one item
over others or make one item easier to read than others,
we can hypothesize that a person chooses the items which
he thinks are likely to give him the greatest reward. The
exact yardstick by which he measures this predictive value
is an individual matter based on experience and personality
structure, and powerfully influenced by the momentary situ-
ation. But in general there seems to be greater expectation
of reward when there appears to be greater possibility of
the reader identifying himself with the news.
"This may be what the textbooks mean by proximity
as a news value, but is not to be interpreted as mere physical
proximity. For example: a fight in an American city may
be physically nearer than a battle in the South Pacific, but
if a mother has a son in the battle then how much more
easily can she identify herself with the distant battle than
with the nearer fight. On the other hand, the American
scrap is likely to seem closer to the average reader than a
Dutch coup in Indonesia, although one may ultimately have
large repercussions for the colonial system and for inter-
national trade, whereas the other will doubtless pass out
of the realm of important affairs as soon as the participants
sober up. Similarly, it is a greater reward to identify one-
self with the local team which is winning a championship
than with a faraway team that is equally good. One of the
startling accomplishments of mass communications has been
to bring far corners and faraway people almost next door,
so that it becomes relatively easy for a reader to identify
himself with the personal affairs of movie stars in Holly-
wood, and for thousands of sports fans who have never been
in South Bend to feel like alumni of Notre Dame. It is also
easier to identify oneself with an event which is vividly
described and which has a minimum of indirection. But I
think it is safe to say that the individual world of the
reader will for the most part determine the ease with which
he can identify himself with the given item, and this in turn
will powerfully affect the probability of the item being
read."
[Journalism Quarterly, 26:259-69 (1949).]
Letters to the Editor
"The National Study of Newspaper Reading," spon-
sored in 1961 by the Newsprint Information Committee,
found that 7.9% of the adults in the sample had at some
time written a letter to the editor, and that 1.3% had
written such a letter "in the past three months."
Newspaper Readership by Influential Persons
Postcard questionnaires were sent from New York to
641 persons in positions of influence in 67 counties in Ken-
tucky and 10 counties in Indiana in January, 1965.
The counties were those in which the Louisville Courier-
Journal (morning) reached 10% or more of the households
on weekdays. The newspaper was not identified as origina-
tor of the questionnaires.
About two-thirds of the addressees responded as to
whether they read the newspaper "usually," "sometimes"
or "not at all." "Usually" was defined as two or more times
a week for the daily and two or more times a month for
the Sunday issue.
The weekday results were as follows:
Usually Sometimes
M ay ors .................................................................. 98 %
C county judges ............................................. 98
County attorneys .................................... 96
Circuit judges ........................................ 88
College heads .......................................... 96
Bank presidents .................................. 89
Newspaper eds./publs ................. 83
County prosecutors ............................. 81
T otal ........................ ...................... ...... 91%
Sunday readership differed only
2%
2
0
8
4
4
10
9
5%
slightly from
Not at
All
0%
0
4
4
0
7
7
9
4%
daily.
Credibility of the Newspaper: An Experiment
Many persons believe a scandal when it is reported in
a newspaper. But few believe it when it is in a scandal
magazine.
To what extent do readers believe scandal when it is
reported in a newspaper? Kelly, in 1957, did an experiment
in which the benchmark was a scandal magazine.
An analysis of the March, 1957 issue of Confidential
magazine showed that 40.7% of the editorial content repre-
sented "values" directly related to sex and an additional
43.7% represented "values" touching on or leading up to
the topic of sex.
This issue contained an article by a woman author
which was highly ambiguous. It was entitled, "I own 25%
of ." (The actual name of the famous base-
ball player is not used in this summary).
The article was written in a style characteristic of
scandal magazines. With the touch of a clever copyreader,
the article conceivably could appear in a few newspapers.
It insinuated immoral post-marriage activities on the part of
a well-known baseball player, but remained relatively free
of any libelous statements. That is, it didn't come right out
and state that the baseball player had not been true to his
wife.
The experiment used 80 Stanford University freshmen
male students as subjects, one-half of whom lived in one
dormitory and the other half in another dormitory. The in-
terviewing was done on two consecutive days so that the
second group was not aware that the first group had been
interviewed.
One group was asked to read a mimeographed copy of
the article which indicated it had appeared in a recent issue
of the Los Angeles Times. The second group read the article
in Confidential magazine.
The key question was "Do you think has or
has not been true to his wife?" The subjects were handed
a slip on which they could check one of the following re-
sponses: "Has been true," "probably has been true," "prob-
ably has not been true" and "has been true."
The hypothesis was that more people will believe an
article of this kind in a newspaper than in Confidential.
Other questions tested the subjects as to whether or
not they were cynically oriented or "dirty-minded," but so
few qualified in these categories that the suspected factors
did not operate in the experiment.
The results were as follows:
"Newspaper" Confidential
Belief in source: Readers Readers
Has not been true ............. 6 1
Probably has not been true ..... 17 5
Subtotal ................. (23) (6)
(continued on next page)
"Newspaper" Confidential
Readers Readers
Disbelief in source:
Probably has been true ........ 15 30
Has been true ................ 2 4
Subtotal ................. (17) (34)
TOTAL .......................... 40 40
(Differences are statistically significant)
The data in the table may mean that, when a scandal
is reported in a newspaper, many persons believe it because
of the high credibility of the source.
The two groups were also asked, "Have you ever read
something like this in a newspaper before ?" Of those who
were told the article appeared in a newspaper, 85% an-
swered No; of those who had read the article in Confiden-
tial, 75% answered No.
For previous summaries of research relating to source
credibility, see "News Research for Better Newspapers,"
(1966), pp 95 and 128.
(J. M. Kelly, The Credibility of Confidential Magazine and
the Newspaper Compared. Master's thesis, Stanford Univer-
sity, 1957)
"TV Tab's" Main Use is as a Directory
In the spring of 1965-six months after its introduction
in the Sunday issue-the popularity of its "TV Tab" was
measured by the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle.
A 21.3% return was received from postal cards distributed
by carriers.
One finding was that readers use it mainly as a direc-
tory. Readers were asked which were their favorite "fea-
tures" in the "TV Tab." The weighted responses (with first
choice votes in parentheses) were as follows:
Day-by-Day Listings ......... ........................... 1801 (167)
M ovie G u ide ........................................................................ 1604 (129)
Sports Calendar ...................... ............................. 1009 (68)
T V M ailb ag ....................................................................... 988 (61)
Children's Program s .......... .......................... 432 (18)
TV Starscram ble ..................... ........................... 423 (21)
O th ers ........................................................................................ 224 (11)
The second and third features are extensions of the list-
ings.
The percentage of readers who looked through "TV
Tab" "from first to back" on Sunday was 71.7; the per-
centage who keep it for reference throughout the week
was 78.
Eighty-one per cent said they found "TV Tab" "useful"
and 76.3% said it fills their need for a program guide.
How Much Do Readers Know? (III)
Medicine and Science
Knowledge of science is a direct function of exposure
to science information in the mass media. However, the dif-
ferences among people with varying degrees of formal edu-
cation are great. This is exhibited in two national studies.
In 1947, Benson and Benson tested a national sample
by asking several questions about medical science. The re-
sults:
Grade High
School School College
Do you happen to know whether
tuberculosis is carried by a
germ?
Yes (correct) ..................................... 60% 63% 87%
N o ................................................................... .. 14 13 6
D on't know ........................................... 26 24 7
Have you heard of these diseases
(multiple sclerosis, muscular
dystrophy, cerebral palsy)
Heard of any ............... 61% 91% 98%
Heard of none .............. 39 9 2
Do you think a person can be born
with tuberculosis?
Y es ................. .................................................. 62 % 51% 36 %
N o (correct) ........................................ 24 34 51
Don't know ................. 14 15 13
Do you think cancer is curable?
Yes (correct) ..................................... 23% 37% 43%
N o ................................................................ ... 2 9 17 15
D on't know ........................................... 18 15 6
Q u alified .................................................... 30 31 36
("Correct" in the foregoing tables means "most correct response".)
At various times, the American Institute of Public
Opinion has tested the public's knowledge in certain areas
of non-medical science. Such information has been available
in the mass media. But great differences in knowledge were
found among people with varying amounts of formal edu-
cation:
Grade High
School School College
(1945)
Could correctly identify Einstein... 29% 63% 91%
C would not .................................. ...................... 71 37 9
(1954)
What is meant by the fall-out of an
H-bomb?
C correct ......................... .................. 8% 16% 36%
In correct ........................................................ 7 11 13
D on't know ........................ .............. .. 85 73 51
Grade High
School School College
(1956)
Do you know of any uses of atomic
energy except for war purposes?
Medicine, medical research......... 6% 16% 37%
O their use ................................................ 19 36 45
D on't know .......................................... 75 48 18
How Much Do Readers Know? (IV)
Satellites
University of Michigan Survey Research Center did
two national studies for the National Association of Science
Writers-the first six months before the launching of
Sputnik I (Oct. 4, 1957), and the second six months after
the launching.
Prior to the first survey, a considerable amount of in-
formation about satellites had been generated by the Inter-
national Geophysical Year.
One question asked was, "Have you heard anything
about launching a space satellite, sometimes called a man-
made moon ?"
Table 1 shows the answers to the question:
TABLE 1
Before After
Heard of satellites 46% 91%
Heard nothing 54 8
Not ascertained 1
100% 100%
Respondents who had heard of the .satellites were
asked in both surveys: "From what you have heard, what is
the purpose of launching these satellites ?"
Some respondents were specific as to the purpose (e.g.,
"finding out about weather and atmospheric conditions").
Some stated only a general purpose (e.g., "to collect scien-
tific data"). Some mentioned future possibilities (e.g.,
"We're working toward a manned space station"). Some
gave misinformation (e.g., "to find another planet for people
to live on"). Others gave such responses as "to beat the
Russians". These responses are shown in Table 2, and
are analyzed in Table 3 by sex. The greater gains in knowl-
edge were by women, although the difference between the
sexes is small.
TABLE 2
Satellite purpose Before After
Scientific, detailed information 12% 11%
Scientific, general information 8 16
Competition with Russians 1 20
Future possibilities 17
Subtotal (21) (64)
Heard something; don't know purpose 14 23
Misinformation 11 4
Heard nothing 54 8
Not ascertained 1
100% 100%
TABLE 3
Male Female
Satellite purpose Before After Before After
Scientific, detailed information 19% 15% 6% 8%
Scientific, general information 11 18 6 14
Competition with Russians 1 22 1 19
Future possibilities 17 17 17
Heard something;
don't know purpose 13 16 15 27
Misinformation 13 6 10 4
Heard nothing 43 6 10 10
Not ascertained 1
100% 100% 100% 100%
(Satellites, Science, and the Public. Copyrighted by the
National Association of Science Writers, Inc., 1959.)
How Much Do Readers Know? (V)
The Atom Bomb
Many of the tests of knowledge made by the American
Institute of Public Opinion (Gallup) are topical. That is,
they relate to some aspect of a recently reported event.
In 1952, AIPO asked, "What mineral, or metal, is im-
portant in the making of the atom bomb?" The results, by
education, were as follows:
Grade High
School School College Total
Correct ...................... 37% 63% 84% 59%
Incorrect ................ 10 '9 5 9
Don't know .......... 53 28 11 32
100 100 100 100
In 1954, AIPO asked: "Do you happen to know how
far away from the Red China mainland the islands of Que-
moy and Matsu are?" The results, by education, were as
follows:
Grade High
School School College Total
Correct ..................... 8% 14% 30% 14%
Incorrect ............... 14 14 28 16
Don't know ......... 78 72 42 70
100 100 100 100
High school graduates accounted for approximately
one-half of the samples. Their responses are about the same
as for the population as a whole.
The percentages are not only measures of readers'
knowledge, but of their exposure to certain newspaper con-
tent. Some of the exposure or lack of exposure is selective
on the part of the reader, but the lack of exposure, in some
instances, could be due to the absence of such facts in a
particular newspaper.
How Much Do Readers Know? (VI)
The Vietcong
On March 15, some social scientists at Stanford Uni-
versity and the University of Chicago published the results
of a national poll on attitudes toward the war in Vietnam.
The study was made in cooperation with the National
Opinion Research Center of Chicago.
One of the questions was "As you understand it, who
are the Vietcong-the government we are supporting in
Vietnam, the South Vietnamese communists, North Viet-
namese, or who ?"
Government we are supporting 3.9%
South Vietnamese communists 29.0
North Vietnamese 40.5
Others 10.2
Don't know 16.5
As the table shows, 71% of the national sample of 1474
adults could not identify the Vietcong accurately.
How Much Do Readers Know? (VII)
Financial Terms
Public Opinion Research Corporation of Princeton, N.J.,
for many years has reported opinion for its corporation
clients. In August, 1961 they conducted personal interviews
with 240 stockholders in one or more American companies,
the stockholders being selected by probability.
This was not a sample of the adult population, but of
stockholders; one-sixth of adults are stockholders.
A stockholder was handed a card containing thirty-five
financial terms and asked to sort them according to whether
he knew the term "very well," "fairly well," or if the term
was new to him. Next, the stockholder was asked to define
the words he said he knew.
The answers were coded as "correct or partially cor-
rect," "incorrect or not sure" and "unfamiliar."
Table 1 reports the percentage of "correct and partially
correct" answers for nineteen of the terms.
Men, it will be noted, scored only about 23% higher
than women overall.
Since all of these are accounting terms, a stockholder
must understand the concept in order to define the term.
This is apparent when one notes the low scores on "bonds,"
"funded debt," "debt capital" and "equity capital."
Possibly, the findings explain why some people seek the
advice of newspaper financial columnists about their invest-
ment decisions.
It might be an interesting experiment for an editor to
test editorial employees on the meaning of the simplest of
the terms listed in Table 1. Here are two examples of mis-
use found recently in a newspaper and Time magazine:
. Mr. Blough had a rough time at the annual
stockholders' meeting. After nearly four hours of
often acrimonious exchange with 1300 coupon
clippers ...
. Samuel I. Newhouse, head of a newspaper
empire, made the bid Tuesday. He offered $150
a share for shares whose highest yield has never
been more than $135.
The New York Stock Exchange,
York, 5, N.Y., publishes a booklet
which defines most financial terms.
TABLE 1
Profits .... ...----.....
Net profits ...... ..................................
Liabilities ................................................
Dividends ...................... ........................
Assets ......... .......................
Depreciation ................ ..
Working capital ...................................
Earnings ................. ............................
Market price ...................................
B onds ............... ..........................................
Depletion allowances ..................
Men
80%
73
72
62
53
53
47
35
34
32
18
11 Wall Street, New
for free distribution
All
Women Stockholders
75% 78%
65 70
61 67
54 59
45 50
44 49
37 43
24 30
23 29
18 26
8 14
(continued on next page)
All
Men Women Stockholders
Par value ............................ . .... 20% 5% 13%
Stock option ...... ..................................... 17 7 12
Price-earnings ratio ...... .............. 10 0 6
C ash flow ................................................ 5 4 5
Debentures ............................-.........- 9 1 5
Funded debt ..................................... 8 0 5
Debt capital ........................................ 7 1 4
Equity capital ....................................... 5 0 3
(Opinion Research Corporation, The Public Opinion Index
for Industry, October, 1961)
How Much Do Readers Know? (VIII)
Communist China
The appendix to "The American People and China" by
A. T. Steele, published this year, reports the findings of
a national opinion survey conducted in May and June, 1964
by the University of Michigan Survey Research Center. The
study was sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations.
One of the questions was, "Do you happen to know
what kind of government most of China has right now-
whether it's democratic, or Communist, or what?" The
answers were as follows:
Know
Communist
Government
Controls Do Not
Most of China Know
Total sam ple .................................................................. 72% 28%
M en .................................................................... .. 8 1 19
W om en ............................................................. 66 34
By education:
G rade school ................................................ 46 54
Som e high school ....................................... 61 39
Completed high school ..................... 83 17
Som e college ................................................ 94 6
College degree .......................................... 97 3
Adults with a grade school education or less were
26.4% of the national sample of 1501. College degree hold-
ers were 11.1%.
The following question was asked only of those who
knew that mainland China is ruled by a Communist gov-
ernment: "Have you heard anything about another Chinese
government besides the Communist one?" The answers
were as follows:
Know
About
Nationalist Do Not Not
Government Know Answered
Total sample of 1088 ........................... 60% 39% 1%
M en ................... .............................. 71 29 0
W om en .............................................. 50 49 1
Respondents were also asked whether "the United
States has been treating Russia and China the same up to
now or has been treating them differently."
Only 60% gave the correct answer, viz., that the
United States was closer or more friendly to Russia.
The following question was also asked of the whole
sample: "Have you happened to hear anything about the
fighting in Vietnam ?"
Seventy-four per cent answered "Yes" and 25% an-
swered "No." One per cent did not answer.
Of those who knew there was fighting in Vietnam
(1127 adults), this question was asked: "How about the
United States getting out of Vietnam completely ?" Fifty-
three per cent opposed getting out-37% "definitely" and
16% "probably." Only 18% "definitely" favored getting
out.
Seventy-five per cent thought the United States should
continue to supply arms and training to the South Viet-
namese. Forty-one per cent favored using American forces
"if the Communist rebels were winning."
(A. T. Steele, The American People and China, 1966)
How Much Do Readers Know? (IX)
Percentage with Adult Experience of Certain Events
The percentage of the population, as of April, 1966,
who did not have adult experience with the following events
or situations was as follows (By "adult experience" is
meant the stated percentage of the population which was
born or was 21 years of age at the time mentioned):
W world W ar I ......................................................................................................... 93.0 %
1929 Stock m market crash ................................................................... 84.3
P roh ib ition .............................................................................................................. 80.4
P re-S social Security ...................................................................................... 76.6
M ass unemployment (mid-1941) .............................................. 70.9
W orld W ar' II .................... ............... 66.0
K orean W ar ............................................................................................................ 56.6
Pre-space age (Sputnik I was Oct. 4, 1957) .................. 52.1
A R republican president ...................................................................... 48.0
(National Industrial Conference Board)
27
How Much Do Readers Know? (X)
Name of Their Congressman
In August 1965, the Gallup Poll asked "Do you happen
to know the name of the present Representative in Congress
from your district ?"
The responses were: Yes, 46%; No, 54%. Exactly the
same responses were reported when Gallup asked the ques-
tion in 1942.
The Yes responses by age groups were: 21-29 years,
37%; 30-49 years, 47% ; 50 years and older, 50%.
Chapter 3
READERSHIP
For summaries of previous research about the subject
matter of this chapter, see "News Research For Better
Newspapers," (1966), pages 36-45.
Readership by Listeners and Viewers
Exposure to the report of an event via the broadcast
media tends to increase the audience for a newspaper story
about that event.
Few newspaper subscribers who have learned about an
event from the broadcast media fail to read about it in
their newspaper.
Dr. Galen Rarick, of the University of Oregon School
of Journalism, conducted a recognition-type readership
study of the July 22 issue of the Salem (Ore.) Capital Jour-
nal (eve.) The study was sponsored jointly by ANPA and
the Capital Journal.
At the conclusion of the interview, the interviewer
again showed the respondent the front page and asked:
"Which of these items, if any, had you seen on television
or heard on radio before you read the paper ?"
Salem has four radio stations, and signals are received
from stations in other cities. Although Salem has no tv
station, good signals are received from five stations in
Portland, 40 miles distant. In Marion county, 92.3% of the
homes have TV sets in working order.
Only four of the front page stories could have been
learned about from radio or tv.
One story had this banner headline:
Two Die in New York, Cleveland Riots
Media exposure was as follows:
Men Women
Read it in Capital Journal .................................... 63% 55%
H ad heard it on radio ................................................ 8 9
H ad seen it on tv ............................................................ 13 21
R adio and/or tv ............................................................... 18 25
*A few respondents had both heard and seen the story.
Another story had a 3-column headline:
Astronauts Back
At Launch Site
29
Media exposure was as follows: Men Women
Read it in Capital Journal ............. 50% 42%
Had heard it on radio ................. 7 6
H ad seen it on tv .................................... ....................... 13 20
R adio an d/or tv .................................................................. 18 23
A third story had a 5-column headline:
Marine Battalion Freed
Of North Viet Division
Media exposure was as follows:
Men Women
Read it in Capital Journal ............................... 46% 37%
H ad heard it on radio ........................................... 3 2
H ad seen it on tv .......................................................... 4 6
R adio and/or tv .................................................................. 6 8
A fourth story reported that city officials have asked
county officials not to sell certain sewer bonds. The two
column headline was as follows:
City: Don't
Sell Bonds
Media exposure is discussed below.
Did readership of these stories differ among those who
were exposed to them via broadcast media and those who
were not exposed? The answers for the first three stories
are in Table 1.
TABLE 1
Readership of stories by:
Those Those Not
Exposed to Exposed to
Broadcast Broadcast
Men Women Men Women
Two Die in New York,
Cleveland Riots ...................... 74% 72% 58% 46%
Astronauts Back at
Launch Site ............................... 77 69 42 34
Marine Battalion Freed
Of North Viet Division......... 73 83 42 32
In the instance of the local story about sewer bonds, no
inference can be made. Apparently, this story was not
broadcast by any Portland television station. Only one per-
son in the sample who had read the story reported having
heard it on the radio. (Readership in the Capital Journal
was men 51% and women 42%.)
In evaluating this data one should keep in mind that
the sample was limited to adults in households which sub-
scribed to the Capital Journal. Not included were respon-
dents who subscribed to another newspaper or to no news-
paper at all. Also, the question referred to listening and
viewing before the stories had been read. It is possible that
some persons were exposed to a broadcast after they had
read the stories.
Dr. Rarick cautions against making an inference that
learning about these events "caused" these people to read
the newspaper stories. There is at least some evidence that
a high interest in current events causes one to expose him-
self to news in two or more media.
Even so, he says, "the data are consistent with the
hypothesis that exposure to an event via one medium tends
to stimulate exposure via another medium.
"And it is quite clear that exposure via radio or tele-
vision does not result in any serious loss of audience for
the newspaper.
"The percentage of the sample who reported hearing
about an event via the broadcast media but who did not
read the Capital Journal story of that event ranged from
a high of only 6.9 for women for both the 'Astronauts Back'
and the 'Two Die' stories to a low of zero for women for
the 'City: Don't Sell' story," Dr. Rarick said.
"On the other hand, the percentage of the respondents
who were exposed to an event through only the newspaper
ranged from a low of 26 for women on the 'Astronauts
Back' story to a high of 51 for men on the 'City: Don't Sell'
story.
"In all," he continued, "the evidence does suggest that
exposure to an event via the broadcast media tends to in-
crease the audience for a newspaper story about the event."
Readership of Stock Tables
In a personal interview readership study of the July 22
issue of the Salem (Ore.) Capital Journal-sponsored jointly
by ANPA and the newspaper-, Dr. Galen Rarick, of the
University of Oregon School of Journalism, obtained the
following percentages for "yesterday's" readership of stock
quotations.
Men Women
N.Y. Stock Exchange (267 stocks) .... 17% 8%
Over the Counter (28 stocks) ....... 5 2
Mutual Funds (50) ................ 9 4
The following question was asked of those who had read
(i.e., had referred to) any of the quotations: "How many
stock market quotations did you read in the paper ?" The re-
sults were:
Men Women
1 ................ 17.4% 21.4%
2 or 3 ............ 28.3 25.0
4 or 5 ............ 6.5 7.1
6 or more ......... 47.8 46.4
Inspection of the table shows that almost one-half of
the readers had looked at 6 or more stocks.
Then this question was asked of those who had read one
or more quotations: "Why did you read them ?" The results
were:
Men Women
Own one or more stocks ...... 76% 88%
Am considering buying ....... 24 8
Other reasons ............... 18 12
(The columns total more than 100% because some respondents gave
more than one reason)
Some of the "other" reasons were: "To see how my
brother is doing," "to keep track of the economy," "inter-
ested in the progress of the company I work for," "I used
to own stocks," and "my relatives own stocks."
An interesting finding is that a good many persons
refer to the tables although, at the time, they do not own
any stocks.
Considering the reasons given and the fact that the
Capital Journal published only 267 Big Board quotations
(1,400 or more stocks are traded on an average day), it
is possible that the reader of a newspaper which published
all of the quotations would refer to a few more quotations
than were reported for this newspaper, and that the
readership of the table would be somewhat higher.
Readership of a Saturday Paper
A readership study of the Minneapolis (Minn.) Star
(evening) was conducted on Monday, Oct. 3 and Tuesday,
Oct. 4, 1955 of the issue of Saturday, Oct. 1.
The study was done by the School of Journalism of
the University of Minnesota by the conventional method,
but only selected pages were measured. The sample was
115 males and 128 females who were 18 years old or older.
Exactly 81% of the sample had read the issue. Those
who had not read it gave these main reasons: competing
social and sports events; working; away from home; and
illness.
The paper was read at these times:
3 to 6 p .m ............................................................... 37 %
6 to 9 p .m ............................................................... 55
9 p.m to m midnight ....................................... 12
After midnight ........................ 3
*107
(*Eleven per cent read the Star in two
or more of these periods on Saturday.)
Eleven per cent had read the Saturday issue on Sun-
day, of whom 6% read it on both Saturday and Sunday and
5% on Sunday only.
The estimated reading time compares with the time
spent on a previous weekday issue as follows:
Wednesday, October, 1954 .......... 41.0 minutes
Saturday, October, 1955 ............................ 36.8 minutes
The Saturday issue was one-third to one-half the size
of weekday issues. This could account for the lesser amount
of time spent on the Saturday issue.
Reading of comics was just as high in the Saturday
issue as in the weekday issues. The same was true for
want ads. Reading of the first sports page on Saturday was
just as high for men but lower for women. The editorial
page, on the whole, had lower readership scores on Satur-
day. Readership of tv logs and radio logs was higher for
the Saturday issue.
Readership of Sports News
The Omaha World-Herald, last June, surveyed a sample
of readers of the "Sunrise" edition who lived in the City
Zone, which also includes Council Bluffs, Iowa. A self-
administered questionnaire was used.
Some of the questions related to different kinds of
sports news. The results are presented in the following
table:
Not
Regularly Occasionally Never Answered
Men
Sports pages ........................... 62% 20.9% 4.7% 12.4%
Professional sports ......... 66.3 18.2 7.0 8.5
College sports .................. 55.0 27.9 7.4 9.7
H .S. sports ................................. 43.4 34.5 11.2 10.9
Professional football 62.4 19.4 9.3 8.9
Horse racing ...................... 61.2 21.7 10.5 6.6
Professional basketball 50.0 25.2 14.3 10.5
H hunting ....................................... 43.8 24.4 19.4 12.4
Fishing .......................................... 43.4 25.6 19.4 11.6
(continued on next page)
Not
Regularly Occasionally Never Answered
Men
Professional golf ............... 43.4% 28.3% 17.0% 11.3 %
Boxing ..................................... 41.9 34.1 14.3 9.7
Bow ling ...................................... 36.8 27.9 26.4 8.9
Bowling scores in
fine print ........................ 27.1 23.3 38.0 11.6
Auto racing .............................. 36.8 32.6 18.6 12.0
Track ............................................ 31.8 34.1 22.1 12.0
Softball .......................................... 31.8 31.0 25.2 12.0
Swimming ........................... 30.2 30.6 26.8 12.4
Tennis ............................................. 24.0 27.5 36.1 12.4
Women
Sports pages ........................... 31.5 45.7 15.9 6.9
Professional sports ......... 29.7 38.4 25.0 6.9
High school sports ............ 19.6 48.2 22.4 9.8
College sports ..................... 17.7 44.6 27.9 9.8
Horse racing ...................... 36.2 32.3 26.1 5.4
Professional football ... 22.8 28.6 39.5 9.1
Professional golf .......... 16.7 28.6 45.3 9.4
Bowling .................................. 16.7 35.5 39.1 8.7
Bowling scores in
fine print ................... 13.0 23.9 50.4 12.7
Professional basketball 16.3 29.0 43.5 11.2
Swimming ...................... 12.3 29.0 45.7 13.0
Fishing ....... ........................ 10.9 22.5 54.3 12.3
Softball .......................................... 10.5 25.0 52.9 11.6
Auto racing .............................. 9.8 30.8 48.2 11.2
Tennis ............................................. 8.3 22.1 56.9 12.7
H hunting ....................................... 8.0 25.0 53.2 13.8
T rack ............................................. 7.6 27.2 53.2 12.0
B oxing .......................................... 6.5 26.4 54.4 12.7
It will be noted that the largest sex differences as to
rank order are for hunting and boxing.
When a self-administered questionnaire is used, some
portion of the "not answered" responses are actually
"never" responses. This is because some people-mainly
older people-do not check the items which they never read.
Readership of the Church Page
Dr. Galen Rarick, of the University of Oregon School
of Journalism, last July measured the readership of certain
pages, of the Salem (Ore.) Capital Journal. The study was
sponsored jointly by ANPA and the newspaper.
Dr. Rarick found that 30% of the men and 47% of
the women "usually" read the church page, published
Saturday.
He related these scores to the frequency of church
attendance, as shown in the table below:
Frequency of Church Attendance
1 to 3
Almost Times Every
Never a Month Week
Men
Usually read ....... 18% 34% 48% 100%
Usually do not read.. 60 23 17 100
Women
Usually read ....... 19 34 47 100
Usually do not read.. 58 20 22 100
Minneapolis Star Survey
The Minneapolis Star measured the readership of the
first of three church pages in the issue of Saturday, October
1, 1955. The personal interview survey found that only 28%
of all adult readers, interviewed on Monday and Tuesday,
had read anything on that page.
The highest read item, "The Week in Religion" column,
was read by 20% of the men and 15% of the women. No
other single item on the page-news or ad-"was "seen"
by more than 8% of the sample.
(Ed. Note: For a previous report of readership of the
church page, see the summary of the research by Robert
Root and Harold D. Holder at page 42 of "News Research
for Better Newspapers," published in April 1966 by the
ANPA Foundation.)
Readership of the Youth Section
Some adults read the youth section. Dr. Galen Rarick,
of the University of Oregon School of Journalism, last July
asked a sample of 673 adult readers of the Salem (Ore.)
Capital Journal about their readership and found that 36 %
of the men and 26% of the women "usually" read the sec-
tion. The study was sponsored jointly by ANPA and the
Capital Journal.
The Omaha World-Herald last June also asked adult
subscribers to the Sunday edition in the City Zone, to the
"Sunrise" daily edition in the City Zone and to outstate
daily subscribers: "Do you have teen-agers in your family ?"
The surveys indicated that 41% to 42% of all three
types of subscribers (1,698 adults) have teen-agers in their
family, although the range was from 33% in one survey to
48.5% in another.
The World-Herald asked teenagers in the homes of Sun-
day subscribers: "How often do you read the peach colored
teen section, 'Herald Teen' ?" The results were:
Regularly 53.1% Never 4.7%
Occasionally 25.6% Not answered 16.5%
Teenagers in two types of households were also asked,
"Did you read the peach colored teen section, 'Herald Teen'
last Friday ?" The results were:
Not
Yes No Answered
Outstate daily ... 58% 24% 18% 100%
"Sunrise" ed. (CZ) 54 17 30 101
When teenagers in the same households were asked,
"Did you read the daily World-Herald yesterday?" the an-
swers were as follows:
Not
Yes No Answered
Outstate daily ... 72% 10% 18% 100%
"Sunrise" ed. (CZ) 61 15 24 100
When teenagers in all three types of households were
asked, "If you had your way, what changes or improve-
ments would you make with the peach colored youth sec-
tion, 'Herald Teen' ?" only one-fifth to one-fourth answered
the question. Most of the answers were conventionalities and
irrelevant suggestions.
Readership of the Real Estate Section
In a study of the Salem (Ore.) Capital Journal last
July, Dr. Galen Rarick, of the University of Oregon School
of Journalism, found that 36% of the men and 26% of the
women in the sample "usually" read the real estate section.
The study was sponsored jointly by ANPA and the
Capital Journal.
In an article in the Summer, 1966 issue of the Columbia
Journalism Review, Ferdinand Kuhn was highly critical of
the editorial content of the real estate section in many news-
papers. He also had praise for five newspapers which as-
signed reporters to write about the urban and suburban
environment, "which includes the planning of buildings,
parklands, transportation and housing."
36
Readership of Medical and Nonmedical Science News
Women are much heavier readers of medical news than
are men, although more men than women read nonmedical
science news.
When the Michigan Survey Research Center, in 1957,
asked a national sample, with respect to medical news,
whether they glanced at it, skipped it, read some of it or
read all of it, the responses for "read all" was: Men 26%,
women 47%.
In national studies by the same agency in 1957 and
1958 of reading of medical and nonmedical science news the
responses were analyzed by education, as follows:
8th Some Finished Any
Grade H.S. H.S. College
Medical news
Pct. who "read all":
1957 ................................................... 25 42 49 44
1958 .............................................. 30 39 43 45
Nonmedical science news
Pct. who "read all" or
"some":
1957 .............................................. 39 59 69 80
1958 .............................................. 49 61 70 85
The first table shows that, after the eighth grade, read-
ing of medical news is not highly related to education. The
second table, however, shows that amount of education is a
predictor of reading nonmedical science news. In the future
newspaper audience, there will be a larger proportion of
readers in the upper education categories.
Many Readers Want More Medical News
The University of Michigan Survey Research Center
conducted a national study for the National Association of
Science Writers and New York University in 1958.
Among other things, readers were asked about the
amount of reading they did of several kinds of news
(whether they read some of it, read all, read none, etc.).
They were also asked whether they wanted more or less of
each kind of news.
The table on page 38 reports the percentage of those
who said they read all of each kind of news and comics and
the percentage who said they wanted more of such content.
37
Reads Wants
All More
Local News 48% 35%
"People in the News" 40 27
Medical News 37 42
Comics 30 8
Nonmedical science news 28 28
Crime 27 5
National politics 23 14
Foreign events 21 14
Sports 15 9
Society 11 4
One inference is that three out of eight readers read
all of the medical news they are exposed to and an even
larger number want more medical news.
A second inference is that a good many people are avid
readers of news about nonmedical science-about the same
number as read all of the comics-and want more of it.
(Science, the News and the Public. Copyright 1958 by Na-
tional Association of Science Writers, Inc. Used by per-
mission.)
The Effect of Sputnik I on Reading of Science News
The launching of Sputnik I on Oct. 4, 1957 caused only
a moderate increase of interest in science news, six months
later.
But it increased greatly the interest in science news
of all women and of lesser educated men.
These facts were found by the University of Michigan
Survey Research Center in nationwide studies done for the
National Association of Science Writers. The "before" study
was done six months prior to the launching and the "after"
study six months after the launching.
There was a great volume of science news in this inter-
val, and some of it had the element of suspense, as when
hourly bulletins were issued on the progress of the United
States launching.
During this period, three out of four managing editors
replied in a questionnaire that they had increased the
amount of space given to science in their papers by 50
per cent.
The accompanying table shows, by sex and education,
the amount of reading of science news in newspapers before
and after Sputnik I launching.
In no group did more than one reader in four skip over
science news after the launching. In all groups after the
launching a majority read at least some science news.
MEN
Science Reading
Reads all
Reads some
Glances at
Skips over
Not ascertained
Grade School
Before
26%
28
19
22
5
100%
After
26%
39
17
16
2
100%
Completed H.S.
Before
46%
32
17
5
100%
After
42%
32
18
6
2
100%
WOMEN
Reads all 16% 21% 26% 29% 29% 43%
Reads some 24 33 40 41 43 38
Glances at 23 20 17 18 21 15
Skips over 35 23 16 10 7 3
Not ascertained 2 3 1 2 1
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
(Satellites, Science, and the Public. Copyrighted by the Na-
tional Association of Science Writers, Inc., 1959.)
Culture and Other Special Interests
The Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald last June asked a
sample of City Zone readers of the "Sunrise" edition how
often they read news and feature stories about certain sub-
jects of special interest.
The results are in the table page 40. Readership of the
sports and women's pages are included as one kind of
benchmark.
College
Before
53%
35
9
2
1
100%
After
47%
41
8
4
100%
Not
Regularly Occasiopally Never Answered.
Men
Music .......... 12% 35% 41% 13%
Drama ......... 11 35 41 14
Art ............ 11 31 44 14
Science ......... 27 47 14 13
Medicine ....... 33 43 12 11
Religion ........ 22 47 19 12
Education ...... 30 46 12 12
Business ....... 31 45 12 12
Sports pages ... 62 21 5 12
Women's pages 13 34 36 17
Women
Music .......... 19 43 29 10
Drama ......... 21 42 28 10
Art ............ 18 37 34 12
Science ......... 16 54 17 13
Medicine ....... 46 38 10 6
Religion ......... 31 48 12 9
Education ...... 40 38 12 10
Business ....... 22 48 19 11
Sports pages .... 32 46 16 7
Women's pages 76 16 3 5
An interesting finding is that women's interest in busi-
ness is higher than their interest in some other fields of
special interest.
Readership of Pages in Omaha World-Herald
In June, 1965 the Omaha World-Herald conducted a
self-administered questionnaire survey of a sample of read-
ers about readership of features and certain pages. The
results for readership of the pages by readers in the City
Zone are presented below. The teenagers' percentages were
not broken down by sex.
Page
Amusement
Men ..................-......
W omen .........-............
Teenagers ....................
Picture
Men ...........................
W omen ..............................
Teenagers ...................
Editorial
Men .................. ..................
W omen .....................
Teenagers ..................
Never and
Regularly Occasionally Not answered
43.4%
43.4
46.8
Women's
M en ....................................... 11.2
Women .......................... 67.9
Teenagers ......... 13.9
Sports
M en ..................................... 68.0
Women .......................... 20.3
Teenagers ........ 42.1
Comics
Men ........................... 65.8
Women .......................... 63.5
Teenagers .................... 75.1
Financial
Men ........... ......................... 29.1
Women .......................... 13.1
Teenagers ........ 5.4
Want ad
Men .. 31.5
Women ..... 26.3
Teenagers ........... 16.0
43.2%
47.0
32.3
34.0
33.0
34.3
35.2
23.4
21.2
20.8
47.0
28.5
20.4
21.6
11.6
39.3
35.2
20.7
52.2
58.4
42.6
13.4%
9.6
20.9
7.8
4.7
16.7
12.4
11.5
42.7
53.6
8.7
64.9
11.2
32.7
29.4
13.8
14.9
13.3
31.6
51.7
73.9
16.3
15.3
41.4
Respondents estimated the minutes they spent reading
the World-Herald as follows:
M en ................................................................... 40 m minutes
W om en ............................................................... 39 m minutes
Teenagers ...................................................... 21 m minutes
(World-Herald Daily Readership Survey, 1965.)
Chapter 4
READERSHIP BY TEENAGERS
For summaries of previous research about the subject
matter of this chapter, see "News Research For Better
Newspapers," (1966), pages 48-58.
Texas Teenagers Tell the Content They Want in a
Column or Section
Davis and Watkins, of the University of Texas School
of Communications, in 1960, administered questionnaires
to 4,493 teenagers in 193 Texas high schools which were
selected by a stratified random sampling method. The sex
breakdown was males 48% ; females 52%.
The ages were:
13 years and under...... 1% 17 years ........................... 41%
14 years ........................... 3 18 years ............................ 14
15 years ............................ 10 19 years and over ...... 2
16 years ................. 28
The average (median) age was about 17 years, two
months. The students were in these classes: Seniors 49%;
Juniors 34%; Sophomores 11%; and Freshmen 4%.
The teenagers were asked how interested they would
be in nineteen different kinds of subject-matter "if articles
about them appeared in your newspaper." The "very inter-
ested" and "fairly interested" percentages are shown sepa-
rately in Table 1. The items are arranged in a descending
order of scores when the "very interested" and "fairly in-
terested" responses are combined.
Some of the data in Table 1 were broken down by sex.
The combined "very interested" and "fairly interested"
responses were as follows:
Male Female
Story on teen-age fashions ............. 57% 96%
G ossip colum n ................................................................... 59 84
Sketch of outstanding teacher or
p rin cip al ................................................................................. 53 80
Advice for going to college ............ 85 92
Advice for following a career .......... 86 98
Current news that affects teenagers ............ 85 96
News about faculty members .......... 44 69
High school teachers generally disapprove personality
gossip columns in school newspapers.
42
Columns
Respondents were asked would they be likely to read
each of ten different kinds of columns. The answers are in
Table 2.
When "very likely" and "fairly likely" scores were
combined for the fashion column the scores were males
48%; females 52%; for a "Dear Abby" type of column,
males 55%, females 90%.
Representative Headlines
The questionnaire listed seven headlines and respond-
ents were asked which they would be likely to read. The "very
likely" percentages are presented in Table 3 broken down
by senior and freshman classes. There is some indication
that, as the child becomes older, he becomes more interested
in each of the types of news represented by the headlines
except the "Local Girl Marries" item.
Boys and girls were equally interested in all of the types
of news except those represented by "Stock Jumps 6
Points" (6% male and 4% female) and "Local Girl Mar-
ries" (21% male, 55% female).
The teenagers were also asked how their local news-
paper reported news of young people. Eighteen per cent
said their paper had a teenage column, 19% said a teenage
page, and 55% said teenage news was scattered throughout
the paper.
The teenagers said they would like for such news to
be reported in one of these ways:
A daily column 62% ; a weekly page 28% ; or scattered
through the paper 10%.
Forty-seven per cent said they would like to have such
news written by a high school student; 26% said they
would prefer the news be written by a newspaper reporter;
and 16% said they didn't care.
Table 1
Very Fairly
Interested Interested
Current news that affects teenagers ............... 61% 29%
Advice for following a career ............. 65 25
Advice for going to college ...................................... 63 24
Story on high school football team ........................ 60 25
Story on good groom ing ................................................... 44 36
Social notes on parties ................................................ 44 36
Special award given to student ................................ 39 40
News about teenagers in other places ............ 41 38
Story on teenage fashion ................. 51 26
How to have a "fun" party ......................................... 42 34
(Continued on next page)
Very Fairly
Interested Interested
Sketch of outstanding student .................................... 36 40
Story on special assembly ................................................ 32 42
Story on high school dance ....................................... 39 34
G ossip column n ...................................................... ........................... 43 29
Activities of student government ........................... 28 43
Story on students who work ........................................ 24 42
Sketch of outstanding teacher or principal.- 23 43
News about school alumni ......................... ..... 23 42
News about faculty members ................ 15 41
Table 2 Very Fairly
Likely Likely
Survey of teenage opinions .............................................. 70% 24%
Advice column especially for teenagers .......... 65 27
Sports colum n ................................................ ............................ 50 34
B ook colum n .................................................. ............................. 31 47
Television review column ................................................. 25 48
Advice column such as "Dear Abby" ................... 45 27
F fashion column n ............................................................................ 38 24
Hollywood gossip column ........................................... 26 34
P political colu m n ................................................................................. 12 24
G ood recipes column n ................................................................ 14 24
Table 3
All Seniors Freshmen
Congress Passes New Law ................ 26% 30% 16%
British Re-elect Conservatives ......... 5 5 5
Stocks Jump 6 Points ...................... 5 5 3
H.S. Athlete Dies .................................. 77 80 62
New Cure Found for Cancer .......... 72 76 55
Local Girl Marries .......................................... 38 39 40
City to Get New Streets ........................... 23 25 16
(Norris G. Davis and Sue Watkins, Teenage Readers
for Texas Newspapers, 1961)
Older Teenagers Lose Some Interest in Comics and
Children's Page
Daniel Starch, Ltd. of Canada studied readership by
teenagers of the October 28, 1965 issue of the Hamilton
(Ont.) Spectator. The issue had 80 pages.
Approximately 100 youths of each sex in each of three
age groups were interviewed.
The average "page observation" for each age group
was as follows ("page observation" means the readers had
seen something on the page) :
Male Female
13 to 15 years ................................ ...................... 39% 45%
16 to 17 y ears ...................................................... 39 51
18 to 20 years ............... ........................................ 46 52
Table 1 shows the "page observation" for selected
pages.
TABLE 1
Male
Page
13-15 16-17 18-20
1 Front page news ............................ 75% 81% 75%
6 Editorial page .............. ....................... 56 54 57
21 First sports page ............................ 83 84 87
41 First women's page ........................... 50 44 50
58 First entertainment page .................. 74 73 75
73 Radio-Tv page ............................................ 50 67 48
74 Children's page .................................. 75 46 71
75 Com ics page ................................................... 35 76 77
80 2464-line ad: introduction
of 1966 Fashion Board ................. 55 54 69
Female
Page
13-15 16-17 18-20
1 Front page news ........................ ..... 66% 81% 79%
6 Editorial page ................................. ..... 48 51 51
21 First sports page ............................ 49 54 62
41 First women's page ...................... 75 89 87
58 First entertainment page .................. 83 84 84
73 R adio-Tv page ............................................. 53 52 54
74 Children's page .............................. ..... 78 73 61
75 Com ics page ................................... ..... 85 79 69
80 2464-line ad: introduction
of 1966 Fashion Board ................. 84 85 82
It will be observed that interest in the comics page and
the children's page declined somewhat as the teen-agers
became older. This finding is in line with previous studies.
Of all households in the sample which contained teen-
agers, 99.6% received the Spectator. It was found that in
86.3% of such households a teenager had read the issue
surveyed.
Teenagers were also asked, "How much time did you
spend watching television yesterday?" Table 2 shows that
viewing television declines somewhat as the teenager be-
comes older.
TABLE 2
Male
13-15 16-17 18-20
W watched .................................................... 88.6% 81.2% 76.5%
Did not watch .............. .................... 9.1 18.8 22.5
No TV in home ........................................ 2.3 1.0
Female
W watched .. ........................... .............. 78.8 70.8 72.2
D id not w atch ............................................. 20.2 28.1 25.6
N o Tv in hom e ............................................. 1.0 1.1 2.2
Of the 18 to 20 group, 60% were students. The follow-
ing table compares the viewing of students and non-
students:
Student Other
W atch ed ............. ................................................. ..... ........ ... 72.2% 82.9%
D id n ot w atch ........................................................ ........... 26.2 17.1
N o Tv in hom e .................................................. ........... 1.6 -
Interests of Boys, 14 to 16
The University of Michigan Survey Research Center
in 1955, made a national survey of adolescent boys for the
National Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
The sample was of 1,045 boys 14 to 16 years old who
were in school (90% of all boys of these ages are in school).
Two of the questions asked were about activities which
the boys had engaged in and had "particularly enjoyed."
A list of 31 activities was presented.
Table 1 shows the rank order of enjoyment and per-
centage of boys who had engaged in each activity. Some
activities are reported and discussed by newspapers and
some are not.
TABLE 1
Rank Order % Who Have
Of Enjoyment Engaged In
Sw im m ing .............................................. 1 87
Hunting, shooting ......................... 2 81
Working on car, motorcycle .......................... 3 60
B aseb all .................................................. 4 85
B basketball ............................ .... ................................... 5 81
F ootb a ll ............................................................. ........... 6 73
F ish in g ................................................................................ ...... 7 8 1
Camping, hiking ........................ 8.5 60
P ool, b illiard s .............................................................................. 8 .5 26
Horseback riding .................... 10 40
Boating, sailing ....... .................. 11 53
R raising anim als, pets ............... ..................................... 12 59
D an cin g ............................................................... .......... 13 60
Playing musical instrument .......................... 14 32
Skiing, ice skating ................... 15.5 41
B ow lin g ....................................................................................... .. 15.5 33
G o lf .................................................................................... ........... 17 2 0
Making things ................................. 18 58
P parties ...................................................... 19 74
Going to movies ............................ 20 92
Watching Tv ............................................. 21 84
Roller skating .................................... 22.5 59
Photography .......................................... 22.5 32
Listening to radio, records ..... ........................ 24 86
Reading (not school work) ........................... 25 76
Collecting things-stamps, etc ..... ................ 26 33
Meeting friends at drug store,
soda shop, etc. .............................. 27 60
P in g p on g ....................................................... ........... .. 28 53
Playing cards and games ....................... ............ 29 69
G ard en in g .................................................................. ......... 30 46
T e n n is .................................................................................................. 3 1 19
An interesting finding is the percentage of boys who
had never engaged in certain activities (e.g., 26% had never
attended a party).
The low rank order of enjoyment of certain activities
is also interesting (e.g., going to the movies, watching TV,
listening to radio and records, and reading outside of
school).
The boys were also asked, "What do you read for fun ?"
The results were as follows:
N ov els, m y series .................... ............................................... ........................ 26 %
Travel, adventure, science fiction, outdoor stories ............ 26
C om ics, jok e b ook s ........................... ....................................................... ........... 25
N ew spapers, m magazines .......................... ......................................... 18
S p orts, h ob b y b ook s ................................................................... ....................... 10
Technical, scientific literature ...................................... ....................... 6
Social, political history, biography, theology ........... 5
A n im a l sto r ie s ..................................... ...................................................................... 5
O their and not ascertained .............................................. ...................... 4
D id n ot m mention an y ........................................................ ........................... 21
The survey also found that 31% of the boys did not
belong to any organization-national, school, social or relig-
ious club or organization.
(A Study of Adolescent Boys, 1955)
Newspaper Readership by Omaha Teenagers
In connection with its Consumer Analysis last October,
the Omaha World-Herald had 650 teenagers answer a ques-
tionnaire. The readership of certain pages was as follows:
C om ics pages ............................................................... 90.5%
Amusement pages ................................................. 88.0
N ew s p ages ................................................................... 85.5
Sports pages ................................................................... 74.0
Women's pages (girls) ..................................... 76.0
Age made little difference as to the readership of the
amusement and comics pages, but it made some difference
as to the other pages, as the accompanying table shows:
13-14 15-16 17-18
Years Years Years
News
M ale ........................................................................ 75% 79% 84%
Fem ale ....................................................... 76 84 87
Sports
M ale ..................................... ........................ 69 85 86
F em ale ........................ ............................... 44 58 66
Women's
F em ale ................................................................. 59 69 87
The amount of reading of each of the pages was as
follows:
Male
Comics pages ..............................
Amusement pages .....................
News pages ................................
Sports pages .......................................
Women's pages ................................
Read
a lot
56%
39
13
55
3
Read
some
24%
42
55
26
2
Not
much
8%
8
16
5
6
Didn't
read
12%
11
16
14
89
Female
Com ics pages .................................. 62 28 3 12
Amusement pages ...................... 39 41 7 13
News pages ........... ....................... 14 46 27 13
Sports pages ........ ....................... 10 34 18 38
Women's pages ............................... 28 32 16 24
An interesting fact in the table above is that 40% of
the girls read nothing or very little on the women's pages.
Readership of the new youth section (peach colored)
was as follows:
13-14 15-16 17-18
Years Years Years
M ale ......................................................................... 56% 83% 79%
F em ale ........................................................................ 8 1 87 76
The teenagers were also asked "What advertising
sources do you generally depend on for the things you buy ?"
The answers were as follows:
Male
N ew spaper ....................................... 51%
R adio ...................................................... 13
Television ....................................... 20
M magazine ...................................... 11
N o answ er .................................. 5
100
Female
61%
6
8
21
4
100
To this question, both boys (30%) and girls (18%) in
the 13-14 age group specified television, but television was
specified less often as age increased: males in the 17-18
age group, 19% ; females, 6%.
Sub-Teenage Readership
The Hagerstown (Md.) Morning Herald and Daily Mail
conducted a survey in June 1964 of the reading of 452
children between the ages of 10 and 15. They found that
431 (95.4%) were regular readers of one of the newspapers.
48
The survey was by personal interview but not by the
standard method. The interviewers had a book of clippings
of various kinds of news and samples of features to assist
recognition. Each child was asked which of the features and
which kinds of news he or she read "regularly."
Some of the findings from the Daily Mail (evening) are
presented here. Not presented is data on those items in which
there was considerable inconsistency between reading of
the morning and the evening newspaper. The findings about
reading of general news cannot be interpreted because they
vary so much from scores obtained in a conventional reader-
ship study of "yesterday's" newspaper and are inconsistent
as to the two newspapers.
The data presented here gives some indication of what
the sub-teenager (10-12 years) reads and the changes that
occur as he or she grows older (13-15 years).
The first six items in Table 1 are those in which there
is an increase in reading as the child grows older. The re-
maining items are those in which there is either a decline
in interest or no significant change.
The percentage who read the Daily Mail more than 15
minutes a day was as follows:
10-12
B oy s ........................... ................ .............. 52.6 %
G irls ............................................................... 50.0
13-15
70.5%
64.4
Increase
34%
28
TABLE 1
Boys
10-12 13-15
H.S. football stories ................. 52.6% 86.9%
H.S. baseball stories ............... 61.4 85.2
H.S. basketball stories ......... 56.1 75.4
Teen-age Forum ................... 26.3 59.0
Ann Landers ....................... 19.3 37.7
Weddings ........................ 29.8 39.3
Cross-word puzzle .- 38.6 34.4
Comics (average of 14) 41.2 30.0
Tv Listings ..................... .. 33.3 34.4
Movie ads ..............................-..- 92.9 90.2
National baseball results..... 85.9 90.2
Golf stories ....................- 42.1 49.2
49
Girls
10-12 13-15
39.7% 62.9%
29.3 53.2
25.9 58.1
50.0 79.0
65.5 95.2
77.6 87.1
31.0 22.6
41.0 36.0
50.0 46.8
93.1 85.5
29.3 21.0
12.1 12.9
As Sub-Teenagers' TV Viewing Increases So Does
Their Newspaper Reading
When Research Services, Inc., in August 1960, inter-
viewed a sample of 800 children 8 to 12 years of age about
their readership of the Denver Post. these questions were
asked: "Did you watch any television yesterday?" (If yes)
"How much time would you say you spent watching tele-
vision ?"
The results were as follows:
Less than 1 hour 22%
1 to 2 hours 33
More than 2 hours 33
Nonviewers 12
100
The median estimated time for all children (including
the non-viewers) was 1 hour and 51 minutes.
How television was related to their reading of the daily
Post is shown in the following table:
READ POST
Of those watching TV: 15 mins. More than
or less 15 mins.
Less than 1 hour 78% 22%
1 to 2 hours 73 27
More than 2 hours 69 31
Nonviewers 67 33
The table shows that newspaper reading time increases
with the amount of tv viewing. (Non-viewers, however,
spend about the same amount of time reading as do heavy
viewers.) This finding is in line with other studies of chil-
dren's communication behavior which have found that tv
viewing by the average child does not subtract from his
newspaper reading.
More Sub-Teenagers Read Sunday Than Daily
Newspaper
Research Services, Inc., in August, 1960, interviewed
in their homes a representative sample of 800 children be-
tween 8 and 12 years of age whose parents were subscribers,
about their readership of the Denver Post. (August is an
"outdoor" month).
The survey found that 92% had read either "yester-
day's" daily or last Sunday's Post. Reading of the daily
was as follows:
R ead it ................................ .................... 59%
Did not read it ................. ... 41
Combined daily and Sunday readership was as follows:
Both daily and Sunday .............. 55%
Sunday only ............... ....-...-. 33
Daily only .... . ........ ..... ........... 4
N eith er ........................................................ 8
Sunday and daily readership were related in this way:
Did Not
Read Read
Of those who Sunday Sunday
Read the daily ...................... 93% 7% 100%
Did not read the daily ...... 80 20 100%
The percentage of children who read the daily Post in-
creased with age-due to improved reading skills and broad-
ened interests-as the following table shows:
A ll children ........................................... 59%
B oys .......................... ................. 61
G irls ..................................................... 57
8 years .................................................... 47
9 y ears .................................................... 56
10 years ........................... ......... ............ 57
11 y ears ..................................................... 67
12 y ears ....................................................... 68
It will be observed that the increases between 8 and 9
years and 10 and 11 years are 9% and 10%.
Estimated time spent reading the daily Post for all
ages was as follows:
15 m minutes or less .............. ..... ................. 72%
16 to 30 minutes ......... .......... 22
More than 30 minutes .... ............. 6
100
The median time was 10.4 minutes.
The children were asked: "What are some of the things
you definitely recall reading in the daily Post (last Sunday's
Post) ?" The results were as follows:
Daily
C om ics .................................................................. 91%
Roto supplements .................................... -
Front page/headlines ............................. 31
TV-radio-movies .......................................... 24
Sports pages ..................................................... 18
W omen's pages .............................................. 7
Advertising ....................................................... 3
51
Sunday
98%
41
19
17
14
5
3
There is a high reliability in these findings because the
interviewing was done personally in the home (outside the
presence of the parents), on a large and representative
sample, and the questions were pegged to yesterday's and
last Sunday's papers. The interviewers carried copies of the
newspapers to assist recognition.
Sub-Teenagers Prefer Comics That Are "Funny" and
Exciting
When Research Services, Inc., in August 1960, inter-
viewed 800 youngsters 8 to 12 years old whose parents sub-
scribed to the Denver (Colo.) Post, the Post was publishing
22 comics on its comics page and six additional comics on
a special kid comics page (e.g., Freddy, Donald Duck,
Mickey Mouse).
The children read slightly more than one-half of the
"regular" comics. The ten rated highest by the youngsters
had an average score of 52%.
This compared with an average score for the six kid
comics of 76%.
The main difference between the two kinds of comics
as perceived by the youngsters are indicated by their rea-
sons for liking and not liking certain comics.
Liking: (1) General humor; (2) specific character ap-
peal; and (3) excitement and suspense.
Not liking: (1) Are not funny or amusing; (2) lack of
action or excitement; and (3) lack of understanding or
interest.
Some typical criticisms were: It isn't funny (or happy)
.... It's crazy (or silly or dumb or square) .. Doesn't
make sense-must be written for adults .... and It's bor-
ing. Nothing happens,
Milwaukee Journal Survey
The Milwaukee Journal, in the summer of 1965, mea-
sured the readership of Sunday comics by adults and teen-
agers (i.e., children under 18 years of age). Most of the
21 comics were also published daily.
Some of the differences between adult and teen-ager
preferences are shown in the following table which exhibits
the ranking of eleven comics. In some instances, it will be
observed that a strip ranked low by teen-agers ranked high
for adults, and vice versa.
Children Men
All
Women Readers
Priscilla's Pop 1 *2 1 1
Beetle Bailey 2 1 *10 5
Blondie 3 4 7 2
Nancy *4 *7 5 *3
Freddy *4 13 9 6
There Oughta Be a Law 6 *2 6 *3
Hi and Lois 7 18 15 14
Andy Capp 8 10 12 12
The Jackson Twins 9 20 13 16
Little Abner 10 17 *17 15
Rex Morgan, M.D. 19 *2 *7 *7
*Tied with another comic
Is the 'Front Page Teenager' Treated Favorably or
Unfavorably?
Two surveys of teen-agers in 1959 and 1960 revealed
that a good many teen-agers condemned newspapers for
playing up unsavory news about members of their age
group. Many objected to being identified with the "front-
page teen-ager."
Stensaas made a content analysis of the front-page
news about youths between the ages of 12 and 18 in ten
South Dakota dailies. He analyzed 1,100 stories in 949 con-
secutive issues. Considering the whole story as a unit, he
categorized the individual stories as favorable, unfavorable
or neutral. He differentiated stories with multiple-deck and
single-deck headlines and stories with or without illus-
tration.
The results were as follows:
Multiple Single Deck
Deck and/or Without All
Illustration Illustration Stories
Favorable .......................................... 53.7% 46.3% 40.0%
Unfavorable .................................... 36.8 63.2 31.7
N eutral ................................................ 38.0 62.0 28.2
As the table shows, the favorable stories were better
displayed than the unfavorable stories. However, favorable
content was more often about groups and unfavorable con-
tent about individuals.
A breakdown of the data by individual newspapers
shows that six of the dailies published more unfavorable
than favorable stories. Four dailies published more favor-
able than unfavorable stories.
All of the dailies, however, gave more display to favor-
able stories.
Boys made front page news three times more often than
did girls. The chances were three to two, however, that
boys would be mentioned unfavorably and chances were
nearly two to one that girls would be mentioned favorably.
(H. S. Stensaas, "The Front-Page Teen-ager: How 10 Dai-
lies Treat Him," Journalism Quarterly, 38:373-375, 1961.)
The "Front Page Teenager" Myth
Prior to conducting a statewide study of 4,493 Texas
teenagers concerning their newspaper readership prefer-
ences, Davis and Watkins, of the University of Texas
School of Communications, in 1960, ran a pilot study in
Travis County.
In numerous instances in the pilot study, teenagers said
they were tired of reading about bad teenagers and wanted
more news about teenagers who did "something good."
Children 13 to 17 years old are 9% of the population
but account for 18% of all arrests made. The FBI reported
on July 28, 1966 that arrests of persons under 18 for serious
crimes had increased 47% since 1960 while the population
of that age group had increased only 17%.
As a part of the statewide study, Davis and Watkins
presented nine headlines and respondents were asked how
likely they were to read them. Two of the headlines were
administered on a split-half basis. They were:
High School Student Arrested Last Night
and
High School Student Given Award
The percentage of "very likely" responses was 77%
for the "arrest" story and 57% for the "award" story.
Omaha World-Herald Study
The Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald recently analyzed
its news columns for one month. It found that, for every
inch of unfavorable youth news, 26 inches of positive news
were printed. For each time a youth was mentioned un-
favorably, 91 names were used favorably. Favorable youth
items outnumbered unfavorable 638 to 64. The score on
pictures was 301 to 2.
The World-Herald's study also showed that approxi-
mately 335 columns of space were devoted to positive youth
articles as compared with about 12 columns on the negative
side. Only 45 names appeared on the "bad" side as com-
pared with 4,121 used in a complimentary way.
(Norris Davis and Sue Watkins, Teenage Readers for
Texas Newspapers, 1961)
Chapter 5
SOME COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOR
For summaries of previous research about the subject
matter of this chapter, see "News Research For Better
Newspapers," (1966), pages 59-66.
Communication Behavior of the Elderly
Very elderly men prefer the print media.
Very elderly women prefer comics more than
do women in their sixties.
Wilbur Schramm, in 1960-61, studied the communica-
tion behavior of elderly people in the San Francisco Bay
Area. They were not "shut-ins," but were members of a
senior citizens club, and they used the clubhouse. The sam-
ple size was 816 of whom 71.8% were women.
Most of the respondents kept a diary of their daily
communication behavior. Some of the data are shown by
age differences in Table 1.
TABLE 1 Men
80 and
60-69 70-79 older
R leading, hours ............ ................... 1.8 2.2 2.8
Television, hours ........ ... 1.8 2.0 1.9
R adio, h ou rs ............................ ... ........ ..... 0.9 1.0 1.1
Subtotal ......... ....... ... ..... (4.5) (5.2) (5.8)
No. of magazines read ....... ................... 2.6 2.9 3.3
Read newsp. regularly (%) ................... 86.1 91.4 96.3
Women
R leading, hours ................... ... .............. ..... 1.9 1.9 1.8
T television, hours ...................... .......................... 2.1 2.3 2.0
R adio, h ou rs ................................................. ...... ... 0.9 0.9 0.8
Subtotal ............................. ....................... (4.9) (5.1) (4.6)
N o. of m magazines read ......................................... 3.4 3.4 3.1
Read newsp. regularly (%) ...................... 83.6 82.9 73.0
The table shows that men allocated more time to com-
munication behavior as their age increased-from 4.5 hours
for men in their sixties to 5.8 hours for the very elderly.
The use of print media by men also increased with age. For
women, the differences by age group are not as clear.
The preference for print media by the very elderly is
shown in Table 2, which is a ranking of the media in re-
sponse to a question as to which medium the respondent
valued most.
TABLE 2 Men
80 and
Rank 60-69 70-79 older
1 .................................... TV New sp. New sp.
2 ............................... Newsp. TV M ag.
3 ......................... Books/radio Books/mag. TV
Women
1 .............................. TV TV Newsp.
2 ............................... Newsp. Newsp. M ag.
3 ............................... Books Books Radio/TV
Table 3 shows that the more highly educated elderly
people prefer print media, although the time they allocate
to communication behavior is no more than that of the less
educated. In analyzing this data, which is for the combined
sexes, one should keep in mind that 71.8% of the sample
are women.
TABLE 3 Some
High School College
or less or more
R leading, hours ............................. ............................ 1.9 2.3
T television hours .................................................. ........... 1.9 1.4
R adio, h ours .............. ..................... ..... .. ............... 1.0 1.0
S u b to tal .................................................................................... (4 .8 ) (4 .7 )
N o. of m ags. read ..................................................................... 2.9 4.0
Read new sp. regularly (% ) .......................................... 82.8 87.8
Read a book in last year (%) ..... ................... 61.0 81.6
Table 4 exhibits a rank order of certain kinds of pre-
ferred newspaper content. For men, age does not appear to
influence the preferences. But for women, it appears that
the older they are the higher they rank comics.
TABLE 4 Men
80 and
Rank 60-69 70-79 older
1 Local news Local news Local news
2 State nat'l. State nat'l. State nat'l.
3 Foreign Foreign Foreign
4 Editorials Editorials Editorials
5 Sports Accidents Accidents
6 Business Sports Sports
7 Columns Business Business
8 Accidents Columns Columns
9 Comics Crime Crime
10 Crime Comics Comics
(continued on next page)
80 and
Rank 60-69 70-79 older
11 Class. ads Class. ads Display ads
12 Display ads Display ads Class. ads
13 Social Social Social
Women
1 Local news Local news Local news
2 State nat'l. Editorials Editorials
3 Editorials State nat'l. Foreign
4 Foreign Foreign State nat'l.
5 Columns Columns Columns
6 Business Accidents Accidents
7 Accidents Business Comics
8 Social Social Business
9 Crime Crime Social
10 Display ads Sports Crime
11 Class. ads Comics Class. ads
12 Comics Display ads Display ads
13 Sports Class. ads Sports
The Nature of Rumor
Rumor is defined by Webster as "a story current but
not authenticated." One of the basic conditions for the cir-
culation of rumor is that the true facts be clothed in am-
biguity. Rumor thrives in the absence of adequate standards
of evidence because the human mind finds it difficult to
accept ambiguity. The mind has to believe something; as
the psychologists say, the mind "makes an effort after
meaning."
The chief medium for the circulation of rumor is
word-of-mouth. How the process operates has been demon-
strated by experiments. The distortion of fact, as the rumor
is passed along, takes the forms of what psychologists have
called "leveling," "sharpening," and "assimilation."
The two figures on page 58 (from Bartlett) illustrate
the first two forms. "Leveling" is the elimination in the
memory trace of some of the details and "sharpening" is
the accentuation or elaboration of one or more of the details.
Thus, the particular subject who was shown Fig. 1 and later
was asked to reproduce it from memory (Fig. 2) skeleton-
ized some of the angular features ("leveling") and elabo-
rated the circles ("sharpening").
During World War II, Allport and Postman conducted
several experiments by having a succession of six or seven
subjects reproduce descriptions of drawings of scenes. The
subway scene (Fig. 3) is an example.
Fig. 3
Several subjects were told to leave the room, to return
one at a time when summoned and to listen carefully to
what they would hear.
After the subjects had left the room, one was sum-
moned back and the experimenter exhibited a slide of the
subway scene drawing on a screen. The first subject was
placed at a position where he could not see the screen. The
experimenter assigned a narrator to describe the scene for
the first subject, requesting the narrator to include about
twenty details.
Then a second subject was summoned and placed be-
side the first subject. The first subject told the second sub-
ject what he had just heard about the scene from the nar-
rator. Then a third subject was summoned and listened to
the description by the second subject, and this procedure
continued until the last subject had heard the description.
Here is the initial description from the scene as re-
corded in one experiment:
"This is a picture of an elevated train stopping at
Dykeman Street. Evidently an Avenue Express. It
shows the interior of the train with five people seated
and two standing. There are the usual advertising signs
above the windows. One is about smoking a certain
cigarette, one is a soap ad, another about some camp,
another is a political ad for a certain McGinnis for
Alderman. Seated is a man with a hat on and a news-
paper. He is a funny, rounded man engrossed in his
newspaper. Next to him is a woman with a shopping
bag on her right arm, eyeglasses and a funny hat. Then
there is some empty space, and in front of it a Negro
in a zoot suit, pork-pie hat and loud tie, talking with a
defense worker wearing old clothes: overalls, high boots,
sleeveless sweater, and cap. He seems to be a shipyard
worker, has a razor in his left hand and is evidently
arguing with the Negro. Next person sitting is a woman
with a small baby in her arms, watching the two men in
their argument. She is commonly dressed and has long
hair. Sitting next to her is a man in a cloak, a Jewish
rabbi, reading a book, with a funny hat. He is wearing a
long coat, not modern. Sitting next to him is a fat man,
fast asleep, with his hands clasped."
Here is the reproduction of the initial description by
the third subject (who had heard it from the second sub-
ject) :
"This is a scene inside a car at Dykeman Street. There
are seven people in the car, five sitting and two stand-
ing. Among the signs is a political one for a man named
McGinnis. People standing are a fat man and a woman
with a baby. Sitting down are two men, then a space,
then a woman and two defense workers having an argu-
ment. One is a colored man with a zoot suit who has a
razor in his hand. The argument must be pretty heated."
The third reproduction (as did subsequent reproduc-
tions) shows a considerable amount of "leveling"; that is,
the omission of a good many details.
It also shows "sharpening" in that the advertisement
for aldermanic candidate McGinnis is mentioned specifically,
although none of the other ads were. (The experimenters
explain this by the fact that the subjects in this particular
experiment had an instructor with a similar name. Experi-
menters have found that names are among the most un-
stable elements of a story).
The reproduction also shows a third process in the
diffusion of rumor which psychologists call "assimilation."
This is a form of distortion due to emotional or intellectual
context in the subject's mind. Thus, the third reproduction
is an instance of either prejudice or stereotyping: the razor
is transferred from the hand of the defense worker to the
hand of the Negro. (Use of the razor as a weapon is a
common stereotype of the Negro).
When six children were subjects in this same experi-
ment none of them mentioned the razor and only one men-
tioned the Negro.
These experiments not only explain the nature of
rumor, but suggest some of the pitfalls in news reporting;
for the report of some events is second- or third-hand.
(Sir Frederic C. Bartlett, Remembering, Cambridge, Eng-
land, 1932, 1954; and G. W. Allport and L. Postman, The
Psychology of Rumor, Henry Holt & Company, New York,
1947.)
Where Do People Get Science Information?
When the University of Michigan Survey Research
Center conducted a nationwide study in 1958 for the Na-
tional Association of Science Writers, it asked, "From
which of these sources do you get most of your science in-
formation-newspapers, magazines, radio or television?"
After the 17% who said they could recall nothing at
all about science from any medium were excluded, the re-
sults were as follows:
N ew spapers ............................................................ 41%
T television ......................................................... 27
M again es ......................................................... 25
R a d io ........................................................................... 4
More than one medium ........................... 3
100
Respondents were also asked what their primary source
for general news and entertainment was. The comparison is
shown in the accompanying table. (For science information,
the table excludes the 17% who did not recall science items
in any medium and those who did not answer the questions.)
Newsps. Mags. Radio TV
General news ............... 57% 4% 16% 22%
Science items ............... 34 21 3 22
Entertainment ............ 5 6 14 74
How education effected the choice of media for science
information is shown in the table below:
Some
Grade Completed College
School H. S. or More
Newspapers .................................... 27% 38% 39%
M magazines ....... .................... 9 26 43
R adio ............................................. 4 2 1
Television ................................... 22 24 15
Read/saw no science ............ 35 6 1
N ot answ ered .............................. 3 4 1
100 100 100
(Science, the News and the Public. Text by Hillier Kriegh-
baum. Copyright 1958 by National Assn. of Science Writers,
Inc.)
Change in Media Use in Aurora, Illinois
When a profile-of-the-audience study was done in Aug-
ust, 1965 for the Aurora (Ill.) Beacon-News by Anthony J.
Scantlen of Copley International Corporation, the 500 read-
ers in the (two-stage random) sample were asked about
the amount of time they devoted to newspapers, radio
and television as "compared with a year ago at this time."
The results were as follows:
Newsp. Radio TV
Spending less time now .... 9.0% 18.0% 39.2%
Spending about the same
amount of time now ..... 73.6 57.0 50.4
Spending more time now... 17.4 24.4 9.4
Other responses, don't know 0.6 1.0
100.0 100.0 100.0
In April, 1965 Louis Harris asked a national sample of
the adult population: "Do you and your family tend to look
at television more or less than you did a few years ago?"
The results were:
Less ................. 33%
About the same ........ 31
M ore ................. 34
Own no TV ............ 2
Considering only adults who reported spending more
time or less time with television, the breakdown of the
Harris respondents by demographic characteristics was as
follows:
Less More
time time
Average adult ..................... 33% 34%
Suburban residents ................. 38 26
21-24 age group ................... 40 34
$10,000 and over income ............ 48 22
Small town residents ............... 23 43
Grade-school educated .............. 26 34
50 and over age group ............... 20 44
$5,000 and under income ............ 25 42
(The Aurora Market: A Profile of the Audience of the Au-
rora Beacon-News, December, 1965)
The Use of Media as Adult Education
Parker and Paisley, in 1965, made a study of "Patterns
of Information Seeking in Adult Education" on behalf of
the United States Office of Education. Respondents were in
San Mateo and Fresno, California.
Some of their findings relate to the use of the news-
paper and other mass media.
One question, asked in San Mateo, was "What would
you say are some of the reasons you read a newspaper? A
magazine? Listen to radio? Watch TV?" The findings were
as follows:
Reasons: Newspapers Magazines Radio TV
Information or practical use 75% 54% 24% 15%
Relaxation or habit ........... 12 25 43 70
Contact or prestige ...... ........ 2 1 6 5
Not answered ...12 20 27 11
101 100 100 101O
The following question was also asked in San Mateo:
"Sometimes the communication media we've been talking
about offer readily available and practical education. From
your experience, would you say this is true of newspapers?
Magazines? Radio? TV ?"
Medium Used for: Newspapers Magazines Radio TV
News ..... .. ..... . ... .......... 38% 14% 20% 17%
Tools for daily living ...... 7 21 1 2
Gen'l information or
education ...... .. ..... 15 26 11 36
O th er ... ..... .. .. .... . .... 1 2 3 2
Not answered ... 39 37 64 41
100 100 99 98
The following question was asked in Fresno: "Some-
times a person turns to a newspaper to find some particular
information that he expects to be there. Can you remember
doing this recently-that is, looking in a newspaper for
some specific information? What were you looking for?"
The results:
News or weather ....................... 17%
Statistics, financial news, farm reports .... 16
Advertisements ........................ 14
Hobbies, sports, entertainment ........... 4
Educational items ...................... 3
Other things ........................... 3
None or no response .................... 43
100
(E. B. Parker and W. J. Paisley, "Patterns of Adult Infor-
mation Seeking." Institute for Communication Research,
Stanford University, Sept., 1966)
Chapter 6
TYPOGRAPHY
Why All-Cap Headlines Are Less Legible Than c&lc
Breland and Breland, in 1944, selected 120 five-word,
single-column headlines from the New York Times. Each
headline was printed on newsprint stock in 24-point Chelten-
ham Bold Extra-Condensed in (1) all-caps and (2) caps and
lower case.
Subjects were exposed to the headlines for a period of
1-20 second at a distance of 15 inches from the subjects'
eyes. The number of words they read was recorded.
It was found that the all-caps headlines, on the average,
were 18.9 per cent less legible than the caps and lower case
headlines.
In the same year, Earl English did a similar experi-
ment. He compared headlines set in all-caps and in caps and
lower case in Cheltenham Bold, using both Cheltenham
Regular and Cheltenham Condensed.
The mean number of words read under each condition
was:
All-caps Cheltenham Regular 4.33
C and Ic Cheltenham Regular 5.22
C and lc Cheltenham Condensed 5.11
The average loss in legibility for the all-caps headlines
was 18 per cent-about the same loss that Breland and
Breland had found.
English's subjects' eyes were 14 inches from the head-
lines flashed by a chronoscope.
Banner Headlines
Paterson and Tinker cite an unpublished thesis by
Warren, who compared all-caps and caps and lower case
headlines set in 60-point Memphis Bold and viewed at a
distance of 6 to 8 feet.
Warren found that the caps and lower case banner
headlines were significantly more legible than the all-caps
headlines at the distance from which many persons on the
street pass a newsstand.
Why All-Caps Are Less Legible
Tinker's several experiments explain why all-caps head-
lines are not as legible as headlines printed in caps and
lower case.
1. Reading is facilitated when the text is perceived in
word units rather than in letter units. When text is set in
lower case the word form is more distinctive than when it
is set in caps.
op stopped
stopped [STOPPED]
Fig. 1
(From M. A. Tinker, Bases for Effective Reading.
Copyright 1965 University of Minnesota Press)
A glance at Fig. 1 shows that in the word "stopped,"
printed in all-caps, the letters are of uniform height and are
in straight horizontal alignment; they are perceived largely
letter by letter. But the same word in lower case-in roman,
italic and boldface-has a distinct configuration, and is per-
ceived as a word unit.
(Numerals, however, are a special case).
2. A second explanation, according to Tinker, is that
matter in all-caps covers about 35 per cent more printing
surface than the same matter in lower case. In an eye move-
ment study by Tinker and Paterson, a large increase was
found in the number of fixation pauses when matter in all-
caps was substituted for matter in lower case.
3. A third explanation, according to Tinker, is that,
since nearly everything we read is printed in lower case,
that form is more familiar.
(Earl English, "A Study of the Readability of Four News-
paper Headline Types," Journalism Quarterly, 21:217-229,
1944; Miles A. Tinker, Bases for Effective Reading, 1965).
Square Serif Headline is Less Legible Than Roman
and Sans-Serif
Earl English tested the reading speed for one-column
headlines set in a roman, a sans-serif and a square serif
type, and found that the square serif was the least legible.
Subjects, under very rigorous experimental conditions,
were exposed to headlines flashed by a chronoscope. The
sizes were 14-point, 24-point and 30-point.
The type designs were Bodoni bold (roman), Tempo
medium (sans-serif) and Karnak bold (square serif).
The mean number of words read in about one-half of
a second were as follows:
Tempo ..................5.38
Bodoni .................. 5.18
Karnak ..................4.22
This means that the subjects read 21% fewer words
in reading Karnak than in reading Tempo and 18% fewer
words in reading Karnak than in reading Bodoni. The dif-
ference between Tempo and Bodoni is not statistically sig-
nificant.
Readers reported 28 words incorrectly in reading Kar-
nak and 15 and 13 in reading Bodoni and Tempo, respec-
tively.
(Earl English, "A Study of the Readability of Four News-
paper Headline Types," Journalism, Quarterly, 21:217-229,
1944.)
Aesthetic Qualities of Type Faces
Brinton and Blankenburg, in 1958, used a "semantic
differential" scale to ascertain from two different groups
their judgment of the aesthetic qualities of certain type
faces.
The groups were (1) "professionals" (printers and
commercial artists) and (2) "laymen" (students).
Thirteen different type faces were set in 24-point in
one line on thirteen separate sheets. Below the type were
26 scales, which were pairs of polar adjectives (e.g., ornate/
plain, masculine/feminine). The subjects checked one of
the seven intervals at some point between each pair of
adjectives.
The table at the end of this summary lists the ad-
jectives which each group used to describe the qualities of
each type face.
The complete list of polar adjectives was as follows:
imperfect/perfect feminine/masculine
hard/soft old-fashioned/modern
old/new meaningful/meaningless
ornate/plain expensive/cheap
constrained/free usual/unusual
passive/active rugged/delicate
bad/good graceful/awkward
strong/weak tight/loose
light/dark dirty/clean
rounded/angular formal/informal
beautiful/ugly honest/dishonest
rich/poor harmonious/dissonant
complex/simple relaxed/stiff
There was a general overall similarity in the key ad-
jectives used by both groups to describe most of the faces.
The greatest difference between the two sets of judges
was in the greater length of the professionals' list for most
faces. For example, the "laymen" used only six adjectives
to describe Garamond (agreeing with the "professionals" in
five instances); but the professionals added nine more ad-
jectives. The laymen did not perceive any of those nine
qualities in Garamond.
There was also a greater consistency in the responses
of the individual professionals. They showed less variation
in their judgments than did the individual laymen.
Where there are differences in the descriptions by the
two groups, which description should be used in selecting a
type face for a specific use? The experimenters answer that
question as follows:
"In those cases where the profiles generally agree but
where the professionals ascribe additional qualities, it
would probably be better to rely more on the sensitive judg-
ment of the professionals.
"However, where there is actual disagreement, such as
in the Cheltenham and Karnak cases, one might want to go
against the judgment of the professionals. Certainly lay-
men attribute very desirable qualities to these faces."
Suitability for Subject-matter
Haskins, in 1957, tested the suitability of ten type
faces for ten different kinds of subject-matter in the Satur-
day Evening Post. The types were for titles of articles; the
sizes ranged from 48-point to 72-point.
The judges were a nationwide sample of the magazine's
readers.
Some type faces appeared to be significantly high in
"all-purpose" appropriateness. Others ranked low in "all-
purpose" value but were relatively high with specific topics.
The type faces are listed in the order of their "all-
purpose" value:
1. Bodoni 6. Bernhard Modern Roman
2. Futura Bold 7. Kaufman Bold
3. Cheltenham Bold 8. Futura Light
4. Bodoni Open 9. Liberty
5. Caslon Oldstyle Italic 10. Mistral
On the assumption that the individual articles tested
were representative of the topics, Haskins suggests that:
1. Liberty is most appropriate for fashions. It is fine-
lined, decorative and cursive.
2. Futura Bold is most appropriate for sports.
3. Bodoni and Cheltenham Bold are quite suitable for
any kind of article.
TYPE FACE CHARACTERISTICS ATTRIBUTED BY
Professionals Laymen
Garamond
Garamond Bold
Perfect
Good
Light
Rich
Beautiful
Rounded
Expensive
Meaningful
Delicate
Graceful
Clean
Harmonious
Honest
Formal
Perfect
Old
Strong
Dark
Masculine
Meaningful
Clean
Harmonious
Honest
69
Perfect
Good
Plain
Clean
Harmonious
Honest
Perfect
Hard
Plain
Strong
Dark
Masculine
Usual
Rugged
Clean
Harmonious
Honest
CHARACTERISTICS ATTRIBUTED BY
Professionals Laymen
Garamond Italic
Bodoni Book
Bodoni Book Italic
Ultra Bodoni
Perfect
Soft
Good
Light
Rich
Beautiful
Rounded
Expensive
Feminine
Meaningful
Delicate
Graceful
Clean
Harmonious
Honest
Perfect
Good
Light
Rich
Beautiful
Expensive
Meaningful
Graceful
Tight
Clean
Harmonious
Honest
Formal
Perfect
Good
Rich
Beautiful
Rounded
Expensive
Graceful
Clean
Harmonious
Hard
Active
Strong
Dark
Masculine
Rugged
Soft
Ornate
Weak
Light
Expensive
Feminine
Delicate
Graceful
Clean
Perfect
Soft
Good
Clean
Harmonious
Honest
Soft
Plain
Good
Rich
Beautiful
Rounded
Expensive
Feminine
Graceful
Clean
Harmonious
Hard
Strong
Dark
Ugly
Masculine
Rugged
TYPE FACE
CHARACTERISTICS ATTRIBUTED BY
Professionals Laymen
Cheltenham Bold
Tempo Bold
Karnak Intermediate
Kaufman Script
Imperfect
Hard
Constrained
Old
Plain
Strong
Dark
Simple
Ugly
Old-Fashioned
Cheap
Masculine
Usual
Rugged
Hard
New
Plain
Good
Strong
Dark
Simple
Masculine
Rugged
Honest
Modem
Hard
Constrained
Strong
Masculine
Rugged
Awkward
Stiff
New
Active
Light
Modern
Delicate
Informal
71
TYPE FACE
Active
Plain
Strong
Dark
Simple
Masculine
Usual
Rugged
Honest
Hard
Plain
Good
Strong
Dark
Simple
Masculine
Rugged
Honest
Good
Simple
Clean
Honest
Soft
Light
Feminine
Delicate
CHARACTERISTICS ATTRIBUTED BY
Professionals Laymen
TYPE FACE
Typo Script
Copperplate Gothic
Soft
Ornate
Light
Complex
Rich
Rounded
Old-fashioned
Expensive
Feminine
Delicate
Graceful
Clean
Harmonious
Formal
Free
New
Active
Strong
Dark
Rounded
Modern
Cheap
Masculine
Rugged
Relaxed
Informal
(J. E. Brinton, "Measurement of Aesthetic Qualities of Type
Faces," Paper presented at meeting of Association for Edu-
cation in Journalism, 1958; W. B. Blankenburg, "The Aes-
thetics of Type-Face Design as Measured by the Semantic
Differential," M.A. thesis, Stanford University, 1958; J. B.
Haskins, "Testing Suitability of Typefaces for Editorial
Subject-Matter," Journalism Quarterly, 35: 186-194, 1958)
72
Soft
Ornate
Weak
Light
Complex
Rich
Beautiful
Rounded
Expensive
Feminine
Delicate
Graceful
Clean
Harmonious
Formal
Dark
Rugged
Informal
Hard
Plain
Simple
Masculine
Clean
Honest
Strong
Flash
Hard
Co strained
Oli
Plain
Dark
Simple
Masculine
Rugged
Clean
Stiff
Formal
Strong
'Readability' of Different Typographical Forms
An experiment by Scripps-Howard Newspapers' re-
search staff suggests that non-justification, non-hyphena-
tion and smaller-than-standard size body type will not affect
how much, how quickly or how accurately newspapers are
read.
Dr. John Scott Davenport, executive assistant to the
chairman of the board of Scripps-Howard Newspapers and
Stewart A. Smith, director of Scripps-Howard's Research
Inc., of Ohio, in 1963-64 tested 408 adults in the Cincinnati
area on eight typographical forms.
The researchers had printed eight different versions
of an eight-page tabloid newspaper "The National Enter-
prise", set in five 11-pica columns. The reading matter was
feature material supplied by the Newspaper Enterprise As-
sociation of Cleveland. The eight typographical versions
were:
9 pt. hyphenated, justified
7% pt. hyphenated, justified
9 pt. hyphenated, non-justified
7% pt. hyphenated, non-justified
9 pt. non-hyphenated, justified
7% pt. non-hyphenated, justified
9 pt. non-hyphenated, non-justified
7% pt. non-hyphenated, non-justified
An equal number of subjects, recruited from church
and civic organizations, read each newspaper for 20 minutes,
marked the content they had read, and answered questions
that measured comprehension of the material.
By an analysis of variance design, experimenters found
that the differences of number of words read and subjects'
comprehension of the content were both so small as to be
non-significant statistically.
Since all respondents read for about the same length
of time and since total number of words read was a measure
of reading speed, speed was inferred from the number of
words read.
The experimenters mention three limitations of the
study:
1. Long-term effects over a period of several weeks
might be different from the effects of a 20-minute reading.
2. Typographical changes in familiar reading material,
such as a regularly read newspaper-as contrasted with the
novel material used in the study-might either facilitate or
impair readability to a significant extent.
73
3. Data were insufficient for differentiating as to edu-
cation: While the reading skills of highly-educated persons
might not be impaired by exposure to uncommon typo-
graphical forms, the reading skills of lower-educated per-
sons might be impaired.
(J. S. Davenport and S. A. Smith, "Effects of Hyphenation,
Justification and Type Size on Readability", Journalism
Quarterly, 42: 382-388 (1965) )
Type Size, Non-Justification More Salient Than Non-
Hyphenation
Few readers are aware of non-hyphenation. More readers
are aware of non-justification when the type size is 7%
point than when it is 9 point.
Dr. John Scott Davenport, executive assistant to the
chairman of the board of Scripps-Howard Newspapers, and
Stewart A. Smith, director of Scripps-Howard's Research
Inc. of Ohio, in 1963-64 tested 408 adults in the Cincinnati
area on eight typographical forms.
The researchers had printed eight different typographi-
cal versions of an 8-page tabloid newspaper set in five 11-
pica columns. An equal number of subjects read each version.
The eight versions were as follows:
9 pt. hyphenated, justified
71/2 pt. hyphenated, justified
9 pt. hyphenated, non-justified
7 pt. hyphenated, non-justified
9 pt. non-hyphenated, justified
7 pt. non-hyphenated, justified
9 pt. non-hyphenated, non-justified
71/2 pt. non-hyphenated, non-justified
After the subjects had read for twenty minutes, they
were asked: "Did you notice anything different about it ?"
Very few subjects who read the non-hyphenated ver-
sions were aware of non-hyphenation.
However, one-fifth to one-fourth of the subjects who
had been exposed to the 71/2 point type made comments
about the size of the type. But very few subjects who had
been exposed to the 9 point form made any comment.
About 20% of the subjects who had been exposed to
the non-justified versions commented on that fact.
Next, the subjects were asked to compare directly
specially printed excerpts of the eight different versions.
That is, each subject was handed a pair of the versions
and asked to make a direct comparison of the two.
Under this condition, only 10.5% noted the difference
in hyphenation; 44.5% noted the difference in justification;
and 96.5% noted the difference in type size.
Subjects were then asked to rank the eight typograph-
ical versions in their order of preference. When weights,
ranging from 1 to 8, were assigned the rankings, the aver-
age weighted scores were as follows:
9 pt. justified, hyphenated 1.94
9 pt. justified, non-hyphenated 2.11
9 pt. nonjustified, hyphenated 2.19
9 pt. nonjustified, non-hyphenated 3.97
72 pt. justified, hyphenated 5.41
71/ pt. justified, non-hyphenated 5.77
71/2 pt. nonjustified, hyphenated 6.58
71/2 pt. nonjustified, non-hyphenated 6.89
As the table shows, type size was the most important
factor in readers' preference, with respondents preferring
9 point. Justification was of less importance, with respon-
dents preferring justification. Hyphenation was of negligible
importance.
(J. S. Davenport and S. A. Smith, "Project Typeset,"
Scripps-Howard Research, 1964)
Chapter 7
HEADLINES
Headline Count: Should it be Assigned Arbitrarily
for All Stories? Or Vary With Complexity of the
Story?
This study suggests that longer count, will achieve
more comprehensible headlines, thus reinforcing the trend
to horizontal makeup.
By
Walter Wilcox and Kathy Fearn
University of California, Los Angeles
Maximum count for headlines is usually fixed on an
arbitrary basis without consideration for the nature or com-
plexity of the story or of language rhythm.
The count is most commonly a function of makeup con-
venience, of typographic aesthetic value and of the need
for a uniform system. In assigning count, little attention
is given to the communication function.
The headline serves a number of functions, one of which
is dominant and the others secondary. They are:
1. To tell what is in the story. This is the dominant
function and others must revolve around it.
2. To evaluate the story with respect to other stories
on the page. This is usually a matter of headline size and
only incidentally of count.
3. To enhance the page typographically. Over the past
several years a kind of axiom has developed: the shorter
the head, the more aesthetic the typographic effect.
4. To interest the reader in the story. There is some
question whether this is a function at all. The inherent in-
terest is in the story itself, the headline being a reflection of
the story and thus of the interest.
In any event, the first function-to tell what is in the
story-remains the overriding function and the others
should, at least in principle, be considered after the condi-
tions of the first function are met. This function, for the
purposes of study, can be reduced to two dimensions--ac-
curacy and meaning, which are not independent variables
but rather different perspectives.
Accuracy is defined as one or more inaccurate state-
ments in a headline.
Meaning is defined as the relative precision with which
the headline reflects the story.
The utility of the study, it was postulated, would be
two-fold: (1) if it could be demonstrated that a short count
holds up in terms of accuracy and precision, the added ad-
vantage of aesthetic value could serve as a convincing jus-
tification; and (2) if it was found that the complexity of a
news story had some effect on the count or was correlated
in some way with the count, maximum count could be estab-
lished in relation to the nature of the story rather than
arbitrarily, thus creating a more meaningful headline/story
unit.
Step 1
Three leads were prepared. They were chosen at ran-
dom from a number of possible leads.
Lead No. 1
Widespread unrest on the nation's campuses is an ex-
pression of fear that the world's political leadership cannot
cope with the threat of an atomic war, a Yale psychologist
told the American Psychological Association yesterday.
Lead No. 1 was considered to have two components.
First, that unrest on the nation's campuses was caused by
the fear of war. Second, that this fear was linked to a lack
of confidence in the world's political leadership. In addition,
the lead contains attribution, which is rather important to
the comprehension of the story. On a scale from abstract to
concrete, this lead was designated as the most abstract of
the three.
Lead No. 2
An increase in the European Common Market tariff on
frozen potatoes goes into effect today, threatening a thriv-
ing export trade from the United States.
Lead No. 2, while not a straight summary statement,
was believed to contain the traditional elements: who, what,
where, when, why, how-in a more or less linear manner.
On the abstract/concrete scale, it falls roughly in the mid-
dle.
Lead No. 3
South Florida residents prepared to evacuate their
homes today as Hurricane Donna threatened the coast near
Fort Lauderdale with winds up to 170 miles an hour.
Lead No. 3 is the most concrete, dealing as it does with
natural phenomena. It contains two components but both
of a much simpler nature than those in Lead No. 1. The
two components are "hurricane threatens" and "residents
prepare to evacuate."
Step 2
The three leads were sent to teachers in charge of edit-
ing and copyreading classes in 18 major journalism schools.
(Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana State,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania State, Texas, Washington,
Wayne State and Wisconsin).
The teachers were requested to have their students
write two-line headlines of a stipulated count. The count
was mixed at random so that no student would have all
three short-count headlines or all three long-count head-
lines. A total of 861 usable headlines was received, divided
approximately among the three leads and five counts, maxi-
mums of 10, 14, 18, 24 and 30 or total units of 20, 28, 36,
48 and 60.
Step 3
Three graduate students, each of whom had completed
a graduate course on the copydesk, coded the headlines on
two dimensions: (1) precision (specific-vague) as a func-
tion of meaning and (2) accuracy (one or more inaccurate
statements). There was very close agreement among the
coders.
The results were then punched into data processing
cards. In addition, each word in each headline was punched
into the cards. The deck was then processed on a counter-
sorter and the data analyzed in a search for significant dif-
ferences.
Accuracy
Hypothetically, accuracy should increase on a linear
curve as the count increases because the writer has more
opportunity to mirror the lead. Analysis, however, showed
that this'was not the case. Accuracy did not increase as
the count increased. Accuracy seems to be a function of
the nature of the story rather than of the count. Nor did
the nature of the lead in terms of the abstract/concrete
variable seem to have an explainable effect on accuracy.
Meaning
Meaning was measured on a dimension called "pre-
cision" along a three-step scale: precise, intermediate,
vague. Precise was defined further as clear, concise, easy-
to-understand. Intermediate simply meant that the coder
could not make up his mind. Vague was defined as unclear
and hard to understand.
These data were first analyzed by leads for all counts.
Early in the analysis it became quite apparent that Leads 1
and 2 did not differ in any significant or substantive respect.
But they both differed quite dramatically from Lead 3. In
the interest of efficiency, Leads 1 and 2 were collapsed and
aligned against Lead 3, as shown in Table 1. This table
shows the percentage of headlines for each count which
were coded as precise, vague and intermediate.
As the table shows, the hypothesis that the overall pre-
cision increases with the length of the headline was con-
firmed.
But there was one startling exception: precision fell
off quite dramatically from count 14 to count 18. One ten-
able conclusion, subject to further testing, is that the 18-
count somehow is not amenable to the rhythm of headline
language.
This finding suggests that, in some cases, precision is
a function of the nature of the lead and not of count.
Table 1
-COUNT-
10 14 18 24 30
Leads 1 and 2:
Precise 6% 32% 16% 63% 63%
Intermediate 44 48 70 30 32
Vague 50 20 15 8 5
100 100 101 101 99
Lead 3:
Precise 25 69 25 67 79
Intermediate 41 22 57 26 14
Vague 34 9 18 7 6
100 100 100 100 99
How Many Components?
The next analysis sought to determine at what point
on the linear curve of increasing count a new component
was introduced. It was assumed that for the 10-count head-
line probably only one component could be introduced and
that somewhere along the line a second or even third com-
ponent would begin to appear. It might be possible to as-
sign the length of the headline on the basis of the number
of components desired by the head of the copy desk.
The data were analyzed by leads. The key words that
had been punched into the data processing cards were gath-
ered into frequency clusters. The results are in Table 2,
which shows the percentage of headlines for each count
which included the components and/or attribution.
79
Table 2
-COUNT-
Lead No. 3: 10 14 18 24 30
1. Hurricane threatens
Florida 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
2. People prepare to
evacuate 26 32 46 63 89
Lead No. 1:
1. Campus unrest due
to fear of war 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
2. Distrust of world
leadership 6 7 13 24 43
3. Attribution 0 0 17 44 63
NOTE-100% means that in all cases the copy writer included
the first component. But it does not mean that his headline con-
formed to the criteria for accuracy and precision.
For Lead 3, the second component was introduced at
the 10 count in only 26% of the headlines. Thereafter, as
the count increased, it appeared in more headlines.
For Lead 1, the pattern was the same, but the second
element got into fewer than one-half of the headlines even
for the 30 count.
The attribution, "a Yale psychologist," was included in
more headlines than was the second component for nearly
all counts, indicating that a good many copyreaders used
the first component and the attribution but omitted the
second component. The attribution was often interchange-
able with the second component.
For Lead 2 (not shown in the table), the word clusters
revealed a quite different pattern. The component, "in-
creased tariff threatens U.S. potatoes," appeared across all
counts. The additional clusters as the count increased con-
sisted merely of helper words or, perhaps, of "padding"
words. The conclusion is that Lead 2 contained no new com-
ponents and hence the headline was filled out with padding
words which, according to the data, did not seem to con-
tribute much in the way of accuracy but were probably valu-
able in terms of precision.
Ed. Note: It would be expected that experienced copy
readers would have more success than the students achieved.
Nevertheless, the data seem to discriminate as to varying
counts for the specific leads. Readers of this bulletin might
find it interesting to test themselves on Lead No. 1.
Conclusions
1. Accuracy does not increase with increased count;
rather accuracy seems to be a function of the nature of the
story.
2. Meaning increases along a linear curve with in-
creased count, although 18 count appears to be a poor
choice. Perhaps the count does not fit the rhythm of head-
line language or perhaps the copy reader at this point is
striving with limited success to include a second component.
3. When two components are thought to be necessary
the head of the copy desk should prescribe the count: a
jump from 28 total count (2 x 14) to 48 count (2 x 24)
seems to be the most efficient.
4. The difficulty of the story on an abstract/concrete
scale does not seem to be correlated in a linear manner with
headline count.
The findings, while far from definitive, may be con-
sidered a challenge. Will editors continue to assign arbi-
trary counts without respect to the nature of the story?
Or especially, in view of the trend toward horizontal make-
up, will editors begin to assign variable counts in the inter-
est of greater story/headline unity?
The Effect of Headlines
When headlines and story differ, it is the "super-
ficial" reader who is most likely to accept the interpre-
tation suggested by the headline.
A pending libel case involves an accurate headline over
a news story that is asserted to be actionable because the
word "not" was inadvertently omitted from the news story
which reported an acquittal in a criminal trial.
This is the reverse of the situation in which an inac-
curate headline is over an accurate news story. Appellate
courts have generally held that a libelous headline on an
accurate story makes the story as a whole libelous. The
sting of the libel is in the headline, the courts have said.
There is experimental evidence which measured the
effect that a headline has on readers' interpretations of a
news story. Tannenbaum, in 1953, tested two hypotheses:
1. Different headlines over the same story generate dif-
ferent impressions on readers.
2. The impression generated by the headline is in in-
verse proportion to the amount of the story that was read.
That is, the more the story is read, the less the headline
by itself affects the interpretation of the story; and vice
versa.
The experimenter wrote a fictional trial story of seven
paragraphs. He also wrote three different headlines which
were designated as "guilty," "innocent" and "neutral." The
headlines were:
Guilty
Admits Ownership of
Frat Murder Weapon
Innocent
Many Had Access to
Frat Murder Weapon
Neutral
Approach Final Stage
In Frat Murder Trial
The story was substituted for an actual story which
had appeared on the front page of a recent issue of the
Daily Iowan and the page was reproduced by offset in the
three headline versions.
Approximately equal numbers of subjects read the
front page in the three different versions. The 398 indi-
vidual subjects read at their own pace.
The results are in the following table which shows the
interpretation of the story by each type of headline reader:
No
Guilty Innocent Opinion Total
Those reading the
Guilty head .... 34% 16% 50% 100%
Innocent head .. 22 29 49 100
Neutral head ... 26 18 56 100
The data seem to confirm the hypothesis that the head-
line for some persons influences their interpretation of the
story. Extent of Reading
The experimenter next related the amount of reading
to the effect of the different headlines. He did this by com-
paring those subjects whose opinions agreed with the head-
line they had read with those whose opinions differed from
the headline they had read.
The results are shown in the following table which dif-
ferentiates "thorough," "casual" and "superficial" readers.
Those who read only the headline or the headline and the
first few paragraphs were classified as "superficial" readers.
The experimenter did not define "thoroughly" and "casu-
ally."
Extent of Reading
Thoroughly Casually Superficially
Agreement with headline:
Agreed ........... ............................ 38% 34% 60%
Disagreed ......... ........................ 62 66 40
100 100 100
The main difference in the table is between those who
read "superficially" and those who read "thoroughly" and
"casually."
The data seem to mean that it is more often the super-
ficial reader who gets the meaning of the story from the
headline. About five-eights of the "thorough" readers and
two-thirds of the "casual" readers did not accept the inter-
pretation suggested by the headline.
(Percy H. Tannenbaum, "The Effect of Headlines on the
Interpretation of News Stories," Journalism Quarterly,
30:189-197, 1953)
Chapter 8
NEWS AND EDITORIAL POLICY
For summaries of previous research about the subject
matter of this chapter, see "News Research For Better
Newspapers," (1966), pages 90-107.
Traffic Violators' Names Published: 81% Approve
The Missoula (Mont.) Missoulian, in September, 1964,
began publication in a column called "Good Morning, Judge"
of the names of traffic offenders. Age, address, kind of vio-
lation and amount of the fine were included.
Bob Goligoski, a graduate student in the Montana State
University School of Journalism, interviewed 100 of the 302
persons who had been mentioned in the column during 30
days in January and February, 1965.
In response to the question, "If you were editor of the
Missoulian, would you print the names of traffic offenders ?",
81 respondents said "Yes", 12 said "No" and seven were not
sure.
Only two of the 13 women respondents objected to pub-
lication of their offenses.
Thirty-two respondents-of whom more than one-half
were under 24 years of age-said that publication of their
names had caused them to be more careful drivers.
Eighty-eight respondents said they had seen their
names in the column; ten said they had not seen their
names but had been told they had appeared; and two had
not known their names had been published.
During the first 30 days after the column began pub-
lication of traffic offenses, 402 names were reported. For
the period of the study-about four months later-the total
for 30 days was only 302.
The report of the survey did not state whether any
of the offenses were for drunken driving.
A staff member of the Missoulian was quoted as saying
that four or five persons had pleaded unsuccessfully to keep
their names out of print.
(Bob Goligoski, "Good Morning, Judge: Reactions to a
Newspaper Column." Montana Journalism Review, Spring,
1965.)
Advising Readers How to Vote
In a survey of readers' attitudes of the Sharon (Pa.)
Herald, conducted last October by Dr. Robert M. Pockrass,
of Pennsylvania State University, one question was: "Do
you think the Herald should give advice to its readers on
whom and what to vote for ?" The response:
Yes 31.3%
No 63.9
No opinion 4.8
The Herald is generally Republican in its editorial
policy, but supported Pres. Johnson in 1964. Of the respon-
dents, 32.7%. said they generally favored the Republican
party and 53.4% favored the Democratic party.
Of the Republicans, 38.2% thought the paper should
give advice on voting and of the Democrats 30.6%.
Labor union members were less likely than non-union
members to want the paper's advice. The comparative per-
centages were 26.6 and 33.8.
Typical comments of those who opposed the newspaper
giving advice:
"The voter should make up his own mind after study-
ing both sides of the issue."
"The paper should present both sides and let the voter
decide for himself."
"In a one-newspaper town the paper has no right to
foist its political views on the public."
Some of those who approved the paper giving advice
said it was the paper's right or privilege. Others welcomed
the advice because "some of us don't always understand
the issues completely" and "good advice sometimes helps
form the right opinion."
Ed. Note: "News Research for Better Newspapers"
(1966) pp 104-107 reports opinion in other communities
on this question.
California Newspapers Have Political Influence
California newspapers have exerted an influence
on the political process especially on behalf of
local candidates and statewide and local ballot
measures.
James E. Gregg studied the editorial endorsements by
11 California newspapers for the period of 1948-1962. The
newspapers were: Bakersfield Californian, Fresno Bee, Los
Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, Redding Record-Search-
light, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Examiner, San Fran-
cisco Chronicle, San Diego Union, Santa Barbara News-
Press and Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.
For most of this period, the major political parties were
not as effectively organized as they were in most states;
most of the local elections were nonpartisan; a long ballot
was characteristic of general statewide elections; and large
numbers of migrants were entering a new political milieu.
Moreover, until 1960, candidates could cross-file; that is,
could file for the nomination in both major parties.
Gregg found that:
1. Editorial endorsements have greater influence on the
outcome of local elections than on state or national elections.
2. Endorsements of state and local ballot measures are
more influential than endorsements of candidates.
Gregg's first test of influence was the percentage of
endorsed candidates who won a majority of votes in the
county in which the endorsing newspaper circulates. Table 1
shows such percentages for each kind of candidacy and for
ballot measures (referenda and initiatives).
Table 1
Assembly candidates .......... ...... ........ 63.6%
State Senate candidates .......................................... 65.0
Presidential candidates .................................................. 65.0
Congressional candidates ........ ........ ........................ 69.3
Gov., U.S. Senate candidates ................. ........ .. 73.8
L ocal candidates ................. .............................................. .. 84.1
State m measures ................ ................. ..................... 84.1
L ocal m easu res ........................................................ ................... 85.2
His second test of influence, which he calls a "plus"
rating, is a measure of the degree to which endorsed candi-
dates and measures won greater approval in the news-
paper's county than at the state-wide level. For Congres-
sional and state legislative offices an endorsed candidate's
percentage of the two-party vote was compared with his
party's registration percentage. This is shown in Table 2.
Table 2
Rating
Gov., U.S. Senate candidates ............. 54.7
Presidential candidates ......................... .................. 57.5
S tate m easu res .............................................. ........................ 66.6
State Senate candidates ............................................ 80.0
A ssem bly candidates .............................. .................... 82.2
Other findings were:
1. Influence of newspaper endorsements is greatest
when few other determinants can affect the voter's decision
- incumbency, partisanship and volume of publicity.
2. Endorsement of a candidate of a party opposite that
party which a newspaper usually supports was more effec-
tive than when the newspaper endorsed a candidate of its
own party. ("Readers evidently give special attention to
these endorsements").
3. Endorsed candidates (whether Republican or Demo-
crat) ran an average of 3% to 8.8% ahead of their party's
registration. Unendorsed candidates trailed their party's
registration percentage by an average of 2% to 7%.
Gregg's conclusions are "that newspapers do exert an
influence on the political process," and that "this influence
seems especially evident at the local level and on statewide
ballot propositions."
(J. E. Gregg, "Newspaper Editorial Endorsements and Cali-
fornia Elections, 1948-62." Journalism Quarterly, 42:532-38
Autumn, 1965).
Oregon Editor Influenced Election Results for 25
Years
In 562 primary and general election contests between
1928 and 1952, the late William M. Tugman, editor of the
Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard, gave advice to voters.
His recommendations of candidates and issues were
made either in editorials or in a summary of endorsements.
His newspaper was Republican in policy and the editorials
could usually be characterized as "strong."
Paul Bluemle analyzed the election results to determine
the extent of Tugman's influence. His method was to com-
pare the Lane County vote percentages on issues and can-
didates with the state percentages, after correcting for
differences in state and county registration. These percen-
tages were further adjusted by comparing county and state
voting in contests in which the editor had made no recom-
mendations. Not included in the analysis were contests in
which a candidate was a Lane County "favorite son."
By this "more favorable percentage" measure, it was
found that the editor's average influence over the 25 year
period was 3.42%, broken down as follows:
General elections .............. . ... 4.2%
Prim aries ......................... 2.7
Issues ............................. 3.8
Candidates ........................ 3.4
In eleven close contests, the margin, which it' can be
assumed Tugman provided, was enough to be the crucial
margin of victory for the candidate or issue.
Tugman's recommendations were approved in Lane
County 80.6% of the time. "Democrats, non-incumbents and
favorite sons had a mathematically better chance of win-
ning when they had his recommendation than when they
did not."
The recommendations were somewhat more effective
in local than in state elections. They were also more effec-
tive in Democratic than in Republican primaries. (Tugman
made recommendations in 70% of the Republican and 53%
of the Democratic primaries.)
Over the years, the "more favorable percentage" aver-
age declined steadily. The author attributes this decline to
"other factors" which cannot be "isolated statistically."
However, the percentage of times that the editor's
candidates won in local elections increased over the years.
(Paul E. Bluemle, The Effect of the Editorial Recom-
mendations of William M. Tugman ... on the Voting Re-
sults in Lane County, Oregon ... 1928-1952. Master's thesis,
University of Oregon, 1953.)
Racial Identification in the News
An experiment suggests that identification of Negroes
in the news may be less harmful to Negroes than has been
asserted by objectors to the practice.
Carter presented to 142 students of news writing in
three southern and two northern universities a data sheet
of "facts" about an imaginary crime in which the suspect
had been charged with burglary and rape. Each student
wrote a news story based on the "facts."
Some of the "facts" were that the suspect had broken
into a woman's apartment, had held a knife to her throat
and had assaulted her; also that the arrested suspect fitted
the description of a suspect who had recently committed a
similar crime; that the suspect was illiterate, lazy, had an
harmonica in his pocket and similar facts which were con-
sidered by some persons to be stereotypes of the Negro.
One version of the data sheet said the suspect was a
Negro and the other did not say. The students from both
regions were divided into matched groups.
After a student had written a news story he filled in a
questionnaire in which were "buried" certain questions de-
signed to test his prejudice.
Carter found that, in both regions, the students who
had written about the Negro were significantly less sure of
the suspect's guilt in connection with either the present
or the previous crime than students who had written the
"white" version.
The accompanying table exhibits the combined mean
guilt scores for the present offense and the previous offense.
The scale ranged from 0 (innocent) to 6 (guilty).
Southern students: Northern students:
Negro suspect 3.36 Negro suspect 2.76
White suspect 3.92 White suspect 3.76
Combined group:
Negro suspect 3.18
White suspect 3.87
Southern students who wrote about the Negro suspect
made slightly more use of the stereotype "facts" in the data
sheet than did their classmates who wrote about a white
man.
Northern students who wrote about the Negro suspect
made slightly less use of the stereotype "facts" than their
classmates who wrote the "white" version.
Carter concluded that the stereotype content in the
data sheet had no significant effect on the students' ascrip-
tion of guilt or innocence.
He speculates that two other factors could explain the
"break" given to the Negro suspect. These are:
1. A general awareness by the students of journalism
of the legal principle which holds that a man is innocent
until he is proved guilty.
2. Some impression to the effect that a colored crime
suspect might not always receive fair and unprejudiced
treatment in a court.
The author adds:
"Little is known about the cumulative effect of 'race
labeling' practices upon newspaper audiences, but the re-
sults of the racial news experiments suggest that the gain
to be made from Negro identification in the case of favor-
able stories might actually be greater than any harm done
by the same practice in stories of crime or violence.
"In short, the author would hazard a guess to the effect
that Negro leaders might profitably place more emphasis
upon obtaining constructive publicity (perhaps with identi-
fication by race) about the praiseworthy achievements of
members of the Negro community."
(Roy E. Carter, Jr., "Racial Identification Effects Upon the
News Writer," Journalism Quarterly, 36:280-290, 1959.)
89
Slanting News Stories: Three Experiments
When journalism students, in an experiment, were told
to write a news story about the second Nixon-Kennedy
debate (1960) for a newspaper which favored Nixon,
a few more of those who were anti-Nixon wrote a more
one-sided story favoring Nixon than did those who were
pro-Nixon.
When students were told to write a story based on
biased facts they slanted the story in accordance with
the facts rather than in accordance with their own biases.
Kerrick and associates conducted an experiment with
thirty journalism students in which the students listened
to a tape recording of the second Nixon-Kennedy debate
and then wrote a news story for a paper which supported
Nixon.
Several weeks earlier the students' attitudes had been
tested: one-half were favorable and one-half were unfavor-
able to Nixon.
Each statement used in the news stories was cate-
gorized as being pro-Nixon, anti-Nixon or neutral.
As Table 1 shows, both groups used approximately
the same number of statements favorable to Nixon, many
more being pro-Nixon than anti-Nixon. However, pro-Nixon
students used a few more statements that were unfavorable
to Nixon than did those who were anti-Nixon.
Table 1
Pro-Nixon Anti-Nixon Neutral
Writer's Statements Statements Statements
Attitude Used Used Used Total
Pro-Nixon ......... 41.8% 28.3% 29.9% 100%
Anti-Nixon ............... 42.2 23.3 34.5 100
The findings seem to show that students whose own
attitudes do not correspond to the policy of a newspaper
try to conform to the policy.
Comment: This finding appears to confirm the com-
plaint of some editors that they have difficulty in getting
some of their reporters to refrain from writing news in
conformance with, or supposedly in conformance with, edi-
torial policy as perceived by the reporters.
Kerrick and associates conducted a second experiment
with a different group in which journalism students with
pro-labor union and anti-labor union attitudes were asked
to write stories based on a "balanced" fact sheet; i.e., one
in which the number of favorable and unfavorable state-
ments were equal.
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