Identifier

etd-04112005-142536

Degree

Master of Mass Communication (MMC)

Department

Mass Communication

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This study is a content analysis of newspaper coverage of baseball and steroids. The data are a random sample from four newspapers: Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post. The period under study consists of 77 weeks, from April 10th, 2003, to December 9th, 2004. The results supported four hypotheses and negated one. Analysis showed that the issue of baseball and steroids was not institution-driven news; it was the result of governmental action, events outside of government, and local interest. The number of stories rose after governmental action. It also rose after an event, but faded away quickly from the news. Other findings indicated that political reporters rely on government sources more than sports reporters do. They rely as heavily on sports and professional sources as they do on government sources. The results took the form of descriptive statistics. For statistical significance, the study used SPSS software to run an F-test and a paired-sample t-test.

Date

2005

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Timothy E. Cook

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.1472

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