Testing the hardwired for news theory of media surveillance

The human animal has a basic need to survey its environment. In modern times, this need is expressed through the news surveillance function. Scholars have proposed that this surveillance function is hardwired through the mechanism of natural selection, subject to culturally determined modes of expression. Indirect evidence for this is found in the tendency of the news media to cover negative and deviant events, varying slightly within specific cultures. This research examines this hardwiring at a more literal level, taking advantage of recent advances in neuroscience to identify the role biological evolution plays in the decision to attend to and process news information. A neurophysiological model of evolution-derived surveillance behavior is proposed and a hypothesis based on that model is derived, using the specific case of hurricanes as a news event to test this hypothesis. Limited support for the hypothesis is found, suggesting specific further studies which should be done to confirm the validity of the model and strengthen the theory

Is It a Small Publishing World After All?: Media Monopolization of the Children's Book Market, 1992-1995

This study considers how the trend toward media conglomeratization affected the little-studied industry that provided books to millions of children between 1992 and 1995. Two hypotheses are proposed that test different aspects of competitive market theory. The first predicts that the size of the publisher' s ultimate parent company will influence sales, and the second predicts that children's books that have ties with other media products will sell more copies than books that have no such ties. The second hypothesis is supported and the implications for the concentration of this segment of the publishing industry are discussed. In particular, this question is asked: In an environment of continuing media concentration, where are the measurable effects of that concentration in this market?