The Effect of Content Mix on Circulation Penetration for U.S. Daily Newspapers

For a generation, the U.S. newspaper industry has suffered from stagnant circulation performance and declining penetration, but some papers manage to maintain healthy penetration. This project investigated whether content mix could account for the variance in penetration among papers in a national sample, but found content does not have a significant impact on circulation variance after controlling for the influence of market characteristics

What ARE they reading? News selections by college students

It has been well documented that college students and young adults are infrequent readers of newspapers. But when they do pick up a paper or surf to a news-oriented Web site, what draws their attention? An analysis of more than 1,500 article summaries prepared by college students over a two-month period shows a special interest in news items that the students feel closeness with or attachment toward, either geographically or psychographically

Cyber-Democratic Engagement and the Online Newspaper: A Case Study

The characteristics of online news presentation offer a unique opportunity for journalists to strengthen their ability to fulfill their Fourth Estate role. In this project, traditional theories of journalism, democracy and political communication are blended with emerging theories of online communication to create a coverage blueprint or framework for online journalism. The goal is to develop and evaluate a set of normative “best practices” that online newspapers can use to help them more effectively perform their role of connecting the governors to the governed and assisting in the formation of public opinion that has an impact on public policy. The current implementation of the practices in this framework is investigated with a case study of one site where many of the practices from the framework are in use, which demonstrates that the practices can be effectively implemented in a realistic situation to improve political communication

Virtual Community Support for Offline Communities Through Online Newspaper Message Forums

A survey of participants in message forums located within the online sites of U.S. newspapers determined that taking part in forum reading and posting helps to predict users’ sense that they understand their local communities better but is not related to their actually getting out and taking part in real-world community activities

Online Newspapers as a Venue for Cyber-Democratic Engagement

Ideas drawn from theories of cyberdemocracy, or use of the Internet’s interactive abilities to foster political discourse, can be used to define new ways in which online newspapers can become facilitators of that discourse. A content analysis of 47 online newspapers demonstrates that few papers are embracing these approaches. But some limited evidence was found that the idea of using online tools to “cover” public affairs differently is one that’s starting to take root in journalism

Quantitative simulation of endplate currents at neuromuscular junctions based on the reaction of acetylcholine with acetylcholine receptor and acetylcholinesterase

Two kinetic models are introduced which predict amplitudes and time-courses of endplate currents and miniature endplate currents at neuromuscular junctions, at both normal and acetylcholinesterase-inhibited endplates. Appropriate differential rate equations reflecting interactions of acetylcholine with acetylcholine receptor and with esterase, diffusion of acetylcholine both within and from the synaptic cleft, and cooperativity between receptor site occupancy and ion channel opening are solved. Acetylcholine release into the cleft is assumed to be instantaneous. The simpler homogeneous reaction space model accurately predicts decay phase time constants are inaccurate. The two-reaction space model predicts amplitudes and time constants within a factor of two of those observed experimentally. The simulations indicate that the amplitudes and time-courses are primarily determined by the chemical reaction rates that characterize acetylcholine interactions with receptor and esterase and that these interactions occur under nonequilibrium conditions. Approximately 50% of the total ion channels in the initial reaction space are predicted to be opened at the peak endplate current. The cooperative opening of ion channels by acetylcholine requires that acetylcholine be introduced into the cleft in discrete, concentrated elements. Virtually all the open channels are confined to the initial reaction space, although acetylcholine-bound receptor sites can be much more widely distributed

Physics 223: Statistical Mechanics and Dice

In this experiment, we will study the properties of entropy, multiplicity and probability using dice. We will roll 4 & 8 sided dice together and 4, 6, and 8 sided dice together for many trials and we will record the sum of the dice for each roll. We will then calculate each possible outcome’s expected multiplicity and probability of occurring. We can also predict each outcome’s expected entropy and compare these expected values of multiplicity and entropy to their actual values we found in this experiment. In doing so, we will be able to see the natural tendency of systems to always move towards the region of maximum multiplicity and entrop

Core Concern: Structural imperialism and the impact of Sept. 11 on U.S. coverage of international news

A longitudinal study of international news in U.S. newspapers before and after Sept. 11, 2001 was used to examine whether the reaction of U.S. media to that day’s news events affected coverage in ways that would be predicted or explained by the theory of structural imperialism. This theory says news produced by and about core countries dominates news about the periphery. It therefore would predict a shift in the balance of news flow in response to Sept. 11, because an event with such significance to the United States and its interests around the world would tend to make coverage more “U.S. centric” and reporting on other countries would be marginalized or pushed out of the news flow. Statistical analysis of the number of news stories about more than 150 countries published in elite newspapers over a two-year period found support for the theorized view that Third World coverage was adversely affected after Sept. 11, which can be interpreted as evidence of structural imperialism having an impact on news flow

Online hyper-local news sites fulfill classic functions of community journalism

A content analysis of story topics published on 70 hyper-local online news sites indicated that these sites may have an untraditional way of delivering the news but they fulfill roles and functions that are very similar to the ones documented in historical research about community press and social organization

Second Servings: Online publication and its impact on second-day leads in newspapers

A content analysis comparing contemporary newspaper leads to ones from 15 years earlier, before Internet publication became commonplace, determined that use of “first day” (direct/summary) leads has declined over that time. The findings support an argument that newspapers’ print editions have become a permanent second-day publication concurrent with the rise of the 24-hour news cycle and the phenomenon of newspapers using their online editions to break news